Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, Febuary 25th, 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: version 7.1.2.7215179142, formerly the glTF PBR Materials Maintenance RC, issued December 15, promoted January 8th, 2024 – numerous bug fixes and improvements – NEW.
The following notes were taken from the Thursday, February 22nd, 2024 Combat User Group meeting (also referred to as the Combat Committee User Group or CCUG, an abbreviation also used by the Content Creation User Group, and which I’ll not be using in these summaries to reduce the risk of confusion between the two). They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript.
Meeting Overview
The Combat User Group exists as a forum to discuss improvements to the Linden Lab Combat System or LLCS to better support combat in Second Life.
The core idea is to provide additional events and capabilities which sit on top of LLCS to provide combat creators with better tools with which to create better combat systems for their specific scenarios.
The meetings are the result of a proposal document on improving the native damage system in SL, written by Rider Linden, and which is the focus for both the meeting and any work arising from them.
These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
By Rider Linden, with the support of Kyle Linden.
On alternating Thursdays (rotating with the Content Creation User Group) at 13:00 SLT. Meeting dates are recorded in the Second Life Public Calendar.
Initially in text, although voice might be included in the future depending on feedback from those attending.
Feedback from the previous meeting has been written-up in the form of Github / Canny items by Rider Linden. However, they are not open to public viewing, due to being part of the server repo.
However, general feedback on Combat 2.0 can be found in this Canny board. This is seen as the place to raise any issues or suggestions as we go on, as Rider can monitor it pretty.
Rider proposes setting up two combat-specific region on Aditi (the Beta grid), specifically for testing output from this work / project.
Names are TBC, but will likely be something along the lines of “Waterloo”.
These will hopefully be up and running in about a week.
In terms of initial work, Rider is looking to “knock off” the low-hanging fruit:
First will be llGetHealth.
Second will be damage transfer across regions (e.g. damage transfer is not going to 100% when you cross a region boundary).
The above will be followed by work on the on_damage() event, key to much of the rest of the work.
New documentation accompanying the events and capabilities will be posted the to LSL Wiki.
Comments and Requests
A request was made on whether combat capabilities could be made so unobtrusive, they could be “always on” unless specifically disabled through region / parcel setting.
This was seen as a non-starter on a grid-wide basis, due to the diversity of uses to which SL is put, and the need for combat to be opt-in, not opt out as a result.
In terms of Mainland, any such arrangement would be under the remit of the Product Operations group under Patch Linden.
A user proposal has also bee submitted to the Combat 2.0 section of Canny to address damage caused by physical collisions, for review.
It was suggested that there should be some permanent regions set up to demonstrate combat in SL, as these could be useful for demonstrating to new users what sort of experiences are out there, as well as showing off how the combat features can work.
An adjunct to this was a suggestion the the SL Combat Communit(y/ies) get(s) totgether and promotes activities via the Second Life Community Exhibition at the Welcome / Motown Experience gateway.
There was a general discussion about having the ability to parcel region vertically (e.g. by altitude). However, this is not a part of this project – or something the Lab has on its roadmap, as it raises a lot of complications.
More discussion on teleporting on death / respawning and allowing defined re-spawns by group or similar, along much the same lines as the previous meeting.
Rider indicated that he is not going to tie spawning (or combat capabilities) to the SL Experience system, BUT existing experience functionality can be used to extend them.
Bella’s Lullaby, February 2024 – click any image for full size
I’ve always enjoyed visiting Bella’s Lullaby, the homestead region design series by Bella (BellaSwan Blackheart), and have featured many of the various pastoral and rural locations it presents in the pages of this blog. So I was a little surprised to realise recently that I’d actually not visited at all throughout 2023; I thereafter set out a few days ago to put matters to right.
Now occupying a new location, the current iteration of the setting presents something of a windswept island with – to me at least – and feel of it belonging to northern latitudes; perhaps a place off the coast of Scotland or along Europe’s Wadden or Baltic Sea coastlines. Low-lying, it has a dearth of trees, but does has what seems to be rich, loamy soil in which wild grasses and flowers have taken root – and where humanity has inevitably settled, although not burdensomely so.
Bella’s Lullaby, February 2024
The main habitation appears to be a little farm, or perhaps it is the local lighthouse keeper’s home. The lighthouse itself is a short distance offshore, sitting on a little nub of an islet. however, it is hardly of the size to provide accommodation – assuming it is not fully automated.
Whichever way, the two cabins of the farm / home preside over the island, fence-lined tracks running from them and past outbuildings to reach the further parts of the landscape to the east, north and south. In the case of the latter two, this means running down to the water’s edge on one side and a little pier on the other, with the track then running back up the second of the two low hills of the island. Its end is marked by the rear half of an old pick-up truck, once converted into a trailer and now again converted into a stable (or horsebox, if mobile), the residence of the local donkey.
Bella’s Lullaby, February 2024
Bella’s Lullaby is the perfect spot for some quiet moments, drenched in sunshine and warmed by gentle breezes. A place where you can find calmness and peace, with plenty of photogenic and hangout spots to discover. .
– Bella’s Lullaby About Land description
A converted greenhouse lies en route to the pier, offering both and artist’s retreat and an outdoor seating area. Along the path running north is an old shelter, a book sitting on stool within its lee offering a map of the Florida Keys. Perhaps this is to suggest another place where this island might reside, although its demeanour seems to be too temperate to be the case. The shelter is apparently the abode of the local watchman – or at least, watch-cat; but like most domestic felines, he’s not allowing the demands of work interfere with a comfortable nap!
Bella’s Lullaby, February 2024
The island is home to a number of animals, both domesticated and semi-domesticated. Cows graze peacefully, dogs and cats are scattered here and there, and chickens cluck their way around. However, the most numerous inhabitants appear to be the local geese who might have something to say about interlopers clomping around, as the sign at the landing point (alongside the shelter noted above) makes clear!
Birds are also much in evidence, notably those from the TLC brand by Lautlos and True Redrose, and from the Grizzly Creek brand by Morgan Garret. Both of these brands have offered excellent birds to the SL public, many of which I have myself – notably from Grizzly Creek; and it is a shame that Morgan has apparently departed SL – or at least ceased trading as Grizzly Creek.
Bella’s Lullaby, February 2024
Also to be found scattered through the setting are various places to sit, making a stay on the island that little be extra engaging. In addition, considerable care has been taken with the local environment setting, such that the sky is one of the most realising I’ve seen of late in any region. It frames the setting perfectly, offering a further sense of pastoral serenity with just a sprinkling of darkness in the clouds to suggest rain might be lurking around. The soundscape also adds considerable depth to the setting, Bella opting to let the local birds speak for themselves and avoid sound makers dotted all over the setting.
Simple, engaging and utterly photogenic, in this iteration Bella’s Lullaby once again captures the eye and lens.
HeArt and Soul Gallery, February 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Presence
In January 2024, Scylla Rhiadra presented an exhibition entitled Containers at Mareea Farrasco’s IMAGOLand Art Galleries (see: Containers: an artistic voyage of expression and constraint in Second Life). It offered an examination of how spaces – be they at home or at work or somewhere between, whether public or private – can both help organise and protect us as individuals whilst also giving us the freedom to fully express who we are, whilst at the same time they can also inform, contain, and constrain us in how we reveal ourselves to the world at large – and perhaps actually to ourselves as well.
Now, at HeArt and Soul Gallery, operated by Tom Willis and Lizzy Swordthain, she offers an exhibition of work which can be considered a further chapter on the theme, offering an alternative perspective. In Presence Scylla does not look and the manner in which the spaces we occupy and move through affect us – but how we impact the spaces and places through which we move, oftentimes long after we have departed.
HeArt and Soul Gallery, February 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Presence
We all leave a mark on the places we move through, and on life as a whole. The size of that mark obviously varies from the celebrated statesperson or global celebrity down through the favourite uncle or teacher from school; but our mark is undeniable:
We are presences even in those places where we are not, by virtue of our actual absence: we leave a trace embedded in what did not happen: the somethings we might have said that remain unspoken, or the somethings that might have been done that we were not present to do.
– Scylla Rhiandra, Presence, February 2024
As with Containers, the images Scylla supplies are studies in composition and narrative. Each holds a story, or at least a vignette which is clearly discernible. In addition, each image is again accompanied by a board containing a considered quotes from a piece of literature designed to further illustrate the image itself; and like those found in Containers, it is hard not to feel these selections offer insight into Scylla – and allow her to leave a further little “her shaped” hole in use which accompanies the one created by each picture. Certainly, I again felt that distant kinship with her purely through the pieces and authors she has selected.
HeArt and Soul Gallery, February 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Presence
Also like Containers, the collection making up Presence are layer in potential meaning and subtext. There is the meaning offer through the title of each piece, the reflection of that title and meaning through the selected text, the framing of the theme used to express the ide; all of which are expected. But then there are the more subtle aspects: those which lie in the way in which each piece chimes with us personally, the memories and thoughts conjured – perhaps most of all by the people who have touched our lives but who have now moved on in one way or another, only to leave one of those small holes in our thoughts and memories.
Another beautifully poignant and expressive series of Scylla.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 20th, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this summary, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording the meeting and 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.
They 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
No SLS Main channel deployment on Tuesday, February 13th, but the simhosts were restarted.
This is due to a bug found over the weekend which prevents scripts restarting when crossing into a region on the Bluesteel channel. It also means the 32 sensors return count (responsible for the issue) will be pulled from Gingerbread, and will be moved to the upcoming Hearts & Flowers simulator update, once Gingerbread has been rolled to the rest of the grid.
Upcoming Simulator Release
The simulator update that will be following Gingerbread will be Hearts & Flowers (probably named for the time of year!). This mostly comprises internal (non-user visible) updates, together with two notably user-visible additions:
llSetLinkSitFlags/llGetLinkSitFlags – allow you to adjust the sit flags for a prim. It supports the existing two SIT_FLAG_ALLOW_UNSIT and SCRIPT_ONLY.
At some future point, SIT_FLAG_HIDE_AVATAR should also be added, so you don’t need to play an animation that squishes the avatar so they aren’t visible in something like a very small vehicle.
A feature for estate managers that will allow them to schedule automatic region restarts.
A new constant in llSPP PRIM_SIT_FLAGS it will contain all the sit flag information, (including ALLOW_UNSIT and SCRIPTED_ONLY (the two older constants will still be available).
A new capability to load item inventory lists via HTTP (so items with large contents will load faster when accessed, although this will require a viewer update as well).
The 32 sensor count capability, mentioned above.
Rider Linden summarised what he plans to achieve in future simulator updates by saying:
I’ll give a Reader’s Digest version. I’ve split up a lot of the work that’s proposed into bite sized pieces and gotten it onto my schedule. (Right after I fix the sensor issue) I’m probably going to start with a couple of pieces of very low hanging fruit. llGetHealth() and fixing the issue where health is not transferred on a region crossing.
Viewer Updates
glTF PBR Materials Maintenance-2 RC viewer (bug fixes, etc.) updated to version 7.1.3.7821226606, on February 20, 2024.
The rest of the official viewers in the pipeline remain as:
Release viewer: version 7.1.2.7215179142, formerly the glTF PBR Materials Maintenance RC, issued December 15, promoted January 8, 2024 – numerous bug fixes and improvements – No Change.
Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.3.7721015131 , February 14, 2024.
Maintenance Y RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history), version 7.1.3.7790341084, February 9, 2024.
Maintenance-W RC (bug and crash fixes), version 7.1.3.7701974306, January 31, 2024.
Project viewers:
Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.12.579958, May 11.
Jira End-of-Road
All bug reporting/feature request submissions are now transferred to Canny / Github, with the URL for the Second Life Jira now automatically redirects to the Canny Second Life Bug Reports page.
Public bug reports (and feature requests) filed via Jira are mostly archived on Github.
Due to the different permissions environments within Jira and Github, there are some edge cases which have yet to be archived.
Note that any ticket that previously had restricted access e.g. (Linden Only / Originator + Lindens) is not part of this archive.
Game Controller Update
Leviathan Linden is working to get an updated viewer this week. Hopefully it will include:
Support flycam with new GameControl measurements.
Get custom mappings to save to / load from settings.xml.
Both of these will bring the code “pretty close” to where he want sit to be for submission to the viewer dev team.
If a new installer is available for download, Leviathan announce it in SL Discord #scripting and also in SL Sports #vehicles.
In Brief
A general discussion on the new notecard capabilities within the Gingerbread update, and the results of testing them on Bluesteel regions.
Region crossings:
User-generated documentation on region crossings and their behaviour is being written-up on the SL wiki.
Monty Linden has been untangling results from internal testing, trying to understand what’s part of region crossing and what’s just bugs/mis-design in other areas. He describes his work as “looking good” by potentially requiring further pile-on tests.
He has also been trying to simulate massive simultaneous region crossing using libremetaverse.
† 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.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, Febuary 18th, 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: version 7.1.2.7215179142, formerly the glTF PBR Materials Maintenance RC, issued December 15, promoted January 8th, 2024 – numerous bug fixes and improvements – NEW.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld