Tag: Server Updates

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 4th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, February 4th, 2025, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, February 5th, 2025:
  • The Banana Bread update will be deployed to the BlueSteel channel. This include expansions to llGetObjectPermMask that let you get an object’s permission mask taking into account the permissions on its inventory, and that ability has been added to llGOD.
  • The remaining RC channels will be restarted, most likely without any deployment.

SL Viewer Updates

• Default viewer: version 7.1.11.12363455226, formerly the ExtraFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, aesthetic improvements and UI optimisations), dated December 17, promoted December 20 – No Change.
• Release Candidate: Forever FPS, version 7.1.12.12999043440, February 4, 2025.
  • Numerous crash and performance fixes.
• SL Mobile (Beta) version 2025.1.542 / 0.5.533 – Create / Delete accounts, fixes – February 4,  2025.

2K Bakes on Mesh is Live

2k BoM is now live! As of yesterday, we’ve switched over to the new bake service, and we’ll be posting a blog post soon!

– Pepper Linden

This deployment does not require a viewer update, and is grid-wide – more in the Lab’s official blog post (published February 6th). The update should also see faster bake times.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• There are reports of an uptick in packet loss in simulator – viewer exchanges (reportedly 20% on average), and some are reporting associated lag with local chat.
• Rider Linden is working on updates to llSetGroundTexture:
  • This will allow a region owner/EM to set and adjust ground textures on a region, including some of the PBR features like rotation, offset and scale.
  • This work should be surfacing in the next simulator update after Banana Bed – called Carrot Cake.
• Those who have tested ForeverFPS are reporting it offers an improve Linden Water appearance (fresnel reflection/refraction).
• A request for increased terrain resolution led to a discussion on overhauling the terrain system in various ways, during which Leviathan Linden offered some history about Second Life and Linden World:

The terrain layer currently uses lossy DCT compression … The reason it uses DCT is ancient history: in the beginning SL (or Linden World as we called it back then) was expected to be sending dynamic layer data (terrain, water, wind, clouds, moisture, and ???). For dynamic layers we thought we should be using more compact compression. So terrain was a “layer” and grouped with the others. Eventually all the other layers were dropped and we ended up with a single mostly static layer that is using the wrong compression scheme.

• The above was interwoven with a discussion on KVP data.
• Various discussion on Luau and scripting.
• A general discussion on region crossings.
• Questions were asked on the Havoc physics engine. Currently, the viewer-side sub-library is being updated to Havok 2022, the simulator is running 2012.1, with Leviathan Linden noting that Havok has tried to “encourage” LL to update on the server-side; however, no physics update is likely to occur in the next year.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 28th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, January 28th, 2025, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, January 29th, 2025 the RC channels will be restarted, most likely without any deployment.
  • It had been hoped that Banana Bread, the next simulator update, would be deployed to the BlueSteel channel; however, this is likely to be held over until next week due to a late-break issues.

SL Viewer Updates

• Default viewer: version 7.1.11.12363455226, formerly the ExtraFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, aesthetic improvements and UI optimisations), dated December 17, promoted December 20 – No Change.
• Release Candidate: Forever FPS, version 7.1.12.12935708795, January 24, 2025.
  • Numerous crash and performance fixes.

2K Bakes on Mesh Update

We have some exciting news regarding 2k bake — it’s no longer blocked, and we are in the process of scheduling a deploy. We anticipate this making its way to Agni within the next few weeks (ideally sooner than later), hopefully at the next SUG I’ll have a specific date.

– Pepper Linden

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• Rider Linden noted that he is not yet in a position to work  on Combat 2.1 (see the Proposal specification + feedback).
• There was a question concerning the surfacing of llSetAgentRot. Leviathan Linden responded:

Viewer feature development is basically blocked right now. The viewer dev team is focused on FPS improvements. Meanwhile, there has been some pileup of viewer features in the develop branch, but a few months of work there is not included in ForeverFPS [the current RC viewer] viewer. The ForeverFPS viewer project does not want to pull in all of the pileup of changes in develop: they don’t want to destabilize the FPS improvements they are working on.

• Leviathan further indicated his viewer-side Game control work is similarly held-up, which led to a conversation on getting the capability out in some form.
• Rider Linden hinted that there is “exciting news” in the Lua(u) scripting project “on the horizon”.
• A discussion on this forum thread, outlining some of what is seen as SL’s major technical issues. Leviathan Linden re-iterated he’s working on one of these issues: that of slow loading on avatars and in-world objects on log-in / following a teleport.
• A discussion on possible issues about linkset messaging and linkset data.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  January 21st, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, January 21st, 2025, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 the RC channels will be restarted.
• Banana Bread, the next simulator update will be likely be deployed to Aditi for testing.

SL Viewer Updates

• Default viewer: version 7.1.11.12363455226, formerly the ExtraFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, aesthetic improvements and UI optimisations), dated December 17, promoted December 20 – No Change.
• Release Candidate: Forever FPS, version 7.1.12.12793544240, January 17, 2025.
  • Numerous crash and performance fixes.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• Leviathan Linden is due to resume work on the problem where content doesn’t always show up on first login/teleport arrival after being asked to look into a couple of other issues. His initial investigations have indicated that the problem is most likely simulator-side, be he’s still digging into the exact cause.
• 2K Bakes on Mesh:
  • Pepper Linden confirmed the simulator updates have been approved by QA.
  • Pepper also confirmed the viewer update is related to a problem found within the texture pipeline of ExtraFPS using too much VRAM (see this Canny issue report). This fix is due to go into the Lab’s ForeverFPS viewer update, and LL would like Firestorm to include it in a release before switching on 2K BoM.
• There is some confusion as to the status of the glTF scene import project in the wake of Runitai Linden’s departure from LL.
  • Runitai got as far as prototyping the capability on Aditi, but it was not tied into the physical engine.
  • As has been mentioned numerous times, the majority of the focus within the graphics / viewer teams has been on improving overall viewer performance and is currently geared towards assisting Firestorm deal with blocker to their ExtraFPS release.
• The above led to a discussion on the value of including some form of 3D mesh editing tool in the viewer. Unsurprisingly. These discussions saw a range of viewpoints expressed.
• Leviathan Linden intimated that the viewer-side work for his game controller updates (which are available server-side) is also pending on resources within the viewer team becoming available in order to make the game control options more easily accessible (e.g. with the official viewer, it has to be unlocked via the Advanced menu).
• A discussion on properly-supported “walking / running backwards” animations states.
• It was suggested that the server-side Luau work (scripting) could be deployed to Aditi “in the next few months (possibly)” to allow scripters to poke at it while it is still in development.
• Requests for additions to the official viewer, including RLV (RLV/a has been contributed by Kitty Barnett for inclusion in the official viewer, but the status of the work in doing so is unclear – it’s a significant piece of work).
• A reminder that Monty Linden is working to correct defects within EventQueueGet (a simulator Capability that delivers messages from a simulator to viewers over HTTP using a long-poll scheme. It is core functionality without which viewer/simulator coordination is impossible), and is seeking feedback  – see here for both defects, proposals to resolve and how to test.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  January 14th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, January 14th, 2025, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, January 15th, all remaining RC channel outside of BlueSteel should be updated with the Apple Cobbler simulator update, which includes llGetAttachedListFiltered(),llGiveAgentInventory(),llMapBeacon(),llTransferOwnership(), and a modification to llModPow, so it should work faster (however, it does not correctly handle the full range of positive 31-bit integers -and Leviathan Linden is working to define the range for which it supplies correct answers, so check the wiki page for updates).

SL Viewer Updates

• Release viewer: version 7.1.11.12363455226, formerly the ExtraFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, aesthetic improvements and UI optimisations), dated December 17, promoted December 20 – No Change.
• Release Candidate: none at present.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• Rider Linden:

 I have an internal change dealing with how the simulator makes outgoing HTTP calls. It’s just a proof of concept and changes how a few things at start-up are handled, residents shouldn’t see any differences. As that expands further in the future, I’ll start calling out things that people should be paying attention to.

• Leviathan Linden:

Just a status update on what I’m working on: I’ve been trying to come up with a reliable repro for the “sometimes objects don’t show up upon login/teleport arrival — in order for them to show up you need to do a relog” problem. Although I don’t have a reliable repro for it I’ve verified it is a real server-side bug and have some ideas to try out. I got side-tracked on something but will get back to working on that later today.

• A request was made on whether there could be a way for an Experience owner to see the data stored (e.g. as two-column spreadsheet) and without having to query the whole thing a few keys at a time. This led to a general discussion on now this might be achieved, with Monty Linden adding:

 KVP things are something we have to look at again in the future – if people have wants, now is a good time to start asking … if something’s needed, can add it to the stew pot.

• The above led to a broader discussion on scripting – a viewer UI for LSD / status on the Luau project for the viewer (unclear, as Signal Linden had to depart the meeting before replying); the potential for a llLinkSetData equivalent on avatars (seen as unwise because of some of the potentials it might present – such as allowing a script to put “cookies” on avatars), data storage, touched on this Canny request, and circled back to user-supplied grid-wide experiences. This discussion ran through most of the rest of the meeting.
• The question was asked whether it would be possible to have llGetObjectDetails respect parcel privacy settings, whereby if an object that isn’t on the parcel you are standing on has Avatars On Other Parcels Can See and Chat with Avatars on This Parcel toggled off, it won’t be able to get a list of your attachments – notably as a form of protection against data-gathering bots. Rider Linden requested a Canny feature request on this.
• A discussion on llDerezObject.
• Leviathan Linden suggested that a merge of 2k BOM has passed a QA review; however, as Pepper Linden was not available at the meeting to confirm overall status.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  January 7th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, January 7th, 2025, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, January 8th:
  • The BlueSteel RC should be updated with the Apple Cobbler simulator update, which includes: llGetAttachedListFiltered(),llGiveAgentInventory(),llMapBeacon(),llTransferOwnership(), and a modification to llModPow, so it should work faster (however, it does not correctly handle the full range of positive 31-bit integers -and Leviathan Linden is working to define the range for which it supplies correct answers, so check the wiki page for updates).
  • The remaining simulators on the RC channels are to be restarted without any update.

SL Viewer Updates

• Release viewer: version 7.1.11.12363455226, formerly the ExtraFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, aesthetic improvements and UI optimisations), dated December 17, promoted December 20 – No Change.
• Release Candidate: none at present.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• A discussion on llSetAgentRot and extending it, with Rider Linden noting:

I left the API open to be able to use any rot. Unfortunately there are a lot of assumptions in both the simulator and the viewer about the agent only rotating around Z. Changing that is going to be a much larger project.

• Questions were asked on improving the quality of Linden Water effects and reflections. Such questions are best dealt with via the Content Creation User Group (summaries here).
• An intertwined discussion with the above about Linden Water and swimming options.
• There have been requests for a llSetObjectMass() function. Whilst this doesn’t currently exist, this SL wiki page has been created to provide a (hopefully) equitable capability, with Leviathan Linden noting:

Vehicle developers were asking for an llSetMass() method so they could standardize the mass of the vehicle after the agent had sat down. It turns out that LSL function is not necessary, there is a way to do it with existing LSL functionality, but it is a little tricky for multi-prim objects.

• A further discussion on improving vehicle interaction with parcel bans – something LL is hoping to address – such as the potential for putting banline information on the mini-map, with other suggestions being put forward.
  • This led to a broad discussion on issues of parcel privacy and access, security and forced teleporting of unwanted visitors.
• Requests have been made to modify Experience permissions so that creators can set them to “only this time” or “work like phone apps“. This led to a discussion on Experiences  and the format of the permissions dialogue, etc.

 

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 17th, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
• These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT.
  • In text (no Voice).
  • At this location.
• Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
• Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

• On Tuesday, December 17th, 2024, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were restarted with no update.
• On Wednesday, December 18th, the servers on the RC channels should be restarted without any deployments being made.

With the holiday period starting in a week, the engineering team will be making a call in the next day or so on whether to run re-starts over the holiday period or not.

SL Viewer Updates

• Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, etc), dated September 11, promoted September 17 – No change.
• Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.12363455226, December 17.
  • Performance improvements: enhanced texture memory tracking, broader hardware compatibility and higher FPS gain;  additional code to improve texture streaming on rigged attachments (e.g. if an earring is made with 2K textures, the viewer will correctly calculate the required resolution for the textures and download them, rather than downloading the full 2K textures), etc.
  • Aesthetics improvements: new Antialiasing setting – SMAA; Contrast Adaptive Sharpening; Khronos Neutral Tone Mapping (can be changed to ACES via the RenderTonemapType Debug setting).
  • UI Optimisations.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

• A discussion on llGetObjectDetails, together with llGOD() or using a rezzer to check for an object’s presence, and potential confusion which can potentially arise, and the potential benefit in using llGetOwnerKey.
  • This sparked ideas for additional functions / parameter for check on objects with regions / parcels – e.g.: llDoesExist() with parameters IN_REGION, IN_PARCEL and IN_OWNERS_PARCEL.
• A request was made for an update on the server-side lua implementation project, and information on challenges encountered. This prompted Rider Linden to respond:

The project is moving forward, but it is a pretty complex undertaking and we need to move forward cautiously. Remember, we’re trying to swap the VM out from under 20 years worth of scripts… in place and on the fly.

– Rider Linden

• The above led to a further discussion on Lua some of which can be addressed via the Lua FAQ, although one of the the easiest to answer (“Why replace Mono”?) is perhaps best answered by the observation that the Mono version SL is running is old, and Mono itself is becoming seemingly frozen in time.  This discussion wound through the rest of the meeting.
• The Lua / Mono exchange segued into a discussion on region performance slowing as avatars enter, together with anecdotal reports of an increase in region crossings timing-out and people being logged-out as a result.
  • Monty Linden again noted the issue of avatars entering regions is being looked at, and requested that reports be filed (including locations and times) when these issues are noted.
  • To help, he has opened a report to which people can append their information via comments.
  • In terms of avatars entering regions and slowing things, he added: “Note that the recent avatar work makes entering *worse* for the offending avatar, better for those already in-region.”
• Testing llTransferOwnership has shown the function generates two confirmatory message: after opting to Accept whatever is being offered by the in-world object, recipients are hit with the messages similar to “an object owned by somebody gave you a thing”, followed by “you are now the owner of a thing. [ OK ] “.
  • The duplication of messages is in known issue, and due in part to the viewer automatically generating the first message as soon as the Accept button is pressed, whereas the second message comes from the server.
  • The implication appears to be that the viewer message will be addressed, as it can be misleading.
• An issue has been reported (and reproduced) relating to llGetEnvironment (+ related functions) returning inaccurate unit vectors for Sun / Moon position. There is some potential disagreement as to what is being seen / where the issue might reside, but it is being looked into.

Date of Next Meeting

• Tuesday, January 7th, 2025.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.