Tuesday, January 27, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.6

Hi !

Big oops in the last release : one would still TP right back into a cell even after having been released from it. Plus, after discussing with Henri, the new way of handling @standtp wasn't really API-compliant... If I don't respect my own spec 100%, then who will ?

Just for your info, here are the two ways of handling @standtp in the code :

- The old way (as specified in the API) : if you sit down, the viewer retains your last standing location, and when you stand up it TPs you back there if @standtp is active. Problem is, if you sit down outside of a cell that was restricting you and that decides to release you because your position is outside its zone, then @standtp is no longer active when you stand up and you're free. But that's the problem of the cell, rather than the problem of the RLV.

- The new way (not really API-compliant, and maybe could cause issues for RLV relays with safewords) : if you sit down and @standtp is active, then it retains your last standing location. When you stand up, it TPs you back to that location whether @standtp is active or not, provided that this location is not zero. Works well to fix that possible loophole described above, but what about RLV relays that use safewords ? And what about the API itself, which explains that @standtp must be active for you to TP back to your spot ? After all, with this solution, even after a @clear (so you're completely free of all RLV restrictions), you're still somewhat subjected to a "ghost" RLV restriction without knowing it. In short, this way of doing things creates more problems than it solves.

All this to say, here is the latest version of the viewer that switches back to the old solution, while keeping @standtp consistent over relogs (if you sit down outside a cell and log off, when you log back on it will TP you back to your cell), and with the bug fix I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post :

 - fixed : When @standtp is lifted, no longer TP back to the last location after standing up (wherever we may be).
- changed (again) : Switched back to the old way of handling @standtp (as in, 2.9.6.4 and before), except that it is still consistent over relogs. I switched back because the ex-new way was not really API-compliant and might have been problematic for RLV relays with safeword features.

As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint

Direct download for Windows :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint/RestrainedLoveSetup.exe

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
232b806ac7a9ed710fddc7f55bcace8a

Have fun !
Marine

PS : The website where the RLV is hosted, the old and venerable"erestraint", has changed name recently. The old erestraint website has become an online shop for restraints (still owned by the same person as erestraint), while the new link (notice the added "s" at the end) is now the main website, and that's where the RLV is hosted now. While the website is still currently under construction, the RLV is already available there, on a web page that closely resembles the old one. And yes, that web page looks lame. It looks lame. Did I say it looks lame ? Well you know what ? I like it like that. That's how the web looked like when I was at the university (did I just give away my age here ?), and I'm not really a fan of all the widgets that slow down page downloads, pop up ads in your face, spy on you etc. I like it barebones so that's why it looks so lame. Plus I have zero skill in website design anyway.

 

PS 2 : This post was recently flagged because it potentially linked to a malware. This is the RLV I'm posting, or rather a self-extracting archive containing the RLV (which is, as you know, a derivative from the Second Life viewer), not some shady app that nobody knows of. It happened, in some past versions, that Windows or some antivirus, flagged it as a potential threat, but those were false positves. There's no virus in it, I scan my computer all the time, but if you have any doubt, don't hesitate to scan it too and to not use it if you don't want to take any risk. But I'm certainly not distributing malware.

Monday, January 26, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.5

Hi !

Yes, more bugs, more fixes ! I'm trying to stay on top of it. Hopefully one day the new vision features of the RLV will be totally under control. Hehe.

Here is what has changed, you'll  notice not everything is about vision and blindfolds :

- fixed : Impostors were not always rendered even under @camavdist. The reason for that was the viewer needed fully rendered and textured avatars to make silhouettes, but textures are not actually needed. It should work much better now.
- fixed : Alpha blended textures on rigged mesh attachments without materials (such as rigged hair) would render through the vision spheres.
- fixed : Hide the selection particle beam of other avatars when the vision is restricted.
- fixed : Hide cross sections and grids when editing an object while the vision is restricted.
- fixed : When standing up, TP back to the last location if we were under @standtp at the time we sat down. Even if the restriction has been lifted in the meantime. This is good for cells that check the captive's presence by their world coordinates.
- fixed : @standtp should be consistent over relogs now.

As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraint.com/realrestraint

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
2318510fe9734881593e7af84b43e51c

Have fun !
Marine 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.4

Hiya !

I promise I am not doing this on purpose ! But the camera and vision restriction features are being banged at hard, and as a results, lots of rendering bugs are found and need fixing asap... that's why I am constantly releasing bug fixes. I hope the flow will slow down because I really have other things to do, and you probably have better things to do than to constantly update your RLV as well, right ?

One thing I like in this version is the way the silhouettes are rendered. At last I finally found how to make them look like silhouettes, instead of like half-rezzed dark avatars. The initial plan was to render silhouettes like muted avatars in forward rendering (aka ALM off) :  flat and grey, but with attachments. The purpose being having someone very close to you but only guessing what they are doing, and who they are.

Anyway, here is the change list :

- fixed : Hovertexts on HUDs were hidden when the vision was restricted (a consequence of the changes in 2.9.6.3).
- fixed : Unrigged alpha attachments were visible through the vision spheres (I didn't know since my blindfolds also enforce avatar silhouettes, so attachments didn't show anyway).
- fixed : Show point at was still visible when the vision was restricted.
- changed : Silhouettes are now really silhouettes, with the attachments and all, but no details. For some reason, opaque unrigged mesh attachments do not show on silhouettes, but they do not show on regular impostors either (which the silhouettes are implemented from).

As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraint.com/realrestraint

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
2318510fe9734881593e7af84b43e51c

Have fun !
Marine 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.2

Hi there,

Seems some people have found ways to "cheat" through blindfolds (well not exactly cheat, they couldn't see clearly, but some tricks allowed them to get clues about their environment that they weren't supposed to get), so more work was required on the RLV. Here is the latest version with the fixes to these loopholes !

- fixed : Semi-transparent attachments worn by other avatars would show through the vision spheres if they had materials. Now they are rendered only when close enough, like particles.
- fixed : Editing and highlighting objects could make them render through the vision spheres, now there is no highlighting anymore when the vision is restricted (but you can still edit stuff, just... less easily).
- fixed : Removed a loophole that could allow the user to edit an object even when @edit was active, under some very specific conditions.
- fixed : When the vision is restricted, don't let the user capture the depth buffer on snapshots.
- fixed : The viewer was slowed down by some unnecessary object updates when receiving or removing restrictions (it was noticeable when receiving bursts of RLV commands), even those that had nothing to do with vision restrictions.

As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraint.com/realrestraint

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
aaa2eb4a2e5ef2be1519c16d4cccd5cf

Have fun !
Marine 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.1

Ha ! You didn't expect another one so soon, did you ?

You did ?

Alright, well it does happen often, that after a big version (or at least a version on which a lot of work has been done), a few bugs are introduced and need some fixing right away. It does drive Kittin mad, I know it. Poor girl.

Anyway, here is the latest version of the RLV, with some bug fixes that were overdue !

Look for yourself :

- changed : When forced to sit somewhere, allow to do it even when @sittp is active, to let traps re-capture the avatar after a relog. This was supposed to be introduced in 2.9.5, but a revert of the code I made after a totally different test completely wiped this fix, so here it is again.
- fixed : Selected faces were not rendered with their overlay when blindfolded (this was due to an older fix that did no longer have a purpose).
- fixed : When changing the draw render limit, visually update all the objects around.
- fixed : Hide fully transparent, non-phantom prims in-world when the vision is restricted.
- fixed : Remove the color of all the faces of all the objects in-world when @camtextures is active. Yes, I finally figured out how to do that after much research !
- fixed : In-world objects that are 100% transparent did not render even when "Highlight Transparent" was on, restricted vision or not. Now when the vision is not restricted, they appear normally again.
- fixed : Difficulties playing movies on media prims in 2.9.6.

I'm particularly glad that @camtextures can hide the color of the prims as well as their textures, at last. That part really bothered me.

As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraint.com/realrestraint

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
eb9d678c81ed07b55cd98b418264874c

Have fun !
Marine 

Friday, January 9, 2015

RLV 2.9.5

Happy new year !

So, after 2 weeks of intense work on the RLV, trying to fix those silly rendering bugs that crept up when the avatar was blindfolded (namely, alpha attachments and particles not showing properly), I could finally get the vision spheres to render correctly. And I used the opportunity to also fix a few other bugs that had nothing to do with vision restriction, but that were overdue nonetheless.

A big addition (and I am aware it will trigger a few "WTFs" from some users, but think about it for a second and you'll see it makes sense), is that now you will be blind and unable to TP and to see the location right after logging on, and will stay like this for a few seconds, while your avatar rezzes. No more cheating through blindfolds and TP restrictions right after a relog ! It can sound cumbersome at first, but you'll see, you won't think anything of it after some time.

As a result, this version of the RLV is much more enjoyable to use while blindfolded, since now your avatar shows correctly at last. Phew !

Here is the change list :

- changed : When forced to sit somewhere, allow to do it even when @sittp is active, to let traps re-capture the avatar after a relog.
- changed : When the vision is restricted, force all "Rendering Metadata" types to TRUE, forbidding from hiding the world, the prims, and more importantly, the avatars (since the vision spheres now need the user's avatar to render).
- changed : Allow to set a tracker to a location even when @showworldmap is active (it worked in RLVa so I'm making it work in the RLV too, since apparently some games use that feature).
- changed : Now when logging on, the RLV receives a bunch of "dummy" restrictions, forcing blindness, loss of location, loss of radar and loss of TP ability for a short moment, until actual RLV restrictions come (or after a few seconds). This is good to keep a user from cheating around restrictions right after relogging.
- fixed : Now particles and alpha attachments are rendered correctly when the vision is restricted. This implied changing the place where the rendering of the spheres was called, which brought its own lot of bugs, which in turn implied making a few corrections leading to a few less serious rendering issues (see the known issues below and the Rendering Metadata line above). As a result, blindfolds and other vision restriction devices look a lot better now.
- fixed : When the vision is restricted, alpha rigged attachments will no longer poke holes through the vision spheres. That was the biggest concern.
- fixed : When the vision is restricted, particles spawned by the avatar's attachments (such as leashes) are now rendered correctly. That was the other biggest concern.
- fixed : Impostors near clip range was too far and would make it impossible to zoom up-close to a silhouette.
- fixed : When zooming up close to a prim, the camera could move out of the vision spheres.
- fixed : When under @shownames, we could still see an avatar's name if it was talking through an attachment that impersonated its name (like a gag).
- fixed : @acceptpermission did not work for avatars whose last name was "Resident".
As usual, you can grab the viewer here :
www.erestraint.com/realrestraint

And the MD5 hash for the Windows executable is :
d8ce6fb12ae0111aae57e17a68b27a1c

Have fun !
Marine