The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, June 21st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms 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.
Note: little discussed, as this was the summer solstice Party.
On Tuesday, June 21st, the SLS Main and Event channel servers were restarted with no deployment.
On Wednesday, June 22nd, the RC channels will be updated to simulator release 572665, containing fixes for cases where llRequest*Data would return incorrect result; also, llGetVisualParams() now accepts hand_size as a parameter.
Available Official Viewers
There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:
Release viewer: version 6.6.0.571939 – formerly the Performance Improvements viewer, dated May 25th – no change.
Nomayo Maintenance RC (Maintenance N) viewer, version 6.6.1.572179, June 1.
Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
Project viewers:
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
In Brief
The issue of simulators that have been running for “4-5” days are ceasing to send Friends lists to those logging into them and requiring a restart to fix, continues for some. It’s not clear how widespread the issue is, but LL are aware of the issue.
Monday, June 20th, 2022 saw the first in the SL19B Meet the Lindens events, this one featuring Patch Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product Operations.
The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised, with selected audio extracts. The full video is located at the end of this article.
Note that this is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.
Offers a new subscription package for users, with benefits over and above those of Premium membership.
Priced at US $29.99 per month (or an introductory US $24.99, available for the first 30 days after launch) or US $249 annually.
Existing Premium members may / will receive some form of pro-rata upgrade path.
Does not replace either Free accounts or Premium subscriptions, but exists alongside them.
Event Regions: will now be priced at US $599 a month, with no set-up fee.
Linden Homes: further new themes; re-visits to existing themes to update them; new large-scale community centres; first Premium Plus theme possibly towards the end of 2022; retirement of old Linden Homes regions to be revisited with a view to starting that process.
General Discussion: a series of questions, arranged by topic and with short answers: most significant changes to SL; the overall effect of the COVID-19 situation on SL use; SL and the metaverse; improvements to Mainland.
Originally a Second Life resident and business owner who joined the platform in 2004, and became a Linden in September 2007.
Initially worked as a support agent and then as a support liaison. From there he moved to the Concierge team, eventually becoming that team’s manager.
Shifted focus to the role of Operations Support Manager for a year, then moved to the Product group, the team responsible for defining the features, etc., found within Second Life.
At Product he developed the Land Operations team, which includes the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).
In 2018, he established the company’s support office in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 2020 he oversaw the move to larger office space in Atlanta, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together with Grumpity and (now Mojo Linden and Brett Linden(, he forms the leadership team overseeing Second Life’s continued development.
In his management team role, Patch continues to oversee all of the Lab’s user support operations (some 5 teams), including the LDPW.
Despite his longevity at the Lab, his is not the longest-serving Linden, nor is he the “oldest” resident-turned-Linden.
Sees the most significant changes to SL during his time being: the arrival of voice (2007), Mesh (2010), Pathfinding (2011), Experience Keys (initially 2015, fully in 2019/2020), Bento (2016/17), Animesh (2018/19) and EEP (2018/19), and Bakes on Mesh (2019).
Premium Plus is a new subscription package that has been in development for some 18 months. As the name suggests, it offers additional / increased benefits in comparison to the Premium membership package.
It is in addition to, not a replacement of, Premium membership, which will continue, as will the free Basic account.
Full details of the Premium Plus offering will be presented in a forthcoming official blog post. The following is a summary of the specifics mentioned by Patch.
Benefits “Above” Premium – In Brief
Sign-up bonus and stipend:
The sign-up bonus for Premium Plus will be L$3,000
The weekly stipend will be L$650.
Land: 2048 sq m of “free tier”.
This can be split between Mainland parcels and a Linden Home, as per Premium.
Linden Homes:
Still only one Linden Home per account
Premium Plus members will be able to go via Land Support to request they are given a specific Linden Home parcel this is not currently part of the automatic Linden Home assignment system (i.e. being handled by the Linden Homes ordering web page).
Any existing Linden Home must be abandoned first.
Such requests will generally be filled in 24 hours, but only if the requested parcel does move into the automatic Linden Home assignment system in the interim.
Future Linden Home options for Premium Plus:
Homes specifically designed for 2048 sq m parcels.
Premium Plus Linden Home parcels may be given the ability to have house styles from the 512/1024 sq m Premium themes, allowing those who want more land with their Linden Home to have it.
[Video 51:23-51:42] The first Premium Plus Linden Homes theme might be released towards the end of 2022.
Upgraded capabilities:
Group count doubles over Premium to 140.
Off-line message cap doubles of Premium to 160.
Animesh attachments will apparently increase (Patch said from 1 to 2, but Premium members already get 2 Animesh attachments, so it is unclear if Patch was just referencing Premium Plus with Basic accounts here).
Premium Plus members will be able to create two land Experiences (rather than just one, as per Premium).
Fees:
No upload fees for textures, animations, sounds.
No fees for event listings.
Mesh / Animesh upload fees will change for Premium Plus will be adjusted in the future.
Group creation fee reduced to L$10
Special support ‘phone line, with a toll-free 800 number, with international users able to use this via the likes of Skype without incurring international call fees.
Premium Plus sandbox access.
Premium Plus gifts.
[Video: 1:09:12-1:09:21] Potential for early access to Lab-run events (e.g. Shop and Hop events).
Premium Plus Fees
Monthly: US $29.99 (or $24.99 for the first month, if taken out in the first 30 days after launch).
Annually: US $249 (equiv. to US $20.75 a month).
Launch date
Thursday, June 23rd, 2022.
Premium Plus Audience Questions
[Video: 47:10-48:51] Will Premium Plus subscribers be able to choose their own Last Name, rather than picking from a list?
No, thei system isn’t set-up for totally free-form names. But the ability to change your last name for less than the current $49.99 fee is a potential “future add-on” for Premium Plus.
[Video: 57:30-58:25] Will those already grandfathered on the L$500 a week stipend, will this be factored into Premium Plus (so their stipend would be L$850 per week)? If they later downgrade back to Premium, will they regain their grandfathered stipend of L$500, rather than dropping to L$300?
Needs to be clarified, possibly in the official blog post for Premium Plus, when this is published.
[Video: 1:07:17-1:08:12] Could renting a Homestead region from LL be de-coupled from having to own a Full region as well, for Premium Plus?
Probably not, given the doubling of land tier already provided in the Premium Plus package, and the fact the breaking the lock between Homestead and Full regions could have widespread economic implications for existing estates.
[Video: 1:12:58-1:13:36] Will there be a pro-rata upgrade path for those on Premium to move to Premium Plus?
Yes, but does not have specifics [presumably within the official blog post, when published].
LL started tinkering with the idea of flexing the capabilities available through AWS to try to develop a product reflective of those capabilities.
The move to provide such a product was born out of a belief that for large-scale events in SL, concurrency matters.
In testing, the Lab managed to get a shopping event region running reasonably well with up to 231 avatars (providing users dialled-down some viewer graphics options – DD, complexity, etc., dialled down).
Event regions tend to run best in a “standalone” mode, rather than connected to other regions (particularly other event regions), largely due to issues around avatars and child agents¹ on multiple regions. This is why there were issues during the SL19B opening ceremony, as the avatar (175 per region) was set too high for adjoining regions .
The “introductory” tier of $599 per month and no set-up fee (which had been due to end on June 6th) will now be the de facto fee for Event regions.
Event regions are open to land owners / estate to rent from LL, should they also wish to hire them out to those organising events.
LL “constantly looking” at ways to improve Linden Homes; this work includes additional house styles within the existing themes.
The original Traditional Homes will be seeing “a slate” of improvements.
New “grand scale” community centres to match those of the more recent themes (such as Sakura and Fantasy) or those like Campwich Lodge (Log Theme), etc., are being developed for the earlier Linden Home theme environments.
Sakura Linden Homes – Shobu Community Centre, May 2022. More such centres are likely to be coming to Linden Home environments
Further new Themes will continue to be deployed, which the next release for 2022 possibly being Premium Plus homes.
The idea of having “Premium Plus neighbourhoods” mixed in with Premium Linden Homes has been toyed with, but nothing has been decided either way.
Thus far, the most popular themes (in terms of lack of availability due to occupancy) appear to be Traditional Homes, Houseboats and Stilt Homes, following by Log Homes.
In terms of increased capabilities / options, the Fantasy theme homes are probably the most popular, followed by Sakura.
It is likely that the plan to “wind down” the original Linden Homes and their mini-continents will be looked at again in the near future .
This will not simply be a “turning off” of the regions, leaving those still living among them homeless, but will be handled with care and methodically.
Some instances of the older home may be preserved in some way, such as under the SLRPS banner, particular those elements that have a story behind them [e.g. Cape Ekim and the mystery of Professor Linden].
Believes that all of the interest in “the Metaverse” is good for Second Life.
Believes all the virtual worlds will have to work together – at some point in the future – to allow a degree of interoperability if “the metaverse” is to achieve its goals.
LL is aware there is a lot of abandoned land on Mainland that could be made available / be improved with new landscaping.
However, there are no plans at present to add further mainland coastline to those continents that might otherwise be able to take it, because so much in the way of parcels inland remain available. This include the Zindra Adult continent.
The pricing of current coastline areas of Mainland are subject to the same laws of supply and demand as the rest of the Mainland (unless price gauging can be demonstrated).
A range of general questions, some related to Premium Plus (and which have been listed above), the majority on more general topics. Please refer to the video for these.
Simply put, a Child Agent refers to a secondary agent (avatar) presence associated with your own, then can exist in regions physically adjoining to the one you are currently in, allowing you to “see” into a connected regions (and have it render in your viewer).
Child agents are not physically rendered avatars but a simulator resource, as such they can directly influence region performance.
In May 2022, Terrygold opened I Would, a further installation of art exploring personal themes of, life, love, and the passage of time. It is something of a third chapter in a series that started with Empty Chairs (see: Terrygold’s Empty Chairs: remembrance in Second Life) and then continued with Rain (see Terrygold’s Rain in Second Life), which – at the time of writing this article, at lease – is still open to visitors at Terrygold’s gallery, alongside I Would.
As with its predecessors, I Would takes visitor on a journey of two parts; one reflecting on childhood and the innocence carried within it; the other the increasingly harsh realities of life within a society which appears to be growing ever more isolationist, intolerant and selfish. These two parts are mirrored one to the other, but they are not reflections of one another; rather they are windows into different states of mind, linked by the presence of Terry, an adult woman who is both guide and voice of the artist’s – and our own – thoughts.
Terrygold: I Would
In the first part of the installation, we travel with Terry from her house and through a park; a place which, in childhood was never short of magical and where excitement and fun and release always awaited and where something might always be found to delight. A place where any little girl could be a princess and dream dreams of a future bright within happiness and light, and within which the realities of human nature were hidden – as least until seen through the weary eyes of adulthood.
In the second, we also start within Terry’s house, but on exiting, we pass onto a street of a modern town; a place dark, dreary and where anger gnashes teeth, and everything appears to be in a state of decay and uncaring selfishness. This is a street where anger is quick to boil over, and where those that have care little for the hardship of those who do not have, whilst being without is grounds to exude the right to threaten and to take.
All of this is evidenced in the words spoken in local chat by Terry as you come across her at various points in both scenes, and also through the words of other characters that might also be found, whilst mood is set by the framing of the scenes and the vignettes waiting within them.
Terrygold: I Would
Within the park, for example, we travel from Terry’s house through the bright colours and magical mysteries imagined by childhood eyes, to arrive back at Terry’s house as it sits in the harshness of winter – symbolic of the passage of time as we grow from the gaiety of childhood to the coldness of adult life. Meanwhile, in the street scene we find a subtle amplification between those who have, and those who do not: in a garden protected by a high fence, a little girl plays happily, utterly oblivious of the little girl down the street cut off from her enjoyment of the local swings thanks to the vandalism of others and the force erection of another, and altogether different, high fence.
Throughout both scenes the words of the character of Terry give us pause for thought and to question. Why is life like this? Why do we so readily give up on the magic and promise of childhood to settle so readily into the cynicism and cruelty of adult life? What is it about our natures and our societies that make it “easier” to live in anger, resentment, selfishness and disregard, rather than allowing ourselves a more positive and accepting outlook? We obviously cannot remain as innocent as when young – but can we not hold onto the dreams we have, share them, and made the world a better, brighter place by doing so?
Terrygold: I Would
Within each half of the installation are 2D images by Terrygold that offer further reflection and visual tapping of the words offered through the character of Terry. These images add a further layer to our interpretation of I Would as it offers a thought-provoking window into life and the questions we can silently ask of it, and consider the wishes we all have at some point whispered within the stillness of our own thoughts.
On arrival at the gallery landing point, use the teleport disk to visit I Would and the other installations.
An artist’s impression of H260655b and H260655c orbiting their parent star. Credit: SciNews.
Two new “super Earth” exoplanets have been confirmed as orbiting a star just 33 light-years (10 parsecs) from our own, making them two of the closest rocky exoplanets to Earth to be thus far be located.
Such is their proximity, the planets – HD260655b and HD260655c – offer new opportunities for exoplanet and comparative planetology studies. They both orbit an M-type red dwarf star, the most common – and one of the oldest – types of star within our galaxy; these stars are both smaller and a lot cooler than main sequence stars like own own, but can also be quite violent in terms of their stellar activity. HD260655 is unusual amongst its brethren as it is somewhat brighter then most other M-type stars, given its comparatively small size. From Earth, it appears to reside within the constellation of Gemini, and is also known by a number of different catalogue designations, including Gliese 239 and Wolf 287.
HD260655b, the innermost of the two planets, zips around its parent at a giddying 2.8 terrestrial days; it is some 1.24 times the size of Earth and has 2.14 times the mass. HD260655c is much more “sedate” in its orbit, taking an entire 5.7 days to go around its parent; it is 1.53 times the size of Earth with around 3.1 times the mass.
The to planets are so close to their parent they are liable to be tidally locked, keeping the same side pointing towards the star all the time, and their estimated temperatures mean they are unlikely to support life: “b” has a temperature of around 435ºC, and likely has no atmosphere (although this is by no means certain), and “c” has an temperature averaging 284ºC – but may have a hydrogen-deficient atmosphere (so no water).
Artist’s impression of TESS in its “P/2” orbit. Credit: NASA
The planets were discovered in a 2021 review of data gathered by the NASA / MIT Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Normally the confirmation process for such transiting planets – those that pass between their parent star and the point of observation to produce regular dips in the brightness of their star – can take a lot of additional work, including looking at other data about the star, repeating observations, confirming there has been no instrument error, etc. However, with HD260655, the process was accelerated because it had been tagged as having a possible planetary system in 1998 following observations using the HIRISE (now ANDES) instrument on the Keck telescope, and in 2016 following observations by the CARMENES instrument at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, and the data from these instrument-based observations did much to confirm the presence of both planets.
What is particularly exciting about these two worlds is the combination of their proximity to their star, its brightness and its proximity to our own solar system, all of which makes them ideal for study by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Among other things, JWST should be able to confirm whether or not either planet has an atmosphere and the composition of that atmosphere. Should it turn out that “b” has no atmosphere but “c” does, it allows for direct observation of the role of their star in characterising each planet over time, and the manner in which M-type stars influence atmospheric loss among their worlds; this in turn allows astronomers to gain a better understanding of the nature of exoplanets orbiting other M-Type stars. Finally, study of HD260655b and HD260655c and comparisons with the rocky planets of our own system could further add to our understanding of how planetary systems in general form.
Starship Update
On June 13th, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its long-awaited Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) concerning the SpaceX Starbase facilities at Boca Chica – and the summary is, neither the FAA nor the other government agencies that were involved in the study have come up with any significant environmental issues that would prevent SpaceX continuing with its current plans with the site.
The report doesn’t, however give SpaceX any immediate clearance to launch their first starship / super heavy orbital attempt. That requires a launch licence, which the FAA has yet to grant – and as a part of that process is that SpaceX demonstrate compliance with 75 action points raised by the PEA. Further, some of the action points will be subject to on-going review and could impact the company’s ability to secure launch licenses beyond the first. Further, the company may yet have to face direct action on the part of environmental groups in light of the fact that activities within the Boca Chica area – also a wildlife refuge – has already impacted some of the rare species living there.
Even so, it currently seems probable the SpaceX could be in a position to make their initial orbital launch attempt with a starship / super heavy combination in August 2022. As it is, the super heavy earmarked for the attempt – Booster 7 – has been equipped with its full complement of 33 Raptor engines, whilst its companion starship, Ship 24, is in the process of being fitted with its engines.
The massive “mechazilla” lifting mechanism on the launch support tower at the Starbase orbital facility, Boca Chica, was put through its paces again in mid-June, in readiness for lifting Booster 7 onto the launch table, and later stacking Ship 24 atop of it (seen bellow and to the left of the mechanism’s massive arms. Credit: BocaChicaGal / NASASpaceflight.comIn the next few weeks, we’re liable to see both Booster 7 and Ship 24 return to the launch area, with Booster 7 going through a range of static fire tests on the launch table before being mated with ship 24.
Meanwhile, at Kennedy Space, NASA has finally signalled growing (and, frankly, belated) concern about the SpaceX plans with the Pad 39A facility.
As I’ve previously reported, SpaceX resumed building a second super heavy / starship launch facility within the Pad 39A facilities the company leases from NASA. Of particular concern to NASA is the fact that SpaceX is locating the new launch platform so close to the existing Falcon 9 facilities, that the shockwave from a super heavy launch could conceivably damage the Falcon 9 pad and thus impact NASA’s ability to send crews to the International Space Station.
Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Centre, June 2022. To the left is the current Falcon 9 launch platform, sitting on top of the Apollo / Shuttle launch ramp. To the far right is the first section of the launch support tower for starship / supper heavy launches, showing the relative proximity of the two. Centre is a crane and a green structure, thought to be the start of work to install large water tanks between the two in order to deflect soundwaves from a super heavy launch away from the Falcon pad. Credit: @FarryFaz, Twitter
SpaceX appears to be trying to assuage NASA’s fears in part by installing what appears to be massive water tanks between the new launch facility and Pad 39A, possibly with the intent that the structure deflects sound away from Pad 39A. However, there is a greater threat involved in operating starship / super heavy which has not (in public, at least) been raised by NASA. To understand this threat, we need to go back to July 3rd, 1969.
That was the date on which the Soviet Union attempted to launch the second of its answer to America’s Saturn V, the N1 rocket, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. However, seconds after lift-off the vehicle suffered a major malfunction, crashing back onto the launch pad. On impact, around 15% of the 2,400 tonnes of vehicle propellants detonated in a blast measuring 1 kiloton, obliterating the launch pad and scattering debris up to 10 km away. Fortunately, as the propellants were spread amongst 8 individual fuel tanks across the four stages of the vehicle, 85% did not detonate, but were burned in the ensuing deflagration; had they detonated, the estimated blast yield would have been closer to 7 kilotons – almost half the blast force of the first war time use of an atomic weapon (15 kilotons).
Super heavy doesn’t use multiple tanks. It effectively has two massive tanks that share a common dome (that is, the top end of one tank is the bottom of the other). This means that in the event of a catastrophic failure, it is exceptionally likely that any detonation will involve the entire 3,600 tones of propellants on super heavy alone, again yielding a blast in excess of 7 kilotons. Such a detonation on the ground or shortly after lift-off would not only level Pad 39A, it could cause at least moderate damage to the launch infrastructure shared by pads 39A and 39B.
Imagining Exoplanets Using the Sun’s Gravity
When it comes to astronomy, gravity can be a very useful tool thanks to the way it can affect light. Back in April, for example, I wrote about the use of gravitational lensing – the bending of light from an object far, far, away by the gravity of an object much closer – to give us our first glimpse of the most distant star from our own to have yet been captured.
The star, now called Eärendel, the Old English term for “morning star” – was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope using the gravitational lensing effect of an intervening galactic cluster. However, a team led by Slava Turyshev, a physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, want to take the idea of gravitational lensing to a new level, using our own Sun to image distant worlds.
In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a luminous red galaxy (LRG) is surrounded by the Einstein Ring artefact created by the light from a much more distant blue galaxy being distorted by the LRG’s gravity. Credit: ESA / NASA
Turyshev and his team propose the use of a network of small satellites, preferably using solar sails, that could be deployed so as to image exoplanets using a 40 cm telescope in what they call the Solar Gravity Lens (SGL).
The idea has been in development for the last three years, and Turyshev’s team have determined how to resolved many of the idea’s specific problems. One of this is that while the Sun makes an excellent gravity lens, the corona is so bright it actually blots out the Einstein Ring – the circle of light created by the more distant object – such that it cannot be resolved. To fix this, the team determined that a satellite could, within a solar sail of the right size, use it as both a means of propulsion and effectively cover the Sun and this corona, revealing the Einstein Ring to the telescope. Determining the best size of the solar sail then allowed the team to calculate the mass and size of a satellite – thus allowing them to arrive at the optimal size for the telescope.
From that, the team have been able to work on a series of simulations based on the likely pixel size Earth-sized (or larger) would be produced at various distance up to 100 years years away, which in turn allowed them to simulate how such world would appear after processing their Einstein Ring and then deconvoluting the resultant image.
A simulation showing how Earth would look in a 128×128 resolution image captured by a 40-cm 30 parsecs away and using gravitational lensing similar to that produced by the Sun:. Left: the original 128×128 image; (c) as the image would look were it to be captured using SGL and then extracted from it Einstein Ring artefact; (r) as it would look after full deconvolution. Credit: Turyshev et al.
Further work is required to define the overall carrier spacecraft, but as Turyshev notes, SGL could provide us with insights into worlds beyond our solar system which might otherwise take years or even decades to accumulate.
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, June 16th 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and their dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.
This is a summary of the key topics discussed in the meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript.
Official Viewers Update
No changes to the list of official viewer through until Thursday, June 16th, leaving them as:
Release viewer: version 6.6.0.571939 – formerly the Performance Improvements viewer, dated May 25th – no change.
Nomayo Maintenance RC (Maintenance N) viewer, version 6.6.1.572179, June 1.
Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
Project viewers:
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
General Viewer Status
Bugs are still being ironed-out of the release version of the Performance Improvements viewer.
It is hoped the Legacy Profiles project viewer will start to move forwards once more.
There’s a further dedicated graphics project viewer in the wings, which may be appearing in the near future.
Materials and PBR Work
Please also see previous CCUG meeting summaries for further background on this work, with notes specific to the reflection probe work available in my week #22 and week #20 meeting summaries.
Outline of Work
Work on an implementation of reflection probes which can be used both with PDR shading and with legacy content.
The overall aim of this work is to provide a means to support more physically accurate reflections in SL than can be currently generated (seen as a requirement for PBR support).
It applies to both PBR generated content, once available, and to legacy content.
Creating a materials type with an associated inventory asset. This will initially comprise the ability to copy a texture entry (with its specific parameters) to inventory, to be followed by initial work to work implement a PBR graphics pipe in the viewer.
Reflection Probes Progress
Simulator-side support for reflection probes has been on test using an experimental view and simulator-side updates available on Aditi through the DRTSIM542 channel (Materials 1, Rumpus Room, Rumpus Room 2, and Materials Adult).
Materials Progress
Prototype Materials editor
Work is continuing on glTF materials import, and the hope is to have something that is functional within “the next week or two”. This uses the same unpacking mechanism as Unreal 4.
Materials will be uploaded with an additional editor (shown right), which will allow some manipulation and delivery the materials as an inventory item when uploaded.
Supported textures / capabilities:
RGB albedo + transparency.
RGB Occlusion/Roughness/Metalness: R = occlusion, G = roughness; Blue = metalness.
RGB emissive.
RGB normal (- alpha).
Double-sized supported (disables backface calling before issuing the draw call).
Two-sided lighting (so if the back of a triangle is visible, it flips the normal around).
Functionality not initially supported will be the ability to change the UVU wrapping Mode (so everything will sill be repeat); no ability to change the metification / magnification filter per texture;
The process separates the materials from the mesh, so the materials can’t know if things like tangents are present.
Texture will initially have to be packed by a creator’s preferred toolset; once the project gets to a state of polishing, the importer should re-pack the textures itself, unless importing from a non-glTF source, in which case self-packing will still be required.
Normals will likely be MikkTSpace, as per the glTF specification, but work needs to be done to see if supporting this could lead to clashes with the current normal maps rendering. This does mean that current Normal maps will not work on PBR materials.
Uploads will be L$10 per texture, so L$40 if all four used.
Brad Linden is working on getting the import into inventory working.
ALM Proposal / Work
At the #week #23 TPVD Developer Meeting (notes here), it was indicated that LL are “leaning” towards removal of the non-Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) (aka “forward rendering”) rendering path from the viewer, leaving just ALM rendering (aka deferred rendering”).
This was triggered as a result of a bug report which initially appeared to suggest the Performance Improvements viewer unintentionally alters the render order of object faces. While it later proved that the issue was more an edge-case in the way a piece of content had been created, efforts to try to correct it and to ensure it rendered as desired in both ALM and non-ALM rendering, raised the question as to whether it would simply be easier to remove the non-ALM path.
Were non-ALM rendering to be removed from the viewer, it would:
Only be done if it can be shown that this does not adversely impact performance (e.g. ALM runs roughly as well as non-ALM for those using the latter) on the broad cross-section of hardware most commonly operated by SL users.
Include a slider to manage the number of rendered local lights, as these are unlimited under ALM but can cause performance issues on low-end systems; thus a slider will help those on lower spec hardware to determine how many local lights they wish to have rendered.
Likely include a “data saving mode” that will prevent the download of materials for those on metered connections (to reduce the amount of data crossing their connection) and / or help those who find that materials loading can impact performance. This will have a UI warning that when employed, some objects may not look the way they are supposed to look.
In terms of the last point above and “data saving mode” the focus is currently on how many users would need it *if* the Lab goes forward with the idea. This will help determine how much the mode is needed and how best to approach it.
Given the ongoing work to support PBR and a more rounded set of materials, moving to deferred (ALM) rendering without fallbacks to non-ALM rendering – providing, again, the caveats noted above can be met / implemented – will help ensure a more reliable / consistent viewing experience.
Rigged Attachment Render Order
In terms of render order of object faces on rigged meshes, LL are considering adding a “render order number” that can be used by creators to ensure the orderly rendering of faces for transparent rigged attachments (thus allowing pre-loading of textures on “invisible” faces, etc.).
This would hopefully overcome issues of implicit render ordering (which may change due to other viewer dependencies), and of interpretations of the rendering order by creators that can lead to the kind of issue noted in the ALM discussion above.
There are complications in attempting this -e.g. render order is not per object, but per mesh, and is part of an overall schema for rigged attachments (attach order, linkset order, face index order); questions around overall outfit changes, where multiple attachments are being made, etc.
Providing such an approach does not break masses of existing content, it would allow creators to continue to use the implicit ordering (and risk odd behaviours should LL make changes in the future that affect the order), or use the ordering system to explicitly set the order, no matter what changes might occur down the line.
None of this work should impact the attachment order, but could significantly reduce the number of avatar draw calls.
The Shambles, June 2022 – click any image for full size
Update, July 20236th, 2022: The Shambles has relocated.
The Shambles is the name Tolia Crisp has settled upon for the latest of her Homestead regions designs which she broadly offered to visitors under her Frogmore Land Management group / brand. And for those familiar with the likes of Frogmore and Mousehole, there are elements here that place The Shambles within the same realm of those settings, with much to set it apart and offer a sense of mystery and surprise.
The first of the former of these is that the location is described as being “up the River Foss”; this is likely a reference to the river of that name that flows through North Yorkshire, England, rising close to Oulston Reservoir and meandering roughly south for about 30 kilometres to join the River Ouse in York. This puts The Shambles squarely into Tolia’s theme of English settings, albeit within a location pretty much diagonally at the other end of the country compared to Frogmore and Mousehole with their Cornish locales.
The Shambles, June 2022
However, where Frogmore and Mousehole have their feet pretty much rooted in reality, The Shambles stands well to one side, a veritable potpourri of themes and ideas brought together in a surprising whole that delights the eyes. This is something that is immediately obvious on arrival: sitting behind the landing point platform and hovering over a broad channel that sits between village and an oddly denuded hump of an island, is a strange windmill, held aloft by downward-pointing rotors spinning away beneath it and the metal deck before it. In fact, with its larger sail turning slowly behind it, it looks not so much like a floating windmill as it does a fanciful flying house.
The landing point occupies a tiny islet connected to the village by a metal bridge around which tentacles rise from the coastal waters, adding a touch of Innsmouth to the setting.
The Shambles, June 2022
On the little waterfront across the bridge are hints which, together with the hovering house / windmill, help the setting lean towards the suggestion that is it steampunk themed. Cogs turn slowly on the wall of a cottage as a kind of mobile décor; a great gas boiler pumps heat into the cottage’s interior and, further along the waterfront, what looks to be the face of an old copper clock has been fashioned into a table where refreshments might be taken, watched over by a mechanical messenger owl.
However, it doesn’t take much to realise that the themes here run much broader than steampunk alone; close to the table mentioned above, for example, a poster hangs from the doorway of a magic shop proclaiming Harry Potter is Undesirable No 1, while the waterfront itself is probably awash with the engine noise from the Star Wars-esque flying vehicle which appears to have just passed overhead, zipping between rooftops and the bulbous bulk of a balloon moored by the landing point.
The Shambles, June 2022
Enter the main street of the village, and more of this blending of ideas unfolds before your eyes in ways that are genuinely captivating. A dieselpunk tricycle, driven by a great chugging internal combustion engine turning a pusher propeller awaits a driver; futuristic lasers zap between buildings; a steampunk style airship appears to have wedged itself into the cul-de-sac of the street, neon signs and LCD panels hang from walls…
This is a place where nothing is as it seems and unique elements are waiting to be found everywhere the camera turns. Take, for example, Cordelia Curiosus and the boulangerie adjoining it. Leaving the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference in the name of the former, these initially appear to be ordinary places of business. But look again: the windows of Cordelia’s are aquariums, home to fish and corals, the water held in by a combination of window frames and – magic? Similarly the wall between the two shops is a shimmering face of water held back by something, the boulangerie a further haven for fish, turtles and aquatic plants.
The Shambles, June 2022
More touches can be found across the street, where a host of incongruities are gathering into a little vignette that offers so much. There’s a Victorian-era Bobby standing with his back to a pub cheekily calling itself the Scotland Yard, the walls of will are posted with a reward poster typical of those times and the front page of a newspaper offering the latest on the Whitechapel Murders – and the involvement of one S. Holmes, Esq.
The Bobby himself stands between a set of very futuristic packing cases before which floats a glowing umbrella projected by an equally glowing wand, none of which seems to fluster our good constable in the slightest – and nor does the London Police telephone box very definitely from the 1960s – so very definitely in fact, that one might be tempted to ask if it really is a police telephone box – and thus the entire vignette allows the imagination to take flight.
The Shambles, June 2022
Thus, wherever you roam, down through the village with its little stream and cornucopia of buildings, businesses and photo opportunities, or up on and between the rooftops, there is a lot to appreciate within The Shambles – far more than mentioned here. Yes, it is a little texture-heavy when loading; but it is nevertheless highly photogenic and offers more than a few places to sit down and pass the time. Those in the Frogmore group also get rezzing rights when visiting – but do please clean-up when done!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 