Month: August 2019

Sansar Product Meetings week #32: quests and Avatar 2.0

Posted on by Inara Pey
Target shooting in Scurry Waters

The following notes were taken from my recording of the August 8th (week #32) Sansar Product Meeting, which has a focus on questing and avatar 2.0. Note that there were questions that had to be referred back to the Lab for answers, or were related to individual issues encountered by creators, and which are not necessarily included in the notes below. Please refer to the meeting video, also embedded below.

Quest Update 2 – August 7th

A second Quest update was made on August 7th, 2019, which included both quest and non-quest related improvements.

Quest Updates

  • It is now possible to set objectives to address avatars by name, using the new [Player Name] token, which is automatically replaced by the avatar’s name.
    • For example, a quest giver could be set up as “Greetings, [Player Name]! Do you wish to embark on The Magical Mystery Tour?”
    • Then, when Joe Schmoe touches the quest giver, he sees, “Greetings, Joe Schmoe! Do you wish to embark on The Magical Mystery Tour?”
  • The quest panel has been updated to be more informative for users.

Other Updates

  • Sansar Store: it is now possible for creators to add “hidden listings” in the store. These can be used to give items directly to selected people by the creator giving the item URL directly to those they wish to be able to obtain the item. See Hidden Store Listings in the Sansar documentation for more.
  • New “Visibility” simple script:
    • Sansar > Client > ScriptApi > Examples > ScriptLibrary > Scene > ScriptLibrary.json.
    • At the time of writing, this is currently not integrated in the Scene Editor. You will have to import it in Sansar yourself.
  • General improvements: please refer to the release notes.

Avatar 2.0

Official Documentation – Recap

Avatar 2.0 Creator Programme – What Is It? – Recap

  • The Avatar 2.0 creator programme is designed to allow creators who create avatars, avatar wearables, accessories, etc to have their content tested by the Lab ahead of the avatar support being added to the client.
    • The Lab may only initially be reviewing around 2-4 items per creator. Additional items submitted will only be reviewed once all creators making submissions have been seen.
    • Creators are obviously free to test their items in their own 3D editor of choice, if preferred, and wait until the launch of Avatar 2.0 to make any necessary adjustments.
  • The programme will be discontinued once Avatar 2.0 has been released, when creators will be able to test their items directly in the client.

Avatar 2.0 Q&A

  • Creators have started availing themselves of the Avatar 2.0 creator programme, and feedback is being supplied to them.
  • It’s been reported that there are rigging issues in the avatar reference files and these are in the process of being reported to the Lab.
  • The initial release of avatar 2.0 will allow greater customisation of the avatar face.

  • Greater body customisation via deformation will be available in a future update to the release.
  • Concern has been raised that this will effectively lead to two classes of human avatar: one based on the Avatar 2.0 skeleton and the Lab’s own blend shapes / deformation options, and a second for custom avatars, again built using Avatar 2.0 outside of Sansar and which use fully custom blend shapes / deformations that behave differently.
    • Because of this, it has been suggested it would be better to rig more bones on the skeleton (e.g. the breast bones), so it doesn’t matter if the avatar is a system avatar or a fully customised avatar made outside of Sansar: he same set of deformations will work across both.
    • The alternative to this would be for creators to be able to create custom human avatars directly from within Sansar, then save them to inventory and then (if they wish) sell them on the Store. This is already the plan with avatar heads / faces with Avatar 2.0.
  • The Lab is working with Blender 2.8 for Avatar 2.0, and the avatar reference files documentation has been updated to reflect this.
  • Will Avatar 2.0 support users applying skins / eyes, etc., that they’ve bought from the Store? Not in the initial release, but something that is seen as a priority for adding in a subsequent update to Avatar 2.0.

Quest Q&A

  • Can the quest system be have a means to automatically record who threw / fired something within an objective (e.g. if two people are shooting at a set of targets, having a means for the target to record who hit it last)? This currently has to be manually scripted and an automated means of recording would ease the quest authoring / development. The Lab will take this on-board.
  • Can the quest panel be updated to not pop-up and start nagging as soon as a user with in progress quests logs-in? Possibly.
  • If a quest creator revises a quest and removes / changes objectives, it is possible for people who have already started the quest to be unable to complete it. This comes back to the idea of the creator (or the quest system) to provide a means for participants to reset the quest for themselves.
  • Testing / debugging quests needs an ability within the tools to reset individual objectives as well as the entire quest (which is currently provided). This is on the roadmap.

General Q&A

  • The usual four:
    • High heels for avatars: not on the roadmap at present.
    • 3D mouse support: not on the roadmap, will more likely be a general project to support game pads, joysticks, etc., if done.
    • Wiki: the more user-submitted guides that are made to the forum public documentation area, the more weight is given to the case for the Lab creating and offering / managing a wiki.
    • Persistence: the Sansar devs would love documented requirements on where and how persistence might be needed / used, particularly as persistence is under consideration at the moment.
  • Can users be given volume controls for other avatars? Right now if someone has their mic open or too loud or set too low, they have to be asked to close it or turn it down / up. For the latter it would be preferable if users simply had access to individual volume controls for other avatars so they can adjust the volume to suit their own needs. This has been requested numerous times, and will again be taken back to the Lab for consideration.
  • Can push-to-talk be implemented? Microphones can be toggled via the M key (but this needs to be added to the keyboard short cuts documentation)
  • Can the F4 ability to freecam and improved lighting be added to the Look Book / Home Space so that it is possible to test new clothes and footwear, take images for use with Store listings, etc., without having to view them in an experience, thus adding a further step to the development cycle? Will be looked into; lighting is being improved.
  • Will two people ever be able to hold the same object? Not on the roadmap.
  • Can creators have an option to turn off the ability for people to “steal” an object held by someone else by clicking on it (e.g. to prevent people disrupting things like shooting games by simple “click stealing” the guns of other participants in the game)? Will be looked at.
  • Can skirts / dresses / togas conform more naturally to the body position when sitting? Not easily, as this requires real-time cloth deformation, which is performance intensive.

Rain, sand, surfboards and go karts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Totem Beach, August 2019 – click any image for full size

Totem Beach is a Homestead region designed by Tlaloc Beresford designed to give visitors a range of land and water activities for their enjoyment.

Nestled along the Pacific North West, Totem Beach awaits those enjoy the ocean and forests of the region. Surf the waves, dive the canyons, or walk through the forest and lay down some roots of your own in this beautiful region.

– The About Land description for Totem Beach

The ground level of the region is largely given over to water – a rocky bay caught in the arms of tall hills. These lie partially open the sea to the west, but curl around to the east to form a backdrop to the region’s single landmass, a range of high cliffs oriented north-to-south, overlooking a west-facing ribbon of sandy beach.

Totem Beach, August 2019

The setting embraces the Pacific North West’s  reputation for rain, which falls from the sky to the beach and the cliff top woodlands alike. Up on the cliff tops, the rain causes a ground mist to rise, which lurks around the trunks of the trees.

The woods are cut by a path that follows the western lip of the cliffs that connect various tepees, tents and cabins that are available for rent (note that those that are rented nay have parcel access control enabled, and thus blocked from public access.

Totem Beach, August 2019 – Mario Karting with power-ups!

Another path winds down to the beach, where surf boards and a jet ski rezzer await those who join the region’s group (which includes rezzing rights), allowing them to enjoy time out on the water and surfing on the region’s incoming waves.

For those who prefer quieter pursuits , there are places to sit and watch the action along the beach and up on the cliffs, while those who like their action on land can take any of the region’s teleport points up to the go kart track area hidden in the sky.

The latter offers two courses to race either against the clock or other drivers – or both. The system is based on the Mario Kart franchise, including the ability to chose one of several of that game’s Karts (I opted for Yoshi’s because – well, Yoshi  🙂 ). As it is based on Mario Kart, it also includes power-up boxes that provide weapons to take out your opponents (bursting the balloons on the back of their karts with each hit) and bonuses, allowing for something of the full measure of the game to be met.

For those looking for a public region that offers things to do that aren’t too taxing, Totem Beach offers an easy-going diversion that can be fun when visited with one or more friends.

Totem Beach, August 2019

SLurl Details

Linden Endowment for the Arts: update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Storm Septimus, Untitled – LEA 28, March 2018

As I blogged in mid-July, the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) as we currently know it is due to close at the end of August (see: Linden Endowment for the Arts to officially close). Following that news, I further blogged about a move to try and save – or replace – the LEA (see: LEA: more on the closure, and a move to save it).

Obviously, any move to save / replace the LEA would require the (preferably active) involvement of Linden Lab. In the meantime, Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora, the two artists who formed the in-world group to try to save the LEA have been collecting ideas and feedback from artists and those supportive of LEA, which have been supplied to them via note cards. On August 7th, Tansee contacted me to let me know of the current situation:

I will share with you that we have 33 note cards and I would say 90% of all the ideas presented are all the same, so we know that we are moving forward in the right direction.

One of the note cards received came via Scylla Rhiadra, who took up my request to collate comments put forward in the forum thread also on the subject – so I’d like to pass on my thanks to Scylla for doing that!

The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise - LEA 21
Giovanna Cerise, The Eternal Suspense – LEA 21, May 2015

Tansee also confirmed – as per comments made through the “LEA 2.0” group, that contact has been made with Derrick and Patch Linden, and a meeting has been set-up to discuss what the group has been doing and the ideas that have been gathered.

In the meantime, people have also contacted the Lab directly on the subject, which has prompted the following general reply:

Thank you for your expressed interest in the Linden Endowment of the Arts (LEA) program. As this program comes to an end we are considering our options to move forward with Arts Program support. Once a decision is made on how best to support the amazing talents within the Second Life community we will post a public blog so that everyone will have an equal opportunity for involvement.

Thank you for your support of The Arts in Second Life,

Linden Lab™

Tansee has dropped a line to Izzy Linden, from whose account the above was sent, to confirm the planned meeting is still going ahead and to ask if input from the group is still required / welcomed.

None of this means that the LEA will be “saved” of course, but it is encouraging that the Lab is considering matters internally, and is willing to hear from residents in the matter. As such, I’ll endeavour to provide further updates as and when possible / appropriate.

Paper folding and letters in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Sim Quarterly: Orizuru

The Sim Quarterly is a new artistic endeavour by Electric Monday. This homestead region is intended to offer artists a three month period in which to display their work.

Art and the virtual world, Second Life© are very similar —you are able to both find yourself and immerse yourself (and maybe even lose yourself) in something totally unlike what you already know. The experiences you gain help you grow and form new opinions about the world. That is what I hope this sim can provide over time. I am very excited to bring to you a quarterly art project by way of The Sim Quarterly.

– Electric Monday, describing The Sim Quarterly

The Sim Quarterly: Orizuru

For the first installation Electric presents Orizuru (“folded crane” or “paper crane”) by Kaiju Kohime with Electric Monday. With a focus on origami that plays into the use of paper as a writing surface and its use in  artistic expression, this is the story of two people who communicate entirely by letter and in the hope of meeting.

The landing point for the installation is in the sky, where an introduction can be found, together with a teleport down to the installation proper.  Here the story begins at a little pair of houses and an ice cream van, where two figures stand back-to-back, symbolising the story’s protagonists, Elise and Henri. Sheets of paper drop from the hands of the male figure, pointing the way to the water where the first two letters between the couple can be found.

The Sim Quarterly: Orizuru

Follow the stepping stones to the nearby island, and further pairs of letters between Elise and Henri can be found, their story unfolding on the written pages. Colours beneath the water tehn lead visitors onwards to more of the story as it unfolds across the installation.

Will Henri and Elise meet? That’s for those who visit to decide.  The landscape, meanwhile, with its folded cranes, origami birds and paper rocks and trees, with paper clouds floating overhead, presents a visually attractive setting in which to follow the story.

The Sim Quarterly: Orizuru

Those wishing to keep up-to-date with events at The Sim Quarterly can do so via the website and photographs can be submitted to the region’s Flickr group, which is also hosting a photo contest – details available in-world at the region’s landing zone.

SLurl Details

2019 SL User Groups week #32/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Small Town Green; Inara Pey, June 2019, on FlickrSmall Town Green, June 2019 – blog post

Server Deployments

  • There are no planned deployments for week #32.
  • The update(simulator package 19#19.07.10.529179), intended for the Magnum RC originally deployed and then rolled back on Wednesday, July 17th (the roll-back the result of a bug being discovered during the attempt at deployment), will likely be re-deployed to at least one RC channel, during in week #33 (commencing Monday, August 12th.

SL Viewer

The Love Me Render viewer updated to version 6.2.4.529638 on Monday, August 5th.

At the time of writing the rest of the official viewers remain as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5, promoted June 18 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.2.3.527749, June 5. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November 2017 – 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.

In Brief

Lumiya / Android Client

No major change in situation: aspects of Lumiya – notably in relation to the in-world view the app has ( changing their outfits, using animations / AOs, etc.) – have not been working since the last of the UDP asset messages were removed from the simulator. Calls are still being made for the Lab to work on an Android client, given they are developing an iOS client. However, as I noted in week #30:

  • The initial versions of the iOS app will be for chatting and messaging only – which can still be done with the Lumiya app.
  • While the capabilities of the iOS app will be extended over time, the Lab has not committed to what additional functionality will be provided or a time frame of when they will be provided. Simply “diverting” development from iOS to Android (assuming LL has the in-house skills for Android development) will not really change that; ergo, it’s unlikely a change in development at this point in time will overcome the current Lumiya issues.

Other Notes

  • Simulator performance:
    • Some region holders are reporting improved performance in their regions over the last 2-3 weeks. Nothing has been altered on the back-end to account for this.
    • Some region holders are conversely reporting frequently degraded physics performance in their regions that requires frequent restarts to overcome. If this is occurring with a recently terraformed region, the suggestion is to check for any “land leveller” prims that may have been buried in the terrain.
  • Ghosted attachments: issues of attachments being “ghosted” – that is, failing to render whilst still being attached or remaining rendered (in your view) when they have been detached (“killed”) as a result of a teleport seem to be on the increase. The problem appears to be with attachment “kill” messages being incorrectly sent, or with multiple “kill” messages being incorrectly received. It’s not clear how / when this might be dealt with.

Images of Heaven is Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Heaven

Heaven by Oema and Van Loopen is not a new exhibition, having been open since May 2019 – but it is one that will be closing at the end of August 2019, and I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. It is a multi-media installation involving hand-drawn images, mobile sculptures, music and an ethereal setting, which Oema describes as follows:

Heaven was born from the idea of bringing together some of my drawings depicting female faces. At first, Van Loopen and I had no idea how to create an original structure that could accommodate drawings … In addition to the church and the drawings, we thought of creating special media effects to be placed so that the visitor, enabling multimedia, could be fascinated by the lights, movements, shapes, colours, and sounds in sync.

Heaven

Placed against the nave walls towards one end of the ruined cathedral, Oema’s drawings are presented in monochrome, each one very much a focus on an emotion and / or a response. They sit framed within evocative titles, the words of which – assuming they are read by visitors via a right-click edit – add to their depth and potential interpretation by the observer.

The images face in towards the central isle of the nave, where sculptures by Noke Yuitza are animated to turn slowly amidst a gentle blizzard of light and shapes that dance as if given life by the music to which the installation is set – music and lyrics specifically chosen to form an active part of the installation, and which should be enabled and listened to.

Heaven

It’s an immersive, engaging installation. The visitor, after following the instructions close to the landing point, is undeniably drawn into the piece, particularly if the titles of the drawings are viewed. But at the same time, so little is actually revealed about the subjects themselves; on whom are the images based? Avatars? People from the physical world? Friends? Family? Entirely from the imagination? No clue is given, heightening our involvement with the images and the installation as whole.

SLurl Details

  • Heaven (LEA 1, rated: Moderate)