RL work has kept me away from Second Life®. Lot’s is going on with SL Viewers and the Mesh Deformer. I’m having to catch up today, Sunday. Inara Pey got the basic information out Friday the 4^th in Mesh Deformer update: release from Qarl, request from Oz.

Project Viewer

The Mesh Deformer has its own Linden Lab® project viewer. There have only been two releases of it, AFAIK. The previous one was in January as a version 3.2.6 (247240). The current one is 3.3.1 (255595). I’m not clear on the development trunk; I think it changed to Oz-Porject-2. Whatever, you can get a copy of the viewer here: Second Life Deformer Project Viewer Download. You’ll also find I have added the link to the blog roll on the left.

The current stable viewer for Second Life is version: 3.3.1 (254524). So, the versions are close cousins. The current SL Development Viewer is at version: 3.3.3 (255744). Without digging through the repository and figuring out which branches are merged in when, I can’t know which fixes and changes are in which viewer version. But, the 3.3.1’a I’ve been using tend to crash on exit.

New Viewer Problem

Innula Zenovka tipped me off to a new viewer problem that is crashing viewers. See JIRA: VWR-28843 – Microsoft Skydrive: Viewer crash on any file browser operation. Chaoss did a nice bug report, IMO. If you have Skydrive and crash when attempting to upload textures plus other file access activites, this is likely the problem.

The viewer seeing this problem is Second Life 3.3.1 (254524) Apr 24 2012, the current stable viewer.

There is a fix for Win7-64x users provided by Latif Khalifa. See: Permalink. The fix requires editing the registry. If you are not familiar with registry edits, read up. Making a mistake can down your computer.

Skydrive is essentially remote data storage, putting your data in the cloud. It is not something to speed up your computer.

Few people are keeping up with the loss of privacy and freedom in the US. President Obama promised not to sign bills that infringe our privacy and freedom. But, he has recently signed NDAA and CISPA. The US military can now seize and hold anyone and their stuff without regard to the US Constitution – Article V. This means if you put information in the cloud, the government may choose to examine it and never even have to tell you. This new law applies to US and non-US citizens. Think before you place personal information on remote systems.

Feedback Requested

Oz Linden has requested feedback on the Deformer Project. This is an indication the project is nearing completion. The Lab has a habit of waiting until toward the end of a project before asking for widespread input. Prior to that one must have demonstrated a real interest in something for the Lindens to do more than politely listen to your ideas.

Oz is asking for “FEEDBACK” not opinion. So, if you have not been following the Deformer project and working with making mesh clothes, you only have opinion. Feedback is from those using the Deformer.

See the Deformer Project JIRA STORM-1716 – Mesh Deformer for tailoring mesh clothing. That link leads to the top of the JIRA item. If you have not been following along, get up to speed before commenting. To get to Oz’s request use this LINK.

Also, plan to upload an example of the mesh and the issue as part of your comment. Read the JIRA post by OZ to know what to include with your feedback. The examples are to be added to a test suite for viewer dev’s to test against. So, you will need to formally agree to the Contributor’s Agreement.

The Avatar

Several of the problems people are hopping the Mesh Deformer will fix cannot be fixed by the Deformer. The problems stem from the SL Avatar. A person was going to submit a project to make fixes to the avatar. That seems to have fallen down. So, any changes to the avatar are only likely to happen in the future. You can see the discussion in JIRA STORM-1800 – The vertex weights of the default character mesh could be better. This JIRA will also give you an idea of which problems the Deformer cannot fix.

If you read Qarl’s JIRA comment, you will see that some things are simply not going to be fixed by using the Deformer. Garbage in garbage out.

There is considerable confusion as to what is or is not the default avatar and how to get a model of the avatars, male and female. Qarl posted over at SLUniverse and there is information in the JIRA item STORM-1716. Open Appearance and select male or female and create a new shape. Make no changes. Export that avatar and you have the avatar model that Qarl is using for the Deformer.

You can then export the avatar. I think most of us use a TPV to export the avatar. I’m pretty sure there is no avatar export in the LL viewers. See Second Life Mesh Clothing Tutorial for information on how to do that.

Mesh Deformer

In the latest MetaReality Podcast Qarl Fizz comments on the Mesh Deformer project. Inara transcribed the audio. So, you can see it in writing on her blog, link above. Or you can catch the comments in the audio at time mark: 57:20.

At about 12:00 Qarl bets there are no word processing apps for iPad and smart phones. See AppStart. It’s hard to say whether Qarl meant a standalone app or one that stuffs things into the cloud.

Qarl in the Podcast says he released a new version of the Deformer ‘today.’ The Podcast date is May 4. In the JIRA Qarl posted he pushed a new release to the repository 5/3. I suppose there is some delay in the Podcast publishing.

So, this 5/3 release would be like version 0.4… but, things are never so simple. Qarl labeled the versions on his blog as 0.3.1 and 0.3.2. Chalice Yao commented that 0.3.2 compiled on 4/29… So, I know those versions were out prior to 4/29.

I have no way to know for certain which versions are installed in which viewers. I’m assuming there is a 0.4 or 0.3.3 version out there. Qarl says Oz told him the build machine updates the project viewer after a push to branch. (Double hearsay) So I think the latest version of the Deformer is in the Linden Lab® Project Viewer. Use the download link above and you should have the latest Deformer.

This latest version detects and adapts to either the base male or female avatar. This should help with male clothes.

This version of the Deformer should only deform mesh with the Deform Flag set. This means none of your existing mesh clothes will be deformed by the Deformer. If you are not a clothes maker and uploading your own mesh clothes with the Deform Flag set, you can’t see how the Deformer works.

As far as I know none of the smoothing algorithm has changed. So, the examples in previous articles and the problems that show should be the same.

Next Step

Oz is getting feedback as I mentioned above. But, that is specifically for the Deformer and its problems, things Qarl can fix. As I mentioned, there are some problems we are going to have to look at that cannot be fixed by the Deformer because they are built into the avatar’s base model.

If you want the avatar problem fixed, visit the JIRA and click WATCH in STORM-1800. This is one of those cases where you need to consider what you are asking for. There are some hard decisions to be made in regard to changing the avatar. Even minor fixes will create problems for some items of clothing. A complete overhaul would destroy many of the clothes in SL. Some compromise that we can come to a consensus on is probably going to be the best we can hope for. So, decide and get your friends envolved, have them decide and click WATCH or not.

You can read an ongoing discussion on SLUniverse. Some knowledgeable people are contributing.

I think the Deformer is pretty much as it is going to be. Of course the contributions and feedback the Lab receives might change their thinking and something could change. But, if the Deformer is set, a significant number of people will be unhappy with the result. We seriously need to decide how to fix the avatar. The Lab is not going to change that priority until they see a significant change of interest in the issue by users.