Glimpse the Future Now: Find the Bugs. Before It’s Too Late
TL;DR Summary
PBR graphics in Second Life is an exciting leap towards a more immersive and visually captivating virtual world. With its ability to bring materials to life and create stunning realism, PBR promises to transform how we experience digital environments. Embracing PBR may lead to some adjustments and challenges, the ultimate result will be a more engaging and visually rewarding journey through the virtual realm. To help identify issues/bugs as early as possible and allow Linden Lab time to fix them, the Firestorm team encourages you to try a special Alpha version of our viewer.
For more Information Join the Phoenix Firestorm Preview Group and look for the notices.
Use the new viewer to try all your normal activities and report content that is broken, looks bad, etc., through the official Second Life JIRA
Side-by-side (PBR on left, Firestorm 6.14 release on the right)
Introducing Physically Based Rendering (PBR)
Second Life is on the brink of a major visual transformation that promises to elevate the virtual experience to new heights. This transformation is driven by a cutting-edge technology called Physically Based Rendering (PBR), which brings lifelike realism and depth to the virtual world. In this blog post, we’ll explore what PBR is, why it has become a standard in modern games, and how it will impact the Second Life experience.
What is PBR and Why Does It Matter?
Imagine a virtual world where the sunlight glistens off shiny surfaces, fabrics exhibit realistic textures, and materials react naturally to lighting conditions. This is the magic of PBR. Unlike traditional rendering techniques that rely on artistic approximations, PBR simulates how light interacts with different materials in the real world. The result? Stunning visuals that make virtual environments feel tangible and immersive.
But we had materials before; what’s so different?
The rise of PBR in computer gaming isn’t just a coincidence. PBR’s ability to create lifelike surfaces and materials has made it a game-changer in the industry. Gamers now expect a level of realism that was once only dreamed of. PBR enables games to portray materials accurately, whether it’s a stone wall’s roughness or a car’s glossy finish. This level of detail creates a deeper connection between players and the virtual worlds they inhabit.
When, where and how?
Linden Lab has been working tirelessly on PBR (unhelpfully labelled “glTF”, another piece of technobabble and one best left for another day); they have made amazing strides, and the viewer is generally stable and edging its way towards a full release “soon”, or sooner rather than later at least.
As Second Life embraces PBR, there will be changes. PBR-ready content will look more realistic and visually engaging. However, as with any transformation, there may be some disruption to existing content. Creators will need to adapt their assets to the new rendering system. Some textures might need adjustments to utilize the benefits of PBR fully. While every effort will be made to minimize these disruptions, it’s important to be prepared for change, and this is where we need your help, as many of you as possible.
To highlight as many issues and bugs as possible before the full release, Firestorm is taking an almost unprecedented step by releasing an early preview of our version of the PBR viewer. This viewer is not a release; it is not even a release candidate/preview but is instead a special “Alpha” build. It will install alongside your regular Firestorm, and the hope is that as many of our users as possible will try it. We will publish the download links in our dedicated preview group. The normal support groups will NOT support this build, but the preview group will act as a sounding board/clearing house for those with issues; when issues and/or concerns are identified, we hope you will raise these concerns with Linden Lab through their JIRA system. Most PBR-specific bugs are expected to be common to both FS and LL viewers and, therefore, best dealt with by the expert graphics team at LL.
When will the “Alpha” be available? Now.
Where can i get it? Join the Phoenix Firestorm preview group inworld, and look at the notices. A notecard and download links will be found there.
How do I use it? Just use it like a normal viewer, you can still switch back to the release viewer, though we suggest backing up your settings as a matter of routine.
If I choose to accept this mission, what next?
Right now, the main objective is to check that existing content remains usable and wave red flags over the areas that concern you. This does not mean that they will get fixed, but it is far better that LL (and all of us) are aware of the problems and can make informed choices. Once this gets released it is far far harder to fix things.
In the end, if it is not “wrong enough” for someone to be bothered to report it, then it cannot be a major issue or warrant us being “bothered” to fix it.
Remember, things will look a little different, take a moment to acclimatise, and also keep in mind that things are still changing. Discuss your concerns in the SL forums and in our preview group and raise a JIRA to flag things as problems.
Once you have looked at the world as you know it, then you might want to take a trip to visit one of the “test regions” that have full support for PBR and where you can find some incredible PBR-ready content.
Managing expectations. The only constant is change.
PBR’s richness comes at a cost—increased computational demands. As the Second Life experience evolves, so do the requirements for hardware. The minimum specifications for PCs running the Firestorm viewer may need to be raised to fully embrace PBR graphics. High-quality rendering requires more processing power and memory, which may lead to lower-spec machines struggling to keep up.
However, LL has been striving to optimise all the performance-critical aspects of the viewer to offset as much of this cost as possible. For most of us, the hope is that this game of give and take will mean that there is little degradation and perhaps even an overall improvement in performance for those with appropriate hardware. However, there are undoubtedly a number of our users who have for quite some time been struggling on with extremely underpowered machines, this release may well prove to be a problem, and LL must hear about this so that the number of users impacted can be better ascertained. Progress is inevitable; without it the platform would wither and die. With the introduction of PBR, it is not anticipated that there will remain any option to disable advanced lighting; if we were to do this, we would undermine the creators trying to produce modern content leaving them having to juggle too very different world views.
Note: It is impossible for us to provide a Havok-enabled 32-bit Windows build for PBR because LL no longer provides the necessary library. For the time being, we will continue to provide a non-havok enabled build in the form of our OpenSim version. In reality the RAM demands of PBR are unlikely to work well with a 32-bit viewer in any form, but you are, of course, welcome to try it.
Useful links and further information
The Linden Lab Release notes that correspond to this update. – Includes links to PBR enabled regions and lists of fixed bugs.
Second Life University episode – PBR with Runitai and Kyle. – Discussion and explanation of PBR and the overall plans and hopes for this project.
Austin Tate’s list of PBR resources for Second Life – Independently compiled resources from Austin Tate (aka AI Austin)
Exploring PBR Materials in Second Life – Blog and video – Everything you may have wanted to know about PBR and some lovely examples.
Inara Pey’s content creation blogs – updated frequently – Bookmark this page to review the latest updates from inworld content creator meetings and related announcements.
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