Tag: Server Updates

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a server deployment thread had yet to be published.

• On Tuesday, November 22nd, the Main SLS and Events channels were updated with the single fix designed to keep regions from running out of voice connections (BUG-229984 “Voice chat is not working” and BUG-7371 “Voice cannot connect”).
• On Wednesday, November 23rd, simhosts the RC channels will be restarted without any deployment.

Upcoming Simulator Releases

The run of simulator updates through to the new year will likely comprise:

• Link sounds will most likely the last roll of the year (this should behave exactly as though you had a script in the linked prim and called llPlaySound from that prim).
• llGetSimStats updates are liable to be the first update of 2023.
• llHTTPRequest updates (see below) will likely follow later in January 2023.
• LSDFindKeys sorting updates will most likely be fixed in the first simulator maintenance release for next year.

Available Official Viewers

No changes to any of the current batch of official viewers, leaving them as follows:

• Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1 – No change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.8.576431 on Monday, November 14.
  • VS  2022 RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576310, issued November 4 – utilises Visual Studio 2022 in the Windows build tool chain.
• Project viewers:
  • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576331, issued on November 3.
    • This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

In Brief

• BUG-232171 “Issue with regions becoming full, but still showing available prims” – this is been causing noticeable issues recently, with a lot of speculation that it may be a griefing vector. However, the important point with the issue is that LL know what the cause actually is, and will be addressing it.
  • BUG-229382 “Vehicles stopping dead at region borders” may be related to this issue.
  • BUG-BUG-227303 “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” was also raised later in the meeting in relation to Mono concerns.
• Concerns have been raised about bout removing the LSO bytecode compiler (non-Mono), leaving only the Mono compiler (the run-time environment for LSO scripts would remain – it just wouldn’t be possible to compile new scripts via the LSO compiler or re-compile updated scripts using it).
  • These issues (apparently related to rapid rezzing of objects  and / or some vehicles the Mono control scripts behaving badly at region crossings) have not been the subject of any bug report(s) and so lack documented details. A Jira has been request.
• A core part of the meeting was given over to combat systems and providing improved means of projective operation (in part related to the Mono discussion above) – please refer to the video for details.
• BUG-37727 “Regex for LSL” may have a better chance of being implemented now that Regex is exposed to LSL via Linkset Data.
• With the implementation of LSD, an suggestion has been made to add publicly editable key-value pairs that could be set in the build window via object owners, and then accessed via scripts using an interface similar to Linkset Data. A  similar suggestion has also been made within the forums, however, that does not appear to be a feature request Jira for these ideas (at least at the time of writing this summary).
• BUG-232551 “We need significantly more RAM for scripts in non-attachments” was raised in discussion;  it has been accepted by the Lab, but no indication of when it it  might be actioned, or how.
• Rider Linden is playing some enhancements to LSL for 2023, including (but not limited to) allowing a response to an HTTP request with the contents of a notecard.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a server deployment thread had yet to be published.

• On Tuesday, November 15th, the Main SLS and Events channels were updated with simulator version 576376, making the new Linkset Data capability grid-wide.
• On Wednesday, November 16th, the simhosts on the RC channels should receive a new simulator update, this one containing a single fix designed to keep regions from running out of voice connections (BUG-229984 “Voice chat is not working” and BUG-7371 “Voice cannot connect”).

Linkset Data (LSD) – Brief Notes

• Linkset Data is a new collection of script functions and one optional event that reads and writes key-value-pairs to a small 64kb table of data that is part of a root object.
• It works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but:
  • It does not require an underpinning experience – the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data.
  • Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature.
• Further information on LSD can be found in Linkset Data (LSD) – a new feature for Second Life by NeoBokrug Elytis  in this blog.

Upcoming Simulator Releases

The run of simulator updates through to the new year will likely comprise:

• Link sounds will most likely the last roll of the year (this should behave exactly as though you had a script in the linked prim and called llPlaySound from that prim).
• llGetSimStats updates are liable to be the first update of 2023.
• llHTTPRequest updates (see below) will likely follow later in January 2023.
• LSDFindKeys sorting updates will most likely be fixed in the first simulator maintenance release for next year.

Available Official Viewers

• The Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer updated to version 6.6.8.576431 on Monday, November 14th.

All other official viewer remain as follows:

• Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • VS  2022 RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576310, issued November 4 – utilises Visual Studio 2022 in the Windows build tool chain.
• Project viewers:
  • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576331, issued on November 3.
    • This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • There are unconfirmed reports that GPUs are running noticeably hotter with this viewer than other viewer.
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

llHTTPRequest Updates

Rider Linden is proposing changing the way we do accounting for CUSTOM_HEADERS.

• Currently, headers of no longer than 253 bytes each are allowed.
• Rider plans on changing this so that as many headers, each as long as is required, can be stored, to a maximum of 4096 bytes.
• This is in recognition that there are a number of applications that require security headers which can blow through that 256 byte limit.

In Brief

• BUG-232037 “Avatar Online / Offline Status Not Correctly Updating” – this is unlikely to be addressed until 2023, as the remaining simulator update slots for 2022 now have updates assigned to them.
• BUG-232918 “Adding Friend will make all other friends appear offline”  – this is newly reported bug, and should be kept in mind if experiencing issues with your Friends list.
• BUG-227303 “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” opened in 2019, was raised, but has yet to be deeply investigated by LL.
• The meeting included  a further discussion on LSDListKeys and LSDFindKeys (e.g. negative index support). Please refer to the video below for this and the rest of the meeting.

 

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, a server deployment thread had yet to be published.

• On Tuesday, November 8th, the Main SLS and Events channels were restarted without any simulator update being deployed leaving them on simulator version 575585.
• On Wednesday, November 9th, simhosts on the RC channels will again updated with simulator release comprising the new Linkset Data capability (see below for more).
  • Whilst originally deployed on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, this release had to be rolled by on Friday, November 4th, 2022. See BUG-232866 “Each parcel is using the Region’s environment instead of the Parcel’s environment settings”.

Available Official Viewers

No changes to the current set of official viewers at the start o the week, leaving the list as:

• Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • VS  2022 RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576310, issued November 4 – utilises Visual Studio 2022 in the Windows build tool chain
  • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version  6.6.8.576321, November 3.
• Project viewers:
  • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576331, issued on November 3.
    • This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • There are unconfirmed reports that GPUs are running noticeably hotter with this viewer than other viewer.
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Linkset Data (LSD)

• Linkset Data is a new collection of script functions and one optional event that reads and writes key-value-pairs to a small 64kb table of data that is part of a root object.
• It works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but:
  • It does not require an underpinning experience – the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data.
  • Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature.
• Important Note for the initial deployment:
  • Like all scripts containing new LSL functions, scripts running LinksetData calls will only run on regions running version 2022-10-27.576126 or newer (so only the RC channels to start with).
  • However unlike some other functions if you move an object containing Linkset Data (or teleport wearing an object containing Linkset Data) from a region that supports the capability to a region that does not support it, all Linkset Data stored with the object will be lost, even if you go back to a region that supports the feature.
  • This limitation will no longer exist once the back-end support for the capability has been deployed to all regions on the Main grid.
• Further information on LSD can be found in Linkset Data (LSD) – a new feature for Second Life by NeoBokrug Elytis  in this blog.

In Brief

• BUG-232037 “Avatar Online / Offline Status Not Correctly Updating” – this is unlikely to be addressed until 2023, as the remaining simulator update slots for 2022 now have updates assigned to them.
• LL believe that they may have a fix for the Group chat issue of open Group chats appearing to freeze in their viewer tab, requiring the chat be closed and re-opened. The fix is being tested on Aditi.
• The meeting revolved around a discussion on LSDFindKeys and sorting – please refer to the video for details.
• llGetSimStats is getting “new fangs” (essentially everything from the Statistics floater is being added). The update is to be deployed in the New Year. Further information available in the meeting video.
• Extended chat ranges within regions: this is described as “still in the works”. Apparently, there have been concerns about privacy on the viewer side which mean that, until addressed, extended chat range will remain a Linden only function.

 

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 1st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please see the forum deployment thread for the latest updates.

• On Tuesday, November 1st, the Main SLS and Events channels were restarted without any simulator update being deployed leaving them on simulator version 575585.
• On Wednesday, November 2nd. simhosts on the RC channels will be updated with simulator release 576126, comprising the new Linkset Data capability (see below for more).

Available Official Viewers

No changes to the current set of official viewers at the start o the week, leaving the list as:

• Release viewer: version 6.6.5.575749 – formerly the Maintenance M RC viewer –  promoted October 26.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.5.575055 September 19.
• Project viewers:
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Linkset Data (LSD)

• Linkset Data is a new collection of script functions and one optional event that reads and writes key-value-pairs to a small 64kb table of data that is part of a root object.
• It works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but:
  • It does not require an underpinning experience – the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data.
  • Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature.
• Important Note for the initial deployment:
  • Like all scripts containing new LSL functions, scripts running LinksetData* calls will only run on regions running version 2022-10-27.576126 or newer (so only the RC channels to start with).
  • However unlike some other functions if you move an object containing Linkset Data (or teleport wearing an object containing Linkset Data) from a region that supports the capability to a region that does not support it, all Linkset Data stored with the object will be lost, even if you go back to a region that supports the feature.
  • This limitation will no longer exist once the back-end support for the capability has been deployed to all regions on the Main grid.

llLinkPlaySound and Associated Functions

• llLinkPlaySound together with llLinkStopSound llLinkAdjustSoundVolume and llLinkSoundRange are new LSL functions that are described as “coming soon”, and which allow sounds in child prims of a linkset to be played without the need for a supporting script.
  • Additional related functions might be considered if subject to a Jira feature request.
• This is something that has been requested by content creators (particular vehicle creators) for a good number of years.
• Flags included will be SOUND_LOOP, SOUND_PLAY, SOUND_SYNCH and SOUND_TRIGGER, and will be used to replace the llPlay/Loop functions.
• Other sound restrictions within linkset remain unchanged.
• The announcement spurred an extended discussion on the SL sound system as a whole (including pre-loading sounds), as well as options for the new functions, through the first two-thirds of the meeting – please refer to the video.
• I’ll have more on the link sounds functions as and when LL have documentation on them and are ready to start deploying them.

In Brief

• For a full (and maintained!) list of LSL functions,  please refer to the official wiki page LSL_Functions.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please see the forum deployment thread for the latest updates.

• On Tuesday, October 25th, the Main SLS and Events channels were restarted without any simulator update being deployed.
• On Wednesday, October 26th, the simhosts on the RC channels were to be updated with the new Linkset Data capability.
  • This feature works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data. Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature.
    • Further information can be found in the SL Wiki.
    • The capability can also be discussed in the SL forums.
  • However, a late-breaking issue revealed by the Lab’s QA team means that the deployment mat not take place until week #44 (commencing, Monday, October 31st).
  • If delayed, this potentially allows a further week for additional updates to the capability.
  • I will have a special Guest Article by Neobokrug Elytis explaining this new capability and its significance after the deployment has been made.

Available Official Viewers

On Tuesday, October 25th, Linden Lab release the Maintenance N RC viewer, version 6.6.6.575990. This is an urgent fix for transparency “alpha” blending issues. In cases of many layers of textures that included transparencies, this would cause some of the lower layers to not render at all.

The remaining official viewer pipelines stay as follows:

• Release viewer: version 6.6.5.575749 – formerly the Maintenance M RC viewer –  promoted October 20.
• Release channel cohorts :
  • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.5.575055 September 19.
• Project viewers:
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Script Compilers

• Rider Linden raised the question about removing the LSO bytecode compiler (non-Mono), or forcing all compilers to use Mono.
• This would not prevent compiled LSO scripts from running using the LSO VM, it would just prevent further scripts being compiled outside of the IL → Mono compiler.
• The main reason for considering this approach would make it much easier for LL to expand LSL without having to drag the old version along.
• Currently, this is an idea the Lab is considering – not something being actively pursued; but based n the feedback from the meeting, it may become an active project – if so, the Lab will make clear what is being done in advance through the forums and seek broader feedback from creators / scripters., and proving the LSO runtime remains in place, as noted above.

In Brief

• BUG-232792 “llLinksetData batch notifications” has been raised and is awaiting formal review by the Lab at the time of writing. This would only be implemented once the upcoming LSD capability has been deployed.
• There was a general question on the DMCA process, which actually falls outside the scope of the SUG meeting.
  • A  problem here is that with the suspension of the Governance User Group meetings, there is no public forum where issues relating to content theft / the DMCA process can be directly discussed with members of the Governance Team.
• BUG-232037 “Avatar Online / Offline Status Not Correctly Updating” – LL believe that have a “handle” on the where the issue is originating, but there has been no time to take a deep dive into the actual cause as yet

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please see the forum deployment thread for the latest updates.

• On Tuesday, October 18th, the Main SLS and Events channels were updated with server release 575585.
  • This release should contain two new functions llGetObjectLinkKey (specified under llGetLinkKey) and llSHA256String.
  • In addition, a slight change to the simulator code may help with the issue of people’s on-line / off-line status not being properly reported. It  is not an actual fix for the problem, but LL would like feedback as to whether people are seeing an improvement. See : BUG-232037 for more information on the issue.
• On Wednesday, October 19th, the simhosts on the RC channels will be restarted but remain on simulator release 575585.

Available Official Viewers

• Release viewer: version 6.6.4.575022 – hotfix for Crash at ~LLModalDialog() – promoted September 15 – no change.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Maintenance 3 RC viewer, version 6.6.5.575257, September 23.
  • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.5.575055 September 19.
• Project viewers:
  • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  October 12.
  • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
  • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Local KVP / “Linkset Data”

From the server deployment thread:

We have a new feature build on Aditi for a new feature called Linkset Data. This feature works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data. Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature. For more details, see the in-progress wiki pages https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Linkset_Data. You can try out the new LSL functions related to this feature at the following Aditi Mainland regions:

• Blake Sea – Arabian ; Blake Sea – Atlantic ; Blake Sea – Beagle ; Blake Sea – Binnacle ; Blake Sea – Black ; Gothlauth ; Jigglypuff ; Mauve ; Moonberry ; Sapas ; Smithereens

We’re looking for feedback on this new feature including bugs and input on anything that might be missing or not work the way you’d expect. Please file a BUG Jira in all of those cases

This work is currently with the Lab’s QA team, and if cleared, could be a part of an RC channel deployment in week #43 (commencing Monday, October 24th, 2022.

These upcoming release sparked a conversation on data storage and access – please refer to the video for details.

In Brief

• BUG-232037 “Avatar Online / Offline Status Not Correctly Updating” – LL believe that have a “handle” on the where the issue is originating, but there has been no time to take a deep dive into the actual cause as yet.
• Further discussion on making multi-region crossings by vehicle more robust.
• A general discussion on lighting.