On Tuesday, September 29th, Nicky Perian announced the release of Kokua 3.8.4.37073, which brings the popular SL and OpenSim viewer to parity with both recent Linden Lab code releases and with Marine Kelley’s RLV, and includes additional tweaks and fixes from the Kokua team.
This release comprises a considerable amount of work by the Kokua team, although the visible functional changes may not seem that great to some users. In particular, RLV has undergone extensive updates and testing over the last few months, as the team have worked to bring Kokua up to parity with the most recent RLV releases and ensure there are no issues or breakages elsewhere in the process.
The Maintenance release comprises over 50 fixes and updates covering a range of topics and issues, including: crashes, snapshot bugs and issues, group ban bugs, avatar mute & block bugs, texture editing issues, rendering issues, UI bugs and simplification, performance improvements and localisation updates.
The mesh uploader updates, which became the de facto SL viewer release also on Tuesday, September 28th, comprise a modified mesh uploader to (optionally) improve debug output, perform name-based LOD association, and handle models with many materials. It allows models with more than 8 unique faces to be uploaded. At import, these models are automatically split into pieces so that each satisfy the current face limits for a volume.
Please refer to the Lab’s release notes for both of these releases (provided via the links above) for full details on the updates they contain.
The RLV updates bring Kokua fully up to par with RLV 2.9.14, released on September 17th, and includes merges with RLV releases 2.9.7 through 2.9.13.
The Kokua team updates comprise:
A fix for inability to disable HUDs in snapshots Ticket #345
A fix for custom snapshot sizes not working when saving to inventory Ticket #350
Inclusion of hover height adjustment for OpenSim use Ticket #352 – note this is currently inactive, as it is pending server-side support in OpenSim.
A fix for high memory usage and crashes when connected to Avination Ticket #349.
I confess to not having have that much time to drive this release due to my schedule being a mess. My apologies to Nicky on this, who provided me with advance notice on the release at the weekend, but I was unable to act on it.
Updates for the week ending: Sunday, September 27th
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.
The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, September 25th, 2015. A video of the meeting is included at the end of this report, with any time stamps in the following text referring to it. My thanks as always to North for the recording and providing it for embedding.
On Wednesday, September 23rd, the three RC channels were all updated with the server maintenance package initially deployed to BlueSteel in week #37, comprising internal fixes to improve inventory performance.
Following the RC deployment, there were some reports of issues which seemed to be related to capabilities failures with the simulators concerned, although (at least in one case) no sign of actual caps failures could be seen. It’s not clear how widespread this issue may have been, and those regions that were affected appeared to have the issue resolved with one (or more) restarts.
Server Maintenance in Week #38
The end of week #38 saw several periods of unscheduled simulator maintenance (see here for example), leading to rumours that the deployments for that week were being rolled back. In fact, as reported by Oz at the Simulator UG meeting on Tuesday, September 22nd, the issue was related to the accidental use expired server certificates coupled with some asset server issues, but no actual roll-back of simulator version took place.
SL Viewer
[0:28] There have been no updates to the current RC and project viewers during week #39. There has been a cautious optimism in the Lab that the Mesh Importer RC viewer, version 3.8.4.305119 might be promoted to the de facto release viewer in week #40 (commencing Monday, September 28th), although this may be subject to further possible delay as a result of BUG-10326.
[01:10] The project viewers currently available – Project Azumarill (HTTP updates), the Quick Graphics (Avatar Complexity / graphics presets) and Notifications viewer – are all currently with the Lab’s QA team and competing for RC releases. It is hoped that some or all should move to RC status in the next week or two. However, there is currently some doubt as to whether the issues reported in BUG-10330 affecting the Quick Graphics viewer have actually been fully fixed. A maintenance viewer is also likely to be appearing shortly, either as a project viewer or RC.
[02:35] It is anticipated that the HTTP and Quick Graphics viewers will initially have small RC test cohorts, and their deployment will be “cautious”.
[07:25] The HTTP code changes are liable to be a non-trivial merge for TPVs, particularly those which might be using code paths differently to how that official viewer uses them. As such, the Lab has produced a video explaining the HTTP changes, and the recommendation is for TPVs to watch the video and get a feel for both the changes and their context, prior to attempting any merges.
[03:05] There may be an update to the Oculus Rift project viewer (currently version 3.7.18.295296, dating back to October 2014) coming soon.
CEF Viewer
[03:18] The anticipated Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) project viewer, featuring updates for media purposes, should also be appearing shortly. This had initially been tipped for a week #38 release, but is currently still awaiting QA clearance. Once available, it is liable to remain as a project viewer for an extended period to allow those with media products, etc., to both test it and update their items with HTML 5 support, as the viewer will not provide QuickTime support and will have Flash support disabled by default.
Inventory Updates
[10;00] and As I recently reported, the Lab will soon be issuing viewer-side updates to improve inventory handling. This work involves two lots of updates that will be made to the viewer. The first will remove all of the old UDP inventory messaging paths which have already been replaced by more robust mechanisms, which will then be followed by simulator-side removal of all support for these messaging paths. this work will then be followed by a two-part operation to refactor much of the inventory handling code in the viewer.
This work shares a lot of common ground with the HTTP project, as such, the first set of viewer changes are unlikely to appear until the HTTP updates within Project Azumarill have reached a viewer release candidate status. However, as this work progresses, it is liable to also require considerable care with code merges within TPVs.
Older Viewers and Code Changes
[11:10] The upcoming viewer-side HTTP changes are unlikely to have an impact on older versions of viewers currently in use. However, the inventory changes will, and are liable to “break” inventory operations on those versions of viewers that do not have the updated code. This will be particularly true with the removal of all UDP support for inventory in both the viewer and on the simulator side (which is liable to occur in early 2016).
[14:07] While there may be concern at the idea of older viewers being “broken” by the inventory changes, the Lab is keen to emphasise the work is being undertaken with the aim to improve the Second life experience, and make inventory operations more reliable than they perhaps have been.
After experiencing a stormy official launch period at the end of August 2015, which resulted in the service having to be suspended, Bright Canopy have indicated that their streaming service for Second Life and OpenSim users will be re-opening to users on Wednesday, September 23rd.
The official announcement is due to be made at 23:59 GMT (15:59 SLT) on Tuesday, September 22nd via the Bright Canopy website. However, the text of the announcement has been released ahead of this to a number of bloggers including myself, with permission for us to help circulate the news in advance.
The announcement reads in full:
Launch Reboot
Bright Canopy is back!
Bright Canopy has been down now for almost one month. We have done our best to be transparent and communicative during the downtime. Please be sure to read the community meeting transcript for all of the details.
We have been working with Frame on a new pricing plan that will allow us to offer the service immediately. We will continue working on options that will improve our costs on the back-end and allow more flexibility in the future.
For now, this is what we have:
$17 per month includes 20 hours of service.
Additional time $0.02 per minute
30 minute minimum for sessions
If you use 10 hours or more of additional minutes, that will be charged immediately, otherwise additional minutes are charged at the beginning of the next month.
So if you sign up for Bright Canopy, you will be charged $17. You will receive 20 hours of server time. Once you have used that time, if you continue to use the service, you will build-up overage time at $0.02 per minute with a minimum purchase of 30 minutes ($0.60). If you use less than 10 more hours, your card will be charged for those additional minutes (plus the $17 for the new month’s subscription) at the beginning of the next month. If you use 10 or more hours of additional minutes before the end of the month, those minutes will be charged immediately.
So if you use 5 additional hours during the month, you would spend $6 more . This would mean your credit card would be charged $21 at the beginning of the next month.
If you use 10 additional hours, you would be charged $12 now and $17 for your monthly subscription at the beginning of the next month.
It is our sincere hope that our community will find value in what we offer and are able to use the service to enhance their time in their virtual worlds. We look forward to being of service to you.
It is important to note that this is an entirely new payment model which supersedes all previous models, and requires users to sign-up to it anew in order to be able to use the service.
The Bright Canopy service allows the viewer and all Second Life content to be streamed directly to a user’s browser. In order to do this, the service relies on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud for the actual service hosting and delivery, and Frame, a company with considerable experience in provisioning optimised Windows applications to users via the cloud, to facilitate that delivery.
As I explained in a recent blog post, unexpected and sustained fluctuations in the Amazon Spot Instance pricing mechanism during August adversely affected Bright Canopy’s ability to offer the service in a financially sustainable manner, forcing the company to suspend the service.
The hope is that will this new pricing plan, the company will be able to re-launch the service in a way that will meet the immediate needs of users whilst also, as the official announcement notes, allowing the company to work with Frame to possibly improve pricing for users in the future.
Updates for the week ending: Sunday, September 20th
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.
Notifications project viewer updated to version 3.8.4.305083 on September 18 – new Notifications floater separates incoming notifications into System, Transactions, Invitations, and Group. It provides a better way to view, interact with, prioritize and manage incoming notices for busy residents (download and release notes)
Importer RC viewer updated to version 3.8.4.305119 on September 17 – provides a modified mesh uploader & optional debug information (download and release notes).
Project viewers:
Quick Graphics project viewer updated to version 3.8.4.305063, on September 16 – provides the new Avatar Complexity options and the new graphics preset capabilities (download and release notes)
On Tuesday, September 15th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed to the three RC channels, comprising internal simulator fixes and a fix for BUG-9504 “Clicking on any object that affects the navmesh while in Mouselook dirties the navmesh”.
On Wednesday, September 16th, the RC channels were updated as follows as noted below.
Magnum and LeTigre
Magnum and LeTigre received a server maintenance package providing llGetAttachedList(), which returns a list of all visible attachments worn by an avatar in the same region (i.e. it does not currently include details of any HUDs) as per feature requests BUG-9683. The wiki page for the function is still appears to be in preparation. Also completes feature request and BUG-9891.
Commenting on data relating to HUDs during the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, September 15th, Simon Linden said, “I’m likely to change that a bit in the future to maybe allow some restricted access to HUD info, so you can get info on those too, but I need to figure out the right restrictions so it doesn’t become a privacy issue … I’m concerned about it as a privacy thing, like I give you something, you rez it, and it sends me an IM listing all your HUDs.”
BlueSteel
The BlueSteel RC received a further roll of the server maintenance package containing internal simulator fixes to improve inventory performance. These updates had previously been deployed in weeks #36 and #37, only to be rolled back due to various issues (e.g. the “zombie eyes” situation and problems with note cards and scripts as reported in BUG-10183).
SL Viewer
On Wednesday, September 16th, the Quick Graphics project viewer updated to version 3.8.4.305063, with further tweaks to the Avatar Complexity elements. On Thursday, September 17th, the mesh importer viewer RC updated to version 3.8.4.305119.
It appears that the obsolete viewer supplied for users on XP and OS X 10.6 or earlier (version 3.7.28.300847) , may cease working with anything involving monetary transactions (e.g. the Marketplace, buying L$ through the viewer, etc.), possibly by the end of the year. This appears to be the result of compliance reasons preventing the Lab from continuing to provide that backward compatibility.
llGetEnv
During the Simulator User Group meeting, Simon threw out a question and comment relating to llGetEnv:
How useful would some new items for llGetEnv() be about simulator health? … I can imagine wanting to know both temp and normal rez counts, maybe for a specific item too – like if there are 10 projectiles already waiting.
He requested a feature request be filed on the matter, which was duly filed by Lucia Nightfire – see BUG-10263, and simon requested the people add their thoughts / ideas, noting that, “simplest ones are most likely to get attention and stand a chance of getting done.” If adding to the feature request, remember to specify how any additional data requested will help improve the SL experience for those using the function.
On Tuesday, September 29th, Nicky Perian announced the release of Kokua 3.8.4.37073, which brings the popular SL and OpenSim viewer to parity with both recent Linden Lab code releases and with Marine Kelley’s RLV, and includes additional tweaks and fixes from the Kokua team.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 