October 2, 2019 – Daniel Voyager

On 1st October the Firestorm team announced the Bakes on Mesh viewer (6.3.2.58052) release which is a major update and it’s important all users upgrade to it. Firestorm 6.3.2.58052 is now fully merged up to the 6.3.1 Linden code-base.

This new release includes rendering-related changes from Linden Lab, bug fixes, improvements and tweaks.

This build is not offered to OpenSim users for the moment.

In my previous blog post I said we would provide an “as-is” download of this release for Opensim. However, I have been informed that this update will actually cause Opensim regions to crash upon login. Unfortunately, by the time we made the decision to reverse the split we were too far into our QA process to test or make changes & fixes. This is why the “as-is” was mentioned. Because of the severity of the issue (crashing regions is about as bad as it gets) and having no time to fix it, I am forced to go back on my word on this one.

We will continue to host Firestorm 6.0.2.56680 on our downloads page in the Opensim section until we are able to remedy the major issues. The SL version of this update will install separately, so you can use the 6.3.2 update for SL and continue to run 6.0.2 for Opensim.

Major updates from LL in this update include:

– Bakes on Mesh! See the primer from Inara, the announcement from Linden Lab, and the LL Knowledge Base.
– Love Me Render! See the post from Linden Lab on these rendering updates.
– Umeshu, a group of bug fixes, tweaks and improvements.
– Edit notecards from an external editor.
– Ability to duplicate group roles.

There are Firestorm goodies…

There are a few new FS-specific features in this release as well like ability to sit on objects from Area search, New Discord Rich Presence, Ghosted attachments now automatically fix themselves after tp, but as usual there are too many to list here.

Bakes On Mesh

BOM – Bakes On Mesh

Bakes on Mesh is a new feature to allow system avatar baked textures to be shown on mesh attachments.

Basic features

Any face of a mesh object can be textured using one of the server baked textures.

The corresponding region of the system avatar is hidden if an attached mesh is using a baked texture.

5 new bake channels – leftarm, leftleg, aux1, aux2, aux3. You can use the new bake channels on the face of a mesh.

A universal wearable type.

New tattoos for universal wearable type –

HEAD_TATTOO, → baked to head

UPPER_TATTOO → baked to upper

LOWER_TATTOO, → baked to lower

SKIRT_TATTOO, → baked to skirt

HAIR_TATTOO, → baked to hair

EYES_TATTOO, → baked to eyes

LEFT_ARM_TATTOO, → baked to left arm

LEFT_LEG_TATTOO, → baked to left leg

AUX1_TATTOO, → baked to aux1

AUX2_TATTOO, → baked to aux2

AUX3_TATTOO, → baked to aux3

Benefits

Avoid the need for texture appliers → easier customization workflow.

Avoid the need for onion avatars → fewer meshes, fewer textures at display time.

Avoid the need to sell full-perm meshes. You can customize any mesh you have modify permissions for simply by setting the flags and equipping the appropriate wearables.

Avatar wearables are baked into eleven different textures (BAKE_HEAD, BAKE_UPPER, BAKE_LOWER, BAKE_EYES, BAKE_SKIRT, BAKE_HAIR, BAKE_LEFTARM, BAKE_LEFTLEG, BAKE_AUX1, BAKE_AUX2, BAKE_AUX3) by the baking service.
You can now apply these textures to your avatar’s object attachments’ diffuse texture slot.
Right-click on the attachment, click edit and from the edit face menu select textures.
Click the diffuse texture icon to open up the texture picker.
The texture picker has an extra radio button mode called ‘bake’ for selecting server bakes.
The ‘bake’ radio button mode has a dropdown for selecting BAKE_HEAD, BAKE_UPPER, BAKE_LOWER, BAKE_EYES, BAKE_SKIRT, BAKE_HAIR, BAKE_LEFTARM, BAKE_LEFTLEG, BAKE_AUX1, BAKE_AUX2, BAKE_AUX3 server bake textures.
When an attachment is using a baked texture, the corresponding base mesh region of the system avatar is hidden.

If a mesh face is set to show a baked texture but is not attached to an avatar, you will see a default baked texture.
If you are using an older viewer without bakes on mesh support, then faces set to show baked textures will also display as the default baked texture, and base mesh regions will not be hidden.

For more detailed documentation, please see:

SL Knowledge Base – Bakes on Mesh

Linden Lab Bakes On Mesh release notes – includes a list of known issues.

Firestorm Wiki – Bakes on Mesh

Inara Pey – Modem World, Bakes on Mesh – A Basic Primer – Numerous embedded links of interest.

Slink Redux and Bakes on Mesh FAQ – Slink brand specific and general Bakes on Mesh FAQ.

Maitreya Bakes on Mesh – How to use BOM with the Maitrya Lara mesh body.

Second Life Forums – Bakes on Mesh – Assorted forum threads of information and resources.

Get Baked – A Quick Beginners’ Guide to Using Bakes on Mesh – Virtual Bloke.

List of creators producing BoM-Compliant Goods – Unofficial.

Anchor Linden, Vir Linden, AndreyK ProductEngine

The things I like from this release…

NEW Added Discord rich presence support
This feature allows you to connect your SL account with your Discord account.
Once connected, Discord will show your SL online status & session length, and optionally, your username and location in SL.
For further details, see the Firestom Discord wiki page.
Comm → Discord
Liny Odell, Ansariel Hiller, Nicky Dasmijn
NEW Added the ability to edit notecards in an external editor
For Firestorm, to set the external notecard editor, go to Preferences → Firestorm → Build 1 → External Editor → Browse to the program or application and select then press OK.
When a notecard is open, you will see a new “Edit” button bottom left.
Clicking the Edit button opens the Notecard in the external editor.
Making changes in the external editor & then saving the file in the external editor will upload the changes into the notecard in Second Life.
If no external editor is selected in Preferences, the viewer will try to use the external editor that you have set to open txt files.
NOTE: There is a known bug with this feature that causes the order of embedded content to break – see BUG-227626 for details
Maxim ProductEngine
NEW Added the ability to duplicate a group role
The feature allows you to duplicate a group role so that the copied role has the same permissions and you can just give the copied role a different title.
This feature was requested in BUG-226986
Open the group profile → Members & Roles → Roles → Left click on a role to select it → Click the “Copy Role” button.
AndreyK ProductEngine
NEW Increased the allowed sound clip length from 10s to 30s
This adds support to the viewer to upload & play sound clips up to 30 seconds in length.
Currently, sound uploads over 10 seconds are not possible, but will be soon when the server-side support is added by Linden Lab.
Firestorm 6.3.2 is ready to support this feature as soon as the required server-side changes are made
AndreyL ProductEngine
NEW Attachments now auto-refresh if they are ghosted on teleport
Added timer for refreshing attachments if attachments were attempted to get killed after the actual teleport finished
This feature should mostly solve the problem where attachments are invisible to observers after a teleport or region change
It provides the same function as “Refresh Attachments” under Avatar → Avatar Health, but the refresh is triggered automatically when needed
This feature is enabled by default
Optionally, if the debug setting FSExperimentalLostAttachmentsFixReport is set to TRUE, Firestorm reports attachments that were attempted to get detached during a teleport or region crossing to nearby chat, followed by reporting “Refreshing attachments…” to nearby chat when the auto-refresh starts
This should hopefully workaround FIRE-12004 and BUG-7761 until there is a server-side fix from Linden Lab.
Ansariel Hiller

The full release notes can be read here.

Terrain added to the new extension on 2nd October 2019

Last weekend the Moles added a huge new extension south of the SSP continent. The new regions start from SSP601 to SSP700 which is like a small continent.

Today on Wednesday 2nd October it looks like the new extension now has it’s own new terrain. It will be interesting to see how this new extension develops in the weeks and months ahead.

The two region wide channel update

Today Patch Linden has confirmed the two region wide channel from Bellisseria to Jeogeot is in fact a temporary bridge between the continents. The regions will be replaced as work continues down south and east.

I’ve said elsewhere before, the two region wide channel is a temporary bridge between the continents. It is not necessary to maintain it in present form and will be replaced with regions as we work our south and east.

There was mention earlier in the year that there needs to be at least 38, 000 new homes to cover all the occupied old style linden homes. This new southern extension makes that very clear indeed.

The new extension south of SSP on 28th September 2019

New developments on the Bellisseria Continent – 2nd October 2019

New campers/trailers are now appearing around SSPE62 and SSPE100. There are new water areas around the mountain areas worth exploring.

Pickle Island

The new homes development down south is coming along nicely with new water areas, new homes, new houseboats and more.

Winter Expo / SL Christmas Expo 2019 & New Discoveries

It’s believed these three regions will be used for the upcoming Winter Expo happening in early December 2019. The SL Christmas Expo 2019 starts December 5th to 15th December 2019. I would imagine the lab will be showcasing the current themes and new themes during the annual event. The lab could release a super premium announcement during this period.

My predictions for these new regions…

WE2019 1 – this region looks to be showcasing the new commercial area

SSPWE2019 2 – this region is showcasing Traditional Houses (bottom), Houseboats (top right) and Campers/Trailers (top left)

WE2019 3 – this region could be used for the new Linden home theme 4

New Discoveries

This is a large scale operation the Moles and the Lab are doing right now with the building of new homes on the Bellisseria continent, testing on the SSP continent with the new extension etc and now with preparations for the upcoming winter expo.

I would imagine before the end of 2019 we will see thousands of new homes, new areas, new campers/trailers built, the train line would of been extended out further, a new 4th LH theme announced and a super premium announcement.

It’s going to be very exciting indeed during the last three months of 2019.