Day: November 16, 2019

2019 TPVD meeting week #46 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Unconditional, October 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on November 15th, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks to Pantera for recording and providing it. As always:

  • Time stamps are given with links that will open the video at the appropriate point in a separate browser tab for reference.
  • Core points of the meeting are listed below. Other subjects of lesser import may have been discussed, please refer to the video.

Simulator Script Management Improvements

[1:25-2:35]

These continue to be deployed across the grid, with the Lab believe the results have been “mostly good”, but noting that there may still be some scripts that may be affected by the changes (and some have been reported – such as BUG-227864).

Those that are experiencing issues are asked to file a bug report, as the Lab is willing to offer assistance. Note that example scripts may be requested as a well.

SL Viewer News

[2:45-6:33]

  • On Friday, November 15th:
    • The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.3.5.532739.
    • The Copy / Paste project viewer updated to version 6.3.5.532780.

The rest of the current viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.3.4.532299, formerly the Ordered Shutdown RC viewer, dated November 4.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11th.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th.

General Viewer Notes

  • A further update to the Legacy Profiles viewer is close to being made available. If the comments from the Web User Group are correct, this will see Profile Feeds appearing in the Profile floater, presumably in a new tab on that floater.
  • The first of the viewer builds using the updated Visual Studio 2017 / Xcode 10.3 (?) that had been anticipated as appearing “soon” at the last RPVD meeting apparently did not pass QA testing, and is now subject to debugging code changes that were made to some of the coroutines in the viewer.
  • It appears that work has resumed on the contribution towards viewer camera presets (STORM-2145), with “good progress” being made, but no indication on when a project viewer will surface.
  • The Lab is trying to generate bandwidth to implement mesh uploader improvements (these are most likely based on the Firestorm improvements to the uploader, the code for which has been contributed to LL).

Two-Factor Authentication

[15:43-16:46]

Two-factor authentication for log-in has been s subject of comment and requests from some time. Linden Lab is actively working on it, noting it is “firmly on the roadmap”. However:

  • There is no time frame at present on possible deployment.
  • The work is dependent / linked to other work, requiring things are approached in order and care is taken to ensure that in making all the collective changes, nothing is broken.

SL Share

[16:50-18:55]

SL Share, the capability for sharing SL snapshots to Facebook, Flickr and Twitter via LL server-side support, is to be discontinued.

  • The Facebook upload capability was removed some time ago after Facebook made changes to their API that broke the ability for the viewer to share to their platform, and did not implement any fix.
  • More recently, the Flickr and Twitter uploads have suffered issues (the Flickr upload is currently broken in viewers using the Lab’s upload back-end).

The reason for discontinuing SL Share is due to Flickr and Twitter making frequent changes to their connecting APIs without any notice that require LL to update their back-end support, which is regarded as a “big distraction” from other server-side work.

TPVs are free to continue to offer their own viewer-side means of uploading to the likes of Flickr that do not require LL’s back-end support, if they so wish. Firestorm has already done this.

In Brief

  • Singularity is apparently “very close” to a formal release to bring it up-to-date with current viewers.
  • [7:22-15:15] There is a discussion on region issues that are specific to the London City regions. Whilst somewhat outside the normal remit for TPVD meetings, it might be worth listening to by region / estate owners who may have experienced recent restart issues.
  • Emojis are coming to the viewer, courtesy of a code contribution that’s heading to Linden Lab.
The emoji capability is being contributed by the Catznip viewer team
  • Next TPV Developer meeting: Friday, December 13th, 2019.

Frogmore: more Swedish memories in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Frogmore, November 2019 – click any image for full size

We first visited Frogmore in August 2019, when it was located on a Homestead region. It has now relocated to a Full region that includes the full region land capacity bonus, and we were invited back to take a further look at the expanded setting by Bengta’s SL partner, Atze Boucher.

In the original build, Frogmore offered a focused interpretation of a childhood in Öregrund, Sweden. with the new Full region installation, that focus is broadened somewhat, with Bengta and Atza noting, ” we share with you a touch of life in Sweden and the magic that is Scandinavia”.  This has resulted in a location that blends much of what will likely be familiar to those who visited the original Frogmore with much that is new, thus presenting a setting that carries with it a sense of returning to a familiar place in life, whilst also offer more opportunities for exploration and discovery.

Frogmore, November 2019

For those who have visited previously, that sense of familiarity is imbued on arrival: the cinder road is still there, forming the landing point and pointing the way between wooden buildings sitting on a narrow waterfront with the sea on one side and rugged steps of hills on the other. The ocean-facing wharves are still there as well, but a walk along the road will reveal that the buildings fronting them have been a little thinned out, before the road arrives not at a rocky headland, but at a large harbour market that may well be past its prime.

I say “past its prime”, because the main pier looks to be in need of repair, and the waters next to it don’t appear that welcoming to fishing boats (there’s even a poor piano caught in the detritus floating there), while the buildings on the headland look tired, with a couple now given over to entertainment, rather than serving market buyers with fish and produce. Even what might have been a large, solid warehouse looks to be in the process of being re-purposed as a art gallery.

Frogmore, November 2019

Elsewhere, other familiar sites await discovery. The rocky stream bubbling its way through one of the original setting’s two main islands, and which drew my attention during or first visit is still waiting to be found – although I don’t recall it being blocked off at both ends.

Other familiar elements include the need to scramble over rocks to get from place to place in some part of the region, which can give a sense of being on a hike when exploring, while the oyster bar still stills above that main cinder-topped road.

Frogmore, November 2019

The move to a Full region has also allowed for expansion, with several new areas appearing in the new design. There are coastal camping cabins, inland paths switch-backing through the landscape between rocky spines and hills, leaping narrow brooks with the aid of bridges and fallen tree trunks. An old cable-car system runs somewhat diagonally across the largest island, while the two smaller island to the north and east show signs of more occupation that I recall from our August visit.

All of this makes the “new” Frogmore – or as Atze termed it to me, “Frogmore 2.0” – well worth exploration, as there is so much that is new – including multiple new spaces to sit on your own, share with friends or experience a little intimacy with a lover. However, it does come with a caveat: perhaps a little too much has been packed into the region in terms of unique textures and volume of mesh, as a visit can really impact viewer performance if you have options such as shadows enabled or have a mid-to-high draw distance (e.g. 120m or more).

Frogmore, November 2019

I also found the issue of the region surround taking time to render to be apparent here (an issue I experienced and other commented on with the original Frogmore). In my case it took some 70-80 minutes for the surround to pop into view, hence why it is absent in the majority of images here – all of which were taken in that time period. I’ve no idea how common this issue might be with this build – but a lack of the surround doesn’t unduly spoil the region’s looks.

However, those points noted (both of which can be dealt with by either ignoring the surround, or by making some adjustments to the viewer), the new Frogmore is as photogenic as the original. Those who do take photos are invited to submit them to the Frogmore Flickr group.

Frogmore, November 2019

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