Category: SL User Group Meetings

2019 SL User Groups 23/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Whimberly; Inara Pey, April 2019, on FlickrWhimberly – blog post

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a deployment thread had yet to be posted (in fact, it’s not entirely clear what is happening with the weekly release threads). However:

  • There was no SLS (Main) channel deployment on Tuesday, June 4th, leaving it on server maintenance package #19 19.05.17.527341.
  • On Wednesday, June 5th, the Magnum and LeTigre RC channels should be updated to server maintenance package #19 19.05.24.527547, bringing them to parity with BlueSteel.

SL Viewer

There have been no LL viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.2.2.527338, formerly the Teranino RC viewer, promoted May 22 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

In Brief

Script Processing Issues

As I’ve recently reported, there have been numerous reports of script run time issues, with some reporting that problems only started occurring following the roll-back on April 18th, 2019. BUG-226851 (and more recently BUG-227099) outlines some of the problems. Some regions experiencing the issue have been cloned to Aditi (the beta grid) where they are running fine, and the Lab is currently looking at script scheduling on Agni (the Main grid).

There is a forum thread on the impact of idle scripts (i.e. scripts that are scheduled, but waiting on an event) on full regions (primarily Mainland). In particular, the finding suggest that limiting in-world scripts to 1 per 10LI (2250 script for a Full region) might help pending improvements – although this falls woefully short of shopping-related regions.

Commenting on the situation, Simon Linden states:

We’re actively looking at script scheduling now and these odd cases are on the list to sort out. There hasn’t been a big magic fix yet but it’s getting attention.

Rider Linden added:

And, yes. Idle scripts are not really idle… they can drag down sim performance even if they are not actually doing anything. Right now llListen() is a major culprit (but I’m hoping we can clean that up in the near future) … [and] all idling is not equal. Some events are more expensive than others to wait on.

EEP Issues

As per my May 30th CCUG update, it’s been noted that a recent deployment has resulted in rendering issues for the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) – see BUG-227100 as an example.

The EEP RC viewer is due for an update, and it is hoped that these will include shader fixes that should correct the problems in that viewer. However, in terms of the simulator problems that are causing issues for those on non-EEP viewers, Rider Linden commented:

We have had some confusion on our end. When we were chasing the teleport bug a couple fixes were accidentally dropped from the simulator. We’ve been sorting those out as we find them.

Other Performance Impacts

  • It’s long been recognised that teleports – particularly teleports involving mesh-heavy avatars into a region can adverse affect performance (see BUG-8496).
    • Beq Janus has been looking at this, and can show – via a a comment posted to the above Jira, that the effect “ripples through” simulator stats, including hitting script stats.
    • She estimates that overall, the arrival of a mesh avatar in a region can take around 6 seconds to ripple through the region (and impacting users within the region).
    • It’s currently estimate by both Beq and Lou Netizen that female avatars carry on average 70 scripts, and mail avatars an average of 68 (see here for more).
  • Beq has also been investigate another performance impact – that of the viewer flooding the server with GroupProfileRequest at log-in due to persistent notifications see BUG-227094). She is currently working on a patch for contribution to LL to resolve this issue.

2019 SL User Groups 22/3: TPV Developer Meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey

(Fae Forest), Elvenshire; Inara Pey, April 2019, on Flickr(Fae Forest), Elvenshire – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, May 31st, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it. The key points of discussion are provided below with time stamps to the relevant points in the video, which will open in a separate tab when clicked.

Note this meeting involved a lot of text-based chat on VRAM, script limits, and avatar complexity which, in the interest of brevity with these notes, I leave to the video.

SL Viewer

[01:18-2:22]

The Rainbow Maintenance viewer – version 6.2.3.527584 – was released on  Wednesday, May 29th. This viewer specifically fixes a known Windows / Nvidia issue where on exiting Second Life, the system video is distorted – see BUG-226803.

Note that at the time of writing this summary, the Rainbow RC viewer is not listed on the new Alternate Viewer page; if you are experiencing this particular issue, and wish to try the new RC, please go to the main Viewer Release page, where it *is* listed.

There should be a project viewer forthcoming “soon” with a number of open-source contributions

The remaining LL viewer pipelines are unchanged, as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.2.2.527338, formerly the Teranino RC viewer, promoted May 22 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

As per my CCUG summary, it is anticipated updated versions of EEP and Bakes on Mesh RC viewers should be appearing in week #23 (commencing Monday, June 3rd, 2019).

Official Linux Viewer

[5:47-7:05]

  • The Lab has received a comprehensive open-source Debian-based contribution for Linux.
  • This will have restricted functionality (e.g. no Voice, as Vivox who supply the Voice EXE for the viewer no longer support Linux).
  • The Lab is currently putting time into trying to build this Linux option within their existing viewer build. If this succeeds, they will likely issue the viewer (I’m guessing as a project viewer initially).

Group Notices to IM

[10:50-12:00]

  • As per my April 26th TPVD meeting notes, the Lab is considering the possibility of no longer sending group notices to e-mail when a user is off-line.
  • This will only be for off-line group notices. It will not block / change the receipt off-line IMs.
  • The reason for making the change is to help is secondlife.com being regarded as a spam domain by e-mail services.
  • Work has not yet commenced on this.
  • The Lab expects to be doing “significant” work on groups in general “pretty soon”. This will include work on group notice delivery reliability, general group chat lag, etc.

In Brief

  • [2:24-3:28, 13:49-14:10, and 17:20-19:15] Teleport improvements:
    • Work continues in trying to stabilise / improve teleports to avoid any repeat of recent problems.
    • Work is also in progress to improve how attachments are handled on teleports to lessen instances of attachment loss, ghosting, etc.
      • Some of these issues might be related to viewer changes, and the Lab is currently testing fixes and experimenting with the viewer, and the latter may result in some tweaks to the way the viewer handles attachments.
      • More on this to follow once the internal tests are complete and have been assessed.
      • As it is, improvement have been deployed to help prevent attachments getting killed on teleports, although further work on this may still be required.
  • [7:05-10:08] Mobile client:
    • LL continue to work on the iOS mobile client for Second Life.
    • iOS was selected because “at the time the decision was taken, there wasn’t anything for iPhone”, and the Lab didn’t have the resources available to handle both iOS and Android development.
    • More details on the iOS client’s functionality are hoped to be available “before too long”.
    • Android remains a hoped-for goal, although there is no time line for when it might happen.
  • [12:10-12:30] Last names: work is continuing on the return of last names, although deploying the capability is not imminent.
  • [12:57-13:30 and 14:33-16:15] Transitioning SL to the cloud:
    • Again, work is progressing, and some services have been transitioned (note: not any user-accessible simulators), without any impact being noted / felt by users.
    • More services will be transitioning in the next few months.
    • The Lab is intentionally not providing information and when and which services are being transitioned in an attempt to more accurately garner from user feedback if things have go well or not (e.g. by preventing people reporting on the assumption that because X has been changed, it “must” be the cause of their issues).
  • [19:24-19:40] Viewer Caching Re-work: this has been paused for a while, but is due to resume.
  • [29:28-30:00] Visual Studio / Xcode Update: the Visual Studio 2017 (Win) and Xcode (Mac) update to the viewer build process is working locally but is not working within the viewer build farm. However, the switch to using them within the farm is expected “very soon”.

2019 SL User Groups 22/2: Content Creation summary

Posted on by Inara Pey

Copper River; Inara Pey, April 2019, on FlickrFlourish – blog post

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on Thursday, May 30th 2019 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Environment Enhancement Project

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements allowing the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) to be set region or parcel level, with support for up to 7 days per cycle and sky environments set by altitude. It uses a new set of inventory assets (Sky, Water, Day),  and includes the ability to use custom Sun, Moon and cloud textures. The assets can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others, and can additionally be used in experiences.

Due to performance issues, the initial implementation of EEP will not include certain atmospherics such as crepuscular rays (“God rays”).

Resources

Current Status

  • It has been noted that the current EEP RC viewer – version 6.2.3.527250 – is a “little rough”, with issues around midday light, ambient lighting, water transparency, projected lights, etc. Additional effort is being put into checking code merges to try to avoid similar issues in the future, although viewer updates may be a little slower as a result and involve smaller changes.
  • An updated EEP RC viewer is with the Lab’s QA team that should fix many of the current issues, and should be available soon.
  • Alexa Linden, who a Product Managing EEP, and who spends a good deal of her time in-world both exploring and building, as well as designing environments, is spending more time in checking upcoming EEP builds to help get things back on track.

Non-EEP Viewer Rendering Issues

  • Following the simulator deployments of week #22, there have been a series of reports of windlight settings failing to render correctly in either non-EEP viewers or the EEP RC viewer.
  • The Lab is unable of any simulator changes that would cause this.
  • BUG-226815 outlines one issue, and further bug reports have been requested as the Lab investigate the problem.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves viewer and server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, but does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing Bake Service, nor are they recognised as system wearables. Adding materials support may be considered in the future.

Resources

Current Status

  • A BUG related to the AUX channels showing up black for BOM has resurfaced.
  • An updated viewer with a fix for his issue has been undergoing testing and should be available “soon”.
  • This update also requires an appearance service update as well.
  • It is hoped that the bug fix and viewer update will allow BOM to progress.

Animesh Follow-On

  • Gif showing Vir’s first pass at using LSL to change the shape parameters of an Animesh object. Credit: Vir Linden

    Vir continues to work on adding visual parameter support to allow shape adjustments to be made to Animesh.

  • He now has the LSL side of things working “fairly decently” – the command allows users to set individual parameters, and correctly handles vertical height placement, as demonstrated on the right.
    • The LSL capability allows multiple shape parameters to be adjusted.
    • Parameters can be looked up by name or ID, and the command uses ranges for 0 to 1.
    • This allows shape parameters to be adjusted in a similar manner as would be seen when using shape sliders when manually editing an avatar’s shape, albeit with different value ranges (0 to 1 being equitable to 0 to 100 on a slider).
  • In the example clip, right, the LSL is being used to apply settings to the Animesh height, arm length, shoulder width, leg length, etc., simultaneously.
  • It has been suggested having a Get command to obtain parameter settings would be useful, and this may be added.
  • A further question is whether there needs to be a capability to remove parameters (by default an Animesh does not have any visual parameters until they are set – and once set they cannot be removed..
  • Overall, the plan remains to get the capability into a usable state and then provide a project viewer for further testing within test regions.
  • The meeting also included further discussion on allowing Animesh characters to have clothing / outfits in a similar manner to an avatar’s Outfit folder, and to support attachment points.
    • A problem here is that the Outfit Folder runs through the Appearance Service, which would have to be extended to encompass Animesh objects.
    • Similarly, attachment points operate via the concept of avatars having an associated  agent – which Animesh objects currently don’t have.
    • While neither of these have been entirely ruled out, they are considered significant projects which have their own set of implementation issues that would have to be considered.

2019 SL User Groups 22/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Season's Cove; Inara Pey, April 2019, on FlickrSeason’s Cove – blog post

Update, May 29th: the BlueSteel RC updated to server maintenance package #19 19.05.24.527547. Magnum and LeTigre appear to have remained on  #19 19.05.17.527341.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a deployment thread had yet to be posted however:

  • On Tuesday, May 28th, the SLS (Main) channel updated to server maintenance package #19 19.05.17.527341, previously deployed to all three RC channels.
  • It does not appear that the three main RC channels will be updated on Wednesday, May 29th. Commenting on releases, Simon Linden said:

For server news, we updated the main channel of regions this morning, so the grid is pretty much all on the same version, except for one small RC channel. That’ll get updated tomorrow, I believe.

This “small” update might include an initial deployment of the updated region crossing code that has been subject to testing in the last couple of weeks, as per my last couple of Simulator User Group updates.

SL Viewer

There have been no LL viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.2.2.527338, formerly the Teranino RC viewer, promoted May 22nd.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status November 29th, 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

In Brief

Script Processing Issues

As I’ve recently report, there have been numerous reports of script run time issues, with some reporting that problems only started occurring following the roll-back on April 18th, 2019. BUG-226851 outlines some of the problems. Some regions experiencing the issue have been cloned to Aditi (the beta grid) where they are running fine, and the Lab is currently looking at script scheduling on Agni (the Main grid).

It has been suggested that multi-thread LSL might offer advantages, prompting Simon Linden to comment:

Again it’s a tougher job retrofitting multiple threads since it wasn’t part of the original design … it would have to be an update queue … but that adds some problems too, as if you call one function and it changes something in-world, then one to get the info … we’d have to suspend until we apply the first. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea or anything … just that it would turn into a monster project.

Rider Linden added:

Threading is one of those things that really needs to be considered up front in the design. Trying to retrofit it into an existing project can lead to madness.

Voice Griefing

Voice griefing can be a problem on voice-enabled regions. It can take several forms (e.g. someone hacks voice system so they can connect to a region without being in it or even logged in). Detailing with these types of hacks  is exceptionally difficult. However, Oz commented in the SUG meeting that LL are working to address this problem – how wasn’t specified, but one possible way of doing so would be for Support to be able to remove an offending user from voice.

2019 SL User Groups 21/2: Content Creation summary

Posted on by Inara Pey

NOLA @ Fairhaven; Inara Pey, April 2019, on FlickrNOLA @ Fairhaven – blog post

The following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on Thursday, May 23rd 2019 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves viewer and server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, but does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing Bake Service, nor are they recognised as system wearables. Adding materials support may be considered in the future.

Resources

Current Status

  • The Appearance Service change, designed to correctly handle tattoo layer with partial transparency has now passed QA. This corrects a problem where if a tattoo with partial transparency is sent for baking via the new BOM channels without any underlying opaque layer, then the alphas are not correctly resolved.
  • A required simulator change should be deployed “soon”. This includes a means of accessing BOM UUIDs.
    • These were changed in the last back-end update as a result of underlying asset property issues. If there is BOM content using the old UUIDs, this will have to be updated.
    • The simulator update is intended to allow access to the texture UUIDs without having to do so numerically, as is currently the case. This should re-enable the ability to access them via their name abbreviations.
  • The Bakes on Mesh RC viewer updated to version 6.2.3.527418, dated May 23rd.
  • A new bug has been uncovered by the Lab, but at the time of writing, it was unclear if this was related to the Appearance Service or the viewer.

Environment Enhancement Project

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements allowing the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) to be set region or parcel level, with support for up to 7 days per cycle and sky environments set by altitude. It uses a new set of inventory assets (Sky, Water, Day),  and includes the ability to use custom Sun, Moon and cloud textures. The assets can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others, and can additionally be used in experiences.

Due to performance issues, the initial implementation of EEP will not include certain atmospherics such as crepuscular rays (“God rays”).

Resources

Current Status

  • Graham Linden continues to work on the remaining shader / graphics issues.

Animesh Follow-On

  • Vir continues to work on adding visual parameter support to allow shape adjustments to be made to Animesh.
  • This work has new reached a point where shape updates can be requested, and the messages sent to viewers able to see the Animesh, which then update to display the correct shape.
  • However, there is an issue: the Appearance Service code to set an avatar’s vertical position (and hopefully keep the avatar’s feet on the ground) doesn’t recognise Animesh objects. This therefore needs to be either extended to support Animesh, or emulated purely within the viewer
    • Vir is working to try to emulate the capability within the viewer, but in doing so has uncovered some confusing elements in the way the current code works, which needs to be addressed.
  • It is still likely to be at least two more weeks before the work is suitable to be made available in the project viewer.

In Brief

  • The Teranino viewer, version 6.2.3.527418, introduced  change in how vehicle region crossings are handled.
    • There is now a debug setting that stops movement interpolation by the viewer while the data is passed between regions.
    • How long the pause lasts can be adjusted (the default is 1.00  – which I assume is 1 second, while I assume 0 is no stop.
    • However, there are reports that  if a vehicle is turning or banking, while forward motion stops, the rotation imparts as result of the turn / bank continues (see BUG-226937).
  • There are a couple of viewers in progress that feature open-source contributions. One of these is for profiles behaviour, and the other is related to improvements to the mesh uploader (which I assume is Beq Janus’ excellent work as found in Firestorm).
  • Pivot points with mesh uploads: there has been some viewer-side work to support this, but the work is on hold pending the availability of a resource to work on the required simulator support.
  • Changing animations priorities on-the-fly: this has been a frequent request in the past, intended to allow users to adjust animation priorities rather than having them set at upload.
    • However, the priority assignment capability is deeply baked into the way SL operates, and re-working it to allow on-the-fly changes is seen as a none-trivial project.
    • It is also seen as just one element of the animation system requiring complete overhaul (e.g. there is a need for a pre-load animation capability, a global synch capability, etc.).
    • Any such overhaul brings with it further complications in that it could touch upon the IK system, as such animation system work is not something LL are currently considering, although they have taken a number of Jira feature requests on the subject.

2019 SL User Groups 21/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Amrum; Inara Pey, April 2019, on FlickrAmrum – blog post

Server Deployments

There have been no release notes for the week #21 deployments. however:

  • On Tuesday, May 21st, the SLS (Main) channel updated to server maintenance package 19.05.10.527185, containing internal fixes.
  • On Wednesday, May 22nd, the three RC channels updated with server maintenance package 19.05.17.527341.

SL Viewer

  • The Alternate viewer wiki page has now been retired and replaced by a new Alternate Viewers page.
  • The de facto release viewer was updated to version 6.2.2.527338, dated May 20th, formerly the updated Teranino Maintenance RC.

The rest of the current SL viewer channels remain as:

  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

In Brief

  • Teleport Fail Issues: following the last Server User Group meeting on Tuesday May 14th, there was a test of a teleport fix Simon Linden had been working on, and a further test was carried out following this week’s meeting, with Simon Linden commenting:

Last week’s test was really helpful – it showed that one problem seemed to be fixed, but exposed another one that I hope is fixed this week. If it goes well, that new teleport code may go out onto RC channels next week.

  • Teleport Attachment Issues: this is a separate issue to that being investigated by Simon Linden, and which is more related to . there’s no current update on the work being put into fixing this, but as Simon observed in the meeting:

As far as I know, the problems with attachments tend to be with crossings and not teleports … while much of the code is the same, there’s usually a fundamental difference in crossings because you’re already connected to that region before you go there, whereas with teleports you are not … which was part of the big disconnect issue we had before.

  • Script Processing Issues: as reported in my week #18 SUG summary, there have been numerous reports of script run time issues, with some reporting that problems only started occurring following the roll-back on April 18th, 2019. BUG-226851 outlines some of the problems. The Lab are looking into this, but at present there are no updates on the problem.