Second Life Mesh Volunteers Group

Oskar and Charlar Linden have made and been editing an SL Wiki page titled Mesh Volunteers. The page appears to have been created July 14 and has been getting their attention almost every day since. So, what is it about?

Actually it is hard to place in context. The cookie crumb menu only leads back to the Wiki home page. So, I’m speculating some. Word is out that mesh release is only days away. But, adding mesh to SL is a foundational change to the system. Any change this big is likely to have unintended consequences and unexpected problems. So, the roll out of mesh is proceeding as a very cautious roll out. This new page is probably in preparation for that roll out as it explains some aspects of the roll out that I have not heard.

Mesh Volunteers Page

One of the page’s sections is titled, What are the limitations in this release? The words ‘this release’ strike me as interesting and suggest, at least to me, the page is for the initial roll out.

What are those limitations? It seems some of the roll out plan may have changed. It is hard to tell for sure. But, it warns that not all regions will be mesh enabled and that attempting to move mesh or wear mesh clothing from an enabled region to a mesh disabled region may break the mesh. Ugh! And broken permanently. Ugh Ugh

The section warns the mesh rezzed in a disabled region may or may not rez as a prim. It may also become an invisible object. Selecting invisible objects is always a challenge. I expect those needing help removing invisible mesh objects are going to be a low priority. So, just don’t go there.

We are also warned that ‘during this phase’ prim counts may be changed. So, it seems they are still working on getting Prim/Resource Equivalency the way they want it. The problem with equivalency changes is that it can cause a parcel prim limit to be exceeded and that triggers returns. So, residents could see unexpected returns.

The same section warns that the Lindens may need to do roll backs with little or no notice. So, the server of a region running mesh enabled may see sudden reversion to earlier versions.

This sentence gives me several ideas as to what I place between the lines, “We may do rollbacks and deploys with little or no notice; our focus is not short-term sim stability but rather long term code stability as we prepare to deploy this grid-wide.” [colors are mine]

Which Regions are First?

This has been a big question for some time. Lots of people have been going me, me, me! Now we sort of know who is first.

At the region level, private islands can be included in a list to get the Mesh Roll Out. If you own a region you can sign up. How to sign up is a bit fuzzy. Region owners can submit a case (case as in support ticket or JIRA? I’m not clear. May be if I owned a region…). There is an example of the case information needed to have your region included in the Mesh Micro Channel on the Wiki page.

Explicitly excluded are Homesteads and Open Space regions.

For the rest of us… the Lindens are setting up some sandboxes. There are the Release Channel sandbox but not everyone can get into them. Nor is any mention made whether those are the sandboxes being considered. I think they are not.

Viewer 1

The Lindens are not blocking Series-1 viewers. You got the NOT, right?

However SLV 1.23 and most Third Party Viewers (TPV) based on Series-1 code will not render mesh or allow mesh upload.

Viewer 2

The new Linden Lab Series-2 Viewers will also NOT render mesh.  So, the standard, beta, and development viewers will not render mesh. My latest development viewer is 2.8.2. My latest Mesh Project Viewer is 2.8.1. So, do not count on version numbers to tell you which viewer can or cannot render mesh. You will have to use a mesh project viewer.

Mesh Viewer

The page has a link to a Mesh Project Viewer download. The link is to a specific version of the Mesh Viewer, 2.8.1.236285. It comes in Windows (CYGWIN), Apple (Darwin), and Linux (Linux 🙂 flavors.

I’m not sure what the deal is. Do they want us to only use that version? I’ll have to ask. I would make the assumption residents should use that mesh viewer on the main grid roll out. The current Mesh Project Viewer for ADITI is 2.8.2.236321. I think the Mesh Viewers are hard coded for the ADITI grid. So, we may have no choice in which viewer we use where. (It is possible to override the grid settings as I have used the Mesh Project Viewers on OSGrid.)

I’ll be testing the viewers for install problems and providing more information.

UPDATE: The AGNI Mesh Project Viewer will try to install over the ADITI verions of the Mesh Viewer. You can change install folders so you won’t write over other project viewers. I haven’t completed testing to see if the viewer uses the same cache, settings and etc. files.

UPDATE: You are startedoff in Basic Mode. Sheesh.

The install does change your other Mesh Project Viewer settings. It is going to be a pain to run multiple versions of the Mesh Project Viewers. It looks like updating with the latest Mesh Project viewer for ADITI will overwrite you settings for the AGNI Mesh Viewer and vice-versa. Bummer. I have not finished testing this.

UPDATE UPDATE: I have mesh upload enabled in the sandbox!!!

Almost Uploaded in the Main Grid AGNI

I can’t upload the DAE file. But, I can step through the Mesh Upload panel. The panel is telling me that I am not Mesh Enabled for uploads in AGNI. So, my previous step through of the IP Rights thing in ADITI is not yet active in AGNI.

The link in the upload panel for getting mesh enabled sends me to a SL page address that gives a 404 error. (https://secondlife.com/my/account/mesh.php)

UPDATE: The 404 error is fixed. Complete the questionnaire on IP Rights and you can upload mesh in the sameboxes.

My upload cost calcs as L$12 for my 719 triangle object. It actually uploaded and I have it in inventory!

What is Being Tested?

There are things the Lindens want us to do and things they want us to avoid.

Things to do are; import mesh objects, interact with mesh objects, build prim objects and interact with them (will 64m objects be available? – I think so), upload sculpties and interact with them. The Lindens need to be sure they are not breaking existing content and make sure everything still works (no snarky comments on ‘everything still works’).

Things NOT to do are; move mesh from enabled regions to disabled regions and driving vehicles from enabled to disabled regions. Also, DO NOT sell mesh items. You will have pissed-off customers. DO NOT try to test mesh with 1.23 and current V2 viewers.

I suppose the Kirsten Viewer may be an exception. But, if you plan to report mesh bugs, please use the SL Mesh Project Viewer.

Mesh Volunteer Group

For those residents that want to help test mesh, join the Mesh Volunteer Group from the AGNI grid. You will only have access to the sandboxes if you join the group. The same is true with the Release Channel sandboxes but it is a different group.

The group is open and as I post this there are about 90 members.

Reporting Bugs

This is the reason for being in the Mesh Volunteer Group. Bugs are reported in the SL JIRA. Be certain you set the PROJECT to “Mesh-Beta CTS” and the ISSUE TYPE to “Bug”.

All bug reports need to be as precise as possible. Give a detailed step-by-step procedure for reproducing the bug. Absolutely include the information from your viewer’s Help-About. Make sure that info has the correct region name for where you encountered the problem. If the bug is with a particular mesh object include the DAE file in the report. You can make file uploads that only the Lindens can access for proprietary objects. Contact them for how to do that. In general just note you have a proprietary file in the bug report and they will contact you if they need the file.

If you have never reported a bug in the JIRA, watch Torley’s pink and green How to report a Bug tutorial. Look for the video link. Its near the top of the page’s text.

The Sandboxes

 

Remember. You need to join the group (above) to get in.

Remember. The Lindens have not released the information on the roll out and these sandboxes may not be up yet or running the right version of the Mesh Project. That won’t happen until they push the go button and tell us we can test.

UPDATE: I made it into a sandbox today (9:22 AM). O.O

You are at 261,760.0, 242,304.0, 23.1 in Mesh Sandbox 4 located at sim21096.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.30.130:13003)
Second Life RC Mesh 11.07.20.236327

However, I used my regular development viewer so mesh upload was disabled. The updates above are from after I installed the project viewer.

UPDATE: 64m objects are enabled in the sandboxes. As Adoen Writer points out, one can move 64m objects from the sandbox mesh enabled regions to mesh disabled regions.

Summary

We are getting close.

 

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