Category: SL User Group Meetings

2020 SL project updates week #12: TPVD summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Florence at Low Tide, February 2020 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on March 20th, 2020. These meetings are generally held every other week, unless otherwise noted in any given summary. The embedded video is provided to Pantera – my thanks to her for recording and providing it. Time stamps are included with the notes will open the video at the point(s) where a specific topic is discussed.

SL Viewer News

[0:07-4:35]

  • The Premium RC viewer,version 6.3.8.538264 dated March 12th, updated to de facto release status on Wednesday, March 18th.
  • The Zirbenz Maintence RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538719, was issued on Thursday, March 19th.
  • The EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.538823 on Friday, March 20th.

The rest of the upcoming official viewer remain unchanged as:

  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.7.536179, February 10.
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

Premium Viewer and Future Viewer Blocking
  • The Premium RC viewer contains new code to specifically handle benefits information related to benefits / limits applied to accounts based on subscription level (Basic, Premium or the upcoming Premium Plus).
  • Previously, this information can from a variety of sources, with some also hard-coded into the viewer, which made management of benefit changes etc., difficult.
  • With the future launch of Premium Plus and multiple benefits / limitations and associated values across multiple SL account types, all of this information will be provided directly by the server to the viewer at log-in, to make the on-going maintenance of such benefits and values (including the addition of new benefits / values) as used by the viewer easier to implement and manage.
  • Until Premium Plus goes live (there is no date at present for when this will happen, other than after Name Changes has been deployed), the changes in this viewer should not impact users. However, TPVs are being asked to adopt the code as soon as they can.
  • [0:39-0:54] At some point after Premium Plus has been implemented, Linden Lab will be blocking older viewers that do not have this code update, in order to encourage users to switch to viewer that utilise the code.
    • This step is being taken to ensure the viewer presents accurate information to users about their benefits / fees  / limitations, rather than being provided with out-of-date information that is hard-coded into their viewer.
  • [18:42-20:10] Benefits Service log-in failure messages: some people may have encountered an intermittent log-in failure messages similar to the one shown below over the past couple of weeks (I first encountered the problem on March 7th, 2020, others have been encountering it as recently as March 19th).
Benefits Service log-in failure, March 7th, 2020
    • The problems have apparently been due to “super brief” outages (and automatic recoveries) with the benefits service, which the Lab is still investigating for a root cause.
    • This is the type of message people will eventually see when trying to log-in to SL on viewers that do not have the code currently in the Premium RC viewer, once the Premium Plus service is live, and the switch to using the new benefits information service has been made.
EEP RC Viewer and Promotion

[1:03-1:50]

  • Depending on its time in an RC cohort and the nature of any issues found, EEP version 6.3.8.538264 could be the final version of this viewer, and destined for promotion to release status in the next few weeks.
  • It is unlikely any promotion will occur during week #13 (commencing Monday, March 23rd), because a) the viewer requires time in its cohort to check for issues / crash rates, etc.; and b) the week #12 promotion of the Premium RC viewer.
  • If the viewer performs well, and no significant issues are found with it or with EEP in general, it would seem likely the view will be promoted some time in the two weeks after week #13.
  • However, if problems remain with EEP, it is possible the tools update viewer (see below), when available, might be fast-tracked for promotion ahead of EEP.
  • The previous iteration of the EEP viewer reportedly had one of the lowest crash rates for any LL viewer.
Remaining RC and Project Viewers

[1:52-4:35; 7:05-7:31 and as timestamped below]

  • The love Me Render RC viewer is unlikely to be promoted until some time after EEP has reached de facto release status, so as not to have two blocks of rendering changes released one atop the other.
  • The Camera Presets RC viewer has an update, and should be appearing shortly, once merged with the new release viewer code. This will also not be promoted prior to EEP.
  • The first public viewer using the updated viewer build tools (VS 2017 and a recent version of Xcode for Mac and which uses the new Github repositories) is going through its “last massive rebuild”, and an RC version is expected to be made available in week #13.
    • This viewer will be functionality identical to the release viewer; there are no UI or other changes to it, other than bug fixes required by the move to the newer build tools.
    • This build has yet to address the notarising MAC application issue that results in warnings being issued by OS X “Catalina”. However, LL recognise this issue needs to be addressed , and will be doing so.
    • Depending on how this viewer fairs in RC compared to the EEP viewer, it might be fast-tracked for promotion to de facto release ahead of EEP.
  • [10:23-11:04] The Legacy Profiles RC viewer has a bug where under some circumstances it will display the profile web feed information in error, which needs to be addressed before the viewer progresses further (the web feed to the viewer will be turned off from the back-end once the Legacy Profiles viewer is promoted to release status).

In Brief

  • [17:15-17:36] There are some inventory operations (e.g moving a folder, renaming a folder, etc.) that are under UDP. There is a plan to move all such operations to AIS (HTTP), but this work will likely not be tackled until after the work on the cloud uplift has been completed.
  • [17:39-18:18] Because of the uplift work, and outside of major projects such as EEP, Name Changes and Premium Plus, the number of server / back-end changes that the Lab make will be “quite constrained” over the course of the next 12 months or so.
  • [20:15-21:53] The texture caching work in the viewer in on-going, alongside all other viewer-side work, as none of this conflicts with the cloud uplift work.
    • The first step will be to re-implement the VFS in a “simpler, cleaner way”.
    • After this, work will extend into revising the texture cache.
    • Also, “behind” the texture cache work, there is further work on texture fetching via HTTP2.
  • [22:02-26:25 (inlc. text chat)] BUG-227179 “All offline inventory offers from scripted objects are STILL lost” – LL are still “trying to figure out” the cause of this long-term issue. Firestorm reverted the problem, and requests have been made for LL to do the same, but the Lab would rather “fix” the problem – which doesn’t entirely help those who are victim to inventory loss resulting from it.

2020 Simulator User Group week #12 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Enchantment! @ LeLoo’s World, January 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, March 3rd.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

  • On Tuesday, March 17th, the majority of the grid (the SLS “main” channel) updated to simulator version 538236, containing internal fixes, as previously deployed to a selection of RC servers.
  • An RC deployment is pending for Wednesday, March 18th, but details were TBA at the time of writing this summary. This update will apparently replace versions 538236, and 538222, both previously deployed to RC servers (March 11th).

Continuing Object Rezzing Issues

The object rezzing issues (see: Potential showstopping bug on many mainland regions. Anyone else experienced this?) is becoming more noticeable.Commenting on the situation, Rider Linden believes he may have a is resolution for the issue, stating:

I believe I was able to isolate what was going on with object rez and I think I have a solution for it. It should roll on Magnum.

This deployment should be part of the RC rollouts on Wednesday, March 17th.

SL Viewer

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

  • Current Release version 6.3.7.535996, formerly the Yorsh Maintenance RC, dated February 7, promoted February 20th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Premium RC viewer, version 6.3.8.538264, March 12.
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.536347, February 11.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.7.536179, February 10.
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

iOS Client

Simulator update 538222 (March 10th) saw the first deployment of code specifically in support of the upcoming iOS client, suggesting that the indicated testing period for the client may be approaching (although there are no details as yet on what form any such testing will take, and  / or if users will be asked to offer feedback).

The last detailed summary I have for the client can bee found in Second Life iOS companion app – mini update, and a key bullet point summary for the initial release could be said to be:

  • The app should initially be regarded as more of a communicator / companion app than a fully-rounded client:
  • It will provide a log-in option, and chat options (e.g. IM, group chat). Local chat will not initially be supported.
  • It will not present you with an in-world location, nor will your avatar rez in-world.
  • Seen as being useful for merchants / business owners to maintain contact with customers when away from their viewer.
  • In theory, the app should work with both iPhones and iPads, although there may be some configuration differences.

Over time it will be enhanced – but additional capabilities are still TBD.

2020 Simulator User Group week #11 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Dream of Asia, January 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, March 3rd.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

  • On Tuesday, March 10th, the majority of the grid (the SLS “main” channel) updates to server release 537423, primarily focusing on improvements to make rolling the grid more gentle on the Lab’s non-simulator servers.
    • This update has some changes that may help improve vehicular-based  / physical region crossings. People are asked to check & report.
  • An RC deployment is pending for Wednesday, March 11th, but details were TBA at the time of writing this summary. According to Simon Linden, the update shouldn’t contain any user-visible changes.

Continuing Object Rezzing Issues

There continue to be reports of on-going object rezzing issues (reported and noted in past SUG meetings), some of which appear to be specifically tied to the 53743 release whilst on an RC deployment (see: Potential showstopping bug on many mainland regions. Anyone else experienced this?). The issue is again being complicated in that it cannot be easily tied to simulators specifically on that release, because – as some of the comments on the thread note – the possibly offending script calls do not misbehave consistently between different regions on the same channel / release. 

No update was provided at the SUG meeting, but within the thread, Mazidox Linden notes:

Just to chime in here that we’re aware of this issue (as mentioned up-thread it’s not particularly new unfortunately, dating back to late last year), and using the latest information you all have provided we’re able to confirm that the issue under discussion (object_rez events never fire) reproduces in the regions mentioned, but work fine in other regions running the same code. We’re not sure why that is just yet, but we’re going to do our darnedest to find out and get a fix for this behaviour in your hands as quick as we can.

Some people have also reported of a return of breedable issues which may (or may not be) related to this problem. In short, if you are seeing issues with scripted object rezzing – file a Jira.

SL Viewer

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

  • Current Release version 6.3.7.535996, formerly the Yorsh Maintenance RC, dated February 7th, promoted February 20th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Premium RC viewer, version 6.3.8.537335, released March 3rd.
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.536347, February 11th.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.7.536179, February 10th.
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24th.
  • Project viewers:
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22nd, 2019.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th, 2019.

2020 SL project updates week #10: TPVD and CCUG

Posted on by Inara Pey
Countryside, January 2020 – blog post

The bulk of the following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on March 6th, 2020. These meetings are generally held every other week, unless otherwise noted in any given summary. Also included this week are notes from the very brief Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting of Thursday, March 5th. These are indicated by [CCUG] appearing before them.

The embedded video is provided to Pantera – my thanks to her for recording and providing it. Time stamps are included with the notes will open the video at the point(s) where a specific topic is discussed.

In terms of the TPVD meeting:

  • The core of the meeting (10:05-45:08) revolved around specific issues TPVs that have implemented their own shader changes are encountering with merging EEP (note: not Firestorm) and views on EEP assets and permissions. In the interests of brevity, these are not recorded in the notes below.
  • The latter part of the meeting (45:15 onwards) is an esoteric, somewhat tongue-in-cheek discussion concerning on-line status.

SL Viewer News

[1:46-5:02]

  • The new Premium RC viewer, version 6.3.8.537335, was released on Tuesday March 3rd. See the notes below for more.

The remainder of the current SL viewer pipelines were unchanged for week #10:

  • Current release viewer version: 6.3.7.535996, formerly the Yorsh Maintenance RC viewer, dated February 7th and promoted February 20th.
  • Release channel cohorts
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.536347, February 11.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.7.536179, February 10.
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • Given the delays to EEP due to some late-breaking issues (see below), it is now possible the Lab may opt to promote one of the other RC viewers in the period between now and when EPP is ready for viewer-side release. In particular, the Premium RC viewer may be fast-tracked to release status (although the back-end support will not be activated until Premium Plus is launched later in the year).
  • The Camera Presets RC viewer remains “crashy”, and any merge with releases is currently being held pending a decision on whether EEP is ready for release or if another RC should be promoted ahead of it.
  • Viewer build tools update viewer (using the VS 2017 + a more recent Xcode version, etc.), has become “complicated” due to the repository migration, the need to update libraries, etc. As a result, and depending on the amount of work involved in the libraries aspect of the work, this may become a two-phase project: put the RC viewer out, then finalise the libraries for future builds.

Premium RC Viewer

[5:34-8:33]

  • This viewer is contains new code to specifically handle benefits information related to benefits / limits applied to accounts based on subscription level (Basic, Premium or the upcoming Premium Plus).
  • This data will in the future be provided by the server at log-in, rather than being received through an assortment of mechanisms or being hard-coded into the viewer. However, until the server-side support is turned on, the viewer code does not actually do anything.
  • Once the back-end support switch for these changes is thrown – which will not be until Premium Plus is launched later in the year -, it is possible that users on viewers / clients lacking the necessary code changes may find things like uploads failing (due to the incorrect L$ value being applied).
  • However, TPVs are encouraged to start trial integrations with the code so that they are ready to go with updates which the switch is thrown, as the code will be required as a part of the log-in process, so TPVs need to be ready for it in order to avoid users experiencing log-in issues.
  • Other than these changes and some UI improvements, this viewer is functionally identical to the release viewer, and it is anticipated it will rapidly move to release status because of this – possibly ahead of any EEP release, depending on how the final issues resolution process for EEP advances.

EEP Status and Deployment

[CCUG] The full resources of the rendering team (including Runitai Linden, recently returned to SL from Sansar) are now working on trying to solve some remaining shader issues with the Environment Enhancement Project, which is having some lighting problems that need further work

Note the with regards to EEP:

  • It is no longer a goal to make all environments across Second Life appear *exactly* as they do under Windlight.
  • Because of this, some content may look different under EEP lighting than it does under Windlight.
  • This means some region designers and some content creators may have to make adjustments to their region environments  / their content for optimal viewing with EEP.
  • There will be some known issues with EEP when it is released, but the belief is that these will be minor.
  • There will be fixes for rendering issues following EEP, mostly likely through the Love Me Render project.
  • If there are what LL consider to be “significant” breakages, then effort will be made to address these.

Fun facts:

  • The current EEP viewer (RC 6.4.0.536347 at the time of writing) has accumulated over 185,000 user hours thus far, and has a crash rate 2% below the current LL release viewer.
  • Over 600 Jira issues have been filed against EEP, the vast majority of which have been cleared by LL.

ARCTan

[CCUG]

Project Summary

An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering both. 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).

This project is in two phases:

  • Phase 1: viewer-side changes, primarily 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.
  • Phase 2: provide updates on in-world object rendering costs, etc., using the avatar ARC methodology as a basis for this work.

Status

  • Vir’s  fix for the appearance / Bake Service issue he encountered appears to work within the text environment he has created, although it is still awaiting a QA thumbs-up
  • The next element of work he is anticipating is putting together a “version 2.0” of ARC calculations, which may use a similar scheme to Animesh.

In Brief

  • [8:49-10:05] viewer updates: a reminder was given that users should update to recent viewer updates from the Lab / their preferred TPV on a regular basis, as necessary changes (such as the Premium RC updates plus others in the pipeline) will mean that older viewers lacking the necessary code will cease behaving as expected in certain ways.
  • The next CCUG meeting will be on Thursday, March 28th, and my summary of that meeting will likely be back in its own separate blog post.

2020 Simulator User Group week #10 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grauland, January 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, March 3rd.

Simulator Deployments

At the time of writing, there was no server deployment thread.

  • There was no update to the SLS main channel on Tuesday, March 3rd.
  • On Wednesday, March 4th:
    • Around 30% of the total grid (equivalent to the 3 primary RC channels) will receive an update. Again, at the time of writing, no details were available, however, Simon Linden indicated there should be no user-visible changes, but the update will include fixes to lower level code that should help with scripts running and provide some better performance transferring scripts across region boundaries as well. This update has apparently been on simulators associated with the BlueSteel RC.
    • A smaller release will also be made to some RC channel simulator, but details were not provided at the meeting.

SL Viewer

The new Premium RC viewer, version 6.3.8.537335, was released on Tuesday March 3rd, in preparation for the introduction on the new Premium Plus subscription level. This viewer sees Premium benefits information provided at login by the server for the current user and for all publicly available benefits packages. All UI and other logic is based on these values, replacing an assortment of values previously received via other mechanisms or hard-coded into the viewer. The RC also includes some UI improvements.

The rest of the viewer pipelines remain unchanged from the end of week #9:

  • Current Release version 6.3.7.535996, formerly the Yorsh Maintenance RC, dated February 7, promoted February 20 – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.536347, February 11.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.7.536179, February 10.
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24.
  • Project viewers:
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • EEP: some last-minute shaders issues are being hammered on by the graphics team in preparation for EEP to progress.
  • Rider Linden has a “background project” he hopes that, when he can focus on it and move it to public release, may help with simulator slow-downs that occur as avatars TP into a region.

2020 Content Creation User Group week #9 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Cold Rose, January 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, February 20th 2020 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Environment Enhancement Project

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements (e.g. the sky, sun, moon, clouds, and water settings) to be set region or parcel level, with support for up to 7 days per cycle and sky environments set by altitude. It uses a new set of inventory assets (Sky, Water, Day), and includes the ability to use custom Sun, Moon and cloud textures. The assets can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others, and can additionally be used in experiences.

Resources

Current Status

  • Final review of issues is due on Friday, February 28th. If the project passes this review, the EEP will be cleared for promotion to release status.
  • There is a viewer build that the Lab has internally that is liable to be the release version; it’s not clear if this viewer will go to RC prior to promotion or be issued as the de facto release viewer .
  • It has again been noted that EEP will not give a precise one-to-one rendering of absolutely every environment (sky, lighting, etc.) in SL when compared to Windlight, as EEP uses a completely different and updated set of shaders, but it is hoped that most will be “very close”.
  • Once EEP has has reached release status, it is anticipated that their will be a “fairly rapid” cycle of viewer promotions to clear the remaining RC viewers in the pipelines (i.e. one new promotion every other week).

ARCTan

Project Summary

An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering both. 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:

  • Immediate viewer-side changes, primarily 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 work can essentially be broken down as:
    • Collect data.
    • Update ARC function.
    • Design and provide tool within the viewer UI (i.e. not a pop-up) that presents ARC information in a usable manner and lets users make decisions about rendering / performance.
  • 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.
  • The belief is that “good” avatar ARC values can likely be used as a computational base for these rendering calculations.

Current Status

  • Vir believes he has a fix for the appearance  / Bake Service issue that has been causing problems with ARCTan testing. This has yet to be QA tested. Should it pass, then it will mean internal testing can resume.
  • UI tools: one of the issues with the current ARC capability is how the information is presented and how it is interpreted. The question was therefore asked (by Vir) about possible ARC-related tools that could be incorporated into the viewer.
    • There are tools already in the viewer (Max Complexity Setting, Always Render Friends, etc.), although how well these are used is open to debate.
    • A concern with added further tools is that they could just additionally confuse for users (“more options and sliders!”) or just be ignored.
    • Automated  / semi automated means of adjusting complexity settings was favoured by some at the meeting.
    • The problem with full automation could be difficult to implement due to the broad variance in hardware used to access SL, the complexity of existing content (avatar heads, bodies, etc.), plus people’s personal preferences, etc.
    • A mechanism for adjusting  / bypassing an automated process could be provided, but then it defeats trying to automate as people will just opt to bypass a the process and ramp up settings.
    • An alternative might be to make the current tools more intuitive / easier to access and also more granular, then gradually move towards greater automation (with overrides) as people gain more familiarity with the whole issue of optimised content and performance.
    • A suggestion from the Lab was to have some form of “temporary” thresholds: such as when teleporting into a busy region switches to some form of frame-rate threshold / asset load prioritisation that helps to maintain a reasonable frame rate whilst also prioritising CPU cycle use to speed up the initial loading period, then switching back up when done. The complication with this approach is, not everyone has the same bottleneck areas, so a threshold setting that works well for some, might not show any benefit for others.
  • Bound up with this is the question of educating users as to:
    • What tools are available and how they work (e.g. a capability one of those at the meeting was espousing as something that would be “nice” to see in the viewer, has in fact been a part of it for almost five years).
    • What actually is impacting their experience with SL (it is so easy to blame “the servers” and “LL” when actually many of the problems are in fact viewer-side and could be better managed by a user than might otherwise be the case).