Category: Sansar

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

• New avatars. New possibilities – published July 9th, updated August 1st: introduces the Avatar 2.0 update.
• FAQ post – published July 7th, 2019.
• Get Started: Avatar 2.0 Creator Programme – published August 1st, 2019. Announcing the August creator programme to allow creators to prepare for the transition to Avatar 2.0. This includes links to:
  • The Avatar 2.0 reference files. Note these are a first pass release, intended to be serviceable for the purposes of creating / testing wearable items. They are still being refined to provide smoother support for 3D tools like blender.
  • Step-by-step instructions on submitting items created using the Avatar 2.0 skeleton for testing by the Lab.
  • A link to the submission portal.
    • Make sure Submit avatar looks item for review is selected from the portal’s initial drop-down.

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.

The following notes were taken from my recording of the August 1st (week #31) Sansar Product Meeting, which focused on the upcoming deployment of Avatar 2.0 and how creators can start working with the Lab in readiness for the change-over. Also referenced in the meeting was the Quest Update release, made on Tuesday, July 30th. As with these meetings, a lot of general feedback was given to be “taken back to the Lab” for consideration, and as such, aren’t reflected in the notes below. The official video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this article for those wishing to watch the meeting in full.

Quest Update

For details on the July 30th Quest update, please refer to the official release notes.

Avatar 2.0

When Will Avatar 2.0 Be Released?

The current plan is for Avatar 2.0 to be released in late August / early September 2019.

Official Documentation

• New avatars. New possibilities – published July 9th, updated August 1st: introduces the Avatar 2.0 update.
• FAQ post – published July 7th, 2019. In particular, this FAQ highlighted the following information:
  • What wearable items will not be usable on Avatar 2.0? Any asset (avatars, rigged hair, rigged clothing) created using the avatar 1.0 avatar skeleton will no longer be usable in the new avatar 2.0 system. These items will be removed from inventories, and deprecated on the Store.
    
  • Why will these items no longer work? Changes to the base avatar’s skeletal structure had to be made in order to support Avatar 2.0 mean they will no longer work as expected.
  • Will it be possible for creators to update broken content? Yes, providing it has been listed on the Store – see below for more. 
  • Which avatar 1.0 assets should still work after the release of Avatar 2.0? All Marvelous Designer clothing, accessories and emotes created against the 1.0 avatar skeleton will have mechanism in place to help ensure they can still be used with Avatar 2.0, and will still be available via inventory and any listed items will still be accessible from the Store for purchase.
• Get Started: Avatar 2.0 Creator Programme – published August 1st, 2019. Announcing the August creator programme to allow creators to prepare for the transition to Avatar 2.0. This includes links to:
  • The Avatar 2.0 reference files.
  • Step-by-step instructions on submitting items created using the Avatar 2.0 skeleton for testing by the Lab.
  • A link to the submission portal.
    • Make sure Submit avatar looks item for review is selected from the portal’s initial drop-down.

Avatar 2.0 Creator Programme – What Is It?

• Avatar 2.0 cannot be tested in the client until support for the new avatar skeleton is actually released.
• The Avatar 2.0 Creator programme is designed to allow creators who create avatars, avatar wearable, accessories, etc to:
  • Develop their avatar-related content (avatars, rigged wearables (including hair), Marvelous Designer clothing, emotes, accessories) based on the Avatar 2.0 skeleton.
  • Send versions of their content to Linden Lab for testing and feedback (notes, images, even video).
  • Update their items based on that feedback, if required.
• Note that depending on how many creators avail themselves of the Avatar 2.0 Creator Programme,  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.
• It is not a new requirement that all content must be reviewed by the Lab, it is purely to help creators who produce avatars and avatar-related items to prepare for the release of Avatar 2.0.
• 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.

General Q&A

Quest System Feedback

See also the Quest Q&A from my week #30 summary.

• It’s been reported that the text displayed at the end of a quest is too small to be comfortably read when see in VR. This is to be looked at.
• There has been a request to add a “Quest Tester” role to allow someone else to be able to test a quest as it is being developed / updated and reset their progress (right now, the ability to reset quest objectives via the UI is only available to the quest creator, and only applies to them).
  • This is seen as a good idea, but a non-trivial enhancement that will be examined.
  • It might be possible to allow something through scripting so testers can re-set quests via an in-world object, and the scripting API does support this.
• Will quests be made repeatable (right now, when a user completes a quest, that’s it, they cannot go back and try it again)? Yes, this is on the quest roadmap, however:
  • “Repeatable” quests are seen as a special class of quests that creators may wish to set up (e.g. a quest game then people can come back to and play over and over).
  • There are also quests that creators may not want users to be able to re-do (e.g. because of the nature of the reward(s) associated with them, once rewards have been deployed).
  • Therefore, the Lab will be approach the question of “repeatable” quests with both of these requirements in mind.
• Can “open-ended” quests be supported (right now quests are designed to have a specific end point. It would be nice to have a capability for a creator to build an on-going quest narrative, adding new objectives, which users could return to and achieve)? Will be looked into.
• Can users have a “quest journal” where they can look back over the quests they’ve completed? The current quest panel in the client UI is intended to provide similar functionality as it is built out.
• Can clicking on a quest category trigger animations in an experience? The ability to trigger animations automatically (e.g. walk onto a dance floor and you automatically start dancing, pick up a sword and start wielding it, etc.) has been talked about at the Lab, but not time frame on when the might be delivered or extended into quests.
• Can avatars be added to “classes” within quests (e.g. serfs, warriors, mages, etc)? Not at present. Would require some form of back-end data persistence, and use cases need to be defined. Where any such system to be introduced, it would likely be fairly generic in order for creators to define what they require to suit their own styles of quests.
• Will the quest panels be customisable (e.g. to look like pages of a book if the quest is a storyline, for example)? There have been internal discussions on making the UI elements in general customisable, however, it is a complex objective, and so is not currently on the roadmap.

In Brief

• 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.
• There has been an uptick in the number crashes users are experiencing since the July 30th update. These are being investigated.
• Mavelous Designer: there are a range of options in MD that are not supported in Sansar. Will more support for MD capabilities be provided? Discussions with MD are constantly on-going, as is integration. If there are specific features Sansar creators would find useful, these should be raised via feature requests so they can be looked at.
• Will users be able to rez their own items in an experience? Possibly. However, it is not on the roadmap, and all the possible implications have to be considered before anything is implemented.
• Will there been single-axis (non-uniform) scaling of objects (e.g. increasing just the height of a door to fit a doorway)? Has been discussed internally, is somewhat more complex than might seem to be the case; not clear to those at the meeting whether or not it is one the roadmap.
• Try-before-you-buy from the Store (being able to try a demo directly from the Store before any purchase) has been discussed in the past. Still on the roadmap, but no ETA at present.

The following notes were taken from my recording of the July 25th (week #30) Product Meeting. Once again, this meeting had a focus on the new quest system, with some additional questions. As with these meetings, a lot of general feedback was given to be “taken back to the Lab” for consideration, and as such, aren’t reflected in the notes below – please refer to the meeting video, which is embedded at the end of this article.

Quests

• The first pass of the quest system was released on Tuesday, July 23rd – see Sansar: user-generated quests release: an overview for more.
• The Lab is working on some “best practices for quests” documentation, based on their own experience building quests, and on quest games in general.
• Some time in around 2-4 weeks, there will be a special in-world questing tutorial event.

Quest Authoring Q&A

• How does it work? Quest creation comprises two parts a) creating the quest data itself, using the authoring tool. This can be created and revised as often as required; b) using objects in scenes (experiences) that are directly linked to the quest and use / present the quest data.
  • The quest can be tested by the creator in the unpublished scene (by building and saving the scene).
  • The quest becomes public when the scene is published as an experience.
• Quests are linear at present: start, objective A, objective B, etc. Can branches be offered (e.g. do objective A then choose either objective B or C)?
  • Possibly via custom scripting.
  • However, in the future it will be possible to author quest “storylines”, allowing multiple quests to be linked, and to be dependent one upon the last, thus offering a level of “branching”.
• Will future updates to the quest system break what has been deployed? No. Features and a capabilities will be added, but will not break the established functionality. So, quests can be enhanced as new capabilities are added.
• Can experiences with quests be made more readily identifiable in the Atlas? Not exactly, but the Lab is considering tools for monitoring how quests are being used (how many people participate, how many complete, etc.), and providing that information to creators.
  • Short-term this may be a manual system with reports curated by LL and made via Discord.
  • Longer term it should be more automated. This might also be built out to include the Atlas to show available quest experiences.

Badge System vs. Experience Points System

Since the week #29 Product Meeting, when the quest tools, rewards and the upcoming experience (XP) system  were announced, a badge system that could be used by individual experience creators, rather than having a global XP system as proposed, as this is seen by some as being more flexible.

• The Lab views a global XP / level system as being more immediately understandable by users, as they can earn XP points and level up no matter what they are doing or how they participate in Sansar – there is no dependency on visiting specific experiences or having to complete specific tasks.
• In time the XP system will be expanded beyond quests, but the first pass will be focused on questing.
• However: the Lab is looking at a badge system, and see it differently to any kind of XP system, as badges can be used to show what a user has specifically done – i.e. a creator can gain various badges to mark their achievements as a creator, while a gamer who is good with shoot-em-ups, etc., can earn badges to reflect what they’ve achieved through that interest, etc.
  • These types of achievements would likely be made available through user profiles.

General Q&A

• The usual trio:
  • 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.
• There is an issue with scripts failing to execute in experience instance with high numbers of avatars. The Lab has already started tweaking scripts within their own event instances, but are requesting more bug reports on where creators are seeing issues.

Streaming Sansar

Apparently, LL are in discussions with a number of streaming service providers about providing Sansar as a streamed (consumer?) option they could be delivered to a range of devices. No time frames on when this might surface (not in 2019), if it goes ahead.