Second Life: New Things

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I missed the Content Creators UG meeting this week, lunch and drinks with friends. So, of course this is the week we got word from the Lindens that we are getting new shiny stuff, a new project: Animation Extensions.

Zizi
Zizi

The new extensions will extend how and what we can animate in s couple directions. First is what is being called Supplementary Animations. These are for the new Bento skeleton.

If you don’t animate in SL or haven’t been around forever, you probably don’t know there used to be just the avatar default animations (think duck walk) and the animations we played via script. Our Animation Overriders (AO’s) worked by the viewer continuously asking the server what out avatar was doing (walking, sitting, flying, etc.) and then telling the server which animation to play. 

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VR: Minimal Latency

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You probably know a serious problem with VR is latency, the delay between moving your head and your eyes seeing the visual response. It is considered the primary cause of Simulator Sickness, aka motion sickness, AKA sea sickness, etc. A part of that delay comes from how long it takes the display screen to refresh the image it displays.

I suspect many of us haven’t realized that for Augmented Reality the problem is even worse. In AR we are seeing the world in real time with perfect sight and head movement synchronization and  an lagging AR image super imposed. While there is less chance of simulator/motion sickness the lag is visually obvious and annoying. See the video.

NVIDIA is experimenting with 16,000Hz (16KHz) screens. My Samsung screen provides a 120Hz refresh rate, more than 1,000 times slower.

See: NVIDIA Demonstrates Experimental 16,000Hz AR Display

We can get acceptable AR for most uses with way lower refresh rates. However, NVIDEA’s tech will provide crisp images even in combat games and athletic efforts where head motion is extreme.

AvaStar Videos 2017 w19

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We are still on version avastar-2RC7_blender-2-77.

There is a new video out (5/8) showing how to handle Bind Poses wjen working with the Classic avatar and Fitted Mesh clothes.

There is a slightly older video showing how to use the new Bento capable AvaStar to create Tinys and Giants.

Second Life News 2017 w19

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Servers

The Deploys information placed in the forum is less and less. As of now they are simply a link to the release notes.

The main channel did get a roll out this morning. Package: #17.04.26.325840 – This package changes server logging.

SpringContest~MoustiqueHeartsdale~Persephone
SpringContest~MoustiqueHeartsdale~Persephone

Blue Steel and Magnum get the new package: #17.05.05.326151 – The package consists of “internal” changes… probably meaning bugs that only affect backend operation, nothing we would notice.

Le Tigre gets the package: #17.05.05.326155 – This isn’t a simulator software change. The servers running this channel are being upgraded to a new Operating System version. Sort like you updating Windows and not your viewer. We aren’t likely to see any noticeable changes, provided all goes well.

The OS upgrade will spread through the entire set of simulators. 

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Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Ouch!

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If you use Chrome you may be running into a new problem: Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Relaunching does not resolve the problem.

Chrome
Chrome

The problem popped up in 2015 and seems to be back. It bit me after the latest Win 10 upgrade(?). But, the fix in 2017 is different than in 2015.

Clicking a URL link in another app should open Chrome and subsequently the target web page. Instead you get the ‘unresponsive’ error message. There was a popular 2015 work-around for those using Outlook or Thunderbird:

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