Second Life's Lab Gab - April 2024 Update, Progress on Mobile Viewer and PBR, Child Avatar Policy "Strengthening"

 

 

On Friday April 19, Linden Lab had a pre-recorded episode of Lab Gab. It included the following shorcuts to certain subjects. Strawberry Linden would interview Grumpity Linden, then later in the video (on the Beta Grid) Signal and Kyle Linden, then Kiera Linden.

00:00 - Introduction 01:00 - Grumpity Linden Introduction (Senior VP of Product and Engineering) 01:15 - Mobile App Questions 02:55 - Premium Plus subscribers can sign up for Second Life Mobile Private Alpha testing here: https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000171885-premium-plus-second-life-mobile-private-alpha-sign-up 03:27 - Mobile App progress and updates: https://second.life/mobilenews040524 06:45 - Second Life Mobile App - Developer Update Video (April 2024): https://youtu.be/ciRARYhZcZ4 09:25 - Feedback Portal: https://feedback.secondlife.com 10:15 - Rapid fire questions for Mobile app features 10:27 - Will there be support for HUDS on Mobile? 10:31 - Ability to create and build on Mobile? 10:52 - What about voice on Mobile? 10:55 - Region Estate management on Mobile? 11:03 - Mobile-specific features like GPS, vibration, and webcam integration? 11:20 - Support for keyboards and mouse control on tablets? 11:29 - Will Mobile access be free? 12:03 - Mirrors, PBR Terrain, and 2K textures: https://second.life/technews032824 12:49 - Teleporting over to the beta grid! 12:56 - Signal Linden (Director of Engineering) and Kyle Linden (Product Manager) Introduction 13:50 - Mirror Demo by Signal Linden 15:48 - 2K textures information - pricing and performance impact 17:27 - PBR Terrain Demo by Kyle Linden 17:37 - Location is Rumpus Room 2048 on the Beta Grid 18:40 - Materials Featurettes Viewer: https://releasenotes.secondlife.com/viewer/7.1.4.8270899680.html 19:14 - Accessing Aditi (the beta grid): https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000156725-accessing-aditi 20:05 - Teleporting back to the main grid! 20:23 - Keira Linden Introduction (Manager of Support Operations) 21:14 - Second Life age requirements and Child Avatar Policy information and update 23:30 - Governance and Conduct Policy updates 23:59 - New content moderation tools for both inworld and on the marketplace 24:14 - New Community Roundtable with Second Life Leadership coming in late May 25:23 - SL21B Updates: https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/blog/4-featured-news/39-second-life-birthday 26:22 - Mark your calendars - https://second.life/calendar 26:26 - Follow the Featured News Blog for upcoming updates: https://second.life/featurednews

 

Among what was discussed, Grumpity stated there were "No plans to charge for access" to the mobile viewer. It will be able to use HUDS, but of being able to build inworld and manage estates, maybe, "For serious creation, you're still going to have to use desktop." They are hoping to open the mobile viewer access further to include Premium residents "soon."

 

Progress is being made on mirrors in the Beta Grid, as well as PBR terrain, "you can see the sunshine bounce off the surfaces." There is no scheduled release date, though they felt "weeks and not months." 

 

Of the issue of underage residents in areas with clearly adult content, Kiera Linden would say, "one thing we are looking at closely is strengthening our age verification process, something we'll be sharing more about soon. ,,,Let me be clear on this one, we do not and will never allow sexualized ageplay. We do have a policy on this, and it is strictly enforced. In addition, we want to acknowledge and recognize there are residents who enjoy roleplaying as child avatars, and we have no intention of preventing that." They wanted the community of child avatars to continue to feel welcome, "but child avatars should not be present near or in regions that also have adult-rated activities. We're in the process of strengthening our child avatar policy right now, and you'll see us roll that out soon. But one of the guiding factors to these changes is to ensure an even stronger separation between child avatars, and adult-rated content and activities." 

Kiera would also say there would soon be "better clarity and stronger guidelines on conduct and policies both within our community and in our organization. Internally, we're finalizing an update to the conduct policy which addresses a wide range of topics such as how Linden Lab employees interact with the community, and policies that address perceptions of conflict of interest, or favoritism."

 

There was also a mention of a "Community Roundtable" in late May, which Grumpity called part of the desire for better communication with the residents.

Strawberry would also talk about the upcoming SL21B

Bixyl Shuftan