Category: SL Tech

2016 SL project updates 45/1: server, viewer, attachment issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Dystopia // [flit ink] + aberrant; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr Dystopia // [flit ink] + aberrant – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, see the server deployment thread for the latest updates and information.

  • There was no Main (SLS) channel roll on Tuesday, November 8th.
  • On Wednesday, November 9th, the three RC channels should all receive the same new server maintenance package, which includes:
    •  llGetEnv() will support “region_max_prims” (feature request BUG-40825).
    • llGetObjectDetails() will have a new OBJECT_GROUP_TAG function  (feature request BUG-20064) – when pointed at avatars it returns the group tag you see floating above them; and also OBJECT_TEMP_ATTACHED – to tell you if something is a temp attachment (feature request BUG-5195).

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current batch of viewers in the various pipelines since the end of week #44, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.321250, dated November 2nd – bug fixes
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.1.2.321183, dated October 28th – over 70 crash fixes, improvements and other fixes
  • Project viewers:
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.2.320965, dated October 26th – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review
  • Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Avatar Attachments Being Unexpectedly Detached

This has been an issue for a while, but has recently seen an uptick in occurrences. IN essence, and for some reason, when undertaking at TP or physical region crossing (both amount to the same thing), a “kill object” (attachment) message can be sent by the simulator.

Essentially, there is an issue in messaging between the simulator and the viewer during region crossings (physical or teleports), which can result in attachments being detached or, harder to detect, attachments being removed server-side, but remaining visible (but effectively ghosted) in your view, and which cannot be individually removed, as the simulator doesn’t recognise them as being there.

Whirly Fizzle has posted on possible fixes for the issue, including details of an experimental fix from the Firestorm team which might be included in the next release, pending Linden Lab addressing the root cause of the problems

One of the most common occurrences for the problem is having multiple items on a single attachment point (rigged meshes can often all default to the right hand, for example). So, should this problem occur, and once you’ve corrected matters (such as be a forced rebake (CTRL-SHIFT-R) or a complete change of outfit, for example), check the items affected by the problem, and if they do share an attachment point with one another or other attachments your avatar is wearing, trying relocating them to unoccupied points (this should be particularly easy to do with rigged mesh, which can be attached pretty much anywhere and render at the correct point on your body.

2016 viewer release summaries: week 44

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending Sunday, November 6th

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: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), updated to version 5.0.0.321250 on November 2 – bug fixes (download and release notes).
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V4-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.31 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.33, both on November 5th (release notes).

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2016 SL project updates 44/2: TPV Developer meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Fallen City
The Fallen – blog post

The majority of the notes in this update are taken from the abbreviated TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, November 4th. The video of that meeting is embedded at the end of this update. My thanks as always to North for recording and providing it.

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 1st, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package as deployed to the three RC channels in week #43. This comprises: a fix for the bug introduced in week #42 – see BUG-40735 “Paying an object with [slgaming] in the object name (most skill game machines) fails on the RC 16.10.14.320687”; two fixes for issues with the new llSit function for Experiences, and additional internal updates.
  • There was no RC channel deployment on Wednesday, November 2nd. However all three channels were restarted.

Both the Main channel deployment and the RC channel restarts saw land capacity / prim allowances for Mainland regions increase.A full Mainland region now has a land capacity / prim allowance of 22,500 as standard. Note that private estate regions will follow in due course.

For the specifics of these changes, please refer to Lab reveals LI / prim allowance changes in Second Life – in full.

SL Viewer

The Project Bento RC viewer updated to version 5.0.0.321250 on Wednesday, November 2nd. offering the following fixes (the reports on the JIRA are non-public, so links aren’t included here to save confusion):

  • SL-395 – joint scale locks failing to upload in some cases.
  • MAINT-6853 – viewer crash when checking preview skin weights in mesh upload.
  • SL-504 – intermittent crash when adding attachment to an avatar (probably during shutdown).

This viewer is expected to go through at least one more iteration to address further bugs.

The Lab hopes that either the Bento RC or the current Maintenance RC (version 4.1.2.321183 at the time of writing) will be promoted to the de facto release viewer prior to US Thanksgiving, with the other being promoted shortly thereafter.

A further Maintenance RC is in development, and is likely to appear once the current RC has been promoted.

64-bit Viewer Progress

The Lab has completed building all of the required libraries for the 64-bit viewer, and are now actually building the first 64-bit project viewers, which it is hoped will see the light of day before the end of the year.

The library updates also mean that the Lab will be able to do large-scale updates to the viewer build environment with significantly greater ease in the future. One of the first of these updates liable to come in the first quarter of 2017, to switch to Xcode 8 (Mac) and Visual Studio 2015 (Windows).

Bento

Medhue Simoni’s Bento elephant is now available – requires a Bento viewer to use / render correctly

There was no Bento User Group meeting on November 4th, so there is nothing major to report on that front – except those who have been fascinated and charmed by Medhue Simoni’s magnificent Bento elephant can now obtain it via the Marketplace. There’s also an extensive video on it – and it even flies! How cute is that?

Note, obviously, that you will need a Bento capable viewer to use it, and others will require Bento capable viewers to render it correctly.

The next Bento User Group meeting will be on Thursday, November 10th at 13:00 SLT at the the Hippotropolis Campfire Circle.

Interesting Nugget

During the meeting Sansar is discussed, and Oz Linden indicates that the log-in data the Lab receives suggests than a large number of Second Life users are using systems which are unlikely to be able to run Sansar particularly well, further boosting the Lab’s confidence that Second Life has a longer-term future.

This shouldn’t be taken to mean that Sansar will necessarily have a massively high set of system requirements – although obviously, anyone wishing to use the current generation of HMDs will need to have a system meeting the specifications required by such hardware.

Rather, it would again suggest than many Second Life users continue to access Second Life using systems which might be described as past their prime when compared to even the “modest”  hardware standards set by modern home computers.

2016 SL project updates 44/1: server, viewer, land

Posted on by Inara Pey

Everwinter; Inara Pey, October 2016, on Flickr Everwinter – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 1st, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package as deployed to the three RC channels in week #43. This comprises: a fix for the bug introduced in week #42 – see BUG-40735 “Paying an object with [slgaming] in the object name (most skill game machines) fails on the RC 16.10.14.320687”; two fixes for issues with the new llSit function for Experiences, and additional internal updates.
  • On Wednesday, November 2nd, all three RC channels are set to remain on the same server maintenance package as week #43. However, there should be a rolling restart across the RC channels.

SL Viewer

On Friday, October 28th, the Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.1.2.321183, and came with an expanded set of release notes offering a better overview of changes and updates. These include, but are not limited to:

  • You can now see your Temp attachments via Appearance > Wearing > Temporary attachments
  • Cut items won’t be put in Trash any more to avoid inventory loss. Instead they’ll be visually greyed out but remain in place until the next operation is performed
  • Rigged Mesh LOD is now size-dependent, not just avatar-dependent. Improves how LODs are swapped
  • In a related case, wrong bounding box location was affecting LOD calculation causing some mesh avatars to deform
  • PRIM_TEXT draw distance limit can now be changed up to 300m via debug setting “PrimTextMaxDrawDistance”
  • Avatar Complexity notices can now be disabled from Preferences > Notifications: “Warn me about my avatar complexity changes” + “Warn me if my avatar complexity may be too high” settings
  • A warning is displayed when trying to put too much inventory in coalesced objects and will still be blocked
  • A warning will be displayed when creating or wearing HUDs that can cause critical performance hits
  • This RC release restores weapons behaviour to same state as in the release viewer
  • Buying L$ links will once again open in internal browser by default
  • You can now “Wear-Replace current outfit” even if the new outfit is a subset of the old one
  • Accidentally scrolling the mouse wheel while renaming an item in inventory will now cancel renaming instead of moving the item. True for any operation where ‘renamer’ moves out of visible area
  • Multiple crash fixes.

Other viewers in the viewer pipelines remain as per last week:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331, dated October 4th, promoted October 10th – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.320815, dated on October 20th
  • 360-degree snapshot project viewer, version 4.1.2.320965, dated October 26th – hands-on review
  • 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.

Mainland LI / Prim Allowance Increase

Update, November 3rd: following the complete announcement on the prim changes and the timeline, full details on the changes for Mainland, and those to be applied to private regions are now available in this post.

As is increasingly being noticed, Mainland regions on the Main (SLS) channel received an increased LI allowance with the deployment on Tuesday, November 1st, with Full regions now having a total capacity of 22,500 LI (or prims, if you prefer).

The change in land impact (/ prim allowance) was noted in Mainland Full regions on the SLS channel as they started coming back on-line following the November 1st deployment restarts
The change in land impact (/ prim allowance) was noted in Mainland Full regions on the SLS channel as they started coming back on-line following the November 1st deployment restarts

The change isn’t a mistake, and there will be an official announcement on Thursday, November 3rd about what is going on. As noted in my preliminary article linked to above, I’ll also have more at that time 🙂 .

Lumiya: Google drive support for chat and IM logs

Posted on by Inara Pey

lumiya-logoLumiya, the go-to Second Life / Open Sim client for Android by Alina Lyvette, updated on Wednesday, October 19th, although it’s taken me a few days to get around to blogging about it.

Version 3.1.2 contains a single up-front change, but it’s one users are liable to appreciate: the ability to save chat and IM logs to their Google drive.

To do so, two things are required:

  • An active Google account with access to Google drive (no surprises there).
  • The Lumiya Cloud Plugin available via Google Play for free.

Setting  things up is a simple set of steps:

  • Download and install the Lumiya Cloud Plugin on the devices(s) you use with Lumiya.
  • Log-in to Lumiya and go to Settings via the menu (top left icon) and select Chat and Messages.
  • Tap Save chat history to Google Drive to enable it.
Setting Lumiya to save chat and IM logs to your Google Drive
Setting Lumiya to save chat and IM logs to your Google Drive
  • A pop-up is displayed for your Google account (not your Second Life account). If you have more than one Google account, you may be asked to enter the details of the account you wish to associate with Lumiya.
Selecting your Google account
Selecting your Google account
  • Providing you have selected the Google account you wish to use, tap Add Account.
  • A further pop-up is displayed asking you to allow the Lumiya Cloud Plugin service to access your Google drive in order to save and retrieve chat and IM log files.
  • Providing you’re happy, tap Allow.
Granting the cloud app permission to save and retrieve your chat and IM logs
Granting the cloud app permission to save and retrieve your chat and IM logs

And that’s it. You only need to do this once per device, you don’t have to do it for each of your SL accounts if you have more than one. When you log in to Second Life, your chat and IM histories will be available, and saved automatically.

If you ever want to revert to saving your histories directly onto your device, simply go to Menu (top left) > Settings > Chat and Messages and uncheck  Save chat history to Google Drive.

Feedback

This is a handy update for Lumiya, offering a single location for chat and IM logs which could be especially useful for those who may use Lumiya on more than one device (e.g. a Tablet and a smartphone), as it removes discontinuities in saving logs locally – although obviously, you’ll have to use the Lumiya Cloud Plugin to associate each device with your Google account / drive.

And if Google Drive isn’t your thing? Then you can continue to save your logs directly to the storage on your device. Simples!

Related Links

2016 viewer release summaries: week 43

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending Sunday, October 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: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – no change
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.1.2.321183 on October 28th – expanded release notes
  • Project viewers:
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.2.320965 released on October 26th – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V4-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.30 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.32, both on October 29th (release notes).

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Littlesight updated to version 2.0.0 on October 29th – New user interface.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links