Austin Tate's Blog

This blog post provides some links and resources relevant to the (currently experimental) development of “Puppetry” for Second Life and OpenSim.

Puppetry opens up the viewer to accept animation data from other sources such as scripts (e.g. Python), a webcam or hardware controllers. Input events are provided by the LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system which is already available in Second Life viewers. Puppetry potentially allows many new ways to make your avatar move.

See blog post on 31-Aug-2022 on “Introducing Second Life Puppetry” – https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/11527-introducing-second-life-puppetry/

• Linden Lab Second Life Project Puppetry Viewer (6.6.3 30-Aug-2022 or later as updated) via https://releasenotes.secondlife.com/viewer.html
• How Puppetry Works – https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/How_Puppetry_Works
• Puppetry Setup – https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Puppetry_Setup
• Blender Addon by “FeklixWolf” that creates a Second Life skeleton that can be used for rigging/animation. As well as support for puppetry streaming.
  https://github.com/FelixWolf/plywood-cube

Blog Post under preparation – Firestorm 6.6.3 is not yet released.

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. Firestorm VR Mod is now available from https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases (Assets)

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

Firestorm 6.6.3 + P373R VR Mod: This build includes P373R’s VR Mod 6.3.3 changes merged into the Firestorm 6.6.3.67470 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.

Download the release installer (for Windows only) from the “Assets” list at the bottom of the entry for the latest version available at https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases/

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

Firestorm VR Mod is created using “GitHub Actions” (GHA) thanks to @humbletim and @thoys. Minor manual changes are made for the VR Mod 6.3.3 code for the merge, which otherwise continues to be suitable. Some of the code for performance metrics wants to be just ahead of rendering, which is where the VR Mod inject points also wanted to be. Since they are independent it’s just a matter of explaining to git they are unrelated and can exist in any order. The cmake scripts are also amended to auto-include openvr.dll.

The App name has been changed to “FirestormVR” and the Program Files and AppData directories changed so the installation can exist side-by-side with stock Firestorm if desired. Settings are stored in the different user folder C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/FirestormVR_x64. The asset cache is shared.

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 a config file which is located in
  “C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Roaming\FirestormVR_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 Hardware cannot maintain constand 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

Firestorm VR Mod installs into its own folder and uses its own user Settings directory so that the VR Mod viewer can be installed alongside the standard Firestorm viewer. Note that if you want to import existing Firestorm accounts/settings you have to manually copy them over between AppData/Roaming/Firestorm_x64 and AppData/Roaming/FirestormVR_x64 folders.

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

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%

Jumbled VR Initialisation Text:

I have noted that Ctrl+Tab to start the SteamVR/HMD device software sometimes shows jumbled letters for the VR driver initialisation message, and once that occurs using Tab to launch VR mode does not give a VR display in the HMD.

After some experimentation, I found that after starting Firestorm VR Mod, rather than going straight to Cltrl+Tab to set up for VR devices, I first dismiss the onscreen message with Tab, and THEN do a Ctrl+Tab after which the full message without missing letters immediately appears, and SteamVR/Oculus is launched and when the Tab is then used the VR mode works properly. This may be a temporary situation and could be related to driver updates or SteamVR changes, but if you see the same thing, try the Tab and then Ctrl+Tab sequence once or twice to see if that also works for you.

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).

Reset Default View in Firestorm Viewer

If your camera viewpoint appears to be wrong… type ESC or Shift + ESC a few times. That should reset your camera view. You could also try CTRL + 9, which does the same thing.

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.

To improve frame rate (FPS) you might opt to set shadows to “None”, Water reflections to “None: Opaque” 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.

Firestorm 6.5.3 and later 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).

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

In some situations the rendering of Linden Water, the water surface and its effects, can significantly reduce frame rates. In an environment that makes sense, such as a meeting room, disabling Linden Water can boost frame rates. Do that via Advanced (Ctrl+Alt+D) > Rendering Types > Water (or keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+7).

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

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

This version of Firestorm VR Mod 6.4.12.62831 is based on the Firestorm source code at Commit r63477:5b44308aee43 (Wed, 02 Dec 2020 21:32:05). Firestorm source is available at https://vcs.firestormviewer.org/phoenix-firestorm. Look under “Commits” and select the branch for Firestorm_6.4.12 (link here).

With Firestorm VR Mod Peter Kappler uses a 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.

Note that the VR Mod source remains stable since version 6.3.3 and that no changes are needed for insertion into later versions of Firestorm to date.

The GitHub Actions (GHA) source by @HumbleTim used to combine Firestorm source and Peter Kappler’s P373R VR Mod addons and build it using Visual Studio 2019 is available via https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha.

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.

A quick visit to Aurelia’s Rainy Day Cafe in Second Life. Initially to pick up a (free) box of EEP Rainbow environment settings by Juicy Bomb (see this blog post)… but then I stayed to enjoy the cafe on the ocean front…

Visit via http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aurelias/234/246/23

Mona or Monaverse is a browser based virtual world platform that provides a number of separate experiences connected via portals – https://monaverse.com/

Mona accepts registration and logins by connecting a cryptocurrency wallet such as Metamask and WalletConnect. Or you can have a casual visit to experiences without a login. A default avatar is presented or you can connect a Ready Player Me avatar (.glb).

Matching Virtual and In Real Life Outfits by Tommy Hilfiger –
https://www.paralleltommyhilfiger.com/

glTF (GL Transmission Format)

• https://www.khronos.org/gltf/
• https://registry.khronos.org/glTF/
• PDF: https://registry.khronos.org/glTF/specs/2.0/glTF-2.0.pdf

glTF 2.0 is now an ISO standard (4-Aug-2022):
https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-gltf-2.0-released-as-an-iso-iec-international-standard

glTF Converters

See https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2018/09/28/gltf-converters/

The Virtual University of Edinburgh “Openvue” grid on http://virtual.aiai.ed.ac.uk:8002 has been operating since 2007 as an open Hypergrid accessible resource looked after by Prof. Austin Tate (avatar: Ai Austin) in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh.

Openvue will now be moved behind the University firewall and thus will not be accessible externally via the Hypergrid. It will continue to be available within the firewall or via the University’s secure VPN. This is part of a networking security effort by the University to close open ports for services run by individual departments or schools or by normal staff members.

Discussions are underway to potentially transfer the Openvue grid to run as a central service so Openvue may reappear on the Hypergrid at some time, though its griduri will change to a central one if that is done.

It is the 20th anniversary of the creation of “The Man” statue which appeared on one of the Second Life Beta regions on 19th July 2002. Twenty years of the Second Life virtual world and going strong.

https://secondlife.com/destination/the-man
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Natoma/96/182/26

360° Snapshots – Click on Image to See Panorama in Flickr

“The Man” Statue Notecard Information

It all started back in the Alpha stage of Second Life (then Linden World) when Linden Lab wanted to test a new rendering engine, how feasible a city scape would be, and other general content testing. This city was built in Natoma before any non-employee users had logged into SL and was not named but often referred to as “Linden Town” or “Linden City”. The town/city contained many buildings (mostly unfurnished and low texture usage), a small park-like town square with a fountain, and roads all through it. The city also had a statue in its town square behind a “City Hall”. The statue turned out of course to be “The Man” built by a content developer (oldjohn Linden) hired at the time by LL (in 2002).

The city was later deleted before Beta to make way for the new Welcome Area which got the nickname of the ‘Newbie Corral’ and also the various other new-resident oriented things (Avatar Central among them). However one thing survived the deletion of the city to become the only proof of its existence (besides pictures), and that thing was “The Man” statue. At this point The Man was moved slightly to the corner of Natoma and placed on a small grassy hill. The Man stood and greeted new residents from its perch off in the distance as they entered.

Natoma remained this way until the Welcome Area, along with other content, was deleted and moved. Being the crafty build it was, The Man once again escaped deletion and still stood tall above the land.

Natoma has since gone through many changes, some Linden builds disappeared and only two old builds were left from its past. These surviving builds are the Arch’D Linden Grande (from the Newbie Corral era) and The Man statue. Thus The Man stands today as the oldest original still-standing build within Second Life.

Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system that allows users to create and play in environments or games. Roblox is free to play, with in-game purchases available through its virtual currency called “Robux”. According to Wikipedia, as of August 2020, Roblox had over 164 million monthly active users. Typical avatars look like “Lego” characters, but other styles are available, and avatars can have added clothing layers.

• http://www.roblox.com
• Roblox Studio – Create & Edit Experiences or Games
• House of Blueberry Clothing

• AiAi_Austin Profile – AiAi_Austin’s Place – Sample Free Avatar – Male – Denny

To easily install Roblox on Windows without using the Microsoft Store and a Microsoft Account, you can open a link to an experience, choose a free one such as “Brookhaven RP”, and click the play arrow. This will try to launch Roblox, which if not installed, will offer a link to download and install, before you can then retry play on the experiemnce web page… https://www.roblox.com/games/4924922222/Brookhaven-RP

Control Keys

• WASD and Arrow Keys – Move Forward, Left, Backward and Right
• Spacebar – Jump or get up off seat
• 1, 2, 3,… – Equip and Unequip Tools
• Mouse Left Button – Use Tool
• Mouse Wheel Zoom – In/Out
• Other keys are usually assigned by the specific experience or game

This blog post is in preparation for a future release and links will not yet be valid. For the current release see https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/firestorm-vr-mod-6-5-3/

Firestorm 6.5.6 + P373R VR Mod: This build includes P373R’s VR Mod 6.3.3 changes merged into the Firestorm 6.5.6.66215 (TBC) release branch.

Download the release installer from the “Assets” list at the bottom of the entry for the latest version available at https://github.com/humbletim/firestorm-gha/releases/

The user instructions are similar to Firestorm VR Mod 6.4.12 which is described at https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/firestorm-vr-mod-6-4-12/

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

Firestorm VR Mod 6.5.6 is created using “GitHub Actions” (GHA) thanks to @humbletim and @thoys. Minor manual changes are made the VR Mod 6.3.3 code for the merge, which otherwise continues to be suitable. Some of the code for performance metrics wants to be just ahead of rendering, which is where the VR Mod inject points also wanted to be. Since they are independent it’s just a matter of explaining to git they are unrelated and can exist in any order. The cmake scripts are also amended to auto-include openvr.dll.

The App name has been changed to “FirestormVR” so the installation can exist side-by-side with stock Firestorm if desired. Settings are also stored in the different user folder C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/FirestormVR_x64.

This release is for Windows, and a Linux build compiles but entering into VR mode via SteamVR remains to be tested.

To improve frame rate (FPS) you might opt to set shadows to “None”, Water reflections to “None: Opaque” 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. See advice on FPS improvement and the new “Performance Floater” and “FPS Autotune” capabilities in Beq Janus’s Blog Post (21-Mar-2022).

WARNING: Modern VR HMD systems have async reprojection (which helps prevent low frame rate nausea), but as it stands right now, accessing Second Life/OpenSim in VR mode is only for the very brave.

Misaligned VR Cursor

Gaffe on Discord notes: 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%

Update: Jumbled VR Initialisation Text:

I have noted that Ctrl+Tab to start the SteamVR/HMD device software sometimes shows jumbled letters for the VR driver initialisation message, and once that occurs using Tab to launch VR mode does not give a VR display in the HMD.

After some experimentation, I found that after starting Firestorm VR Mod, rather than going straight to Cltrl+Tab to set up for VR devices, I first dismiss the onscreen message with Tab, and THEN do a Ctrl+Tab after which the full message without missing letters immediately appears, and SteamVR/Oculus is launched and when the Tab is then used the VR mode works properly. This may be a temporary situation and could be related to driver updates or SteamVR changes, but if you see the same thing, try the Tab and then Ctrl+Tab sequence once or twice to see if that also works for you.

• Web page: https://secondlife.com
• Downloads: https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/
• Second Life Discord Channel: Invite Link, Request creator channel access

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 2022 on a nice 87 mile route set by Mike Brownlow through North Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Dales… beginning and ending at the Sherburn Aero Club.

As usual family members entered the event again this year… with Jon and Rosemarie entering in a 1966 Ford Mustang Shelby G.T.350, Simon with family friend Ron in an Audi A4 18T and ourselves in our Toyota MR2 Mk.3.

Spatial (https://spatial.io) is a multi-platform virtual space for art exhibitions, events, virtual offices, etc. This blog post provides resources related to Spatial.

• https://spatial.io
• Getting Started Guide
• Documentation
• Twitter: @spatialxr
• Discord Invite Link: https://discord.com/invite/spatial

Ready Player Me Avatar Integration

Ai Austin Home – Space in Spatial.io

https://spatial.io/s/Ai-Austins-Home-62a344b056c7600001ef67a1

Spatial.io Controls

This is an updated blog post explaining how to take the Ruth2 v4 avatar mesh with included armature and export it in a form suitable for use in Second Life and OpenSim. The post is still under development to debug the process. Thanks to Ada radius.

These notes descrobe the process to use Blender to take the Ruth2 v4 mesh avatar, including an “armature” for rigging and go through the process of exporting Collada (.dae) and importing to Second Life/OpenSim. It is largely based on notes and guidance from Ada Radius.

Gather Resources

A place to start is this GitHub Ruth2 Wiki page on… Clothing Creator Guide … and much more technical detail is in this Wiki page on… Blender and Rigging. Though as at 16-May-2022 these need an update.

1. Blender 3.0.1 or later (using 3.1.0)
2. Ruth2/Mesh/Ruth2_v4/Ruth2v4DevWithArmature.blend (GitHub/Ruth2)

Process Guide

Open Blender with a new project, remove default cube.

Check if Edit > Lock Object Modes is ticked tick and if so turn if off. Save as defaults for future via File -> Defaults -> Save Startup File.

Add Ruth2 v4 mesh parts dev kit via File > Append Ruth2v4DevWithArmature.blend and select the “Object” mesh part you want to work with (e.g Ruth2v4 for the head, body, legs and hands but no feet part). Open the “Object” item to get the list of parts available.

In the Outliner (usually to the right side of Blender), note that “OSSLFemaleCustVolBones” is the armature. The selected mesh part(s) is under that. There may be other mesh parts bundled in (like feet) which you can delete if they are not going to be part of your exported mesh. When using “Append” in Blender always bring in the “Object” which will pull in any related items needed, i.e. to avoid confusion, you should not try to only bring in the separate “Armature” part in this case.

In Outliner, if present Delete Light and Camera.

An alternative to the “append” process might be to just open Ruth2v4DevWithArmature.blend and choose to show (if necessary) and highlight the mesh part(s) you want to export.

Using top left menu in Object Mode, Select > All. Rotate the selection by +90 degrees on Z axis to face right in front orthographic view (make sure the armature also rotates).

Use Object > Apply > All Transforms to ensure all subparts of rotated outer container/mesh are transformed.

Now carefully check all the mesh properties as described in the Ada Radius guidance notes.

In the sample mesh part I was checking the Ruth2v4 (head, body and hands, no feet) already had the required single Armature Modifier, but also a “DataTransfer” Modifier to Ruth2v4FeetFlat. “DataTransfer” and “Weld” may be able to be left in as according to Ada Radius… “those are Modifiers that do apply well on export from Blender and import inworld. Not perfectly, but well”. So I left that in. Ada adds…

The Data Transfer Modifier has several uses. In this case I use it for separate objects that we want perceived as a single object inworld. With the settings I used, it matches the face corner normals to the target we point it to. It works fairly well, depending on inworld lighting and how well the textures match. If you see a modifier called “Weld” it’s the same thing

Export to Collada

Select the mesh part you wish to export (e.g. “Ruth2v4”)… note its the mesh part which is parented to the armature… i.e. do NOT select the parent armature (named “Ruth2v4WithArmature”).

File > Export > Collada.

Via the cog settings icon in the top right of teh export window use Operator Presets > SL+Open Sim Rigged (which sets nearly all settings needed).

Under the “Main” tab check the “Selection Only” and “Global Orientation Apply” boxes are ticked.

Main tab:

Selection Only
Include Armatures
Global Orientation Apply
Forward Axis Y
Up Axis Z
Texture options
Copy
UV – Only Selected Map

Geom(etry) tab:

Triangulate
Apply Modifiers Viewport
Transform Matrix

Arm(ature) tab:

Deform Bones Only
Export to SL/OpenSim

Anim(imation) tab:

Include Animations (may or may not be needed)

Extra tab:

Use Blender Profile
Sort by Object Name
Keep Bind Info

For rigged mesh items (like the Ruth2 avatar mesh parts themselves, or rigged mesh clothing) in the Extra tab you must ALSO tick “Keep Bind Info” (otherwise the mesh in Second Life/OpenSim will look like a spindly deformed alien when imported).

Export the Collada.

Import – Mesh Upload to Second Life/OpenSim

Import to OpenSim/SL via the Mesh Uploader as usual. Make sure to use the Second Life only version of the viewer (with Havok Physics) if uploading to Second Life. Make sure to tick “Include Skin Weight” in the Options/Rigging tab if it is not already preselected. But “Include joint positions” should not be ticked.

Avatar Mesh in OpenSim after Texturing for Bakes on Mesh

Include image incorporating the relaxed hand Pose script and animation, and after texturing the mesh for Bakes on Mesh (BoM).

David Denny has an OpenSim grid “Shirelands” with Lord of the Rings themed regions. He was the original creator of the OpenSim Archive Files (OARs) used by Fred Beckhusen for the Outworldz DreamGrid versions of these regions. See this blog post. David makes his regions available for personal use via the OAR Shop on Shoptly. There is a Lord of the Ring’s themed quest that leads you through the region and navigation is possible via signposts.

• http://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/
• Entry Hub: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Shirelands Hub/264/206/22
• Hobbiton and Bagshot Row: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Hobbiton/281/402/28
• Bree and Buckland: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Bree and Buckland/95/11/3
• Beorn’s Home
• Mirkwood and Dol Guidor: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Myrkwood/216/40/2
• Rohan – Edoras: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Meadowseld/205/293/2
• Rivendell: hop://seasofthassa.outworldz.net:8002/Rivendell/223/77/61

Hobbiton and Bagshot Row

Bree and Buckland

Beorn’s Home

Mirkwood and Dol Guidor

Rohan – Edoras

Rivendell

The 15th Virtual World Best Practice in Education 2022 online conference titled “Phoenix Arising” took place in Second Life on 31st March to 2nd April 2022.

“Dyrhólaey” is an atmospheric Second Life build on the “Aride Isle” region in March 2022 by Serene Footman. It is themed after an island in the North of Iceland.

• https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aride%20Isle/170/71/41
• https://www.flickr.com/groups/dyrholaey/
• As is often the case this build was drawn to my attention by a Blog Post by Inara Pey on 23-Mar-2022

360° Snapshots – Click on Image to See Panorama in Flickr

On 17-Mar-2022, the Law School at the University of Edinburgh ran an online Zoom workshop and panel discussion on NFTs and the law, to accompany an exhibition event at Edinburgh InSpace entitled “A Token Gesture“.

Chair: Smita Kheria, University of Edinburgh.

Speakers: Burkhard Schafer (University of Edinburgh), Andres Guadamuz (University of Sussex) [Slides Here] and Sean Thomas (University of York).

NFT related resources – https://nft.inspace.ed.ac.uk/resources

https://www.law.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/funging-nonfungable-laying-down-law-nfts

NFT Examples from technollama (aka Andres Guadamuz, University of Sussex), e.g. his Nyan Cat NFT

The Hypergrid Safari Group met on 16th March 2022 to visit Outworldz grid’s “Silent Refueling” grid by Fred Beckhusen (avatar: Ferd Frederix) with building support from “Joe Builder”. The grid can be accessed via http://www.outworldz.com:9000. “Silent Refueling” is a tribute to the 1972 science fiction film Silent Running directed by Douglas Trumbull.

There is a “Silent Refueling Base” region (US spelling) where the bio-pods are prepared for launch out to space freighters which house them for security away form Earth, and a “Silent Refueling” region (again US spelling) where the space freighters are refuelling in the rings of Saturn. The events take place just before the time of the movie.

Silent Refueling Base

hop://www.outworldz.com:9000/Silent Refueling Base/401/737/28

Silent Refueling

hop://www.outworldz.com:9000/Silent Refueling/355/464/2178