Tillicum Island (Flickr) – blog post
The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, April 10th, and from the Server Beta meeting held on Thursday, April 9th. A video of the TPVD meeting is included below, with any time stamps in the following text referring to the video. My thanks as always to North for the recording and providing it for embedding,
Server Deployments Week 15 – Recap
As always, please refer to the server deployment thread in the forums for the latest information and updates.
- On Tuesday, April 7th the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance update previously deployed to the three RC channels, which sees UDP inventory messaging deprecated (HTTP Inventory in the viewer MUST be enabled for your inventory to fetch correctly / your avatar to render in your view – details here and further notes below)
- On Wednesday, April 8th all three RC channels received a new server maintenance package comprising a crash fix, minor CDN configuration updates and an internal server configuration update.
HTTP Inventory
[15:18] The Lab is still planning to remove the HTTP Inventory option and setting from their viewer “soon”. In addition, as a part of their overall work on improving inventory handling, the Lab is planning on removing the viewer-side code for UDP inventory fetching from their viewer, citing the time frame in which this is likely to happen as being “weeks or months, more likely months”.
Firestorm has already removed the option in preparation for their upcoming release, and has set that viewer so that if anyone currently has HTTP Inventory disabled, it will automatically be re-enabled in installing the new release over their older version.
Forthcoming Deployment
A new change destined for the RC channels is an update to llGetObjectDetails(), which adds new functions for avatar shape identification and hover height:
- O
BJECT_BODY_SHAPE_TYPE– returned list entry is a float between 0.0 and 1.0, -1.0 if the avatar is not found OBJECT_HOVER_HEIGHT– returned list entry is a float, -1.0 if the avatar is not found.
SL Viewer
Avatar Layer Limits
[03:00] The Avatar Layer Limits viewer updated from project to RC status with the release of version 3.7.27.300567 on April 9th. This allows users to wear up to 60 wearable layers (jackets, shirts, tattoo, alpha, etc.) in any combination. Until these updates reach the main viewer (and all TPVs), those using it will find their layers will only adhere to the new global limit whilst using this RC viewer.
A update to the baking service which will enforce the new global limit will be deployed once it has passed LL’s QA testing.
[05:23] Again, please note that this update only applies to avatar wearing (clothing) layers; it does not apply to attachments, which remain at the global limit of 38. The Lab currently has no plans to alter this, not only because they’re work to resolve a series of attachment issues, but also because large numbers of attachments on avatars can impact viewer performance due to the way in which they are handled.
[11:38] The above notwithstanding, a further update to the attachment fixes project viewer (currently at version 3.7.27.300377) is expected soon, possibly in week #16.
Maintenance Viewer
[06:36] The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 7.27.300636 on April 9th. This viewer includes multiple fixes and improvements. It now appears that all of the issues reported against this viewer when first released have now been resolved, and subject to the performance of this new version as an RC, it looks set to be promoted as the next de facto release viewer.
Tools Update Viewer
[08:50] The “final” set of fixes and updates for the Tools Update RC viewer (currently version 3.7.27.300242) are with the Lab’s QA team. If all goes according to plan, these should be appearing shortly in an update to the RC viewer, which should then place it as the next-in-line for promotion to the de facto release viewer after the Maintenance RC has been promoted.
Once this viewer does reach release status, it will mean the Lab will have switched to the new viewer build process. As a result, the official viewer will no longer install on Windows XP or versions of Mac OS X below 10.7. This will also be true of any TPVs which fully switch to the the new build process in the future.
Viewer-Managed Marketplace
[00:00] The first element of the server-side deployment occurred in week #15. However, there are two further elements awaiting deployment, which will roll-out to the servers over the next two weeks. So the Lab is hoping that things might be ready for wider beta testing to commence in the week #17 (commencing Monday, April 20th).
Other Items
Experience Keys / Tools
[10:27] Progress continues to be made on the back-end work, although there is still no indication of potential dates for deployment.
Snapshots to Facebook Issue
[11:03] BUG-8802 reports that snapshots taken at “Current Window” size and uploaded to Facebook are of poor quality when viewed on Facebook. It does not occur with any other image size options in the snapshot floater, and the Firestorm team has a fix, which is going through the contribution process for inclusion in the Lab’s viewer.
[12:13] The Lab is currently testing an update to the back-end of the SL Share to Facebook interface as a result of Facebook again changing their API. However, this shouldn’t result in user-visible changes to the capability.
Voice Updates
[19:44] As noted in my last TPV meeting update, there are some updates coming from the Lab for voice. However, these did not make it past their first QA pass, and so are subject to delay.
Login-in Delays and Flat Inventories
[20:24] A reminder was given at the TPVD meeting that having very large “flat” inventories with thousands of folders / items sitting at the same level (such as having all your clothing and footwear folders all at the same level under “Clothing”, for example), can lead to log-in failures.
This is because the viewer has to process these “flat” levels within an inventory in a single pass, which can slow the log-in process sufficiently for it to time-out and the simulator to disconnect the viewer. Far better to have your inventory structured into a hierarchy with multiple levels and sub-folders.
Firestorm Release
[13:25] Firestorm is still working on their next release, with the current time frame for both beta and preview testing meaning a formal release will most likely be around three weeks’ time, unless significant issues are encountered.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
“OBJECT_BODY_SHAPE_TYPE” — a “type” with a float value between 0.0 and 1.0? Any hints what this could be? (I can make up a story about how the ratio of leg-length to overall avatar size might somehow interact with hover height to predict… something. But do we know what this is really??)
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I was actually parked for about 90% of the meeting and afk, and the discussion actually revolved around things like detecting the presence of an avatar within a region, etc, so from my perspective, “no” 🙂 . It was also something new to Caleb L, who admitted he had yet to delve into it. Ergo, Tuesday is liable to be the time when things are made clearer.
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Thanks. See you Tuesday then!
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