Thursday, March 26, 2015

RLV 2.9.7

Hi there !

As promised in the last post, here is the latest version of the RLV that contains the new avatar Z offset added by Linden Lab into the official viewer !

And also a couple fixes in a version 2.9.6.10 that I had the time to release a few days ago, but didn't have the time to publish a blog post about. So let me recap the two versions in one change log here :

2.9.7
- added : The latest addition of the avatar hover Z offset by Linden Lab (not linked to @adjustheight yet, but able to interpret the new network message already). Right-click on yourself and select "Hover Height" on the context menu to display the new slider.

2.9.6.10
- fixed : When addattach was on, objects could be automatically detached while logging on, simply because their attachment points were locked empty too early, causing massive disruption of the outfit, since these objects could not be re-attached manually afterwards. This bug has been around for ages, but it was very difficult to reproduce.
- fixed : Maximum number of clothes per layer increased to 10 again (it was reverted down to 5 somewhere between 2.5 and now during a codebase update).


Let me remind you that the new slider (right-click on your avatar, select "Hover Height" on the context menu) works fine and its effect will be seen by any viewer that uses the same data (at the time of this writing, that's only the official SL viewer, but maybe some third party viewers were updated with, I don't know), but it won't have any visual effect for those who use a viewer that doesn't implement this code. But they will have to eventually, in the name of LL's "shared experience" requirement.

Also let me remind you that this slider is not linked to the @adjustheight RLV command yet, but will be eventually, when enough people use viewers that can understand that new Z offset.


You can find the RLV for Windows here :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint

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

And the MD5 hash for the executable is :
5e0349a6e02e79feb0091a14c50bdee4


Have fun !
Marine

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A word about avatar Z offset

Hi !

Lately Linden Lab has been working at adding a new feature to the official SL viewer : "Avatar Hover Z Offset". Or Z-offset as I find more convenient to call it.

You may be thinking "hold on, this has been in the third party viewers for ages !" and you'd be right... and wrong at the same time. Let me explain.

A few years ago, I spotted a feature that was called "avatar Z offset" in the Phoenix viewer and thought "now that is a good idea", and included it in the RLV as an enhancement, under the form of a simple slider in the navigation bar. The idea was to be able to adjust the altitude of the avatar so we'd stop hovering above the floor or sinking into it when being animated (either by attachments or by objects in-world). It was called an offset but internally, what that slider was doing was increasing the height of the bounding box of the avatar from its center. As a result, visually, when you increased the height by X, your avatar seemed to move up by X/2. It was a height increase, but in the user's point of view, it was an offset, hence the name.

It didn't take long for Henri Beauchamp to want to include that kind of feature into the RLV API so that scripts could change the offset (well height, but I'll call it offset from now on, please pardon the technical shorthand) automatically. It was very handy. The RLV command "@adjustheight" was born.

Problem is, the Z offset was nothing more than a hack, a side-effect of the rendering, initially a debug feature. LL certainly regarded it that way.

So when Linden Lab came up with the Server Side Appearance feature, the avatar Z offset one was broken completely. The old way to handle the Z offset was not compatible with the new way the avatar appearance was calculated (server-side as opposed to viewer-side in the past), and there was nothing we could do. Nyx Linden, in his free time, implemented a feature that was looking like what we had before, but in less practical : the Hover value in the avatar shape. Thank you again for that, Nyx.

This was not ideal, but it saved the feature, more or less. Henri Beauchamp came up with a way to link the @adjustheight RLV command to the new Hover slider, on the condition that the shape be modifiable, of course, and with some bizarre calculations (due to a bug that was applying the offset twice), we had something that was working more or less well. He spent a lot of time on it, and I spent a lot of time to adapt it to my RLV as well, optimizing it and trying to make it as painless as possible. It was almost as usable as the old "avatar Z offset". Thank you again for that too, Henri.

Henri never stopped nagging LL to include a proper way of modifying the altitude of the avatar, the Z offset, instead of having to rely on some weird hacks that were working 75% of the time (the sim frequently complained about not being able to solve the appearance request, when alpha layers were included in the process).

Today it paid off and LL decided to bring a solution to this, in the form of a slider ! It is even included in the official SL viewer. Thank you for that, Linden Lab !

Only... other users will see your avatar move up and down only if they are using a viewer that is compatible with this new slider. What the slider does is send a new network message to the sim saying "Hey, retain that my avatar now has an offset of X !" and the sim will notify all the other agents around that "Hey, that avatar now has an offset of X !". But if one of these bystanders uses a viewer that does not understand that new message, then nothing will happen on their side and we will not have a "shared experience" the way LL wants. This is to be expected and that user should update their viewer, and probably will eventually, but there is got to be some time when someone changes their Z offset and a friend of theirs says "well it didn't work, you are still sunk into the floor". To which the inevitable response will be "well you should update your viewer then". Or the more common alternative response known as "well it must be an SL bug".

Now why am I telling you all this ?

I have included the new Z offset into my RLV this morning, and it works well... but only if the other users around are on a viewer that can handle that new network message. For the time being, this means the official viewer, or the RLV that I have not released yet (but will in a short time, maybe today or tomorrow).

This is why I will soon release a RLV with this new feature, but not linked to @adjustheight yet. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to link it to the RLV command ! But it is still too early. The tipping point will be when enough users will have downloaded a viewer that handles the new Z offset, and that necessarily comes through Firestorm including it into their code. As I don't work on Firestorm, I can't guarantee when this will happen, if ever.

But when that tipping point is crossed, or shortly before, I will link @adjustheight to the new Z offset and we will have a perfectly working avatar Z offset feature again, like in the good old days !

Have fun !
Marine

PS : I initially thought I had the idea to create a RLV command for the avatar Z offset, but I forgot that it was Henri who got the idea, not me. Sorry Henri, fixed now !

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.9

Hi !

Here is a new version of the RLV with a couple bug fixes, that were nagging at me for some time now. I'm sure it will please those of you who like to play with outfits directly in the inventory !

- fixed : Reinstated the "Replace Current Outfit" menu item in the inventory. It was working in the Appearance window but I totally forgot to fix it in the inventory at that time.

- fixed : Force Basic Shaders on when the vision is restricted. However, older Intel integrated video cards tend to crash when Basic Shaders are activated, so we force them on only when the GL version is 3 or above, or when the video card is not an Intel, to avoid crashing the viewer.

- fixed : Allow to wear anything when we are still a cloud (this should curb those errors when an object locks the outfit of the avatar before said outfit has been rezzed, during login).


You can find the RLV for Windows here :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint

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

And the MD5 hash for the executable is :
5d19822f77d2289e98025c6763702dde


Have fun !
Marine

Monday, March 16, 2015

Update to the Treadmill and the Mousewheel

Hi !

There is an update available for the Treadmill and the Mousewheel :

- The zapper would interfere with someone else's zapper when too close (one would zap, the other would show electricity)
- The zapper animations were too high priority and would override some restraints

Simply click on your product, go to Maintenance, then press "New Version ?" to get your new version.

Have fun !
Marine

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.8

Hiya !

I thought about a nice thing to have, and that's the ability to move the vision spheres (the black spheres that hide the world when your vision is restricted) from the head to another extremity of your body, at will. It makes sense, since when you are blindfolded, the camera features help giving you a "feel" of what's around you. So it also makes sense that you can "feel" what's around you with other parts of your body than just your head : your pelvis, your hands and your feet.

There is now a new "Focus" sub-menu under the RLV menu. It does nothing visible if you are not blindfolded, but if you are, it helps you, for example, see the ground you are standing on. It also helps if you are sitting on an object that puts you into an animation that would hide too much of your surroundings if you could "feel" the world only from your eyes.

Now of course, it would have made more sense to hide all the world except what's at a certain distance of your skin. Problem is, it is waaaay beyond my skills, so it has to be spheres. Any shape more complex than that is right out. I also heard that I could draw several spheres, one around every extremity. Well for one it is more than one sphere, it is a bunch of spheres all centered around the same joint, and for two they do not work that way anyway. They let the world be drawn first and then they hide most of it. Adding more spheres would only hide more of the world (and I'm not even talking about blending them between each other when they are only half-transparent). So I took the easier route and you can now shift your focus to other parts of your body. Besides, this is how it works in real life : you can shift your conscience to your hand, your foot, your elbow, or wherever you want on your body.


But enough rambling, here are the new features :

- added : A new menu under RLV to change the body joint where the vision spheres (the black spheres) are rendered, and around which the camera is restricted, instead of just the head. You can now "see" the world around any of your body extremities (head, pelvis, hands and feet). There is also a shortcut for each one of them : ctrl+alt+shift+U/J/I/O/K/L. The focus point is defaulted to the head when we are in Mouselook, though.
- changed : Allow to see the body attachments that have alpha textures from a little further away. We now take into account the size of the attachment instead of just its position. It's not perfect but it works well.
- changed : Objects with an empty name now show as such on the chat, like it used to be the case. It had been replaced with "(Unnamed)" for some time now, breaking some content in-world.


You can find the RLV for Windows here :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint

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

And the MD5 hash for the executable is :
0564fd8cab454857a6d278fabe55680b


Have fun !
Marine

Friday, March 6, 2015

RealRestraint update to v1.27

Hi !

There is a new version available for all the RealRestraint products !

The key highlights of this update are the ability for the sub to change the color of her restraints even when locked, tighter blindfolds, a game mode to allow for fast struggling (for escape contests between tied up subs) and the ability to prevent editing a set of restraints once locked.

If your product is v1.24 or below, you will only have the option to replace it. This is because the number of changes that occurred during v1.24 and v1.25 is so big that there is no guarantee a soft update will still work. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If the version of your product is 1.25 or 1.26, I recommend you replace it, but you do not have to. A simple Update should let you benefit from almost all the new features. Between 1.26 and 1.27, there are only a few reasons you may want to replace your product :

- To benefit fully from the new "Editable" button on the main menu (see below). It will work if you don't replace, but the secondary items of your product will not be rendered uneditable when you uncheck "Editable", only the root item.
- To get the new version of the ring gag strap of the Deluxe Gag, that is the same strap but cut in two parts to allow for easier adjusting.
- To have the chain conflict fixed on the Vixen cuffs when locked in "Sit spread" and "Hands collar" at the same time, you need to replace the arms cuffs.
- To have your body harness more difficult to struggle out from.
- To have your blindfolds easier to struggle out from.
- To get the new Leash Anywhere HUD (but it is also included in the update folder so you don't really have to).
- To get the Siren crotchrope vibrator fixed.


* All restraints :
- Added a "Game mode" button in the "Special" menu to allow for interesting struggling contests. It is deactivated by default but when you activate it, the sub recovers her energy much faster than in real mode. She should be able to struggle out in less than half an hour if she's good. Game mode is deactivated as soon as the restraint is locked, so you have to set it manually after locking it. That way, you don't let a sub struggle out and forget that she was in game mode the next time you lock her up.
- Added an "Editable" button in the "Special" menu to allow you to prevent the sub from editing the whole set of restraints. RLV is required for this one of course. This should prevent her from hiding a collar, for example, if you want her to have it shown at all times !
- When the key is on and no timer is set, the sub is able to call the menu up with /77 whether it is allowed or not. This should stop letting people get stuck in restraints with /77 off and no touch, while having their own keys. (*)
- Changed the access scheme to all the color and texture customization plugins (HarnessTex, BinderTex, VixenTex, SirenTex and many others) to "wearer AND keyholder, even when locked". A lot of people like to wear their restraints as fashion elements, not only as restraints, and they like to customize the color after being locked as well. It is less realistic (when you're restrained in hemp ropes, you should not be magically able to switch to camo ropes without someone re-tying you up entirely), but a lot nicer to the sub. One of the perks of being a sub in SL, you can look pretty even when tied up !

* Gags in general :
- Now emotes are redirected to the same channel as the chat, and controlled entirely by the gag, instead of letting the RLV cut the emote short itself.
- Changed the way the "Emote" button works : it can now restrict lightly, heavily or completely suppress emotes. The heavier the restriction, the shorter the emotes. If the emotes are throttled too much, the sub will randomly whine, huff, gasp, moan etc instead of emoting. The specifics are 4 characters per second (200 characters max per emote) in the light restriction, and 1 character per second (50 characters max per emote) in the heavy restriction. Please don't restrict the emotes of a para-RPer (someone who likes to type whole paragraphs when emoting), unless you want to make them explode !

* Blindfolds in general :
- Made @camavdist (the distance from where avatars are rendered as silhouettes in RLV 2.9) farther than the black vision spheres, effectively removing silhouettes. The rendering of silhouettes is not appropriate for looking at them up-close.
- Made the vision much darker on the lower locks ("Blurry" to "Thin"), and opaque on the higher locks ("Medium" to "Opaque", RLV 2.9 only). It was too easy to set the screen really bright (with or without gamma adjustment), effectively negating the effects of "Blurry" to "Thin" blindfolds. You could even see through "Thick" pretty well. It should be much more challenging now, and every lock should have an interest.
- Made them easier to struggle out from. Usually blindfolds are locked pretty tight and that makes them much harder to struggle out from than the rest of the restraints, but blindfolds are usually just a piece of fabric wrapped around the head. In RL, struggling out of a normal blindfold is trivial, unless it is a piece of fetish equipment with straps everywhere, or integrated in a hood. (*)

* Deluxe Gag :
- Separated the ring strap (the one that appears when you are gagged with a ring) in two parts, to allow for an easier adjusting (*). Please note that since it changes the number of prims, it won't be possible to save and load your times between the old version and the new one. I'm sorry.

* Leash anywhere HUD :
- There was a problem when trying to target a prim located inside a concave mesh object. Now the HUD targets the smallest object it finds on its path, among the 3 closest ones. The fix is not ideal, there may still be cases when it misses the prim you want to leash to, but it generally gives much better results than before. Using the ray cast LSL function inside a concave mesh object is problematic anyway, it is even said so in the wiki.

* Leash plugin :
- Replaced the "70 cm" button by a "-1 m" button, to allow you to choose more precisely the length of the leash without having to add a second page to the menu. If you choose a one meter long leash and click on "-1 m", it shortens it to 70 cm, which is the minimum.

* Vixen cuffs :
- Being locked in "Sit spread" on the legs and "Hands collar" on the arms would conflict for the chain going to the collar. (*)

* Elegance legs :- Removed the "Color this" plugin, which serves no purpose whatsoever in these restraints (it is supposed to be used only in the Serious Shackles and Ballgag). (*)

* Elegance arms :
- Added an intermediary "H+E back Ca" pose between "H+E back C" and "H+E back D". (*)

* Police handcuffs with elbows plugin :
- Added an intermediary "H+E back Ba" pose between "H+E back B" and "H+E back C". (*)

* Body harness :
- Made it much harder to struggle out from. It should be on par with collars now. (*)

* Siren ropes :
- Fixed the crotchrope vibrator rope that would not change color or texture with the rest. This implied a change in both the crotchrope and the vibrator objects. (*)


  (*) Replacement required to benefit from this feature.


You can find an updater at the following places in-world :

My little shop

The Little Shop of Kink

Roper's Dark Playground


Chorazin's main store



Have fun !

Marine

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

RLV 2.9.6.7

Hi there,

Here is a new version of the RLV with a few bug fixes and workarounds. Nothing fancy, but useful when we stumble on edge cases such as filling up the attachment slots and TPing while forced into Mouselook.

See for yourself :

- added : A shortcut to force every object around to be "refreshed", as if they just appeared for the viewer. This is especially useful when blindfolded and attachments worn by other avatars are not visible (because they are semi-transparent and that's hidden beyond the vision spheres) and were not refreshed automatically. The current shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V, the command is Me / Movement / Refresh visibility of objects.

- fixed : When attaching a folder with "add to outfit", we now check that we are not going over the attachment limit. If we are, the viewer will remove all the attachment in excess before it makes a mess out of the Current Outfit folder next time we relog.

- fixed : We could edit uneditable objects with a little trick on the user interface (thanks Mo Noel for the heads-up).

- fixed : Mouselook was screwed after teleporting, we had to press Ctrl+Alt+M to fix it.

- fixed : Name tags were disappearing when forced into Mouselook.


You can find the RLV for Windows here :
www.erestraints.com/realrestraint

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

And the MD5 hash for the executable is :
2f8497a41f0e40e1ee4db8297c5b7cab


Have fun !
Marine