Category: SL Tech

SL Project Updates 16 25/2: server, viewer, animation files

Posted on by Inara Pey

Hell's Crossing; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr Hell’s Crossing – blog post

Server Deployments – Recap

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

  • There was not deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 21st.
  • On Wednesday, June 20th, the three RC channels were updated with the same new server maintenance package, comprising  minor internal changes and Tool Tip/Constant text fixes.

The RC update includes a fix for BUG-18251, and a further fix for the Bento attachment issue documented in BUG-10979, which doesn’t change Bento models or how avatars are rendered by the viewer.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated on Friday, June 24th to version 4.0.6.316883.

The remaining official viewers were not updated during the week, leaving them as follows:

    • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
    • Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
    • Project viewers:
      • Project VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316258, dated June 15th – replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows viewer with one based on LibVLC
      • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
      • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th – bug fixes
    • 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.

Larger Animation File Sizes

There has been a long-standing request to increase the file size for animations, a request which has been enhanced by the development within Bento, where there is now a far larger number of bones to be pushed around (see BUG-11836).

While the Lab had been open to this idea, it looked as if any change would be deferred until after the back-end services had been updated to deliver animation assets via the Content Delivery Network (CDN), which at the time of writing is used to deliver meshes and textures to the viewer.

However, the Lab has now decided to bring this change forward, rather than wait for the move to the CDN. As this is a server-side update, it is currently due to be in the Release Candidate channel updates for Wednesday, June 29th (from Caleb Linden, talking at the Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, June 23rd). This will see the animation file size limit raised from 120Kb to 250Kb.

One thing to bear in mind however, is that until animations are moved to CDN delivery (where they should enjoy somewhat faster delivery to your viewer on a first-time load), they will be delivered to your viewer via UDP, and the larger file size, as it comes into use, will probably mean a slightly longer delay before animations kick-in while they are being downloaded. Obviously, once caches locally, this should be an issue (unless you clear cache).

Vir Linden discussed this change at the Bento Project meeting, and I’m including the audio extract from that meeting below.

SL Project Updates 16 25/1: server, viewer, utility servers

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Looking Glass; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr The Looking Glass – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

  • There was not deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 21st.
  • On Wednesday, June 20th, the three RC channels should be updated with the same new server maintenance package, comprising  minor internal changes and Tool Tip/Constant text fixes.

The RC update includes a fix for BUG-18251, and a further fix for the Bento attachment issue documented in BUG-10979, which doesn’t change Bento models or how avatars are rendered by the viewer.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the Lab’s viewers so far this week, leaving the list currently as:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, 4.0.6.316614 dated June 16th
    • Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
  • Project viewers:
    • Project VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316258, dated June 15th – replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows viewer with one based on LibVLC
    • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th – bug fixes
    • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated on October 13, 2014 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
  • 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.

In terms of the Oculus Rift viewer, speaking at the SL13B Meet the Lindens event on Tuesday, June 21st, Ebbe Altberg indicated that he’s been invited to a demonstration of the updated viewer. This doesn’t necessarily mean the viewer will be  updated in the Oculus project channel immediately, but it might be taken as a sign of the continuing progress with the viewer.

Other Items

Utility Server Maintenance

There will be further maintenance on a cluster of the Lab’s utility servers on Wednesday June 22nd, at 01:00 SLT. During this time:

  • Residents served by the cluster may be logged off of Second Life, and unable to relog until the maintenance is complete
  • Resident groups served by the cluster may be unable to send messages or initiate group chats during the maintenance.

Users are advised to monitor the Lab’s Grid Status Twitter feed at @SLGridStatus. This is reportedly the last phase of current Utility Server Maintenance work, with previous phases occurring on June 17th and June 21st. While it is only speculation on my part, I suspect this work might be in connection with the core database cluster issues experienced on Friday, June 10th.

CTRLALTStudio Withdraws from Third Party Viewer Directory

The Oculus Rift supporting CtrlAltStudio viewer has withdrawn from the Second Life Third-Party Viewer Directory following an announcement by its developer, Strachan OFarrel (aka David Rowe), in which he states that while the viewer remains available for download, it is no longer being maintained.

Many thanks to Dave for his work in developing CtrlAltStudio and for his ongoing work with High Fidelity.

2016 viewer release summaries: week 24

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending Sunday, June 19th

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: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18th – no change: formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer download page, release notes
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
  • Project viewers:
    • Project VLC Media Plugin Viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316258, on June 15th – replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows version of the viewer with one based on LibVLC (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V4-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.10 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.12, both on June 18th (release notes)
  • Singularity Windows (32/64-bit) and Linux 64-bit updated to version 1.8.7.6861 on Thursday, June 16 (release notes)

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Singularity 1.8.7

Posted on by Inara Pey

singularityThursday, June 16th saw the first full release of Singularity in almost two years, with version 1.8.7.6861being offered for download.

As the release notes explain, the delay in updates for the viewer have been due to a number of reasons – not the least of which was the sad passing of Latif Khalifa (to whom this release is dedicated), and also the departure of one of the viewers core developers for pastures new. There have also be various infrastructure and hardware issues which have frustrated attempts at update.

The new release is currently for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, and Linux 64-bit only, The team hopes to get the Mac version back on track as well, and are currently seeking a Mac developer to help with this.

Given the length of time since the last full release, there have obviously been a lot of changes, including getting back towards parity with many of the Lab’s own updates, as well as singularity’s own bug fixes and the adoption of elements from Alchemy.

As usual, I don’t propose giving an in-depth review of all the changes to the viewer here, but will attempt to highlight some of the more significant.

Lab-derived Changes

Tool Chain Update

Perhaps the most significant change with this release is under-the-hood. Singularity is now built using the latest tools and libraries recommended by Linden Lab. For Windows, this means that with the 1.8.7 release, the viewer no longer supports Windows XP. It also means that when the Mac version of the viewer is updated, Singularity will no longer support anything earlier than OSX 10.7 going forward.

TLS 1.2 Support

Singularity 1.8.7 is TLS 1.2 complaint, meaning you can use the built-in web browser to make LindeX transactions or SL marketplace purchases if you so wish.

Hover Height

The Hover height slider is available via the Quick Prefs panel
The Hover height slider is available via the Quick Prefs panel

The Lab’s Hover Height functionality has been added to the Singularity Quick Pref panel (click the UP arrow button, lower right-hand corner of the viewer window). As per the official Hover Height it works to a range of +/- 2 metres.

Independent of Hover Height, but a little similar in nature and so worth mentioning here is a new /hover command, which is described as “supporting values of -50 through 50”, however, during testing on Aditi, I found that the maximum height by which I was moved was around 5 metres, regardless of anything set above that. I therefore assume the release notes should read “supporting values of -5.0 through 5.0” – although admittedly I’ve not referred this back to the Singularity developers for confirmation.

Other Lab-Driven Updates

  • Latest inventory protocol (AISv3) support has been merged in to maintain future SL inventory handling compatibility
  • QtWebkit browser has been replaced with a Chromium variant
  • The SLVoice plug-in (Vivox) has been updated to parity with the SL viewer
  • Server-Side Baking (avatar appearance has been updated
  • Avatar rendering information is now reported to the simulator (although the local complexity limit slider has not been implemented in Preferences > Graphics) so this is not a full Avatar Complexity implementation).

Preferences Updates

Input and Camera

For combat enthusiasts, Preferences > Input and Camera includes two new options:

  • Display targeted avatar’s name under the crosshair
  • Display position and avatar health (your own avatar, in damage-enabled regions)
The new Mouselook options in Preferences > Input & Camera
The new Mouselook options in Preferences > Input & Camera

Communication Chat Preferences Updates

  • Preferences > Communications: you can now select which conference calls to accept / block (Accept all, accept Friends Only, Block all)
  • Preferences > Adv. Chat > Chat UI allows you to select displaying user names, display name, display name with user names or user names with display names from a drop-down list
  • Preferences > Adv. Chat > Autoresponse now splits auto response options into separate sub-tabs. Also, autoresponse options can now be selected via the World menu > Status sub-menu
Revised auto response options layout
Revised auto response options layout
  • Adv Chat > Spam includes a new option to block LM offers.

Continue reading “Singularity 1.8.7” →

SL project updates 16 24/2: server, viewer, group ban / chat

Posted on by Inara Pey

La Vie; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr La Vie – blog post

Server Deployments – Recap

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

  • On Tuesday, June 14th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance project, as previously deployed to all three RC channels, comprising “minor internal changes”
  • There was no deployment to either the LeTigre or BlueSteel Release Candidate channels
  • After being in doubt (see part 1 of this report), the Magnum RC deployment did take place. This contained the same code as is currently on the RCs, other than some additional diagnostic code executed when some enters a region.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated on Thursday, June 16th to version 4.0.6.316614, which includes two additional fixes:

  • MAINT-6446 Correct password length handling to match web sites
  • MAINT-6486 Recompile Scripts does not process beyond first object/prim.

The VLC Media plug-in project viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316258 on June 15th, which includes on additional fix:

  • MAINT-6488 [Win LibVLC] After using a drop down list on a web page, it remains stuck on-screen even when URL is changed.

All other viewers remain unchanged:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
  • Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th
    • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
    • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
  • 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.

Group Ban / Chat

A major annoyance among many groups is that when an irritant is banned / ejected from a group whilst already engaged in group chat, they can continue to engage in the chat session until they close the group chat session window / tab – see SVC-32. However, an upcoming change to the group chat services, currently undergoing testing on Aditi, will change this.

While subject to change prior to going live, the updates on Aditi worked so that:

If a person banned or ejected is in the same region as the person banning them, the banned individual sees a dialogue box displayed over their group chat:

Group chat warning following a ban
Group chat warning following a group ban / ejection when in the same region as the person carrying out the banning / ejection

When they click on OK, the dialogue clears and the group chat closes. The group should also be removed from their group list, preventing them from re-joining the chat.

If the person being banned / ejected is in a different region to the person banning / ejecting them, there is no dialogue box displayed over their group chat. Instead, the chat window remains open, but any attempts to post chat messages result in the system message:

group chat-3
Message displayed when attempting to continue to use and open group chat after being banned / ejected from a group, when in a region different to that of the person banning you

The group will also remain in their group list until such time as they re-log. However, if they close the chat window and attempt to re-join it, they will receive the following message:

group chat-2
Message displayed on attempting to close / reopen the group chat after having been banned / ejected from a group

Currently, it appears as if this update will be included in a main grid Release Candidate update for week #25 (commencing Monday, June 20th).

Bento Fix

A fix for BUG10979 – “Scripted attachments attached to the new enhanced skeleton attachment points show as worn on ‘Invalid Attachment Point’ in the script limits floater” is available for  testing on Aditi on the Fire Ant 1 region, if anyone wishes to try the fix. If all goes according to plan, it should also be on the main grid in a Release Candidate server maintenance package in week #25.

With thanks to Rex Cronon for the SBUG meeting chat tanscript.

Project Bento User Group update 15 with audio

Posted on by Inara Pey
Project Bento – extending the SL avatar skeleton
Project Bento – extending the SL avatar skeleton

The following notes and audio were taken from the weekly Bento User Group meeting, held on Thursday, June 16th at 13:00 SLT at the the Hippotropolis Campfire Circle . For details on the meeting agenda, please refer to the Bento User Group wiki page.

Note that this update is not intended to offer a full transcript of the meeting, nor does it present the discussion points in chronological order. Rather, it represents the core points of discussion, grouped together by subject matter were relevant / possible, whilst maintaining the overall context of the meeting.

Simon Linden and Whirly Fizzle wear horse avatars by Teager. Whirly has clearly been Torleyfied!
Simon Linden and Whirly Fizzle wear horse avatars by Teager. Whirly has clearly been Torleyfied!

Viewer Status

As noted in my current viewer releases page and this week’s SL project update, the Bento project viewer updated to version 5.0.0.316366 on June 10th. This release primarily contained bug fixes.

In addition, the pre-jump / jump / landing issue reported in my Bento update #14 (and see BUG-18239) This issue appears to have been related to issues of animations repositioning the avatar pelvis (also the avatar centre) causing conflicts as Vir explained in the meeting.

Eye Bug

Coyot Linden demonstrates the eye bug
Coyot Linden demonstrates the eye bug

Unfortunately, the new project viewer has introduced a fair number of new issues, which the Lab is now looking into, However, one which (as at the time of writing) was awaiting a JIRA, was raised for discussion at the meeting by Medhue Simoni.

In short, the problem is that models uploaded using the latest version of the viewer which do not have eye positions / animation set for poses such as a default stand pose (so they use the default eye positions and will move naturally), have the eyes incorrectly positioned as soon as the avatar is worn.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that even avatars uploaded using the latest version of the viewer (5.0.0.316366) which do display their eyes correctly can have the eyes reset incorrectly in a person’s view in the Reset Skeleton button is used. however, the eyes will also resume their expected position once any animation affecting them is played.

One possible culprit of the issue might be a new head slider, as discussed towards the end of the meeting.

Relative Bone Translations

A recent addition to the Bento project viewer is the ability to reset all bones in the skeleton. The idea is to correctly reset all bone positions in your view should an avatar deform when changing shapes. However, Gael Streeter has come upon situations where partial bone resets might be required, which prompted a discussion on the forum thread (see follow-ups here, here and here) and led to Tapple Gao offering a proposal (which also sparked further discussion in the thread) to address the issue via relative bones translations, which is also now a feature request.

While Vir Linden see the idea as a “nice to do”, it could entail some deep changes to the avatar system as well as having to extend the animation format; as such, it’s more likely to be something the Lab would consider for a “Bento follow-on” project rather than something they’d might try to implement at this point in time.

Leviathan Flux raises the matter of relative bone translations

Aki Shichiroji, wearing her Bento centaur settles down for the meeting
Aki Shichiroji, wearing her Bento centaur settles down for the meeting

However, there is a significant set of issues facing makers of mesh heads / faces, while could be resolved through relative bone translations which avoid making the shape sliders unusable (which would be the case if they relied on repositioning the facial bones).

A concern was raised that any changes made at this point in time risked the breakage of Bento content which is currently a work-in-progress for creators; however, most of those present at the meeting took the attitude better a breakage now if it yields an improvement,  than down the road, when breakage would be a much greater risk.

Continue reading “Project Bento User Group update 15 with audio” →