Category: SL User Group Meetings

2022 CCUG and TPVD meetings week #5 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Carrowmore, January 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from:

  • My audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, February 3rd 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and meeting dates can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.
  • My audio recording and the Video recording by Pantera (embedded at the end of this piece) from the Third-Party Viewer Developer (TPVD) meeting on Friday, February 4th, 2022.

So this document forms a summary of the key topics discussed, and in the case of the TPVD meeting, timestamps to the relevant point of the video are included.

Available Viewers

[Video: 0:19-0:52 + notes from CCUG]

This list reflects the currently available official Second Life viewers.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The Maintenance J&K RC viewer is likely the next viewer to gain promotion as the de facto release viewer.
  • The Performance Improvements viewer is close to being ready for promotion to RC status, and is just pending some remaining bug fixes.
    • This viewer did have changes to alpha sorting for rigged attachment, but following reports of content breakage as a result of this change, which was more a technical change than a performance enhancement, it has now been reverted to expected alpha sorting behaviour to avoid the breakage issue. Instead, possible alternative approaches will be looked at in the future.
    • A future version of this viewer is to include a new UI element intended to help make adjustments to some of the high-impact graphics settings to help improve frame rates,
  • LL is also completing work to switch the viewer over to using Python 3.

Viewer Multi-Factor Authentication Support – TPVD

[Video: 0:53-23:00]

Background

  • In September 2021, Linden Lab introduced multi-factor authentication (MFA) utilising either a QA code + mobile device or a key number, for those pages of the SL website that provide access to users’ account information (see: Second Life Multi-Factor Authentication: the what and how, September 2021).
  • When introduced, it was indicated that over time, the use of MFA would be expanded and improved, and would eventually include the viewer as well.
  • Brad Linden is now working on implementing MFA for the viewer.

What This Means

  • The work has reached a point where LL is close to having a viewer with MFA support ready for initial testing (as defined by  see: SL Wiki: Login MFA), together with updates to the back-end log-in service to support it.
  • Viewer MFA will be based on users opting in to the capability via the secondlife.com dashboard, as described in the blog posted linked to above.
  • It is  recognised that TPVs will need time to integrate the necessary viewer-side code into their offerings, therefore:
    • There will be a grace period between the initial introduction of the code in the official viewer and a time when all viewers / clients access Second Life will be required to support MFA to allow users who have opted-in to MFA to continue logging-in to SL.
    • During this grace period, all users on a TPV will be able to access Second Life, regardless of whether or not they have opted into MFA.
    • After the grace period has expired, all TPVs will be expected to support MFA, and those users on them who have opted in to MFA will be required to authenticate themselves when using the viewer to log-in to Second Life (with the use 30-day period of valid authentication, as per secondlife.com MFA).
    • During the grace period, users on TPVs that switch to support MFA will likewise need to start authenticating themselves when logging-in to SL.
  • Again, this will only affect users who have opted into MFA (unless LL at some point decides all user must use MFA to access SL).
  • MFA on the viewer will be a blanket action – there will be no additional MFA authentication for actions such as buying Linden Dollars through the viewer.
  • Using MFA when logging-in to the viewer will not automatically also authenticate you on secondlife.com or vice-versa.

There was a broader discussion on providing alternative mechanisms by which users can opt-in and use MFA – such as e-mail – rather than relating on a mobile device and authenticator software. Such decisions fall outside the realm of the viewer development team, and so could not be answered directly (however LL have stated  additional / alternate methods of authentication will be added to the system at some point in the future).

In Brief

Content Creation Meeting

  • BUG-231731 “Script text quality and performance” prompted questions on how it might be implemented given it has been accepted. Vir pointed out that “Accepted” does not necessarily mean it a Feature Request will be implemented forthwith, and as such, it will be raised for discussion once it has reached a point where LL is considering working on it.
  • BUG-229205 “Re-enable PRIM_CAST_SHADOWS” came up for discussion, it is believed that the viewer-side code for it has been deprecated / removed, and the server also no longer recognises the function.
    • Runitai Linden suggested it is something that should be re-enabled on the grounds that it is “something that most graphics engines let you do.”
    • However, any final decision will be subject to further internal discussions within LL.
  • Request: allow seated avatars to temporarily have a physics shape of none if explicitly set by script (potential use-case: an in-world game uses tiny vehicles in a scaled environment to simulate a larger playing field, but as the drivers are normal-sized avatars, they cause collisions between one another, impairing gameplay; disabling the avatar physics would  in theory prevent this, although it is not clear if such a change would be recognised by the simulator, where it is believed the expectation of avatar physics is  assumed throughout the code).
    • The discussion encapsulated requests such as BUG-5538, the need for an overhaul of the camera control system & better LSL access to same; better joystick control options, and better support for alternative input types.
    • The latter point in turn led to a discussion on wider HID support and even the potential for MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) support (having been a means to provide remote control and synchronisation prior to HID design becoming the “standard”) as a means to transport and synchronise joystick inputs from the viewer to the simulator in a generic, open manner.
    • All of this was spitballing, rather than the formulation of an actual project.

TPV Developer Meeting

  • [Video 26:10-53:10] Animation Override Discussion – TPVD
    • This follows-on from the week #3 TPVD meeting.
    • Essentially what is being sought is a solution similar to the Firestorm AO (but without the apparent overheads) that effectively allows viewer-side replacement of animation states sent by the server with local animations, avoiding the need for scripted HUDS / attachments.
    • Much of the discussion at this meeting is clarifying the original request for Vir Linden’s benefit, although the consensus is that official a cap replacement for llSetAnimationOverride and allowing TPVs to implement their own viewer-side AO UI elements would be a good start.
    • Once this has been done, then discussion can turn to the more complex issue of adding further animation states.
    • A Cap and viewer-side controls will not fully eliminate scripted AOs (particularly in the case of non-human AO walks, sits stands, for example), but this shouldn’t negate the provisioning of a Cap.
    • Please refer to the video for the discussion – much of which is in text chat.

February 2022 Web User Group summary: Marketplace

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022.

These meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!). Again, the following is a summary of key topics / discussions, not a full transcript of everything mentioned.

January Work Summary

[Video: 2:00-6:15]

  • Destination Guide:
    • A face-lift for the look of the Destination Guide.
    • Back-end infrastructure work on the DG to make it “easier and more effective” for the Lab to maintain, and to lay the foundations to build now functionality going forward (e.g. improved support for TPVs); restructuring of widgets; improvements to place rankings.
    • These updates should be deployed during February.
  • Marketplace variants (e.g. different colour variants for an item in a single listing):
    • Infrastructure work is now in progress.
    • Work has also started on designs for how listings will work.
    • No date / time-frame for when this will be delivered – but possibly Q2 2022.
  • Part of January’s work has been focused on OS and code updates to keep everything up-to-date.

Search Improvements Project Update

  • The third-party team who will be supporting the work to overhaul Search is now on-board with the Lab.
  • This means the project to overhaul Search has now started, and is liable to run for the next 6 months or so.
  • As previously noted, the aim of the work is to make Search functionality / results more meaningful / relevant.

Marketplace Q&A

[Video: 7:27-20:49]

  • The idea for this is to have an Amazon-style Q&A section on Marketplace listings similar to that seen on Amazon, where questions on a product can be asked and answered either by the creator (or their store managers) or by those who have actually purchased the item.
  • Views against this included:
    • Some Content creators have external social media groups or in-world groups to address questions, etc., so a Q&A section just adds to these channels.
    • Some creators feel they are dealing with enough “spam” and “crap” (words used), and a Q&A section just adds to it.
    • Some creators use alt accounts for different brands they run, and don’t keep their alts active beyond creating listings, so they “are not going to see Q&As”.
  • A suggested alternative was to have amore of a “live chat” feature or a link to contact the creator so that people can talk directly to a creator / store manager.
    • This would appear to suffer many of the “cons” noted above: what about stores run by alts that are not logged-in? A “live chat” capability forms yet another channel of communication; it requires always being logged-in to the MP, etc.
    • It could also potentially be an abuse vector.
    • It misses the potential for a Q&A section to double as a form of FAQ – common questions asked are right their in front of customer’s eyes (if they choose to read them).
  • One creator at the meeting did point out it could be very helpful to newer users, in allowing them to ask questions without the need to try and find whatever alternative channel  – in-world group, Discord channel, etc. – that might be available for questions.
  • It was pointed out that the facility could be made optional: if a creator doesn’t want to have a Q&A section included in a listing (or even an entire store) they could opt to do so.
  • Given the number of unfavourable responses voiced at the meeting, the idea is being taken “back to the drawing board”.

Marketplace Sub-Brands

[Video: 21:03-40:52]

  • Rather than having to use alts to manage listings for their different brands, allowing creators on the Marketplace to have additional stores linked to a “primary” brand name, allowing them to manage all their brands from one account.
  • This would be a much larger project to implement, requiring some substantial infrastructure changes (e.g. the MP is built on the assumption there is one one store per MP account). As such, requests for such a capability have previously been turned down.
  • There was some confusion in the meeting as to what the difference would be between “store” and “sub-brand” and how they might be used.
  • There were also what amounted to two different use-cases:
    • Some would like the capability to run multiple individual stores from just the one account, rather than having to run different store through alt accounts (e.g. a store for their horse-related goods, a store for their motorcycle products, etc), with the option to link between stores if they wanted, and with ease-of-access to the stores from one Marketplace account dashboard.
    • Others expressed more of a “department store” style approach with a “flagship” brand, and then sub-brands for products below it (equating to the different departments in a store), allowing them to “break up” their existing store without the risk of losing existing reviews and feedback.
    • A further suggestion what to provide a means for creators to link their alt store accounts to a “main” account, if they so wish – although this does not solve for those wishing to split their existing stores..
  • Both of these approaches were seen as valid, but left the question on how best to approach them. As such, Reed Linden requested time to take the ideas back to the Lab for internal brainstorming + further discussions at future WUG meetings.

In Brief

  • [41:36-42:35] LL are targeting 2022 Q2 (April-June) for the deployment of Premium Plus. Content, cost, etc., will be announced at the time of launch.
  • [48:02-48:50] Despite fees on Event listings, there are still what amounts to adverts appearing within the events listing. Currently, Events are not subject to any work, and so this is still something to be dealt with. However, events are due to be overhauled “in the near future”.
  • It was re-iterated that LL have largely stopped supporting the SL wiki, other than core pages of information relating to things like LSL functions, policy, etc., and there are no plans to move it to HTTPS.

2022 SUG meetings week #5: summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Longing Melody, January 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. No video for this week, as Pantera was unable to attend.

Server Deployments – Restarts Only

All simhosts are being restarted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 (SLS Main channel) and Wednesday, and February 2nd, 2022 (SLS RC channels). No deployments will form a part of the re-starts.

There should hopefully be a new simulator version available for the RC deployments in week #6.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers currently available.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • The core of the meeting was a user-to-user discussion about BUG-231634 “[Feature Request] llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_BODY_SHAPE_HOVER_HEIGHT”, and the exact requirements for calculating and avatar’s position (notably relative to a sit object), where the issues lay, and what needs to be done. However, given the Lab’s response to the feature request, it appears unlikely this will be a focus of work near-term.
  • Leviathan Linden is compiling a list of feature requests that he will likely be tackling as he eases back into working on Second Life. As s first part of this work, he has been looking at requests related to llGetPrimitiveParams(), noting:
I’ve already overhauled the logic to allow me to call the fundamental logic in llGetPrimitiveParams() via llGetObjectDetails() but will have to translate the parameter values. I’m at the point where I’m wondering which should be supported and which should not.

This sparked a discussion on the parameter should be supported, with suggestions including: PRIM_SIZE, PRIM_TEXT, PRIM_BOUNDING_BOX, etc., leaving Leviathan noting:

Well, my inclination would be to expose a few safe parameters to llGetObjectDetails() and add more later after more discussion/feedback.

So expect this to be a discussion for future SUG meetings.

2022 CCUG meeting week #4 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey

Grauland, January 2022 – blog post
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, January 27th 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and meeting dates can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.

Available Viewers

  • The Performance Improvements project viewer updated to version 6.6.0.567604, on Wednesday, January 26th.

The rest of the official viewers remain thus:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
  • Project viewers:
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The Maintenance J+K RC viewer remains the most likely RC to move to de facto release status.

Fix for Long-Standing Animations Bug-11194

BUG-11194 “First frame of uploaded animations is triplicated” has been a long-standing issue (with workarounds) for uploaded BVH animations.

  • Aech Linden (a further transferee from High Fidelity) has been looking at the issue and developing a fix, although it involve a behavioural change for newly-uploaded
  • The explanation was garbled due to an network issue, but it appears the crux of the matter has been due to the way SL handles .BVH animations at upload, there have been two extra frame intervals added to the animation run-time, leading to errors in playback.
  • The fix is to remove the addition of these frame intervals (which occur at the start of the animation with zero interpolation.
    • There is a concern from the Lab that doing it unannounced could cause problems for new BVH uploads that include any workaround in anticipation of hitting the bug. Hence the heads-up on the change.
    • It was noted that a lot of pose stands BVN animations of just one frame, and the proposed fix might result in these giving “random” results from  a pose when new .BVH files are uploaded and placed in them by creators (particularly those using the in-world Anypose tool).
    • The fix will only impact new BVH animations uploaded to SL; it will not affect existing BH animations that have been uploaded.
  • The general feeling at the meeting was that most animators in SL use .ANIM rather than .BVH.
  • Given some of the confusion around the use of .BVH files, it is possible this change will be subject to a project viewer offered up for animators to poke at and provide feedback.

Animation Priorities and Capabilities

  • The ability to set the animation at run-time (rather than relying on the priority set aby the creator) to allow uses to adjust priorities between the animations that are using to avoid conflicts. Nothing is currently planned on this by the Lab, but it has been noted as a reasonable request.
  • It was noted that Firestorm has added the priority and other animation information the the animation playback floater.
Additional animation information Firestorm added to the animation playback floater
  • The core of the discussion focused on options for enabling animation priority changes (and other changes – such as animation speed) were discussed.
  • Changing the animation speed brings with it its own problems, so was tabled.
  • For priority, a manual capability + scripted capabilities were discussed, together with the potential to have options defined by list parameters supplied via the simulator.
  • No conclusions were drawn as to what might be attempted in the future (the animation system is not subject to any planned work) – although it was acknowledged that allowing the animation priority to be displayed by the viewer a-la Firestorm, should be a relatively simple change, were LL to opt for it.

In-World Build Tools

  • There have been numerous requests for the in-world build tools to be updated / improved. Currently, there is no project for this work, but it is something about which feedback was sought.
  • The request was specifically couched in terms of “limited but powerful” updates – so nothing along the lines of implementing a blender-like toolset within the viewer.
  • Feedback included, but was not limited to:
    • A “snap to” option in the existing build tools. (e.g. so a bookcase could be “snapped” against a room wall without having to be manually positioned).
    • The ability for reactors to offer “snap together” kits users can put together (and presumably mod as they go). This would be a more major capability with the ability to define connection points between items.
    • Options to amending particle and prim text properties directly (+ pivot points).
    • More complex asset items that allow “holes” for windows / doors.
    • A visual node system for in-world to allow people to code anything “super quick” (e.g. elements that contain scripted behaviours that can be put together / used in objects, rather than having to write text scripts).
    • Terrain as a prim (the prim is a heightmap texture when used).
    • A form of EEP setting that can be used as a backdrop / “surround” around skyboxes (like a cityscape or mountains in the distance) rather than having to use massive textured sculpties.
  • Support for Marvelous Designer (MD) clothing manipulation (as used by Sansar) was suggested. However, Runitai Linden, who worked on the MD implementation for Sansar described it as technically “not a great fit” for integration into Second Life on the grounds it didn’t work well in a 2D view using a mouse.
  • There has been some talk in LL about hidden surface removal on avatars (e.g. if a part of the body is covered by clothing, remove it rather than expecting it to be manually alpha’d out). However, there are complexities in doing this that may not end up as a “win” if some kind of ability were to be implemented.

In Brief

  • Custom pivot points (note: this was apparently subject to a lengthy discussion at the previous CCUG meeting, which I was unable to attend, so some context from these notes may be missing).
    • Rider linden has been working on simulator support for custom pivot points in avatar meshes. There is still some work to be dome, so there is no time frame when this work may surface on Agni.
    • Custom pivots can be set (and accepted) both at mesh upload or via LSL.
  • The latter part of the meeting was a technical discussion on the avatar skeleton, the morph skeleton, blend shapes, options for overhauling the avatar system, none of which are current projects.
  • Runitai did indicate LL is thinking about is replacing / augmenting the entire avatar imposter system – which is not particularly performant as it can cause viewer frame spikes when someone is camming around and causing avatars in their view to imposter, etc.  This would see avatars + their entire outfit that would be impostered undergo  hidden surface removal and have all attached meshes and materials baked into one meh material which would then be decimated down to as few draw calls and triangles as possible and then render that rather than an imposter.
  • It was confirmed in the meeting that PBR is to be a project, but no time frames on when it will reach a point of visibility.

2022 Land & Concierge meetings – week 4

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Concierge and Land User Group meeting area

The Concierge & Land user group meeting is generally held on the 4th Wednesday of the month “intended for discussion & education of SL topics such as current known issues and bugs, project viewers and new features, and general Mainland issues.” Attending the Wednesday, 26th January, 2022 meeting from the Lab were Wendi, Izzy and Vix Linden.

Please note, this is a summary, not a full transcript – so only those topics related to SL services, etc., managed / provided by the Lab on which there is general discussion and feedback from the Lab staff at the meeting are recorded below. For general audience comments, non-LL topics (such as TPVs) please refer to the video by Pantera embedded at the end of this article, and my thanks to her as always for recording the meetings.

2021 Review of the Year

[Video: 2:55-6:12]

Vix Linden raised the Lab’s December 2021 blog post looking back at 2021 and ahead to 2022.

  • Highlighted the upcoming new features – avatar expressiveness, Premium Plus, Mobile solution new user avatar customisation, script improvements, etc.
  • Noted that there are no ETAs for any of the work (although improvements in scripts running on simulators has been an improvement due to the recent tool update), as it is all either in progress or in the planning stages.
  • Pointed to the fact that with the Uplift transitional work completed, 2021 allows LL to focus on bedding-in services on AWS and starting to offer performance improvements.

High Fidelity Spatial Audio and Vivox

[Video: 6:34-8:52]

  • Following the announcement that High Fidelity Inc, has invested in Linden Research (money, skills sets and patents) there was speculation  – emphasis intentional, as some of it has been on this blog – that High Fidelity’s spatial audio might at some future point be integrated into Second Life.
  • In response to questions on this, the general feedback from the Lindens at the meeting was that this currently isn’t being planned or discussion in-house, and that as such, voice will remain on Vivox for at least the foreseeable future.

Simulator Updates

[Video: 20:44-23:03]

  • Vix re-iterated that the script performance improvements currently being seen is part of an overall “re-tooling” project that has been underway for some time that has involved changes to the hardware configurations used by the simhost servers and changes to the simulator code to better leverage the AWS servers and their supporting infrastructure.
  • In short: lower script time in the simulator stats (CTRL-SHIFT-1) – so 5ms instead of 15ms = script run improvements.
  • As noted via the official blog post on the subject and via my weekly Simulator User Group summaries, this change should manifest in better script run times and improved overall performance within a region.
  • A cautionary note with this is that with these improvements may come increased throttling elsewhere within the code (e.g. such as with, but not limited to, remote services accessed via llHTTPRequest), or where regions were already until a heavy script load.
  • Also referenced the deprecation of various older protocols (e.g. 1.0 and TLS 1.1, libopenmetaverse).

In Brief

  • [11:52-12:33] The research questionnaire referenced in this official blog post were mentioned, and the fact that the e-mails containing it (for those who receive them) will be coming from  research@secondlife.com, which is a legitimate Lab e-mail address. It was also stressed that the Lab will never request user divulge things like account passwords within this type of e-mail contact.
  • [16:22-16:50] Mention is made of the Tilia Inc., / Unity partnership announced on Wednesday, January 26th that will see Unity make Tilia’s services available to their community of developers – see the official press release and my own blog post for more.
  • [17:50-20:00] background was given to the Lab’s approach to employing outside of the United States, having offices elsewhere in the world, etc. The comments were predicated on some noting that Tilia Inc., (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linden Research) has / has had a registered office in the UK since 2017. This segued into a discussion of LL providing 24/7 coverage by staff and the cost of doing so.
  • [31:07-32:10] A re-iteration to the changes made of off-line e-mail notification preferences (also see: Lab announces change to e-mail preferences for Group notices), and which came into effect from December 15th, 2021 – with a note that future options to control receipt of certain notifications via e-mail might be added at some point in the future.
    • There have been some reports that altering the settings can prevent the receipt of all off-line notifications via e-mail – which may well be confusion over setting the check boxes;  a request was made for people to double-check their settings (links in both blog posts above) if they are encountering problems in receiving off-line notifications.
  • [35:19-36:30] A reminder that the Valentines Shop and Hop event is on the horizon (Wednesday, February 2nd through Tuesday, February 15th, 2022), and that there will likely be the usual Valentines themed Last Names, the Hug a Linden, etc., activities, and so on.
  • [37:52-42:05] There are currently no known plans to extended the region / parcel ban list to support large numbers of names – those feeling it needs to be extended are asked to file a feature request jira.
    • Izzy Linden also indicated he has submitted an internal request to have listed automatically updated on the basis of account status (e.g. for accounts flagged as Closed are automatically removed from ban lists).
    • Izzy also warned about the “airlock” issue (as Izzy calls it) that could accidentally exclude people from region / parcel access (wherein there are allow / ban lists at both the region level and the parcel level, both of which have to be checked, but before the check is complete, users on slower connections time-out on their attempt to reach the region / parcel and so cannot reach it).
  • [54:50-56:40] In response to a question on the general mood at the Lab in the wake of recent changes / announcement, all they Lindens at the meeting indicated that they are personally “very charged” (positive) towards the direction in which SL is moving (including the move to AWS and what is being planned / implemented).

2022 SUG meetings week #4: Restart issues +Andrew Linden returns

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, January 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary. Note this summary focuses on the key points of the meeting; where there is something to report, the video should be referred to should full details of the meeting need to be reviewed.

Server Deployments – Main SLS Channel Restart Issue

Despite being updated in week #3 with simulator version – 567269  – and with no RC update available for deployment, the SLS Main channel simhosts went through a restart on Tuesday, January 25th – and ran into a problem, with many regions remaining down for far longer than expected.

  • No detailed explanation for the issue has been given as yet other than, “one of our internal systems got a bit confused about what was started and what needed to be started.”
  • However, the issue was not in any way related to the simulator version itself, so no danger of the improvements it contains being rolled back.
  • Wulf Linden noted that the situation has provided LL with a lot of data that will hopefully allow them to “smooth out the pavement for the future.”

At the time of writing, any deployment to the RC channels for Wednesday, January, 26th was still TBA. Check the Second Life Server section of the forums for any possible announcement.

Available Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers available.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version  6.5.3.567451 issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
  • Project viewers:
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.5.2.566967, dated December 17.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

The Return of Andrew (Leviathan) Linden

The first person Philip Rosedale hired when establishing Linden Research (aka Linden Lab) was one Andrew Meadows. As Andrew Linden, he was pretty much the lead engineer for the server side of things, hosting what was the Tuesday Server and Scripting Meeting, (alongside Simon Linden) which later became the Simulator User Group Meeting. Andrew departed Linden Lab at the end of 2013 to join Rosedale at his (then) new venture, High Fidelity Inc.

Following news that High Fidelity had invested in Linden Lab (in what is increasingly looking like an informal merger) and that around seven High Fidelity staff were moving to work on Second Life, I pondered whether Andrew might be among them – and even publicly mused if indeed he would be in a later post on that subject.

Well, turns out he has, but under a new Linden name, that of Leviathan Linden. Appearing at the Simulator User Group Meeting on Tuesday, January 25th as Leviathan, Andrew has some trying to guess (good naturedly) at the reason for the name change – including having forgotten his old password! However, the explanation was simple, as he indicated whilst also noting the areas he’ll initially be working on.

Leviathan was the name I wish I had picked years ago. It seemed like a good pick for a new beginning. I’ll be working on simulator stuff. I’m getting back on my feet by fixing bugs and implementing small features.

Leviathan Linden (formerly known as Andrew Linden)

His appearance at the SUG meeting was positively received, as was the news he’ll once again be working on simulator-related projects. Which just leaves me room to say, “welcome back, Leviathan!”

In Brief

  • Following the reports of teleport disconnects / general region crossing issues, a further Jira has been filed noting recent events – BUG-231683 – in keeping with the request made at the last meeting, and this is now being investigated by members of the QA team.
    • Monty additionally noted other reports on crossings have also been filed and he is digging through them and the associated server-side logs.
  • User testing around BUG-231582 ” [Simplified Cache] Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances” suggests the issue is not cache related, but might be related to the Interest List, with it being noted the problem may have surfaced around the time back-end changes were made to the Interest List in preparation for the 360-degree viewer.
  • A question was asked on whether the tools update would impact anything with Key Frame Motion (KFM) behaviour on animations, with it being noted – anecdotally at this point in time – that the moving_end event seems to happen while the animation is still underway. None at the Lab appear to be aware as to why the updated server code should impact animation events, and a bug report has been requested if the issue is found to be reproducible.
  • The latter part of the meeting delving into a discussion involving a future implementation of HTTP/2, updates to libcurl, etc., and issues around them. Again, rather than me mangling things – please refer to the text in the video.