Austin Tate's Blog

The De Lacy Motor Club (D.L.M.C) in Yorkshire has been running rallies, car trials and driving tests for over 50 years as noted in my previous blog post. The Seven Dales Heritage Run was run again in 2023 on a nice 82 mile route set by Mike Brownlow (Clerk of the Course) through North Yorkshire… beginning and ending at the Sherburn Aero Club.

As usual family members entered the event again this year… with Jon and Rosemarie in a Triumph Vitesse Convertible and ourselves in our Toyota MR2 Mk.3.

Following Enroute Images by Mike Brownlow (Copyright De Lacy Motor Club)

Avatar and Disney Possible Planet are supporting The Nature Conservancy to protect 10 of Earth’s oceans’ animals and their habitats, connected to the beauty of the fictional Pandora moon. Up to July 31, 2023, create your own Avatar-inspired ocean creature and for every creature created in the Virtual Pandoran Ocean, Disney US will give $5 to The Nature Conservancy US, up to $1 million, to help them achieve their global goal of protecting 10 percent of the ocean by 2030.

https://www.avatar.com/keepouroceansamazing/

Create a creature and follow it in the Pandoran Ocean

https://www.avatar.com/keepouroceansamazing/creaturecreator/

You will need to use a smart phone or tablet with QR code scanner/camera on it to activate the creature creator, or view an already generated creature.

https://www.avatar.com/keepouroceansamazing/creaturecreator/#/FollowFish
For my creation use Creature Code G9z2UA

My Creature – Ohe rä’ä (“I dive” in Na’vi)

OpenSim 0.9.2.2 “Yeti” was released on 29-Mar-2023 (see Release Notes), so the development branch will now be OpenSim 0.9.3.0 Dev. The significant number increase is because the new version uses .NET6.0 as a base versus .NET4.6 (runprebuild) or optionally .NET4.8 (runprebuild48). This change has been under development for a while in the “dotnet6” branch.

To mark the change to 0.9.3.x the “flavour” name has changed from “Yeti” to “Nessie”.

OpenSim Dev latest can usually be obtained at http://opensimulator.org/viewgit/?a=shortlog&p=opensim

OSGrid Dotnet6 Branch

As at 16-Apr-2023 OSGrid also provides a Dotnet6 precompiled addon region build for testing, alongside the usual 0.9.2.2 version which will be the last such release. Note this release still reports its version as 0.9.2.2 Dev Yeti (osgrid-opensim-03232023.v0.9.2.d1466eb) as it is based on a versoin just before the version and flavour update. See https://www.osgrid.org/download.php.

• Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid), Commander
• Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover), Pilot
• Christina Koch (@Astro_Christina), Mission specialist
• Jeremy Hanson (@Astro_Jeremy), Mission specialist

On 3rd April 2023 NASA announced that former US Navy fighter pilots Reid Wiseman & Victor Glover, veteran astronaut Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will crew the Artemis II mission to fly around the far side of the Moon in late 2024.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-coverage-of-artemis-ii-mission-astronauts-announcement

Artemis II Flight Plan

I decided that the tide cannot be held back and I better get an OpenAI AppID to test out some features of ChatGPT (a.k.a. “Chat”), DALL·E and an image manipulation Blender addon such as BlenderGPT.

Here is a conversation with ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat) using 14-Mar-2023 version…

Please compare Second Life and OpenSimulator.

Second Life and OpenSimulator are two virtual world platforms that share some similarities but also have some differences. Here are some comparisons between the two:

Ownership and Control:
One of the main differences between Second Life and OpenSimulator is who owns and controls the servers that run the virtual worlds. Second Life is owned and operated by Linden Lab, while OpenSimulator is open-source software that can be run on individual servers by anyone who downloads it.

Cost:
While Second Life requires users to pay for virtual land, OpenSimulator does not have any such costs, which makes it a popular choice for hobbyists and those with limited budgets.

User Interface:
Both Second Life and OpenSimulator have a similar user interface, but Second Life has a more polished and streamlined interface that is easier to navigate, while OpenSimulator requires a bit more technical knowledge to set up and use.

Community:
Second Life has a larger and more active community of users than OpenSimulator, which means that there are more events and activities happening in the virtual world at any given time. However, OpenSimulator has a more diverse and decentralized community that is less reliant on a single company or organization.

Content:
Second Life has a more extensive library of pre-made content available to users, including avatars, clothing, buildings, and other items, while OpenSimulator relies more on user-generated content.

Overall, both Second Life and OpenSimulator offer unique virtual world experiences with their own strengths and weaknesses. Second Life is a more polished and established platform with a larger user base and more pre-made content, while OpenSimulator is a more flexible and customizable platform that is better suited for users with technical knowledge and a desire to create their own virtual world

I thought that the virtual world viewer for Second Life and OpenSimulator was identical and same viewer could be used for both. So why is the interface for Second Life easier to navigate than the interface for OpenSimulator?

You are correct that both Second Life and OpenSimulator can be accessed using the same virtual world viewer software. The viewer software provides the user interface and allows users to navigate and interact with the virtual world. However, the way that the viewer software is configured and the features that are available can differ depending on the specific virtual world platform being used.

While the basic layout and functions of the viewer software may be the same for both Second Life and OpenSimulator, there may be differences in the way that certain features are implemented or in the way that the software interacts with the virtual world platform. Additionally, Second Life has been around for much longer and has had more time to refine and improve its user interface, while OpenSimulator is a newer platform and may still be evolving in terms of its user interface.

It’s also worth noting that OpenSimulator is a more customizable platform, which means that users can make changes to the user interface and add new features if they have the technical skills to do so. This flexibility can be a benefit for some users, but it may also make the platform feel more complex or difficult to navigate for users who are not as familiar with the technical aspects of virtual world software.

When you say Second Life has been around for much longer than OpenSimulator, can you be precise as to when both first became available?

Yes, of course! Here are some details about the history and release dates of Second Life and OpenSimulator:

Second Life: Second Life was launched in 2003 by Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based company. The platform gained popularity quickly and by 2006, it had over a million registered users. Since then, the platform has continued to evolve and expand, with various updates and improvements being made over the years.

OpenSimulator: OpenSimulator, also known as OpenSim, is an open-source software platform for creating virtual worlds. The project was started in 2007 by a group of developers who wanted to create an alternative to Second Life that was more customizable and flexible. The first stable version of OpenSimulator was released in 2008, and since then, the platform has continued to develop with regular updates and improvements being made by the community of users and developers who contribute to the project.

So, Second Life has been available for almost 20 years, while OpenSimulator has been available for around 15 years.

DALL·E – Image Creation from Text

https://labs.openai.com/ gives access to DALL·E and offers 15 free image generation requests each month or paid access..

Photorealistic image of view from inside a modern house with plate glass windows and deck on a pine forest hillside overlooking a stormy ocean at sunset with jagged rocks offshore.

But when I tried a more detailed prompt… the resulting images were quite far from related.

Photorealistic image of view from inside a modern house with plate glass windows and deck on a pine forest hillside overlooking a stormy ocean at sunset with jagged rock pinnacles and arches offshore with a light grey cat sat inside looking out to see a distant humpback whale breaching a mile offshore.

ChatGPT says this about adding details to a previously generated DALL·E image: DALL·E is a generative model that creates images from textual input. Once an image is generated by DALL·E, it is not possible to directly modify it. However, you can generate a new image with additional details by providing DALL·E with new textual input that includes a textual description of the original image, using specific details such as the colors, shapes, and objects that are present, as well as the desired additional details.

DALL·E maybe cannot understand the compositional nature of the prompt and add in elements to a base. Maybe this is a prompt to try on DALL·E N+1.

BlenderGPT – an image manipulation Blender addon

Create a 0.5 metre cuboid with rounded edges and corners at the origin.

In the code windows some parameters such as segments and offset can be increased and the > button used to execute the modified code make the corners of the cuboid smoother.

ChatGPT Integration with Second Life and OpenSim

Pantera Północy has written a script to integrate an object or NPC (Animesh) with ChatGPT… https://github.com/PanteraPolnocy/LSL-snippets/blob/main/scripts/HTTP%20requests/chat-gpt-integration.lsl

ChatGPT – Write a Poem

Write a poem to remind someone to water sweet peas

In the garden, there’s a sight to see,
Sweet peas, so delicate and pretty.
With petals soft and colors bright,
They fill the air with sweet delight.

But to keep these beauties blooming,
You must keep their roots consuming.
Water is their lifeblood, their need,
Without it, their beauty will recede.

So let this poem be a reminder,
To water sweet peas, a little kinder.
Give them what they need to grow,
And watch their beauty overflow.

With each drop of water, they’ll thrive,
And in return, their fragrance will arrive.
A sweet reward for a simple deed,
To water sweet peas, a timely heed.

So don’t forget to give them care,
And watch them flourish, beyond compare.
For in the garden, there’s nothing quite,
Like sweet peas, in their full delight.

This event is part of a year-long celebration marking sixty years of research into computer science and AI at the University of Edinburgh. Starting in 1963 with a small group of machine intelligence pioneers, and computer science innovators, the University has 60 years of achievements to celebrate during 2023, and its leadership in future technologies to share. More information about the celebration: https://edin.ac/60-years-computer-science-ai

Our love of fashion is driving an unsustainable system of manufacturing, distributing and disposing of our clothing that is impacting our planet. How can we change our behaviour and the system for the love of the planet? What does the data tell us, how can we harness new technology such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics and informatics, and creative tools such as Augmented and Virtual Reality. What is the role of 3D environments, games and NFTs in fashion?

https://efi.ed.ac.uk/events/for-the-love-of-fashion/

• Chairperson: Caroline Parkinson is Director of Creative at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Find out more here: https://efi.ed.ac.uk/creative-industries/
• Lynne Wilson is the founder of Circular Design Scotland. https://circulardesignscotland.org/
• Lynne Craig is the Programme Director of the Design Informatics MA, Institute of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. https://www.designinformatics.org/

Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 (#MVFW23) took place in a variety of virtual worlds and platforms including Spatial (https://spatial.io) in a space ghosted by Luis Fern and Metamundo which can be visited with Ready Player Me (https://readyplayer.me) avatars. This follows the 2022 event (blog post here).

MVFW23 MAD Global Curates

https://www.spatial.io/s/MVFW23-MAD-Global-Curates-6420c0f06127ed8eaffb047b

Including digital fashion artwork (MP4 – stream.mux.com) by Francesca Rosella (Cutecircuit) using MidJourney AI.

MVFW Exclusible x Polycount Web3 Couture

https://www.spatial.io/s/MVFW-Exclusible-x-Polycount-Web3-Couture-641e240e4f058f43042d7a20

MVFW Tommy Hilfiger Monolith

https://www.spatial.io/s/MVFW-Tommy-Hilfiger-Monolith-642217d890a2f49f474391e4

MVFW – Eter Studio x Simes

https://www.spatial.io/s/MVFW-Eter-Studio-x-Simes-6400f3073aa2f200e9748050

Club Vogue Singapore and thedrip.boutique

https://www.spatial.io/s/Club-Vogue-Singapore-63208a322beec8000135ef2c

Clue Vogue Singapore in Spatial includes a display of the top three finalists of the Vogue Singapore x Metaverse Fashion Week Digital Fashion Competition and a range of purchasable virtual clothing from thedrip.boutique…

https://vogue.sg/vogue-singapore-metaverse-fashion-week-digital-competition/

Club Vogue Singapore in Spatial.io Real Life and Virtual Fashion

Runway Magazine Fashion Trends

https://www.spatial.io/s/Runway-Fashion-Magazine-Gallery-632a5ee2959f240001c95cab

MFH x Dollhouse presents Digital Fashion Week

https://www.spatial.io/s/MFH-x-Dollhouse-presents-Digital-Fashion-Week-Hw3-HUG-FQ-64038d2cf0a902db0d6bbd6f

Sean Heavy has documented a process to add an armature/rig to the Ruth2v4 open source mesh avatar and to export components of the avatar for Second Life and OpenSim using the Onigiri Blender add-on. These notes are to provide some initial help while the process is being tested. The blog post will likely evolve as the process is tested and refined.

From the Ruth2 repository at https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Ruth2 obtain ./Mesh/Ruth2_v4/Ruth2v4Dev.blend

Steps 1-14 is just a one time setup for rigging:

1. Open the Ruth2v4Dev.blend file.
2. Save it somewhere safe or a temporary location for testing.
3. Select the mesh object Ruth2v4; copy & paste it.
4. Rename the pasted version to Ruth2v4_ForRigging, to avoid confusion.
5. Hide all but the object Ruth2v4_ForRigging, also to avoid confusion.
6. In the Onigiri menu->Rig Creation tab, click on “Enable additional choices”.
7. Click on “Add Female Default Devkit Rig” to create a rig for Ruth.
8. It helps if you select the new rig; go to the “Object Data Properties” tab (looks like a guy running); click on “Viewport Display”; check “In Front” to see the rig easier.
9. Select the object “Ruth2v4_ForRigging”.
10. Go to the “Skinning/Weights” tool in Onigiri.
11. With “Ruth2v4_ForRigging” selected, click on “Lock Mesh(s)”. This should put it’s name in that field.
12. Select the Onigiri rig.
13. With the Onigiri rig selected, click on “Lock Weight Sources”. This will parent the armature to the mesh.
14. Note that this newly rigged mesh will not work well in SL/OS. Some parts are not rigged correctly, but this does not matter since we won’t be using this rig in SL/OS.

Save this as a .blend file so it is available with these setup steps already completed.

These instructions are for rigging the actual mesh objects for use in SL/OS:

1. Go to the “Skinning/Weights” tool in Onigiri and keep the newly created mesh, “Ruth2v4_ForRigging”, and it’s rig visible.
2. Make visible the next mesh or meshes you want to rig for SL/OS (say Ruth2v4Business + Ruth2v4Hands).
3. Select it/them (e.g. Ruth2v4Business + Ruth2v4Hands).
4. With your yet to be rigged mesh object(s) selected (e.g. Ruth2v4Business + Ruth2v4Hands), click on “Lock Mesh(s)” in Onigiri. This should put its name or a number of meshes in that field.
5. Select the mesh “Ruth2v4_ForRigging” (not the rig, just the mesh) and click on “Lock Weight Sources”. This should put it’s name in that field, but not attach the rig yet (unlike before).
6. Click on “Parent Armature Only”
7. This will rig your mesh object (e.g. Ruth2v4Business + Ruth2v4Hands) for SL/OS.
8. Select this mesh object(s) (e.g. Ruth2v4Business + Ruth2v4Hands) and click on “Export Mesh For SL / Opensim” in the Onigiri “Mesh Export” tab.
9. Name the exported Collada file and save it. You should be able to import this DAE file into SL/OS.

Repeat these last 9 steps for all mesh objects you want to rig and import to SL/OS.

SL/OS Mesh Import Settings:

1. Model name should be set to something sensible.
2. You could set the level of Detail for “Lowest” to 0 and under Physics set that to Lowest.
3. Under Rigging, “Include skin weight” should be ticked (as it is by default).
4. “Include joint positions” does not need to be ticked (as it also is by default).
5. Then hit “Calculate weights & fee” and upload.
6. Attach the uploaded mesh to a suitable attachment point.
7. Texture it with Bakes (Head, Upper and Lower as appropriate) or suitable textures.
8. Optionally add the Ruth2v4 scripts from the Ruth2 GitHub repository or as available inworld via the Ruth2v4 Second Life Marketplace distribution and on the RuthAndRoth region in OpenSim/OSGrid to connect up with the Ruth2v4 HUD.

The 16th Virtual World Best Practice in Education 2023 online conference titled “Uncommon Realities” took place in Second Life on 23rd March to 25th March 2023. The event organised by https://www.vwbpe.org/ focuses on the use of immersive virtual environments for educational purposes including virtual and augmented reality.

Opening Event

Tom Boellstorff (avatar: Tom Bukowski) Keynote
“Making the Metaverse a Common Reality”

Linden Lab Chat with Grumpity Linden and Patch Linden

A chat and look at upcoming features of Second Life with Linden Lab’s VP of Product Grumpity Linden and VP of Product Operations Patch Linden.

Second Life Mobile Viewer (based on Unity) preview video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tjRlVwlAXA

Second Life is 20 years old this year and the SL 20 Birthday event is on June 22nd and 23rd, 2023.

Stylianos Mystakidis (Avatar: Stylianos Ling) Keynote
Metaverse: Pandora’s Pithos or Panacea for Education?
7+1 Uncommon Truths about the Edu-Metaverse

Stylianos Mystakidis is a Tutor Counsellor at the Hellenic Open University, Greece

Update August 2023: A big advantage of new PBR Viewers is that the Ready Player Me .gltf file can be used to load all the PBR materials, their properties and constituent textures in one bulk upload. Use Build -> Upload -> Materials and select the avatar .gltf and then use the drop down menu to select the “Bulk Upload All” option.

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 and OpenSim. 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).

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. Some data files used by Onigiri may be needed to make the conversion process easier.
   1. Go to the Onigiri “data” directory which is usually located at something like
      C:\Users\…\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\…\scripts\addons\Onigiri\data
      This location can be overwritten when you update Onigiri so save a copy of the changes/additions mentioned below for future use.
   2. Observe that the readyplayerme.onim is 3KB (in Onigiri 3.5b). Copy mixamo_no_prefix.onim (29KB) to readyplayerme.onim instead as that gives a better conversion. Ready Player Me avatars have a Mixamo compatible skeleton/armature.
   3. Ready Player Me avatars can be downloaded in a “T-Pose” which is a good basis for the conversion but also splaying the fingers on the hands works better. From https://openvce.net/resources/downloads/ReadyPlayerMe/Onigiri/ download ReadyPlayerMe-T-Pose-Splayed-Hands-Only.bpl and also put it in …\addons\Onigiri\data.
4. Ensure you have a Ready Player Me avatar to download via https://readyplayer.me).

Workflow for Conversion

• Obtain Ready Player Me avatar .glb URL.
• Download avatar URL with ?textureAtlas=none&textureSizeLimit=1024&textureFormat=png&pose=T on the end.
  • Smaller clothing textures can be obtained in the .glb download by using textureSizeLimit=512 or leaving it out (usually means 512).
  • You can get the “Full” .glb download which includes all “morphTargets” for facial and mouth animation (unused in this conversion process) by using
    ?morphTargets=ARKit,Oculus+Visemes,Default&textureAtlas=none
    &textureSizeLimit=1024&textureFormat=png&pose=T
  • Smaller clothing textures can be obtained in the .glb download by using textureSizeLimit=512 or leaving it out (usually means 512).
  • The default of &lod=0 is used. You can alternatively get reduced triangle mesh avatars via &lod=1 or &lod=2.
  • You can get smaller compressed textures with &textureFormat=jpeg.
• Start Blender and delete any initial content (e.g. cube), the default camera and light.
• Import .glb to Blender and check avatar is in T-Pose.
• Extract all the textures. One quick way to do that is to save the project as a .blend file first, then go to File -> External Data -> Unpack Resources and select “Use files in current directory (create when necessary)”.

Set Finger Pose to Second Life/OpenSim Splayed Fingers

The Ready Player Me T-Pose has the fingers in a line. Second Life and OpenSim T-Pose rest pose has the fingers widely splayed. This can be fixed by applying the finger splaying mentioned earlier which is limited to the fingers and thumbs of the avatar.

• Use Onigiri’s Animation -> Enable the Pose Library and then load the ReadyPlayerMe-T-Pose-Splayed-Hands-Only.bpl pose library file and applying the pose to the avatar (note to make the Pose Apply button to be active you might have to click off the Armature in the Blender Outliner and and back on it).

Convert Avatar Rig/Armature for Second Life/OpenSim

• Under Onigiri’s Character Converter, load the readyplayerme.onim map and click Convert
• Use Onigiri to export for Second Life/OpenSim (select all three options including Project Full Rig).
• Import the Collada (.dae) file produced to Second Life/OpenSim. Name the mesh something sensible. Set the Lowest Level of Detail to 0. Select Physics as “Lowest”. In Rigging tick both “Include Skin Weights” and “Include Joint Positions”. If you leave out Include joint positions, the avatar may look spindly.

Prepare the Avatar within Second Life/OpenSim

• Attach the uploaded mesh avatar (e.g. to Avatar Center)
• Change the Description field of the avatar mesh to include the licence information:
  CC BY-NC 4.0 https://readyplayer.me
• As with any mesh avatar in Second Life or OpenSim, you will need to add an “Alpha Mask” to make sure the underlying standard avatar does not show through the mesh. This should make all parts transparent (Lower, Upper, Head, Eyes and Hair)

Texture the Avatar in Second Life or OpenSim

• Texture the mesh faces using the Diffuse textures and Normal Maps (for bumpiness). The shininess/metallic textures don’t work well and may be omitted

Texture with diffuse textures and add bumpiness “normal” textures to the mesh inworld. You probably don’t want to use (yet) the Metallic/Roughness/Shininess (PBR) where that is provided for some faces as they can be a bit too glossy. Though Physics Based Rendering (PBR) is under development for Second Life, so you may wish to keep the textures to hand.

To texture the teeth you may need to Disable the Camera Constraints (Preferences -> Advanced) to be able to swing the camera inside the mesh head to select that mesh part.

The hair colour is a simple coloured image. You can alternatively change the hair colour using the “Blank” texture and setting a colour.

Avatar .glb files that are downloaded may have a single face with three textures that represent the texture (diffuse), normal map and metallic/shininess (PBR), or maybe have multiple faces for hair, face, skin, top and bottom. The single face format does not allow hiding of the hair, glasses, etc for in world customisation as described below.

Optimising and Re-using Textures

If multiple Ready Player Me avatars share the same face, eyes, teeth body, hair and perhaps items such as glasses. The diffuse and normal map textures for these can be reused rather than uploading and using a new asset each time. This will save upload fees, but also allow for texture sharing or reuse for efficiency. The different textures for the outfit top, bottom, dress and/or footwear can then be used with these shared elements. The skin and hair colour textures can also be replaced by the standard blank texture and coloured to match to further save on the use of different textures.

Hand Relax Background Pose

• You could add a hand relax low priority pose into the mesh.
• To “relax” the hands when not in a pose you could use the RuthAndRoth “bentohandrelax” script and “bentohandrelaxP1” animation. These are available in the Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 distributions in Second Life and OpenSim or via the (GitHub RuthAndRoth “Extras” repository Animations Directory).

In-world Customisation

A number (but not all) the “Edit Shape” sliders work on Ready Player Me avatars to adjust the general shape.

Some parts such as the hair, accessories such as glasses, etc. can be “unlinked” to be separate wearable items or just set to 100% transparent so that the underlying avatar shows through (such as setting a bald head). This can allow some measure of in-world customisation. This also allows standard avatar attachments such as mesh and flexi hair to be added on without initially uploading a bald headed Ready Player Me avatar.

The head and body parts and textures cannot be altered. Facial hair, eyebrow details, make-up, etc are all baked onto the skin textures which have a unique mapping for Ready Player Me avatars. Hence tattoos and other elements that can be applied to skins in Second Life or OpenSim will not work.

The eye texture can be changed, even to a Bakes on Mesh (BoM) Eye (ensure you use an underlying avatar mask that allows the eye to show in that case). The normal eye texture iris image is slightly larger than the standard Ready Player Me one, so you may wish to adjust the image horizontal and vertical scale to (say) 1.1.

Licencing

Ready Player Me avatars are licensed as CC BY-NC 4.0.

Onigiri is based on a fork of Bento Buddy (a charged for Blender add-on) and uses the same basic Python scripts as is permitted under the Blender add-on licence, though it uses its own assets such as icons.

• Blender is an open source 3D modelling tool using the GPLv3 licence.
• Onigiri is a free GPLv3 licenced Blender add-on.
• Any avatar created using the Ready Player Me website is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), allowing non-commercial use.
• OpenSimulator is an open source (MIT Licence) virtual world server platform largely compatible with Second Life. Viewers for OpenSim and Second Life are LGPL licenced.

Alternative Routes

An alternative route to convert Ready Player Me avatars for use in Second Life and OpenSim is to use the Bento Buddy Blender add-on as described in this blog post. Though Bento Buddy is also GPL licenced, the latest versions of Bento Buddy (1-Jan-2023 onwards) requires a current paid for licence to the Bento Buddy “Expression” service to allow the export of the Collada (.dae) outfit file.

This blog post provides links and resources related to the use of “Nodes” and their “Noodle” links to create workflows in Blender, especially for creating PBR Materials with Albedo images, Metallic, Roughness and Height Maps/Normals.

Learn the BASICS of Material Shading in Blender – YouTube by Brandon’s Drawings

How to setup PBR textures in Blender by Daniel Grove Photo: In this video you’ll learn the fundamentals of nodes, materials, and using image maps to create realistic surfaces for your models. I’ll also show you how I modify my textures with nodes for further flexibility and unique looks.

ORM Textures In Blender by Chevifier: ORM textures is a technique used to store multiple PBR textures values into 1 texture on each RGB channel. This save both on storage space and easier texture management. For example instead of having 5+ textures you would generally only have 3.(Color/Albedo), ORM and Normal Map). ORM corresponds to ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Metallic. But you can store them in any order.

Example material use for testing… freepbr.com space-crate1-pbr

Sample PBR Materials

• https://polyhaven.com/textures – Format GL not DX.
• Free PBR – free PBR materials and texture files
• Ambient CG – Public Domain Resources for Physically Based Rendering
• Other free PBR materials: vgbookcase.com, sharetextures.com

I have posted before about Cuteulala Artis’s roller coaster builds in OpenSim, her free to use (in OpenSim only) Optera coaster, and her CuteulalaPark region on OSGrid.

Via her MeWe posts, Cuteulala recently made available on OAR similar to the OSGrid Theme Park 2 region and then an update exclusively for use in the DreamGrid distribution of OpenSim.

Cuteulala Park 2 Availability, Terms of Use and Licence

Cuteulala Artis on MeWe 6-Mar-2023:

Hi there!! As a thanks to Outworldz I decided I am gonna donate the Cuteulala Park 2 to DreamGrid for all to use. This means I will cease sales of this OAR! So I will instead accept donations to this link here. While I am not comfortable selling things I will instead have donations to my payee’s PayPal account instead. You will be able to download all my OARs but have the option to donate or not. I think this is the best action so that more people can enjoy the work for free.

This is a 2×2 Region theme park optimized for YEngine.

The terms are as follows:

• NOTICE: Script Timer must be 0.05 or Lowest so that the sensors can be fast enough to stop and start the fast moving trains!
• None Monetary use. No Second Life Import of any kind. Opensim ONLY.
• You can edit / change the work with the code without SALE and only personal use. You can use it in a commercial grid without monetary and ALL CREDITS OF ORIGINAL CREATOR (Cuteulala Artis) must be present in the sim.
• Add a link to the free OAR preferably at the spawn point and to the location of this post.

Fred Beckhusen will add the OAR to the main oar segment in DreamGrid. I will no longer be selling OARs and will have a donation. Previous commercial buyers of the OAR do reserve there normal rights to commercial usage of course! Donations can be sent here. https://paypal.me/cuteulala. Also note: No I am NOT a guy. I have a representative payee who gets my checks from social security and manages all my bills. Money goes to him then me to protect clients.

Themepark_2023-01-16_01_30_45.oar (219.49 MB)

If you have access to this original version for OpenSim please delete the “Pedestrian Controller” (located at <407, 229.656, 21.3352>) as it should not have been included for licencing reasons.

Cuteulala Park 2 Minor Update

This version is the one now available and is for exclusive use on DreamGrid installations of OpenSim. It fixes some errors with scripts and removes some assets not meant to be released to the public. The Pedestrian Controller is removed. If you have taken a copy of this item delete it as its not authorized for release. Usage of the scripts and its assets isn’t permitted.. yet.

Say thanks with a optional donation: https://paypal.me/cuteulala

READ FIRST: Restriction to exclusive use on DreamGrid distributions of OpenSim
[Text, Thumbnail Image, OAR (as .tgz)]

Winxtropia+Themepark_2023-03-12_00_19_29(2X2).oar (217.73 MB)

This blog post is to provide resources and links related to the MIT Licenced open source Godot Game Engine.

• https://godotengine.org/
• https://docs.godotengine.org/

As an initial test I imported a glTF 2.0 mesh file created from my Blender version of Supercar 2023. Godot prefers glTF versus file formats like FBX and has inbuilt importers for glTF and its binary form glb, though with addon importers like FBX2glTF (which is offers) other formats can be handled.

The mesh can be imported into the scene by dragging the item from the “Filesystem” panel to the “Scene” panel. A tip to be able to edit child parts of an imported mesh (such as the Supercar above) is to right click on it when in the Scene and tick “Editable Children” and then “Expand/Collapse Branch”.

Tutorial Videos

• Beginner’s Guide to Textures & Meshes in Godot 4 by ExploreGameDev
• Quickstart: Importing and adding character controllers to 3d models in Godot 4 by ExploreGameDev

Adding an Avatar to a Godot Scene

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/first_3d_game/02.player_input.html

In response to a colleague’s request for pointers to early AI achievements in Edinburgh I provided a few links and resources that may be useful. This blog posts lists some of them…

We carefully preserved an archive of project materials and documents from all of the previous AIAI’s work over a period of four decades (in Informatucs Forum room IF2.22 in the now enlarged AIAI and formally looked after by its director, currently Jacques Fleuriot)… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/resources/

I have over the years also tried to preserve some of the history, as did Jim Howe.. these links might be relevant…

Jim Howe’s history of AI at Edinburgh… https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/about/AIhistory.html

My list of the various AI groups since 1963…
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2019/10/30/artificial-intelligence-and-its-applications-institute/

Donald and others have given a number of talks on early AI history and pioneering AI work at Edinburgh and in the UK… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/events.html
https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/events/ccs2002/ (AI – Recollections if the Pioneers)

Some specific deployed applications of AI technology created by AIAI are listed via the menu down the left hand side if this page at… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/achievements.html

Freddy Robot project summary page… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/freddy/

My owns summary of AI planning work my group has been involved in over 5 decades… also now preserved on GitHub and in its “Arctic Code Vault“… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/plan/

We also created the AI Planning MOOC to preserve a range of material, demonstrations, code and interviews… https://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/plan/ooc/

There are also a few things going on here just now that could be relevant… as its the 60th anniversary of Donald setting up the first AI group at Edinburgh (EPU)… https://www.ed.ac.uk/c/60-years-computer-science-ai

A development of Second Life is introducing Physical Based Rendering (PBR) materials based on the glTF specification. Some links and resources are in my earlier blog post.

Test Materials with Metallics, Lights and Emission

Ready Player Me Avatar with All Channel PBR Materials

Bistro Interior by Nagachief Darkstone

Supercar Mesh

I tested out some of my previous complex mesh models, which use the old style texturing and shininess. This is how they render in the test PBR viewer without applying any new materials or properties.

Talk from and about virtual worlds & immersive spaces. With Mal Burns, Thirza Ember & James Atlloud. Produced by Metaworld Broadcasting. the 26th February 2023 edition had guests Ai Austin and Humbletim. The intended discussion topic was Virtual World Viewers, though the actual topics range more widely about virtual worlds developments and uses.

This blog post provides some notes, resources and links provided by Ai Austin to help in the discussion.

Firestorm Viewer and OpenSim Core Developers

• Jessica Lyon, Willow Wilder, Whirly Fizzle, Ansariel Hillier, Cinders Roxley, Beq Janus and team.

• OpenSim Core devs:
• Early days with Adam Frisby and Justin Clark-Casey
• Melanie Thielker
• Diva (Crista Lopes, University of California, Irvine)
• Robert Adams (MisterBlue)
• Kevin Cozens
• Leal Duarte (Ubit Umarov)

VR developments – 2007 to date

https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2022/02/20/vr-viewers/

• 2007 3D stereoscopic University of Michigan
• 2011 3D anaglyph (red/cyan glasses) Kirsten’s Viewer
• 2014 David Rowe (CtrlAltStudio) 3D anaglyph, Nvidia 3D active shutter, Oculus Rift.
• 2014 VoidPointer Linden – LL Oculus Rift Project Viewer.
• 2016 Other 3D injection approaches such as VorpX.
• 2019 Peter Kappler VR Mod – minimal approach. GHA build process by @thoys and @humbletime

LL “almost there” in 2014 but gave up with FPS concerns. I speculate it was some broken final commits around October 2014 after VoidPointer left the project that were shown and not liked in LL at the time.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2014/09/05/oculus-rift-dk2-linden-lab-rift-project-viewer/

I am NOT a fan of assuming all user interaction will be via VR HMDs. I prefer mostly 2D UI with occasional entry into VR when relevant. Good example is the OpenSim RGU Oil Rig for immersive oil rig worker training.
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2017/06/07/virtual-oil-rig-enhancing-higher-education/

Development Milestones and Disruptive Times

LGPL Viewer Licence was a big spur. Prior to that OpenSim devs were serious about NOT looking at LL viewer code and reusing some simple assets such as default textures before that.

• 0.8.2.1 -> 0.9.0.* transition (serious object rez issues, caused some grid to delay upgrade for a long time).
• Estate Management (caused some users and grids to delay viewer upgrade for some time).
• Mesh (Collada).
• Bakes on Mesh (worked surprisingly well for majority of functionality without change).
• EEP.
• Coming up: PBR, Puppetry.

OpenSim Advantages

NPC mechanism is easier to use and more flexible than LL Animesh and was introduced much earlier. Good for educators.

hop:// Protocol- “nearly” working

I am a big fan of hop, and try to encourage its use and development where I can. I think its the simplest, most easily understood mechanism for defining locations and providing web and viewer clickable links to go to locations on any one OpenSim grid and across the Hypergrid.

hop is now well supported via Firestorm, and some other viewers (like Alchemy), with recent improvements by Beq Janus on the Firestorm team. A few remaining issues have JIRA entries and may one day be addressed. The top one is an issue where a hop region name is a partial match for more than one other region on the grid.
https://jira.firestormviewer.org/browse/FIRE-31368

Wishlist for the Future (SL and OpenSim)

• https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/wishlist-for-next-gen-virtual-world/
• https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/hypergrid-safari-travel-outfit-and-travel-kit/
• Display Names would be handy – already in some spin off branches of OpenSim server.
• Procedurally Generated Flora and Terrain Features (Unity terrain editor like).
• Improved packaging of a travel case with permissions based export for other virtual worlds (metaverse)
• Other mesh format options (glTF, FBX) for 3D models and avatars (needs armature/skeleton conversion).
• A “metaverse” capable viewer across multiple platforms with avatar identity and travelling suitcase support (permissions based).

Mobile “Viewer”

There have been several attempts to provide continuing access to Second Life even when not on a capable machine on which the full viewer can run. This usually involves at least maintaining avatar to avatar to group orientated communication. But some viewer for mobile devices also allow for more types on interaction.

• Pocket Metaverse on Apple iOS Devices for SL and OpenSim
• Lumiya for Android devices
• Speedlight via a web browser – https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/speedlight-resources/

OpenSim Only Viewer?

• Too small a community and too many variants to go for just an Opensim Viewer.
• Standards development will mean more sharing of assets. glTF is an example… with Robert Adams/MisterBlue developing a bridge. OARConv and Unity direct view with libremetaverse library in Crystal Frost viewer by Berry Bunny, etc.

This blog post provides links and resources related to “FairShare” an experimental idea originated by Philip Rosedale (pioneer of Second Life and its digital currency – the Linden Dollar) to look at digital currencies in and between small cooperative groups.

• https://www.fairshare.social/
• Whitepaper: https://fairshare.social/whitepaper
• Presentation: https://fairshare.social/presentation
• New World New Blog Post on FairShare on 16-Feb-2023

Using the Spatial Creator Toolkit for Unity (see this blog post for resources) I have imported the Blender/FBX version of our Gerry Anderson’s Supercar model into a scene which can be visited by multiple simultaneous users with any Ready Player Me avatar (or one can be created on the fly as a guest).

Example PBR Materials (Chrome and Brass) on Door Knobs

Physics Based Rendering and glTF materials use is coming to Second Life and a project viewer already exits for testing things using the Beta Grid. This blog post is to gather resources relevant to using PBR in Second Life.

• PBR needs OpenGL4 or later, though systems without that will see normal rendering.
• Physically Based Rendering Wiki: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/PBR_Materials
• How to create a Metallic-Roughness! YouTube video by Medhue Animations
• Download the latest GLTF PBR Materials Project Viewer – or watch for it being incorporated into the main viewer
• Interested in checking out the upcoming materials features? Visit our Support site’s Accessing Aditi page to get started by requesting access to our Beta testing grid, Aditi.
• PBRis currently an early Alpha Project stage and only available for use on the Second Life Beta grid (Aditi) and then only on specific regions: Materials1, Materials Adult, Rumpus Room 1 (through 4).

Second Life University – PBR Materials with Runitai and Kyle Linden – 9-Feb-2022

Once again, I was inspired by one of Inara Pey’s excellent Second Life destinations reviews to visit another nice build in Second Life, this time of a late Nineteenth Century western town in the “Nowhere” region of the Mohave Desert.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Les%20Salines/116/113/27