Second Life?
What is it?
Second Life is a virtual reality world founded by and is run by San Francisco-based Linden Research, Inc., since 2003. It is an open-ended, immersive virtual world where people can socialize, engage in cultural activities, and even own and operate a business. Preslar Art Initiatives, both in the interest of expanding its gallery audience and to maintain its operation during the COVID-19 global emergency, has created an immersive art walk experience in Second Life for your enjoyment.
How can I visit?
To visit the gallery in Second Life, you need the following:
How can I get to the gallery?
First, look for a "Map" button on the bottom of the viewer. Depending on which viewer you're using, it may say "Map" or show an icon. Open the map. In the search box, enter "Grote" in the region box. Then in the "X Y Z" boxes, enter "53" "38" "55" respectively. When done, click on the "Teleport" button. You will be taken there in a few seconds.
Alternatively, go to this page in your web browser, then on the map, click on the orange "Visit this location" button. It should automatically open a Second Life viewer on your computer, then take you there immediately after log-in.
To move around, use the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Common problems
Second Life is a virtual reality world founded by and is run by San Francisco-based Linden Research, Inc., since 2003. It is an open-ended, immersive virtual world where people can socialize, engage in cultural activities, and even own and operate a business. Preslar Art Initiatives, both in the interest of expanding its gallery audience and to maintain its operation during the COVID-19 global emergency, has created an immersive art walk experience in Second Life for your enjoyment.
How can I visit?
To visit the gallery in Second Life, you need the following:
- An active Second Life account (free)
- A desktop or laptop computer capable of running a Second Life or compatible viewer:
- Debian-based Linux system (such as Ubuntu), Microsoft Windows, or MacOS.
- Some low-end laptops and netbooks (including Google Chromebook) may not have enough computing power for this.
- Some older desktop computers, especially with a 32-bit CPU and/or an old GPU, are not supported.
- While there is a purported Second Life viewer for Android, its functionality is limited mostly to text-based chat. It is not recommended.
- You do not have to have a "gamer" computer.
- You do not have to have any special hardware such as a 3D goggle.
- High-speed/broadband Internet connection
- A Second Life-compatible metaverse viewer (recommended: Phoenix Firestorm viewer)
How can I get to the gallery?
First, look for a "Map" button on the bottom of the viewer. Depending on which viewer you're using, it may say "Map" or show an icon. Open the map. In the search box, enter "Grote" in the region box. Then in the "X Y Z" boxes, enter "53" "38" "55" respectively. When done, click on the "Teleport" button. You will be taken there in a few seconds.
Alternatively, go to this page in your web browser, then on the map, click on the orange "Visit this location" button. It should automatically open a Second Life viewer on your computer, then take you there immediately after log-in.
To move around, use the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Common problems
- Everything looks grey, or is blurry!
- Depending on your computer's processing power, and/or Internet speed, this may happen. In Second Life viewer, "prims" (such as the shapes of buildings and trees, which are actually a combination of several "primitive" shapes) load first, then "textures" (such as colors, patterns and designs on the surface of shapes). To save your computer's memory, the viewer may selectively blur or focus on specific items as you navigate. Hang out for a minute or two (do not move around when you do) and let the textures load. If any artwork seems blurry, simply mouse over the item you'd like to see, and usually details will appear in a few seconds.
- How can I see the artwork more closely?
- When you mouse over an artwork, you will see a "magnifying glass" icon and a floating black box. The black box should show the title of the artwork. Use your mousewheel (or the scroll function of your trackpad) to zoom in or out when you see the magnifying glass.
- There are eight pieces I see on the Web but there are only...?
- To reduce the lag on your viewer (see above for why this happens), I have divided this exhibit into two locations. Please visit both locations!
- It's been one minute and still everything is grey!
- I was just abruptly kicked out of Second Life!
- When a "simulator" (which is expressed as a region of land consisting of 512 m by 512 m) receives too many people simultaneously, it creates a lag on the server due to a spike in server load. This may lead to slowdown in everything, or in worst cases, simulator reboot or shutdown (when this happens, you will be logged out of Second Life). Unfortunately, Grote is prone to occasional lags because of the relatively high number of buildings and objects, being an urban region.
Open Simulators (Opensim): Experienced users only
Open Simulator (OpenSim) is an open-source, community-based (and mostly volunteer-run) alternative to Second Life. Unlike Second Life, which owns and operates the entirety of its "grid," OpenSim is decentralized and federated, consisting of multiple "grids" and each of which consisting of independent sims (a sim is a server that hosts a region of this virtual world). If you are a registered member of one grid, you can also travel to other grids that are connected to OpenSim.
While the viewer operations are nearly identical to those of Second Life (and most open-source metaverse viewers support both Second Life and OpenSim grids), you should keep in mind one important thing:
To visit the gallery, open the Map by clicking on the "Map" button at the bottom of the viewer, and in the region box, type in tanglegrid.net:8002:Shores Oasis. You do not have to worry about the XYZ coordinate because you can only land on the center of Shores Oasis (due to the sim set-up). Once you're there, look for a big stone mansion on the Lot 7. The art exhibit is in the front yard.
You may encounter more frequent downtime in OpenSim mostly due to the fact that each grid and sim are independently owned and operated, and many of them rely on a small team of volunteers. However, you will typically find that most OpenSim grids experience little to no lag.
If you are new to all this, however, I would recommend visiting the Second Life location.
While the viewer operations are nearly identical to those of Second Life (and most open-source metaverse viewers support both Second Life and OpenSim grids), you should keep in mind one important thing:
To visit the gallery, open the Map by clicking on the "Map" button at the bottom of the viewer, and in the region box, type in tanglegrid.net:8002:Shores Oasis. You do not have to worry about the XYZ coordinate because you can only land on the center of Shores Oasis (due to the sim set-up). Once you're there, look for a big stone mansion on the Lot 7. The art exhibit is in the front yard.
You may encounter more frequent downtime in OpenSim mostly due to the fact that each grid and sim are independently owned and operated, and many of them rely on a small team of volunteers. However, you will typically find that most OpenSim grids experience little to no lag.
If you are new to all this, however, I would recommend visiting the Second Life location.
