Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement or preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, May 7th
This summary is 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3, promoted April 19th – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview – download page, release notes
Project AssetHttp project viewer updated to version 5.0.5.325940 on May 4th – This viewer moves fetching of several types of assets to HTTP / CDN – overview (download and release notes
The notes in this update are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, May 5th, 2017. The video of that meeting is embedded at the end of this update, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it. Timestamps in the text below will open the video in a separate window at the relevant point for those wishing to listen to the discussions.
AssetHTTP Viewer
[1:32] As noted in part 2 of this week’s updates, the AssetHTTP RC updated on Thursday May 4th to version 5.0.5.325940. While the sample of users on this version is small and needs to be broadened over the coming days, the crash rate is reportedly already significantly better than it was.
Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer
[2:28] An update to the 64-bit RC viewer is expected to appear on or shortly after Monday, May 8th. This includes numerous updates including 64-bit Havok sub-libraries for Mac and improvements for handling web-related elements.
Following this update, the only anticipated major updates for this viewer will be those related to the new viewer management process, which includes checks to try to ensure Windows users receiving the correct flavour of the viewer (i.e. if you’re a 32-bit Windows users, you should automatically get the 32-bit version of the viewer during updates; if you’re 64-bit Windows users, you should get the 64-bit version of the viewer). These updates are already being integrated into the viewer for the next update, so it is entirely possible the 64-bit viewer will be updated twice in the coming week.
[3:52] There was a slight mistake with the current version of the viewer which meant people on 64-bit Windows were getting the 32-bit version in error, which led to incorrect stats. This will be corrected with the new update.
[22:32] The Lab plan to update the viewer build instructions on the wiki to reflect this viewer as soon as it goes out as a release candidate viewer.
[24:32] Mac users should note that this viewer does not support OS X versions below 10.9.
360 Snapshot Viewer
[7:05] Given the status of the 64-bit viewer, the Lab is resuming work on the 360 snapshot viewer, although there currently isn’t any ETA on an update to the current version.
Voice Viewer
[2:05] The Lab has resolved the issues found in the Voice viewer RC, with the updated version – 5.0.5.325998 – appearing on May 5th during the TPV Developer meeting.
[17:16] As some fundamental issues with Voice are being addressed with this viewer, the SLVoice plugin that comes with it will not work with older viewers, and the SLVoice plugin from older viewer versions will not work with this viewer. This is a deliberate change and means that TPVs will need to integrate the entire Voice update, rather than just parts of it.
[19:14] This viewer also improves overall Voice connection, by both making connections more likely to succeed in the first place, and by making improvements to the retry / reconnection process. However, particularly aggressive anti-virus packages which fiddle with network connections can still cause Voice connection issues.
[18:35] In difference to previous statements made at the back-end of 2016, the Lab currently has no plans to disable older versions of Voice. However, they might revisit the idea in the future .
Upcoming Maintenance Viewer
A new Maintenance RC viewer should be appearing shortly with a number of updates / changes, some of which were outline in part 2 of this week’s updates, and repeated below for completeness.
Inventory Improvements
[9:26] To try to help with inventory losses through accidental deletion of objects which have mistakenly been moved to Trash, the Maintenance RC viewer will have the following behaviour changes:
The prompt displayed when you have over 5K items in Trash will be amended to show the trash folder when you’re ready to purge it – before you can purge it.
Backspace will only delete on Mac systems (as it’s the only option available), it will no longer delete on windows.
The purging Trash notification will give you the count of items you’re deleting and will be unavoidable.
The “Are you sure you want to delete this thing” warning will be seen at least once per session.
Estate and Parcel Permissions
[10:42] The Estate management floater is to be revised somewhat to make it easier to use, while the Permissions check boxes, etc at estate / parcel level are to be changed to better convey what happens when setting them. In particular, these will address BUG-4994 and see some improvements to access / ban list management at the region level, so that more than four names are visible in the list. at any one time.
This will only be the first iteration of these changes, and Grumpity linden indicates that the Lab will continue to look at how much more can be done to improve these controls without starting to make things complicated.
This viewer will also include the changes needed to support the improved access controls for regions set to Public Access (see New region and parcel access controls coming to Second Life) – a project known internally at the Lab as Jigglypuff. The server-side changes should be on RC from Wednesday, May 10th.
Limiting the Number of Items a You can ADD from a Folder
[14:18] A new limit has been placed up the total number of items which can be added from a folder at any one time. This is specifically to prevent those situations where someone mis-clicks ADD on a top-level folder – say Clothing – to find they are stuck with the viewer trying to add everything in that folder and every sub-folder within it to their avatar.
Lower Default Media Volume
[16:58] In response to requests, the upcoming Maintenance RC will also have a lower default volume for media playback than is set by the Lab in current viewers.
On Thursday, May 4th, the AssetHTTP RC viewer updated to version 5.0.5.325940, which looks to be to addressing further crash issues with the previous RC version.
All other viewers in the pipelines remain unchanged:
Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3rd – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer version 5.1.0.504536, dated April 25th
360-degree snapshot viewer version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847. dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
Inventory Loss Issues
I recently reported on people’s experiences with inventory losses, as recorded through the forums. As a result of both the forum discussion and JIRAs filed such as BUG-100541), the Lab has been looking again at inventory and possible causes of inventory loss. This will be resulting in some viewer behaviour changes as Grumpity Linden explained during the Server Beta meeting on Thursday, May 4th:
So we are actively looking at the various reports of inventory loss (Quick thank you to everyone who takes the time to file bug reports… It helps!). With this recent wave of reports, it seems like there are a lot of things ending up in trash unexpectedly and we can’t be sure whether there’s an evil gremlin in the machinery or a bunch of accidental key presses. So we’re putting in some viewer changes to at least make the accidental key presses less likely. We’re:
Amending the prompt that comes up when you have over 5K items in trash to show the trash folder when you’re ready to purge it – before you can purge it.
Backspace will only delete on mac, not windows.
[The] purging trash warning will give you the count of items you’re deleting and will be unavoidable.
You’re going to have to see the “Are you sure you want to delete this thing” warning at least once per session.
Also, I’d like to clarify something – a lot of reports we’re seeing come up right now but are actually of past incidents. I think the discussion on the forum(s) has led to an increase in reporting. which is great because then maybe we’ll finally get a reproducible scenario and find ways to fix.
These changes may not resolve all the issues being experienced, but they may help with at least some, and in creasing people’s awareness of what might be happening in their Trash folder. There is currently no time frame as to when these updates will appear in an RC / project viewer; I’d assume they would most likely be appearing in a Maintenance RC.
Profile Feed Snapshot Uploads
People are (once again) experiencing issues with uploading snapshots to their Profile Feed. A bug on the matter has been raised – BUG-100516.
LeTigre and Magnum should receive a new server maintenance package containing “Sim logging improvements”.
SL Viewer
There have been no updates to the current viewer pipelines to start the week, leaving them as follows:
Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3rd – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
Project AssetHttp RC viewer version 5.0.5.325825, dated April 27th – This viewer moves fetching of several types of assets to HTTP / CDN – overview
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer version 5.1.0.504536, dated April 25th
360-degree snapshot viewer version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847. dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
Region Crossings
There have been reports of worsening in vehicular region crossings recently (by coincidence, Caitlyn and I ran into so particularly unpleasant crossings over the most recent weekend). Simon Linden agreed to have a poke at server logs, time permitting, to see if there is any other change in crossing stats. He also mused on the potential impact of mesh bodies and attachments on such crossings, which constitute a considerable amount of additional data (including saving and restoring the state of scripts associated with them.
It was also pointed out that worn mesh attachments bring with them an (unneeded?) physics shape calculation, potentially adding to the load. This prompted a further discussion on whether any attachments should have a physics shape data used or calculated until such time as it is physically rezzed in-world.
As a first point of call, Simon repeated that as time permits, he’ll look into what goes into the region crossing calculations, and have a closer look at attachments physics calculations in general to she what is going on.
What Is the Lab Working On?
Things seem pretty quiet at the moment, but the Lab is working on a lot right now, although much of it is transparent to users, as Oz linden indicated at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, May 2nd:
At the moment, we happen to have a number of projects in flight that are either not good to discuss (security changes), or system upgrades that really shouldn’t be visibly different…. that’s unfortunate, but we’re getting started on (or getting ready to start on) some that will be much more interesting.
The recent changes to land access and control, together with the upcoming changes to allow region / estate staff to better managed Public Access regions are examples of more visible changes affecting users – or will be, once the viewer has been updated to handle the latter; and there a further changes to the likes of region-level ban lists coming down the pipe which will also bring visible changes to the viewer and provide better controls / support for land owners.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement or preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, April 30th
This summary is 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3, promoted April 19th – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview – download page, release notes
Project AssetHttp project viewer updates to version 5.0.5.325825 on April 27 – This viewer moves fetching of several types of assets to HTTP / CDN – overview (download and release notes
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer updated to version 5.1.0.504536 on April 25 (download and release notes)
DRTSIM-343: Allow Public Access Region / Parcel Settings Changes
This is the update to region / parcel access that will mean that if a region is explicitly set to Allow Public Access, parcel holders on the region will no longer be able to override the setting at the parcel level (see my update here). It had been deployed to the three RC channels a couple of weeks ago, but was then withdrawn. This may now be reappearing on an RC in week #18 (commencing Monday, May 1st, 2017), with Rider linden noting:
There were a number of suggestions about additions to the project. I just finished getting the code in that will send a notification to the parcel owner if their access settings are changed out from under them. Rider Linden: I’ve also fixed it so that the previous settings are stored in the simstate and restored if the override is reverted.
SL Viewer
The AssetHTTP project viewer, which shifts remaining asset types to delivery over HTTP via the Content Delivery Network(s) leveraged by the Lab, was updated to version 5.0.5.325825 on Thursday, April 27th. This is primarily a bug-fix release, aimed at reducing the high crash rate exhibited by the previous version.
Content Creation User Group Meeting
The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group meeting, held on Thursday April 27th, 2017 at 1:00pm SLT at the the Hippotropolis Camp Fire Circle. The meeting is chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.
The meeting was more of a general Q&A session, live streamed / recorded by Medhue Simoni, and that video is embedded at the end of this update, my thanks to him for providing it. Timestamps in the text below will take readers directly to the relevant point in the video (in a separate tab) where topics are discussed. Note that there was a lot of discussion via text, with topics overlapping. The notes here, together with the time stamps and audio extracts from my own recording refer to the key topics where Vir Linden provided input / feedback.
Attachments Using non-Hand Bones Following Hand Movements
[5:31] Medhue Simoni has been trying to work out a way to have attachments used by the hand (such as a gun, or nunchuk system, for example) rigged to non-hand bones in the skeleton correctly track with the hands. This would, for example allow someone perform a set of nunchuk exercises without the weapons massively separating from the hands, or allow a gun to be drawn, fired, twirled on a trigger finger, etc, and then be returned to the holster in a fluid, hand-following movement.
The problem here is that s non-hand bones which might be used for this aren’t actually connected to the hands, they have no way of knowing where the hand might be placed. However, Medhue believes that given time, he might be able to solve the problem.
“Layering” Meshes using Alpha Textures
[9:20] Some content creators have been taking advantage of placing two meshes in the same location and using an alpha texture as an overlay, thereby forcing one mesh to always be on top. This can add a certain level of realism to objects such as plants without the need for additional textures / baking.
However, how meshes with alphas are “sorted” at present appears to be more a factor of how the rendering pipeline is working at present, rather than being an intentional feature, therefore using layered meshes and alphas in this way is not recommended, as it cannot be guaranteed that a future update to the rendering system won’t change the behaviour.
Advanced Lighting Model and Lower-End Systems
[20:38] A question was asked if Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) “be made to work on lower spec computers”, so that more people have the opportunity to see materials in use.
ALM has tended to be a controversial subject, as it is often blamed for causing significant performance hits. However, on medium-to-high end systems, this is perhaps a case of people confusing enabling ALM with enabling ALM together with enabling shadow rendering (which does cause a performance hit); enabling ALM by itself shouldn’t result in any significant hit.
Lower specification systems and older GPU systems, however, are different. Some are not capable of handling ALM, regardless as to whether shadows are disabled, and a performance hit is noticed simply by turning it on. This, coupled with a number of other factors, means that trying to adjust ALM so be of use to lower specification systems isn’t really something that the Lab could realistically engineer.
Note that the above discussion continues for a large part of the meeting, mostly in text chat.
JIRA Feature Acceptance & Action
[26:38] Feature requests submitted via the JIRA can go in one of several ways. If a request proposes something that the Lab believes cannot reasonably be done, or which cannot be done, or which offer what is thought to be a small return for the amount of investment in terms of effort, which tend to get rejected.
Where a request is accepted by the Lab and pulled into their internal JIRA, this doesn’t mean it will definitely result in it being implemented. Again, this doesn’t automatically mean the idea will be implemented; it simply means the Lab is considering the idea. Again, it comes down to matters of overall benefit, resource requirements and availability, etc., as to whether it is actually implemented.
Supplemental Animations and Animated Mesh
[41:32] Both are still under consideration at the Lab, but no news on actual projects being on the horizon. Concerns about performance with animated meshes has been raised internally where people to fill there region / space with lots of animated meshes (NPS, trees with branches swaying in the wind, animals, etc.).
Next Meeting
The next content Creation User Group meeting will be on Thursday, May 11th.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 