On Saturday 10th August, 2013, the Firestorm team hosted a question-and-answer session so they could outline the current status of the Firestorm viewer, the issues the team are facing, and outline plans for the future, as well as address questions from the audience.
While the meeting was recorded, the Firestorm team are aware that many of their users have hearing difficulties, and / or prefer to read text. It is because of this that this transcript has been provided. When reading it, please remember:
This is not a word-for-word transcript of the entire meeting. While all quotes given are as they are spoken in the video, to assist in readability and maintain the flow of conversation, not all asides, jokes, interruptions, etc., have been included in the text presented here
If there are any sizeable gaps in comments from a speaker which resulted from asides, questions to other etc,, these are indicated by the use of “…”
Timestamps are provided as guidance should anyone wish to hear the comments in full from any speaker on the video
Questions were asked in chat while speakers were talking. This inevitably meant that replies to questions would lag well behind when they were originally asked. Therefore, to provide context between questions and answers, questions in the transcript are time stamped at the point at which each is addressed by a member of the Firestorm team
Some questions were asked and answered purely in text. These have been excluded for one of two reasons. Either a) they lacked context with the voice conversation, or b) the seating arrangements in the auditorium meant there were some questions or answers which didn’t appear in my local chat window.
Please note: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. As such, questions on technical issues relating to Firestorm and / or project-specific questions cannot be answered here unless one of the Firestorm team drops by.
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 Viewer Round-up 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
By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
The Viewer Round-up Page also 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.
Updates for the week ending: August 11th, 2013 (with extras!)
Official LL Viewers
The release viewer updated to version 3.6.2.279258 (formally the Vivox RC) on August 5th (download and release notes)
Singularity updated to version 1.8.1.4863 on August 12th – core updates: Media ob a Prim (MOAP), Voice code update; Wavefront and Collada export; Web Profile and V3 Web Search support; Updated SSA code; OpenSim Hypergrid and high altitude building support, and more (release notes)
There are currently five viewer release candidates sitting in the viewer release channel. These are:
CHUI updates
Cocoa updates for the Mac version of the viewer
Google Breakpad updates (fixes and updates to improve the level of crash reporting from the viewer)
Maintenance viewer updates
Snowstorm updates (third-party contributions to the viewer)
As the first release candidate has now become the de facto viewer release (the Vivox updates, see part one of this report), all of the remaining release candidates are undergoing rebuilds using the “new” release viewer code base, and this is expected to be completed in week 33.
The current number of release candidates is considered to be atypical of the process, and reflects the fact that there is a backlog of viewer updates to be cleared. Once this has happened, it is anticipated that the number of release candidates within the viewer release channel will fall. In the meantime, it means we could be seeing new viewer releases (i.e. release candidates being promoted to the de facto release viewer) at the rate of one a week, depending upon how well individual RCs perform in user testing, until such time as the number of RC viewers becomes more manageable.
Installing Multiple Release Candidate Viewers & the Auto-updater
By default, release candidate viewers are intended to install / be installed into the same location as the de facto release viewer. Therefore, if you wish to run multiple RC viewers, you must install them manually into separate folders.
However, there is a problem in installing multiple RC viewer under windows, whereby the last location used to install a viewer is recorded by the installer (presumably as a registry setting), and the auto-updater will automatically use that location to install any update. So, if you manually install “Release Candidate B” into its own folder, and then receive an update for “Release Candidate A” (already installed on your PC) via the auto-updater, it will be installed into the folder containing “Release Candidate B”, overwriting it. This may even happen if the auto-updater is “disabled” within viewer preferences (see here for notes on how to avoid this).
At least one JIRA (non-public BUG-3522) has been raised against this issue. However, while LL are still investigating the problem, if it lies within the installer itself, it may not be addressed as there is an unwillingness at the Lab to get deeply involved in the mechanics of the installer.
Viewer Downgrades
There have been reports of the auto-updater mechanism forcing people to downgrade their installed viewer to an earlier release. While it “shouldn’t happen”, and may have been fixed, anyone who does experience the problem when auto-updating a viewer is asked to raise a bug report with as much information as possible on what happened (i.e. version being run before the update, version running after the update, date of update, etc.).
Making the Viewer Management System Available to TPVs
The Lab is experimenting with making the viewer management system available to TPVs if they wish to make use of it. This will mean that TPVs will have to port the code for use in their own viewer / environments, but it could help them with automating viewer updates if they don’t already have such a mechanism in place. One of the potential benefits of this for those TPVs following the Lab’s lead is that, as a result of changes also being made to the Lab’s reporting mechanisms, they will be able to receive a range of stats reports on their viewers directly from the Lab.
Settings.xml Changes
The current Snowstorm release candidate includes a change to how the settings.xml file works (the file which controls your viewer settings). This change will only affect those who have more than one Linden Lab viewer installed on the same computer (for example, someone who has the release viewer, a beta viewer and several project viewers installed), and will see all of the installed LL viewers using the same settings.xml file, rather than each creating a separate version of the file. This should prevent issues where the settings from one LL viewer are incorrectly applied to another, as can sometimes occur at present.
Interest List News
As noted in earlier parts of this report, Andrew Linden has wrapped-up his current work on interest lists. However, the project viewer for some of the work still has yet to appear, and is apparently still encountering problems getting through LL’s QA process. The code has been “real close” to being ready for release in some form on a number of occasions before getting kicked back for further work. The hope is that it will appear as a project viewer – or possibly a beta or release candidate – “soon”.
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for news, updates and feedback.
Second Life Server (SLS Main) Channel
There was no update to the Main channel in week 32. This is primarily because the SSA project is not being further deployed during week 32, and BlueSteel was not updated in week 31 (other than to be brought up to a par with the Main channel), so there is nothing from the RC channels to promote to the Main channel.
Release Candidate Channels – Wednesday August 7th
Magnum and LeTigre remained SSA enabled, and without any further updates.
BlueSteel received a new server maintenance package comprising:
A new feature which will see regions block rezzing and entering during the final 60-seconds before a shutdown / restart (see notes below)
Code to help fix an exploit whereby a scripted object can surreptitiously obtain permissions from an unsuspecting avatar, allowing the object owner to later use the object against the avatar in s griefing attack (e.g. by tracking camera movements in a deform attack, and so on – see publicly viewable JIRA VWR-13228 and the notes below)
A fix for “llListen in linked objects is listening at root instead of linked object local position *after re-rezzing the linkset*.” (non-public JIRA BUG-3291)
Fixes for further simulator crash modes.
I covered the region restart capability and the code to help with the animation exploit in part 1 of this week’s report, and refer you to that if you need any more details.
Server Deployments Heads-up for Week 33
Details are still to be finalised, but at present it looks as there will be another light week of deployments in week 33 (week commencing Monday August 12th).
The server maintenance package currently on BlueSteel looks set to be promoted to the Main channel on Tuesday August 13th
There will likely be a new server maintenance package on BlueSteel, which Simon Linden describes as not having much exciting in it other than a “fix for a performance problem that can occur in very specific situations where you have to have neighbour regions, avatars over on those regions and such, but that will hopefully just be a silent improvement.”
SSA will most likely not be enabled elsewhere on the grid (see below).
SL Viewer Updates
The Materials project viewer received an update on Thursday August 8th with the release of version 3.6.2.27965 (download & release notes). Otherwise things remain pretty much as they were with part 1 of this report.
Server-side Appearance
There is unlikely to be any further SSA enabling in week 33 (week commencing Monday August 12th). This is because the baking servers themselves will be getting an update, and the Lab wants to see how that goes. Commenting on the update at the Server Beta meeting on Thursday August 8th, Simon Linden said it will be carried out “behind the scenes” with no actual downtime for the SSA service.
Oculus Rift
There has been considerable interest in the state-of-play with this project ever since Rod Humble indicated in an interview with Eric Johnson of All Things D that a viewer supporting the headset might be surfacing in “late summer”. Obviously, the retail version of the headset has yet to ship – and may still be a while before doing so – but the SDK kits are available at $300, and people are purchasing them, so it is not unreasonable to assume the Lab may well have a project viewer with Oculus Rift support available ahead of the consumer version of the product being launched.
Oculus Rift – artist’s impression
Commenting on the status of the current work with OR at the Lab during the Server Beta meeting, Simon Linden said:
I tried it out on the code in development and it’s pretty cool. It still needs work and there’s no estimates when it will go out, but we’ll have a project viewer at some point. It requires very careful building in SL, however, as it really needs high frame rate … We’re still getting the basics going … some simple things like a menu, UI buttons and clicking in-world are tough to get right in the Rift.
So it is still likely to be a while before any project viewer sees the light of day.
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for news, updates and feedback.
Second Life Server (SLS Main) Channel
There was no update to the Main channel on Tuesday August 6th. This is primarily because the SSA project is not being further deployed during week 32, and BlueSteel was not updated in week 31 (other than to be brought up to a par with the Main channel), so there is nothing from the RC channels to promote to the Main channel.
Release Candidate Channels – Wednesday August 7th
Magnum and LeTigre will remain SSA enabled, and apparently without any further updates.
Bluesteel should receive a new server maintenance package comprising:
A new feature which will see regions block rezzing and entering during the final 60-seconds before a shutdown / restart (see notes below)
Code to help fix an exploit whereby a scripted object can surreptitiously obtain permissions from an unsuspecting avatar, allowing the object owner to later use the object against the avatar in s griefing attack (e.g. by tracking camera movements in a deform attack, and so on – see publicly viewable JIRA VWR-13228 and the notes below)
A fix for “llListen in linked objects is listening at root instead of linked object local position *after re-rezzing the linkset*.” (non-public JIRA BUG-3291)
Fixes for further simulator crash modes.
Region Restart Blocks
Referring to the new feature allowing regions to block rezzing and entering during the last 60 seconds before a restart at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday August 6th, Simon Linden said, “this is just trying to stop adding stuff to the region’s workload when it shuts down. Let’s say you TP into a region in the last second before it shuts down … you’re still going to be loading when it boots you out [and changes made to attachments could be lost after the resultant relog]. [It’s] the same possibly with rezzing an expensive no-copy item … it’s just not a good idea to start a complicated process right before shutdown. So those last 60 seconds are going to block entering and rezzing.”
In addition to the new blocks, Simon has also added the region name to the pop-up warnings which are displayed during the 5-minute countdown to a restart shutdown / restart.
Animation Griefing
The fix for scripted objects surreptitiously obtaining permissions from an unsuspecting avatar (per JIRA VWR-13228) will require a viewer-side update as well to be effective, which will utilise the Stop Animating Me function in the viewer.
Currently, Stop Animating Me is purely viewer-side. When activated, it will stop all animations running on your avatar within your view, with an update (ANIM_REQUEST_STOP) sent to the simulator which gets relayed to everyone in the same sim to tell their viewers to also stop animating you. The system isn’t perfect, but generally works. However, it is important to note that no actual permissions are revoked by the process, allowing griefing objects such as Soul Seize to retain control over an avatar.
Under the new system, and once the viewer-side update is available in viewers, Stop Animating Me will send a message to the simulator so it revokes all animation permissions for all objects in the region (other than those worn by the avatar issuing the command, such as AO HUDs, etc.), with the result that they are no longer animating the avatar (legitimate objects can re-animate via an explicit request, as per normal). While there were concerns expressed at the Simulator User Group meeting that a griefer may be able to work around the approach (although most workarounds appear to be somewhat labour-intensive), the new capability should be enough to stop griefing objects such as Soul Seize within a region from retaining control of an avatar.
Commenting on the viewer side of the fix, Simon Linden indicated that the viewer with the change is undergoing QA testing, but because of the number of updates it contains, it is unclear as to when it will make a public appearance.
Simulator UG meeting, August 6th
SL Viewer Updates
The Vivox release candidate viewer was promoted to the de facto release viewer (version number 3.6.2.279258) on Monday August 5th, which can be obtained via the main viewer download page or will be offered as an automatic update to those using the previous release and who have updates enabled. The release notes summarise changes.
As a result of this, the Google Breakpad release candidate updated to version 3.6.2.279364, on August 5th (download / release notes) and the Maintenance Viewer RC updated to 3.6.2.279427 on August 6 (download & release notes).
In the meantime, the Cocoa viewer updates (Mac only) moved from a project viewer to a release candidate (3.6.2.278960, download & release notes) on August 6th, bringing the number of active RCs back up to five.
The latest CHUI updates (now in release candidate 3.6.2.279321, released on August 1st) still contain the issue of highlighted text in scripts / notecards being deleted if somewhere else in the script editor / notecard is clicked, requiring a CTRL-Z to undo (see publicly viewable CHUIBUG-210 and the associated forum thread).
As a small aside, apparently the (or perhaps only one of the) meeting(s) to decide on the status of the current viewers and determine which (if any) is ready to go to release status is held around late morning SLT on Mondays.
Group Ban List
Baker Linden – old style (stock)
There has been some confusion over the group ban function, which lead Baker Linden to clarify that anyone banned from a group under the new capability will be automatically ejected as well (hence the ban), and will not be able to re-join the group until such time as the ban is lifted. Group owners will automatically be blocked from the ban function, to prevent them being accidentally banned by other group officers.
Baker has been considering who can actually be banned by a group member granted the ability to ban others.
His initial idea is to allow anyone given the authority to ban group members to be able to ban anyone else (other than the group owners), so one officer with the ability to ban people could ban another officer, for example. “My reasoning is that if you can’t trust an officer with banning, don’t let that person be an officer,” he explained.
Descibing the other option he was considering, he said, “The other route I can go is anyone with the ban ability can [only] ban anyone that doesn’t have that ability.”
This second option appeared to gain more support than the first, although Baker himself sees it as somewhat limiting, “But I don’t see the point in that,” he said, “Since we already have a problem with eject not being able to eject anyone belonging to any role other than ‘Everyone’ which seems pointless to me.”
Unfortunately, the meeting drew to a close before both options could be further explored, and so they may be a topic for further discussions at the next meeting. However, the idea of those with the ban ability only being able to ban those who don’t have the ability doesn’t actually seem to be as limiting as Baker suggests when citing the issue with group ejections (only those in the “Everyone” group can be ejected), so it will be interesting to see how much more discussion there is on this subject.
Andrew Linden: Interest List Work and Anti-Griefing Measures
Andrew Linden reports he has now all but finished his current work on interest list updates. While there is still no indication when the viewer-side changes might surface, he’s nevertheless freeing himself up to take a look at anti-Griefing measures. He’s already compiling a list of items he wants to look into, although his initial focus will be on general maintenance work to get him, as he puts it, “back in the groove”. One item in particular he’ll be looking at prior to delving more into anti-griefing measures is that of motion stops on region restarts.
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 Viewer Round-up 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
By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
The Viewer Round-up Page also 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.
On Saturday 10th August, 2013, the Firestorm team hosted a question-and-answer session so they could outline the current status of the Firestorm viewer, the issues the team are facing, and outline plans for the future, as well as address questions from the audience.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 