Update: Sometimes working on multiple posts to your blog isn’t a good idea. Between drafting and pushing this one, Qarl updated his code, as Cinders points out. Sorry Qarl! Correct link is here.
Slightly later than he’d hoped, but keeping to his promise, Qarl has released version 0.3 of the Mesh deformer, stating:
Quick announcement – I’m releasing version 0.3 of the deformer code. Primary changes: 1) should now apply cleanly to recent linden viewer code, 2) deformation tables are computed in the background on another thread, so no frame stalls.
There appear to be a couple of elements missing from the patch – as spotted by Henri Beauchamp in a comment following Qarl’s post, so developers may want to hold-off grabbing the code for a bit.
I’ll be watching the various Viewer blogs for updates to see when the patch is incorporated. It’s likely to make an appearance in the likes of Cool VL and Dolphin very rapidly, providing the code is stable. Niran V Dean is planning to make a Full release of Niran’s Viewer 1.33 in the next couple of days, so this might also see the code included – we’ll have to wait and see.
Linden Lab had a Development Viewer in the offing for the deformer. This actually dates back to January, but didn’t get any further than an optional development Viewer due to assorted issues. Marine Kelley, who uses the V.3.2 reported that she’d removed the deformer from her last release due to crash issues, which may be related to reasons why LL never moved the code further along their Development cycle. However, as Qarl appears to have specifically addressed some (or all) of the issues, we may yet see the deformer appearing in something like an official Project Viewer sooner rather than later.
It’s been a while since we’ve had news on the mesh parametric deformer project. So it was good to hear Karl Stiefvater (Qarl Fizz, formerly Qarl Linden), the man behind the code, to provide a brief update on matters in this week’s Metareality podcast:
[27:58] Sorry guys; so here’s an update on the deformer. I have been obscenely busy in the last three months work-wise, and I have not had the chance to work on it much. That said, I did start working on it again on Monday [the 16th April] and I should have a release this weekend … The deformer’s going to happen, you don’t need to worry about that. Linden Lab has committed to getting it working; if they reject it for dumb reasons, I think that would – while they’ve done dumb things in the past, I don’t think that will happen; that would surprise me.
Given that there have been unfounded rumours circulating that Linden Lab are trying to “kill” the deformer – which seem largely based on the premise that the project doesn’t appear to be progressing as fast as some people believe it should – hopefully, Karl’s update will set matters to rights, and see an end to such rumours.
For my part, I’ll be keeping an eye on Karl’s website at qarl.com, and will relay any news that is forthcoming.
In the meantime, there has been an interesting discussion going on within the SL official forums relating to standard sizes in SL and mesh. It’s worth a read and gives pause for thought – particularly Max Graf’s very considered input to the discussion.
With the Linden Wilderness experience opening to demonstrate pathfinding capabilities, word hasn’t spread too widely concerning a call for region owners to volunteer for a pathfinding beta on the main grid.
[16:39] Falcon Linden: (3) There will be an Agni beta for pathfinding in the coming weeks. The beta will only be open to region owners (though once pathfinding is released gridwide, it will not require you to own a region to use it). If you are interested, please e-mail pathfinding-beta@lindenlab.com
No further details are supplied, but any region owners who are interested should follow-up with an e-mail.
The pathfinding tools themselves are now available through an Alternate Viewer (scroll to Pathfinding), which can be used by anyone with an interest in pathfinding when used in conjunction with the pathfinding enabled regions on the Beta grid (Aditi):
The easiest way of reaching these is to log-in to Aditi and use the World Map to locate the PathTest regions.
One of the PathTest regions on Aditi
Details on the tools themselves can be found on the (in development) pathfinding page of the SL wiki.
There is apparently going to be a Pathfinding User Group starting in the near future. Keep an eye on the UG listings page (or possibly the main pathfinding page of the wiki) if interested.
With thanks to Ciaran Laval for the pointer to the Simulator Group meeting transcript.
LL have started releasing more information on the Advanced Experience Tools developed during the creation of Linden Realms and its predecessor game demonstrated at SLCC-2011.
The blog post (yay! BLOG post!) provides an overview of the new tools and permissions, with the video providing further information. Bear in mind when reading and watching that this is only an initial announcement and that as such, further information will be forthcoming…
The video delves a little deeper into the creation of the tools themselves and which includes some interesting factoids and tidbits of information.
One of the tidbits demonstrates the popularity of the Linden Realms game, which has 5,000 unique visits per day, for a total of 249,000 unique visits since the game opened in (I presume) Beta. Had the game relied upon a “traditional” means of HUD attachment via people’s inventories, the game would be generating 4 million new inventory items per month!
The tools discussed by both blog post and video are:
Teleport agent: this is a new LSL function that enables an agent (avatar) to be teleported automatically to a given location / destination. Within Linden Realms, this is used when people are “killed” by the various threats to their safety; within the video, the LL spokesperson suggests a further interesting use for the capability: the teleport “gun”…
The function supports both local and remote teleports and also respects teleport and access permissions.
Temporary Attachment: this functions is a similar manner to llAtach, but avoids the creation of an item within a user’s inventory. This has two benefits, the most obvious being that people’s inventories don’t get cluttered with items each time they visit a region where the function is in active use and the second, as an extension of this, the asset database itself isn’t overloaded with millions of requests (again, Linden Realms would be generating an estimated 4 million items a month if using llAttach). Attachments for both avatar and screen (HUD) are supported.
The blog and video indicate that temporary attachment is not forced attachment, but a part of the overall Experience Permissions system.
LR Portal: a means of enabling the enhanced permissions system
Experience Permissions: this is a simplified version of the existing permissions system currently in use across the grid. Under the current system, permissions to control your avatar would need to be handled on a case-by-case basis. In something like the Linden Realms game, this means that rather than “dying” and being teleported on contact with a rock monster, the player would get a pop-up asking them if they wish to “die”.
Allowing these permissions to be granted requires action on the user’s part – such as walking through the Portals in the Linden Realms game, but they only need to be granted once, and can be applied across multiple regions (again, as with Linden Realms), allowing for large, continuous experiences to be built.
Permissions that can be granted (according to experience requirements) include:
Teleporting
Attaching objects to an avatar / screen
Control / track camera
Trigger animations
The permissions system is specifically geared to prevent more dangerous permissions such as inventory access, debit a user’s account and change links.
Potential Uses
The potential uses for these tools in terms of games and adventures are clear. However, there are wider applications for the tools, including:
Providing a means for guided tours within sims – providing avatars with HUDs that suggest directions around the sim, allow items of interest to be identified, information relating to those items to be displayed, and so on
Providing a means for store owners to enhance the in-world shopping experience – including how demo items can be provisioned to users using the temporary attach option
The enhancement of more interactive experiences ranging across multiple regions.
Professional Creators Programme
In line with the new tools, LL will be launching a Professional Creators Program. Details on this are currently scant – the blog post simply states, “This program will provide members with helpful resources, such as tutorials and exclusive closed betas. More information will become available in the next few months”. However, Rodvik gave some pre-hints on this via Twitter a couple of months ago, and it seems likely the programme will, like mesh, require filing of some personal information with LL and perhaps taking some form or tutorial like the mesh status upload tutorial. From Rodvik’s comments, the requirements shouldn’t be that intrusive, but given the potential uses of the tools, are seen as precautionary against misuse.
For those wishing to be updated on news and information on the new tools, there is also an in-world Group – the Advanced Creator Tools Notification Group – which can be joined free-of-charge.
Appetites are bound to be whetted at this news (and there are already a fair few in the Advanced Creator Tools Notification Group already!) – and at the little teaser included in the blog post that LL have, “Produced a number of other tools and prototypes to support more rich content creation that we look forward to releasing”.
This comes by way of Nalates Urriah, who keeps a finger on the pulse of things technical on the servers-side of SL (as well as covering much else). Due to the nature of the problem, it’s worth repeating here.
There is a problem with inventory on the Beta (Aditi) grid. Essentially, the inventory you have on the Beta grid is a copy of your Main grid inventory. However, it only gets refreshed / updated when you carry out a change to your log-in password. Recently, people who have been changing their passwords to refresh their Beta grid inventories have subsequently had at least two problems:
Anything “new” in a refreshed inventory (i.e. was not there prior to the password reset) will not rez in-world the inventory
Things created following the password reset and saved to inventory may vanish at the next log-in to the Beta grid.
Additionally, people are reporting that after initially logging-out of Aditi, they are unable to re-log to the same region, as they get a “region unavailable” error, whereas the region in question appears perfectly OK post log-in.
Given people are being asked to try-out various elements of new SL capabilities on Aditi, this is causing some concern and tending to put a major hole in any ability to test such capabilities. For those logging-in to Aditi for the first time (or the first time in a very long time), this may mean that very little will rez from MY INVENTORY, depending upon how long a person has been involved in SL and how their inventory has matured over the years.
A JIRA has been raised on the issue – SVC-7727 – if you’ve experienced the issue for yourself, please make sure you Watch it – and if you have specific details of cases where you experienced the problem that aren’t already listed, please add details.
