SL project updates 50/1: Server, viewer, issues

Frisland (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deployments

There was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, December 8th, following after the update planned for release in week #49 had to be cancelled when a simulator crash bug was uncovered.

On Wednesday, December 9th, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package, which comprises simulator crash fixes (including one for the issue found during the original final testing of the package in week #49) and implements feature request  BUG-10192: adding constant OBJECT_OMEGA to llGetObjectDetails(), so that it can return a vector matching what is returned with llGetOmega(), allowing applications to determine an object’s rate and axis of rotation.

Viewer Updates

On Monday, December 7th, the Valhalla RC viewer, which comprises the Chromium embedded Framework implementation intended to replace LLQTwebkit for handling media in Second Life, was updated to version 4.0.0.308641. This update includes 13 additional fixes when compared to the previous Valhalla RC version:

• MAINT-5846 – MOAP audio is too quiet
• MAINT-5849 – MOAP does not run if parcel media texture is on same face
• MAINT-5852 – Parcel media url can be hijacked from parcel to parcel
• MAINT-5854 – Loading http://secondlife.com on parcel media does not login
• MAINT-5855 – media navigation bars overlap all floaters in viewer
• MAINT-5856 – toolbar search can be interrupted early get stuck on blank page
• MAINT-5859 – Terms of Service are not loading in Linux only
• MAINT-5896 – Add support for viewing PDF files in the viewer
• MAINT-5901 – Click-to-Walk should work through transparent objects
• MAINT-5902 – Qihoo 360 Anti-virus blocks SLPlugin.exe and login page web content
• MAINT-5909 – Japanese can’t be input in CEF
• MAINT-5911 – Pressing “return” (or “enter”) no longer performs a search
• MAINT-5941 – Default flash to on by default.

Other Items

Interest List and “Ghost” Prims

there have been reports at the last couple of Simulator User Group meetings about “ghost prim” – objects which have been deleted / killed via llDie, continuing to render viewer-side, even though they have been removed by the simulator, requiring a right-click to remove them from the viewer’s outlook on the world.

Problems like this aren’t new, and many have encountered them, particularly since the core of the changes made to the Interest List. However, positively identifying what is going wrong where in the code, and why it is going wrong has been proving difficult, as the has not been a consistent means of reproducing the problem. However, it now appears that just such a consistent means of encountering the issue has been found, and a JIRA raised. Hopefully, this means that the Lab will be able to dig a little deeper into things and at least rectify the problem for some of the situations where “ghost prims” can be encountered.

Join / Leave Group Failures

There have been significant issues with people attempting to join or leave groups recently – see BUG-10869. The problems are apparently caused by a back-end database overload within the group services,

There are many issues in handling large groups which can be problematic: number of members, number of inactive users, impact of changes to things like established group roles (and the numbers of group members they affect), and so on. These are all largely down to the way the back-end group services were originally designed, something which is not the easiest of issues to overcome, as Simon Linden explained at the at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, December 8th:

It’s a long story, actually, but comes down to scaling issues and design. It doesn’t make sense that we basically treat a group with 100k people in it the same as 10 people . There are some things that just take more time with a large group.

However, Simon is looking into the problems, as he did with the issues of group chat earlier in the year, which so that side of things dramatically improved, but there is currently no ETA on when any fix / fixes might be issued.

No Change Window

Subject to official confirmation by the Lab, week #51 (week commencing Monday, December 14th) is liable to mark the last week in which simulator and viewer releases will be made ahead of the Christmas / New Year “no change window” coming into force, which will probably remain in place until approximately the week commencing Monday, January 4th, 2016.

The no change window is intended to ensure the grid and viewer are both relatively stable, so that the Lab can offer support, engineering and operations staff time off over the holiday period to be with their families and friends.