Category: SL Tech

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” →

SL project updates 16 24/1: server, viewer, weekend issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Khaled; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr Khaled – blog post

Server Deployments

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”
  • It is likely there will be no planned deployment / restart for either the LeTigre or BlueSteel RCs.

There is a deployment listed for the Magnum RC, which quotes the same version number as last week’s deployment. When I asked Simon whether or not this indicated there would be a deployment, he replied:

I believe they won’t actually roll it. The two versions in RC were almost identical, except for one bit of code that executed when entering a region.   We were comparing them for speed and are promoting the less laggy one. The slow code was kinda nice in that it gave us better diagnostics but wasn’t worth it.

Weekend Issues

On Friday, June 10th the main grid experienced a series of issues which appeared to be very similar to those which occurred at the start of May and were related to the central database node failure. I asked Simon if we would be seeing a further write-up from April Linden or another member of the ops team, prompting him to reply:

I’m not sure if April was going to write up another report. Last Friday’s outage was another main database failure.  I know they’re looking to see if there is any noticeable cause we could address.

Should a post appear, it will most likely be via the Tools and Technology blog, and I’ll of course cover it through these pages.

SL Viewer

Friday May 10th saw two viewer updates:

  • The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316312
  • The Bento project viewer updated to version 5.0.0.316366, comprising a small set of bug fixes.

Otherwise, all viewers remain as per my last projects update:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and 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
  • The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th. See my overview of the viewer for further details
  • VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, dated June 3rd. Sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/) Mac viewer currently unaffected.
  • 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 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

 

 

 

2016 viewer release summaries: week 23

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending Sunday, June 12th

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):
    • Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316312 on June 10 – fixes and updates and a much better set of release notes (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Bento viewer updated to version 5.0.0.316366 on June 10th – bug fixes (download and release notes)
    • Project Visual Outfits Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, released on June 6th – a means to visually preview your outfits through the Appearance panel (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V4-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.9 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.11, both on June 11th (release notes).

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

SL project updates 16 23/2: server, viewer, Avatar Complexity

Posted on by Inara Pey
Snuggles Forest
Snuggles Forest – blog post

Server Deployments – Recap

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

  • On Tuesday, June 7th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package, comprising the addition of mnemonic names to be used in LSL scripts when attaching to the new attachment points on the Bento skeleton extensions and minor internal changes
  • On Wednesday, June 8th, all three RCs were updated with a new server maintenance package comprising “minor internal changes”.

SL Viewer

There have been no further changes on the viewer front since part 1 of this update, leaving the official viewer channels as follows:

Remaining Viewers

All other viewers currently remain unchanged from week #22:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
  • RC viewers:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315924, dated June 2nd. Includes fixes for the recent release of the Avatar complexity / Graphics Presets viewer release
    • 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:
    • The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th. See my overview of the viewer for further details
    • VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, dated June 3rd. Sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/) Mac viewer currently unaffected.
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.315657, dated May 26th – includes the “reset Skeleton” option and additional slider updates
    • 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 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Avatar Complexity

There are some issues with Avatar Complexity which have been noted, but have yet to be addressed, One is that a “dirty” install the viewer (i.e. not removing the previous version + its supporting files from a computer will default avatar complexity to No Limit (BUG-18199).

Another (BUG-18195) is that initial default values for Avatar Maximum Avatar Complexity (defined by the graphics benchmarking) are not applying. These should be: Low: 35k; Low-Mid: 100k; Mid: 200k; Mid-High: 250k; High: 300k and High-Ultra / Ultra: 350k. Instead, the bug means that all graphics settings above Low are defaulted to 80k. This also means the Rest button for Avatar Complexity reverts the setting to 80K for all settings, rather than applying the correct default.

SL project updates 16 23/1: Server, viewer, TLS 1.2

Posted on by Inara Pey

Gates of Melancholy; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr Gates of Melancholy – blog post

Server Deployments

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

  • On Tuesday, June 7th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package, comprising the addition of mnemonic names to be used in LSL scripts when attaching to the new attachment points on the Bento skeleton extensions and minor internal changes
  • On Wednesday, June 8th, all three RCs should be updated with a new server maintenance package comprising “minor internal changes”.

SL Viewer

There have been a number of viewer updates and appearances in the various viewer channels.

Maintenance RC Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer was updated to version 4.0.6.315924, on June 2nd. The update includes a series of additional fixes and a more descriptive set of release notes to describe the changes.   In particular, there are a new series of fixes for the recent release of the Avatar complexity / Graphics Presets viewer release, comprising:

  • A fix for some cases of invisible avatars due to JellyDolls feature.
  • A fix for the Appearance update being broken due to COF version getting out of synch. It will now be … *nsync.
  • A change so that Invisiprims are now preloaded and will remain transparent, not grey or black.
  • The Maximum Complexity setting will be set to recommended setting on first run. A Default preset will be added based on recommended settings, but not applied, so your current graphics settings are unaffected.
  • A “Show original” menu item has been added to the Appearance/Wearing tab.
  • A fix for an unhandled error when deleting empty list of graphics presets.

For the full list of updates, please refer to the release notes.

VLC Media Plugin Project Viewer

Released on June 3rd, the VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/).

Note that is change is for Windows only at present, and is due to Apple discontinuing QuickTime for Windows support, leaving vulnerabilities within it.

Currently the Mac version of the viewer is unaffected, as Apple still support QuickTime on that platform. However, it will be updated to use LibVLC in the upcoming 64-bit versions of the official viewer.

Visual Outfits Browser Project Viewer

The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123 appeared on June 6th. Simply put, it allows you to use the Appearance floater to capture / upload / select images of your outfits and save them against the outfits in a new Outfit Gallery tab within the floater. See my overview of the viewer for further details.

Remaining Viewers

All other viewers currently remain unchanged from week #22:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
  • Inventory Message Viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
  • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.315657, dated May 26th – includes the “reset Skeleton” option and additional slider updates
  • 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 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

There is an update in progress for the Oculus Rift viewer, but no time frame on when that might appear. Currently, both it and the Obsolete Platform viewer are TLS 1.2 compliant (see below), so it will be interesting to see what happens with them both over the coming few weeks.

TLS 1.2

Linden Lab has issued a further reminder that as from June 15th, all Second Life users must be using a viewer and / or web browser that supports TLS 1.2 in order to make use of the Second Life WEB cashier services for L$ transactions (e.g. to send, receive, or exchange L$).

Actively maintained web browsers and viewers (official and TPV) should support TLS 1.2. However, older versions of third-party viewers and those viewers which have not been updated in recently, may not support it.  Users are therefore advised to visit https://www.howsmyssl.com/ with their browser and, if they are using an older version of a viewer, the viewer’s internal web browser, to check whether their browser / viewer supports TLS 1.2.

Use How's My SSL? to confirm whether the versions of the web browser and SL viewer you are using are TLS 1.2 compliant.
The Version notification in the top left of the How’s My SSL? web page will indicate whether your web browser and / or viewer (via its built-in web browser) is TLS 1.2 compliant.

As has been previously noted, this isn’t an arbitrary change on the part of the Lab. It is in response to an ongoing  set of regulatory / compliance requirements (as explained by the PCI Security Standards Council) which are global in scope.