New Second Life Grid Status Update Service Goes Live

On Monday 28th November Linden Lab launched the new Second Life Grid Status Update Service which has gone live. The new Grid Status page now provides a more detailed view of the overall live status of the main Second Life systems.

The revamped Grid Status page now comes with drop down sections where you can see more information om Second Life Regions, Websites, Second Life Services, In-World Services and External Support.

At the top of the Grid Status page it’s now easier to subscribe to updates around the clock via email, sms notifcations, webhook notifications, Twitter and RSS.

Stay updated > https://secondlife-status.statuspage.io/

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6th Annual Second Life Christmas Expo: 1st-12th December 2016

The 6th annual Second Life Christmas Expo starts on Thursday 1st December through until Monday 12th December 2016. The event is in support of the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Second Life.

This year there will be four sims featuring special events including a Snowman Building Contest, Snow Bubble Racing, a Christmas Tree Lot, holiday raffles and photos with Santa. There will be holiday and non holiday from the very best creators and designers in Second Life.

The days grow shorter and the trees are beginning to turn. Can December be that far off? It’s time to make your plans to head Home For The Holidays!

The Elves are back from vacation and starting to make lists….. of sponsors, merchants, performers, volunteers and all the people and things that make The SL Christmas Expo the shining star of the Holiday Season!

If you are interested helping out there are various roles available at the Second Life Christmas Expo 2016 in Second Life.

 

The Final Avi Choice Awards Show Starts 1pm SLT on 4th December 2016

The 2016 Avi Choice Awards will be held on Sunday 4th December starting at 1pm SLT presented by Saffia Widdershins and Elrik Merlin in Second Life. The show will be hosted by byT1 Radio’s Trader Whiplash and Nuala Maracas. Voting for the final Avi Choice Awards show has now closed and the process of counting all of the votes has now started.

This year will be the last Avi Choice Awards which is a real shame because it’s been a great way of recognizing amazing talent across the grid since 2011. The annual Avi Choice Awards one of the most popular events in Second Life with hundreds of people attending it every year.

We’ve had so many inquiries into the future of the Avi Choice Awards.  It has been a full year for the skeleton crew we keep here at the Avi’s and we’ve not been able to keep the site updated, as we should have.  As announced during last year’s Avi Choice Fashion Awards, we are retiring the Awards, as we know them.  We are talking about continuing our mission forward in some way, but as of this post, we are just in discussion.  But for now.. we have an announcement to make!

On December 4th, 2016 we will host one more Avi Choice Awards!  The GRAND FINALE!  This one will take us back to the early days of our Awards when we had one program a year celebrating as many recipients in all three genre’s as we could.  

My blog was on the nominee list for the 2015 Arts Awards for Favorite Media / News Source and thanks to all those that voted for my blog. The Drax Files won the award last year in this category. 🙂

Preview of the Variety Hall 2016

It’s winter time outside

• Teleport SLURL

Inside the Variety Hall

Please spread the word about the last Avi Choice Awards in Second Life happening this weekend on 4th December 2016 starting at 1pm SLT over at the Avi Choice Awards Sims!

 

Lumiya 3.2 comes with support for Google Cardboard

On 24th November a new version (3.2) of the popular Lumiya Viewer for Android Phones and Tablets was released which now supports rendering for Google Cardboard. The latest version is now compatible with Virtual Reality kits and headsets. This latest 3.2 version has fixed an issue with black screen when antialiasing is enabled.

What’s New

Lumiya 3.2 supports stereoscopic rendering for Google Cardboard and compatible Virtual Reality kits.

To enable stereoscopic rendering, tap on “3D View” and then pick “Virtual Reality mode” from the action menu, at the top right corner of the screen.

At the moment, VR mode is only available on Android Marshmallow and above. 

The Lumiya Viewer 3.2 can be downloaded on the Google Play Store. Stay updated on the latest releases and news here.

Private Estates In Second Life Drops Below 17, 000 Regions

Private Estates Drop Under The 17, 000 Regions Mark

According to the Second Life Grid Survey recently the total amount of Private Estates in Second Life dropped below the 17, 000 regions mark which is rather alarming and shows the decline is still happening.

At the start of 2016 there were 17, 775 Private Estate regions in Second Life but over the course of this year more regions have gone off the grid leaving 16, 902 Private Estates remaining as of 20th November 2016. It’s sad that Second Life has lost so many amazing regions over the past six years and I really hope that things will change for the better in years to come.

• YTD Private Estate net losses now stand at 873 (4.9% loss) – As of 20th November 2016

2010 to 2016

Since 2010 the total amount of regions have been decreasing slowly and the grid has lost amazing talent. For comparison on 13th June 2010 there were 31, 988 Main Grid regions in total and today there are 24, 076 Main Grid regions left. If trends continue then expect the total amount of Main Grid regions to drop under the 24, 000 mark before the end of 2016.

Check out this graph showing the total number of main grid regions since 31st October 2006.

• 2003 to 2006 – steady interest in regions
• 2006 to 2008 – high interest in regions
• 2008 to 2012 – max total of regions
• 2012+ – steady decline in regions

Grid Survey Data

Breakdown of Ownership/Classification

(20th November 2016) – Breakdown of current regions by Ownership and Classification:

• Estate – Adult: 4913
• Estate – General: 1354
• Estate – Moderate: 10631
• Estate – Offline: 4
• Linden – Adult: 447
• Linden – General: 1642
• Linden – Moderate: 5085

(20th November 2016) –  Breakdown of Host Server Classes by Ownership:

• Estate – Class 5: 242
• Estate – Class 7: 7793
• Estate – Class 8: 7573
• Estate – Class Unknown: 1294
• Linden – Class 5: 6
• Linden – Class 7: 1297
• Linden – Class 8: 5569
• Linden – Class Unknown: 302

2017: the year ahead

It’s going to be another challenging year for Second Life with Sansar opening it’s doors to the public in early 2017. The big question is what impact will Sansar have on the Second Life & OpenSim grid numbers during 2017+ ?. We will have to wait and see.

I hope that there will be growth in private estates during the course of 2017 and hopefully the lab will keep on investing more into Second Life. I will be sharing the latest grid stats during each quarter of 2017 so stay tuned for that.

Mont Saint Michel Region Returns In Second Life

The well-known Mont Saint Michel region has returned in Second Life after being shut down for many weeks. According to Tyche Shepherd latest sims report Mont Saint Michel is back on the grid again. Hopefully this time the region will be here for many more years to come.

Teleport Link (SLURL) > http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mont%20Saint%20Michel/174/84/50

If you have not yet visited Mont Saint Michel in Second Life you should because it’s a lovely recreation of the beautiful real life French landmark, Mont Saint Michel.

Please spread the good news to everyone

60 new Horizon regions added north of the Zindra adult continent in Second Life

According to the latest regions report 60 new Horizon regions have been added north of the Zindra adult continent in Second Life. It looks like the new Linden Project is starting to take shape and it’s worth pointing out that these new regions are all rated as Mature.

In the land description it’s apparently a sci-fi retro themed adult continent on the mainland that has community regions, information hubs and special experience regions where you can win prizes.

The new Horizon continent will be opening to the public most likely before the end of the month. Here is a sneak preview of the new Horizons regions from Shell Beach. 🙂

If you can’t wait then teleport nearby and zoom in at full draw distance. There are many different areas including caves, forests, hubs and home areas. There is so much more to see from what I can tell.

I will look forward to sharing my thoughts and snapshots when it opens officially to the public very soon.

Sansar Demo at WebSummit

Ebbe Altberg (CEO of Linden Lab) gave a Sansar demonstration at WebSummit recently showing new scenes, a first look at the world editor and a look at the avatars. The demo runs for 8 minutes and 8 seconds and it’s very interesting.

Some photos via Twitter during the demo.

.@SansarOfficial @ebbealtberg Success! pic.twitter.com/EQxqMbJt6F

— Michael MacLennan (@m_maclennan) 10 November 2016

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Finally I saw Project Sansar Demo #WebSummit pic.twitter.com/G6chxW0c0I

— narrative presence (@ilnaezza) 10 November 2016

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There are now two months until the public launch of Sansar and hopefully the lab will show us more footage of Sansar in the weeks ahead. 🙂

Second Life community in shock as Donald Trump wins the US Election 2016

The big news today is that America has elected Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States after a historic victory. Donald Trump won with 289 electoral votes compared to 218 for Hillary Clinton.

On social media during the night there was plenty of buzz with many of my friends in shock as America started to turn red in key states for Donald Trump. From what I have seen so far on the SLUniverse Forums, Plurk, Twitter, Facebook etc the result has been a nightmare, a disaster, quite sad and very shocking. I have not really seen any positive comments so far which is not surprising.

The Donald Trump HQ in Second Life seems to be rather quiet this morning with hardly anyone around to celebrate and hang out.

What did you think of the result today ? 

Please comment below!

Press Release: The Edge Celebrates One Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

THE EDGE CELEBRATES ONE YEAR IN SECOND LIFE

DATES: NOVEMBER 11 TO 30, 2016

WEBSITE:  https://kultivatemagazine.com/celebrating-one-year-of-the-edge/

SLURL:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Water%20Haven/56/208/26

The fashion division of Kultivate Magazine, The Edge, is celebrating it’s one year anniversary from November 11 to 30, 2016. The anniversary events will feature fashion and artistic events in the spirit of The Edge. The Edge is managed by Kultivate COO, Eleseren Brianna.

In honor of The Edge’s emphasis on the combination of fashion and art, a special fashion show will take place on November 13, 2016 that will feature the designs of Lyrical Bizarre on a special one of a kind artistic runway by 3D artist Haveit Neox. This special show is coordinated by Amazing Impressions Modeling (AIM) Agency.

The weekend rounds off with live performances by Mimi Carpenter, Lisa Brune, and Dimivan Ludgwig and with a formal grand opening of Haveit Neox’s artistic fashion runway build, “Baroque Dreams.”

In addition to the events above, we have special souvenir gifts in honor of our one year anniversary that you will be able to purchase throughout the month! These gifts are from the following brands: AZUL, Chop Zuey, Ghee, and Kaerri. The gifts will be available on November 11, 2016.

Below is the full events schedule:

• November 11-Souvenir Gifts from AZUL, Chop zuey, Ghee, and Kaerri go on sale
• November 12-Anniversary Edition of The Edge will be published
• November 12-2pm slt-live performer Mimi Carpenter
• November 12-3pm slt-live performer Lisa Brune
• November 13, 2016 – 2pm slt – Art Diva Show featuring the designs of Lyrical Bizarre and on a special artistic runway by 3D artist Haveit Neox
• November 13, 2016-4pm slt-Grand Opening of Haveit’s Neox’s Baroque Dreams Exhibition featuring live performer Dimivan Ludwig

About The Edge:
The Edge is the fashion division of Kultivate Magazine. The Edge consists of The Edge Gallery and The Edge Center. The Edge has models who exemplify the artistic quality of The Edge. The goal of The Edge is to combine the spirit of fashion and art. The Edge is managed by Eleseren Brianna.

For More Information:
https://kultivatemagazine.com/celebrating-one-year-of-the-edge/
https://kultivatemagazine.com/the-edge/
https://kultivatemagazine.com/