Tools and Technology

As mentioned in the forum, we have been working on improvements to the inventory service. Second Life's agent inventory service (AIS) handles all agent inventory operations that happen in Second Life. We uncovered some additional issues last week, fixed (and tested!) them, and will be deploying AIS this Wednesday, March 22nd. We expect downtime to be minimal.

Post deploy, if you notice any new issues with everyday operations that impact Second Life inventory - update/copy/modify items, change outfits, give an object to another Resident, etc. let us know and file a Jira issue!

See full 360 Image by Alexa Linden on Flickr

You can now take a 360-degree snapshot of a location in Second Life. Better than a simple panoramic image, the 360 snapshot covers 360 degrees in all three dimensions, allowing you to see everything both above and below your avatar as well, as though the image is projected on the inside of a sphere. Technically speaking, the snapshot is an equirectangular image projection. Better than a static image, the 360 snapshot can be clicked and dragged so you can move your ‘camera’ anywhere in the snapshot, at any angle, as if you are inside it. 

When opened, the tool quickly creates a low resolution preview taken from the location of your in-world camera. You can click and drag on the preview image in all directions to see if you like it. Re-frame your shot by moving your camera in-world and creating another snapshot. 
 

Speed and quality

Snapshot creation speed depends on your computer’s graphics capabilities. It’s not necessary to use preview quality while you are composing your snapshot, but if a higher quality level is slow on your computer, you can save it for the final snapshot. While a snapshot is being created, Second Life may appear to freeze. Just give it some more time to finish.

The quality of the snapshot is also affected by your graphics preferences (Me > Preferences > Graphics). You may have turned off features such as shadows and water reflections to make Second Life run faster, but for your 360 snapshot you may want to change some settings. The Hide Avatars checkbox is good for when you want to take a landscape shot but you don’t want to wait until no one is at that location.
 

How to use the saved snapshot

The snapshot will be saved in .jpeg format, which does not require a special viewer. All web browsers can display it, so you can add it to your social media feed or your favorite photo-sharing service. Check out these 360 snapshots from Alexa Linden -- and don’t forget to click and drag on them! 

We hope you enjoy the new 360 Snapshot feature and we can’t wait to see what you create with it!
 

Known Issues

We are aware of some issues in this first Project Viewer which we will address later:

• It is possible that some things in the world will be missing from the snapshot. Make sure everything in-world loads before you take the snapshot. Rotating your avatar will ensure everything around you loads.
• Snapshots may be corrupted on some systems with older or less powerful graphics cards, or if your graphics settings are turned down low. Try changing your graphics settings in Preferences.
• Higher quality snapshots may take a long time to create. We’ll continue to work on increasing the speed.

Download the Viewer here. UPDATE: The 360 Snapshot feature is now in the official Second Life viewer, download the latest version now!

For more technical input, please file a Jira. 
 

Photo by Alexa Linden

The idea

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could animate your avatar in real time?  What if you could wave your arm and your avatar could mimic your motions?  Or imagine if your avatar could reach out and touch something inworld or perform animations?  Linden Lab is exploring these possibilities with an experimental feature called “Puppetry.”

We have been working on this feature for some time and now we are ready to open it up to the Second Life community for further development and to find out what amazing things our creators will do with this new technology.

The codebase is alpha level and does contain its share of rough edges that need refinement, however the project is functionally complete and it is possible for the scriptors and creators of Second Life to start to try it out.

See the section below “How to participate” to learn how to use Puppetry yourself.

Take a Look

We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there's more to do before it's as animated as we want.

Puppetry Technology

Puppetry accepts target transforms for avatar skeleton bones and uses inverse kinematics (IK) to place the connecting bones in order for the specified bones to reach their targets.  For example the position and orientation “goal” of the hand could be specified and IK would be used to compute how the forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder should be positioned to achieve it. The IK calculation can be tricky to get right and is a work in progress. 

The target data is supplied by a plug-in that runs as a separate process and communicates with the viewer through the LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system.  This is a lesser known functionality of the Viewer which has been around for a while but has, until now, only been used for automated test and update purposes.

The Viewer transmits the Puppetry data to the region server, which broadcasts it to other Puppetry capable Viewers nearby.  The receiving Viewers use the same IK calculations to animate avatars in view.

For more details about the Puppetry technology, take a look at the Knowledge Base article Puppetry : How it Works

Uses and Possibilities

We are excited about Puppetry’s potential to change the way we interact inside Second Life.  For example, using a webcam to track your face and hands could allow your avatar to mimic your face animations and finger movement, or more natural positioning of the avatar’s hands and feet against in-world objects might also be possible.  Alternative hardware could be used to feed information into Second Life to animate your avatar - a game controller or mocap equipment.  There's a lot to explore and try, and we invite the Second Life community to be involved in exploring the direction of this feature.

How to participate

The Puppetry feature requires a project viewer and can only be used on supporting Regions.  Download the project Viewer at the Alternate Viewers page.  Regions with Puppetry support exist on the  Second Life Preview Grid and are named: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet.

When using the Puppetry Viewer in one of those regions, if someone there is sending Puppetry data you should see their avatar animated accordingly.  To control your own avatar with Puppetry it's a bit more work to set up the system.  You need: a working Python3 installation, a plug-in script to run, and any Python modules it requires.  If you are interested and adventurous: please give it a try.   More detailed instructions can be found on the Puppetry Development page.

What's next

We look forward to seeing what our creators do with the new Puppetry technology. Compared to other features we have introduced, it’s quite experimental and rough around the edges, so please be patient!  We will keep refining it, but before we go further we wanted to get our residents’ thoughts.

We will be hosting an open discussion inworld on Thursday, Sept 8 1:00PM SLT at the Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet regions on the Preview Grid.    We're also happy to talk about this at the upcoming Server User Group or Content Creator meetings.  Come by, let us know what you think, and hear about our future plans!

You may have noticed – or fallen victim to -- the unfortunate increase in server crashes last week. We apologize to everyone affected! 

Here’s what happened:

• On Thursday, June 30, just before the July 4 holiday weekend in the U.S, we released a change to my.secondlife.com.
• Early on the following Tuesday, we noticed and started investigating a significant increase in server crashes. We also started receiving Support reports about these.
• We determined that the web update in my.secondlife.com  included a library update which, unknown to us, dropped support for the texture format our servers expect.
• This led to Viewers being unable to deal with newly updated textures, and under some circumstances the Server would attempt to be more helpful in opening those, than it should have been - and crashing. This is why some residents saw problems with their profile photos. 

On Tuesday July 5, after we investigated and confirmed what was happening, the team quickly rolled back the web site change to prevent the creation of more broken textures. The web team identified these textures, then ran a script to convert them. This was completed by Thursday morning, July 7.

The server team fast-tracked a fix to prevent servers from crashing. We were able to QA and release the fix to RC channels on the afternoon of Thursday, July 7 and then to the main SLS + Events channels on Friday, July 8.

Lessons:

• Second Life is big and complicated and fails in unexpected ways (we knew that!)
• Library upgrades may need additional testing for dependencies we couldn’t imagine.
• We work really well together when Second Life fails in unexpected ways                                                    

Again, we apologize to everyone affected!

Today we are happy to announce a significant update for both the Second Life RC (release candidate) PBR Viewer and GLTF project server. For PBR materials to render correctly in Second Life, residents must use the latest versions listed below. 

• Second Life RC viewer version (7.0.0.581886) or newer.

And be on supporting GLTF server regions named "Rumpus Room 1-4" 

• Second Life server version (2023-09-28.6340659568) or newer.

GLTF PBR Materials efforts were slowed recently by a potentially costly issue. PBR Materials contain a great deal of new information which is stored in the objects that use these materials. When such objects are updated, and updates happen surprisingly often, the entire set of information about the object is transmitted.  The amount of data transmitted multiplied by the frequency of transmission adds up quickly. Reducing the amount of data transmitted required a change to the protocol used for sending this information.

Many thanks to one of our resident beta testers, animats (Joe Magarac), for spotting this issue and reporting it swiftly.

These changes will allow creators to make richer, more realistic objects in world, so we believe that the efforts involved will pay off, and that all residents will enjoy the results of these changes.

More GLTF PBR updates are on the way, please stay tuned!

We’re opening a small set of sandboxes for testing in preparation of introducing GLTF PBR content to the main grid. Please note, these regions are experimental – any content created or modified on these regions and then used in regions that are not materials enabled may exhibit undefined behavior and become permanently damaged. Such content should not be offered on Second Life's Marketplace until future notice. In order to view PBR materials you must use the GLTF Material Import Project Viewer.

As we roll out GLTF PBR materials in the coming weeks, expect a patchwork of support for material assets across the grid.  A quick way to tell if the region you’re on is materials enabled is to check if “Build->Upload->Material…” is enabled:

On materials enabled regions, this option will be available and allows for the import of PBR materials from GLTF assets. Only materials are imported at this time –you must still import meshes via COLLADA.  Future work will add support for GLTF scenes and models, but you can start building with GLTF PBR materials today.

Currently support is limited to a handful of regions that have been carefully selected. If you want to experiment with materials in a sandbox setting visit one of the following regions:

• Rumpus Room
• Rumpus Room 2
• Rumpus Room 3
• Rumpus Room 4
• Rumpus Room 5

Download the Viewer here
For more technical input, please file a Jira

- Second Life Viewer Team

📢 Important Announcement: End of Support for Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer and Updated Minimum System Requirements for MacOS to 10.13 🖥️🕒

Attention Second Life community members! We have some important news to share regarding software compatibility and system requirements. Please read this post carefully to ensure a smooth transition.

As of July 1st, 2023, we will be ending support for the Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer and updating the minimum system requirements for MacOS to 10.13. This decision is made to align with the evolving technology landscape and to ensure the best performance and security for our residents.

👉 Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer:

The 32-bit Windows version of the Second Life Viewer will no longer be supported. Moving forward, we will focus our efforts on the 64-bit version, which provides improved stability, enhanced performance, and better utilization of modern hardware. We encourage all residents to transition to the 64-bit version to continue enjoying the latest features and updates. After July 1st, we will continue to allow the last supported version of the Second Life 32-bit Windows viewer to log in indefinitely. 

👉 MacOS 10.13 Minimum Requirements:

Starting July 1st, MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) will be the minimum requirement for running Second Life. This decision is driven by the need to utilize the latest advancements in operating systems and maintain compatibility with the most up-to-date technologies. Users on MacOS older than 10.13 will need to upgrade their operating system to a newer version to access future Second Life viewer updates.

We understand that change can be challenging, but this step is necessary to provide the best and most secure experience for our residents. We highly recommend keeping your software and hardware up to date to benefit from enhanced performance, security patches, and new features.

If you are currently using the 32-bit Windows Viewer or running MacOS older than 10.13, please take the following actions:

1️⃣ Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer Users:

If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows, you will first need to update to a 64-bit version of Windows before attempting to update Second Life.

• Ensure your computer meets the system requirements for the 64-bit Viewer.
• Back up your preferences and settings before making the transition.
• Download and install the 64-bit version of the Second Life Viewer.

2️⃣ MacOS Users Older than 10.13:

• Check the Apple support website for information on upgrading your operating system.
• Upgrade to a supported version of MacOS that meets Second Life's minimum requirements.
• Before upgrading, backup your important files and make sure your system is compatible with the newer version of MacOS.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to our support team, who will be happy to help you.

Thank you for being a part of our Second Life community, and we look forward to continuing this virtual journey together!

We have some exciting news to share – Second Life is implementing support for WebRTC Voice!

What does this mean for you, our Residents?

• higher quality audio for voice
• improved security
• removes external dependency on third party provider for voice
• simple setup from behind firewalls, private networks
• enables greater control of Voice from Second Life
• WebRTC features, including: audio device selection, stereo audio, noise reduction, automatic gain control, echo cancellation and more!

We look forward to WebRTC Voice being available grid-wide and supported in our default Viewer, but only after feedback and hardening while deployed to the Beta Grid (Aditi).

Note, peer-to-peer voice calls, ad hoc voice calls, and group call behavior don’t rely on the Voice settings of the region. On the new viewer, incoming calls always work. Outgoing calls from the new viewer are WebRTC and won’t be received by the old viewer.

Interested in hearing these improvements for yourself? Download this early-in-development Viewer from here (scroll down to Roadmap) and go to these regions on Aditi WebRTC enabled regions on Aditi.

• webRTC1 - secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/webRTC1/128/128/23
• webRTC2 - secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/webRTC2/128/128/23

If you’re a developer and interested in integrating these changes into your project, go here https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/tree/webrtc-voice and see the documentation here.

Second Life's next Server regular maintenance release is scheduled to roll out to the full grid next week (2023/06/27.) This update contains quality of life improvements for builders and several bug fixes.

Building

Max linkset size now 64 meters

The maximum size for a linkset has been 54 meters since 2010. This has posed problems for builders as it is smaller than the maximum object size of 64m. In order to allow creators to do things like create a house out of a single large mesh object and link furniture on either sides of it we have bumped the max linkset size to match max object size.

Old (54m) and new (64m) max linkset sizes.

Scripting

HTTP PATCH and HEAD support

Scripters who interact with external web services and APIs can now use HTTP PATCH and HEAD methods with llHTTPRequest.

Ability to detect bot status

You can now detect if an agent is an identified scripted agent ("bot") using llGetAgentInfo.

llCreateLink sleep time reduced

Scripts can now create links 10x faster: llCreateLink sleep time has been reduced from 1s to 100ms!

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where groups could be accidentally disbanded when removing a single agent
• Fixed an issue where group owners could not leave a group
• Fixed an issue that would prevent objects with LinksetData containing certain keys could not be rezzed or attached

For a complete list of features and bug fixes see the release notes: 2023-06-09.580543

We will be performing an update to the Second Life Login service on Monday, April 11th beginning at approximately 9:00 AM PDT and expected to complete before 10:00 AM PDT. Viewer logins will be unavailable for a portion of this maintenance period.

This update includes a fix to new device email notifications for newly created accounts, performance improvements for the viewer login handshake, and improvements to metrics and diagnostics for our internal tools. Most of these changes are behind the scenes and should not change the login experience for Residents once the maintenance is completed.

If you experience viewer login issues during the deployment window, please wait and try again later. Keep an eye on the Second Life Status Blog for updates. Thank you for your patience!

UPDATE: The maintenance is now completed.

We’re happy to unveil our experiments with using the Lua scripting language as part of our content and customization tool box. Possible areas of application include test automation, mods/plugins, and new options for content visible to the user, like HUDs, local content etc . Many other sandbox worlds use Lua and we are excited to see how this approach to content creation can enrich Second Life as well. 

For now, you can follow our development in github and we will let everyone know when a project viewer is ready for testing on the beta grid. 

To all Third Party Viewer developers, please let us know what you think about Lua in the viewer! 

Hello Residents!

The Second Life viewer and servers have added a feature for group chat, providing recent message history. 

Have you ever logged into Second Life and your group chat opens with the punchline of a joke? Now you’ll be able to read back and see what it was. The chat servers save messages from the last hour, so you won’t miss what’s happening.

A viewer update is required to use this new feature, and will be part of a future release (headed to Maintenance-R soon - watch release notes here). 

The viewer code is available now in our public repo - explore here: https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/tree/DRTVWR-573-maint-R 

We look forward to your feedback or any issues with this new feature.

Hi Residents!

I’ve come to ask for a favor.

We’re in a really exciting time in the history of Second Life. We’re in the home stretch on moving the grid to the cloud. We hit a fun milestone a few days ago, and now there’s over 1,000 regions running in the cloud!

Everyone in the Lab is working hard on this project, and we’re moving very quickly. I just got out of a leadership meeting where we went over what’s currently in flight, and there’s so many things moving that I lost track of them all. It’s amazing!

The favor I’ve come to ask you for is your patience.

We’re doing our very best to fix things that come up as we go. This means that we might need to restart regions more often than you’re used to, and things may break just a little more often than we’ve all been accustomed to.

In order to get this project done as fast as possible and minimize the time (and resulting bugs) we have to spend with one foot in our datacenter and the other in the cloud, we don’t want to limit ourselves to restarting regions just once a week. We’re ready to get this project done! We’ve seen how much better Second Life runs in the cloud, and we’re ready to have everyone on the grid experience it.

I’m sorry that things might be a little rough over the next few weeks. It’s our goal to finish the cloud migration by the holidays, so that everyone, Resident and Linden alike, can have a nice quiet holiday with our friends and families.

We can’t promise we’ll make it by then, but we’re sure giving it all we’ve got. The mood around the Lab is really positive right now, and we’re all working hard together to make it happen. I’m really proud to be a part of the team that’s transforming Second Life as we know it.

Thanks so much for hanging in there with us. We know it’s frustrating at times, but it won’t last for too long, and there’s a better future on the other side of this. We truly appreciate your understanding and patience as we finish up this project.

Thanks everyone. 💜

April Linden,
Second Life Operations Manager