The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, July 26th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Server Deployments
No deployment plan notes were available on the forums at this time of writing this update.
On Tuesday, 26th, and in an extended deployment period, simhosts on the SLS Main channel were updated to simulator version 573176, comprising infrastructure updates.
On Wednesday, July 27th, all RC channels will be restarted, with those simhosts currently not on it also being updated to simulator version 573176.
The hardware configuration changes being introduced are intended to improve the deploy strategy and automate some operational tasks going forward; there’s no changes that might impact runtime performance.
llSetEnvironment and llReplaceEnvironment are for EEP, and work across a region, they cannot be applied to single environments set by altitude.
STATUS_DIE_AT_NO_ENTRY will behave like STATUS_DIE_AT_EDGE but for when an object enters a parcel, and will eliminate the “can’t move object to” popup if an object with copy perms has the flag set to TRUE when it attempts to enter a no-entry or full parcel.
This should mean creators can make bullets, undulating worms and whatnot that do not result in spam) which will behave like STATUS_DIE_AT_EDGE but for when an object enters a parcel), won’t be deployed to any RCs until week #31.
Those wishing to test these functions can one so on the regions Jigglypuff, Flareon and Mauve on Aditi).
Available Official Viewers
No official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:
Release viewer: version 6.6.1.572458 – formerly the Maintenance M(akgeolli) RC viewer, promoted June 29 – no change.
Release channel cohorts:
Profiles RC viewer, version 6.6.2.573372, July 21.
Izarra Maintenance RC, version 6.6.2.573282, July 20.
Nomayo Maintenance RC (Maintenance N) viewer, version 6.6.2.573023, July 11.
Maintenance Optimisations RC version 6.6.2.573065, July 7.
Project viewers:
Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste project viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
In Brief
More general discussion on region crossings, larger region sizes, altering ground level to allow for deeper oceans (i.e. below sea level = negative values). This also touched on BUG-227303 “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status”, which the Lab is apparently in the process of picking up.
On Monday, July 25th, 2022, the Firestorm team released version 6.5.6 of their viewer.
This is very much a maintenance update for Firestorm rather than a major release; the focus is very much on bug fixes rather than new features.
That said, it does bring Firestorm closer to the official release viewer, incorporating as t does the April and May official viewer releases code – so with this release, Firestorm embraces multi-factor authentication.
As per usual, this article is a not a full blow-by-blow breakdown of absolutely everything in this release, but it does include notes on some of the more significant updates and fixes people are liable to find useful, and some general notes.
For a complete breakdown of changes, please see the official release notes for Firestorm 6.5.6.
Installation
There is no need to perform a clean install with this release if you do not wish to.
Do, however, make sure you back-up all your settings safely so you can restore them after installing 6.5.6.
Linden Lab Updates
This release brings Firestorm up to parity with the following Linden Lab viewer releases:
One notable fix in this viewer is for photographers, correcting as it does – BUG-231868 “[MAINT J+K] 360 Snapshot tool fails to save file to computer (Mac and Windows)”
The MFA Release viewer (version 6.5.5.571282, dated May 4th), which rolled multi-factor authentication to the viewer – see below for more.
In addition, Firestorm 6.5.6 includes support for the release of Premium Plus (increased Group allowance, etc).
Multi-Factor Authentication
Firestorm 6.5.6 incorporates Linden Lab’s viewer-side Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) code. This provides additional security to your Second Life account both through the web (e.g. trying to view your billing info or transaction history, trying to cash out (“process credit”) money out of your account, trying to change the e-mail address associated with your account, etc.), and in accessing your account using the viewer. It is entirely optional, and you do not need to use it if you don’t want to – although usage is recommended.
You can find out more on MFA in general by following the links below:
Inclusion of MFA in a viewer means that anyone who has opted to use MFA
Will, the first time they use Firestorm 6.5.6, have to use their preferred authentication method (e.g. Google Authenticator) to generate a new token (6-digit code) and enter it into the viewer when prompted (after entering their user name and password).
The MFA prompt for a token, which will be seen in Firestorm 6.5.6 (and other viewers supporting the Lab’s MFA code) once every 30 days.
Note that some authenticators generate their token as 2 groups of 3 digits (e.g. XXX YYY). Where this is the case, you can enter the code with or without the space.
This token will remain valid for 30 days, as noted above, so you do not have to provide a token every time you log-in to the viewer.
However, after 30 days, the prompt will once again be displayed at log-in, and a new token code will have to be generated in the chosen authentication method, and entered into the viewer in response to the prompt.
If you have not opted to use MFA, or if you later opt to disable MFA on your account, you will not be prompted to provide any authentication code.
Firestorm Updates and Improvements
Phototools
The Shared Environment button on Phototools works with Firestorm 6.5.6
A minor, but nevertheless issue with Phototools since the introduction of the Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) capabilities into Firestorm has been the fact that the Shared Environment button (Phototools → Env) has never been properly hooked-up to the EEP controls.
It’s a niggle I pointed to at the time that Firestorm released with EEP incorporated but – and shame on me for not doing so – I never got around to raising a bug report on it.
Fortunately, Spartaco Zemenis did Jira it (see FIRE-31688), with the result that the button has now been properly hooked-in to EEP and clicking it (as with clicking the X button alongside of Personal Lighting) will now revert your viewer’s environment settings to those set for the region / parcel you are current in.
And the difference between the two? X will perform a transition between whatever your current environment settings are and those used within the region / parcel; the Shared Environment button will simple switch the viewer to using the local environment settings without any transition effects.
Skin Updates
The Legacy Skin has been removed as a result of being unmaintained for so long.
The Starlight and Starlight CUI have been updated, and now includes a fix for FIRE-30839 “Camera window not fully opaque at 1.00 and doesn’t have StarLight & Silver Blue support”.
Other Updates and Fixes
Updates
The “Avatars Nearby” list in the performance floater now respects display name/username choice (set via Preferences → General).
New physics warning to the mesh uploader when model dimensions are too thin. Mesh-based physics reverts to convex hull when any single dimension goes below 0.5m, so new warning added should this occur:
One or more dimensions is less than 0.5m, only hull-based (analysed) physics shapes will work correctly.
Debug Setting update: BrowserWebSecurityDisabled – disables web security features in the built-in Web browser.
Firestorm Bridge now uses HTTPS by default.
BUG-231970 “LOD generation does not trigger a refresh” (also fixed in the lab’s Performance Improvement viewer).
FIRE-31074 “Double Click Teleport Stuck On, And Ignoring Modifiers”.
FIRE-31552 “Glowing, 100% transparent prims no longer glow”.
FIRE-31687 “Overlapped windows when you create a pick on the Places floater”.
FIRE-31689 “Wrong folder is shown when creating a LM”.
FIRE-31322 “[Linux] Growl notifications do not show in Gnome 41 or Gnome 42 (Desktop Environment)”.
FIRE-31758 “RLVa: Area Search shows nametags when restrictions in place”.
FIRE-21700 “Full bright not adhering when gamma changed”.
FIRE-31719 “Store camera view fails in Flycam mode”.
FIRE-31406 “FS 6.5.3.65541 Guidebook pane while loading clips content too much”.
FIRE-31472 “When using the Improve Graphic Performance floater some aspects will not work when Framerate Limiter is active”.
Nearby blocked avatars should no longer cause the viewer to randomly hang.
Adds a warning toast as a reminder when there is a scripted followcam active that might stop a camera reset when trying to use SHIFT+ESC to reset camera view.
Crash Fixes
FIRE-31474 “Importing linkset crashes while uploading textures” .
FIRE-31653 “Pressing CTRL + F with “banned” list open in any group profile crashes the viewer to desktop”.
FIRE-31482 “Crashing To Desktop While Using [Legacy events] Search”.
FIRE-31718 “Preprocessor crashes viewer on recursive #include”.
Third-Party Library Updates
FMOD Studio updated to 2.02.06 (Windows, Linux, Mac).
KDU: updated to v8.2 for Linux.
Glib for Linux updated to 2.56.0.220911433-linux64_bionic-220911433.
OpenSim Updates
Fixed: FIRE-31567 “[OpenSim] Wrong delayed rebakes on all teleports/login”.
Fixed: FIRE-31581 “[OPENSIM] TP between grids on different voice services causes infinite loop”
Inventory handling improvements, including:
Fix for FIRE-31634 “[Opensim] Inventory doesn’t load on some grids”.
Fix for FIRE-31674 “[OpenSim] Inventory validation warning for Suitcase folder”.
Allow inventory validation to work in OpenSim with old and grandfathered inventories, without being fatal.
Better inventory validation reporting.
Make the inventory reporting more user friendly.
Make the options for fixing clearer.
Make the nagging notification optional.
Make sure the correct UUID is used for the inventory library in OpenSim
Fixed: FIRE-31628 “[Opensim] Collisions sounds cannot be disabled”.
OpenSim vari-regions:
Try to defend against grid owners who insist on misconfiguring to have more the one neighbour per region edge.
Fixed Firestorm crash due to abuse of vari-regions.
Added Grid Status support for OpenSim “GridStatus” and “GridStatusRSS” – Top menu bar → Help → Check Grid Status.
Reverted some of the changes made to prevent calling card duplication, as the method has changed and the viewer is now responsible for creating calling cards after friendship has formed.
Future Releases
In the past, the Firestorm team has tried to maintain a two-month QA cycle: starting a month after a release, QA on the nest would start with beta testing. This would be followed in the 6th week of the beta cycle by the issuing of a “Release Candidate” for additional testing the the Firestorm Preview Group. Due to the numbers involved in the Preview Group, issues would be found very late in the QA cycle, leading to delays in the release being made.
To try to prevent this in the future, Firestorm is moving to a process of pre-release building being issued to the Preview Group on a weekly basis, monitored by the QA team, working with the Preview Group users in determining what is a bug that should be reported vs what may be an artefact of something unrelated, like a user setting, that can be corrected without the need for exhaustive bug reporting and testing. This will hopefully result in a more frequent release process.
It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Monday, July 25th, 19:00 Dandelion Wine
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
These are just a few of strange and vivid people who entered the secret world of a twelve-year-old boy during one enchanted summer when he discovered the fact that he really was alive…
“The summer of ’28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma’s belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.”
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
Caledonia Skytower read Donna Barba Higuera’s 2021 winner of the Newbery Medal and Pura Belpré Award.
Wednesday, July 27th, 19:00: Seanchai Flicks
A special for Star Wars month as the Seanchai cinema space plays host to videos and throw popcorn around!
Thursday, July 28th, 19:00: Thursday Night Sci-Fi
With Finn Zeddmore. This week: Goblin Market by Robert R. Chase from, Asimov’s SF Magazine (July/Aug 2022) in a special 90 minute session.
On Monday, July 25th, 2022, the Firestorm team released version 6.5.6 of their viewer.
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 