Tag: Server Updates

SL project updates 16 7/1: server and viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Sorrow; Inara Pey, February 2016, on Flickr Sorrow – blog post

Server Deployments

There are no server deployments planned for this week, and no planned restarts for any of the channels.

There is an RC deployment planned for week #8 (week commencing Monday, February 22nd), details of which are still TBA.

As there have not been any rolling restarts, and won’t be any across the entire grid until around week #9, the advice is that if your region is behaving abnormally, file a support ticket to have it restarted. The Lab’s support team are aware that there are no scheduled restarts at present, so they should process requests OK.

SL Viewer

With Monday having been a holiday in the United States (Presidents’ Day), there was no meeting at the Lab to discuss viewer promotions.  This leaves the current list of Lab viewer unchanged from the end of week #6:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.1.310054, January 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes
  • RC viewers:
    • HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer updated to version 4.0.2.310660 on February 4 – combines the Project Azumarill RC and Vivox Voice RC updates into a single viewer  (download and release notes)
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.0.2.310545 released on February 2 – 38 updates. fixes and tweaks for memory leaks; viewer crashes; UI, permissions and mesh uploader bugs; visual muting issues, autopilot issues and duplicated calling cards (download and release notes)
    • Quick Graphics RC viewer updated to version 4.0.2.310127 on January 20 – 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) version 5.0.0.310099 released on January 20 – adds 90+ bones to the existing avatar skeleton (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 (download and release notes).

As noted in my recent TPVD meeting report, further updates are expected to the HTTP / Vivox RC viewer and the Quick Graphics RC viewer, but these may not appear this week.

Region Crossings – Grey Box Issue

There have been increasing reports of region crossing issues, including the return of the “grey box” attachment issue which was originally seen in 2013 when crossing from a BlueSteel RC to any other region. This would see any passenger(s) sitting on a vehicle surrounded by (or even replaced by) a grey prim, and left with no choice but to relog, leaving the prim behind, attached to the vehicle.

Caitlyn recently got caught by the "grey box" issue as we were sailing on the north side of Blake Sea. If you encounter the problem, please file a JIRA with as much information as possible (see below)
Caitlyn recently got caught by the “grey box” issue as we were sailing on the north side of Blake Sea. If you encounter the problem, please file a JIRA with as much information as possible (see below)

At the time of the problem first appearing, Kelly Linden described it thus:

Every agent has a ‘task’ representation on the server that is the same as a prim. The bug is in sending the linked set w/ avatars to the other region: avatars after the first are losing the special avatar treatment and getting passed as a regular linked prim. So that prim is what the server thinks all avatars look like.

Simon then added:

The region crossing code basically un-sits avatars from an object, sends both the avatars and object to the next region [as separate sets of data], which puts them back together. In this case, the 2nd avatar doesn’t get detached properly and things go south from there. So the 2nd avatar gets sent over bundled up with the object … which it’s not designed to do.

It had been thought this issue had been dealt with via a fix for (non-public) BUG-3547. However, if it is resurfacing, the problem now is to pin it down in a reproducible manner, if indeed it is returning. Should you encounter it, please make sure you file a JIRA providing as much information as possible, including your viewer log files, the regions you were crossing between when it happened yo you (or your passengers), the date and time, details of the vehicle you were using, etc.

SL project updates 16 6/2: TPVD meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Village & BarDeco; Inara Pey, February 2016, on Flickr The Village & BarDeco – blog post

The following notes are primarily taken from the  TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, February 12th, 2016. A video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report, and time stamps in the text relate to that recording. My thanks as always to North for supplying the video.

Server Deployments – Recap

There were no server deployments for week #6, as the majority of staff at the Lab directly involved in developing and enhancing the platform were meeting to discuss plans for further enhancements and improvement to Second Life.

This more than likely means the next deployment will take place Wednesday, February 17th, 2016, to at least one of the RC channels.

SL Viewers

[00:19] The current version of the HTTP / Vivox viewer (4.0.2.310660) has HTTP pipelining disabled as a result of bug within it which was causing the viewer to crash. The Lab is now looking to fix the underlying cause of the issue.

Oz arrived at the TPVD meeting suitably attired for the dunk-a-Linden fest at Isle of View, also taking place on Friday, February 12th
Oz arrived at the TPVD meeting suitably attired for the dunk-a-Linden fest at Isle of View, which also took place on Friday, February 12th

[00:55] The Quick Graphics viewer is undergoing a further round of changes to refine how it performs the avatar complexity calculations.

[02:40] It is thought that all of the remaining issues in this regard (such as blocked avatars not rendering correctly, elevated costs involved when using alpha masking instead of alpha blending and materials are not being accounted for correctly.

[03:22} Further changes to the viewer mean that from the next release it will no longer use a LOD of 3 on which to base avatar complexity calculations,  but will be more responsive to the different LODs set within a mesh, depending on which you are seeing

So, for example, this means if you are close enough for the high poly version of the mesh to be rendered, the Avatar complexity calculation will be based on that; if you are further away, and a lower polycount version is rendered, then the LOD for that will be used in calculating the Avatar complexity.

Once all of these updates have been incorporated into the viewer, which should be in the next week or two, an updated RC will be issued, paving the way for this viewer to be promoted as the de facto release viewer sometime in the not too distant future after that.

An interesting point with this Quick Graphics viewer is that those using the RC version are tending to run longer log-in sessions which are “significantly longer” than with those users running the current release viewer.

The Oculus Rift project viewer is still anticipated as appearing “soon”, and will lift this viewer to being compatible with the latest SDK from Oculus VR, but will be for Windows only, given the Oculus SDK currently doesn’t support Mac.

64-Bit Viewer Versions

[05:00] The viewer team continue to pursue 64-bit versions of the official viewer, but it will still be a while before any initial versions are visible and available for people to try. It is likely that any project viewer will not be appearing for a “few weeks”. Once project viewers are released into the wild, it a likely the Lab will make available 64-bit versions of the pre-built Havoc extensions libraries to TPVs with the licence as well.  The release of the 64-bit viewers will also see the Lab cease support for 32-bit versions of OS X, something which should hardly affect any Mac users.

Project Bento

[01:20] With the Bento Bones survey closed and feedback also gathered through meetings, it is hoped that the skeleton changes can be finalised relatively soon, allowing the Lab to focus on issues of bug fixing within the viewer and readying it for a release (project or C) on the main (Agni) grid. This will also see the server-side support for Bento enabled on Agni, having been deployed last year as a part of the routine server releases (week #48 2015 for the Main (SLS) channel and originally to the RC channels in week #46 of 2015).

[06:46] The Lab, with content creators, is continuing to experiment with reconfiguring the bones, and also to look into the issues of joints getting out of position. As noted in my Bento Project reports, there are a number of different circumstances where this can occur, some of which have yet to be fully diagnosed, and others of which could be caused by race conditions between the viewer and the server when it comes to message handling, or which may even be due to message packets being lost for those on poorer network connections.

A further issue is to do with the default human T-pose attempting to load between animations, which can cause quadruped avatars appear to try to cross their forelegs, depending on the bones used in rigging them. For a details discussion on all these issues, see my Project Bento update #4, with audio.

Other Items

CEF, and Firestorm  and Anti-Virus software

[14:08] One of the significant factors in delaying the next Firestorm release is the merge with the Chrome embedded Framework (CEF) code which is now used for media handing, etc., within the viewer. A set of fixes for CEF are already available in the current Maintenance RC viewer (version  4.0.2.310545 at the time of writing), with further updates expected in the next Maintenance RC thereafter – although none of these are considered major issues.

[15:43] There have been reports that one or two anti-virus packages (one of them being Webroot) don’t play nice with CEF versions of the viewer. There’s not a lot the Lab can do about this, and users experiencing problems may want to look into the AV software and see if the viewer requires whitelisting, etc.

Find out more on this through my TLS 1.2 implementation notes.

Continue reading “SL project updates 16 6/2: TPVD meeting” →

SL project updates 16 5/1: Server and viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Calas Galadhon; Inara Pey, February 2016, on Flickr Calas Galadhon – the view along the revised coastline from Dimrill Dale towards Glanduin – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, check the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

On Tuesday, February 2nd, the Main (SLS) channel received server maintenance package 16.01.21.310177, previously deployed to the three RC channels, comprising Internal simulator fixes and a fix for BUG-1313 “LSL llSetPos in root prim of attachment behaves differently at high altitudes – viewer does not show updates”, which can cause attachments to fail to update correctly at altitudes over approximately 1500 metres.

There are no scheduled deployments to the RC channels for this week, and there are currently no plans for any deployments in week #6 (week commencing Monday, February 8th). Some suspect this is because nest week will see one of the semi-regular meetings those at the Lab directly involved in Second Life have to determine projects and priorities taking place.

Simulator Moves

The Tuesday rolling restart apparently included a number of simulators previously on the RC channels also being redeployed onto the Main (SLS) channel. There has been no word on why this is the case, although it might simply be a re-balancing of simulators between the various channels (Main, Magnum, LeTigre and BlueSteel), or part of a server load balancing operation (the Lab used to undertake periodic re-distribution of simulators by server, but I believe that process is far more automated nowadays).

SL Viewer

The anticipated Maintenance RC viewer arrived in the viewer release channel on Tuesday, February 2nd. Version 4.0.2.310545 includes some 38 updates and fixes for, but not limited to: memory leaks; viewer crashes; UI, permissions and mesh uploader bugs; visual muting issues, autopilot issues and duplicated calling cards (which should hopefully prevent people seeing some / many of the calling cards in their inventory duplicated each time they log-in to Second Life).

Outside of this, the current official viewers remain as:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.1.310054, January 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer, version 4.0.2.310349, dated January 27th
    • Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.310127, dated January 20th
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.310099, dated January 20th
    • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13th, 2015
  • Obsolete platform viewer (Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7), version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015.

Project Bento Bone Survey

Those involved in work with the Project Bento avatar skeleton extensions are reminded that the  Bento Bone Survey,  while currently open, but is liable to be closed soon. The survey intended to gauge the level of interest in various bone proposals for the Bento skeleton is now available. So if you are an animator or content creator with a vested interest in Project Bento, and if you haven’t already completed the survey, please make sure you do so sooner rather than later. The Lab will be using the results to help with prioritising which additional bones people would like to see added to the Second Life avatar skeleton as a part of the Bento work.

SL project updates 16 4/2: TPVD meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey

High Water; Inara Pey, January 2016, on Flickr High Water (Flickr) – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, January 29th, 2016. At the time of the meeting, Second Life was experience voice issues, and so the meeting was held in text. However, the meeting was still recorded and is available here. The following notes have been taken from the chat log of the meeting.

Server Deployments – Recap

As always, check the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

On Tuesday, January 26th, the Main (SLS) channel received server maintenance package 16.01.16.310114, previously deployed to the three RC channels, comprising a simulator crash fix and feature request OBJECT_REZZER_KEY) for llGetObjectDetails(), which returns the parent_id (object or avatar) of any task in the region. The function only works for those objects rezzed in-world after the code deployment (objects in-world prior to deployment will return NULL_KEY).

On Wednesday, January 27th, the three RC channels all received a new server maintenance package,16.01.21.310177, comprising Internal simulator fixes and a fix for BUG-1313 “LSL llSetPos in root prim of attachment behaves differently at high altitudes – viewer does not show updates”, which can cause attachments to fail to update correctly at altitudes over approximately 1500 metres.

SL Viewer Updates

HTTP / Vivox

The HTTP / Vivox RC updated to version 4.0.2.310349 on Wednesday, January 27th, which sees the addition of MAINT-5977, “Create a MailDrop event pump”  to the list of resolved issues, and the removal of MAINT-6055, “[corehttp] Mac – voice does not stay connected on resume from sleep”.

Quick Graphics

The Quick Graphics RC viewer (currently version 4.0.2.310127, dated January 20th), is getting some fixes to more accurately account for Materials, and possibly some other tweaks to how Avatar Complexity is calculated. The update should be appearing in the release channel soon.

One problem yet to be fixed within this viewer is an issue whereby avatars will still appear as solid colour jelly babies even when the Avatar Complexity slider in the viewer is set to “no limit” (which in theory should render all avatars normally). Commenting on whether or not this will be fixed, Oz noted:

The problem with those cases is that there are 2 more factors that go into making the avatar a coloured impostor, and they’re not obvious enough. We will probably change the thresholds on those, and maybe make the response to them different somehow.

When asked if those who have suitable systems will have the means to disable Avatar Complexity from running in their viewer (i.e. never see jelly babies unless the capability is expressly re-enabled) should the above issue not be resolved, Oz indicated this is a possibility, but is still to be decided.

Maintenance RC

A further Maintenance RC viewer is on the horizon, with what is described as a “nice set of fixes”. This should also be appearing in the release channel in the near future.

Project Viewers

The Project Bento viewer continues to be worked on, and the Lab is trying to move things towards a “final” (for this phase of the work) selection of additional bones – see my separate report on the Bento project for details.

Work is all under way in updating the Oculus Rift project viewer, with an update expected in the near future. The indication is that this will be built to the 1.x SDK. Oz also indicated that the Lab is potentially looking at how many alternative HMDs they might be able to support with the viewer, including “taking a whack” at Google Cardboard support.

64-bit Viewer Builds

As noted in my last TPVD update, the Lab is starting work on 64-bit versions of their Mac and windows viewers. There is no time frame as to when the first project / TC versions might appear, but it does also mean that there will be a 64-bit viewer Havoc library made available to TPVs in due course. However, this may take a while to appear.

Mac Builds

Currently, the Lab is using OS X 10.10.5 and Xcode 7.x for Mac builds, but are working to resolve a cmake file issue in order to build on OS X 10.11.2 or greater. This requires the Lab to re-arrange the order in which the current build tests are run to ensure the required libraries can be located as the integration tests can be successfully run.

Vivox Exploits

There is still concern over Vivox voice exploits being employed by some users. One example of this is a user located on one region being able to listen in on conversations on another region without showing up on active speakers list for that region.

The problem here is that the weaknesses allowing these types of exploits tend to be within the code package supplied by Vivox, and over which LL has no direct control. They therefore require action on Vivox’s part to fix them. This is something Oz pointed out at the TPVD meeting, before going on to note that the Lab will continue to work with Vivox to get things corrected.

Other Items

Older Viewers

There are a number of changes which are being implemented throughout 2016 which will make older versions of viewers increasingly obsolete. These include further inventory improvements and the deprecation of outdated inventory messages which will impact older viewers and, most notably the switch to TLS 1.2, which is already available in the current release of the official viewer (and those TPVs adopting the CEF code base from the Lab).

As I noted (via a comment from Oz) in my last TPVD meeting report for 2015,  this switch-over is being driven out of compliance requirements, rather than for any technical reason. However, what it does mean that once it occurs – mostly likely in the spring – any viewer which does not support TLS 1.2 will be unable to carry out any interactions with the SL Cashier or anything that involves money, as there will be no back-end support.

Third-Party Viewer Releases

  • Catznip updated to release R10.0 for Windows only (at present) on Saturday, January 30th. This release brings Catznip back up to date with more recent code releases from the Lab, and I’ll have a review available shortly. Catznip users should note that R9 will be blocked from mid-February
  • Alchemy will be releasing an update “imminently”
  • Firestorm’s next release continues to look set for around early March.

 

SL project updates 16 4/1: server updates

Posted on by Inara Pey

Gates of Memories; Inara Pey, January 2016, on Flickr Gates of Memories – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, check the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

On Tuesday, January 26th, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package, 16.01.16.310114, previously deployed to the three RC channels. This comprises:

  • A simulator crash fix
  • A further feature request: llGetObjectDetails() functionality to get the parent_id of any task in the region (OBJECT_REZZER_KEY).

OBJECT_REZZER_KEY returns the parent_id of any task in the region. If the object came from an object rezzer it returns the ID of the parent object, while If it was rezzed by an avatar, it returns the agent ID of the avatar. The function only works for those objects rezzed in-world after the code deployment (objects in-world prior to deployment will return NULL_KEY).

On Wednesday, January 27th, the three RC channels should all receive a new server maintenance package,16.01.21.310177, comprising:

  • Internal simulator fixes
  • A fix for BUG-1313 “LSL llSetPos in root prim of attachment behaves differently at high altitudes – viewer does not show updates”, which can cause attachments to fail to update correctly at altitudes over approximately 1500 metres.

Deployment Slowdown

“FWIW, we’re likely to slow down on server updates in the next couple of weeks,” Simon Linden informed those attending the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, January 26th. “It’s not part of any evil plan, but I’m doing some internal maintenance work and travelling one week.”

How this plays out remains to be seen, but we should at least have one deployment to the Main (SLS) channel in week #5 (week commencing Monday, February 1st), assuming no issues are found, with the promotion of the this week’s RC deployment to that channel.

SL Viewer

no updates for the start of the week, with the current crop of viewers remaining:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.1.310054, January 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer, version 4.0.2.310097, dated January 19th
    • Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.310127, dated January 20th
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.310099, dated January 20th
    • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13th, 2015
  • Obsolete platform viewer (Windows XP and OSX versions below 10.7), version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015.

Other Items

Greater Local Region Control

A bug which has been getting repeated requests for attention, particularly by those engaged in SL combat activities, is BUG-8974, “Temp rez object are not rezzed in a timely manner”. It’s also one which hasn’t seem to be working its way to the top of the pile of things to be done. During the Simulator User Group Meeting, Simon expanded on one of these reasons this is the case:

“As I remember, it’s tied up with a larger idea: letting region owners pick different settings for the region based on the performance and safety you want.  Part of the problem is due to a throttle which was added for anti-griefing. So if you want temp rezzing faster, you might want that [throttle] looser, while a venue owner would definitely not want that [the throttle looser, due to the risk of griefing]. I can’t make promises but I hope to get to it soon.  It’s still on my list.”

SL project updates 16 3/2: Server, viewer, Bento and CEF + Flash

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Keys; Inara Pey, January 2016, on Flickr The Keys (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deployments, Week 3 – Recap

As always, check the server deployment thread for any updates.

On Tuesday, January 19th, the Main (SLS) channel received the server update package previously deployed to the three RC channel. This comprises:

  • Feature Request: llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_TOTAL_INVENTORY_COUNT – when targeting an object, OBJECT_TOTAL_INVENTORY_COUNT will return the total of all inventory types in each link of the linkset. See BUG-10575 for further details
  • Feature Request: llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_PRIM_COUNT – provides a means to get a worn attachment’s prim count (rather than just returning 0).  See BUG-10646 for further details.
  • Simulator crash fixes.

On Thursday, January 21st,  three RC channels received a new server maintenance package comprising a simulator crash fix and a further feature request: llGetObjectDetails() functionality to get the parent_id of any task in the region (OBJECT_REZZER_KEY). This returns the parent_id of any task in the region. If the object came from an object rezzer it returns the ID of the parent object, while If it was rezzed by an avatar, it returns the agent ID of the avatar. The function only works for those objects rezzed in-world after the code deployment (objects in-world prior to deployment will return NULL_KEY).

SL Viewer

The HTTP updates Vivox RC viewer updated  to version 4.0.2.310097 on January 19th, while January 20th saw the Quick Graphics RC viewer updated to version 4.0.2.310127, and the Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) viewer updated to version 5.0.0.310099.

Project Bento

I missed the greater part of the Project Bento meeting on Thursday, January 21st, so my apologies for not having a full report.

Cathy Foil demonstrates what can happen when an avatar using a mesh incorporating the new Bento bones deforms ...
Cathy Foil demonstrates what can happen when an avatar using a mesh incorporating the new Bento bones deforms …

Deformed Avatars: The lab is still asking for examples of avatars deforming as a result of using a mesh uploaded with different joint positions. If people have examples, Vir Linden requests that both the .DAE file and a copy of the mesh model are forwarded to him so that the Lab can test items for themselves.

Elizabeth Jarvinen (polysail), also points to some discussion on the Bento forum threat on how to possibly correct the problem when it occurs. see: here, here and here).

.BVH and .ANIM uploaders: It was noted at the meeting that the .BVH and .ANIM uploader have different capabilities. The .BVH uplaoder is viewed as being not as robust as the .ANIM uploader, although it does include optimisations for animations which are not present in the .ANIM uploader. Oz Linden suggested that it would be nice if both uploaders shared the same level of robustness / capabilities.

Vir pointed out that the .BVH uploader has various optimisations which are not present for .ANIM uploads. So how parity between the two is achieved is unclear. fore example:

  • Is the optimisation code removed from the .BVM uploader or added to the .ANIM uploader?
  • Are the updates server-side, or should they be viewer-side, with the ability to preview animations prior to final upload to ensure they are playing correctly?

It is also open to question whether any such work, were it to be undertaken, would form a part of this initial Bento project.

Bento Bone Survey

I was absent (as noted) when this particular item was discussed, so I may have the details wrong. However, it appears that, as previously reported, the Lab are going to put out a survey asking for creators and animators to indicated their preferred additional bones out of those which have been suggested. The survey is liable to be published via the Bento forum and / or the Bento user group wiki page.

World Makers Filming

There will be a final Bento filming session for the upcoming Drax Files World Makers special on Monday, February 1st. Creators and animators who have examples of content using the Bento skeleton extensions and are willing to take part in the filing should contact Draxtor Despres in-world for further details.

Aditi Inventory Syncing

The code for merging main (Agni) inventories into beta (Aditi) grid inventories is still subject to final testing before being deployed to Aditi. As previously noted in these updates, when this does happen, it will mean that logging-in to Aditi will trigger an automatic merge of your Agni inventory with your Aditi inventory as a part of an overnight (PDT) process. This means that items unique to people’s inventories on Aditi will no longer be lost as a result of their Aditi inventory being overwritten by their Agni inventory (as is currently the case). Once deployed, this update also means that a password change will no longer trigger an inventory sync between the two grids.

Suggestions have been put forward that rather than merging Agni inventory directly into the Aditi inventory structure, the incoming Agni items are delivered to a new top-level folder (perhaps called “Agni” or “Main Grid”) during the merge process, so that people can easily distinguish between unique versions of items they’ve been editing on both Aditi and Agni.

Adobe Flash on CEF Viewers

As has been covered in this blog and others, the Second Life viewer, version 4.0.0+, and all v3 TPVs using that code now makes use of the Chromium Embedded Framework for supporting rich media, including Adobe Flash.

However, for the latter to work with the viewer, it requires a specific version of Flash to be installed on your system. For those interested, Jeremy Linden has provided a knowledge base article on what needs to be installed for the official viewer, and how. With thanks to Willow Wilder for the pointer.