Category: SL User Group Meetings

SL project updates week 14/1: server and viewer updates, misc items

Posted on by Inara Pey

Piony Hideout, Lions Hill; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Piony Hideout, Lions Hill (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread in the forums for the latest information and updates.

There was no deployment to the Main SLS channel on Tuesday, March 31st, due to the inventory issues arising from the week #13 RC deployment – see my update here for details.

On Wednesday, April 1st, all three RCs will receive the same update to the current server maintenance package. This update is specifically aimed at correcting the trash purging issue reported with BUG-8877. However, the fix does not address the issue of inventory fetching hanging if HTTP Inventory has been disabled within the viewer.

This is because the Lab regards UDP inventory fetching as a deprecated protocol path, as indicated by the release notes, and non-HTTP based inventory fetching is now being phased out. As such, it is anticipated the option to disable HTTP Inventory within the viewer is likely to be hidden / removed at some point in the future.

SL Viewer Updates

The Tools update RC viewer updates to version 3.7.27.300242 on Monday, March 30th, bringing it into line with the current release viewer (3.7.26 with Avatar Hover Height).

The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 3.7.27.300323 on Tuesday, March 31st. also bringing it into line with the current release viewer,  and includes fixes for many of the bugs and issues encountered with the initial release of the RC.

Other Items

Diagonal Region Rendering Issues

A fair while ago now (late 2012 / early 2013 in fact), I reported on issues that had been noted with regions seeming to be “missing” when seen from other regions.The problem was originally reported in SVC-8130, which is still marked as “unresolved”, and it had been hoped that fix for SVC-8019 would address the problem as well as dealing with other issues. However, the problem has continued intermittently ever since, with numerous issues marked as duplicates of SVC-8130 being reported, with the issue most recently being seen when looking at regions diagonally opposite Brocade on the Mainland.

The return of the missing regions issue (if it ever really went away): looking north-east from Brocade towards where Mullein isn't on the Mainland. Not, as well, the region kitty-corner beyond Mullein is also absent the view, although both appear on the map
The return of the missing regions issue (if it ever really went away): looking north-east from Brocade towards where Mullein isn’t on the Mainland. Not, as well, the region kitty-corner beyond Mullein is also absent the view, although both appear on the map

The problems are regarded as handshaking / communications issues between region, and are generally resolved through a region restart; although understandably, some holding regions on Mainland are reluctant to request a restart as this can affect multiple other region as well.

Multiple Calling Cards

Most of us are familiar with calling cards in the viewer. They can be obtained by friending someone, or by someone giving you their card (or you giving them your card, and are useful for things like  opening people’s profiles from inventory (particularly handy in cases where you haven’t friended someone, and so don’t have to use search to locate them), or initiating an IM conference call.

One of the many calling cards issues - spawning multiple copies of the same card (images via Jessica Lyon)
One of the many calling cards issues – spawning multiple copies of the same card (images via Jessica Lyon)

However, within v3-style viewer they can also be annoying, as they have a tendency to multiple for no readily apparent reason. People can often have a set of calling cards under the Calling Cards folder, which can be partially replicated in the Friends sub-folder, and then fully replicated in the All sub-folder beneath that, for example. Or individual cards can get spawned multiple times across one or more folders for no readily apparent reason.

The problem here is that having a high load of calling cards can generate problems logging-in to SL, where they run out of curl multihandles, causing log-in to hang or for them to disconnect on logging-in. This can usually be solved through … wait for it … disabling HTTP Inventory and then logging-in and deleting them, but this may not be an option in the future (see the notes at the start of this report). Given that calling cards get re-spawned following a re-log after deletion, and can start multiplying again, Oz noted in the SUG meeting that they are now an area “worthy of some study”.

Rendering / Rezzing Failures and the CDN

In week #13 I reported on rendering / rezzing issues being experienced by some people in the Florida / Alabama region of the USA. Since that time, the Lab’s investigations through the CDN provider have suggested the the ISP in question (Mediacom) has degraded the service, possibly due to the volume of traffic coming from the CDN. This was a concern voiced early-on during the CDN implementation, but this appears to be the first time such a move has been confirmed. In the forum thread on the matter, which has seen more input on the situation, Monty Linden has offered some interim ideas that may help users experiencing problems, while also emphasising the Lab is still working with the CDN providers to further refine the service.

SL Project updates week 13/2: TPV Developer meeting – HTTP, VMM and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Matoluta Sanctuary, Sartre; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Matoluta Sanctuary (Flickr) – blog post

The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, March 27th,  a video of which is included towards the end of the article (my thanks as always to North for recording it and providing it for embedding), and from the Server Beta meeting held on Thursday, March 26th. Any time stamps contained within the following text refer to the TPV developer meeting video.

Server Deployments Week 13 – Recap

As always, please refer to the deployment thread in the forums for the latest updates / news.

  • On Tuesday, March 24th, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package deployed to the three RCs in week 12, comprising updates which allow the Lab to make various configuration changes without having to necessarily run a rolling restart when they have done so. It contains not actual functional changes to the simulator software
  • On Wednesday, March 25th, the three RC channels received the same new server maintenance package, which is focused on inventory loss issues, and provides the Lab with better error detection and logging, improving their ability to look at some of the failure places and the removal of unused code. This updates does not remove the server-side messaging used in support of RTLP.

SL Viewer Update

Avatar Layers Project Viewer

Vir Linden’s work on a new global limit for system layer clothing was released as a project viewer, version 3.7.26.299805. With this viewer, a user can wear any combination of clothing layers (wearables), up to a maximum of 60, rather than being limited to (in general, and as with the official viewer) to a maximum of 5 items per layer type. Note that these changes do not apply to body part wearables (skin, shape, hair, eyes), for which the limit is still one of each, and do not affect attachments, for which the limit is still 38 total.

[07:18] There is already an update in the pipe for this viewer, which should be appearing next week.

Camera Positioning / Handling

[05:12] While there are no specific details as yet, the lab is hoping to put some work into improving camera positioning and handling in the not too distant future, in the hope of removing various glitches and issues.

Build Tools Viewer

[05:54] There have been a few fixes added to this viewer (currently version 3.7.26.299443), so a further update to the release candidate version is with the Lab’s QA team and should be appearing in week #14 (week commencing Monday, March 30th).

Maintenance Release Viewer

[06:29] Currently at version 3.7.26.299845, the latest Maintenance release viewer has a range of issues, many of which have hopefully been addressed with a series of fixes, so an update to that viewer is also with the Lab’s QA team. However, given the scope of the updates, it is proving a little harder to pass the QA process.

Experience Tools Viewer

[06:50] The Experience Keys / Tools viewer (currently version 3.8.0.299338) is being merged-up with the latest release version of the viewer code (version 3.7.26.299635). The updated version should also be appearing (again as an RC) in week #14.

Viewer Code

[17:27 – 19:50] There is an interesting discussion on the viewer code which, for anyone interested in how the viewer has developed over the years, and how much of it dates back some 14 years.

Viewer-Managed Marketplace

[00:00] There was a pile-on test of the new Viewer-Managed Marketplace capability on Aditi in week #12, and Brooke Linden was at the TPV Developer meeting to provide feedback. The pile-on test did not reveal any significant issues in terms of performance.

However, there is still a viewer / simulator / marketplace  communications issue which has to be resolved, which may take another couple of weeks to fix. After that, there are two grid deployments which need to take place: one for the VMM code itself, and one for updates to the Advanced Inventory System (AIS), so it is unlikely VMM will be fully deployed within the next month to two month, and the project viewer (currently version 3.7.25.298865) is unlikely to progress through a release candidate to release status until after the server components have been deployed.

Group Chat

Simon Linden has been working on significant improvements to the group chat service
Simon Linden has been working on significant improvements to the group chat service

[07:32] Simon Linden has been continuing to work on the group chat code, and all of his current updates should have been deployed to the back-end group chat servers. A broad consensus is that the issues which recently occurred as a result of some changes have been reversed, and that the group chat service as a whole is now running a lot better, both in terms of the early performance improvements Simon made, and with regards to the overall stability of the service and the servers.

[08:24] There is a further round of updating in the planning, but these require a platform upgrade to be carried out for the group chat service first. Therefore, unless unless the latest set of updates deployed by the Lab start to show issues, the engineering team will be switching focus for the immediate future, and will return to working on group chat once the necessary upgrade work has been completed.

Experience Keys  / Tools

[09:20] One of the items the engineering team want to focus on in particular is Experiences, and getting the remaining back-end issues sorted out so that Experiences can be properly deployed.

Voice Updates

[09:59] There will be a further round of voice updates which are expected to appear in a project viewer “shortly”. They include (but are not limited to) things like general code clean-up to prevent unnecessary list loading, removal of media messaging in person-to-person calls (which has never worked), fixes for issues related to microphone volume and improvements to the microphone test so that you can now hear yourself when testing your microphone, and improvements for hot swapping microphones / headsets.

[13:58] There is some confusion over whether or not a fix to voice designed to prevent someone’s voice channel being “left behind” when teleporting between regions has actually worked. It had been thought that the fix for this had been deployed in later 2014. However, bug reports are still being made still reporting issues (see BUG-8543 and STORM-2109), prompting the Lab to re-examine the status of the fix.

[19:54] Voice package updates from Vivox are also expected to be forthcoming in the future as well.

Restore To Last Position (RTLP)

Oz Linden - keeping an eye on feedback through the Firestorm blog on "restore to last position"
Oz Linden – keeping an eye on feedback through the Firestorm blog on “restore to last position”

[21:08] There have been around 400 responses to the Firestorm call for feedback on how people use the Restore To Last Position functionality found in some TPVs. As I’ve previously reported, the Lab had been considering deprecating the server-side message RTLP uses as an overall part of on-going work to reduce the amount of inventory loss issues (real or perceived) which can occur.

Firestorm’s call is helping the Lab to better understand how, as faulty as it might be, RTLP does fulfil a range of useful / valid use cases. Commenting on the fact the he has been reading through the feedback, Oz Linden said:

[21:49] Well, I understand that there are user scenarios that need to be addressed and need to be better supported. Whether the existing feature is the way to do that or not, I still consider to be an open question. I do want to take those use cases and work back through that process [of determining how best to serve them].

So the Lab still isn’t going to do anything “quickly” either way on RTLP, and people needn’t worry about RTLP vanishing / breaking “suddenly”.

In the meantime, they are working on other changes intended to address various rezzing failure situations. This work is more server-side focused, although it may be a while before updates appear on the grid as the exact nature of the updates is still being determined.

[23:42] Oz also again thanked everyone who responded to the Lab’s call for feedback on inventory losses in general, defining the feedback as “really, really useful”.

Continue reading “SL Project updates week 13/2: TPV Developer meeting – HTTP, VMM and more” →

SL project updates week 13/1: server, RTLP and misc news

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments Week 13

As always, please refer to the deployment thread in the forums for the latest updates / news.

  • On Tuesday, March 24th, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package deployed to the three RCs in week 12, comprising updates which allow the Lab to make various configuration changes without having to necessarily run a rolling restart when they have done so. It contains not actual functional changes to the simulator software
  • On Wednesday, March 25th, the three RC channels should all receive the same new server maintenance package, which is focused on inventory loss issues, and provides the Lab with better error detection and logging, improving their ability to look at some of the failure places and the removal of unused code.

SL Viewer

On Tuesday, March 24th the Avatar Hover Height (AHH) viewer, version 3.7.26.299635 became the de facto release viewer. Avatar Hover Height is a new feature that allows you to adjust the vertical position of your avatar within some preset limits. This is a purely graphical tweak that does not affect your position for physics purposes. For it to work properly, both you and observers watching you need to be running a supported viewer.

You can find out more information view the wiki page and / or via my overview of AHH.

Now in the release viewer: Avatar Hover Height provides a means of adjusting your avatar's graphical height above the ground / floor / objects, as seen by yourself and others
Now in the release viewer: Avatar Hover Height provides a means of adjusting your avatar’s graphical height above the ground / floor / objects, as seen by yourself and others, on-the-fly

A very slight peculiarity with AHH, which seems to work very well, that if you have camera angle moved to the “default” view looking out from behind your avatar by hitting ESC to reset your camera angle, and use the AHH function, it can also change your camera angle. However this doesn’t happen if you’re using any other camera position at the time you alter your height using AHH. This appears to be because there is some interact between the avatar’s height and the default camera position which might be expected behaviour, and may be looked at again in the future. In the meantime, it doesn’t impinge on the overall functionality of AHH.

Restore to Last Position

Note that the RC update is does not include any deprecation of the server-side message used by the restore to last position code (RLTP) used by TPVs.

Commenting on the status of any removal of the server-side support for RTLP (see here for background on this) during the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 24th, Simon Linden said, “We haven’t done anything about RTLP  and it’s still officially unsupported.   There’s a long list of issues that would really make that feature work.   It would be really nice, but it’s not just fix-one-bug.”

Oz Linden then added, “We won’t disable it completely without fair warning at the TPV meeting. What I’ve done so far is just ask questions – it doesn’t count as fair warning :-).”

 Other Items

Mesh Uploader

There is currently a mesh uploader project viewer (version 3.7.25.298441), which includes various improvements to the uploader, and which will most likely be progressing through to RC status and to a release status over time. However, there are still further requests for the uploader to be improved in terms of the information it displays, two of which are:

  • Better capabilities for zooming the model preview window after using the scale option, so that if the preview image is enlarged the user can zoom out further than is currently possible
  • The ability to provide an actual LI calculation while using the custom physics model upload, rather than just a convex hull measurement (see VWR-28177 “Enable Prim physics-shape-type physics weight display in upload floater”).

Both of these were raised at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday March 24th; which doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily be acted upon, but while the Lab is tinkering with the uploader, it does bring both matters back to the Lab’s attention.

SL project updates week 12/1: server, RTLP, viewer translation tool

Posted on by Inara Pey
Tugby! Rugby with tugboats - blog post
Tugby! Rugby with tugboats – blog post

Server Deployments Week 12

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates and information on the week’s roll-outs.

  • On Tuesday, March 17th, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package previously deployed to the three RC channels.  This comprises “internal improvements for premium users”
  • On Wednesday, March 18th, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package, comprising various internal fixes for the simulator code.

Commenting on the RD deployment at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 16th, Simon Linden said, “the code going to RC tomorrow doesn’t have anything you will notice, but helps us when we want to make some configuration changes.” Oz Linden followed-up his comment by adding, “that is to say, it allows us to make changes we used to have to roll code to make.”

Other Items

Restore to Last Position (RTLP)

As noted in my last SL projects update report, the Lab is considering deprecating the last of the simulator messaging support for the “restore to last position” (RTLP) functionality, which can still be found in some TPVs and can, albeit with some undesirable results, depending upon how it is used, to restore an item directly from inventory  and return it to its last recorded in-world position, relative to the region in which the user is standing.

Because the Lab are considering the future of the simulator-side support for the capability, and also as I’ve reported, the Firestorm team is seeking use cases from users on how RTLP is useful, in the hope of presenting the Lab with a reasoned argument on why RTLP, or some similar capability should be retained / provided.

Oz Linden - keeping an eye on feedback through the Firestorm blog on "restore to last position"
Oz Linden – keeping an eye on feedback through the Firestorm blog on “restore to last position”

Commenting on the effort, Oz Linden said, “I’ve been following that. some are supportable, other not so much. Very good food for thought, though, and at least as far as I’ve gotten … people are heeding the request to be civil and non-hyperbolic. I really appreciated that.”

Also commenting on RTLP, Simon said, “What I’ve always wondered with that … the viewer really has a lot of info to do this better. It seems like it could record a list of things as they are removed from a region, then later put them back and give you better feedback on what works and what doesn’t.”

A number of possible approaches to handling cases currently managed by RTLP were also raised during the discussion, but these were just ideas, although they were listened to positively by Oz and Simon. However, this does necessarily mean the Lab will not deprecate the simulator support required for RTLP at some point in the future as a part of dealing with inventory loss issues, or that they’ll necessarily replace it with other functionality. But they are listening and reading.

So again, if you do have a good, concise use case for RTLP which hasn’t so far been reported on the Firestorm blog post’s comments (not here!), do make sure you hop over there and write it up.

Viewer Translation Tool Issue

Nalates Urriah reports that the translation option within the SL viewer (and used by TPVs) is effectively broken for those wishing to use it for the first time (see: BUG-8794 “The Bing API used by the viewer is depreciated [sic]”).

This isn’t an issue within the viewer per se; rather it is a result of the older Bing translation tool WPI / widget having been deprecated by Microsoft, and the means to access it removed from the web page to which users are directed on clicking the Bing API link within Preferences > Chat  > Translation in the viewer.

However, this isn’t a matter of the Lab simply correcting the link used within the viewer; deprecating the “old” translation service means that any keys obtained by following links to the “new” service will not verify through the API currently used by the viewer, thus preventing the Bing translation service being used.

Microsoft have deprecated the existing Bing translation API / widget with the result that new translation keys will not work within the translation function in the viewer (official and those TPVs using the Lab's translate options)
Microsoft have deprecated the existing Bing translation API / widget with the result that new translation keys will not work within the translation function in the viewer (official and those TPVs using the Lab’s translate options)

However, as noted in both the notes from Microsoft, and in comments accompanying BUG-8794, existing verification key previously obtained using the “old” Bing API are still supported, and will still work; thus, this issue only impacts those trying to obtain a new key. As this matter has just been reported, there is no word from the Lab on how it might be handled.

SL projects update week 11/2: TPV Developer meeting + misc news

Posted on by Inara Pey

Armenelos, Calas Galadhon; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr The Shire (Flickr) – blog post

The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, March 13th,  a video of which is included at the end of the article (my thanks as always to North for recording it and providing it for embedding), and any time stamps contained within the following text refer to it.

Server Deployments Week 11 – Recap

As always, please refer to the sever deployment thread for the latest updates and information.

  • There was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, March 10th
  • On Wednesday, March 11th, all three RC channels received the same new server maintenance package comprising “internal improvements for premium users”.

SL Viewer

The Avatar Hover Height viewer reached the release channel on March 10th, with the release of an RC version (3.7.26.299635). Avatar Hover Height allows you to adjust the vertical position of your avatar within some preset limits. See the wiki page and my overview.

This brings the total number of RC viewers in the viewer release channel to four, however:

  • [0:41] It is unlikely the Maintenance RC viewer (currently version 3.7.26.299610, released on March 6th) will be promoted without further update, as it has been found to contain a significant number of additional bugs which require fixing
  • [0:51] As the Avatar Hover Height RC viewer has only just been released, it is unlikely that the Lab will have enough stats on it to judge whether or not it can be promoted to the de facto release viewer in the immediate future; it is therefore likely to remain at RC status for at least another week, although initial reports suggest it is stable and doesn’t hide any unpleasantness
  • [01:07] The back-end support for Experience Keys / Tools still isn’t ready for the service to go live, although the Lab is making further progress with whatever needed to be done; it is therefore remains unlikely the that Experience Keys viewer (currently version 3.8.0.299338, released on March 9th) will be promoted to the de facto release viewer until such time as the remaining back-end work has been completed.

Tools Update Viewer and XP Users

[01:20] This potentially means that the Tools Update RC viewer (currently version 3.7.26.299443, released on March 4th) may be promoted to the de facto release viewer in week #12.

When this happens, it will obviously mean that all future builds of the official viewer will be made using the new tool chain and autobuild process. This in turn means that any Windows version of the viewer built using the new tools set (which includes MS visual Studio 2013)  will not run on any version (32-, or 64-bit) version of Windows XP. To this end, the installer is being set so that it requires a minimum of Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 installed, in order for it to successfully install the viewer.

Note that this is not a deliberate attempt to block XP users from Second Life; it is purely the result of the Lab moving towards the use of up-to-date tools for building the viewer (and which will yield positive benefits elsewhere, such as with greater tool commonality between the Lab and TPVs), and some of these tools do not support windows XP due to its age and it no longer being actively supported by Microsoft.

[16:54] Some TPVs may investigate / opt to build the viewer somewhat manually using the new tool chain in such a way that it can be used on XP, but this is reportedly requires a “very large amount of work” to achieve, requires a lot of command line input, an avoidance of VS 2013, and is “really hacky”.

Project Viewers

    • [03:28] The Viewer-Managed Marketplace project viewer (currently version 3.7.25.298865, released on February 13th) is liable to be updated in week #12 as a result of further fixes and updates that came out of the last round of testing
    • [04:20] The Mesh Importer project viewer (currently version 3.7.25.298441, released on February 3rd), is currently undergoing further update with new fixes and will be updated as a project viewer in the near future.

 

Avatar Layers Global Limit

Vir Linden - working on the new wearable layers code
Vir Linden – working on the new wearable layers code

[04:41] In response to  BUG-6258, “Popularity of Mesh Attachments Facilitates Need For More Alpha Layers”,  the Lab is working to implement a new “global” limit to the number of system clothing layers an avatar can wear.

Under the current system, there are 12 types of clothing layers or wearables (alpha, tattoo, undershirt, shirt, jacket, underpants, pants, gloves, socks,  skirts, shoes, and physics), with (generally) up to 5 of each type of wearable able to be worn at the same time, giving a maximum of 60 wearables that can worn simultaneously.

Under the new code being developed by Vir Linden, a new “global” limit of 60 wearable layers is being set per avatar, and users will be able to wear any number / combination of layers up to that limit (so you could opt to wear 60 jacket layers if you wanted, or 10 each of alpha, shirt, pants, gloves, jacket and socks, for example).

This update requires changes to both the viewer and to the server-side Appearance (SSA) service. The viewer-side changes are updates to the viewer’s logic, so it is purely checking the number of worn layers against the global limit of 60, rather than limits set for individual layers. The SSA changes will similarly support the new “global” use of clothing layers, but will also continue to support the 5-per-layer limit for viewers that do not adopt the newer code, or require a longer lead time in order to adopt the new viewer code, once it is available, thus providing a measure of “back compatibility”. The viewer code is expected to appear in a project viewer once it, and the back-end changes have cleared the Lab’s QA team.

Group Chat

[09:29]  As noted in my recent updates, changes made to the group change service in the last two weeks unexpectedly resulted in up to 20% of messages failing to be delivered correctly. Simon Linden spent a fair amount of time during week #10 stabilising things and delivering further updates to try to correct the problem. As a result, in what has been called an “educational” two weeks for the Lab, the situation has been largely reversed, although some problems still remain.

The Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, March 12th, saw a further set of updates from Simon undergo testing on the Beta grid, and during the TPV Developer meeting on Friday, March 13th, Oz indicated that the Lab will probably undertake a further round of “serious” upgrading of all the technology associated with group chat before they declare the project in any way “finished”. This will likely involve putting the back-end service support group chat on more up-to-date hardware and OS environments.

Continue reading “SL projects update week 11/2: TPV Developer meeting + misc news” →

SL project news week 11/1: server, viewer, group chat

Posted on by Inara Pey

Armenelos, Calas Galadhon; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Armenelos, Calas Galadhon (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deployments Week 11

As always, please refer to the sever deployment thread for the latest updates and information.

  • There was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, March 10th
  • On Wednesday, March 11th, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package comprising “internal improvements for premium users”.

When asked during the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 10th whether the “internal improvements for premium users” was related to the change to the in-world receipt of off-line IMs, as mentioned at the last SBUG meeting, Simon Linden could only say, “I’m not supposed to announce anything, so I can’t go into details … but one thing we’re looking at this year is ways to make premium accounts better. This may or may not do something like that eventually.”

SL Viewer Updates

A new Maintenance RC viewer, version 3.7.26.299610,was released on March 6th. This includes multiple fixes and improvements as listed on the release notes and download page.

The Experience Keys viewer updated to version 3.8.0.299338 on Monday, March 9th, maintaining parity with the current release viewer.

Experience Tools

Although the Experience Tools viewer has been updated (see above), there is still no news on when Experiences might be fully deployed. In order to help build interest in Experiences a suggestion has been put forward to enable Experiences to be rated in terms of the number of people actively joining them (see BUG-6911), which could be optionally shown (at the Experience creator’s discretion in things like search listings, allowing people to judge Experiences by their popularity.

The Lab has considered allowing users to rate Experience themselves in a future update – but as point out in the JIRA comments, such a system could be open to gaming, much like the old avatar popularity ratings. BUG-6911 has been imported by the Lab, but it is currently unclear if the idea will be carried forward.

Group Chat

As also noted in my last updates, recent changes to the group chat service have seen up to a 20% failure rate in delivered messages. Simon Linden spent a fair amount of time during week #10 stabilising things once more, and notes that the situation taught the Lab more about how things might fail. He currently has a set of updates which may further improve things, and these are liable to be tested at the next Server Beta User Group meeting.

Other Items

Names Vanishing from Ban Lists

There have been reports of avatars added to a region / estate ban list or have been previously muted suddenly dropped from the list without an action on the part of the list owner. This might be connected to the old issue of bans made using radar on some older versions of v1-style viewers (notably Phoenix) failing to “stick”, or it may be something else, such as a failure to correctly update a ban / mute list.

Commenting on the subject at the Simulator User Group meeting, Simon said, “we’ve heard reports of that and have looked into it … if you ever can narrow down an instance of that happening, please note it in a JIRA … Our logs will record info about those changing but we have to know where and when to look

“I’m making wild guesses, but I think it would be either the viewer or the simulator making an update to the ban list, and somehow having bad data.   Perhaps an incomplete list gets into the picture, and using that as a basis for the update it drops people.   Our logs will show events like “MrNoisy was added” and “MrGoodBehaviour was removed” but finding the event is the missing part of the puzzle.

“If you have multiple regions in the estate, there’s another issue of having the changes sent out to all the regions.   We’ve seen failures there and I know it’s been worked on a few times (and suspected in some of these reports).”

So, if you do encounter a situation involving an apparent ban list failure, and can log the exact circumstances / details, please consider raising a bug report.