Category: Second Life

2024 week #36: SL CCUG summary: viewer performance and aesthetics

Posted on by Inara Pey
Goblins Knob, August 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,  September 5th, 2024.

The meeting was also livesteamed on You Tube by the Lab. The video is embedded at the end of this summary, my thanks to the Lab for providing it.

Table of Contents

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 Status

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.9.10515727195, formerly the Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling) promoted August 26.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • DeltaFPS RC, version 7.1.10.10708851543, updated September 5.
      • 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).

Viewer Performance – Priorities

[Video 1:15-3:03]

  • The performance setbacks between the original PBR viewer release (7.1.6) and the Graphics Featurettes viewer (7.1.8), and which particularly negatively hit the Firestorm PBR release were again covered (for additional content, see my August 30th TPVD meeting summary).
  • This has resulted in a “significant portion” of the viewer development work being focused on recovering performance and rectifying the underpinning bugs and issues – some of which are not specific to the PBR implementation itself. Some of this work has been surfaced in the DeltaFPS viewer, but more is to come.
  • The above work also folds into it various fixes for crashes and bugs and a number of Visual Aesthetics (as in how SL looks – see below).
  • This work will impact other areas of viewer work, so glTF projects like the PBR Terrain Painting and Transmission / IOR work are going to be pushed back somewhat, as is work on the viewer-side implementation of Laua scripting support. However, all of these work is still on the roadmap, just delayed.
  • [Video: 8:24-8:56] Cosmic Linden has been working on an improvement to avatar loading to assist with performance improvements, and this has been pushed to the DeltaFPS RC viewer, together with working on bug fixes.
  • [Video: 9:00-9:54] Runitai re-iterated that the Graphics Featurette viewer introduced the major performance hits (some of which are related to bounding box management and memory management, the the TPVD notes linked-to above), and DeltaFPS sees a good improvement in performance over Graphics Featurettes, and the viewer in development (“ExtraFPS“) that will follow DeltaFPS should see performance return to levels seen with the initial PBR release.
  • [Video: 45:46-46:36] Which is not to say there are not additional PBR-related performance problems – such as those tied to specific GPU such as the Nividia GT1030 2Gb. These are also the subject of fixes being implemented in either the DeltaFPS viewer or the upcoming ExtraFPS viewer that will follow it.

Viewer Aesthetic Updates

[Video: 4:54-8:10]

  • Linear alpha blending: in order for PBR lighting to render anywhere close to correctly, alpha blending has to be switched from SRGB to linear colour space. This can cause some older content using Blinn-Phong to look either more opaque or more transparent than in did pre-PBR.
    • The fix for this will likely be to add the ability for people to set and alpha/gamma ramp on an item, which can be modified per texture entry, adjusting how transparent the item is on a curve.
      • This should help with a range of issues – particularly those associated with pre-PBR hair, as has been noted by an number of users.
      • To help with this, the new alpha/gamma ramp value will still be adjustable even if the content is No Mod, so as to allow users to adjust legacy content affected by the issue, rather than having to wait for  fixes from content creators.
    • This fix will hopefully follow in the ExtraFPS viewer after DeltaFPS, but in the meantime will be made available in a viewer build available through the Content Creation Discord group‡ for those wishing to test it once the initial work has been completed.
    • Runitai Linden also indicated that as an extension to this work, LL might be able to find a way to apply the adjustment automatically, rather than people having to manually set it, but also noted any automatic solution would be “hard”.
  • Auto-exposure: LL is looking to add controls for dynamic exposure (speed of transition, range, ability to turn off / on). These options will be made available via the Advanced Graphics floater, and maybe / someday via the the sky settings floaters.
  • [Video: 10:03 -10:50] Anti-aliasing: there has been negative feedback from those who used to run the viewer with Advanced Graphics Model (ALM) disabled and who are forced to have it enabled all the time as a part of the PBR rendering, don’t like the look of Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA) as used in the viewer, so LL are adding support for Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing (SMAA).
    • In addition, Rye Cogtail from the Alchemy team did a pass on the FXAA code and found it was not working as well as it should be.
    • Updates to FXAA and the addition to SMAA will be appearing in the viewer to follow DeltaFPS.
    • Those requiring more insight into anti-aliasing and the various types of AA, including FXAA and SMAA, can find out more in What Is Anti-Aliasing? TAA, FXAA, DLAA And More Explained, via Digitaltrends.
  • Work is also being put into smoothing the problems created by switching from 8-bit colour precision to 16-bit float colour precision (which can be the cause of bugs wherein you go somewhere in SL and everything glitches to black or solid white). This work should surface through DeltaFPS.
  • [Video: 11:05-11:45] The Sun is unrealistically dim. LL are considering adding a specific Sun intensity multiplier to Sky settings.
    • As a temporary fix, and whilst not specifically addressing the sun issue, the overall brightness in a scene can be adjusted via very small tweaks to the HDR slider in the Personal Lighting floater.
  • [Video: 49:16-56:05] Tone mapping: Rye Cogtail from the Alchemy team has contributed the Khronos Neutral tone mapper for inclusion into the viewer.
    • This is not as dark as the current default in the viewer, and initially will use debugs to select which tone mapper is used (as the existing mapper will remain).
    • LL are looking to make this the default for tone mapping (subject to the outcome of testing), and the mapper is currently in the viewer Develop branch for TPV / viewer builders to take a look at.
    • When implemented the controls will likely be in the Advanced Graphics settings as a combo box and a slider. The control may also in the future be added to the sky settings.
    • In addition, there will be a new control – Tone Mapping Strength – to alter the linear alpha colour.
    • A key point to content creators on this is: you should not put the tone mapper in your textures (e.g. via the options available in PhotoShop when exporting textures) by bumping saturation, etc., and baking the tone mapper into the texture (as well and not baking things like reflections into textures).
    • WYSIWYG will still be possible providing creators select a tone mapper in SL that matches the mapper in their tool of choice or by using no post and working in linear + using the HDRI Preview option (Develop(er) > Render Tests) and use the same HDRI in SL as your content creation tool.

WebRTC

[Video 3:05-4:26]

Summary

  • A new project intended to move Second Life away from reliance on the Vivox voice service and plug-in, and to using the WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”). Roxie Linden is leading this work.
  • Key benefits:
    • WebRTC supports a wide range of real-time communications tools in common use (e.g. Google Meet), supporting audio, video and data communications, and is thus something of a “standard” approach.
    • Offers a good range of features: automatic echo cancellation, better noise cancellation and automatic gain control, much improved audio sampling rates for improved audio quality.
    • Opens the door to features and capabilities to voice services which could not be implemented whilst using Vivox.

Status

  • WebRTC is now fully supported in the official viewer.
  • The back-end deployment on the simulator servers is progressing (2 release candidate channels for simulator servers – BlueSteel and Ferrari – should now have WebRTC support), but this is not yet universal across the entire grid, and will take at least another 2 weeks to be grid-wide.
  • Throwing the switch from running Vivox on the back-end to running WebRTC only will be dependent upon third-party viewers implementing and releasing the viewer-side WebRTC library.
  • In the meantime, peer-to-peer and ad-hoc WebRTC can be tested on the WebRTC regions of WebRTC Voice 1, WebRTC Voice 2, WebRTC Voice 3 and WebRTC Voice 4. However, there is no bridging between WebRTC peer-to-peer  / ad-hoc and Vivox.

In Brief

  • [Video 17:06-25:06] A discussion on Marvelous Designer (MD) cloth simulation within Second Life. This was done with Sansar, allowing clothing to be properly draped over an avatar body, and allowed for adjustments to be made prior to the finished results being baked-out (with automatic hidden surface removal).
    • Second Life utilises a different data modern to Sansar which introduces a range of complexities that would require significant re-working of how clothing  / mesh data is management, a potential re-writing of the entire Bake Service and other factors, all of which make MD integration a challenge.
    • Further complexities are added by the fact that unlike Sansar, which utilised a single avatar body type, SL has a plethora of bodies, and so using the cloth simulation against different body types (whether by creators or users) gets considerably more complicated, as do the requirements for data handling / storage and the costs involved.
    • As such, whilst these issues are not necessarily complete barriers to integration, they do mean that there are significant considerations involved, as well as significant changes to SL that would have to be made. Thus, it is not currently on the roadmap or under current consideration.
    • Please refer to the video for further details.
  • [Video: 25:16-26:12] 2K texture support for Bakes on Mesh – while there was no precisely update available:
    •  It is believed the majority of the work in enabling 2K Bakes on Mesh is now done in terms of getting an early prototype put together on one of the Lab’s own development grids.
    • However, there is currently no public availability for the capability, not is there any release schedule. The work remaining “on-going”.
  • [Video: 26:31-28:50] A brief discussion on creating content with both Blinn-Phong and PBR materials and some of the issues that can occur + some of the slight eccentricities (e.g. objects with both appearing to turn metallic when edited).
    • It was noted that as Blinn-Phong is still supported, creators can continue to use that in preference to PBR materials, although as time goes on the underpinning tools (like Blender) might move more and more into the glTF support arena and make it easier to produce glTF compliant content which can be used in SL.
  • [Video: 29:14-30:57] Transmission and IoR: these are being implemented against the glTF extensions approved by Khronos. This work is focused on implementing them against the prototype glTF implementation, then it they pass that, the focus will move to integration with SL and how they work with glTF materials assets and how to apply them to mesh and prim faces.
    • However, as noted above, this work is currently paused pending completion of the performance improvements work, and is unlikely to resume until after the viewer following Delta FPS has surfaced.
    • It was also noted that it will still be a while before LL are confident enough with both Transmission and IoR to allow either to be added to content be users, even on a test basis.
  • [Video: 40:22-41:48] The question was asked that, when SL gets glTF morph targets, if it would be possible to swap out vertex maps as well to change vertex weights so that it might be possible to deform clothing using the morph targets via script, then change the rigging, so an to allow one-size-fits-all clothing.
    • Runitai Linden noted that LL are aiming to hit all of the “musts” and “shoulds” in the glTF  specification. For morph targets, this means effectively having three channels per mesh that can be modified with the morph slider, thus limiting what could be done.
  • [Video: 42:10-44:55] llSetAlpha / llSetColor, etc: LL is planning on making these functions implicitly access the PBR equivalents when a PBR material is present. However, this is hampered by the fact a good proportion of users are still on non-PBR viewers, so “there’s not good answer to which channel it should modify.” This means that currently, the easiest thing it to leave the functions “as is” until sufficient enough users are on viewer with PBR support.
    • This does not mean non-PBR content will no longer be a thing; just that creators should not have to make a non-PBR version of their content because there are people still using a non-PBR capable viewer.
  • The last few minutes of the meeting are spent discussing what additional elements of the glTF specification have yet to be worked on.

Next Meeting

Footnotes

† 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.

‡ Due to an express request from Linden Lab, I am unable to publish information on how to join the Content Creation Discord group. If you are a creator and are not a member, please contact Vir Linden via notecard or IM.

Linden Lab promotes updated SL Combat System 2.0 with video

Posted on by Inara Pey
Combat 2.0, courtesy of Linden Lab

As regulars to these pages are probably aware, I covered the Combat User Group meetings from February 2024 through until late July, 2024, during which Rider Linden worked with members of SL’s widespread community of combat enthusiasts on an initial overhaul of Second Life’s combat system (SLCS). The aim was not to develop a new combat game or combat system, but to provide combat enthusiasts with a much improved box of tools (scripted capabilities) for better, more immersive combat experiences within Second Life.

Details of what many hope will be the first phase of the Combat 2.0 project can be found in my Combat User Group summaries.  However, two spin-offs (so to speak) of this work have been the Combat Partnership, and the return of three much-loved combat regions (which were originally part of the Teen grid): Concord, Lexington and between them, No Mans Land, with the promise that the latter would undergo a facelift and act as a new nucleus to help encourage combat enthusiasts – both within Second Life and those who may have departed the platform – to give the new and updated capabilities a go.

An inaugural (and informal) meet-up within the regions was initially held on July 25th, mainly featuring those combat enthusiasts who had participated in the user group, the session being to mark a wrap on the first phase of work and to put the Combat User Group on hiatus for a time.

Combat 2.0: Concord (with personal EEP setting)

Now the facelift work on the three regions has been completed, and on September 5th, 2024, Linden Lab launched a new promotion for Combat 2.0 utilising a video produced by Vrutega‬, expressly aimed at encouraging people to come back into Second Life and give things a go. And going on preliminary responses, it has been well-received. 

Concord and Lexington act as the base locations for two teams for those wishing to engaged in team-based combat, but the regions are also open to more general player versus player (PvP) or player versus environment (PvE) combat. They each have  dedicated landing point:

No Mans Land is the epicentre for combat. It includes a network of WW1 style trenches, open land, for PvP and cover for PvE against the roaming armed aerial drones. For team-based combat, Red and Blue flags are also located in the region, ready to be attacked / defended. Nor do those wishing to join in have to equip themselves before joining in – those who are new to Combat in SL or are making a return out of curiosity, can obtain various free weapons, generously provided by creators with the Second Life combat community. These can be found within the hangers at Concord and Lexington, and some might be floating around elsewhere.

As well as the showcase regions at Concord et al, the updated Combat 2.0 capabilities are available to all combat regions holders in Second Life to leverage. As a very, very small thumbnail of the updates, the following are now available with Combat 2.0:

  •  Damage events (llDamage) and healing (incl. objects having health).
  • Better control over what happens on death.
  • Spawn points.
  • A new and dedicated combat log – “Brigadier Linden” combat region owners can leverage in administrating combat in their regions.
  • region-wide settings available to combat region owners.
  • new LSL functions and events.

All of these are covered in much greater detail via the dedicated Combat 2.0 SL Wiki page, which also includes links to specific information on things like the Combat log and updated / new LSL functions.

Combat 2.0: No Man’s Land (with personal EEP setting)

Combat Partnership

With Combat 2.0 becoming available, Linden Lab has announced the Combat 2.0 Promotion Partnership Programme has been launched.

  • The intention behind the Promotion Partnership Programme this is to give those actively involved in combat activities in Second Life the “opportunity to help us spread the word across the grid about Combat 2.0 in Second Life”.
  • Participants will have their regions / communities included in a Combat section of the Destination Guide. There may be other benefits for participants as well.
  • Those interested can sign-up via this Google form.
Combat 2.0: Lexington

So, if you’re curious about combat in Second Life, why not hop over to Concord or Lexington and have a look around.

SLurl Details

The showcase combat regions are rated Moderate

A return to LiThO Café and Gallery, and a forest walk in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
LiThO Art Gallery, September 2024

I found it hard to believe – and had to check twice to be sure – that it’s been a year since my previous visit to LiThO Gallery, the tiny art(ist) Café, operated by Lizzy Swordthain and Tom Willis. I owe both any apology for this oversight on my part, and hope this piece goes some way towards making up for it.

A lot has changed in that time (unsurprisingly), so while I was particularly drawn back by the September 2024 exhibition at the Gallery, I’ll also be covering more about the location and some of its expansion.

LiThO Art Gallery, September 2024: CK Ballyhoo – Willows

The exhibition in question is CK’s Willows, a small but engaging selection of pieces by CK (Ceakay Ballyhoo). CK is one of the driving forces within the Corsica Southern Coasters community of artists with whom LiThO is associated, as well as being an accomplished artist. With Willows she presents an engaging collection of images celebrating the passing of summer in the northern hemisphere and the arrival of autumn.

The collection comprises twelve images, each of which offers a unique view of an autumnal day or an expression of autumn. From the orange-tinted beauty of a sunset reflected in water, to studies of leaves as they turn from green to brown to paintings of an almost abstract natures, these are all engaging pieces, neatly spread through the café-come-galley’s rooms, with the titular Willows perhaps being my favourite due to the serenity and harmony it evokes.

LiThO Art Gallery, September 2024: CK Ballyhoo – Willows

All of the pieces are available for purchase and as ever, the coffee house presents s cosy place in which to view them and pass the time. However, the art is now all that is on offer.

Since my last visit, LiThO has become a part of a network of local attractions operated by Lizzy and Tom  under (I believe I am correct is saying) the Fine Art and Music banner. These include the outdoor event space I noted back in September 2023, and which appears not to have been turned into a hang-out space called Little Wiskeria, the HeArt and Soul Gallery (which will be featured in a future piece in these pages), and which has the Fine Art Office and the Trip The Light Fantastic Dance Club flanking it to either side, and all of which  – again, I think I’m correct in saying – opened after me previous visit to LiThO. Then there’s a radio station and the place I particularly want to note here, the Forest Art Walk.

LiThO Forest Art Walk, September 2024

The entrance / landing point of the latter sits immediately to the south of the LiThO Art Gallery, and essentially loops around the rear of the Gallery’s location, dipping down through woodlands as it does so before returning to the roadside on the north side of the Gallery by way of a path passing between the Gallery and Little Whiskeria.

Along the way, the trail presents the opportunity to discover various 3D pieces of art and passes by multiple places to sit and pass the time. I saw a couple hover text elements offering rentals, so I assume that there are spots along the walk artists can rent to display their work – but check with Tom or Lizzy, just in case I’m jumping to incorrect assumptions. As you follow the trail through the woods, you might find your way into the adjoining Dark Forest, another of CK’s works. This offers its own looping walk complete with 3D art elements for people to explore, as well as its own wildlife. Signposts through both the Forest Walk and the Dark Forest help with navigation, although I did wander off-trail a couple of time and strayed into a neighbouring parcel, prompting a quick reversal of course, but nothing that caused alarms bells to sound (I hope! 😀 ).

LiThO Forest Art Walk, September 2024

In all, LiThO and its surroundings continues to make for an interesting visit, and I’ll endeavour to keep more abreast with exhibitions there – and at the HeArt and Soul gallery!

Note: all images taken here utilise a personal EEP setting.

SLurl Details

A Mad Hatter’s Tea House in Second Norway, Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024 – click any image for full size

Sometimes when exploring Second Life it’s easy to miss what is pretty much in your own back yard, so to speak.

For example, it’s no secret I have a home in Second Norway – and I’m very proud of the fact I’ve been able to put down roots there. Recently I added to this by visiting New Deer Isle, a superb setting in Second Life created and held by Kaiden Glocke Tray (KaidenTray), writing about it here. With September arriving, I’ve been able to visit another public location within Second Norway, this one sitting within a cosy parcel of land just under 3,500 square metres in size.

Created by Karmagrl Nesbith (Karmagrl),this setting is genuinely magical and a total delight, with its core theme obvious from its title: Mad Hatter’s Tea Room.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

However, to view it purely as some form of homage to the most famous literally works of Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)would perhaps be an error. Yes, characters like the Cheshire Cat, the caterpillar, the dormouse, the dodo – as well as the Queen of Hearts, Alice, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter himself –  and more, are all waiting to be found; but they are the icing on the cake for what is a richly engaging setting that sits on, under, and above the parcel.

Welcome to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Room! After you come in through the main gate, wander into the gardens through the pink gate. Follow the flower pathway to the main building- the Tea Room. Stop in, sip some tea, imbibe in some delectable bakery delights, and just enjoy the view.
Be sure to walk off the Second Life calories that don’t really count, and take a trip through the grounds, enjoying the whimsical Alice in Wonderland décor. Be sure and go down to the waterfront, and have a glass of wine or a beer, or even a mixed drink in the secret bar that is through the dull looking door that seems to go no where…

– From the introductory notecard to Mad Hatter’s Tea Room

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

From the pink gates at the landing point (those arriving by road can park their cars outside of the larger wrought iron gates if they wish!) visitors have a choice of following the path directly to the Tea House or cross to the a large terrace overlooking a natural cove cut by water flowing both into and out from the land.

Motifs from Carroll’s books are immediate: the presence of the Queen of Hearts and Alice as greeters in the inner car park as your arrive; the bushy-tailed herald looking as if he’s ready to announce your passage through the pink gate, your arrival, the playing card guard, oversized teacups and caterpillar cars on the terrace…

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

Meanwhile the garden path meanders gently up to the tea house, offering it own delights of colourful blooms, fountains, budgies in the trees, bunnies at play (or asleep!) and a branching path cutting back across the gardens to reach the upper end of the terrace. A further path leads the way over a little pool of water to where visitors can join the Hatter himself for tea outdoors if they wish, seated at a table cupped in the arm of a stream as it tumbles away from the pool to join with a second stream before both drop away into the cove.

The non-calorific cakes, cream buns and other delights can be enjoyed on both floors of the Tea House, which offers further celebrations of Alice’s adventures as immortalised in animation and film. And don’t let the White Rabbit outside holding his fob watch trick you into believing you’re in any way late for any for of important date and that you need to be moving on; take a choice of tables indoors or out and just enjoy the setting.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

Places to sit actually abound throughout the setting, whilst the terrace itself sit over the bar mentioned in the introductory notecard, two sets of steps leading out to its waterfront entrance. Teas and coffees might also be enjoyed in the bar – as might a beer or a cocktail by those so-minded. The terrace also offers chess for those who might fancy a game, and a small teleport base back alongside the pink gates will carry you up to the sky platform and its maze and mix of characters from the books.

To describe Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, however, is to mis the point – it’s a place to be visited and enjoyed. As such, I’ll encourage you to do so, particularly if you love Alice’s adventures, and I’ll leave you instead with a couple more images.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

 

Mad Hatter’s Tea Room, September 2024

SLurl Details

 

2024 SL SUG meetings week #36 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
NeverendingSL: Souru Sosaeti, August 2024 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, September 3rd, 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. Pantera’s video 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

  • On Tuesday, September 3rd, the SLS Main channel was restarted without any deployment.
  • On Wednesday, September 4th:
    • The BlueSteel and Ferrari simulator RC channels will receive the Picnic simulator update (which includes: llFindNotecardTextSync, llDerezObject, for the viewer side, group member lists can now be retrieved in a paginated manner).
      • The existing WebRTC regions of WebRTC Voice 1, WebRTC Voice 2, WebRTC Voice 3 and WebRTC Voice 4 might also be updated with Picnic.
      • Picnic also include the first of the region crossing improvements Monty Linden has been working on. These should see a) avatars already in a destination region getting better frame rates as others arrive in the region; b) crossing avatars with too many scripts will experience slower but smoother crossings.
    • The remaining simulator RC channels will be restarted without any new deployment / update.

SL Viewer Updates

No updates at the start of the week, leaving the currently available public versions of official viewers as:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.9.10515727195, formerly the Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling) promoted August 26.
  • Release channel cohort: DeltaFPS RC, version 7.1.10.10622905308, issued August 30.
    • 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).

In Brief

  • The recent updates to the SL Map system appears to have been generally well received, with those providing feeding at the meeting noting the Map does appear to load a lot quicker and that changes to regions are more timely in being reflected on the Map.
    • The ability to see ground-level details of regions using regions surrounds where the scale is > 256*1.33 on either the x or y axis (rather than them appearing a flat grey) has been particularly appreciated.
    • The next element of this work will include improvements to pruning “ghost” regions from the Map (i.e. regions that appear on the Map but are no longer a part of the grid).
    • This sparked a general discussion on the Map and its capabilities and possible updates.
  • Github issue: [PBR] PBR Material resets to legacy material after teleport. #853 – while there is no fix for this at present, it sparked a discussion on issues related to broken meshes, which appear to result from the simulator and viewer not agreeing on how many faces a mesh has. Some of this may have been fixed in the Altasaurus release viewer, and Brad Linden noted, there are more coming in the 7.1.10 (DetlaFPS) RC and the viewer to follow it.
  • A reminder that if people have issues where log files might help LL with investigations, this article provides information on where to locate said logs for attaching to a bug report.
  • Need a function for easy PBR alpha switching: Brad Linden indicated he had started working on this, but he’s had to shift over to doing some viewer-related work, so things are currently on hold.
  • A discussion on a means for scripted Group join invites, rather than requiring a bot – please refer to the last third of the video.

† 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.

Zeeva’s In Dreams in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
From NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery

In Dreams is the title of an exhibition of Second Life images by Zeeva Quintessa being hosted at the Ground level galleries spaces at NovaOwl Social corner and Gallery through September and October 2024.

While Zeeva and I have not met, we are something of kindred spirits on some respects, as I noticed on reading her biography. We’ve both found a strong attraction in seeking out, exploring and spending time within art regions and regions designed expressly for public exploration and photography – with both of us being drawn to photograph said regions.

NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery, September 2024: Zeeva Quintessa

We’re also both keen SL sailing and flying afficionados, enjoying time out on the waters of Blake Sea or flying over it (and elsewhere!). However, there is one aspect of our SL lives where we are very different: Zeeva is an accomplished Second Life photographer-artist, instilling the images of the places she visits with a depth of feeling that is simply marvellous and well beyond anything I can achieve.

This is very much in evidence within In Dreams, which occupies both of the ground-level gallery buildings at NovaOwl, presenting as it does a photo-journal of Zeeva’s travels through Second Life, expressed both artfully and with a depth of emotion that is by turns captivating and breath-taking. While each image might be particularly personal to Zeeva, as she notes in her biography, such is the richness of expression to be found in them, I have little doubt they will resonate with anyone viewing them.

NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery, September 2024: Zeeva Quintessa
These images and the process were (still is) always an emotional experience for me, often times bringing tears to my eyes for some feeling that was brought to surface by the location, the image and the music playing at that time. My photos are mainly done for me, as it can be very therapeutic…however it was wonderful to find out others were also taking notice of some of my creations.

– Zeena Quintessa.

Zeeva is also one of the few photographer-artists whose skill extends to producing simply gorgeous panoramic images captured from within Second Life. Not since Ziki Questi have I come across an artist able so thoroughly able to make this format / approach to SL photography so visually impressive. It’s an technique I’ve never really grasped myself, and find it both admirable and distinctive when so perfectly embraced as seen within Zeeva’s images.

NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery, September 2024: Zeeva Quintessa

As noted, In Dreams will be open throughout September and October, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to all.

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