Austin Tate's Blog

Ruth 2.0 and Roth 2.0 are low-poly mesh avatar bodies, specifically designed for Opensimulator and second Life. They are built to use standard Second Life UV maps using scratch-built open source mesh bodies by Shin Ingen with other open source contributions from the OpenSimulator Community. More details and resources links are in this blog post.

Ruth 2.0 Statistics

All Statistics and complexity figures taken in Second Life using Firestorm 6.3.2.58052 64 bit on Windows 10. Base avatar shape, hair base, eyes and skin with three 512×512 textures in place (starts at complexity 2,000). Base avatar shape, hair base, skin with three 512×512 textures and eyes with one 128×128 texture in place (starts at complexity 2,000).

Based on RuthToo RC#3 Bakes on Mesh (BoM) version provided by Sean Heavy on the Blumfield region in Second Life or on the Second Life Marketplace: Ruth 2.0 RC#3 (RuthToo). Remember that this is a base avatar onto which your usual hair, attachments and clothing would be added.

• Body (Upper and Lower)
  1 objects, 2 prims
  Faces: 4
  Vertices: 6,300
  Triangles: 11,410
  Complexity: 1,584
  Textures: 2
  TMem: 2,048 KB
  VRAM: 2,048 KB
• Hands
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 3,320
  Triangles: 5,908
  Complexity: 1,224
  Textures: 1
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Fingernails (Coloured)
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 3
  Vertices: 1,752
  Triangles: 2,688
  Complexity: 912
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 256 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Feet (Flat)
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 2,768
  Triangles: 4,992
  Complexity: 432
  Textures: 1
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Toenails (Coloured)
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 1,400
  Triangles: 1,904
  Complexity: 792
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 256 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Head
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 1
  Vertices: 1,116
  Triangles: 1,844
  Complexity: 672
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 1,024 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Eyeballs
  1 objects, 2 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 296
  Triangles: 544
  Complex.: 480
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 1,024 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB

Complexity: The reported complexity in the viewer (Firestorm 6.3.2.58056) includes the base avatar with shape, skin (3 X 512×512 textures), hair and eyes (128×128 texture) = 2,000. When the Ruth 2.0 RC#3 body (upper and lower), head, eyeballs, hand, fingernails, (flat) feet and toenails are added the complexity = 8,096.

Roth 2.0 Statistics

All Statistics and complexity figures taken in Second Life using Firestorm 6.3.2.58052 64 bit on Windows 10. Base avatar shape, hair base, eyes and skin with three 512×512 textures in place (starts at complexity 2,000). Base avatar shape, hair base, skin with three 512×512 textures and eyes with one 128×128 texture in place (starts at complexity 2,000).

Based on RothToo RC#1 Bakes on Mesh (BoM) version provided by Sean Heavy on the Blumfield region in Second Life or on the Second Life Marketplace: Roth 2.0 RC#1 (RothToo). Remember that this is a base avatar onto which your usual hair, attachments and clothing would be added.

• Body (Upper and Lower)
  1 objects, 2 prims
  Faces: 4
  Vertices: 9,772
  Triangles: 18,038
  Complexity: 7,344
  Textures: 6 **
  TMem: 16,384 KB
  VRAM: 18,432 KB
• Hands
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 3,328
  Triangles: 5,918
  Complexity: 5,256
  Textures: 3 **
  TMem: 8,192 KB
  VRAM: 9,216 KB
• Fingernails (Textured)
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 3
  Vertices: 1,552
  Triangles: 2,328
  Complexity: 1,290
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 256 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Feet
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 2,792
  Triangles: 5,016
  Complexity: 528
  Textures: 3 **
  TMem: 8,192 KB
  VRAM: 9,216 KB
• Toenails (Textured)
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 1,400
  Triangles: 1,904
  Complexity: 390
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 256 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Head
  1 objects, 1 prims
  Faces: 1
  Vertices: 1,112
  Triangles: 1,844
  Complexity: 480
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 1,024 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB
• Eyeballs
  1 objects, 2 prims
  Faces: 2
  Vertices: 296
  Triangles: 544
  Complexity: 414
  Textures: 1
  TMem: 1,024 KB
  VRAM: 1,024 KB

** Roth 2.0 RC#1 (RuthToo) distributed version as at 18-Oct-2019 includes a body, feet and hands which have extra textures for bumpiness and shininess. These may not be relevant when using BoM and can be removed.

Complexity: The reported complexity in the viewer (Firestorm 6.3.2.58056) includes the base avatar with shape, skin (3 X 512×512 textures), hair and eyes (128×128 texture) = 2,000. When the Roth 2.0 RC#1 body (upper and lower), head, eyeballs, hand, fingernails, (flat) feet and toenails are added the complexity = 17,702.

Note the complexity of the Roth 2.0 RC#1 hands (5,256) seems unusually high, and is much higher than the equivalently Ruth 2.0 female body hands (1,224). This needs to be investigated.

Note on Statistics for Comparison with Other Mesh Bodies

For a fair comparison, note that other bodies often include the nails with feet and hands. Also note that some mesh bodies may have combo feet, i.e. multiple pairs merged together for flat, medium and high heel positions, with one selected to be visible. Some variants of Ruth 2.0 in Second Life and OpenSim are built this way too. [Thanks to Pulsar for suggesting this comparison related note.]

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis/Be_a_part_of_the_Artemis_Generation

The NASA Artemis Program will see humanity live sustainably and work on the Moon. To celebrate, NASA will feature images/selfies from people across the world on a 3D mosaic sculpture representing their future plans. The images will be colour-matched, printed, and added to the sculpture by hand at the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington, DC on 21st to 25th October 2019.

Halloween has arrived on the houseboat on the Bellisseria continent in Second Life (Ai Pad) courtesy of some Halloween decorations, pumpkins and light sets provided by Linden Lab.

Bill Blight and friends have created an OpenSim focussed branch of the Firestorm Viewer called OpenStorm.

Take care.. this experimental build of the Firestorm Viewer is intended for experienced users using OpenSim development code (dev master) and who are aware that features are under development and may not be supported by some OpenSim grids running on earlier versions of OpenSim server code.

This is a fork of the Firestorm Development code, and not really intended for release/general distribution! Downloads, change logs and other information is available at https://downloads.openstormviewer.org/

Source Code is available at https://bitbucket.org/BillBlight/openstorm-lgpl/src/default/

The version on 2-Oct-2019 with version number 0.9.1.30 is based on Firestorm 6.2.4.57058 with some OpenSim specific and cosmetic changes:

• Bakes on Mesh for Opensimulator (this could crash older regions/grids)
• Increased VRAM availability. RE-enable decompose (analyze) in mesh upload
• Increase Particle size to max protocol 7.96 (Thanks Ubit)
• Double the max ammount of rendered particles
• Removed SL offset to avatar hover height (Thanks Ubit)
• Region map search patch, allows opensimulator users to search for part of region name (Thanks Plugh)

There has been a question on how many OpenSim users use various virtual world viewers that are OpenSim compatible, like Firestorm, Singularity, Alchemy, Radegast, etc. For Second Life, user statistics and viewer usage is collected via linden lab. But for privacy, viewers do not instrument such logins in OpenSim.

This blog post notes some resources that may be useful for those seeking to collect OpenSim usage statistics. Please take care never to misuse personal date and login information when collecting generic statistics to assist in OpenSim development.

OpenSim region servers can log a number of usage statistics using “Webstats”. See http://opensimulator.org/wiki/FAQ#Region_Statistics_on_a_Web_Page. This is disabled by default in OpenSimDefaults.ini but can be enabled by adding a [WebStats] section to OpenSim.ini

[WebStats] ; View region statistics via a web page enabled=true

Then use a web browser and type in the region server hostname:http_listener_port + “/SStats/” (note NOT the Robust server/LoginURI name unless its a standalone all on a single server)…

Openvue Grid
http://virtual.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9000/SStats/
http://struay.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9000/SStats/

AiLand Grid
http://ai.vue.ed.ac.uk:9000/SStats/
http://tiree.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9000/SStats/

OSGrid RuthAndRoth – http://struay.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9020/SStats/
OSGrid Vue – http://shetland.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9000/SStats/
OSGrid Openvue – http://shetland.aiai.ed.ac.uk:9010/SStats/

Peter Kappler <pete@gsgrid.net> [YouTube Channel] (PWNED Magic in Second Life) has created a VR version of the Firestorm Viewer using OpenVR/SteamVR compatible with Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality and other VR headsets (HMDs).
On 23rd September 2019, Peter provided an updated version of Firestorm VR 6.2.4 compiled for Second Life and OpenSim which should fix the “black screen” issue seen in earlier releases [See this blog post].

Discord Discussion Channel: P373R-WORKSHOP by p373r_kappler [ Invite ]

Download and Installation

1. Download http://gsgrid.net/Phoenix-FirestormOS-P3-VRMOD-6-2-4-57588_Setup.rar
2. UNpack the .rar to get the Firestorm .exe installer and openvr_api.dll
3. Install Phoenix-FirestormOS-P3-VRMOD-6-2-4-57588_Setup.exe (note when run it reports itself as 6.2.4.57575).
4. Place openvr_api.dll in install directory.
5. Download latest updated replacement http://gsgrid.net/firestorm-bin.exe and place in install directory
6. Create a new desktop shortcut or update the previous one.
7. Install SteamVR if you don’t already have it available.
8. Start Firestorm VR (which also reports itself as 6.2.4.57575).
9. Note that if you have a black bar when you TAB to VR view centre the mouse in the view to reset it. Placing the mouse near any edge or corner of the VR view focusses in on that area.

Firestorm VR Settings

• Go to Preferences -> Graphics-> Steam VR Tab and tick to enable Steam VR. (a viewer restart may be needed, so do that to be sure)
• Go to Preferences -> Move & View and set the Field of View to 1.80 (default 1.04)

For different VR HMDs these settings should also be adjusted:

• Preferences -> Graphics -> Steam VR -> Texture Shift: Setting appropriate to your HMD. For example it is set to 0 (the default) for Oculus Rift DK2, and set to 200 for Oculus Rift CV1. If you have double vision in VR mode in your HMD, move this setting until the image is in sync.
• Preferences -> Graphics -> Camera distance from center: Set to your inter-pupil distance (IPD) to get a good 3D image. If this setting is not accurate the 3D view can look too flat or layered. Note that a setting of 0 means the image will be 2D.

A number of users have suggested starting settings for various virtual reality headsets…

Headset Type Texture Shift Camera Distance from Center Info. From Oculus Rift S ? ? ? Oculus Rift CV1 +200 IPD (e.g. 64.0mm) Ai Austin Oculus Rift DK2 0 IPD (e.g. 64.0mm) Ai Austin Oculus Rift DK1 Not Available Ai Austin Vive Pro ? ? ? Vive Cosmos ? ? ? Valve Index +200 IPD (e.g. 64.0mm) PStromboli Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality Headsets Samsung Odyssey+ +71 IPD (e.g. 64.0mm) skr Lenovo Explorer ? ? ? Dell Visor ? ? ?

Usage

PRESS TAB key to enable and disable VR output.

The Camera Controls floater has two extra buttons << and >> to let you turn the angle at which your camera points.

If you move the mouse to one of the four corners or four sides of the screen the HMD view jumps to show that corner or side in VR mode. This enables menus and HUD attachments to be more easily reached. Return the mouse to the centre of the screen to return to normal HMD directional view.

F4 key – can be used to disable (and reenable) the movement of the VR mode view direction with head movement. Pressing F4 locks the VR mode camera onto the avatar head so it always shows directly in front of the gaze direction (which is a bit of an odd thing to work out what is happening – especially if you have used mouse wheel zoom in or out). Pressing it again unlocks the view so that it rotates around the camera position itself.

F5 key – can be used to zoom out the VR view through stages further away, then it toggles views centred on each corner before returning to the default VR view. [Note: F5 may not work as described in some headsets?]

Peter Kappler noted:

• F5 modes: There are two modes: one where HMD rotation is locked (F4 to lock), and one with normal HMD rotation on. The problem is that if you have HMD rotation on its hard to use flycam or edit things since it does not select properly. That’s where you turn it off.

Frame Rates

The Firestorm VR Viewer will not work well if the Second Life/OpenSim region you visit cannot normally be displayed with a decent frame rate. The higher the better. At low frame rates bad flickering will occur in VR mode. My suggestion is to look at the framerate (in Firestorm it is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the viewer) and to adjust the graphics settings (especially draw distance and quality sliders) until you have more than 50fps (30fps minimum) and then try VR.

On my Oculus Rift setup SteamVR usually was launched whenever the Firestorm VR viewer was started, and that automatically started the underlying Oculus software. But if the SteamVR or Oculus Home screens shows in the HMD or the HMD is blank rather than showing the Second Life/OpenSim virtual world display, start SteamVR first, check Oculus Home is launched, and then run the Firestorm VR viewer.

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

Tips

Tips from David Rowe for using the CtrlAltStudio Viewer may 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. You can use keyboard shortcuts to show and hide dialog boxes such as the Conversations window (Ctrl-T), Inventory (Ctrl-I), e.g., if you want to select a landmark to teleport to, Ctrl-Shift-M to display the minimap, etc. Keyboard shortcuts are shown beside menu items.
4. To display avatar toasts in the Rift — Preferences > Chat > General > Show chat in bubbles above avatars.
5. 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 > Graphics > Rendering > Floating text fades.

If you have issues with some of the Function keys (F4, F5 or other Firestorm VR 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)

Firestorm Debug Settings

EnableSteamVR – performs the same function as the Settings -> Graphics -> Steam VR -> tick on/off. Default Off.

TextureShift – performs the same function as the Settings -> Graphics -> Steam VR -> Texture Shift. This may need to be adjusted for different VR headsets. I found it could be left at the default setting of 0 for the Oculus Rift DK2, and needed to be set to +200 for the Oculus Rift CV1. Adjust this if you have double vision in VR mode.

EyeDistance – performs the same function as the Settings -> Graphics -> Steam VR – Camera distance from center slider. This is an important setting to get good 3D depth. Set it to the Interpupil distance for your headset (64mm is a sensible default). If set to 0mm the image will be 2D. If set wrongly you may find that the 3D effect is in distinct layers or not as good as it can be.

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.

Firestorm JIRA

A Firestorm JIRA Issue relates to this…
https://jira.firestormviewer.org/browse/FIRE-24047

This JIRA issue has comments concerned over low frame rates and poor support for all the menus, popups and creator/editing facilities in Second Life and OpenSim. Personally, I don’t think ALL the creator/build menu facilities are needed all the time, and those can be done by switching back into VR mode… which is easy with the TAB key method uses to switch between 2D and VR mode. Concerning frame rates, some users are probably seeing very busy mainland regions with tens of thousands of objects. When I use Firestorm on OpenSim builds with a few avatars in training modes I can get 160fps frame rates! And high frame rates when we have used private regions on Second Life for educational meetings.

User Experience with Firestorm VR 6.2.4

1. To be Added

HMD Black Screen on TAB

This was an issue which occurred in earlier versions of Firestorm VR, e.g. in Firestorm VR 6.0.1. See this Blog Post for more information. Firestorm VR 6.2.4 should address this issue for most VR headsets. But, on 22-Sept-2019 Peter Kappler provided a VR test application that uses the same rendering method as Firestorm VR to test if this might be a problem on your HMD setup…

http://gsgrid.net/sdlvrtest.rar
Unpack it, go to the bin/win32/ folder and open the hellovr_opengl.exe
That should show you a world full of boxes.
If it shows a black screen then there is an issue on your PC/HMD.

Linden Lab updated Sansar to use a new richer avatar skeleton referred to as “Avatar 2.0”.

• Sansar.com Website
• Sansar YouTube Channel
• Twitter Feed – @SansarOfficial

A bit of a refresh of the Ai Austin avatar which I have been using in Second Life and OpenSim since 2006…

Ai Austin Mk. 1

Ai’s original skin was a gift back in 2006 from a fellow educator who joined Second Life on the same day and who was a neighbour on the “Saengseon” region where “AIAI2” had its first virtual world base before moving to its own facilities on the “Vue” (Virtual University of Edinburgh) regions.

Ai Austin – Flight Suit

Ai’s usual outfit in Second Life is a Flight Suit… provided by Krashen Byrne soon after Ai originally joined Second Life. Ai obtained the original artwork for the outfit from Krashen with permission to use it as Ai wished, but not to distribute it further. You can usually find Krashen’s Flight Suit at the Flight Shop at Abbotts Aerodrome in Second Life.

Ai Austin Mk. 2

As mesh bodies and heads, such as the Ruth 2.0 and Roth 2.0 open source avatars and new virtual world viewer facilities such as Bakes on Mesh come along it was time for a refresh to set up for using these…

Artificial Intelligence research at Edinburgh can trace its origins to a small research group established in 1963 by Donald Michie, who had been a member of the code-breaking group at Bletchley Park. And over the years there have been a number of different organisational structures and department names for the AI groups. A history of AI@Edinburgh is provided by Jim Howe, the hHad of the School of AI at Edinburgh for many years.

Now the AI@Edinburgh groups working on research, teaching and innovatiove applications of AI are coming together under the banner of the “Institute for Artficial Intelligence” within the School of Informatics.

Artificial Intelligence @ Edinburgh over the Years

• Experimental Programming Unit, 1965
• Creation of the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception, 1966
• Department of Machine Intelligence, 1970
       + Machine Intelligence Research Unit, 1970
• Department of Artificial Intelligence, 1963
       + Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, 1984
• In 1998, the University joined together three departments: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Computer Science, as well as a number of research institutes including AIAI, to form the School of Informatics.
• Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications, School of Informatics, 2011
• Institute for Artificial Intelligence, School of Informatics, 2019

I have blogged before about the Pandora Universe group in Second Life which offers role play based on the “Avatar” film directed by James Cameron and based on Pandora, a moon of Alpha Centauri and the Na’vi that inhabit the moon. Ralph Steglenzer altered me to the OpenSim “District 153 – Pangea Roleplay” region on Metropolis Grid…

Access Metropolis Grid via the viewer map: hg.metro.land:80 arrive at the Welcome area and then teleport via the map to “District 153 – Pangea Roleplay” or use hop://login.metro.land/District 153 – Pangea Roleplay/739/367/31

Forest: hop://login.metro.land/District 153 – Pangea Roleplay/884/280/30

More Pictures… http://fckaf.de/X8Nm or https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rly88r4mczg2zz8/AAAh8dU2a2769DjYOWO3EvaTa?dl=0

Another Pangea themed role play area on Metropolis Grid as at Pangea (944,146,31).

Update: 28-Nov-2019: This is an archive of the original “Bakes on Mesh – Resources” post.. which has now been updated to reflect the up to date position.

Update: 28-Nov-2019: Viewers with support for Bakes on Mesh in Second Life and OpenSim have started to appear… Cool VL Viewer, the Singularity Viewer and Firestorm VR Mod. If you use extended BoM features please don’t use these viewers to log directly into grids/regions known to run on older 0.8.* server code.

Update 28-Oct-2019: basic Bakes on Mesh (BoM) support for all 11 bakes textures and the new Universal wearable is available in OpenSimulator 0.9.1.0 released on 28th October 2019. However, a viewer capable of using the facilities is still under development.

This is a blog post to collect together resources related to the Bakes on Mesh [BoM] feature for Second Life and OpenSim. This has been in testing for some time by Linden Lab on Second Life, and the official Linden Lab viewer release 6.3.0.530115 dated August 26, 2019 as well as all Second Life regions supports this. More detail in these articles…

https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/bakes-on-mesh-r1512/
https://modemworld.me/2019/08/27/bakes-on-mesh-a-basic-primer/

Firestorm view code is currently under development to merge in the changes to support BoM and development versions of Firestorm 6.3.1 are being tested for this.

Bakes on Mesh facilities allow mesh avatars to be used with standard avatar skins, tattoos and tight to skin wearables which is useful for undergarments, etc. It can help avoid the need for “appliers” used to apply textures onto mesh avatars, and “onion skin” outer meshes to give layers for clothing.

OpenSim and Bakes on Mesh

OpenSim dev master code as at OpenSim 0.9.1 1079 0e33014 (2019-08-28 04:54) can support some parts of BoM (thanks to Ubit Umarov) and using a test build of Firestorm 6.3.1 (thanks to the Firestorm team and Bill Blight for the test build – autobuild configure -c ReleaseFS_open – with map search patch and a couple of other tweaks):

• The 6 basic bakes channels work for BoM (HEAD, UPPER, LOWER, EYES, SKIRT, HAIR) on all versions of OpenSim.
• The 5 added bakes channels were not supported for BoM (LEFTARM, LEFTLEG, AUX1, AUX2, AUX3) until OpenSim 0.9.1.0.
• The new “Universal” wearable type was not supported until OpenSim 0.9.1.0.
• Bakes are done using viewer side code and are a maximum of 512×512.  

Ruth 2.0 and Roth 2.0 Mesh Bodies with BoM

Open source resources in action… OpenSim virtual world server, Firestorm Viewer and Ruth 2.0/Roth 2.0 low poly mesh avatars…

Ruth 2.0 RC#3 and Roth 2.0 RC#1 Mesh Bodies with BoM on OSGrid RuthAndRoth region using Dev Master code as at 28-Aug-2019.

Example Simple Mesh Body and BoM

The Aditya_for_BOM.dae Collada sample avatar mesh file provided by Linden Lab can be found via the Bakes on Mesh Knowledge Base Article at https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-139234. Note its a very simple mesh body and a lot of the usual avatar shape adjustment sliders will not work on it (e.g. it has very large feet that cannot be changed).

This can be edited and textured manually with “Bake” textures when worn and edited, or this script could be used to set up the faces of the sample Aditya_90 avatar for BoM… thanks to Ubit Umarov…

state_entry() { llSay(0, "Script running"); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_HEAD,2); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_UPPER,4); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_LOWER,3); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_EYES,0); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_EYES,1); }

Simple HUD to Show Bakes In Use

NOTE: A HUD that may have parts BoM textured when attached to a HUD position will locally make the relevant parts of the underlying classic avatar transparent in the view of the avatar that attached such a HUD, but that does NOT show to other users. Its probably a viewer bug to have this difference in behaviour?

For testing… but see note above… a simple HUD can attached set up to show all 11 BoM textures that can be applied to a worn attachment. As shown in the following image, when using a viewer that supports BoM (such as the forthcoming Firestorm 6.3.1, test build 57811 pictured) the “basic” bakes channels already supported by OpenSim dev master code at 28-Aug-2019 (head, upper, lower, eyes, skirt, hair) are instantiated (skirt and hair are transparent in this example) whereas the new bakes textures (leftarm, leftleg, aux1, aux2, aux3) are not.

If a viewer that is not updated to support Bakes on Mesh is used, a set of coloured “fallback” textures will be displayed. These same fallback back images are used on any object face that is BoM textured when it is displayed in world, rather than attached to an avatar.

As a comparison, the same setup in Second Life with a BoM capable viewer looks like this…when a BoM textured object is rezzed in world it shows the coloured “fallback” textures…

Bakes on Mesh Resources and Issues

OpenSim Source Code – Dev Master –
http://opensimulator.org/viewgit/?a=shortlog&p=opensim

Firestorm Viewer Source Code – http://hg.phoenixviewer.com/

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-227553
https://jira.firestormviewer.org/browse/FIRE-24333

BAKES Texture Constant Names and Associated UUIDs

IMG_USE_BAKED_HEAD 5a9f4a74-30f2-821c-b88d-70499d3e7183 IMG_USE_BAKED_UPPER ae2de45c-d252-50b8-5c6e-19f39ce79317 IMG_USE_BAKED_LOWER 24daea5f-0539-cfcf-047f-fbc40b2786ba IMG_USE_BAKED_EYES 52cc6bb6-2ee5-e632-d3ad-50197b1dcb8a IMG_USE_BAKED_SKIRT 43529ce8-7faa-ad92-165a-bc4078371687 IMG_USE_BAKED_HAIR 09aac1fb-6bce-0bee-7d44-caac6dbb6c63 IMG_USE_BAKED_LEFTARM ff62763f-d60a-9855-890b-0c96f8f8cd98 IMG_USE_BAKED_LEFTLEG 8e915e25-31d1-cc95-ae08-d58a47488251 IMG_USE_BAKED_AUX1 9742065b-19b5-297c-858a-29711d539043 IMG_USE_BAKED_AUX2 03642e83-2bd1-4eb9-34b4-4c47ed586d2d IMG_USE_BAKED_AUX3 edd51b77-fc10-ce7a-4b3d-011dfc349e4f

Bakes Fallback images for OpenSim have a solid colour 32×32 and are saved as JPEG2000 (.j2c) with “JPEG2000 Codestream Only” selected as save options (JPEG2000 J2C stream format). They also have “Lossless” (no compression) selected though that may not be important.

Textures – Alpha Blending and Alpha Masking

When a mesh body (or head, hands and feet, etc) uses textures (Bakes on Mesh or otherwise) that are set to use “Alpha Blending” then any worn item or attachment that has partially transparent textures – such as for example the lace on the hem of a skirt (Hyacinth Greynmoon – Luv Brocade Dress for example) then the partially transparent bit makes the legs and hands that are behind it disappear completely. See left hand image below.

It is best to leave the body parts as “Alpha Blending” as that is common on mesh bodies and allows alpha layers to be worn and work with Bakes on Mesh. But, if you have modify permissions on the clothing or attachment, then if the render type on the worn attachment is set to “Alpha Masking” things works as expected. See right hand image below.

Unfortunately using Alpha Masking means that any worn alpha mask item does not work, whereas it does with Alpha Blending. Depending on what the user want to wear using one or other of the alpha rendering types might need changing.

This is a blog post to collect together resources related to the bakes on mesh [BOM] feature for Second Life and OpenSim. This has been in testing for some time by Linden lab on Second Life, and the official Linden Lab viewer release 6.3.0.530115 dated August 26, 2019 as well as all Second Life regions supports this.

https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/bakes-on-mesh-r1512/

Firestorm view code is currently under development to merge in the changes to support BOM and development versions of Firestorm 6.3.1 are being tested.

OpenSim dev master code as at OpenSim 0.9.1 1079 0e33014 (2019-08-28 04:54) can support some parts of BOM:

• The 6 basic bakes channels work for BOM (HEAD, UPPER, LOWER, EYES, SKIRT, HAIR)
• The 5 added bakes channels are not supported for BOM (LEFTARM, LEFTLEG, AUX1, AUX2, AUX3)
• The new “Universal” wearable type is not supported
• Bakes are done using viewer side code and are a maximum of 512×512.

Example Simple Mesh Body and BOM

The Aditya_90 Avatar.dae Collada sample avatar mesh file can be found at https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/bakes-on-mesh-r1512/#Section_6 [https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-139234]

This can be textures manually when worn and edited, or this script should set up the faces of the sample avatar for BOM…

state_entry() { llSay(0, "Script running"); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_HEAD,2); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_UPPER,4); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_LOWER,3); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_EYES,0); llSetTexture(IMG_USE_BAKED_EYES,1); }

As noted before in this blog post Peter Kappler has created a VR version of the Firestorm virtual world viewer (based on version 6.0.1.57000). It can work very well indeed for Social VR purposes allowing all the capabilities and content available in Second Life and OpenSim to be used in scenes where chat, get togethers, tutoring sessions, seminars and other meetings take place.

Here are a few environments in OpenSim virtual worlds tested in Firestorm VR that are more for fun and role play regions…

OpenSim – AiLand – Gerry Anderson Regions

My usual test regions with mainly mesh content for Supercar (Black Rock), Fireball XL5 (Space City) and Stingray (Marineville)…

OpenSim – AiLand – Castles and Pirates

Heavy mesh regions on Castle Spring, Castle Winter (with heavy blizzard), Cove and Tortuga…

The RGU Oil Rig enhanced education and virtual training experience created by the Robert Gordon University (RGU) Oil & Gas Centre in Aberdeen, Scotland ported to OpenSim OSGrid has been tested in Peter Kappler’s Firestorm VR 6.0.1.

The VR mode view is seen here…

The 2D Firestorm VR screen is shown here… looking identical in quality to the view seen in the HMD…

Typical frame rates were 38-40fps. A little less when other tools were running at the same time.

Dell Precision T5810 with Xeon CPU E5-1620 v3 @3.50GHz.
32GB Memory, SSD drives, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU.
100Mbps broadband connection.
Oculus Rift DK2.
Windows 10 Pro version 1903.
Firestorm 6.0.1.57000 graphics quality: Ultra, view distance: 256m.
OpenSim – OSGrid Oil Rig – region objects: 9492 (land impact: 9786) – mostly mesh.

Another Comparison of the 2D and VR images for a scene on the Oil Rig…

As noted before in this blog post Peter Kappler has created a VR version of Firestorm (based on version 6.0.1.57000). If the graphics settings, draw distance and scene complexity allow it, this can work very well to view 3D content. It is not best suited to build and creation modes. But it can work very well indeed of Social VR allowing all the capabilities and content available in Second Life and OpenSim to be used in scenes where chat, get togethers, tutoring sessions, seminars and other meetings take place.

If the scene in a normal 2D view is adjusted to achieve at least (say) 50fps) then it should work will in the Firestorm VR viewer. make Graphics settings, draw distance and other changes until you achieve that sort of frame rate or the scene will be choppy or flicker. For Social VR functions draw distances can be quite small, so even very busy mainland Secodn Life regions become accessible.

Some specific figures I observed on one Second Life scene trying to make the view distance (256m), graphics settings (High), etc the same…

• Linden Lab 6.2.4 96-106fps
• Firestorm 6.0.2 176-188fps
• Firestorm VR 6.0.1 2D mode 136-144fps
• Firestorm VR 6.0.1 VR mode 82-84fps

Put simply it looks roughly like Firestorm 6.0.2 100%, Firestorm VR 6.0.1 2D mode 75%, Firestorm VR 6.0.1 VR mode 50%. But the 6.0.1 VR mode is still roughly the same as the Linden Lab 6.2.4 viewer in 2D mode.

The following images were take on a Dell Precision T5180 with 32MB Memory and Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU, with Ultra graphics settings and 512m view distance.

Here are some examples of Social VR settings in Second Life and on OpenSim grids…

Second Life

OpenSim (OSGrid, Openvue and Ailand Grids)

Peter Kappler <pete@gsgrid.net> [YouTube Channel] (PWNED Magic in Second Life) has created a VR version of the Firestorm Viewer using OpenVR/Steam VR should be compatible with Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets (HMDs).

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/01/windows-mixed-reality-firestorm-sl-vr-open-source.html
https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/02/firestorm-sl-open-source-vr-viewer.html

YouTube Video: Second Life Firestorm VR V0.3 test, 27 Feb 2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0_PQBQ_E4I

Download

Here is the source code and compiled version (currently based on Firestorm 6.0.1.57000:
http://gsgrid.net/FirestormVR_Source_V_0_3.rar
http://gsgrid.net/Phoenix601VR-V0.3.rar

Firestorm JIRA

A Firestorm JIRA Issue relates to this…
https://jira.firestormviewer.org/browse/FIRE-24047

This JIRA issue has comments concerned over low frame rates and poor support for all the menus, popups and creator/editing facilities in Second Life and OpenSim. Personally, I don’t think ALL the creator/build menu facilities are needed all the time, and those can be done by switching back into VR mode… which is easy with the TAB key method uses to switch between 2D and VR mode. Concerning frame rates, some users are probably seeing very busy mainland regions with tens of thousands of objects. When I use Firestorm on OpenSim builds with a few avatars in training modes I can get 160fps frame rates! And high frame rates when we have used private regions on Second Life for educational meetings.

Installation:

• Install the special version of the Firestorm viewer.
• Put the openvr_api.dll contained in the compiled version .rar/.zip in to the freshly installed firestorm folder with all the other dlls.
• Start Steam VR.
• Start Firestorm.

Once you are logged in:

• Go to Preferences -> Move & View and set the Field of View to 1.80 (default 1.04)
• Go to Preferences -> Graphics-> Steam VR Tab and enable VR. (driver init, shutdown)

For the Oculus Rift these settings should also be adjusted:

• Preferences -> Graphics -> Steam VR -> Texture Shift: et to 200). Else double vision on Oculus Rift.
• Preferences -> Graphics -> Camera distance from center: Set to at least 50 to improve depth separation on Oculus Rift.

Usage:

PRESS TAB key to enable and disable vr output.

The slider Lens distance lets you adjust the distance between the 2 cameras to improve stereo depth separation. (( There is a bug with world not updating while slider > 0)). Slider set to 0 uses only 1 camera ( non stereo ) and doubles your fps.

F5 button disables and enables HMD direction changes. It is better to disable HMD direction interface when editing and flying with the camera.

The Firestorm VR Viewer will not work well if the Second Life/OpenSim region you visit cannot normally be displayed with a frame rate above say 30fps. More the better. Below that bad flickering will occur.

User Experience

1. On my Oculus Rift setup, it seems to be important to start Steam VR before launching the viewer. Otherwise the Oculus Home screen shows in the HMD rather than the Second Life/OpenSim virtual world display.
2. The 3D depth effect is a bit flat. It looks more like a number of flat planes, some close up, such as the avatar, some mid distance and then a flat distant view with little 3D depth on the objects. The separation of these planes can be deepened using the setting for Preferences -> Graphics -> Steam VR -> Camera distance from center. But the overall effect is not a smooth progressive 3D model as seen in the CtrlAltStudio VR viewer.
3. In the Steam VR settings tab, what does “Zoom out the display” and “Enable debug display” do?

Continuing the development of sports in Second Life…. Yasmin has created a lovely rock climbing area to test out her developing rock climbing apparatus and scripts.

Visit via this landmark… Nitida Ridge

@Inara Pey has done her usual detailed and excellent Blog Post on the Rock Climbing at Nitida Ridge

As described at https://thepeoplesmoon.com/explore/, The People’s Moon has been co-created By British artist Helen Marshall of the People’s Picture, and Christina Korp of the Aldrin Family Foundation, and unveiled at iconic global locations on Saturday 20 July 2019…
“The People’s Moon will dominate London Piccadilly Lights screen, on the actual day and hour, flashing back 50 years to when humans first walked on the Moon. The combination of 10,000 photographs submitted by the public, NASA historic clips and giant photo mosaics of the Moon will be shown simultaneously in New York’s Times Square, and in a long-term installation at the Kennedy Space Center where the mission of Apollo 11 launched in 1969, and at a special presentation at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore’s Marina Bay.”

Margaret & Austin, as at 1969, are included in the image…

#Apollo50th #ThePeoplesMoon #MyGiantLeap

20th July 2019 marks the 50th Anniversary of the First Landing on the Moon. So a good time to revisit the Apollo 11 ImmersiveVR Experiences via the Oculus Rift… this time using the Apollo 11 HD update… #Apollo50th

20th July 2019 marks the 50th Anniversary of the First Landing on the Moon. The National Space Society arranged an experience in Second Life to celebrate the event… #Apollo50th #SecondLifeChallenge

https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2586-apollo50th-secondlifechallenge/
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/National%20Space%20Society/30/51/3674

Did you see that Buzz! Houston… we may have a problem!

Second Life Spaceflight Museum

See also Second Life Spaceflight Museum: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/49/81/24