Category: SL Tech

2022 SUG meetings week #22 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Tempura Project, April 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms 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

At the time of writing, there was no server deployment thread for the week, or release notes for the RC updates.

  • On Tuesday, May 31st, the SLS Main and Event channel servers updated to simulator version 2022-05-20.571998, which includes a couple of fixes, including one for the issue with objects not showing up when you first log-in.
  • Wednesday, June 1st should see the RC channels receive an update with fixes in support of the upcoming Premium Plus capability.

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.0.571939 – formerly the Performance Improvements viewer, dated May 25th – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • To avoid over-/mis-use, Mazidox reminded people when filing bug reports to differentiate between rezzing and rendering. The former only applies to objects being placed into the world; rendering refers to objects already in-world. So, when you TP to a location, the objects within it are not rezzing, they are rendering.
  • Options for dealing with BUG-232143 “Substitute with NULL_PARAM whenever a variable of llSetLinkPrimitiveParams is not being changed.”, and this will likely get further discussion at the next meeting.
  • Brad Linden touched upon the materials / PBR project the graphics team is working on – see my most recent CCUG meeting summaries for more background. He specifically raised the proposed scripting support for the materials aspect of the work, noting a draft specification of what is being considered will be published shortly. Currently, two functions are under consideration:
    • llSetMaterial(key material_id), with LL thinking this could be framed in a similar manner to llSetAgentEnvironment() and possibly  llSetPrimitiveParams() work.
    • and llSetMaterialParams( parameters TBD), which will override only the specific params that are modified by the function, and will likely be framed in a similar manner to how llSetTexture() works.
    • Those interested in learning more should likely attend the CCUG meetings, with the next due to take place on Thursday, June 2nd, 2022.
  • The above topic also incorporated texture preloading (which, given the new materials assets will be called directly by the viewer via the CDN, should have to be used for any pre-loading with them), with an “llPreloadAsset” function might ever be available (would need to be a project of its own), and object culling.

2022 viewer release summaries week #21

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

Updates from the week ending Sunday, May 30th, 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 6.6.0.571939 – formerly the Performance Improvements viewer, dated May 25th – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2022 SUG meetings week #21 summary: offline requests / offers

Posted on by Inara Pey
Whimberly, April 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 24th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms 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

At the time of writing, there was no server deployment thread for the week, or release notes for the RC updates.

  • On Tuesday, May 24th, the SLS Main and Event channel servers updated to simulator version 05-06.571613, comprising:
    • A fix for off-line Friend / Group request – see below for more.
    • The removal of server-side generation of Calling Cards when a friendship offer is accepted has been removed.
  • Wednesday, May 25th should see two RC channel updates:
    • Simulator version 2022-05-20.571998, which includes a couple of fixes, including one for the issue with objects not showing up when you first log-in.
    • Simulator version 2022-05-19.571962, comprising an update with fixes in support of the upcoming Premium Plus capability.

Rider Linden has agreed to take requests that future simulator deployments are posted to the forums in a timely manner once more (e.g. no later than the Monday evening before any proposed deployments).

Offline Group Offers and Friend Requests

As noted above, the fix for off-line friendship requests and group membership offers going stale between being set and the next time the recipient logs-in to SL and tries to accept them (so they are never acted upon) is now grid-wide. However, it is subject to certain limitations:

  • When the recipient does log in, stored offers are retrieved and remain active for up to 24 hours or until the region restarts.
  • Requests can only be acted upon whilst you remain in the region you logged into – so respond before TPing!
  • The offers are received by the recipient as Notifications, and friendship offers also appear as Direct Messages from the person / group sending the offer.

See this official blog post for more, including the note on Calling Cards given above.

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571939, May 20.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

2022 viewer release summaries week #20

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

Updates from the week ending Sunday, May 22nd, 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 version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer updated to version 6.6.0.571939, on May 20th.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2022 CCUG meeting week #20 summary: reflection probes update

Posted on by Inara Pey

Lemon Trees Mediterranean – 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, May 19th 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 Update

  • On Wednesday, May 18th, the Performance Improvements RC viewer updated to version 6.6.0.571869.

The rest of the official viewers remain as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – Non change.
  • Release channel cohorts:.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste 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 work. In summary:

Three core elements of work:

  • Work on an implementation of reflection probes which can be used both with PDR shading and with legacy content. This formed the focus of this meeting.
    • The overall aim of this work is to provide a means to support more physically accurate reflections in SL than can be currently generated (seen as a requirement for PBR support).
    • It applies to both PBR generated content, once available, and to legacy content.
  • Foundational work in creating a materials type with an associated inventory asset, as per the week #16 meeting. This  will initially comprise the ability to copy a texture entry (with its specific parameters) to inventory, to be followed by
  • Initial work to work implement a PBR graphics pipe in the viewer.

Reflection Probes

  • Additional information available within the week #18 CCUG meeting summary.
  • This work is close to feature complete.
    • The viewer gets to work with 256 reflection probes, which take the form of spheres or boxes within a region.
    • Anything within a sphere or box will receive reflections from the cube map rendered from the centre of the sphere / box.
    • Some of these probes will be automatically placed in open areas of land where there are objects, etc., by the viewer.
    • Additional probes can be created by users using prims tagged as probes and placed where they want to influence the reflections being generated (e.g. inside rooms, etc.).
    • Baking for reflection probes will be automatic, and updates will be handled at least once every 30 seconds.
  • There is a performance hit with the capability, and this is still being adjusted so that it will hopefully not be overly onerous.
  • Elizabeth Jarvinen (Polysail) is working  on the current light shader to enable legacy content to receive the reflection probes without looking “too different” and look like it belongs in the environment along with PBR content.

Materials /PBR Work

  • Progress continues in developing a “materials” type with an associated inventory asset capable for containing PBR materials data.
    • LSL access to said materials is regarded as being “tricky”, simply because the materials will be an asset type loaded by the viewer.
    • What is being proposed is to have the ability to “override” elements of the asset (e.g. colour or texture) via LSL by applying the changes to the properties of the object face to which the materials is applied.
      • So, for example, the LSL override says, “OK. I know this material has a texture UUID inside it – I don’t know what it is, but I want this face to use MY texture UUID instead” – so the material asset itself is not changed / updated, but the UUID defined by the LSL code is displayed, rather than the texture UUID defined by the asset.
      • If the materials asset type subsequently be changed, then the overrides applied via LSL to the object face are automatically dropped until such time as new overrides are applied.
    • This is seen as the most flexible approach, as it protects the integrity of the materials asset (in a similar manner to texture data) whilst also allowing the flexibility of using colour variants against an asset type (such as in the case of a sweater using a single materials asset, but with multiple colour options in the pack or in allow a HUD to alter the tint of an object that uses a materials asset).
  • Nothing of significance to report on the PDR shader work.

In Brief

  • Custom pivot point work: currently awaiting simulator updates & will require viewer-side changes.
  • A fix has been implemented in the viewer to speed-up opening media / web floaters (such as search). This should be surfacing in the next Maintenance RC viewer (“Maint N” to follow the Makgeolli  Maintenance RC).
    • An upcoming simulator release should have a fix for objects failure to rez when users first log-in. .

Next Meeting

  • Thursday June 2nd, 2022.

2022 SUG meetings week #20 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Dreams, April 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms 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

Please refer to the server deployment thread for updates.

  • On Tuesday, May 17th, the SLS Main and Event channel server were restarted by left on simulator version 05-05.571557.
  • On Wednesday, May, 18th, the RC channels should be updated to simulator version 05-06.571613, which contains the server-side fixes for off-line Friend and Group invites going stale. In addition, server-side generation of Calling Cards when a friendship offer is accepted has been removed. This feature moved to the viewer several years ago and now accepting friendship offers creates, at most, two Calling Cards, one for each party.

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571736, May 12.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • Bug 232091 – “Implement object_rez_failure Event” has been accepted as a feature request by the Lab and is liable to be implemented, providing testing doesn’t reveal any backward comparability issues – but no date for possible implementation.
    • This request led to a degree of discussion on the nature of the event (and the possible need for a new function to support it).
    • BUG-228939 – “on_rez action delayed for 2 to 3 seconds in many regions” and BUG-231929 – “llCanRez or something equivalent to check if an object can rez at the location it will try to in the future” are also touched upon in the discussion.
    • The broad discussion on object rezzing and control took up the majority of the rest of the meeting – please refer to the video below for details.
  • Bug 231582 “Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances” – should have a fix available in the week #21 RC maintenance release.