Serie is this color
Discussions in MeWe: https://mewe.com/group/5bbe0189a5f4e57c73569fb9
Shin Ingen's Ruth 2.0 repo: https://github.com/ingen-lab/Ruth Sean Heavy's RuthToo repo: https://github.com/ocsean/RuthToo Serie's Github fork: https://github.com/seriesumei/Ruth (contains some branches named test-* where I am playing with some of the ideas below)
The following is some thoughts I have about how we can use Github-style workflow to manage things like release history for us rather than doing it by hand by moving files around in directories. This is based on processes typical in Open Source communities. The goals are:
Right now two things are at the top of my mind:
Ai Austin here… Orange is the colour.
Just adding that I think this is a very good idea. We should check with Fred Beckhusen on his take on this too, as he started the repository initially for Shin Ingen.
[Ai Austin's Summary as of 08Jan2019]
a) The last commit by Shin was the point at which we have all we got from him up to Ruth RC#3 and Roth RC#1
November 12th 2018 https://github.com/ingen-lab/Ruth/commit/8780455b46f3bcfe07018d0b2bdf7701b01db6e3 So that would make a good checkpoint. (serie) we could tag this as a reference point to make it easy to find
b) BUT… in preparation for testing of that current release Shin removed the upload DAE files “pending testing” and did not actually post lost of the stuff he used to build Ruth RC#3 and even less for Roth RC#1. But the basic blender mesh and devkit for both Ruth and Roth are there.
(serie) I lquickly ooked through the git history back to July or so and did not see a removal so those may not have been checked in? In any case it appears that anything older than around November would be out-of-date anyway. For this I think we document the export procedure from Blender and do fresh files (to Austin's point below)
c) Ruth RC#2 is MUCH better represented in the repository and could offer a guide for what we need to pull together or recreate for Ruth RC#3 and Roth RC#1. Shin even made sure a lot of the DAE uploads etc he used were available on Github and specifically commented to ask people to leave them in place to act as a training or study guide. So I think that would make a really good checkpoint too.
(serie) yes, this I think is what we should branch or at least also tag for reference. I've thought that cleaning it up to remove RC3 bits that might be already present would be useful but after looking at this list I think that is a low priority.
d) My efforts have been to try to recover as many of the assets as I can using a definitive, unchanged and unworn version of Shin's ingen-lab.com:8002 provided Ruth RC#3, Roth RC#1 and the R2 Extras box. This is verified by the creator and last owner (in most cases) being Shin or one of his ingen-lab:8002 avatars. I think we have MOST of that now in place for that including all the scripts, all the textures for the HUDs, HUD Doll, rootprim, etc, except the skins he used in the skin applier for each *.
(serie) That is a ton of work, thank you Austin! See g) below for more about skins.
e) I fixed the simple glitches in some items that had no transfer versions of some of the scripts (especially many variants of the feet were wrong).
f) I created IARs of the Ruth RC#3, Roth RC#1 and R2 boxes in the best form I could get them without changing any major item from Shin. Those are now in the GitHub repository and inworld on OSGrid on the Vue-Port region.
g) * I have the skins for the included Ruth RC#3 and Roth RC#1Skin Applier HUDs as well, but wanted to respect any restriction on those that Shin might have been asked to respect. I have no idea if they are meant to be restricted (which is next to impossible), and I wish Shin had only used openly available skins in his included HUDs.
(serie) I have created a new skin applier as part of my combo HUD that contains Linda Kellie's 7 female skins. I think those make a good well-known reference set. I have imported them all into SL and will make those UUIDs available when I post the code to github.
h) I have asked on MeWe and Google+ to see if the skin creators would have any problem with posting these in the repository (we actually have a LOT of skins in the repository anyway), but the ones released are a bit nicer, and some have Shin's dragon tattoo which is a nice pointer to his origination of the project and the work he did.
i) It could be that the skin perms are the reason some parts go to no transfer after they are worn and that might have been intended by Shin. Maybe someone with more knowledge of all the underlying assets in an IAR could fix that as its just a pain at the moment?
j) We are missing all the DAE's that Shin used. Its likely he used very optimised and well exported versions using Avatar (Taarna Welles explained this to me) as they are really low avatar complexity. My attempts to create DAE and upload them lead to MUCH MUCH higher avatar complexity meshes. Taarna's Roth with modified lower half has very different avatar complexity too, and has a small gap between upper and lower.. implying any change will need to be considered for review in a later RC.
k) Fred pointed out that “Ruth RC#3” like DAEs are available from Sean Heavy's Ruth Too repository and Sean confirmed he created them from Shin's devkit without any change to that. But those are exported by him from the DevKit and we don't know his process for subdivision of the parts, how he did Alpha Cuts or his Blender export settings. We should make sure these sorts of things are documented in future.
l) Note we have MANY variants of something people are calling Ruth RC#3 in OpenSim… many of which definitely use older scripts, different communications channels (appID), different alpha cuts and very different HUDs… the main one being Sean Heavy's version with red background HUDs and his own take on the menus etc.
m) Second Life is in a difficult state… Most things being based on RC#2. I am not aware of a proper RC#3 that is definitely based on Shin's materials. It will be impossible to create a RC#3 or Roth RC#1 there that is the same as the OpenSim one Shin created UNLESS we can recover Shin's original DAE meshes for the bodies, all parts and the HUDs.
(serie) I think we should do the similar thing in SL that Austin did in OSGrid, maybe using Sean's DAE files until we have a documented export process? I have done bits of this already but got sidetracked with the combo HUD idea. :) We can host it in my (little) store if there isn't a better place.
n) For what its worth my take on this would be to go with Serei's suggestion that we restructure the development process and repository to use branches. Checkpoint “Ruth RC#2” and “Ruth RC#3 = Roth RC#1”.
o) Then rather than trying to go to a release now, or even stating RC#3 is the Ruth first release… that we go via a Ruth RC#4 and Roth RC#2 that uses the current base perhaps (initially) with NO CHANGE in the Blender meshes and dev kits, so we clearly state its based on Shin's current devkit, but making sure all parts and materials, scripts (and the channel/appID) and documents we need are up to date, or recreated from earlier Ruth RC#2 materials if not. Some one with Blender/Avatar/Collada export knowledge might be able to achieve the same quality and low avatar complexity mesh as Shin achieved. Then that would become a basis for a more controlled testing release into both OpenSim and Second Life. A definitive site to pick up a full perm copy in both platfroms would be important, like we had with ingen-lab:8002 in OpenSim. Changing the RC#number would help make sure we all start off with the same basis. I even wanted to try to make sure everyone had the same in world assets for textures, scripts and meshes in world so there was a much greater sharing and caching of the parts unless they were genuine modifications.
(serie) I think you are right on track here Austin. One reason to branch RC3 now would be to have a place to do the cleanup work and still let things happen in the main banch. We probably also need to come up with a way of naming things so we do not stumble over the bit about Ruth being at RC3 and Roth being RC1. When it comes time for Ruth RC4 we could just bump Roth up to RC4 also.
p) This could also mean that based on that version and prior to a first release we can address the upcoming bakes on mesh which could simplify use of mesh bodies a lot, bring in a much simpler system for the HUDs using scripts like Serie is working on, and address the mesh issues now showing up using the Firestorm 6.0.1 uploader which indicates there are some thin triangle “red marked” items in some of the meshes (like hands and feet) which prevents the new uploader working. Maybe even fix the X-Forward warning (non-terminal) on all the meshes when uploaded to Firestorm 6.0.1 (which may be why the meshes appear at right angles to the avatar sketon while they are loading, which is ugly.
(serie) I love the idea of being able to take advantage of Bakes on Mesh, we have enough to do already maybe the first release could be basically RC3 cleaned up as above then we add that? I come from the "release early, release often" world so holding up releases for new things bugs me :)