I’m moving the weekly listing to a page on its own for ease of reference – see viewer review panel on the right of the home page for this blog. From this week, I’ll be running a quick highlight of any updates with a link to the main Viewer Round-up page, which also now catalogues all reviews I’ve written on each of the Viewers I keep an eye on. Round-up will always refer to the previous week.
Updates for week ending: 25 March, 2012
After the rush with updates on the 19th (just after I published my last update, forcing me to update the update!), with Niran’s Phoenix and Firestorm all getting news versions, things have been relatively quiet.
Linden Lab have launched a new Pathfinding Project Viewer – currently works on the Beta Grid for pathfinding
Niran’s Viewer upped from 1.30 to 1.31, with further floater customisations
Zen Viewer went to release 3.3.2.0 with the addition of the Merchant’s Outbox
Cool VL Viewer rolled out 1.26.4.5 with “minimal” DD support – Henri is apparently working on a port of the Outbox code, so don’t expect it in this release & give him a change to code / test 🙂
Radegast issued release 1.26, with better inventory support links, DD notifications support, and improvements to the scene viewer
Update March 29th: Updates on payment problems (see below)
Update:As noted in the comments, it appears the Linux version of Niran’s Viewer is capable of running the Merchant’s Outbox without incident. If you’re a Linux user and keen to make the migration / stuck part-way through migrating, you might try it.
Issues are starting to be reported in relation to Direct Delivery.
Outbox Initialisation Failure
People are reporting that the Merchant Outbox is failing to initialise. The issue seems to be most closely related to Linux, but has also been reported for Windows and Mac, and JIRAs for all three have been created:
Outbox initialisation fails on Linux (JIRA VWR-28629)
Outbox initialisation fails on Windows (JIRA VWR-28630)
Outbox initialisation fails on Mac (JIRA VWR-28631) builds
I’ve used the Outbox on all current Viewers with the capability and using Windows 7 32-bit, with no issues. These currently are: the latest SL Viewer (3.3.0.251182), Firestorm 4.0.1, Niran’s Viewer (1.30+), and Zen viewer 3.3.2.0. However, I may have escaped issues for two reasons:
I am logged-in to my Merchant’s page on SL Marketplace
I use the English language version of the Viewers.
Linden Lab are still investigating problems, but if you are experiencing issues with the Outbox on Windows or Mac OS, you might try the following:
Ensure you are logged-in to your Merchant home page / manage listing page prior to trying to run the Outbox in the Viewer
Lance Corrimal suggests the Linux problem is related to an OpenSSL issue with Linux builds of the Viewer (which has impacted Linux users’ ability to upload snapshots to their profile feed).
If you do have repeated issues with trying to get the Merchant Outbox to work, and the suggested solutions above do not work, please visit the relevant operating system JIRA and logged your error, giving full details of your Viewer environment (available by option HELP->ABOUT (Viewer name), and copying the information given there.
Payment System Failures – Updated
There are also reports that some merchants who converted to Direct Delivery are experiencing issues over payment for transactions. While a similar issue existed prior to DD going live (transactions stalled at “being delivered”), the issue appears to be more noticeable now, with some merchants reporting that converting back to Magic Boxes seems to clear their particular problem.
A number of JIRAs are open on issues at present:
WEB-4441: Delivery status frozen with Being Delivered Status on marketplace transaction. 1399L lost and item never delivered (merged with WEB-4559, previously referred to in this article, now closed)
WEB-4580: Direct Delivery Issue – Item named with unicode characters causes order/payment system to fail
WEB-4596: Direct Delivery is hanging in “Being Delivered” rather than forwarding funds to Merchants even when the item has been paid for and received by the Customer. This is for NON-UNICODE Listings
With the Linden Wilderness experience opening to demonstrate pathfinding capabilities, word hasn’t spread too widely concerning a call for region owners to volunteer for a pathfinding beta on the main grid.
[16:39] Falcon Linden: (3) There will be an Agni beta for pathfinding in the coming weeks. The beta will only be open to region owners (though once pathfinding is released gridwide, it will not require you to own a region to use it). If you are interested, please e-mail pathfinding-beta@lindenlab.com
No further details are supplied, but any region owners who are interested should follow-up with an e-mail.
The pathfinding tools themselves are now available through an Alternate Viewer (scroll to Pathfinding), which can be used by anyone with an interest in pathfinding when used in conjunction with the pathfinding enabled regions on the Beta grid (Aditi):
The easiest way of reaching these is to log-in to Aditi and use the World Map to locate the PathTest regions.
One of the PathTest regions on Aditi
Details on the tools themselves can be found on the (in development) pathfinding page of the SL wiki.
There is apparently going to be a Pathfinding User Group starting in the near future. Keep an eye on the UG listings page (or possibly the main pathfinding page of the wiki) if interested.
With thanks to Ciaran Laval for the pointer to the Simulator Group meeting transcript.
Clicking on the link will open a form requesting various information from you.
The form (click to enlarge)
Some have taken this to be about Second Life, and have questioned the need for LL to ask for information “they already have”. However, it should be clear from the form itself that the call is not specifically about Second Life, but rather about Linden Lab’s upcoming new products.
There is no guarantee that those submitting details will be accepted for any Beta trials of products, and there will clearly be more involved in the process than simply filling-out a form (NDAs almost certainly will be involved).
Even so, it’s an interesting step for the Lab to take, and suggests that at least one of their new products is reaching a point where it is ready to be seen by something of a larger audience. If this is the case, then it would suggest that Rod Humble will be a step closer to his goal of talking more openly about the products – something he was finding hard not to do in a recent interview with Games Industry, which I reported on earlier this month.
The 2012 Fantasy Faire is ramping-up ready for April 21-29 2012. In aid of Relay For Life, this year’s event will be spread across a total of eight sims in-world, and supported (as usual) by the Fantasy Faire website.
In an unusual move, the organisers have put out a call for “official” bloggers, complete with a set of prerequisites for being so. To qualify, a blogger must (among other things) have been blogging for at least 2 months, update their blog at least weekly and be required to blog about a sim they choose and about at least one item supplied to them from each of the stores on the sim to which they have been assigned. In return, the blogger will be listed on the Fantasy Faire website.
While I can understand the reasoning behind the move – the organisers want to ensure those participating in the event get due coverage – it’s not something I’m personally keen on. However, the organisers are aware this might be the case for some bloggers, and so are still providing the means for us to enjoy a preview of the sims in order to push out early bird reports and features. Whichever way you’d prefer to go, you’ll need to fill out the blogging application form.
The Sims
The sims to feature in Fantasy Faire this year are still under development. However, the blog describes them thus:
Devil’s Locket (by Lauren Thibaud / Piedras Chama / Nonna Hedges) – a small chain of islands that earned its name not only for the treacherous navigation of its waters and the amazing, but explosive, firegems that were mined from its volcanic depths
Jungle Bungle (by Mayah Parx) – a living forest where candies lay like pebbles along the edge of a chocolate lake and the smiling trees dance in excitement as they watch the fae race rose petals on the currents of the wind
Meandervale (by Marcus Inkpen / Sharni Azalee) – a surreal meadow where the streams meander as well as thoughts and, in fact, reality itself
Ruins of Nu Orne (by Elicio Ember) – a lost stone city of an ancient civilization, hidden in an exotic fantasy jungle where vegetation overgrows the magnificent ruins, and cupolas and spiraling buildings merge with the gigantic ferns and mushrooms
Shadow’s Claw (by Laufey Markstein) – a mountainous terrain thick with the scent of pine and covered with rocky crags that ride all manner of secrets, possibly even dragons
Shifting Sands (by Kayle Matzerath) – the Hourglass holding the Sands of Time has cracked and spilled creating a desert with untold treasures awaiting discoveries by the intrepid explorer
Siren’s Secret (by Elicio Ember) – caught between lava vents on one side and the bridges and towers of The Tides on the other, these rocky sea caves are a refuge for the sea creatures who hide in the depths of the kelp forest
The Tides (by Alia Baroque) – the silent ruins of a lost society who harnessed the power of the strong and heavy sea and ruled across the waves
About Fantasy Faire
(from the initial press release)
Fantasy Faire 2012 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, role players and performers in the virtual world. Nine days of shopping, live music concerts, auctions, hunts and roleplaying to benefit Relay for Life and the fight against cancer. Avatars, clothing, furnishings, gadgets, goodies and exclusive items are available from more than 130 of SL’s top Fantasy Creators, spread across nine stunning sims designed by some of the visionary artists behind many of the hottest spots on the SL destination guide.
Fantasy Faire 2012 will be open to the public April 21 -29 and accessible from the American Cancer Society sim. We welcome you to come and join the story.
I covered last year’s event in part, although real life conspired to prevent me devoting the time I wanted to the event. This year I hope to present more in-depth commentary on the event along the lines of coverage I’ve given to the likes of SLCC and SLB.
Further Information and Related Links
In-world contacts: Elizabeth Tinsley or Zander Greene
So, Direct Delivery launched yesterday. I’ve been playing with it since then, and here’s some feedback and updates on what is being reported via the Merchant’s forum.
My Experience
Moving Goods to Folders
This was the most time-consuming task, mainly as I used it to re-order my business folders so that they can now be directly dragged-and dropped with each update. Inventory did get somewhat inflated, as I opted to move the originals of folders uploaded to SLM to my inventory and keep them as “master” copies into which I could drop updates, etc., ready for future uploads.
Uploading via the Merchant’s Outbox
Uploading a folder via Niran’s Viewer
Worked a treat using the SL Viewer, Firestorm and Niran’s Viewer.
Folders dropped into the Merchant Outbox folder would be duly processed and sent without incident, the only slight delay being the time required for the Outbox to initialise itself.
Once uploaded, those items set with the same original name as items in my listings auto-updated as anticipated, and those requiring a manual update (I took the opportunity to do some updating!) required around 4-5 seconds apiece to re-associate (although such was the demand on the Marketplace yesterday, this did at times take longer, prompting me to leave cutting-over much of my stock until this morning, UK time).
I will confess to keeping the old Magic Box items on file at the SLM end, under unassociated items, just in case! (I’m lucky, my total stock is just under 50 items.) I also started cautiously, a folder at a time, but confidence quickly grew that the system wasn’t about to do anything nasty and bumped over around 6 folders at a time.
Concerns with Direct Delivery
A number of concerns / issues have been raised via the Merchant’s forum.
Changes Mean Manual Association
An irritant with the new system is that if changes are made to the contents of a folder – such as the addition of new items, changes to a notecard, etc., – the folder, when uploaded to SLM is not automatically associated with an existing listing even if it retains the same name as an existing folder.
This means every time a change is made to the contents of a folder already listed on SLM, the merchant must manually associate the folder with the required listing and delete the older version of the folder when it appears in Unassociated Items – something that could add considerable time to the process when making multiple updates.
Deleting Unassociated Items
Some people have been reporting problems when deleting unassociated items. This can actually be time-consuming if done on an individual basis – and some merchants may find they need to remove some as they go, as there appears to be a limit of 100 unassociated items per merchant, it could get a little tedious. Sera Lok therefore suggests a solution in the forum.
The ANS Issue
At the time of launch, the Automated Notification System has not been enabled for Direct Delivery, and Linden Lab have only committed to turning this feature on in the “next couple of weeks”. Given the number of merchants who depend on ANS for records-keeping, and the fact the LL were repeatedly asked not to roll-out Direct Delivery whouth ANS being enabled for it, this is causing understandable reluctance with some in converting to Direct Delivery.
Destination Folder not Reported
As part of the launch documentation for Direct Delivery, it was stated that: “The Delivery folder will appear on the order and in all email notifications to the recipient.”
The promised format for deliveries recorded on people’s Marketplace account histories
However, the functionality does not appear to have been rolled-out with Direct Delivery. Neither merchants nor recipients are informed of the purchase destination either in their account histories or in any associated e-mails relating to the transaction.
As deliveries are currently displayed in a person’s Marketplace account history (Marketplace->MyMarketplace->My Account->Order History
While this is not a show-stopper, a JIRA has been raised on the matter.
Recipients do, however, get an in-world notification that goods have been delivered to their Received Items panel / folder if they are logged-in to SL / when they log-in to SL (assuming they review all stored notifications!).
Viewer Support
At the time of my original report on Direct Delivery, all Viewers on my Viewer Round-up list supported Received Items, as did much older (pre-mesh) versions of Viewers I tested (Imprudence, Singularity, Astra).
The Merchant Outbox situation is slightly different. As it stands at the time of writing this piece, this is the situation with the Viewers I’ve checked:
Viewers supporting Merchant Outbox functionality: the SL Viewer, Firestorm 4.0.1, Nirans (currently 1.30, but has supported it for a while)
Catznip is working on an update to be released shortly (RL interrupted the schedule)
Cool Viewer, Dolphin, Exodus, Phoenix, RLV, Singularity and Zen all appear to require updates in order to display the Outbox.
If your preferred Viewer does not currently support Outbox functionality, the best thing is to keep an eye on the Viewer’s blog pages for word of any update.
Overall Response
The overall response has been muted. While concern over ANS may be holding merchants back from any migration and the manual association requirement notwithstanding, this has been one of SL’s quieter roll-outs. Certainly, there do not seem to have been any major SNAFUs or problems – but then, many merchants may still be holding off on conversions.
Personal Feedback
I resisted giving feedback in my main piece on Direct Delivery, as I wanted to keep it as factual as possible (and am still updating it to reflect the current situation). However, my core feedback after using the system is:
The Good
The migration process via a suitable Viewer is pretty seamless for the most part. Automated association worked fine where folder names were the same as item names; manual association was a couple of additional steps, but not overly time-consuming if updates are taken in batches
Delivery works to any Viewer, regardless of base code (V3 or V1 style) – Received Items appears either as a panel in your Inventory floater (V3-based Viewers) or as a folder (V1-style Viewers)
No hiccups were encountered in sending goods as gifts or with permissions ending up mangled
The Bad
No ANS. Given the manner in which merchants repeatedly campaigned for ANS to be active for Direct Delivery, the decision to roll-out without it is somewhat surprising. Should ANS support be delayed, one hopes LL will also delay the turning-off of Magic Box functionality to allow merchants time to migrate to DD without having to face an artificial time limit
Failure to auto-associate updated folders as a result of content changes. One can understand folders remaining unassociated following an actual change to the folder’s name, but leaving folders unassociated simply because contents have changed adds unnecessary overheads to the process of updating items.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 