2018 SL UG updates 39/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Missing Melody; Inara Pey, August 2018, on FlickrMissing Melody – blog post

Server Deployment Plans

There are no planned deployments for week #39.

SL Viewer

The Bakes on Mesh project viewer updated to version 5.1.9.519785 on Monday, September 24th. Otherwise the start of the week sees the majority of the current official viewer unchanged:

  • Current Release version 5.1.8.518593, dated August 14, promoted August 20. Formerly the SL Voice RC viewer – No Change.
  • Release channel cohort:
    • BugSplat RC viewer, version 5.1.9.519462, September 10. This viewer is functionally identical to the current release viewer, but uses BugSplat for crash reporting, rather than the Lab’s own Breakpad based crash reporting tools.
    • Rakomelo Maintenance RC, version 5.1.9.519298, September 5.
    • Animesh RC viewer, version 6.0.0.518949, August 24.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 5.1.8.518751, released on August 20.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Environment Enhancement Project

Those who have been testing EEP have been raising JIRAs on the test viewer, and Rider Linden is about to pass an updated version of the simulator code to the QA team for testing.

It will address some validation where FS had much larger ranges of values than the Lab did. [And] I’ve dealt with a cloud speed issue that had annoyed me and I forgot to get in before we sent out the preview. Internally no cloud motion was 10,10… it will now be 0,0 this means some clouds will suddenly appear to go faster

– Rider Linden on the EEP simulator update

Region Crossings

Joe Magarac (animats) continues to poke at the viewer side of region crossing issues, and has apparently come across a contributing factor to some crossing issues: essentially, on a double region crossing (ie briefly crossing into the corner of a region from another before moving on to the next region) the simulator seems to be sending the viewer an object kill message for the vehicle at the very beginning of region crossing. The viewer sees the message unexpectedly and reacts to it, causing the region crossing issue referred to as a half unsit (he avatar is stuck in the region, unable unsit, move or teleport, and requires a relog as a means to recover). The issue could be down to a race condition in messaging, but  Joe has been using additional logging in a version of Firestorm, and can consistently catch the kill message.

Region crossings currently aren’t being looked at by the Lab, although Simon Linden keeps hoping to get back to looking at the code in the future. In the meantime, Joe continues to log his findings on BUG-214653.

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.