Category: SL User Group Meetings

2021 SUG meeting week #13 summary + World Map alternatives

Posted on by Inara Pey
Amrum, January 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 30th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Tuesday, March 30th: no planned deployment or restart.
  • Wednesday, March 31st: the SLS RC channels should all be updated with simulator release 557505, defined as containing “internal fixes”.

On Region Restarts

There is a general assumption that region restarts result in a region and its simulator being relocated to a new server. However, this is not always the case, as Rider and Simon Linden explained:

Simon Linden: the host change isn’t burnt into the design for a restart. basically you stop the region, and another part of the system sees the region is down and hands it out to a system to run it. Based on random timing that might end up on the same host.
Rider Linden: We simply do not guarantee that you will remain on the same host after a restart. Where a region comes back up depends on a lot of factors that are outside the realm of predictability.
Simon Linden: [However] during a version update, that’s VERY unlikely since the old ones get replaced with new ones.

SL Viewer

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • 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 – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.17.557412, dated March 25.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.17.557391, dated March 24.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated 23, 2021.
  • 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

Region Crossings

  • While they were not intended to directly benefit vehicle region crossings, there have been reports by some that the changes made in the deployment over the previous two weeks have improved things. However, and equally, others are reporting declining smoothness of crossings. As it is, Rider noted that the team haven’t yet had the chance to dig deeply into the code since uplift.
  • BUG-229871 “Unable to re-enter or telport to a region that I’ve been to during same session” – this remains an issue. Unfortunately, issues with testing the upcoming simulator release been the work on a fix has been delayed.

Map Tiles

Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed. There are now a couple of user-developed alternatives available, each with mixed functionality:

2021 SUG meeting week #12 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Tuesday, March 23rd: the SLS Main channel received simulator update 556847, which includes the optimisations for crossing and teleporting into a region. This should result in less of a performance hit being felt with lots of people entering a region.
    • Anecdotal evidence from reports after this update was deployed to RC regions suggested vehicle region crossing had improved.
    • The update also states that BUG-226851 – “Only 30 – 50% of scripts run on regions since SLS Main server roll of April 18th” – has been resolved. However, there are reports that the deployment appears to have made little or no difference.
  • Wednesday, March 24th: the SLS RC channels should all be updated with simulator release 557269, defined as containing “internal tweaks”.

On the Teleporting / Region Access Changes

The basic change seen in 556847 mean that instead of multiple avatars trying to get into a region at once, they are now, in a manner of speaking, waiting in line, thanks to the order in which things are handled, as Mazidox Linden described.

Previously, when you teleported to a new region, we stopped the world, grabbed all the data, and injected it into the simulation before resuming the world. Now when you teleport to a region, we grab all the data, stop the world, inject the data into the simulation, and resume the world. Very, very, very approximately.

– Mazidox linden on the changes to how avatars enter a region.

Rider Linden that added that the performance hit people feel in busy regions is not so much the result of the avatars in the region, but all of those trying to get into it, which the new approach should now help eliminate.

SL Viewer

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.17.556726, dated March 15.
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, dated March 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated 23, 2021.
  • 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

  • In terms of monitoring changes as a result of fixes for issues such as BUG-226851, the Lab do check the data they are collecting, but it can take time after an initial deployment of fixes.
  • There are reports that mesh uploads are generating more HTTP 499 errors (the so-called “Linden catch all”) since the AWS transition. There is no known reason why this might be so, and it is not clear whether or not a bug report has been raised on the matter.
  • BUG-229871 TP issues: some people are experiencing teleport issues whereby they cannot teleport back to any region they’ve previously successfully teleported to previously in the same session, but are disconnected – still under investigation.
  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed.

2021 CCUG and TPV Developer meetings week #11 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Osta Nimosa – 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, March 18th 2021 at 13:00 SLT, and Pantera’s video recording of the TPV Developer’s meeting of Friday, March 19th, a copy of which is embedded at the end of this article.

These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar. The venue for the CCUG is the Hippotropolis camp fire, and the TPV Developer meeting is held at the Hippotropolis Theatre.

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current pipeline of SL viewers since the update to the Key Mappings viewer at the start of the week. This leaves the pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.17.556726, dated March 15.
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, dated March 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated 23, 2021.
  • 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.

Viewer Status

  • The Simple Cache viewer is being updated and will re-enter circulation as a new RC viewer. Depending on the outcome of further testing this man or may not be the next viewer promoted to release status.
  • The other RC viewer with the potential to be promoted is the Key Mappings Viewer.
  • LMR 5 has encountered some additional crash issues  centred on Intel GPU drivers, and so is unlikely to be in line for promotion at present.

Graphics Work

The graphic team is addressing bugs relating to lighting underwater and to the Moon haze. This work, together with the LMR 5 issues mean Euclid Linden’s work to separate out UI rendering from scene rendering is currently on hold.

ARCTan

Summary: An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering either in the viewer. The overall aim is to try to correct some inherent negative incentives for creating optimised content (e.g. with regards to generating LOD models with mesh), and to update the calculations to reflect current resource constraints, rather than basing them on outdated constraints (e.g. graphics systems, network capabilities, etc).

As of January 2020 ARCTan has effectively been split between viewer renderings focused on revising the Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC) calculations and providing additional viewer UI so that people can better visibility and control to seeing complexity. This will be followed in the future by work on providing in-world object rendering costs (LOD models, etc.) which might affect Land Impact will be handled as a later tranche of project work, after the avatar work.

This project has reached a point where consideration needs to be given to how performance controls that can leverage the avatar-related ARCTan data can be implemented. However, this work is waiting on Steeltoe Linden.

In Brief

  • There was more general discussion on improved avatar scaling  – uniform / proportional scaling, etc. However, as has been pointed out in the past, the general design of the avatar skeleton, coupled with the morphing capabilities (sliders) do not make uniform scaling easy to implement.
    • One of the calls for making such scaling possible is to allow users scale down their avatars so that regions feel much “bigger”  and thus can present larger settings. However, this view ignores the fact that there are other practical constraints on the region and the underpinning simulator that mean just because avatars are smaller, “more” can be packed into a given space.
  • The majority of the meeting was general spitballing on options for revising the avatar per above, requests to implement Marvelous Designer, providing morph targets, and so on. However, none of the chat related to projects the Lab are currently working on or plan to implement in the foreseeable future.
  • The TPV Developer meeting amounted to some 6 minutes of discussion, ergo no timestamps to the video.

Date of Next Meetings

  • Content Creation: Thursday, April 1st, 2021.
  • TPVD: Friday, April 2nd, 20221.

2021 SUG meeting week #11 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
David Rumsey Maps – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Tuesday, March 16th: no deployment to the the servers on the SLS Main channel.
  • Wednesday March 17th: all RC channel will receive simulator update 556847, comprising the following fixes / improvements:
    • Optimisations for crossing and teleporting into a region.This should result in less of a performance hit being felt with lots of people entering a region.
We were unwrapping the entire package of avatar data on arrival as soon as we got it. That processing is now being deferred, so the actual arrival may be a bit slower in high volume situations but you won’t get the hit on the main simulation frame that you did.

– Rider Linden on the changes to how avatars enter a region.

SL Viewer

The Custom Key Mappings RC viewer updated to version 6.4.17.556726, dated Monday, March 15th.

The remaining official viewer pipelines are as follows

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • 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 – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, dated March 4th.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated February, 23rd.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26th.
    • 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.

In Brief

  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but still not fully fixed. However an unspecified “technical hurdle” has been passed in getting the issue corrected.
  • Inventory syncing between Agni (the main grid) and Aditi (the Beta grid) is currently not working following the migration to AWS. The issue is being addressed, but there is currently, but no ETA at present.
  • BUG-226851 “Only 30 – 50% of scripts run on regions since SLS Main server roll of April 18th [2019]” – a long-standing issue for which LL now has some ideas on how to address, but no promise on a possible deployment date.
  • BUG-230415 “Region Lordshore (Jeogeot) cannot be entered via vehicle and will not rez objects (either on ground or on avatar)” – this is an issue that appears similar to a former griefing vector. It appears confined to the one region, and data is being gathered.
  • BUG-229227 “Offline group invites not working” – no update on this long-standing issue, however it has been noted by the Lab that the entire methodology with off-line message handling could benefit from a “revisit”.

2021 SUG meeting week #10 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mount Campion National Forest: Roscommon Ridge – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 9th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Tuesday, March 9th saw the servers on the SLS Main channel updated to server release 556255, containing “some internal tweaks related to launching region”.
  • There are no planned RC channel deployments scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the current pipeline of official viewers at the start of the week, leaving them as follows:

  • Current release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th, and re-established as the default viewer following the rollback of the Simple Cache viewer.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.14.556098, March 4.
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, released March 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, February, 23, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

Region Crossings

A simulator version currently in QA at the Lab has some region crossing changes in it. It is hoped the updates will take some of the load off of agents trying to enter crowded regions. The engineering team also intend to look at the protocol for moving an agent from region to another; however, this is viewed as “a much larger project” that has yet to be started.

In Brief

  • Group chat is being tweaked. It is hoped that an update will be ready for deployment Soon™.
  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed. However, some updates to the World Map are being seen.
  • HTTP 5xx errors: some with internal services reliant on external web pages for data have been seeing an uptick in 5xx HTTP errors (see BUG-229660 and BUG-230059 as examples). Some this may be more directly related to the external service hosting the web pages (Cloudflare), while some are apparently seeing 503 errors when regions are down (rather than 404s), but are seeing recoveries once the region is back.
  • BUG-229871 TP issues: some people are experiencing teleport issues whereby they cannot teleport back to any region they’ve previously successfully teleported to previously in the same session, but are disconnected. This is being investigated. It has been suggested by some users the issue might be related to a past similar issue that was the result of a local firewall or router setting issue.

2021 CCUG and TPV Developer meetings week #9

Posted on by Inara Pey
Wildwood Gardens, January 2021 – 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, March 4th 2021 at 13:00 SLT, and Pantera’s video recording of the TPV Developer’s meeting of Friday, March 5th, a copy of which is embedded at the end of this article.

The majority of the TPVD meeting was given over to a discussion of the texture cache issue, together with a general discussion on the simplified cache structure and also on Jelly Doll avatars.

These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar. The venue for the CCUG is the Hippotropolis camp fire, and the TPV Developer meeting is held at the Hippotropolis Theatre.

SL Viewer

[From the CCUG meeting & TPVD Meeting]

Release Roll-Back & Issues

  • The Simple Cache viewer, version 6.4.14.556088, had to be rolled back following its March 2nd promotion due to a number of bugs (e.g. cache location not being adhered to – BUG-230337; uploads of textures above a certain size were failing – BUG-230295).
  • The roll-back saw the Jelly Doll improvements viewer, version 6.4.13.555567 (originally promoted on February 17th) revert to being the de facto release viewer.
  • However, the roll-back resulted in some users who had updated to the Simple Cache viewer users experiencing a corrupted texture cache when using an older version of the viewer.
  • Unfortunately, LL are having problems consistently reproducing the texture caching issues, so it is unclear how matters will be resolved.

This means that for the meantime:

  • Those experiencing texture issues on the official viewer as a result of having used the Simple Cache viewer and then rolling back to, or installing, another version should try clearing cache and re-starting the viewer.
  • Until the Lab have more of a handle on the texture cache issues:
    • Those RC viewers that had been internally merged with the Simple Cache viewer will also be rolled-back to an earlier version.
    • Internal viewer testing procedures will be reviewed.
    • TPVs that have also merged the Simple Cache code will also likely need to roll back their code.
  • One suggestion for resolving this issue is for the official viewer to increment the texture cache version number, forcing a complete wipe / reset of the cache
  • Independent of the texture caching issues, and due to BUG-230337 and BUG-230295, the Simple Cache viewer will go back to a development status so the issues can be fixed.
    • Firestorm apparently has fixes for these particular issues, and these may be contributed to LL.

General Viewer Notes

  • A new Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, was released on March 4th.
  • The Custom Key Mappings viewer updated to version 6.4.14.556098, also on Thursday, March 4th.

The rest of the official viewers in the pipeline remains as follows:

  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, February, 23, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

There may be a viewer promotion during week #10 (commencing Monday, March 8th).  While no final decision has been made, it is possible the LMR 5 may be the viewer that gets promoted.

Viewer Rendering

[CCUG Meeting]

  • Euclid Linden continues to work on separating UI rendering from general scene rendering in order to improve overall viewer performance.
    • Currently the UI is completely redrawn every frame, along with the rest of the scene, whether or not it requires update.
    • This can take up to 40% of the rendering time, depending on the complexity of the scene being rendered, with around 10-20% being an average, so it is hoped the changes will particularly help those on less-capable systems.
    • There may be some subtle / slight reduction in UI responsiveness under certain circumstances, so a means to tweak the UI update rate may be provided via something like a Debug setting.
    • Note: this work is not physically altering the appearance of the UI, only the frequency with which it is drawn.
  • Ptolemy Linden continues to work on more general rendering performance improvements and rendering bug fixes.

In Brief

  • [CCUG] Map tiles are still being worked on. In the future the lab may look to implement a new means of generating the Map tiles in a more robust way.
    • The Lab has an internal proposal for updating terrain textures, but it has yet to be formally adopted.
  • [CCUG] Allow upload of ground  constrained animations – on the LL’s list,  but has not been looked at as yet.  Vir believes that as the capability is already supported (but undocumented) is should only require an alteration to the simulator animation code to ensure the constraints are correctly understood.
  • [TPVD] Firestorm has entered QA, with a release planned for mid-March.

Date of Next Meetings

  • CCUG: Thursday, March 18th, 2021.
  • TPV Developer: Friday, March 19th, 2021.