Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week ending Sunday, March 20th, 2022
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – no change.
Release channel cohorts:
MFA RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569309, issued on March 15.
Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.569349, dated March 14.
Project viewers:
Performance Floater project viewer updated to version 6.5.4.569531, on March 18.
Artemis 1: the SLS rolls slowly out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and out to pad 39B at Kennedy Space Centre. Credit: NASA / Artemis-
NASA has rolled out the first of what is intended to be both the first of its new “super rocket”, the Space Launch System, and the vehicle to start the United States and its international partners on the road back to the Moon.
At 21:47 UTC on March 17th, the huge rocket, mounted on its mobile launch platform, slowly crept out of one of the high bays of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the iconic cube sitting within NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre which was used as an integral part of Project Apollo and which is now fulfilling a similar role for Project Artemis, on the back of a massive crawler-transporter at the start of a 6.72 km journey to Kennedy Space Centre’s Lunch Complex pad 39B.
It was not a swift journey, taking some 11 hours to complete – albeit with stops along the way for checks to be carried out – the crawler-transporter finally reaching the top of the incline of the launch pad 04:15 UTC on Friday, March 18th.
The move of the rocket from VAB to pad was not in readiness for the launch of Artemis 1 – the mission this SLS vehicle will carry to orbit – but rather for the final series of tests to be carried out on the fully integrated rocket and its Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) payload to ensure both are ready for that launch, which is currently set for a provisional window in mid-May 2022.
Another view of Artemis 1 SLS emerging on its mobile launch platform from the VAB at Kennedy Space Centre. Credit: NASA / Artemis 1
As I noted in my last Space Sunday update, the focus of these tests will be a full wet dress rehearsal, due to take place in April. This will see the rocket fully fuelled and go through a full launch countdown that will stop just nine seconds prior to an actual launch. The intention is to make sure everything with the rocket, the payload and the launch systems are all ready for a launch attempt, and will be followed by a further 8-9 days of additional pad tests. After this, the rocket will be returned to the VAB and assessed ready for final flight clearance.
When it does take flight, SLS will become the most powerful launch system built by NASA. The Block 1 vehicle being capable of delivering up to 95 tonnes to low Earth orbit, and the upcoming Block 1B up to 105 tonnes, and the future Block 2 vehicle up to 130 tonnes – putting it in the same lifting class as SpaceX’s Starship / Super Heavy launch system, but potentially far more flexible in turns of specialised launches, SLS being capable of launching smaller payloads (e.g. 23-45 tonnes, depending on the launcher variant) directly to the Moon, or other payloads out into the solar system without any need for on-orbit refuelling.
However, as I’ve noted before, there are some significant cost issues for SLS that may impact its use, the most notable being that of ongoing costs. Development work on the SLS system has thus far eaten US $23.01 billion, and while NASA would claim a lot of that (US $14 billion) has gone directly into work creation, it nevertheless means that as a non-reusable system, SLS is terribly expensive: NASA’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) estimates each launch will cost some US $4 billion, twice NASA’s launch cost estimate, and will never fall below US $1 billion as the agency has suggested.
This cost factor has already seen NASA turn to other launch systems for missions originally earmarked for SLS. The Europa Clipper mission, for example, has been move to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launcher on the ground of launch costs (and the fact that SLS generates so much vibration at launch, it is unsuitable to fly certain sensitive instruments into space).
As it is, five SLS missions in support for Artemis have thus far been confirm, with vehicles for three more after Artemis 1 already under construction:
Artemis 1: uncrewed mission to cislunar space to test the Orion MPCV; duration: some 25.5 days – mid 2022.
Artemis 2: crewed mission to lunar orbit; duration: 10 days – 2024.
Artemis 4: crewed mission to a lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) in support of the Lunar Gateway station and the core I-HAB deployment – 2026/27
Artemis 5: crewed mission to a lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit(NRHO) in support of the Lunar Gateway station and the European System Providing Refuelling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) module, together with a lunar surface mission – 2027-28.
Starship HLS: NASA Updates
A further key component for Project Artemis is the Human Landing System (HLS), the vehicle that will be used to transfer crews between lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon and (initially) provide them with living space whilst on the Moon. Currently, only one contract has been issued for HLS, and as I’ve noted before, it is to SpaceX for the use of a lunar variant of their Starship vehicle, although the agency has more recently been order to acquire HLS vehicles from other sources.
As a part of their Artemis HLS update, NASA provides images of astronauts working with prototype elements that will be used within the vehicle, which SpaceX are due to build. Credit: NASA
Coinciding with the SLS roll-out at Kennedy Space Centre, NASA issued an update on the SpaceX HLS programme, including the work going into some key elements, such as the elevator that will carry the 2-person crew of Artemis 3 the 30-40 metres down the side of the vehicle to the Moon’s surface and back after landing, together with the airlock through which they’ll leave / enter HLS during surface operations and some of the living / working facilities inside the vehicle.
The update also confirms that HLS will require some six starship / super heavy launches:
The launch of a special “tanker” Starship that will be parked in Earth orbit and used for a wide range of Starship propellant transfer operations.
Four further launches of re-usable Starship vehicles equipped with additional fuel tanks that will carry propellants to be transferred to the orbital “tanker”.
The HLS starship itself and the cargo needed for Artemis 3. This will dock with the “tanker” and take fuel from it that can be used to boost the HLS vehicle to lunar orbit and to both land it on the Moon and then get it back to lunar orbit.
Artemis 3 / HLS operations concept graphic. Credit: NASA
Once the HLS is in lunar orbit, the 4-person Artemis 3 crew will then launch to the Moon aboard an Orion MPCV lifted by SLS, and rendezvous with HLS so two can transfer to it and then travel to / from the lunar south pole. After transferring back to Orion, the crew will return to Earth, leaving the HLS starship in lunar orbit, potentially with either fuel to be used by the crew of Artemis 5, the second lunar landing mission.
However, whilst SpaceX HLS is earmarked for this mission (and will likely be the only HLS craft capable of supporting Artemis 5 in 2027/28), some in Congress are pushing NASA to use an alternative HLS design for the second lunar landing (which is which Artemis 4 was switched from a join lunar gateway / lunar landing mission to being solely a lunar gateway mission.
Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 saw the opening of an exhibition at Frank Atisso’s Art Korner Main Gallery that features images by two artists on a shared theme, but which are strikingly different in their style and visual impact.
The artists in question are Dannika Dryke and Traci (Traci Ultsch), who have split the gallery between themselves, with Danni’s images located on the lower floor, and Traci’s on the upper. The central theme is that of portraits, but the two styles offered by the artists are extraordinarily different.
Art Korner, March 2022: Dannika Dryke
On the lower level, Danni presents a series of large format images that might been seen as “traditional” modern portraits: the subject the centre of the image sans and background distractions, (largely) minimal visible posing, the colours clean and natural in tone. These are images that allow us to focus solely on the subject, drawing us into a study of their look and appearance and – oh, so gently – into a wider consideration of their nature as revealed (or imposed, depending on your viewpoint) by the pose they have struck.
These are picture that speak to the art of photography as form of modern portraiture that has largely taken over from the more formalised use of paint and canvas to immortalise an individual. With most images presented as head and shoulders / chest level, they reveal the avatar-as-a-person, someone who exists independently from any human operator behind the screen. Within the eyes, we can perceive life and mood, within the expression there lies emotion and and intelligence, within the choice of clothing a glimpse of character and nature. Such is the depth of life within each image, were the subject to lean out of the monitor and offer an introduction, it wouldn’t be in the least bit surprising!
Art Korner March 2022: Traci Ultsch
Life and vitality are also very much in evidence in the images presented by Traci on the gallery’s upper level – but in a very different way. Where Danni opts to go the more “traditional” route of portraiture, Traci leans into a more expressive presentation, the images swept with brush-like swirls of light or splattered with dark tones a-la Pollock or stamped with blocks of Warhol-esque colour to present bold statement of life in which the entire image speaks – subject, colour, contrast – to present not so much the individual, but the sense of mood / emotion, and presence / vitality of the subject.
These are images in which there is a lot going on, the very depth of elements drawing us into each picture, not so much to decrypt or understand it, but simply to flow with the narrative as it forms ideas and stories that are as unique and individual as the images and their colours.
Art Korner March 2022: Traci UltschTaken individually, each of these displays of art has much to attract the eye; taken together, and they offer a marvellous juxtaposition and conjoining of style and content that is wholly engaging.
Bamboo, March 2022 – click any image for full size
Hi Inara! Sending my best regards to you – remember when I told you that we had a sim project on the go already? Well, finally we feel like it’s ready to be opened. – So I’m introducing “Bamboo”, and Yu and I would love if you came by. There’s a lot to explore and look at, scenic. Looking forwarding to having you as always as our guest 🙂 .
Jin Zhu (KidDreamz)
Thus was the invitation I received from Jin Zhu (KidDreamz) and Yu Zhu (JamaicasianBaby) to visit their latest region build which they have just opened to the public. I’ve always enjoyed touring their work, so as soon as time allowed, I jumped over to Bamboo to take a look – and it is an impressive build, richly oriental – as is Jin and Yu’s style – in content with much to see and photograph.
Surrounded by high mountains, the region is divided into three elements linked by bridges. The largest of these is home to the landing point, and sits as a formal gardens built around a large building with a temple-like feel to it that dominates the island’s plateau. Facing east, the building sits over water that has been carefully penned by the gardens around it, the water allowed to flow through pipes to a lower pool before which a meditating carved bodhisattva sits under a Torii-style gate, a miniature Zen garden adding to his journey towards Buddhahood.
Bamboo, March 2022
An aged peach tree faces the carved figure, occupying the heart of the landing point square, which is again surrounded on three sides by water. To the west sits more water drops away via a single fall to lower steps of the landscape – mortals will need to follow the paths and steps to descend to these lower reaches, sitting under giant willows and oaks, houses sitting under the shade thrown by board boughs and cooled by the passing waters.
Bamboo, March 2022
Northwards are two further islands that are richly diverse, mixing trees and paved walks, houses and temples, gardens and places to eat, torii gates and grassy walks, waterfalls and rocky climbs, stone bridges and rope bridges, snowy highlands and cliff-side shrines, and rickshaws and tuk-tuks – and a lot more!
Such is the beauty of the region, I really don’t want to waste time burbling on here, but rather encourage everyone who enjoys exploring Second Life to make sure Bamboo goes to the top of their list of places to see – and to allow themselves a decent amount of time to explore, as there is a lot to appreciate and a lot of little touches that can be missed if you’re not careful. Make sure as well, that you have local sounds enabled for the fullest experience.
Bamboo, March 2022
My thanks to Jin and Yu for the invitation, and also to Shawn Shakespeare for also poking me about Bamboo.
My audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, March 17th 2022 at 13:00 SLT.
My audio recording and the video recording by Pantera (embedded at the end of this piece, my thanks to her as always for recording the meetings) from the Third-Party Viewer Developer (TPVD) meeting on Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 13:00 SLT.
These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and their respective dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.
This is a summary of the key topics discussed in each meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript of either. However, the video does provide a complete recording of the TPVD meeting, and timestamps to the relevant points within it are included in the notes below.
The Performance Floater project viewer updated to version 6.5.4.569531, on March 18th. This viewer includes the Lab’s implementation of automatic adjustments to the viewer to try to maintain FPS. Monday, March 21st: Appears to have either been rolled back, or update to official viewers list was premature.
The list below reflects the rest of the currently available official Second Life viewers:
Release viewer: version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – No Change
MFA RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569309, issued on March 15.
Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.569349, dated March 14.
Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569191, issued on March 11.
Project viewers:
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
It is hoped that those using the official viewer and who are in the Performance Improvements RC cohort (or opt to manually install this viewer) will see noticeable performance improvements in terms of frame rates and fewer viewer stalls, when compared to previous SLV releases.
The RC has already seen some new bugs raised against it, and these are being worked on (e.g. BUG-231936).
It is still hoped this will be the next promotion to de facto release status, but this hinges on bug fixing and a decision on whether or not to release MFA as a dedicated viewer.
It is acknowledged that the work in this viewer and the Performance Floater project viewer needs to be reconciled with the work carried out by Beq Janus of the Firestorm team, whose code will be in the upcoming Firestorm 6.5.3 release.
MFA Viewer
Summary:
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is coming to the viewer.
As MFA is implemented in the official viewer, there will be a “grace” period to allow TPV adopt the viewer code.
During this period, users will be able to access SL on TPVs as they currently do now, regardless of whether or not they have opted-in to MFA.
After this “grace” period, all users who have opted in to MFA will be required to authenticate themselves when using any viewer to log-in to Second Life (with the usual 30-day period of valid authentication, as per secondlife.com MFA), but those who have not opted-in to MFA will see no difference in their log-in steps, regardless of whether the viewer they are using supports MFA.
The RC version of the viewer, version 6.5.4.569309, was released on March 15th. This appears to have an authentication bug – BUG-231938 – related to how pass codes are parsed by the viewer.
The MFA RC viewer prompts those who have opted in to SL’s MFA capability to provide an authentication code / key (once every 30 days) in order to log-in to SL
[CCUG meeting] The decision has yet to be taken on whether to maintain MFA as a dedicated viewer update or possibly merge it with another RC viewer (e.g. the Maintenance RC) to streamline the number of active viewer versions and the QA process.
In-world mirrors that reflect that reflect their surroundings – including avatars – have long been a requested capability in SL. Over the years, various attempts have been made to fake mirrors, such as using Linden Water and static photographic sets, though to “cheating” using projectors (albeit sans reflecting avatars) and the old means of duplicating sections of a build and inverting it so it appears to be reflections on a polished floor.
In 2014, Zi Ree of the Firestorm team developed a means of generating real time reflections, including avatars, within the viewer, and produced a video on the idea. At the time, due to various reasons (most notably the impact on performance), LL decided mirrors could not be supported, which has tended to remain their position since.
However, Mojo Linden (VP of Engineering) is now prepared to consider possibly enabling some implementation of mirrors in SL, although how this might be done is open to discussion, particularly as the potential for a massive performance impact is still very much a concern.
Suggestions made by Mojo on how this might be done included:
To have user-initiated “mirrors” (that is, there are “mirror” objects in a space, but the rendering of their “reflections” is only triggered for a viewer based on something like their proximity to the object).
To possibly limit mirrors in terms of what they reflect (such is things that are directly in front of them, rather than much further in the background or only render avatars with the background left white.
In terms of “triggering” mirrors, there was discussion on whether this should be automated or with user-controlled input:
Automated within the viewer:
The viewer detects the “mirror” object based on proximity, per above & renders the reflections. Discussion on this included the ideas that there could also be a Graphics preference option to completely enable or disable all mirror rendering by the viewer and a slider / drop-down to set the overall quality of the rendering of reflections (as is we already have for graphics quality (slider) and water reflections quality (drop-down)).
Automated via LSL (setting / unsetting flags on objects that trigger “reflection” rendering) or possibly using the interest list.
User controlled input: reflections are toggled in a manner similar to Media On A Prim: the user touches the “mirror” surface and “reflections” are rendered only by their viewer – although this seems clunky / immersion breaking, even if it is an approach taken by games such as Cyberpunk 2077.
One suggestion from those at the meeting was to take the Linden Water planar reflections (which are rendered anyway, whether the Linden Water is visible or not) and render them at a lower resolution in screen space.
Using the Water planar could help with things like reflective floors, mirror walls, etc., although screen space rendering in SL can be subject to clipping.
Screenspace reflections (SSR) have appeared in some TPVs – like Firestorm and Niran’s Viewer, but how well these work is open to question – for Firestorm, there were issues with the release of materials that resulted in the code being removed.
One suggestion make for limiting performance impact was to limit the viewer to rendering only the nearest mirror surface and either use SSR for the remaining mirrors or, don’t render them at all
A lot depends on potential use-cases, and whether expectations can be managed – as there is a potential that any solution will not be able to meet all requirements, simply because of the risk of performance impact.
Everything on mirrors is purely at the discussion stage right now and there is currently no formal project – and indeed, there might never actually be any project to implement mirrors; however, that the topic is being discussed by LL marks a significant shift in thinking.
In Brief
From the Content Creation Meeting
A lot of general discussion on a number of topics, none of which is currently the focus of any Lab project, including:
Using physics to allow more “wiggling parts” – such as ears, etc., – on mesh avatars: a lot of this would come down to positioning the most suitable bones and rigging to them.
Controlling / ordering joint position overrides (BUG-231904 / BUG-231579): this is currently handled by mesh UUID – which can be random from the POV of the user. However, trying to order using the order things are added to an avatar could lead to race conditions, as the outfit system doesn’t have any concept of prioritising attachments, therefore a more structured schema – such as adding a specific field that could be set for objects – but even this could have conflicts and also likely to be a non-trivial piece of work.
Expansion of supported upload formats for mesh (e.g. glTF) and use of techniques such as PBR, with a stated preference (from creators) for SL handling of reflections / reflectivity to be overhauled before any attempt is made to add PBR support.
Expanding Bakes on Mesh to support materials – which as noted over the last several meetings would require a significant update to the Bake Service, which LL is not planning on doing in the foreseeable future.
A further complexity here is managing the proper ordering of the additional maps. Example: some users may want their shirt partially blended with their bra / vest normal; others might want their shirt to cover their bra /vest normal map whilst others may not want their bra / vest to have a normal at all; so how can these three states be collectively handled in terms of layering?
Further discussion on terrain – which is the subject of a project for 2022, although there is some split about increasing the texel density / increasing the resolution/repeats (and thus reducing the blurriness) + allowing normal maps, or allowing more in the way of mesh terrain (heightmaps, etc.).
Another request for terrain has been to allow greater compositing of textures (e.g. for more graduation in changes of textures by height or offering greater depth to terrain by layering-up textures.
A further request has been to allow terrain painting – e.g., being able to “paint in” dirt patches on grass, etc.
A request for a scripted means to apply EEP settings to oneself beyond the inventory Apply to Self such that (as an example), you buy a pair of sunglasses or tinted goggles, and they apply EEP setting that make your surrounding look darker. This would require a means to read and apply the contents of an object,
From the TPVD Meeting
[Video: 16:31-27:45 and 28:58-42:30] A broad-ranging discussion on the viewer build process and tool chain, moving to more recent graphics APIs (the likes of Vulkan and Metals are under consideration), resource utilisation within the Lab, future work on improving the viewer’s threading capabilities, etc.
Outside of the ongoing (/periodic) tool chain updates and graphics API investigations, none of discussion points are subject to any immediate / near-term project.
It was again pointed out that a issue in considering replacements for / alternatives to OpenGL is that a lot of users run older PC harder which is incapable of running more recent APIs like Vulkan.
As most of which will likely only be of interest to viewer devs, please refer to the video.
Initiated in 2020, ARCTan is an attempt to re-evaluate both avatar rendering costs and the cost of in-world scene rendering, with the initial focus on avatar rendering cost / impact, itself running on two tracks:
Developing a new UI element in the viewer pull together information from various menus / debugs to display useable information on avatars / attachments that are heavy in rendering cost, and what can be done.
Gathering data with the intent to revise and improve the actual formulas used for calculating avatar complexity, making them more relevant.
ARCTan effectively went into hibernation as a singular project in the latter part of 2021, and is currently awaiting development bandwidth.
[Video 45:09-46:05] One of the issues with ARCTan was being able to pull together the data in a fine enough detail to make any UI used to make changes worthwhile. Beq Janus has tackled a lot of this work for the upcoming Firestorm release, and this is liable to be fed into projects like ARCTan and the Lab’s own work in improving viewer performance and making options visible to users.
Legacy Profiles is a project to move avatar profile information back into the viewer and away from using web pages. There is project viewer (see the list at the top of this article), but it has been awaiting some back-end server work to be completed, and it is hoped that the project will be moving forward “Soon™”.
[Video: 43:54-44:44] CEF: Chrome Embedded Framework (CEF) is the API used to manage media in SL. The SL version is now running several releases behind the current CEF version, and while a need to update has been noted, it is liable to require some significant work (e.g. updated UI elements as well as under-the-hood changes).
[Video 46:05-end] miscellany text conversations, mostly on the topics noted above.
Nelipot, March 2022 – click any image for full size
I dropped back into Nelipot, the Homestead region held and designed by Shawn Shakespeare (SkinnyNilla) and Lien (Lien Lowe) to both catch it in its Spring 2022 dress and to give the Firestorm implementation of the 360º snapshot floater, which will soon be coming up for release. Not because the implementation really needed testing – Firestorm look to have adopted LL’s code pretty much “as is” – but just to satisfy myself; plus – and quite frankly, Nelipot deserves to be seen in its full glory.
For its spring 2022 look, Nelipot moves from what had been something of a North American lean to something perhaps a little more European in tone.
The landing point sits on one of two small islands that brace the main land mass for the region. Sitting to the south-west of the region, this landing point island sits in the jaws of the main land area, separated from it on either side by the waters of an inlet that cuts its way into the region. To reach the rest of the setting, people can either swim or – as might be easier – jump into the pedal boat moored at the island’s little dock and paddle across the bay (don’t double / single-click TP off of the boat when you get to shore or you’ll be returned to the landing point; instead, stand and wade ashore).
Nelipot, March 2022
The core of the main part of the island is given over to a small farm that appears to be split between growing grapes and raising livestock. Given its Tuscan look, the farmhouse and the vines suggest this might be somewhere in Italy – but that’s for visitors to decide.
Across the bay, and bracketing the farmhouse, are two windmills sitting at the end of the finger of land. The wharf and barn here suggest the farm might supplement its income by offering tourists the chance to go fishing out on the surrounding waters, or simply take a kayak or rowing boat out onto those same waters.
To the north-west lies the second little island, another low hump of land rising from the waters, this one the home of an old shack, now used as another fishing retreat. Across the water from it and back on the main island, what might be a holiday cottage lies nestled on the far side of a low rise which separates it from the farm.
With a hilltop café providing a picturesque view across the water to the farmhouse and several places to sit, the pedal boats available for paddling around on the waters in the bay and around the island, and plenty to photograph and explore in-doors and out, Nelipot once again offers a lot to appreciate and enjoy.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 