Getting video of these meetings is a PITA. Medhue (1:27 PM) and I (1:08 PM) both were late getting to the meeting. Medhue’s audio has reverb… which generally comes from room echo… the combination of the sound source (talker) and reflected sound from walls reaching the mic at slightly different times. There are no echoes or room reverb in Second Life™. So, the computer’s speaker output has to be fed back via an open mic or duel channels in the recording app. Neither appears to be the case for Medhue…

I got there a bit earlier. I recorded the meeting, so the source is on my computer. I can edit it and clean up the audio. So, this week I’ll use my video. It takes some time to clean up the video and audio. Plus, Thursday is a busy day for me, RL. So, mine comes out later, like Saturday or Sunday.

The first thing you are likely to notice in the video is Vir Linden’s voice is messed up. In Medhue’s video, Vir Linden’s voice is also messed up but in a different way. So, the problem is in the connections or our computers. I have yet to figure out what’s up with mine.

I’ve cleaned the audio up a bit. But, there is only so much repair work one can do. 

Summary

At the start they are discussing Bakes-On, the changes to the bake-service to extend its use to attached mesh. This is the compositing service originally designed for the classic avatar. It runs in bake-engines separate from the region servers.

I’ve been writing and mentioning the lack of input we have had so far for Bakes-On. Vir has been listening and passing along information and JIRA’s are being read. It isn’t a total shutout. But, the programmer doing the actual coding hasn’t been around much.

I’m not the only one worrying about how usable the new service is going to be. That shows in the discussion. The hope is the new service can reduce the need for onion skinned mesh items. Saying onion-skin another way, reduce the need for multi-mesh-layer models.

It is looking like the Linden’s plan is to open up to more feedback and input AFTER the release a project viewer. Recently, the development process of using project viewers has worked well. We’ve seen lots of changes in a project after the project viewer was released. So, waiting until this stage of the development process isn’t as terrifying as it may sound.

PolySail has filed a JIRA on how she would like for Bakes-On to work. BUG-214631. The entry is worth reading, especially if you are a designer.

The Bakes-On project has the potential to change a considerable portion of the SL build process. Anything made using multiple mesh models to create layers is likely to be affected. Just as Animesh will remove the need for multiple mesh models for animating mesh, Bakes-On will change texturing.

A significant concern is Bakes-On does NOT do materials. My hope is the Bakes-On while handling the diffuse layer of materials will allow us to handle the specular and normal map layers. But, we may not know or understand what is possible until we see the project viewer.

02:50 – It is pointed out and Viir comments that no features are being taken away. After Bakes-On is released we can still make multi-model-layer things. Bakes-On adds features.

The concern is if Bakes-On lacks usability it won’t be adopted by the community. If it isn’t, we’ll miss out on the performance gains hoped for.

03:15 – Vir starts the update on Animesh. Vir is working on the server-side to make sure it is correctly telling the viewer what to render and where. A bug where viewers do not get notification of animations to play. If you come into a region after an animesh animation has started playing, it may be some time before your viewer is notified. As animations affect shape and movement it can make for an odd-looking render.

At the 05:00 mark you can see me reset Drakkis’ animation. My arriving after him and his being out of my field of view creates the problem. The reset did not completely fix the problem. Later in the video, his wings do render correctly. I think after he crashed and re-logged.

Vir thinks fixing the animation notification problem will require server and viewer changes. If the fix looks to take too long, they may release animesh and fix it afterward.

Vir thinks the core functionality of animesh is now working. So, they are on cleanup, bug fixes, and polishing.

Vir also working on wrapping up the Land Impact changes for animesh.

05:45 – There is a problem with animesh animations loading correctly. See BUG-202925. Basically, if you have 25 creatures using the same animation that uses a bone deform, they do not all look the same.

07:00 – Vir explains how they are implementing the Bakes-On service. If you haven’t been following along you won’t understand what he is saying as his use of ‘server’ in this instance is ambiguous.

There are no changes to the servers. Think about that. They spent weeks working on and talking about the bake-engines changing them from 512×512 to 1024×1024. That work is apparently complete. So, Vir has to be talking about the region servers not changing.

At this point, the work left to do to implement Bakes-On is all in the viewer.

10:00 – Vir answers a question about animesh attachments. I’m unclear on what Vir means. He is saying animesh attachments won’t be in the first release… He is clear that a load of requested features will be in Phase II of Animesh Development.

11:00 – Vir responds to a question on animesh and high altitudes. See the forum article. This came up with Bento too. Also, JIRA BUG-139256. No current fix. Possibly look at it at some future time.

17:00 – Limitation on the number of bones per animation. Vir explains it is a function of graphics cards. At some point when there is no need to support older cards that may change.

19:00 – Plans to add more mirroring, NOT. See STORM-2055 – Real mirror reflections on prims.

22:30 – Land Textures – Improving the textures we use for the ground is on the list of things to do… someday.

23:30 – Particle System – Possible changes. Materials is mixing into the discussion too.

An example of what is being talked about materials-wise is here on YouTube. I’m not sure if this is in SL or Sansar.

25:30 – Bakes-On viewer coming soon.

33:30 – Additions to the particle system.

35:00 – Polygon count to determine the number of animesh attachments. Not currently being looked at.

36:00 – Medhue rant 🙂 on texture size. Basically, using multiple 1024×1024 textures on shoes…

38:45 – Any chance of increasing video texture memory? Vir didn’t know the status. Oz spoke about it at Tuesday’s meeting. Large project complicated by old video cards the Lab wants to support. So, we can infer, not anytime soon.

40:50 – SL all on the cloud. Vir says currently working on moving backend services.

44:30 – Alpha masking for Bakes-On via LSL… probably not anytime soon.

45:00 – Some info on how Land Impact will likely change. Mostly the change will be adjusting the values currently in use; polygon count etc. A bigger focus on LoD sizes.

NO MEETING next week. Vir on vacation.

48:00 – Prim linkset jumping to 14,000…

END