Update June 12th, 22:40 BST/14:40 SLT: The BlueSteel / LeTigre deployment which includes these capabilities has been rolled back due to an issue whereby objects cannot be rezzed in BlueSteel / LeTigre parcels which disallow object entry (even if Create Objects is enabled) – BUG-2850. Both regions are now running the week 24 Magnum deployment.
Server Deploys for Week 24
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for news, updates and feedback.
Second Life Server (Main) Channel
On Tuesday June 11th, the SLS channel received getting the server maintenance project that was on BlueSteel and LeTigre in week 23. This is intended to fix a simulator crash mode, and address a disconnection issue whereby multiple avatars would be disconnected from a simulator simultaneously, giving the impression the region had crashed when it had in fact not done so, and which also impacted LSL HTTP-in URLs.
Following the deployment, there was a report that the disconnection issue fix had not fully addressed the problem of LSL HTTP-in URLs being dropped, which was also raised at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday June 11th. The matter has been acknowledged by Kelly and Maestro Linden, who are currently awaiting further information on the problem, although Simon Linden also commented, “I realize a bug Kelly and I were talking about earlier today is that issue, so someone is on it.”
BlueSteel and LeTigre Release Candidate Channels
On Wednesday June 12th BlueSteel and LeTigre should receive a new server maintenance project to fix a number of crash modes, addresses an issue with neighbouring region visibility, and adds new LSL pathfinding capabilities and object return capabilities:
- The new pathfinding property CHARACTER_STAY_WITHIN_PARCEL, which I described in week 19. can be used with llCreateCharacter() and llUpdateCharacter(), and is intended to help with keeping characters within parcel boundaries
- The new object return functions I reported on in week 23, namely llReturnObjectsByOwner and llReturnObjectsByID, are intended to provide an automated means of returning objects to their owners. For ease of reference, I’ve provided a more in-depth look at the capabilities in a separate report. Kelly Linden has also includes some guidelines on the functions in the deployment discussion thread.
Magnum Release Candidate Channel
On Wednesday June 12th Magnum should receive an update to the current interest list changes running on that channel, which addresses two bugs introduced by the project. Providing no further issues are found with these changes, it is likely (but subject to confirmation) that they will be promoted across the grid in week 25.
Commenting on the Magnum update at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday June 11th, Andrew Linden said, “The Magnum channel has two bug fixes. The excessive AvatarAppearance packets [in which the simulator would send many unnecessary AvatarAppearance messages to the viewer], and my final fix for Meeroos; specifically, the problem where it looks like the Meeroo’s animation is busted when you turn around to look at it.”
Going on Andrew’s recent comments, this update is liable to mark the final aspect of server-side interest list work for the moment.
The Magnum deployment also includes a fix for the issue relating to viewing the text of large scripts I reported on in week 23, whereby the text of previously saved “large” scripts cannot be displayed in the script editor for users on slow connections (BUG-2694). This update had originally been targeted at the week 23 deployments, but failed to make the cut then due to some last-minute work being required.
Other News
Group Ban List
The group ban list functionality Baker Linden has been working towards in his desire to address JIRA SVC-8127 may soon start to get attention. Commenting at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday June 11th, Baker said:
I am getting closer! I haven’t started work on it directly, but I’m wrapping up the last of the bug fixes related to Mute Lists. I’m writing some new unit tests to test my new functionality … There might be some viewer / other backed server work to do too, but hopefully everything will work so that part will be smooth. But after I finish up this last issue, I’ll be working on group ban stuff. I’ve learned a ton about Django and how to implement it, so I’m hopeful that it’ll be somewhat smooth of an implementation.
Django is a web framework the Lab uses for a number of in-world user-related services, and is the chosen mechanism by which to add the ban list functionality (its use doesn’t mean the group ban function will be web-enabled or anything like that). It is also a tool set unfamiliar to Baker, who only started finding his way around it a few weeks ago.
JSON Wiki Update
New LSL capabilities were recently introduced for the creation and parsing of JSON formatted strings which can used for transferring data between in-world objects and external resources / websites. The LSL-JSON pages on the Second Life wiki have been evolving over the past few weeks, with the most recent updates occurring on June 10th. If you’re interested in these new capabilities, make sure you take a look at the wiki.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 