There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, May 10th.
At the time of writing, the planned deployment of a new server maintenance package to the RC channels planned for Wednesday, May 11th, was under question as a result of an outage of Aditi, the Beta grid, throwing out the testing schedule for the updates. Should it go ahead, this deployment is described as “Minor internal improvements. No visible functional changes to Second Life.”
SL Viewer
The Quick Graphics viewer is still awaiting update, which should occur once it has been merged with the current release viewer (formerly the Maintenance RC viewer). This leaves the SL viewer list unchanged from the end of last week:
Current Release version: 4.0.4.314579 (dated April 28), promoted May 5th – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer
RC viewers:
Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.4.314426, dated April 26th
Project Veiwers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) viewer, version 5.0.0.314884 dated May 5th – this build contains several updates related to joint offsets and meshes and slider changes
On Tuesday, May 3rd, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package originally deployed to the three RC channels in week #17, comprising a crash fix and minor internal improvements.
There will be no deployment to the RC channels on Wednesday, May 4th, and no scheduled restart of simulators on that channel.
SL Viewer Updates
The two release candidate viewers currently in the release channel were updated at the end of week #17:
The current Maintenance release candidate updated to version 4.0.4.314579, dated April 28th
The Quick Graphics release candidate updated to version 4.0.4.314426, dated April 26th.
This means there has been no promotion of an RC to de facto release status, while the project viewers have not been updated, leaving the complete list of remaining official viewers as follows:
Current Release version: 4.0.3.312816, dated March 23rd and promoted on April 1st, formerly the HTTP / Vixox RC viewer
Project viewers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.313876, dated April 15th
Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
Avatar Complexity
There are still some issues yet to be resolved with Avatar Complexity which is why this viewer is currently not progressing towards a release status at present. One of these is avatars which should render as solid colours (or “Jelly Dolls” as the popular term for them is now) or imposters are invisible.
This has been a long-standing issue (see BUG-10330), which has proven hard to reliably reproduce, and has had a number of theories attached to it. Recent testing has suggested one of the causes is a possible conflict between the viewer trying to render avatars as Jelly Dolls whilst trying also to account for any alpha mask applied to the avatar with all the layer check boxes ticked. This is possibly because ticking the alpha mask check boxes result in a “special” UUID being applied. Currently, the precise cause of the issue has yet to reach a consensus opinion, and investigations and tests continue.
There was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, April 26th.
One Wednesday, April 27th, all three RC channels should receive the same server maintenance package, comprising a server crash fix and some minor internal improvements
Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13th, 2015 – Oculus Rift DK2 support (download and release notes)
Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7 (download and release notes).
There are no scheduled deployments for week #16. The next deployment should be to the RC channels in week #17 (week commencing Monday, April 25th). This is liable to include at least one fix to help prevent simulator crashes.
SL Viewer Updates
Both of the current RC viewers were updated on Friday, April 15th.
The Maintenance RC, which includes fixes for crashes, memory leaks, input/cursor issues, graphics bugs. invisiprims, formatting, notifications and more, was updated to version 4.0.4.314012. See my notes on the invisiprim tweak here.
The Quick Graphics RC viewer, containing the new Avatar Complexity capabilities and the graphic presets support updated to version 4.0.4.313948.
Depending on the stats gathered on these versions, one of them might be updated to the de facto release viewer later in the week (although I’m guessing there may not be a promotion until week #17).
This leaves the complete list of official viewers as:
Current Release version: 4.0.3.312816 (dated March 23), April 1 – formerly the HTTP / Vixox RC viewer download page, release notes
TC viewers – as indicated above
Project viewers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) updated to version 5.0.0.313876 on April 15 – an updated set of bones for the Bento skeleton.
Oculus Rift project viewer updated to version 3.7.18.295296 on October 13, 2015 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
News is once again light at the start of the week. Expect more from the Bento and TPVD meetings at the end of the week 🙂 .
On Tuesday, April 12th, the main (SLS) grid was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed to the three RC channels in week #14. This comprises a fix for (non-public) BUG-11163llHTTPRequest returns 400 from some sims and not others, and some minor internal fixes.
Commenting on the llHHTTPRequest update at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, April 12th, Oz described the reason for the update as follows:
Some time ago I changed the code so that when LSL sends an HTTP request it is more explicit about what MIME types it will accept. That uncovered a much older bug in how the list of acceptable types was maintained; when a region updated its configuration, the list got duplicates. When all we were using the list for was checking a response, all that cost was a tiny bit of extra time, but when we started sending them it caused requests the servers sometimes didn’t like.
SL Viewer
There has been no change to the current list of official viewers since my last update.
Current Release version: 4.0.3.312816 (dated March 23), April 1 – formerly the HTTP / Vixox RC viewer download page, release notes
Maintenance RC viewer 4.0.4.313759 release on April 8 – fixes for iewer crashes, memory leaks, input/cursor issues, graphics bugs, invisiprims, formatting and notifications (download and release notes)
Quick Graphics RC viewer updated to version 4.0.2.312297 on March 11 – provides the new Avatar Complexity options and the new graphics preset capabilities for setting, saving and restoring graphic settings for use in difference environments / circumstances (download and release notes)
Project viewers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) updated to version 5.0.0.313150 on March 29 – an updated set of bones for the Bento skeleton. The skeleton changes are (download and release notes)
Oculus Rift project viewer updated to version 3.7.18.295296 on October 13, 2015 – Oculus Rift DK2 support (download and release notes)
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7. This viewer will remain available for as long as reasonable, but will not be updated with new features or bug fixes and will not be promoted to release status (download and release notes)
Aditi Issues
Inventory Syncing
Work is continuing on the Aditi inventory syncing issues (see here for details). In terms of the local caching issues previously reported (see also BUG-11651) , the Lab is testing a build of the viewer which will create separate inventory .gz files for Agni and Aditi, and which appears to overcome the issues of “phantom” Aditi assets appearing in Agni inventory and Aditi assets apparently “vanishing” from Aditi inventory, both until such time as the viewer cache is cleared.
The updated test viewer creates individual inv.gz files for Aditi (red) and Agni (blue) inventories, thus avoiding the issues reported in BUG-11651 (with thanks to Whirly Fizzle for the pointer)
The Calling Card and Favourite folders are also being synced at the moment, although it looks like these will be excluded (as had been the plan) alongside the Current Outfit Folder.
Aditi log-ins
Some people are still having issues logging-in to their last location on Aditi. When attempting to log-in, people either have to wait an age or, when eventually logged-in, arrive an a random location on the Beta grid. Not all users logging-in to Aditi are affect, but for those who are, the problem is persistent, and has been for a number of months. There is some speculation that the issue might be inventory related, as was the case a couple of years back (see BUG-7707), and the Lab are going to poke at this to see if something similar is again occurring.
The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, April 8th, 2016. A video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report, my thanks as always to North for supplying it, and time stamps in the text relate to this recording.
SL Server Deployments – Recap
There was no scheduled deployment to the Main (SLS) channel this week. All three RC channels received the same server maintenance package, comprising a fix for (non-public) BUG-11163llHTTPRequest returns 400 from some sims and not others, and some minor improvements. Assuming nothing goes sideways with this update, it should be promoted to the Main channel in week #15 (commencing Monday, April 11th).
As of the Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, April 7th, it seems that there will not be any RC deployment in week #15.
SL Viewer Update
Maintenance Viewer
One of the changes within the new Maintenance RC sees the When I Spend Or Get L$ notification tick box (Preferences > Notifications) split into two options
A new Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.0.4.313759, arrived on Friday April 8th. This includes fixes for a range of issues related to viewer crashes, memory leaks, input/cursor issues, graphics bugs, formatting, notifications, etc.
This Maintenance viewer sees invisiprim texture UUIDs revert to their “old” behaviour: they will mask whatever they are covering (feet, water in dry docks or in boats, etc) when ALM is disabled, and are ignored when running with ALM enabled (see here for further background on recent changes to how these texture UUIDs are handled by the SL viewer).
The Maintenance RC viewer sees the return of the “old” invisprim texture UUID behaviour: masking items (e.g avatar feet in shoes; Linden water in dry docks – above – or boats, etc), when ALM is disabled (left) and being ignored by the rendering engine when ALM is enabled
During the TPVD meeting, Grumpity Linden described this as a “partial” fix [11:35, in text], and Oz Linden indicated that the Lab has not reached a final decision on how these textures should be handled in the future [18:35]. both of these comments suggest further work is yet to come with how invisiprims are handled.
Quick Graphics Viewer
[00:50] The Quick Graphics viewer, version 4.0.2.312297 at the time of writing, is being merged with the current release viewer code, but still has some remaining bugs to be resolved. It would therefore seem unlikely this viewer will be promoted to release status in the immediate future.
[31:44] Testing has shown that this viewer is relatively successful in preventing people wearing mesh graphics crashers from crashing it. While those using this viewer can experience a drop in frame rate in the presence of such crashers, they tend to remain connected to the simulator.
Change in how Avatar complexity is calculated means that other avatars such no longer appear as “rainbow avatars” when the slider is set to Unlimited
[33:24] A further change to the view means it no longer uses attachment geometry when calculating avatar complexity. This should prevent situations where setting the Avatar Complexity slider in the viewer to Unlimited still results in some avatars still appearing as solid colours.
[35:00] However, the recommendation is that if you want to have avatars mostly rendered normally but still have protection against like graphics crashers, you set the Avatar Complexity value to 350K rather than Unlimited.
[36:05] Avatars rendered as solid colours have been informally referred to as “Jelly Babies”. However, as this is actually a trademarked name (Bassett’s / Cadbury-Schweppes / Mondelēz International), the Lab prefers that it is no used, and are informally referring to solid colour avatars as “rainbow avatars” and more formally as “muted avatars”.
Oculus Rift Viewer
[06:49] The Lab is still committed to getting the Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296 and dated October 2014 at the time of writing, updated. Progress has been slowed due ongoing changes in the Oculus SDK. However, the plan remains to have this viewer support the consumer release version of the headset.
64-viewer
[28:48] The Lab has started building 64-bit versions of their Windows and Mac viewers. There is no firm date on when these will appear as project viewers, but the progress to date has been relatively rapid.
SL Voice
[07:40] The recent HTTP / Vivox release viewer (version 4.0.3.312816) contains a number of updates to improve issues like Voice quality, drop-outs, connection failures, etc. The Lab has suggested TPVs might want to investigate dropping the updated voice package into their own viewers, if not about to update to the 4.0.3 code base, so users can benefit from the newer Voice package.
Widespread Voice Drop-Outs
[08:40] There have been instances of widespread Voice drop-out across SL recently. These are apparently the result of DDoS attacks aimed at the Vivox services, rather than any issues within SL. Vivox are working to reduce the impacts of these attacks and improve service resumption following them, but the current updates provided to the Lab obviously won’t help when these issues occur. However, an upcoming version of the Voice package should over improvements when reconnecting to the Vivox services after problems have occurred.
Security / Privacy Improvements
[10:25] In addition to the above, the Lab and Vivox are also working on various security and privacy improvements around Voice. When these are available, they will form a new version of the SL Voice package which will not be backwards compatible with older viewers.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 