Category: Second Life

2022 TPVD meetings week #19 summary: PBR materials

Posted on by Inara Pey
RockMead, April 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the video recording by Pantera (embedded at the end of this piece, my thanks to her as always for recording the meetings) of the Third-Party Viewer Developer (TPVD) meeting on Friday, May 13th, 2022 at 13:00  SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and dates for them can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.

Important: as from this meeting, the TPV Developer meeting has moved to a four-week schedule.

Please note that this is a summary of the key topics discussed during the meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript of either. However, the video does provide a complete recording of the TPVD meeting, and timestamps to the relevant points within it are included in the notes below.

Available Viewers

[Video: 0:00-6:22]

On Thursday, May 12th:

  • The Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer updated to version 6.5.6.571575.
  • The Performance Improvements RC viewer updated to version 6.6.0.571736.

On Tuesday, May 10th, the Performance Floater and Auto-FPS project viewer updated to version 6.5.4.571296.

The rest of the currently available official viewer versions remain as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282 – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – NEW.
  • Project viewers:
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The Performance Improvements RC viewer remains the next in line for promotion to de facto release status, the latest update to this viewer awaiting data on crash rates prior to potentially being promoted.
  • MFA Enforcement: the eventual plan with multi-factor authentication (MFA) is to “enforce” it for all users who have opted-in to using it so that when logging-in to SL on a viewer without MFA support, they will see a message requesting they either swap to using one with MFA support or disable MFA from their Second Life account dashboard.
    • It is not clear when such enforcement will commence. However, the official viewer, Catznip, Kokua and Cool VL are all known to support MFA, and an MFA version of Firestorm is in the works, so it is likely that the “enforcement” could come in the relatively near future.
    • There will be no change to logging into the viewer for users who have not opted to use MFA or who decided to disable it on their account.
  • https://viewer-login.agni.lindenlab.com/ is a URL referenced in the viewer log-in code, but is currently a redirect and not actually used. LL is therefore planning on removing it.

Additional Materials Support / PBR

[Video: 7:19-20:36]

Note: please also refer to my recent (April / May) CCUG meeting summaries.

Two area of work are currently in progress.

Materials Assets Support

One element of work is to provide “full” Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials support utilising the glTF specification.

  • This work is currently focused on implementing a new materials asset type that will allow materials surfaces created utilising the PBR workflow to be imported to SL and then applied to their desired object face(s).
  • LL hopes that creators using PBR will also supply textures entries (e.g. a diffuse map + normal & specular maps (if required) + associated parameters as we know them today in the build floater) so that systems / clients that cannot / do not run the supporting PBR code can display these texture entries instead, rather than leaving objects with blank faces.
    • It has been suggested than any such use of “fallback” texture entries be an automated process, rather than something that has to be done manually by the creator.
    • Longer term, there will be some form of LSL support for this as well, although the extent of this has yet to be fully determined. However, it is liable to be along similar lines to texture application using LSL.
  • Once defined, the materials assets will be stored using the glTF 2.0 specification.

Reflection Probes / Environment Maps

A parallel piece of work is adding sport to SL for reflection probes to update the generation of the environment maps (because the current cube mapping used by SL is limited and would not work will with PBR).

  • The key point here is that the introduction of reflection probes + updated cube maps will work with both “PBR” and “legacy” content.
  • This work has been underway for the last couple of weeks, including input from some content creators / viewer developers.
  • “Outdoor” probes will likely be subject to automated placement, but with a hierarchy applied such that they don’t override probes placed inside structures.

General Notes

  •  In terms of user testing, the approach to this work is similar to that taken with Mesh:
    • Testing will initially be carried out on Aditi (the beta grid) as things develop, allowing various “PBR” and “legacy” content to be uploaded and tested, well before anything is implemented on the main grid or made widely available to users through the viewer.
    • Content creators wishing to test content are strongly advised to join the Discord discussions and join in with testing from there.
  • glTF mesh object uploads: this is on the roadmap of things the Lab would like to include in the initial project. However, depending on how work progresses and time frames imposed, it may not form a part of the initial work that is shipped and slip to being “tackled at some point”.
  • Support for materials variants within the glTF assets (e.g. to allow colour variants in fatpack items) is also under internal discussion at the Lab.

In Brief

  • [Video 21:09-23:30] The simulator fixes for off-line Group and Friend invites failing to update following acceptance should be surfacing on the RC channels in week #20.
  • [Video 22:44-27:40] a discussion on rigged meshes and bounding boxes focused on a change that was made to overcome issues of people creating oversized bounding boxes for their rigged meshes in order to avoid providing LODs (and forcing the viewer to always render them at a performance impact) that was recently reverted.
    • Runitai Linden explained that the revision was actually the result of changes made within the Performance Improvements Viewer that clashed with the rigged mesh bounding box changes, and that there is still an open issue to ensure the rigged mesh bounding box is always an appropriate size.
    • This rolled into a broader discussion on the complexities of rigged mesh visual size, scaling, bounding boxes / LODs selection, impact of the animation system, etc.
  • [Video 28:04-End] The above leads into a discussion on LODs in general and the idea of auto-LODding content vs. (good and bad) custom LOD creation (and what constitutes “good” LOD modelling – e.g. basing on surface area or triangle count?), LOD / LI conflicts, and trying to strike an equitable balance such that LODs can be “properly” defined and used.
    • As this discussion covers a lot of ground, I refer those interested to the video.

RelayStock 2022 and Bid a Linden Bald in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
RelayStock 2022: main stage

RelayStock runs to Second Life from Friday, May 13th through Sunday, May 15th inclusive, once again bringing  a weekend of Peace Love and Hope and great music as the 2022 to help raise funds for Relay For Life of Second Life and the world-wide work of the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Paying homage to the summer of 1969 and all that was Woodstock, RelayStock is hosted by the RFL team of SL Relay Rockers and brings together Relay teams from all across across Second Life for a celebration of the Relay season. Teams raise their banners above makeshift tents and old VW campers as they gather for the three days of music and fun – and we’re all invited!

Entertainment Schedule

All times SLT – check the official event page for any late updates):

Friday, May 13th Saturday, May 14th Sunday, May 15th

15:00 – Biology Club
16:30 – DJ Scottland
18:00 – Quartz:  LIVE
19:00 – DJ Corruptor Annamemnon

10:30 – DJ Melina Firehawk
12:00 Noon – DJ Stormy Dench
13:00 – Keeba & Tiny Maniacs: LIVE
14:00 – DJ Cynthia Farshore
15:30 – DJ Marius
17:00 – DJ Myst.Xi
18:30 – DJ Dulcinea

10:00 – DJ Primi
11:30 – DJ Caesey
13:00 – Max Kleene: LIVE
14::00 – Todd Rutth: LIVE
15:00 – DJ Kayla
17::00 – DJ Trader Whiplash

Bid Lindens (and Moles!) Bald

2022 marks the 6th year that the Lindens have joined in the fun at RelayStock through Bid a Linden Bald (BALB), a further way of raising funds by bidding to see a team of Lindens and Moles go bald (in-world!) for a month.

This year, BALB opens the the start of RelayStock and runs through until May 19th, when the losing team will face the scissors! 2022 see a total of five mixed teams of Lindens and Moles participating, and bidders again determine who lose their hair by making donations (aka “bidding”)  to the kiosk(s) of the team (or teams!) they don’t want to see in-world with depilated domes.

RelayStock 2022: Bid a Linden Bald

The five teams from the Lab / LDPW participating this year comprise:

  • Team 1: Oberwolf, Grumpity, Izzy, Oatmeal, KB, Hobbes, TJ, Itsa Mole.
  • Team 2: Signal, Kreide, Mister Mole, Madori, Chipper, Obi, Cosmic, Simon
  • Team 3: Patch, Vanessa, Kady, CyndiB, Star Mole, Theresa, Whitney, Cammy
  • Team 4: Derrick, Sequoia, Jbo, Milli Mole, Frosty, Wendi, Kit
  • Team 5: Maximus Mole, Anna Mole, Vix, Volo, Spots, Dottie, Tommy

Last year the Linden and Mole teams combined to raise L$840,639, or US $3,361, raising the event’s all-time total to more than L$3.5 million.

RelayStock Linden Bears and Relay Rock Cows

This year, as well as making donations to the BALB team kiosks, people can also participate BALB by purchasing a Limited Edition RelayStock Linden Bear pack. Offered at L$250, each pack contains a pair of bears: one free standing and the other huggable. To obtain a pack, simply pay the vendor alongside the kiosk for the Linden / Mole BALB team you wish to support, and accept your bears!

Also available this year are the Relay Rocker Collectable Hero Cows. Offered at L$50 there are 6 to collect, or for L$150, you can get all 6 + a special bonus Hero Cow. Find their vendors (show below) on the hay bales a short walk along the track from the BALB area.

RelayStock 22: Relay Rocker Collectable Cows

So, let the spirit of the Age of Aquarius enter your life this weekend, don your kaftan (and galoshes!), put flowers in your hair and head on over to RelayStock for great music, great dancing, great fun – all in a good cause!

Event Links

Frogmore 5 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Frogmore, May 2022 – click on image for full size
 Hello Inara.
We have opened our newest version of Frogmore 5.0, L’étang du Moulin. We have many new areas and we have also saved some of the most popular parts of Frogmore that people love. We have maintained the sim design and integrity with designer Terry Fotherington and we have added a new village with lots of details, as well as new trails, French salons, a tiny gallery which will have regular guest artistes, and our unique to Frogmore Mill Pond. I hope you will visit soon.
Merci! Tolla

This was the invitation I received from Tolla Crisp at the end of April to make a return to Frogmore and tour the latest update to this ever-popular setting – my apologies to her for taking a while to actually take up her offer.

Frogmore, May 2022

As Tolla notes in her invitation, there are elements within this latest design for the region that have been carried over from Frogmore 4.0 (see: Frogmore’s fourth in Second Life) – perhaps most notably the channel of water cutting into the land from the east and the waterfront cottages on the southern bank, nestled below a hilltop villa and with little café tucked behind them

These elements and part of the sandy spread to the north side of the channel retain something of Frogmore’s Cornish influences – an aspect that has helped to maintain the setting’s sense of continuity from one iteration to the next. However, as Tolla also notes, there are some French influences mixed into Frogmore 5.0; these give a sense that perhaps it has paddled its way across the English Channel to a little nook in the French coast.

Frogmore, May 2022

On the north side of the setting, overlooking the middle channel is a broad, roughly-cobbled terrace backed by a glass-and-metal pavilion, which I believe is to be the gallery space. It also sits as the new landing point for the region, and a couple of the easels set out on it offer direct teleports to both the village area and the new watermill.

The latter is an utterly charming element sitting in the region north-east corner as a small island of shingle surrounding an L-shaped block of hard granite that has stood against the tides and time.

Frogmore, May 2022

Aged walls suggest that this island may once have been the site of a fortification; now, however, it is the home of not one mill, as the name might suggest, but two: one at the water’s edge, where the land appears to have been fashioned around it and which gives the area its name, and the other a windmill up on top of the rocky bluff, sitting alongside and open-sided barn now converted into a little café. It forms, for me, the most delightful part of the new setting.

This being a Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington) build, I will confess that the mesh / texture load can be heavy-going for some systems; so keeping shadows disabled may help when exploring and to help with texture loading ahead of taking photos.

Frogmore, May 2022

That said, with it soundscape, views and detailed touches, this iteration of Frogmore retains the charm of its previous versions whilst offer more than enough that is new to encourage a re-visit.

SLurl Details

Art and a rock in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Onceagain Art Gallery: Penis Rock, May 2022

It might have a title that hints at something sexual / upsetting but Penis Rock, an ensemble exhibition that opened on May 7th, 2022 at the Onceagain Art Gallery curated by Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili), really isn’t – although it does have an “Adult” section and a slightly lewd rock formation outside of the exhibition space.

The exhibition has been inspired by a mesh rock formation that has a certain resemblance to a certain male appendage – and which, like said male appendage, can also change in size depending on how it is stretched. However, rather than being intentionally lewd or sexual, the images presented are, for the most part intended to be fun and raise a smile.

Onceagain Art Gallery: Penis Rock, May 2022

Growing out of an in-world rock climbing expedition to a location where the rock had been included, the exhibition presents images by Alex Amore,  Alsatian Kidd, Ambre Singh, Crash Landers, Eupalinos Ugajin, Loony Perl, Jack in the box, Kika Yongho, Madoka Kawabata, Manoji Yachvili, Mara Telling, Zakk Bifrandt and Zedillo. All feature said phallic rock in one way or another, and may either present the likes of a simple landscape in which a finger-like rock stands, or as trios of images intended to be considered side-by-side or as pieces intended to offer a story – or even present a degree of social commentary – such as Ambre Singh’s Schism of Faith.

Reading the titles of some of the images may be required in order to appreciate them fully; others might be appreciated simply because of their artistic presentation – such as with Manoji Yachvili’s Grauland trio (the rock in question recently appeared in one of the Grauland region designs and helped to formulate the idea for the exhibition).

Onceagain Art Gallery: Penis Rock, May 2022

In terms of “Adult” content, these images have been placed in a room of their own, clearly indicated by a neon sign as Adult Only. These are not overly sexual in nature – although there are some obviously suggestive pieces and also some avatar nudity. When it comes to humour, I confess to finding two more pieces by Ambre giving rise to smiles. These are, Overprotective, which speaks for itself, and her proboscis monkey-filled Houston We Have a Problem, which is offers a richness of humour from the monkey schnozzes and somewhat bewildered expressions of the simians that seem to ask, “Oi, why are you sniggering?” and they look out of the frame at us, to an entire 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe that seems to be going on thanks again to said noses and the rock rising in the background.

All told, a fun exhibition that should not be taken overly seriously, but within which the art is rich in content.

Onceagain Art Gallery: Penis Rock, May 2022

SLurl Details

Admiring The Pond in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Pond, May 2022 – click any image for full size

Stepping through the gate reveals an oasis of blue surrounded by a richness of green; the pond is large enough to fill the garden, backed on one side by the fence in which the gateway is set and on the other three by dense shrubs. To one one side, between the pond’s blue water and the fence, a blanket has been spread for a picnic while a fishing rod extends out over the water, its base resting among reeds and supporting by a fisherman’s tackle box.

Across the water, a stone Buddha sits serenely, observing the garden and its many denizens: frogs, birds, insects, rabbits, deer, turtles, and fish. Also perched at water’s edge and watching is a tall egret – although its eyes seem to be focused solely on the koi swimming just below the surface before it! The way to join Buddha is by way of a makeshift bridge of planks, either end of which is lit by a stone lantern, and one of which lies close to the picnic blanket.

The Pond, May 2022

Despite the fact ants seems to be enjoying the picnic more than humans, the entire setting is rich in its sense of peace and escape. It sits as a quiet corner within the grounds of a traditional Japanese home; a place where family members can rest in contemplation, and recuperate from the stresses of life.

However, it is fair to say it is actually no ordinary garden.

This is because The Pond – the work of Raven Banrion Kray (RavenStarr) – is built on a scale so large, visiting avatars are one of the smallest creates to be found. S small, in fact, we could almost saddle up and ride the picnic-raiding ants and would pass for the smallest of morsels for the egret mentioned above. Thus, The Pond is a remarkable voyage of the imagination offering an adventure for explorers that is quite unlike anything you’re likely visited in Second Life.

Within this quite gorgeous setting – my thanks to Cube Republic for passing me the landmark; I hadn’t realised Raven had replaced her Ravenport Reclaimed (about which I wrote back in February) – there is much to discover, both above and below the surface of the water. Some – such as the food fight area located on the picnic blanket and just a short walk from the landing point – are relatively easy to find. Others, such as the fairy bubbles hiding underwater might be a little harder to find. Thus, explorers are encouraged to well, explore.

The Pond, May 2022

Those who do will likely find the dance machines and system on the giant lilies, the (avatar-sized) tea table, the pool rings floating on the water along with a leaf boat – to name a further handful of little spots. And speaking of the water – the oversized creatures include the koi making their way beneath the ripples of the pond; so if you do venture out onto the water, don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling a little like Jonah might have done as the whale approached or you start hearing a certain film theme dah-dahing through your head…!

Beautifully conceived and brought together by Raven such that the impression is very much that of a Lilliputian having stumbled into the Land of a the Giant, The Pond is a genuinely engaging setting well worth visiting and offers – needless to say – many opportunities for photography. As such, I’ll shut up and let you go see for yourself!

The Pond, May 2022

SLurl Details

2022 SUG meetings week #19 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Unicorn, March 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Apparently, there was an “issue” with the week #18 deployments which has lead to changes being deployed this week. .

  • In short, the list of avatar appearance details for a given agent that could be returned by llGetVisualPrameters (which went grid-wide with the deployment of server release 571166 to the Main SLS channel in Week #18) gave rise to a host of “Shape Stealing HUDs” that allowed people to obtain the full set of avatar body shape details for any shape (including those sold as “No Mod” by shape creators.
  • As a result, both the SLS Main deployment on Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 and the RC deployments of Wednesday, will see the list of returned values significantly reduced to:
33 – height 503 – platform_height 756 – neck_length
38 –  torso_length 616 – shoe_height 814 – waist_height
80 – male 692 – leg_length 842 – hip_length
198 – heel_height 693 – arm_length 11001 – hover

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571507, May 5.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.5.570983, April 26.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • There was a general discussion on multi-region events, in part focused on a) the incorrect assumption that adjoining regions are running on the same simhost (this has never been guaranteed, pre- or post-AWS uplift) b) visibility issues for those in the “audience” region of a multi-region event (i.e. being unable to see everything in the “performance” area that sits in another region); and c) the new Event regions (see: LL launches Event region product + some thoughts).
  • On the subject of Event regions, Mazidox Linden has provided information on how LL evaluated the region performance on the forum thread about the product.
  • There was further discussion on the requested scripted object capabilities for EEP See the week #18 summary), which will be “coming Soon™” – at some point.