As most know, changes to the Google translation services are coming. The v1 service was depreciated in May of this year while free access to v2 service was discontinued for “new” application requests on the 24th August (access switching over to their paid service), with all existing access to the free service started prior to the 24th August due to be discontinued from December 1st.
The Lag – via Oz Linden mulled over alternatives for a time, via JIRA, and this has resulted in two options for continuing to use an in-built translator in the future, by using either the paid-for Google Translate API, or by using the Microsoft Bing translation API.
The new translation options are not live as yet, but can be seen in the latest Development Viewer (3.2.2 (224260) or above or the latest Beta Viewer (3.2.1 244227 or above and which also has the new Viewer UI incorporated in it).
Accessing the Translate Options
To access the translation options, go to PREFERENCES -> CHAT and click on CHAT TRANSLATION SETTINGS. This will open a further floater:
New translation service options
As can be seen, the Google translate option is retained – but you’ll have to sign-up and pay for the service yourself.
The Bing option provides a means to continue with a free translation service, but will require you register for a WindowsLive ID, if you don’t already have one.
Using the Bing Translator Service
To obtain a Bing AppID:
Click on the Bing AppID link in the floater. If you have a WindowsLive account and are logged in, you’ll be taken to the application registration page
If you don’t have a WindowsLive account or are not logged in, you’ll be taken to the sign-in registration page
Once you are signed-in or have gone through the registration / verification process, you’ll be taken to the application registration page. This isn’t a terribly helpful page, but essentially:
In Application Name type “bing” or “bing translator” (although I get the impression just about anything will work)
Fill-out the rest of the required fields and accept the terms & conditions
Clicking SAVE takes you to your Applications page – this may take a while to load, (and may even time-out – did on me the first time) – but it should eventually display the application name you gave, and an ID – highlight and COPY this
In the Viewer Chat Translations Settings floater:
Check ENABLE MACHINE TRANSLATION WHEN CHATTING
Click the Bing Translator API radio button
Paste your copied AppID into the Bing AppID field.
Click OK
Close the floaters and away you go!
Note that as this is a Development Viewer, as such details on the Chat Translation floater may change between now and it reaching a formal release (work was still on-going last week).
I actually missed this at the start of the month (blame it on my birthday and work…). The new Viewer UI has taken a step closer – it’s now at Beta (3.2.1 244227), and includes all the latest revisions, including:
Interestingly, the Direct Delivery Received Items section of Inventory, that was present in the Development Viewer is not present in the Beta release (nor is it visible in the latest Development Viewer release (3.2.2 (224260)). Is this an indication that LL are heed calls from merchants not to release DD before the New Year, or that the code slipped into the earlier Development releases in error?
I’ve taken it for a quick spin, and found performance to be equitable to earlier releases, and other than the translation and Destination Guide tweaks, I’ve not come across any significant changes – but it was a quick spin.
Given the UI is now in Beta and caveating the DD situation and – more importantly – the progression of the OpenGL fixes, this could be taken to mean the UI will be in a release update sooner rather than later – although admittedly not as soon as part of me thought LL might shunt it out.
Game play in SL is becoming “official” as LL slip out a new project. Called “Project LR”, it is currently in beta and available only to those of you with Premium accounts – so pooh to me where trying it is concerned!
Project LR is, to quote Rand Linden, “A fun, creative, and engaging virtual experience produced and provided by Linden Lab. Project LR takes you through basic exploration and game play, where you can earn Linden dollars by gathering gems and completing quests.”
The project apparently comprises 12 regions currently (Prokofy has one or two pictures from a visit) in operation, with a further 24 apparently waiting in the wings.
Project LR: 12 sims right now
Project LR is a game that appears to have grown out of a demonstration given at SLCC-2011 by Durian, Esbee, and Gez Linden. That demonstration introduced the use of basic gaming mechanics into the SL environment and encompassed a few interesting features. While that demonstration was not intended to be seen on the Main grid, it was fairly evident from comments given that the ideas being developed within it would eventually find their way into SL.
An element of the game demonstrated at SLCC-2011
The Project LR game appears to be quest-based, and provides the opportunity to collect gems that can be exchanged for Linden Dollars. Elements of the game require you seek-out certain things, while other can lead you into a lot of trouble – and “death”. Interestingly, the game utilises something that may be new to some in SL, but which is quite familiar to those who use the Restrained Love API: forced teleports. Get “killed” in the game by one of a variety of means, and you are force-teleported to a “resurrection circle”, where you can resume your quest.
One of the items to find in your quest
It’s also interesting to note that, when demonstrating their initial game at SLCC 2011, Gez and Esbee pointed out they were trying to achieve results without the complication of HUDs, etc. – but Project LR does in fact utilise a HUD. I can’t help wonder if this is to perhaps help ease fears some might have about the entire idea of enforced teleports by providing the security that it can only happen when in the LR sims and wearing the game HUD. Or the HUDS could, of course be down to the fact that hey couldn’t simply work the game any other way :).
The HUDs also include other functionality, and are auto-attached to you when you arrive on the game regions. This is to avoid the need to access your inventory, etc., and get you straight into the game itself. The auto-attach is labelled as non-standard SL behaviour, but one cannot help but feel it may have its origins in RLV, with a bit of tweaking from LL. A further tweak is that the HUD actually vanishes when you log-out of SL, to avoid compromising people’s inventory.
Game HUD
To access the game, and possibly to facilitate the auto-attachment of the HUD, people cannot simply teleport to the game regions. They must instead go via one of a number of in-world portals. These are currently located (I’m informed) near the Premium account gift kiosks – whether this remains the case, or more appear elsewhere when the Project is open to all remains to be seen. Access to the regions is also limited – if the limit has been reached, the portals will reject attempts to use them. I assume this is to keep on-sim numbers to a manageable number without overly impacting performance (and is probably why another two islands of 12 sims apiece appear to be waiting in the wings for development).
Those that have been fortunate enough to try-out the game have given feedback that ranges from “Nintendo-esque” through to reports that while they went for a quick try, they ended up staying for over two hours and got thoroughly immersed in things.
Without having seen it for myself, I can’t really comment on the game per se, but it is clear a lot of thought has gone into it, and it potentially serves a useful end as well as being a lot of fun for those that try it. It will be interesting to see if any of the capabilities used within it do find their way into more widespread use – one can immediately see that a “guidebook” HUD that can be attached when arriving on a sim and poofs itself on departure and which, between times, provides a ready means of teleporting around locations of interest, and provides links to supporting web pages or whatever, could be something sim owners would end up drooling over (to name but one possible application outside of all the gaming opportunities).
In fact, while writing this piece, I see Rodvik himself has commented on that aspect of what’s coming, as well as the game itself:
“Yes glad you are enjoying it. As I mentioned back in SLCC we wanted to go through all the pain of reducing friction to make more interactive experiences ourselves and then pass on those tools to our content creators [my emphasis]. It will be on Premium for beta test for a while then we will roll it out to scale later. After we get it working at scale we will roll out the tools and our creators can make some great stuff.”
What else may emerge from this in terms of Viewer UI enhancements, improved camera controls, or whatever, will also be interesting to see – if indeed, any part of this does have impact on the emerging new Viewer 3.2 UI.
One thing is clear – there are some interesting and potentially useful / exciting new wrinkles entering the world of Second Life. I envy those who will get to blog about it ahead of me!
Project LR is currently in Premium Beta – accessible only to those with Premium accounts. Read more in the FAQ. A portal to the game can be found at Nysray.
There have been a couple of recent Viewer updates in the last 24 hours. Yesterday I reviewed the latest Exodus Viewer release; it wasn’t alone – Dolphin 3 also saw a new release – 3.1.1.21151.
Both of these are interesting as they include support for two new avatar attachment points: Neck and Avatar Centre.
Neck will allow the wearing of items at the neck point (such as necklaces, collars, etc.), which will move with normal avatar body movement
Centre is a “fixed” attachment point which is static – so it does not move with your avatar’s movements (i.e. in response to an animation such as a dance, etc). This allows attachments that do not need to be seen to be attached to the body, or can be used with reference to vehicles, etc.
New attachment points
Both attachment points are also available in the latest SL Development Viewer (3.2.2.244260 or above) and in any self-compiled builds from the latest Firestorm code release.
There are a few things to remember when using these new attachment points:
As one might expect, items will require a degree of adjustment to fit correctly – especially on the Neck attach point
Don’t use the Avatar Centre point for anything you wish to be visible and needs to move with your avatars movements – it won’t. Avatar Centre isn’t the place for skirts and belts, unless you want them standing on their own on the dance floor while you gyrate!
Until the code is fully supported across all Viewers, to anyone not using a Viewer supporting these attachment points it will appear as if you’re wearing items incorrectly (as with the old Emerald multi-attach issue). Once the code is absorbed into all Viewers, this issue should go away.
If I’m totally honest, there is perhaps too much movement encountered with the neck attachment point – if your AO causes a lot of natural head movement, you may find necklaces, etc, vanishing into your collar bones or into your chest rather a lot. Those familiar with wearing collars may find that rather than the collar remaining relatively static compared to head movements (as when attached to the Spine or Chest points), the collar moves rather disconcertingly.
When first surveyed, some 30 minutes after the sale had finished, it appeared that some 322 private regions were added to the grid, leading to a net gain of some 311 regions.
However, a later survey revealed that in fact a staggering total 689 regions were added to the grid as a result of the sale and sims returned to use, leading to a net gain of some 508 private regions after accounting for losses.
Of the total number of sims added to the grid:
464 were open to public access, and so could be surveyed with:
343 being full regions
117 being homestead regions
4 being OpenSpace regions
225 remain closed to public access and have yet to be surveyed as to type
The 464 accessible regions were purchased by a total of 381 individual estates with 252 purchasers having no other holdings. Only five of those purchasing multiple regions brought more that 3.
The revised totals are liable to be the focus of further debate around the “new” and “used” land markets – and those seeking to offload sims to other users may well feel every harder done-by on seeing these revised figures. Those who have paid the set-up fee, and who that have to recoup that on top of the cost of tier might also be aggrieved by these results as well, particularly if the new sims coming into the grid as a result of this sale are used within the commercial / residential markets.
It will be interesting to see what the overall impact of the sale turns out to be in terms of LL’s thinking. 689 regions does make even more of a powerful case for the set-up fees to be reduced (if possible) to something reasonably sensible, as I ruminated on when reporting the original figures released by Tyche.
Of course, the precedent for lowering set-up fees has already been set. Leave us not forget the fee for a full region was once $1675, so on the surface at least it’s not unheard of for LL to adjust this figure in line with costs. As such, it is something the company may opt to do again, and it is certainly more palatable to them than lowering tier, as some are calling for within the community.
Tier is something that will have to be reviewed; the case for reductions being needed in the future is growing. but for now, given the outcome of last weekend’s sale and that it is a) it is easily reproducible as a promotion and b) will likely achieve the same level of success if repeated in a few months time should a boost in revenue be required, one rather suspects LL may well sit on their laurels for a while longer and not hurry into any moves as regards tier or set-up fees just yet.
As currently implemented, mesh presents a number of problems for those wishing to design or wear mesh clothing. As anyone who has designed or purchased mesh clothing is aware, getting it to fit our avatar shapes in all their rich variety is no easy task. Purchasers can only modify the clothing to a limited extent before they may have to start modifying their shape to fit the clothes, while clothing designers are faced with no alternative but to provide outfits in a range of sizes and / or with various alpha layers to hide body part that might otherwise show through the mesh clothes and ruin their appearance. Hardly ideal situations.
Because of these issues, Maxwell Graf presented a means by which mesh clothing could be made to fit any avatar shape through the development of a Viewer-side parametric deformer. He even opened a JIRA on the idea which gained a lot of support from designers and consumers alike. Sadly, after showing a considerable amount of interest in the idea themselves, Linden Lab downgraded the JIRA to a status “Someday / Maybe”.
While not actually killing-off the idea, the downgrading did mean that any potential solution defined by the Lab would not be forthcoming while they dealt with other, more pressing issues – and even then, they might not commit resources to development of a solution at all. When the downgrading occurred, it was widely reported – but there the matter might have rested were it not been for a comment made by one Karl Stiefvater, better known to many at one time as Qarl Linden.
“Anyone wanna fund an ex-linden to do it?”
Qarl made this apparently throw-away comment on the NWN blog. Cutting a long story short, the comment caught Maxwell’s attention and started a series of wheels turning. As a result, the Mesh Parametric Deformer Project was born, wherein if $5400 could be raised, Qarl would produce code to a given requirement that would provide a compromise solution to the clothing issue, and this code would be made available for adoption into SL Viewers. The project was set-up with the aim of raising the funding in 60 days, or of rolling forward until such time as this target was reached.
As it turned out, the project didn’t require even the initial 60 days; the target figure was achieved on the 24th October, just 20 days after the project was first announced.
However you look at it, this is an impressive achievement – and one which may have far wider implications for code and Viewer development in the future. So – whither next for the project?
Before answering that question, let’s deal with the issue of precisely what a parametric deformer is. Speaking recently on Designing Worlds, Maxwell Graf described it thus:
“[It’s] an invisible ‘cage’ that hovers slightly above all of the different points of your body in Second Life. What would happen is, when you put on an item of clothing that is made up of mesh polygons, it would slightly shrink-wrap to fit that cage, and the cage in turn would keep it a specific slight distance away from your body at all times, no matter where your body happens to move. The end effect of this would be that it would appear that whatever clothing you put on would shrink to fit your shape, no matter what that shape happened to be.”
This, he goes on to explain, solves a number of problems for both the user and the creator, “Primarily, the cage deformer, in a single layer, will make your clothing fit from a user standpoint, hopefully without an alpha map.
“From a creator standpoint, it will eliminate the need to do multiple sizes. It will [also] give you the option of rigging and adjusting the weights on your clothing or not – because this feature will be able to be turned on and off. So, if you still want to rig items you can, but if you don’t want to learn how to do that, and it’s extremely difficult to sort through all that, then you don’t have to.”
Maxwell Graf, speaking recently on Designing Worlds
Of Code and Viewers
The code itself applies to the Viewer – there is no additional code required at the server end of things. As such, the completed code will be available to any Viewer that wishes to include it.
However, this project should not be seen as a group of users getting fed-up with Linden Lab and marching off to “do their own thing”; nor should it been seen as some kind of “rival” to any potential Linden Lab may consider either now or in the future. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Max explained. “This isn’t something we wanted to make [into] some kind of statement like, ‘Oh, well if you won’t do it, we’ll do it without you!’ or anything like that.
“This was more a case that we understand that [LL’s] resources are limited, and quite honestly that stability is an issue with the [official ] client … But it’s also important that if the possibility existed to do this project and to move forward with it, then it could benefit everybody, and that was really the goal here.”
Mesh: can be messy
In other words, the project is being undertaken with the full knowledge of Linden Lab. Indeed, such is the openness surrounding it that the Lab have stated that, in lieu of them being able to identify an alternative solution they would wish to pursue, and providing the code Qarl develops does precisely what it is intended to do and he’s prepared to sign a Code Contribution Agreement (something Qarl has stated he would be OK with), they would be willing to consider adopting the completed code into the official Viewer.
That’s quite a positive piece of feedback. Of course, it doesn’t in any way guarantee LL will adopt the code, but the offer is certainly better than a flat-out refusal to have anything to do with it.
In fact, looked at objectively, the project is actually a win / win situation for the user community and the Lab. The user community stands to get something that is viewed as a major barrier to the more widespread adoption of mesh. LL stand to get the solution for, potentially, a fraction of the cost it might have otherwise cost them to develop internally.
As such, Qarl is the ideal candidate for the work. for a start, he is a known quantity within Linden Lab, having worked for them. He is also respected with the user community as a whole, and is known for bringing us the sculpty. Perhaps most importantly, he was the man who worked on the initial development of mesh rendering capability within the platform. He therefore brings a lot to the table in terms of his knowledge and abilities.
Not Just Second Life
But it is not just Second Life that will benefit from the development of a parametric deformer – and we mustn’t lose sight of this fact.
OpenSim has an SL-compatible implementation of mesh that was recently released in version 0.7.2. Like Second Life, this implementation suffers from the same issues around the creation and use of mesh clothing.
Given this, it is obvious that having a deformer available within the Viewer has enormous relevance to the OpenSim community, something that has been recognised by SL and OpenSim developer Judsen Jonstone, who has been working with Max and Qarl to engage the OpenSim community in the project. These efforts have resulted in a number of contributions for the project coming from the OpenSim community.
So the Money is In; Where Next?
Now the money has been raised, the way is clear for the work to commence. I asked Max when this was likely to be, if it hasn’t already happened, and whether he and Qarl had discussed a schedule. “I think he will start immediately if he hasn’t already,” he replied, “He seemed pretty familiar with this type of feature, and that will make things easier.”
If all goes according to plan, the code itself will be written and available in four or so weeks. What happens after that is pretty much down to those Viewer developers that decide to adopt the code. This means that while it is hoped the code will start to appear in Viewers sooner rather than later, it’s not going to suddenly materialise overnight.
However, TPV support is as critical for the project as getting the code written, as they are more likely to be in a position to immediately adopt the code once it is available. With this in mind, I asked Max if there has been any feedback from TPV developers about the work. “Some of them are chomping at the bit for this just like I am!” he replied, “I know Phoenix, Exodus and Singularity developers have [all] expressed interest in it, and there’s the OS Grid as well.”
It Doesn’t End There
But it doesn’t just end with the adoption of this particular iteration of the code by the Viewer community. What is being delivered will allow you to wear a single layer of mesh clothing that will “shrink-to-fit”.
But what if it were possible to have a multi-layer deformer that allowed multiple items of mesh clothing to be worn, with each successive layer conforming not only to your shape – but also to the mesh clothing beneath it?
This would allow you to wear mesh pants, tops jackets, all of which would shrink to fit your shape and one another without any bits of clothing or your body “poking through” the layer(s) covering them. Indeed, with such a multi-layer approach, You could even wear a new mesh avatar – robot, gorilla, whatever is out there – and the mesh clothes you wear with your “normal” shape would instantly “fit” over the avatar shape when worn with it. Each layer would instantly and properly conform to whatever lay beneath it.
Exciting idea, isn’t it?
Well, this could well be the next step for the deformer. Whether it in fact happens depends upon how well-received the initial single-layer solution is received. “The layered/hierarchy system is something that would definitely be a second stage for this, though how readily that will be done depends on how this first one goes,” Max said in confirmation of this. “I do know it will be easier once the first system is in place, but not sure if its something that can just be easily dropped into place or what that will require.”
Should the decision be taken to go ahead and enhance the deformer in this way at a later date, then a new project will be established. However, until that decision is taken, Max requests that people stop making contributions to the current project because the goal has been reached.
When considering the future, it’s impossible not to speculate – as some already have – as to whether this might mark the start of a new approach to developing specific features for the Viewer environment, with other attempting the funded route.However, Max is clear that he hopes this isn’t the case. “I don’t think that this should set a new precedent or become the accepted standard for feature development;” he informed me, “We shouldnt have to pay for features like this as a rule. In this instance, however, I think it was a viable solution.”
Positive Reflection
Whatever the future – both in terms of what happens with regards to enhancing the parametric deformer once delivered, or on the subject of the funding of specific Viewer enhancement projects – one thing remains undeniably clear. Raising $5400 in just 20 days is remarkable; something Max himself is keen to acknowledge as we wrap our conversation. “I think this is a great statement by the community that we want to see SL continue to evolve into something more usable, and we want to help push mesh to be what it can be,” he said. “This is a positive reflection on how much we as a community really want to see mesh become more accepted here.”
For my part, I can only agree, add my congratulations all who have contributed to the project. Every who has should feel justifiably proud of their involvement. Kudos to all, and I look forward to reporting on he the work progresses in the coming weeks. I’d also like, in closing, to thank Maxwell Graf for his time and input in making this article possible, and also thank Saffia Widdershins and Elrik Merlin for contributions to this article for their permission to use material first broadcast in Designing Worlds.
Tyche Shepherd has
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