Month: September 2018

2018 SL UG updates #37/3: Content Creation User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey
“That’s no moon…” – Rider Linden teases with possibilities whilst talking Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP)

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, September 13th, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

The choppiness in some of the audio segments where Vir’s voice drops out is due to issues with SL Voice. Topics blow are not necessarily presented in the order in which they were discussed, I’ve attempted to group items by subject matter.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements, including:

  • The ability for region / parcel owners to define the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) at the parcel level.
  • New environment asset types (Sky, Water, Days that can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others.
    • Day assets can include four Sky “tracks” defined by height: ground level (which includes altitudes up to 1,000m) and (optionally) 1,000m and above; 2,000m and above and 3,000m and above, plus a Water “track”.
  • Experience-based environment functions
  • An extended day cycle (e.g a 24/7 cycle) and extended environmental parameters.
  • There are no EEP parameters for manipulating the SL wind.
  • EPP will also include some rendering enhancements  and new shaders as well (being developed by Graham Linden), which will allow for effects such as crepuscular rays (“God rays”)
    • These will be an atmospheric effect, not any kind of object or asset or XML handler.
  • The new LSL functions for finding the time of day according to the position of the windlight Sun or Moon have been completed,and are more accurate than the current options.
  • EEP will not include things like rain or snow.
  • It will still be possible to set windlight local to your own viewer.

Resources

Current Status

EEP is now “so close”.  A test viewer is ready to go – note test, not project -, the major blockers have all be cleared, and land is being set-up on Aditi for people to be able to test the EEP capabilities there. An outstanding issue is documentation on how to create EEP assets, etc., but this could be available in week #38 (commencing Monday, September 17th).

As part of the update, Graham Linden has adjusted the night-time sky so that those running their viewer with ALM enabled will see stars at night, rather than dots in the sky – and they can twinkle!

Twinkle, twinkle little stars – EEP allows stars to twinkle in SL (you may have to click the image to open it and zoom into the GIF to see the effect better). Credit: Alexa Linden

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. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

Resources

Current Status

Work is continuing trying to clear the last few significant bugs the Lab would preferably like resolved or at least understand in terms of cause, before the project goes to release status. Vir has also been working on the constraints for scale and position with Animesh objects.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves viewer and server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, and may in time lead to a reduction in the complexity of mesh avatar bodies and heads.

This work does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing Bake Service, nor are they recognised as system wearables.

Resources

Current Status

No real change. Still awaiting the AIS updates (which also adds support for EEP assets as well). This needs to be deployed before the associated Bake Service updates and simulator update in support of Bakes on Mesh can be deployed to Agni (the main grid). In the meantime, Bakes on Mesh can be tested on Aditi on the Bakes on Mesh test region.

Vir also reaffirmed that there are no plans to implement materials support with Bakes on Mesh at present, for the reasons noted above in the project summary. However, this might be revisited in the future.

As an aside: the main aspect of the AIS update is related to the ongoing work to move Second Life services to a cloud infrastructure.

Texture Use Discussion

Part of the meeting was given over to textures and their misuse within Second Life, with suggestions being offered on how to improve things.

Texture Upload Costs Based On Resolution / Size

One suggestion was to charge texture uploads based on resolution / size (so the higher the resolution, the greater the upload cost). This is not something the Lab is considering, and it seen as being of limited benefit unless set ridiculously high, simply because the upload cost is a one-time fee and does not discourage repeated (and over) use of a texture once uploaded.

Ability to Set Texture Resolution

An alternative suggestion would be to use the viewer’s discard levels (/mipmapping – see here for more) as a means for users to control what texture resolutions are used when displaying an object (or multiple versions of an object). So, for example, if an object uses 1024×1024 texture, but is only used as a “background prop” – objects in a vending machine or display case, for example), a user can use a viewer UI option to restrict the texture resolution of that object to a specific discard level, regardless of whether or not the objects in zoomed in on.

Some issues with this idea are that a) it would require additional data to be manipulated, together with an additional UI element; b) it would require a re-working of some of the viewer logic. Currently for discards to be used, the highest resolution of a texture must be loaded by the viewer; for this approach to be effective, the logic would need to be changed so that only the desired discard (with its lower video memory footprint) is loaded, avoiding the download of the highest resolution version completely.  This also potentially shifts the onus from creator to consumer for using textures responsibly, which isn’t necessarily ideal.

In Brief

  • Transparency shadow casting from rigged items: there has been a long-standing issue with rigged / static meshes using transparencies (blended or masked), which causes shadows cast by them to render incorrectly (shadow rendering conforms only to the geometry silhouette).  Graham has now fixed it, and the fix should be appearing in the next round of viewer rendering fixes due out after the current Love Me Render viewer (version 5.1.8.518751, dated August 20th, at the time of writing). This will work with static mesh and Animesh, once it has reached release status.
  • Blending / mixing textures on a mesh face: the ability to blend / mix textures on a mesh face (in a “similar” manner to how they can be mixed on terrain) has been requested a number of times. Graham linden indicated this is unlikely to be implemented as it would, “require many new shaders and break batches more often (i.e. be less performant).”
  • Mesh uploader: there is a significant list of issues and feedback on the mesh uploader and what could be done to improve it and help people better understand how to optimise content on upload, or make the uploader better behaved. Vir hopes that these will be looked at in the not-too-distant future, depending on what are seen as the next immediate projects to follow Animesh, EEP, etc.
  • Projectors-as-facelights and hair styles: part of the meeting include a discussion on people now unfortunately using projectors as facelights  to offer  form of cubemapping on their avatars, and the new trend in having hair that contains multiple styles (e.g. ponytail over left shoulder or over the right shoulder or down the back). Both impose additional performance hits (the hair particularly so), while the projectors-as-facelights can also impact how a scene is rendered (if an avatar is close to you wearing multiple projectors, you may not see the results of some / all of any projectors used in the same space you are both occupying).
  • Mesh loading by Script / UUID: the ability to dynamically load meshes using their UUIDs was part of early mesh testing, but was removed for a number of reasons – such has performance (for example, and while separate, people were using the ability to load via UUIDs for animation flipping, which caused a big performance hit). Dynamically changing worn mesh items via script is viewer rendering intensive, given the potential frequency with which it could be done – which it turn becomes a potential griefing vector. There is also an issue of potential content theft in making an asset’s original UUID obtainable. As such this is not something that is liable to be re-implemented.

  • Apple OpenGL deprecation: the Lab is continuing to give thought as to what to do in light of this, but is not in a position to make a formal announcement as yet. Given that there are a fair number of Mac users at the Lab (including Oz Linden!), it is unlikely that the Mac version of the viewer will be left to “go away”; in fact Graham Linden anticipates it becoming something of a focus for him in the near future.

 

Solo Arte: “explore and enjoy” in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Solo Arte

Opening on Friday, September 14th, 2018 at 13:00 SLT is a new group art installation at Solo Arte curated by Terrygold and Melania (MelaniaBis), Featuring an ensemble cast of artists, it has been given the informal title of explore and enjoy.

Those participating in the exhibition cover the realms of both 2D and 3D art, and comprise Oema, Terrygold, Jill Agresti (Jillx), Solkide Auer, Judy Barton (Mitla), Giovanna Cerise, Desy Magic, Annalisa Muliaina, Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau), Eupalinos Ugajin, Ciottolina Xue, and Moke Yuitza.

Solo Arte: Oema

The setting for the exhibition is rather unique, a three-dimensional space that initially appears as a rooftop garden, dotted with large hollow spheres, each of which contains (or will contain) an element of 3D art by some of the artists, together with some additional buildings and a little stream flowing between rocks and cliffs. However, there is more here than meets the eye: under the garden are numerous spaces, some of which can be glimpsed from above, others of which are fully enclosed and hidden, where more art and other points of interest can be found. Getting around these forms something of a mystery tour, making a visit to this installation a journey of discovery.

The spheres are intended to be worlds of their own – each has at least one entrance / exit, and visitors are invited to step inside them and become fully immersed in the art within. The dioramas and vignettes may come with explanatory text, or may stand alone or – as in at least one instance – share a poetic theme with the words of Jill Barton, whose poetry, inspired by the space, can be found on media boards to one side of the rooftop area under the eaves of a building.

Solo Arte: Ciottolina Xue

Once inside a sphere, you are fully enclosed in the space to generate a feeling of immersion – and which also makes finding your way back out a little interesting if you get turned around inside! But for a deeper sense of immersion, I suggest trying first-person view whilst within a sphere. Note that to fully appreciate some of the art, you must have your viewer’s Advanced Lighting Model option (Preferences > Graphics) enabled. Shadows are also recommended as being enabled when visiting – but I would suggest that this is a more optional requirement, depending on how well or otherwise your viewer performs with shadows enabled.

The 2D art is more traditional displayed on the walls of the lower levels of the structure. These have been designed in such a way that each 2D art area is at least partially open to the natural daylight of the environment (using the local windlight or setting your viewer to sunset is recommended). Maddy’s and Desy’s art is set out so as to appear in garden style environments, while Oema’s is in more of a built-out area that forms the main route into the lower levels from the rooftop garden when exploring on foot.

Solo Arte: Maddy

To fully get around the installation however, requires the use of the Teleport Anywhere Doors that can be found throughout the build. I particular, one of these is located alongside the location for Jill’s poetry, and another on the lower level of Oema’s 2D art display. Together, these two doors form (depending on which you use first) the start / end point for a journey through the installation, passing from display area to display area – including one tucked away deep inside the build, where more 3D can be found.  Nor is this all; also hidden down inside the build – and accessible on foot, should you spot the tunnel – is an underground events / bar area.

With Nessuno Myoo and Kicca Igaly due to join the exhibition during its run, this is a creative approach to displaying art that makes for an engaging and fun, as well as visually impressive, visit.

SLurl Details

2018 SL UG updates #37/2: Concierge and Land user group

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Concierge and Land User Group meeting area

The Concierge & Land user groups are held every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month from 12:00 noon SLT. The focus of the meetings is “for discussion & education of SL topics such as current known issues and bugs, project viewers and new features, and general Mainland issues. Theresa Linden will be your moderator. Please bring your questions & concerns.”

These meetings cannot be used to discuss:

  • Specific account questions or concerns.
  • Anything pertaining to billing, fees and / or tier.
  • Specific region / viewer performance issues.
  • Abuse related issues.

The initial meeting of the new group was held on Thursday, September 13th, and was somewhat brief in nature. The schedule of meetings for the rest of 2018 is as follows:

  • September 27th, 2018
  • October 11th, 2018
  • October 25th, 2018
  • November 8th, 2018
  • December 13th, 2018
  • December 27th, 2018

Details on the meeting and the agenda can be found on the Concierge & Land official SL user group wiki page.

EAM Viewer

The meeting included a reminder that the Estate Access Management (EAM) viewer is currently in project viewer status (version 5.2.0.518362 dated August 9th, at the time of writing). My own overview of this viewer can be found here.

  • A suggestion has been made to add a field to record the reason a person was banned from a region / estate.
  • It is not clear if the parcel level access controls will be updated to reflect the changed made to the region / estate controls.

Region Sit Exploit

There have been recent issued with “buggy” scripts using llunsit on group deeded private land that can result in avatars sitting on the affected objects to be unseated under very specific (and rare) situations. The Lab is aware of the issue, which has proven difficult to track down,  resulting in feature request BUG-225443 being put forward to allow people to better identify objects that may be causing the unsits when they occur.

Mainland Purchases

Since the Lab announced the Mainland price restructuring, demand for Mainland parcels have significantly increased. Thus far, requests have been handled via support ticket, rather than through the stated policy route of requesting the abandoned land be placed up for auction. The use of support tickets doesn’t actually represent a formal change to the policy – but it has been used as the most direct means to respond to requests for land, simply because of the volume received since the price change was announced. However, Keira Linden indicated that it might in future see the auction policy revised:

We’re still in the evaluation stage and aren’t quite ready to officially change that policy just yet … We’ve been urging people to send in the request in a ticket. We’re using that response to kind of judge whether it should be officially changed or not.

Should this be the case, the policy will be updated, and a Land blog post made to announce that has now officially changed.

In-world Group

To help promote the Concierge & Land User Group, it’s been suggested that an in-world group is established that land owners can join to be kept appraised of meetings and news. This is being looked into. If such a group is established, I’ll add the details to these meeting summaries.

Cica’s The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Opening on September 13th, 2018, is Cica Ghost’s latest art installation The Girl Who Cried Wolf, which as she notes is something of a play on the Aesop fable, the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Within the piece, the wolf has already arrived, and can be found chasing the sheep over hill and dale, hoping for a meal. And where is the shepherd boy, who should be watching over them?

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Well, unlike the original fable, in which his calls for help are ignored after previously pranking the village into believing a wolf was after their sheep when no such thing was happening, he’s off playing his little flute. Instead, it’s left to a little girl from the village to raise the alarm – shouting for the shepherd boy, who refuses to budge from his perch on a rock.

Within the setting are a number of Cica’s familiar sitting points where visitors can involve themselves in the story (mouse over some of the animals and furnishings to be found in the setting and you’ll discover them), and which offer a little sense of fun to the tale.

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Looking at the core of the scene, it is perhaps tempting to look for a deeper meaning within it, or to perhaps ascribe some kind of political undertones to it. But neither is Cica’s intent at all; in fact she makes it clear that when it comes to politics, she has no time for the subject, “and I don’t bring politics into Second Life.” she states firmly.

Instead, this is a setting born entirely of the creative process. “I made that scene with sheep and wolf first,” she told me, “And it reminded me of that fable.”And the switch to having a girl raising a warning of the wolf’s arrival? “I wanted the shepherd boy playing a flute,” Cica says, “so I made the girl.”

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

And thus a simple, charming update to a famous tale has been made. One in which, the shepherd boy is more interested in playing his flute than in watching over the sheep – leaving it to the little girl to raise the alarm. But ien’t wanting to be off pursuing his own interests rather than the work assigned to them by their elders typical of many little boys?! 😉 .

The Girl Who Cried Wolf will, as with most of Cica’s installations, remain open for around 4 weeks.

SLurl Details

September SL Town Hall with Ebbe Altberg – reminder

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Town Hall meeting venue

Just a quick reminder.

The next in the Lab’s in-world Town Hall series, again featuring CEO Ebbe Altberg, will take place on Thursday, September 13th, at 09:30 SLT (17:30 BST / 18:30 CET). The event will take place at the Town Hall meeting regions, with the landing point URLs as follows:

Selected questions from the Town Hall meeting forum thread (now closed) will be put to Ebbe during the session, and there may be an opportunity to ask questions from the audience, if time permits.

All things being equal, I hope to have a summary of the session up after the event, which will be similar in nature to my summary of the April 2018 Town Hall – see here for more on that.

Savor Serenity: here be dragons in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity – click any image for full size

It’s been a year since we last visited Savor Serenity, the homestead region designed by Gidgy (Gidgette Adagio); since then the region has relocated and undergone something of a rebuild. So when CybeleMoon (Hana Hoobinoo) suggested we pay the updated setting another visit, we made time to hop over and take a look.

There is no set landing point for the region – or there wasn’t during our visit  -, so I’ve arbitrarily chosen one here, based on the location of a welcoming note card giver. It’s tucked into the south-west corner of the region, which is actually a good place to start explorations.  The introductory note card offers a quote from John Lennon that perfectly sums up Savor Serenity’s various incarnations:

I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams aren’t as real as the here and now?

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity

Those familiar with the region’s layout from late 2017 might, on camming over / reaching the centre of the land and in considering the region’s windlight and flora, be forgiven for thinking little has actually changed. A familiar pool of water sits at the heart of the region, partially enclosed by what might have once been a fully surrounding octagonal wall, while to the east, steps rise from the waterfront to structures of distinctly elven design. But first looks can be deceptive.

The great Mallorn trees with their elven flets and platforms that once rose from both within and without the flanks of the great wall are now gone, taking with them some of the Tolkienesque feel that Savor Serenity was part of an elven enclave.  In their place are ancient stone buildings, connected by raised paths and stairways wrought of stone and rock.

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity

But these are places seemingly long abandoned; walls are pitted and broken, nature’s vines and trunks and shrubs are slowly laying claim to halls and footpaths. Only etching on the glass of the few remaining glazed windows gives a hint that this one once a realm where elves and beasts lived in harmony. Now, only the beasts show themselves, the dragons of Lennon’s quote.

The largest of these wonderful creatures stand to one side of the great pool, wings magnificently spread, head and long neck lowered and stretched, great mane of spikes raised even has flames curls and flicker from wide-open mouth. It is a stance of warning, of guardianship; a great firedrake protecting the land it still regards as home. It is also a magnificent tableau of which visitors can become a part (suitable clothing advised to fully fit the scene!).

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity

Elsewhere, smaller dragons sit within the ruins of the the stone buildings or guard the waiting throne high under the eastern dome, or offer lamps to light the way through darkling places, and are immortalised – if such beasts are not themselves immortal – in stone throughout. Their presence, together with the glass etchings, give flight to the imagination: just who were the people who once shared this place with these great breasts, and who nurtured them and clearly loved them? And from whence did they come – and where did they go?

And it is not only our imaginations that can take flight; located on the shore close to the great dragon is a sign allowing visitors to summon a winged beast of their own, and to take flight upon its back to experience something of the life and rapport the long-vanished people once enjoyed with their dragons.

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity

Nor is that all. Within this land are secret, treasured places awaiting discovery. Follow the paths paths ruins and under tress and across rocky upheavals to a dragon-topped spire to the north-end, and you’ll find a gallery of CybeleMoon’s magnificent art; veritable tales and fables wrought each within a single image. Should you find your way to the foot of the great wall, you might also find a portcullis offering a way to passages that lead to further secrets in art awaiting discovery, and beyond it, a place to rest with the one with whom you shear your heart – or for just sitting in contemplation alone.

Beautifully conceived and executed, with places throughout  – on land or under it or on the water – awaiting discovery, which places also to sit or to dance, Savor Serenity remains an absolute delight to visit, and a joy for eye and camera to see. Photos can be shared via the Savor Serenity Flickr pool, and donations towards the upkeep of the region are appreciated.

Savor Serenity; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrSavor Serenity

SLurl Details