Category: Second Life

2018 SL UG updates #20/2: Content Creator User Group w/audio

Posted on by Inara Pey

Bay of Dreams; Inara Pey, April 2018, on FlickrBay of Dreams – Blog post

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, May 17th, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  The meeting is chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Audio extracts from the meeting are included, where relevant. Please note, however, that Vir’s microphone occasionally seemed to cut out while I was recording, so some of his comments may sound a little choppy.

Animesh

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

Project Viewer

The Animesh project viewer was updated on Tuesday, May 15th to version 5.1.4.515420. This update comprises:

  • Bug fixes, including improved handling of animation notifications which should result in fewer cases of animations failing to display for some Animesh objects.
  • New checks on when a skeleton is needed for a nominally Animesh object  – now one should be present only when the linkset contains at least one rigged mesh, and this should update correctly when link/unlink operations take place, or other state changes.
  • The ARC calculations for animesh objects has also been updated based on some feedback with the previous build.

Alongside of this there has been a simulator update in support of some of the changes in the viewer (e.g. with regard to animation notifications and updates). Also, to help with persistent across things like region crossings and region restarts, animation information is now stored in the state of the Animesh object itself, when it gets serialised. However, there are reports the animation data is lost on a SHIFT-copy action.

Server-Side Work

As well as the simulator updates for Animesh mentioned above, the Lab is continuing with QA work on server-side support for Animesh to prepare it for deployment to the main (Agni) grid. However, no ETA as yet for the server-side code.

Remaining Major Issues

Rigged Mesh Level of Detail / Bounding Box Issues:This has been the subject of several recent CCUG report in these pages, and is the subject of BUG-214736. Essentially, attachments on avatars swap their LOD models as if they were scaled to the overall avatar bounding box. For example, if an avatar bounding box is forced to 15 metres on a side, any rigged object worn by that avatar will swap LODs as if it were 15 metres in size, no matter how small, forcing viewers around it to use its highest LOD model unnecessarily.

Investigations had led to questions in the Lab of how to get things to behave correctly while recognising there may be broader performance issue that need to be addressed. So Graham Linden has been trying to make sense of what might be pulled into the current Animesh project to improve things and what might require a deeper dive into performance in general as a separate piece of work. So at present this remains in the category of “to be determined” in terms of moving to making Animesh available on the main grid.

Joint Offset Constraints: It’s been noted that setting (deliberately or accidentally) a bad joint offset with something like the mPelvis bound can result in undesired results (the cited example is an Animesh test bear on Aditi appearing to stand 75 metres off the ground when not animating). This has led the Lab to consider constraining he distance a joint can be offset to no more than 5 metres for Animesh objects. However, as this is recognised that doing so could break existing content, a more elaborate solution is still being investigated by the Lab.

Adjacent Regions and Animesh Animations: There is an issue where Animesh objects in adjacent regions fail to animate from a avatar’s perspective when someone logs-in. This is thought to be a handshaking / viewer update issue. Essentially, it can take up to a minute for adjacent regions to understand an agent (avatar) in another region can “see” objects within it, and needs to start sending animation updates to the viewer controlling that avatar.

90-degree Rotation Issue: It’s been noted that when converting some static mesh objects to Animesh, the visual mesh appears rotated through 90 degrees when seen in the Animesh viewer. However, the physics mesh doesn’t have the same rotation applied, leaving it perpendicular to the visible mesh – see BUG-139251.

This appears to be related to the fact that the viewer expects the mesh to be aligned to +x=forward – whereas mesh creation tools such as Blender and Maya don’t – by default – use the same orientation. As the issue only affects some mesh (and in theory could be corrected by setting the required rotation in mesh building tools), Vir asked the question if this is something that should be addressed in the viewer.

  • If this issue isn’t addressed in the viewer (which is where it manifests), it potentially means a good proportion of existing content which might otherwise be converted to Animesh will exhibit the same issue when associated with an avatar skeleton, possibly eliminating it from use as Animesh.
  • If the issue is to be addressed in the viewer, the problem is how to apply the logic to ensure mesh items which don’t exhibit the physics rotation issue don’t end up exhibiting the issue as a result of the fix being incorrectly applied.

Z-Axis offset un the Mesh Uploader: This currently doesn’t work when a  skeleton is applied to a mesh object.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, and may in time lead to a reduction in the complexity of mesh avatar bodies and heads.

This work does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing baking service.

Resources

Additional Bake Channels

Anchor Linden is investigating adding further channels to the Bake Service in addition to those recently added, again specifically for use with Bakes on Meshes (they will not work with the system avatar). These will hopefully comprise:

  • Separate channels for the left arm and left (currently these are mirrored from the avatar’s right side) to allow for asymmetrical avatar options.
  • Three additional “general purpose” channels to be defined and used as required by creators.

These channels will eventually be surfaced as tattoo layers in the viewer, which will have an updated UI for creating new layers.

Injecting Texture Information into the Bake Stack

There has been a request to allow applier creators to use a scripted means to “inject” textures into the Bake Service via a script (see BUG-216137).

It has arisen out of concern that Bakes on Mesh a) won’t offer the same ease-of-use as HUD-based appliers many users are familiar with; b) it could make the majority of existing applier systems obsolete as mesh head / body creators move towards less complex “onion layer” designs, requiring applier makers to completely re-work all of their existing clothing options. Offering a means to provide Bakes on Mesh with a similar capability as applier systems and allow applier makers to more easily update their existing systems. However:

  • The proposed solution is a non-starter, as the Outfit system on which the Bake Service relies, has no notion of textures. Thus, offering a means to “inject” textures into the bake stack essentially creates a separate (and potentially conflicting) representation of the bake stack.
  • If it is seen that a more applier-like approach to Bakes on Mesh, any solution will form part of a follow-up project, rather than being part of the initial implementation.

 

Empowering embodiment: Our Digital Selves

Posted on by Inara Pey

We all have blood. We all feel. We all matter. We are all different.

– Shyla the Super Gecko (KriJon)

Our Digital Selves: My Avatar is Me  is a new video documentary by Draxtor Despres, which officially unveiled on Thursday, May 17th, to coincide with Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

It’s a powerful 74-minute piece which, as Draxtor himself notes, “Was supposed to be a slightly extended episode of The Drax Files World Makers,” but which, “ballooned into a dense investigation into the power of living vicariously through an avatar in Second Life and next generation virtual worlds like High Fidelity and Sansar.”

The documentary grew out of a desire to follow the work of Tom Boellstorff and Donna Z Davis (respectively Tom Bukowski  and Tredi Felisimo in Second Life). For the last three years, Tom and Donna have been engaged in a National Science Foundation funded study formally entitled Virtual Worlds, Disability, and New Cultures of the Embodied Self, and more informally referred to as Our Digital Selves.

I first covered this study in Exploring disability, new cultures and self in a virtual realm, back in 2016, when I outlined Donna and Tom’s examination of the experiences of people with disabilities – visible and invisible – who are using Second Life to represent themselves, possibly free of the shadow of any disability, engage with others and do things they may not be able to do in the physical world.

How is the internet changing the ways people think of themselves as individuals and interact as members of communities? Many are currently investigating this important question: for this project, the researchers are focusing on the experiences of people with disabilities in “virtual worlds,” three-dimensional, immersive on-line spaces where people with disabilities can appear any way they choose and do things they may not be able to do in the physical world.

– Donna Davis and Tom Boellstorff introducing Virtual Worlds,
Disability and New Cultures of the Embodied Self

Using in-world meetings and discussion groups, Donna – a strategic communications professor at the University of Oregon specialising in mass media & society, public relations, strategic communication, virtual environments and digital ethnography, and Tom –  a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine – set about engaging with Second Life users. Through these sessions they explored the many facets in living with a disability, people’s reactions to those with disabilities, and the experiences those with a wide range of physical and other disabilities – the ability diverse, as Donna notes – find within virtual spaces.

Donna Z Davis and Tom Boellstorff (Tredi Felisimo and Tom Bukowski in Second Life), co-researchers in Virtual Worlds, Disability, and New Cultures of the Embodied Self, supported by the University of California, Irvine; the University of Oregon; and the National Science Foundation.

Covering enormous ground over the three years – including providing participants with virtual space in-world at Ethnographia Island where they might express themselves and their relationship with their condition – Virtual Worlds, Disability and New Cultures of the Embodied Self is perhaps best described as a voyage of discovery and revelation for all those involved – researchers, participants and observers alike. And it is this voyage that the documentary Our Digital Selves: My Avatar is Me encapsulates.

The documentary focuses on thirteen participants in the study who, along with their avatars  transcend their various disabilities through artistic expression and making a home for themselves in the digital realm.

Starting with the idea of freedom through embodiment that environments like Second Life offers as a result of the almost entirely free-form way in which we can express ourselves through our avatars visually free from the disabilities or imperfections that might otherwise define us, the film moves onto the concept of being rooted to a place, and the idea that having that space allows us to further define and extend who we are. This idea of “emplacement”, as Tom calls it leads to an initial exploration of the places the study participants built on Ethnographia Island.

Jadyn Firehawk, one of the original participants in the study – and who first notified me about it in January 2016 – before her installation ” Reconstructing Identity After Disability”, Ethnographia Island, 2016

It is here that the personal stories begin to unfold, with Jadyn Firehawk describing what those of us blessed with sound minds and bodies might take for granted in ourselves those around us:  performing every day tasks when living with an invisible disability. It’s easy enough to show understanding and compassion – and make allowances for – those with physical disabilities. Yet how often do we (if only silently) question or shy away from those with mental / emotional disabilities when they raise the subject of their health, simply because we don’t see physical evidence of their disability?

These stories are fascinating, moving, and deeply revealing studies; not only in terms of those relating them, but also in what they say about the sheer power of a platform like Second Life to imbue creativity, to form relationships, to encourage our desire to push past barriers – physical, mental, personal and societal – and even to re-grant the authority for us to control our identity and how much of it we choose to reveal to others.

In this, the video not only covers matters of personal representation of self when living with a disability, but covers wider issues of identity, revealing who we are, have the right of control over what is revealed to others about ourselves. In the age of Facebook, Google, data gathering, Cambridge Analytica style activities, this is an issue that reaches far beyond what might be seen as the “core” subject matter of the study – be which nevertheless is part and parcel of the idea of embodiment; one which does affect us all.

The stories revealed through the film are moving, insightful – and revelatory; not “just” because of what they reveal about the participants, but in the way it can cause measures of self-reflection and encourages thoughts on our own virtual embodiment: what it means to us, how it exercises our desire for growth, etc.

Continue reading “Empowering embodiment: Our Digital Selves” →

A village called Ahiru in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Village of Ahiru; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrVillage of Ahiru – click any image for full size

Village of Ahiru is a full region themed along Japanese  / Edo period lines (although the time frame for the region isn’t specifically the Edo period, as evidenced by things like the bicycles to be found scattered along the extensive paths and walks within the region).

The main landing point, located in the sky above the region offers an introduction to the setting, noting it is a mixed public / private location with a number of rental properties to be found within it. However, providing the privacy of those renting is respected, visitors and photography are both welcome, and for those wanting to get a little more in character, two vendors at the landing point offer free female and male kimonos.

Village of Ahiru; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrVillage of Ahiru

Ground level is reached via a map teleport board. This lists all of the public areas, and denotes the rental properties – the majority of which are located to the east of the region, with a few more located on the southern coastline. The large rentals are surrounded by walls guarding their inner gardens / courtyards, and smaller properties can be identified by the “mailbox” rent boxes on their walls.

At ground level, the region is split into two land masses by a narrow river. Public areas straddle both of these islands, so decided on where to start a visit is open to choice. However, having spent time wandering through the village, I’d recommend the shrine on the south island or the Onsen or theatre on the north island as being good starting points; they are all public places, and offer good map reference points when making your way around the region.

Village of Ahiru; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrVillage of Ahiru

Richly wooded, Village of Ahiru also has a veritable web of paths and trails running around and through it.  Climbing and descending over stairs and steps, winding around hills, passing under the arched canopies of trees, some of these paths are paved, some form grass tracks and others are marked by stepping-stones or look like cinder tracks. The thing that the have most in common is that they form a complete network which, as you follow it as paths cross and divide, serves to make Village of Ahiru feel a lot larger than the usual 256 metres on a side region.

From the grand bulk of the Theatre, visitors can head south along an arrow-straight avenue to one of the bridges spanning the river. Branching from this to the right (west) and east (left) are paths leading to other points of interest: a wild garden with standing stones, a more formal garden area with pavilions, a little waterfall spanned by another little bridge and opportunities to relax.

Village of Ahiru; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrVillage of Ahiru

To the left from the theatre avenue, stone steps offers a way to the ochaya (tea house) located on one of the region’s two high points. Or if you prefer, you can follow the path around the hill on which the tea house sits and find your way to the impressive Osen, with heated and cold water pools for bathing. With waters following past its entrance from water falls, this is perhaps the centrepiece of the region, and another point at which a teleport map board can be found for those wishing to hop between locations. The second high point for the region is located on the southern island. It is home to the region’s shrine and overlooks the rental properties to the east and south, the base of the hill again surrounded by paths.

Other highlights within the region include a small commercial shopping area, a children’s playground nestled under the trees, and several lookout points such as the waterside hangout – and perhaps one or more places to discover. “As usual, my areas have a couple places hidden away,” principal designer Hatsumomo (Yasyn Azemus) informed me during our visit. I’m not going to give these all away, but I did enjoy discovering the Café Grotto.

Village of Ahiru; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrVillage of Ahiru

Surrounded by mountains, rich in flora and trees, and laid out in such a way to give the impression of far more space than the region might otherwise suggest, Village of Ahiru makes for an engaging visit with plenty to see and discover while exploring.

SLurl Details

Ouzo: a viewer aperitif for Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Linden Lab has promoted the latest Maintenance RC to de facto release status. The viewer follows the Lab’s convention of naming their maintenance updates for the viewer after popular alcoholic beverages and aperitifs.

This release includes a range of updates and improvements to the viewer which are worth highlighting, and which will be finding their way into third-party viewers as time goes forward (if they are not already present). Including the following.

Installation and Log-in Improvements

  • The “Your account will not be available until” login failure message has now been removed, as it is no longer meaningful.
  • The GPU Benchmark test no longer causing issues when installing the viewer or when setting viewer defaults.
  • Non-English versions of the viewer can now be installed into non-default paths without causing incorrect fonts to be loaded, corrupting the text of the Terms of Service display in the viewer.
  • Mac OS updates:
    • Incorrect VFS (cache) creation time no longer shown in “help>about SL”.
    • Full version of the build in the applications is now displayed after install on Mac.

Avatar Appearance Updates

  • A new option added to the Appearance Editor right-click menu: Wear Only This Outfit.
  • The Edit Outfit panel in the Appearance Editor no longer displays “Loading…” when there is nothing to load.
  • An avatar’s hairbase is now correctly rendered in Appearance mode when ALM is enabled, and the alpha mask will correctly hide the default hair in the Outfit Editor.
  • A seated avatar’s rotation is now correctly updated when the object the avatar is sitting on is changed via the build floater X, Y, Z spinners.
  • Object position (and sometimes size) no longer greyed out when editing avatar parts or attachments.
  • Temporary attachments can now be detached via gear menu in Appearance >Wearing.

UI Improvements

  • Abuse Report floater clean-up.
  • Error messages no longer doubled (the first being generic, the second being accurate).
  • It is no longer possible to delete an inventory folder while trying to rename it by holding down the Delete key a little too long.
  • Chat scroll bar now properly displayed after a panel resize.
  • “Walk/run/fly” toolbar button no longer turns off “fly mode” once per session.
  • Received Items improvements:
    • The “New” icon in the Received Items folder now correctly disappears when navigating with keys.
    • The “New” tag now appears in front of folders when searching.
    • “Properties” menu item disabled for multiple selection in Object content, because it was causing Received Items to disappear.
  • The Donation check box no longer covered by the Purchase button when buying land from a group you’re already donating to.
  • Bottom part of “Filter” button at Snapshot window can now be properly clicked.
  • World Map no longer shows first friend location after searches.
  • Unicode correctly appears in the Windows viewer display name.
  • Arrows ‘Navigate back’ and ‘Navigate forward’ had wrong state.
  • Profiles now have a Back button.
  • Debug setting AvatarHoverOffsetZ will work regardless of whether Set Hover Height modal has been opened.

Efficiency & Performance Improvements

  • This viewer uses the new off-line messages capability to correctly fetch off-line IMs following log-in, hopefully resolving the issue of lost off-line messages.
  • Viewer no longer attempting to load file/mesh/LOD indefinitely in case of most failures.
  • Advanced Lighting Mode (ALM) improvements
    • Normal and specular maps no longer downloaded when ALM is disabled.
    • Local Textures for Advanced Lighting Projectors now keep the selected texture.
  • Particles attached to the muted avatars no longer render.
  • Texture animation flicker at certain frame rates has been removed.
  • Sculpties should no longer appear as spheres before their shape data has been received by the viewer.
  • Scripts memory usage should no longer return incorrect values in the Estate Tools.
  • Unneeded exception handling from LLAppViewer::frame() removed.
  • ExportCharts for performance analysis re-enabled.
  • Mods to allow nVidia nSight to capture frames of Viewer rendering have been added.
  • Deprecated and unused private memory pooling removed.
  • Various translation updates.

Media Updates

  • (MAC only): viewer Media Browser no longer doubles entered Cyrillic capital letters.
  • Magnify glass button no longer returns camera to avatar after select other nearby media in “Start/Stop ALL Media” tab.
  • Scrollbar should decrease when the number of displayed media decreases.
  • The viewer no longer sends multiple GET requests against prim media when PRIM_MEDIA_AUTO_PLAY is enabled.
  • Social floaters launch a somewhat different version of the internal browser.

Crash Fixes

The viewer includes a range of crash fixes, as detailed in the release notes.

Downloads

The viewer can be downloaded from the viewer’s release notes page, if preferred.

A Mediterranean Soul2Soul in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Soul2Soul Med; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrSoul2Soul Med – click any image for full size

In February 2018, I wrote about a visit we made to two Homestead regions designed by Minnie Blanco (Minnie Atlass): Soul2Soul River and Soul2Soul Bay (see here for more). While I’m somewhat hesitant about blogging regions that are intended for rental purposes, but both Soul2Soul River and Soul2Soul Bay were so beautifully designed and offered sufficient public spaces, I felt comfortable in writing about them.

Since then, Minnie has added a third region to her group, Soul2Soul Med. As the name implies, this homestead region has something of a Mediterranean theme to it. Once again, the region in part offers properties for rent to those looking for a home; although at the time of our visit there were only three such properties on the region, leaving the greater part of it open to public exploration.

Soul2Soul Med; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrSoul2Soul Med – click any image for full size

Visitors arrive on the southern most of the two island the regions has been split into. This points roughly south-west to north-east, a rocky shoulder of land on which is perched a little hamlet sitting above a beach and pier for boat moorings. Gaily painted houses run along the upper street, although the paint on some of them is showing signs of fading under the bright Sun. Cars are parked along the little street, flowers are in full bloom, while the café half-way down the slope to the beach presents a welcome rest-stop from explorations.

A second rocky island crosses the first to the north, forming a “t” to its base. A narrow channel separates the two islands, turning south to run between them to the east, a single bridge spanning it.

Soul2Soul Med; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrSoul2Soul Med – click any image for full size

This northern island is given over to the rental properties.  All three are spread far enough apart to offer those renting them a fair amount of privacy, while roads leading from each of them come together before the bridge, offering a direct connection with the little hamlet on the southern island.

There’s a feeling of life that has been added to the region: boats are moored down on the water; bicycles and vehicles are scattered around, and a couple of maintenance chaps are performing repairs here and there. Meanwhile, and on the edge of town is the ruin of a house where a group of mannequins appear to have set-up home, complete with a bed on the upper floor and a broken-down truck parked out back. It’s a further quirky addition that gives the region additional atmosphere and depth.

Soul2Soul Med; Inara Pey, May 2018, on FlickrSoul2Soul Med – click any image for full size

With its rugged, coastal look, mixed flora, hilltop hamlet and surrounding hills, Soul2Soul Med is delightfully picturesque, and matches both Soul2Soul River and Soul2Soul Bay in the level of detail and styling put into the region. For those looking for somewhere to live, the rental parcels are well placed and offer a lot of room. For those looking for a place to explore – remembering that there are private residences on one of the islands – and take photographs, Soul2Soul Med offers an ideal destination.

SLurl Details

2018 SL UG updates #20/1: Simulator User Group meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Apothecary; Inara Pey, April 2018, on FlickrThe Apothecary – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, May 15th, the Main (SLS) channel received server maintenance package 18#18.05.07.515224, which includes two new LSL functions: llRequestUserKey and llName2Key –  see below for more.
  • On Wednesday, May 16th, the Release Candidate channels were currently marked as TBD at the time of writing. However, during the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, May 15th, Rider Linden indicated there would be two RC deployments:
    • The BlueSteel and LeTigre deployment should comprise internal fixes, together with simulator-side updates for better management of estate level ban lists – although these will require a viewer update to be visible.
    • The Magnum RC update should comprise the same internal fixes, together with the simulator-side updates for abuse report categories.

llRequestUserKey and llName2Key

llRequestUserKey and llNameToKey, both of which will be across all RC channels following the Wednesday deployment, are in connection with the upcoming return of Last Names (see this blog post and this blog post for more). These functions can be summarised as:

  • llRequestUserKey:
    • Requests the Agent ID for the agent identified by name from the dataserver. The name given may be either the current name of an avatar or a historical name that has been used in the past. If no agent can be found with the supplied name this function returns the value NULL_KEY.
    • It returns a handle (a key) that can be used to identify the request when the dataserver event is raised.
    • Note that agent being searched for with this function does not need to be signed on to Second Life.
    • See the llRequestRequestUserKey wiki page for more.
  • llName2Key:
    • Returns a key the Agent ID for the named agent in the region. If there is no agent with the specified name currently signed onto the region, this function returns the value NULL_KEY. Names are always provided in the form “First[ Last]” or “first[.last]” (first name with an optional last name.)
    • If the last name is omitted a last name of “Resident” is assumed. Case is not considered when resolving agent names.
    • Uses a different mechanism to look up agent information to the older llKey2Name().
    • See the llName2Key wiki page for more.

Abuse Report Category Capability

As I’ve noted in my TPV Developer meeting updates, a new capability is being introduced that will allow the viewer to call abuse report categories from the simulator, rather than having them hard-cored into the viewer itself. This will help ensure abuse reports are filed using valid AR categories, while at the same time making it easier for the Lab to maintain the AR categories.

The deployment to the Magnum RC is the first phase of this work to be made to the grid. Once the simulator changes are available grid-wide, a viewer with the new capability should be made available, with a request that TPVs adopt the updates as soon as they can in their own release cycles.

SL Viewer

The Ouzo Maintenance viewer has updated to version 5.1.4.515016 (dated May 7th, but the update wasn’t listed in the Alternate Viewers page until week #20).

The Animesh viewer updated to version 5.1.4.515420 on May 15th.

The rest of the viewer pipelines remain as:

  • Current Release version 5.1.3.513644, dated March 27, promoted April 13 – formerly the media update RC.
  • 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:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Other Items

Mesh Pivot Points and the Uploader

A long-time problem with the mesh uploader is that it ignores pivot points set within tools like Blender when a model is uploaded to SL. This means, for example, that doors set with a pivot point in Blender won’t work using that pivot when uploaded to SL. A feature request to enable the uploader to recognised pre-set pivot points in mesh objects was raised in 2015 – see BUG-37617 –  and more recently, Beq Janus has been looking to add further information to it.

Region Crossing Updates

Code to improve communications during region crossings went grid-wide in week #19. A further round of simulator-side updates is likely to be deployed in the next few weeks. In the meantime, Joe Magarac (animats) believes most of the minor issues relating to “partial unsits” can be handled with changes to scripting / the viewer – see BUG-214653. He’s offered to rally support to help the Lab dig more deeply into this issue, by arrange group tests, etc., if the Lab can made simulator-side changes to help improve things.

Three major issues for vehicles are No Script parcels / regions, ban lines and scripted security systems. The  former can be harder to deal with, as there is no advanced warning that scripts are disabled until the boundary is crossed. Scripted security systems tend to provide some warning which can generally allow those straying into a private area time to get out (unless the delay time has been set ridiculously short). Ban lines are somewhat insidious, however, as they can physically “snag” a vehicle whilst ejecting the occupants – with the vehicle often remaining in place with no auto-return.

There has been a feature request to handle ban lines better (BUG-216276), with another request for ban-lines to “deflect” vehicles, rather than allowing vehicle to cross them and becoming snagged when the occupants are ejected. It’s not clear if the Lab will adopt these ideas.