2021 SUG meeting week #13 summary + World Map alternatives

Amrum, January 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 30th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

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

  • Tuesday, March 30th: no planned deployment or restart.
  • Wednesday, March 31st: the SLS RC channels should all be updated with simulator release 557505, defined as containing “internal fixes”.

On Region Restarts

There is a general assumption that region restarts result in a region and its simulator being relocated to a new server. However, this is not always the case, as Rider and Simon Linden explained:

Simon Linden: the host change isn’t burnt into the design for a restart. basically you stop the region, and another part of the system sees the region is down and hands it out to a system to run it. Based on random timing that might end up on the same host.
Rider Linden: We simply do not guarantee that you will remain on the same host after a restart. Where a region comes back up depends on a lot of factors that are outside the realm of predictability.
Simon Linden: [However] during a version update, that’s VERY unlikely since the old ones get replaced with new ones.

SL Viewer

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • 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 – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.17.557412, dated March 25.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.17.557391, dated March 24.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated 23, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

Region Crossings

  • While they were not intended to directly benefit vehicle region crossings, there have been reports by some that the changes made in the deployment over the previous two weeks have improved things. However, and equally, others are reporting declining smoothness of crossings. As it is, Rider noted that the team haven’t yet had the chance to dig deeply into the code since uplift.
  • BUG-229871 “Unable to re-enter or telport to a region that I’ve been to during same session” – this remains an issue. Unfortunately, issues with testing the upcoming simulator release been the work on a fix has been delayed.

Map Tiles

Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed. There are now a couple of user-developed alternatives available, each with mixed functionality:

2021 SUG meeting week #12 summary

Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

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

  • Tuesday, March 23rd: the SLS Main channel received simulator update 556847, which includes the optimisations for crossing and teleporting into a region. This should result in less of a performance hit being felt with lots of people entering a region.
    • Anecdotal evidence from reports after this update was deployed to RC regions suggested vehicle region crossing had improved.
    • The update also states that BUG-226851 – “Only 30 – 50% of scripts run on regions since SLS Main server roll of April 18th” – has been resolved. However, there are reports that the deployment appears to have made little or no difference.
  • Wednesday, March 24th: the SLS RC channels should all be updated with simulator release 557269, defined as containing “internal tweaks”.

On the Teleporting / Region Access Changes

The basic change seen in 556847 mean that instead of multiple avatars trying to get into a region at once, they are now, in a manner of speaking, waiting in line, thanks to the order in which things are handled, as Mazidox Linden described.

Previously, when you teleported to a new region, we stopped the world, grabbed all the data, and injected it into the simulation before resuming the world. Now when you teleport to a region, we grab all the data, stop the world, inject the data into the simulation, and resume the world. Very, very, very approximately.

– Mazidox linden on the changes to how avatars enter a region.

Rider Linden that added that the performance hit people feel in busy regions is not so much the result of the avatars in the region, but all of those trying to get into it, which the new approach should now help eliminate.

SL Viewer

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.17.556726, dated March 15.
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, dated March 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated 23, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • In terms of monitoring changes as a result of fixes for issues such as BUG-226851, the Lab do check the data they are collecting, but it can take time after an initial deployment of fixes.
  • There are reports that mesh uploads are generating more HTTP 499 errors (the so-called “Linden catch all”) since the AWS transition. There is no known reason why this might be so, and it is not clear whether or not a bug report has been raised on the matter.
  • BUG-229871 TP issues: some people are experiencing teleport issues whereby they cannot teleport back to any region they’ve previously successfully teleported to previously in the same session, but are disconnected – still under investigation.
  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed.

2021 SUG meeting week #11 summary

David Rumsey Maps – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

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

  • Tuesday, March 16th: no deployment to the the servers on the SLS Main channel.
  • Wednesday March 17th: all RC channel will receive simulator update 556847, comprising the following fixes / improvements:
    • Optimisations for crossing and teleporting into a region.This should result in less of a performance hit being felt with lots of people entering a region.
We were unwrapping the entire package of avatar data on arrival as soon as we got it. That processing is now being deferred, so the actual arrival may be a bit slower in high volume situations but you won’t get the hit on the main simulation frame that you did.

– Rider Linden on the changes to how avatars enter a region.

SL Viewer

The Custom Key Mappings RC viewer updated to version 6.4.17.556726, dated Monday, March 15th.

The remaining official viewer pipelines are as follows

  • Release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.
  • 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 – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, dated March 4th.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, dated February, 23rd.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26th.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22nd, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16th, 2019.

In Brief

  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but still not fully fixed. However an unspecified “technical hurdle” has been passed in getting the issue corrected.
  • Inventory syncing between Agni (the main grid) and Aditi (the Beta grid) is currently not working following the migration to AWS. The issue is being addressed, but there is currently, but no ETA at present.
  • BUG-226851 “Only 30 – 50% of scripts run on regions since SLS Main server roll of April 18th [2019]” – a long-standing issue for which LL now has some ideas on how to address, but no promise on a possible deployment date.
  • BUG-230415 “Region Lordshore (Jeogeot) cannot be entered via vehicle and will not rez objects (either on ground or on avatar)” – this is an issue that appears similar to a former griefing vector. It appears confined to the one region, and data is being gathered.
  • BUG-229227 “Offline group invites not working” – no update on this long-standing issue, however it has been noted by the Lab that the entire methodology with off-line message handling could benefit from a “revisit”.

2021 SUG meeting week #10 summary

Mount Campion National Forest: Roscommon Ridge – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 9th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

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

  • Tuesday, March 9th saw the servers on the SLS Main channel updated to server release 556255, containing “some internal tweaks related to launching region”.
  • There are no planned RC channel deployments scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the current pipeline of official viewers at the start of the week, leaving them as follows:

  • Current release viewer: version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th, and re-established as the default viewer following the rollback of the Simple Cache viewer.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.14.556098, March 4.
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.14.556149, released March 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, February, 23, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

Region Crossings

A simulator version currently in QA at the Lab has some region crossing changes in it. It is hoped the updates will take some of the load off of agents trying to enter crowded regions. The engineering team also intend to look at the protocol for moving an agent from region to another; however, this is viewed as “a much larger project” that has yet to be started.

In Brief

  • Group chat is being tweaked. It is hoped that an update will be ready for deployment Soon™.
  • Map tiles continue to be worked on, but not fully fixed. However, some updates to the World Map are being seen.
  • HTTP 5xx errors: some with internal services reliant on external web pages for data have been seeing an uptick in 5xx HTTP errors (see BUG-229660 and BUG-230059 as examples). Some this may be more directly related to the external service hosting the web pages (Cloudflare), while some are apparently seeing 503 errors when regions are down (rather than 404s), but are seeing recoveries once the region is back.
  • BUG-229871 TP issues: some people are experiencing teleport issues whereby they cannot teleport back to any region they’ve previously successfully teleported to previously in the same session, but are disconnected. This is being investigated. It has been suggested by some users the issue might be related to a past similar issue that was the result of a local firewall or router setting issue.

2021 SUG meeting week #9 summary

Ambient Hideaway, January 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

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

  • Tuesday, March 2nd saw a rolling restart of servers on the SLS Main channel as a refresh, but no deployment.
  • Wednesday, March 3rd should, if the notes are comments have been understood, see the following:
    • Server update 2021-02-17.556138 will be deployed to the Oranges RC channel (formerly part of the BlueSteel channel said).
    • “A couple more region tests” (per Rider Linden) planned for LeTigra and Magnum.
  • In addition, a fourth mini-RC channel, called Ferrari has been set-up.

Restarts are described as still having the kinks worked out within the new environment.

SL Viewer

On Tuesday, March 2nd, the Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.14.556088, dated February 22nd 2021, was promoted to de facto release viewer. Release viewer rolled back to version 6.4.13.555567 (Jelly Doll improvements) originally promoted February 17th.

The rest of the current pipelines remain as:

  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.14.556118, February, 23, 2021.
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • 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.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • “Good progress” continues to be made on fixing the Map tile update issue, including the map stitching when zooming out (which was seen as the last problem to be resolved), but there is still no date as to when a fix may be deployed.
  • An extensive discussion took place regarding a delay in scripts starting in rezzed objects which can be variable for reasons unknown – other than the fact the delay seems to be minimal when a region has been recently restarted, but grows in time to 2-3 seconds the longer the region is up. However, the delay does not appear to relate to the usage of the region or its complexity (scripted objects within it).
    • Some appear to believe the delay is related to changes made in 2019 to try to improve script performance in general (and thus can be “easily fixed”).
    • Others have suggested the issue could be the result of some for of throttle being triggered.
    • The problem is having something of a “knock-on” effect in that some users have taken to pre-rezzing items and having them in an alpha / transparent mode around their avatar until needed – which is impacting region performance further.

2021 SUG meeting week #8 summary

Beneath a sky created by Whirly Fizzle, people gather to say farewell to Oz Linden ahead of his retirement (see below)

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Tuesday, February 23rd: no deployment to the SLS Main channel.
  • Wednesday, February 24th: all RC channels should receive server release 556138 (or a variant thereof). This release was originally deployed to the Apples test RC channel, and contains performance optimisations and internal fixes.
An Omnibus of Oz’s: to mark Oz Linden’s coming departure, several people – including Whirly Fizzle (l) and Alexa Linden (r) and Kyle Linden (pictured) – attended his farewell party as lookalikes. That’s the real Oz in the middle, seated on the Iron Throne.

SL Viewer

  • On Monday, February 22nd, the Simple Cache viewer updated to version 6.4.14.556088 (dated February 19th).
  • On  Tuesday, February 23rd, the Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer updated to version 6.4.14.556118, February.

The rest of the current pipelines remain as:

  • Current release viewer: Project Jelly viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.13.555567 and dated February 5th, 2021, promoted February 17th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7th.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26th.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22nd, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th, 2019.
At its peak, the farewell party for Oz Linden saw around 60 people in attendance.

In Brief

There wasn’t really a meeting, and for a special reason: as he announced earlier in February, Oz Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Engineering, is retiring at the end of the month with Friday, February 26th marking his last day with Linden Lab.

As such, the meeting was given over to a farewell party, with around 60 people in attendance. I  managed to get a few shots of the event, as shown here. For those interested, I wrote something of a look back at Oz’s time at the Lab in Oz Linden announces his forthcoming departure from Linden Lab.