Tag: SL News

Mesh clothes: a way forward?

Posted on by Inara Pey

Mesh is here, as we know, and not entirely without problems. I, and many others, have commented on the fact that is it not easy to adjust mesh clothing to sizes that ideally fit individual avatars. Maxwell Graf was well aware of this problem, and put forward a solution via JIRA SH-2374 back in July, proposing the use of a parametric deformer.

Downgraded

As I reported on the 27th of last month, the JIRA was downgraded in status to Someday / Maybe – which came as a blow to a lot of people.

To be sure, Max’s solution was by no means easy in terms of coding – as he has always been the first to admit – the algorithms required to make the system work as presented would require considerable changes within the Viewer itself; and this clearly involves a cost element. As the current take-up of Mesh within SL is relatively low right now, that cost element, it would seem, is something the LL find hard to justify at this point in time, given what else they can potentially achieve elsewhere for effectively the same cost.

Nor, if I’m to be totally honest, did LL ever commit to making mesh suitable for all market opportunities – something I commented upon way back. Nevertheless, the fashion market in Sl is big, and LL cannot be unaware of this fact (they did host Fashion Expert Days last month) – so one might have thought they’d be aware of pressure to provide a means of clothing resizing for the advent of mesh – or at least to be prepared to be honest on the limitations.

In this regard, it has to be said that Linden Lab didn’t help themselves in the matter at all. Even after the initial roll-out,Linden staff were talking – albeit cautiously – about the limitations of mesh as a clothing medium and about Maxwell Graf’s idea  – and the appearance was that things were being earnestly looked at. Then the JIRA was downgraded without any commentary whatsoever from the Lab, leading to upset and consternation – a situation that was the same right up until yesterday, when Charlar finally commented on the JIRA thus:

“Hi everybody,

“First, because we’ve wrapped the Mesh release 2 project, we’re moving items into other backlogs. We don’t have any subsequent dedicated mesh project planned so all remaining items, including this one, will end up on our general viewer or the server backlogs.

“This does not mean anything as extreme as some residents have assumed. The fact that the backlog is called “someday/maybe” means that it’s something we want to do, but can’t commit to a timeframe yet.

“We did some investigation into the problem that Maxwell’s solution attempts to solve. We’re doing some more research and prototyping, trying to find a solution that might be faster/easier to implement. We have Top People on it…

“…I can’t promise anything – we might come back and say ‘no’, we might say ‘yes, but later’ and we might say ‘here’s what we doing’. We might say something i haven’t thought of yet.”

It’s not the most positive of statements, but at least it demonstrates that this issue is possibly not a dead horse. Why then, couldn’t the message be communicated earlier? Even a simple, “This is the situation, we’re thinking it through and will get back to you one way or another”, would have been preferable to what appeared to be an attempt to simply ignore the JIRA before quietly moving it to an inert status.

(On a wider front, I’m looking at Charlar’s comment as meaning the “non-trivial” Mesh update he mentioned at SLCC 2011 is now going to be delayed  / scrapped given he states: “We don’t have any subsequent dedicated mesh project planned“.)

Alternative

However, it now seems that matters are moving on through other means. When Hamlet Au reported on the downgrade on the 30th September, Karl Stiefvater, formerly known as Qarl Linden, dropped a comment into the feedback that at first appeared a little tongue-in-cheek:

“Anyone wanna fund an ex-linden to do it?”

Maxwell Graf, unsurprisingly, given his involvement in the issue, has taken Karl up on this offer. As reported in PrimPerfect today, Max has set up a project to enable Karl to develop an alternative solution for the issue of resizing mesh clothing in SL. Max explains it thus:

“I have established a fund on the website http://www.indiegogo.com [a leading international funding platform] for this project. You can go there and read about the project and use the secure transaction methods to contribute to hiring Karl to do this project. Our goal is US$5400.00, $5000 of which will go to Karl, and $400 of which will be used to pay for the project and website fees. No amount of donated funds will be for my personal profit or use.

“The direct link to the project fund site is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Mesh-Clothing-Parametric-Deformer-Project

“There is no fixed amount for donations – contribute what you can. That’s the beauty of a project like this. Small amounts add up!”

The project has 61 days in which to raise the $5400 in order for it to happen. This is a not inconceivable amount, although the question will inevitably be asked “What will it give us?” Max doesn’t shirk on the answer:

“To be clear, this will not solve every problem with mesh clothing. It will not create a layered hierarchy system of deformers as mentioned in the JIRA. Once the work is done, mesh clothing will not suddenly work perfectly for you, or work in the official LL viewers (unless they put the code in).”

What the project will potentially give is:

  • A working version of a single mesh deformer in the Snowstorm open source client
  • The ability for mesh clothing items to adjust automatically to fit an avatar’s size and shape without the need to use alpha layers to hide body parts
  • Less complexity of sizing considerations for clothing designers (no alpha maps, rigged adjustment, multiple sizes, etc.).

The finished code, presented as a part of the Snowstorm project, will be available to any third-party Viewer developer / team wishing to adopt it – and will obviously be available for Linden Lab, should they fail to define  / agree upon their own alternative to the original deformer suggested by Max.

Karl, as Qarl, is no stranger to mesh in SL – he developed much of the original code prior to departing Linden Lab, and he was responsible for the sculpted prim. As such, he is ideally suited to developing the code in question.

Not Ideal

This is not an ideal solution – again as Max clearly states. It doesn’t solve problems relating to modifying mesh clothing, etc. It does, however, overcome the immediate issue of fitting mesh clothing by default and it does – and pointed out above – reduce the overall complexity of mesh product creation for clothing makers.And at this point in time, many are of the opinion that something is far more preferable to the “nothing” Linden Lab may yet opt for.

Even so, there are questions that will be asked about the project as it stands – perhaps the biggest being, “What if Linden Lab do in fact come back with a solution of their own in Charlar’s promised two week(ish) time frame?” Will this project press ahead? Will it be cancelled? What of the money raised to date if that happens?

Clearly part of the answer to all of these questions will depend on precisely how effective any alternative presented by Linden Lab is, and the timeframe they assign for its implementation. As such, it is possible that some who might otherwise fund this project may await further feedback from Linden Lab, through Charlar or otherwise – and given the overall funding timeframe for the project, this shouldn’t impact it that badly.

However, given LL’s reticence to address this issue – or even (until yesterday) give direct feedback on concerns – one cannot fault Max or those following his lead for taking this route. Indeed, one could say kudos is due here for taking this particular bull by the horns.

Note: at the time of writing, $705 had been raised for the project. This represents some 13% of the total raised in just 9 hours.

Updates

  • 6th October, 13:30 BST: the project total stands at $2,150 – almost 40% of the required $5,400, raised within 24 hours
  • 7th October, 23:00 BST: the project total stands at $2,728 – just over 50% of the required total, raised in 48 hours
  • 8th October, 23:00 BST: the project total has passed through the $3K barrier
  • 19th October, 19:30 BST: the project stands at $3,787, just over 70% of the required total
  • 20th October, 23:55 BST: the project has broekn through the $4,000 barrier in just 15 days with a total of $4,223, just over 78% of the required total

PRIM_PHYSICS fix on RC channels

Posted on by Inara Pey

According to Andrew Linden, commenting on what has become something of a heated JIRA, SVC-7305, a fix for the PRIM_PHYSICS breakage was rolled out to the three main RC channels (BlueSteel, Magnum and Le Tigre) today.

The breakage, which impacts the PRIM_PHYSICS parameter of llSetPrimitiveParams impacts a wide range of scripted moving objects in Second Life and has caused considerable consternation amount content creators. With vehicles, animals and other items effectively broken, they’ve faced either having to wait for the issue to be sorted and / or re-scripting their products while still having many hundreds – if not thousands – running amok or stalled around the grid – something that apparently left one creator of automated scripted vehicles stuck with a three-day account suspension.

If all goes well – and initial feedback so far is that the fix is working on the Magnum and Le Tigre RC channels without incident – then the fix should find is way onto the rest of the grid during the main updates next Tuesday (assuming one of the RC channels gets promoted to the main release channel at that time).

Linden Lab says “someday / maybe” to mesh parametric deformer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Linden Lab has gone to a lot of effort to provide mesh. Some of it perhaps hasn’t been handled too well at times (given the problems around Prim Equivalency, the weakness of the uploader, etc., would it really have hurt to delay the launch by a month so that some of these issues could be address as they are being already in the latest Mesh Project Viewer?).

One of the biggest issues around mesh is clothing. Simply put, the way mesh works means that options to resize worn items are limited. In some cases very limited. Even with alpha layers, it can be a case of modifying your shape to fit the item – and there are times when alpha layers aren’t suitable…leading to more and bigger issues.

Maxwell Graf suggested a means of handling the problem – a parametric deformer. He’s blogged about the idea – so have many others. He’s raised a JIRA on the subject and received the support of just about every mesh clothing designer in SL. It’s generated a lot of discussion.

It appears to have been universally ignored by Linden Lab.

Charlar Linden has commented elsewhere on the subject and suggested there might be alternative methods to employ, etc., but the lack of open commentary is confusing.

And now the JIRA has been downgraded to someday / maybe – a stance that doesn’t sound too hopeful.

Theories have been put forward as to why the JIRA has been downgraded – some have cited the recent code breakages for attachments and PRIM_PHYSICS – the suggestion that these and other issues have higher priorities, et. But such explanations really don’t make sense: this issues are under the control of a different team at LL.

Are the Lab generating an alternative? Do they simply think this is a non-issue? It’s impossible to say.

Only one this is clear right now – the stubborn silence evidenced from linden Lab isn’t winning them any favours. We’ve long been promised better and more informed communications (wasn’t that, after all what all the hoo-ha with the Lithium “Community Communications Platform”?) Rod Humble himself has promised (via Twitter) that the silence would end some time back – yet the fact remains that outward communications from Linden Lab are sporadic and frequently noteworthy for telling us what we’ve already discovered for ourselves.

Of course, one doesn’t expect LL to inform users of absolutely everything that is going on – but given the ballyhoo around mesh, the concern over limitations on mesh clothing / body attachments (which otherwise have the potential to be a huge market in-world), it would really help matters if someone, somewhere inside Battery Street actually stood up and said something on the matter of what on Earth is going on.

Rodvik? Over to you.

In the meantime, if you are cuious about mesh clothing – limitations and all – I recommend a read of Couldbe Yue’s excellent overview and guide.

Attachment update fix rolled-out

Posted on by Inara Pey

The “showstopper” bug affecting the update of worn attachments, as reported on two weeks ago saw the initial fix rolled out across the entire Main grid (with one or two exceptions), a week after it was rolled-out to the RC channels.

So far, feedback on the JIRA, SVC-7283, has been largely positive, and it appears that for most content creators impacted with the issue, the core problems are resolved.

However, there are still some outstanding issues to be addressed:

  • SVC-7321: llRemoteLoadScriptPin() does not allow injection of an O:VMCT script into an O:PERM_ALL worn attachment
  • SVC-7294:The simulator is too strict when llGiveInventory() adds restricted-permission items to fullperm attachments which already contained other restricted-permission items

Not dates are currently available on potential fixes for either.

Update: 27th Sept: Since drafting / releasing this update, testing has revealed that even with all current fixes in place, a problem still remains wherein should an update fail, existing scripts in the receiving item can still be deleted. There is currently no direct fix for this.

Mesh and the Beta grid

Posted on by Inara Pey

There are now numerous tutorials on creating mesh objects in the likes of Blender for upload to Second Life; however, getting everything just right with mesh objects, their LODs, textures, etc., isn’t easy. The unwary might even end up sending a little too much uploading and adjusting items. To this end, it is best to use the Beta grid (also known as Aditi or the Preview grid) to work on models until you’re satisfied, and then upload them to the Main grid.

As many have never logged into the Beta grid, here’s some simple instructions and pointers.

Note that this article assumes you are certified for mesh uploads on the Beta grid (if you are already certified on the Main grid of uploads, you may still need to re-certify yourself on Aditi (with thanks to Opensource Obscure for the reminder)).

Updating Your Beta Grid Account

If you have not logged-in to the Beta grid in a while, the chances are your account information (including your inventory data) is going to be stale. If you already have items in your inventory you wish to work with, this may be an issue. So the first step may well be to refresh to Beta grid details. This is done quite easily:

  • Change your login password:
    • Go to your Dashboard at http://www.secondlife.com
    • Click on the down arrow button in the ACCOUNT window near the top left of your Dashboard
    • Click on CHANGE PASSWORD
    • Set a new password for yourself and SAVE it – remember this will be immediately applied to all your SL log-ins, including the Viewer
  • Wait 24 hours.
  • Log into the Beta grid.

Logging-in to Aditi, the Beta Grid

If you’ve never logged-on to the Beta grid before, there are some additional steps to complete, depending on whether or not you have the grid selection option displayed on your Viewer’s log-in screen.

Notes

  • Obviously, as we’re talking specifically in relation to mesh, remember to use a Viewer with mesh upload capabilities
  • If you opt to use the official Mesh Development Viewer, you will, by default, be logged into the Beta grid (unless you change the grid selection option).

Displaying the Grid Selection Option

  • Start your Viewer.
  • If the grid selection option is displayed, continue with Logging-in to Aditi, below
  • To display the grid selection option:
    • Display your Viewer’s preferences (Me -> Preferences in the case of Viewer 3 or use CTRL-SHIFT-G)
    • Access the ADVANCED tab
    • Make sure SHOW GRID SELECTION AT LOGIN is checked
    • Click on OK to close the Preferences floater.
Displaying the grid selection option

Logging-in to Aditi

  • With the Viewer log-in window displayed, click on the grid selection arrow to display a list of available grids (see right)
  • Click on ADITI for the Beta grid
  • the log-in splash window will change to display the fact you have selected the Beta grid
  • Log-in using your avatar name and password as you would with the Main grid
  • You should be logged into one of the Beta grid welcome areas
  • Note you will have a L$ account balance, which is not transferrable to the Main grid!

Where to Work

As with the Main grid, the Beta grid is host to a number of sandboxes. Some of these are for general use, some are for very specific purposes; the majority have rules assoicated with them, again as with the Main grid – and you should, as always, familiar yourself with the rules and things like return times in order to avoid upsets.

While mesh is enabled across the Beta grid, there are a number of dedicated mesh sandboxes (SLurl). These tend to have the most recent releases of the server-side code related to mesh, and while they can be crowded at times in turns of the amount of items to be found on them, they tend to present the best place to work.

How Do I Preserve Upload Settings between Grids?

The Viewer should save all settings you use with a model, so when you log-in to the Main grid and select the model for upload, your settings for the model should appear in the upload floater.

What Else?

The following Linden Lab resources may be of additional assistance:

Help People Island closes today

Posted on by Inara Pey
Help People Island

Today marks the end of an era in resident-to-resident  help in Second Life: Help People Island will be closing its doors today, with a final farewell party at 13:00 SLT.

Help People Island (HPI) was founded six years ago and has provided resident/volunteer help to other residents that includes everything from self-learning through to one-to-one assistance and teacher-lead classes in all major aspects of living in Second Life and working with the tools and technology, including the Viewer. Around 1,000 people visit the island per day seeking help and advice – and also simply to visit and have a little fun during one of the HPI parties. Over the last six years, an estimated 500,000 residents have passed through the island.

One of the self-help areas

HPI has been sponsored by Help People Inc., a private research and development company founded in 1969 to study human behaviour in the service industry with the stated purpose to learn how to increase sales through service. Sadly, the Board of Directors of Help People Inc. have decided it is now time for the company to focus its efforts elsewhere; hence the closure of HPI.

A farewell statement to all those that have been involved in HPI in part read:

“HPI has been a staple within the Second Life Community for 6 years, it’s hard to believe it started out on a small little area that barely got 10 people per day, in comparison to the 1000+ per day that we now have. Over the years, with the help and perseverance of all of you, it exploded into the greatest of ALL Help Group’s in Second Life and we feel what we have all contributed will in fact linger on for year’s to come. In our history within Second Life, we have helped and assisted in excess of 500,000 residents.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable how many people we have all touched, but there is nothing but fact in those number’s. We cannot begin to describe the amount of joy that we have all felt on a daily basis just knowing that ALL of us were and are in fact making a difference. A positive difference. And while this is an extremely sad time, that joy is even larger.”

Classroms and auditorium

Groups related to HPI will also be closing following the party and closure of the sim. It is hoped that a forum for those interested will be established in the next few months at Help People Inc’s website, and the letter sent to group members asks that they keep their eyes on that site for news once the sim and Groups in-world have closed. It is not clear as to whether the HPI blog will close – one hopes it will be left as an archival document.

HPI tourist office: helping people find their way around SL’s sights

The Farewell Party

Billed as HPI’s “Goodbye, Farewell Amen” party, the event will commence at 13:00 SLT, and feature “Five DJ and three hours of music, dance, fun” to take place at the Island’s Sky Garden. The five DJs participating in the event are:

  • The Lord Charles
  • Kahuna Chrome
  • DJ Timmy
  • Kew the Music
  • Keif Denimore

The venus for the party is HPI’s Sky garden – teleport to Help People Island (teleports routed to an arrival point) and look for a teleport totem (right) – one is located on the right side of the arrival area plaza.