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Linden Lab

If you’re looking for adventure and/or relaxation, the Second Life Destination Guide is your ticket to the best of what Second Life has to offer. This week’s Highlights from the Destination Guide is ripe with the fruits of many creator’s hard work and quest for enjoyment.

Elephants, live bands, clubs and more; all of the newest and best destinations are just a teleport away.

This week’s adventures start in a steaming technicolor jungle chock full of wild animals and safari scene-worthy plants. You may also feel the need to crush some competition or work out some arguments with your friends in a hoverboard war challenge. After braving nature and human’s wild side, treat yourself to a little pixel-pampering with a day at the spa then head to a cool club for some shades of the Blues.

While you don’t need to hit every stop on the way, it would be a shame to miss out on something exciting and new.

Whatever you decide, be sure to share your adventures on the Official Second Life Flickr Page, and as always, show us your new creations.

 

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The Jungle

Let the magic of the Jungle come upon you. Relax, listen to the sounds, see the animals, smell the flowers, ride the zip line and take a relaxing trip down the river. Beware of hidden dangers: quicksand, man-eating flowers and headhunters stalk these verdant paths. Enjoy yourself as the magic of the jungle takes hold.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Hoverboard Wars

Looking for fun competitive gameplay? Like racing coupled with ranged and melee combat? Master frictionless agility and exhilarating momentum as you challenge your friends to a game of Hoverboard Wars!

Visit in Second Life

 

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Central Blues Club

To quote John Lee Hooker, "without women, the blues would not exist. If you talk about broken hearts and old wives tales, then you're talking about the blues." Central Blues Club is a relaxing blues joint in a beautiful location. With great crowds, good music and superb DJ's, there's no better place to let the blues roll.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Coved

Welcome to Coved! Coved is Second Life's best in top 40, house, trap, hip hop, old school, electronic and dance music with only the best DJ's spinning your favorite tunes. Come join them for the most tropical fun you can imagine!

Visit in Second Life

 

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Beau Mermaid Wellness Center

Beau Mermaid is a full service salon, spa, and fitness center. Come for relaxation or treat a special someone to a spa day. They have Zumba classes and regular walk in hours to pamper your avatar!

Visit in Second Life

 

Linden Lab

As we recently blogged, we have a new policy for Skill Gaming in Second Life. In short, skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Second Life, but each game, its creator, its operator, and the region on which it’s operated must be approved by Linden Lab.

Today, we are changing the date that the changes described in our previous blog post go into effect. Instead of starting on August 1, the updated Skill Gaming Policy will go into effect on September 1, 2014. The original blog post and the FAQs will also be updated to reflect this new deadline.

Since our original announcement, we’ve received many applications from Second Life users who want to become approved skill game creators and operators. By moving the date back, we’ll be able to process a larger number of applications and also offer creators more time to make necessary changes to their games.

If you would like to apply to become an approved skill games creator and/or operator, you can do so through Echosign.

Linden Lab

Earlier this year, we blogged about a British documentary company that was seeking stories from couples who had met in online communities, for a series to be called “Happily Ever Avatar.”

The production team has since filmed five couples who first met in Second Life and found happiness together other offline as well. The team notes that “this is a positive look at virtual relationships. We are determined to open people’s minds to the possibilities that virtual worlds offer.”

One story they have yet to capture is a couple that is just about to meet offline for the first time, and so they’re currently seeking a Second Life couple open to having their first offline meeting filmed for the series. Ideally, at least one person involved would be in the UK. The deadline for filming is October, so they’re hoping to find a couple planning to meet in August of September.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, you can find out more by contacting zoe.dobson[at]back2back.tv.

Linden Lab

For a limited time, we’re offering 50 percent off Premium Membership*! There’s no better time to see what’s available to Premium members of Second Life.

As a Premium member, you’ll enjoy rewards like exclusive Resident-created gifts, access to special Premium Sandboxes, as well as Live Chat support. Plus, you’ll get your own inworld home, a L$1000 sign-up bonus, and weekly L$ rewards to spend on whatever you like. You can read more details about Premium benefits here

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Today, a new Premium gift is available! Go Premium today and jump behind the helm of your new interactive pirate airship, the Linden Marauder. Enjoy fast-action, high flying fun-near-the-sun, or menace the airways with your armament of cannons. Premium members can pick up their airships here.

The Linden Marauder is available to Premium members only. You can access the exclusive airfield in Orville to take flight, so don’t delay!


*TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR 50% DISCOUNT

This limited-time discount offer is available only for memberships on the Quarterly billing plan. Discount will be applied to the first quarterly billing cycle only, and all future charges will be at the regular Premium price. To qualify, Second Life members must have an active Basic account or create a new Second Life account. Discount offer begins on Friday the 18th of July at 8:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and expires on Monday the 4th of August 2014 at 08:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).

 

Linden Lab

At Linden Lab, we’ve recently been reviewing the long list of improvements and enhancements we want to bring to Second Life, weighing priorities, and scoping out important projects for the next few months. We wanted to share a few highlights from the list of projects we’ll be working on so that you can know what improvements to expect in the coming months. This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, but here are a few of the initiatives we think will have a big impact on improving all of our Second Life experiences.

Releasing Experience Keys

We recently put out a call for creators to join a limited beta for Experience Keys - new LSL functions and calls that make it possible to bypass the multiple permissions dialogs that you encounter with scripted objects today. Thanks to the applications we received, we now have enough creators to move ahead with the beta, and we’ve begun giving these beta users access the keys. The feedback we get from beta participants will help determine our next steps for making Experience Keys available to everyone, and we may start by expanding the beta group with a second group of creators.

In the meantime, though, everyone can get a sense for what’s possible with Experience Keys by downloading the Project Viewer and checking out The Cornfield game.

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Improving Group Chat Performance

Today, group chat messages can sometimes take a long time to be delivered, and in some cases delivery fails entirely. This is an issue that impacts lots of Second Life users, and it’s something we’re actively working to improve. Anyone should be able to reliably hold a conversation using group chat in Second Life without delivery delays or other problems.

We’re carefully monitoring the effects of the changes we make to improve group chat performance, and so far, the results of efforts like upgrading the servers that host chat have been positive. We anticipate that the work to improve group chat performance will continue for some time as we identify the underlying causes of the issues, experiment with different fixes, and analyze results, and as we move forward, we’ll use this blog to share our progress.

Implementing the Chrome Embedded Framework

We’re working to upgrade the component of the Viewer that’s responsible for rendering web content, including the Viewer splash screen (displayed before login), the content of a number of floaters, and inworld media-on-a-prim. This is important because it will fix a number of bugs (especially related to streaming media) that currently affect many Second Life users, and it will also make available many modern web features that aren’t possible with the Viewer today.

We’re making good progress on this initiative already, and expect to have an experimental Project Viewer ready for testing soon.

More Texture and Mesh Loading Improvements

Building upon the performance enhancements we made with Project Shining, we are continuing to make improvements to how the Viewer retrieves texture and mesh data from our servers.

The next round of improvements will reduce the number of connections the Viewer needs to get this data (making it easier on your router and network), while also using each connection to retrieve more data more quickly (for the technically inclined, this means that among other things we will add support for HTTP pipelining).

These improvements will mean that as you explore Second Life, objects will appear more quickly and reliably, especially for users who have longer latency connections (higher “ping times”), such as those who live outside the US.

We have begun doing small scale testing with a selected group of users, and the early results have been great from a performance point of view. Unfortunately, we’ve also encountered a bug that we need to tackle before we can move on to releasing a project Viewer. We’re eager to move ahead as quickly as we can, and will use this blog to announce that project Viewer as soon as it’s available.

Stay tuned for more!

Again, these certainly aren’t the only things we’re working on as we continue to improve Second Life, but they’re among our priority initiatives in the coming months. As we move forward on these and other improvements, you’ll hear more from us on this blog, so keep an eye out!

 

Linden Lab

When we updated our Terms of Service in August 2013, the revised language of Section 2.3, the “Service Content License,” caused concern among certain Second Life creators. The revision to this section was worded in such a way that these creators expressed concern that we intended to appropriate their original creations and sell or license such creations without their permission. As our historical practice demonstrates and as we have since tried to clarify, this was absolutely not our intent. Creators are the lifeblood of Second Life. It is you who have populated Second Life with a petabyte worth of unique content and experiences, and it is important for our collective and continued success that you remain confident in continuing to create in our world. To be clear: Linden Lab respects the proprietary rights of Second Life’s content creators and prides itself in its success in providing platforms on which users can create original content and profit from their creations.

As part of an update to our Terms of Service today, we have made a modification to further clarify Section 2.3. The updated section still provides Linden Lab with the rights that we need in order to operate and promote Second Life, so you will see that we have retained much of the language as the previous version. However, the updated section now also includes limits that better match our intended meaning, and we hope will assuage some of the concerns we heard about the previous version.

First, the modified version limits our rights with respect to user-created content in Second Life by restricting our use “inworld or otherwise on the Service.” Additionally, it limits our right to “sell, re-sell or sublicense (through multiple levels)” your Second Life creations by requiring some affirmative action on your part in order for us to do so. This language mirrors the corresponding User Content License currently in Section 2.4, which has been part of the Terms of Service for years.  

We know that the legal language of documents such as the Terms of Service can seem daunting, and we expect that some creators may continue to have concerns about particular elements of the updated agreement. Today’s revision to this section of the Terms of Service more closely expresses our intent - that we do not intend to appropriate or sell your content outside of our Service - and our hope is that the limitations clarified in the updated language of this section will support creators’ confidence in our platform.

As with any document like this, it’s important to read the whole Terms of Service before agreeing to it. Section 2.3 isn’t the only thing that’s changed - we’ve also added the updated policy for skill gaming, which we blogged about here - but we wanted to blog about this update to be clear about what’s different in this section, what it means, and why we made the change.

Linden Lab

Experience Keys are a new tool in Second Life that make it so you can opt-in to an entire experience made up of numerous scripted objects, rather than having to grant avatar permissions to every individual element of that experience. In other words, they allow creators to make experiences that are more immersive, because they’re not interrupted by permissions dialogues. Additionally, with Experience Keys, each of the scripts in the experience has access to a common private database that stores information across user sessions and simulator restarts; a powerful new capability for scripters. Here’s a quick video introduction.

Recently, we kicked off the limited beta for Experience Keys. Thanks to the great applications we received, we now have enough participants for this stage of the beta, and are beginning to send out keys to those beta creators now.  

We’re excited to see what creators make with this new tool! In the meantime, though, you can have some fun and get a sense for the ways Experience Keys can improve inworld content by checking out The Cornfield- a new (free) game, thematically inspired by a bit of Second Life history and created by the moles. Watch the trailer below, then grab the Experience Keys Project Viewer and go check it out for yourself - you can find a portal to The Cornfield here

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Linden Lab

UPDATE: the deadline has been moved to September 1, 2014 (previously was August 1)

 Gambling is strictly prohibited in Second Life and operating, or participating in, a game of chance that provides a Linden Dollar payout is a violation of ourTerms of Service. However, games of skill are legally permitted in many jurisdictions, and we’ve seen that many Second Life users are interested in playing such games for Linden Dollars. Therefore we are updating our gaming policy in Second Life.

The details of the revised policy can be found here, and this is a summary of how it will work:

  • Skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Skill Gaming Regions only. This is a new region designation that will apply beginning August 1, 2014 September 1, 2014. Those Second Life residents who wish to convert their regions to Skill Gaming Regions can do so by contacting Linden Lab in accordance with Linden Lab’s Land Policy. Due to the additional administrative and compliance-related costs associated with these regions, the monthly maintenance fees will be greater than those for regular regions in Second Life. We will include Skill Gaming Regions as a new category in our Destination Guide (unless the owner requests its removal). As a resident, you will be able to check the setting of each region to verify that it has been recognized by Linden Lab for the placement, operation, and use of approved Skill Games.

 

  • Only operators approved by Linden Lab will be allowed to run skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts on Skill Gaming Regions. Those wishing to become approved operators can apply now. Due to processing and compliance-related costs associated with maintaining this program, there is a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee (waived through December 31, 2014, upon approval of an application) for those designated as approved operators. We will maintain a public wiki page of operators.

 

  • Creators of skill games that wish to make them available in Second Life may do so only through Skill Gaming Regions and only after the games have been approved by Linden Lab. Creators of skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts can apply to become an approved creator and to have their games approved now. Due to processing and compliance-related costs associated with maintaining this program, there is a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee (waived through December 31, 2014, upon approval of an application) for those designated as approved creators. We will maintain a public wiki page of approved creators and their approved games of skill.

 

  • Access to Skill Gaming Regions will be restricted to Second Life users who are of sufficient age and are located in a jurisdiction that Linden Lab permits for this kind of online gaming activity. If you are in a permitted jurisdiction and you meet the relevant age requirements, you will be able to access these regions just like any in Second Life. If you are not eligible, you will receive an error message.  However, you are responsible for knowing which jurisdictions are prohibited and the requisite ages of participation and not attempting to access a Skill Gaming Region if you do not qualify.  Attempts to circumvent our controls will constitute a violation of our Skill Gaming Policy and Terms of Service.

 

In summary, skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Second Life, but each game, its creator, its operator, and the region on which it is operated must be approved by Linden Lab.

These changes are effective as of August 1, 2014 September 1, 2014, and applications for approved creators and approved operators are now being accepted at Echosign.

If you live in a jurisdiction where gaming is permitted and you plan on playing these games in Skill Gaming Regions in Second Life, you should not need to do anything differently. However, adding payment information on file now is a good way to ensure you’re able to play as soon as Skill Gaming Regions are live.

We understand that this updated policy may raise some questions, and so we’ve created an FAQ page to address what are likely to be the most common ones at this point. We’ll be sure to update that as needed and will keep an eye on the forums and other community discussion channels so that we can help clarify anything that might seem confusing as this update goes into effect.

 

Linden Lab

After the wildness of SL11B, why not take a step back and relax with some summertime fun?

The Fourth of July is the day the United States celebrates its independence, and it doesn’t get much more American than the Independence Day Market. There’s also a wonderfully-groomed manor garden, a soothing tropical beach, two great shopping zones, and even a music festival to enjoy. If you like your summers a little darker and more terrifying, why not visit a forgotten carnival full of zombified clowns?

As always, we're looking to highlight the amazing events and spaces created by second life users,so join the fun and show us something new! Just be sure to show off those summertime adventures on the Official Second Life Flickr Page while you’re at it.

 

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Independence Day Market

Independence Day Market is the place where you'll find everything you may need or like for the 4th of July. From clothes to decorations to BBQ sets, visit Independence Day Market for all your needs.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Rhapsody

Rhapsody is a sim-wide, music-themed shopping event with a custom mesh build, free souvenirs, live music and over 100 stores with new and exclusive music-inspired items. Come visit Rhapsody from June 28th through July 12th to experience this awesome event and celebrate the one thing everyone loves: music!

Visit in Second Life

 

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DeadPool

A traveling circus arrived at the town of Deadpool. When children started vanishing, the townspeople turned their gaze on the circus performers. They were horrified to discover sick and twisted marionettes and other unspeakable acts. It's been said that people still hear the screams emanating from the abandoned carnival.

Visit in Second Life

 

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The Candy Shop

Candy events is organizing a monthly event called the Candy Shop. The main theme for this event is all things cute, candy, pastel, kawaii and more. Every designer will make one super cute exclusive item for this event, with new rounds starting the 1st through the 25th of every month.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Angel Manor Gardens

Angel Manor Gardens is the public garden and part of Angel Manor Estate. It is a beautiful place for all come to and relax. Enjoy time with friends and loved ones or the amazing power of nature to calm the soul.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Junk

Junk brings you an eclectic mix of 100% original mesh furniture and decor. There is something for everyone at Junk, with creations spanning a wide range of styles, from industrial to shabby chic.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Rasta Sand

Surf, chill, eat some ice cream at Rasta Sand. Take a C-3 surf board on Tahiti waves, explore the coast, jungle or tiki house. There's even a dance spot, ride-able butterflies and more.

Visit in Second Life

 

Linden Lab

Back in April, we blogged to announce that Flickr and Twitter support had been added to SLShare - the feature that allows you to share posts and images from Second Life to other social networks, right from the Viewer. Previously, this update to SLShare was only available in a Project Viewer, but as of yesterday, it’s now available to everyone as part of the main Second Life Viewer.

Check out

for a reminder of what this feature will allow you to do, and give it a try today - maybe share some pics from your favorite SL11B celebrations

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If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even create your own photo filters; visit the wiki page on this for more information.

Once you’re comfortable with the new features - get creative! We can’t wait to see what you share.



Linden Lab

Starting today, you’re invited to take part in the Second Life: Celebrating Your Second Life Snapshot Contest, in honor of 11th Birthday of Second Life.

Participation is easy - submit your celebratory snapshots from inworld to the contest page on our Official Second Life Facebook Page. Click the contest tab, review the contest information and rules and start sharing. This year you will be able to submit up to one snapshot a day for the duration of the contest. Full rules, submission and voting dates, and details are all on the Facebook page.

Looking for some inspiration for pics? Then drop by Hairy Hippo Fun Land to grab your Limited Edition SL11B Robot Avatar. You can also get your free avatar off the Marketplace.

Browse the SL11B category on the destination guide to see what the community has planned to mark the event inworld.

Don’t forget that the Resident-driven Second Life 11th Birthday Community Celebration starts this coming Sunday the 22nd. Visit their website for the latest information.

You only turn 11 once, and we can’t wait to see what kind of celebrations and fun you create and share!

 

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Linden Lab

Last February we announced the limited release of the new Sunshine Viewer, which made some updates to Project Sunshine.

Now gridwide, the Sunshine V2 Viewer offers even more stability and other performance improvements. The work includes better retry logic, removes old client-side baking framework, and an assortment of appearance related bug fixes.

Another big feature that debuts with this update is the viewer support for AISV3. The bulk of the work was inventory-related, which not only sped up inventory operations but also greatly reduced the failure rate when performing outfit changes!

So if you happen to notice quicker avatar renderings, faster scene loading, seamless region crossing, or just better overall router stability, these are all objectives of Project Shining.

It will require a Viewer update, so do it now and enjoy the Sunshine!

 

 

Linden Lab

Yesterday, The Drax Files: World Makers, Episode 2 won the Best Machinima award at the New Media Film Festival - a festival that explores storytelling through new media technologies - congratulations to Draxtor Despres!

This episode predates Linden Lab's sponsorship of the series, but the compelling story it tells, the awesome Second Life creativity it highlights, and the high production quality are all great examples of why we're proud to support the series.

We asked Drax about his win and this is what he had to say:

To have our little mini documentary played on the big screen & observe the audience reaction is extremely gratifying.

For me there is no greater reward than seeing preconceived notions and misperceptions about Second Life fall by the wayside and being replaced by understanding of what virtual worlds can be.

It becomes clear  that for these folks this is the first time the possibilities of  virtual reality for education and historical study are being presented in this way .

I am also very grateful for Jo and all the others who are portrayed in these videos because when they come forward and put up the courage to let a camera capture their "real" life they become spokespeople for all of us and hopefully inspire others to "come out" and tell their story!

 Watch the award-winning episode

:

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Catch up on the whole series

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Linden Lab

As a follow-up to a recent article about virtual cities, The Guardian has kicked off a call for readers to submit their own favorite virtual places. In their words:

We want to hear about your best-loved virtual places – from a beautiful view in GTA V to that 20-million-strong SimCity megalopolis you've been building (or possibly destroying). What would be the best video game cities to live in? The worst? Perhaps you've designed one you think would be better than your own city? Share your screengrabs and we'll feature the best on Guardian Cities.

This is a great chance to share some amazing Second Life locations with The Guardian’s readers. Whether it’s a place you created personally, discovered (maybe through the Destination Guide?) and love, or just a spot you always find yourself returning to, the Second Life locations that ‘wow’ you are great ones to share to help show off Second Life to the uninitiated.

You can submit your favorite Second Life location to The Guardian at this link. Be sure to let us know about them in this forum thread and submit them to the Destination Guide if they’re not already there. We’d love to check them out and share them with the rest of the community.

Thanks to Jo Yardley, whose 1920’s Berlin Project already appears a few times in The Guardian’s favorites list, for spotting this opportunity!

 

Linden Lab

As we recently mentioned, this month marks the 11th anniversary of Second Life first opening its virtual doors, and in honor of this occasion, there are some fun things lined up to help us all celebrate Second Life’s 11th Birthday (SL11B).

First off, we’ve created a brand new limited-edition SL11B avatar that everyone can now get for free!

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This robot is sleek and ready to explore the landscapes of Second Life. Made with Fitted Mesh, you can put your own stamp on this android by playing with some of the shape sliders. Just make sure you’re upgraded to a Viewer with Fitted Mesh enabled. There are two ways to get your robot - pick it up inworld at Hairy Hippo Fun Land in Bay City or just visit the Marketplace.

Year after year, our community has shown off the very best of what Second Life can do and mean, and that tradition continues with the Second Life 11th Birthday Community Celebration (or SL11BCC) which kicks off on Sunday June 22nd. This community-driven celebration will host exhibits, music, and much more. Find out more about what’s planned and how you can get involved on their website.

If you’re looking for more ways to celebrate or planning events of your own, the new Second Life 11th Birthday Category in the Destination Guide has got you covered. Check there often to find SL11B parties to join all over Second Life, and if you’re planning an event for the occasion, be sure to submit it using the form (use the ‘Misc’ category) or via editor@lindenlab.com. Use “SL11B” in the subject line on the form or email.

We hope you enjoy your new SL11B avatar and we look forward to seeing you at the inworld celebrations. Be sure to  show off your SL11B adventures by sharing snapshots to the Second Life Official Flickr Group Page.



 

 

Linden Lab

In May, we launched some new mesh default avatars to give new users some up-to-date, better-looking options that incorporated some of the new technological advances to Second Life. Following community feedback about these new avatars, we’ve made some adjustments, and today we’re re-deploying them with a few updates.

Most significantly, users will now have the ability to edit the avatar shape for the human form avatars. Because these avatars are mesh, not all sliders will affect the shape, but many of them will. Play around and personalize the body, torso, and legs using the sliders now supported with the updated, modifiable shape. Some of the head and eyes sliders will also now work to adjust the avatars’ faces.

Additionally, Sara (the blonde female avatar) got a fuller hairdo with more body and volume, and we’ve fixed the hover position for several of the avatars which helps prevent sinking into the ground.

Updating to the new release of avatars is easy. New users that are just coming into Second Life for the first time will automatically receive the new avatars via registration. Existing users will simply need to re-wear the avatar from the library (Inventory>Library>Clothing>Initial Outfits) or by accessing the avatars via the Me Menu (Me>Choose an Avatar).

Give the new avatars a try - we hope you enjoy the updates!

Linden Lab

Explore where art imitates Second Life in the latest episode of the Drax Files: World Makers.

This episode features the works of an Italian illustrator - Flokers - who has synesthesia and whose Second Life avatar art has turned her passion into a full-time job. Her viewpoint is that an avatar represents a person’s inner persona, and her paintings reflect that. “It doesn’t matter to know who they are in real life,” she says, “ because I know them in Second Life … and that’s what they are to me in that moment.”

Watch this

 for a glimpse at her artwork, what the synesthesia experience is like for her,  and some of her Second Life philosophy. “ … it gave me the chance to become the artist I always wanted to be.”

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Want to see more personal Second Life stories? Find all the previous episodes at Draxtor’s Website or below.

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 1: Kriss Lehmann

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 2: Jo Yardley

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 3: Eshi Otawara

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 4: Fantasy Faire / RFL

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 5: Engrama

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 7: Rod Humble

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 8: MadPea Games

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 9: Elie Spot

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 10: Robin Sojourner

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode11: Dwarfins

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 12: Ole Etzel

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 13: Creations for Parkinson's

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 14: Rose Borchovski

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 15: Scottius Polke

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 16: Feed a Smile

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 17: Zachh Barkley

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 18: Paradise Lost

The Drax Files: World Makers - Episode 19: Virtual Chemistry at Texas A&M

Linden Lab

We at Linden Lab love

 video series. Draxtor Despres consistently does a fantastic job presenting the stories of some of the many talented people who are creating incredible things in Second Life.

From artists to educators, game makers, fashion designers, community builders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, musicians, magicians, and more - there is no shortage of fascinating people making and doing wonderful things in Second Life, and The Drax Files presents their stories in a way that shows not only the creative power of the platform, but also the unique personalities that make up the global community of Second Life users. As compelling as the series is for those of us already familiar with Second Life and stories like these, it’s also extremely powerful in communicating the magic of Second Life to those who haven’t yet experienced it firsthand.

The Drax Files has been a labor of love for Draxtor from the start, but there are real production costs associated with creating something of this quality. We want to ensure that the series continues, so today we’re very happy to announce that Linden Lab is now sponsoring The Drax Files: World Makers!

This sponsorship has no impact on Draxtor’s editorial independence; we’re not taking control or trying to dictate what stories are told or how they’re presented in the series, nor does our agreement have any impact on his other work (his podcast, for example). What our sponsorship does mean is that Draxtor will be able to continue to produce new episodes of The Drax Files: World Makers series each month, which we can all enjoy and which Linden Lab can use in support of our Second Life marketing efforts.

Also starting today, a newly refreshed SecondLife.com homepage will feature a brand new trailer from the series as an introduction to just some of the people that make Second Life and its community so interesting. Check it out below, and be sure to share it!


Linden Lab

The best summer is eternal in Second Life - so even if it’s raining or snowing where you are - the water and weather is perfect in Second Life! Not only does this June mark the 11th birthday of Second Life, it’s also a great time to explore some virtual places with the ease of teleporting and the best travel rates you can find.

There’s plenty of great spots to investigate in the Second Life Destination Guide, but here’s a few to get you started.

Does a lone radio tower packed with mystery pique your interest? Dip beneath the waves for an exciting underwater hunt or traverse a dense jungle for the perfect photograph. Visit a recreation of the historic Titanic or Zen Buddhist temple, and maybe take in some live music at a towering amphitheater.  Sounds like you’ve got a lot of fantastic plans this weekend! Your travel itinerary is below. Don’t forget to send us your snapshots.

 

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No Signal

The new installation by Nessuno Myoo entitled No Signal is a very special work, with a small mystery to unravel. Find the clues and venture into the solution of an enigma, revealed as a singular interpretive key. The exhibition will remain open through June 14th.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Titanawak

Titanawak is a huge boat frozen in time and ice. Come and have a drink at the bar with friends, a talk by the fireside, have a dinner, dance, play the piano for your lover, relax in the lounges, games room, library, bedroom or pool. Learn the exhibited artwork, the museum dedicated to the Titanic memorabilia. Explore the sea ice, icebergs and their secret places.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Formanails Underwater Hunt 2014

The Formanails Underwater Hunt 2014 runs from June 1st through July 15th. This hunt takes you on an underwater journey to find the hidden objects. To hunt, you'll need a free HUD from the starting point. For more information, be sure to visit http://bit.ly/SMWdXu.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Goodnight Photography

Goodnight Photography is an island sim that explodes with color from the moment you arrive. The island features many wonderfully photogenic locations for your picture-taking delight.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Kinkaku-ji Garden

Golden Pavilion is the popular name for one of the main buildings of a Buddhist Japanese temple in Kyoto, Japan. The name Golden Pavilion comes from the Japanese term Kinkakuji, which literally means the temple of the Golden Pavilion. Come experience the serenity.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Mystery at Crescent

This is the Second Life home of the Invisible Band, sometimes known as the Interplanetary Liberation Front or the Deep Space Jug Band. Come hear music streamed 24/7 as well as regular live music shows.

Visit in Second Life

Discover something else amazing on your adventures? Share it with us here.

Linden Lab

Back in March, we blogged about a British documentary company that was looking for couples who first met in online communities, like Second Life, for a TV piece with a working title of “Happily Ever Avatar.”

The production company says that in response to our first blog post, they found some great stories to tell, but they’re still interested in a few more from Second Life users. Here’s their updated casting call with more information on the angle they’re pursuing and what they’re looking for:

British documentary company Back2back are currently making a documentary for Sky Living about relationships that start in online communities such as Second Life, with a working title of “Happily Ever Avatar”. The programme is a completely positive documentation of these relationships, where we look at relationships that have blossomed through online gaming, with players falling in love through their avatars and going on to have meaningful, committed relationships in the real world. It will look at unconventional relationships in a counterintuitive way, overturning many of our prejudices and misconceptions with honest storytelling. It will challenge us to realise that committed, successful relationships can embrace the unusual.

It’s set to be a heart-warming series celebrating dating and relationships in the 21
st
Century. The theme is very much about 'love conquering all', and showing the incredible lengths couples that meet online go to in order to become a real life couple. I am currently seeking couples of all sexualities and backgrounds to take part in the programme. These can be new or established relationships – even those where the partners haven’t met. The only prerequisite is that one person in the relationship must be based in the UK.

If you’d be interested in taking part, or would like to find out more, email
toni.tyldesley [at] back2back.tv
. All emails will be treated with the strictest confidence.

 

Linden Lab

10.13.2014: UPDATE: Oculus Rift DK2 Project Viewer Now Available.

At Linden Lab, we’ve been very happy to see all the recent activity and interest in the virtual reality space - it's a sign of progress and innovation in the industry and helps validate the space Second Life has led for more than 10 years. Developments like the Oculus Rift hold great potential for Second Life, and we're very excited to bring the virtual world into the future with new technologies and partners.

 A few weeks ago, we began a limited beta test of a version of the Second Life Viewer that makes it easy to use an Oculus Rift headset with Second Life for a fully immersive, VR experience. From the outset, we’ve seen strong interest in the integration, not only from existing Second Life users seeking a new way to experience the virtual world, but also from virtual reality enthusiasts eager to explore the enormous quantity and variety of user-created 3D content and social experiences inworld.

 The early beta testers of our integration have provided some valuable feedback, identifying bugs as well as providing suggestions for additional features and options that would improve the experience of using the Oculus Rift with Second Life. Today we’re pleased to announce that our Oculus Rift integration is now available as a Project Viewer, the first step toward becoming a part of the default Second Life Viewer.

 The Project Viewer features:

  • Full Oculus Rift Hardware Support - includes automatic hardware detection and display calibration for quick and easy setup.

  • Full UI Support - users can access the entire Second Life UI and HUDs while in Oculus Rift mode, so there are no limitations on what a user can do inworld while using the headset.

  • Customizable UI - users can tailor the settings for Oculus Rift mode that work best for their needs.

  • Avatar Head Motion - Oculus Rift head-tracking data is mapped to the avatar, so users’ avatars look where they do.

  • New First-Person View - allows users to enjoy the immersion previously available with mouselook mode, but thanks to the Oculus Rift, the mouse is free again to control the cursor, allowing for interaction with the UI and objects inworld.

  • “Align to Look” -  allows users to quickly start moving the direction they are looking.

  • “Action Key” - interact with objects by pressing a key, works great in mouselook mode.

Like our initial beta release, this Project Viewer is more about making it easy to get started using the Oculus Rift to view Second Life than it is about optimizing the UI for headset users. We’ve made some minor adjustments to the regular Second Life UI in order to present it in head-mounted display (HMD) mode, but the UI headset users will experience with this project Viewer is still essentially the same as you’d see without an Oculus Rift.

If you have an Oculus Rift headset and would like to use it with Second Life, get the Project  Viewer here. Getting started is easy - the Viewer includes automatic hardware detection and display calibration, and we’ve created this brief

to help:

You can use the Oculus Rift for an immersive 3D experience anywhere and everywhere in Second Life, and we’re also creating a new category in our Destination Guide to make it easy to find places that are particularly compelling with the Oculus Rift.

It’s still early days for the Oculus Rift (the hardware isn’t yet available to consumers), and we have more planned for our integration with the Second Life Viewer as well. We’ll keep you posted as development progresses, and we look forward to hearing more about your experiences using the Oculus Rift with Second Life!

 

Linden Lab

Happy Birthday to …. Second Life!

While it’s only the middle of May, June is fastly approaching and the time is now to start planning your Second Life Birthday celebrations! As in past years, we’ll wrangle the best of the best in Second Life Birthday events and corral them into a special SL11B category on our Destination Guide during the month of June.

If you are planning an event that commemorates the occasion - submit your event or party information to the Second Life Destination Guide Submission Form (use the misc category) or via editor@lindenlab.com, using “SL11B” in subject line on the form or email.

There’s also the Second Life 11th Birthday Community Celebration - a resident-driven event that promises tons of amazing fun and excitement for everyone. If you’re interested in being part of SL11BCC and applying as an exhibitor, performer, or volunteer, be sure to submit before the deadline - Tuesday, May 20th at noon Pacific.

As the birthday approaches, watch this space for more information - we have a surprise or two planned as well!

Are you ready to party?

Linden Lab

Today, we’re updating Second Life’s default avatar options with 24 brand new mesh avatars. You may have spotted a sneak peek at a few of these as Lindens tried them out recently, and starting today, you can start using them yourself!

These avatars are designed to give new users a more appealing set of choices as they start their time in Second Life. Based on the most popular avatars picked at registration, these new options are much better-looking and take advantage of technology incorporated into Second Life over the past year (like fitted mesh and materials) for a more modern feel.

If you want to check out the new default avatars, just open up the Avatar Selector in the Viewer. Under the People tab, you’ll see a great variety of male and female mesh avatars to pick from. Under the Vampire tab, you’ll see those infamous creatures of the night along with some other monsters like zombies, werewolves, and winged beasts. (Tip: Make sure you’re running the latest Second Life Official Viewer for the optimal experience with these avatars.)

Under the classic tab of the Avatar Selector, you will find many of the most popular classic default avatars. Although not all of the old options will be available in the Avatar Selector, you can still access them all in your inventory library under Library/Clothing/Older Outfits - so if you were partial to one of them, don’t worry.

Login to your Second Life account and meet the new mesh avatars, today!

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Note: These are just a few of the new avatars you'll find in the Avatar Selector. Login to see them all.

Linden Lab

Now that April’s showers made way for May’s flowers, come see what new and exciting places and events sprouted in the Destination Guide. Much like last time, we’ve scoured submissions to bring you dark urban roleplay, steampunk art galleries and walks, futuristic sci-fi, and a whole lot more. So what are you waiting for, come visit!

Don’t forget to share your creations. We love seeing what you come up with next!

 

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Hollow Woods

Hollow Woods is a modern supernatural-horror experience that caters towards creative, paragraph-style roleplay. The game is based within the small island town of Hollow Woods, where unexplained events and a shady government-funded corporation are at the forefront of all those bumps in the night. Explore Hollow Woods and the rest of the island as it unfolds with real time events.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Extension Centennial Celebration

Cooperative Extension represents universities in all 50 states improving lives by bringing applied research to help farms, homes, and communities. Cooperative Extension observes its 100th birthday this month with celebrations around the USA and also in Second Life, where it began creating virtual learning environments in 2007. Come and wish Extension a happy birthday!

Visit in Second Life

 

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The Steampunk Gallery Opening Party

Come see the Steampunk exhibit in the Skywalk Gallery opening party in the Station. The Station is a highly detailed, fun-filled sim featuring ten well-known bloggers and artists. DJ Kate will spin the tunes while everyone dances and strolls the gallery halls enjoying steampunk sites, sounds, and activities.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Botany Bay

Botany Bay is a unique multi-genere Sci-Fi roleplaying sim. With a unique, inclusive backstory and lore, this sim is friendly to many different types of Sci-Fi roleplayers. With no meter requirement and flexible play styles, the staff work to make everyone feel welcome, new or seasoned. Rental and space available.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Raglan Shire Art Walk 2014

The Raglan Shire's 2014 ArtWalk opens Sunday May 4th, and displays the works of over 100 artists on four enormous outdoor sims. Artists grid-wide converge to exhibit their photography, art and sculpture in this annual arts festival, hosted by the Raglan Shire through May 25th.

Visit in Second Life

 

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Punto de Encuentro

Punto de Encuentro es un lugar de reunion, para hablar, jugar a juegos de mesa, escuchar musica y todo lo que se nos ocurra, !bienvenido a nuestra familia!.

Visit in Second Life

 

Linden Lab

Today we’re promoting a much-anticipated Viewer update called Project Interesting. Previously, available only in limited release, Project Interesting is now available gridwide as part of the default Second Life Viewer!

This update reduces the load and time it takes to draw objects in regions, meaning scenes appear more quickly and smoothly as you move throughout Second Life. To learn more, check out the

below:

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A Viewer update that includes Project Interesting is now available. To start taking advantage of these performance improvements today, just download the latest Second Life Viewer (or allow your Viewer to update).

Project Interesting is one part of the ongoing and much larger Project Shining initiative, which brings a number of performance improvements to the Second Life experience. Today’s promotion of Project Interesting to the default Viewer means that two of the three bundled initiatives under Project Shining are now complete. The third and final project in this initiative (Sunshine) is in the home stretch, and we hope to promote it to the default Viewer soon - keep an eye on this blog for updates

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