Updates for the week ending: Sunday December 7th, 2014
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 updated to version 3.7.22.297128 December 5th (formerly the Benchmark RC update.) – release notes
Maintenance viewer RC updated to version 3.7.22.297131 on December 3rd – includes a broad ranges of fixes, including merges from the Attachments RC (3.7.21.296904) (download and release notes)
Attachments viewer RC version 3.7.21.296904 withdrawn December 3rd – merged with the Maintenance RC, above
Black Dragon updated to version 2.4.1.3 on Tuesday, December 2nd and then to version 2.4.1.4 on Wednesday, December 3rd – core updates: bug fixes (change log).
Kokua updated to version 3.7.22.35091 on Friday, December 5th – core updates: bug fixes (release notes).
The following notes are drawn from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, December 5th, as shown in the video below. Where relevant, timestamps are included in the article to allow for referencing to the video. My thanks as always to North for the recording.
SL Viewer
[00:30] The Benchmark viewer RC, containing the fix for the crash-on-start-up issue (see BUG-7776, BUG-7783), version 3.7.22.297128, was promoted to the de factorelease viewer on Friday, December 5th – release notes.
[21:15] One change that has come from the move away from the GPU table to benchmarking is that GPUs that may have been previously blocked (e.g. because they simply aren’t supported) are no longer blocked. This is because the Lab is no longer attempting to spend time on identifying GPUs that don’t work with SL. Instead, best efforts are made on the basis of the data obtained from testing a system’s GPU and applying the Lab’s own heuristics, but if a card doesn’t work with SL, the view being taken is that – it doesn’t work. A suggestion has been made where this is the case to provide some kind of feedback to the user informing them that their GPU cannot support SL.
[01:10] Data from the HTTP Pipelining RC, version 3.7.21.296736, is still being being studied; however, it may not progress to release status. Whether this means further updates may be made or not prior to the viewer progressing further, isn’t clear.
[01:30] The Attachments RC, version 3.7.21.296904, was withdrawn from the release channel on Wednesday, December 3rd, after being merged with the Maintenance release RC, 3.7.22.297131. However, the repository for the viewer which contains just the attachment fixes is being kept open for the time being to allow those TPVDs who wish to cherry-pick the fixes and incorporate them into their viewers.
[02:15] It is anticipated the the Experience Tools project viewer (currently version 3.7.16.293901) and the Viewer-managed Marketplace viewer (currently version 3.7.21.296858) will both be moving to release candidate status “soon”.
Tool Chain Update
[13:24] The Lab is now “very close” to being able to build on both Mac (e.g. Xcode 6.1. with clang on Yosemite) and Windows (e.g. Visual Studio 2103) with the new Autobuild process “cleanly and with all the right stuff”.
[16:26] Linux is lagging well behind Windows and Mac in terms of the new tool chain, and the Lab welcomes any help TPV developers are willing to provide to help get it updated. In the meantime, it looks likely that the Windows and Mac versions of the viewer built using the new tools and process will start to be deployed once everything is ready, rather than being held-up while the Linux version of the viewer is brought up to speed.
CDN Update
[02:45] The Lab is continuing to “play with” how the CDN is working, making tweaks and changes, some of which have helped Highwinds make improvements to the service, and monitoring of the service is continuing. Thanks is again expressed to all those users who have helped the Lab pin-down issues.
Viewer-managed Marketplace
If you’re a merchant or creator using the SL Marketplace, and haven’t already done so, you might want to check-out the Viewer-managed Marketplace beta
[03:20] Testing of the new Viewer-managed Marketplace (VMM) functionality is continuing on Aditi.
Various issues have been logged against the project, and the Lab has been addressing them. The testing facilities on Aditi will remain available through the holiday season to January – although, as noted above, the viewer may move from project to RC status in that time.
Beta testing is still very open to anyone with an interest in trying VMM out for themselves – particularly content creators and merchants who use the SL Marketplace, obviously. If you haven’t already availed yourself of the opportunity, the Lab encourages you to do so over the holiday period. Note that you must have the VMM project viewer and be on the VMM regions on Aditi in order to do so – see my VMM beta test and viewer overview.
In-world Meeting
Also, merchants and content creators should note that the Commerce Team is liable to hold a meeting to discuss VMM in the near future. This will mostly likely be held on Aditi, and Brooke Linden is organising it. So please watch for notice of the meeting via the forums, blogs, etc.
Avatar Z-offset Height Adjustment
[11:11] No major news here, other than “work is continuing”.
Other Items
Wiki Editing
[14:27] In October, the SL Wiki was made read-only (editable by LL staff only) while it underwent maintenance, and has remained that way since. However, updates are now being tested, and it is hoped that the wiki will be unlocked to allow users to edit (where applicable) soon.
Viewer Stats and GPU Frame Rates
[17:24] Some stats on viewers are being to be produced for TPVs once more, related to operating systems, and some have been produced (for the SL viewer) by GPU. This led to a request for the Lab to update an old Frame Rates by GPU table (bear in mind the table shown is very old, and doesn’t take into consideration a lot of more recent updates to SL which affect frame rates). This also came up at a recent Open-source development meeting, and Oz has passed a request onwards within the Lab to see if an updated for of the table could be produced.
Firestorm Release
The next Firestorm release is scheduled for 18:00 SLT on Wednesday, December 10th, 2014. This release will, among other things, include the group ban capability. I’ll have my usual review available when the viewer is issued.
Note: most of the following notes are taken from the Server Beta User Group meeting held on Thursday, December 4th, 2014.
Server Deploys for Week 49 – Recap
There was no deployment to the Main channel, following-on from the lack of any deployments to the RCs in week #48.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, all three RC channels received the same server maintenance package, comprising the following updates:
A fix for BUG-7515 “Restarting region turns off ‘block parcel fly over’”
A fix for BUG-4949 (non-public) “Cannot manage block list with certain object names”
A fix for BUG-7850 “Experience tools: ‘Script trying to teleport other avatars!’ script error” appears incorrectly
A fix for BUG-6789 “Spelling mistake in llGodLikeRezObject”
Minor server change to help configure the texture and mesh CDN.
SL Viewer
On Tuesday, December 2nd, the Lab released a new Benchmark release candidate viewer, version 3.7.22.297128, which should address the VFS crash-on-start-up issue some users were experiencing following the promotion of the original Benchmark viewer as the de facto release viewer on November 10th (see BUG-7776, BUG-7783). If you are still experiencing issues with the SL viewer on start-up, please give this RC viewer a try, and report your experiences via BUG-7783.
The Maintenance RC viewer was updated on Wednesday, December 3rd to version 3.7.22.297131. This viewer includes a range of updates and fixes for voice, privacy, rendering, texture animation, avatar distortion, inventory management, sounds, mouselook in Mac, multiple UI fixes in script editor, pay flow, chat, stats floater, edit menu, etc.
The attachment fix RC viewer (version 3.7.21.296904) has been withdrawn from the release channel, possibly pending further fixes to be incorporated into it.
Group Chat
Simon Linden has carried out further work on group chat, so that if a server ever gets to the point where there is a bad message backup, instead of sending potentially “sale” messages, the server will drop those messages that are 5 minutes or more old which are sitting in the queue.
The focus on this change is to eliminate issues where – as recently has been the case – back-end issues (rather than simply the weight of messages being handled by the chat servers), mean that messages stop getting sent out and start building up in a held queue; then when the back-end issue is fixed, users suddenly receive a flood of old and outdated messages that they likely have no interest in, due to the length of time that has passed while the chant server is “down”.
Simon has also been working on the logic the chat server use to send messages to people, which should mean that as long as the chat service knows where you are, messages should now reach you somewhat faster.
However, the logic behind what happens should you move between regions while engaged in a group chat still means that the group chat server to which you are connected will send message to the last region it knew you to be on; if you’ve moved on, then the simulator will inform the chat server of this, and the chat server will then perform a look-up to find out where you are. Even so, and while it may have been placebo, during a test at the end of the Server Meeting, it did seem there was less delay in receiving messages when moving between multiple regions & closing and re-opening group chat windows.
Experience Keys / Tools
Server-side updates are anticipated as being in the RC channel deployment for week 50 (week commencing Monday, December 8th). As noted in part 1 of this week’s report, there is a hope the the project may be released by the end of the year – although the project viewer is still awaiting update to RC status (and parity with more recent viewer updates), and there apparently is further QA work to be completed. Speaking about the project during the Server Beta meeting, simon again re-stated the overall intent with the initial release, when it does occur:
We know this first release isn’t perfect and doesn’t have the full feature set we’d love to build, but it’s a start. Hopefully we’ll see some usages and those will show it’s promising for more attention and features.
Update, Thursday, December 4th: Black Dragon 2.4.1.4 bug fix update released on Wednesday, December 3rd.
It’s been a busy week for Niran V Dean and his Black Dragon viewer, with no fewer than four updates between Thursday, November 27th and Tuesday, December 2nd.
The first of these updates – which lifted the viewer from version 2.4.0.4 to 2.4.1 came on Thursday, November 27th, and was quickly followed by two bug fix updates, 2.4.1.1 on the 27th and 2.4.1.2 on Friday November 28th. Then version 2.4.1.3, also a bug fix update, appeared on Tuesday, December 2nd.
The major part of these updates, appearing in version 2.4.1, is a complete overhaul of the UI. Gone is the ability to place toolbar button up in the top left of the menu bar area, the ink blots surrounding floaters and panels, etc. Instead, the UI presents a look heavily influenced by Valve’s Steam client. The result is a striking, charcoal grey finish to floater and panels, on which the white text shows up somewhat better than it did with the previous UI, together with bold white lines denoting fields, input boxes, etc., and individual headings to sections within a floater or tab highlighted in blue, all in a manner that works quite well.
Black dragon’s 2.4.1 UI design
There are a few immediately noticeable “Niran-isms” on display: the Favourites bar, for example, is now above the Navigation bar, rather than under it, as with most viewers. There’s also a nice incorporation of the notifications icon into the navigation bar area as well, over to the right of the screen. And, of course, the Dragon menu single point-of-access to the viewer’s menu tree is retained.
Given this release was an extensive overhaul of the UI, 2.4.1 and its subsequent releases didn’t bring too much in the way of new features to viewer, which is unsurprising – there’s work enough involved in getting the UI sorted for a release. There were a few issues following the initial 2.4.1 update – hence the release of 2.4.1.1 through 2.4.1.3, but looking at the release notes, most of these seem to have been nips and tucks rather than major “oopsie” fixes.
The updated preferences panel showing the crisper layout of the new UI
In terms of LL code updates, Black Dragon 2.4.1 through 2.4.1.3 see the viewer again reach parity with the Lab’s viewer, including implementing the benchmark viewer code and HTTP pipelining (I believe).
As always, for a full breakdown of updates, please refer to the Black Dragon change log, which lists changes from the most release release (in this case, 2.4.1.1) on down.
I did encounter a couple of minor problems with the viewer – although these may well be operator induced. Setting neither the “Show Network Stats” and “Show L$ Balance in Statusbar” options in Preferences > Interface seemed to do anything for me. I was particularly keen to try the latter, as I personally find having my account balance displayed in the Inventory floater nothing short of the PITA. But, other than these, the – admittedly brief – drive I did take with the viewer revealed nothing exasperatingly unpleasant or unexpected.
Overall, and interesting and clean UI update; one which I personally prefer to the last outing.
There has been no deployment to the Main channel, following-on from the lack of any deployments to the RCs in week #48.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, all three RC channels should receive the same server maintenance package, comprising the following updates:
A fix for BUG-7515 “Restarting region turns off ‘block parcel fly over’”
A fix for BUG-4949 (non-public) “Cannot manage block list with certain object names”
A fix for BUG-7850 “Experience tools: ‘Script trying to teleport other avatars!’ script error” appears incorrectly
A fix for BUG-6789 “Spelling mistake in llGodLikeRezObject”
Minor server change to help configure the texture and mesh CDN.
A question was asked at the simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday December 2nd, whether the fix for BUG-4949 would also address SVC-7550, relating to previously blocked avatars reverting to being blocked after someone has cleared them from their block list. Simon indicated that while BUG-4949 would not fix this issue, it is being addressed, but requires further back-end work.
SL Viewer
On Monday, December 1st, the de facto release viewer was updated to version 3.7.20.296724, formerly the Snowstorm RC viewer, which includes update for Japanese input; improved rendering of projectors; fixes for object editing bug when rotating and for crash on exit on OS X Yosemite in full screen mode, and more – release notes.
This viewer edged-out the current Maintenance RC viewer (version 3.7.21.296734) in terms of promotion. However, the latter has had a growing list of issues, most of which are related to fitted mesh, and which may be addressed by the attachments update viewer (RC version 3.7.21.296904).
Experience Keys / Tools
There have been a lot of requests and ideas around expanding / improving the upcoming Experience Keys / Tools (for example: BUG-6912). Commenting on the general status of the project, Simon Linden indicated he’s doing some work related to attachments – although he wasn’t able to go into specifics. However, commenting on the ideas put forward a JIRAs submitted in general, he said:
To put things in perspective, this release is the first one for this feature. I’d really like to see it succeed and have us move on to an update that adds more features like these. And while they aren’t going into this first release, the JIRA’s aren’t being ignored … we’ve gathered them and had to pick an choose what we could release with and without.
Oz also added, in response to, and alongside of, Simon’s comments:
Exactly. There will doubtless be many ways to improve and expand the experience concept. We want to get more applications built with it and see which are the best ways to invest in it further.
Other Items
3D Connexions Support
3D Connexion is the brand name for the space Navigator range by Logitech. As has been reported through this and other blogs, and also on the forums. More recent versions of the 3D Connexions drivers have been causing some problems on installation. The API support for these devices within the viewer is also quite old (although Linux has been recently updated), and Cinder Roxley is working to try to improve things in this area. However, updating to the newer API support may force things to be platform-dependent, and so take longer to implement, but it might result in the support of more 3D connexions devices.
Hair Base Cloud Issue
Some users are encountering issues of seeming themselves rendered as a cloud in their own world view. This may be connected to them where a hair base with a missing texture (essentially a bad asset), which causes the server to reject the hair base when worn. The result leaves the avatar as a cloud in the user’s own view, although to everyone else they appear to be rendered correctly. An error message is actually generated on the matter:
newview/llvoavatarself.cpp(2273) : 2014-12-01T15:32:45Z INFO: LLVOAvatarSelf::getIsCloud: Self is clouded because of no hair texture
However, this only goes to the viewer log, and is not made visible through the UI. As the viewer thinks you’re wearing the hair base, the problem is not obvious to many users. So, should you find this happening, try replacing it with a different hair base.
Current Outfit Folder Issues
When Server-side Appearance (SSA) was being deployed in 2013, some users on certain TPVs encountered issued with duplicate current outfit folders being generated – see SUN-99. A fix was made to prevent this from happening, however, there have been a couple of recent reports that it is occurring one again (see BUG-7880 and BUG-7920 – interestingly, the latter case appears to have had all system folders duplicated). The cause of these problems isn’t currently known, but requests to support for tun the SUN-99 inventory fix does appear to resolve problems, once the user has cleared cache locally and re-logged.
Teleport Queueing
A feature request (BUG-7945) for a teleport queueing feature to be implemented to ease access into very busy regions. As noted during the Simulator User Group meeting, such an automated queuing system as proposed might be labour-intensive to implement and also be open to exploitation. However, commenting on the idea of improving how teleport queues and notifications might be better handled, Simon Linden said:
I was talking with someone about the incoming TP queue yesterday. It seems like it needs some attention. I don’t think we’d build a queue and later TP anyone, but it’s doing too much work before it decides you can’t get in.
Whether this will result in some clean-up to the current process of handling teleports into busy regions remains to be seen.
Updates for the week ending: Sunday November 30th, 2014
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 updated to version 3.7.20.296724 December 1st (formerly the Snowstorm RC viewer – Japanese input; improved rendering of projectors; fixes for object editing bug when rotating and for crash on exit on OS X Yosemite in full screen mode, etc.) – release notes
Attachments viewer RC version 3.7.21.296904 released on November 25th – adds some fixes to previously released changes in the way joint offsets in rigged meshes are handled & fixes some issues found with adding and removing attachments after the recent AISv3 deploy. this update includes 2 further bug fixes (download and release notes)
Black Dragon updated to version 2.4.1 on Thursday November 27th, and then to version 2.4.1.1 before version 2.4.1.2 on Friday, November 28th – core updates: bug fixes (change log)
Kokua updated to version 3.7.21.35082 on November 30th – core updates: parity with LL code base releases 3.7.12 through 3.7.21 – group bans, viewer benchmarking, unified snapshots floater, HTTP pipelining, attachment fixes, etc. (release notes)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 