Normally, Linden Lab doesn't say much about Team Firestorm, the group of volunteers behind the most popular Second Life viewer. But on Friday, they made them the subject of the latest post on the official Second Life blog. They announced there would be a Firestorm version of the Project Zero mobile viewer.
But, there would be a catch to using it. One needed to pay to use it, and it would only be for a total of several hours.
We’re thrilled to introduce a brand-new way to experience Second Life with Firestorm. Now you can use it directly from your web browser! No download, no installations, just quick and easy access to your virtual world with high performance and low lag.
To celebrate this launch, we’re offering an exclusive test run: special packs of five hours for just L$250 (US $1). This is a limited offer to help test the service, and it will not reflect the final pricing when we fully launch.
As the Lab stated, it was a limited time offer, and in about a day the "special packs" had all sold out.
Some news for those who have been waiting for the Second Life Mobile Viewer to be available. Linden Lab just announced it's in a "private alpha" release, but a very limited one in which only Premium Plus members can apply for. And some who do may not get a chance to try it out yet.
The Second Life app brings the richness of the Second Life virtual
world to your Android or iOS mobile device...and Second Life Premium
Plus members are among the first to get access.
With the new Second Life Mobile, you can experience a new level of
convenience and engagement in your Second Life adventures, whether
you’re at home or on the go.
The mobile viewer is described as allowing residents to see their avatars and "edit through changing outfits" (but apparently not through Inventory), go about virtual reality "with a limited series of movements," being able to teleport or accept teleport offers, pan around to some extent (but doesn't say how far), use local and group chat as well as see group announcements, create and log in a new account, "and more in future releases."
The Lab stated that while all Premium Plus residents are eligible to apply to get access to this alpha version of the mobile viewer, "we’ll be adding users in small groups
over time. There is a server registration limit and we’ll be adding
participants on a first come first served basis." So assuming demand for the mobile viewer is strong, some people will have to wait.
And of course, being an alpha version, the Lab reminded people that the mobile viewer will almost certainly be glitchy as heck. "please remember, this is still early Alpha! That means it’s
buggy, and it’s missing functionality. It also means we’re looking for
your help in making it better. "
Presumably the beta version will be available some months from now well into 2024. But this is speculation, and much can go wrong, or right.
From Linden Lab, a five minute video with Grumpity, Mojo, and Patch Linden about the Lab's progress on the Second Life Mobile Viewer. It's looking like it's release won't be until 2024 as Grumpity was saying, "More features are coming in the next couple quarters as we work towards a beta." Grumpity was saying some of the latest work was about getting the viewer to unload old objects so new ones could be loaded as people move to different areas.
Last Friday's Lab Gab started with a video. Grumpity Linden, the head of
the Product team, talked about the upcoming SL mobile app viewer,
showing it off at the Kaleidoscope sim. "Yeah, it's true, it's so early,
but we're super excited to share a first peek at something new, Second
Life Mobile. Look it's me on my phone." She would say this wasn't the
first time they've tried to build a mobile viewer, "because of course we
want to have all the glory." But it was "the most exciting result we've
seen so far." They were starting with the more difficult details, such
as being able to view the "hardest" avatars and most detailed areas.
Plus they wanted the app to work on all platforms, "And so it is with
joy and trepidation that we share with you the early results of these
efforts." They did say things were still very much a work in progress,
so "you will see very little functionality or user interface for now."
Still, she spoke, "it is a vibrant Second Life on Android and iOS."
Mojo
Linden, the VP of Engineering who would later say he's been with Linden
Lab for about a year and a half, would say that he was working with the
development team "to make sure that the community can experience
everything they love about Second Life while on the go with our upcoming
mobile viewer," repeating they were starting with some of the more
difficult details first such as full rendering of avatars and the full
rendering of complex environments. The viewer is built on Unity and can
use multiple mobile phone and tablet platforms, including Android and
iOS. Mojo described himself as "blown away" by the ammount of detail
they can get on it, saying they haven't had to "compromise too much on
graphic fidelity." He did admit "there's much work to be done" before
the mobile viewer's ready to be launched.
Patch, the VP of
Product Operations, was next. "Imagine being able to connect to Second
Life from anywhere, chat with your friends, visit your favorite inworld
hangout spots, and later do pretty muchanything you do with the desktop
Second Life viewer without being tethered to your computer. ... We can't
wait to show you more in the coming months as our development progress
continues."
The scene then changed to the three seated with Strawberry Linden, and would introduce themselves, Grumpity musing she had no real power but was still responsible for a lot ot things. Mojo joked he felt tlike the "baby" in the group. Later on, Grumpity would say she wasn't in her usual stick figure as it wasn't rezzing properly in the mobile viewer.
Questions about the mobile started 6:45 into the video. Mojo would state development started in October 2022, saying that using the Unity engine "really helped with quick progress and portability to IOS and Android." He was condident they would be able to make a mobile viewer that could show "Second Life in all it's glory." A beta version "with some limited functuality" should be released sometime in the second half of the year, adding "our play is to layer more features over multiple releases after that." Later in the video, Mojo would call being able to work on the mobile viewer "such an honor."
At nine minutes, Strawberry brought up the price changes. The lower sim prices were talked about first. Grumpity would say since 2017, they've been working to lower the price of land and making it "more accessible for all our residents," saying it wasn't easy as Linden Lab's income had been built on land. So they had to find ways to make up for the income loss there, "We try to find the fairest way to do it ... and, um, we decided that Linden dollar fees were really the way to do it. ... We know your prices are going up, and our prices are going up, and the cost of everything up. ... We took as long as we could before raising fees. But it's happened. ... We're watching very closely to see what happens in the markets so far."
At just before 11 minutes, Strawberry would also bring up the new option to pay for a sim with Linden dollars. Patch called it an exchange being done "on the Lindex basically behind the scenes ... and so yes, the price is a little higher."
At just after 12 minutes, Strawberry brought up the concerns about bot activity. Patch stated the Lab has been working on a new policy, including some talk with lawyers, "We had to take some time and get it reviewed by our legal team ... that took several weeks to get all of the necessary reviews in place for it." Patch would say they were expecting to bring it out the following week (the week of this article). Grumpity would add they're planning on giving extra ability to estate owners to ban bots, "will be able to choose access levels for scripted agents going forward, and those should be rolling out soon." She estimate the time as "weeks."
Just after 13 minutes, the PBR (Physical Based Rendering) development was mentioned, that it will bring "more realistic lighting to Second Life," Mojo saying it brought that particular technology about ten years ahead from where it was, "It allows content creators to define materials based on how they reflect light in the real world." He added there was already a project viewer with the feature currently out and people looking at it and giving feedback, "We want to be sure we are not going to cause content headaches for people as we've been fixing bugs for quite some time." He wasn't giving a definite release date, "it might be another three months." When asked if people would beed higher-end computers to see the feature, Mojo would say no, saying they were working to better enable current computers to see the new featurejust fine. But if people had any kind of performance issues, they could simply "just turn off Reflections" to get lighting back to where it was. There will also be tutorial videos about it later. It was stated that while PBR puts Second Life on the way to having true mirrors, for the moment they're not around just yet, at least the (virtually) real deal, "You can sort of fake it now with PBR." The Lab plans on working on technology to allow mirrors next.
At just after 18 minutes, they talked about inventory updates. Grumpity would say one project they were workiing on was "Inventory Thumbnails." They would also add a single folder inventory view. Of updates to the viewer, they were working on an "emoji viewer" that Grumpity called "a third party contribution from Catnip" amd that they've been "trying to make sure everything works." A project viewer should be availablt in "weeks."
Just before twenty minutes, Strawberry asked if there were plans to make Second Life "VR ready." Mojo's response was "probably not this year" saying the render rate would have to be at least around 60 frames per second. Of the possibility of a Linux viewer, Mojo did say there were internal tools that benefit from a Linux viewer. But for now what they have can run through Wine and Proton. But an outright official Linix viewer isn't in the Lab's plans for this year.
At 21:30, Strawberry brought up Marketplace saying there's been "a lot of changes." Grumpity would say a week earlier, the Lab released an update to Marketplace search. She would go on to say they were "taking your feedback, we're making changes." The fifty-page cap on search results has been removed. Strawberry asked about inworld office hours. Grumpty's response was, "We have user groups for all sorts of topics ... choose your favorite and come talk to us."
Just before 26 minutes, Strawberry would ask about the upcoming New User Experience (or NUX) avatars, which one was shown off at last year's Second Life Birthday. Patch answered they were "quite a ways along in their development." The avatars themselves are done, he stated, and the work at the moment was getting them a line of clothing and attachments. They will also be "PBR ready." The avatars, he reminded, were to help new users have "better simpler easier fun," and there should be an update about them soon.
Around 27:30, Strawberry brought up Linden Homes. Patch stated there would be some information coming soon. They were working on the homes for Premium Plus resident accounts, which were "nearing completion." They were also working on expansions and additions to current themes, Victorian being named. Of Second Life's upcoming 20th anniversary celebration theme (which was announced Thursday March 16), Patch would only say "It's really, really, really big" and that they would have an announcement soon.
Before the Lab Gab ended, Patch would say they might make a "blooper reel" of errors made during the filming of the movile viewer video.
Also part of the March 10 Lab Gab (more on that later), this video would showcase the Second Life Mobile viewer in action. To sum up what was spoken, it's still very much in development, with an open beta unlikely to be made available until sometime in the second half of 2023. It's built on the Unity engine, and can use multiple mobile phone and tablet platforms, including Android and iOS.
The news is making some technology and gaming news websites. Game Developer predicted the move would help breathe new life into the virtual world, or "give Second Life a second life." Arstechnica wasn't so sure, calling Second Life a niche product, "and a mobile app might not be enough to change that."
Patch Linden will be on the Lab Gab later today to talk about upcoming things from Linden Lab later this year. But he's been dropping hints about one thing that will be among them. On Wednesday March 8, he posted a picture on Flickr of him next to a barn, but there were some unfamiliar-looking buttons at the bottom, "What is this place and thing I'm in?"
Then the following day, yesterday on Thursday March 9, he would post a short video on Twitter showing his avatar moving, "And now we walk." The picture showed arrow keys on the screen.
By the looks of things, it seems Linden Lab's been working on a mobile app. Many of the people in Flikr and Twitter thought so too, "I look forward to SecondLife's return on iPad."
So how soon will it be ready? Patch may have a date today on Lab Gab.
Hat Tip: Pantera Północy (panterapolnocy Resident)
For years, there's been talk about accessing Second Life through a mobile viewer. Linden Lab never had one of it's own, but there were third-party clients. Years ago, the best was probably Lumiya, but for some time it hasn't been updated and presumably has become unusable. A few years ago, Linden Lab started working on a mobile-capable platform. But last October, it announced it was pausing development. Development had reportedly been "stagnant" for months, presumably on trying to resolve technical issues.
The Speedlight mobile app
is already popular with many of our community members since it enables
Residents to stay connected with Second Life while on the go, and now
Premium Plus subscribers get access to additional Speedlight benefits: no online time limitations along with prioritised online support.
Now you can enjoy Second Life on your mobile devices (or in a web
browser) with the freedom to stay connected as long as you like! To get
these benefits, all you need to do is access Second Life using
SpeedLight with your Premium Plus account.
While most of Speedlight's features are free to use, there's only a limited time one can use it per month. For more time, one either had to buy it or subscribe to a gold account. And now there's the option of signing up for Premium Plus. But how much of a perk is this?
Trying it out with an alt on my webbrowser, the viewer did allow you to check where your avatar was, as well as who was around it. You could also check one's friend list to see who was on and groups, as well as nearby chat. There is also a 3D view, but it's considerably less detailed than regular SL viewers, unlike what the picture with the Lab's announcement suggests. Surroundings are simplified, and one's avatar appears as a stick figure. One can move around and jump, but there's no sound or music, and one may get stuck at a sim crossing.
In a thread in the official forums, comments were somewhat mixed, overall favorable. The one big complaint was that the picture in the announcement was misleading. A few commented the perk would probably be of best use to merchants, who could use it when away from their computer to check up on business.
The partnership between Linden Lab and Speedlight marks the second time in a month the Lab as made a deal with someone offering an SL product not owned by them. Speedlight was developed by Glaznah Gassner.
Since at least January 2019, if not earlier, Linden Lab has been working on a mobile app for Second Life. In July, one that was basically a chat app was approved by Apple, though the Lab was waiting to improve some things before sending it to the store.
But according to an article in New World Notes, it seems work on the app has been postponed, possibly indefinately. Hamlet Au stated "A veteran Second Life insider" had send him a message, saying it was sent to him as one of the mobile app test group.
After reviewing the current state of the SL Mobile Viewer and the helpful feedback from residents, we have decided to pause development on this branch. The team is actively working on a new direction to take from here. We should have some news on that soon.
We’d like to thank you all for your time and feedback. It was very valuable to us! We will be closing TestFlight and the mobile regions on October 29th, 2021. Again, thank you for participation! Linden Lab
The source would also say of the development of the app, "It had been stagnant for months."
Hamlet messaged the Lab about the decision and is waiting for a response.
At the Web User Group Meeting moderated by Keira Linden on July 7, Keira had some details on several issues. But the most notable one was about Linden Lab's mobile app for Second Life. She announced that it had been approved by Apple for it's App Store. It wasn't currently in the store as the Lab wants to add a few things before it gets posted. It will just be the iOS version as Android still needs more work.
The app is just a chat app only with no 3D view, for now. Also for now, one can only directly IM others with it, though group chat should be available later. One can search names on the app, but it can't access notecards (or anything else in inventory). Keira Linden thought it would be particularly useful for Second Life merchants to keep in touch with customers away from their computers.
To read in detail what Keira Linden stated about the app, see more in Design.
As you may know, Linden Lab has been working on a Second Life app for mobile devices. Last month, it looked like one would be soon be available in beta. But it appears the wait will be a little longer. In the Web User Group meeting held on Wednesday October 7, it was revealed that a beta version of the IOS (iPhone Operating System) version of the SL mobile app had been submitted to Apple to appear in it's app store, and was rejected. The reasons for the rejection were not revealed, only that the Lab is working to correct the issues.
For now, the IOS app remains in closed alpha. The Android version is described as behind the IOS in development.
Unrelated to Second Life but of note to gamers, Apple has been at odds with Epic, the company behind the popular Fortnite game, over what both sides claim is unreasonable behavior. Apple took Fortnite off it's app store over what it called violations of the agreement between them and Epic. A week ago on October 9, a judge ruled that Apple didn't have to put the game back.
For those of you waiting for Linden Lab to come up with a Second Life app for mobile devices, there were a few small bits of information made available. First, in the Technology section of the forums, there's a new sub-section: "Mobile." A thread soon started, and Keira Linden made a few comments.
In response to how much longer for an app for the Marketplace:
Marketplace does pose it's own set of challenges. We have had (and will
continue to have) many internal discussions about what features to
introduce at what time and Marketplace did rank high on that list.
Right now, we're really focused on the social aspects like chat (both IM
and group) and getting those right.
About an hour later:
I've got a little gossip, but not sure how juicy it is. 😆
Android app is in the works! We went with iOS first because we have
more Residents on iOS devices, not because we don't love our
Android Resis too! Release for an Android app is going to be a little
delayed after iOS because we still have some backend work to do and (in
case you hadn't heard) we are frantically working on this eency little
project called UPLIFT. 🤣 But, we're
still working on what we can along side iOS. Once we have a beta
version of it that we can open up for you all to bang on, I'll drop an
announcement in here so you all can sign up.
SL blogger Daniel Voyager feels this means sign-ups for a beta version of an SL mobile app will be "very soon." The full version of the app is not expected to be available until sometime in 2021.
Linden Lab is looking for an innovative mobile app engineer to deliver a compelling, responsive mobile interface into Second Life. If you’re passionate about the latest cross platform mobile technologies and would be psyched to wake up every morning knowing that your efforts will enhance the largest, most successful virtual world on the Internet then we want to hear from you!
Among the knowledge and skills needed for the position is "Experience developing consumer-oriented mobile applications for Android and IOS." This would suggest that Linden Lab is getting back into making a viewer for mobile devices, possibly for Android phones and iPhones, but at least for Android-run tablets and iPads.
Inara Pey reminded her readers that Ebbe Linden talked about the issue during the SL15B, saying the Lab was "seeking the right approach for investment in a mobile solution ... we're thinking hard about mobile." Oz and Grumpity Linden did as well, saying "The potential for some kind of mobile solution for Second Life is being discussed." Grumpity had also mentioned the cost to users was a concern, saying the Lab didn't want a moble viewer that would require charging it's viewers a lot. When New World Notes brought up the issue, Will Burns responded in the comments that he had asked Ebbe Linden in his visit to Linden Lab why they didn't buy up OnLive themselves, and stated the answer was that "At the time ... Linden Lab didn't get hands-on with the process. ... it would seem at least *something* I said up there sunk in during my visit." New World Notes would also speculate, " If they're only hiring a Senior Mobile Engineer now, it's probably going to be at least 8-12 months before we see an Alpha version of a mobile viewer for SL."
Pokemon GO was the game of the summer. The number of users of the mobile ap augmented reality game skyrocketed since it's release on July 5th to close to 45 million in about two weeks. But that's as far as it's numbers got, and it late July and August was steadily getting smaller. More than 12 million have stopped playing, "Data from Sensor Tower, SurveyMonkey, and Apptopia," stated Luke Kawa in Bloomberg, "show that Pokemon Go's daily active users, downloads, engagement, and time spent on the app per day are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend."
So why the decline? Over the weeks there have been a number of cautionary stories in the news about careless Pokemon players getting into accidents or getting robbed. But the real reasons for the decline appear to be shortcomings in the game itself, not much you can do with critters once they're caught, no quests, no way for players to duel, the gameplay seemed to be centered on capturing "gyms" that were held by monsters that were of a level unrealistic to reach by casual players. There have also apparently been server issues that have been quite irritating to players.
Hamlet Au predicted that eventually the userbase will settle to a dedicated core of about fifteen to five million. Certainly not a bad number for a game, but he felt Pokemon GO's decline would have a negative impact on the augmented gaming market that it had earlier sparked interest in, To succeed in a truly massive way, an AR game needs to be linked with a massive, well-established brand that has a 'fantastic, invisible parallel world' premise well-integrated into its branding."
Kawa suggested that over the long term, the augmented reality market would remain smaller than the one for virtual worlds, citing one analyst, "The Google Trends data is already showing declining interest in augmented reality, whereas interest in virtual reality remains high."
For viewing Second Life on one's computer, it isn't hard to find options, from the official viewer to Firestorm, Singularity, and others. But for accessing it though tablets and smartphones, it can be harder to find choices. Wesley Regenbogen recently found one viewer designed as a mobile app" the Lumiya viewer by Alina Lyvette. He gave it a try, and wrote a review.
