Category: SL User Group Meetings

2018 SL UG updates #29/2: CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
A razzle of raptors? Animesh

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, July 19th, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, 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

Rotation Issues

These cover a couple of 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.

Both of these problems pre-date Animesh, but have been effectively “hidden” because until now, rigged meshes could only be attached to an avatar, effectively masking the issues.

As a part of the approaches to fix these issues, Beq Janus and Elizabeth Jarvinen (polysail) have contributed code to correctly apply the bindpose matrix within the viewer. This code is in the latest version of the Animesh project viewer, which should be available soon, and should cover legacy content not corrected by similar fixes incorporated into Avatasr for new uploads (see my week #26 CCUG summary for more on this).

LOD Issues

Vir is currently working on the server-side issues, but once those have been resolved, his plan is to work on the viewer-side LOD issues, including BUG-224971 and the Dynamic bounding box issues (see my week #25 summary). Once he has completed testing the fixes for these, the hope is that the Animesh viewer can move to RC status.

Mesh Physics Shapes Issues

The deployment of Animesh to the RC server channels has revealed a couple of issues which need to be resolved:

  • Not all of the mesh information the server is required to “remember” is being properly retained.
  • Code within the Animesh update appears to be causing some in-world mesh objects to use the wrong physics shapes.

In Brief

  • Concern was raised whether Maya could be used to produce Animesh, given the rotation fixes seem to apply to Blender / Avastar. As Far as Cathy Foil (creator of Mayastar) is aware, meshes created in Maya / Mayastar can be converted for use as Animeshes.
  • Animesh does not support custom bones – it works purely with the Bento skeleton, which does allow for bone re-purposing.
  • BUG-225063 reports that the latest Animesh project viewer fails to display meshes at times, while older Animesh code can cause meshes to display incorrectly. Vir believes the issue may be linked to one he has been addressing, and believed to be caused by an uninitialised variable. The fix for this should be in an upcoming release of the viewer.

  • BUG-216352 “[Animesh] Issue with animations not rendering if they were stopped and started while host object is selected” – this is still being investigated. However, as it only applies to the same animation, rather than all animations, the issue isn’t regarded as a blocker for Animesh.

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 Bake  Service.

Resources

Current Status

Some people have been reporting some “excitement” when using the new universal bake channels for Bakes on Mesh in regions that don’t have the server-side support for Bakes on Mesh. These issues will likely require further viewer and server-side changes to fix them.

At a recent LL meeting on Bakes on Mesh it was decided not to implement any additional features at this point in time – so no LSL support prior to the initial deployment. Rather, the Lab would like to get a basic capability out that can be used and tested, then potentially improve on it with further features in time.

As it is, even moving Bakes on Mesh to release candidate status is dependent on a large number of back-end service changes (e.g. the inventory system must be updated to handle the new wearable types; the Appearance and Bake services must be updated, as well and the simulator and viewer updates.

Asa reminder, it will not be possible to use Bakes on Mesh with Animesh creatures / creations, primarily because Bake On Mesh uses the Outfit system, which Animesh currently does not – but may be extended to use in the future.

The question was asked if Bakes on Mesh could be used to texture an Animesh attachment to an avatar, and in theory it would be – but how useful / practical this might be is open to debate.

In Brief

  • There will be a CCUG meeting on Thursday, July 26th, however, it comes on top of the SL summit meeting at the Lab (to discuss the SL development roadmap) and  so Vir believes there won’t be too much to report on additional work at the meeting.
  • Concern has been raised over the recent DMCA situation involving around 3 makers of mesh heads, and whether Bakes on Mesh will see changes to the SL Terms of Service / guidelines specifically for UV maps (e.g. what is allowed, what isn’t), given that Bakes on Mesh could encourage the use of the basic SL UV maps and result in multiple claims of people “using” someone else’s maps. This concern is being passed back to the Lab’s legal team.
  • The latter part of the meeting included a lengthy discussion on animations (adding a function to “instantly” stop an animation / being able to modify animation speeds / priorities in-world; the legitimacy of modifying animations) which also spread to the permissions system (providing  “export” permission to allow people to export “full perm” meshes for direct editing and re-upload and / or implementing a “derivative” permission.
    • Some of the animation discussion touched on the animation discussion may surface as a specific feature request(s).
    • It’s unlikely there will be any large-scale changes to the permissions system in the near future.

2018 SL UG updates #29/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Abandale; Inara Pey, July 2018, on FlickrAbandale – blog post

Sever Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • There was no SLS main channel deployment or restart on Tuesday, July 17th, 2018, leaving regions on that channel running on server release 18#18.06.14.516450.
  • On Wednesday, July 18th, the release candidate channels should be as follows:
    • Bluesteel and LeTigre will remain on server release 18#18.07.03.517389 and will not be restarted.
    • Magnum should receive a new server maintenance package, 18#18.07.11.517746, comprising “internal fixes”.

The Main channel roll – which was to have included Animesh – was postponed, as Simon Linden explained at the Simulator User Group on Tuesday, July 17th:

We unfortunately held back this morning’s update with the Animesh roll. Late last week we found some code that is probably causing problems with the physics shapes of mesh bodies … not Animesh, but other normal mesh stuff …  Not using the correct physics shape. When building with mesh, there are a few ways to set that shape, and the Animesh code changes affected that code.

Simon Linden, SUG meeting, Tuesday, July 17th 2018.

It should be pointed out that in the context of Simon’s comments, “mesh bodies” means “in-world mesh objects, as worn mesh items doesn’t have a physics shape per se.

Deployment of the Animesh code to the SLS channel will therefore likely await the deployment of a fix for the issues encountered.

SL Viewer

There have been no Sl viewer updates / changes to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.1.7.517594, on July 12.
  • Project viewers:
  • 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.

Attachment Loss / Ghosting on Teleport / Region Crossing

Some people are reporting loss / ghosting of attachments on teleporting. The problems sees to vary in the number of teleports taken before it is noticed, and tends to take the form of others noticing an avatar is missing parts, rather than the wearer (for whom everything still appears to be worn).

It’s not clear how widespread the issue is, although it seems it has been reported a lot through the Firestorm support groups. Mazidox Linden did confirm some attachment / region crossing testing was occurring on Aditi, but it’s not clear if this is in reference to this specific problem, or to with examining / improving region crossings in general.

Firestorm has a Refresh Attachments option (Advanced menu), however, addressing the issue from the viewer is seen as a less than optimal approach, a server-side fix being preferable.

Commenting on region crossings and attachments in general, Simon Linden said, “From what I can tell with my investigations so far, most attachment problems with region crossings come down to messaging failures, and then the viewer and region(s) get out of sync and don’t recover. ” He also noted that his own testing of “double” region crossings (e.g. cutting across the corner of a region while moving between two others) lead him to want to say “stop!” at the first, and not even attempt the second until the first hand-off have completed.

At this point I want to improve the code and communications so after a crossing, both regions and the viewer can agree that everyone is on the 2nd region with all attachments and vehicles and, when something goes wrong, try to recover … At both ends, viewer and region, it should be able to realize it’s been a few seconds and things are missing or not, and then re-try.

Simon Linden on investigating region crossing, Tuesday, July 17th, 2018

As an aside, one of the reasons the Lab is working on region crossings and attachment issues beside trying to make region crossings smoother and more predictable in general, is so that they might increase the limit on the number of attachments that can be simultaneously worn (currently 38). However, as Oz Linden noted at the Simulator User Group meeting, this won’t happen until such time as attachments can remain reliably … attached.

2018 SL UG updates #28/2: TPVD meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey
Chouchou – Memento Mori – blog post

The majority of the following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, July 13th 2018. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it. This was a short meeting – just over 30 minutes in length, but with some significant pauses throughout.

SL Viewer

The Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.1.7.517594, on July 12th. All other SL viewers in the various pipelines remain as for the start of the week:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, promoted June 21st – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status 29th November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7. This viewer will remain available for as long as reasonable, but will not be updated with new features or bug fixes.

Animesh

[0:44-2:20] Some bugs have surfaced in the server-side Animesh code which may delay the code from being deployed to the Main (SLS) channel in week #29 (commencing Monday, July 16th).

There is still some validation testing going on for the LOD / bounding box issue in Animesh viewer, but the viewer should be promoted to release candidate status “fairly soon”, possibly by the time the server-side code has been deployed grid-wide.

Bakes On Mesh

[2:21-2:38] A further update to the Bakes on Mesh project viewer is anticipated, possibly in week #29 (commencing Monday, July 16th). This will include several bug fixes.

Upcoming Project Viewers

Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP)

[3:01-3:40] A project viewer for EEP should be surfacing soon, but the functionality will not be available on the Main grid until the supporting back-end inventory updates have been deployed to Agni.

Texture Caching Updates

[3:44-4:21] A project viewer (the TCO viewer) with new texture caching capabilities is still anticipated as coming soonTM.

Estate Management Tools Updates

[4:45-5:27 and 21:59-23:31] A viewer supporting the updates to the estate management tools – improved ban lists, etc., had been held up while some issues around Friend requests and group invites are fixed (these issues are related to the recently introduced capability to deliver off-line IMs, etc., via HTTP rather than UDP, with group invites and friendship offers requiring more back-end updates in order to work correctly through the new capability). These issues have now been resolved, and both the server-side updates and the viewer changes are with the Lab’s QA team.

Last Names

[16:30-20:25] Still no date for roll out, but as these keep coming up:

  • There are no plans to re-introduce legacy last names (i.e. no Pey, Widdershin, Sideways, Munro, Fizzle, etc.).
    • [27:27 (text) and 28:18-28:25] However, a suggestion was put forward in the meeting to offer legacy names at a higher price than other last names, and Oz indicated this might be considered.
  • People will be able to suggest last name options (excluding legacy last names, per above).
  • There will be no change to Display Names, which will remain available as an option for those wishing to continue using them.
  • Changing your name will levy a real-world fee – the exact amount is still TBD.

A focus on the work for this is updating back-end services so they properly support / recognised changed names. Until this work is completed, the Last Names capability cannot be deployed.

In Brief

  • [5:43-6:36] Dynamic user interface (DUI): referred to at the recent Meet the Lindens sessions at SL15B, the ability to separate floater and panels out from the main viewer window is not being worked on at present, and so it is extremely unlikely anything on this will appear in 2018.
    • For a broader discussion on the idea and some of the Lab’s thinking on is – please refer to this section of my SL15B summaries.
  • [7:11-7:30] Multi-core graphic pipeline: raised at the meeting, this is not something the Lab is liable to tackle at the moment. A more important focus is how to handle Apple’s deprecation of OpenGL.
  • [9:29-9:45, with text comments to 11:43] BUG-225039: “with transparent texture and alpha masking at cut-off 1, the underlying colour shows through in small patches” – the Lab is actively investigating this.

 

2018 SL UG updates #28/1: simulator user group / EEP

Posted on by Inara Pey

Aphantasia; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrAphantasia – blog post

Sever Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • There was no SLS main channel deployment on Tuesday, July 10th, 2018, leaving regions on that channel running on server release 18#18.06.14.516450. However, due to the “14 day rule”, region on the main channel were restarted.
  • On Wednesday, July 11th, the release candidate channels should receive server update package 18#18.07.03.517389, comprising “additional internal tweaks”.

Both of the RC updates will include changes to the Animesh code currently deployed to the RC to allow better logging of Animesh related activities.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no SL viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.516813, released on June 22.
  • Project viewers:
  • 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.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

This is the project to introduce a set of environmental enhancements. Rider Linden is now engaged in internal testing a viewer supporting the new EEP capabilities, together with the server-side support. During the July 10th, 2018 SUG meeting, he provided a brief summary as to how the basics of EEP will work:

You can create what are called settings objects in your inventory. These settings objects [they are not prim-like not can they be rezzed in-world] represent either a water, a sky or a complete day cycle. We are providing interfaces that will let you set the parameters for each of these types of settings. (Very similar to the existing WL editors).

[Then,] from the context menu for a setting object you can apply it either to yourself, the parcel you are in or the region you are in. (The last two if you have rights to do so; you may also open the editor and a button there will let you apply to region or parcel as well).

Scripted support for EEP will be provided for agents (avatars) in experiences, but as I’ve noted in previous EEP updates in these pages, this scripted support will not be part of the initial EEP release, but will be added later.

Will there is now the ability to present different windlights at pre-set altitudes (to to 1,000m, then 1,000m up to 2,000m and then 2,000m up to 3,000m and 3,000m+), this may be seen as a less flexible approach that can be achieved through some third-party viewers, which allow much closer altitude zoning of windlight settings (e.g. have a windlight from, say 22m to 500m, another from 500m to 1,000m, etc.). .

The bar at Holly Kai park exemplifies a potential limitation of EEP. The bar is built-in to the base of a rock plateau, and currently, it is possible to define a viewer-side windlight that applies purely to the bar’s interior (i.e. up to a height of 32 metres above the sea floor). Above that limit (“above ground” so to speak), the parcel uses the same daylight windlight as the rest of the region. EEP’s 1,000 metre altitude zoning effectively prevents this.

How big an issue this might be remains to be seen – but it is not unfair to say there is a reasonable number of regions scattered across the grid where EEPs altitude zoning could force a repositioning of different sky builds using local windlights, should it become the only means of applying localised windlight – which might not be initially popular.

In Brief

Retrieving Grid Statistics Page via llHTTPRequest (see BUG-216320): trying to retrieve grid statistics via a script results in a 499 error, although queries via web browsers will still succeed. No remedial work has been done on this.

JIRA Bug report fields issue (BUG-1074): the fields used in the Create form for a bug report do not use the same titles as the fields seen in a filed bug report, nor are they in the same order. This makes submitting a bug report confusing for anyone not used to the SL JIRA (they can’t even look at a filed report to easily see what they sound be entering in the fields of the submission form). This is something the Lab might fix following the deployment of an upcoming JIRA update.

2018 SL UG updates #27 Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Vault – dare you enter? – blog post

Sever Deployments

Due to this week being July 4th week in the United States, there are no planned server deployments.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no SL viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohort:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.516813, released on June 22.
  • Project viewers:
  • 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.

Retrieving Grid Statistics Page via llHTTPRequest

There is a known LSL bug when trying to retrieve grid statistics via a script, which results in a 499 error – see BUG-216320. However, queries via web browsers will still succeed.

This Week

Project news will be in short supply, again due to it being 4th of July week.

 

2018 SL UG updates #26/3: TPVD meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey

San Monique; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrSan Monique – blog post

The majority of the following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, June 29th 2018. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it.

SL Viewer

No changes to see out the week, leaving the current pipelines as:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, promoted June 21st – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – New
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.516813, released on June 22nd.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 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 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Week #27 Deployments

[2:53-3:29] Animesh is now on all the major release candidate server channels. However, due to the US 4th July holiday occurring mid-week in week #27 (commencing Monday, July 2nd, 2018), it will not be deployed to the Main (SLS) channel, as the Lab wish to avoid “high risk” deployments during the week.

Bugsplat Testing

[3:34-4:08] The Lab is about to start experimenting with viewer crash reporting using BugSplat, a commercial service.

As a part of this, a new release candidate viewer with code for using Bugsplat should be arriving in week #28 (commencing Monday, July 9th); aside from this, code, it will be functionally identical to the de facto release viewer. It will be used to evaluate whether or not to commit to a move to using Bugsplat over the current home-grown Breakpad crash reporting mechanism.

Environment Enhancement Project

[4:40-5:50] The EEP project viewer is seen as being “not too far away”. It is currently awaiting the deployment of the back-end inventory management changes, which are required to support the new EEP inventory assets. This includes a new inventory Settings folder, designed to contain windlight assets.  Please refer to my week #26 CCUG update for more on EEP as well.

[6:13-8:04] It’s not clear when the experience-based LSL support for EEP will be available – probably not during the initial deployment, but will become available as the project iterates. Also things will be set such that during testing, those on regions supporting the new EEP settings will see them; those on regions without the back-end support will see things as they are now (the “old style settings”).

Upcoming Changes

Monday, July 2nd, will see the introduction of the new private region prices, together with the increase in Linden Dollar purchase transaction fee see Linden Lab announces major SL private region pricing restructure for more.

[15:03-16:50] Also coming up is the new land auction system, which will allow users to auction their own Mainland.

The system is currently in the final stages of testing internally, and the current plan is for the Lab to wind-down auctions using the existing system by the end of week #27, then switch to the new system. Initially, only auctions of Linden held land will be available through the new system, but this will be expanded to include land held by users hopefully by the end of July 2018.

The new land auction system will be run through Place Pages, so those having Mainland they want to auction should consider creating a Place Page for it (if they haven’t already done so).

Other Items

  • [8:20-8:46] It appears that once Animesh, EEP, Bakes on Mesh, etc., are all deployed, the focus may be more on server-side updates and work (region crossings?). The easing of viewer-related projects should give TPVs some room to catch up with the Lab, if necessary, although bug fixes, etc., will still be appearing (via Maintenance RC releases).
    • [29:11-29:43] One of these projects will be ARCTan, the project to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs. However, this will remain a deliberately slow process.
  • [8:59-9:23] There are still two major open-source contributions to the viewer in development:
    • Camera presets, which will allow users to set and save their own preferred camera presets in the viewer see STORM-2145.
    • Porting of the poser feature from the Black Dragon TPV to the official viewer.
  • [9:32-12:40] As noted in my previous TPVD meeting summary,  there are concerns about unintended consequences of experiences when combined with tools such as avSitter (and / or RLV), and the potential for abuse. A JIRA was raised, but subsequently closed by the Lab. However, the matter is still under discussion internally, and may result in changes to how experiences work to address the issue.
  • The next get-together of everyone at the Lab who works on Second Life to discuss plans and options should be taking place towards the end of July.
  • [18:16-18:37]The latest official viewer sees the minimum object LOD raised from 0.0 to 1.0; this is unlikely to be reversed.
  • [19:00-20:05] The Lab currently has an update to Voice running internally. Vivox are due to deliver a new SLVoice.exe update “real soon”. When this happens, the test Voice viewer will likely move to a public project viewer, with the new SLVoice package.