OK – We have Havok – what about the havoc?

So Havok 4 is here, full of promise of better days and more exciting things to do – such as eventually being able to build right up to 4096 metres.

Wheeee!!!

No, I mean that – I love building and I love privacy, and the more sky we all have to build in, the less likely we are to have our view of the sunset ruined by someone else’s creation (or eyesore).

The most amazing thing about Havok 4 is the smoothness of the rollout, and in this I join all those others in congratulating Sidewinder Linden and his team. Rarely in the field of SecondLife has so much work resulted in so little disruption to so few (if I might paraphrase from elsewhere) during such a momentous roll-out.

Kudos!!

True, it has been a loooong time coming, and some bitch about it already being out of date – but the fact remains it is here, it works, and it has caused few real problems.

Which is pretty much what can be said for the release of Windlight. OK, so it can be (or at least has been) resource-hungry, but it is also massively better than the “old” viewer – and a bloody sight more stable. 20% more stable in fact. That’s by no means perfect, but a big step in the right direction.

So what else is due for SL we can cheer about?

Well, if LL have any sense (and unfortunately, that is still a BIG “if”, despite the likes of Sidewinder) – it’ll be getting the asset cluster (and specifically the database system) sorted out.

Having a wonderful new viewer, having marvellous new physics and capabilities in SL is all well and good – but it is totally frakkin’ pointless if one cannot even change her clothes or rez a new hairstyle. Or more significantly, TP to a store and BUY a new hairstyle.

This week, the entire Havok 4 roll-out has been massively undermined by the total, shambolic and repeated collapse of the core database and the asset cluster. Not once or even twice – but three times.

And this has been the case not for months – but nigh-on a year. Yes, it is a complex system to replace – or at least fix – but when you have those Lindens responsible for maintaining it posting blogs that refer to the likes of “gremlins” in the “works”, and using teenage soundbite terminology rather than writing anything informative, one is not inspired to confidence that anything constructive is being done to resolve these most important of problems.

Clearly, throwing hardware at the problem to meet the growing population isn’t the answer, and LL really need to come up with a positive strategy to start putting these core issues right. To kick things off, I’d like to make a simple enough suggestion to Philip Linden:

For God’s sake, put Sidewinder in charge of fixing things! His work on Havok 4 inspires residents with confidence, and he’s possibly the only resource you have who can put efforts to deal with the asset cluster havoc onto a professional footing.