On Tuesday, September 22nd, the grid’s main SLS channel was updated to simulator maintenance release 548903, containing updates related to the cloud uplift work which contain no user-visible changes.
There are no RC deployments planned for the week.
SL Viewer
The Bormotukha Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.4.8.548890 dated September 18th, was promoted to de facto release status on Tuesday, September 22nd.
The rest of the official viewer pipelines remain as follows:
Current release viewer version 6.4.7.546539, dated August 11, promoted August 17, formerly the Arrack Maintenance RC viewer – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.8.548061, September 8.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.8.547427, August 21.
Project viewers:
Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.8.547487, issued August 26.
Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
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.
Cloud Uplift
There is a known issue with Navmesh retrieval on cloud-hosted regions on Aditi.
The Lab believe they have a solution for the outward e-mail issue with cloud-based regions. However, due to the way in which Aditi regions are set-up, testing of the fix is being carried out elsewhere, but the hope is the fix will be usable once there are user-accessible regions on Agni that are running on AWS services.
In Brief
There is no update on the Group chat / IM failure issue (see BUG-229219).
The majority of the meeting focused on a general discussion on region crossings – notably with vehicles – and the assorted problems that can arise, including the inconsistencies in some things like object entry and group access are handled (the former can prevent vehicle and avatar entry, whereas the latter can allow a vehicle into a region / parcel, but then eject the driver / passenger, obviously resulting in problems).
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, September 18th, 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. Note these summaries are not intended to be a full reporting on all topics discussed, but focus on those items that are more directly user-facing.
The second half of this meeting was fairly text intensive, covering things like the water performance impact on EEP, together with subjects that are unlikely to become Lab projects / activities in the near future.
The Bormotukha Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.8.548890 on September 18th.
The remaining official viewer pipelines were unchanged through the week, leaving them as follows:
Current release viewer version 6.4.7.546539, dated August 11, promoted August 17, formerly the Arrack Maintenance RC viewer – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.8.548061, September 8.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.8.547427,August 21.
Project viewers:
Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.8.547487, issued August 26.
Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
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
It is likely the Bormotukha Maintenance RC will be promoted to de facto release status in week #39 after being delayed for further updates.
It is possible that the Mesh Uploader RC may be promoted to release status in a shorter period than the usual 2 weeks between release promotions (so possibly in week #40), as it is also in “good shape” for promotion.
As noted in my previous CCUG summary, there is now only one significant EEP-related fix the Lab would like to clear (related to alphas in local edit mode) prior to promoting the Love Me Render (LMR) RC to release status, so this again could be ready to be lined-up for promotion to release status in the very near future – although the next update to this viewer will still be an RC version.
The Legacy Profiles viewer is still awaiting a back-end update to the feeds, which may be being worked on.
However, these are not the only regions on Aditi operating via AWS cloud services: there are also a number of test regions that have been set-up, comprising (at the time of writing):
All of the Blake Sea regions on Aditi.
Cloud Sandboxes 1-4.
Ahern, Mauve, Morris.
The Testylvania Sandbox (restricted access).
At the start of the meeting, Oz Linden requested TPV developers (and possibly by extensions script creators) use the likes of the sandbox regions to test performance and general operations to help in the overall testing of simulator and simulator / viewer performance with regions running in the cloud and help identify configuration or other changes that may be required. Those testing the regions should be prepared to note any unexpected / unusual behaviours, unexpected outcomes, etc., and be prepared to file with with Linden Lab via Jira.
The Lab is making “very, very good progress” on ensuring simulators and regions are able to run within the AWS environment (there are also a number of Linden-only regions on Agni now running in the cloud), and this testing is seen as a key aspect of building confidence to start transitioning further regions on Agni to AWS and allowing people to test them. However, there is already a list of issues the Lab wants to deal with before this happens, and the above testing may add to this.
The focus is (as has oft been stated) on getting the simulator code to a state where it can be uplifted relatively smoothly and dealing with issues arising from uplift tests (such as with HTTP messaging), rather than dealing with bug fixes (unless they are particularly troublesome), and / or implementing features.
In Brief
[10:05-13:49, as a part of the Uplift discussion] Bug BUG-202943 “Group notice text is truncated by the simulator”: this is a somewhat complicated issue to initially grasp, but is clearly explained in Kitty Barnett’s comment on the bug report. This is of concern to the Lab, but due to the uplift work, a fix may not be immediately forthcoming.
[13:50-18:35 with further discussion in text beyond] The in-viewer log-in cookie issue (non-public BUG-226643) referred to in my previous TPV Developer meeting summary (see the In Brief section) has been looked at and may not require a server-side change to rectify, and is flagged as a web issue. However, it’s not clear on where it sits in the list of priorities.
There was no deployment to the grid’s main SLS channel on Tuesday, September 15th, 2020, leaving the simulators running on release 547626.
On Wednesday, September 16th some – or all – of the simulator on the RCs channel should be updated to simulator maintenance release 548903, containing updates related to the cloud uplift work which contain no user-visible updates.
SL Viewer
There have been no viewer updates to mark the start of week #38. This leaves the current pipelines as follows:
Current release viewer version 6.4.7.546539, dated August 11, promoted August 17, formerly the Arrack Maintenance RC viewer – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Bormotukha Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.4.8.548394, issued September 8.
Mesh uploader RC viewer, version 6.4.8.548061, September 8.
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.8.547427,August 21.
Project viewers:
Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.8.547487, issued August 26.
Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
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.
Cloud Uplift
Region Testing
As the Lab has announced, and I’ve reported – see Play Linden Realms in the cloud and help the Lab –, the Linden Realms have been cloned to Aditi and are running on AWS servers. Interested users are asked to help in testing the regions by logging-in to Aditi and spending time playing the game. Follow the links above to find out more.
LSL HTTP Changes
As a part of the move to AWS services, there will be changes to the use of HTTP once cloud-hosted simulator come into use. It is Linden Lab’s hope that these changes will not cause significant issues, however, in order to provide scripters with as much information as possible, Oz Linden posted a forum update providing an outline of the areas of impact: llHTTPRequest – Outbound HTTP and lRequestURL or llRequestSecureURL.
A number of regions on Aditi have been set-up to allow for testing, comprising:
Morris
Cloud Sandbox 1
Cloud Sandbox 2
Cloud Sandbox 3
Cloud Sandbox 4
Further information and the continuing discussion can be found within the forum thread.
People continue to experience issues with group chat disconnecting / failing following a transition to a different region via vehicle or teleport (see BUG-229219). As per last week’s update, there is a potential fix for this issue in the works, but whether or not it solves all of the issues currently being experienced or not is an unknown until it is actually deployed.
It is now the next major element of Second Life (after the core Blake Sea regions) to be cloned to Aditi, the beta grid, and uploaded to the cloud – and Linden Lab are asking users to give it a go, so they can further test region / simulator operations under load when running on AWS services.
The request for assistance came via a blog post on Monday, September 15th, which reads in full:
As you may know, we are in the process of moving Second Life to the cloud! Our first ever cloud simulators, on the beta grid, have been uplifted, and we can use your assistance. Here’s your opportunity to be among the first Residents to test the performance of uplift.
Log in to the beta grid (click here for instructions) and start at the Aditi Portal Park to try out Linden Realms in the cloud. Bring your friends and spend some time engaging in the virtual experience produced and provided by Linden Lab. You may even run into the often unseen technical Lindens working away. Don’t forget to ask them for their Linden bear, and beware of the rock monster!
If you find any issues with Linden Realms on the beta grid, please file a BUG jira at https://jira.secondlife.com, and make sure to include the time, date, region you were in when you found the issue, and a description of what happened, as well as what you would expect to happen in a similar situation on the Main Grid today.
So, if you want to help speed the cloud uplift process, why not follow the instructions contained in the links in the Lab’s blog post, log-in to Aditi and hop over to the beta grid and spending a little time playing Linden Realms – even if you don’t find anything to report, issue-wise, your time playing the game is still helping the Lab gather data on region and simulator performance.
The following notes were taken from the September 8th Simulator User Group meeting.
Simulator Deployments
Please refer to the server deployment thread for news and updates. However, there are no planned deployments for week #37.
SL Viewer
On Tuesday, September 8th, 2020, the following viewers were updated:
The Bormotukha Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.8.548394.
The Mesh Uploader RC viewer updated to version 6.4.8.548061.
The rest of the viewer pipelines currently remain unchanged from the end of week #36:
Current release viewer version 6.4.7.546539, dated August 11, promoted August 17, formerly the Arrack Maintenance RC viewer – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.8.547427,August 21.
Project viewers:
Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.8.547487, issued August 26.
Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
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.
Region Crossings
The recent updates to region crossings have generally improved things, but they’ve also led to a lot of “interesting” – to use Simon Linden’s term – side effects and some unpredictable behaviour.
Some are reporting a possible increase in avatar / vehicle collisions when crossing into regions with damage enabled.
Others are reporting issues of crossings “hanging” – the vehicle vanishes, the avatar is unable to move, communication, teleport, stand, etc., while the user is still able to cam around but is unable to to cleanly log-out.
This second issue apparently particularly noticeable when the region being entered is not visible at the time of the crossing (see BUG-229312), although this factor may be a separate issue to anything related to region crossings.
Group Chat
People continue to experience issues with group chat disconnecting / failing following a transition to a different region via vehicle or teleport (see BUG-229219).
There is a potential fix for this issue in the works, but whether or not it solves all of the issues currently being experienced or not is an unknown until it is actually deployed.
In the meantime, the group chat issue may be related to to issues being experienced with bots using group chat becoming unresponsive,sometimes after little more than an hour of running.
All of these issues appear to date from a period of back-end updates made in early August.
Cloud Uplift
Questions continue to be asked about changes that will / may be made to simulator services as a part of or immediately following the uplift work to get simulators transitioned to AWS services.
As has oft been stated by the Lab (and reported in these pages), the Lab’s focus is on successfully transitioning all of their services – including simulators “as is”, without making substantive changes at this point in time. As Oz Linden stated during the meeting:
Uplift is trying very hard not to make any changes we don’t _have_ to make … A big driver for getting simulators uplifted is that then we can start selling regions again … believe me, that’s pretty great motivation. When and whether we’ll make other changes to optimize or exploit the cloud is later on.
The following notes are taken from my recording of the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020. These meetings are held monthly, generally on the first Wednesdays of the month, with dates and details of the meetings available via the Web User Group wiki page.
When reading these notes, please keep in mind:
This is not intended as a chronological transcript of the meeting. Items are drawn together by topic, although they may have been discussed at different points in the meeting.
Similarly, and if included, any audio extracts appearing in these summaries are presented by topic heading, rather than any chronological order in which they may have been raised during the meeting (e.g. if “topic X” is mentioned early in a meeting and then again half-way through a meeting, any audio comments related to that topic that might be included in these reports will be concatenated into a single audio extract).
Web Properties Updates
The primary focus for the web teams remains the transitioning of services from the Lab’s own servers to AWS servers as a part of the Uplift project, although non-uplift web properties work is being carried out where possible, as noted below.
Various support tools as used by the Lab have also been transitioned to running in the cloud.
Non-Uplift Web Properties Updates
The Second Life Jira has been updated, although this caused some issues for users who had not used the Jira for some time, but who had used the Name Changes capability to change their avatar (user) name. This has now been fixed.
A similar update is required for the SL wiki (for those able to edit pages). This will be implemented after the cloud uplift work has been completed.
The Marketplace has received a number of fixes / updates, including:
A fix for some users being unable to create stores on the MP.
A fix for some of the merchant reports hanging when run.
The SL web properties (including the viewer’s web search) now have a Cookies Acceptance banner, as required under Californian law.
Premium Plus
Currently “shelved” due to cloud uplift work,
It is still “on the [road] map, but just not a target right now.”
Will be looked at again some time after the uplift work has been completed.
Mobile Client
Issues arose during the QA testing of the last iOS update, these are currently being worked on.
The current plan is now:
A further QA testing on the iOS version of the app.
If this version passes QA successfully, make it available to the current closed alpha testers AND submit it to Apple for their testing / review.
While LL will *not* be offering the ability for using to purchase L$ or make transactions in the initial releases of the app, they are watching the escalating Epic (Fortnite) / Apple + Google situation (see: Epic suing Apple and Google over Fortnite bans: Everything you need to know) to see how this affects fees levied by both Apple and Google regarding L$ transactions, once they become available through the SL mobile app.
As per last month, the Android version of the apps remain some way behind the iOS version.
General reminder: in its initial iterations, the app will be primarily focused on communications. It will not have a full range of capabilities when initially made available to users, but will be iterated upon; this includes the app not having any world rendering capability, although this may be added in the future.
General updates on the app can be found in my periodic SL Mobile updates.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 