[Opensim-dev] Reducing the plugin mechanisms

[Dahlia Trimble]

I like this idea. I have done some physics via the region module interface
and had pretty good luck. I've also done client protocol implementations in
region modules and I can say that the available interfaces are incomplete
for the purposes of the entire LL protocol suite. I use EventManager for
tracking scene changes and this seems to work ok for the most part but I
don't believe events exist for all events a normal viewer would care about.
There is also the issue of managing presences, teleports and region border
crossings. I've done some workarounds here but it's not pretty. I suspect a
lot of changes to related framework code would need to be done to be
successful. I'm also not sure if EventManager events are as efficient and
CPU friendly as the direct calls which go thru IClientAPI but I can't say
I've seen anything to suggest (yet) that this could be a problem. There are
also some efficiency hacks in llClientView and related code (lazy packet
initialization for one) which might not easily translate to a region module.

Regardless, it sounds like a good experiment to try :)

On Sun, Aug 16, 2015 at 6:44 PM, Diva Canto <diva at metaverseink.com> wrote:

> We had this conversation today in the IRC about the several plugin
> mechanisms currently being used by assorted parts of OpenSim. A couple of
> years ago, we made a big push towards the [new] Region Modules mechanism,
> and that placed about 95% of simulator plugins in that bandwagon. However,
> a couple of them are still using their own raw "pluginning," and that makes
> them hard to (1) explain and (2) distribute as 3rd party packages. They
> were left behind.
>
> One of them is Physics, the other is the client implementations. I would
> like to propose that we move these last 2 renegades to the Region Module
> plugin mechanism, so to reduce entropy and to make them easier to package.
> From our conversation, moving the Physics plugins to region modules is
> peaceful. I haven't looked at the client dll yet, but I've been told that
> people experimenting with other client protocols are using region modules
> anyway.
>
> This affects the MOSES group developing the PhysX plugin, but it should be
> straightforward to adjust and it has advantages. Once we move the existing
> physics plugins to this new mechanism, you should be able to do exactly the
> same to yours -- the changes aren't that big, and it doesn't affect the
> Physics interface at all; it's just the way of connecting the physics
> implementation to the interface. Plus it will make it somewhat easier for
> you to make your physics plugin available for external testers at
> intermediate (early) times, if you want.
>
> Any objections?
>
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