Difference between revisions of "User:Torley Linden/Project updates"

From Second Life Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
 
(73 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
== WindLight ==
== Archives ==
WindLight is the forthcoming atmospheric rendering technology which infuses new emotional ''YAYZERAMA!'' into your everyday Second Life. Featuring "kickass skies and killer environments", it ''ain't'' just about pretty pictures, but better performance too. [http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/21/windlight-atmospheric-rendering-comes-to-second-life/ See the original announcement], [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Windlight read the documentation] (to be updated further), and prepare for a public First Look re-release in the not-too-distant future.
'''Catch up on my past project updates:'''


For almost-daily visual updates on how WindLight is coming along, [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/ Torley's Flickr photostream].
* '''[[User:Torley_Linden/Project_updates/2007-08-20_to_2007-11-30|2007-08-20 to 2007-11-30]]''' - WindLight, Dazzle, & Misc.


[[Image:1279174184_51e9ecaa4d_o.jpg|thumbnail]]
== Updates ==
[[Image:1263050456_b38b3545a5_o.jpg|thumbnail]]
=== [2008-02-06] [MISC] ===
[[Image:1262814127_d28dd46fa1_o.jpg|thumbnail]]
I won't be updating this for awhile because there's got to be a better way to do it.
[[Image:1263730154_567b0fca47_o.jpg|thumbnail]]


=== [2007-10-15] Pro is the opposite of con... ===
If any projects come along that I work on which have a gravity demanding these types of updates, sure, I'm up for them — but on the horizon, looks like you'll be able to gauge a goodly amount of what I do through video tutorials.
We've accumulated 352 internal WindLight issues since the beginning of this project; most of those are resolved. Of the 63 ones that are still open, 2 are Critical priority, 14 are Major, and all the others 'cept 3 (which are Small) are Normal. Can you sense it? We're getting close to a First Look.


I can't wait to see how many of you enjoy WindLight at inworld events, like Live Music concerts. '''[http://torley.com/we-had-a-lovely-time-at-origin-rangs-live-music-concert GET A LOAD OF THIS!!!!]'''
Keep watching, and thank you. :)


=== [2007-10-11] I wish I could embed external images directly on this wiki... ===
=== [2007-01-18] [VIDTUTS] ===
But since I can't, have a look at some of my faves from today (one day amongst many):
Gosh, these video tutorials just keep taking more and more of my time! All with good reason, however: Resis and Lindens alike love 'em, they ''save'' time for everyone who's been able to benefit from fun, practical info. Put in a little, get out a lot.


* http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1544166282/
If you have ideas, [[User:Torley_Linden/Vidtut_ideas|please let me know]]!
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1544236040/
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1543512229/
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1543374961/


As I often encourage, keep watching my [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/ Flickr photostream], it gets updated a ''lot''.
=== [2008-01-14] [VIDTUTS] More polish ===
I spent a big chunk of the weekend looking at different ways to encode my video tutorials, and future videos I might want to make. After wrasslin' with it strenuously, I finally [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/2190371300/ came up with this] and uploaded the new ones.


I'm using the new 71444 build and things are looking, feeling really sweet. We're nearing a First Look after we squash the few Criticals and Majors — bugs, that is — that we've got in our scopes.
''Yes'', for simplicity's sake, [[Video_Tutorials#Linden-created_Video_Tutorials|there's no more "LOFI" or "HIFI" here]]. I've replaced them with "DOWNLOAD" links which have nice visual quality, but are ''also'' suited for inworld streaming with relatively slow broadband connections (if your downstream's at least 768 kbps, you should be able to play these).


Of aesthetic note is how glam the sun looks on the water now: it shimmers, sparkles, and glows.
I reckon I'll include news of this in my next blog post.


=== [2007-10-08] AVATAR IMPOSTORS are AN EXCITING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT! ===
Gotta update [[User:Torley_Linden/Vidtut_process]] too.
Take my word for it. :) "Avatar Impostors" (I know some of ya spell it "Imposters") is a new performance-boosting option that's part of WindLight's optimizations. It basically means that avatars that are relatively far away will be rendered as 2D [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_%28computer_graphics%29 sprites] (think of classic video games) instead of in their 3D entirety, providing you with noticeable speed gains. This is especially noticeable when you're in LARGE CROWDS, and gosh, how many of us social types find ourselves in those situations? :D


Since Avatar Impostors is an option, you can turn it off at-will. How much of a gain can you expect to see? My experiences are still tentative, but I'm looking at the Ahern Welcome Area right now with 30+ avatars in a crowd:
=== [2008-01-02] [MISC] Hello 2008 ===
Y'know, I'm just going to start a new page for video tutorial ideas. Feel free to add your own! (They are, after all, community-power-driven.) It shall henceforth be called "[[User:Torley_Linden/Vidtut_ideas|Vidtut ideas]]".


'''Avatar Impostors OFF = 21 FPS'''<br>
Someday, I might like to have a blog to supercede these project updates.
'''Avatar Impostors ON = 31 FPS'''


That's a ''big'' boost right there, and so far, it's typical of my experiences. Now, I'm gonna head to Little Japan which is literally packed with 100 avatars... I'm sure they can make room for one more since I'm a Linden. ;) So, let's compare again:
=== [2007-12-31] [VIDTUTS] Show how to use streaming media ===
Sofia Westwick and others insightfully opined,


'''Avatar Impostors OFF = 14 FPS'''<br>
: I don't know if you have done this as a top of the week yet. Its something very simple yet so many people seem clueless on how to do it.
'''Avatar Impostors ON = 28 FPS'''


''Nice!''
: my suggestion if you haven't done this yet is make a tip of the week showing how people can use the media options on land they own


At lower framerates, relatively speaking, a boost of a few FPS is proportionally a lot more noticeable, as opposed to, say, 40 to 50 FPS. And that's with a FULLY-PACKED REGION! Keep in mind tho that because of other performance optimizations (like occlusion culling), that your results may and will vary depending on what's actually visible, and other Graphics settings you've chosen.
I really like it and want to do this now that I've encoded and uploaded all the Tip of the Weeks to our [[Video Tutorials]] page. (Blog post on that forthcoming, stay tuned.)


I did these quick tests on a Q6600 w/Nvidia 8800GTS (640 MB version), which is a fine card. I also did them with Water Reflections ON, which, for all its prettiness, does impact performance a lot. So let's compare that Little Japan scene again with Water Reflections OFF:
=== [2007-12-31] [MISC] Back to work ===
Catching up on things. This "Project updates" page is gradually transforming into a handy place where I'll note loose threads and other things to followup on. It's one way of seeing what goes on in my mind regularly, and perhaps it'll give insights into Linden Lab processes — especially if you're thinking of [http://lindenlab.com/employment/ working here] too. I hope so!


'''Avatar Impostors OFF = 18 FPS'''<br>
=== [2007-12-20] [WINDLIGHT] The speed of happiness ===
'''Avatar Impostors ON = 38 FPS'''
Things have been going ''so'' quickly lately I haven't had more of a chance to update this. But that's no excuse, eh?


An even bigger difference. It should be noted my system is fairly high-end, but I got it on a limited budget ([http://torley.com/whats-in-torleys-new-computer more info here]) and that the price of technology continues to drop as SL keeps progressing. Also keep in mind that part of this overall performance increase is due to other optimizations in WindLight.
I just posted the most recent [[WindLight#Visit_our_inworld_Office_Hours|WindLight Office Hours]] transcripts. You should see 'em if you missed out! The [[WindLight|WindLight info-page]] has over 50,000+ views, and the combined chat logs have over 2,500+. Thanx to everyone who came here to get their... info!


So what's the downsides of Avatar Impostors? To be frank, avatars will look a little cruddier and jagged around the edges, but not by much. They may remind you of ''Monkey Island'' or other classic adventure games, heh. They'll also update less so their motion will appear jerky, but if you're in a very busy area with many avatars, chances are your viewer FPS will be low and update chunkily anyway, and turning on Avatar Imposters has the added benefit of keeping avatars within a few meters of you in their regular 3D selves. My personal recommendation? Keep Avatar Impostors on most of the time unless you have specific demands for smooth motion, e.g., you're filming a machinima with one lone avatar walking towards you from the distance.
Team's been busy getting things in shape for WindLight exiting First Look and entering Release Candidate, a sign it's more stable and seriously being considered to be part of the main viewer. We did an internal triage reprioritizing issues — a lot of the ones I see on the Issue Tracker are aesthetic ones I hope we'll address with strokes both broad and fine. Pastrami cooked up a new day cycle set which is less washed out and I'm using it now.


Yes, I plan to include mention of this in a future Second Life Tip of the Week about how to negate lag and make your inworld experience ''fasterrrr''.
''Holidays are on the horizon...''


And not to hype things up to much since THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS, but I'm definitely using the viewer, live, rite now. It ain't vaporware — to show you this is certainly a substantial step towards improving Second Life's performance (always part of the important "Performance & Stability" duology!) for you, for all of us.
=== [2007-12-13] [WINDLIGHT] Alpha textures becoming opaque at a distance ===
Yes, it's intentional that alpha (32-bit, see-through) textures become opaque (solid) at a distance — this was done as a speed booster, since layered alpha textures decrease performance.


=== [2007-10-02] Back from vacation... ===
At the same time, I  know how ugly it looks in some situations, and how it impairs other things — for example, if want to take a picture of an apartment building and the contents of its floors, but when I zoom out, the glass windows (alpha textures) go opaque, blocking my view.
Lots of catching up to do, *ulp* EMAIL AVALANCHE! I'll find my way through. :)


WindLight's still being worked on. *checks on Project Manager Bridie's excellent updates* Looks like more bug-squashing is in the works. Part of the trickiness is that there've been more than a few odd bugs that came up on some system configurations but not most others. And there are many, ''many'' variations of computers that run Second Life. I'm sure a wider base of testing through the forthcoming public First Look will help — we really do appreciate the feedback — and Aric, in charge of Quality Assurance here, has mentioned that he'll help acquire additional testing equipment.
I wonder if it'd be a good idea to map this to Objects Mesh Detail... or provide an option in Debug Settings.


=== [2007-09-20] Better Preferences > Graphics tab is very, very nice ===
''Next steps: collate Issue Tracker stuff related to this like {{jira|VWR-3101}}, forward to our Developers on Team WindLight for a better solution...''
I know having 3 Graphics tabs with a kajillion options :p confused the heck outta many of you.


Now, in Preferences, it's a single tab with Low/Mid/High/Ultra easy presets, and a "Custom" mode should you want to have extra configuration like you can in the current main viewer.
=== [2007-12-11] [MISC] Keep on going! ===
Today was a long day with moments of joy interspersed amidst the awkwardness of Second Life undergoing a longer-than-expected [http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/12/11/grid-service-outage-planned-for-11-december/ service outage]. Whenever this happens, you know for sure that our people are working intensely behind-the-scenes. It tends to be valleys of pandemonium alternating with peaks of calm across our internal comm. channels.


So far, for the hour or so I've been playing with the improved Graphics Preferences UI in WindLight, it's a LOT better. Much more understandable and hopefully will help simplify your setup. I may post a picture soon, but we're still doing UI tweaking. Big ups to our Team for making this better.
Since the inworld experience was splotchy, I worked on giving feedback to an exciting part of our website that's going to be updated. I don't wanna leak/spoil the surprise, so you'll find out soon enuff (I hope).


And... from the Resident in me... ''about time this happened!''
I also did a lot of here-and-there wiki tweakage, including adding a picture to brighten up the [[Office Hours]] page. It's amazing what one well-placed illustration can do. Seraph Linden is very good at putting eye-catching comics (and stuff) on our internal wiki pages, so I thought I'd sort of follow his model.


=== [2007-09-18] Things that must be done before we can ship ===
I wanted to spend more time on the [[Issue Tracker]] (AKA PJIRA) today but due to database probs, wasn't able to. I'll run through my triage queue, WindLight and otherwise, thoroughly tomorrow. I promise.
We've spec'ed out a bullet point list, "Launch Criteria", of deliverables that are required before we can re-release our First Look. Most of them are done or well in-progress. Some of these must-dos are obvious, like no easily-reproducible crashes. Some are a lot more specific — fine-tuning the default day cycle continues. One big graphical thing we've needed to address was local lighting being too bright during the day; I'm going to look that over personally in the next build.


WindLight will expose flaws in older content because of its increased realism, but it'll also make a lot of stuff that was semi-crappy look way better. For example, the default avatars [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/801981325/ like this] (which date back several years) clearly have a richer depth and presence, and skin tones don't appear so flat and stale.
Gotta film a new Tip o' the Week too. What's it gonna be? Prolly texture optimization, I can't go wrong with that popular and need-to-know topic.


WindLight is going to be a big shot at addressing why Second Life doesn't look as good as "other games" on the market, and don't forget about all the old code cleanup too, it was a very conducive project for our devs to get things done that they've wanted to for ages — for your benefit.
More Resis — that means ''you'' if you have an interest! — should start their own public wiki pages. I don't think there's enough knowhow yet but some of our Volunteers have, like one of our most frequent editors, [[User:SignpostMarv_Martin|SignpostMarv Martin]]. To start your own, either (1) click your Second Life name at the top of the page (to the left of to "my talk"), or (2) [[User:FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME|go here]] and replace the "''FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME''" in the address with your Second Life name. Like, mine's:


ETA still looks like "within a few weeks", depending partially on if any nasty showstoppers come up. We really want to get this right for our community. I'm understandably hesitant to lock down a time until we're ''suresure'', because we don't want to disappoint.
: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Torley_Linden


THANX TO EACH AND EVERYONE WHO ASKS ME ON A DAILY BASIS "WHEN WILL WINDLIGHT BE BACK?"... it shows you care, and we sure give a damn too. I am inspired by the dedication and passion our WindLight Team, including relatively new Lindens who came from [http://www.windwardmark.net/ Windward Mark Interactive] when Linden Lab acquired them.  
Pretty easy. You'll want to [[Help:Contents|learn how to edit the wiki]] if you don't yet know how, and you'll learn by doing.


=== [2007-09-14] ===
=== [2007-12-07] [MISC] I'm reorganizing this... ===
[http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1373232878&size=o A picture of some of the new WindLight user interface.]
Instead of having a separate header for each project, which is arguably neater, I'm going to try updates under a single "Updates" header for the time being, and instead use the subject line of each update to indicate what it's about — one reason is because so much of my work is interconnected.


=== [2007-09-12] ===
I also plan to use this not just to record "Project updates" ''per se'' but to take notes that need future fleshing-out and may come in handy. As the GTD and other time & life management practices espouse, you gotta write these things down.
Guess what folks? We're going to be simplifying the Preferences > Graphics tabs. I've seen some mockups and they look exciting. Tentatively (meaning THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE), we hope to have a "master slider" that controls others. Of course, if you're an advanced user, we want to give you the choice to fine-tune the nitty-gritty, but all those buttons and sliders have puzzled Residents for ages, so it's time we do something about. Count this as a usability increase.
 
I also chatted with Pastrami and BigPapi Linden and it sounds like the reflections are deliberately an "expensive" operation, so while they sure are pretty, in already-sluggish areas, you'll likely want to scale them down — at least, that's what I've been doing.
 
=== [2007-09-10] ===
Our new reflective water is so pretty, but ''why oh why'' does it cause such a big FPS hit on my 8800GTS? (Typically I see a difference of 5-10 FPS in geometry-rich areas.) Note to self to inquire with Runitai (maker of the original ripple water!) and other graphics gurus about this.
 
=== [2007-09-06] ===
It's common for me to wake up early and start working to the tune of the sunrise — unbelievably conducive for WindLight, as you can imagine.
 
But today, ''today'' [http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/09/06/login-and-teleport-issues-currently-being-investigated/ we have Grid issues right now] (as I pen this), which sucks.
 
I'll make good use of this time and share more with you: "WindLight" has gone beyond "atmospheric rendering" because in the process of adding various optimizations, we're also going to make usability improvements — changes to the Preferences' Graphics tabs. I know they're confusing and tend to elicit reactions like, "What the !@#$ is a 'Vertex Buffer Object'?" Thus, we aim to simplify, and help you have better control over your choices.
 
There's some neat tech coming out, like "avatar imposters" to improve your framerate in big crowds by using less resources to draw further-away avatars. That means they will walk kind of jerkily and look like old-skool video game sprites, but the performance tradeoff may be very well worth it. This, of course, will be an OPTION so if you have a beefy rig and want to turn those imposters off, that's your prerogative.
 
Like I've mused on occasion, glow (aka [http://torley.com/be-luminous-enjoy-with-renderglow-true  RenderGlow]) is being added as a build parameter on a per-texture-face basis. It currently isn't saved into the simstate, meaning I have to set it upon every login and teleport (if I've made an attachment like my hair glow), but it looks delicious, save for some blockiness. There are additional glow debug parameters to play around with, too.
 
By the way, there's some serious weirdness I'm experiencing with Preferences > Adv. Graphics > "Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects" on. It's supposed to give you a net gain in performance, but I often see it ''decrease'' my performance, or make my framerate stutter when I zoom and turn around. If you're seeing the same thing, feel free to email me with your [[Debug_Help#How_do_I_find_my_system_information.3F|system config]]... it's in our internal Issue Tracker (not the public one) but Runitai Linden, who's has the same type of graphics card as me — 8800GTS w/640 MB, but his config is SLI and mine isn't — isn't seeing this.
 
So, overall, crunching down on critical bugs and getting us primed for our First Look re-release continues. We're severely concerned with performance.
 
Internally, there are currently 284 WindLight issues, most of them bugs, with 170 of those fixed. I reported 98 of these, with 61 resolved.
 
I reckon [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1331833571/ this] may be one of my fave WindLight shots yet.
 
=== [2007-08-31] A lot has changed ===
Wowzerama, so many moving pieces. Mid-week, we had a broader internal discussion about WindLight and future First Look programmes: we need to message clearly that First Looks are ''subject to much change'', but at the same time, uphold a level of quality so they aren't badly buggy. As a pragmatic result, WindLight Team is focusing on squashing the most important bugs so you'll never know they were problems in the first place.
 
I know there was some panic when WindLight first came out, about how much it colored things too strongly or wrongly. A number of those were definite bugs, and some of the others are subjective aesthetics we can adjust. Appearance-wise, ''a lot has changed''. It is really challenging to do a well-rounded default day cycle: Pastrami Linden has been super-open to our feedback, has been adjusting relentlessly, and I'm going to give his newest presets a spin over the long weekend.
 
Speaking of presets, I've created 22 water ones to learn the system better, including "Raw sewage" and "You're in luck" (guess what that looks like? Heh...).
 
I'd also like to take this time to EMPHASIZE that even if you don't have a fancy graphics card, you'll still be able to see so-called "fallback mode", meaning WindLight shaders will be off and you won't get the pretty new clouds and atmospheric lighting, but the general environment should still look better than the current main viewer's one, so consider it an improvement for just about everyone who can participate in Second Life, even on slower hardware. Also, those who don't want WindLight to tint scenes so strongly (even when we've done more tweaks) can go to fallback mode — it's a simple checkbox, "Enable WindLight Shaders" in Preferences. You'll understand it when you're actually using it within a few weeks, I hope.
 
And yes, thanks to issues like [https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-960 VWR-960], your "Classic Clouds" are still an option, so you can turn them on and off as you wish.
 
=== [2007-08-27] Ripple water custom settings ===
Like the sky, we've added the ability to customize the look of ripple water. Like the sky, it's viewer-side for now but we eventually want to make this all share-able assets like any inventory item. I'm having a great time changing parameters like the [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1251619361/ glassiness of the water], not to mention you can alter the normal map to come out with some [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1252479772/ really tripped-out FX]. Keep referring to [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/ my Flickr photostream for more examples] — I'm so excited for the time when you get to enjoy this hands-on!
 
Also, it looks like (subjectively) stuff with WindLight shaders on is still too bright at certain times like noon. Pastrami, Bridie, hopefully some QA engineers, and I will be going on a "shader safari" to investigate further this week.
 
To those of you who sent in questions re: deprecating scripting calls, we haven't decided what we'll do with some of them yet. Some will stay for the time being like [[LlCloud|llCloud]], because we're ''keeping'' the classic cloud layer (see [https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-960 VWR-960]) until such time we have a full 3D replacement, dubbed Nimble, for 'em. We do ''want'' to make a lot of the finer bits scriptable — imagine a rock concert scripted with songs to coincide with dramatic sky changes? But that is further down the road and relies on current work to be done first... so let's keep going. :)
 
=== [2007-08-25] Internal testing continues ===
Info can be caught, like a cold, only healthy. ''So what to do if you find the info on this page useful? '''SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND!'''''
 
Sometimes, [http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/08/24/linden-labs-effort-to-improve-grid-stability/#comment-451996 I leave blog comments filling in gaps], but those tend to get lost, so why not focus on this page? I can do both.
 
Anyhoo, I continue to both formally test WindLight and informally use it everyday. Internal bug-churning continues; I recently announced, within Linden Lab, an internal First Look as it were, to precede the public FL. My concerns right now? Partially to do with aesthetics (subjective, I know... tricky ''tricky!'') because I'm finding a number of scenes look too white or washed out, e.g. noon with local lighting. HARD to understand if I don't show pictures or if you're not actually using it, but...
 
We have fallback mode ("[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertex_shader shaders] off"), which doesn't have clouds, but still looks better than the current sky, and is supported even if your computer doesn't have a fancy graphics card. And it doesn't exhibit the really bright overcasting of the WindLight Shaders, so I toggle on/off for relative comparison. We'll keep adapting it, Pastrami Linden has been tweaking the default day cycle because he cares so passionately about making it photorealistic. Yes, ''photorealistic''. The ripple water has gone through several iterations too: you may've heard reflections got added as an option (understandably, negates performance on slower computers), but the most recent one looks SEXIER than ever. (I can remember when we got the first ripple water added, it and it looked like "liquid bling".)
 
So, it's the weekend now. I'm casually sauntering inworld and doing everyday stuff. I'm also warmly concerned about overall performance, we have some bugs to work out with that because we earlier, and continue to find issues that counteract the gains done with the aforementioned optimizations. Everyone on the team wants us to be plus, positive with that, so not only do you have prettier skies, but a better experience (that's the word!) too. Wider testing tends to reveal more, so I'm looking forward to your help come public First Look re-release.
 
LOTS LOTS LOTS of changes have been made since last public FL: WindLight so please don't base final judgment on that. A number of crashes were fixed. (We hate those!) I know shiny was dull in early releases, well now, [http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1215369881/ it shines]. Even better, it uses less CPU power ("single-pass shiny"). A lot of [https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=10332 known WindLight issues were already fixed internally], and in our release notes, we'll document all the other changes that happened behind-the-scenes so you get a more comprehensive understanding of the work that went into WindLight.
 
You can keep observing this page for updates. Login to the wiki from the upper-right-hand corner and then click the "Watch" tab, or just bookmark it in your web browser.
 
If this section gets too long, I'll move it onto its own page. Thanks for keeping on going with me. +^_^+
 
=== [2007-08-20] When is [http://www.google.com/search?q=windlight First Look: WindLight] coming out again? ===
Hopefully in a few weeks. I earlier hoped it would come out by the end of August, but it doesn't look like we'll hit that. The WindLight Team has been very busy fixing bugs (including those I've reported), and today, we just launched an internal testing round for Lindens (because previously, it was mainly just the WindLight Team using it). I apologize for the delay because I know how anxious a lot of you are, particularly from comments I've been getting on my snapshots.
 
Also for ''emphasis'', you should know (if you don't already) that WindLight isn't just about "pretty skies" — performance improvements, rendering optimizations, and code cleanup to improve the viewer are an important part of it too. It's a false dichotomy that we spar between bug fixes vs. new features, and I am dogged (and obsessed) about improved performance & stability (aka P&S) for Second Life.
 
== Misc. ==
=== [2007-10-15] Second Life annoyances? ===
We all have 'em. Here are some I'm familiar with:
 
* Red and blue triangles coming out of people's asses — object updates.
* Stuck in a dance loop — thankfully Aura did work which fixed most of the longstanding pains, so if you find yourself uncontrollably hip-hopping, Tools menu > Stop All Animations.
* Glitched (sometimes black) avatar textures, which calls for Client menu > Character > Rebake Textures. Oh, and the unintentionally "black" thing can happen if you're on dual monitors.
* It isn't easier to stop client-side effects like particles and texture animations. I've got a cancel script for that I should share.
 
Hrm, more later...
=== [2007-10-15] Brill, thank you Mana Janus ===
Much thanx to Mana, who reported that aforementioned issue and not only was nice enough to do that... but reworked the scripts and sent me a fresh, revised Torley Textures kiosk. Time to test this ''babeeee!''
=== [2007-10-11] Alexa's helping me track down Torley Textures kiosk breakage ===
[https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2692 Spotted on the Issue Tracker!]
 
=== [2007-10-09] Why do my Torley Textures kiosks keep breaking? ===
Dangit, I've been summoned numerous times to Help Islands... today, [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public/179/107/23 Help Island Public] because my Torley Textures distributor was broken. Specifically, mousing over it didn't show that you could click panels for texture packs. I set scripts to running and it's working again, but this keeps happening. Maybe I need to replace the scripts within them with something more reliable?
 
Anyone have any ideas? The kiosks are fully-permissive, so if you check it out and let me know, I'd muchly appreciate it. =)
 
=== [2007-09-18] Creation Portal YAYZERAMA! ===
I am sick and tired of how dang hard it can be to find resources to knowledge, especially Resident-created gems. I love compiling link-lists with context so you know what you're getting; I'm also partial to only listing what I've actually used, so I can speak of my experience in it.
 
The point being, Rob Linden suggested I start a '''[[Creation Portal]]''' here on the wiki, and so I have — he setup the box on the very front page, and I'm going to expand the CP over time. This being a wiki, I more than hope ''you'll'' add to it if you know some of useful resources which fellow Resis would find handy. Not sure what that includes? Here's a rule of thumb I go by: if I discover something and naturally exclaim, "I wish I knew about this earlier!" then that's a very good sign of a tool, a help page, or another resource which needs more exposure.

Latest revision as of 05:17, 6 February 2008

Archives

Catch up on my past project updates:

Updates

[2008-02-06] [MISC]

I won't be updating this for awhile because there's got to be a better way to do it.

If any projects come along that I work on which have a gravity demanding these types of updates, sure, I'm up for them — but on the horizon, looks like you'll be able to gauge a goodly amount of what I do through video tutorials.

Keep watching, and thank you. :)

[2007-01-18] [VIDTUTS]

Gosh, these video tutorials just keep taking more and more of my time! All with good reason, however: Resis and Lindens alike love 'em, they save time for everyone who's been able to benefit from fun, practical info. Put in a little, get out a lot.

If you have ideas, please let me know!

[2008-01-14] [VIDTUTS] More polish

I spent a big chunk of the weekend looking at different ways to encode my video tutorials, and future videos I might want to make. After wrasslin' with it strenuously, I finally came up with this and uploaded the new ones.

Yes, for simplicity's sake, there's no more "LOFI" or "HIFI" here. I've replaced them with "DOWNLOAD" links which have nice visual quality, but are also suited for inworld streaming with relatively slow broadband connections (if your downstream's at least 768 kbps, you should be able to play these).

I reckon I'll include news of this in my next blog post.

Gotta update User:Torley_Linden/Vidtut_process too.

[2008-01-02] [MISC] Hello 2008

Y'know, I'm just going to start a new page for video tutorial ideas. Feel free to add your own! (They are, after all, community-power-driven.) It shall henceforth be called "Vidtut ideas".

Someday, I might like to have a blog to supercede these project updates.

[2007-12-31] [VIDTUTS] Show how to use streaming media

Sofia Westwick and others insightfully opined,

I don't know if you have done this as a top of the week yet. Its something very simple yet so many people seem clueless on how to do it.
my suggestion if you haven't done this yet is make a tip of the week showing how people can use the media options on land they own

I really like it and want to do this now that I've encoded and uploaded all the Tip of the Weeks to our Video Tutorials page. (Blog post on that forthcoming, stay tuned.)

[2007-12-31] [MISC] Back to work

Catching up on things. This "Project updates" page is gradually transforming into a handy place where I'll note loose threads and other things to followup on. It's one way of seeing what goes on in my mind regularly, and perhaps it'll give insights into Linden Lab processes — especially if you're thinking of working here too. I hope so!

[2007-12-20] [WINDLIGHT] The speed of happiness

Things have been going so quickly lately I haven't had more of a chance to update this. But that's no excuse, eh?

I just posted the most recent WindLight Office Hours transcripts. You should see 'em if you missed out! The WindLight info-page has over 50,000+ views, and the combined chat logs have over 2,500+. Thanx to everyone who came here to get their... info!

Team's been busy getting things in shape for WindLight exiting First Look and entering Release Candidate, a sign it's more stable and seriously being considered to be part of the main viewer. We did an internal triage reprioritizing issues — a lot of the ones I see on the Issue Tracker are aesthetic ones I hope we'll address with strokes both broad and fine. Pastrami cooked up a new day cycle set which is less washed out and I'm using it now.

Holidays are on the horizon...

[2007-12-13] [WINDLIGHT] Alpha textures becoming opaque at a distance

Yes, it's intentional that alpha (32-bit, see-through) textures become opaque (solid) at a distance — this was done as a speed booster, since layered alpha textures decrease performance.

At the same time, I know how ugly it looks in some situations, and how it impairs other things — for example, if want to take a picture of an apartment building and the contents of its floors, but when I zoom out, the glass windows (alpha textures) go opaque, blocking my view.

I wonder if it'd be a good idea to map this to Objects Mesh Detail... or provide an option in Debug Settings.

Next steps: collate Issue Tracker stuff related to this like VWR-3101, forward to our Developers on Team WindLight for a better solution...

[2007-12-11] [MISC] Keep on going!

Today was a long day with moments of joy interspersed amidst the awkwardness of Second Life undergoing a longer-than-expected service outage. Whenever this happens, you know for sure that our people are working intensely behind-the-scenes. It tends to be valleys of pandemonium alternating with peaks of calm across our internal comm. channels.

Since the inworld experience was splotchy, I worked on giving feedback to an exciting part of our website that's going to be updated. I don't wanna leak/spoil the surprise, so you'll find out soon enuff (I hope).

I also did a lot of here-and-there wiki tweakage, including adding a picture to brighten up the Office Hours page. It's amazing what one well-placed illustration can do. Seraph Linden is very good at putting eye-catching comics (and stuff) on our internal wiki pages, so I thought I'd sort of follow his model.

I wanted to spend more time on the Issue Tracker (AKA PJIRA) today but due to database probs, wasn't able to. I'll run through my triage queue, WindLight and otherwise, thoroughly tomorrow. I promise.

Gotta film a new Tip o' the Week too. What's it gonna be? Prolly texture optimization, I can't go wrong with that popular and need-to-know topic.

More Resis — that means you if you have an interest! — should start their own public wiki pages. I don't think there's enough knowhow yet but some of our Volunteers have, like one of our most frequent editors, SignpostMarv Martin. To start your own, either (1) click your Second Life name at the top of the page (to the left of to "my talk"), or (2) go here and replace the "FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME" in the address with your Second Life name. Like, mine's:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Torley_Linden

Pretty easy. You'll want to learn how to edit the wiki if you don't yet know how, and you'll learn by doing.

[2007-12-07] [MISC] I'm reorganizing this...

Instead of having a separate header for each project, which is arguably neater, I'm going to try updates under a single "Updates" header for the time being, and instead use the subject line of each update to indicate what it's about — one reason is because so much of my work is interconnected.

I also plan to use this not just to record "Project updates" per se but to take notes that need future fleshing-out and may come in handy. As the GTD and other time & life management practices espouse, you gotta write these things down.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=User:Torley_Linden/Project_updates&oldid=52813"