Category: SL Tech

Singularity 1:8:3: Export textures with your Collada files

Posted on by Inara Pey

singularitySingularity 1.8.3 has been released and as promised by Latif, it sees the recently added export capability updated.

With the new version, the Collada .DAE export option can now also include textures, rather than just exporting the bare prims. Additionally, it has the ability to apply texture parameters such as repeats, offset and others to the exported UV map, combine prim faces with the same texture and colour into one submesh and optionally skip transparent faces.

This makes the export tool even more powerful for those wishing to save their own in-world creations locally. Again, it’s important to remember that the export capabilities will only work if you are the creator of all elements of the item you are attempting to export – including the textures.

To export an item, including textures using the Collada DAE format:

  • Make sure you are the creator of all parts of the item (and any textures used with it that you wish to export)
  • Right click on the object and select More > More > Tools > Save DAE (if you cannot export the item, this option will be unavailable)
  • A floater will open displaying information on the item, including the prims and textures you can export
  • Use the Options section to define whether or not you wish to export the textures, the format in which you want them exported (.TGA being the default), and whether you wish to export the texture parameters (repeats, rotation, offsets, etc), and / or wish to skip transparent textures / consolidate faces
  • Select a save location for the object and save it.
The Collada export option now has its own floater, which will indicate the prims / textures in an object you can export (arrowed) & which allows you to set additional options for the export, including the preferred format for textures
The Collada export option now has its own floater, which will indicate the prims / textures in an object you can export (arrowed) & which allows you to set additional options for the export, including the preferred format for textures

The item will be exported and saved, and can be uploaded as a mesh .DAE object into any grid supporting mesh / mesh uploads. Note that if you don’t have the right to export any of the textures in the object, they will be stripped from the copy of the object on export.

If you export an item you created but which includes textures to which you don't have the right to export, they will not be saved with the object
If you export an item you created but which includes textures to which you don’t have the right to export, they will not be saved with the object

4096 Bug Fix

This version of Singularity also offers a fix for the “4096 bug” in OpenSim, wherein teleporting more than 4096 regions can lead to problems / failure. See also SVC-2941 and FIRE-11593.

Other Updates

In addition, version 1.8.3 includes the following updates Please refer to the release notes for the correct attributions):

  • Restored Teleport, Pay, and Log buttons in the IM window
  • Spanish translation update
  • Audio code crash fix
  • Fix for crash when RLV is enabled and viewing inventory forbidden
  • Made  the map dot color for everyone else customizable
  • New debug settings
    • ResetViewTurnsAvatar allows preventing avatar turning when camera position is reset after zooming (addresses VWR-27956)
    • LiruNewMessageSound allows users to mark a specific chat session important, so “ding” sound is played for every message, not just when the conversation first starts
    • NewIMsPerConversation when set will count number of new IM conversations, not just total number of new IM messages when the communicate window is closed
    • NewIMsPerConversationReset allows new IMs button’s visibility to be reset when the communicate window has been opened and closed
    • LogShowHistoryLines allows setting the number of lines displayed in a new IM window from the previous conversation.

Related Links

SL projects update week 38 (1): server releases, viewer, and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments – Week 38

As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

Second Life Server (SLS Main) Channel – Tuesday September 17th

The Main channel received the HTTP updates  previously deployed to Magnum in weeks 36 and 37. Overviews of these changes, which will be transparent to users pending viewer-side updates, can be found here and here. These changes introduce new capabilities for mesh fetching operations and should lead improvements in the reliability in viewer / server connectivity when fetching mesh and textures as the viewer-side updates are released.

Release Candidate Channels – Wednesday September 18th

  • BlueSteel and LeTigre should remain on the same maintenance package as week 37, but additionally should receive two updates to the package:
    • A fix for a newly discovered crash mode
    • The HTTP updates deployed to Magnum in weeks 36 and 37 and to the Main channel on Tuesday September 17th.
  • Magnum should receive a new maintenance package which again includes the BlueSteel / LeTigre updates, and includes a number of crash fixes and an update to parcel access priorities “making it so that avatars who are on the ‘allowed’ list can bypass some of the other access restrictions (payment info on file was listed specifically)”

Commenting on the crash mode fixed on BlueSteel  / LeTigre, Andrew Linden said, ” The crash bug I fixed was actually rather rare… a corruption of the terrain data when building packets. Happened maybe… 5 times in three weeks. But we thought maybe it was related to some interest list changes so I looked into it anyway.”

Viewer Updates

Maintenance RC Release

A new RC viewer reached the release channel on Friday September 13th. Second Life RC viewer 3.6.6.280939 includes the following core updates:

  • Automatic avatar render limit and feedback system
  • Support for the additional LSL particle parameters.
  • rendering optimizations
  • avatar render cost information
  • simple impostors
  • graphics pref update
  • new debug setting “RenderAutoMuteRenderCostLimit” sets render cost cut-off point (default 0 = disabled cutoff check)

The new particle options comprise:

  • Glow
  • Ribbon effects
  • Blending options.

The SL wiki includes full details of these new particle parameters.

  • The glow effect basically looks the same as the prim glow setting on prims, adding PSYS_PART_START_GLOW and PSYS_PART_END_GLOW, which take a float in the 0.0 to 1.0 range
  • The particle blending takes 2 parameters, PSYS_PART_BLEND_FUNC_SOURCE and PSYS_PART_BLEND_FUNC_DEST, and each of those takes one of the 8 ‘values’ listed underneath, so there are actually 8*8 = 64 blend options. It exposes OpenGL’s glBlendFunc to LSL, see the glBlendFunc documentation at http://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/xhtml/glBlendFunc.xml
An example of how the now ribbon capabilities might be used in SL, showing the arc of the sword through the air, supplied by Maestro Linden (courtesy of Hollowfear.com)
  • The new ribbon capability should allow for much better particle effects for things like ropes and chains links between objects (amount other things), using a ” go-from” prim/position (the prim centre), and a “go-to” prim/position (defined by PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY), the advantage being there would no longer be any gaps in the particle stream. However, there may be times when the ribbon effect may not be facing your camera (so there may be times when you need to reposition your camera in order to see the effect).

Continue reading “SL projects update week 38 (1): server releases, viewer, and more” →

Firestorm meeting 14th September, 2013 – video and transcript

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoOn Saturday 14th September 2013, the Firestorm team hosted another informal question-and-answer session. While the meeting was recorded, the Firestorm team are aware that many of their users have hearing difficulties, and / or prefer to read text. It is because of this that this transcript has been provided. When reading it, please remember:

  • This is not a word-for-word transcript of the entire meeting. While all quotes given are as they are spoken in the video, to assist in readability and maintain the flow of conversation, not all asides, jokes, interruptions, etc., have been included in the text presented here
  • If there are any sizeable gaps in comments from a speaker which resulted from asides, questions to other etc,, these are indicated by the use of “…”
  • Timestamps are provided as guidance should anyone wish to hear the comments in full from any speaker on the video
  • Questions were asked in chat while speakers were talking. This inevitably meant that replies to questions would lag well behind when they were originally asked. Therefore, to provide context between questions and answers, questions in the transcript are time stamped at the point at which each is addressed by a member of the Firestorm team
  • Some questions were asked and answered purely in text. These have been excluded for one of two reasons. Either a) they lacked context with the voice conversation, or b) the seating arrangements in the auditorium meant there were some questions or answers which didn’t appear in my local chat window.

Please note: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. As such, questions on technical issues relating to Firestorm and  / or project-specific questions cannot be answered here unless one of the Firestorm team drops by.

Video courtesy of Northspring

Continue reading “Firestorm meeting 14th September, 2013 – video and transcript” →

Viewer release summary 2013: week 37

Posted on by Inara Pey

This summary is 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 Viewer Round-up 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
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also 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.

Updates for the week ending: September 15th, 2013 (with extras)

Official LL Viewers

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-Style

  • CtrlAltStudio Experimental version (Oculus Rift): updated on September 15th to version 1.1.0.34268 – core updates: added Max OSX support; added looking around with the Rift in 3rd person view; various fixes (release notes)

V1-Style

Other Clients

  • Mobile Grid client updated to version 1.21.1203 – core updates: people search fix (not showing results with less than a 100 entries)

Additional TPV Resources

Deprecated / Discontinued Viewers

  • Niran’s Viewer – discontinued as of version 2.2.0.2701 & superceded by Black Dragon
  • SLiteChat removed from listing; no updates since 2011, removed from TPV Directory & no response from developer
  • SL Second Life Beta viewer – deprecated as of version 3.6.2.278491, July 15, 2103
  • SL Development viewer – deprecated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

Related Links

Facebook support coming to the SL viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Eagle-eyed (or given his avatar, should that be owl-eyed? :)) Daniel Voyager spotted a pointer that a degree of Facebook support is coming to the SL viewer for those who already have a Facebook account.

The new capability is called Second Life Share, which is being aimed at the viewer 3.6.6  code base (although it isn#t a part of the latest Materials RC viewer, 3.6.6.280797 released on September 11th).

When it does appear, the capability will be opt-in, an important point to remember. Nothing happens vis-a-vis the viewer and Facebook unless you want it to happen (and you have a Facebook account). It will apparently consist of a new viewer floater, itself comprising a number of tabs:

  • Account Tab: will allow those with a Facebook account to connect their SL account to it for the purposes of posting from SL to Facebook
  • Check-in tab: will allow someone to share the SLurl for their current in-world location via Facebook, together with a short comment on the location and a map image if they wish
  • Status tab:  will allow someone to share a text comment with friends via Facebook
  • Photo tab: will allow someone to upload a snapshot to their FB account. As with the current Profile Feed option in the snapshot floater, the resolution of the image can be selected at upload (minimum 800×600), and an optional SLurl / comment can be included with the image.

Details on the capabilities are outlined in Viewerhelp on the wiki, which also references a new Knowledge Base entry, Second Life Share. Unfortunately, clicking the link generates a 404 error, and a search of the Knowledge Base at the time of writing did not yield and further relevant results. I’ve included the link here in anticipation of the issue being fixed by LL.

Whether the title of the new functionality is “Second Life Share” is indicative that it may be extended to include other social media options remains to be seen. It will also be interesting to see what it might mean for the future of the snapshot floater – if anything at all – if this is the case.

I’ll follow-up on this post once the new functionality is visible.

SL projects update week 37 (2): particle capabilities – viewer release imminent

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: The maintenance release viewer with the particle capabilities is now available – version 3.6.6.2.80939 – release notes and download.

Server and RC Deployments

As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for news, updates and feedback.

In a change to the usual server-side deployments, the Main channel and all three RC channels have had their deployments and restarts made on Tuesday September 10th. The reason for the single pass was to apply updates server-side relating to recent Vivox service maintenance.

Details of the updates can be found in part 1 of this week’s update.

Server and RC Deployments Week 38

While the final decisions on deployments will not be made until that start of week 38 (week commencing Monday September 16th), it currently appears as if the following are likely to form part of the deployments:

  • The server-side HTTP updates will be promoted to the Main channel
  • A small server maintenance release will be deployed to at least one RC, which includes a number of crash fixes and an update to parcel access priorities “making it so that avatars who are on the ‘allowed’ list can bypass some of the other access restrictions (payment info on file was listed specifically)”

Particle System Viewer Imminent

Back in week 12, the Lab indicated that the SL particle system would be getting new capabilities, specifically:

  • Glow
  • Ribbon effects
  • Blending options.
Ribbon particle example

The server-side support for these capabilities was duly deployed, but have since been awaiting the viewer-side support in order to be accessible to users.

Commenting on the situation at the Server Beta meeting, Maestro Linden indicated that a release candidate viewer should be appearing with the necessary viewer-side support for the new LSL particle functions and parameters on Friday September 13th.

In preparation for the release, Maestro has also updated the wiki with details of the new particle parameters.

“The new particle glow options are pretty simple,” he said. “If you look at the wiki page, we’ve just added PSYS_PART_START_GLOW and PSYS_PART_END_GLOW, which take a float in the 0.0 to 1.0 range. It basically looks the same as the prim glow setting on prims.”

He went on, “particle blending takes 2 parameters, PSYS_PART_BLEND_FUNC_SOURCE and PSYS_PART_BLEND_FUNC_DEST, and each of those takes one of the 8 ‘values’ listed underneath, so there are actually 8*8 = 64 blend options! You can do crazy things, like having particles invert the thing underneath.

“Anyway, the blend parameters are pretty technical.  It’s basically exposing OpenGL’s glBlendFunc to LSL. And the main  glBlendFunc documentation at http://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/xhtml/glBlendFunc.xml goes into the details better than I can.”

For those who can’t wait for the RC viewer with the necessary support to appear, an autobuild version is available.. However, keep in mind this is a test build for the capability, and as such is liable to be behind the curve compared to the RC version in terms of bug fixes, etc., so be sure to update to the RC version when it appears on the wiki page. The RC version is now available.

An example of how the now ribbon capabilities might be used in SL, showing the arc of the sword through the air, supplied by Maestro Linden (courtesy of Hollowfear.com)

The new ribbon capability should allow for much better particle effects for things like ropes and chains links between objects (amount other things), using a ” go-from” prim/position (the prim centre), and a “go-to” prim/position (defined by PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY), the advantage being there would no longer be any gaps in the particle stream. However, there may be times when the ribbon effect may not be facing your camera (so there may be times when you need to reposition your camera in order to see the effect).

Related Links