As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.
There was no update to the Main channel
The three RCs remained on the same package as deployed in week 40, with one additional fix for objects using llGetCameraRot() as a result of an interest list related issue.
Potential Server Deployments – Week 42
Speaking at the Server Beta meeting on Thursday October 11th, Maestro Linden indicated that allowing for QA testing and final decisions, it looks as if week 42 (commencing Monday October 14th) should see:
The Main channel receive the package currently deployed to the three RCs
At least one RC package which should contain fixes for the region crossing issues noted in my week 40 report, namely: vehicles being incorrectly autoreturned on crossing a region boundary under certain circumstances (and the collision body being left behind) and “ghost” avatars and vehicles sometimes appearing to an observer when the region crossing is at the limits of their draw distance.
In the guise of my “Crash Test Alt”, I boogie with a top-hatted Simon Linden at the Server Beta meeting
SL Viewer Updates
RC Updates
The Second Life Share (SLShare) RC viewer has been rebuilt using the current de facto viewer release code and a new version – 3.6.8.282036 – on October 9th. This should see all of the current RC builds now rebuilt using the release viewer code base.
Mac Viewer / OS X 10.6
The Mac 3.6.4 viewer which was offered to Mac OS X 10.6 users as a result of issues with the recent Cocoa updates impacting them has been closed, as the Lab believes all the important bugs on this issue are fixed. Those who had either been rolled back to this release, or opted to install it, have been updated to the current release.
Interest List Viewer
The interest list RC viewer has yet to appear, although the code is available for those able to access it for self-builds. Two issues have been identified by those compiling the viewer. The first of these appears to be a known bug, SH-4552, wherein objects and linksets previously cached by the viewer fail to load following a teleport, and will generally only render following a relog (right-clicking where the object should be, as with the “missing prims” issue earlier in the year, does not work). The second causes objects to vanish from the user’s field-of-view until after a relog if draw distance is reduced and then returned to its prior settings.
Whether either of these issues is sufficient to stop the viewer emerging as either a project or RC viewer remains to be seen. The code had been sitting awaiting the button to be pushed to move it into one or the other. It had been hoped that members of the team who have been working on the viewer would be available to discuss the viewer during the TPV Developer meeting on Friday October 11th. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to attend.
Upcoming Viewers
Other viewers on the horizon include:
A further maintenance release, which may include Baker Linden’s Group Ban List code
Monty Linden’s viewer-side HTTP updates, which have been “snarled up” as a result of some rebuild dependencies.
A quick summary for now, as I’m a little caught-up in RL bits.
Server Deployments – Week 41
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.
Second Life Server (Main Channel)
There have been no updates to the Main channel.
Second Life RC BlueSteel, RC Magnum, and RC LeTigre – Wednesday October 9th
The RC channels should all receive on update, but otherwise remain on the package deployed in week 40.
The one addition to the package is the fix for the llGetCameraRot() LSL function, which I reported on here, and relates to a “lazy” update to scripted objects using this function as a result of recent interest list updates.
Release notes for the package are the same for all three RCs, BlueSteel is the one linked to.
If all goes according to plan, this RC deployment should be promoted to the Main channel in week 42, and new packages deployed to the RCs.
SL Viewer Updates
Following the promotion of the Maintenance RC viewer to the de facto release viewer, Monday October 7th saw the Snowstorm contributions RC updated to version 3.6.8.281997, based on the new release viewer code base, and the Google Breakpad RC viewer was similarly updated on Tuesday October 8th, to version 3.6.8.282050.
Interest List
Andrew Linden reports he is trying to get some regions up and running on Aditi to test scene loading. All things being equal, the viewer-side code which utilises the recent interest list updates deployed to Agni should make a debut appearance (probably as an RC maintenance viewer) in week 41, however, Andrew also commented on the fact that odd little bugs keep showing-up on the server side which impact the viewer
Group Ban List
Baker reports that he’s working hard to get everything up and running on Aditi over the course of the next two weeks. Internal testing of his code should commence this week, and he warns he may miss his target as a result of personal commitments.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday October 4th. A video, courtesy of Northspring, can be found at the end of this report. The numbers in braces after each head denote the time stamp at which the topic can be listened-to in the video.
A typical TPV dev meeting gathers (stock)
Release Pipeline Recap
Release viewer
Maintenance RC viewer 3.6.7.281793 was promoted to the de-facto release viewer overnight on the 3rd/4th October (release notes). This primarily comprises:
Viewer-side support for new LSL particle capabilities (blend, glow, ribbon)
The automatic avatar render limit and feedback system
Fixes for the Cocoa release regression issues (see below)
Fix to prevent orientation being lost on teleporting (if you’re facing west when you teleport, you’ll still be facing west on arrival)
Further bug fixes as listed in the release notes, including further CHUI and materials fixes
The remaining release candidates (Google Breakpad, SLShare and the Snowstorm contributions RC) continue to produce good numbers, and the Lab hasn’t seen any major issues with them.
Interest List Viewer Updates
[37:16 -38:40]
It is currently anticipated that the viewer-side code supporting the recent batch of work on the interest list will finally arrive in week 41 as a release candidate viewer. This will be discussed at the next TPV Developer meeting, scheduled for Friday October 11th.
Mac OS X 10.6
[41:00 – 45:40]
As reported here, recent updates with Cocoa on the Mac viewer led to users still running Mac OS X 10.6 to experience some “obnoxious problems“. As a result, the Lab initially implemented a mandatory roll-back of viewers for users on OS X 10.6 to viewer release 3.6.4.280048 (August 20th, 2013). However, some of the issues have been resolved fixes within the last maintenance RC viewer (3.6.7.281793), which as noted above has now been promoted to the de facto release viewer. As a result, the roll-back to version 3.6.4.280048 has now been made optional and has been left available until such time as the remaining issues with Cocoa and OS X 10.6 can hopefully be addressed.
A broader advisory from the Lab is that as the viewer is a lot more stable on later version of the Mac operating system, those who are on OS X10.6 and in a position to upgrade should consider doing so.
Other Potential Viewer RCs
[40:12 – 41:00]
The next round(s) of viewer releases from the Lab are expected to include:
A further maintenance viewer RC
The SSA / AIS v3 viewer updates (anticipated in the next couple of weeks – see below)
Monty Linden’s viewer-side HTTP updates, which are currently on internal QA at the Lab.
Advanced Inventory Service (AIS v3)
[02:18 – 15:02]
The inventory service updates, initially being undertaken alongside Server-side Appearance (SSA), are now ready for deployment.
A core part of AIS v3 covers the inventory changes that the second round of SSA updates use to manage the Current Outfit Folder (COF) more reliably, including hopefully improving the response time for re-requests for an inventory item / update; however there is more to the updates than this.
Two wiki documents have been produced for the new API:
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.
There was no Main channel deployment in week 40
The three RC channels all received the same update, comprising a fix for a bug affecting group notice delivery to large groups whereby the notice randomly fails to reach some group members; a new JSON_DELETE option for llJsonSetValue(); interest list preparatory work for more correct sort order during scene load – release notes (BlueSteel).
Having fun at the Server Beta Meeting
Upcoming Bug Fixes
There are a number of upcoming server-side bug fixes due. It is hoped all of these will reach one or more RCs in week 41. However, this depends on them passing QA, etc. The fixes include:
llGetCameraRot() Issue
There has been a series of bug reports from across the grid being raised about problems with camera updates when operating in Mouselook with scripted objects using llGetCameraRot() (HUDS, weapons, etc), and which may also affect scripted objects using llGetCameraRot() when in 3rd person view. Commenting on the issue at the Server Beta meeting, Maestro Linden had this to say:
There were a few bugs reported today [Thursday October 3rd] about llGetCameraRot() being ‘lazy’ about updates, which we’ve been able to confirm. If you’re aiming in mouselook and make subtle adjustments, the llGetCameraRot() rotation doesn’t change (but should) …
In any case, Andrew took a look at the bug and found the cause; one of the interest list changes affected how often the simulator updates the reported camera rotation value. He had added some hysteresis so that only large changes that would affect your interest list (cone of objects you’re seeing) would cause the value to update, not realizing that it affected llGetCameraRot(). There’s a fix pending, so we should hopefully have that ready for the next rolls.
Group Access to Parcel when “Sell Passes” Set
I reported on this issue in my week 39 updates. Essentially, if a region is set to group access and to “Sell Passes”, Group members ended up unable to enter the parcel at all. The problem was accidentally introduced with the recent parcel access updates, and while not widespread, is still recognised as a pain for those using the option.
Region Crossing Fixes
There are two upcoming fixes for region crossings.
The first is a fix for “‘Ghost’ avatars and vehicles sometimes appear to an observer at the sim border”. This is caused by an avatar or vehicle making a region crossing just at the limit of the observer’s draw distance, so the simulator that the vehicle / avatar was leaving didn’t send an ObjectDelete message, since it figured the destination region would handle future object updates. However, as the observer’s viewer wasn’t connected to to the destination region, no update would be received, leaving the “ghost” image in view (“touching” it would cause it to vanish).
The second is a fix for “Vehicles which exit a region with a passenger are incorrectly autoreturned and ‘ghosted'”. This is related to a vehicle being rezzed in a region with auto return set, and then “loitering” in the area before coincidentally trying to cross the region boundary at the time the auto return delay expired. during the crossing process, the vehicle would appear to be unoccupied to the region it was leaving – and thus be returned to the owner. In addition, the vehicle’s collision body would be “left behind” (marked as “pending delete” without actually being deleted) which could then be run into as a “ghosted” object by other vehicles.
Currently, a region restart fixes this issue.
SL Viewer Updates
There has been no promotion of an RC viewer to the de facto release viewer so far in week 40. The Maintenance viewer (support for new particle capabilities; automatic avatar render limit and feedback system) gained a further update on September 30th, with the arrival of version 3.6.7.281793.
Mac OSX 10.6 Viewer roll-back
As reported here, due to the recent Cocoa updates causing regression for users on Mac OSX 10.6, the Lab has opted to roll-back all users on that operating system to version 3.6.4.280048 (August 20th, 2013).
Interest List Viewer
It’s now believed that the Interest List viewer is around two weeks from appearing as either a project viewer or an RC viewer.
As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.
Second Life Server (Main Channel)
There have been no updates to the Main channel.
Second Life RC BlueSteel, RC Magnum, and RC LeTigre – Wednesday October 2nd
All three RCs should receive the same maintenance package comprising:
A fix for a bug affecting group notice delivery to large groups whereby the notice randomly fails to reach some group members
Interest list preparatory work for more correct sort order during scene load
New JSON_DELETE option to llJsonSetValue(), for deleting elements in JSON strings. Usage: ‘string output_json = llJsonSetValue(string input_json, [list location, JSON_DELETE)’ will delete the element specified by the location argument
Speaking at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday October 1st, Andrew Linden reported that both he and Maestro had been looking into the recent problems with region crossings which have been hard to pin down to a specific cause. However, Andrew was confident one cause had now been identified, saying:
It appears that there is a bug when vehicles cross region boundaries on parcels with autoreturn. “In particular, if the vehicle has been on the parcel long enough to trigger autoreturn, it won’t actually get autoreturned because someone is sitting on it. But when it tries to cross the region boundary with the rider things fall apart.
Simon Linden indicated he had a proposed fix for the issue, which he wanted to discuss with Andrew outside of the meeting, but hopes that the fix will be in a position to be deployed in week 41 (commencing Monday October 7th).
Group Ban List
The obligatory Baker Linden shot 🙂
Following-on from the update given on his behalf at the TPV Developer meeting on Friday September 27th, Baker Linden appeared at the Simulator User Group meeting to provide a rapid-fire update on his latest state-of-play with the group ban list work (see JIRA VWR-29337):
Today I’ll be working on merging the viewer code with what’s in release, and I’ll be working on getting up some actual builds to deploy to a grid for internal testing (it is not Aditi yet). so by the end of the day, I should have all the components deployed and ready for internal testing, and depending on how well that goes, it’ll be ready for Aditi soon!
In terms of the viewer code becoming visible, Baker believes his project viewer repository will become visible soon, most likely around the time of the next TPV developer meeting, when he is due to explain the new functionality.
In the meantime there’s still some further work required on the code, as he explained. “There are still a few small bugs and issues I have to work on in the code — I’ll be working on those while internal testing is happening. There’s a major refactor in llpanelgroupinvite, which is what I’m trying to hand-merge today.”
Interest List Work and Video
Andrew Linden has been finishing-up on some additional interest list work, and is now looking to produce a video showing the “before” and “after” scene loading within a region. The “before” part of the filming is already in the can, but the region he used is now “long gone”, and so he picked-up a few suggestions from the Simulator group on regions which may offer go locations for shooting the “after” segment of the film. Essentially he’s looking for regions with lots of objects be which are not ridiculously overloaded with textures.
Other Bits
Render Weights and Calculations
Work has been going on around the issue of render weights and how they are calculated. The current Maintenance viewer has code for a new “automatic avatar render limit and feedback system”.
Que Niangao raised concern at the meeting and on the SLU forum that a constant forming a part of this system – OBJECT_RENDER_WEIGHT, which requires feedback from the viewer, and so might be used for grefing people; such as through a viewer tweaked to return highly inflated numbers for others in a region, thus allowing it to become a tool for griefing.
Responding to Que’s enquiry, Simon Linden said, “Yes … OBJECT_RENDER_WEIGHT needs to be used carefully. First, the way that is calculated is likely to change … I’m going to be working on it today, in fact.”
He went on to indicate that he’s been gathering data on avatar weightings (samples from about 500 avatars) which he’ll be using to make the changes, although he may be seeking further assistance. The changes he’s looking to make are on the server, but he was a little circumspect on details out of concern that going too deeply into how things work on the server as do so could make it easier for the unscrupulous to game the system.
One area where the new system will hopefully have an impact is in preventing the use of worn sim laggers impacting a region as can currently be the case.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday September 27th. A video, courtesy of North, can be found at the end of this report. The numbers in braces after each head denote the time stamp at which the topic can be listened-to in the video.
A typical TPV dev meeting
SL Release Candidate Viewers
SLShare
[03:00]
Following my coverage of the release of SLShare, the opt-in capability for those wishing to link their Second Life accounts with their Facebook accounts, A question was asked as to whether the feature would be available to TPVs. Speaking at the TPV Development Meeting, Oz Linden provided comments which answered this question more fully, and and Merov Linden gave further information on the functionality in general.
“One of the design considerations is that this is a feature you [TPV developers] can all integrate without any problem,” Oz said. “All of the actual connections to Facebook, all of the handling of the requisite authentication tokens and permissions and [the] relationship with Facebook itself, is all handled server-side. So the code that’s in the release candidate viewer is something that you can integrate so that you can also make this feature available on whatever schedule you would like to.”
He went on to confirm that given this, no Facebook information for users of the service is exposed to TPVs.
As to how soon it might be before the SLShare RC is promoted to the release viewer, Oz again reiterated that it depends on how well the various candidates currently in the release channel perform. Currently, the metrics for the viewer look good, according to Merov, so it may still leapfrog its way to becoming the release viewer. However it is more likely that it will not become the de facto viewer for at least another two weeks.
Despite the negative reactions to the feature which have appeared in the comments following blog posts, etc., reporting on the functionality, the Lab believes SLShare is already “getting a lot of use”. This view is based on the numbers of people who have pro-actively gone and downloaded and installed the RC viewer manually.
While this may be a case of the Lab greasing the wheels a little bit (downloading and installing the viewer isn’t necessarily the same as running the feature), Firestorm are reporting that they’ve had at least one request for the feature to be added to their next release.
During the meeting, a series of questions were raised on the feature:
Will the feature become opt-out in the future, rather than opt-in? Merov Linden: “It’s opt-in. We’re not doing anything [behind] the back of the residents.”
Will the feature create a Facebook account on behalf of anyone using it? Merov Linden: “There is no API to create an account on Facebook on behalf of someone.”
Will it lead to a merging of the current SL feeds with the Facebook feed? Oz Linden: ” No, there is no connection between the Second Life profile feeds and the Facebook feed. They have no relationship at all … In theory one could probably build a viewer that did that, but we’re not planning on it.”
(Further questions passed unanswered due to the region in which the meeting was being held being subjected to a griefing attack which left it in a poor state and prompted a change of meeting venue.)
Viewer Statistics
[33:26]
The Lab has been putting together a new statistics reporting system, which is now starting to be used to generate a range of reports. Commenting on some of the information which is coming out of the system, primarily in response to questions asked at both Open-source dev and TPV dev meetings, Oz indicated that:
Almost one-third of regions within SL have at least one materials-enhanced object in them, which is described as “dramatically faster” than the adoption of mesh
The number of avatars wearing materials-enhanced mesh / prim clothing is “steadily climbing”
The number of people who have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled on a “class 3” (mid-range Graphics cards) or above is just under 20%
One of the problems here – from the Lab’s point of view at least – is that both Singularity and Firestorm have ALM turned off by default for almost all graphics settings, except perhaps High-Ultra, and Ultra. The flip side to this is the view that the Lab enables ALM by default on cards which are barely able to support it, with the result that people’s SL experience suffers through poor frame rates.
In the past the Lab has pointed to data which tends to show that viewers running on low-end graphics cards card do indeed suffer performance issues with ALM active; mid-range GPU show little difference in performance between running with ALM active or not and have “reasonable” fps rates; high-end (“class 5”, as they call them) cards – e.g. ATI Radeon HD 7800, 7900, 8900, 8950 + similar, nVidia GTX 460/460SE, 465, 550TI, 580, 660/660TI + similar – perform significantly better with ALM active.
The problems here are how one defines “reasonable” frame rates and how one interprets ALM. For the Lab, it would appear that “reasonable” frame rates is anything in double figures – e.g. above 10; many users would disagree with this. At the same time, many users still appear to equate having ALM active with having Shadows enabled (which actually leads to a far larger performance hit), but the two are actually quite separate. As had been pointed out a number of times in these pages, ALM can be active without having to enable shadows.
Running with ALM active does not require shadows to be enabled
Nevertheless, part of the new viewer statistics system should enable to Lab to gather and present performance numbers for cards with and with ALM enabled, filtered by viewer, so that TPVs can better judge matters for themselves. In addition, Oz is going to be looking at ways and means of doing systematic testing with cards in order to generate more meaningful statistics, and which may allow for other factors which influcence performance (other avatars in the same region, the amount of movement going on, viewer settings, etc.).
Understanding Viewer Performance
[45:41]
A further problem with the viewer is that it is complicated, and while there are many tools to help monitor performance, people either focus on the wrong tools or cannot find those that would be helpful to them in diagnosing an issue when they do encounter unexpected performance drops.
To this end, Oz floated the idea at the TPV Developer meeting for TPV devs to give thought as to which tools and information feeds within the viewer would be useful to users to help them understand what is going on, and how best to present said tools, etc., in a way which would make sense to users and enable them to make use of the information they are seeing.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 