There are gotcha’s in this latest main SL Viewer 3.8.4, in the mesh upload. You can use more than 8 materials now. Gaia Clary has changed AvaStar to export more than 8 materials. But, the announcement of that change comes with a warning: don’t.
POTETO_BackStage Pass – surfash.bade SOME KIND OF BOUNCER MAN
Also Drongle McMahon commented on the problem and what happens when we exceed the allowable polygon limit per material for mesh items. See: Second Life’s Limits. Continue reading
In the SL Wiki there is a page titled LIMITS. This page lists most of the limits we encounter in SL. The page updated today to indicate the change from the main viewer with a new mesh uploader.
simple living room – (in Second Life)
::Since viewer release 3.8.4, processing of meshes in the Collada file that have faces assigned to more than 8 materials has changed. Instead of simply dropping the extra material faces, the uploader now creates a new object to accommodate them. The result is that the single mesh is divided into multiple objects (prims) in a linkset (or coalesced object). Thus the limitation to 8 materials is removed as far as input is concerned, but still applies to each of the resulting linked objects actually uploaded. As a consequence it is now possible to upload a mesh with more than 174,752 triangles, although it will be divided into multiple objects. (Reference)
This sounds like a good change. But Drongle McMahon made this comment in my blog about the change (I’ve done a little editing on it – reference): Continue reading
From the Third Party Developer’s meeting we learn a bunch of inventory changes are ready to roll out to RC testing. But, they are waiting on the HTML HTTP* viewer, Azumarill. Once the viewer is out, soon, the HTML HTTP part of these changes can start rolling to the servers.
For her Light…
This is another significant change in technology. For users it will be mostly transparent. You aren’t going to have new features or buttons, at least as far as I know. You will have fewer problems and inventory operations will be more reliable and I suspect quicker. Less chance of losing inventory. Continue reading
Expect a Project Viewer version with Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) this year and maybe this month, probably in October. Webkit is being replaced with Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF). This is a major change in viewer technology for Second Life™. It will catch the viewer up with the new tech being used in phones and across the web.
329 Feel freedom, what can be best?
CEF is sort of the engine that makes video and animation possible in the web browsers. It used to be that Adobe’s Flash was the only way to add reliable video and animation to a web page. But, Adobe didn’t respond to Steve Job’s requests to support the iPhone, this was pre-iPhone release days. So, Apple moved ahead without Adobe. Now CEF type tech is replacing Flash in an HTML5 world. Continue reading
I am not up on what is happening here. But, Oz Linden said something about upgrading the Linden systems to RSS2, from the RSS1 they are running now. RSS is: Rich Site Summary. Which is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Feedly reads the RSS feed from web sites to do its thing.
So, I expect this to be a change to the Linden web sites. Newer is better. Right?
310 – Primrose softblue
Many weeks ago we got a new Snapshot panel. The panel was designed by NiranV and has been revised by him again. The revision is being built into the SL Viewer now. There is some problem with the underlying Freeze Frame feature. Once that is resolved we will see the change appear in an RC Viewer. Continue reading
As previously pointed out, this Friday (9/11 – week 37) was the Third Party Developer’s meeting. There is enough news from that one meeting to fill several posts. So, I broke them up. This is the second one coming from that meeting.
Embracing Autumn
Aura Linden has been making Second Life™ inventory much more robust. Over the past year as parts of the SL system have been upgraded other parts have revealed their weaknesses. Months ago the inventory system was updated, AISv3. The upgrade added new code to the servers and viewers. Continue reading
Second Life™ is getting a new tool to hopefully induce people to reduce avatar generated lag; the Avatar Complexity Rating. I’ve written about it before and I am trying to play with the Project Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.4.304761, which adds avatar complexity settings and notices.
Complexity KB Value
The notice that appears in the upper right of the screen just after login tells you your avatar complexity number. I suggested that it be colored, green good and red bad, just as the Show Avatar Render Complexity Information (ARC) display does.
Instead, they added a link in the notice to this SL Wiki page: Avatar Rendering Complexity.
They note the other factors that can cause avatars to be rendered a Jelly Babies;
You can change the values of these settings in Debug Settings. See:
As you may have guessed, the last two are mostly to stop some griefing issues. But, those settings can be used to improve viewer performance.
Changing RenderAvatarMaxComplexity in the Debug Settings doesn’t seem to be a problem. Whether I change it in the Preferences panel as the Lindens recommend or in Debug Settings the change is reflected in the other. But, getting to the Preferences setting is much easier. Whether changing the setting there affects other settings not affected by using the Debug Setting, I have no information. It is a possibility, but I have not seen anything that leads me to think that happens. But, this is a Project Viewer and it will change.
Link to more pages below…
At the Second Life™ Developers’ meeting a question came up about whether it would be possible to sell experiences, the kind made with the new Advanced Experience Tools. There was discussion about the idea at the TPD meeting.
The Well
The answer is: it has been discussed within the Lab, they would like for that to be possible, it is a complex add, and currently no one is working on it. So, a ‘NO’, but with hope. I would say, very very little hope. It is high hanging fruit.
What about grid wide experiences? The Lab is waiting to see how the land-based experiences go. There are several hundred experiences in the system. Not all of them are in use or that have scripts associated with them. So, it is a bit early to decide how well Experiences is going to be adopted by users.
As the Lab learns more about the feature’s popularity and how people use it, at some point they’ll decide if adding grid-wide experiences is worth the effort.