Category: SL User Group Meetings

2021 SUG meeting week #32 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Neverending – Sakura Tales, April 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 10th, 2021 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 discussion where there is something to report.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for additional details / updates.

  • Tuesday, August 10th saw servers on the Main SLS channel updated with simulator release 562252. This release comprises:
    • BUG-220541 for llUnsit expansion.
    • A new simulator console command that will let estate managers change the default EEP settings across an entire estate. This also paves the way for implementing a new default Mainland EEP setting that will be coming in a future update.
    • A fix to llChar to reduce returns being translated as “?”. Some will still do so, but this will be addressed in the next maintenance simulator update.
  • Wednesday, August 11th should see the RC channels with simulator release 562252 with the same updated machine configuration deployed on July 21st, 2021 to approximately 15% of homestead and openspace regions. This does not include any visible behavioural changes for the simulator, but may provide better performance.

SL Viewer

On Monday, August 9th, the Simplified Cache RC viewer, version 6.4.22.561873, was issued. This is an update to the earlier Simplified Cache viewer that had to be rolled back due to unexpected issues.

On Tuesday, August 10th, the CEF viewer, version 6.4.22.561752, originally issued on July 24th, was promoted to de facto release status.

The rest of the current pipelines remain unchanged:

  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • Simulator work remains focused on the back-end tools upgrade.
  • Aditi – inventory synch and log-in:
    • It is now possible to have inventory on Aditi (the beta grid) synch to your main grid inventory by filing a support ticket.
    • As the Aditi log-in problem hasn’t been resolved, automatic inventory syncing is not working, and people may still encounter issues trying to log-in to Aditi.
Log ons are going to be problematic to Aditi for the foreseeable future. There’s a service that we can’t configure correctly in the staging environment due to internal limitations.

– Mazidox Linden

  • Updates to sound (including questions on allowing sound loops longer than 10 seconds and the ability to play/loop/stop sounds in linked primitives other than the primitive where the script exist – see BUG-227641) came up during the meeting. Updates remain under some work related to sounds is on a list of things to be done, other work – such as possible alternate formats, etc., – is really just general discussions at this point.

2021 TPV Developer meeting week #31 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cravone City, April 2021 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, August 6th, 2021.

These meetings are generally held every other week.  They are recorded by Pantera Północy, and her video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report – my thanks to her for allowing me to do so – and it is used with a transcript of the chat log from the meeting and my own audio recording to produce this summary, which focuses on the core topics discussed.

SL Viewer

[Video 1:00-2:32]

No updates to the current crop of official viewers this week, leaving them as follows:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.21.561414, Fernet Maintenance RC dated July 14th, promoted July 19th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26th, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22nd, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16th, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The CEF update viewer is being looked at as the next possible promotion to de facto release status. A decision on this may be taken on Monday, August 9th.
  • The 360 Snapshot viewer update is in progress, but it is still going to be a while before it surfaces.
  • [Video: 4:17-5:25] The Legacy Profiles viewer requires a couple of additional caps on the back-end. This work has yet to be queued, as the focus of back-end work remains on the tools update that is currently in progress; so it will be a while before this viewer is updated.
  • Both the revised Simplified Cache viewer and the Apple Notarisation viewer are both very close to making an appearance, most likely as RC viewers.
  • [Video 5:46-6:18] The new performance controls viewer (ARC, etc.), should be ready for issue as a project viewer in the “not too distant” future.

LOD Generation Viewer

[Video: 2:50-4:15]

A viewer using the mesh optimiser library for automatic LOD model generation for mesh uploads is in development. No date on when it is likely to appear.

This reportedly works better than the GLOD code that is currently in use. For the initial project viewer version(s) of this viewer, once available, creators will have a choice of using either GLOD or the optimiser at upload. Longer-term LL are still discussing whether or not GLOD will be retained as an option, or whether it will be removed (or at the least, made a non-default option).

Beyond this, there is the larger question of using the optimiser library in real time, and what to do with the available content that does not have properly defined LOD models, but this is regarded as “discussion for latter”; the onus at the moment is to make a viewer available that utilises the optimiser library.

Viewer-side Animation Override

[Video: 6:24-6:40]

The ability to run animations normally found in a scripted Animation Override HUD natively from the viewer has been a capability that a number of TPVs offer (animations play viewer-side anyway, so removing the need to operate them via simulator-side scripts helps reduce the script processing load on the latter). It is now the subject of discussions for a viewer-side AO system to be made a part of the official viewer, potentially leveraging what has been done by TPVs.

In Brief

  • [Video 6:50-7:49] As noted in my SUG meeting notes, the new simulator console command that let estate managers change the default EEP settings across an entire estate is now available on regions running on the RC channels, and will be grid-wide after the next SLS Main channel deployment (Tuesday, August 10th). This also paves the way for implementing a new default Mainland EEP setting that will be coming in a future update.
  • [Video 22:46-24:56] BUG-229227 “Offline group invites not working” this issue was the result of removing reliance on UDP messaging (which is not always reliable) and using a capability instead. While some fixes have been made to try to improve things, the code itself is described as a “Byzantine mess”, and in need of a complete re-write There are no time frames when / if this may happen.
  • Caatznip has been continuing investigations in to the cost of rendering Linden Water in cases where it cannot be see (e.g. when standing in the middle of a multi-region estate so it is completely “invisible” under the terrain), and have found that completely ignoring Linden Water rendering via occlusion checks can boost FPS by between 30-50%, with the most notable benefits being with lower-specification systems.

Next Meeting

  • The next meeting should be on August 20th, 2021.

August 2021 SL Web User Group summary

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, August 4th, 2021.

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 at the end of this article, and the following is a summary of key topics / discussions.

Web Properties Updates

  • Back-end work is still on-going and has taken up a lot of time through July. This work includes a lot of system upgrades intended to improve things like the deployment of updates and features to the various web properties and improve the performance (speed of returns, etc.), in processes like Search.
  • The Land page has seen some general clean-up.
  • Improvements have been made to the flow of the sign-up page.
  • The investigative work on how and where Search might be improved is still also on-going.
  • Marketplace improvements:
    • The difficulty users with two-letter names were experiencing during authentication has been fixed.
    • Bulk redelivery (on the part of creators to their customers) has been implemented. This is via a button in the product page visible to the creator.

Mobile Update

  • There is a new beta that is ready to go for testing via Apple’s Test Flight software, which should be available for those helping to test in the near future. This  includes a “few more features” that LL wanted to get to Apple before trying to make the app more generally available via the Apple Store – however, the updates are still very much focused on communications, and are not rendering, inventory, etc. related.
  • The Android version remains somewhat behind the iOS version and won’t be appearing in the short-term.

In Brief

  • Legacy (in-viewer) Profiles are still being worked on. There had been a delay due to some back-end work being required, but things will be moving forward. However, as the viewer is still currently a Project viewer, it will still be a while before any updates reach release status.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) is still a work-in-progress.
  • The ability for users to offer grid-wide experiences is on hold.
  • It’s been asked if creators on the MP would find the following useful:
    • Having the UUID of customers recorded in any extracted .CSV file.
    • Having a “go to” page for their list of products, so they can jump directly to a page and select a listing for editing.
    • The responses to both questions (both raised as a result of feature requests) was yes.
    • It was pointed out that LL have a API for obtaining avatar UUIDs, although this wasn’t seen as useful by creators.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, September 1st, 14:00 SLT.

2021 SUG meeting week #31 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Butterfly Conservatory, April 2021 –blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing there was no server deployment thread, so please refer to the Server section of the forums for updates.

  • There was no deployment to the SLS Main channel on Tuesday, August 3rd.
  • Wednesday, August 4th should see a deployment to the RC channels. This includes:
    • BUG-220541 for llUnsit expansion.
    • A new simulator console command that will let estate managers change the default EEP settings across an entire estate. This also paves the way for implementing a new default Mainland EEP setting that will be coming in a future update.
    • A fix to llChar to reduce returns being translated as “?”. Some will still do so, but this will be addressed in the next maintenance simulator update.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the current batch of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.21.561414, Fernet Maintenance RC dated July 14, promoted July 19 – 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:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • There have been numerous requests / feature requests for grater access to things like region performance states, etc. (e.g. BUG-10263, BUG-37717, and BUG-229172 – all of which which have been closed. Commenting on these and feature requests in general, Mazidox Linden commented:
We have to consider things like “How can this be abused” when we get feature requests like that, which is why even though I agree it’s better to have an API call than measure in a tight loop we might not want to make surfacing that data easier.
  • Rider Linden hopes to take a second pass at the way scripts are scheduled, with the support of Monty Linden. He hopes to be able to make the simulator “smarter” in how it schedules what script to run in what order and how frequently. However, given current workloads, it is unlikely this work will commence before the end of the year.
  • The simulator tools upgrade work has been “hanging fire” recently, but is due to resume.

2021 SUG meeting week #30 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Valkyrie Light Transport Railroad, April 2021 – – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, July 27th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for updates.

  • All simhosts not restarted in the last week were updated to version 561609, which which should not see any changes to the behaviour of simulators, nor to the configuration of the machines running those simulators.
  • The planned deployment for Wednesday, July 28th has been cancelled.

Mesh Physics Issue

The Lab is experimenting with optimising the configuration of the cloud simhosts to increase performance. However, a side effect of this has been that some meshes have a different physics impact calculation, which may be higher or lower than previously shown. This will affect both new and existing uploads. If you experience this issue, please file a Jira or contact support.

From Rider Linde on this matter:

It seems that for very very thin prims with physics there is a difference in the way Havok calculates their cost and that difference bubbles up into land impact.

From Simon Linden:

We had a problem reported where the costs changed. It wasn’t drastic, but this object was designed to be really close to a limit. The shift was small but enough to get noticed and we need to figure out why for those exact same reasons – it can cause some real headaches.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the current batch of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Fernet Maintenance RC, version 6.4.21.561414, dated July 14, promoted July 19 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • None.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • Gaming bugs:
    • BUG-10908 “Ghost Objects Left over when things are removed from play” is an issue that has been around for several years, but appears to be increasing in incidence, particularly within games in SL. Some work was put into developing a fix for the issue, but the current status of that work needed to be established before the issue could be commented on further.
    • There are also reports that BUG-7084 “Prim properties visually revert to an earlier state since Interesting” being encountered more frequently, again within some hunt games.
    • Both appear to be related to Interest List updates, and conflicts with full / terse updates to objects within a region. Essentially, if an object is updated (e.g. rendered transparent because it has been “collected” by a player), and that the object is not in the interest list for the viewer of another player at the time of the update, then the update isn’t registered until that player attempts to touch the object – at which point it vanishes.

2021 TPV Developer meeting week #29 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Vallee, April 2021 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, July 23rd, 2021.

These meetings are generally held every other week.  They are recorded by Pantera Północy, and her video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report – my thanks to her for allowing me to do so – and it is used with a transcript of the chat log from the meeting and my own audio recording to produce these notes.

SL Viewer

The Fernet Maintenance RC viewer, version  6.4.21.561414 and dated July 14th, was promoted to de facto release status on July 19th. This leaves no current RC viewers in the pipeline and the official project viewers unchanged, thus:

  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
  • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
  • 360º Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The next RC viewer that should be appearing is likely to have the next round of Chrome Embedded Framework (CEF) media handling updates.

360º Snapshot Viewer

Work has now officially re-started on the 360º Snapshot viewer, and there will be some simulator-side updates in support of this will be going out in a simulator RC release in week #30 (commencing Monday, July 27th, 2021). it is to ensure the simulator sends the viewer all of the information it needs to correctly render a 360º field of view around the camera prior to the 6 snapshots being taken (which are then stitched into a completed 360º image). No date is available for when the updated 360º Snapshot viewer will be available.

Alexa Linden offered a peek of playing with the updated viewer via Twitter.

Graphics Work

  • The focus for the Graphics team continues to be on integrating the Tracy debugger / system analyser for cross-platform graphics development into the viewer.
  • This will be used to look for performance “hot spots” in the rendering code. This is liable to continue to be the case for the next couple of weeks.
  • When completed, the work will be compiled into a static library within viewer repositories, but will not be enabled by default – it will require and explicit command line call during a viewer build process.

In Brief

  • Apparently, script-to-viewer messages sent via llRegionSayTo that start with “@” are never displayed in local chat. It’s not clear if this is by accident or design, but the request has been made to leave the functionality that way to assist with RLVa-specific commands send via llRegionSayTo not being spammed in open chat.
    • The broad response from Vir and Rider Linden was that the history behind the code in question (CHAT_TYPE_DIRECT) is unclear to them, but if changing it would potentially be damaging to existing content, then it is unlikely to be changed.
  • It’s again been noted that there can be a significant performance impact on the viewer due to the presence of Linden Water “that isn’t there” (that is, you cannot see it, because it is overlaid by terrain, for example). It is hoped that improved occlusion capabilities (i.e. “if you can’t see it, just don’t render it”) might eventually be a performance win in overcoming this.
  • Not strictly viewer-related, but Rider Linden proposed a new function via the forums – llIsFriend – on July 22nd, which sparked a lot of discussion via the forum thread, specifically around the question of privacy (having scripts from others – say a merchant or club owner  – able to read your Friends list) and the potential for abuse. Having had time to consider it, Rider noted the following during the TPVD meeting:
The more I think about it, the more a perms check is called for on that; [it is] probably not a perm that would be auto-granted in an experience, either. I’d set-up a new permission [that would] ask the person running the script, “may this script have access to your friends list?”
The more I think about it, the more I think it is not something that should be allowed invisibly behind the scenes under any circumstances … the added complexity does push it further back, tho. If a script wants to access your Friends list, it needs to be up-front about it. 

Next Meeting

  • The next meeting should be on August 6th, 2021.