Category Archives: SHOWCASE

A Look Back at 2016 in Second Life

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A Look Back : 2016 in Second Life

Another year has come and gone, and just like the real world, Second Life has seen some changing tide, especially to its technology. As we wrap up 2016, let’s take a moment to reflect on just a few of the game-changing breakthroughs (and breakdowns) we’ve seen in the past 12 months.

Project Bento Release

Perhaps the most groundbreaking and anticipated release of the year was #Bento – which allows the Second Life Avatar a much more sophisticated customization and movement of the hands and face, and the addition of wing and tail bones.

The Bento announcement came to the main grid on May 31st, 2016 – and has been most recently made available for viewing through the Bento Firestorm Release on December 14th.

Catwa was among the first to release a Bento head, followed closely by Akeruka, Altamura, LeLutka, and a ToddleeDoo Bento head for child avatars. Vista Animations is leading the way in animated hands, and wings by FATEplay.

This new capacity for avatar animations has created much more life-like experiences, further paving the way through ‘uncanny valley’, or a very close resemblance to real life.

Prim Increases

Second Life’s technology finally caught up with its demand, announcing significant prim increases on November 3rd for landowners – at the same rate they were paying before.

Full Regions (Mainland) 22,500
Private estates: 20,000 OR 30,000 for an additional US $30 a month
Homesteads (Mainland and private): 5,000

Visual Outfits Browser

On September 15th the Second Life Viewer added a new feature called ‘Visual Outfits Browser’ which allows you to assign photos of your outfit to your outfits collection, making getting dressed a whole lot easier. On December 14th, Firestorm added this feature to their viewer as well.

New Marketplace Search

On August 15th, Linden Labs announced the launch of the new Marketplace Search. Old infrastructure was swapped out to make way for an advanced system that will ‘learn’ over time how people search in order to get you to your desired product faster. An additional improvement is the dropdown that appears to make suggestions as you type, saving time by suggesting the most relevant search results before clicking ‘go’.

New Starter Avatars

In 2015, Second Life revamped the outdated starter avatars with a new set of mesh options to choose from. In 2016, 10 new avatars were added to the collection in a ‘fantasy’ theme. Now new users can choose between sci-fi, steampunk, and gothic identities (to name a few).

The Rise of Virtual Reality

With the release of the two virtual reality headsets paving the way – Oculus on March 28th, 2016 and Vive on April 5th, 2016, the future for how we experience virtual worlds is on the brink of a major change.

From the creators of Second Life, a new platform called Sansar is in development and expected to release in 2017 (contrary to the hopes that this would be released at the end of 2016). Some of Second Life’s top creators have been exclusively invited to give the new platform testing. Talk has Second Lifers concerned that it will cannibalize the community and lead to Second Life’s downfall. But don’t worry! These platforms will be entirely different, and those who love Second Life for what it is will not find the same experience in Sansar – at least right away.

JellyDolls

One day we all logged on to see our friends and loved ones barely distinguishable and the color of jelly beans. The reason was due to an initiative by Linden Labs, released in an update to the Second Life Viewer, to derender high complexity avatars to help unsuspecting victims still be able to navigate through crowded places with less effect on their quality.

Panoramic Video & 360 Photo

Linden Labs released a supplementary viewer on October 26th that allows you to take 360 viewers in a single click, capturing an entire panoramic scene.

An additional module for your existing viewer was released for purchase on the marketplace as well.

The Passing of Latif Khalifa

Latif, the creator of the popular text view Radegast, passed away after battling an illness in March of 2016. His contributions to Second Life spanned content and third party viewer creation, having used his talent on projects such as OpenSimulator, Singularity, Replex, in addition to Radegast. He will be remembered by many for his work and love for the Second Life and Virtual World community.

Happy Holidays!
Delilah Greyson (amoralie.triellis)
ZoHa Islands Blogger

Second Life’s Newest Advancement is LIVE!

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Photo Credit: Strawberry Singh via StrawberrySingh.com

Project Bento is no longer in project status as Linden Labs announced it going live on the grid early this week. If you haven’t been up to speed on this landmark development, it’s basically a huge update on the Second Life avatar’s skeleton, breaking open doors to new ways to customize ourselves and expand the types of characters we can create.

Check out our previous post about Project Bento HERE.

The announcement of Bento quickly led to creative minds exploring the possibilities of this update in test servers such as AO’s and animations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNHFJB0UZ0g

 

…..to a slew of new mesh heads rigged to respond to the new bones and capabilities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_XPFwBMtfU

 

…..and even animated wings that are Bento-responsive:

 

This will likely lead to more viewers including this update, but Linden Labs has officially released the update on the default viewer as of this week! Expect to find a lot of new amazing developments that will test and explore everything the Bento update has to offer!

Check out the official Linden Labs blog post HERE.

 

Bria Oceanside

ZoHa Blogger/Social Media

 

 

SLSecrets: Fun or Bullying?

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SLSecrets has been a pretty impressive long-standing forum for many in Second Life since 2008 and eventually turned into its own website. Filled with user stories, you could spend ages poring through the plethora of nameless posts.

As stated on the site, it’s meant to be a Second Life version of the (in)famous “PostSecret“, a site where people mail in postcards and other correspondence to tell stories and secrets. But, (and likely to no one’s surprise) SLSecrets became a public forum  mostly for anonymous shaming and what some may consider to be bullying.

Combined with the popularity of people turning to Facebook for Second Life based social media, many posts aimed at ridiculing creators, exes, bloggers and more have become more and more present on timelines since SLSecrets became its own website. It became a way to throw shade without giving up your own identity, or even accuse people of breaching SL terms and conditions.

While it can be a great outlet for some, where do we draw the line between something that is meant to be creative and expressive and something that is yet another way to bully individuals and have it bleed into social media? Most spectators would probably say it’s no big deal and no harm is done, but let the tables turn….would they be happy to have such scrutiny aimed at them?

Should we be encouraging this type of environment when the internet is already full of trolls and critics?

Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think. I’m genuinely curious if this is something that tickles your fancy, or if this is something you feel is inappropriate.

Bria Oceanside

ZoHa Blogger/Social Media

Prim Increases In Second Life?? Here’s The Scoop!

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This week brought about a huge change that few saw coming: Linden Labs started to increase the prim limits across second life. They acknowledged this has been a wishlist item for many for a long time, and our collective wishes have been granted.

What does this mean? This means that we’ll be able to do more with the same space. And this isn’t just a little increase. This excerpt from the main site goes into a bit more detail:

“Land impact (object) capacity on Mainland Regions will go from 15,000 to 22,500 – that’s a lot more building capacity!

In addition to this, we will further carry the prim limit increases to the private estate regions shortly.  Keep your eye on our blogs for more information!”

Designing Worlds created this chart to better understand the new (or anticipated) limits we’ll see across SL:

While this huge improvement has already hit the mainlands, do note that this will also be rolled out in the near future to private regions as well (which will be a big deal for our ZoHa Islands customers).

Of course, this set SL afire with a flurry of questions. Here’s a couple common ones that have been asked:

“Won’t more prims just cause more lag?”

If you folks haven’t noticed recently, Linden Labs has invested in upgrading their servers. So the prim increase isn’t something out of vanity; they’ve been planning this for a while so the increases wouldn’t be detrimental to gameplay.

“Won’t that mean they will charge more?”

Nope! Linden Labs is doing this to improve our gameplay and flexibility, and will not be increasing costs. And nor should your landlords! ZoHa Islands is happy to announce that this will NOT result in any fee increase, as it’s not something that is causing anyone any additional expense. In short, this is a really awesome FREE upgrade for all to enjoy! So once it’s rolled out to private estates, the only thing you will need to worry about is how you’re going to use all these extra prims!

“I’m not seeing any prim increases yet. Is it just for mainland?”

It’s currently rolled out on mainlands, but eventually will be rolled out grid-wide. We’ll have to stay tuned for a formal announcement from Linden Labs, but they do acknowledge it is happening soon!

So, let’s all rejoice! Not only is this a huge development for Second Life, but also a big indication that Linden Labs isn’t forgetting about us anytime soon. Server upgrades are not a light expense and they did something spectacular to show us some love.

What are YOU going to do with your extra prims??

You can check out the Designing Worlds episode here to get more detail into this great development:

Bria Oceanside

ZoHa Blogger/Social Media

 

 

 

Sexual Assault In Second Life

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Sexual assault in virtual reality is a thing, although it only recently seems to have caught the attention of the general public. Many slammed the idea, claiming it’s impossible to sexually assault or harass someone in a virtual space. But assault and harassment can also be very emotional and mental, and I decided to explain my stance on why this should be taken seriously.

https://youtu.be/ZW_jLxuaPYY

 

Bria Oceanside

ZoHa Blogger/Social Media

Women of Science History Museum

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One thing that Second Life can stand to have more of is in-world monuments to great people, movements and eras. I had the pleasure of visiting a new step in the right direction, the Women of Science History Museum.

I have to take a moment to say how much I appreciate the quaint layout, but also the amount of thought that went into creating this space. From the “hangout-friendly” approach outside of the build to the detailed models to correspond to each great contributor to science for the individual displays, it was clear that a lot of passion went into this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The general museum was well arranged and had an incredible amount of information that left me more educated than I was before I walked in, and it’s wonderful to see focus on empowerment and the contribution that women had that has influenced so much in our lives. In an instant-gratification and high-tech world that we live in, sometimes we need to take a step back and remember which pioneers led us to this point.

 

 

 

 

I would highly encourage checking it out, but I would also love to see a project like this expanded. While so much ground was covered, it would be excellent to see even more curated content and recognition.

 

If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can check it out HERE.

 

What are some other “monumental” destinations that you adore? I want to hear about them!

 

Bria Oceanside

ZoHa Blogger/Social Media