Gothbrooke Forest, January 2023 – 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, March 16th, 2023 at 13:00 SLT.
These meetings are for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current work, upcoming work, and requests or comments from the community, together with viewer development work. They are chaired by Vir Linden, and dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.
Notes:
These meetings are conducted in mixed voice and text chat. Participants can use either to make comments / ask or respond to comments, but note that you will need Voice to be enabled to hear responses and comments from the Linden reps and other using it. If you have issues with hearing or following the voice discussions, please inform the Lindens at the meeting.
The following is a summary of the key topics discussed in the meeting, and is not intended to be a full transcript of all points raised.
glTF Materials and Reflection Probes
Project Summary
To provide support for PBR materials using the core glTF 2.0 specification Section 3.9 and using mikkTSpace tangents, including the ability to have PBR Materials assets which can be applied to surfaces and also traded / sold.
To provide support for reflection probes and cubemap reflections.
The overall goal is to provide as much support for the glTF 2.0 specification as possible.
In the near-term, glTF materials assets are materials scenes that don’t have any nodes / geometry, they only have the materials array, and there is only one material in that array.
It is currently to early to state how this might change when glTF support is expanded to include entire objects.
The project viewer is available via the Alternate Viewers page, but will only work on the following regions on Aditi (the Beta grid): Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
The PBR Materials project viewer updated to version 7.0.0.578792, on March 15th 2023. Note that this viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Texture handling / management:
As a result of data gathered by the Lab revealing a lot of users only have around 1 GB of texture memory, Dave P (Runitai Linden) has been making another pass through texture handling to making loading faster and memory use more efficient.
VRAM management has been improved to more selectively release texture memory on systems which might otherwise “run low” on available VRAM.
The hope is these will reduce texture trhashing issues (texture blurring, clearing, blurring, clearing) in the future for those so affected.
Geenz Linden continues to work on the Mac side of the PBR work; Comic Linden is finalising UV treatment and Bed Linden is working on the one remaining server-side bug the team is aware of and is working on atmospherics and issues with rendering them in linear space.
Brad Linden is working on a series of bugs in PBR materials handling where editing via LSL or manually sees the updates (changes) dropped rather than applied in various edge-cases and situations.
The simulator-side fixes for this issues are in place; fixes within the viewer are awaiting inclusion in a upcoming viewer update.
In Brief
glTF format for geometry (mesh), animations, etc., this is something the Lab does want to do, but will take the form of follow-on project(s) from the current glTF PBR materials work.
supporting glTF geometry imports is seen as a major project as it will likely require handling of arbitrary hierarchies, which is not something SL currently handles – although it is acknowledged that once done, will offer a lot of benefits.
There was a general discussion on terrain improvements. This is something that LL had been considering, but content creators attending the CCUG meeting favoured the PBR work and graphics updates, so the terrtain updates have just to be put back onto the road map. Where it would slot, is not clear, as the desire from creators is to see the glTF work continue with geometry import support, etc., as noted above.
Another major graphic project waiting in the wings is the introduction of support for the Vulkan graphics API / MoltenVK (for Mac). This would likely take priority over any significant terrain work.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 14th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Server Deployments
On Tuesday, March 14th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
On Wednesday, March 15th:
The BlueSteel & Magnum RC channels will receive the Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)
simulator update.
The Ferrari and LeTigre RC channels will be started without change.
There was no promotion to the Main SLS channel as a bug on the RC deployment made to Ferrari and LeTigre causing issues for some breedables.
Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)
This is the simulator update referenced in the March 10th Lab Gab session – see: Lab Gab summary: Grumpity, Mojo & Patch – SL Mobile, land, bots & more – Bots and Policies).
The update includes a console variable that can be set by estate managers to either True or False. When set to True it will prevent Scripted Agents from entering regions in an estate.
This will be supported in time by a viewer UI update to allow the option to be managed more directly – but it will still be a while before this UI change surfaces in the viewer.
There will be a policy change update published soon which will further cover these changes and the operation of Scripted Agents.
Further changes have been suggested within the Lab – notably to traffic – but it has yet to be decided on whether / when these will be implemented.
Viewer Updates
There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:
Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.10.578270, issued February 24.
Performance Floater / Auto FPS RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578172, February 21, 2023.
Project viewers:
PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578613, March 10 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.
In Brief
A general discussion on scripting – such as adding a TypeScript-style support for writing LSL to script memory, use of C#, use of containers for services, LL selling AWS services through SL for scripters / scripted services, etc. This took up most of the meeting, so please see the video for reference.
BUG-227303 – “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” – this bug is still awaiting work by LL.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, March 12th, 2023
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: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968, promoted Thursday, February 2, 2023- no change.
Release channel cohorts:
No updates.
Project viewers:
glTF / PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578613, March 10 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Puppetry demonstration via Linden Lab – see below. Demos video with the LL comment “We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there’s more to do before it’s as animated as we want.”
The following notes have been taken from chat logs and audio recording of the Thursday, March 9th, 2023 Puppetry Project meetings held at the Castelet Puppetry Theatre on Aditi. These meetings are generally held on alternate weeks to the Content Creation User Group (CCUG), on same day / time (Thursdays at 13:00 SLT).
Notes in these summaries are not intended to be a full transcript of every meeting, but to highlight project progress / major topics of discussion.
Project Summary
General Project Description as Originally Conceived
LL’s renewed interest in puppetry was primarily instigated by Philip joining LL as official advisor, and so it really was about streaming mocap. That is what Philip was interested in and why we started looking at it again. However since Puppetry’s announcement what I’ve been hearing from many SL Residents is: what they really want from “puppetry” is more physicality of the avatar in-world: picking up objects, holding hands, higher fidelity collisions.
As a result, that is what I’ve been contemplating: how to improve the control and physicality of the the avatar. Can that be the new improved direction of the Puppetry project? How to do it?
Leviathan Linden
Previously referred to as “avatar expressiveness”, Puppetry is intended to provide a means by which avatars can mimic physical world actions by their owners (e.g. head, hand, arm movements) through tools such as a webcam and using technologies like inverse kinematics (IK) and the LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system.
Note that facial expressions and finger movements are not currently enabled.
Most movement is in the 2D plain (e.g., hand movements from side-to-side but not forward / back), due to limitations with things like depth of field tracking through a webcam, which has yet to be addressed.
The back-end support for the capability is only available on Aditi (the Beta grid) and within the following regions: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet.
Puppetry requires the use of a dedicated viewer, the Project Puppetry viewer, available through the official Second Life Alternate Viewers page.
No other special needs beyond the project viewer are required to “see” Puppetry animations. However, to use the capability to animate your own avatar and broadcast the results, requires additional work – refer to the links below.
There is a Puppetry Discord channel – those wishing to join it should contact members of LL’s puppetry team, e.g. Aura Linden, Simon Linden, Rider Linden, Leviathan Linden (not a full list of names at this time – my apologies to those involved whom I have missed).
Additional Work Not Originally In-Scope
Direct avatar / object / avatar-avatar interactions (“picking up” an apple; high-fives. etc.
Animations streaming: allowing one viewer to run animations and have them sent via the simulator to all receiving viewers without any further processing of the animations by those viewers.
Enhanced LSL integration for animation control.
Adoption of better animation standards – possibly glTF.
Given the project is incorporating a lot of additional ideas, it is likely to evolve into a rolling development, with immediate targets for development / implementation decided as they are agreed upon, to be followed by future enhancements. As such, much of what goes into the meetings at present is general discussion and recommendations for consideration, rather than confirmed lines o development.
Bugs, Feature Requests and Code Submissions
For those experimenting with Puppetry, Jiras (bug reports / fixes or feature requests) should be filed with “[Puppetry]” at the start of the Jira title.
An updated version of the project viewer is due to be made available once it has cleared LL’s QA process. This includes:
Using the binary protocol for the LEAP module communication, with new logic which causes LEAP modules to one be loaded by the viewer when they are used.
The AgentIO LEAP module adds the ability to adjust the look at target, viewer camera and agent orientation.
Support for sending the joint position of your avatar to the server, which is then available in LSL.
The code reports the post animation location for attachment points, allowing the the sever to know where things like hands and wings, etc., are, and this in turn allows LSL to query where that attachment point is in space and how it is rotated.
HOWEVER, the animation streaming code (see previous Puppetry meeting notes) will not be in the next viewer update.
Server-Side Work
The simulator code now has llGetAttachmentPointAnim() support, which should be recognised by the upcoming viewer update.
The Aditi puppetry regions are to be merged with the updated code so this can be tested.
While there has been some work completed on animation imports since the last meeting, there was nothing significant for LL to report on progress at this meeting.
General Notes
There is additional work going on to try to improve the IK system, with the aim of having the basics working better than is currently the case – better stability, etc. This work may appear in the viewer update after the one currently being prepared to go public.
Performance:
To prevent puppetry generating too much messaging traffic (UDP) between the viewer and simulator, a throttle is being worked on so that when the simulator is under a heavy load from multiple viewers running puppetry code, it can tell them all to tone down the volume of messages.
There will also be some switches and logic put into place that can be used when needed, helping to protect regions in case the load gets overwhelming.
A further suggestion made is to ensure the simulator does not broadcast puppetry messages for avatars seated and not using the code (such as an audience at a performance) to further reduce to volume of messaging, this is viewed as a potentially good avenue of work to consider.
There is also a threshold in place – if an attachment point does not move beyond it, it is not considered as moved, which will hopefully also reduce the amount of messaging the simulator has to handle.
LSL Integration:
See: OPEN-375: “LSL Functions for reading avatar animation positions”.
This work is now paused. Rider Linden developed a proof of concept, but found that in order to better manipulate parameters within the constraints, a configuration file should be used. He is therefore refactoring the code to do this before proceeding further.
The configuration file will be called avatar_constraints.llsd and it will live alongside avatar_lad.xml in the character directory.
Questions were again raised on whether Puppetry is for VR / will enable the viewer to run VR.
It was again pointed out that while Puppetry lays more foundational work which could be leveraged for use with VR headsets, than is not the aim of the Puppetry project.
Providing VR headset support is a much broader issue, which would require the involvement of other teams from LL – Product, the Graphics Team, the viewer developers, etc.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 7th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Server Deployments
On Tuesday, March 7th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
On Wednesday, March 8th:
The majority of RC servers will be updated to simulator release 578370, first deployed in week #9 to the BlueSteel RC.
In addition, there may be a deployment to the Ferrari RC comprising new LSL Functions llList2ListSlice, llSortListStrided, and llListFindListStrided (per BUG-231545). It also has a fix for DATA_SIM_STATUS from llRequestSimulatorData(), and doubles the amount of memory available for Linkset Data (LSD) to 128k.
There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:
Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2, 2023.
Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.10.578270, issued February 24 2023.
Performance Floater / Auto FPS RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578172, February 21, 2023.
Project viewers:
PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578526, March 3, 2023 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.
In Brief
Several general discussions:
Camera tracking for one’s own camera.
Particle size limits seen as possibly more a Content Creation User Group meeting discussion.
An idea to allow mesh vertices to be edited in-world without generating new assets in the process.
Using Media on a prim with HUDs, and the limitations therein (also related to the week #9 discussion of sending the contents of notecards in response to HTTP requests.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, March 5th, 2023
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: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968, promoted Thursday, February 2, 2023- no change.
glTF / PBR Materials viewer, version 7.0.0.578526, March 3, 2023 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 