Category: SL Tech

2019 Simulator User Group week #43

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Island That Is Not There, September 2019 – blog post

Update: it now appears all regions will be placed on server release 2019-10-03T01:12:11.531528, see the updated server deployment thread.

No significant news. A lot of back and forth on region crossings and texture loading.

Simulator Deployments

At the time of writing, no deployment notes had been published. However:

  • There was no deployment to the SLS (main) channel on Tuesday, October 22nd, leaving it on server release 2019-10-03T01:12:11.531528.
  • The matter of RC deployments on Wednesday, October 23rd is pending as a result of internal discussions at the Lab.

Refer to the technology forum server sub-threads for updates.

Continuing Script Issues

Linden Lab is aware that there are still script processing issues that are causing problems, and which have come to light following the SLS channel deployment of .531528. For examples of specific issues please refer to BUG-227786 together with this blog post, and also BUG-227776.

SL Viewer

The Ordered Shutdown RC viewer updated to version 6.3.3.531767 on Monday, October 21st, bringing it to parity wit the current release viewer. The rest of the viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.3.2.530962, formerly the Vinsanto Maintenance RC viewer, dated September 17, promoted October 15th – NEW.
  • 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:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16.
  • Available via direct link only, and may not function fully or correctly:
    • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November 2017 – 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.

 

 

2019 viewer release summaries week #42

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, October 20th

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

  • Current Release version 6.3.2.530962, formerly the Vinsanto Maintenance RC viewer, dated September 17, promoted October 15th – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.3.3.531784, released on October 18th.
    • Voice RC viewer updated to version 6.3.3.531811 on October 18th.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.22.64, and Experimental branch to version 1.26.23.17, both on October 19th (release notes).
  • Singularity: please refer to the nightly build page for updates and versions.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No Updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2019 TPVD meeting week #42

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hotel California – Dancing in the Moonlight, September 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on October 18th, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording and providing it. This was a relatively short meeting, with a lot of text-based general chat. This being the case, key points are summarised below without the usual time stamps.

SL Viewer News

On Friday, October 18th, 2019:

  • A new Maintenance viewer, version 6.3.3.531784 and code-named Wassail, was released. This viewer is based on the current release viewer and contains some 30 fixes and includes viewer manager 2.0.531000 (used in launching the viewer).
  • The viewer RC viewer was merged with the current release viewer and updated to version 6.3.3.531811.

The remaining viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.3.2.530962, formerly the Vinsanto Maintenance RC viewer, dated September 17, promoted October 15th, 2019 – NEW.
  • 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:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16.

The Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906 and Obsolete Platform viewer 3.7.28.300847 (Windows XP / Mac OS X below 10.7), are no longer listed on the Alternate Viewer page, but remain available via direct link.

In Brief

  • Currently, the next viewers in line for possible promotion are the Ordered Shutdown viewer and the Voice Update viewer, although the latter is awaiting either an update or information from Vivox.
  • Texture Loading / Caching viewer: work has resumed on this viewer, but it still remains some way out from appearing as a public release. Rider and Aura Linden are both working on this, although both are also engaged on other viewer projects.
  • Viewer build tools update (Visual Studio 2017 and Xcode 10.3 for OS X): said to be in “good condition” but no commitment as to when it will start to be used for production viewers.
  • As per my CCUG notes, the remaining issues for EEP are largely graphics related, both of the new graphics resources, Ptolemy and Euclid Linden are getting up to speed to be able to work on the project.

2019 Content Creation User Group week #42 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Summerland, August 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from my audio recording of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, October 17th 2019 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

ARCTan

Project Summary

An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering both. The overall aim is to try to correct some inherent negative incentives for creating optimised content (e.g. with regards to generating LOD models with mesh), and to update the calculations to reflect current resource constraints, rather than basing them on outdated constraints (e.g. graphics systems, network capabilities, etc).

Current Status

  • Data gathering is continuing, with the intention of gathering enough information on different rendering operations to be able to update the current cost coefficients being using in the rendering cost calculations.
  • Normalising the settings across different client-side hardware is seen as a challenge.
    • One thing the Lab proposes doing is running the resultant model across a range of client hardware types and different ranges of settings.
    • However, if there are significant differences across hardware types (which is likely), then some weighting mechanism will need to be used.
  • One issue noted as a part of the work is a persistent spike – frames in every second that were much longer than the others in the Windows viewer. This was traced back to a call being made to an expensive API that wasn’t even required and has therefore been removed.

Environment Enhancement Project

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements (e.g. the sky, sun, moon, clouds, and water settings) to be set region or parcel level, with support for up to 7 days per cycle and sky environments set by altitude. It uses a new set of inventory assets (Sky, Water, Day), and includes the ability to use custom Sun, Moon and cloud textures. The assets can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others, and can additionally be used in experiences.

Due to performance issues, the initial implementation of EEP will now likely not include certain atmospherics such as crepuscular rays (“God rays”).

Resources

Current Status

  • The viewer is being merged up to the latest release viewer (version 6.3.2.530962, dated September 17th, promoted October 15th). This may also include at least one UI issue fix as well.
  • There are no further simulator-side updates that are ready for deployment as yet, but work has been continuing in resolving bugs.

Other Items in Brief

  • Following on from the discussion at the previous meeting about object size and land impact calculations a feature request – BUG-227762 “Removal of Size from Land Impact calculation/Texture LOD/Adjustable LOD distance” – has been submitted, and has been accepted by the Lab for consideration
    • The Jira also touches on texture management and handling, suggesting a way the textures for an object could be manipulated / downscaled in real-time.
    • It was pointed out that Firestorm offers an automatic downscale of 1024 textures in its 32-bit versions (and the setting in optional in the 64-bit versions), but the suggestion is that be providing users with information in the viewer could allow them to make more informed choices when making adjustments to help with their own performance.
    • This JIRA will be looked at in reference to ARCTan.
  • Something of a companion idea to this would be to allow a texture upload to produce multiple versions of a texture (e.g. a 1024×1204 also produces a 512x512x256x256 and 128×128). This has been discussed in the past, and is seen as something that, will requiring input from the Product Team, might be worth exploring.
  • A suggestion to lessen the reliance on high-res specular maps is for the Lab to provide a set of default grey textures at (say) 128×128 against which specular glossiness and environment could be set. A counter to this was that the blank white texture could be used and tinted to grey.
  • There was also general discussion on PBR and its possible introduction to SL in the future (it is *not* on the roadmap right now!) and its potential impact on existing content were it to be introduced.

Catznip R12.3 goes BoM!

Posted on by Inara Pey

Catznip version R12.3 surfaced on Tuesday, October 15th, and made it the default download / update version on Wednesday, October 16th.

This is a maintenance release, following on from version 12.2, which saw a “de-coupling” of updates that are more focused on bug fixes and improvements from larger releases that include significant updates and new capabilities. However, it does include one major new feature: support for Linden Lab’s Bakes on Mesh capability.

As always, details of updates are available through the official release notes, although given the size of the update, just about everything included is noted below.

Linden Lab Derived Updates

Viewer Parity

This release brings Catznip to parity with Linden Lab viewer release 6.3.1.530559, formerly the Umeshu release candidate viewer (Dated September 5th, promoted to de facto release status by Linden Lab on September 10th).

Bakes on Mesh

R12.3 provides support for Bakes on Mesh (BoM). This is a capability to allow system wearable layers as used with the “classic” Second Life system avatar – skins, tattoos, underwear, shirt and jacket layers – to be used with mesh bodies and heads, and without the need for additional applier systems.

The system requires mesh bodies and heads to be “BoM enabled” – and many creators have already updated their products, or are in the process of updating their products to support Bakes on Mesh. In addition, some applier makers are producing applier systems that leverage Bakes on Mesh to apply wearables to mesh bodies and heads – although these may be limited in some respects due to differences between how skin textures and mesh bodies are made).

Through Bakes on Mesh, Linden Lab hopes:

  • Users can avoid the need to use appliers, but can add wearables to their mesh avatar directly from inventory.
  • Creators will be able to simplify avatar mesh bodies and heads by removing the need for some of the “onion” layers. This should – if done – reduce the rendering complexity for bodies and heads, thus hopefully improving people’s SL experience (as avatars won’t be quite so resource intensive or require quite so much “assembly time” when encountering them on logging-on or after teleporting somewhere).

Bakes on Mesh support is required to both use the BoM capability and to correctly view mesh avatars using BoM.

For more detailed information on Bakes on Mesh, please refer to the following links:

Linden Lab:

Creator-related BoM documentation:

Informative Bakes on Mesh blog post:

Catznip Fixes

Release 12.3 also includes the following updates from the Catznip team:

  • Minor installer issues.
  • Revert SL-1579 and allow taking rezzed items if their originating folder was Received Items.
  • Crash in busy/crowded places while camming around (thank you Nicky from Firestorm).
  • CATZ-532: Avatar (sometimes) ends up deformed when detaching something while an Animesh attachment is worn.
  • CATZ-535: Remove Google+ links.
  • CATZ-539: Creator Name on the build floater is always disabled.
  • CATZ-542: Render Everyone As setting affects your own Animesh attachments.
  • RLVa – FIRE-24230: Login crash when RLV @showloc restricted with no teleport history file.
  • RLVa – BoM universal layer is missing from @getoufit.

Related Links

2019 Simulator User Group week #42

Posted on by Inara Pey
Frogmore, August 2019 – blog post

No significant news. A lot of back and forth on region crossings and whether they are “worse” and personal views on how they can be fixed.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, October 14th the SLS (main) channel was updated with server release 2019-10-03T01:12:11.531528, previously deployed to an RC channel and comprising:
      • Fixes: BUG-227645 EEP issue; windlight no longer rendering properly.
      • Internal logging changes.
      • Improvements to simulator state saves, which should make rolls smoother.
  • On Wednesday, October 16th, a new server update, 2019-10-11T18:12:36.531693, should be deployed. This comprises all of the above updates plus the internal script improvements previously documented in these updates. This deployment will expand these updates (originally deployed to one RC on Wednesday, October 9th in release .531529) to all of the primary RC channels.

SL Viewer

The Vinsanto Maintenance RC viewer, dated September 17th, 2019 was promoted to de facto release status on Tuesday, October 15th. The remainder of the pipelines remained unchanged at the time of writing:

  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16.
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November 2017 – 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.