New World Notes

No, ChatGPT Can't "Write" Code. It Even Makes Up Code That Doesn't Exist.

Fun comment from reader Ravelli Ormstein, spinning off from my post about how full of fail ChatGPT is when you ask it a question you're an expert on:

First, I asked ChatGPT to write a LSL script that would turn on a light when the sun went down. It wrote a nice script, but it didn't work because the AI was using an LSL function that didn't exist. So I complained about it. The AI apologized and fixed the script by using another non-existent function.

This went on until I specifically asked for a script that only used existing functions. The script was usable and in the style we usually write them, with a 300 second timer. The AI kept apologizing for making mistakes until I asked it never to apologize again.

This is an important point, because I've seen some people claim that ChatGPT can write Second Life apps in Linden Script Language (or for that matter, any coding language). No.

Very roughly analogized, ChatGPT is like a natural language version of Google search. So if you ask ChatGPT to write a working script that happens to already exist in its massive database, you may sometimes get lucky with an actual useful response. Otherwise, you'll only get an answer that's most probabilistically coded to appear like a useful response -- in other words, the AI version of Making Shit Up. 

Anyway, more fun from Ravelli with ChatGPT, with a plot twist:

Powerful Scripting Update Coming Soon to Second Life - Here's How It'll Improve Interactive Experiences

(1/24) There's a super great upgrade coming to @SecondLife scripting, that I don't think is getting great attention it should. Before I go on forever about why this is great and will fundamentally change #SL please consider a retweet and maybe a like - to help spread the word. :)

— NeoBokrug (@NeoBokrug) October 19, 2022

Longtime Second Life community scripter NeoBokrug (who keeps the legendary roleplay Wasteland regions running), has a meaty and important tweet storm (above) and blog post here highlighting LinksetData, a much-needed update to Linden Script Language. You should definitely share it with the LSL scripter in your life, but if you're not a scripter, the short version is: It'll make interactive experiences in Second Life much more powerful and persistent.

For instance, consider the Really Needy HUD (a former NWN partner), which turns Second Life into a first-person Sims-type roleplay game: 

Watch the Latest Feature for SL Roleplay: Dueling Pistols That Can Spin!

Lads and ladies, we're here with our first roleplay revolvers: The Duelist's Pride! Designed to be used idly, in roleplay, and wearing for fashion.

DETAILS HERE: https://t.co/svfWmKUsiI

Now available in BASSETT TOWN - https://t.co/oVEdA24qBR pic.twitter.com/g2fPNyCYzL

— Walton Wainwright (@SLContraption) April 29, 2022

Just in time for the Fantasy Faire and the steampunk-themed SL19B anniversary, Walton Wainwright's dueling pistols come with a seriously cool feature I haven't seen in Second Life up until now: Revolvers that can spin in-game:

If you're wearing the gun as an accessory, we've included multiple gun spinning options, a stylish toss, occasional reloads and other idles that play randomly, which can also be toggled off in our menu if you're looking to not twirl your gun or reload all the time.

Watch the trailer above for the supremely cool effect. This is made possible, Mr. Wainwright explains, by SL's recent avatar skeleton upgrade: 

"Creepy Mark" Bot Becomes Top Seller in Original Metaverse of Second Life

After so many stories about Meta in the Metaverse, the inevitable finally occurred: Meet "Creepy Mark", a chatty bot with a suspiciously familiar appearance which you can buy to silently stalk you in the OG metaverse of Second Life.

I just got my own personal Creepy Mark, and now he won't leave my side, following my every move while promising not to abuse my personal data and so on.  (Watch above. He does seem to get confused with climbing hills!)

The smartass brainchild of Moon Bunny Inc & Subculture X, Creepy Mark was the brand's #1 top seller in animated objects in the first days it went on sale, and became a mini-viral hit, ironically enough, on Facebook.

"My business partner created him," Moon explains. "I have been known to complain about Facebook censorship and such, so am guessing that had a hand in inspiring it!"

I'll be impressed with Meta's Horizon Worlds when it has a Creepy Mark bot of its own. (And all the technical and community prerequisites needed to make that possible). But until then, he's available to creep on you in the metaverse before the metaverse was cool.

As for how Creepy Mark works, here's a brief summary from Scribzy, who scripted it:

Get Wet When it Rains in Second Life! New Weather System Update Works With Items from Izzie’s, Salt & Pepper, Mina Hair -- and Blueberry!

Here's a fun new update to the Really Useful Mega Weather Maker from The Really Useful Scripts Corner launching this weekend from The Really Useful Scripts Corner (a proud NWN sponsor) -- a mesh-based rain system that drenches your avatar in real time! Even cooler, it’s compatible with select items from top SL brands Izzie’s, Salt & Pepper, Mina Hair, and Blueberry. 

Available only from the in-world store starting early Saturday SLT: Click here to teleport.

This announcement comes with a statement from Blueberry's legendary owner herself:

"At Blueberry we are always seeking opportunities to make our platform more immersive. We are thrilled to support this initiative to connect our apparel to the weather. Clothing that becomes wet when it rains? That’s brilliant. As simple as it sounds, it’s these details that truly form a wholesome metaverse experience right at home in our Second Life."

Watch the video above and check out the images below to see this effect in action. Unlike other systems, the Really Useful Mega Weather Maker has options for mesh not particle-based emitters, and is optimized to reduce lag

Here’s all the details straight from Really Useful Scripts Corner’s Grace Ling:

Open Forum: Is There a Recent SL Project as Ambitious as VRChat's Udon Tycoon That I Should Be Covering?

Writing about Udon Tycoon in VRChat last week, it occurred to me that I haven't covered a Second Life-based project of similar ambition and scope in a long time. (Beautiful sims, to be sure, we got that covered, along with light roleplay game experiences in SL.) But Udon Tycoon has user-created, physics-enabled, save-able coaster building that's rideable and instantiated in the same world at the same. Is there a recent SL project (say within the last 3 years) with roughly comparable inventiveness? 

This is not a concern troll post, I'm genuinely curious -- it's quite possible (as has happened many time before) that there's some amazing project quietly being built deep in the heart of Second Life that the creators don't bother to promote, since they're not concerned about publicity per se, and enjoy the creation as an act in itself. Which is great for them, but the world should know too. (Well, I sure would.)

Mic is open below -- let me know! Please include links and contact info wherever possible.

Really Useful Aquarium Features Mesh Fish That Feed, Low Land Impact, Multiple Customization & Sizing Options (NWN Partner News)

The Really Useful Aquarium is a cool product from New World Notes media partner Really Useful Scripts Corner -- lead developer Grace7 Ling gracefully demonstrates its many features in the video above. Available in her Really Useful Scripts Corner on the Marketplace and at her SL store (click here to teleport), Grace’s fish tank is fairly unique among other virtual world aquariums:

“Many of the older aquariums are using flat textures of fish that cycle around in a fixed way,” Grace notes. “The Really Useful Aquarium has mesh fish which swim randomly around the tank. The swim speed and turning speed of each fish can actually be customized if you know how. Secondly, if you are not using the display shelf, the tank is actually quite versatile and can be resized to rather surprising dimensions, and the fish will adjust automatically to the new dimensions of the tank.” (Watch below.)

On top of that, aquarium owners or their guests can feed the fish:

Watch: Scripting in Second Life with C#, a Feature Once on Linden Lab's Roadmap But Apparently Forgotten

My post on UdonSharp, the user-made C# compiler for VRChat, inspired me to reach out to Jim "Babbage" Purbrick. Because when he worked for Linden Lab, he was aiming to make it possible to script in Second Life with C#. Sad to say that didn't come to pass, and he left the Lindens in 2010. As he wrote on his blog then:

Alas, tomorrow is my last day at Linden Lab and Babbage Linden will never get to see C# scripts running in the wild in Second Life, but I very much hope that I do. I hope that C# support is eventually added to Second Life and that I don’t have to wait 170 years to turn the handle. As another Babbage said when he failed to build the Difference Engine: “Another age must be the judge”.

Watch Jim's demo above to see how cool that could have been, with more background on his blog.

"Supporting C# and other modern languages was always the end goal with the work on Mono and we implemented the Mono scripting engine to be language-independent," he tells me now. "Although in production we only ran LSL scripts compiled to CIL we had development builds which would run C# compiled to CIL with normal C# compilers and then processed to inject microthreading support with the same tools that processed the assemblies produced by the Linden Script Language compiler in production."

Bringing C# to Second Life, as he explains, would be an enormous modernizing leap for the platform:

TONIGHT: Inventor Prototypes Battlebot in Second Life -- Then Creates it in Real Life to Fight On Discovery Channel's Battlebots!

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Above: Sharky in SL and in RL (images courtesy Constantine of Nano Station Technologies

Tonight at 8pm on the Discovery Channel (check your local listings!), there's a chance for Second Life users to cheer on a hometown champion: Episode 6, third fight of the night, it's Sharko (woot woot!) versus Slap Box (boo! hiss!) on the popular Battlebots reality TV show. 

Sharko is the creation of Edward Robinson, known in Second Life as Artorius Constantine, owner of the Nano Station Technologies store.  For the last few years, Constantine has not only been making a real life living from his SL inventions (animesh roleplay bots and so on), but taking what he's learned from the battlebots he's made for Second Life fights, and applying what he's learned to design real life battlebots:

Are LSL Scripters Too Powerful in SL's Content Ecosystem?

/secondlife's very interesting "Ask Me Almost Anything" thread from programmer "HisRant" (which I blogged last month) led to an interesting conversation from him and "jaggedpuma", who makes a ranty but substantial case that scripters are too powerful in Second Life:

I think scripters have far too much power over the other kinds of content creators... I have yet to find a LSL scripter who wants to be reasonable about commission splits or they charge in excess of $500 USD for a full perm script which could break after a server update or be remotely disabled at any time by the scripter if he thinks I’m too successful. How many artists have been screwed this way by scripters? Too many I reckon.

Agree, disagree? Whatever you think, he goes on to make a salient point about Project Sansar: