Town Hall with Cory "Exposition" Linden
05/26/2005
Topic: Ideas for Developers, Technical Challenges, and Others.
Note: The log below includes some local lines that are not in the link above. These lines were left in because Cory responded to them, all other local chatter has been taken out.
Exposition Linden = Cory Linden
Exposition Linden: ok, better late then never :-)
Exposition Linden: You folks ready to get going?
Jeska Linden: Thanks for coming everyone :)
Exposition Linden: Yes, for the two people who don't know, Exposition == Cory (this is just my demo account)
Jeska Linden: Welcome to the Town Hall with Cory "Exposition" Linden
Jeska Linden: This Town Hall will be a bit different, in that Cory will be focusing on outstanding technical 'puzzles' the SL Developers have on their desks and also invite SL users to provide suggestions on the best technical puzzles/challenges in Second Life.
Jeska Linden: If time permits, we will also open it up for questions. Questions can be sent to me (Jeska Linden) in the form of an IM. Questions will be answered in the order they appear on my screen.
Nathan Stewart: cory didnt pay his subscription, so using a free trial
Exposition Linden: lol, Nathan
Exposition Linden: OK, away we go . . .
Jeska Linden: Now I'll turn it over to Cory, who will start with a few questions and puzzles posted in the forums. :)
Exposition Linden: The purpose of this townhall is for Linden to talk a bit about the challenges, technical and otherwise, that we think that residents could help with.
Exposition Linden: Obviously, this is a bit of an experiment but we'll see what comes of it.
Exposition Linden: The general format that I'm going to use is to kick out the list that I've come up with, divided into general categories. I'll then follow up with ideas submitted by residents.
Exposition Linden: Finally, I'll answer some of the technical questions that were inserted into the forum thread. After that, we'll turn it over to questions.
Exposition Linden: Game and experiences in Second Life that I'd like to see and play (in no particular order):
Exposition Linden: 1) A working, golf game that takes advantage of animations and physics to allow multiple players to play together. I'm not talking about mini-golf, but full size.
Exposition Linden: A pefect implementation would allow people to play both on premade holes and to play across other parts of Second Life.
Exposition Linden: I suspect that this would work as Frisbee golf as well.
Exposition Linden: 2) 3D Joust. For anyone who hasn't played the classic arcade game, Joust allowed one or two players to joust on a verticle 2D screen. The key elements were whoever was higher wins the joust and you had to pound the flap key to move up.
Exposition Linden: The correct behavior could be accomplished via scripted attachments, one could imagine an array of different 3D playfields, and could maintain high framerate on an island, since the total object count could be kept low.
Exposition Linden: 3) Create a collectable, tradable card and/or miniature game. Magic the Gathering is the obivous example, but there are many other forms in existence.
Exposition Linden: Perhaps one could even be based off of teddy bears ;-)!
Exposition Linden: Many other games could fall out of this one, of course, but the key would be leveraging SL's strengths while working around the UI limitations.
Exposition Linden: 4) Build a game around the mechanic of a vehicle that could be "stolen" by others. Interesting opportunities in everything from the theft mechanic down to how it would then be found.
Exposition Linden: 5) Carnival crane game, where an arm is controlled by the avatar in order to select fabulous cash and prizes.
Exposition Linden: 6) A social fishing game, that allows residents to chat while trying to catch the biggest fish. Could really lend itself to contests and betting as well.
Exposition Linden: 7) Create a street-fighter style game (but maybe turn-based?) that relies on custom animations and attachments that gain power via use. Again, lends itself to spectators and to betting. Also, SL-wide rankings.
Exposition Linden: Objects that would be cool to see:
Exposition Linden: 1) A dump truck or cargo van that could deliver objects to specific locations in world.
Exposition Linden: 2) Bring back the cannons and launchers that provided point-to-point transportation in the Beta grid. I still remember Charlie's launcher that would take you from the outlands to the original start area.
Exposition Linden: 3) Better musical instruments that drive appropriate animations.
Exposition Linden: 4) Vehicles and objects that get dirty as your use/operate them.
Exposition Linden: 5) Sky writing planes
Exposition Linden: 6) Buildings and rooms that work with attachments to better script avatar motions -- for example, ladders that you climb, ropes that swing on, etc.
Exposition Linden: 7) Pets that require interaction and that can interact with each other.
Exposition Linden: I just got IM-ed that a fishing game exists already! w00t!
Exposition Linden: Technical challenges (these are the really tough ones):
Exposition Linden: Neo-realms is where the fishing is
Exposition Linden: 1) Create an algorithm and OpenGL demo for converting SL geometry into 3D imposters. This is different than traditional 2D imposters. A 3D imposter is a reduced geoemetric representation that can still be lit.
Exposition Linden: A good place to start might be here: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/b-cam/Papers/Shen-2004-IAI.pdf
Exposition Linden: So, for example, a large building (this is a simple case) could be represented by a single, large cube. Imposters need not be constrained to SL primitives and should instead be created from polygons (albeit, a small number of polygons).
Exposition Linden: 2) Build an Open GL application that allows you to build flow charts, where output from specific elements act as inputs to other elements, with the ability to make different shapes and proper path finding for the connections.
Exposition Linden: Used as a UI element, this could allow for visual script building, material definitions, etc.
Exposition Linden: 3) Create an optimizer for transforming arbitrary 3D mesh geometry into SL primitives. The optimizer would need to be able to tradeoff processing time, error, and number of created primitives.
Exposition Linden: This would be an incredibly useful addition because it would be the major step in allowing data from applications like Max or Maya to be imported into SL.
Exposition Linden: 4) High quality machinima. Given the flexibility of SL, especially with private islands, it seems possible to create some truly amazing machinima.
Exposition Linden: 5) A cross-platform speaker dependent speach recognizer. There are a host of features that this would allow, but sadly most of the products in this area are either not cross platform or are speaker independent, resulting in much lower recognition rates.
Exposition Linden: 6) A high-quality text-to-speech system (again, cross platform) that allows dynamic blending of speech fonts or truly synthesized speech. Again, many interesting options appear if this technology was around.
Exposition Linden: 7) Demonstrate high-quality procedural locomotion cycles for different combinations of legs. More importantly, demonstrate methods for blending those cycles with non-kinematic and prebuilt animations.
Exposition Linden: OK, that was my list (thanks to all the Lindens and residents who helped me put it together)
Exposition Linden: Now, on to the questions from the thread
Exposition Linden: Where possible, I'm trying not to repeat answers from previous townhalls
Exposition Linden: Strife Onizuka: What challenges need to be overcome for 1.7?
Exposition Linden: The most important issues are scaling and database load (visible to everyone as blocked logins, teleport problems, etc). As I'm sure that you've noticed, we're finally starting to get a leg up on the database, although we still have a lot of work to do.
Exposition Linden: A core group is now meeting weekly just to monitor db load and scaling.
Exposition Linden: Beyond that, we have Havok 2 and interest list improvements. Interest list improvements include a revamped scritp scheduler that gives much better control over sim performance.
Exposition Linden: Adam Zaius: What is the status of the Linux client, does LL have need of beta testers yet, and who is doing the port? Also, is the person doing the port [if they have been contracted already] availible to have a linux client townhall?)
Exposition Linden: The Linux port is being worked on. We don't need beta testers yet, nor am I ready to talk about who's doing it, but I agree that a town hall would be a great idea.
Exposition Linden: Sidra Stern: Are there any plans to develop a small IM program outside of SL for your friends list ? (Can be used on a computer that cannot access Sl, either on a second computer or on a mobile phone.)
Exposition Linden: I suspect that residents are alreay working on this and agree that there are many mobile opportunities for SL.
Exposition Linden: Trifen Fairplay: [A bunch of good questions about border crossings]
Exposition Linden: Part of our scaling work is to revamp how agents transition between sims. Currently, border crossing and teleport use completely different paths and agents, vehicles, and attachments are not handled via an atomic transition.
Exposition Linden: This is the core problem driving most of the bugs you described.
Exposition Linden: Fortunately, as part of our general scaling work, we're unifying the process of moving an agent from one region to another and converting it to an atomic pass. This will help these types of issues tremendously.
Exposition Linden: Unfortunately, I don't know right now whether or not that will make it into 1.7.
Exposition Linden: Emperor Dalek: Will LL's focus on bugs continue for the length of the 6.x cycle and fix long-standing issues like texture distortions (my fav to hate) and alpha sorting (far on top of near), or will those repairs be part of the new renderer?
Exposition Linden: Our focus will remain on bugs and scaling. The texture distortion is a tricky one, because we can't make a change that will break content throughout SL. What will likely happen in the long run is to enable better texturing controls,
Exposition Linden: but keep old content the same. This will not happen before the next generation renderer.
Exposition Linden: Waves Lightcloud: [Asks about remote cameras to view events]
Exposition Linden: This is something that we've talked about a lot. The work that Doug has done cleaning up the interest list actually makes it possible for us to do this, although it isn't yet on the schedule.
Exposition Linden: Jeffrey Gomez and Strife Onizuka: [Asks about permissions and changes to the permissions system]
Exposition Linden: Permissions changes (other than those required to fix bugs and exploits) are on hold until we have caught up on bugs and scaling issues and/or have significantly expanded the development team.
Exposition Linden: As I've stated before, we have a ton of developer positions open (in fact, two have signed on this week) so we should rapidly acquire a lot more development horsepower.
Exposition Linden: Huns Valen: Current status of parcel-based script memory allocation/performance throttling?
Exposition Linden: Largely on hold for the same reasons. However, Doug's work on the script scheduler should ultimately give estate owners mroe control over script execution.
Exposition Linden: Apotheus Silverman: Will we ever have verifiable LSL-initiated transactions? IE, return codes or events that a script receives notifying it if an item or money was successfully delivered.
Exposition Linden: Yes, but not until we have more developers. There are many aspects to script-driven sales that we want to improve, and a better API with more feedback to the script itself is part of that plan.
Exposition Linden: eltee Statosky: [Asks about changes to simulator performance with 1.6]
Exposition Linden: The script scheduling and interest list is being rewritten for 1.7. At the very least, we will regain any performance lost in the 1.6 transition. In addition, we should have much better control over what the CPU is working on.
Exposition Linden: Gwyneth Llewelyn: [Asks about graphical scaling issues]
Exposition Linden: The approach with the 2.0 renderer is to allow for more scaling than with the current system. This scaling applies in both directions, so on the one hand we'll be able to handle higher end cards
Exposition Linden: and actually get a better view of the world, while on lower end cards we'll be able to better control what we do draw.
Exposition Linden: Adam Zaius: There is a rumour floating around that 1.7 will include the ability to script the interface
Exposition Linden: That rumor is false, at least in the 1.7 timeframe. I agree that WoW's Lua-based UI is a great example of the power of scriptable UIs.
Exposition Linden: blaze Spinnaker: What's your toughest challenge on your desk at the moment / in general?
Exposition Linden: Doubling the size of developer team this year without hiring feebs or choads.
Exposition Linden: Strife Onizuka: What are the issues involving alternate skeletons, additional limbs (tails, arms, ets.), new clothing types & meshes, built in client animation overrides.
Exposition Linden: Most of the issues around different skeletons are tied to animation issues. Spore, Will Wright's new game shows how far a lot of bright people working for years can get on solving these issues and I suspect that we'll eventually move in a similar
Exposition Linden: direction.
Exposition Linden: Strife Onizuka: Will Havok2 break existing vehicals?
Exposition Linden: We are making every effort to ensure that Havok 2 does not break existing vehicles.
Exposition Linden: Olmy Seraph: [Asks about object oriented programming style improvements to the build system]
Exposition Linden: Better tools for managing large numbers of objects is an excellent idea. Improved creation tools are yet another reason why I want to hire more developers.
Exposition Linden: Jeffrey Gomez: How soon will we see Mono? What about other scripting languages?
Exposition Linden: We hope to start integrating Mono back into the main codebase in August. How long after that before it actually is released will depend on testing. Support for other languages will come after we have improved existing LSL performance.
Exposition Linden: Jeffrey Gomez: [Aks a bunch of questions about rendering technology]
Exposition Linden: As we hire, we will devote substantial resources to supporting more modern graphics features in an additive way. This way, older cards will always have a fallback rendering option. Specific areas of focus include:
Exposition Linden: Moving from a texture model to a material model, better utilization of shaders, a focus on screen space solutions, and an ongoing analysis of how to improve solid body rendering.
Exposition Linden: <deep breath>
Exposition Linden: OK, that's all I had prepared coming in, so I've got some time to try and answer questions or to comment on other problems and ideas.
Jeska Linden: Please send your Technical questions to me -
Jeska Linden: Ok, here we go: Ice Brodie: Will there be improvements to object-object communication? if so, what timefrae?
Exposition Linden: Unless I get hit by muni walking to work, there will be an improved object-object system for objects in the same sim for 1.7
Exposition Linden: also, I was just IM-ed that some sweet musical instruments with animations exist in world . . . double w00t!
Exposition Linden: next, please
Jeska Linden: Keknehv Psaltery: Are there any plans to allow 3-d scaling of linked prims, as opposed to overall scaling?
Exposition Linden: If you mean, non-uniform scaling, the answer is currently no, since that would require that we be able to shear existing primitives. However, that is a feature that we'll want in the long run.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Tyler Rocco: Is there any chance of ocean sims happening ?
Exposition Linden: sims that are all water? I think that there are already some like that . . . if you mean sims with different water effects, not before the new renderer.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Jeri Zuma: Anything new in the war on lag? are there any new thoughts about how to get hundreds of functioning avies into one sim for an event?
Exposition Linden: as I talked about a bit in the info-dump, we're pulling apart the interest procesisng and script scheduling, two of the high sim nails performance wise . . .
Exposition Linden: plus havok deux should help sim performance with lots of avs as well . . .
Exposition Linden: however if you're talking about client side performance, that's more of a renderer issue and we are looking at improving that . . .
Exposition Linden: but not until the next renderer
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Ally Cain: When can the 1.7 user database be updated so fairly new users can help test?
Exposition Linden: that's a good point . . . when we start preview for 1.7, we'll move a snapshot over and that will set the date
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Storma Amarula: Will there ever be an action menu put into the UI tjat would allow scripts, gestures (what have you) activated from icon menu (similar to how other MMOG's use spells, actions, etc.)?
Exposition Linden: yes, although that will likely not happen until we have a more fully customizable UI in place
Exposition Linden: good idea, though
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Pendari Lorentz: Question: Are Avatar "Keys" the same as avatar "Names" and if so, is it possible for someone to use these "keys/names" to spam/contact/etc residents, while NOT logged into the SL client?
Exposition Linden: avatar keys can be used to IM a resident in world via a script. note that using these to spam someone is a community standard violation, so don't do that.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Enchant Jacques: We was told at the last meet that work was being carried out on making SL stable - Many of us are still having crashing Issues. When do you expect this issue to be corrected?
Exposition Linden: please send questions to Jeska, not me directly, btw
Exposition Linden: we are focusing most of development of stability and scaling issues . . . for example, most of you have probably noticed that logins are mostly working again . . .
Exposition Linden: also, many problems (as I talked about in the info dump) are related to avatars moving between sims and we are moving to change that architecture to provide a more stable experience
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Torley Torgeson: Are there any plans for a more flexible animation control system, in regards to playback and manipulation? For example, ability to play animations backwards and reset loop points, or change priorities after they've been uploaded?
Exposition Linden: Once we have hired more folks, we really want to hit animations out of the park. We feel that animations are an area that SL can really shine. WHat you listed will likely only be the start of what we can do.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Dave Eisenberg: The new ability to snap objects to the grid was a good idea that helped in building, but will there be a way to snap objects together, without messing around with the coordinates. (to snap 2 cubes together at the center, corners and cente
Jeska Linden: r sides)
Exposition Linden: That's an excellent suggestion and when we have the resources to improve the building tools that is almost certainly one that we will take on. Note that you can create an object directly next to an existing one.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Maeve Morgan: I was wondering if we'll ever have more realistic avatar movement aka along the lines of parts of the anatomy bouncing appropriatly
Exposition Linden: The avatar, like animation in general, has nearly unlimited room for improvement, and more realistic skin and muscle deformation is definitely on the list. Not till we are on top of bugs/scaling, though.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Stephane Zugzwang: Will we get hierachical addressing of linked prims when we get Mono? Hierachical grouping of prims?
Exposition Linden: Hierarchy and mono and not linked. Hierarchy will be more tied to improvements to the build tools.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Nathan Stewart: Any plans to improve the land sale and release land options in 1.7 to allow better safety for the owner?
Exposition Linden: We have a bug entered to fix that dialog, yes.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Editorial Hare: Have you considered opening some of the client side software as open source to allow the users to help refine it?
Exposition Linden: As has been discussed in a few places, we believe that in the long run open source offers huge benefits to SL and Linden Lab.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Weedy Herbst: Is llString2Notecard() in the works?
Exposition Linden: No
Jeska Linden: Huns Valen: 1.4 introduced a number of bugs to the sound engine, such as spontaneous repeats, volume bursts, cutting out when changing parcels, etc. Is there any progress on this?
Exposition Linden: We have had folks looking at that, but progress has been slower that we'd like.
Exposition Linden: However, as we hire, that will be one of the areas of focus.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: kornation Bommerang: I have to leave the pc from time to time, how about a text to voice reader so u can still hear the conversation going on? or so low rez screens (i sumtimes have to use a tv) can still be understood?
Exposition Linden: Please reread the info-dump :-)
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Darzus Strutt: Prim limits on physical objects -- when and how much will it go up?
Exposition Linden: Unknown until Havok 2 is in testing.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Eboni Khan: Will there ever be an ability to script the changing of clothes? Or the abilty to drag miltipel folder to an avatar without losing the current attachments?
Exposition Linden: Yes and yes, but not for a while yet. Script control of attachments and outfits is a major feature that will greatly enhance a lot of SL, so it is being thought about.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Blue Rosebud:How about limiting the use of certain scripts in areas and those who abuse this become instantly kicked out of the game for a certain period of time?
Exposition Linden: I'm not sure that we'd want to instantly kick people based on script functions, since llPushObject has lots of appropriate uses. However, in order to better enable games and other experiences,
Exposition Linden: we definitely need to provide more fine grained script controls.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Ally Cain: Are there any plans to offer thinner client that would exclude a renderer? Allowing users to instant message, manage inventory, etc.
Exposition Linden: I think that the info dump hit this as well
Jeska Linden: Tiger Crossing: Any chance of working the functionality of the animation overrider scripts into the system itself, so that you can set your walk/run/sit/fly animations from the UI and not have to run a script?
Exposition Linden: That is definitely on the list once I have people to focus on the animation system.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Tommy Oz: A more specific Linux question. Will it require Mono on the client side or the the .net stuff purely server side?
Exposition Linden: Mono will eventually be server and client side, but server side first.
Jeska Linden: Olmy Seraph: The asset server seems to be a single point of failure than can bork the whole grid. Is it just one DB? What are you doing to make SL more dsitrubuted with fewer bottlenecks?
Exposition Linden: next
Exposition Linden: oops . . .
Exposition Linden: the asset system actually scales qutie well now that we're using our turbo, hyper fighting hardware from Isilon, but
Exposition Linden: it's the mysql database that has been getting smashed. The info dump talks about how we're hitting that.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Shokra Patel: Are there any developments for weather effects, like rain, snow etc per season changes - mild rain showers, thunder storms etc? (Other games have these features) - Perhaps or the ability for estate owners to toggle )
Exposition Linden: Those are primarily rendering effects that we have people dying to work on, but until we hire more folks, bugs come first. But, yes, once we have the bodies we will have those features.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: StoneSelf Karuna: are there plans to allow people to send avatar articulation data in real time? (av suits?)
Exposition Linden: heh, that's a great question . . . no plans right now, but nothing in the architecture precludes it
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Darkness Anubis: What exactly happened last night to cause the big crash/mess? and what is being done to prevent it in the future?
Exposition Linden: We had a DNS snafu. We're switching from rubber hoses to cat o' nine tails for the ops beatings, which should hopefully preclude future failures.
Jeska Linden: Nathan Stewart: In the debug menu there is force sunset which is actually sunrise, will there be a be an option to make it dark?
Exposition Linden: Estate owners can set the time of day already.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Ice Brodie: Will Sim to Sim object communication be improved, and if so what time frame?
Exposition Linden: Yes, but not in 1.7. Improvements will be made within a sim first then the same API will be extended to support objects on different sims,
Exposition Linden: so your scripts won't change, you'll just get more features.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Eboni Khan: Are thre any plans to allow bulk animation uploads?
Exposition Linden: no, but that's a good point. . . we'd need to support some kind of meta data to allow that though.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Jeri Zuma: Why isnt llString2Notecard() in the works, and alternatively, can we get more memory allocated to scripts? Not having one or the other really hampers script development.
Exposition Linden: notecards are assets, thus we don't want to enable an automated method of generating them . . .
Exposition Linden: instead we'd prefer to attack this problem by enabling more storage for scripts and different methods for sharing/displaying text data.
Exposition Linden: sim local memory for scripts should also be in 1.7 (again, with the muni bus proviso)
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Michi Lumin: Are there any plans to implement inventory object limits, or attached prim limits?
Exposition Linden: When we identify resident behavior that places lots of load on the system that we strive to find methods either of limiting or regulating those activities.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Storma Amarula: Is there an ETA on the 'Generalized Texture Layer' which allow users to wear 'tattoos, what have you' with any skin? I assume this would be above the skin layer and below the undergarment layer?
Exposition Linden: I had hoped that we would be able to get that into 1.7, but the people who would have written that feature are pretty tied up on bugs and scaling.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: kimmie Loveless: Can we get script commands to handle a parcels ban list? and how about returning an error code for llGiveMoney if there are not enough funds?
Exposition Linden: llGiveMoney is discussed in the info-dump.
Jeska Linden: Cubey Terra: Are there plans to add the ability to change permissions recursively on the contents of an object? That is, if an object contains scripts etc in every prim, will we ever be able to change permissions at once or will it always be 1 at a time?
Exposition Linden: IM-ing me that you don't like my answers doesn't help me answer other questions, btw :-)
Exposition Linden: about the parcel ban list, that's a good point. I think that we support buying access from within the script, but I'm not sure about the ban list.
Exposition Linden: yes, we want recursive changes as well, I just need to be able to allocate bodies to it
Jeska Linden: Pendari Lorentz: Any chance that folders will one day be able to be placed inside a prim? (Thinking outfits in folders and needing a wardrobe or dresser)
Exposition Linden: yes, having inventory work in different ways makes everything more complicated for us as well. Aaron and I have been talking about how to unify them, but that is a bit down the road for now.
Jeska Linden: Chosen Few: Transitioning to a material shader system has been mentioned a couple of times now. Can you elaborate on what's in the works? Should we expect it to be similar to material systems in other 3D modeling packages?
Exposition Linden: Yes, the material model in products like Max and Maya is a good starting point for what we're thinking about.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: John Hornpipe: any plans on an offline way of being able to see how an image would look on our AV's without spending 1000L just to get a shirt right?
Exposition Linden: yes, we are looking at various solutions to the "try before you buy" problem. I wish that it had easier solutiohns so that we could already have it in, but we do have folks working on (largely because it rocketed up the feature page)
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: jordan Rebel: in a new version could we upload longer songs ike a full song not a 10 second one?
Exposition Linden: no
Jeska Linden: Darzus Strutt: havok 2 where is it ..whens it coming?
Exposition Linden: 1.7
Exposition Linden: so, in progress right now
Oz Spade: Can we quote you on that?
Exposition Linden: yes
Chris Linden: oh great :P
Jeska Linden: Ice Brodie: Will there be (non notecard) provisions for a way to store data outside of script execution, a RAM object or a Text object of some sort?
Exposition Linden: yes. The first version will likely be tied to land but the idea is to allow scripts to both store and communicate via shared memory.
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Torley Torgeson: WHERE HAVE ALL THE HIPPOS GONE IN SL? :) This worries me, for without our beloved beast of burden, progress will be impeded and the crops cannot be harvested for fear of code locusts!
Exposition Linden: I too lament the loss of the noble beast
Exposition Linden: It is still hippos all the way down, though
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Tyler Rocco: How about a llGetRegionRating() function? Returning either Mature or PG)
Exposition Linden: That's a good idea.
Exposition Linden: scared at what it will be used for, though
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Nathan Stewart: Would caching the inventory between logins as is already done while online be a good idea of saving alot of database resources, using the same crc check, this will save us having to redownload the list of items each time we search after
Jeska Linden: reloggin?
Exposition Linden: the inventory is already largely cached, but if there are still ways to improve it I'm sure Aaron will enjoy hearing about them
Exposition Linden: next
Jeska Linden: Darzus Strutt: 1.7 where is it - when's it coming?
Exposition Linden: Chris?
Exposition Linden: End of July, preview before that by 3 week-ish
Chris Linden: Just remember, quote him, not me
Exposition Linden: I'm sooo retiring exposition after all of these quotes :-)
Jeska Linden: ok last one - Ally Cain: Where do we send the pizza and beer when the database server crashes?
Exposition Linden: 1100 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94111
Jeska Linden: (extra cheese)
Chris Linden: i like chicken-pesto
Exposition Linden: ok, thanks for all of the great questions and good luck tackling some of the challenges . . . based on the smack talk I hear in irc, I expect to see an optimizer for triangles in a week or two
Jeska Linden: Thanks everyone for coming out - I'll be posting the transcript in the forums.
Exposition Linden: Thanks everyone!
Jeska Linden: Also, if you didn't get your question answered, you can always post it in the Hotline to Linden forum for followup.