Category: Simulator User Group

2018 SL UG updates #32/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Ravenwold; Inara Pey, July 2018, on FlickrRavenwold – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the week, for the latest news and updates.

  • On Tuesday, August 7th, the SLS (main) channel was updated with server maintenance package 18#18.07.20.518082, containing the server-side Animesh support, and “logging tweaks”. This release was previously deployed to the LeTigre and Magnum RCs.
  • On Wednesday, August 8th:
    • LeTigre and Magnum will be updated to server maintenance package 18#18.07.20.518086, previously deployed to BlueSteel.
    • BlueSteel will remain on  18#18.07.20.518086, which contains Animesh support and internal fixes.

The SLS (main) channel deployment saw regions off-line for a longer than usual time between being taken down for the simulator code deployment and being brought back up. This was expected. According to the deployment thread, several people saw their regions restarted at least twice; this isn’t the first time this has been reported, and the situation has been referred to the Second Life Ops team.

SL Viewer

In week #31 the Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.517973 and dated July 30th, was promoted to de facto release status on August 3rd.

As a result of this update the RC viewers were updated on Tuesday August 7th, as follows:

  • Bugsplat RC viewer: updated to version 5.1.8.518305.
  • SL Voice RC viewer: (originally released on August 1st) updated to version 5.1.8.518310. This viewer updates SLVoice with new codecs, fixes some problems with selecting audio devices, and other voice related bug fixes. It should be noted that the SLVoice executable in this viewer is not compatible with most older viewers and should not be copied to such viewers.

Also at the end of week #31 the Bakes on Mesh project viewer updated to version 5.1.7.518013, on August 3rd.

At the time of writing, the remaining viewers in the official viewer pipelines are unchanged:

  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

EEP Delay?

The Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) appears to have had a slight delay…

EEP is moving forward. There was a last-minute hiccup on the back-end and I’m tightening up some last-minute things about parcels specific settings. Rider Linden: I’m eager to get this into people’s hands.

– Rider Linden on EEP progress.

Those unfamiliar with the project, which it to provide parcel and region windlight management, as well as some additional server-side goodies, can find out more in Second Life Windlight environmental enhancements. I also provide update summaries via my Content Creation User Group summaries.

Attachment Limit Increase – Premium Perk?

It’s been indicated in some recent meetings that the Lab is hoping to reach a point where the attachment limit for avatars can be increased (currently set to 38 items). If and when this happens, it might be made a Premium membership perk.

It most likely will only be for Premium. but we’re still not ready to increase it anyway, so it’s still moot. It’s unusual for anything to be “set in stone” until it’s in the past (and not always then), but improving Premium is a major strategic goal for us, so … 

Oz Linden, commenting on the attachment limit increase at the Simulator User Group meeting,
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

 

2018 SL UG updates #31/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

[Smash]; Inara Pey, July 2018, on Flickr[Smash] – blog post

This is a short SUG meeting update, because there was no SUG meeting on Tuesday, July 31st. Presumably Lindens are still recovering from the Linden Summer of Love Palooza Extravaganza Fête Conference Thingy (aka “SL summit”) held last week 🙂 .

Server Deployments

as always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest update.

  • There was no Main (SLS) channel roll on Tuesday, July 31st. However, those regions on the channel that were on their 14-day cycle were restarted.
  • On Wednesday, August 1st, at least the BlueSteel RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel should update to server maintenance package 18#18.07.20.518086, containing internal fixes.
    • LeTigre and Magnum  should be updated to a new server maintenance package, 18#18.07.20.518082, comprising Animesh and logging tweaks (note that at the time of writing, this update was not correctly chronologically listed for  LeTigre).

SL Viewer

The Quinquina RC updated on Monday, July 30th to version 5.1.7.517973. At the time of writing, there have been no other updates, leaving the official viewer pipelines as:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • BugSplat RC viewer, version 5.1.7.518003, released July 20. This viewer is functionally identical to the current release viewer, but uses BugSplat for crash reporting, rather than the Lab’s own Breakpad based crash reporting tools.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7. This viewer will remain available for as long as reasonable, but will not be updated with new features or bug fixes.

Content Creation User Group Meetings

The schedule for the Content Creation Meetings has been updated for August 2018:

  • No meetings on Thursday August 2nd (week #31) and Thursday August 16th (week #33).
  • Meetings on Thursday, August 9th (week #32), Thursday, August 23rd (week #34) and Thursday, August 30th (week #35).

 

2018 SL UG updates #30/1: the Lindens are away!

Posted on by Inara Pey

In the Wild; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrIn the Wild – blog post

The short version of this post is:

“There are no project updates for this week”.

The Lab’s Second Life developer and product team, et al, all are on an off-site to discuss further plans for the platform (which we’ll gradually get to hear about in due course in the coming months … hopefully). Unofficially, this is now known as the Linden Summer of Love Palooza Extravaganza Fête Conference thingy – just so you know 😀 .

Server Deployments

None planned. Main channel regions should have been restarted on Tuesday, July 24th, in accordance with the 14-day restart policy. The BlueSteel and LeTigre RCs should in theory be restarted on Wednesday, July 25th for the same reason.

SL Viewer

On Friday, July 20th, Linden Lab issued the BugSplat RC viewer, 5.1.7.518003.

This viewer is functionally identical to the current release viewer. However, it includes now crash reporting capabilities based on the Lab using BugSplat, a commercial service, rather than their own crash reporting mechanism derived from Google Breakpad.

The aim of this work is to allow the Lab to focus on actual viewer development and support, rather than having to pour time into maintaining and updating the crashing reporting software and workflow associated with it.

Other than this update, the viewer pipelines from the Lab remain as:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, promoted June 21st – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.1.7.517594, on July 12th.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status 29th November, 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7. This viewer will remain available for as long as reasonable, but will not be updated with new features or bug fixes.

2018 SL UG updates #29/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Abandale; Inara Pey, July 2018, on FlickrAbandale – blog post

Sever Deployments

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

  • There was no SLS main channel deployment or restart on Tuesday, July 17th, 2018, leaving regions on that channel running on server release 18#18.06.14.516450.
  • On Wednesday, July 18th, the release candidate channels should be as follows:
    • Bluesteel and LeTigre will remain on server release 18#18.07.03.517389 and will not be restarted.
    • Magnum should receive a new server maintenance package, 18#18.07.11.517746, comprising “internal fixes”.

The Main channel roll – which was to have included Animesh – was postponed, as Simon Linden explained at the Simulator User Group on Tuesday, July 17th:

We unfortunately held back this morning’s update with the Animesh roll. Late last week we found some code that is probably causing problems with the physics shapes of mesh bodies … not Animesh, but other normal mesh stuff …  Not using the correct physics shape. When building with mesh, there are a few ways to set that shape, and the Animesh code changes affected that code.

Simon Linden, SUG meeting, Tuesday, July 17th 2018.

It should be pointed out that in the context of Simon’s comments, “mesh bodies” means “in-world mesh objects, as worn mesh items doesn’t have a physics shape per se.

Deployment of the Animesh code to the SLS channel will therefore likely await the deployment of a fix for the issues encountered.

SL Viewer

There have been no Sl viewer updates / changes to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.1.7.517594, on July 12.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Attachment Loss / Ghosting on Teleport / Region Crossing

Some people are reporting loss / ghosting of attachments on teleporting. The problems sees to vary in the number of teleports taken before it is noticed, and tends to take the form of others noticing an avatar is missing parts, rather than the wearer (for whom everything still appears to be worn).

It’s not clear how widespread the issue is, although it seems it has been reported a lot through the Firestorm support groups. Mazidox Linden did confirm some attachment / region crossing testing was occurring on Aditi, but it’s not clear if this is in reference to this specific problem, or to with examining / improving region crossings in general.

Firestorm has a Refresh Attachments option (Advanced menu), however, addressing the issue from the viewer is seen as a less than optimal approach, a server-side fix being preferable.

Commenting on region crossings and attachments in general, Simon Linden said, “From what I can tell with my investigations so far, most attachment problems with region crossings come down to messaging failures, and then the viewer and region(s) get out of sync and don’t recover. ” He also noted that his own testing of “double” region crossings (e.g. cutting across the corner of a region while moving between two others) lead him to want to say “stop!” at the first, and not even attempt the second until the first hand-off have completed.

At this point I want to improve the code and communications so after a crossing, both regions and the viewer can agree that everyone is on the 2nd region with all attachments and vehicles and, when something goes wrong, try to recover … At both ends, viewer and region, it should be able to realize it’s been a few seconds and things are missing or not, and then re-try.

Simon Linden on investigating region crossing, Tuesday, July 17th, 2018

As an aside, one of the reasons the Lab is working on region crossings and attachment issues beside trying to make region crossings smoother and more predictable in general, is so that they might increase the limit on the number of attachments that can be simultaneously worn (currently 38). However, as Oz Linden noted at the Simulator User Group meeting, this won’t happen until such time as attachments can remain reliably … attached.

2018 SL UG updates #28/1: simulator user group / EEP

Posted on by Inara Pey

Aphantasia; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrAphantasia – blog post

Sever Deployments

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

  • There was no SLS main channel deployment on Tuesday, July 10th, 2018, leaving regions on that channel running on server release 18#18.06.14.516450. However, due to the “14 day rule”, region on the main channel were restarted.
  • On Wednesday, July 11th, the release candidate channels should receive server update package 18#18.07.03.517389, comprising “additional internal tweaks”.

Both of the RC updates will include changes to the Animesh code currently deployed to the RC to allow better logging of Animesh related activities.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no SL viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.516813, released on June 22.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

This is the project to introduce a set of environmental enhancements. Rider Linden is now engaged in internal testing a viewer supporting the new EEP capabilities, together with the server-side support. During the July 10th, 2018 SUG meeting, he provided a brief summary as to how the basics of EEP will work:

You can create what are called settings objects in your inventory. These settings objects [they are not prim-like not can they be rezzed in-world] represent either a water, a sky or a complete day cycle. We are providing interfaces that will let you set the parameters for each of these types of settings. (Very similar to the existing WL editors).

[Then,] from the context menu for a setting object you can apply it either to yourself, the parcel you are in or the region you are in. (The last two if you have rights to do so; you may also open the editor and a button there will let you apply to region or parcel as well).

Scripted support for EEP will be provided for agents (avatars) in experiences, but as I’ve noted in previous EEP updates in these pages, this scripted support will not be part of the initial EEP release, but will be added later.

Will there is now the ability to present different windlights at pre-set altitudes (to to 1,000m, then 1,000m up to 2,000m and then 2,000m up to 3,000m and 3,000m+), this may be seen as a less flexible approach that can be achieved through some third-party viewers, which allow much closer altitude zoning of windlight settings (e.g. have a windlight from, say 22m to 500m, another from 500m to 1,000m, etc.). .

The bar at Holly Kai park exemplifies a potential limitation of EEP. The bar is built-in to the base of a rock plateau, and currently, it is possible to define a viewer-side windlight that applies purely to the bar’s interior (i.e. up to a height of 32 metres above the sea floor). Above that limit (“above ground” so to speak), the parcel uses the same daylight windlight as the rest of the region. EEP’s 1,000 metre altitude zoning effectively prevents this.

How big an issue this might be remains to be seen – but it is not unfair to say there is a reasonable number of regions scattered across the grid where EEPs altitude zoning could force a repositioning of different sky builds using local windlights, should it become the only means of applying localised windlight – which might not be initially popular.

In Brief

Retrieving Grid Statistics Page via llHTTPRequest (see BUG-216320): trying to retrieve grid statistics via a script results in a 499 error, although queries via web browsers will still succeed. No remedial work has been done on this.

JIRA Bug report fields issue (BUG-1074): the fields used in the Create form for a bug report do not use the same titles as the fields seen in a filed bug report, nor are they in the same order. This makes submitting a bug report confusing for anyone not used to the SL JIRA (they can’t even look at a filed report to easily see what they sound be entering in the fields of the submission form). This is something the Lab might fix following the deployment of an upcoming JIRA update.

2018 SL UG updates #27 Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Vault – dare you enter? – blog post

Sever Deployments

Due to this week being July 4th week in the United States, there are no planned server deployments.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no SL viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15, promoted June 21 – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – No Change
  • Release channel cohort:
    • Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.7.516813, released on June 22.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Retrieving Grid Statistics Page via llHTTPRequest

There is a known LSL bug when trying to retrieve grid statistics via a script, which results in a 499 error – see BUG-216320. However, queries via web browsers will still succeed.

This Week

Project news will be in short supply, again due to it being 4th of July week.