SL20B Official Guide And Magazine

 

 

 For the Second Life Twentieth Birthday, Linden Lab issued an "Official Guide and Magazine" (link). One can download it, or thumb through on their webbrowser. 

 

"Through its vibrant pages, this commemorative magazine dives into the rich history of the virtual world of Second Life, unraveling two decades of innovation, creativity, and community building. Hear from the founder, executive team, pioneering designers, and creative Residents about the history and future of Second Life. Whether you're a long-standing resident or a curious newcomer, it is an invaluable keepsake and source of inspiration, serving as both a nostalgic tribute and an exciting glimpse into the limitless possibilities of our virtual world."

 

https://issuu.com/secondlifeofficial/docs/sl20bguide

 

Linden Lab Ending Support for 32 Bit Viewer

 

When Second Life users download either the official or Firestorm Windows viewers, they have a choice of either the 32 bit viewer or the 64 bit viewer. The reason for this is older computers often being better at handling the 32 bit one. But this choice will soon be coming to an end, at least for the official viewer. Late last month in the Tools and Technology blog, Linden Lab announced they were ending support for the 32 bit viewer. They were also changing the minimum requirements for Apple computers.

As of July 1st, 2023, we will be ending support for the Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer and updating the minimum system requirements for MacOS to 10.13. This decision is made to align with the evolving technology landscape and to ensure the best performance and security for our residents. 

This does not mean that 32 bit Linden viewers will not be able to log in, as the Lab would state, "After July 1st, we will continue to allow the last supported version of the Second Life 32-bit Windows viewer to log in indefinitely."

As of the writing of this article, there has been no similar announcement from Team Firestorm concerning their viewer, which is used more often than the Linden viewer. 

EOTB: Linden Halloween Costume Contest, 25,000 L Prize (Deadline Thursday)

 

On the official blog, Linden Lab announced a Halloween costume contest. To encourage more people to enter, they're offering a 25,000 Linden dollar prize. The catch, the deadline for submissions is a few days before Halloween, and the rules leave out some costumes.

 Unleash the costume of your dreams for a chance to win L$25K!

The Official Second Life Halloween Costume Contest is open for submissions from now until Thursday, October 28th at 8AM PDT.

Costumes will be judged on creativity and originality. Show us a look that will turn heads (180°, preferably)!

Need some spooky inspo? Check out:

    The Haunted category of the Destination Guide
    Our official Flickr pool to scope out the competition
    The Halloween Shop and Hop, with almost 300 vendors offering free gifts, discounts and bone-chilling clothes and accessories

The winner will be announced next Friday, so go on witch your bad self!

As stated, you have only until 8AM on Thursday October 28 to enter. There can only be one entry per resident (or at least email address). The rules on eligible costumes include that they can't be too suggestive or "unnecessarily violent," be of celebrities living or dead, be of a political nature, "promote" alcohol or tobacco or firearms, "communicates messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and good will to which we wish to associate," etc. 

For a list of the rules, Click Here.

For the blog entry, Click Here.
 

Linden Lab's SL Anniversary Shopping Event Going on Now to June 26

After SL8B, Linden Lab ceased to take part in the main Second Life Birthday celebrations. But in recent years they have been getting involved again in helping to celebrate Second Life's anniversary. Earlier in May, they announced they were looking for musicians to take part in their third annual Music Fest, which will take place alongside the SL14B, and merchants to take part in an anniversary shopping event. Last week, Linden Lab revealed the details of their SL14B Official Shopping Event, as it's being called in the Destination Guide. The event is going on now, and will go on until June 26.

...we launched a HUGE shopping event in honor of the occasion. Sixty Merchants with some of the most popular brands in Second Life have set up shop across three Regions  -  Golden, Gilded and Halcyon - each providing a FREE gift and some major discounts on their top-selling items!
 

 You’re going to want to find some time to make your way through each of these stores, as there really are some amazing things to find.

 

 Go, check it out now! Sales ends on June 26th!

The shopping event is taking place on a three sim area: Golden (101/129/52/), Halcyon (128/104/52), and Gilded (100/126/52). The three sims are not anywhere near the SL14B grounds, located far to the south past the mainland continent in between.

Stay tuned for details on the Music Fest, and the SL14B.

SL Video: "Second Life Destinations - Bars and Pubs"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

The latest video from Linden Lab, "Second Life Destinations : Bars and Pubs," was released on March 17. It features two bars, including "The Blarney Stone" of the Dublin sim, perhaps the grid's most famous pub.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager
 

Commentary: Doing the Lag-tastic

If there's one thing that bugs each resident almost constantly, it's the ever-present lag. Sometimes it seems worse than usual. Those of us with longer memories may wonder, "Is the lag really worse than usual, or is it just me?" So when a few others also complain, well, you figure you may be right.

But if person after person complains, saying they've had to stop using a new viewer for an older one, well, you may be pardoned for wondering if there's something rotten in Ahern.

So what's behind the lag behind these complains? Some I chat with blame the more recent updates to the viewer. And indeed the most recent update to the official Linden Lab viewer frequently causes things to freeze or even crash whenever I Instant-Message someone, or get an IM from someone. Others complain about their Firestorm viewers, going back to the old Phoenix, even if it's no longer supported by the team. One person compared it to going back to a worn and ragged but comfortable pair of old shoes when the new shoes kept pinching your feet.


For myself, Firestorm doesn't work on my computer, and except for the first release or two never has. The bugs I found in the official viewer meant going back to full time use of Cool VL, but the version I use is some months old, and at times such as a crowded sim can show its age. For some peculiar reason, their more recent Mac viewers won't work for me. Then a friend and I were talking about the Singularity Viewer. Mentioning I stopped using it when it stopped updating their Mac client, she told me they had started doing so again and the most recent update was just a few weeks ago. So I gave it a try, and it worked!

Well, not perfectly. Things still take a while to load. But it did put a stop the the occasional "invisible jacket" Cool VL sometimes game me. Then again, maybe the lag seeming so bad is just my imagination.

Bixyl Shuftan

Figuring Out Viewer 3

As demonstrated in the recent "Relay Rap" article, it seems my Cool VL Viewer is having a harder time in Second Life these days, objects and people taking longer to rezz. Firestorm won't work on my Mac, for whatever reason. So I'm taking a look at the official viewer from Linden Lab, Viewer 3 (or rather, Viewer 3.4.5 as the latest version is called).

So far, it does rezz objects and people faster, sometimes. Other times, it can lag almost as badly. Although items rezz eventually, it seems more likely to freeze up and crash. The interface is quite different from Viewer One and similar Third-Party viewers. I had to look around for the minimap and movement controls for a minute. Looking for the map took time. I still haven't figured out yet how to shout a text beyond 20 meters. And multiple IMs can be a problem.

And oh yeah, if you log off V3 in one avatar, use another in Cool VL (and presumably Phoenix, Singularity, and others) and log out without changing, logging back into Viewer 3, you'll be wearing both avatars. Quirks like these can result in a few surprises.

Hopefully I'll be figuring this out soon.

Bixyl Shuftan