Second Life

Things about SL

JSON Comes to Second Life

by

JSON is pronounced jay-sun. JSON is a text based way of representing data structures. Some think of it as an alternative to XML. It primarily was developed for use in JavaScript programming for transferring data across a network.

I suspect for many of us the arrival of JSON in the Linden Scripting Language (LSL) is a non-event. But, for scripters it is a big deal.

This week the JSON upgrades will be running on the RC channels, all three. The new stuff added to the LSL is:

  • list llJson2List(string json)
    • Converts the top level of the json string to a list.
  • string llList2Json(string type, list values)
  • string llJsonGetValue(string json, list specifiers)
    • Gets the value indicated by specifiers from the json string.
  • string llJsonSetValue(string json, list specifiers, string value)
    • Returns a new json string that is the json given with the value indicated by specifiers set to value
  • string llJsonValueType(string json, list specifiers)
    • Returns the type constant for the value in json indicated by specifiers.
  • Usage guide: Json_usage_in_LSL (added to Wiki 5/14 – today)

You may have noticed in there the mention of ARRAYS. That is a big thing. I’m not sure it is going to give us arrays as we have with other languages. But, it looks to be closer than the strided lists we use.

Provided this Release Candidate makes it past testing this week another set of JSON features will roll into the RC channels next week. No, no word on what those will be.

Kelly Linden is leading the JSON project. Questions on its implementation can be brought to him at the Tuesday Server & Scripting meetings in Denby.

Kelly says we are seeing JSON added to improve the ability to interface LSL with the larger web. The previous maintenance version expanded the content-type support of http-in and http-out which ties in with this JSON addition.

Second Life Collada Import Problem

by

I came across a tidbit of news this morning. If you are setting your SL Viewer to any language other than English, the Collada import for mesh may not work.

You’ll see the problem in the import preview window. You’ll see polygons with normals reversed and vertices here and there out of place. If you try more than one import, you’ll see the reversed normal polygons and the out of place vertices change and which are messed up are unpredictable.

Problem w/Mesh Import by Lemon AcidJuice @ Flickr
Problem w/Mesh Import by Lemon AcidJuice @ Flickr

For now the problem is corrected by switching the viewer to use English.

If you are seeing the problem and can reproduce it on demand file a JIRA bug report with all the steps.

The discussion of the problem is in the SL Forum: Unpredictable mesh import.

Restrained Life Viewer Update Released

by

I have not been a fan of RLV until recently, not the viewer the feature. A friend formerly from Land of Nor has been showing me how it could be used to improve roll play and combat games. I was impressed and have sense been spending more time paying with it.

Marine Kelley posted about the recent update to the RLV viewer: RestrainedLove Viewer 2.8.4.1. Marine explains some of the problems integrating the CHUI changes to RLV. It took a couple of months to find bugs and resolve them. The fixes are done and a new version is released.

Second Life Information

by

I see from Inara’s Living in a Modem World that Designing Worlds has a new show premiering today. This show it titled: Project Materials

You can see the showing at Designing World’s theater:  Designing Worlds Studio at 2 PM SLT (PDT) today Monday, May 13.

As always you can see it via web cast on Treat.TV (live) at the same time.

Usually a day or two after the premier you can find it in the library of shows.

Second Life Chrome Extensions

by

Daniel Voyager has an article up: Second Life Extensions on Google Chrome.Wow! How neat is that?

Check it out.

If you are wondering what a ‘browser extension’ is, it is a program that runs in your browser. It adds functionality to the Browser. For instance; to check on which of your friends are online you currently have visit the SL web pages, login, and look for friends. An extension does all the work for you. You see a friends list without all the hassle.

Daniel list 3 more extensions you can get.

There is a small downside to extensions. They burn up some CPU cycles and slow your browser down. They are more of a hit at start up when opening the browser then while it is running. When your browser is closed they don’t run. So, it is not a big deal.

If your browser is loaded with search tools bars like My Web Search and other annoying near malware, you need to learn about extensions and remove the annoying crap. Check these removal tutorials for help with; Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

 

ToS L$ Change Update #2

by

Maria Korolov over on Hypergrid Business is doing an excellent job of tracking events related to the changes in the Linden Dollar exchanges due to the Linden change in ToS. If you need the latest information, I suggest you follow her blog.

The point has come up that the Linden ToS provides for a 30 day window from the time of a change until the day it is enforced. The Lab is telling third party exchanges they must be shut down by Monday morning (5/13).  If they enforce the Monday Morning shut down, that would seem to leave the Lab liable to lawsuits for damages. So, this Monday morning’s shut downs may be a costly mistake.

However, the Lindens do have the capability to shut down non-compliant exchanges. On the Linden side it is just a matter of deciding to and doing it, some clicks on the Linden computer screens.

Read more