On Tuesday, August 18th, the majority of servers were updated to server maintenance update 546455, previously deployed to the RC channels comprising updates to assist with the cloud uplift.
On Wednesday, August 19th, there will an RC deployment comprising an updated version of server release 545166 with a new build ID which integrates all the changes made in the last month. Te release will have an updated build number, which was not available at the time of writing.
SL Viewer
The Arrack Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.4.7.546539 and dated August 11th, was promoted to de facto release status on Monday, August 17th.
The remainder of the current official viewers start the week unchanged:
Release channel cohorts:
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544027, July 27.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544028, June 30.
Project viewers:
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.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.
In Brief
BUG-229219 “Group chat disabled after TP” (the actual issue behind people not seeing group chat correctly as reported in my previous SUG summary): there have been several bug reports on this, and the Lab is investigating.
The improvements to region crossings have resulted in a race condition that mean the receiving region can start acting on a vehicle (running scripts, etc), before avatars are correctly re-seated. Simon Linden is currently addressing this.
BUG-229207 “Stuck “Loading contents…” if object has more than 1 item in its content” is a bug that had been fixed 545166, but resurfaced following the deployment 456455 on August 18th. According to Rider Linden during the SUG meeting, it has now been “re-fixed” (or as he put it, referencing comments that the issue had been unfixed, it has be “un-unfixed”).
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, August 16th
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 6.4.6.545962, dated August 10, promoted August 10, formerly the Tools Update 2 RC viewer – NEW.
Release channel cohorts:
Arrack Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.7.546539 on August 11th..
Updated region crossing code on the main grid should improve travelling by vehicle across the main grid
As I’ve noted in recent Simulator User Group updates, the Blake Sea regions were cloned to Aditi (the beta gird) in late July, to give users the opportunity to test regions running on AWS services (“the cloud”). Among the more significant tests carried out (for many users) was for physical region crossings via vehicle.
Initially, things did not go well; it was almost impossible to complete more than two or three region crossings without encountering insurmountable problems – and some users (myself among them) couldn’t even get through a single crossing whilst driving a vehicle. Thanks to the data gathered, the Lab made some updates to the Aditi / Blake Sea region crossing code, and Simon Linden set-up the Blake Sea Challenge so that further data on region crossings could be obtained (see: 2020 Simulator User Group week #31 summary & the Blake Sea Cloud challenge).
Preparing for a high-speed run with my Foilstream with foils lowered…
All of this work resulted in a set of updates to the region crossing code for the Aditi regions, and on Tuesday, August 11th and Wednesday August 12th, these updates were included in the simulator deployments made to Agni (the main grid)¹.
So how are things now working?
Well, first and foremost, it is early days and less than 24 hours since the RC deployment. However, people are already reporting appreciable region crossing improvements with the updated code. While far from a comprehensive test, I took a number of my boats and aircraft out for a a series of runs across a total of 55 region crossings (east to west from Second Norway to Nautilus and around part of Blake Sea, then back again) to see how things faired. The vehicles I tested were:
Bandit 50/3 sailing cruiser.
Piaggio KV23H Foilstream (version 3.2c).
Spijkers MD900 Explorer
TBM Kronos (version 6).
…. And multiple regions later, still going at speed without loss of control, and able to orbit camera for photos 🙂
I selected these four as a mix of both medium and high performance craft. Both the Bandit 50/3 and the MD900 made the round trip without real incident. Crossings for both resulted in zero vehicle slewing, with the Bandit (always good on region crossings with 2 avatars on-board) being pretty much perfect throughout, and the MD900 making each crossing with control recovery in about a second, and only very slight camera issues.
The Foilstream was going to be a tougher proposition because of its sheer speed: when running with hydrofoils deployed and full throttle, it can cross a region in 7 seconds, so multiple back-to-back crossings inevitably lead to issues at some point, while even at lower speeds the boat was subject to loss of control on crossings lasting seconds and frequently subject to the camera slewing and becoming locked in the side of the boat. The Kronos is not particularly fast compared to other aircraft, but it is exceptionally manoeuvrable and aerobatic, so complex manoeuvres that cross regions have in the past led to issues of control loss and camera slewing.
Things still can go uncomfortably wrong – if you push too hard, as I did with repeated loops through a region crossing at speed
With both of these vehicles, region crossings were considerably improved, other than when carrying things to extremes.
The Foilstream managed so 25 region crossings at full speed with no real loss of control before I found myself on the sea floor sans boat (compared to about a dozen previously before running into problems – loss of vehicle, camera slewing), while the only issue with he Kronos came with intentional aerobatics back and forth over a region crossing. In this latter case, I will say that when it did go wrong, it did so quite spectacularly, with total loss of control and the ‘plane tumbling with no recovery at all, with the map showing it trying to continue forward.
Beyond my basic tests, others have been carrying out tests. One of these is colleague Luca lucagrabacr, who recorded her own tests using a range of craft and vehicles. Wo can catch her results in the video below.
Again, while it is early days, fresh after a restart of the entire grid, etc., so gremlins may still climb out of the woodwork, but on the whole, region crossings by vehicle should generally be a lot smoother and easier. Of course, the code doesn’t mean all region crossings are solved – if you push things really hard, things can still go wrong (as with me and repeated Kronos loops back and forth between regions at high speed.
For clarity: this is a code update to the simulators within the Lab’s co-lo data centre, it does not mean Agni regions are now running in the cloud.
On Tuesday, August 11th, the majority of servers were updated to server maintenance update 545966, comprising updates to assist with the cloud uplift work and includes the updated region crossing code that came about as a result of testing carried out on Aditi in relation to running simulators via AWS services (see my previous SUG summary).
On Wednesday, August 12th, There should be at least one deployment, which should also include the adjustments made to the region crossing code, so these will be grid-wide.
SL Viewer
The Tools Update 2 viewer, version 6.4.6.545962, dated Monday, August 10th, was released and promoted at the de facto release viewer on Monday, August 10th.
The Arrack Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.7.546539 on Tuesday, August 11th.
All other official viewer remain unchanged at the start of the week:
Release channel cohorts:
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544027, July 27.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544028, June 30.
Project viewers:
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.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.
In Brief
At least one large in-world group (60K+ members) is reporting group chat issues, vis: people engaged in group chat suddenly not seeing their own text when entered while other receive it; people typing into group chat and seeing their chat appear on entering, but some others saying they didn’t see it and others confirming they can see it, etc. This issue has thus far only bee reported via support ticket and a Jira has been requested.
There is a general request that those using the Blake Sea + Morris and Ahern regions on Aditi (all running via AWS) who notice unusual, reproducible issues, to please raise a Jira.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, August 9th
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 6.4.4.543157, dated June 11th, promoted June 23rd, formerly the CEF RC viewer – ROLL BACK..
Uses new viewer build tool chain, but does not include any user-facing updates outside of bug fixes.
Release channel cohorts:
Tools Update 2 RC viewer updated to, version 6.4.6.545962 on August 4th.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, August 7th, 2020. These meetings are generally held every other week, unless otherwise noted in any given summary. The embedded video is provided to Pantera – my thanks to her for recording and providing it. Time stamps are included with the notes will open the video at the point(s) where a specific topic is discussed.
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544027, July 27.
Arrack Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544465, July 6.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544028, June 30.
Project viewers:
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.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
A further version of the Tools Update 2 viewer is anticipated for week #33 (commencing Monday, August 10th). This may appear as the de facto release viewer version.
Currently, the next viewer in line for promotion after the Tools Update 2 viewer is likely to be the current Arrack Maintenance viewer.
A further RC update to Arrack may be issued early in week #33; however, if the Tools Update 2 viewer is promoted to release status, this viewer may be held over pending a merge with the Tools Update 2 viewer code base.
Love Me Render (LMR) continue to be held as the graphics team work on various rendering issues.
There are apparently around 4 remaining open issues, with two more currently being worked on.
Of the open issues, all are performance related. Some of these may need further triage.
The issue of Linden Water continuing to give particularly degraded performance on EEP viewer is still being investigated by both LL and TPVs developers, but no potential fix identified as yet. There appears to be some combination of factors causing this (e.g. vertex buffer object (VBO) memory thrashing potentially being one).
In Brief
[10:50-13:46] During a text-based call for volumetric clouds from a developer, Ptolemy Linden pointed out an early feature for EEP was to have been atmospheric scattering that got dropped at the time and some of this work might potentially be “simpler” to implement than volumetric clouds – not that his comment means either will be forthcoming.
Crepuscular rays (“god rays”) were one aspect of this work, but had to be dropped as they proved too performance intensive at the time. Two common means for generating “god rays” are via adding geometry to a scene, another is via ray casting and shadow map sampling – both of these can be computationally intensive.
The latter half of the meeting is dominated by a user-led discussion on relative performance, what constitutes as a viable demonstration of average performance (e.g. a lone avatar frolicking in a region with all the viewer’s upper-end graphics capabilities enabled, vs trying to do the same with even a moderate number of avatars also in the region, etc). As this was conducted in chat, you can catch it in the video, below.
