Category: Simulator User Group

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, May 12th. Not a lot was discussed (again), so just a short update on server deployments / official viewer updates.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• On Tuesday, May 12th, the majority of the grid was updated to server maintenance release 541440, comprising:
  • Updates to fix issues with the Name Change feature still calling avatars by their “old” names for up to a week (see BUG-228565).
  • Internal logging changes and improvements to how the simulator accesses internal servers.
  • A a fix to llBase64ToInteger, the colour space LSL functions.
  • This update could exacerbate issues with group notice time stamps failing to accurately report, which has been an issue on at least one RC channel (see: BUG-228562 Group Notice Timestamps don’t report accurately Server Channel 540369/ now 541440).
• Updates are planned for the three RC channels, but at the time of writing, had yet to be announced. Commenting on the updates at the meeting, Rider Linden stated:

LeTigre and Magnum are getting competing fixes for the experience purchase problem [see Bug-228676]. BlueSteel, Snack and Preflight [two small-scale RC channels] are all getting an update that just internal fixes and extra logging.

Please refer to the deployment thread for further information / updates.

SL Viewer

On Monday, May 11th:

• The Camera Presets RC viewer updated to version 6.4.2.541639.
• The Love Me Render RC viewer updated to version 6.4.2.541651.
• A new FMOD Studio update RC viewer, version 6.4.2.541570, was issued.

The remaining official viewer pipelines are currently unchanged from the end of week #18:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • CEF Special RC viewer, version 6.4.1.541204, dated April 30th.
• 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.

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, May 5th. Not a lot to report; most of the meeting was general chat about wish-lists for alternatives / updates to LSL, general commentary on animations and enquiries about the CEF viewer related to the Adult Swim event (see:Adult Swim special streaming event in Second Life).

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• On Tuesday, May 5th, the majority of the grid was updated to server maintenance release 540928, first deployed on Wednesday, April 29th, and comprising an update to the simulator build tools.
• On Wednesday, May 6th. there should be a single RC deployment. Server update 541440 again comprises updates to fix issues with the Name Change feature still calling avatars by their “old” names for up to a week, together with some internal logging changes and improvements to how the simulator accesses internal servers, and a fix to llBase64ToInteger, the colour space LSL functions.

SL Viewer

On Monday, May 4th, the Zirbenz Maintenance RC viewer,version 6.4.1.540593 and dated April 27th, 2020, was promoted to de facto release viewer status.

The remaining official viewer pipelines are currently unchanged from the end of week #18:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • CEF Special RC viewer, version 6.4.1.541204, April 30.
  • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
  • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
• 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.

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, April 28th.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• On Tuesday, April 28th, the majority of the grid was updated to server maintenance release 540213, previously deployed to an RC cluster and comprising simulator updates related to Premium benefits.
• A single RC update is due on Wednesday, April 29th. No version number as available at the time of writing, but Rider Linden indicated it contains no functionality changes, but is an update to the simulator build tools.

SL Viewer

On Monday, April 27th, 2020, the Zirbenz RC viewer updated to version 6.4.1.540593.

At the time of writing, the remaining RC viewers have yet to be merged up to the EEP release, and there have been no project viewer updates, leaving the remaining official viewer pipelines as follows:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
  • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
• 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

• The fix for the issue off-line inventory losses from objects (see: BUG-227179 “All offline inventory offers from scripted objects are STILL lost”) is still awaiting deployment.
• Simon Linden is stepping back from running the SUG meetings to focus more on the cloud uplift work. He’ll still be attending, but Rider is taking the reins.

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, April 14th.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• There was no deployment to the majority of the grid on Tuesday, April 21st, leaving in on server maintenance update 539684.
• On Wednesday, April 22nd, three RC deployment should take place:
  • 540213 – simulator updates related to Premium benefits.
  • 540369 – containing updates to fixes for the just released name changes after it was discovered the feature could, in a couple of places still call you by your former name for up to a week (“oops!”, as the Lab put it), and assorted internal changes.
  • A further deployment 540032 first deployed on April 15th, containing updates related to the cloud uplift.

SL Viewer

On Monday, April 20th, 2020, the EEP RC viewer, version 6.4.0.540188 and dated April 15th, was promoted to the de facto release viewer. See:

• The official announcement.
• My EEP Primer offering a general overview of EEP and the viewer-side changes.
• My EEP Tutorial offering an in-depth looks at EEP.

At the time of writing, the remaining RC viewers have yet to be merged up to the EEP release, and there have been no project viewer updates, leaving the remaining official viewer pipelines as follows:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
  • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
  • Zirbenz Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538719, issued March 19.
• 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

A question was raised over the potential for EEP to cause “lag” (with up to 4 altitude layers for EEP sky settings plus the use of parcel environment options, there is concern loading and reloading the required textures could impact travellers. In response to the concern, Simon Linden said:

Compared to the cost and payload of stopping your AV on one region, sending the data to the next and adding you into that part of the world, the EEP data change is pretty small. Your viewer might have a little more work to get textures and set up the sky and lighting, but I don’t think those will be significant.

Rider, Ptolemy and Euclid Linden, the three major movers behind EEP will be on the Friday, April 24th edition of Lab Gab.

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, April 14th.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• On Tuesday, April 14th, the majority of the grid was updated to server maintenance update 539684, previously deployed to an RC channel on April7th, and comprising:
  • BUG-228417 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() in deeded objects show owner as NULL_KEY in the received email metadata.
  • BUG-228412 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() are missing header info in the received email.
  • SL-12941 Disable TARGETED_EMAIL_ROOT_CREATOR in llTargetedEmail
  • SL-11502 New LSL function llTargetedEmail
  • BUG-226917 EEP Environment, New Sky should default to midday and not 6pm
  • BUG-226737 [EEP] The ‘get parcel_dayoffset’ request returns the value of the ‘parcel daylength’ parameter in the Region Debug Console.
• On Wednesday, April 15th, two RC deployment should take place:
  • 540032 – containing infrastructure updates related to the cloud migration.
  • 540037 – containing fixes for the just released name changes after it was discovered the feature could, in a couple of places still call you by your former name for up to a week (“oops!”, as the Lab put it), and assorted internal changes.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no updates to the current crop of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the current official viewer pipelines as follows:

• Current Release version  version 6.3.8.538264, dated March 12, promoted March 18th. Formerly the Premium RC viewer – No change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
  • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
  • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.538823, March 20.
  • Zirbenz Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538719, issued March 19.
• 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.

Group Chat

With the general increase in user concurrency, issues are being experienced with group chat (general slowness, sent messages failing, etc). Commenting on the situation, Simon Linden said:

Group chat traffic grows in “interesting” mathematical ways … a single person will have X number of groups, and thus joins them all and increases the number of people in the group. That multiplies out as groups get larger so a single message goes to more people … it’s not linear. Add in the updates on people coming on-line or logging off and it bogs down –  and yes, we’ve done some work on it and want to get time for more.

A factor that’s likely contributing to the issue is that the plan to cut back on the number of group update messages created when users log-on  / log-off of Second Life was actually curtailed, with Simon also noting:

[There was] some pretty strong push-back that managers need that info … so it got more complicated about who should get what messages when, and the project went back on the shelf. But you can imagine the math … if you have a group with about 10 people on-line, every once in a while someone joins or leaves, and about 10 updates have to be sent out. Put 1000 people in a group … people are coming and going all the time, and 1000 updates have to go out if everyone needs to know

And yes – there are some different ways it can be fixed. The real issue is people getting upset if they can’t do something any more, and finding that magic spot where it works right for those that need the feature, and not a load slowing down chat for everyone

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, April 7th.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

• There was no deployment to the grid on Tuesday, April 7th, 2020, leaving the majority of regions running simulator version 538914, containing support for the upcoming mobile companion applications (see: Second Life companion app: mini update, March 2020).
• On Wednesday, April 8th, there should be two RC updates:
  • Simulator release 539362, containing infrastructure improvements related to the cloud uplift.
  • Simulator release 539684, containing the following:
    • BUG-228417 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() in deeded objects show owner as NULL_KEY in the received email metadata.
    • BUG-228412 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() are missing header info in the received email.
    • SL-12941 Disable TARGETED_EMAIL_ROOT_CREATOR in llTargetedEmail
    • SL-11502 New LSL function llTargetedEmail
    • BUG-226917 EEP Environment, New Sky should default to midday and not 6pm
    • BUG-226737 [EEP] The ‘get parcel_dayoffset’ request returns the value of the ‘parcel daylength’ parameter in the Region Debug Console.

SL Viewer

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

• Current Release version  version 6.3.8.538264, dated March 12, promoted March 18th. Formerly the Premium RC viewer – No change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
  • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
  • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.538823, March 20.
  • Zirbenz Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538719, issued March 19.
• 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

With work progressing on the cloud uplift, some concern has been raised by those using external services and HTTP calls to / from the simulators once the latter start to be transitioned and have their domains changed.

While in-world object URLs are dynamic, it’s been suggested that some use external services use URL validation with hard-coded domain names (e.g. “http://sim10446.agni.lindenlab.com….”) in response to issues, and will therefore need a formal warning of URL changes as a result of domain changes. Given this approach is not recommended, the fact that LL will start to transition simulators to AWS services later in 2020 should be taken as fair warning that such validation checks will break. However, for those with concerns:

• Aditi (the beta grid) will be transitioned first, allowing scripts, external calls, etc., to be tested.
• With respect to this issue,  llHTTP on the wiki will be updated to reflect domain changes and HTTP call requirements.