Yesterday, as I reported, Linden Lab rolled-out the first pass of the advanced creator tools across the main release channel for the grid. These are the functions that lead to an outbreak of griefing when they were first rolled-out on the Magnum Release Channel back in June.
Since then, the code has been revised – and now includes a “master switch” that allows Linden Lab to disable the functionality should anyone try to get up to mischief using the tools. The code was in fact enabled on both LeTigre and BlueSteel last week without major incident, and so the code was rolled-out to the main channel in an enabled mode on July 31st.
Today, LL has formally announced this initial release of the tools via a new blog post. This initial release comprises three new functions:
llAttachToAvatarTemp (integer attach_point) — allows objects to be attached to your avatar / screen without any corresponding inventory record being created for the item, which will disappear on being detached or on disconnecting (teleporting) from the region in which it is active
These functions should allow a range of new experiences to be created, some of which are demonstrated in the Linden Realms game, wherein the attachment option is used to attach the game HUD to avatars and the teleport options are used in conjunction with things like the rock monsters.
Linden Realms HUD (top left): attached using the full experience tools
The functions are also designed to be used with a new permissions system, which has yet to be rolled-out across the grid. This means that until the new permissions are rolled-out, some of the functions will not operate as transparently as they eventually will. For example, rather than something like a HUD being automatically attached to your avatar (as is the case with the Linden Realms game, which does use the new permissions system), you will be prompted to accept the object first (thus making you the owner) in order for it to attach.
It’s not currently clear as to when the new permissions system will be rolled-out, but with the “master switch” at their disposal, Linden Lab are confident that the kind of issues that marred the June RC roll-out can be avoided.
The official blog post includes a video from Torley.
A part of the Shining project is to improve the underpinning HTTP messaging that is crucial to simulator / simulator and simulator / Viewer communications. As commented upon in the notes from the TPV/Developer meeting on July 13th, the initial focus on this project is to provide an initial texture fetch library for the viewer, together with a “wrapper” that will allow further http code enhancements to be added over time.
On Friday July 27th, Linden Lab made the initial code available within an LL project viewer (SL Alternate Viewers). The availability of the code, and LL’s plans / hopes for it were discussed during the TPV/Developer meeting also held on the 27th July. The discussion can be heard in full on the meeting recording, the key points from which have been summarised below.
During the discussion, both Oz and Monty Linden (who is leading the project) had the following to say:
The code is currently free-standing, although there will eventually be server-side protocol changes made to better support it (as well as further capabilities to be added to the libraries), which should further improve robustness and overall performance
Even without the server-side changes, the Lab hopes that the code itself will make things “a little bit better” for those using older routers, particularly Linksys WRT routers (Monty indicated server-side work would most probably be required to improve things for people using Belkin G-series routers)
While the libraries are close to what is expected to be the “final” code (barring bug-fixes, etc.), it is unlikely they will be integrated into the Development Viewer for at least the next two weeks. The reason for this is two-fold:
The code needs to be merged-up with 3.4.0
Integration is dependent upon what kind of experience is had with the code “in the field”
LL hope that people will use the project viewer, and TPV developers will integrate it into experimental releases of their own, so that greater feedback (via JIRA entries, etc.) can be obtained in terms of:
General experience reports – completeness, reliability, robustness, improved rezzing, etc.
Whether the new code is helping to ease the strain faced by the likes of Linksys WRT routers, and what (if anything) it is doing to people’s home networks
(From the TPV developers themselves) design comments on the code itself, whether it is felt things have been missed, if there are issues in integrating the code into TPVs, etc.
Again, note that the code is currently only related to textures; the “more ubiquitous” uses (as Oz has previously put it) of the new http library within the viewer have yet to be implemented, so HTTP inventory, etc., is currently unchanged.
Oz asked the question (of Monty), as to whether it would be a problem if TPV developers were to convert some of the additional HTTP functionality for use with the library. Monty didn’t see any major issues, other than the new library introduces the concept of a policy class, rather than the current global priority scheme, and this has not been fully implemented as yet, because it is not required in this first pass. However, additional functions could share the policy used for HTTP textures, and that would “still be productive”. Monty further indicated that there is a “to do list of intent” included in the code as a file, which TPV developers can look at if they are minded to look at committing to some of the work themselves.
Main Channel: Sever release 12.07.24.262437 – Tuesday 31st July
This should see a further roll-out of the LSL functions related to the Advanced Creator Tools. This release will see the addition of three new LSL functions:
These new LSL functions work with the current runtime permissions system, and are precursor to future work with experience permissions. More information about the runtime permission is here:PERMISSION_TELEPORT.
This is a roll-out of the code deployed to LeTigre and BlueSteel last week. As with both of those channels last week, the code will be enabled on the main channel regions following the deploy (although LL retain the capability to disable it).
Magnum RC: Further Pathfinding Roll-out – Wednesday August 1st
Roll-out due to commence: 07:00 SLT
A further roll-out of the server-side pathfinding code, with fixes. Currently the wiki notes for this channel appear to be stalled on the 12.07.24.262484 release.
Note that the viewer-side pathfinding tools are now available in the latest Development Viewer.
BlueSteel RC – Wednesday August 1st
Re-start due to commence: 08:30 SLT
There are no changes to this channel. It will have the same code as the main channel.
LeTigre RC: Infrastructure Project update – Wednesday August 1st
Roll-out due to commence: 09:30 SLT
Oskar comments: “This channel will have an infrastructure project that has no intentional changes to existing behaviour. There are perhaps unintentional changes to existing behaviour. If you find some please let us know!”
Update July 18th: The Magnum RC roll-out has been delayed until Thursday July 19th. Oskar may supply a reason on the deployment thread in the forums – keep an eye on that for updates (with thanks to Wolf Baginski).
Main Channel Release
Tuesday 17th July sees the a roll-out of LSL functions related to the Advanced Creator Tools. This release will see the addition of three new LSL functions (comments taken from the release notes):
llAttachToAvatarTemp(integer attach_point): Follows the same convention as llAttachToAvatar, with the exception that the object will not create inventory for the user, and will disappear on detach, or disconnect. It should be noted that when an object is attached temporarily, a user cannot ‘take’ or ‘drop’ the object that is attached to them. The user is ‘automatically’ made the owner of the object. Temporary attached items cannot use the llTeleportAgent or llTeleportAgentGlobalCoords LSL functions
llTeleportAgent(key agent_uuid, string lm_name, vector landing_point, vector look_at_point): Teleport Agent allows the script to teleport an agent to either a local coordinate in the current region or to a remote location specified by a landmark. If the destination is local, the lm_name argument is a blank string. The landing point and look at point are respected for this call. If the destination is remote, the object must have a landmark in its inventory with the teleport agent script. lm_name refers to the name of the landmark in inventory. This function cannot be used in a script in an object attached using llAttachToAvatarTemp
llTeleportAgentGlobalCoords(key avatar, vector global_coordinates, vector region_coordinates, vector: Teleports an agent to region_coordinates within a region at the specified global_coordinates. The agent lands facing the position defined by look_at local coordinates. A region’s global coordinates can be retrieved using llRequestSimulatorData(region_name, DATA_SIM_POS). This function cannot be used in a script in an object attached using llAttachToAvatarTemp.
The new LSL functions work with the current runtime permissions system and are precursor to future work with experience permissions. More information about the runtime permission is here:PERMISSION_TELEPORT.
The keen-eyed will note that these are the functions that were rolled-out to the Magnum RC channel in May, and which were subsequently abused for griefing purposes. However, Linden Lab have added a new capability to the functions – what is described as an “on / off” switch which is available only to Linden Lab personnel, and which allows the functions to be enabled / disabled (the functions were also rolled-out to the Le Tigre RC on July 11th with the “on / off” switch capability). As the release notes make clear, the functions are disabled by default in the roll-out, and will presumably remain that way until such time as the updated permissions system has been rolled-out.
The release also includes three bug fixes (again, as specified in the release notes):
SCR-342: llTeleportAgent() does not fail gracefully when specifying an invalid landmark name
SVC-7966: Magnum RC, llTeleportAgent gives a wrong message
SVC-7987: llTeleportAgent always points in the positive Y direction on teleport.
Pathfinding release: Magnum and Le Tigre
On Wednesday 18th July, the Magnum RC will get a further roll of the pathfinding code and Le Tigre will apparently get the same code as well. At the time of writing, the actual release note pages on the SL wiki for Magnum and Le Tigre still reflected the releases for July 11th and the forum post announcing the release did not show any specific changes from the forum post relating to the July 11th release. Any alternations which may have been made following the difficulties some initially encountered on the Magnum RC following that roll-out are therefore hard to identify. This ma change prior to the actual roll-out.
On the 29th June, Linden Lab announced Project Shining, aimed at improving avatar and object streaming speeds. At the TPV/Developer meeting on Friday 13th July, the project was discussed in terms of how the various elements within it will affect Second Life viewers.
The following is a summary of that discussion, based on the recording of the meeting, and focused primarily on the viewer changes / updates that will be most directly seen / felt by the majority of users.
HTTP Library
Commencing at 22:30 into recording.
The aim of this project is to improve the underpinning HTTP messaging that is crucial to simulator / simulator and simulator / Viewer communications. Monty Linden is leading this project.
Key points:
LL will release a project viewer containing a new “wrapper” implemented around how data is handled and a new texture fetch library (see time frame comments at the end of this article)
Providing there are no major problems with the project viewer, the initial code release will move to a release version of the viewer
This will be followed by changes to group services and a “more ubiquitous” use of the library in the viewer – which is where Oz’s warning to TPV developers comes into play, as some services and the behaviours will start to change to improve throughput and reliability – and may even help improve the SL experience for those on older routers.
As a side note, some of this work has involved router testing aimed at determining what router hardware is compatible with Second Life. While it is hoped that work around the HTTP libraries will improve the SL experience for some using older router hardware as noted above, the tests have revealed that certain types of older router – Linksys WRT and Belkin G series routers were specifically named – are not compatible with running Second Life.
Avatar Baking
Bake fail: a familiar problem for many
Commencing at 32:38 into the recording.
The aim of this work (Project Sunshine) is to improve issues around avatar baking and to eliminate bake fail issues. It will primarily focus on moving the emphasis for the baking process from the viewer to a new Texture Compositing server. The viewer will retain some elements involved in avatar baking – the actual baking of the avatar shape (i.e. shape values and IDs) will still take place on the viewer side, for example.
Precisely how this new service will work on the server-side of things is yet to be fully determined by Linden Lab. However, work is progressing on the viewer side of the equation, with the current key points as follows:
The new service will use the Current Outfit folder to drive the new baking service
TPVs not currently supporting Current Outfits will have to implement it, otherwise they will effectively fail on avatar baking
The basic process will be that when it is time to send a rebake request (e.g. after a user has finished editing their appearance) the viewer must send a new message to the baking service which effectively says, “Look at the contents of my Current Outfit folder and give me back a new appearance based on that”
Viewers in general will have to support this new message that is sent to the service, and change how they perform the fetching of avatar textures; for the technically inclined, this will be HTTP without UDP fallback.
Currently, the plans is for LL to integrating the new way of doing avatar baking into their viewer code, which will be available for TPVs to integrate – although none of the Linden Lab 1.x code will be updated to support the new process, so this will effectively break their own Viewer 1.23.5, which currently is still in use within SL.
The viewer code will support both the “current” method of avatar baking (within the viewer itself) and the new baking service (using the Texture Compositing server) until the new service is fully rolled out across the grid. This means that if a user is in a region that does not make use of the new baking service, avatar baking will continue to be handled using the viewer-side mechanism we currently have. However, if the user is on a region that utilises the new baking service, avatar baking will be handled through that. The viewer will be able to recognise whether it is connected to a region supporting the “new” method through the region capabilities.
In order to ensure as smooth a transition to the new baking process as possible, LL are proposing a relatively long lead-in to the new service, making the code available well ahead of the new service being enabled, allowing TPVs to integrate it into experimental builds. The server-side changes will initially be implemented on a number of beta grid regions for testing with viewers there, prior to being scaled-up. The server changes will then be released onto the main grid in a controlled manner and then scaled up from there.
What Does This Mean for Users?
If all goes according to plan, and providing that you keep up-to-date with releases of your preferred viewer, this actually shouldn’t mean very much in real terms. There are however a number of things to be aware of:
If you use a viewer that is not updated to use the new code (i.e. the official viewer 1.23.5 or a viewer that is not updated to use Current Outfit folder and / or to support the new bake request message / HTTP texture fetch mechanism) OR you continue to use an old version of a viewer rather than updating, there will come a time when your avatar – and those around you – will not bake correctly
There are two issues that may occur during the transitional period when both the “current” and the “new” baking methods are in issue:
When teleporting or crossing between regions that use the different methodologies, users will experience their avatar rebaking, as the viewer will effectively be using two sets of data for the bake process
If there are two adjacent regions, one of which is uses the current avatar bake process and the other is using the “new” baking service viewers in one region will not be able to correctly resolve the textures of avatars in the other region
It is hoped that the transitional period where both methods of avatar baking are active will only last for about two weeks.
Object Caching and Interest Lists
Commencing at 57:25 into the recording.
When you enter a region at the moment, your viewer receives a huge amount of information on what requires updating, much of it relating to things you can’t even see from your position in the region. The data is received in no particular order, with the familiar result that things appear to rez in your view in a totally random order – quite often with the thing you actually want to see being one of the last to rez due to the mechanics of Sod’s Law. What’s more, if you have previously visited the region, the chances are that much of the information being sent to your viewer is already cached.
Object caching and interest list changes: easing the pain of random rezzing
The focus of this project is to optimise the data being sent to the viewer, information already cached on the viewer and the manner in which that data is used in order to ensure it is used more efficiently so that things rez both faster and in a more orderly manner than is currently the case.
At this point in time, this work is in a greater state of flux than the HTTP library and avatar bake projects. This is more a process of optimisation both on the server-side of things and within the viewer itself, rather than that of new functionality within the viewer per se. There are no general time frames for this work at present, but there will be updates once things become clearer as to how the optimisation is going to be addressed.
Time Frames
The precise timeframes for implementing these changes have yet to be properly defined. However, Oz Linden hopes that there will be at least a two month period between Linden Lab making the code for each of these project elements available for integration by TPV developers into their viewers and the point at which the Lab states the code must be in use.
At the moment it is likely that the HTTP library element of the project will but rolled-out first, although this is unlikely to be within the next two months, for the reason given above. Project Sunshine, dealing with avatar baking, will then follow after that – or although how soon after has yet to be determined; as described earlier in this article, this will be a very controlled roll-out. It is possible that the object caching / interest lists part of the project many not be rolled-out for another six months. However, timeframes are still in discussion within LL, so any of this may well change.
Expect updates on all three of these project elements as and when more information is supplied by Linden Lab.
Pathfinding is drawing closer to a release across the main grid, and preparation work for the roll-out – which will constitute one of the biggest changes to SL – is underway on several fronts. This article is intended to be a high-level update on various elements of the project, gleaned from a variety of sources.
Magnum RC Roll-out
On Wednesday July 11th, the server-side pathfinding code was rolled-out to the Magnum Release Channel. There had been some predictions that this could lead to significant problems and issues as a result of the issues given within the release notes
Following the release, issues were experienced, notably with mesh vehicles, as reported on the forum thread discussing the releases for the week, and which have been rapidly responded to by Linden Lab personnel. there are still concerns around the roll-out and potential impact, and Linden Lab are continuing to monitor.
In discussing the RC toll-out at the TPV/Developer meeting held on Friday July 13th, Lorca Linden, the Associate Producer responsible for the project, commented: “OK, so pathfinding did go in RC on Magnum on Wednesday [July 11th]. As a whole, things are looking really, really good. We’re seeing very few crashes, the performance is working great we are seeing issues with some vehicles – definitely not all. That’s the only major hitch that we’re looking into, but as a whole the RC has been going quite smoothly.”
New Viewer Tools
As mentioned above, Lorca Linden (together with Stinson Linden and Prep Linden) from the pathfinding project attended the Friday TPV/Developer meeting on the 13th July, where they specifically discussed the viewer-side pathfinding tools. The tools are covered in detail in a new wiki page from Linden Lab, and may already be familiar to those who have been working on the pathfinding beta. They are currently in the Pathfinding Project Viewer, and will need to be incorporated in to TPVs as well. The wiki page provides comprehensive notes on the tools, complete with screen shots; the following in intended to provide a high-level summary and some background notes for those unfamiliar with the core elements of pathfinding, and to provide an overview of what this means for viewers going forward.
Navmesh and the Rebake Tool
For those not familiar with the term, navmesh is short for navigation mesh. This is a representation of a region’s geometry generated and used by the physics simulator to determine paths for pathfinding characters. The navmesh can be somewhat fluid in nature, depending upon what is going on in a region and what is being changed; a new path for a character, for example, will change a region’s navmesh. When this happens, the navmesh for the region needs to be updated, which can take some six hours if left to update automatically.
To overcome this when pathfinding is rolled out, one of the new tools that will be appearing in the viewer will be a Rebake Region button. This will automatically appear at the bottom of the viewer window of all users within a region when the navmesh requires updating – regardless as to who may actually have altered the navmesh.
Rebake region button for navmesh updates (with thanks to Linden Lab)
Once baking has commenced, the button will fade on all viewers on which is displayed, indicating that an update is in progress (and preventing someone else from initiating a rebake). Once the rebake is complete and the navmesh is updated, the button will vanish from viewers.
Object Attribute Tools
By default, a navmesh treats all resident-made objects within the region in which it is active as obstacles that pathfinding characters must manoeuvre around. Obviously, this may not always be the case; there will be objects (e.g. stairs, ramps, sidewalks, floors, etc.), pathfinding characters need to traverse, climb, etc. This is achieved by altering the pathfinding atrributes associated with an object, and some of the new viewer tools are to allow this to be done and to also allow users to examine in-world objects to determine their status vis-a-vis pathfinding and how pathfinding characters will react to them.
These tools take the form of menu options and additional panels located in the Build and Object Profile floaters.
Dedicated Floaters
Also included in the tools are three dedicated pathfinding floater panels:
Linsket floater: designed to give advanced users and builders the ability to customize an area to achieve interesting effects with pathfinding-enabled characters
Character floater: designed primarily to help users to locate characters moving throughout a region and to identify the CPU cost of characters affecting the performance of a region
View / Test floater: intended for advanced users who are building pathfinding-enabled objects and characters.
Pathfinding characters floater (with thanks to Linden Lab)
Tool Status and TPV Integration
As mentioned above, these tools are all currently available in a Project Viewer. However, it is anticipated that they will be appearing in a Linden Lab beta viewer in “one to two weeks” (Lorca Linden). The tools themselves are regarded as feature complete by LL, and Lorca encouraged TPV developers at the meeting to consider integrating them into their viewers sooner rather than later.
Integrating the new tools in TPVs is liable to be in two parts:
An initial release containing the tools required for setting object attributes, etc.
A follow-up release incorporating the use of the Havok libraries Linden Lab is establishing and which will be made available under the new sub-licence arrangement.
The reasons for this are two-fold:
The attribute tools, etc., are vital for optimising pathfinding within regions and ensuring everything works correctly (e.g. to ensure pathfinding characters can climb the stairs they’re supposed to by climbing or walk along the prim sidewalk they are supposed to walk along, etc.
The Havok libraries are not yet available, although Oz hopes to have them in a position where he can talk in more detail to TPVs about them “pretty soon”, and while it is nice to be able to visualise the navmesh, etc., it is not quite such vital part of the pathfinding process.
Universal Tools
Alongside the viewer tools, pathfinding will see a set of universal tools rolled-out in console format. These will be available to region owners and estate managers and will allow them to change an entire class of object in a region to have certain pathfinding attributes once pathfinding goes live. Linden Lab are approaching this in terms of having all non-scripted objects set them to be static obstacles that pathfinding characters must manoeuvre around, while anything that is scripted is set to “dynamic”, as it is thought to be moving.
This obviously doesn’t fit all cases – vendor boards, for example are scripted, but they are hardly what can be termed “moving” objects. Indeed, it might be argued that the majority of scripted objects within a region are non-moving, and therefore should have their pathfinding attribute set to “static”. However, LL feel they have no way of easily differentiating between a non-moving scripted object and a moving scripted object, and thus feel that setting all scripted objects to “dynamic” is the better option and allowing the attribute to then be modified through the viewer where necessary, as setting them to “static” could result in a worse overall behaviour case within a region.
Other Tools and Items
Alongside the above, Linden Lab have previously indicated that they will be making the following available as pathfinding rolls-out:
A set of script templates used for the creatures found in the Wilderness areas
A script for a “master rezzer system”.
The latter is a means by which region performance and the number of pathfinding characters rezzed in the region can be monitored, and which will reduce the number of pathfinding characters within a region in response to the region’s performance / number of avatars within the region.
Potential Timescales for Roll-out
During the TPV/Developer’s meeting, Lorca outlined some potential dates for pathfinding. note that these are currently potential, and shouldn’t be taken as tablets of stone:
The pathfinding tools should be available in one to two weeks in a beta viewer
The server-side release is dependent upon how well (or otherwise) the current release to the Magnum RC progresses, and may potentially come within the next two-to-four weeks, but certainly no sooner than two weeks.
Again these are not confirmed dates, and may well change in the next couple of weeks – particularly if major issues are found with the Magnum RC roll-out.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 