Category: Second Life

2024 week #42: SL CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 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, October 17th, 2024. There was no livestream or video for this meeting

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.
  • Meeting dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar, and they re conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
  • The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.

Official Viewers Update

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, etc), dated September 11th, promoted September 17th.
  • Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.11074622243, September 30.
    • Performance improvements: enhanced texture memory tracking, broader hardware compatibility and higher FPS gain.
    • Aesthetics improvements: new Antialiasing setting – SMAA; Contrast Adaptive Sharpening; Khronos Neutral Tone Mapping (can be changed to ACES via the RenderTonemapType Debug setting).

Near-Term Viewer Release Roadmap

  • ExtraFPS work remains focused on bug fixes.
  • The first maintenance RC to follow ExtraFPS will be the Maint B viewer, which will include updates put on hold during the focus on performance issues plus additional updates, some of which may be further “post-PBR” performance / aesthetic improvements.
    • Maint B, as noted previously in these summaries, will have updates to help with Linux support / builds.
  • Maintenance C is also being put together, but updates changes have not yet be specified, outside of a desire to keep the changes separate to Maint B in the interests of keeping updates easier to manage.

Avatar LookAt /  Eye Tracking in the Viewer

  • A conversation relating to avatar eye movement / use of Look At cross hairs (& the resultant drama it can cause (“Stop perving me!”), and whether because of the latter, the capability should be removed completely from the viewer.
    • The core problem is, even though the option for a user to see their own LookAts in the Official viewer is disabled by default, the data (cross hairs and avatar name) is broadcast to surrounding viewers, resulting in unwarranted drama (“Stop perving me!” or “You’re on the wrong viewer!”).
    • Various viewers handle this situation in different ways; some follow the SL viewer, other’s provide means to see the LookAt crosshairs from others whilst supressing their own LookAt data (e.g. so I can see your LookAt crosshairs (if not supressed), but you cannot see mine – possibly leading to more drama).
    • Given this, LL sought the best way to reduce the level of upset: remove the LookAt broadcast altogether, or limit it / make it subject to having be physically turned on through a debug. The consensus of replies appeared to be to limit it / disable it behind a setting.
  • This conversation also crossed-over into avatar head movement tracking the movements of the mouse (e.g. you move the mouse up to the menu bar and your avatars head tracks upwards, then you move to a toolbar to the side or bottom of the window, and your avatar’s head again tracks).
    • This is perhaps more immersion-breaking that Look Ats (drama on the latter notwithstanding) and as  some TPVs allowing such head movement to be disabled, there was a consensus that this should be disabled / removed from the viewer.

Graphics Team Work

PBR Terrain Transforms and PBR Terrain Painting

  • PBR terrain transforms: As per my week #38 update, PBR terrain Texture transforms for applying scale, offset and rotation to any one of the four PBR terrain materials, have been developed for use in the viewer.
    • The capability is a subset of the KHR texture transform.
    • Currently the viewer-side options are setting behind debug flags.
    • The simulator support for this work is currently targeting the Barbeque simulator update, which is due to start deployment after the  WebRTC simulator deployments.
  • PBR Terrain Painting: the work on PBR terrain painting (see my week #31 update for a summary and previous status) has been “shelved” for the foreseeable future.
    • While no specific reason for this was given at the meeting, it seemed implied that this work has been superseded by the need to focus on other work for the time being.

General glTF / Graphics Comments

  • In response to a question about additional  glTF work, Runitai Linden confirmed that user-made shaders will not be supported, but blend shapes and (possibly) animation of texture coordinate transforms from Blender.
  • Displacement maps won’t be supported for the time being as their is no available glTF specification for them.
  • Given the percentage of people not using PBR enabled viewers, LL is considering adding a simulator-side update that can detect a non-PBR viewer, and then take the base colour and Normal layer from the PBR material and move them to the Blinn-Phong parameter, so users on those viewers will at least see some surface detail on PBR objects rather than only seeing then a flat grey surfaces or untextured prims.

In Brief

  • A fair portion of the meeting was taken up with issues pertaining to the New User Experience / Marketplace issues – both of which those Lindens (Engineers) at the meeting were unable to directly address as these areas are outside of their remit.

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.

Of DREAMS in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DREAMS, October 2024 – click any image for full size

Following the recommendation of Carelyna, I hopped over to the Portal Area within the Full region of Color Alchemist, and the home of the brand of the same name operated by Delain Canucci, and the portal area provides access to her store, to Inspire Space park (where Delain is also one of the creators) and to a quite fabulous ground level build. Entitled DREAMS, it stands as a reflection of Delain’s love of creativity, fantasy and art – and it is a fabulous environment, rich in detail, with echoes of various fantasy classics together with a little humour to help things along.

This years journey through the enchanted Elven land of Dreams, venturing deeper into a mysterious region—a realm of ancient Magic Gardens, where vibrant, glowing nature pulses with the power of mages.

– DREAMS About Land description

DREAMS, October 2024

To visit DREAMS from the portal area, click on the portal itself and accept the local Experience, and you’ll be teleported down to the starting point for explorations. To experience the setting at its best, you will require either a PBR enabled viewer or, if using a pre-PBR version of a viewer, have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM – Preferences → Graphics) enabled. Draw distance should be set reasonably high (notes displayed at the setting recommend 205 metres, but given the general layout, this is not 100% required; it can still be enjoyed at 128m Draw Distance, for example).

Shadows are also recommended if your viewer can handle them; but again, this should not be a showstopper if your viewer is not shadows-friendly. Do, however, enable local sounds and, if you fancy a musical accompaniment to your explorations, then the audio stream can be turned on as well to provide music from Cinemix.

DREAMS, October 2024

A single path winds outward from the arrival point and the portal, presenting a single way forward. However, it quickly branches to offer multiple options for exploration, and which you take is entirely up to you. The most colourful runs through the centre of the setting, a garden of gorgeous and exotic blooms large and small; a place where giant butterflies spread their wings, fae folk flitter and sit and rabbits hop. But there are also ways rising bey slope and steps, branching and dipping into tunnels or slipping past the maws of great caverns.

Within the latter might be found creatures more fey than fair; giant spiders, strange monsters, grinning imps and more. Passage through a tunnel will once again bring you to a colourful garden, but not before passing an rocky chamber hiding its own secret. Pass another way from the arrival point, and the way will become darker and more twisted, the air heavy as if one had stepped into Mirkwood. Here spiders might also be found, but so might one come across deer and standing stones and a path to a high alter of sorts on which a glowing figures stand upon magical symbols.

DREAMS, October 2024

Elsewhere, giant carved figures guard a garden within the gardens, a place mindful of Elven folk and where water plays. A short distance away an baker’s cottage sits on a nub of rock, its thatched roof aglow inviting visitors to cross the bridges leading to it and perhaps attempt to step inside – or at least rest on the rocking chairs on the cottage porch. It is one of the bridges lined to the bakery that will carry you to (or bring you from) the dark woodland realm, passing by way of Cerberus.

This Mirkwood-like realm is not only a place of spiders, hooded figures and signs of strange magic, it is also where strange forest creature roam, tall as Ents yet not Ents, eyes and hearts glowing. However, it you do want to see an Ent, then find your way to a cliffside path and you will fall under the gaze of one as it looms above the path as the latter will take you back towards the yellow-roofed baker’s cottage.

DREAMS, October 2024

Find your way to the cemetery, and you will also likely find the way to the floating castle and the treasure awaiting within. But be careful – as the path might also lead your to the sea monsters lurking within the green mist at the edge of the land.

I didn’t spot too many places to sit within the setting; however, the point here perhaps is not to sit and watch, but to explore and find; as such the lack of such spots didn’t bother me. In fact, I found the setting so enchanting, I decided to put together a short video  – hope you like it and the selected piece of music I’m used for it.

SLurl Details

2024 SL SUG meetings week #42 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Côte Sauvage, September 2024 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, October 15th, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from my chat log and Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

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

Simulator Deployments

Quoting Rider Linden:

Two weeks ago we had a bit of a rough roll, so some of the main grid was left on Summer Fun. Last week the entire engineering team was at an offsite and we decided it was probably not a good idea to do anything while we were all distracted. We believe that we have a fix for the issue and are going to be making a final decision later today about doing an off schedule roll on the SLS regions that are still causing problems. Once we have that out of the way we’ll be able to get back to the regular schedule. I believe that that the next in line is WebRTC, but we need to make sure that enough people have upgraded to an RTC capable client.

SL Viewer Updates

No changes at the start of the week:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, (formerly the DeltaFPS RC), dated September 11th, was promoted to de facto release status on September 19th. This includes:
    • Performance boosts. Memory management has been optimized and users will experience a higher FPS across various systems. A comprehensive range of bug fixes are also provided. This includes better PBR material handling and resolving frequent crashes. See the release notes for more.
    • UI for scheduling region restarts now available via a new button located in the Region/Estate floater. (Note: there is currently an issue with scheduled region restarts working correctly and a fix is due to come in the next server release).
  • Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.11074622243, issued September 30th.
    • Performance improvements: enhanced texture memory tracking, broader hardware compatibility and higher FPS gain.
    • Aesthetics improvements: new Antialiasing setting – SMAA; Contrast Adaptive Sharpening; Khronos Neutral Tone Mapping (can be changed to ACES via the RenderTonemapType Debug setting).

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

  • Leviathan Linden requested a “top five” (or so) features / options people would like to see added to the official viewer. Responses at the meeting included:
    • RLV  – currently, RLV/a code is being submitted to LL by its author, Kitty Barnett, for inclusion in the Official viewer and (I believe) RLV author Marine Kelley may have also provided information on RLV functionality to LL.
    • Client- side animation override (AO) capability.
    • Object derender.
    • Contact Sets (Firestorm).
    • Autrespond outside of Do Not Disturb mode.
    • Automatically rezzing under land Group.
    • ADD instead of WEAR as the default behaviour for attachments.
    • Adjustable toolbar button sizes.
  • Leviathan also dropped the following question into the meeting:
Suppose SL added a VR mode that allowed for seeing SL content in stereo vision a-la VR goggles. NOT the ability to be in the avatar body and move the limbs with trackers but just the ability to view SL content as a fly-cam in VR mode… would that be useful to anyone? Would anyone here use it? What would you use it for?
    • Responses were broadly positive, if the capability could be tired to the likes of using a vehicle in world.
    • Concerns were raised over the viewer’s ability to maintain a smooth, high enough frame rate consistently through a VR session.
    • The above does nor mean LL is about to implement and kind of VR / partial VR element within the viewer; Leviathan made it clear he was just looking at feed back in relation to the general idea of a partial VR experience with SL.
  • A further discussion on the issue of attachments failing (being dropped / lost / ghosted issues (see: Attachment loss on RC channel 2024-08-29.10619830788) which can be experienced during region crossing (TP or physical) & the fact the LL are working on a fix.  is being
  • A discussion on making Media on Prim (MOAP) safer, and which threaded throughout much of the meeting.
  • The above drifted into discussions general media handling and also on rendering, colour maps, support for look-up tables for rendering / colour grading in the viewer (e.g. to give post-processed effects).
  • A further discussion on editing tools, scripting options, etc.

 

† 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.

Entering Soulstone’s asylum in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Soulstone, October 2024 – click any image for full size

Valayra Asher (Valayra) has once again redressed her Full region of Soulstone, a region I’ve covered a number of times, and I’m always drawn back to it because Valayra tends to offer something very removed from the previous iteration, making any visit a entry into a new world and vision. This iteration is no exception, touching on Halloween to bring a theme of general horror and mystery mixed with a little post-apocalyptic or dystopian and flavoured with a very faint hint of Dark Knight stories.

Before getting into things, I will note that this is a location best viewed using a PBR-capable viewer or, if you’re still on an older viewer, then with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM: Preferences → Graphics) enabled.

Soulstone, October 2024

If your system can handle them, then proceeding with shadows enabled is recommended; if your system cannot handle this whilst exploring the region as a whole, give it a go whilst inside the asylum, where you can also potentially reduce Draw Distance to help lighten the load the viewer is handling. Do also make sure you’re using the Shared Environment and, finally, please note that the south-west quarter of the region appears to be given over to a private residence, and is separated from the rest via a mix of hills and building shells, so avoid trespass there.

Located on the north side of the region, the Landing Point gives the first hint of the post-apocalyptic / dystopian feel to the setting as it lies on a partially destroyed road bridge. It’s not clear what caused the literal downfall of the bridge, but the local flooding to be found suggests it may have been the result of a natural disaster such as an earthquake. At the foot of the bridge the mystery of the setting continues: it appears the road once linked with one running from the east side of the region – but where they presumably once met has been turned into a caged basketball court with the appearance of having been placed there after the roads had been largely destroyed.

Soulstone, October 2024

This basketball court with its razor wire, closed-circuit security cameras and the guard tower sitting next to it all give the setting a penitentiary feel; however, standing above them along the top of an eastern rise in the land is the foreboding bulk of an asylum. For me, it immediately brought to mind thoughts of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Whether this is intended or not, I’ve no idea, but a hospital for the criminally insane might account for the use of a guard tower, spotlights and the like.

The asylum sits as a the major focal point of the setting. The way to it is along the east-pointing section of road, littered as it is with the well-rusted wrecks of cars as they sit as the detritus of disaster. The asylum itself appears at first glance to be deserted – the main doors are wide open (as are other leading outside) and the windows smashed and broken, with further signs of chaos inside. Exploration here is best done with shadows enabled, so as to fully absorb the environment and the sense of stumbling around in the dark and coming across the unexpected.

Soulstone, October 2024

While it is fair to say the asylum dominates the landscape, its multiple broken eyes staring out over the devastation below the brow on which it sits; it is not alone; others sit on the flat plain it overlooks, some of which, like the asylum, have managed to retain some vestiges of electrical power despite whatever has befallen them.

Broken and empty, a forlorn and empty swimming pool sitting before one block, these high-rises bear silent, shattered witness to whatever anger was unleashed upon this land; not even the glimmering neon of an advertising hoarding can disguise the fact that civilisation here has passed, living behind only animals, birds, and the shuffling shells of those asylum inmates somehow left behind in whatever evacuation may have taken place.

Soulstone, October 2024

Yet amidst the ruin a little tram station sits, ostensibly in one piece, also sheltering under the dormant protection of the guard tower.  Where the trams arriving and departing this station might have come from or run to makes no difference now. Indeed, going on the signs hung from the pole of a working streetlight alongside the station, it would appear whoever survived whatever happened recognises this fact, given the destinations the signs list…

And speaking of signs / signage / graffiti, attention should be paid through any explorations, as there is a certain dark humour to be found throughout in the signage and scrawl, posters and adverts. Places to sit can be found scatters around, mostly in makeshift shelters out on the broken roads or alongside the fractured walls of buildings. They offer a chance for those who want to absorb the setting’s ambience and / or allow it to conjure stories of how it has come to be so devastated to do so in a measure of small comfort. Also to be found, large and small, are touches that might bring to mind a particular film about the aftermath of one calamitous event in human history – at least to me -, and others echoing the shuffling threat of horror from assorted films and televisions series (“Braiiins….”).

Soulstone, October 2024 (“You maniacs! You blew it up! Ahh! Damn you! God damn you all to hell!”)

Finished with a soundscape well suited to both its devastation and mystery, this iteration of Soulstone is, as with previous builds, well worth visiting.

SLurl Details

2024 SL viewer release summaries week #41

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, October 13th, 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 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC, dated September 11, promoted September 17 – NO CHANGE.
  • Release Candidate: No update.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable: 1.32.2.18, October 12 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Cica’s White in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White

Cica Ghost is back for October with another whimsical installation with White, which opened its doors on October 14th, 2024. The setting uses a quote from the American portrait and genre artist, Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930), who is perhaps most famous for  for his lushly painted portraits and landscapes and for founding the Cape Cod School of Art (1899):

Put variety in white.

To be honest, I’ve no idea of the context in which the quote was originally given, but Cica has taken it to heart ahead of the coming of winter in the northern hemisphere to give us a symphony of white from the ground on which we walk when visiting to the sky overhead. Has it snowed? Is the world frosted?  Are we perhaps in another realm entirely? You decide.

Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White

Certainly, the creatures scattered through the landscape are somewhat otherworldly; some appear slug-like (but friendly – for the most part!) as they sit upon the pockmarked white of the ground; others appear to be partially extruded from that very ground, as if squeezed up from below – or perhaps they are simply lying partially buried for some reason; still other looks like alien mice, small (compared to their companions!) and potentially huggable. Some even look like hills within the landscape – at least until their maws open in a long, slow yawn-like motion.

The structures here are equally strange, carrying with them the feeling that they’ve also been extruded from the ground – or some giant little boy or girl has been building the more extraordinary sandcastle-like creations as they raise trumpet-like appendages to the sky.

Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White

But then, also, there are the tall flowers, snowdrop-like in their white innocence and the monochrome butterflies flittering overhead (and under at least one of which people can ride); these look so natural, so familiar, it’s hard to place this strange place as being anywhere else than on Earth. And perhaps it is; perhaps it is a dreamscape, and we are invited to be travellers crossing it. The choice is yours.

And that’s the beauty of Cica’s installations: they allow us a moment of escape, a chance to relax and inhale the air of whimsy. so – enjoy!

Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White

SLurl Details

  • White by Cica Ghost (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)