Category: SL User Group Meetings

2021 SUG meeting week #3 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Angels Nest, November 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 12th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing,the release notes for the week had yet to be produced. However, Rider Linden described the RC release planned for the week thus:

So.  We rolled SLS today with the same version that we had put up on RC last week. We don’t have any plans to roll a new RC this week, but we’re targeting one for next week.

– Rider Linden

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
      • Project Jelly viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.553798, January 7, 2021.
      • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7, 2021.
      • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.12.553511, issued on January 7, 2021.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, November 12.
    • 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.

In Brief

  • Map Tiles Fix: this is now “in progress”, but ETA on when map tile updates will resume . “normal” operations.
  • Lindex data feeds: are reported as being “overloaded”, regularly generating status 502, 503, and 504 errors, and sometimes returning blank documents for both in-world requests and when accessing the Lindex via the web. This is another issue LL are aware of.
  • There are assorted reporting of region performance (FPS rates and % scripts run) falling. It’s not clear if the issue is across-the-board or limited to specific channels (e.g. the Main SLS channel).

 

2021 SUG meeting week #2 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
mR J’s HoUsE, November 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 12th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing,the release notes for the week had yet to be produced. However, Rider Linden described the RC release planned for the week thus:

So, We’re doing the first roll of the year this week to the RC channels. This includes among other things a fix to experience notifications (they weren’t always being sent) and I was able to throw in some missing constants from llSetAgentEnvironment. We also have something in there that we hope will positively impact some of the timing changes that we’ve been seeing on uplifted simulators.

– Rider Linden

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Project Jelly viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.553798, January 7, 2021.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7, 2021.
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.12.553511, issued on January 7, 2021.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, November 12.
    • 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.

In Brief

Extended error return for llHTTPRequest

This is a feature suggestion by Rider Linden – see BUG-230026 – and he is requesting constructive feedback via the Jira on  the idea.

Experience Improvements

Rider Linden is working on three experience-related feature requests,  although there is no time frame for delivery (he can only type so fast, and is working on a number of other projects!). These are:

  • BUG-9890 “[Feature Request] – Improvements to llUnsit() and inclusion with experience permissions use.”
  • BUG-228540 “Allow llTeleportAgent() to be executed on anyone on owner land.
  • BUG-228541 “Allow experience scripts to use llUnsit() on any experience participant.

BUG-228540 will need some limitations imposed. for example, to prevent it teleporting people who are passing over an area using the capability in an aircraft are not summarily teleported.

Chat Ranges

Changes were made simulator-side to allow chat to be heard over greater distances. However, further work is required viewer-side before they can be considered “deployed”.

2021 TPVD meetings week #1: summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Midnight in Paris, November 2020 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, January 8th, 2021. Unfortunately, other commitments prevented me from attending the meeting, so I am solely reliant on Pantera’s video. However, for some reason, the region hosting the meeting was re-started mid-session (possibly the result of a rolling restart), and on resuming, Pantera suffered a recording glitch that meant the second half of the meeting did not get captured.

While I have the chat transcript of the full meeting (my thanks again to Pantera), given that the majority of commentary is via Voice, replies to questions and comments are unavailable, so this summary only covers the period of the meeting that was recorded successfully.

SL Viewer News

[1:33-3:51]

On Thursday, January 7th:

  • The Jellydolls viewer (updates to avatar appearance based on rendering costs) was promoted to Release Candidate status with the issuing of version 6.4.12.553798.
  • The Custom Key Mappings RC viewer updated to version 6.4.12.553437.
  • A new Love Me Render (LMR 5) viewer, version 6.4.12.553511,  was released as a project viewer.

The rest of the current official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553053, released December 3rd.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • 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.

General Viewer Notes

  • Viewer updates have been delayed both due to the holiday break and as a result of a couple of processes being broken as a result of the cloud migration process.  The latter have now been fixed.
  • Currently, the OS  X (Mac) build  process for the official viewer is currently “broken” and in the process of being fixed.
  • The LMR 5 viewer comprises a number of EEP fixes together with fixes for water reflection rendering and for the Mesh uploader preview image. The full list of fixes from the release notes comprises:
    • SL-12740 [EEP] The EEP moon has a hardcoded blue light that is not present in Windlight-based viewers (Lab internal Jira).
    • SL-13888 The model is displayed with artefacts in the upload preview floater (Lab internal Jira).
    • SL-14275  Water Reflection new modes (Lab internal Jira).
    • BUG-228581 [EEP] Specular map reflections are way too weak.
    • BUG-228781 [EEP] Specular color interpreted wrong (too bright) from point lights.
    • BUG-228914 [EEP] Deferred Soften Shader fails to link when Atmospheric Shaders are disabled. This causes Debug viewer builds to crash.
    • BUG-229013 [EEP] Moonset inconsistent
    • BUG-229122 [EEP] Glow should be directly behind the sun or moon when it is near the horizon.
    • BUG-229689 [EEP] cloud texture is rendered backwards
  • The Profiles viewer had been expected to be promoted to RC status, but there appears to be a UI issue that needs to be addressed before this can happen.
  • It is not clear which of the RC viewers will be the next to be promoted to de facto release status. However, given the amount of testing against the Custom Key Mappings RC viewer, this could be a strong contender.

Upcoming UDP Changes

[10:35-14:45]

  • Following on from the switch away from using UDP messaging for asset handling between the viewer and the Lab’s back-end systems that took place in recent years (assets are all handle by HTTP), the Lab is now looking to make a similar switch away from UDP messaging for all “mission critical” (e.g. messages that need to be handled in a specific order / receive responses in a specific order).
  • These changes are to be made over time and on a “case by case” basis.
  • Exactly how this is to be done has not been entirely worked through; it may be that some changes can be made without impacting TPV developers with a lot of additional work on their side of things.
  • Part of this work will involve moving some of the message handling for chat to TCP as well.
  • This work will take time to complete; however, once it is finished and once the replacement messaging protocols have been a part of the official release viewer for around 12 months, the Lab will seek to removing UDP message handling from both the viewer and the back-end code where it is no longer required.
  • The reason for doing this is because UDP is not a reliable messaging format when information is required in a specific order, and can be at the heart of assorted issues users can experience. Ergo, the aim is to make things a lot more predictable and robust.

In Brief

  • [4:02-5:06] There are a number of services still being adjusted post-uplift, these include:
    • World Map tile generation.
    • Land Store.
    • Some noticeable performance glitches.
    • These adjustments likely mean there were be a slightly higher cadence of server-side changes, but the focus is on trying to fix things and get back to the usual Tuesday / Wednesday simulator deployments  within the next week or two.
  • [5:08-5:53] There is a further update to help with Group Chat issues   that will hopefully be deployed in week #2 (commencing Monday, January 11th).
    • This is not seen as a “total fix” for issues, but part of the continuing work to improve things.
    • The focus is to “sharply limit” the amount of group chat traffic generated by people logging into or out of Second Life. This means that the member lists for very large groups may not report everyone in the group who is on-line, but will report all those actively using the group chat function as being on-line.
  • [5:55-10:17]There is to be a “real push” to make improvements to the Second Life Voice service. This will likely be based around a new Voice SDK supplied by Vivox.
    • As a part of this work, the Lab is gathering data on users who are still running on very old viewer versions / old version of the SLplugin.EXE for voice, as part of this work will likely result in some of the oldest, low-quality codecs used by the Voice API being disabled in the Voice package from Vivox at some point in the future – which may “break” Voice for those still using those really old versions.
    • The reason for disabling these old codecs is because they are of much lower quality output, and if just one person in a group voice chat is using a Voice package reliant on them, everyone in the same group chat is downgraded to the old codec, impacting the Voice quality right across the session.
    • This work will also focus on trying to correct / eliminate the “little” voice drop-outs that can occur (so those listening don’t hear every single word the speaker says).
  • [13:55-16:25] Another change with the viewer is the on-going removal of code that is not longer being actively used. A  further example of this is that there are two protocols used for handling requests for logging-in to SL. One of these (XML-RPC) is almost never used nowadays, so this code may well be removed – with warning beforehand – in the future.

2021 SUG meeting week #1 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Outer Garden – The Farthest Light – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

There were no planned deployments for 2021 week #1. It  is hoped that the deployment schedule will resume in week #2, depending on their run through QA.

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release Channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • 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.

In Brief

Experience Keys

It is believed that the end-of-year experience keys issue (the XP_STORAGE_EXCEPTION problem, see my 2020 #week #52 update and BUG-229892) has been resolved. However it has been noted that some user may still be experiencing “lingering performance issues” with experience keys. Those experience any experience key issues are asked to contact Support.

Issues and Rumours

There were some issues experienced over the weekend, with users reporting an inability to rez and / or their avatars remaining as a cloud, and poor attached scripts performance. Rumours circulated about the issue being due to a “server” fire, and some reports appeared to have been  exaggerated (e.g. the issuing being open on Grid Status for “several hours”, when in fact it was reported as resolved some 45 minutes are initially appearing). Whilst not going in to specifics, Oz Linden noted that while there were issues, in terms of the circulating rumours, he noted:

It was much much less dramatic and interesting than that.

Map Tiles

Map tiles are still not being regularity updated, however the Lab both identified the cause of the issue and a possible fix. Progress is being made on the fix, however, it appears that it is taking time due to the Map code not having been touched in a good while.

General Post-Uplift Issues

While the core work of transitioning all SL services to AWS systems has been completed, there are still some niggling problems that are being dealt with – such as with the Map tiles (above) and on-going issues with things like the official viewer Splash screen updating, the land store, etc. The Lab is addressing these as they can.

2020 SUG meeting week #52: Experience Keys and Map issues

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nostalgia Falls, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 22nd Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

For the TL;DR brigade: nothing major to report; not deployment, no viewer releases; meeting was a solstice / year-end party.

Server Updates

Week #51 eventually saw deployments every day of the week, which reportedly left all RC channels running on server release 553685 and the SLS Main channel on 553176. However, our home island was on the SLS Main channel is reporting it is running 553685,  so I assume that given there was no apparent deployment on Tuesday, December 22nd (as assuming our home island hasn’t been shuffled to an RC, the entire grid is now running on 553685.

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current crop of official viewers, leaving them as:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release Channel cohorts:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • 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.

In Brief

Map Tiles

Map tiles are still not being regularity updated, however the Lab both identified the cause of the issue and a possible fix, however, it now seems probable this will not be deployed until after the holiday break. On December 20th, Oz posted a comment to the SL forums, explaining the issue:

This is a temporary situation…  the data needed to generate the maps has been moved to AWS, but the code that does the work has not yet. Because of how the data centre version expected to fetch that data, it was not possible for us to make it work until the code has been moved too. That move is in progress and shouldn’t be too much longer (sorry, I don’t want to jinx the developer by setting a date).

Experience Keys

There is a significant issue with Experience Keys the is affecting all experiences grid-wide see: BUG-229892 “[Upilft] Experiences Failures”. This is also apparently impacting the Lab’s ability to release the new Linden Stilt Homes, as per an update to my article on the release of this new linden Home theme.

Uplift – Closure of Co-Lo Facility

Both April and Oz Linden have reported that with all SL systems and service now running on AWS, the work in clearing all of LL’s hardware and infrastructure from their former co-location facility in Arizona (a part of which involves the complete shredding of all hard drives) , and according to Oz, the work is “almost done”.

Date of Next Meeting

The next SUG meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 5th, 2021.

2020 CCUG meeting week #51 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Whimberly, October 2020 – 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, December 17th 2020 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar.

The venue for meetings is the Hippotropolis camp fire.

SL Viewer

No changes through the week to the current crop of viewers:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohort:
    • Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.553723, December 15.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.552224, December 4.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • 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.

General Viewer Notes

  • The two RC viewers are vying for promotion to release status. However, the next promotion is unlikely to come until the new year.
  • The Profiles viewer, the Simple Caching viewer and the Project Jelly viewer are almost in a position to be promoted to RC status.
  • There are some viewers waiting on QA – such as the next graphics fixes viewer (the Love Me Render viewer).

“Thanksgiving Bakefail” Issue and Current Outfit Folder Problems

  • As a result of the “Thanksgiving Bakefail” issue that saw a portion of users unable to rez their avatars beyond a cloud status,  LL have been working on the back-end systems to make this kind of event less likely. This will also involve changes to the viewer as well,  so the work will “take a while” to complete.
  • Essentially, these kind of issues are the result of multiple versions of the Current Outfit folder appearing in inventory, resulting in the viewer and the Bake Service coming into conflict over which version is the “current” version,  so appearance updates fail.
  • The corrective action will be to ensure the back-end services (Bake, etc), have primacy for creating the Current Outfit Folder, and removing the viewer’s ability to do so.
  • The problem has arisen because historically, to speed inventory loading, the viewer has been able to initiate creation of folders, including essential system folders.

In Brief

  • Creators still feel the cost of Animesh (in terms of LI) is too high.
    • Vir hopes to re-visit the overall cost of Animesh, but reminded people that “too high” is a relative term; the cost of Animesh in terms of rendering and impact is actually a lot more accurate than is currently given for other items (hence the ARCTan project).
    • However, he acknowledges that the rendering cost formulas for avatars and in-world objects do have issues (again, hence ARCTan project).

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, January 7th, 2021.