Austin Tate's Blog

Hi, I’m Krillie. I was born in space on an Earth orbiting space station called “Satellite Belt K”. I write a diary under the moniker “Space Girl” for those interested in what is happening in space and describing life as a Space Girl which I hope are of interest to children on Earth and in the Satellite Belts and beyond.

Satellite Belt K is an Earth orbit space habit spread over 20km including habitation, living spaces, educational areas, recreation, physical conditioning areas, manufacturing, solar power generation and storage, space agriculture and hydroponics in large domes (automatically positioned to maximise crop growing quality and time). Robotics and droids are used throughout the Belt. Children born on Belt K are given names starting with “K”.

Krillie That’s me! I am 17 years old, born 11th November on Belt K, Sector A. Belt kinds start their education and training early. I have an Open World University (OWU) Degree in Space Construction Engineering and am currently studying for a Masters by e-Learning in AI and Robotics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. I have an interest in AI-enhanced fashion. On the belt’s we all have robotic assistants and mine is named “KaRA” and embedded my K-Pad.

More coming soon from entries in my Diary. Stay tuned!

Krillie’s Diary uses background created previously using AI tools based on the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/09/10/kemlo-and-krillie-briefing/

Google Gemini Storybooks lets you create a customized picture book, for either children or adults, given a topic, an optional target audience age, and an optional art style for the images.

There are a fw glitches that could not be resolved by repeated edting requests… On page 6 an extra Krillie is shown in the Space Runabout cockpit. And, although Kemlo and Krillie are international Satellite Belt citizens, lets assume that they added US insignia on their spacesuits to acknowledge their Moon specific mission in honour of the nation which launched Apollo 11 and made the first manned lunar landing.

Prompt: ; Create a Storybook with title “Far from Tranquillity”. Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. Use the appearance of the two seater green Space Runabout.

Include a final image of Apollo 11 with the nearby lunar tourist group still in their brightly coloured spacesuits and helmets with a number of the children having fun by running at the almost invisible barrier and using it as a vertical trampoline to bounce them far back with the reduced lunar gravity. Kemlo and Krillie laugh as they see the new barrier is already leading to some new “Lunar Fun and Games”.

https://gemini.google.com/gem/storybook

The storybook uses background created previously using AI tools based on the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/09/10/kemlo-and-krillie-briefing/

There are a few glitches that could not be resolved by repeated edting requests… On page 6 an extra Krillie is shown in the Space Runabout cockpit. And, although Kemlo and Krillie are international Satellite Belt citizens, lets assume that they added US insignia on their spacesuits to acknowledge their Moon specific mission in honour of the nation which launched Apollo 11 and made the first manned lunar landing.

The Storybook produced is available at: https://g.co/gemini/share/9fcef6571d3c or PDF Format.

Further Resources: Kemlo & Krillie Resources

Note: version for editing (needs Ai Austin author login) is here (Development Notes).

title=”Kemlo and Krillie” alt=”Kemlo and Krillie” width=”640″ height=”479″

Situation – It is the month of May in a year in the future. Earth has an outer space presence in Earth Orbit, on the Moon and beyond. International United Nations entities are now preferred to nationalistic governments and other authorities. Education, cultural and Internet services are freely available everywhere funded by proportional contributions by all countries. Grants support the provision of equipment to access these resources where circumstances require it. The Internet is now a safe and welcoming place since the introduction of an international requirement for strong privacy protections and open source for any major platform. A Universal Basic Income is provided to everyone both on world and off world.

Belt K – An Earth orbit space habit spread over 20km including habitation, living spaces, educational areas, recreation, physical conditioning areas, manufacturing, solar power generation and storage, space agriculture and hydroponics in large domes (automatically positioned to maximise crop growing quality and time). Robotics and droids are used throughout the Belt. Children born on Belt K are given names starting with “K”.

Education – Space-born children begin their education and practice simulated space operations very early. Classrooms and experience areas allow for e-Learning (enhanced learning), VR immersion and simulated field trips including holographic spaces and linked teleoperations of devices in many locations. Kids in the Belt call the facilities “sKool”. Belt residents engage in lifelong learning and training opportunities.

Space Operations Training – By the age of 11 many children have usually become familiar with space vehicle operations through simulation and play and can already use autonomous space scooters with confidence. At 13 children can take a basic flight operations test so that they can use the unsupervised mode on space scooters with appropriate oversight by the Belt K Operations Authority. At 15 they are allowed to use space scooters with limited unsupervised operations. At 18 with a pilot’s license they can use space runabouts. Belt children usually achieve their spacecraft qualifications very soon after their relevant birthdays as they make use of e-Learning, simulators and VR ahead of time. At age 20, for those wanting to use space transports professionally, they can obtain a Space Operations License (SOL) from the Space Transport Authority (STA) via exams and after logging flight experience. The SOL is renewable annually.

Spacecraft – Space Scooters (SS) for intra-habitat local transport and exploration, Space Runabouts (SR) for in orbit travel, Space Transports (ST) managed by the Space Transport Authority (STA) are the workhorses for orbital and Earth-Orbit operations for cargo and passengers, and Experimental Spacecraft (SX).

Space Scooters (SS) – small two to four seat personal spacecraft for travel within a Belt. Highly automated with remote supervisory capability for younger travellers.

Space Runabouts (SR) – two seat or larger spacecraft for travel around and between the Satellite Belts. Automation is used for safety. Fully autonomous versions provide a taxi service.

Robotic Assistants (RA) – a range of intelligent agents which are implemented in a distributed fashion. They can be personalised and embedded in a range of physical forms such as a wrist device or a robot. By tradition such robots are given names starting with the initial of the belt they are deployed on (e.g. “KaRA”)

K-Pad – a device with screen for communications, information, augmented reality for technical operations, education, etc. Age appropriate facilities are on the device. Updates ensure the device stays appropriate to its user for life. Strong privacy protection is enforced with locally stored data entirely private to the user and not shared off device.

Kemlo – Male, 18 years old, born 3rd March on Belt K, Sector A. Kemlo has has an Open World University (OWU) Degree in Planetary Geosciences. Skilled pilot. Captain of the Space Scouts. Helps train younger children to fly and maintain space scooters. Kemlo is involved in the test programme for an experimental modular space runabout (SX-MR2). Kemlo’s robotic assistant which he calls “Komputer” is embedded in his Omega wrist band (a gift for his 18th birthday) which he wears with the screen under his left wrist in “driver-style”.

Krillie – Female**, 17 years old, born 11th November on Belt K, Sector A. Krillie has an Open World University (OWU) Degree in Space Construction Engineering and is currently studying for a Masters by e-Learning in AI and Robotics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Krillie is the author of a diary and series of books describing life as a Space Girl which are popular with children on Earth and in the Belts and beyond. Krillie has an interest in AI-enhanced fashion. Krillie’s robotic assistant “KaRA” is embedded in her K-Pad. [** Gender change from the Kemlo books.]

Open World University (OWU) – the main provider of educational opportunities and experiences to on-world and off-world learners of all ages. OWU physical bases and computing centres are on and under sea islands named Atlantica Sea City and Pacifica Sea City run by the international United Nations (UN) Organization. OWU programmes are run for all ages and support lifelong learning. e-Learning (enhanced learning) using distance education is employed with group and social functions, VR simulated field trips and experimental labs. Advanced courses including Masters degrees are provided through OWU by specialised Educational Institutions across the world and beyond.

Offworld Heritage Sites and International Monuments

Some early space age activities on the Moon and in Earth Orbit have been kept intact and preserved for future generations. The International Space Station (ISS) constructed in the late 1990s, and the first wheel shaped rotating space station (often referred to as the 2001 Space Station as a nod to the film 2001 that depicted such a station) are in orbit and can be visited externally or in detail via remote VR operated telerobotics.

The Kemlo & Krillie fashion uses background created previously using AI tools based on the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/

Google Gemini Storybooks lets you create a customized picture book, for either children or adults, given a topic, an optional target audience age, and an optional art style for the images.

Prompt: Create a Storybook with title “2001: A Birthday Odyssey”. Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. No national flags to be visible and no national or recognizable corporate insignia on clothing or spacesuits. Make sure to use design of the green “Space Runabout” spaceship as in the attached images. The occupants always face te nose when seated inside the craft which has a fully enclosed cockpit cover.

Include a final image of Kemlo and Krillie in the observation level of satellite Kelt K along with a group of male and female teenage Space Scouts and some smaller children cheering and waving as they look out at a colorful drone show spelling out the words “Happy Birthday Kemlo!”

https://gemini.google.com/gem/storybook

The storybook uses background created previously using AI tools based in the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/

The Storybook produced is available at: https://gemini.google.com/share/51c819c809ff or PDF Format.

COVER
GALLERY
END IMAGE

Further Resources: Kemlo & Krillie Resources

Note: version for editing (needs Ai Austin author login) is here (Development Notes).

TBA

Prompt: Create a Storybook with title “Kemlo and the Gravity Ray Gun”. Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie, teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. Kemlo has been given the mission to thoroughly test out a new device. This is a Ray Gun which can project “Gravity Rays”.

Include a final image of the the children alongside Kemlo and Krillie cheering and waving through the dome at the engineering team as they complete repairs.

Click on the book cover to open the Google Gemini Storybook.

More Detail, Alternative Formats and Background

• The Belt K AdventureStorybook 1: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/09/05/google-gemini-storybook-kemlo-and-krillie/

  https://g.co/gemini/share/d0a85734e6b8 | PDF Format | Storybook 1 Images

• Storybook 2: Krillie’s Grand Graduation AdventureStorybook 2: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/09/05/google-gemini-storybook-kemlo-and-krillie/

  https://g.co/gemini/share/5ceb6ce5de10 | PDF Format | Storybook 2 Images

• Storybook 3: The ISS EmergencyStorybook 3: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/09/07/google-gemini-storybook-the-iss-emergency/

  https://g.co/gemini/share/dfc5a957adb8 | PDF Format | Storybook 3 Images

Background from https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/ [PDF Format]. Character details, spacecraft, spacestation, Kemlo Font and other information at https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/resources/Kemlo-and-Krillie/

Create a customized picture book, for either children or adults, given a topic, an optional target audience age, and an optional art style for the images.

Prompt: Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. Kemlo and Krillie head out from Satellite Belt K on a mission to check on the condition and status of the International Space Station which is still in Earth orbit and which has been designated as an “Offworld Heritage Site”. The site has become a popular anchor location for nearby orbital vacation homes. As they approach the ISS, it is clear that something is terribly wrong. A large section of one of the solar panels has become almost entirely detached and is hanging by loose cables. This will pose a very serious risk to the surrounding space vacation homes as well as risking much higher levels of damage to the ISS itself. Time is short and Kemlo and Krillie call upon the other Space Scouts on Belt K to come and assist using the “Gravity Rays” on their small spaceships to help repair the ISS temporarily until engineers can be sent to effect a full repair. Include some images of the ISS and the spacecraft in its vicinity during the initial inspection and in the work by the Space Scouts to effect the temporary repair. Include a final image of the the engineering team’s larger repaor spacecraft approaching the ISS.

https://gemini.google.com/gem/storybook

The storybook uses background created previously using AI tools based in the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/

The Storybook produced is available at: https://g.co/gemini/share/dfc5a957adb8 or PDF Format

Note: version for editing (needs Ai Austin author login) is here (Development Notes).

Create a customized picture book, for either children or adults, given a topic, an optional target audience age, and an optional art style for the images.

Prompt: Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. Krillie has graduated with a Masters by e-Learning in AI and Robotics from the University of Edinburgh and has been invited to receive her degree certificate in a ceremony at the Open World University (OWU) situated on Atlantica Sea City. Kemlo is to transport her in an experimental spacecraft from the orbiting Satellite Belt K down to Atlantica Sea City. But something goes wrong and Kemlo and Krillie must use all their skills to correct the issue and still get to the ceremony in time for a happy ending.

https://gemini.google.com/gem/storybook

The storybook uses background created previously using AI tools based in the Kemlo Spaceworld series of books by E.C. Eliott published in 1954 to 1963. It uses images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/

The Storybook produced is available at: https://g.co/gemini/share/cdc610971da1 or https://g.co/gemini/share/df05dd50b44b

Version 2 with more emphasis on showing the spacecraft and the graduation ceremony.

Prompt: Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook for a teenager target audience about the Further Adventures of Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers who live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit. Keep the character appearance and name badge label and position on clothing consistent with the attached image. Krillie has graduated with a Masters by e-Learning in AI and Robotics from the University of Edinburgh and has been invited to receive her degree certificate in a ceremony at the Open World University (OWU) situated on Atlantica Sea City as shown in an attached image. Kemlo is to transport her in an experimental spacecraft from the orbiting Satellite Belt K down to Atlantica Sea City. But something goes wrong and Kemlo and Krillie must use all their skills to correct the issue and still get to the ceremony in time for a happy ending. Include some images of the spacecrat descending and approaching Atlantica Sea City. Include a final image of the graduation ceremony with Killie receiving her certificate.

The Storybook produced is available at: https://g.co/gemini/share/93daa9bab288

Textual Story Generation

Once upon a time, not so long from now, there was a place called

Belt K, a sprawling space habitat in orbit around Earth. It was home to many people, but none were as well known as the two space-born teenagers, Kemlo and Krillie. Kemlo, at eighteen, was an accomplished pilot and the captain of the Space Scouts. His best friend, Krillie, a year younger, was a brilliant Space Construction Engineer with a Masters in AI and Robotics from the University of Edinburgh.

It was a momentous day. Krillie was invited to receive her master’s degree in person at the

Open World University (OWU), located on the magnificent Atlantica Sea City on Earth. Kemlo, a skilled pilot, was tasked with getting her there in time for the ceremony in his experimental modular space runabout, the SX-MR2. They were both excited, dressed in their sleek blue and orange flight suits with the Kemlo and Krillie name tags in the correct position on the chest, a gift from the Belt K Operations Authority.

The journey began smoothly. Kemlo piloted the SX-MR2 away from Belt K and set a course for Earth. As they descended through the atmosphere, the view was breathtaking. The blue-green swirl of Earth’s oceans and continents grew larger and larger in the viewport, a stark contrast to the endless black of space they were so used to. They could see the vast expanse of the sea and the glittering city that was their destination.

Krillie’s heart swelled with a mix of excitement and anticipation. This was a day she had worked her whole life for. But just as they were nearing the coast, a warning light flashed on the control panel. A quick diagnostic showed a critical power drain from the main propulsion system.

“What is it, Kemlo?” Krillie asked, her voice tinged with concern.

“I’m not sure,” Kemlo replied, his brow furrowed in concentration as he ran checks. “It looks like the system is rerouting power to the wrong places. We’re losing our descent speed.”

They had to think fast. The SX-MR2 was designed for in-orbit travel, not for atmospheric descent, and a manual override was out of the question. Kemlo and Krillie knew this was the time to use their training and work as a team. Kemlo focused on maintaining a stable flight path and used their auxiliary thrusters to keep the vessel from spiraling out of control. Meanwhile, Krillie accessed the SX-MR2’s operating system with her K-Pad. Her knowledge of AI and robotics was crucial. She had to create a new program to override the faulty system and reroute power back to the main thrusters.

The seconds felt like hours. Kemlo was sweating, his knuckles white as he gripped the controls. Krillie’s fingers flew across her K-Pad, writing lines of code, her mind racing. “Almost there,” she muttered, “I’ve almost got it.”

Just as they were about to dip too low, the main engines roared to life, a triumphant sound that filled the cockpit. They were back on course. Kemlo expertly maneuvered the SX-MR2 towards the glittering metropolis of Atlantica Sea City. It was a close call, but they had made it.

They landed just in the nick of time. Kemlo and Krillie, now out of their spacesuits, made their way to the graduation hall. They were met with the cheers of the crowd and the beaming smiles of the faculty members. Krillie walked across the stage, her head held high, and received her diploma. It was a proud moment, made even more special by the adventure they had just overcome.

With her master’s degree in hand, Krillie was ready for her next adventure, and she knew she had a friend and pilot she could always count on to get her there.

Note: version for editing (needs Ai Austin author login) is here (Development Notes).

Create a customized picture book, for either children or adults, given a topic, an optional target audience age, and an optional art style for the images.

https://gemini.google.com/gem/storybook

Prompt: Use the background given in the attached document to write a storybook to introduce Kemlo and Krillie who are teenagers live on Satellite Belt K in Earth Orbit.

Using images and PDF of the contents of this blog post: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/02/19/kemlo-and-krillie/

The Storybook produced is available at: https://g.co/gemini/share/d0a85734e6b8 or https://g.co/gemini/share/9d4b5ae4aacb (Development Log)

Several refinments were done to the early draft to replace the name badges for Kemlo and Krillie and to try to use consistent labelling on the Training Scooters.

How to Create a Storybook with Gemini – Teacher’s Tech – 14-Aug-2025

Note: version for editing (needs Ai Austin author login) is here.

Google Gemini @GeminiApp 1-Sep-2025 – Nano Banana Model – https://gemini.google.com/
From photo to figurine style in just one prompt.

Prompt: Create a 1/7 scale commercialized figurine of the characters in the picture, in a realistic style, in a real environment. The figurine is placed on a computer desk. The figurine has a round transparent acrylic base, with no text on the base. The content on the computer screen is a 3D modeling process of this figurine. Next to the computer screen is a toy packaging box, designed in a style reminiscent of high-quality collectible figures, printed with original artwork. The packaging features two-dimensional flat illustrations.

Ai Austin Second Life Avatar as Strider with Orcrist Sword

Mike Mercury in Gerry Anderson’s Supercar

Patagonia Explorers

Cosmologist Fred Hoyle and screenwriter John Elliot created the story of a message received from outer space that led to the creation of Andromeda. It was broadcast as a BBC Television series in 1961 staring Julie Christie in her first role while still at Drama School. A second series entitled “The Andromeda Breakthrough” starred Susan Hampshire was broadcast on BBC Television in 1962.

See Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_for_Andromeda and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Breakthrough

Most of the original broadcast materials is lost except for the sixth episode entitled “The Face of the Tiger” and a number of film clips from episodes one, two, three, and seven. There is also an audio-only copy of episode seven, taken from an off-air recording. A complete set of off-air photographs, known as “Tele-snaps” were made by John Cura at the time of the original broadcasts for all seven episodes and were held in the collection of Michael Hayes, the producer. A DVD release used these tele-snaps interspersed with the video material inserted at the appropriate points where it exists.

Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkLkAG_R8oA

A description of John Cura’s tele-snaps work and approach is given in this blog post:

• From the Archive – April 12, 2012 – Yay for Andromeda! A Look at the 1961 BBC Masterpiece!
  http://www.from-the-archive.co.uk/2012/04/yay-for-andromeda-look-at-1961-bbc.html
  

glTF mesh upload capabilities have been added to the Second Life viewer and became available in the default viewer on 8th August 2025. Those capabilities are now merged into the development version of the Firestorm viewer from 10th August 2025 (Firestorm 7.2.0.78873) and hence make available glTF mesh upload capabilities for OpenSim as well as Second Life.

At present, internally the glTF mesh models are converted to a Linden Lab mesh format that is the same as used for Collada (.dae) uploads, hence no alteration is needed to OpenSim server code to have these facilities become operational. Note that future developments might add to the internal mesh format.

glTF mesh in OpenSim operates in the same way as in Second Life except for two things:

1. The maximum mesh extent in Second Life is 64m, whereas in OpenSim it is just under 256m.
2. There was an issue in OpenSim server code with the texturing of Collada (and hence also glTF) mesh uploads up to 30-Jun-2025. This was fixed in 0.9.2.1 Dev Master server code at that time. See http://opensimulator.org/mantis/view.php?id=9209

glTF Mesh Testing in Second Life

See this summary blog post for glTF mesh tests conducted over recent months in Second Life… https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/05/second-life-gltf-mesh-june-2025/

glTF Mesh Testing in OpenSim

Test meshes were as used in Second Life mentioned in the blog post above, and described again below. They are usually originated in a range of 3D creation tools such as Studio Max, Cinema4D, etc or downloaded from sites such as NASA mesh models, Sketchup 3D Warehouse, etc. and then converted to Blender. From Blender they are exported to glTF (.glb) and then cleaned up and number of mesh parts reduced to less than 256 parts so they import as one linked inventory object) using glTF transformation tools such as https://glb.babylonpress.org and https://gltf.report. See below for more information on the glTF mesh transformation tools.

glTF Rigged Mesh Avatar Testing in OpenSim

Rigged mesh avatars can also be uploaded in glTF format in the same way that Collada rigged mesh works. Ready Player Me avatars cannot be uploaded in their native .glb format since the skeleton/armature differs between that used by Ready Player Me and SecondLife/OpenSim. Conversion first is needed via a tool such as Onigiri (see this blog post).

glTF Test Meshes

NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

This is a small model prepared by NASA and released in Blender and .glb formats. A related NASA model of the Perseverance Rover provides an interesting test of models with a lot of materials (> 8) per part.
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/ingenuity_thumb

Gerry Anderson’s Supercar

Supercar vehicle, Mike Mercury figure and Black Rock Lab (BRL) Exterior and Interior glTF meshes exported from the Blender models are good tests of a range of complexity in the models. The Mike Mercury figure is made up of two 10K vertex meshes generated from 2D images by Meshy and subsequently significantly edited in Blender.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2023/11/02/supercar-updated-model/

Kässbohrer 300 Pisten Bully

Kässbohrer Pisten Bully Models imported via Unity3D and into a range of environments…
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2018/07/24/pisten-bully-3d-models/

Batmobile 1966

Blender import of Collada original model and textures, conversion to power of 2 textures, flipping many normals to regularise the appearance of the model and additions to more closely resemble the 1966 TV series Batmobile. glTF export for use in various platforms including Second Life.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/05/06/batmobile-3d-model/

Silent Running Drone #01 – Dewey

One of three service drones on the spaceship “Valley Forge” in the film Silent Running. Using a mesh originally from Sketchfab 3DWarehouse drone model by Martin T. and simplified by Fred Beckhusen.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2022/02/12/silent-running/

RGU Oil Rig

The RGU Oil Rig is a region scale build used in OpenSim for some years for training of offshore oil rig workers.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2019/08/15/oil-rig-training-experience-in-firestorm-vr/

glTF Mesh Data

NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

.glb File Size: 2.7MB
Meshes (Nodes): 11
Vertices: 8502
Triangles: 9124
Opaque Materials: 9
Transparent materials: 1

Supercar with Extended Wings

.glb File Size: 19.0MB
Meshes (Nodes): 1625
Vertices: 520541
Triangles: 271824
Opaque Materials: 36
Transparent materials: 4
Textures: 12

Supercar with Both Wings, All Accessories and Blast Wall

.glb File Size: 19.9MB
Meshes (Nodes): 1681
Vertices: 538729
Triangles: 292038
Opaque Materials: 44
Transparent materials: 4
Textures: 14

Mike Mercury Figure

.glb File Size: 7.9MB
Meshes (Nodes): 2
Vertices: 14124
Triangles: 18458
Opaque Materials: 2
Transparent materials: 0

Black Rock Lab Exterior

.glb File Size: 2.7MB
Meshes (Nodes): 891
Vertices: 68412
Triangles: 39037
Opaque Materials: 31
Transparent materials: 1

Black Rock Lab Interior

.glb File Size: 15.8MB
Meshes (Nodes): 1415
Vertices: 455142
Triangles: 181935
Opaque Materials: 88
Transparent materials: 0

Kässbohrer Pisten Bully

.glb File Size: 7.7MB
Meshes (Nodes): 1507
Vertices: 207979
Triangles: 175122
Opaque Materials: 29
Transparent materials: 4

Batmobile 1966

.glb File Size: 8.2MB
Meshes (Nodes): 289
Vertices: 309877
Triangles: 146094
Opaque Materials: 29
Transparent materials: 2

Silent Running Drone #01

.glb File Size: 1.0MB
Meshes (Nodes): 17
Vertices: 28075
Triangles: 27539
Opaque Materials: 13
Transparent materials: 0

RGU Oil Rig

.glb File Size: 56.0MB
Meshes (Nodes): 9342
Vertices: 1303822
Triangles: 955880
Opaque Materials: 4258
Transparent materials: 92

glTF Mesh Cleanup Tools

To be able to link all mesh parts of a model together as a single item in inventory (with a single cube icon), Second Life currently imposes a limit of 256 mesh parts in any upload. Beyond that the items will all be unlinked and added to inventory as a multi-part object (with a multi-cube icon). This will cause problems when rezzed and manipulated or even deleted as all the (perhaps tiny) parts will be difficult to select, edit or delete, and they cannot be linked in world as the limit there also is 256 items in a single link set. So mesh optimisation via a suitable tool needs to be used to reduce mesh component numbers, etc.

Labris offered some pointers to glTF cleanup tools, which can remove some simple glTF/glb export errors. Labris also created an online tool which may help to reduce and optimize GLB files – https://glb.babylonpress.org/. You may wish to change the texture format processing and the options it uses. I keep textures in their original form and deselect “flatten” and “join” in order to preserve the hierarchical structure and naming of model parts. Use “R” to rerun the tool on the current glTF model after making any changes to the settings.

The tool above is based on https://gltf-transform.donmccurdy.com/ which is able to check the input file and re-serialize the GLB from scratch, ensuring all headers, chunks, metadata, accessors, buffers etc adhere to the spec. This inherently fixes minor structural issues. Some of its functions are also available online here – https://gltf.report/. Load a glTF model and open the Script tab < >. You can edit the script prior to running it to change its behaviour (e.g. to comment out the flatten, join and textureCompress lines. textureCompress can resize all the textures to ≤1K and convert to WebP. While it may not remove all the warnings, it helps a lot with removing unneeded geometry and other stuff. Some of Sketchfab models can be reduced more than 10 times in size.

Labris also created an online tool which may help to reduce and optimize GLB files – https://glb.babylonpress.org/. You may wish to change the texture format to be used (e.g. to retain PNG rather than the default conversion to Webp).

Forbidden Planet is an early SciFi film produced in 1956 by MGM and stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen. It is set on the Planet Altair IV where scientist Dr. Edward Morbius and his daughter Altaira along with Robby the Robot live after arriving on an expedition 20 years earlier. The flying saucer shaped starship C-57D has been sent to discover what became of Morbius’s mission.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet [Poster Image]

Cinefantastique Magazine Volume 8 Number 2 & 3 1979 Forbidden Planet – Internet Archive incl. PDF

YouTube – “What Happened to FORBIDDEN PLANET?” (1-Jun-2024) by Dan Monroe

YouTube – “What Happened to ROBBY The ROBOT?” (19-Dec-2023) by Dan Monroe

Costume Design

Costumes were designed by Costume Design by Helen Rose and Walter Plunkett. See https://costumedesignarchive.blogspot.com/2022/02/forbidden-planet-1956.html

Stephen La Rivière (@la_riviere) and his team at Century 21 Films have been recovering footage on “lost” film canisters that have been restored on a “Go Fund Me” project which I have been very pleased to support:

Go Fund me – Rescuing the Past – A Supermarionation Preservation Project

One outcome has been the incorporation of some of the clips into a film:

Behind the Scenes of Supercar: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Remember (Making Of Documentary)

Back in 2004 Stephen also produced the “Full Boost Vertical – The Supercar Story” DVD. See this Review on tvcentury21.com.

As part of testing Second Life glTF Mesh capabilities in the Second Life Gltf Mesh Import viewer from Linden Lab – Second Life Project Gltf Mesh Import 7.1.14.15726311294

I uploaded a glTF export of the RGU Oil Rig model by Colin Hetherington. The meshes were imported to Blender and then exported to glTF. Then the meshes were transformed via https://glb.babylonpress.com (flatten, join, weld and simplify, leaving textures unchanged) to reduce the number of mesh parts to less than the 256 limit for the mesh uploader. With a little rotating script for the waves round the rig legs it works very well. For more details of the RGU Oil Rig model and its immersive training application see
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2017/06/07/virtual-oil-rig-enhancing-higher-education/.

I N   P R E P A R A T I O N

Firestorm VR Mod 7.1.13.78266 release has support for the WebRTC voice services which will be the default in future in Second Life. Vivox voice is still available on regions which use that (including in OpenSim).

Firestorm VR Mod is a version of the popular Firestorm Viewer for Second Life and OpenSimulator with modifications to provide VR capabilities for VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) via SteamVR. This is experimental. Firestorm VR Mod is now available from https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases

An alternative version of the VR Mod viewer is available thanks to @Sgeo which automatically calculates the VR HMD settings needed (normally done manually via F5) and may support more VR HMDs, such as Meta Quest 2 and 3. The Field of View (FOV) starts off zoomed in so you may find it useful to use the FOV change keys (ctrl+8) to zoom out a couple of times to approximate the FOV in the standard VR Mod version. Ctrl+0 zooms back in an ctrl+9 sets the default FOV.

The standard version of Firestorm VR Mod and the Sgeo version requires AVX2 instruction sets on Windows. “Legacy” versions of both are available for older CPU (usually pre-2014).

For Firestorm VR Mod community support use the Discord Discussion Channel:
P373R-WORKSHOP by p373r_kappler [Invite]

Firestorm + P373R VR Mod: This build includes P373R’s VR Mod 6.3.3 changes merged into the current release branch. The VR Mod approach takes a minimalistic approach to inserting VR capabilities into the viewer in order that the maintenance overhead is decreased and the potential longevity of the approach is increased. VR Controller support is not included.

The Firestorm VR Mod viewer (for Windows only) is available as an .exe “Setup” installer or as a .7z zipped file which can be unzipped to any directory and run from there without an install. If required, a free .7z unzip utility is available at https://www.7-zip.org/. Download the release for the latest version at https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases/

You need to install your usual VR Headset drivers and SteamVR. Firestorm VR Mod when run uses SteamVR which will launch any necessary VR headset specific underlying drivers.

Firestorm VR Mod is created using “GitHub Actions” (GHA) thanks to @humbletim and @thoys. Firestorm VR Mod version 7.* is still based on Peter Kappler’s VR Mod code changes (working since version 6.6.3 with only minor changes for the merge) but due to PBR changes, Linden Lab (and hence core Firestorm) reworked the render buffer structures which is one of the tight couplings into the core FS code base. The PBR viewer approach changed how the viewer finds the main screen information. The VR Mod initially relied on a direct path, but that path got moved after PBR. Where a developer would use “o.mScreen” before they would now use “o.mRT->screen”. The GitHub Actions have been changed to automatically map the original VR Mod code to new path, so the VR Mod code itself doesn’t need to be changed.

The build also uses the open source openal.dll audio library for sound and builds in the openvr_api.dll library for VR HMD connection.

Firestorm VR Mod has its own app and channel names “FirestormVR” and the install directory changed to “FirestormOS-VR-GHA” so the installation can exist side-by-side with stock Firestorm if desired. Settings and cache are shared with standard Firestorm. If you installed Firestorm VR Mod from an earlier version (up to 6.6.8) you can delete the now unused settings and cache directories: %APPDATA%\FirestormVR_x64 and %LOCALAPPDATA%\FirestormVROS_x64.

U S A G E

VR Mode instructions are available via prompts in the viewer or via information on https://gsgrid.de/firestorm-vr-mod/. In short…

• Press CTRL+TAB to load or unload the SteamVR driver. Do this each time you want to enter VR mode after starting up.
• Press TAB key to enable and disable VR mode.
• Press F5 to open the settings menu, you should see a text menu in the middle of the screen. The settings menu works only when VR mode is enabled.
• Press F6 to increase the selected value. Press F7 to decrease the selected value.
• Press F5 again to switch to the next menu entry.
• By pressing F5 on the last menu entry the menu will close and save the settings in the config file which is located in
  “C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm_x64\vrconfig.ini”
  and which can be edited directly. Pressing TAB for VR mode reloads the config file.
• Hold F3 to see some debug info (example here).
• Press F4 to disable and enable HMD’s direction changes. It may be better to disable the HMD’s direction interface when editing and flying with the camera. This may be subject to change in future versions.
• In the camera floater two buttons has been added to offset the HMD’s base rotation.
• Moving the mouse to the corners or the sides will shift the screen to this direction so menus can be accessed more easily.

For issues on some specific headsets you might wish to try the Firestorm VR Mod Discord Channel: P373R-WORKSHOP by p373r_kappler [Invite]. Peter Kappler also offers the following advice…

1. Firestorm VR Mod works best while sitting and using mouse and keyboard.
2. WindowsMixedReality users may need to press windows key + Y to unlock the mouse when the HMD is worn.
3. If your VR hardware cannot maintain constant 90 FPS you could try enabling motion reprojection in your HMD. In WindowsMixedReality it can be done by uncommenting “motionReprojectionMode” : “auto”, in the config file located at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings\default.vrsettings”. This will make the HMD interpolate between frames and create a smoother experience. Vive and Oculus should have similar functionalities which can be accessed from SteamVR settings. For Vive it is called Motion Smoothing.

S E T T I N G S

VR Mode Setup

As usual, Ctrl+TAB initially sets up SteamVR (and HMD support as needed), TAB is used to toggle VR mode on or off, F5 lets you select and step through the various VR HMD or user specific settings for IPD, texture shift to register the left and right eye images, and focal distance to change depth perception, etc. F6/F7 are used to increment and decrement each setting selection.

Peter Kappler suggested the following process to establish suitable settings for your HMD:

1. Set IPD to 0 (zero)
2. Then adjust Texture Shift until image is sharp and focused
3. Then adjust IPD which separates your cameras to left and right to get a good 3D effect

@Sgeo on Discord provided a tool to help in calculating the settings for Firestorm VR Mod.. at least to give you a starting position to adjust to your taste…

https://sgeo.github.io/firestorm-vr-calculator/

Source of the calculator is at https://github.com/Sgeo/firestorm-vr-calculator

Hovertips

If you see a lot of hover tips showing under the mouse it could be that the debug setting “ShowHoverTips” is set to TRUE (the default) which may show something constantly under the mouse even for inert unscripted objects. You can turn that off via Debug Settings or via Preferences > User Interface > 3D World > Show Hover Tips. Via that same preferences panel, you might alternatively prefer to lengthen the delay before hover tips are activated.

Chat Bubbles

In VR Mode it may be useful to show local nearby chat in “bubbles” over each avatar’s head. This can be done via Preferences > Chat.

T R O U B L E S H O O T I N G

Misaligned VR Cursor

Note from Gaffe on Discord: Firestorm VR Mod’s VR cursor will have a small-to-extreme offset on Windows in particular if you are using Windows UI Scaling with any settings OTHER than 100%. To fix the VR cursor offset, set the Windows UI Scaling for your primary display to 100%.

Missing Menus and Buttons in Centred VR View

If you notice that the top menu bar and bottom and side button areas do not show in your headset when you are in VR Mode and your view is centred (i.e. mouse is positioned centrally in the 2D view) it may be that the VR settings you chose for Texture Shift and Texture Zoom need to be adjusted, or set to zero.

All Black HMD Display or Black Edges or Strips in HMD Display

An all black display in the VR HMD was an issue in earlier versions and is mostly resolved now… but it can still occur with some headsets. In case you encounter issues with a black HMD display… Peter Kappler suggests the following:

• Create a program-specific profile for the viewer in your graphic card settings and enable FXAA.
• Second Life only supports FXAA. Other types of Anti-aliasing can be disabled.

Firestorm VR Mod shifts the display in VR mode to an edge if the mouse or pointer is placed towards an edge or corner of the viewer window. This is to allow easier access to menus, user interface buttons and HUDs. It can be confusing though if you enter VR mode and find that part of the view is black. It is usually because the mouse is placed towards a corner or edge. Just move the mouse back to the centre of the screen and the full VR view should appear.

SteamVR Reset/Quit Screen Shows in HMD

When you switch to VR mode (after activating VR with Ctrl+TAB and using TAB), you may see a “Next Up… Firestorm” message or a SteamVR popup screen to “Reset the View” and “Quit SteamVR”. This has been observed to occur on the first run of a newly installed viewer. It can usually be dismissed with your controller if that is active, but if not the screen may continue to show the popup in VR mode in the HMD. Try another round of ctrl+TAB and TAB or if that does not work try stopping and restarting the viewer to clear this. These glitches may be more to do with legacy OpenVR + the latest SteamVR updates rather than Firestorm or VR Mod code changes.

Function Keys and Gestures

If you have issues with some of the Function keys (F5 or other Firestorm VR Mod keys) not working… look to see if the F keys involved are mapped to active “Gestures”. You can find a list of the gestures you currently have active and the keys associated with them using the “Gestures” toolbar button… or the Comm -> Gestures menu item (Ctrl+G shortcut).

Adjust Over-the-Shoulder Camera View to Suit Yourself

Sometimes in VR mode the camera will be too high or far back from the avatar. If so, press Esc a couple of times, then Shift+Esc a couple of times, or Ctrl + 9 resets the camera to its default position. Shift + scroll mouse button moves camera up and down. You can also set specific Debug Settings (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S) for camera positions, e.g. “CameraOffsetRearView”. If that doesn’t help, see http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Camera_Control

A D V I C E    O N    F R A M E    R A T E

You do need to ensure you have a good frame rate to have a comfortable VR experience. The Firestorm VR Mod Viewer will not work well if the Second Life/OpenSim region you visit cannot normally be displayed in 2D with a decent frame rate. In VR mode you can assume you will get 50% or less of the frame rate that shows on the 2D normal screen. At low frame rates bad flickering or texture tearing will occur in VR mode. My suggestion is to look at the frame rate (in Firestorm it is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the viewer) and to adjust the graphics settings (especially draw distance, shadows and quality sliders) until you have around 100fps (and definitely more than 50fps) and then try VR.

You may need to disable “vsync” in Settings -> Graphics -> Hardware as if this is on (the default) the FPS is capped to the frame rate of your 2D monitor (often 60fps, meaning in VR you would get less than 30fps).

Firestorm includes an “Improve Graphics Speed” performance tool and facilities to autotune the FPS which may be helpful. See advice on FPS improvement and the new “Performance Floater” and “FPS Autotune” capabilities in Beq Janus’s Blog Post (21-Mar-2022).

To improve frame rate (FPS) you might opt to set shadows to “None”, Water reflections to “None: Opaque”, Mirrors “Off” and use a reasonably low draw distance appropriate to the scene. Also close viewer UI windows and tools and detach any HUDs you are not actively using. The rendering of Linden Water, the water surface and its effects, can significantly reduce frame rates. Setting water reflections to “None; opaque” which gives a big FPS boost whilst still leaving the water looking okay. In an extreme situation, and in an environment that makes sense such as a meeting room, disabling Linden Water entirely can boost frame rates. Do that via Advanced -> Rendering Types -> Water. If the Advanced menu is not shown use Settings -> Advanced -> Show Advanced Menu or World -> Show More -> Advanced menu.

Peter Kappler also suggests: Particles… a fireplace is going to eat 20 to 30 fps! So turn them off for VR.

Tips from David Rowe for using the CtrlAltStudio VR Viewer (which is no longer maintained) may also be relevant:

1. To improve your frame rate, reduce your draw distance and/or tweak other display settings such as advanced lighting model, shadows, FOV, pixel density, etc.
2. Make sure you don’t have Preferences > Graphics > Rendering > Limit Framerate enabled.
3. To display avatar chat above avatars use Preferences > Chat > Visuals > Show chat in bubbles above avatars.
4. With floating text you may want to adjust the distance the floating text fades at so that distant text is not so annoying in VR mode: Preferences > User Interface > 3D World > Floating text fade distance.

C O N T R O L L E R S

Currently, specialised VR Controllers are not supported, but a range of game controllers and 3D navigation devices do work where supported by the normal viewer code.

Xbox One Controller

Xbox One Controller
An Xbox One controller as used with the Oculus Rift (or an Xbox 360 controller) can be enabled, as usual, in Firestorm via Preferences -> Move & View -> Movement -> Joystick Configuration -> Enable Joystick.

You will probably find the controls are under or over sensitive, or some buttons and triggers don’t do what you expect. See this blog post and the image here (click for a larger version) for some suggestions as to how to amend the settings…
https://hugsalot.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/joystick-settings-for-firestorm-with-xbox-360-controller/

You might want to enter “-1” rather than axis “5” as an indication that axis is not mapped. With the setup suggested the “A” button toggles between the normal avatar view and “FlyCam” mode allowing you to move the camera separately to the avatar.

3D SpaceNavigator or SpaceMouse

As with all versions of Firestorm, the viewer supports other forms of “joystick”. One is the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator (aka SpaceMouse) which is a “3D mouse” supporting both avatar motion and by clicking the left hand button the separate “FlyCam” camera control.

My recommendation is to install the SpaceNavigator just by plugging it into Windows and receiving default Windows drivers for the device. I do not install any special SpaceNavigator drivers as suggested on the Second Life Wiki, some of which are incompatible with Second Life viewers.

S O U R C E

The GitHub Actions (GHA) source by @HumbleTim used to combine Firestorm source and Peter Kappler’s P373R VR Mod addons, make necessary adaptations and build it using Microsoft Visual Studio is available via https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha.

Firestorm source is available at https://github.com/FirestormViewer/phoenix-firestorm. Look under “Commits” and select the branch for the specific Firestorm version required.

With Firestorm VR Mod Peter Kappler uses a simple coding approach which injects VR capabilities into the Firestorm Viewer to make the mod easier to maintain in future and for others to repeat or adapt. The source is available from his web page at https://gsgrid.de/firestorm-vr-mod/ [Local Copy].

Impressively, the source is written in a way that it requires only some editing in the llviewerdisplay.cpp and adding 2 files to the project. All changes are marked with #####P373R##### comments. Peter also included the openvr header and lib files you will need in the rar. For information about the rest of the files you will need, read how to compile Firestorm at https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_compiling_firestorm.

Latest version of openvr_api.dll can be obtained (Win64 version for this test version) from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/tree/master/bin/.

V R L A N D – T E S T   A R E A

VRLand on OSGrid is a metrics area for performance testing and to establish virtual field of view in your VR headset.

More detail at: https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2016/07/20/vrland-a-community-and-test-region-for-virtual-reality-in-virtual-worlds/

You can also pick up a VR Headset attachment for your avatar in OpenSim on the OSGrid on both the RuthAndRoth and (if available) the VRLand regions. Or in Second Life pick up the VR HMD on the Second Life Marketplace. The 3D models of the Oculus Rift were provided for free use by William Burke (MannyLectro) and imported to OpenSim by Michael Cerquoni (Nebadon Izumi) and Second Life by Ai Austin.

F5 Settings for Specific VR HMDs

• Oculus Rift DK2
  • Meta Quest Link app version 74.0.0.675.347. SteamVR Version 2.8.8.
  • IPD = 65.0 (default)
  • Focus Distance = 10.0
  • Texture Shift = 0.0
  • Texture Zoom = 0.0
  • FOV = 100.0
• Oculus Rift CV1
  • Meta Quest Link app version 74.0.0.675.347. SteamVR Version 2.8.8
  • IPD = 65.0 (default)
  • Focus Distance = 10.0
  • Texture Shift = 50.00
  • Texture Zoom = 0.0 (others report 86-200 works)
  • FOV = 100.0
• Please provide other VR HMD settings

Missing .dll

If you see errors like “missing vcruntime.dll”, “missing msvcp.dll” or the application is not starting at all, then please download and install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio (link for 64-bit operating systems).

Firestorm VR Mod Development Versions

During development and prior to a release, test versions are occasionally available via the GitHub Actions (GHA) process.

https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/actions

Take a base runtime build which is complete except for the actual .exe executable viewer file. Then add in the specific executable of interest (P373R or Sgeo-minimal). Both can be placed in the runtime folder if you wish. Run the variant you wish.

This blog post describes a process to take Ready Player Me (https://readyplayer.me) avatars via Blender and the Onigiri add-on to use in Second Life via glTF import. Onigiri is a fork of the GPLv3 licenced Bento Buddy around version 3.0.5.0 (2-Feb-2022) with some assets replaced. Onigiri is a type of Japanese rice ball (see Wikipedia). glTF import of rigged avatar meshes is supported in Second Life via a project Viewer since 2-Jun-2025 and is under active development.

Prepare the Resources

1. Obtain and install Blender (https://blender.org).
2. Obtain Onigiri (https://github.com/nessaki/Onigiri). Only the Blender add-on install ZIP file is required, the rest is source code only used to build the add-on. Get it via https://github.com/nessaki/Onigiri/blob/main/Onigiri.zip. Install it as a Blender add-on via Edit -> Preferences -> Add-ons.
3. Ensure you have a Ready Player Me avatar to download via https://readyplayer.me).

Current Glitches (as at 13-Jun-2025 in Second Life Project Gltf Mesh Import 7.1.14.15611112801)

Hands of avatars appear to be wonky whether using default export for glTF (.glb) or Collada (.dae). Output of the same avatar using Onigiri’s “Export Mesh for SL/OpenSim” with Project Full Rig (and other three options) all ticked as usual does not show wonky hands.

A nice snow zone themed area in Second Life is in the Appalachia and Shasta regions…

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Appalachia/78/172/94

After many months of development and testing, Linden Lab released the first public facing “Project Viewer” to support glTF mesh upload to Second Life… Second Life Project glTF Mesh Import – 7.1.14.15361077240 (release notes).

I have been testing and providing issues and feedback for the last year. This blog posts summarises some of the testing, provides links to blog posts with more details, and gives an index into GitHub issues and other things.

Initially around May and June 2024, a mechanism was offered to locally load glTF meshes just in the user’s own viewer. This was later extended with a simple scheme to store the glTF mesh in a cloud server so it could be save and rezzed in world so other with a suitable development viewer could also see it. This mechanism was temporary and is no longer the mechanism to be used to use glTF mesh models. More information on this is in my blog post… https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2024/06/01/second-life-gltf-import-progress/

The new mechanism uses the current Collada mesh uploader extended to handle glTF models (rigged and unrigged). The models internally are stored in the same format as the Collada models for now, though extensions for glTF later are a possibility. This means that models uploaded share the same limitation as the internal Second Life Mesh Model already used for Collada. More information on this is in my blog post.. https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/04/21/second-life-gltf-mesh-uploader-tests/

glTF Model Testing as at June 2025

• 2001 Space Station and Orion Shuttle
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/05/31/second-life-gltf-2001/
• Kässbohrer Pisten Bully 300
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/01/second-life-gltf-pisten-bully-300/
• Silent Running Drones
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/01/second-life-gltf-silent-running-drones/
• 1966 Batmobile
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/02/second-life-gltf-batmobile/
• Supercar
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/04/second-life-gltf-supercar/
• Sintel Avatar
  https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2025/06/03/second-life-gltf-sintel-avatar/

Issues – Bugs

• GLTF Mesh Import: Invalid request bodyxxx – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4162
• GLB Mesh Import: Cube Models for Visible Mesh and Issue when used for Physics – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4157
• GLTF Mesh Import: Possible spurious or misleading MAV_BLOCK_MISSING and Internal Server Errors – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4136
• GLTF Mesh Import: Meshes Created by GLTF Transform tools do not show all parts – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4170

Reported by Others – with Input from Me

GLTF Mesh Import Error: Material of model is not a subset of reference model – AtlasLinden – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4105

Issues Suggestions

• glTF Mesh Import: Improve usefulness and correlation of information put in Mesh Uploader Log Tab and SecondLife.log – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4114
• GLTF Mesh Import: Model Parts Wrongly Positioned, Scaled and Rotated – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4109
• Mesh Uploader Preview: Pan and Rotate with RMB – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4161
• GLTF Mesh Import – Physics Choices and Approach – https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/4179