Day: January 14, 2020

2020 Simulator User Group week #3 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Four Seasons, November 2019 – blog post

Simulator Deployments

There are no server deployments planned for week #3 due to the next batch of updates being ready for deployment.

Simulator Issues

  • There are still reports of recent simulator updates causing issues for certain types of breedables. The Lab is aware of these problems, and while fixes are in the works, they may not be in the next set of simulator updates.
  • LL has continued a post-mortem into the region restart issues from week #2, with Simon Linden noting they have hopefully learned enough such that future restarts such run a lot better (and hopefully more smoothly!).
  • “A couple of hosts” that were not handling teleports as expected at the end of week #2, which should have been corrected.
  • Additional data that the Lab has been gathering on simulator performance does show that long-running simulators incur increased host resource utilisation, but for reasons yet to be identified.
    • Scripted avatar loads might in part be responsible, depending on what their scripts are doing, but LL would prefer to gather further data rather than speculate on possible causes.
    • However, there are regions where issues have been recorded, but which do not have large avatars loads.
    • LL have tried multiple approaches to making similar slow-downs occur on the beta grid (Aditi), but the problem doesn’t appear to occur “on demand”, making possible causes harder to identify.

SL Viewer

The Xanté Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.3.6.533748 on Monday, January 13th.

The remainder of the current official viewer pipelines remain unchanged for the end of week #2:

  • Current Release version 6.3.5.533275, formerly the Wassail RC viewer, dated December 4, promoted December 12 – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22nd , 2019.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th, 2019.

In Brief

  • Rider Linden is looking at region crossings, and hopes to have some code that should help improve things when it is ready for deployment. However, he notes that the improvements will be “nowhere near what I would ultimately like.

A Grey Magic Winter in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grey Magic Winter, January 2020 – click any image for full size

Grey Magic is a full region designed by SL partners Kimmie Rayna and CHRlSTIANGREY that offers a mix of public spaces and private rentals. For those still feeling in the mood for winter scenes and snow, the region is currently dressed for the colder months, a blanket of snow covering most of it and the central pond / lake has a frozen surface which, going by the condition of the top of the ice, has seen use as a skating rink.

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020

The east side of the region, together with the central body of water, form the region’s public areas, with the east side laid out as a street from a small town, lined by small businesses and town houses.  Most of the buildings are empty, although at the times of my visit, one of the shops was functioning as an SL fashion store outlet and the pub offered indoor seating and an outdoor table games area.

Six rental properties lie to the north, west and south of the region, with the central body of water forming something of a buffer between the public streets and the private homes, with the houses closest to the town setting located far enough back from the roads to give them privacy. Entrances to them are clearly marked as private property to help avoid accidental trespass.

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020

The town and lake offer nicely photogenic settings – although I worried about a steam train and a tram occupying the same set of rails and, from their positions, only being able to head towards one another. However, given the distance separating them from one another, they both offer potential locations for photography.

While the lake is frozen over, I didn’t notice any ice skate vendors around the shore, but there are buckets of snowballs for those looking to have a friendly fight – and visitors can likelyalways use their own skates if they have them. For those who do, the hot chocolate bar alongside the lake offers the chance for a hot drink – and to listen to a very unusual round of Christmas songs from the nearby … umm … “carollers”  –  this is actually not to be missed (I still have their take on Frosty the Snowman hovering around in my head 🙂 ).

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020

Finished with a day / night cycle and matching sound scape, Grey Magic offers a balanced mix of public and private spaces (I understand that there is a waiting list for the houses, although one appeared to be vacant when I dropped in) with plenty of opportunities for photography as well as numerous places to sit. As such it makes for a pleasant, easy visit for SL explorers and photographers.

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020

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