Day: March 6, 2018

2018 SLUG updates #10/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Meraki Islands; Inara Pey, February 2018, on Flickr Meraki Islands – blog post

Server Deployments

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • There was no deployment / restart to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, March 6th, leaving it on server maintenance package 18#18.02.12.512536.
  • No deployments are scheduled to either the Magnum or LeTigre RCs on Wednesday, March 7th, leaving them on server maintenance package 18#18.02.12.512536. However, given it is now two weeks since these channels were last restarted, they should undergo a restart this week.
  • The BlueSteel RC should receive a new server maintenance package on Wednesday, March 7th. 18#18.03.05.513046 is said to comprise “internal fixes”.

SL Viewer

360-Snapshot Viewer 5.1.3.513006

The 360-snapshot project viewer updated to 5.1.3.513006, intended to offer improved image resolutions and clarity. However, the update includes some significant issues of its own, including:

  • A failure to render in-world objects / Linden Water in 360-snapshots if Object-Object Occlusion (CTRL-SHIFT-O) is active.
  • A failure to render Linden Water (and possibly in-world objects) when saving snapshots to disk when using the Custom drop-down and leaving Constrain Proportions unchecked.
  • Include HUDs option in the snapshot viewer is inverted: when unchecked, HUDs are displayed in snapshots (and might appear in 360-snaps), when checked, HUDs are not displayed.
  • UI placement issues when the UI is displayed in the snapshot floater preview window – these issues do not translate to captured images, which display the UI correctly.

JIRAs have been raised against these issues.

Other Viewers

Apart from the 360-snapshot project viewer update, all viewers currently in LL’s pipelines remain unchanged from the end of week #9:

  • Current Release version 5.1.2.512803, dated February 23, promoted March 1 – formerly the Nalewka Maintenance RC – NEW
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Region Crossing Issues Investigation

As noted over the last few weeks, user Joe Magarac (animats) has been digging into the viewer code handling region crossings (See Firestorm JIRA FIRE-21915),SL Forum thread, and this Google document, plus my last update here for more).

He has now come up with s further approach, using  a scripted means to turn off physics and freeze a vehicle on hand-off to the next region and then wait for the avatar data to arrive, using llGetObjectDetails (avatar, [OBJECT_ROOT]) to check for the presence of avatars. On confirming they are present, the vehicle resumes. Overall, the delay is a few milliseconds, and seems to work. However, as Rider Linden notes, Linden Lab still needs to address the crossing logic, although where such work might fit in the current schedule is unclear.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements, including:

  • The ability to define the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) at the parcel level.
  • New environment asset types (Sky, Water, Days – the latter comprising multiple Sky and Water) that can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others.
  • Experience-based environment functions
  • An extended day cycle (e.g a 24/7 cycle) and extended environmental parameters.

This work involves simulator and viewer changes, and includes some infrastructure updates.

Current Status

“I got my first inventory objects on the test grid yesterday,” Rider noted at the Simulator User Group meeting. “I’m cleaning up the inventory code today and will wire the old editors in so you can create assets. I expect to have a viewer that people can play with very, very soon.”

Bryn’s Tilt-a-Whirl in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bryn Oh: Tilt-a-Whirl

At the end of February 2018, Bryn Oh opened Tilt-aWhirl, the third in a series of single-scene poems  she has been putting together whilst also working on a new immersive installation to succeed Hand (reviewed here). It joins Lady Carmagnolle and 26 Tines (both of which I wrote about here) on a darkened Immersiva. However, in difference to the first two pieces, Tilt-a-Whirl has something of a personal foundation for Bryn.

“It is pretty much a nostalgic memory of being young at a fairground or carnival,” Bryn says of the piece – albeit it a carnival with fantasy overtones. Two rides form the piece, the titular tilt-a-whirl ride, with flashing lights and regular-looking cars, and a carousel with a quite unusual set of animals on which to ride: a dragon, ball-balancing unicorn, a butterfly, and a mechanical octopus, seahorse and horseshoe crab …

Bryn Oh: Tilt-a-Whirl

These are not a random selection of creatures for the ride, however. In her notes accompanying the piece, Bryn notes how some of the creatures have a personal link to her – notably the dragon and the octopus – a creature she’s clearly fascinated by, and with good reason.

There seems to be a further personal element contained within this piece, a reflection of another childhood memory revealed by the accompanying 3-stanza poem, which opens:

I dreamt of my youth
when I met a girl
and kissed her by the
Tilt-a-Whirl

Bryn Oh: Tilt-a-Whirl

Glance under the front of the Tilt-a-Whirl, and this memory is revealed through two figures – Flutter and Juniper – cautiously leaning towards one another, one shrouded by a blanket, hands reaching for one another, heads tilting. It’s a poignant moment caught in time; an echo of a childhood event made manifest once more through art and expression. Click on them, and you can view the video accompanying the scene, and which I’ve taken the liberty of embedding below (the video, and those for Lady Carmagnolle and 26 Tines can also be video by clicking the images on the floor of the arrival point).

Like Lady Carmagnolle and 26 Tines, Tilt-a-Whirl is haunting in theme, but it is also perhaps warmer in tone and feel. All three make for a striking visit.

SLurl Details