For those who have been waiting and waiting to drive through the whole length of the Trans-Sansara Causeway, good news. On Friday September 18, the Lindens and Moles added the last sections in the Thetis, Aptos, Tomales, and Swanton sims, finally completing the roadway going from the Luna to Mavericks.
Some extra effort was done on Aptos Island. Besides the road, there was a rest stop added. It was a large parking lot with an off ramp into the water for people to rezz boats. The place was well-detailed with the rocks and the trees.
Between Tomales and Swanton, there was a metal-arch bridge. As with the others, one could drive across it, or walk.
From what I've heard, there was a small ceremony just after noon on Friday, with the gates opened and with Kit and Wendi Linden present, with some residents of Bay City. Some would start driving right away or soon after. On Bay City Discord, Tish Coronet stated she could get from "Langdale to Truro, without racing, 35-40 minutes."
And so after about a month and a half, the Trans-Sansara Project is finished. And those with cars are free to go for a spin. But if you're a heavy lagger, be careful about going too fast when approaching a sim boundary.
There's not much new to report on the Trans-Sansara Causeway, aside that I was contacted by Wendi Linden. "I want to reach out to the appropriate Residents and Resident groups, so they have see(n) this," she told me, "I do know that the Newser has reported on this road project before in recent weeks, though, and wanted to make sure to give you a heads up that this should be complete soon." She thought it would be finished in about two weeks at most, though most likely sooner, "Some of it, particularly some of the parts we are working on offsite, should be quite a bit of fun for drivers."
Ultimately, the project, she stated, would go from "the Frog Road though NW Sansara to Nova Albion and Bay City."
Wendi Linden is with the Land Operations Team.
Back at the island, not much to report other than the bulldozer moved. But at the Whatever sims, the colorful lines have vanished. So something is going on, just away from prying eyes.
There's been some more progress on the Trans-Sansara Causeway project. To begin with, the unfinished bridge on the southern border of Pomponio and Albion has been cleared away. There's no trace left of the 2021 structure, and it appears a number of other builds and items have been moved as well. The construction sign has been removed as well. Were they going to use the bridge and change their mind, or was the sign a heads up the build would be gone?
But while one bridge is gone, a new one is up. Just southeast of the five new sims that were reported on in August 10, there are now an additional three newer ones: Cleone, Falk, and Tunitas. Just north of the sim border between Mavericks and Cleone, there's a new bridge. Currently, a gate closes it to vehicle traffic, and there's a construction sign there from the Linden Department of Public works.
This new bridge is longer and more detailed than the one it replaced. Instead of just piers, the bridge is also build on rocky islands with some vegetation on them. They're also built a bit wavy and curvy. No way someone would get "highway hypnosis" on this road. A nice scenic structure to walk on, or drive on once finished. Well, one guy was driving. Abnor Mole left his car behind, with the words "Mo homes" on the side.
The bridge is not yet finished, the last length resting on a bare rocky isle in the middle of the Swanton sim, within sight of the island at Tomales next door to the west. Presumable that's where further construction will be.
Back in the Luna sim, where the other end of the causeway starts, further work has connected the tunnel to the road, and the construction cones have been removed. One can now drive their vehicles from the street and into it, though they will have to stop and turn around as construction at Thetis' island has not progressed.
According to Daniel Voyager, there's a new Mainland project in development.
There is a new construction project in Second Life known as the “Trans-Sansara Causeway” which will connect Bay City to Sansara’s existing road network. It’s expected there will be a new road route which will connect the southern Bay City region (not yet confirmed) to the Mavericks and Pomponio regions.
Daniel's article stated four sims just to the south west of Abbot's Areodrome, and several sims south of Luskwood and southeast of Bay City, Ceto, Thetis, Aptos, Tomales and Swanton, are new and "currently under development and new construction work will start very soon."
This planned roadway may be part of the "renewed focus for Mainland" Linden Lab was talking about during their announcement several days ago when they canceled their earlier plan to dissolve the small Gaeta 1 continent.
It should be noted there's a nine sim sandbox to the south, the SLua Sandbox. This probably doesn't have anything to do with the construction plans, but it is another build by the Linden Department of Public Works.
Sansara is the largest of the Mainland continents, with the Second Life wiki listing it as having almost a thousand sims. The western end has Bay City and several "Old World" areas such as Luskwood, Abotts Areodrome, the Natoma Sandbox, and others.
Among the latest developments in the Sunweaver lands following the passing of it's leader Rita Mariner, there's been a change at HV Community. At the one sim in the land that's not in any danger (while Purfecction is owned by one resident, it hasn't usually been counted as Sunny land), the roads and rail track have been removed. This includes the length in front of the Newser office.
Cynthia Farshore, whom had laid down the roads and track, told me due to people moving to HV Community because of the uncertainty of the future of the sims, the roads had been removed so Nydia Tungsten and Ranchan Weidman can remodel and move things around as needed.
Today, Gemma Cleanslate reports on an event to help raise funds for Virtual Ability, a motorbike race in The Continental 2 sim. The fifth event of it's kind, this year the theme is "Supernatural." From last Friday to this upcoming Saturday, there will be music events, showcases to vote on the most stylish bike, items up for sale, and at last some racing. Gemma had a good look around. So what did she see?
Sometimes when driving, you just want to get where you're going. And sometimes it's the journey itself that's more important, listening to the radio, and taking in the scenery. And on occasion, there's no particular destination, except maybe back home, eventually, the journey made just to see new things and new places. If this is something you like doing, there's a group for you, the "Drivers of SL." The Newser interviewed a few people behind this large group of people here in Second Life.
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.
Taken at the SL17B. Anyone out there interesting contacting Earth would probably ask themselves first would we see them as people, or would we see them as monsters or things? They'd probably have ways of finding out. This guy, whom presumably has medical technology to heal him quickly, went ahead with a direct approach.
Since my last look at Montecito Bay's damaged corner a week and a half ago, work has continued on the cleanups and repairs. The severely damaged buildings have been torn down. Although some of the area remains fenced off, a road and sidewalk now goes through what used to be rubble. While much remains to be done, much progress has been made.
But Montecito Bay being Montecito Bay, it didn't long for me to find some kind of weirdness. I noticed what looked like a severed horse's head in a burning bonfire. Was some mafia don wannabe trying to make an offer the town couldn't refuse? Or perhaps someone got the place confused with Nags head North Carolina? Since I didn't see who put it there, or who lit the fire, no idea, at least for now.
Running into Moff (MoffettMephit Resident), he did tell me there was an update on the "UFO crash site." "The Galleria site is cleaned up," he told me, "and the authorities are about to remove that thing." They still won't let the townsfolk what it is, "officially, we don't know what's going on at that site. But thankfully they seem to be finishing up and, we are hoping we'll have that part of our town back soon." As for their reaction to press coverage, "They did rough up Lem, tho, trying to figure out how the press got in (grin). Cuz, ya know, he's also the Mayor." He then backtracked a bit, "I'm sure it was just a thorough questioning with an order to never discuss what was said."
Stay tuned for more when additional information is available.
Note: The sim wasn't really griefed, or were any authorities for real involved. Just the people behind the sim having a little fun.
Last weekend on Sunday June 25, the Sunbeamer team, the RFL team of the Newser office neighbors the Sunweaver community, held an ambitious event for the Relay. They held a steampunk-themed racing event taking place not just on the ground but in the air. Team Meli's Maniacs also took part, and a number of people came for the races and the music and dance party that took place afterwards. It was a fun event with lots to do and see. It was also the most successful event Team Sunbeamers ever had, getting over 154,000 Linden dollars for them and bringing the team into Platinum Level.
"The Birthday" is just days away now. Performers are being notified, and exhibitors and volunteers are busy with last minute adjustments. Here, I'm using one of the "pods" that automatically move one down the roads, as well as providing riders with a little info on some of the exhibits.
Sunday June 18 is the big day, the gates opening at Noon SL time. For more information on the SL14B, check the blog at: http://www.slcommunitycelebration.info/ .
With just a couple weeks left until the Relay Weekend, the high point of the RFL season, the sims of the track are online. There are a total of 43 sims, including those for the Breedables Fair and some for activities. But the bulk are for various team exhibits. The shape of a "10" is in tribute for the RFL in SL now having it's tenth season.
The Sunbeamers, the team of the Sunweaver Estates where the Newser office makes it's home, will be having it's exhibit in the northwest corner of RFL Dedication. Some work on the place has already began, with plans for a tribute to the now gone Passionate Redheads team as one of the displays, though not the only one. Until it's finished though, any pictures of the place will just be "teasers," not showing much.
The opening ceremony will be at 10AM SL time on Saturday July 19, after which the event goes on for over 24 hours, closing at about Noon SL time on Sunday July 20.
There will be a Relay for Life Road Rally and Fly-in at Farshore Field on Pacific Waters region July 12th from 8AM till 5PM SLT. Three classes will race for the best time. The first class will consist of motorcycles and will be from 8AM to 11AM. The second class will be automobiles racing from 11AM till 2PM, and third is “Whatsits” which constitutes what ever can be driven making chaos 2 PM till 5PM. This should be fun! Race entry is L$500 for the initial 5 laps and only the best time counts. If one wants more tries then L$200 for each additional 5 laps. There will be trophies and cash prize for each class.
In addition to road rally and this being an airport a fly-in will be occurring as well. Aircraft on display and you can fly your own plane around the Sunweaver sims. Get a fun view of racers making chaos from a balloon ride by Skylark Ballooning for a donation to Relay for Life. Music will be provided with dance balls and DJ in the hanger through the day. Other fun games include a dunk tank that instead of balls you fire a German 88mm! Come enjoy the fun and support the relay.
About four months ago I came across a website for Minecraft called Far Lands or Bust, where a man named Kurt began to walk across the length of one Minecraft world. For the record, that's roughly 32 *billion* meters (where one block is a meter). Technically, that would only take about 820 straight hours of nonstop walking, but I learned that Kurt has been doing this since 2011 and has only gone about 700,000 meters from spawn. Because the "Far Lands" (a place where the graphics get screwed up due to variables being overwritten) were removed a few versions ago, he's continuing to use an "outdated" version of Minecraft (Beta 1.7.3 where the current version is Minecraft "official version" 1.7.4 --- quite far apart in developments)
He is doing it for the charity Child's Play as he explains on his website (farlandsorbust.com) and in his youtubing of the episodes (currently at 327 episodes and counting). He's raised over $170,000 for it. I thought to myself "Y'know, that looks really fun. But they're episodes, they're taped, edited, and a far out of date version of Minecraft. No pyramids, no jungle temples, no trading with villagers, no nothing." So I thought I'd try and do the same, only I'd do my episodes live.
Thus was born "Journey On A Pixelated Road."
Come join me (Xymbers Slade) and give me something to talk about whether it is SL related or not as I attempt to waltz across the length of one (up to date) Minecraft world, updating snapshots and release versions as they happen. I'll be livestreaming from 9 PM to midnight my time (6 PM to 9 PM SLT) and continue to do so every monday, wednesday and friday if the idea takes off. I tried to do something similiar a weekend or two ago and got no visitors (when you advertise to 4chan and not even THEY show up to troll, something's not right)
www.twitch.tv/vladvenom --- there's a 20 second delay in the streaming, but I'll pay attention to the chat as best I can.
Becky "Sha" Shamen has been out "on the road again" exploring. This time, she went on horseback to take a look at a place made for a group of motorcycle fans. Members of the group get to travel across twelve picturesque sims with a Southwest American desert theme. And crossing it, Becky came across numerous bikers, biker hangouts, and miles of dry desert. So how did Becky fare during her exploring?
Grease Coakes' latest article is a little on the fast track as he takes his need for speed to Racer Island Raceways. With fifteen racetracks, there's all kinds of high speed challenges. There's also a weekly demolition derby. Grease gives the roads a try, and talks to owner Eddie Mathieson.
