Orange and white striped barricades with two ROAD CLOSED signs across a road through a forest.
Hazardous materials · Surveys · Licensed removal

Magenta abatement.

Missing shaders are the asbestos of virtual construction: common in older worlds, harmless while left alone, and very expensive the moment someone decides to tidy up.
What is magenta?

The pink is not a design choice.

When a material's shader fails to load, its surface turns a vivid magenta. Builders call it the error shader. We call it what it is: a hazardous material, installed in good faith years ago, that is now in every wall.

It is most often found in worlds built before a platform update, in avatars uploaded from an old project, and in the one chair a friend imported "just to test". Magenta in good condition presents very little risk. Most incidents begin with someone opening the project to fix it.

2,206 Worlds surveyed
1,980 Advised to leave it alone
100% Of skyboxes presumed
§ 3501 Duty to manage

Managing magenta does not mean removing it

The owner of any world published before the current platform version has a duty to manage magenta. In most worlds this means three things: knowing where it is, writing that down, and not drilling into it.

The record is kept in a magenta register, which must be shown to anyone about to work on the world. Most registers we see are a text file named "pink stuff DO NOT TOUCH". This is acceptable, provided it is kept up to date.

Surveys

Which survey do you need?

Management survey

For a world that is open and in use. We locate the magenta you can see, assess its condition, and recommend that it is left where it is. Clients sometimes feel this is poor value.

Refurbishment and demolition survey

Required before any update. We survey the surfaces you were about to change, which is where the magenta always is. The survey is intrusive: we will open the project.

Presumed to contain

Where a material could not be loaded for inspection, it is presumed to contain magenta and recorded as such. Most of the skybox is presumed.

The checkerboard

A magenta-and-black check is a missing texture: technically a different substance, usually found alongside magenta, and entered on the same register.

Where removal is unavoidable

Licensed removal

Step 1

Notification

Removal is notifiable work. Fourteen days' notice is given, during which the owner may change their mind. Most do.

Step 2

Enclosure

The affected room is closed and sheeted. The rest of the world stays open, with a sign. Visitors read the sign, and go in to have a look.

Step 3

Removal

Each affected material is reassigned, one at a time, and the world is rebuilt after each. A single chair takes two days, of which a day and a half is the rebuild.

Step 4

Four-stage clearance

An independent analyst checks the paperwork, inspects every surface, monitors the frame rate for an hour, and inspects again once the sheeting is down. Only then is a certificate of reoccupation issued.

Sightings

Report a magenta sighting

If you have seen magenta in a world, it can be added to the register. Please do not attempt to fix it, and please do not tell the owner it is "only a shader". They know.

0 Sightings registered