Second Life Materials Scripting 2014-21

What we can do to automate materials is limited by the lack of script functions to change materials. The legacy materials have scripting functions. Those however only change the older material properties. There is no script control for normal and specular maps.

Simon Linden is working on LSL functions for materials normal and specular maps. Maestro Linden has been testing them. This week (21) Simon did not see them ready for any testing in ADITI. But, that they have been working on them and playing with them is great news.  Continue reading

Second Life News 2014-15 #2

Group Ban – Baker Linden is working toward getting Group Ban running grid wide in ADITI (preview/beta grid). He has a handful of small bugs to get fixed. Then he’ll figure out if he is going to be able to go to and RC Viewer or Project Viewer.

If all goes well in ADITI it will soon roll out to AGNI, the main grid, as an RC Server package. At that point people with large groups will be thrilled to get the feature.

Whirly & Jenna @ Server-Scripting UG 2014-15

Whirly & Jenna @ Server-Scripting UG 2014-15

Materials Functions for LSL – We currently cannot script material changes. People have been asking for Linden Scripting Language (LSL) functions to work with materials since before materials were released.

Today in the Server Scripting User Group Simon Linden said getting those functions implemented was pretty high on their to-do list. That still gives us no idea when we might see them, but it does give us hope that it’s going to get done. Continue reading

Second Life LSL Changes

The Linden Scripting Language has gotten some new functions:

These are the last features Andrew Linden added before leaving. The features are active in all three RC channels now.

The point of these functions is the allow the uniform scaling of link sets. You can scale every item in a link set with one command. I imagine this will reduce the script complexity for a number of things in SL.  Continue reading

Second Life News 2014-2

Recently we have seen a number of people complaining about getting disconnected, repeatedly. No one has determined if it is an SL problem or just problems local to the users being disconnected.

Viewers

The main release SL Viewer today is: 3.6.12-284506. I expect that to change this week.

The RC viewers are now:

We have more project viewers this week: Continue reading

Second Life News 2013-51 #2

Scripting

We have a new Linden Scripting Language (LSL) function coming: llScaleByFactor(). It allows for uniform scaling of an entire linked set with one LSL call. If you size hair or shoes, you may notice the ripple of size changes as the item is scaled prim by prim. This function will provide a faster and more efficient way to accomplish the same thing.

This change will go into an RC release that is planned for January.

Server-Scripting Meeting 2013-51 - Andrew's last meeting.

Server-Scripting Meeting 2013-51 – Andrew’s last meeting.

Andrew says this feature is already running in ADITI on there regions: Boardman, Borrowdale, Balance, Mayfair and Hawkshead. So, you should be able to test the function there, now. Continue reading

Second Life Particle Test Object

For a time I had the Linden particle test object sitting on my porch at my Second Life™ home. It is a nine prim object. So, once I got tired of it I took it down. But, you can still get a copy of it. The Old London Docks blog (written in German) has a link to a copy of the test object.

This is the object that lets you see the different blending modes for particles. You need to be using the SL Viewer 3.6.7 to see the new particle effects. AFAIK, none of the third-party viewers can display the new particle effects. Expect to see that in the next releases.

I’m not that creative with particles, but I expect to see some really amazing effects from people that are. It should be fun.

Second Life News 2013-39

This week the package that ran on Magnum last week is moving to the main channel. The Magnum package is a composite of new stuff and the stuff running on Blue Steel and Le Tigre.

This package has the fixes for; llXorBase64(),llReturnObjectsByID(),llJsonSetValue(), and parcel access. A new feature is a change so that some parcel rezzers will be caught by parcel return. The last one is a shot at griefers.

RC Channels

All the RC channels will be running the same package that is running on the main channel. This usually happens when server packages have not successfully made it through the Lab’s QA process.

I am guessing that Wednesday’s restarts of the RC channel regions will happen today. But, may be not.

 

Second Life News 2013-38

The information on server updates is out. The main channel will be getting an update. The package from the Magnum RC channel is being promoted. This is the package that has improved asset fetching and preparatory work for future improvements. You can read the release notes here: Second Life Server 13.09.05.280647.

I doubt we will see much improvement in asset fetching performance. It may look like it, but what we will be seeing is more an improvement from increased reliability and less wasted server effort. It is sort like the speed limit on the highway hasn’t increased, but there are fewer wrecks. So, things get there sooner.

This package also has the ‘GetMesh2’ api/function. You may remember reading that users were setting their viewers to use ridiculously high values for MeshMaxConcurrentRequests. This is a step in changing how the system handles Mesh Downloading.  Continue reading