Category: SL User Group Meetings

Devin’s Eye – blog post

The majority of the following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, June 21st, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Note that the audio presented here may not be in the exact order of discussion during the meeting; as subjects were at times returned to following their initial discussion, I have attempted to bring together key points of discussion by topic / subject matter. Also, please note that audio drop-out when Vir is speaking appears to be an ongoing problem at his end.

SL Viewer

The Pálinka Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, 2018, was promoted to de facto release status on Thursday, June 21st, 2018.

The 32-bit Windows Unloop RC viewer, version 5.1.6.515965 and dated June 5th, 2018, was also withdrawn as it is no longer required with the promotion of the Pálinka  RC viewer.

This leaves the official viewer pipelines, at the time of writing, as follows:

• Current Release version5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, promoted June 21st – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – New.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • No viewers (at the time of writing, but a new Maintenance RC is expected).
• Project viewers:
  • Bakes on Mesh project viewer, version 5.1.6.516270, dated June 14th.
  • 360 snapshot viewer, version 5.1.6.515934, June 6 (see my hands-on update).
  • Animesh project viewer, version 5.1.4.515420, dated May 14 – project overview.
• Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
• Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Animesh

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

Resources

• Animesh User Guide
• Animesh test content
• Animesh LSL methods:
  • llStartObjectAnimation
  • llStopObjectAnimation
  • llGetObjectAnimationNames
• Animesh – Updated Limits and Cost Formulas
• Animesh feedback thread
• JIRA filter for Animesh

Current Status

As noted in my report here (and the official announcement from the Lab), the server-side code for Animesh was deployed to the BlueSteel RC as part of the ongoing developing and testing of the capability. For those wishing to test Animesh, there are also five dedicated Animesh test regions available (all obviously on BlueSteel at this point in time):

• Animesh1
• Animesh2
• Animesh3
• Animesh4
• Animesh Adult

How quickly Animesh is promoted beyond BlueSteel depends on whether any additional bugs / issues are identified, what else is in the simulator release queue. However, it is unlikely the capability will go grid-wide until the viewer at least reaches release candidate status (at the time of writing, it is still at project viewer status).

No additional bugs have thus far been reported, although there is a claim of slight delays being experienced when starting / stopping Animesh animations.

Vir continues to work on the Animesh viewer’s bugs, which include, but are not limited to:

• Encroachment / Position / Offsets.
• Rigged Mesh Level of Detail / Bounding Box Issues (BUG-214736).
• Broken Rotations Issues.
• Dynamic bounding box issues: the project viewer (5.1.4.515420) includes updates for keeping dynamic bounding boxes going for rigged avatars (including Animesh). The calculations used in these updates for Animesh attachments “isn’t quite right” and the extent calculations can be incorrect (particularly if an Animesh object is being rendered as an imposter).

The next viewer Animesh viewer update will likely only be a merge for parity with the updated release viewer; the Animesh viewer update after that should include further fixes / changes.

There’s also more performance and stability testing to be carried out now Animesh is on the main grid and facing some “real” simulator loads, as Aditi is not representative of scripting, etc., loads simulators on Agni have to deal with, or the kind of avatar and rendering loads the viewer has to manage.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, and may in time lead to a reduction in the complexity of mesh avatar bodies and heads.

This work does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing baking service.

Resources

• Bakes on Mesh forum thread.
• Bakes on Mesh JIRA filter (courtesy of Whirly Fizzle).

Current Status

There have been some conflicts between Bakes on Mesh and the inventory service. The latter requires an update, but this has been delayed pending updates related to another project (I presume the Environment Enhancement Project, which also requires changes to the inventory system – see below).

It is still not clear if the additional baking channels – LEFT_ARM_TATTOO, LEFT_LEG_TATTOO, AUX1_TATTOO, AUX2_TATTOO and AUX3_TATTOO, which can be access through the latest version of the Bakes on Mesh project viewer (version 5.1.6.516270, dated June 14th, at the time of writing) will be updated to support the application of alpha layers. The con / pro arguments for alpha support on these channels are seen as:

• Against adding alpha support: alphas are primarily a means of masking the system avatar; as these five new channels cannot be used with the system avatar, there is no need to add alpha support.
• For adding alpha support:
  • Regardless of the above, there are cases where creators may want to mask a portion of a mesh on which anyone of these channels are used.
  • Ensuring a consistent means of using alpha masking across all of the bake channels could help in reducing the overall complexity of mesh bodies and heads.

These pro points are being heard by the Lab, and will be discussed further before a final decision is made whether or not to add alpha support to the new channels.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements, including:

• The ability to define the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) at the parcel level.
• New environment asset types (Sky, Water, Days that can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others.
  • Day assets can include four Sky “tracks” defined by height: ground level (which includes altitudes up to 1,000m) and (optionally) 1,000m and above; 2,000m and above and 3,000m and above, plus a Water “track”.
• Experience-based environment functions
• An extended day cycle (e.g a 24/7 cycle) and extended environmental parameters.
• There are no EEP parameters for manipulating the SL wind.
• EPP will also include some rendering enhancements  and new shaders as well (being developed by Graham Linden), which will allow for effects such as God rays.

Resources

• Project definition document.
• Project summary (this blog)

This work involves simulator and viewer changes, and includes some infrastructure updates.

Current Status

Rider Linden is working on debugging the back-end inventory system changes required to support the new EEP asset types – Sky, Water, Days (as per above). As soon as this work is completed (and presumably passed by QA), thing should be set for a project viewer to be made public, and the back-end support for EEP will be deployed to Aditi for public testing.

The first release of an EEP project viewer will not include any scripting support for the new capability – that will be added as the project viewer iterates. Details of the anticipated scripting support can be found in the project definition document, linked to above.

There was also a short discussion between Vir and Rider Linden on the ease with which sets of assets might be added to the inventory system as a result of Rider’s work.

In Brief

Collaborative Creation

The question was asked if the permissions system in Second Life could be extended to allow easier means of collaborative work.

For example: adding an option to the viewer’s Build floater that allows an item to be shared with the same permissions as granted the creator, or providing a means by which an object’s metadata includes the Agent IDs for avatars with whom it can be shared whilst maintained its original permissions.

There are currently no plans to the Lab to work on the permissions system.

Animesh / Mesh Rotation Issues

There was a discussion during the latter part of the meeting on the mesh / Animesh rotation issues. As noted in previous updates in this blog, there are likely a number of contributing factors to this problem, and the Lab has not settled on a solution.

 

 

 

MindPillars, a Scottish themed Sim – blog post

Updated on June 15th: to include planned RC channel for Animesh deployment – see notes below. 

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, June 14th, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Note that the audio presented here may not be in the exact order of discussion during the meeting; as subjects were at times returned to following their initial discussion, I have attempted to bring together key points of discussion by topic / subject matter. Also, please note that audio drop-out when Vir is speaking appears to be an ongoing problem at his end.

Animesh

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

Resources

• Animesh User Guide
• Animesh test content
• Animesh LSL methods:
  • llStartObjectAnimation
  • llStopObjectAnimation
  • llGetObjectAnimationNames
• Animesh – Updated Limits and Cost Formulas
• Animesh feedback thread
• JIRA filter for Animesh

Current Status

It now appears that Animesh could be arriving on the server-side release channels on the main (SLS) grid as early as week #25 (week commencing Monday, June 18th, 2018). There are caveats to this: the status of issues with the viewer being one of them – there are certain issues the Lab is focused on, which they would ideally like to have some fix / workaround in place for prior to deploying the Animesh simulator code to Agni.

Update: At the TPVD meeting on Friday, June 15th, Oz Linden indicated that if the Animesh simulator code is deployed to an RC in week #25, it will most likely go to BlueSteel.

Current Viewer Issues

Encroachment / Position / Offsets: this is to ensure that the visual position of an Animesh object is not too far offset from its position as calculated by the simulator (e.g. using things like animation offsets to alter the visual position of all or part of an object). The fix for this is to force the bounding boxes for all joints and the meshes attached to them to remain within a specified distance – most likely 3 metres, although this is still TBC – from the location where the simulator has calculated the object should be.

This update should be in the next update to the Animesh project viewer, and will also utilise new infrastructure on the back-end to allow smarter tracking of the bounding boxes for rigged meshes. This be being done by tracking bounding boxes on a per joint basis, and then transforming them. While it can take a “noticeable” mount of time to do this, Vir’s belief is that it doesn’t unduly impact performance, although if it does become an issue, it may be re-thought.

Concerns were expressed that this would limit the scaling of Animesh creations. Vir states this shouldn’t be the case – the restriction is not ties to scale, but to position. So, for example, a dragon could still be 60 metres in length / height,  but the encroachment fix would mean where it appears in people’s viewers cannot be offset more than 10 metres from where the simulator calculates its actual position to be as a static mesh.

Z-Offset Height Setting: until now the z-offset height setting that can be specified when uploading a mesh to Second Life has been ignored when using meshes with it set to Animesh objects (the offset only works when the mesh is attached to and avatar).

It is hoped an update to fix this will be in the next project viewer update, which should appear before the server-side Animesh code arrives on an Agni RC channel.

Rigged Mesh Level of Detail / Bounding Box Issues: (BUG-214736) – Essentially, attachments on avatars swap their LOD models as if they were scaled to the overall avatar bounding box.

This is a long-standing issue which Graham and Vir Linden are working on, but a fix is unlikely to be available prior to Animesh arriving on Agni.

Broken Rotations Issues:

• In one (BUG-139251), when some static mesh objects are converted to Animesh, the visual mesh is rotated through 90 degrees when seen in the Animesh viewer, but the physics mesh isn’t, leaving it perpendicular to the model. This is possibly an orientation issue, with the viewer expecting the mesh to be aligned to +x=forward – which not all mesh modelling tools follow.
• The second problem is that when linking a series of objects into a single Animesh, then are visually located where the avatar skeleton supporting them is located, but the physics shapes remain in the original location of the objects prior to linking / converting.

The recommendation here (for the time being) is that Animesh objects should have a non-mesh root object, and associate any physics representation to that non-mesh root object.  This should hopefully eliminate the current issues and help ensure that any mesh being propelled via scripts in the root object will move in a predictable manner (.i.e. moves forward when driven forward by a script).

Other Issues

Additional bugs: the above are not the only bugs being looked at, but they are the ones causing the most concern due to the risk of behavioural issues / changes they might cause, together with perceived content breakage, when Animesh starts being deployed to the Main grid. Other issues, which are not seen as having so direct an impact will continue to be looked at ad hopefully resolved as Animesh is tested on the Main grid, together with any other issues which may come to light.

GLOD: there is concern that the global LOD values set by the mesh uploader when creators don’t specify their own custom LODs incorrectly encourages poor optimisation, by rewarding those so decrease the calculated LOD values with lower LI post-upload. The feeling is that the reverse should be true. It’s anticipated that Project ARCTan should help to address this.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, and may in time lead to a reduction in the complexity of mesh avatar bodies and heads.

This work does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing baking service.

Resources

• Bakes on Mesh forum thread.
• Bakes on Mesh JIRA filter (courtesy of Whirly Fizzle).

Current Status

A new Bakes on Mesh project viewer arrived on Thursday, June 14th. Version 5.1.6.516270 includes the new “universal” wearable types corresponding to the 5 new bake channels. These are:

• LEFT_ARM_TATTOO – bakes to the mesh left arm.
• LEFT_LEG_TATTOO – bakes to the mesh left leg.
• AUX1_TATTOO – creator definable layer / channel.
• AUX2_TATTOO – creator definable layer / channel.
• AUX3_TATTOO – – creator definable layer / channel.

Note that none of these additional wearables can be applied to the system avatar mesh; which continues to use the original six bake channels.

It’s also not clear if alpha layers can mask these new channels at present. If not, that Vir agrees it is something that should be looked at.

Other points of note:

• There are no plans to extend Bake on Mesh to allow the use of wearable on non-wearable objects. This is because Bakes on Mesh uses the avatar bake service, which is not geared to apply wearables to in-world objects sans an avatar shape.
• There is no time frame for Bakes on Mesh deployment at the moment; the project is still in the process of being developed, tested and refined with the help of content creators.
• There is no updated on any form of scripted control for Bakes on Mesh. It hasn’t been ruled out, but no work is currently being done for scripted support.

In Brief

• Mesh uploader cost formula / calculations: there have been requests to offer a clearer explanation of mesh cost calculations through something like a clarified wiki page. In terms of Animesh, providing guidelines on potential cost is difficult, as the actual conversion of a mesh to an Animesh takes place post upload.
  • One suggestion to help estimate Animesh costs is to add an Animesh model type to the drop-down list of object types in the mesh uploader.
• Bento .BVH animation issue: the .BVH format allows for custom joint names for animations in addition to the default joint names. One such custom schema is to prefix joint name with “avatar_”. However, it has recently come to light that while the use of “avatar_” on pre-Bento joints works, trying to upload animations using any of the Bento bones prefixed with “avatar_” results in either an error message on upload (the SL viewer) or the animations uploading, but then being ignored on playback (tested with Firestorm). A JIRA bug report has been requested for this.