Firestorm Update 6.3.9.58205

On Thursday 28th May 2020 the Firestorm team released a brand new release update numbered 6.3.9.58205. This new release comes with plenty of improvements, fixes and a lot for OpenSim users. This version of the Firestorm viewer brings it in line with the Linden Lab 6.3.8 code base. It’s been over 7 months since the last release so there is loads to be excited about this time.

* Added a “Stop Locally” button to the Sound Explorer.
* Added a search button to Nearby Chat and IM session floaters.
* New options added to the Area Search context menu: “Select All,” “Clear Selection,” and “Filter My Objects.”
* Added “Inspect” option for own attachments.
* Enabled multi-selection for all name lists in group profiles.
* Updated the Mac installer image backgrounds for readability and consistency.
* Fixed being unable to post snapshots to Flickr.
* Fixed hi-resolution snapshots appearing broken up in segments
* Lots of behind-the-scenes work to migrate the Firestorm code repositories from Mercurial to Git and to switch crash reporting from Windows systems over to Bugsplat. Expect future releases to be even more stable.
* Improved memory handling on the Linux viewer
* So many crash fixes…
* Improved region crossing behavior.
* New feature to lock and protect an inventory folder to prevent inadvertent drag-and-drop or deletion.
* Translation updates for German, Polish, Japanese & Russian
* Just sooo much more! 

Premium Plus

This new release adds viewer-side support for Premium Plus. There will be some kind of new announcement soon on this on the Second Life Blog. It’s important to note that Linden Lab have not released the Premium Plus feature yet. 

EEP Update

For those interested in the EEP capable version of the Firestorm viewer the answer is soon. I’m thinking later this year depending on progress being made. There is pressure for EEP to be fully incorporated however there are still a number of challengers ahead for the Firestorm team.

OpenSim Update

For those that use OpenSim grids this new release brings it back in line with the Second Life Firestorm release which is very good news to hear. Nine new OpenSim grids have now been added to the grid manager including Virtualife World, DiscoveryGrid, Alife Virtual, Mobius Grid, Zone Nations, Party Destination Grid, TanGLe Grid, The Kaz Grid and OpenSim Community Conference.

This new release improves map search and there are lots of maintenance fixes. All group notices should now send correctly on OpenSim. 

Here are the full release notes including new features and improvements.

 

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First SL17B Map Regions Preview

First Preview of SL17B regions

The SL17B regions have recently arrived on the grid ahead of next months Second Life 17th birthday celebrations in Second Life. It’s predicted that the lab will announce a new Linden Home theme just like last year.

SL16B regions from last year

Firstly look below at the dark green regions because it looks the same as the Bellisseria continent in some areas. Region preparations have started now. It will be interesting to watch these regions develop in the weeks ahead.

It seems below that parcels have been marked out ready for new builds to start very soon. I wonder if the two areas will merge into one or remain separate.

I will post more SL17B updates early next month. Stay tuned.

Linden Lab Rolls Out New Logo For Second Life

Today Linden Lab have officially rolled out a new logo for Second Life. The new logo features a more cleaner, bright and bolder font than the older logo.

So far there has been mixed feedback on the new logo on the forums. Personally it’s good that the lab have revamped it but I still loved the green colour from before. 

Here is the full blog announcement…

Today we’re rolling out a new logo for Second Life.

Second Life has seen a surge of interest from people new to SL, longstanding residents, and groups and businesses seeking a uniquely interactive place for gatherings and special events. With this renewed attention we decided it was time to update a key part of how we tell the world what SL is all about. Second Life is still going strong, with a devoted and energetic resident community, and we want everyone to know that.

The old logo has served us well but no longer projects our vision for SL as we move into this next decade. The new logo uses clearer, bolder type to communicate our optimism and confidence in what the future holds for SL. We retired the soft green color in favor of bright blue to reflect the boundless energy of our residents, who create amazing content and experiences. When it comes to what you can do with SL, the (blue) sky’s the limit!

Second Life is a big product. In addition to the Viewer, there are hundreds of web pages, and the old logo is on all of them. We don’t want to distract our teams from the important projects our community knows we’re working hard on. So you will see a mix of new and old logos for a while as teams find time to make updates.

We’re all excited to use the new logo and we hope you like it.

— The Second Life team

What do you think about the new Second Life logo ?

Linden Lab Limits The Availability Of New Second Life Regions

Second Life Map – 19th May 2020

On Thursday 14th May Linden Lab announced that they are limiting the availability of new Second Life regions until early Autumn due to the ongoing public health crisis and the work to move Second Life to the cloud. The lab have noticed an “unprecedented surge in demand” for new Second Life regions lately. 

On Friday 15th May Patch Linden said this in the forums about efforts into enforcement and cleanup. Apparently the lab have a “healthy supply of mainland” including entire mainland regions. 

We have put a lot of thought in to the various things we can do with the mainland.  That included consideration for moving parcel owners around.  We decided that right now, with the pandemic and people turning to Second Life for some stability and comfort in their lives, that the upset of having to go through a some sort of mass-move effort was too negative of an experience.  Instead, we’re going to put our efforts into enforcement, clean-up, and loosen restrictions on mainland purchase qualifications where we can.  We do have a healthy supply of mainland, up to and including some entire full mainland regions that we can make available via auction.

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Linden Homes Update

At the present, we’re not going to be looking at any sort of down-sizing, rebuilding or re-configuring of the old Linden Homes regions.   Work has not stopped on the new Linden Homes either.  We have a good bit of runway to continue the build and release of the already present themes and regions to carry us through without adding any new regions.   We will also continue to work on the upcoming themes at full speed ahead to get them ready for future release.

– Patch Linden – (16th May)

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The lab says now the current Second Life server systems cannot accommodate unlimited growth without impacting on performance and stability. Region inventory will be “extremely limited” and may not be “readily available until early fall”. 

Due to the ongoing public health crisis, we’ve experienced an unprecedented surge in demand for new Second Life regions. While we are thrilled by the heightened interest, the increased demand has consumed our available inventory of full regions and homesteads (there are still many parcels available on existing regions, both on the mainland and from private estates). 

We are committed to maintaining (and improving) the stability and performance of Second Life. So while we are very gratified that we can be of help to people in these trying times, unfortunately, our current server systems cannot accommodate unlimited growth without adversely impacting that stability and performance. This means that region inventory in Second Life will be extremely limited and may not be readily available until early fall.

As many know already Second Life is in the process of migrating from the existing dedicated servers to a cloud hosting service. When the process has been completed then the region capacity will be hopefully unlimited again. 

Second Life is in the process of migrating from our existing dedicated servers to a cloud hosting service. That migration has already moved a number of the most important services and databases, but we are not quite ready to host simulators in the cloud. We have a crack team working on that and are making lots of progress, but there are significant changes needed to make sure that we can provide the performance, stability, and security required. When that process is complete we will have a nearly unlimited region capacity, but until then we are constrained by the size of our existing server fleet.

While our migration project has been underway for some time, even our most optimistic business projections did not anticipate a surge of the magnitude we have seen in recent weeks for additional regions. While we planned for growth driven by improvements to Second Life and other factors, we didn’t expect demand to be created by a global pandemic.

As a result, we are in the unfortunate position of hitting the maximum capacity of our “old” servers until the “new” cloud servers are fully operational.

Overall it’s good that Second Life is still so popular but I do feel sorry for Linden Lab regarding the timing. It will be great when the cloud project is finally completed later in 2020 if all goes to plan and when the new cloud servers become fully operational. 

Second Life Premium Plus Roll Out Delayed Until Late 2020/Early 2021

According to Inara Pey blog today it seems Linden Lab have delayed the roll out of Second Life Premium Plus to late 2020 – early 2021 at the earliest. The reason for the delay is that the lab are focused on the Uplift project and that they feel now is not the right time to roll it out with the current pandemic going on.

This makes perfect sense to me and its a good move to take. Introducing any sort of price raise at this time would be not welcomed when people are struggling.

The plans have now changed for the formal deployment from Grumpity Linden on 12th May.

We have made the decision to delay the deployment of Premium Plus based on two key factors:

1. We want to be focused on our Uplift project (move to the cloud) and to minimize distraction for our development, QA, and Ops teams. While we’ve laid a lot of groundwork, quite a bit more still remains to finish Premium Plus.
2. The pandemic has brought a lot of financial uncertainty to people all around the world and we know many of our Residents have been hit hard.

We are very happy that SL has provided an outlet for people where they can connect, escape, engage safely, and earn a living or supplement their income as well. But we also realise that introducing a higher-priced service level in this time would be really ham-handed.

When will Premium Plus become available ? Grumpity goes on the say…

I don’t know that there’s a whole lot more to say. I can’t promise a time line, but early 2021 is reasonable to expect. If we find ourselves in a position to move up that time line, we’ll certainly explore that. Without any actual plans to that effect, we may find, for example, that a different type of service level than Premium Plus is a better offering for the times we find ourselves in come Fall.

The first half of 2021 would be a good time to roll out this out. Hopefully the crisis would be over by then with light at the end of the tunnel.

If however the crisis gets worse I would say it could be delayed further into 2021. It could be the lab rolls out a different type of service level than originally planned.

We will have to wait and see.

Linden Lab Enters Into The Internal Alpha Stage Of The Second Life App

On Sunday 10th May I asked Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab on Twitter if there was any new updates on the upcoming app for Second Life.

Ebbe kindly replied back saying Linden Lab are about at the internal alpha stage at the moment with the Second Life app. He said there is more work to before the public beta gets released. Ebbe confirmed this is a communications app for now.

In general terms things like IMs, group chat and staying connected with friends are in the works. Then later visuals will be introduced most likely.

There will be a iOS version then an Android version later. The lab are working on it all right now. Ebbe recommended the third party app named Speedlight. Its worth checking out for sure. 

Personally I can’t wait for an Android version of Second Life app to launch. There is still no ETA yet. Let’s hope before the end of the summer/end of 2020. 

New Bellisseria Life Group

Over 240 members have joined a new group called Bellisseria Life in Second Life just recently. It’s free to join group set up by Gracie Austinn. The group will be for sharing the latest news, events and other amazing things happening around the Bellisseria continent in a regular publication.

Hopefully this new group will remain active for the latest updates. I love this part though of the group info area “Building the community with love, laughter and friendships. To Live, Grow & Thrive together”.

Join today! 🙂

Bay City Twelfth Anniversary: Press Release

Bay City twelfth anniversary celebrations in Second Life will take place this year on Sunday 17th of May 2020. The event is free for everyone to participate.

The annual celebrations start with a big parade making its way down the famous Route 66 and concluding at the well known Bay City Fairgrounds area in the North Channel region. Every year there is a big attendance throughout the day and it’s really worth coming along with your friends.

Event Schedule

• Parade lineup starts at 12pm SLT at the band shell in Bay City – Harwich
• Parade heads down Route 66 starting at 12.30pm SLT through the streets of Bay City over to the Bay City Fairgrounds stage area
• Live concert starts at 1.30pm SLT with DJ GoSpeed, Parker Static, Quartz then Wolfie Starfire. See press release for times.
• Conga dancing and fireworks may happen!

Here is the full press release. Please spread the word on your Second Life blogs and among the Second Life community if you can. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Marianne McCann
Bay City Alliance
marianne.mccann@gmail.com

BAY CITY ANNOUNCES ANNUAL ANNIVERSARY FÊTE

Second Life® city marks twelve years

BAY CITY, SL (6 March, 2020) –

Bay City, the first major project undertaken by the “Moles” of the Linden Department of Public Works, announces it’s twelfth anniversary celebration, with their now traditional parade down “Route 66,” followed by a live music event in the Bay City fairgrounds.

Opening in May of 2008 to initial viewing, with parcels being auctions throughout the city soon after, Bay City has shown itself to be one of the highlights of Second Life: a blending of Linden infrastructure and a strong, friendly community of involved residents who, together, give the area its unique charm.

Parade participants are asked to gather at noon SLT/PDT on Sunday, the 17th of May, to lineup at the band shell in Bay City – Harwich. The parade will wend its way down Route 66 beginning at 12:30 p.m. SLT/PDT, and will conclude at the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region.

A live concert will kick off at 1:30 p.m. SLT/PDT at the Fairgrounds with DJ GoSpeed of KONA Stream providing music leading into the event until 1:30 p.m.SLT/PDT , followed by Parker Static from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. SLT/PDT, Quartz from 2:30-3:30 p.m. SLT/PDT, and Wolfie Starfire from 3:30-4:30 p.m. SLT/PDT.

All Residents of the Second Life grid are welcomed to participate. Celebration goods, including parade float bases and ideas, are available at the Bay City Community Center, in the Daley Bay region for those who wish to be a part of the parade. Ample viewing areas are provided. The music event is also open to all who desire to attend — not just Residents of Bay City

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life® and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

For more information, contact: Marianne McCann

Bay City Map – May 2020

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2020

The Raglan Shire Artwalk 2020 in Second Life takes place between Sunday 17th May until 21st June. The Artwalk features over 150 artists and it showcases work in 2D and in 3D across the regions of Raglan Shire. It’s a popular event every year among the community and artists.

• Register Here
• Entry closes at 9pm SLT on 10th May 2020

Timeline Schedule

• Applications close at 9pm SLT – Sunday 10th May
• Notification of exhibit space locations to 3D artists – Tuesday 12th May
• Artist set up – Friday 15th May
• Artwalk opens – Sunday 17th May
• Artwalk closes – Sunday 21st June
• Takedown – 21st & 22nd June

Press Release: Relaystock and Bid the Lindens Bald Return for Relay for Life 2020

Check out this new press release….

RELAYSTOCK AND BID THE LINDENS BALD RETURN FOR 2020 RELAY FOR LIFE

(Arinultra Cay)  The enormously popular annual ‘Gathering of the Tribes’ at RelayStock will return for the seventh year.  Teams of the Relay For Life will hoist their banners above tents and campers as they come together for ‘3 Days of Peace, Love and Hope’, at the annual event hosted by the Relay Rockers.

The event which will run May 15th through the 17th highlights entertainment and camaraderie throughout the weekend.  The main stage will be shared by entertainers from the various teams, as well as SL headliners Maxamillion Kleene, Turner Harbrough and, Todd Rumsford. The entertainment wraps up on Sunday evening with the Finals of the Celebrate Remember Fight Back Top DJ Competition, followed by T1Radio’s Time Machine and a Flash Mob dance with The Roo’s With a Dream.

VW vans and tents will once again be supplied by the Rockers for registered RFL  teams to use as ‘team-sites’. The event is organized by Relay Rockers Co-Captain Arizona Ballnger. When asked about the success of the event she said, “RelayStock remains one of the most awaited events of the Relay season and offers teams a chance to hangout, listen to good tunes and dance in the mud. It’s a fun event for everyone and the Rockers love to see all the teams come together and take a breather before the sprint to the season finish.”

FOURTH ANNUAL BID THE LINDENS BALD

In addition to RelayStock, the Rockers are once again hosting Bid The Lindens Bald.   For the 4th year teams made up from employees of Linden Lab will compete to see who can raise the most donations to Relay For Life, with the last place team going bald.  The event will start on May 13th and wrap up on the 20th.  The team losing its hair promises to go bald in Second Life until the opening of Relay weekend on morning of June 6th.  Since 2017 Bid The Lindens Bald has raised more than L$ 2.5 million to support the Relay For Life of Second Life.

Linden Lab has provided a listing of the teams competing in this year’s event

Team 1:  Darcy, Jet, Oz, Spots, Volo Team 2: Derrick, Kit, Patsy, TJ, Wendi

Team 3: Dottie, Kristin, Rocko, Vanessa, Whitney Team 4: Izzy, Madori, Patch, Roran, Vix

Voting for Bid The Lindens Bald is done by donation to Relay For Life kiosks, located at the barn in the RelayStock2020 region, and is open to ALL Second Life residents. (For a SLURL please visit relayrockers.org.

Teams wishing to take part in RelayStock 2020 can apply online for team-sites.  To find out more and to register for team-site please visit www.relayrockers.org/relaystock .