[Opensim-users] Sharpview viewer questions

[John Nagle]

> Date: Sat, 13 May 2023 23:45:27 -0700
> From: Dahlia Trimble <dahliatrimble at gmail.com>

> Impressive video on that site you linked.
> 
> Is your intent to be compatible with both Second Life and Opensimulator?

Yes.

> How are you communicating PBR parameters with the server?

Right now, Sharpview uses PBR on classic content. Diffuse and specular
are converted to albedo and metallic. This mostly works OK. It's not
perfect, but few people notice. Glow currently doesn't work, because
I don't have a shader for that.

I haven't implemented SL's new "materials" yet. The rendering side of
Sharpview, which is Rend3/WGPU, has all the appropriate shaders. But
I haven't written the fetch and decode. glTF decoders are available,
so it won't be that hard.

> I did the
> original Materials implementation in OpenSimulator but left the project
> several years ago and I'm not aware of the current state of that code, but
> I remember the protocol at the time should have been easily extended to add
> more parameters without requiring changes to the server code. I wonder if
> this is still the case and/or if it might work that way in Second Life as
> well? Of course if you wanted to extend it it would probably be best to do
> it with LL's inputs and blessings.

They didn't just add extra layers to the existing materials LLSD.
There's another level of capabilities.

> I did quite a bit of work on from-scratch viewers during my time in the
> project. Unfortunately I never got to the part of varregion terrains or
> sizes so I can't comment about your questions in your other message.
> However I did solve quite a few other problems so if you get stuck or want
> to compare implementation ideas, feel free to contact me.

Thanks. I will be in touch.

If anyone with dev experience wants the download password for Sharpview,
which is needed for the download link at http://animats.com/sharpview/
please email me, nagle at animats.com. If it fails, please take a
screenshot and mail to "info at animats.com".

It's too early to turn it loose on non-technical users, but it does
mostly work for single non-varregions. It's login,
move, and view only at this point.  Avatars are still just blocks.

Currently, OSgrid and Kitely are supported, although it doesn't have
teleports yet, and so it's hard to get to off-line Kitely regions.
Zeta grid didn't work at all. You see why I need more documentation.

Minimum supported computer is roughly what a Steam user has -
NVidia 1060 6GB or better. My goal is AAA game performance on machines
that can run AAA games.


				John Nagle
				Animats