Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, June 23rd, 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.
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, June 20th, 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.
Not strictly a Content Creation tool / subject, but of import to SL as a whole.
Summary
A project intended to replace the Vivox Voice system with the WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”).
Will see the removal of the SLplugin.EXE from the viewer, to be replaced with a library wrapper within the viewer.
Offers much better and more flexible voice support across platforms, with improved capabilities (e.g. automatic echo cancellation, automatic gain control, better noise cancellation) with better audio sampling / quality.
Also 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.).
During the transitional period as WebRTC is deployed on the back-end and gradually made available by viewers, support will be provided for both Vivox and WebRTC (i.e. if you are using a viewer using the Vivox plug-in, you will connect to voice via Vivox, and if using a viewer with WebRTC, then that protocol will be used.
Both Vivox and WebRTC work together, but their may be some initial limitations / issues until the project is fully deployed and the switch made.
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.
Status
There is a Project viewer available on the Alternate Viewers page. Thus is expected to to to Release Candidate status very soon.
The server support is currently available on the region WebRTC on the main grid.
The focus is currently on getting the viewer code up to release status so it can be adopted by TPVs, with a gradual deployment of the server code, however, it is unlikely the latter will be widely deployed until after the viewer code has been more fully adopted.
That said, this is something of a priority project, likely to be fast-tracked as much as possible.
Graphics / glTF
Terrain
Cosmic Linden is working on PBR terrain custom repat controls allowing for improved Texel densities to help reduce the “stretching” of textures of elevation changes) and better support 2K textures.
Most of the viewer work for this is now almost complete, but is awaiting simulator-side support on Aditi in order to be offered in a test viewer.
There is a more general bug where PBR terrain does not render in planar mirrors, and Cosmic is also working on trying to resolve this issue.
PBR Terrain painting: depending on how the above progress, Cosmic hopes to be able to start looking into the potential for PBR terrain painting in the near future. Currently the tentative plan is:
To allow land owners to control the mix of the four PBR materials on terrain, rather than the current situation where it’s determined by some elevation weights plus some noise added on top.
This capability will potentially be allowed for whoever can edit the terrain heights in a given parcel.
glTF Scene Import
Runitai Linden is continuing to work on glTF scene import. The focus remains on the viewer-side code.
As previously noted, this allows glTF scenes to be uploaded, tied to an in-world object and previewed in the viewer.
The support for this is available on the Rumpus Room regions on Aditi (the Beta Grid).
Actual simulator / back-end support for glTF scene will not start to be implemented until after the viewer side of the code is in better shape.
The overall goal is to get scene import working with Blender (and in accordance with the glTF specification), and mee the requirements / guidelines outline in the Blender glTF Imort / Export documentation. The plan is to:
Support all of the animation data defined in the document.
Support “most” of the materials data in additional to the already supported metallic roughness & emissive unlit.
As this work is still in the prototype phase no decisions have been made regarding the potential Land Impact for scenes or how LI will be calculated. This will come later in the project, once LL have more of a handle on things (upload, streaming, download, runtime cost, etc.).
There are also a lot of additional decisions yet to be made regarding this work – the LSL API, avatar limits (which can be attached to an avatar within a scene), all of which mean it will sill be a while before glTF scene imports are ready for any form of testing on the main grid (Agni).
General Notes
Runitai Linden is looking at the render pipe and possible optimisations and the potential to improve things like rendering objects, etc. Some of this work is likely to find its way back into production viewers in time.
This work also includes refinements to mirrors (e.g. so they get occluded, improvements to the update rate, etc).
Geenz Linden continues to work on Transmission and Index of Reflection (IOR), however, as they were out of the office for this meeting, no update was available.
Proper support for HDRI skies is being increasingly requested as a result of the Graphics Featurette viewer, and this work may be accelerated. However, they will require a new asset type.
† 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.
On Thursday, June 20th (SLT), Firestorm released version 7.1.9.74746 of their viewer.
As indicated by the change in major version number (7), this is a significant release of Firestorm, one that brings it largely up to parity, in terms of core functionality, with the official Second Life Viewer SLV). Included in this release, as hinted at by the title of this article, are the following:
PBR support – including all updates and enhancements released by the Lab.
Update, July 6th 2024: as a result of some of the issues being experienced with the Firestorm PBR release, Runitai Linden is re-visiting memory use (e.g. VRAM use) and its impact on lower specification hardware, and the impact it can have on performance with a viewer to trying to remove some of the bottlenecks.
Note that the following is not a complete review of the 7.1.9 update, but focuses on the major updates, with additional notes as to why they have been made, and which may be helpful for those not familiar with the on-going updates being made the Second Life (glTF – see below). As far as I’m aware, there are no formal release notes accompanying 7.1.9.74746, just a brief timeline summary, so please excuse the lack of reference to same for additional information / credits.
General Notes
Installation
Only download Firestorm from the Firestorm website. Do not utilise and other third-party site purporting to offer the Firestorm viewer, and remember Firestorm will never ask for log-in credentials in order to download a release version of their viewer.
There is no need to perform a clean install with this release if you do not wish to.
Do, however, make sure you back-up all your settings safely so you can restore them after installing 7.1.9.
MacOS and Linux
Firestorm 7.1.9.74746 sees the viewer move to MacOS 12 with the deprecation of MacOS 11.
The Firestorm team has been working with the Lab and other TPVs to build up the Linden Linux repositories to enable a re-launch of official Linux support. Currently, the Firestorm team is in the process of migrating their Linux support to use the updated Linux build libraries maintained by LL.
Linden Lab Releases Reflected in Firestorm 7.1.9.74746
This is the most significant update with Firestorm 7.1.9, and represents some of the most clearly visible changes both in the viewer and how Second Life might appear. However, to provide some context on matters for those who may not be aware of all that is going on (and trying to keep things as concise as possible), some background notes.
The Story So Far (aka Skip This if You’ve Heard it Before)
Linden Lab has engaged on a project to extensively overhaul Second Life and bring in to parity with modern standards, specifically moving to compliance with the Khronos® (graphics library Transmission Format) specification, regarded as the leading standard for sharing 3D and related assets (models, scenes, animations, etc.) across multiple tools and platforms.
The first phase of this project (November 2023) focused on a shift to support PBR (Physically Based Rendering). This introduced the likes of:
PBR materials, offered as an alternative to SL’s existing materials system (referred to as “Blinn-Phong” materials, rather than completely replacing them.
Reflection probes (for more realistic lighting / reflections in second life.
HDRI rendering for more realistic environmental rendering.
This was followed in January and March 2024 with two bug fix updates to PBR.
In June, LL released the Graphics Featurettes viewer, comprising:
Support for the upload of 2048×20248 textures and materials without any down-sampling to 1024×1024 resolution.
Provision for using PBR textures on terrain.
The ability to create static and dynamic mirrors in Second Life.
But What Does it Mean?
Broadly speaking, the move to glTF compliance in Second Life should mean:
Deeper, richer environmental effects and lighting, with much improved reflections (including the ability to set reflection probes for better interior lighting and reflections – including planar “mirrors”).
However, some EEP settings can look darker due to the use of HDR.
Linden water can look very different – this is something Linden Lab will be addressing.
Some significant changes to viewer rendering. Perhaps most notably, you will not longer be able to disable Advanced Lighting Model (ALM).
This is because PBR sees the removal of the rendering pipe (called the “Forward Renderer” which was used as the “fallback” when ALM was turned off.
A potentially smoother, more straightforward workflow for mesh content creators, allowing them to use their tools (notably Substance Painter and, down the road, Blender), more efficiently and make the content they create more directly transferable between platforms.
The ability for content creators to:
Continue to use the existing materials system (Blinn-Phong) while they get up to speed with PBR.
Immediately swap to using PBR materials and leveraging the benefits thereof.
The option of, if they wish, providing content using both PBR materials and Blinn-Phong materials as a “fall back”. Note that this is not required, and creators are under no obligation to do so – it is simply possible at present, and a matter of individual choice.
However, there are some potential for viewer performance to be impacted, particularly if the settings for some of the new features are ramped-up and over-tax the computer running the viewer..
For Firestorm, some significant changes to familiar UI elements, as outlined in this review.
A Note on Reflection Probes
An important element to understand with PBR is that of reflection probes – what they are and what they are intended to do. The following notes are not exhaustive, but will hopefully assist those who might require some explanation.
Simply put, a reflection probe is a 360º degree image of the environment / setting within its physical volume which can be used to create approximate reflections of objects on suitably shiny surfaces, and can be used to add highlights or ambient light is defined spaces.
Reflection probes only generate images based on what is within their volumes. Similarly, they only affect objects within their volumes.
So, if you have a shiny box and a sofa inside a reflection probe, and another box outside of the probe, the reflection of the sofa should be visible on the box inside the probe, but not on the box outside of the probe.
Second Life uses two types of reflection probes: automatic and manual:
Every region has its own automatic probes – they are simply *there*, and cannot be directly manipulated.
Manual probes are users-created and can be used for specific effects (e.g. generating reflections of objects in a room on glossy /shiny surfaces within the same room.
Manual probes always take precedence over automatic probes.
Probes can be one of two forms: Sphere or Box.
Sphere probes tend to give the best results and blend better. SL’s automatic probes are of the sphere type. Sphere probes are generally good enough for most outdoor scenes.
Box probes are handy for generating reflections within thins like rooms, due to their shape. They are also ideal for creating mirrors (see below). They can be rotated to adjust their influence.
When editing reflection probes:
You must enable Select Reflection Probes via the Build menu → Options or within the Build / Edit floater so that you can right-click on them and select them for editing once created.
This is intentionally a non-persistent setting, as having it on all the time could prevent you from selecting objects inside a reflection probe’s volume. Therefore, you must do this once per log-in session when you intend to create / manipulate any reflection probe(s).
The only parameters which can be used with an reflection probe are its position, rotation, scale, and specific settings assigned to it. All other parameters will be ignored.
When creating / editing reflection probes, you must ensure you can select them for ease of manipulation, by check the Select Reflection Probes option via the Build → Options sub-menu (l), or directly in the upper section of the build / Edit floater (r)
Reflection probes use two ambient settings:
The EEP ambience set via Atmosphere & Lighting Reflection Probe Ambience (HDR) in the EEP Fixed Sky and Edit Day Cycle floaters. This is the “minimum” probe ambience.
The individual Ambience setting for a reflection probe, set via the build floater. This can be made to make the ambience of a probe more intense, if required (sometimes helpless when using probes in interior scenes.
Reflection probe ambience settings the “global minimum” set via the EEP settings (Fixed Sky or Day Cycle), and the per-probe setting within the Build / Edit floater
Again, for a more detailed exploration on reflection probes, see Reflection Probes and You by Kristy Aurelia.
2K Textures, PBR Terrain and Mirrors
2K Textures
Until now, texture resolution in Second Life has been limited to 1K (1024×1024) – however, it has been possible to upload 2048×2048 resolution textures but they would automatically be down-sampled to 1024×1024 for display.
With this release, it is now possible to upload 2048×2048 texture without any down-sampling.
This ability introduces new fees for uploading textures at 2K resolution:
Basic / Plus account: L$50 per texture.
Premium account: L$40 per texture.
Premium Plus: L$0.
Important: these fees are currently implied for bulk 2K texture uploads, rather than explicitly warned about. If you are a Basic, Plus or Premium user who routinely uploads 2048×2048 textures to Second Life in the expectation they will be down-sampled to 1024×1024 and only incur the L$10 per texture fee – you will be automatically charged at one of the above rates when doing so.
PBR Terrain
This refers to applying 2K PBR materials directly to Second Life terrain (subject to you having region / estate rights in order for you to do so. It is not PBR terrain painting as seen in engines such as Unity or Unreal, but it should result in considerable improvement in the visual quality of terrain. However, note that currently terrain repeats are fixed, but a future update as a part of the ongoing work will enable custom texture repeats to be set, helping with Texel and reducing stretching when PBR materials are applied over changes in elevation.
PBR terrain. Credit: Linden Lab
Note: there is no provision for any legacy fallback when using PBR materials on Second Life terrain, so if used, those on non-PBR viewers will only see grey ground.
Mirrors
The PBR updates allow the creation of planar (flat) mirrors in SL, using reflection probes
The release of the Graphics Featurette viewer finally allows the long-requested desire for real-time / dynamic mirrors in Second Life which do not require tricks with Linden Water or the user of lighting projectors (which could not reflection avatars anyway) or other sleight-of-hand.
How useful mirrors actually are in SL is a subjective issue, and one outside the scope of this review – as is how to create them. However, the following general points on mirrors should be noted:
While there can be multiple mirrors within a scene / room, only one will be properly active at a time – the one nearest the viewer’s camera. All others will generally only appear as shiny surfaces.
Mirrors are limited to planar (that is, flat) mirrors, and the capability is not well suited for use with curved shapes / forms (such as the body of a car).
Allowing mirror reflections in the mirror (set via options in Preferences → Graphics (see below) will have a performance impact.
Mirrors are not designed to be worn as avatar attachments, and will not function correctly if used as such.
Emoji support was added to the official viewer courtesy of a code contribution by Kitty Barnett, the lead Catznip developer, and is now adopted by Firestorm with the release of 7.1.9.74746.
Emojis are accessed through the Firestorm conversations floater, and are available for local chat, Group chat and IMs.
To use them, two new icons have been added to the floater, to the right of the text input field (see image below).
Firestorm’s implementation of Emojis
Clicking on the down-pointing arrow button will open a display of frequently-used emojis directly under the text input line (note: this will obviously be empty on first-time use).
Click on any of the listed emojis to and have them added at the current cursor position in the text field.
If you ish to close the display of emojis, click on the arrow button again.
Click on the Smiley icon to open a floater of all the available emojis.
The emoji floater includes a series of buttons to help with sorting / displaying emojis, as shown and described below, left-to-right.
Emoji floater button bar
All (“Search”): a scrollable list of all available emojis, split by categories.
Recently / Frequently used: displays those emojis used most recently as well as those you’ve used most frequently.
People and body: smileys, emoticons, “gestures”, human emojis (running, cycling, etc.).
Animals and Nature: as per the label.
Food & Drink: as per the label.
Travel & Places: globes, regions, places, vehicles, time zones, etc.
Activities: as per the label.
Object: light bulbs, books, packages, calendars, locks, etc.
Symbols: symbols, button, etc.
Flags: as per the label.
Emojis can be con figured using options on Preferences → User Interface → Fonts.
Firestorm UI Updates
Note: these are in addition to those already mentioned above.
Preferences → Graphics
PBR sees a number of changes to the Graphics tabs in Preferences. The following is intended to provide a brief outline of the changes, not an in-depth breakdown of their functionality.
General Tab
Firestorm 7.1.9.74746 Preferences → Graphics: General updates
Revised shader check boxes, which sees:
The addition of a Screen Space Reflections check box (can impact performance when enabled).
The Mirror check box, must be checked to see mirrors working as such in Second Life (will impact performance when enabled).
The removal of the option to disable Advanced Lighting Model (ALM), as noted earlier in this review.
Reflection Detail: the type of reflections generated by reflection probes. Can be set one of: Static Only – generates reflections for everything except avatars; Static & Dynamic: generates reflections for everything including avatars; and Realtime. Generally speaking, the first two options should be adequate, depending on whether or not you wish to see avatars in things like mirrors (and Static & Dynamic will have a higher performance hit).
Reflection Coverage: can be set to one of None, Manual, Manual and Terrain or Full Coverage.
Mirror Resolution: the quality of planar mirror reflections rendered by the viewer – for Firestorm, this can be one of 256×256; 512×512; 1024×1024; 2048×2048. Higher resolutions will have a greater impact on viewer performance.
Mirror Update Rate: how frequently mirror reflections are updated. Higher rates will impact viewer performance.
Exposure slider.
Hardware Settings Tab
Extensive revisions in line with the updated viewer rendering including:
Removal of the dynamic texture memory options and the addition of an option to Override VRAM detection with a slider to set the amount of dedicated GPU VRAM.
Generally speaking, these options should not be enabled / altered.
They are only intended for situations where VRAM detection is reporting incorrect values.
Because altering them, seek the advice of Firestorm Support.
Rendering Tab
Maximum texture resolution can now be set to either 512×512 or 1024×1024 rather than just 512×512.
Other Preferences Updates
Move & View → View: removal of the option to Disable Minimum Camera Zoom Distance.
Preferences → User Interface → Fonts: options to change the style of the Emojis and Emoji button.
Firestorm → Build 2: option to toggle the Firestorm Texture tab on the Build / Edit floater between the Firestorm layout and one close to the official viewer’s layout (and which uses a separate Edit Materials floater) – see Build / Edit floater, below.
Firestorm → Uploads: new option to define the inventory folder into which uploaded PBR materials so be filed (default: Materials and altered by right-click on the desired folder in Inventory and using the Use As Default For submenu to select the asset type).
Build / Edit Floater – Texture Tab
The Build / Edit floater Texture tab has the most visually extensive updates within Firestorm’s UI, including two layout options:
The Firestorm Layout (default) which presents both PBR materials options and Blinn-Phong (“classic”) materials as two separate sub-tabs. When using this layout, the separate Edit Materials floater found within the official viewer does not have to be used.
A layout closer to the official viewer, which uses a drop-down to select whether Blinn-Phong materials (labelled as “Textures”) or PBR materials (“PBR Metallic”) are to be used, and which updates the rest of the panel based on the selection made. This layout also utilises the separate Edit Materials floater as found in the official viewer.
The Firestorm Build / Edit floater Texture tab: left: in pre-PBR versions of the viewer (for comparison); 1: the default Firestorm Layout; 2: the alternate layout (click image for full size, if required)
The two layouts can be switched via unchecking / checking Preferences → Firestorm → Build 2 → Use The New Firestorm Texture Panel in the Tools floater (requires restart).
The option to use either the Firestorm Texture layout in the Build / Edit floater (when checked) or a layout close to that of the official viewer (when unchecked).
Note: the Second Life object content menu will display an option to Edit PBR Material when right-clicking on an object using PBR materials. When selected, this will open both the Build / Edit floater and the Materials Edit floater regardless of which Firestorm Texture tab layout you opt to use.
Menu Updates
The following is a brief list of changes to the viewer menus. For ease of reference, it includes menu updates also mentioned earlier in this review.
Avatar: new option: Remove Selected Attachments. When one or more worn attachments are selected, will be enabled, and clicking will remove those attachments.
World → Environment: new Midday (Legacy) day setting, using the non-HDR settings for midday (can make the day look brighter).
You can “disable” HDR sky rendering by setting the ambience in the Atmosphere & lighting tab of the EEP Fixed Sky and Day Cycle edit floaters to 0.
Build → Options:
Select Reflection Probes. When checked, will allow any reflection probes in a scene to be right-clicked selected.
Show Reflection Probe Volumes. When check will show the volumes of reflection probes in a yellow tint.
Highlight Transparent: use as an alternative for CTRL-ALT-T for highlighting objects using transparency and Include Rigged Transparent – both relocated from Advanced → Highlighting and Visibility.
Help → Whitelist Advisor: a list of Firestorm folders / locations that should be whitelisted with anti-virus tools should that latter give problems when trying to run the viewer, together with guidance notes.
The following should only be toggled / used if you know what you are doing:
Advanced → Rendering Types: addition of the following toggles: Materials (ON), PBR (ON), Glow, Fullbright, Fullbright Alpha Mask (all OFF).
Developer → Force an Error: new option Force LLError, Message And Crash.
Developer → Render Tests: options for previewing HDRI skies and for glTF scene preview (this option for in-development work by LL).
Developer → Render Metadata: addition of toggles for: Reflection Probes, Probe Updates and glTF Nodes (this option for in-development work by LL); removal of Build Queue.
Developer → Rendering: removal of: the following toggles: Advanced Lighting Model; Automatic Alpha Mask (non-Deferred); Disable Ambient, Sunlight and Local Lights; Hover Glow Objects.
Developer → Rendering: new Dump Font toggles; new Debug Unicode and Camera Control toggles.
OpenSim Updates
A new grid selector
Improved teleport/hop handling.
PBR terrain fallback (as OS support fallback textures).
Update: following the publication of this summary, Linden Lab announced changes to texture upload costs (mentioned at the end of this article). In short: the Lab will be reducing the cost of 2K texture uploads for Premium Plus and Lifetime Premium Plus accounts to L$0. See here for more.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, June 18th, 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 and the video by Pantera – my thanks to her as always 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.
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, June 18th, the Main SLS channel was updated with the Spring Break simulator update (which has a fix for the hovering-at-login issue) .
On Wednesday, June 19th, the RC channels were restarted without any update.
Coming up as the next simulator update is Summer Fun, which is currently with the Lab’s QA team. Following that will be Picnic, which is still in the process of being put together.
SL Viewer Updates
No updates to the current official viewers, leaving the list as:
Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th – NEW.
Release channel cohorts:
Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes) 7.1.8.9130881608, June 10.
Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.7.8820704257, May 6.
Please refer to the video for the following and other topics discussed:
This week was a Summer Solstice party, so discussion was semi-limited.
As per my recent Combat User Group summary, Rider is looking at avatar rotation / aiming and improving llRotateAvatar, but as the former are controller viewer-side and the later in simulator-side, is making this is proving to be an issue.
Simon Linden is “working on chat”, but would not be drawn on specifics, other than “it should be more useful”.
The updates required to the Bake Service (and all associated services) to support 2K textures is still on the “to be done” list.
It was pointed out that the Lab’s Premium Memberships page still states Premium Plus levies no charges for any uploads (click Even More Benefits to view) – despite this not being the case for 2K textures
General discussions on camera offset and llGetCameraPos().
† 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.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, June 16th, 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 – NEW.
The following notes were taken from the Thursday, June 13th, 2024 Combat User Group meeting. They form a summary of the core items discussed and responded to by Lindens, and are not intended to be a full transcript.
Meeting Overview
The Combat User Group exists as a forum to discuss improvements to the Linden Lab Combat System or LLCS to better support combat in Second Life.
The core idea is to provide additional events and capabilities which sit on top of LLCS to provide combat creators with better tools with which to create better combat systems for their specific scenarios.
It is not intended to be a complete combat system in and of itself.
The meetings are the result of a proposal document on improving the native damage system in SL, written by Rider Linden, and which is the focus for both the meeting and any work arising from them.
These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
By Rider Linden, with the support of Kyle Linden.
On alternating Thursdays (rotating with the Content Creation User Group) at 13:00 SLT. Meeting dates are recorded in the Second Life Public Calendar and at this location.
In local chat.
Discussion topics, requests, etc., can be found on the SL Feedback Portal Combat Board.
The current iteration of Combat 2.0 support on the server-side is due to be included in the Summer Fun simulator update, which is looking to be deployed some time after SL21B.
Those wishing to test the system can do so on Aditi on regions Gallipoli and Thermopylae.
Issues / feedback should be reported via the Support Portal Combat Board.
As noted in my previous update, this will very much be a release to find out exactly what works and what doesn’t for the Combat community/ies in Second Life and will be iterated upon going forward.
Rider is looking at avatar rotation / aiming and improving llRotateAvatar, but as the former are controller viewer-side and the later in simulator-side, is making this is proving to be an issue.
Rider has also been looking at improving hit boxes / hit box adjustments. However, this work is liable to be in follow-on updates to the initial release.
Comments and Requests
There was further request for Linden Lab to adopt the first-person shooter improvements found in the Black Dragon viewer. However:
As noted in my previous summary, this can only be done if Black Dragon’s develop provides the code to Linden Lab as a code contribution / code pull request, indication LL can consider / adopt the code.
The developer has indicated he can do this, but he might require time to do so for various reasons, including the fact it will probably need a lot more fine tuning and bug fixes.
The the above led to a discussion of using some form of IK update or scripted attachment added to hand-held weapons which could act as an animation targets for moving avatar hands to grips, magazines, etc. Some sample weapons have been put out on the combat regions on Aditi, and some sample scripts will be added to the SL wiki Combat Page to allow people to play with this idea.
As noted in my last summary, there has been a request made to add a “fast” parameter to llRezObjectWithParams to allow objects to rez at a reduced delay to allow things like higher rates of fire for some weapons without the need for additional rez nodes.
There is a potential griefing vector with this idea, so it was suggested that the parameter could be managed at region owner / estate level (e.g. so only enabled where specifically required).
At this meeting, Rider noted that implementing it would be a non-trivial task, because script delays are built into the function definition in the virtual machine, and so would require considerable update.
He also noted that even with an estate level control to counter issues of griefing on region that do not need it, such a parameter could result in the simulator’s rez queue being swamped by requests. However, it was suggested that this would be avoided because rezzers with too high a request rate would hit the grey goo fence.
There was a general discussion on llSensor and searching damageable types, with Rider noting the DAMAGE parameter searches for objects that either process on_damage, final_damage or have a health value, and when used, should combine both ACTIVE and PASSIVE, as it filters results.
In terms of damage, Rider noted that negative damage should be unthrottled and not trigger the region damage cap or contribute to the individual call throttle.
It was suggested that as a well as damage controls, there should be healing controls as well (e.g. a healing toggle and healing throttle) so as to prevent people making themselves “immortal”. However, it was noted:
It would be easier just to reduce all damage to 0, not matter what hits the avatar.
Either way, people abusing the system like this would show up clearly in the combat log, with combat region owners to potentially write a monitoring relay that will teleport anyone cheating in such a manner to be teleported home with a warning.
During the previous meeting it was asked if the former combat-enabled regions on the old Teen Grid – Lexington, Concord and No Man’s Land – could be brought back.
During that meeting, Madori Linden was able to bring back Lexington and Concord, but scripts on both were turned off – as of this meeting, scripts on both regions should be enabled.
It is proving difficult to recover No Mans Land, due to the lack of a good archived simstate.
A further request has been made to relocate Concord and Lexington to the Combat Sandbox red team and blue team regions, and make both combat sandboxes.
On Thursday, June 20th (SLT), Firestorm released version 7.1.9.74746 of their viewer.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 