Tag: Server Updates

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

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

• Tuesday, March 15th saw the SLS Main channel updated to server release 569051, bringing it to parity with the RC channels. This release makes some improvements to the processes of simulator start-up and shutdown, as well as fixing a crash and a subtle bug in LSL math functions.
• Wednesday, March 16th should see the RC channels restarted without any deployment.

Available Official Viewers

The Performance Improvements viewer was promoted to RC status with the release of version 6.6.0.569349 on March 14th. This viewer may have also absorbed the Tracy Integration viewer updates, which have been withdrawn as a dedicated RC viewer.

All official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – No Change
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569191, issued on March 11.
• Project viewers:
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• The Land Team still have yet to settle on a suitable EEP setting for the Mainland in order to alleviate the generally dark see to the day environment there.
• BUG-231876 “llRequestSimulatorData() frequently and silently fails” – this issue has reproduced by the Lab and is being actively worked on.
• Further discussions on the issue of vehicles hitting a parcel ban  / ban lines are “bounced” (much like they do on reaching an edge of the grid) rather than avatars being unseated / dumped and the vehicle returned to the owner’s Lost and Found. Feature request BUG-231802 “Prevent vehicles from entering parcels their riders cannot access” has been accepted, but no ETA on implementation.
• Additional discussions on scripting, and on media control.
  • Scripting options included further requests for parcel teleport routing capabilities, accurately positioning / seating avatars.
  • As conversations at SUG meetings tend to cover the same ground re: certain requests like these, a request was made for LL to provide a general workplan / response to such requests, so that people know what to expect.
• Feature request BUG-231929 “llCanRez or something equivalent to check if an object can rez at the location it will try to in the future” is a request for a better way of detecting if a prim can be rezzed by an object on land rather than having to write a LSL function.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) was raised, with the Lab re-iterating that the capability is being rolled out in stages. As I’ve reported in recent TPVD summaries, the next element is liable to be extending the MFA capability to the viewer – see: SL Wiki: Login MFA.
• Whilst not a simulator issue per se, some creators at the meeting requested (again) that LL provide in-world mesh editing capabilities and “get rid of primitives” as “you can’t make much of anything with primitives anymore” – a comment that many of us who routinely build with primitives would likely strongly dispute. While there are no plans for LL to “replace” prims, what is likely required are broader options for importing content created using third-party tools.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

• Tuesday, March 8th saw the SLS Main channel restarted, but no deployment.
• Wednesday, March 9th should see a new simulator version deployed to the RC channels. It fixes a couple of crashes and hopefully will help with some of the regions becoming confused as to whether they are up or down.

Available Official Viewers

All official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – NEW
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• BUG-231876 “llRequestSimulatorData() frequently and silently fails” has been reported a couple of times, the Lab are investigating and looking for reliable repros.
• LL “have a few extra cycles to devote to scripting coming up”, and so ideas for priorities / options, etc., have been requested – feature requests should be filed by those who have them. So suggestions already include:
  • BUG-230935 “PARCEL_DETAILS_FLAGS and PARCEL_DETAILS_SCRIPT_DANGER for llGetParcelDetails()”.
  • BUG-230938 “Allow llGetParcelDetails() to see parcels in a neighbouring region”.
  • Provision of llWearFromInventoryTemp – which is seen as attractive by LL, but would require a much larger project.
  • This lead to a lengthy discussion, so please refer to the video from the 24.13 mark.
• There was some discussion over what has been taken to be a media autoplay exploit that is allowing unauthorised access to people’s L$ balances. The precise details are unclear, other than and image of a Discord comment. Those who have seen the issue at events or have first-hand experience of the issue are asked to file a SEC Jira.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

• Tuesday, March 1st saw the SLS Main channel updated with simulator release 568388, previously deployed to all of the RC channels.
  • This update should include a fix for llRequestSimulatorData() to return the correct data.
• Wednesday, March 2nd will see all simhost on the RC channel restarted, but no actual update deployment.

The server deployment thread further notes:

We’re using a new version of our internal tools to handle this roll which we believe will avoid recent problems with content loss during rolls. However the trade off for this is that we will roll somewhat slower. Individual regions should still not be down for very long, the roll as a whole may just take a bit longer (at least until we get the new process worked out and figure out if we can speed things back up).

(In fact, no sooner had this news been given at the meeting than the Denby region went through a restart as part of the deployment, forcing the meeting to decamp!)

Available Official Viewers

The J&K Maintenance viewer, version 6.5.3.568554 was promoted to de facto release status on Monday, February 28th.

All other official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• Predominantly a general discussion on miscellaneous WIBNIs (Wouldn’t It Be Nice If …) and currently-accepted feature requests with no time frame for delivery (again, Accepted for feature requests doesn’t mean the Lab are actively working on something; more usually it means “this is something that would be good to do if / when there is time an resource available and more urgent things aren’t standing in the way”).Please refer to the video for the guts of the meeting.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

The week #7 Main channel restart and RC channels deployment were described as “bumpy”, prompting the Lab to dig into things. It is believed the cause of the problems has been identified (the failure of one of the tools used by the Lab) and a fix put in place. To this end:

• There was no deployment / restart of the Main channel on Tuesday, February 22nd.
• Wednesday, February 23rd will likely see a limited restart “on just one or two small RC channels.”

Available Official Viewers

The J&K Maintenance viewer updated to version 6.5.3.568554 on Tuesday, February 22nd.

This list reflects the rest of the official viewers currently available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• At the week #7 meeting, a suggestion put forward (by a user) was to have a vehicle given the lowest access permissions among those avatars seated on it. That way, if any agent attached to an object cannot enter a parcel, the vehicle would treat that parcel as a solid obstruction – see feature request BUG-231802. At this meeting,
  • Rider Linden indicated the Lab is considering ending the ban line info for an entire region to the viewer  earlier as part of the parcel flag info.
  • The request is listed as Awaiting Review, but Rider intimated to could well enter the queue of work for the Lab.
• A request was made for the ability to put objects inside the contents of child links (such as animations) and be able to read it and play that animation stored in the child link (see BUG-231848). Rider Linden noted that “it is an interesting idea but it is going to take some thought.”
• A request was made for the ability to pitch shift sounds (similar to SVC-4373). This would have multiple potential benefits from avoiding the need to upload multiple sound in order to create a meaningful pitch change through to enabling a grater range of musical instruments in SL. As SVC Jiras are no longer active, a request was made for a new feature request on the idea.
• There was a lot of general discussion on WIMNIs for SL and what might be done by way of improvements to things like region crossings, etc., but nothing that is currently being actioned as a project, so please refer to the video below for these items.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 15th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

• There was no deployment to the SLS Main channel on Tuesday, February 15th, 2022, but the simhosts were restarted.
• Wednesday, February 16th should see the RC channels updated with simulator release 568051, postponed from week #6, and which includes a series of bug fixes (including one for BUG-230771 “llRequestUsername returns invalid data when invalid key is provided”) and adds a feature to LSL: OBJECT_ACCOUNT_LEVEL flag to llGetObjectDetails(): when called on an agent in the region, returns the agent’s premium status.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those viewers available via the first four links in the LL Viewer Resources section, below.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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 RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• A request was (again) made to have simulator behaviour change such that vehicles hitting a parcel ban  / ban lines are “bounced” (much like they do on reaching an edge of the grid) rather than avatars being unseated / dumped and the vehicle returned to the owner’s Lost and Found.
  • This has been requested before, but rejected.
  • During the meeting, the idea was referred to as something that “might be possible”, although it would require protocol changes, if tackled.
  • An alternative suggestion put forward (by a user) was to have a vehicle given the lowest access permissions among those avatars seated on it. That way, if any agent attached to an object cannot enter a parcel, the vehicle would treat that parcel as a solid obstruction. This was seen as potentially more “doable” idea, and a formal Jira Feature Request was asked for – see BUG-231802.
• A request was made for a grid-wide KVP (or KVP-style) database (as is available to Premium members under the Experience Keys system) to be made available that could be used as a permanent data store (see BUG-231801) available to all who need it.
  • Some of the ideas put forward around this at the meeting included updating the script engine so that scripts can dynamically write data to note cards – something as seen as problematic by the LL or have the viewer use local storage for data generated for use by the avatar (e.g. from a HUD) – something that could be an issue if data is stored on one machine is needed when on another device.
  • Cost of storage was noted as a possible issue, with the suggestion that perhaps (and whilst not permanent) KVP-like storage could be made available along the lines of Local Textures: the data is available for use for as long as a person is logged-in, after which the storage used would be cleared.
  • A further alternative suggestion made by LL – again, note the word suggestion – was the provision of a LSL API that could be used to access AWS services like Dynamo – that is, LL supply API and data movement, users wanting to use the capability supply the account and credentials. This was suggested with an idea of soliciting feedback on the idea.
  • A suggestion was also put forward for a new asset type specifically designed for read / write data storage, but capped at (say) 64 KB.
  • Again, this was a discussion – there are currently no plans to implement any of the above.
• An issue with uniformly applying EEP settings across multiple regions in an estate via scripted means and smoothly applying it to avatars into and through the estate. A specific bug requiring rectification via the use of fast timers has been identified, together with a possible improvement to handling EEP settings via script. A bug report (BUG-231806) and a couple of feature requests (BUG-231807 and BUG-231808) have been filed on the matters – please refer to them and the video for more.
• There was a lot of text chat around Avatar Expressiveness – however, as most of this was was subjective and the Lab is not yet in a position to provide further information on the capability, I’ll leave it to the video, below.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 8th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

• There was no deployment to the SLS Main channel on Tuesday, February 8th, 2022, but the simhosts were restarted.
• Wednesday, February 9th should see the RC channels updated with simulator release 568051, which includes a series of bug fixes (including one for BUG-230771 “llRequestUsername returns invalid data when invalid key is provided”) and adds a feature to LSL: OBJECT_ACCOUNT_LEVEL flag to llGetObjectDetails(): when called on an agent in the region, returns the agent’s premium status.

Please refer to the forum Server Deployment thread for further updates.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers currently available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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 RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Multi-Factor Authentication

• Following the announcement that LL are developing viewer-side multi-factor authentication (MFA)  – see my week #5 TPV Developer meeting summary – there have been renewed calls for LL to broaden the means by which MFA can be used beyond the need for a phone phone an authenticator app.
• These requests are for e-mail support as a bare minimum.
• However, and to point out yet again:
  • MFA with SL is opt-in, rather than opt-out.
  • For those who wish to use it, the Lab have provided a bare-bones means for users to use MFA using a unique key reference available via their account dashboard at secondlife.com. See: Second Life Multi-Factor Authentication: the What and How.

In Brief

• There was further discussion on region crossings and future work. A lot of this centred on corner crossings.
  • In short, SL doesn’t really support corner crossings (avatars  / vehicle must first pass from the “departing” region to one sitting to one of the cardinal points, and then from that region to the “destination” region).
  • This can result in a lot of timing issues and data hand-off, etc.
  • LL acknowledge more work needs to be done in terms of better handling, data checking, etc., between the involved simulators and the viewer.
  • Currently, no significant project in planned for region crossing work – which does not men it will not be looked at.