Category: SL Tech

2022 SUG meetings week #34 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
MarDayLine Pylons, July 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022 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

For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the deployment forum thread.

  • On Tuesday, August 23rd, the simhosts on the Main SLS channel were updated with simulator version 574216. This includes the new LSL functions:
    • llReplaceEnvironment() – a scripted means to replace the environment in a parcel or a region, either for a single elevation track or the entire environment.
    • llSetEnvironment() – a scripted function to override the environmental settings for a region or a parcel. The owner of the script must have permission to modify the environment on the parcel or be an estate manager to change the entire region.
  • On Wednesday, August 24th, all simhost on the TC channel will be restarted without any deployment, leaving the also on simulator version 574216.

Available Official Viewers

On Monday, August 22nd, the Mesh Optimiser and Copy / Paste project viewers were both finally withdraw from the Alternate viewers download page, leaving the available official viewers as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Profiles RC viewer updated to version 6.6.3.574158, on August 18<.
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.3.573877 issued August 15.
    • Izarra Maintenance RC, version 6.6.3.573920, August 15.
    • Maintenance (N)omayo RC viewer, version 6.6.3.573882, August 5.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.

In Brief

HTTP discussion: a fair amount of the meeting was given over to HTTP which touched upon:

  • HTTP/2 multiplexing / pipelining (to replace the current HTTP 1.1 pipelining (which in turn touched upon TLS updates and Curl version updates) – in short, something the Lab is looking towards, but not on the immediate horizon.
  • The potential to obtain headers from an HTTP response using llGetHTTPHeader, which itself incorporated discussions of requirements, risk in exposing SL to returns of strings with uncontrolled lengths such that a verbose web site might cause a LSL stack overflow,
  • I’m actually hardly the best place to relay the ins and outs of the discussions, so I’ll refer you to the video for more.

2022 viewer release summaries week #33

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

Updates from the week through to Sunday, August 21st, 2022

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 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts::
    • Profiles RC viewer updated to version 6.6.3.574158, on August 18.
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.3.573877 issued August 15.
    • Izarra Maintenance RC, version 6.6.3.573920, August 15.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL updated to versions 1.30.0.13 (Stable) and 1.28.2.83 (Legacy) on August 20 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2022 CCUG meeting week #33 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Missing Melody, July 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, August 18th 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and their dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.

This is a summary of the key topics discussed in the meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript.

Official Viewers Status

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Profiles RC viewer updated to version 6.6.3.574158, on August 18.
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.3.573877 issued August 15.
    • Izarra Maintenance RC, version 6.6.3.573920, August 15.
    • Maintenance (N)omayo RC viewer, version 6.6.3.573882, August 5.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Copy / Paste project viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Materials and PBR Work

Please also see previous CCUG meeting summaries for further background on this project.

  • The back-end updates are now “all there”, and the focus is now on “tightening up” the graphics., the the image-based side of things now looking “pretty good”.
  • Internal testing currently involves Second Life, the new PBR / Materials viewer, the Kronos glTF 2.0 standard and Adobe Substance tools (Painter, Stager) to ensure that results displayed within Second Life are consistent with expectations when working within Substance Painter and with glTF.
  • Some inconsistencies with using directional lights created in Blender have been noted and subject to further testing.
  • Those with access to the Content Creation Discord server will be able to obtain an updated viewer soon. This will lack transparency support or LSL support; it will also have some “rough edges” around the UI and inventory support.
    • This is a test viewer only, and not for general consumption.
    • A more public Project viewer will be made through the Alternate Viewers channels when the work is more stable and suited for wider consumption.
  • Once the initial work on PBR  Materials is released, the graphics team will likely work on some quality of life improvements (e.g. bug fixes) for the graphics system, rather than launching into a new project immediately.

Possible New Inventory Fields

Whilst not solely related to content creation, the Lab has been discussing the potential of adding new inventory fields. Ideas being considered or also put forward at the meeting comprise:

  • Providing a thumbnail image of the inventory item, rather than having to rely solely on descriptive text.
  • A means of “tagging” inventory items (e.g. to define what they are in terms of being an attachment or not, and whether the attachment is / is not rigged, etc.), rather than just simply leaving them as a list of orange boxes.
  • Providing a formal means of “archiving” items that are not regularly used but which are not yet ready to be deleted (other than boxing things up and creating more orange boxes….).
  • Splitting head shapes and body shapes to make it easier for people who use different heads with the same body (or vice-versa).

In Brief

  • Requests are again surfacing for texture animation support in particles (see feature request BUG-5307). Those interested in seeing such capabilities should consider adding feedback to this Jira.
    • This led to questions on a complete overhaul of the SL particle system, which is not something currently under consideration as a possible future project at the Lab – which is not so say incremental updates are ruled out. Again, specific requests incremental updates system should be made via Jira.
    • For texture animations on particles, for example, the Lab would likely consider adopting the existing texture animation system for use with particles, rather than rebuilding the particle system to handle texture and other animations.
  • There was a brief discussion of a viewer-side Animation Override (AO) system (e.g. similar in nature to the Firestorm approach). This has been raised in the past at TPV Developer meetings, where it appears to get more robust discussion.
  • The question was raised of having support for user-defined custom shaders in Second Life. The short answer is “no”, as there are too many variables (a custom shader for a single scene may work – but what happens with 30 people utilise their own shaders / shaders made by others and all congregate at a single club? The rendering will not scale (also, with people all creating their own shaders, how can a consistent result be ensured? What about the risk of malicious shaders being used with content?).

Next Meeting

  • Thursday September 1st, 2022.

2022 SUG meetings week #33 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Montagna Spaccata, July 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 16th, 2022 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

For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the deployment forum thread.

  • On Tuesday, August 16th, the simhosts on the Main SLS channel were updated to simulator version 573931, adding Premium Plus support to llGetObjectDetails() in LSL.
  • On Wednesday, August 17th, the simhosts on the RC channels will be updates with simulator version 574216. This includes the new LSL functions:
    • llReplaceEnvironment() – a scripted means to replace the environment in a parcel or a region, eEither for a single elevation track or the entire environment.
    • llSetEnvironment() – a scripted function to override the environmental settings for a region or a parcel. The owner of the script must have permission to modify the environment on the parcel or be an estate manager to change the entire region.

The Tuesday deployment took longer than anticipate, as has been accompanied by reports of back-end services issues (e.g. login failures, texture uploads failing, profile changes reverting) being experienced for some regions on coming back up. LL is investigating these issues).

Available Official Viewers

On Monday, August 15th:

  • A new Maintenance RC viewer – Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste), version 6.6.3.573877, was issued.
  • The Izarra Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.6.3.573920.

The rest of the current crop of official viewers remains as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance (N)omayo RC viewer, version 6.6.3.573882, August 5.
    • Profiles RC viewer, version 6.6.2.573372, issued July 21.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Copy / Paste project viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • BUG-232490 “not_at_rot_target fails inconsistently” is a re-filing of an old report (SVC-3324) which filed to get picked-up. The re-filling under the BUG project should ensure it is now properly triaged.
  • BUG-231553 “Revised: HTTP_ACCEPT not working as expected” (setting HTTP_ACCEPT on outgoing HTTP requests per: the function’s SL wiki notes doesn’t behave as expected. Currently you can set any values you like, but those settings aren’t reflected in outgoing requests). This may or may not be a bug, pending further user testing.
  • Please refer to the video for additional general discussion.

2022 viewer release summaries week #32

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

Updates from the week through to Monday, August 15th, 2022

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 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts::
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.3.573877 issued August 15.
    • Izarra Maintenance RC updated to version 6.6.3.573920, on August 15.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • Kokua updated to version 6.6.2.49433 (non RLV) and 6.6.2.52756 (RLV variants) on August 9 (Win / Mac only – release notes.

V1-style

  • No updates.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2022 SUG meetings week #32 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bella’s Nocturne, June 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 9th, 2022 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

No deployment plan notes were available on the forums at this time of writing this update.

  • On Tuesday, August 9th, the simhosts on the Main SLS channel were restarted without any deployment, leaving them running simulator version 573176, comprising infrastructure updates.
  • On Wednesday, August,10th, all RC channels will updated to simulator version 573931, adding Premium Plus support to llGetObjectDetails() in LSL.

The long-promised new llReplaceEnvironment and llSetEnvironment should now go out in week #33, as Maestro had found a couple last minute bugs, which required the addition of an ability to override them at altitude and so prevented their inclusion in this week’s RC deployment.

Available Official Viewers

No changes to the current crop of official viewers at the start of the week, leaving them as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.2.573358 – formerly the Maintenance 2 RC viewer, dated August 1, promoted August 4 – New.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance (N)omayo RC viewer, version 6.6.3.573882, August 5.
    • Profiles RC viewer, version 6.6.2.573372, issued July 21.
    • Izarra Maintenance RC, version 6.6.2.573282, July 20.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Copy / Paste project viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • More general discussion on parcel ban lines, security orbs and road / water / air vehicle travel (mostly, but not exclusively related to Mainland. This included BUG-231802 “Prevent vehicles from entering parcels their riders cannot access”), which is now being queued-up to be worked on at the Lab. While this will not help with aggressive orbs, it will help with issues of vehicle entering parcels set with restricted access and the passengers being ejected.
  • Scripted simulator communications:
    • Several people have reported llInstantMessage() is failing at times. This is proving hard to reliably reproduce, but the Lab is nevertheless investigating.
    • llRegionSayTo is also reportedly failing at times, but again, more investigation on this is required before definitive conclusions can be drawn.
    • These led to a wider discussion on simulator communications – please refer to the video for details.
  • Pivot points / object hierarchies. Following the discussion on these at the last Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting (see here), a Feature Request Jira has been raised (BUG-232445) and a bare-bones forum thread opened. Commenting on the linking of the two ideas, Rider Linden noted:
The whole discussion about object hierarchies is/was a bit tangential. Strictly speaking the two are not related. (It is a nice to have, but would be a huge multi-month effort to pull off).
  • For other general discussion and comments, please refer to the video below.