Category: SL Tech

2021 SUG meeting week #1 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Outer Garden – The Farthest Light – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

There were no planned deployments for 2021 week #1. It  is hoped that the deployment schedule will resume in week #2, depending on their run through QA.

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release Channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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

Experience Keys

It is believed that the end-of-year experience keys issue (the XP_STORAGE_EXCEPTION problem, see my 2020 #week #52 update and BUG-229892) has been resolved. However it has been noted that some user may still be experiencing “lingering performance issues” with experience keys. Those experience any experience key issues are asked to contact Support.

Issues and Rumours

There were some issues experienced over the weekend, with users reporting an inability to rez and / or their avatars remaining as a cloud, and poor attached scripts performance. Rumours circulated about the issue being due to a “server” fire, and some reports appeared to have been  exaggerated (e.g. the issuing being open on Grid Status for “several hours”, when in fact it was reported as resolved some 45 minutes are initially appearing). Whilst not going in to specifics, Oz Linden noted that while there were issues, in terms of the circulating rumours, he noted:

It was much much less dramatic and interesting than that.

Map Tiles

Map tiles are still not being regularity updated, however the Lab both identified the cause of the issue and a possible fix. Progress is being made on the fix, however, it appears that it is taking time due to the Map code not having been touched in a good while.

General Post-Uplift Issues

While the core work of transitioning all SL services to AWS systems has been completed, there are still some niggling problems that are being dealt with – such as with the Map tiles (above) and on-going issues with things like the official viewer Splash screen updating, the land store, etc. The Lab is addressing these as they can.

2020 SUG meeting week #52: Experience Keys and Map issues

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nostalgia Falls, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 22nd Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

For the TL;DR brigade: nothing major to report; not deployment, no viewer releases; meeting was a solstice / year-end party.

Server Updates

Week #51 eventually saw deployments every day of the week, which reportedly left all RC channels running on server release 553685 and the SLS Main channel on 553176. However, our home island was on the SLS Main channel is reporting it is running 553685,  so I assume that given there was no apparent deployment on Tuesday, December 22nd (as assuming our home island hasn’t been shuffled to an RC, the entire grid is now running on 553685.

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release Channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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

Map Tiles

Map tiles are still not being regularity updated, however the Lab both identified the cause of the issue and a possible fix, however, it now seems probable this will not be deployed until after the holiday break. On December 20th, Oz posted a comment to the SL forums, explaining the issue:

This is a temporary situation…  the data needed to generate the maps has been moved to AWS, but the code that does the work has not yet. Because of how the data centre version expected to fetch that data, it was not possible for us to make it work until the code has been moved too. That move is in progress and shouldn’t be too much longer (sorry, I don’t want to jinx the developer by setting a date).

Experience Keys

There is a significant issue with Experience Keys the is affecting all experiences grid-wide see: BUG-229892 “[Upilft] Experiences Failures”. This is also apparently impacting the Lab’s ability to release the new Linden Stilt Homes, as per an update to my article on the release of this new linden Home theme.

Uplift – Closure of Co-Lo Facility

Both April and Oz Linden have reported that with all SL systems and service now running on AWS, the work in clearing all of LL’s hardware and infrastructure from their former co-location facility in Arizona (a part of which involves the complete shredding of all hard drives) , and according to Oz, the work is “almost done”.

Date of Next Meeting

The next SUG meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 5th, 2021.

2020 viewer release summaries week #51

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, December 20th

This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, updated to version 6.4.12.553723 on December 15th.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2020 CCUG meeting week #51 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Whimberly, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, December 17th 2020 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar.

The venue for meetings is the Hippotropolis camp fire.

SL Viewer

No changes through the week to the current crop of viewers:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohort:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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.

General Viewer Notes

  • The two RC viewers are vying for promotion to release status. However, the next promotion is unlikely to come until the new year.
  • The Profiles viewer, the Simple Caching viewer and the Project Jelly viewer are almost in a position to be promoted to RC status.
  • There are some viewers waiting on QA – such as the next graphics fixes viewer (the Love Me Render viewer).

“Thanksgiving Bakefail” Issue and Current Outfit Folder Problems

  • As a result of the “Thanksgiving Bakefail” issue that saw a portion of users unable to rez their avatars beyond a cloud status,  LL have been working on the back-end systems to make this kind of event less likely. This will also involve changes to the viewer as well,  so the work will “take a while” to complete.
  • Essentially, these kind of issues are the result of multiple versions of the Current Outfit folder appearing in inventory, resulting in the viewer and the Bake Service coming into conflict over which version is the “current” version,  so appearance updates fail.
  • The corrective action will be to ensure the back-end services (Bake, etc), have primacy for creating the Current Outfit Folder, and removing the viewer’s ability to do so.
  • The problem has arisen because historically, to speed inventory loading, the viewer has been able to initiate creation of folders, including essential system folders.

In Brief

  • Creators still feel the cost of Animesh (in terms of LI) is too high.
    • Vir hopes to re-visit the overall cost of Animesh, but reminded people that “too high” is a relative term; the cost of Animesh in terms of rendering and impact is actually a lot more accurate than is currently given for other items (hence the ARCTan project).
    • However, he acknowledges that the rendering cost formulas for avatars and in-world objects do have issues (again, hence ARCTan project).

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, January 7th, 2021.

2020 SUG meeting week #51

Posted on by Inara Pey
Solus, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 15th Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Updates

Deployments in week #50 got a little confusing, with both SLS (Main) and some RC (Magnum) RC channel servers updated to release 553685, with the remainder of the simulators being updated to the same release on  Tuesday, December 15th. At the SUG, Rider linden explained the situation thus:

 So let’s see. We ended up having one extra set of rolls on Friday and then again today to catch the last of the stragglers. It was basically just an internal configuration change to help support uplift. I’m confident that that was the final roll of the year.

SL Viewer

The Dawa maintenance viewer updated to version 6.4.12.553723 on December 15th. The rest of the current crop of official viewers, remain as follows:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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

  • Map tiles are still not being regularity updated, however the Lab both identified the cause of the issue and a possible fix, however, it now seems probable this will not be deployed until after the holiday break.
  • The updates to Group chat made over the last day or so should not be seen as a “complete fix” for issues. Rather, it is intended to hopefully improve things for at least some who have experienced problems,with further work to come, with Oz Linden noting:
There is no doubt that group chat needs additional work. We have recently resolved some problems that we were able to diagnose, but more work will be needed as soon as we can devote some time to it.
  • It  is possible that post-Uplift, EEP might see some further work, including an adjustment to the default Mainland ambient lighting.

 

2020 viewer release summaries week #50

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, December 13th

This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links