Month: September 2017

Sansar Product Meetings 2017: week #37

Posted on by Inara Pey
City Park by Lex4Art, the location for the Sansar product meet-ups, Friday, September 15th

The following notes are taken from the Sansar Product Meetings held on Friday, September 15th. These meetings are held every Friday at 9:30am PDT and 4:00pm PDT, and are open to all. There is no set agenda (currently), and the meetings are a mix of voice and text. Venues change on a weekly basis, and are announced in the Meet-up Announcements. The September 15th meeting took place at City Park, by Lex4Art. The official meeting notes are published in the week following each pair of meetings.

Cara (morning session) and Carolyn (afternoon session) from the product team attended the meetings. However, Cara’s microphone pick-up was not particularly good; couple with background office noises, this made it hard to hear her at the morning session.

Release Feedback

It has been a week since the August / September release, and feedback is now coming in, with some issues being highlighted, including:

  • Terrain Editor: some users have found that when incorporating terrain plains into their builds, everything works OK in Edit mode, but on publishing assorted problems can occur, including not being able to access the published experience. Suggestions for checking the issue is to try re-publishing the experience without the new terrain element to ensure it is accessible / eliminating the problems, and try publishing a simple experience with edited terrain / recreate the existing scene to see if the issues repro. Experiences exhibiting this issue should not be deleted.
  • Undesired object movement / re-positioning:
    • Some users have found that objects which appear correctly positioned and aligned when editing a scene can appear misaligned / out-of-place (see here), although one person indicated they were seeing similar prior to the release.
    • Others have reported objects in both edit and published mode have relocated themselves following the release.
    • Some have found that while a published experience looks correct, if they go to Edit mode to edit the scene, the objects are all incorrectly placed. Apparently, the support response to this issue is to delete all affected items with new versions from inventory – although this is subject to verification.
  • Physics Changes: At least one user has noticed what might be physics changes since the update, with the pins in his bowling alley displaying a persistent wobble.
  • Scripting:
    • Script breakage:some users found their scripts were broken following the update, requiring they be replaced.
    • The LLCameraForward camera vector behaviour is no longer consistently tracking the movements in third-person view (although it is still working as expected in first-person).
    • Trigger Volumes have been reported as not working for one of the headset hand controllers (not clear if this is the Oculus Touch or the Vive hand controllers). Details on the issue weren’t clear at the meeting. This is now being looked at by the Lab.
  • Avatar VR Shuffle: when a user in VR mode enters first-person view, their avatar starts performing a strange little shuffling dance, which stops when exiting back into third-person. This might be related to a known issue when VR first-person view can result in the avatar moving around a little when it is supposed to be standing still.
  • Scene Objects Window: there is a bug which prevents users from scrolling all the way to the end of a long list of object containers when using the scene objects window in Edit mode, which can leave items and options unreachable. The Lab has noticed the same issue and are working on a fix.
  • Edit mode font size: while not specific to this release, there have been complaints that the default font in the Edit mode UI is too small for some people to comfortably read.
  • Streaming: only supports a single stream at a time without updating the scene and re-publishing the experience. For Sansar to work with music events featuring multiple artists / DJs, this will need an update to support multiple streams. While not on the roadmap for immediate delivery, the Lab is considering “avatar emitters”, which would allow sounds from specific artists or presenters at a talk, etc., to be heard throughout an experience.

It’s generally requested that all reproducible issues are reported on the issues forum, together with updates as people further test things.

People gather beneath the media screens at one end of the park

Sansar Roadmap and Work in-Hand / Being Planned

The public roadmap is approaching a point where it can be released. However, this will not be a blow-by-blow of everything that is coming and precise dates. Rather, it will provide a high-level overview of significant releases – avatar customisation, further terrain editing capabilities, clothing and fashion design capabilities, etc., together with indicators of when they may / should be appearing in releases. Some of the current work either in-hand or being planned includes:

  • Atlas improvements: the ability to search the client version of the Sansar Atlas (the web version can already be searched), hopefully making it easier to location / discover experiences of interest. This should be in the next Sansar release.
  • Height Maps: as noted with the August / September release, a planned update to the terrain system will be the ability for users to upload their own custom height maps (not clear if RAW files will also be possible), and custom textures with terrain.
  • Making text chat visible to users in VR mode: this is currently being worked on, a may appear “in a couple of months”.
  • Desktop interaction: the foundations are being laid to allow Desktop mode users have greater interaction with in-scene objects.
  • Avatar identification in Desktop mode: the ability for users in Desktop mode to more easily identify other avatars. No time line on availability as yet.
  • Social capabilities: further social capabilities are being planned, including group-like capabilities. However, details are not clear (again) on what form these will take or when they will be available.
  • Collaborative building: this is being actively worked on, however, it is dependent upon a number of other factors (e.g. the permissions system). So again, no time line on when it might appear as yet.
  • Better inventory organisation: this is also in the planning phase, is a part of the roadmap, but specifics have yet to be released on what it will be, nor is there a time line. This is already proving to be a major pinch-point for creators, as there is no means to organise via folders or rename inventory items or even search inventory, etc., and is thus impacting people’s ability / drive to create.

Requests

The meeting saw a couple of new requests made:

  • Texture Atlas support: a texture atlas allows for easy re-use of textures across objects / UV maps. This sort-of sits between texturing and modelling, and allows textures to be-reused across multiple objects / UVs without multiple draw calls to the system. This is one of an ongoing series of questions around textures in Sansar and future plans for textures / materials / reflections, etc. Jenn and Cara are going to look at getting one of the Sansar team directly involved in this side of the work to come to a meeting and answer questions.
  • More attachments / support for multiple attachments on a single point: currently, there is only one attachment point on Sansar avatars (the neck).  This is because multiple attachment points proved to be buggy when first deployed. While such things need to be constrained (there is already a complexity limit when uploading attachments), having more attachment points  / the ability to attach more than one item to an attachment point is seen as needed by some. Further work on the avatar as a whole is planned, and this might include improvements to attachment handling.

There is also the request for LL to provide a means for people to offer updates to their products. This is liable to be a topic for detailed discussion at the Sansar Store focus meeting, due to take place at the end of September 2017.

Continue reading “Sansar Product Meetings 2017: week #37” →

There be pirates at Seanchai Library in Second Life!

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Pirate Docks await the pleasure of your company for Pirate Sunday!

It’s time to kick-off another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

It is International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Tuesday, September 19th, ARRRR! And Seanchai Library is marking the event with a week of salty tales and more!

Sunday, September 17th: Pirate Sunday!

13:00: PIRATE TALES

Take the teleport up to Seanchai Library’s pirate cove, where Kayden Oconnell, Aoife Lorefield, and Caledonia Skytower will regale you with tales of the skull and crossbones, cutlasses, treasure and more from the wild days of yore on the high seas!

14:30-16:30: MUSIC AND DANCE

Those enjoying the tales are invited to teleport down to The Pavilion at Holly Kai Park, which has been specially transformed into the Pirate Docks, where the music will flow for two hours and everyone (and their friends! Invite the all!) can dance the time away, quaff the grog, walk the decks (or plank!), shiver their timbers – and even fire off a cannon or two!

And if have a boat, why not sail over and enjoy the fun!

Pirate Sunday benefits Feed a Smile, supporting a school in Kenya founded and run by Brique Topaz 16 years ago through her German-based Live and Learn in Kenya charity. 100 Lindens equals approximately 30 cents in real world currency, which pays for one child’s meal. One third of all money raised for each month’s food budget is collected through donations made in Second Life – so, that’s another reason to come along!

** Pirate fancy dress to both these events strongly encouraged! **

Monday, September 18th 19:00: A Wizard of Earthsea

Gyro Muggins reads Ursula K. Le Guin’s first Earthsea Cycle. 

The boy is born on the island of Gont in the archipelago of Earthsea. This is a world infused with magic. Not everyone can control this magic, but those who know the right words and have a wizard soul can learn to utilize the power of the Earth to manipulate objects and events. The boy’s name is Duny; I can tell you that name because the name has no power over him. His true name is something he can only reveal to those he trusts absolutely beyond question.

I know his true name, but fair reader, I’m not sure yet that I can share it with you.

His aunt knows a few things, a handful of words, that can be used to bind things or call animals to her. Duny is particularly adept at calling falcons and other birds of prey. His agile mind soon surpasses what his aunt can teach him. He burns to know more. He is assigned to a mage, Ogion, who tries to teach him about the balance of magic with the Earth. There is always a cost for using magic. Understanding the levy for sorcery is the difference between being just impulsively talented and being wise about what you know.

(Commentary by Jeffrey Keeten.)

Tuesday, September 19th: International Talk Like a Pirate Day:

19:00: “George Was A Pirate…”

Selected adventures from R. Crap Mariner’s “George Canon” of 100-word stories (aka “drabbles”). With Corwyn Allen, Faerie Maven-Pralou, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower.

21:00: Meteor Mags – Hang My Body on the Pier

An original tale for a special “Late Night” on this special day, presented by the author, Matthew Howard.

** Pirate fancy dress to both these events strongly encouraged! **

Wednesday, September 20th, 19:00: Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon

Corwyn Allen reads Spider Robinson’s 1999 anthology.

callahansThe titular saloon is a haven for lost souls; a place where the patrons come for one drink and a chance for a second – but only if they offer an unburdening toast at the fireplace. Mike Callahan, the owner, never judges but sometimes advises in as few words as possible.

The stories in the volume are:

  • “The Guy with the Eyes”
  • “The Time-Traveler”
  • “The Centipede’s Dilemma”
  • “Two Heads Are Better Than One”
  • “The Law of Conservation of Pain”
  • “Just Dessert”
  • “A Voice is Heard in Ramah…”
  • “Unnatural Causes”
  • “The Wonderful Conspiracy”

Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/108/609/1528).

Thursday, September 21st:

19:00:  PIRATES! – Tom Chist and the Treasure Box

With Shandon Loring (also presented in Kitely  hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/108/609/1528).

21:00:  Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary Sci-Fi-Fantasy with Finn Zeddmore.

 

Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

The featured charity for August and September is Little Kids Rock, transforming lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in schools.

Autumn returns to The Mill in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Mill; Inara Pey, September 2017, on FlickrThe Mill – click any image for full size

Friends Shakespeare and (SkinnyNilla) and Max (Maxie Daviau) are not only highly adept at finding regions to photograph (and poke me about visiting!), they also maintain their own exceptionally photogenic region, The Mill. This undergoes seasonal changes which not only match the passing of the year, presenting visitors with the opportunity of re-visiting throughout the year and see something new in the region’s layout, whilst retaining some familiar elements with each new design.

With autumn now on our doorstep in the northern hemisphere, Shakespeare and Max dropped me word that the latest iteration of their region is now open and available to visit, so as soon as the opportunity arose, I had to hop over to see what new delights await. And once again, doing so is more than worth the effort.

The Mill; Inara Pey, September 2017, on FlickrThe Mill

A visit begins in the south-eat of the region, beneath the slowly turning sails of the titular (and familiar to regular visitors!) mill as it sits just above the surrounding sea, quietly watching over the land under its care. A cart track winds westwards, passing under the great boughs of an ancient oak to lead visitors on to where two more windmills, tops thatched and walls whitewashed, standing like smaller siblings to the region’s primary mill. Horses graze both in the field occupied by these smaller windmills and on the far side of the track, a passing soul having left the gate open to leave them free to wander.

Beyond the field, the tracks meanders onward, splitting to pass either side of a copse before coming to where a greenhouse, converted into a cosy little café, sits by the western sea, close to a river which cuts its way through the landscape from west to east, slicing it neatly in two. The river, rich in grasses and reeds, is crossed in three places – one of them being an ageing wooden bridge a short distance away, although those feeling adventurous can use the logs which span the water alongside of the café.

The Mill; Inara Pey, September 2017, on FlickrThe Mill

The north side of the land rises gently to form a grassy backbone, studded with rocky outcrops. Another track winds its way around and up the hills to where and old industrial unit has been converted into a writer’s hideaway, typewriter awaiting its owner’s return. How you reach this little getaway depends on which path you take on crossing the river. Climb the slopes of the hill to the north-west, and you’ll come to an old shed which has clearly seen better days – although someone is clearly using it as a little snug -, an equally aged pick-up truck sitting close by. From here, another track winds up the hillside through trees and around shoulder to arrive at the aforementioned study.

Take the track pointing eastwards from the little market overlooking the river, however, and this will take you down back eastwards, following the dip of the river to where a deck has been built out over the water, kayaks drawn up on the grass beside it. It is here that the third river crossing can be found, another rough-and ready bridge of logs nailed together, and which takes advantage of rocks in the middle of the water to hold itself in place – not that any current here is particularly swift, thanks to the reeds and grass choking the water.

The Mill; Inara Pey, September 2017, on FlickrThe Mill

Just beyond the deck and bridge, and with a view back along the path of the river as well as to where the mill sits, is a cosy little Tuscan-style farmhouse, chickens and geese outside and washing on the line. The track turns sharply left as it reaches the farm, switching back on itself to climb the hill up to where the writer’s retreat lies, offering visitors the chance to walk full circle around the northern side of the island.

And this is a design intended for walking. The tracks offer routes through the landscape to all the major points of interest, and the trees with their reds and golds add a touch of autumnal romance to the setting. Perfectly set beneath the evening sky, The Mill offers places to tarry as you explore, not only with the riverside deck, encouraging visitors to loiter and take in the quiet beauty of the region.

The Mill; Inara Pey, September 2017, on FlickrThe Mill

The Mill is always a beautiful region to visit, and the current design is the perfect way to welcome a traditional autumn where the sun softly shines, the trees turn from green to rich hues of red, yellow, gold and brown, inviting us to amble through fallen leaves and relish that first wintery tang in the air.

SLurl Details

  • The Mill (Pale Moonlight, rated: Moderate)

Five Years of Fractals in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Five Years of Fractals – Gem Preiz

Now open at the R&D Art Gallery complex is Five Years of Fractals, celebrating five years of Gem Preiz’s remarkable fractal art in Second Life.  Split over two floors of the exhibition space, the displayed art is divided between retrospectives of Gem’s past installations at the Linden Endowment for the Arts, and his exhibitions and installations displayed elsewhere in Second Life.

Normally displayed in a very large format, Gem’s work is always a masterpiece of fractal design and storytelling on a grand scale. As such, what is seen within Five Years is but the tip of the iceberg – a soupçon if you will – that should remind those familiar with Gem’s work with the power and majesty of his art and hopefully serve to whet the appetite of those new to his work such that they will want to see more.

Five Years of Fractals – Gem Preiz

I certainly fall into the former of these two groups. I’ve long been an admirer of Gem’s art and his virtuosity in both setting a mood and telling a story for almost as long as he has been exhibiting in Second Life, and a number of my personal favourites out of his installations are presented here, both directly and indirectly. The ground level section of the exhibition space presents a retrospective of, for want of a better category name, Gem’s “non-LEA” work. Some of this is presented through individual images, other is animated frames which page through scenes from those exhibitions. On this level we can again experience Polychronies, Rhapsody in Blue Fractals, Myths,  Temples, Metropolis – complete with silhouettes of the figures which formed a part of it painted on the walls behind the images – and more.

As well as the art itself, there are books of his work visitors can peruse and also links to videos of some of this exhibitions – which I unhesitatingly recommend watching, bringing together as they do not only the art as it could be seen in situ whilst on display, but which also marry the images to the music Gem has offered with each installation, thus, through the videos as well as this exhibition, we can re-immerse ourselves in his art or gain greater familiarity with it and understand the inter-weaving of images and music.

Five Years of Fractals – Gem Preiz

Reached via teleport discs, the lower level of the exhibition space focuses on Gem’s LEA exhibitions, as noted. Among the pieces displayed, we can once again experience the visions of his Cathedral Dreamer, journey through his trilogy of stories, Vestiges and Wrecks, which formed his Heritage pairing, and No Frontiers, the unofficial sequel to Heritage, while images from the likes of The Anthropic Principle and No Frontiers cover sections of the walls behind some of the images. As with the upper level of the gallery, objects offer links to videos of some of the installations, while spaced around the gallery area are props and elements from others – such as the air car and the shuttle which Gem his used in his installations, allowing visitors to fly through them.

Fractal art is not uncommon in Second Life, but there is something very unique in Gem’s work. Perhaps it is the way in which it reflects both his interests – cosmology, nature, geology – and blends them with his background education in science and mathematics to present stunning visions of nature and future (or even ancient) scenes which are evocative, and both beautifully geometric and wonderfully fluid. Perhaps it is because, in composing his pieces, he presents not just individual pieces of art, but entire stories  we can explore and witness.

Five Years of Fractals – Gem Preiz

Whatever the reason, I very much welcome this opportunity to revisit – at least in part – many of his past extraordinary installations – and in doing so, to look forward to his next.

SLurl Details

SL project updates 37/2: Content Creation User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey
Content Creation User Group Meeting, Hippotropolis Camp Fire Circle

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group meeting, held on  Thursday, September 14th, 2017 at 13:00 SLT at the the Hippotropolis Camp Fire Circle. The meeting is chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Medhue Simoni live steamed the meeting to You Tube, and his video is embedded at the end of this article. However, due to power issues at his end, the first few minutes are missing from the recording. Time stamps to that recording are included below, and clicking on any of them will launch the video in a separate browser tab at the assigned point. However as these notes present the meeting in terms of topics discussed, rather than a chronological breakdown of the meeting, time stamps may appear to be out of sequence in relation to the recording.

Animesh (Animated Mesh)

“I like the name ‘animated objects’ because I think it’s unambiguous, but it takes a long time to type!” – Vir Linden joking about the name “Animesh”.

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation.

  • Animated objects can be any rigged / skinned mesh which is correctly flagged as an animated object (so it has a skeleton associated with it), and contains the necessary animations and controlling scripts in its own inventory  (Contents tab of the Build floater) required for it to animate itself.
  • The capability will most likely include a new flag added to an existing rigged object type in order for the object to be given its own skeleton.
  • At this point in time, this is not about adding fully functional, avatar-like non-player characters (NPCs) to Second Life.
  • Animated objects will not (initially):
    • Have an avatar shape associated with them
    • Make use of an avatar-like inventory (although individual parts can contain their own inventory such as animations and scripts)
    • Make use of the server-side locomotion graph for walking, etc., and so will not use an AO
    • Use the avatar baking service
  • The project may be extended in the future.
  • It will involve both back-end and viewer-side changes, likely to encompass new LSL commands to trigger and stop animations (held in the object’s contents).

Project Viewer

[pre-video start and 46:06-46:40] Work on the viewer is focused on cleaning up how the viewer handles animation when dealing with Animesh objects, as there are some elements which simply aren’t used. The transform matrix has been adjusted, so that Animesh attachments now look as if they are attached to the avatar, rather than potentially floating somewhere reasonably close to it (so an Animesh object attached to a hand will now appear attached to the hand and move with the hand, for example). Further work is required, but things are now behaving a lot better; there’s still no ETA on the appearance of the project viewer, however.

Animesh Constraints

Some basic constraints on attaching Animesh objects to an avatar or in-world, and on the overall allowable complexity of Animesh objects have yet to be defined and incorporated into the viewer. These are necessary to prevent Animesh objects  negatively impacting performance to an undue degree. The initial constraints set within the project viewer will be subject to refinement in testing.

[32:21-33:06] In terms of avatar attachments, there is already a server-side limit on how many attachments can currently be worn by an avatar (38), so the Lab could look at the type of attachments being used, and limit Animesh in terms of an allowed number within this global attachment limit (e.g. 2 out of the 38 global limit for attachments may be Animesh).

Load Testing

Alexa provided a couple of GIFs demonstrating Animesh. The first showed her army of dancing bears – around 100 – all happily dancing on a region without causing an appreciable load.

Alexa’s army of dancing bears. Note that these are not actual avatars connected to the simulator via individual viewers; they are purely in-world objects being animated by scripts they contain driving a set of animations also contained within them.

[13:39-16:54] However, whether populated regions (in terms of avatars and objects) could handle such a load is open to question. Also, these bears are all the same optimised mesh, and are probably not placing the kind of load on the simulator and viewer as would be in the case of multiple and different kinds of mesh with varying levels of complexity. To help determine reasonable limits, the Lab will be establishing some test regions once the projects viewer is available, to allow for more comprehensive testing with assorted Animesh models, and which will used to further refine the Animesh constraints noted above.

[18:11-18:40] As a part of her own testing, Alex also intends to use the mesh starter avatars produced by the Lab, mixing them together in a scene using different animations, etc., to see how things behave.

Animesh and Pathfinding

[10:35-11:14] A couple of previous meetings have raised the idea of Animesh working with Pathfinding (the means by which scripted objects – people, animals, monsters, etc,– be set to move in a region / parcel and react to avatars, etc). Dan Linden is  looking into how Animesh and Pathfinding might work together, and he and Alexa shared a GIF image of some of the work, with some of Alexa’s dancing bears skating around their own pathfinding routes, which provide a quick demonstration that the two can likely be used together.

Dancing Bears following pathfinding Navmesh routes

Alexa has also been experimenting with Animesh and ice-skating, taking the view that having creatures and animals ice-skating in winter scenes (which can actually be common in “wintered” regions, with skating penguins and the like).

Animesh Attachments: Fluidity and Clothing

How smoothly attached Animesh objects work is liable to be dependent upon the animations themselves, and whether or not they move the object’s pelvis bone or nor. As with all things, some experimentation and fine tuning is likely to be required be creators in order to optimise the motions of their Animesh attachments.

Some people have been looking at Animesh as a means to get clothing to move more naturally with an avatar. However, as Vir pointed out in the meeting, utilising additional skeletons in clothes may not be the most efficient way to achieve this, when it should be possible – with a little care – to use existing some of the bones in the avatar skeleton to achieve the same results (e.g. skinning the cloth of a gown or skirt or cape to the wing bones, etc).

This would allow the clothing to move far more seamlessly and in sync with body movements than could be achieved with Animesh attachments, which would not have any direct means of syncing with an avatar’s movement.

Root Positioning

[1:39-3:03] Vir is has been working on aligning the root joint of a skeleton associated with a Animesh to the position of the object in-world. Sometimes this gives good results, sometimes it doesn’t, resulting in objects jumping around when animations is played or moving into the air or sinking into the ground, etc, as the server thinks they are somewhere else than the visual position shown in the viewer. Because of the mixed results, he’s considering alternative approaches, such as using the object’s bounding box, and will be exploring options before pushing out any project viewer. One of the balances he’s trying to achieve is presenting a nice visual result without over-complicating what has to be done in order to achieve that result.

Changing the Orientation of the Skeleton via LSL / LSL Commands

[34:12-34:45] Will there be a scripted function to change the default orientation of a skeleton to match an Animesh object? Conceivably; however, Vir is hoping to develop a reasonable default behaviour when attaching a skeleton which will allow simple editing of the object to achieve the desired result, if required. Should this be shown not to work sufficiently well enough, additional LSL support will likely be looked at.

[4:54] A question was asked about the list animations command (LlGetObjectAnimationNames). This is one of three new LSL commands being introduced to support Animesh – please refer to my week #35 CCUG update for details on these.

Continue reading “SL project updates 37/2: Content Creation User Group” →

Kokua and Black Dragon go 64-bit in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

As the Lab’s 64-bit Alex Ivy viewer progresses through release candidate stage and the point where the code is regarded as a stable enough for TPVs to start picking up, viewer developers having been doing just that.

First out of the v5-stage gates at the start of September was Nicky Perian with 64-bit versions of Kokua for Windows and Mac. Towards the middle of the month, NiranV Dean issued a 64-bit version of Black Dragon for Windows.

It should be noted that in neither case are the provided 64-bit viewers the final, polished article. Nicky has clearly labelled his versions as test releases, which Niran is referring to his as an alpha series of releases.

I’ve not driven either viewer to any great extent, so the following is more informational than anything else. Please refer to the links at the end of this article for all download links to the viewers.

Kokua 64-bit

The Kokua 64-bit builds come in both RLV and non-RLV versions. Each is functionally identical to the other, with the exception of … RLV inclusion.  For convenience, I downloaded the 64-bit Windows version with RLV. all of the versions are based on the Lab’s Alex Ivy code base.

The Windows viewer builds include the SL Launcher .EXE, designed to ensure the correct version of the viewer (32-bit or 64-bit) is installed on your PC when updating the viewer. However, at this point, neither actually utilises it directly: the installation short-cut for the viewer points directly to the viewer .EXE. As the Launcher is also intended to start / terminate the viewer’s crash logging, and given – if I recall correctly – Kokua utilises the Lab’s viewer update process, I assume use of the Launcher may / will be folded-into the Kokua’s 64-bit Windows flavours in the future.

Beyond this, the viewer is functionally identical to the last full release of Kokua (5.0.6.41208), with additional updates from the more recent LL viewer releases since that date. This means the 64-bit viewer now includes the Asset HTTP updates from the Lab and the current release version (5.0.7.328060). I understand the 32-bit versions of the viewer have also been merged with these updates, but have not been formally released.

Nicky does note that there are some issues with the Mac 64-bit version of the viewer, some of which prompted an update following an initial release of the test viewers. Some of these have been logged via JIRA with the Lab (such as BUG-41395). For those downloading and trying the viewer, he particularly requests that feedback be given on notifications and taking / processing snapshots, which have caused noticeable issues in merging the code (obviously, feedback on other aspects of the viewer and problems encountered is also welcome).

Black Dragon 64-bit

Black Dragon currently has the SL Launcher removed. This generates a warning on starting the viewer, advising users to run things from the Launcher and to update short-cuts accordingly. However, it doesn’t interfere with the viewer’s operations.

The 2.9.0 64-bit version incorporates Niran’s more recent updates up to his 32-bit 2.8.2 release. For those with hardware which can handle it, Black dragon continues to offer a graphics experience several points above other viewers. For some people, this is somewhat mitigated by the viewer’s menu system presentation, which can take a little getting used to but really isn’t that hard to steer around. The large number of graphics options exposed / added can be a little frightening to those not into graphics tweaking – but again, there’s no real need to play around with any you’re not familiar with when adjusting settings.

In addition to the 64-bit iteration, the viewer includes further refinements to SL shadows, including an attempt to deal with a particular annoyance for photographers: disconnected shadows. That is, shadows which just fall short of actually visually connecting with the object casting them, and which at time no amount of jiggling with settings such as shadow quality and/or shadow bias can fix. A further change is that HTTP pipelining has been disabled within the viewer.

Rough-and-Ready Performance Notes

The benefits in using 64-bit versions of the viewer – for those who can – are much better memory utilisation and potentially a reduced crash rate and, potentially, a boost in overall viewer performance. In terms of the latter, and while direct comparisons are always subjective (and dependent upon some factors outside of your control, such as the complexity of any other avatars in your field of view / in the region, etc), I carried out some very rough-and-ready tests using ~Neive~ as my testing-point, and with the viewers all set-up according to my review system specifications.

Baseline test location: ~Neive~ 199, 155, 27, facing west, with three (or in the case of the Black dragon 32-bit version test, four) avatars within draw distance. All measurements were taken after setting the preferences in each viewer, and clearing object and texture caches before doing a fresh load to ensure each viewer had the scene locally cached. I then launched each viewer in turn, let the scene load from cache, measured, shut-down and launched the next & repeated.

Viewer
 FPS Static FPS panning left / right
Firestorm 64-bit 5.0.7.529121 25 22-28
SL Alex Ivy 5.1.0.508209 38 33-38
Kokua 32-bit 5.0.6.41208 23 20-23
Kokua Alex Ivy 5.1.0.42217 37 34-37
Black Dragon 32-bit 2.8.22 36 33-38
Black Dragon 64-bit 2.9.0 Alpha2 45 33-46

Notes:

  1. Firestorm 64 is currently not using the Lab’s 64-bit code base, and so might be considered an indirect comparison, rather than a like-for-like code base comparison.
  2. Black Dragon has many additional exposed / tweaked graphics options, and a number of defaults somewhat different to the default viewer. In measuring, I attempted to tweak the viewer back more towards the default viewer.

Also note that the static fps numbers are a median based on fluctuations in numbers; the panning figures represent the average high/low fps values when panning. All measurements taken via the Stats floater (CTRL-SHFT-1) to ensure consistency of displayed floaters in the viewer.

As indicated towards the top of this article, I’ve not really played that much with either viewer, so cannot comment in-depth on overall performance  / stability, etc.

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