On Tuesday, May 9th, the Main (SLS) server channel was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed to the LeTigre RC channel, containing sim logging improvements.
On Wednesday, May 10th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
LeTigre should receive a server update comprising a new version of the simulator code built using a newer version of Linux. This has previously been on test both on Aditi and the Cake micro-channel. In the words of the Lab, it sees pretty much everything change.
Commenting on the current underpinning server updates the Lab are carrying out, Simon Lab said, at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, May 9th:
We have some internal projects that are pretty big that will occupy us for months at this point. They’re needed and will help set up SL for a long-term life … it really is investing in the future … Imagine what our back-end systems look like. The design is ancient, it’s been added-on and adjusted for 14+ years. Sometimes we have to stop and do overhauls.
SL Viewer
A Maintenance RC viewer is anticipated this week. However, at the time of writing there have been no updates since the end of week #19, leaving the viewer pipelines as follows:
Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3rd, April 19th – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
Release channel cohorts:
Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.5.325998, dated Friday, May 5
Project AssetHttp project viewer, version 5.0.5.325940, dated May 4th
360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23rd, 2016
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.
Group Chat Issues
Group chat on some of the larger groups again seems to be acting up – messages being dropped, people unable to send messages, etc.
Should you encounter repeated / severe issues with group chat, the recommendation is to file a support ticket with a request in the format of: “group XX is suffering excessive chat lag, please check its server”, where XX is the name of the group itself. All such requests should be passed on to Operations, who will take a look at the server responsible for managing that particular group’s chat sessions.
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)
The Mill, Pale Moonlight – blog post 
