Category: Second Life

2024 SL SUG meetings week #34 summary and WebRTC Update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Luane’s World, July 2024 – blog post

Updated with Video: apologies to Pantera, did not see her at the meeting!

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  August 20th, 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, August 20th, the Summer Fun simulator release (which includes the Combat 2.0 updates and the new back-end Game Controller support, although the viewer-side elements of the latter have yet to make it into a formal project or RC viewer) was deployed to the SLS Main channel, making it grid-wide.
  • On Wednesday, August 21st, the simulator RC channels will be restarted without any new deployment / update.

SL Viewer Updates

It appears that all RC viewer except Atlasaurus (which now included the viewer-side WebRTC work) have been pulled to allow LL to focus on PBR / glTF issues per my CCUG meting summary of August 15th.

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Atlasaurus RC (Web RTC; PBR fixes; object take options; improved MOAP URL handling), version 7.1.9.10326512121, August 14.

WebRTC Update

On Tuesday, August 20th, Linden Lab issued an update on the WebRTC work.

Project Summary

  • Replacing Vivox for Voice in SL with WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”).
  • Benefits:
    • Move to a “defacto standard” for voice services, with features such as automatic echo cancellation, better noise cancellation and automatic gain control, etc., and offers much improved audio sampling rates for improved audio quality
    • WebRTC can be supplied within the viewer using a library and wrapper, ending the need for any additional third-party plug-in for Voice like SLvoice.exe, as supplied by Vivox.
    • Opens the door to adding new features and capabilities to SL Voice, some of which have been long-requested.
  • Care is being taking to address potential security issues (e.g. preventing eavesdropping, exposing users’ IP address (by using an internal proxy server), etc.).
  • Feature requests for WebRTC made via the WebRTC board on the SL Feedback Portal are being evaluated and some are being actioned, together with issues being investigated.
  • LL will be looking to Linux devs to help give feedback on how well WebRTC is working on their Linux viewers.

Key Points from LL’s Update

  • As per my viewer notes above, the viewer-side WebRTC work has been combined with the Atlasaurus RC viewer.
  • There are (at the time of writing) four regions on the WebRTC “Pop Rocks” simulator channel: WebRTC Voice 1 – WebRTC Voice 2 – WebRTC Voice 3 and WebRTC Voice 4.
  • Some of the known issues include:
    • Conference/Group/P2P in WebRTC is not yet available on the WebRTC Voice regions.
    • An occasional popup regarding voice server incompatibility can appear. Restart voice if you see this.  To restart voice in the viewer:
      • Hover over the speaker icon in the upper right corner of the viewer.
      • Wait for the dialogue to appear.
      • Uncheck the voice checkbox and wait a few seconds.
      • Recheck the voice checkbox.
    • Selecting another voice device while in a group, conference, or peer-to-peer call may drop the call.
    • Voice morphing is not available in WebRTC-Voice enabled regions.  If voice morphing had been enabled via an older viewer, you will see a dialogue to let you know the implications of using voice:
Voice morphing notification. Via; Linden Lab
  • As voice morphing is currently tied to Vivox, those currently using it are advised to look at the “many excellent alternatives for voice morphing that have become available to the general public as technology has developed”. In addition an FAQ has been produced to help with questions about WebRTC and Voice Morphing.

In Brief

Map System Update

  • Pepper Linden provided an update on the work to improve the world map and map tile updates (see my week #29 summary for more on this):
We had several deploys related to maps, included among them were changes to fix region surrounds in map tiles, as well as a fix to our maps CDN — hopefully they’ve been acting better for you all. Stale tile pruning is still on hold, as there’s a few regions on the grid that weren’t generating their tile — we have a fix that we’re hoping to get out soon, and once that is out, we’ll finally be able to turn on stale tile pruning. 
Bumping the tile resolution is on the roadmap. The current maps is very limited in what it can render — we’ve discussed moving to a viewer-based bot that would be capable of rendering mesh, etc.
  • Pepper also noted that Maps should load a lot faster.

General

We have some decent tests, found ways to hit weird edge cases, and general improvements are to be had. Vehicles with riders are still hilariously bad. We’ll have to tackle that in subsequent projects. It’s just hard to fathom.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

2024 SL viewer release summaries week #33

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, August 18th, 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 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Atlasaurus RC (WebRTC; object take options; improved MOAP URL handling), version 7.1.9.10326512121, August 14.
    • All other RC viewers have been pulled to allow a focus on PBR issues.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

The summer beauty of REN in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

[REN], August 2024, click any image for full size

I last visited [REN], the engaging parcel designed and held by Noa (Noa Cloud) in May 2023 (see here for more), so a return visit has been well overdue. At the time I last dropped in, the setting covered a little under 13,000 square metres within a Full Mainland region. Whilst still in the same location, [REN] has expanded to a touch over 19,000 square metres and has gained a further sky setting as well.

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed with Noa’s work is the blending of ideas and influences he brings to [REN], and this was much in evidence when I made my return in August 2024. This is evident from the moment one touches down at the landing point.

[REN], August 2024
Overlooking the western coastline of the setting from the top of a high shoulder of rock, the landing point looks north across a shallow bay to where a castle with a Norman look and feel sits on a high promontory of rock being slowly eaten into by the sea far below, whilst immediately to the south, Torri gates mark the presence of a rope bridge spanning a narrow but deep gorge to reach a neatly laid-out garden area front a Japanese shrine, complete with a little gift shop where actual gifts can be obtained.

The gorge appears to have been cut by a mix of the tide working its way inland against the rock and waterfalls cutting their way towards the sea. Deep and narrow, it contains a little secret spot of its own – although I’m not sure entirely how to reach it directly; while a ladder descends into the gorge at one end, it didn’t appear climbable and I didn’t spot a direct TP or anything (but could’ve missed it!), so just did a double-click TP hop.

[REN], August 2024
Northwards from the landing point (I leave you to wander the little woodland on the landward side of the landing point) stairways descend to the lowlands behind the by, offering a route to the castle up on its high perch and also further inland to the gardens proper. The castle can be reached in one of two ways: via the steps up to the courtyard, or for the keen-eyed, via the entrance to what might otherwise be the entrance to catacombs (the latter may require acceptance of the local teleport experience).

The castle gives an opportunity to explore its rooms, enjoy music and a dance or indulge in a game of Wanderlust (although the drinks trolley might make playing interesting! Music is very much a theme throughout the setting (no pun intended!); opportunities to dance can be found throughout, pianos are to be found throughout, together with other instruments awaiting discovery.

[REN], August 2024
A second stairway provides a way up to the setting’s expansive gardens. These offer a captivating mix of locations, starting with the pavilion-like greenhouse where more the aforementioned music can be heard and dances enjoyed. Walks meander through the gardens and the trees. Following any of these will bring visitors to at least one point of interest – if not more – and the potential to find more semi-hidden teleports.

Some of the points of interest include 3D art elements, delightful waterfalls, a small lake, picnic spots and places to sit and places to sit and pass the time. Also awaiting visitors are the teleport boards (again, requiring acceptance of the local experience, if you haven’t already) waiting to carry visitors to the sky platforms within the setting.

[REN], August 2024
One of these is the Gallery and its courtyard café. As I’ve also mentioned in the past, Noa is a gifted landscape photographer, and the gallery presents people with the opportunity to appreciate his work and collect his his gifts if so minded. Spread across the two floors of the gallery, the art is laid out in such a way as to offer a relaxing walk whilst enjoying it.

The second sky destination is the cinema salon and gardens. Caught under a glowing full Moon, this space offers exactly what its name suggests: a salon-style cinema showing a film recorded within the main gardens and, along side it, a formal garden space laid out around and over water features and with a fine dining area on its far side from the cinema. Also tucked away here, and possibly private given its location is an outdoor photo studio.

[REN], August 2024
One of the many aspects of the setting I like is the way in which Noa has used the rocky curtain around three sides of the garden and cinema. These closely match the rocks and cliffs down on the ground level, helping to give the impression that – night-time ambience aside – the sky platform is still part of the ground-level setting.

[REN] is always a delight to visit, and this iteration is no exception. Whether you wish to capture it in photographs, want a place to enjoy a romantic time with some close, or simply enjoy time exploring all the setting has to offer.

[REN], August 2024
SLurl Details

  • [REN] (Strutter rated Moderate)

Anais Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kondor Art Club, August 2024: Bee – Anais Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life

Currently on display at the Kondor Art Club is a richly engaging exhibition of images captured by Bee (Filipa Emor) paired with words (mostly) written by Anaïs Nin. Entitled Anaïs Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life, it’s both a highly personal exhibition, forming a tribute to Anaïs and her writings from someone who admires her work, and t the same time an approachable and artistic means of introducing those less familiar with her life, her writing and her influence to all three.

Born in France in early 1903 to Cuban parents, Anaïs Nin is hailed by many as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women known to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West known to write erotica. Her work in this regard is both rich and deeply complex; she first became aware of erotica literature in the 1920s or 1930s, after she, her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler and her family moved to Paris in 1924, and her fascination with it grew from there via interests in psychoanalysis, her own emerging sexuality and her explorations of self.

Kondor Art Club, August 2024: Bee – Anais Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life
One by one, I read these books, which were completely new to me. I had never read erotic literature in America… They overwhelmed me. I was innocent before I read them, but by the time I had read them all, there was nothing I did not know about sexual exploits… I had my degree in erotic lore.

– The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 1 (1931-1934)

In truth, Nin’s life was complex – she never divorced her first husband, but this did not stop her from marrying again in 1955, this time to actor Rupert Pole (later annulled in 1966 as a result of – essentially – tax complications!), and throughout her life she had multiple affairs and relationships.

Of the latter, the one that influenced her life to the greatest was with American novelist, short story writer and essayist Henry Miller. What started as a friendship grew into a deeply passionate and complex relationship which influenced both Nin’s sexuality and her writing. Nin was also an avid diarist throughout her life, recording her thoughts and feelings daily, reflecting on her growth as a woman, on her sexuality, on her loves and desires.

Kondor Art Club, August 2024: Bee – Anais Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life

This desire to give expression spilled over into her relationship with Miller, the two of them sharing intimate thoughts in prose as well as engaging on a heated affair whilst Miller’s wife June (to whom Nin had initially been drawn) was away. Within Anaïs Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life, Bee offers a series of black and white images encapsulating a sense of erotica whilst also offering to illustration Nin’s thoughts, feelings and – as one travels on through the exhibition – her desires for Miller.

Presented with a passage from one of the volumes of Nin’s collected journals or later publications which drew together her writings that focused on Miller and his wife), the images are a marvellous reflection of Nin’s thoughts and emotions, her feelings towards Miller (and also his towards her).

In this, the exhibition appears to be progressive in nature, with the images and texts starting on the left side of entrance to the hall and then proceeding around the inner and outer walls, gradually progressing from Nin’s inner thoughts through to her thoughts on, and exchanges with, Miller (with the images also shifting from singular pieces to those involving couples). Thus Bee weaves a visual journal, if you will reflecting Nin’s thoughts in an intimate and engaging manner.

Kondor Art Club, August 2024: Bee – Anais Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life

All told, an emotive, poignant and visually captivating exhibition.

SLurl Details

2024 week #33: SL CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grauland / Corsair Island, July 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, August 15th, 2024.

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

The Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling) updated to version 7.1.9.10326512121,  on August 14th.

The other viewers in the pipeline remain as:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts:

Upcoming Releases – Change In Priority

As a result of PBR-related issues (see the section Performance Issues, below), the priority of upcoming viewer releases has changed.

  • The next planned viewer promotion was to have been the dedicated WebRTC Voice viewer.
  • The plan now is to prioritise a “more ambitious” viewer which will include the WebRTC updates and a number of high-level bug fixes related to performance (e.g.  a major vertex buffer fix, which although specifically targeted at Mac users, could help others on systems with integrated graphics).

Graphics / glTF

PBR Terrain Painting – Cosmic Linden

Summary
  • An in-development project. Current intent:
    • Provide a means to support the four PBR materials currently used in SL for “terrain painting”.
    • Will allow materials to be defined in their X,Y co-ordinates within a region by using a paint map, rather than having them defined by elevation defined in a height map. This will allow where grass or rock or stones or dirt, etc., appear within the region. providing much more flexibility in how terrain appears / changes.
    • Terrain painting will use the same permissions as terrain texturing (so if you have terraforming permissions, then tertian paining is possible; if you have the appropriate region permissions, you can define the PBR materials for the region.
    • Region owners / estate managers will have the ability to select whether the texture / heightmap is available in a region or whether the region uses terrain painting via a toggle switch in the Region floater. If Terrain painting is enabled at the region level, parcel holders (if I am understanding correctly) will be able to opt out / in.
  • Other points of note:
    • LL prefer to limit terrain painting to the four available slots at region revel, rather than allowing fully customisable swatches / slots at parcel level, as the latter presents “non-trivial issues” for terrain texture handling /loading.
    • Terrain painting will require a new entity to be introduced. Exactly what form this will take is still being discussed internally; it is unlikely to be a new asset type.
  • Much longer term options being considered for this capability might be to:
    • Allow prims to act as part of the terrain, inheriting the materials of the terrain, whilst still allowing the prim to be sized and shaped.
    • Perhaps allow the terrain within a region to be replaced by “something” else created externally to SL and then imported.
    • Neither of these ideas are currently being pursued beyond possible ideas / options.
Status
  • Cosmic believe she is getting close – perhaps another couple of weeks – to having an initial viewer build with the capability.
  • This initial build will allow terrain painting purely on the viewer-side; there will be no support for saving changes on the simulator; this will come as the work continues to be developed.

Transmission / IOR – Geenz Linden

  • Transmission and Index of Reflection (IOR)  will provide:
    • Both refraction and “blurry” refraction suitable for things like frosted glass surfaces.
    • Dispersion, allowing chromatic aberration, allowing the RGB channels to “separate out” based on a certain factor.
    • Volume, allowing an object surface to be tinted at different surface thicknesses .
    • Geenz is currently wrapping this work to get it into the Develop branch of the viewer following an internal demonstration at the Lab.

General Discussion

Performance Issues

  • It’s been confirmed that the potential for performance drops was missed within the code Firestorm took to integrate into their PBR viewer offering, and given they have the largest share of users (particularly those on low-to-mid range systems – e.g. those with 16Gb of RAM or less, and mid-to-low spec GPUs or with integrated graphics), their users have been the hardest hit with performance issues.
    • As a result, Linden Lab is now working with Firestorm to resolve the current issues.
    • As noted above, Linden Lab is now working to prioritise the release of a viewer with a number of fixes and updates aimed at improving / restoring viewer performance.
    • In the interim, the recommendation is for anyone experiencing severe performance issues to roll back to a pre-PBR viewer release.
    • Further, given that fixes beyond those currently being prioritised by LL will take time to surface, and the fact that there will continue to be systems that struggle with PBR, Firestorm has stated that version 6.6.17 of their viewer (the last pre-PBR release) will not be blocked per standard policy, but will remain available on as “as is” basis (e.g. not subject to bug maintenance or update with new features).
  • Fixes LL are looking to get out after the “prioritised” viewer has been released include:
    • Addressing  issues with the texture pipeline.
    • Fixing an issue whereby viewers on systems without dedicated video memory continually allocating available system memory to textures until all available system memory is consumed and the system suffers “performance death” until restarted.
    • A fix from the Alchemy team for an issue wherein if Mirrors are disabled in a viewer session, they continue using system resources until the viewer is restarted.
  • There will be “some form of communications coming out soon” to help inform people who are having a negative experience with PBR about what is going on to help alleviate issues.

In Brief

  • As far as enhancing rendering / shaders is concerned, the focus currently is on getting a working glTF scene implementation first, then working out what to backport to materials in inventory for applying to prims / non-glTF meshes. The will provide a good frame of reference when backporting materials to legacy objects and help maintain a consistency of appearance.
  • The meeting was overtaking by an extended discussion / diagnosis of a issue with hair which is becoming increasingly notices (hair appearing to “clump” or get blurred which does not appear to be directly related to colour alpha blending).
    • The problem is in part exacerbated by the fact the most SL hair is No Mod; so issues cannot be easily user-addressed.
    • No clear solution to this was presented, and the conversation is liable to continue, so will update if / when a way forward becomes clearer.
    • One idea floated, but will require a lot more internal investigation before LL move one way or the other, is to potentially add flags that will allow certain parameters within No Mod objects to be modified where it makes sense for them to be modifiable.
    • Expect further discussion on this.

Next Meetings

† 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.

2024 SL SUG meetings week #33 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cloud Edge II, July 2024 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  August 13th, 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 videoed the meeting, and the recording is embedded at the end of this piece – my thanks, as always, for her work.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • 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

  • There will be no planned deployments for the week, but the channels will be restarted. LL have decided to hold-off deploying the Summer Fun / Combat 2 update to further channels for another week. Rider Linden described the reason thus:
As we rolled out further we encountered a product that had a scripting bug that caused it to misbehave on the new servers. We reached out to the creator and he’s fixed the issue and is issuing updates. We wanted to give him a chance to get those out all across the grid.

SL Viewer Updates

On Tuesday, August 13th, the WebRTC RC viewer updated to version 7.1.9.10325451220.

The rest of the current crop of viewers remains as:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling), version 7.1.9.10220184061, August 7.
    • Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes) 7.1.9.9555137545, June 21.
    • Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.9.9469671545, June 14.

In Brief

Combat Partnership Reminder

  • 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”.
    • In particular, this will see some of the LL combat regions (e.g. Concord and Lexington) a facelift and use them to showcase Combat 2.0, with participants in the Programme asked to donate free-to-use combat items for use in the regions.
    • In addition, 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.

General

  • Recent bugs / requests under review / potentially to be pulled into upcoming simulator updates (e.g. BBG, which will follow Picnic):
  • Weird region crossing behaviour:
    • Various reports of a rare and intermittent vehicle region crossing oddity, in which the crossing goes wrong, unseating the rider- but rezzing a grey prim in the rider’s place as a par to of the vehicle’s linkset “created” by the rider. When unlinked, the prim slides around on the ground but has a rotation lock property on it that keeps it upright.
    • Some think this might be a very old bug that can replace the vehicle rider with an agent-sized cube, per [#BUG-3547] Sim Crossing Rezzes Objects Surrounding Individuals.
    •  It is unclear if any report has been filed recently against the problem, so if anyone encounters it, they are asked to raise a bug report with as much details as possible.
    • Leviathan Linden noted:
Avatars ARE prims, but with some meta data and a session that makes them special. The prim should have been deleted when the session was cleaned up or failed…. which suggests the session itself failed to be created on the far side of the region crossing.
  • There was a discussion on regex functions, based off of llRegex* functions, of which Rider Liden said:
I’ve just not had time to get to it yet. I think I have the code organized to a point right now where they wouldn’t be too much work to implement.
  • Please refer to the video below for further details of the 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 rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.