Category: Second Life

VWBPE 2024 What’s up With the Lab: Grumpity, Kali and Signal Linden

Posted on by Inara Pey
via VWBPE

Update: March 16th, 2024: Regarding SL Voice and capabilities, as mentioned in the latter part of this summary, please also refer to: 2024 week #11: SL TPVD summary: new approach to voice in SL for information on the new WebRTC for Voice in SL.

On Thursday, March 14th, 2024 Grumpity Linden, the Lab’s Senior Vice President of Operations, along with Kali and Signal Linden joined Phelan Corrimal for the annual Above the Book session at the Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference, entitled What’s Up At the Lab.

The function of the session is to explore what’s “new” at Linden Lab  / with Second Life and their impact on educators and non-profit organisations using the platform.

The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. The notes provided have been taken directly from the official video of the session, which is embedded at the end of this article. Time stamps to the video are also provided to the relevant points in the video for those who wish to listen to specific comments.

Notes:

  • This is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.
  • Timestamps are included to allow a direct jump to a subject / comment.

A Little Background

Grumpity Linden: is responsible for the Second Life Product and Engineering teams. She originally started at LL whilst working for The Product Engine, and was involved in the development of Viewer 2 (as designed by 80/20 Studio), prior to joining LL full-time in 2014. Her role covers all aspects of product development and platform engineering, and as well as having a strong technical background, she also brings a strong element of interpersonal skills and psychological expertise to the Lab’s management team via her studies at the Johns Hopkins University.

Kali Linden: is now a Director of Engineering at the Lab, reporting into Grumpity, specifically focused on the Lab’s web properties (e.g. lindenlab.com, secondlife.com, the Marketplace, etc.) and associated UI and API design. She has a keen focus on matters pertaining to content creation and also in working in the non-profit sphere, describing herself as a “Nonprofit-preneur” as well as a “Nerd-Gamer”.

Signal Linden: is the Director of the Second Life Server and Viewer engineering and development teams. He has been involved with Second Life since 2008, and joined Linden Lab in 2015 by way of the likes of Amazon. He is a strong believer in the potential of virtual worlds, and a keen proponent of open-source software and collaborative development. He has perhaps most recently been visible as the communicator of, and driving force behind, the Lab’s moves to the use of Github to manage viewer development and issue tracking for their engineering and development environments.

Product Development Path

The glTF™ Roadmap

[Video: 4:43-19:26]

  • When SL introduced mesh import (2011), the COLLADA (Collaborative Design Activity) interchange file format  interactive 3D applications was selected for use within SL for importing mesh models to the platform. This decision was based on its widespread (at the time) use and recognition as an international standard (ISO/PAS 17506).
  • Since then, content creation and the industry have moved on, and the glTF (graphics library Transmission Format) has been developed over the last decade by the Khronos Group (also responsible for COLLADA), as  a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models. Recognised and adhered to through the industry, it is the specification of choice for Second Life to move to using.
  • Linden Lab views glTF adoption as a combination of:
    • Making the platform more accessible to a wider pool of content creators (as in theory, content made for X or Y in adherence to the core glTF specification (currently version 2.0 (no extensions) for SL) could be dropped directly into SL “as is” subject to licensing)
    • Making the actual import and use of glTF objects and scenes adhering to the specification pretty much a drag-and-drop capability.
  • While the techniques involved in glTF content production may be more complex, it is hoped that by adhering to the specification, content creators and users in SL will have great access to more accurate documentation to support the learning process, and have access to a broader set of libraries / tools presenting the means for that drag-and-drop capability with items and objects arriving in SL and looking vastly different to how they appear in authoring tools.
  • Physically based rendering (PBR) for materials was the first step in glTF adoption, and required a large-scale overhaul of the SL rendering engine. With its deployment and update, LL are now looking to to build out glTF support and capabilities.
  • Notably, the work now allows LL the opportunity to investigate  – and potentially implement – the support of  importing of entire glTF scenes (object, scripts, animations, etc., as noted above) into SL and have them stored as a recognisable asset.
    • This requires another significant overhaul of SL to support glTF hierarches, and so is liable to be a long-term project.
    • However, work on scene import and its associated requirements is due to start around mid-2024.
  • Note: this conversation included the export of glTF scenes from SL to elsewhere. As Linden Lab are still investigating requirements for permissions, etc., plus determining what will be required to allow scene import, no definitive answer on this could be given at this point, and so I’ll do no more than mention it here. Please refer to the video below if interested in the conversation.

SL Mobile

[Video: 30:02-36:28]

  • SL Mobile remains in closed Alpha testing (Premium Plus users only) and the current testing is generating a lot of feedback.
  • The initial focus was on rendering – with work still on-going – to ensure scenes and avatars could be rendered with a fidelity similar to that of the viewer and robustly.
  • This saw limited functionality in other areas to start with, but the functionality is being built out, and will continue to be built out and enhanced. Recent updates include:
    • Start a new chat from any chat screen
    • On the Nearby Chat screen, see how many people are nearby.
    • Streaming audio support.
  • As the functionality is built out, LL plan to start looking more broadly at Mobile use-cases (e.g. bringing-in new users, which requires considering a set of capabilities – signing-up, getting in-world, making connections, etc.) which are different to many of those sought by existing users (e.g inventory sorting).
  • Some capabilities found in the viewer will not be available in Mobile “for a while” (e.g. building), and core capabilities required for content creation (e.g. mesh importing) may well remain bound to the desktop.
  • That said, basic object interactions – sitting on objects, driving vehicles, etc., – will be supported.
  • In terms of broadening the existing SL Mobile user base, the hope is to do so “in the first half” of 2024.
    • More widespread usage does require more thought around interactions with third party environments (app stores, Tilia for L$ management, etc.) before such expansion can take place.

On-Boarding New User Experience

[Video: 36:40-42:34]

  • With the introduction of the Senra avatars in 2023, LL added a web-based avatar customisation flow as a part of the on-boarding process. This process continues to be refined, wit the idea remaining that new users will start with Senra and its available clothing and accessories (LL supplied or via user creators), but eventually move to other systems.
  • However, it is recognised that in-world avatar customisation is “hard”, so to further assist in new users gaining familiarity with in-world avatar customisation, LL are – as has been suggested by existing users – looking to implement a similar, easy-to-understand flow to customising avatars in-world.
    • This does require a series of back-end changes to systems to be made, so will still be a while in come.
    • It will, by necessity, given the huge range of options available in avatar customisation, be somewhat constrained it terms of trying to build a more complex look, but it should allow use users to make changes to their avatar and produce a good result.
  • As a part of the on-boarding process, LL is looking to improve the registration API that is provided to Community Gateways for on-boarding users directly. No firm decisions on what might be updated and why, but the Lab is interested in hearing from Gateway Communities, those using the Reg API on the changes they would like to see. suggestions via the Second Life Feedback Portal.

General

  • Scripting [Video: 19:27-24:52]:
    • The last two years have seen LL become more responsive to requests for more scripting capabilities and functionality.
    • The plan is to continue with this, and those with specific requests – even if made in the past – are asked to use the Scripting Requests board on the Second Life Feedback Portal to do so.
    • Interoperability with external API (e.g. web APIs) is often being considered on a request basis.
  • Voice in Second Life [Video: 24:56-29:50]:
    • It is acknowledged that SL’s voice capabilities (powered by Vivox) have been largely unchanged since their introduction in 2007 (and Vivox has long since ceased active support on Linux).
    • LL are looking to improve Voice capabilities in SL with technologies which will enable the addition of new functionalities – such as new capabilities in-world such as adding scripted control of voice capabilities.
    • As with PBR and glTF, the work currently under consideration for Voice in SL would be foundational as / when decisions are made and projects start rolling, allowing capabilities and options to be built up over time.
  • Marketplace [Video: 42:40-43:56]:
    • In line with the work on SL Mobile, the Marketplace / web team are working on trying to make the Marketplace responsive on Mobile, enabling shopping via ‘phone or tablet and also improving the MP’s appearance on the viewer’s in-built browser.
    • Marketplace Search is also going to see further improvements (e.g. additional filtering).
    • Also see my more recent Web User Group summaries.
  • Feedback move from Jira to Github  / Canny [Video: 44:14-48:30]:
    • The decision to move away from Jira was primarily due to Atlassian (who produce the Jira software) changing their licensing model, making an open-ended system available to all SL users prohibitively expensive for the Lab.
    • Github Issues was selected as the core replacement tool due to it both it being a good collaborative tool or developers and users, and it is a key tool used within the likes of viewer (open-source and simulator code development.
    • Canny was settled on for the general user-facing front-end the Feedback Portal) as it has “good” integration with Github, and has a range of tools which allow information to be grouped and displayed (e.g. Marketplace bug / issues; viewer bug reports, projects such as Combat 2.0, etc.).
    • It also allows for a wider range of feedback to be given, and for prioritising work in terms of popularity of ideas, identifying issues that can be widely beneficial and rapidly implemented, etc.
    • The Feedback Portal provides general user access to tickets; those with Github accounts (e.g. open source or third-party viewer developers) can access the Github issues side of the system (with some security / sensitive data exceptions) via their Github accounts.
    • The switch-over was completed in mid-February 2024.

The VWBPE 2024 conference in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via VWBPE

The 2024 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference takes place between Thursday, March 14th and Saturday March 16th, 2023 inclusive. A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year. Its primary goals are to foster discussion on, and learning about educational opportunities presented through the use of such virtual spaces, a defining core values and best practices in doing so, including:

  • Helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;
  • Providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and
  • Offering access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.

In the context of the conference, a “virtual environment” is an on-line community through which users can interact with one another and use and create ideas irrespective of time and space. As such, typical examples include Second Life, OpenSimulator, Unity, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and so on, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any virtual environments characterised by an open social presence and in which the direction of the platform’s evolution is manifest in the community.

Every year, the event has an over-arching theme. For 2024 this is Mythic Origins, which the organisers describe thus:

Mythic stories can provide a way to engage students in critical thinking and analysis, as well as developing their creativity and imagination. Mythic origins can provide students with a deeper understanding of their own cultural heritage and how it has evolved over time. It allows us to explore the origins of our socially constructed myths and legends that have inspired educators and their various works.
Join us as we all share experiences and successes in how virtual technologies used in the classroom have helped shape education for the better.
VWBPE 2023 – The Main Auditorium

Programme

As with previous VWBPE conferences, this year’s event includes speakers, workshops, presentations, social activities and more.

The best way to find out what is going on over the three days of the conference is through the VWBPE programme page,  However, here are some of the highlights of major events (note: all times SLT and held at the main auditorium unless otherwise stated):

  • Thursday March 14th:
    • 08:00-08:50: Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
    • 12:00 Noon-12:50: What’s Up at the Lab?
    • 13:30-14:00: The VWBPE Parade, commencing at the VWBPE Gateway.
    • 16:00-17:00: Keynote Address: Mythic Origins of Metaverse Myths – Wagner James Au.
  • Friday March 15th:
    • 08:00-08:50: Keynote Address: The Hero’s Journey of Learning Transformation in the Digital Age – Nellie Deutsch (Ed.D) / Nellie Homewood
  • Saturday March 16th:
    • 18:00-19050 SLT: Closing ceremony.

If you cannot get in-world to attend any of these or the other major talks and presentations at the conference, note that you can watch them via You Tube – check the VWBPE website for the full schedule of live streams.

WWBPE Wetlands Visitor Centre

Region Themes and Facilities

For 2023, the conference returns from space, where it has been for the past couple of years, to a more Earthly setting, presenting a series of biomes in which events will be held and people can explore and play. These comprise:

  • Canopy Biome (Canopy Point): a canopy biome is a forestry ecosystem characterised by a dense layer of vegetation at the top (the canopy), under which can be found a diverse forest ecosystem.
  • Rainbow Basin: an ecosystem found within a basin or depression within the Earth’s surface, often characterised by wetlands, rivers, lakes, with the environment ranging from dry through to very wet.
  • Jungle Habitat: a tropical forest environment generally characterised by high levels of rainfall and warm, humid temperatures. These are often among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.
  • Meadow Biome (Floating Meadows): a meadow biome is characterised by a mix of forest and meadow habitats, generally in temperate zones with moderate temperatures and rainfall.

The four regions form a square and feature the main auditorium straddling there adjoining corners. They are supported by:

  • Grasslands Biome – home to the VWBPE Gateway.
  • Badlands Biome (Badlands Wild): badlands are characterised by their rugged, eroded landscape, featuring ravines, canyons and buttes. They tend to be semi-arid in nature. Here they are also home to the Rock Theatre Workshop.
  • Wetlands Marsh: an ecosystem characterised by a combination of shallow water, emergent vegetation and saturated soils. Here they are also home to several of the VWBPE social venues.
  • Desert Hinterlands: a region receiving very little rainfall, resulting in a dry, arid environment, often with high daytime temperatures and very low night temperatures. Home to the Oasis Lecture Theatre and The Ruins Workshop.
  • Tundra Expanse: a cold, treeless biome form in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, characterised by low temperatures, strong winds and little precipitation and vegetation limited to shrubs, mosses, lichens and the like, the ground being generally frozen. Home to the Quadrivium and the Hearth Lecture Theatre.

The VWBPE Gateway

At the VWBPE Gateway you can find information on the conference – including the schedule for the day, a Swag Bag which includes the conference teleport HUD for easy access to all locations and venues, information on the biomes comprising the conference regions, and more. And, of course, VWBPE volunteers are on hand to answer your questions!

Core Facilities and Locations

Within these regions the following core facilities for the conference can be found – but please refer to your conference Swag Bag (and teleport HUD!) for full  information on all locations and facilities at this year’s conference.

VWBPE 2023: The Hearth

To keep up-to-date with the conference, be sure to check the VWBPE website daily.

Additional Links

2024 SL SUG meetings week #11 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Soulstone, February 2024 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 12th, 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 a chat log (thank you, Yuzuru!) and the video embedded below, recorded by Pantera – my thanks as always for her work.

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):
  • 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

Upcoming Simulator Release

  • The next RC update (scheduled for week #12) is Hearts & Flowers, which will go to the BlueSteel RC channel. This mostly comprises internal (non-user visible) updates, together with these 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 (see below).
    • 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).
    • A fix for avatars going into an animation thrash between falling and flying when using llSetHoverHeight() from an attachment.
  • The next update after that will likely be called Spring Break. This might include notecard searches.

Schedule Region Restarts

Once fully deployed as a part of the Heart & Flowers simulator update (see above) this:

  • Will allow region and estate owners / managers schedule region restarts via the region console in the viewer (when updated).
  • Allows schedules to be set on a Daily or Weekly basis (e.g. every day at 06:00 SLT; Monday & Thursday at 17:00, etc.)
  • Has “vaccination” period of +/- 5 minutes of the selected restart time, so that all regions in an estate don’t suddenly restart at exactly the same time.
  • Allows any scheduled restart to be cancelled in the same manner as existing manual restarts.

Viewer Updates

On Monday March 11th:

  • The glTF PBR Materials Maintenance-2 RC viewer updated to version 7.1.4.8149792635.
  • The Maintenance X RC (usability improvements) updated to version 7.1.4.8148263040.

The rest of the current official viewers in the pipe remain as:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.3.7878383867, the Emoji Viewer, issued February 15, promoted March 1st, 2024 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance-W RC (bug and crash fixes) updated to version 7.1.4.8113624779, on March 6th, 2024.
    • Maintenance Y RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history + Maint Z RC integration) updated to version 7.1.4.8114240508, March 6, 2024.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

Game Controller Update

  • No news from Leviathan Linden – he’s been busy on other tasks.
  • Rider has included the simulator support Leviathan has written into his Combat regions on Aditi (regions Gallipoli and Thermopylae) so those engaged in the Rooty Tooty Shooty Society (RTSS) testing his updates to the SLCS (Second Life Combat System) can try things out.

Simulator Main Loop Breakdown

  • Monty Linden has published details of the simulator main loop (where time deltas occur and state changes and housekeeping tasks are organised), as a high-level breakdown of the loop and a description that relates simulation back to the viewer’s Statistics floater.

In Brief

  • In the previous SUG meeting, there was a request to help solve the problem of cheaters sitting on competition vehicles. Someone sits on the object and uses a HUD with llSetVelocity() or other calls to push the vehicle faster than it would normally go. As there have been wider requests for such a fix for dynamic non-vehicle objects, he sought feedback on other situations wherein objects are messed with by “pusher HUDs”.
  • A discussion on scripting hover height changes which also segued into a discussion on swimming within Linden Water and improving the user experience (particularly for new users, who mix expect to start swimming in water, rather than sinking to the sea floor and walking, before morphing into a discussion on Pathfinding and its limitation. This continued through the meeting from around 12:11 SLT through to about the end of the meeting.
  • As animations were mentioned, Brad Linden noted that there are features in the GLTF spec for rigged meshes and animations that LL wants to support, and will want to provide some “best effort” interoperability of those assets with existing skeletons and animations (e.g. animation retargeting, individual bone scaling). However, all of the details and schedule for this work are currently TBD.

† 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 #10

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, March 10th, 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 7.1.3.7878383867, the Emoji Viewer, issued February 15, promoted March 1st, 2024 – 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).
    • glTF PBR Materials Maintenance-2 RC viewer, version 7.1.4.8149792635, March 11, 2024.
    • Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.4.8148263040, March 11, 2024.
    • Maintenance-W RC (bug and crash fixes) updated to version 7.1.4.8113624779, on March 6th, 2024.
    • Maintenance Y RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history + Maint Z RC integration) updated to version 7.1.4.8114240508, March 6, 2024.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • Black Dragon for Windows updated to version 5.1.1 (PBR) on March 10 – release notes.
  • Restrained Love Viewer updated to version 2.9.34 March 11, 2024 – release notes.

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated to 1.32.0.13 (PBR), March 9, 2024 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Speedlight updated to version v31(?) March 4 – No release notes.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2024 week #10: SL CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Monkey Island, February 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, March 7th, 2024.

My apologies for the lateness of this report appearing; right now I have a lot going on in the physical world, and the blog and SL are having to take a back seat through until early April, after which things should start to (hopefully) return to normal.

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

  • The Maintenance-W RC (bug and crash fixes) updated to version 7.1.4.8113624779, on March 6th, 2024.
  • The Maintenance Y RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history + Maint Z RC integration) updated to version 7.1.4.8114240508, March 6, 2024.

Both of the above are at parity with the Emoji release viewer. The rest of the current crop of official viewers remains:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.3.7878383867, the Emoji Viewer, issued February 15, promoted March 1st, 2024 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • glTF PBR Materials Maintenance-2 RC viewer, version 7.1.3.7821226606, February 20, 2024.
    • Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.3.7721015131 , February 14, 2024.
  • Project viewers:

Graphics / glTF

  • Work continues on the GLTF Featurettes viewer, and it is hoped the release on an official project viewer is now not far off. This viewer includes:
    • Geenz Linden’s work on Mirrors, including his latest updates to the capability.
    • Cosmic Linden’s work on applying glTF materials to terrain (currently going through UI bug fixing + this is going to possibly reduce the number of texture repeats in light of 2K textures).
    • Updates which will allow the glTF / PBR swatch boxes in the Build / Edit floater display previews of the materials being selected, rather than grey boxes.
    • The first series of additional glTF extensions – Index of Refraction.
    • Initial work on 2K textures support.
    • Local high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) preview. This will allow content creators to view content in-world under the same HRDI settings as they are using in their tool of choice as a sanity check as SL environments / EEP will render them differently, leading to potential confusion and a belief that the HDRI settings are “wrong”.
    • The nightly builds version of the Featurette viewer is available on Github, but is not suitable for use as a primary viewer, and the capabilities are not supported on the Main grid. As such, this viewer should only be used by those wishing to test the capabilities.
    • The Rumpus Room 2048 region (and neighbours) on Aditi provides back-end support for the Featurettes viewer.
  • With reference to 2K textures, it was noted that while the viewer will have the ability to upload them, the actual ability to do so will be under the control of the simulator code; so just having the viewer-side update does not necessarily mean 2K textures can be uploaded grid-wide.
  • glTF terrain texturing: the focus has been on bug fixing and improving usability.

In Brief

  • Materials support for Bakes on Mesh: this has frequently been requested, and while it has a placeholder in the the Lab’s plans for possible implementation, it is is not currently scheduled to be worked on.
  • It was reiterated that blend shapes will be part of the work to support glTF scene import.
    • glTF scene import will allow and entire glTF scene file (scripts, node hierarchy, etc.) to be imported to SL and essentially “hung off” of a single object in-world.
    • Exactly how this will work, what limitations it will have, etc., in order to avoid “breaking” SL or opening griefing vectors, etc., has yet to be decided.
    • Similarly, glTF scene support will have its own Land Impact calculations, which are currently still TBD within the Lab.
    • Currently, glTF is due to start-up as a major project after the glTF featurette viewer has reached release status.
  • Splat Maps have been requested in the past with terrain painting. These are described as “in the early phase of consideration”, and if taken on, might be a “PBR Terrain Phase II” feature.
  • The subject of separating head and body shapes was raised – this has been the subject of a feature request, which has been accepted (Tracked). As always, “accepted” does not necessarily equate to it being quickly implemented.
  • Land Impact:
    • An update to the Land Impact is due to be deployed on the simulator side, in the Hearts and Flowers release (due to start deployment on March 13th, 2024).
    • This does not change the total Land Capacity (“prims”) for a region; but it does reduce the download weight calculated for meshes
    • This equates to a “15% discount” on mesh object Land Impact (all mesh with the exception of Animesh, not just mesh items downloaded after the update is deployed).
  • Reference was made to the upcoming shift of object inventory messaging moving to HTTP.
    • This should result in the contents of objects rezzed in-world loading “many time faster” than is currently the case.
    • The update will be deployed to the simulator code first, and then be subject to a viewer-side update.
  • With the switch to Github / Canny, LL is trying to be more transparent in terms of planning, projects, issues, etc., looking to have as much public as possible (except things like security issues, which need to be limited in who can view them for obvious reasons). However, while this will allow users to see more of what is in the works / being considered, it also means that projects and work can appear to sit apparently dormant for periods even longer than on Jira
  • How (viewer) feature requests are prioritised (in short):
    • Those which are accepted and form small, relatively stand-alone requests will be directed towards “featurette viewers” of the kind like the glTF featurette viewer mentioned above. The hope is that this will allow devs to pick them up and work on theme in between larger projects or when larger projects are stalled for whatever reason, allowing more of this type of request to filter through the the viewer more readily.
      • In addition, if this works and a Canny Board of such requests can be built-up, it might allow LL to open it to open-source developers to pick items they’d like to work on and then contribute the code to LL.
    • Larger-scale feature requests (such as adding materials support to BOM) will be subject to more extensive investigation / evaluation and internal prioritisation against other large-scale / high-value work, by LL.

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.

March 2024 SL Web User Group summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday March 6th, 2024. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting, recorded by Pantera Północy, is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks as always to Pantera for recording it and making it available.

Meeting Overview

  • The Web User Group exists to provide an opportunity for discussion on Second Life web properties and their related functionalities / features. This includes, but is not limited to: the Marketplace, pages surfaced through the secondlife.com dashboard; the available portals (land, support, etc), the forums.
  • As a rule, these meetings are conducted:
    • On the first Wednesday of the month and 14:00 SLT.
    • In both Voice and / or text.
    • At this location.
  • 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.

Marketplace

  • The Marketing Team has been working on back end and infrastructure work to upgrade the Marketplace. The updates should be released in the coming days.
  • There were some outages when deploying some updates in the past week, which resulted in issues such as ANS not appearing in Marketplace. This has been corrected, and ANS should be back and working as normal.
  • Once these infrastructure updates are deployed, it clears the way for some new features and UI updates LL has been planning.
    • In terms of UI updates, LL is planning improvements to the viewing products and checking out the Marketplace via the viewer, improving the display size when the floater is changed, and moving the MP so it will display decently on mobile or tablet devices.
    • The feature updates once again have a focus on search. These will include updates based on user feedback / requests, but details of what these will be and the likely time frame for deployment is still being finalised, so details to come. However, “some updates will come faster than others” in terms of information relating to them.

General Discussion / Requests for Marketplace

  • A discussion on making the shopping cart / wish list more flexible.
    • This included requests for more carts for different functions (e.g. a shopping cart specifically for holding items to be purchased as such; carts which could be used to save items for later purchase, separate to the one used for check out, etc.).
    • The latter was particularly popular, either as a cart or a “Save for Later” list (a-la Amazon).
    • Making the wish list function more robust / flexible  / visible (e.g. being able to have more than one wish list).
  • The above spilled into a discussion with the Buy Now button, with some wanting it to include the ability to buy and send gifts directly, rather than having to go through the shopping cart / checkout; some wanting a better distinction between Buy Now and Buy as Gift, as they believe people hit Buy Now mistaking it for Buy as Gift.
  • Both of the above will be looked into.
  • Coupons and vouchers: the ability for merchants to offer coupons and voucher for use on the MP is on the roadmap, but not currently being worked on.
    •  This spilled into the idea of “affiliate” linking – e.g. a person puts together an Flickr image of a look they have created and includes links to the items on the MP – when someone clicks on any of the links and makes a purchase, the originator of the photo gets a referral fee paid to them.
  • There is interest at LL in developing a “You Might Also Like” function / “Also Bought” (again a-la Amazon), wherein items similar to the one being looked at are listed or items other have frequent bought together with the item being looked at are listed (rather than the current merchant-generated “related products” list). But again, not on the current roadmap.

Marketplace Styles

  • Marketplace Styles (allowing things like different colour variants for a product in a single listing) had been given as a capability LL were hoping to deploy before the end of 2022 or early 2023 (see November 2022 Web User Group: new “Plus” subscription level).
  • It is has now been confirmed as something LL has “got designs for” and “would like to get to”. So, as per my January summary comment, if you are a Merchant who has been looking forward to this capability, it is probably best not to hold your breath for its arrival unless you’re especially fond of blue as a facial colour.

In Brief

  • Web Search (viewer):
    • LL are considering a re-working of the current web search page presented in the viewer.
    • The current layout might become “relegated” to being an “advanced search” capability, with tabs being added to the top of the page to make searching easier (e.g. by category – People, Places, Events – rather than having to specifically uncheck or check these on a per search basis.
  • It’s been noted that the use of the word “Resident” when used as part of an account name is inconsistent (e.g. in some searches / actions, only the user’s first name needed to be entered, the “resident” is automatically appended; in others “resident” must be explicitly typed in as a part of the name. LL would like to address this, but no work going forward at present.
  • A discussion on L$1 items, gifting and a “biasing” of top selling item lists., and the idea of limited L$0 items being gifted only to friends of the person using the item as a gift.
  • Further requests to make demo(s) a dedicated category on the MP, or to make a Demo checkbox within listing creation to ensure the metadata indicates an item is a demo, this improving searches wishing to include / exclude demo items without having to rely on keywords.
  • A general conversation on the MP and merchant’s perceptions on how people use the Marketplace.
  • A suggestion to have a Marketplace button in the Profile floater for merchants who have a Marketplace presence – or configurable buttons that people can use to point to their MP store, their Flickr presence, etc. This led to a discussion on Profiles.
  • The WUG meetings are “very close” to becoming biweekly.
  • Note: the video extends beyond the end of the meeting. As this is use chat, rather than specific put to LL, it is not summarised here – please refer to the video.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024.