Category: SL Tech

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, October 17th, 2024. There was no livestream or video for this meeting

Meeting Purpose

• The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work. This meeting is held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis.
• Meeting dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar, and they re conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
• The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.

Official Viewers Update

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

Near-Term Viewer Release Roadmap

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

Avatar LookAt /  Eye Tracking in the Viewer

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

Graphics Team Work

PBR Terrain Transforms and PBR Terrain Painting

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

General glTF / Graphics Comments

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

In Brief

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

Next Meeting

• CCUG: 13:00 SLT, Thursday, November 7th, 2024, at the Hippotropolis Campsite.

† 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.

Meeting Purpose

• The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work. This meeting is held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis.
• Meeting dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar, and they re conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
• The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.

Official Viewers Update

[Video: 1:18-2:30]

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

Near-Term Viewer Release Roadmap

• ExtraFPS work is focuses on bug fixes with the aim to get it promoted to default viewer status ASAP.
• The first maintenance RC to follow ExtraFPS will be the Maint B viewer, which will include updates put on hold during the focus on performance issues plus additional updates, some of which may be further “post-PBR” performance / aesthetic improvements.

WebRTC Status

[Video 2:34-3:41]

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

• Still awaiting wider simulator RC deployment. Per recent SUG / TPVD meetings, this now looks set to commence on October 16th, although the date may still change.
• In the meantime, WebRTC support is available on the following regions Pop Rock RC, comprising: WebRTC Voice 1, WebRTC Voice 2, WebRTC Voice 3 and WebRTC Voice 4.
• LL is already looking ahead to further work with WebRTC once it has been deployed, in terms of “Voice and media”. More to follow on this in the future.

Graphics Team Work

Linear Alpha Blending

[Video: 4:08-6:06]

• Again, as per the previous CCUG meeting, in order for PBR lighting to render anywhere close to correctly, alpha blending had 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.
• For those with access to the Content Creation Discord channel, this work is now available in a pre-release viewer there.
  • • Note: due to a request from Derrick Linden, I am unable to post information on how to access the Content Creation Discord channel. Requests to do so should be made to Vir or Derrick Linden.
• This work is supported on (the Beta grid) – again, refer to the Discord channel for details on this.
• Those using the Discord build are asked to provide feedback (with screen shots as appropriate).

Tone Mapping

[Video: 8:00-12:18 and 24:31-End]

• Originally slated as being a part of the viewer to follow ExtraFPS, the Khronos Neutral tone mapper (another code contribution by Rye Cogtail), which should improve overall ambient lighting in SL, making things somewhat brighter and more vibrant.
  • Options for this are available within the ExtraFPS viewer as debug settings:
    • RenderToneMapType – set the desired tone mapper (either Khronos Neutral (new default) or ACES .
    • RenderToneMapMix – mix between linear and tone-mapped colours.
  • If this approach is continued, these options will likely become UI elements within the Sky settings, allowing the desired Tone Mapper  / mixing be set at parcel level for the viewer, together with Advanced Graphics options for determining which should be the general default.
  • Results to these have thus far been mixed, so more feedback is being sought – which is felt to be better (ACES or Khronos Neutral (or even something else, etc).
• Some concerns have been voiced by creators over the idea that tone mapping can be user-configurable (“how can I make sure the tone mapping on my item is correct, if the user can change tone mapping in their viewer?”).
  • Allowing tone-mapping offers the ability for people to view Second Life as they prefer / set their regions / parcels to be viewer under specific lighting conditions; ergo offering tone mapping options via the EEP Sky settings as has been suggested above was seen by most at the meeting as a good thing.
  • Some questioned how consistency of appearance can be maintained (per the question above)  if they cannot be certain on the adjustments users make to their viewers.
  • One suggestion was for LL to designate one as the default that creators should be testing and creating against, and if the parcel is different, then it is up to the parcel owner to deal with.
  • Overall, keeping with Khronos  / glTF would be preferred,
• Further help in setting the brightest / contrast for for scenes can also be offered through exposure control and the colour gradient, with Geenz working on these as well.
• The above grew into an extended technical discussion through to the end of the meeting, please refer to the video.

In Brief (Q&A)

• [Video: 12:23-13:30] A brief discussion on glTF punctual lights (coming with glTF scene import), which might also offer the opportunity to offer more lights on alpha (rather than just the 6 closest, as it currently the case).
• [Video: 15:00-16:50] more Bakes on Mesh channels (e.g. individual left / right eye channels to allow for individual eye colours er eye:
  • Nothing currently planned beyond the existing Aux channels.
  • LL has had internal discussions on a “simplified editor for decorating houses, etc.”, and feedback has been requested as to what kind when / if the concept of layer channels is re-visited, it might be from the perspective of replacing them with something more accessible – but this is not something currently being investigated.
  • In terms of channels for individual eye colours (or similar), a feature request was requested.

Next Meeting

• CCUG: 13:00 SLT, Thursday, October 17th, 2024, at the Hippotropolis Campsite.

† 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.