#SL News Week 22

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We have a bit more news on this week’s roll outs to the Release Channels. Actually some BIG news.

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More information below the fold.

Blue Steel

This channel will be updated Thursday instead of Wednesday. The package will contain an avatar render change. The avatars in the Library will now have pre-baked textures.

You probably know that the viewer downloads all the textures worn by an avatar and bakes them intop a composite texture. So, skin, tattoos, alpha layers, undershirt, and shirt layers are baked into a composite. That is uploaded to SL and is the image others download. Even you download a copy, which is why you see your avatar start blurry then render crisp, which is the end of the bake, then go blurry and then hopefully crisp again.

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The Reason Why

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How many times have you heard people say something like: I don’t know why people… add in your verbs of choice here.

Using the Global warming debate, Yale did a study to find out why people remain so divided. Is it because they don’t understand the science? Can’t do the math?

The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change asks the question: If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match scientific consensus? The study suggests the answer is: no. 

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#SL Server News Week 21

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I’m a bit behind on general news.

Servers

Andrew Linden has been gone on vacation this week. Simon Linden facilitated the User Group. He says they are expecting to roll the Threaded Region Crossing code to the main grid this coming Tuesday. This is code they have been bouncing in and out of the Release Channels (RC) since February. Getting it to the main grid is a significant step.

Once Threaded Region Crossing code is in place effort can concentrate on Phase II of Region Crossing. It is only in Phase II that users will start to see changes in crossing performance. You may not know that significant region lag is caused by avatars exiting regions. The rumor is most of that lag has been eliminated in Phase II code. That should make a significant difference in region performance for events and other crowded regions.

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Blender 2.63 Import Problem

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Drongle McMahon has been posting this information around. Seems there is a problem when importing mesh into Second Life.

In case anyone else gtets into a mess with this …

Th name of an imported mesh in SL is taken from the “name” attribute of the <geometry> tag defining the mesh. Im Blender 2.49b, the exporter took this attribute from the Blender object name. Unfortunately, in Blender 2.63 it is taken instead from the data block. This means that renaming your objects so that they have reasonable names sfter import is no longer effective. Instead you have to rename the data blocks. You can do that in Outline view or in the property editor for object data (the inverted triangle of vertices).

If you use the same datablock for multiple objects, the exporter uses instancing, with the geometry appearing only once in the collada file, referenced in multiple nodes of the scene, each with their own transformations. Unfortunately, the uploader does not use instancing (although it does reads it properly from the collada). Instead, it ulpoads separate meshes. Since only one of these can use the dtablock name, the others appear to be renamed to “Object”.

Gaia Clary points out in a follow up post that the problem is being fixed in Blender 2.64. See her post.

This issue has been “fixed” by adding a new select option.In fact i believe that the SL Importer takes the Object name from the wrong place. It should use the information provided in the visual scene description. But well…

The new option will be available in Blender 2.64.

The Great #SL Deformer Debate

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For the last few days a debate has rolled along between the Sizers and the Deformers. It has carried on in the JIRA. So, it is essentially invisible except to those following it. I’ve been reading the arguments to see what people think and from those that don’t react but actually think: why.

Another gotcha at the max breast size setting

Single Base Deformer Side

Max Graf probably represents the Deformers best and does it rationally. You may remember he was instrumental in creating funding for the Deformer project. His vision for the Deformer was for it to allow designers to make one size of mesh clothes and have that size fit all sizes and shapes of avatar. While he understands there will be stretching, he believes it will be at an acceptable level. The effort to deal with numerous sizes for such a small benefit in texture quality seems disproportionate in Max’s thinking.

Max considers the standard sizing a promotional effort to sell mesh clothes that don’t fit. I suspect most of us know getting mesh clothes that fit right now is a PITA. Max’s belief is standard sizing should go away and the Deformer will make a one size fit all world, which would be ideal. He believes his experience shows the deformer works perfectly using the Default Shape base size.

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Mesh Deformer Update from MetaReality

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Gianna Borgnine’s Metareality Podcast covers information on the Mesh Deformer. Since Karl Stiefvater (RL) or Qarl Fizz (SL) and formerly Qarl Linden is the maker of the Mesh Defomer, this is some of the best information we are going to get. The discussion on the Deformer is the  first thing up.

As always I am paraphrasing my take on what was said. I try to get it right. But, listen if you are into the nuances.  See… er… hear: Alternate Bases.

Metareality Podcasts

01:30 Mesh Deformer Discussion starts.

Basic discussion and thinking in the community is that mesh clothes will have to be built to the Default Avatar. Some people consider that the Ruth/Roth avatar. But, there are a number of shapes that people consider the Ruth/Roth shape. It gets confusing. See Deconfusing to sort it out.

02:48 Karl explains that the best shape is the Default Shape. The default shape is what one gets when they create a new shape in the Appearance Editor. Creating a new shape makes a shape that is the Default Shape. Provided you make no changes to any of the sliders, this is the shape the Deformer bases its calculations on.

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