2023 SL Puppetry project week #10 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Puppetry demonstration via Linden Lab – see below.  Demos video with the LL comment “We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there’s more to do before it’s as animated as we want.”

The following notes have been taken from chat logs and audio recording of the Thursday, March 9th, 2023 Puppetry Project meetings held at the Castelet Puppetry Theatre on Aditi. These meetings are generally held on alternate weeks to the Content Creation User Group (CCUG), on same day / time (Thursdays at 13:00 SLT).

Notes in these summaries are not intended to be a full transcript of every meeting, but to highlight project progress / major topics of discussion.

Project Summary

General Project Description as Originally Conceived

LL’s renewed interest in puppetry was primarily instigated by Philip joining LL as official advisor, and so it really was about streaming mocap. That is what Philip was interested in and why we started looking at it again. However since Puppetry’s announcement what I’ve been hearing from many SL Residents is: what they really want from “puppetry” is more physicality of the avatar in-world: picking up objects, holding hands, higher fidelity collisions. 
As a result, that is what I’ve been contemplating: how to improve the control and physicality of the the avatar. Can that be the new improved direction of the Puppetry project? How to do it?

Leviathan Linden

  • Previously referred to as “avatar expressiveness”, Puppetry is intended to provide a means by which avatars can mimic physical world actions by their owners (e.g. head, hand, arm movements) through tools such as a webcam and using technologies like inverse kinematics (IK) and the  LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system.
    • Note that facial expressions and finger movements are not currently enabled.
    • Most movement is in the 2D plain (e.g., hand movements from side-to-side but not forward / back), due to limitations with things like depth of field tracking through a webcam, which has yet to be addressed.
  • The back-end support for the capability is only available on Aditi (the Beta grid) and within the following regions: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet.
  • Puppetry requires the use of a dedicated viewer, the Project Puppetry viewer, available through the official Second Life Alternate Viewers page.
  • No other special needs beyond the project viewer are required to “see” Puppetry animations. However, to use the capability to animate your own avatar and broadcast the results, requires additional work – refer to the links below.
  • There is a Puppetry Discord channel – those wishing to join it should contact members of LL’s puppetry team, e.g. Aura Linden, Simon Linden, Rider Linden, Leviathan Linden (not a full list of names at this time – my apologies to those involved whom I have missed).

Additional Work Not Originally In-Scope

  • Direct avatar / object / avatar-avatar interactions (“picking up” an apple; high-fives. etc.
  • Animations streaming: allowing one viewer to run animations and have them sent via the simulator to all receiving viewers without any further processing of the animations by those viewers.
  • Enhanced LSL integration for animation control.
  • Adoption of better animation standards – possibly glTF.
  • Given the project is incorporating a lot of additional ideas, it is likely to evolve into a rolling development, with immediate targets for development / implementation decided as they are agreed upon, to be followed by future enhancements. As such, much of what goes into the meetings at present is general discussion and recommendations for consideration, rather than confirmed lines o development.

Bugs, Feature Requests and Code Submissions

  • For those experimenting with Puppetry, Jiras (bug reports / fixes or feature requests) should be filed with “[Puppetry]” at the start of the Jira title.
  • There is also a public facing Kanban board with public issues.
  • Those wishing to submit code (plug-ins or other) or who wish to offer a specific feature that might be used with Puppetry should:

Further Information

Meeting Notes

Viewer Progress

  • An updated version of the project viewer is due to be made available once it has cleared LL’s QA process. This includes:
    • Using the binary protocol for the LEAP module communication, with new logic which causes LEAP modules to one be loaded by the viewer when they are used.
    • The AgentIO LEAP module adds the ability to adjust the look at target, viewer camera and agent orientation.
    • Support for sending the joint position of your avatar to the server, which is then available in LSL.
      • The code reports the post animation location for attachment points, allowing the the sever to know where things like hands and wings, etc.,  are, and this in turn allows LSL to query where that attachment point is in space and how it is rotated.
  • HOWEVER, the animation streaming code (see previous Puppetry meeting notes) will not be in the next viewer update.

Server-Side Work

  • The simulator code now has llGetAttachmentPointAnim() support, which should be recognised by the upcoming viewer update.
  • The Aditi puppetry regions are to be merged with the updated code so this can be tested.
  • While there has been some work completed on animation imports since the last meeting, there was nothing significant for LL to report on progress at this meeting.

General Notes

  • There is additional work going on to try to improve the IK system, with the aim of having the basics working better than is currently the case – better stability, etc. This work may appear in the viewer update after the one currently being prepared to go public.
  • Performance:
    • To prevent puppetry generating too much messaging traffic (UDP) between the viewer and simulator, a throttle is being worked on so that when the simulator is under a heavy load from multiple viewers running puppetry code, it can tell them all to tone down the volume of messages.
    • There will also be some switches and logic put into place that can be used when needed, helping to protect regions in case the load gets overwhelming.
    • A further suggestion made is to ensure the simulator does not broadcast puppetry messages for avatars seated and not using the code (such as an audience at a performance) to further reduce to volume of messaging, this is viewed as a potentially good avenue of work to consider.
    • There is also a threshold in place – if an attachment point does not move beyond it, it is not considered as moved, which will hopefully also reduce the amount of messaging the simulator has to handle.
  • LSL Integration:
    • See: OPEN-375: “LSL Functions for reading avatar animation positions”.
    • This work is now paused. Rider Linden developed a proof of concept, but found that in order to better manipulate parameters within the constraints, a configuration file should be used. He is therefore refactoring the code to do this before proceeding further.
    • The configuration file will be called avatar_constraints.llsd and it will live alongside avatar_lad.xml in the character directory.
  • Questions were again raised on whether Puppetry is for VR / will enable the viewer to run VR.
    • It was again pointed out that while Puppetry lays more foundational work which could be leveraged for use with VR headsets, than is not the aim of the Puppetry project.
    • Providing VR headset support is a much broader issue, which would require the involvement of other teams from LL – Product, the Graphics Team, the viewer developers, etc.

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, March 23rd, 2023, 13:00 SLT.

An artistic dedication in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Onceagain Art Gallery: Celestial Demon – Les Fleurs du Mal

Les Fleurs du mal, an exhibition of images by Celestial Demon being hosted on a sky platform at Onceagain Gallery by onceagain (Manoji Yachvili), is an interesting installation in that its title appears to be juxtaposed with its intention to venerate, something which immediately piques the curiosity.

Across the platform, which is dressed as a garden – or perhaps a meadow in which is centred a small, modern building apparently built within the ruins of a slightly larger, older, house – there sits a total of six small display areas, each home two images of women presented with floral surrounds which may have been part of the original set used to create each of the images or added during post-processing – although which might be the case isn’t actually important.

Onceagain Art Gallery: Celestial Demon – Les Fleurs du Mal

Reached by selecting Les Fleurs after clicking the teleport disk at the entrance to the ground-level of the Onceagain gallery spaces, the building-within-a-building of the garden platform acts as a central introduction and hub for exploring the six pairs of images, On the wall, in both English and Italian, can be found the dedication for the installation, which reads:

This moment of my life is dedicated to the marvellous creature called woman.
To her who despite the storms and demeaning periods, she always manages to flourish.
To her who blossoms into a smile despite the incessant rain of the darkest night.
May the earth beneath her feet be always soft.
For her, Les Fleurs du mal.

It’s a charming and disarming dedication, encapsulating the central theme of reverence for women; however, it cannot be denied that the idea of presented women who have so captivated with les fleurs du mal jars a little; or perhaps the expression is used in reference to those self-same storms and rains of dark night the subjects of these images have overcome. I’ll eave that for you to juggle with when visiting.

Onceagain Art Gallery: Celestial Demon – Les Fleurs du Mal

What I will say is that is little doubting the expression of reverence and the desire to off a visual dedication to the women – to all women, perhaps – presented through these pieces, each of which is available for purchase on a limited number basis.

Through graceful posing, a degree of soft focus through depth of field, and the employ of a plain white background and in some either the softest touch of a primary tint to match the floral arrays and or a gentle suggestion of shadow, the 12 presented pieces are eloquent and captivating in their depth of beauty and narrative. Each image is attended by more words – again in Italian and English – as an expression of the character and nature of the individual featured in each piece.

Onceagain Art Gallery: Celestial Demon – Les Fleurs du Mal

Poetic, graceful and set within a location in keeping with the ideas of reverence and dedication, a garden one can wander in silence and come upon each pair of images and their words free from the distractions of surrounding pieces, complete with places where one can sit and contemplate, Les Fleurs is an idyllic exhibition of art from a gifted teller of visual tales.

SLurl Details

Remember to use the teleport disk to reach the exhibition platform.

A white knight’s garden in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The White Armory-Silvan Moon Designs, March 2023 – click any image for full size

Held by Bee Dumpling, Emerald is a Full region setting with multiple faces, all of which make for an engaging visit – particularly for those who enjoy Medieval / fantasy and combat.

The Landing Point sits on the ground level, located between The White Armory Apparel, wholly owned by Bee, and Silvan Moon Designs, a brand co-owned by Bee. The two stores sit within an open, semi-woodland setting, surrounded by mountains. A curtain wall of cliffs runs north-to-south across the region. It is cut through by an archway, separates the stores from a garden area designed by Gidgy Adagio (Gidgette Adagio).

The White Armory-Silvan Moon Designs, March 2023

As with all of Adagy’s designs, the garden is simply delightful, well-designed and very easy on the eye. Screened from the sea to the east by trees and shrubs, the garden is cut through north-to-south by a large pond and stream running southwards. A single bridge spans the water, a path of stepping stones laid out over the grass to link the bridge and the archway leading back to the stores.

Beyond the bridge, the steam opens into a small bay in which sits a stone gazebo, one of several places where visitors can sit and relax. Another might be found on the small dock extending over the water; a dock which might otherwise serve the little elven-style boat floating amidst the flowers on the water of the northern pond. Carvings and statues give the gardens an air of mystery, as do the tall mushrooms from which strings of lights are draped.

The White Armory-Silvan Moon Designs, March 2023

Colour is added to the setting by slanting rays of sunlight filtering through trees, the light playing off the waters, bursts of flowers and the surrounding mountains. These all combine to give the garden a further air of mystery and enchantment, both encouraging visitors to explore – and to sit and pass the time.

Located on a sky platform accessible via a teleport disk can be found several more locations, all of them – as with the ground-level stores – put together by Bee. They include a period village (the buildings of which are unfurnished), a Renaissance-style hall (which is set as a ballroom and sitting before formal gardens; a Tai Chi garden, a fortified hall and a walled castle – each with formal gardens, and various tournament / combat areas –  jousting, archery, training. Overlooking everything on a table of rock is an elven hall, reached via a natural path angling up the rock face, while  as with the ground level, mountains surround the setting, giving it a greater depth.

The White Armory-Silvan Moon Designs, March 2023

Region-wide the platform is well put together, the paved paths acting as boundaries to separate them one from the next, whilst still leaving room for water features streams, wild woods and  a memorial walk. These settings appear suitable for role-play – although to be honest, I didn’t pry too much in order to find out; the region is linked to The Last White Knights of SL, a private group with the description:

Charged with defending the principles of truth, honour, and kindness. To defend those who cannot defend themselves from those who would seek to cause pain.

But beyond that, I just appreciated the settings in their own right.

The White Armory-Silvan Moon Designs, March 2023

With a subtle soundscape available on both the ground levels and on up on the sky platform, and with plenty to catch the eye and the camera, Emerald makes for an interesting and photogenic visit.

SLurl Details

2023 SL SUG meetings week #10 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Aurelias, January 2023 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 7th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, March 7th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
  • On Wednesday, March 8th:
    • The majority of RC servers will be updated to simulator release 578370, first deployed in week #9 to the BlueSteel RC.
    • In addition, there may be a deployment to the Ferrari RC comprising new LSL Functions llList2ListSlice, llSortListStrided, and llListFindListStrided (per BUG-231545). It also has a fix for DATA_SIM_STATUS from llRequestSimulatorData(), and doubles the amount of memory available for Linkset Data (LSD) to 128k.

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2, 2023.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578526, March 3, 2023 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

In Brief

  • Several general discussions:
    • Camera tracking for one’s own camera.
    • Particle size limits seen as possibly more a Content Creation User Group meeting discussion.
    • An idea to allow mesh vertices to be edited in-world without generating new assets in the process.
    • Using Media on a prim with HUDs, and the limitations therein (also related to the week #9 discussion of sending the contents of notecards in response to HTTP requests.
    • Image uploads and compression.
    • Please refer to the video for more on these.

2023 RFL of SL: SL Living Expo 2023

Posted on by Inara Pey
SL Living Expo 2023

Currently open in Second life is the SL Living Expo, a mega event held on behalf of the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Relay for Life Second Life (RFL of SL) campaign for 2023. Taking over from the Home and Garden Expo, the SL Living Expo carries forward many of the signature activities from the former event, whilst adding its own new features and opportunities, with everything running through until Sunday, March 12th, 2023, inclusive.

For 2023, the Expo is taking place across regions built around five landscape themes:

  • Seaside – with vibes of a New England seaside village, perfect for maritime, beach and water-loving folk.
  • Countryside – for laid back and easy living, is great for equestrian and farming communities.
  • Fairgrounds – for community, family and fun-loving groups, the fairgrounds feature rides and games to keep folk attendees entertained.
  • City Life – put put the pedal to the metal on the paved streets and watch the tall buildings and busy city stream by.
  • Mountainside – take to the air and fly through the mountains as they overlook rest of the region.
SL Living Expo 2023 – Artwalk

With multiple exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and décor, wishing to improve their building (or other) skills, or who just wishes to keep abreast of the latest building / home trends in Second Life.

As always, the Expo there will be a range of entertainment and music, games and tournaments, auctions and raffles. and new to the Expo such as the Drivers of SL sponsored Vehicle Show, featuring “off-the-shelf” and custom built road vehicles. Meanwhile, the Interior Decorating Contest, and the Expo will include a number of special Linden Auctions, including:

  • Dinner with the Lindens: enjoy a relaxing dinner over the course of an hour with Patch Linden and three of his friends and three friends of your own.
  • A Premium Plus Subscription Package comprising:
    • TWO 12-month Premium Plus Subscriptions – one for you and one to gift to a friend.
    • A Homestead Region with no monthly maintenance fees for 12 months.
  • A 12-month Premium Plus Subscription.
  • A 3-month Premium Plus Subscription.
  • A 12-Month Premium Subscription.
  • One free name change.
  • A 1-hour Hangout/photo time with Patch.

Bidding on any / all of these can be made via the Auction Area at the Expo’s Welcome/Landing Hub.

Also new to the Expo is the Art Walk, providing artists across the grid the opportunity to share their talent and creative minds.

Each artist is able to display two pieces of art, for sale, one of which is available through an ACS vendor with 100% of proceeds of sales benefiting ACS / RFL of SL.

The best way to find your way around the Expo is to visit the the Events Transportation centre at the Welcome / Landing Hub. within it is a vehicle rezzer to transport you to the major regions of the Expo, and visitors can obtain a shopping HUD, Event HUD and Interactive Map, and details of the event’s Hunt.

SL Living Expo 2023

SLurl and Information Details

All SL Living regions are rated Moderate

Seanchai Library: stories in voice in Second Life, March 6th-10th, 2023

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library – and this week previews the launch of a very special event.

As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Monday, March 6th, 19:00: The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights)

Originally published in 1995 as Northern Lights, The Golden Compass forms the first volume in Philip Pullman’s multiverse-spanning trilogy His Dark Materials.

In a world resembling Edwardian England, where magic is commonplace, young Lyra Belqcqua slip into the Retiring Room at the collage where he uncle is about to give a lecture – only to witness the Master of the college add poison to the wine intended for her uncle, Lord Asriel, prior to his arrival in the room. Warning him, she is rewarded by being allowed to remain and witness her uncle’s presentation, in which he discusses something called “Dust”, shows images of the northern lights in which there appears to be a city, and something else called the “panserbjørne”.

At the same time, children within Oxford are vanishing, kidnapped by a sect called the Gobblers, for a nefarious purpose – and Lyra is determined to find out why. In doing so, she is brought back into contact with the Master – who surprisingly gives her an alethiometer, a truth-telling device – and is offered the opportunity to live with the glamorous Mrs. Coulter, which comes as a thrill.

But as the mystery of the missing children deepens and Lyra determines to follow their trail north, so she discovers that Mrs. Coulter is not all she appears to be – and nor is her Dust-obsessed uncle, Lord Asriel.

With Gyro Muggins.

Tuesday, March 7th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

Live in words and music at the Glen.

19:00: Stories from Heroic Women and Water in the Desert

With Caledonia Skytower.

Wednesday, March 8th, 19:00: Seanchai Flicks

Films, popcorn and fun at the Seanchai cinema space.

Thursday, March 9th, 19:00: Selections from The Crystal Cave

Born into a time shortly after the Romans have departed Britain, now once again divided into a series of kingdoms, Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin, is the illegitimate son of a Welsh princess, who refuses to name his father. Small for his age and often abused or neglected, Merlin occasionally has clairvoyant visions which, together with his unknown parentage cause him to be referred to as “the son of a devil” and “bastard child”.

After being taught to harness his abilities by the hermit, Galapas, Merlin eventually find his way to Brittany, who teaches him to use his psychic powers as well as his earthly gifts, Merlin eventually finds his way to Brittany and the court of Ambrosius Aurelianus, where he joins the war leader’s plans to invade Britain and defeat Vortigern and his Saxon allies, and unify the nation as its High King.

Discovering he is Ambrosius’s son, Merlin returns to Britain and is captured by Vortigern, who believes the only way his new fortress can remain standing is through the sacrifice of the “child with no father” – Merlin. The latter, however, discerns the real reason the walls of Vortigern’s fortress keep collapsing and plays into the king’s superstitious nature, and commences his life as a king’s advisor, even whilst seeking to support Ambrosius in his goal. Thus begins the adventures of a young boy who will eventually become the advisor to Britain’s Once And Future King.