Day: October 27, 2020

2020 SUG meeting week #44: further uplift update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Boulder, September 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the October 20th Simulator User Group meeting.

Server Updates and Cloud Uplift

  • There are no planned deployments to the regions running within the Lab’s co-lo facilities.
  • Starting on Tuesday, October 27th, all regions on the “AWS channel” will be updated with a simulator release  – version 551155 – that includes extended logging capabilities and a range of fixes, as indicated in the release notes.

For details of the deployment of main grid regions running via AWS cloud services, please see the following:

Issues

The grid has seen a range of issues coincident to the uplift work that may or may not be related to that work (as they are occurring across regions that are both now running on AWS and those still running at the Lab’s co-lo facility, although some appear to happen more frequently within AWS region.) The latest of these is object failing to rez when pulled from inventory. However, Mazidox Linden indicated that LL believe they have an handle on this issue, and the AWS region simulator version may have address it.

The most significant  issues (again which may or may not be related to the cloud uplift) being experienced comprise:

  • Group chat failures.
  • Teleport failures.
  • Rezzing issues.
  • Slow opening of legacy profiles.
  • Slow opening on the World Map (hopefully fixed with the 551155 release).

A further issue that has been noted, but yet to be confirmed, is that idle scripts appear to be taking up to to between 16% and 26% more script timing on regions running on AWS when compared to regions still operating out of the Labs co-lo facility.

Uplift Status

  • As per April Linden’s blog post, around 1,000 region on the main grid that are running on AWS.
    • Thus far, LL have only seen minor issues from their perspective, with those regions are running with “only minor hiccups”.
  • The deployment this week will see the total number of regions on AWS increase to between 2,000-2,500.
  • The updates required to allow the simulator to run on AWS systems represents – in Mazidox Linden’s words – “”the largest change to the simulator [software]  ever.”
  • Maxidox also confirmed there is an upcoming change that will see simulators running on AWS given a synthetic hostname rather than the viewer just giving the IP address of the AWS compute node in URI form.  The synthetic hostname will map to how LL describes simhosts internally.

SL Viewer

The Start of the week has seen the following viewer updates:

  • The Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.11.551139 on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020.
  • The Legacy Profiles Viewer updated to version 6.4.11.550519 on Monday, October 26th, 2020.

The rest of the official viewers in the pipelines remain as follows:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.10.549686, formerly the Mesh Uploader RC released October t and promoted on October 14 – No Change.
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.10.549690, October 1.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • Some users (notably Firestorm users) are claiming that uplift is “breaking” region crossings, and that Firestorm should offer a higher default bandwidth allowance. However:
    •  The bandwidth setting applies to UDP only – the majority of data related to avatars, attachments and objects are handled via HTTP through the CDN, over which the UDP bandwidth has no influence.
    • While UDP messaging is involved in region crossings, changing the bandwidth default is viewed as potentially unwise whilst the uplift for is in progress, as it would largely be impossible to objectively tell if the change has improved matters.

The 2020 Second Life Sci-Fi Expo

Posted on by Inara Pey
The 2020 Sci-Fi Expo

I am very late in getting to this – I’m not entirely sure how I missed it,and my apologies to the organisers for only getting to it now –  but currently in progress until the end of Wednesday, October 28th, 2020 (SLT), is the 2020 Second Life Sci-Fi Expo in support of RFL of SL and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC).

Not to be confused with the annual Second Life Sci-Fi  Convention, which this year took place in May, the Sci-Fi Expo has generally been a smaller event (in previous years referred to as the “Mini Expo”), but this year has been taking place across five regions.

All five regions are packed with all things sci-fi, with each of them having a specific theme, a central hub providing an anchor point for explorations. The regions are packed with all things science fiction, with information available on sci-fi goods and services, role-play, communities, and more (including a hunt).

The 2020 Sci-Fi Expo

As it is late on in the event’s run, I’m not going to dwell too much on things – the best way to appreciate what is available is to hop over and immerse yourself; particularly if you are a science fiction fan. What I will do is refer you to the event’s Exhibitor’s List and Shopping Guide.

What I will say is that when exploring the regions, you’ll find a rich mix of merchants, role-play groups and more, together with the major franchises from media sci-fi: Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, etc., whilst those who have done six impossible things before visiting might want to consider breakfast at Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

2020 Sci-Fi Expo

So, whatever your interest in science fiction, be sure to set your phaser on fun and head back to the future with a visit to the SL Sci-Fi Expo in the next 36 hours.

Related Links