Category: Second Life

2024 SL SUG meetings week #21 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Quiet, Alpha Auer, May 2024 - click any image for full size
Quiet, Alpha Auer, May 2024 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 21st, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from my chat log and the video by Pantera – my thanks to her as always for providing it.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
  • Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

  • On Tuesday, May 21st, the Main SLS channel was restarted without any deployment.
  • On Wednesday, May 22nd:
    • The BlueSteel RC channel should be updated with a re-deployment of the Spring Break Simulator update, after this had to be rolled back in week #20.
    • The rest of the RC simhosts will be restarted.

Upcoming Deployment

The major deployment for June is set to be Summer Fun. Among other things this should include:

  • Leviathan Linden’s game controller event work to support game controllers – although these will require a viewer-side update to expose the updated viewer UI.
  • Rider Linden’s work on the SL Combat System (SLCS) 2.0 updates (see my Combat User Group summaries for more).
  • LSL updates:
    • A new parameter to llRezObjectWithParams REZ_PARAM_STRING – allows the passing of a 1024 char string to the object being rezzed.
    • llGetStartString() to retrieve the string.
  • A fix for the notecard cache so that it a fixed amount of memory (enough memory to store 48 max-sized notecards) rather than the count of notecards.

SL Viewer Updates

No official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the pipeline as:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.7.8974243247, dated May 8 and  promoted May 13 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Materials Featurettes RC viewer, version 7.1.8.9103842320, May 17.
    • Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.7.8820704257, May 6.
    • Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes) 8820696922, April 29.
  • Project viewers:

In Brief

Please refer to the video for the following:

  • The feature request to prioritise 2K support for Bakes on mesh is gathering a lot of support.
    • This sparked discussion on VRAM being maxed out, and a reiteration that the viewer show only download textures at the resolution required to match their screen size (e.g. if the texture takes up 512×512 pixels – that’s the resolution downloaded and used), and only download and use the full 2K version when zoomed right in, then discarding higher resolutions and clearing VRAM on zooming out. This also lead to comments as to the overall effectiveness of this approach.
  • llSetContentType and setting it text/html:  a discussion on the restriction whereby if the requesting html viewer is not owned by the server object, or is not the built in html viewer, the sent content type is just “text”, and the implications of removing that restriction (e.g. to make media on a prim (MOAP) more generally usable).
  • Further discussion on the notecard cache change.
  • Monty Linden noted that the issue of the Friends list being unreliable in reporting people’s on/of-line status is being reported again (he referenced this report). He requested that anyone experiencing issues with on-line friends showing as off-line (or vie-versa) to please comment on the report.

 

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

2024 SL viewer release summaries week #20

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, May 19th, 2024

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: 7.1.6.8745209917, formerly the Maintenance Y/Z RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history), dated April 19 and promoted April 23 – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version: 1.32.0.232 (PBR); and Experimental to version 1.32.1.6 (PBR) on May 18 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2024 Raglan Shire Artwalk in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raglan Shire Artwalk 2024

Raglan Shire, Second Life’s Tiny community, is once again opening its doors to people from across the grid, as participating artists and visitors are invited to the Raglan Shire Artwalk 2024.

This year, the the event runs from Sunday, May 19th, through until Sunday, June 16th, 2024, inclusive. It  offers an opportunity not just to appreciate a huge range of art from both the physical and digital worlds, but to also tour the Shire regions and enjoy the hospitality of the Raglan Shire community – one of the friendliest and fun-seeking groups in Second Life.

A non-juried exhibition, the Artwalk is open to any artist wishing to enter, and has minimal restrictions on the type of art displayed (one of the most important being all art is in keeping with the Shire’s maturity rating). All of this means that it offers one of the richest mixes of art displayed within a single location in Second Life, with 2D art is displayed along the hedgerows of the Shire’s pathways and tree platforms overhead and 3D art among the community’s parks.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2024

Over 120 artists are participating in 2024, many for the first time. As such, the  depth and range of art on display is guaranteed to keep visitors exploring the paths and walks around and through the hedgerows – and if walking proves a little much, there are always the Shire’s tours to ease the load on the feet, together with the teleport boards to help move visitors swiftly around and through the different display areas. But that said, I do recommend exercising your pedal extremities and doing at least some of your exploration on foot – just keep in mind people do have their homes in the regions as well.

Given the number of artists involved, there isn’t a published list of participants, but anyone interested in the world of SL art is bound to recognise many of the names of the artists here. The Artwalk is also a marvellous way to see art from both our physical and digital worlds and for catch artists both familiar and new to your eye. Just don’t try to see it all at once; the Artwalk is open for a month, which gives plenty of time for browsing and appreciating the art without feeling overloaded.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2024

SLurl Details

All of the Raglan Shire Artwalk regions are rated General)

Sunday, May 19th: Bay City turns 16 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bay City 16th Anniversary, May 19th, 2024

Bay City, the first major project undertaken by the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), will be turning sweet sixteen on Sunday, May 19th, 2024. Citizens of Bay City will be joining in celebrations to mark the anniversary, with a parade, music and entertainment, and residents from across of Second Life are invited to visit Bay City and join in the celebrations.

Activities will kick-off at noon SLT, with a parade line-up at the band shell in Bay City – Harwich. At 12:30 SLT, the parade will commence its way along the City’s Route 66, and proceed to the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region for an afternoon of entertainment and fun.

Bity City Parade Route 2024

DJ GoSpeed Racer will be providing the music throughout the parade, which will be followed by at live concert from 13:30 SLT onwards at the fairgrounds. The line-up for the concert this year comprises (all times SLT):

  • 13:30-14:30: AleyKat (Aleylia Resident).
  • 14:30- 15:30: Mavenn.
  • 15:30-16:30: Sarita Twisted.

As usual, celebratory goods are available at the Bay City Community Centre, in the Daley Bay region for those who wish to be a part of the parade. Ample viewing areas are provided, such as those at Orleans and Falconmoon. The event is also open to anyone who wants to attend, not just Residents of Bay City

About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance

First opened for initial viewing in May of 2008 and with parcels throughout the city being auctioned soon after, Bay City is a Mainland community which has shown itself to be one of the highlights of Second Life: a blending of Linden infrastructure and a strong, friendly community of involved residents who give the area its unique charm. It is home to the resident-run Bay City Alliance, also founded in 2008, to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

Each year, in honour of Bay City’s founding, Bay City residents come together with this special celebration.

Anniversary SLurls

Finding A Place in the Sun in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Place in the Sun, May 2024 – click any image for full size

As we approach the half-way mark for 2024, spring is inevitably moving towards summer for many of us in the world at large. This is the time when many public regions across Second Life are lovingly given a make-over by their holders and friends, ready to accept visitors old and new with a fresh look to entice and engage.

One such region about – at the time of writing – to go through such a rebirth is that of Bella’s Lullaby, held by BellaSwan Blackheart, a place I’ve always enjoyed visiting and writing about; the last time being in February 2024. Hearing the news that things are about to change reminded me that I had yet to visit Bella’s “new” region design, that of A Place in the Sun – so off I hopped.

A Place in the Sun, May 2024

This is another of Bella’s designs that carries with it a marvellous understatement of natural beauty that immediately captures the eye and offers a richness of detail without in the least feeling forced or overloaded.

Feel welcome and embrace nature at its purest form. Just find a spot to sit and be comfortable, where you can take in the sights, sounds and beauty of nature ❤

– BellaSwan Blackheart

A Place in the Sun, May 2024

In tone, the setting is somewhat similar to the iteration of Bella’s lullaby I visited in February 2024, a low-lying island watched over by the revolving eye of a lighthouse at one end, caught under a sky painted in the feathers of clouds and where the touch of human hands has been minimal enough so as not to spoil the island’s beauty.

Such is the lay of the land that this is a place which might – at first glance, be within the same group of islands as February’s iteration of Bella’s Lullaby. This is largely due to the overall environment settings, which give the feel of both being under the same sky, although the birds and wildfowl present here also add to that sense.

A Place in the Sun, May 2024

However, the most notable difference here lay with the main building, a marvellous Tuscan style villa complete with a stone-slabbed terrace sitting under open-roofed arches, with a stairway leading up to a raise balcony-come-terrace, a perfect spot for relaxing on any enjoy a glass of three of wine on a summer’s evening. From this house a rough path formed more by the passage of feet down the years rather than being deliberately designed, winds to the water’s edge and then on to the lighthouse.

Much of the shoreline is such that boats can be beached in the shallows without undue harm to them – as can be witnessed in places – but here and there decks and boardwalks are provided for rowing boats and small craft to come alongside. Some of these – as with the boats – offer places to sit and pass the time. Further places to sit are scattered across the island in such a way as to suggest a hand has casually tossed them to leave them lie wheresoever they fall, whilst a large trailer caravan makes up the remaining structure to occupy the landscape.

A Place in the Sun, May 2024

What makes many of these little spots so appealing is the manner in which they are surrounded by, or close to, groups of the island’s winged inhabitants, allowing us all to become bird watchers. From white geese and Canada geese to sandpipers, godwits and ducks, to gulls, thrushes, starlings and more, this is a popular stopping-off point for those otherwise on the wing. Closer to the house, peacocks keep an eye on chickens, whilst the local cats watch with disinterest, contenting themselves to sit or lie with canine friends and soak up the Sun.

Although the outside of the house is rich in bric-a-brac, inside it is more austere. There’s a small kitchen, complete with freshly picked apples from the trees outside, whilst one of the two remaining rooms is solely occupied by a sofa and the other is a little painter’s studio. These give the suggestion that, rather than being a home, this is a retreat; a place to escape the rest of the world and create. It’s an engaging juxtaposition: the exterior of the house suggesting it is a cosy home; the interior giving the appearance habitation here is somewhat temporary, giving the villa an air of mystery.

A Place in the Sun, May 2024

Rounded off by a subtle and fitting sound scape (so be sure to have local sounds on), A Place in the Sun is wonderful in its minimalism – which is itself deceptive, given the obvious care and attention Bella has paid to the region’s appearance in order to present such an engaging setting for us to enjoy. So do be sure to visit.

SLurl Details

2024 week #20: SL CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Butterfly Effect, May 2024 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, May 16th, 2024.

Meeting Purpose

  • The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work. This meeting is held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis.
  • In regards to meetings:
    • Dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar.
    • Commence at 13:00 SLT on their respective dates.
    • Are conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
    • Are open to all with an interest in content creation.
  • The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.

Official Viewers Status

  • Release viewer: Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.7.8974243247, dated May 8and  promoted May 13 – NEW
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.7.8820704257, May 6.
    • Materials Featurettes RC viewer, version 7.1.7.8883017948, May 2.
    • Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes), version 7.1.7.8820696922, April 29.
  • Project viewers:

Graphics / glTF

Featurettes Viewer – Recap

  • Support for:
    • Viewer-side setting of PBR materials for terrain.
    • 2K texture upload support.
    • Mirrors: using reflection probes to generate local static or dynamic (incl. avatar) reflections in real-time.
  • Both Geenz Linden (mirrors) and Cosmic Linden (PBR terrain) are engaged in follow-up work for both of these projects, which will hopefully appear in a future graphics featurette viewer – not the current version (e.g. allowing PBR materials on terrain to have custom repeats, offsets, rotation).
  • It terms of PBR terrain, it was noted:
    • Emissive is supported on terrain.
    • There is a issue with Mac systems (either emissive or normal may “fall off”).
    • As running all four PBR materials on terrain can put a load on the viewer, there are some automatic fallbacks for systems unable to handle the full load which mean some of the materials may not be applied
    • Those opting to use PBR for terrain, as the viewer capability gains adoption (and region owners enable it), there is not requirement to also provide textures for terrain (to allow for those on non-PBR viewers).

General Notes on glTF / PBR

  • As an extension to the last point above, it was further noted that as PBR gains adoption, there is no enforced requirement for creators to continue to provide fallbacks to handle “non-PBR” viewers.
    • This lead to a further statement (first made at the May 10th TPV Developer meeting) that creators building for SL21B are not required to provide Blinn-Phong materials fallbacks on their builds when using PBR.
    • The above can be taken as an informal view that viewers need to support PBR either fully or with a “beta” release by the time of SL21B (commencing Friday, June 21st, 2024).
  • One of the reasons Linden Water reflections are not as good under PBR is due to attempts to optimise the rendering load so that any potential frame rate hit is minimised for more users.
    • Geenz Linden is looking at improving them once more as a result of the work done for mirrors. This work, if successful won’t bring water reflections up to the standard of pre-PBR water reflections (updated every frame), but will offer an improvement over what is currently seen with PBR.
    • Water as a material has been requested and is something LL “is interested in”, but this is not part of the current glTF / PBR work.
  • LL believe that most users should not see a dramatic fall-off in viewer FPS as a result of PBR, such that their experience is heavily impacted.
  • There remains no current plan to support displacement maps.
  • As well as working on mirrors, Geenz Linden is now working on Index of Refraction (IOR) and transmission, both in line with the glTF 2.0 specification (e.g. allowing transparent surfaces that distort what is behind them, as can sometimes be seen in the physical world).

glTF Scene Import

  • Recap:
    • Runitai Linden is continuing to work on glTF scene import. This has reached a point where (on test viewers) it is now possible to preview a scene (tied to an in-world object) in-world.
    • The initial aim is to get to a point where scenes can be imported and seen, and nodes within them updated with both tools in the viewer and / or using LSL, and ensuring they stay in synch with the rest of the scene.
    • Scenes are liable to use the MSFT glTF extension for Level of Detail (LOD), as this allows LODs to be set per node within a scene, providing more intuitive / consistent LOD switching management (based on screen coverage).
    • There will be constraints placed on scene imports (e.g. will not be able to have a scene which exceeds the capacity of a region; scenes will not be able to span more than one region (so as to avoid issues with physics, etc.); and so on).
  • In terms of scene import / export, while it is still earlier days, Runitai noted again that:
    • The idea is to make the import / export a two-way street for creators so they can modify their scenes with relative ease by taking it back to Blender to fix issues that cannot be fixed in-world.
    • This will be subject to the permissions system to prevent the wholesale export of content added to a scene.
    • Scenes uploaded will have attributions appended by the asset service (we owns the asset, when it was uploaded, etc).

In Brief

  • PBR and Bakes on Mesh:
    • LL “keenly aware” this needs to be done, and is noting support for it coming via the Feedback Portal.
    • However – it is not currently a live project.
    • The discussion also again carried the caveat that updating the Bake Service to support 2K textures is only part of the issue: all SL wearable definitions all also need to be revised to be able to support 2K textures, as these are also currently limited in their resolution.
  • There was an extended discussion on content ripping from Second Life and copybotting (with the latter covering a number of flavours). In short:
    • The is the hoary old (but nevertheless true) acknowledgement that Second Life relies on local computer rendering; ergo, regardless of whether it is via a”copybot viewer” or not, content can be ripped from SL and used elsewhere by those determined to do so.
    • Insofar as content being ripped and re-sold in Second Life (or elsewhere) there is the DMCA process – and in terms of other platforms, it does not matter if they have a DMCA Portal or not – a formal identification of content being misused (with proof of ownership) can still be sent to them in order to initiate a take-down process.
    • There was discussion on why “obvious” copyright-infringing content in SL was not taken down (with the example of Chanel products being used). As I understand it (and IANAL), this is bound up with the Safe Harbor provisions of the DMCA, design to provide immunity to ISPs and website operators for copyright infringement committed by their users by providing them with a framework for taking action. Pro-actively removing content potentially circumvents this process, leaving the company open to possible legal action if mistakes are made (and / or for simply not pre-actively addressing all infringements, large and small).
  • There was also a discussion on animations under glTF. However, as this will be a future element of the glTF scene support project, so I’ll leave specifics until such time as the work starts and LL talk more directly as to what they are doing and when.
  • The latter part of the meeting included (an occasionally heated) discussion on the new Modesty Layers being proposed by Linden Lab (see: 2024 SL Governance meeting week #19: Child Avatar Policy). However, as this was somewhat entangled with matters of policy, and those directly involved in making the changes to said policy / overseeing changes were not available  / present at the meeting, ad what was suggested as to possible technical solutions was somewhat speculative, I would prefer to leave further reference out of this summary, and leave matters until those at Linden Lab responsible for the policy have more fully engaged directly with content creators.

Next Meeting

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a gathering of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.