Year: 2015

Second Life projects update 46/2: RC server deployment, viewer updates

Posted on by Inara Pey

Saint Pete City; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Saint Pete City (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deploys Week 46 – Update

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 10th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package as deployed to the RC channels in week #45, comprising a fix for group invite throttle notifications, and an internal server code clean-up

Release Channel Deployments – Server-side Validation Enforcement

A new server maintenance package had been due for deployment on Wednesday, November 11th. This packed includes simulator-side enforcement checks against attachment point IDs (attachments using invalid attachment point ID will be moved to the chest attach point), and validation checks against animation and mesh to prevent the upload of animations and meshes weighted to invalid attachment points.

However, it was initially postponed after testing revealed the upload validation checks to be too stringent. (see BUG-10607 ‘Back end enforcement for animation upload is blocking upload of many of my animations – “references unknown joints”‘). As a result, the deployment was postponed while the Lab revisited the code to address issues, and a revised package was then rolled to all three RCs on Thursday, November 12th.

Firestorm 4.4.2 Bridge

In terms of the attachment ID and valid attachment points, one group of users who will be affected by the update are those on Firestorm 4.4.2, which uses an invalid attachment point ID for the Firestorm Bridge. Such users will only be affected if they log-in to an updated RC channel (keeping in mind this code will likely be deployed grid-wide in week #47), with the result that the bridge creation process will fail, leaving them with a boulder belly – a default rock shape embedded in their avatar.

Firestorm 4.4.2 users may find themselves with a boulder through their avatars as a result of the simulator code deployed to the RC channels this week. The issue will not affect Firestorm versions from 4.6.9 onwards (image courtesy of Whirly Fizzle)
Firestorm 4.4.2 users may find themselves with a boulder through their avatars as a result of the simulator code deployed to the RC channels this week. The issue will not affect Firestorm versions from 4.6.9 onwards (image courtesy of Whirly Fizzle)

As Whirly Fizzle explains in the deployment thread, to avoid this, those users on Firestorm 4.4.2, and who can, should update to 4.6.9 or later. Those who can’t, and who wish to avoid getting stoned, should disable the bridge creation process (Avatar -> Preferences -> Firestorm -> General -> Untick “Enable LSL-Client bridge” -> Apply -> OK  and detach the Bridge attachment). 

SL Viewer Updates

The Quick Graphics viewer containing the new Avatar Complexity capability and the ability to set multiple graphics presets was updated to version 3.8.7.306758 on Thursday, November 12th. This update sees the removal of a number of issues previously marked as resolved:

  • MAINT-5541 “[QuickGraphics] 0 complexity avatar renders as jelly”
  • MAINT-5567 “[QuickGraphics] A mesh attachment causes avatar to be jellybaby while Avatar complexity is set to No Limit”
  • MAINT-5620 “[QuickGraphics] clicking on Graphics Preset title triggers favorite”

The removal of these fixes would seem to suggest this viewer will remain at RC for a while longer.

HTTP RC Viewer Withdrawn

Also as noted in an addendum to the first part of this week’s report, the HTTP RC viewer (Project Azumarill) was withdrawn from the viewer release channel. This viewer had been suffering from a number of issues, including disconnecting from the simulator during teleports, and also issues such as BUG-10230 – “Voice often fails to connect on the Azumarill viewer”, and BUG-10391 – “Avatar often bakes fails on Azumarill”. These may all have contributed to the removal of the viewer from the channel while the issues are worked on.

Lab announces Marketplace search beta

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Wednesday, November 11th, the Lab announced the trial of a new Marketplace search. In particular, the Lab states they’ve been working on infrastructure changes to improve the relevance of search results and have made changes for search to scale better as more content and categories are added to the Marketplace.

Search has always been one of the large issues with the Marketplace over the years, as likely most who have used it will be able to attest. There have been attempts to improve / tweak / amend search over the years, but none have really seemed to hit the nail on the head in terms of generating appreciable improvements, which has potentially been the biggest annoyance faced by anyone using the Marketplace.; so it will be interesting to see how the new updates fare.

The updates can be tested using a special beta search Marketplace  – note they are not yet a part of the main Marketplace, so don’t expect to see changes there just yet -, with the Lab noting that further work is still in hand for boolean searches (or at least, excluding keywords from searches).

When testing the updated search capabilities, make sure your using the beta search marketplace, not the "main" marketplace
When testing the updated search capabilities, make sure your using the beta search Marketplace, not the “main” marketplace

Users are invited to use the beta Marketplace “to perform all your regular Marketplace activities”, and to report and specific issues via a JIRA bug report with the SLM Beta Search component.

In addition, there is a forum thread available for general discussion on the new search capabilities, which currently offers some mixed feedback, with ChinRey in particular (at the time of writing) offering considered feedback on some of the pluses and minuses she has observed / can see. There is also an interesting note from Grumpity Linden on why the beta search might appear to be a lot slower than the “main” MP, which is worth keeping in mind when trying it, because it is currently very slow in responding.

Again, if you do give the search beta a good try, and want to leave feedback,  make sure you use the Lab’s forum thread to do so. Comments left here aren’t likely to be read by the relevant staff at the Lab.

Endless beauty in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Aspen Fell - Endless; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Aspen Fell – Endless – click any image for full size

Aspen Fell – Endless is the latest iteration of the always evocative region of that name. As the last time I blogged about a visit there was in early 2014, a return was long overdue. Thus we set out to both renew an acquaintance and explore a new setting.

A visit starts in a skybox located just above the region – follow the arrows through the little shack and use the teleport to reach ground level in the south-east corner of the region. Here a clock floats in the air, time ticking slowly and eternally as rain falls from a pale sky and sunlight is reflected off of surrounding snowy peaks.

Gates set into the remnants of a wall lead you onward, up and out of the rain to where an old boxcar sits on the rusting rails of an old railway siding. The aged state of car and rails are a sharp contrast to the pristine white of a chaise lounge close by, the first indication that Aspen is still a place where visitors are welcome to come and while away the hours.

Aspen Fell - Endless; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Aspen Fell – Endless

Walk back around the boxcar and down the slope facing west, and the rain gives way to snow which is slowly drifting on either side of a winding path. If you prefer, you can follow the railway tracks northwards along the edge of the island and see what they might bring. There are no rules here; only the freedom to explore.

Should you follow the track, you’ll find yourself led to a rocky outcrop, another wall and gates – something of a motif within the region – standing guard over the end of the tracks. A tunnel has been cut through the rocks, rectangular in shape and perhaps once the route trains may have used to deliver trucks to the siding you’re leaving behind.

Aspen Fell - Endless; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Aspen Fell – Endless

With tracks now gone, the tunnel offers a way down to the north corner of the region, bathed in sunlight and washed by rain, the tall finger of a lighthouse standing sentinel, familiar gates marking your path north and west.

Follow the path westward from the boxcar, and you’ll find it forks and forks again. The fist fork will take you north once more, through trees and on the opposite bank of the river flowing alongside the train tracks. Continue west and you’ll be shown the way over a stream via a bridge suspended by balloons, before the path branches again, pointing you either on westwards or to the north and over a conventional wooden bridge and then around another tall rocky plateau, from which waterfalls tumble.

Aspen Fell - Endless; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Aspen Fell – Endless

If you haven’t already surmised, this a rural setting, bordering on the Great Outdoors. The land is a beautifully compose mix of lowlands, gentle slopes, high outcrops and plateaus marked by slopes and paths leading up to them, and meandering streams and pools of water which natural break up the land.

The entire setting is, in a word, idyllic,  complete with a rich mix of ambient sounds which greatly enhances the feeling on immersion: rain patters and splashes against the ground and water, bids sing from the trees in the sunlit areas, water splashes and sucks against wooden board walks, horses whiny, while in the distance a piano plays, deep under the trees, and here and there the ticking of a clock can be heard – time being another motif within the region. While for those who prefer, the audio stream offers music to match the mood of the region.

Aspen Fell - Endless; Inara Pey, November 2015, on Flickr Aspen Fell – Endless

Aspen Fell is a region which has never failed to present an evocative, atmosphere environment, and with Aspen Fell – Endless, this continues to be the case. A visit here is to lose oneself, with lots of opportunities for sitting and contemplating, and especially for sharing with someone close. If you’re with a loved one, we can recommend the wishing well in particular – we liked it so much, we bought a copy for the garden at home!

Should you be as entrance by a visit as we were, do please consider a donation towards keeping the region open for others to enjoy.

SLurl Details

Virtual Ability: 2015 IDRAC in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Virtual AbilityVirtual Ability has announced the speakers and schedule for the 5th International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), which will take place in Second Life on  Friday, November 13th and Saturday, November 14th, 2015, with the theme It’s All About the People.

The conference will take place at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island, and will feature presentations from Canada, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Presentation will be of around 90 minutes duration, including time for discussion and breaks between, with the first session on each day starting at 09:00 SLT and the last at 15:00 SLT.

IDRAC 2015

Schedule of Sessions

The conference schedule, as it stood at the time of writing, was as follows. Please visit the conference page on the virtual Ability website for any updates and to read the biographies of the individual presenters. All times are SLT.

Friday, November 13th

09:00 Effectiveness Study of a Community-Based Pain Clinic – Muhammad Abdul Hadi
10:30
 The Edge of Normal – Hana Schank
12:00
 The Right to be Rescued – Jordan Melograna
13:30 WORLDS APART: Why SL Makes Me More Normal Than RL – Mook Wheeler
15:00 Disability at Intersections: International Conversations on Disability in Relation to Other Identities and Social Justice Spectrum – Akemi Nishida
The Sojourner Auditorium
The Sojourner Auditorium, virtual Ability Island

Saturday, November 14th

09:00 Who is The Sojourner? What is Dreams? – Golda Stein
10:30
 Making a Difference, One Line of Code at a Time – Captain Code
12:00
 People Helping People – Down to the Marrow – Katsii Tennen
13:30 Freaks: Stories of People on the Fringes of Life – Slatan Dryke
15:00 3:00pm – Closing Performance: ~DRUM~ (Divine Rhythms of Universal Music)

Related Links

 

Second Life projects update 46/1: server, viewer, issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Endless Summer; Inara Pey, October 2015, on Flickr Endless Summer (Flickr) – blog post

Update November 11th: The HTTP RC viewer has been with withdrawn – see notes below.

Server Deploys Week 46

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 10th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package as deployed to the RC channels in week #45, comprising a fix for group invite throttle notifications, and an internal server code clean-up
  • There will be no RC deployment on Wednesday, November 11th.

Simulator Behaviour Changes

A RC deployment had been planned for week #46, which would have included new simulator side validation checks for mesh and animation uploads and attachment point validation.

However, when testing the simulator code on Aditi, Whirly Fizzle found that some of the checks are a little too stringent, and that even valid animations and mesh might be blocked – see BUG-10607 ‘Back end enforcement for animation upload” is blocking upload of many of my animations – “references unknown joints”‘, with even the default official bvh animations being blocked.

As a result of this, and following discussions at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, November 10th, the Lab postponed the deployment pending a re-examination of the new validation code.

SL Viewer Updates

A new Maintenance viewer was released on Tuesday, November 10th. Version 3.8.7.307376 brings with it some 38 fixes and improvements, including updates for some regressions introduced into the viewer with the current release viewer (version 3.8.6.305981).

The CEF project viewer (Project Valhalla) was also updated on Tuesday, November 10th. Version 4.0.0.307535 includes 17 fixes and updates compared to the initial release of the viewer.

Update November 11th: The HTTP (Project Azumarill) release candidate viewer was removed from the viewer release channel. As noted in my last TPV Development meeting report, the latest iteration of this viewer was generating assorted issues, including viewer disconnects on teleporting, and this may have led to the removal, although no official reason has been cited.

Other Items

HTTP Request Throttling

The server deployment to the main channel in week #45 introduced a throttle on HTTP requests. It had been introduced to prevent a griefing vector which could crash a region. However, the throttle was sufficient to cause llHTTPRequest to give NULL_KEY returns, which impacted a range of in-world systems include skill gaming systems, breedables, and tools such as Sculpt Studio (see BUG-10627 “llHTTPRequest appears to return NULL_KEY even if throttle is not reached”).

Commenting on this at the simulator user group meeting, Simon said:

I’m looking at relaxing that more with (hopefully) next week’s maintenance release; perhaps sooner (but no promises). I also need to update the llHTTPRequest() wiki page.  It really needs details on how scripters should handle a NULL_KEY return; basically they need to code for it … wait about a minute before retrying, and don’t kill your breedables if you can’t talk to your server. [The griefing vector] really caused some problems.   So we need that limit, but hopefully without killing off herds of SL animals.

Scripted normal & specular texture change Issues

Whirly Fizzle has reported a viewer-side issue within the current release viewer (version 3.8.6.305981) which can occur when manipulating materials on in-world objects or worn attachments via script.

The problems are outlined in BUG-10601, “Scripted normal & specular texture changes do not work correctly and screw up other materials enabled objects on the region”, and the problems affect normal and specular maps, and as Whirly notes in the report, the impact can be a little erratic. In sort, using scripts to toggle normal and / or specular maps on a surface on / off fails to result the expected behaviour.

Normal Maps expected Normal Maps 386
On on the Left, how things should work as Whirly uses a script to toggle a normal map on / off to reveal the “001”; on the right, how the same script fails to achieve the same result in the 3.8.6.305981 viewer – click either images for full size

Whirly provides a full description of the problems which can occur, and it should be noted that while annoying when seen, the circumstances under which they occur are most likely narrow enough so as not be to be a major issue for users. The bug has been accepted by the Lab, and Marine Kelley has offered a hotfix which, if needed, might help in formulating a “full” fix for the problem.

Aditi Log-in Sync Issues

A recent breakage in the update mechanism for syncing passwords and inventory between the main grid and Aditi, led to further issues for some users in trying to use both grids (see this forum thread and BUG-10634).

At the start of week #46, the Lab deployed a new method of syncing between Agni (the main grid) and Aditi, which it was hoped would resolve problems. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned, and the new system had to be rolled back.

As a result, and as Simon notes on the forum thread, those wishing to sync their grid passwords and inventory between the two grids should file  a Support ticket asking that your account be copied from the main grid to Aditi.

Announcing Lab Chat – a new Q&A show in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Lab Chat LogoOn Tuesday, November 10th, the Lab announced the forthcoming launch of Lab Chat,  “an opportunity for you to ask Lindens your questions during a live taping that will be recorded and archived for everyone to view.”

The new show has been in planning ever since SL12B and the successful Meet the Linden chat sessions hosted by Prim Perfect and which featured opportunities to meet Linden Lab staff such as Pete Linden (Peter Gray), the Lab’s Director of Global Communications; Xiola Linden from the Community Team; Patch and Keira Linden; Product Manager Troy Linden and Senior Director of Product, Virtual Worlds, Danger Linden (Don Laabs), and which featured a Q&A session with CEO Ebbe Linden (Ebbe Altberg).

Draxtor Despres, Danger Linden, Troy Linden and Saffia Widdershin at the Meet the Lindens at SL12B, the series which acted as a precursor to Lab Chat
Draxtor Despres, Danger Linden, Troy Linden and Saffia Widdershin at the Meet the Lindens at SL12B, the series which acted as a precursor to Lab Chat

The blog post announcing the new series, reads in part:

The first Lab Chat will be Thursday, November 19th, at 10:30am SLT at the Linden Endowment for the Arts Theatre – with guest Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab.

Residents from the Lab Chat production team – Draxtor Despres, Gentle Heron, Elrik Merlin, Petlove Petshop, Inara Pey, Aisling Sinclair, Devin Vaughan, Saffia Widdershins, and Jo Yardley – will pick questions to ask Ebbe from this forum thread  – so be sure to get your questions into the thread no later than Friday November 13th, 2015. Authors of selected questions will be invited to ask their question live at the in-world show. Time permitting – additional questions from the audience will be answered.

If you are unable to attend the live show, a recording will be available shortly after the first Lab Chat wraps, so no one will miss out!

We’ll see you on November 19th at 10:30am SLT. Don’t forget to add your questions to the forum thread and mark your calendars to join us!

My own role in this series is relatively minor – I’ll be producing transcripts of each Lab Chat session, which will be available, possibly with audio extracts, on these pages most likely on a forthcoming Lab Chat website.

If all goes well, it is hoped that Lab Chat will go on to become a monthly series. So if you do have questions you’d like the opportunity to perhaps ask your questions directly to Ebbe Altberg, hop over to the forum thread and leave them there, as noted in the Lab’s announcement.