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.
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).
It is currently not clear if there will be a further update to the TC channel in week #15; this will apparently be determined on work being carried out over the next few days.
SL Viewer
Current Release Version – HTTP / Vivox Updates
The HTTP / Vivox RC viewer was promoted to the de facto release viewer at the end of week #13. Version 4.0.3.312816 (dated March 23rd) presents a complete replacement of the under the hood HTTP infrastructure, replacing the self deleting responders with coroutine implementations for improved performance and stability, and to provide finer grained concurrency allowing the Viewer greater control over the numbers and types of HTTP requests that can be simultaneously outstanding.
The HTTP changes affect all areas of the viewer that use Sim Capabilities. These include, but are not limited to:
Alongside of this work, undertaken by Rider Linden to extend Monty Linden’s previous work on HTTP, this viewer sees the removal of a considerable amount of deprecated and unused code, and a range of Voice fixes and improvements.
Remaining Viewer Channels
The promotion of the HTTP / Vivox viewer leaves the remaining viewer channels as follows:
Release candidate cohorts:
Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.312297, dated March 11th – awaiting update to bring it to parity with the release viewer
Project Viewers:
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 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7 – expect this viewer to potentially vanish once TLS 1.2 is implemented.
On Tuesday, March 22nd, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the improved server maintenance project previously deployed to the three RC channels. This comprises server script fixes (not LSL changes) and internal improvements.
There are no planned deployments for the RC channels for week #1. However, there will be a new RC deployment in week #13 (week commencing Monday, March 28th). the Slow-down in updates remains due to ongoing infrastructure and OS updates occurring across the servers.
SL Viewer
Current Release Viewer
As noted in my last update, the most recent Maintenance RC was promoted to the de facto release viewer on Thursday, March 17th. What I didn’t mention then, and should have done, is that this viewer, version 4.0.2.312269, includes the Lab’s fix for issues of Calling Card duplication.
This means that anyone using as version of the official from this version forward should no longer have issues with calling cards being duplicated, although an initial deletion of cards may be required to clear away any current duplicates with the Calling Cards inventory folder (and any sub-folders within it).
There have been no further updates to the official viewers so far this week, leaving the list of RC cohorts and project viewers as:
Current RC cohorts:
HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer, version 4.0.3.312684, dated March 18th
Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.312297, dated March 11th, providing the new Avatar Complexity options and graphics preset capabilities
Current project viewers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) viewer, version 5.0.0.311861, dated March 2nd
Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2015
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015.
Aditi Inventory Syncing
The new process for syncing inventories between Agni (the main grid) and Aditi (the Beta grid) is now live.
This means that, going forward, a user’s Aditi inventory will no longer be overwritten when they change their password and log-in to Aditi, nor will a password change be required to trigger an Aditi inventory sync.
Instead, anyone logging-in to Aditi will automatically have their inventory copied from Agni to Aditi a part of a new process (run at about 06:00 SLT each day). This will happen each time a persona logs in to Aditi, unless their inventory is already flagged for copying, and instead of overwriting a person’s existing Aditi inventory, the incoming Agni inventory will be merged with their existing Aditi inventory, with checks to avoid unnecessary duplication of items each time this occurs and to ensure thing like Trash contents and COF aren’t copied as well.
There does appear to be a possible issue with the syncing, however, with some reports that textures and snapshots unique to Aditi inventories may be getting deleted as a part of a merge between the two. Further investigation is being carried out to see if this is actually the case.
There is no planned Main (SLS) channel deployment / restart planned for the week. On Wednesday, March 16th, the three RC channels should be updated with an improved server maintenance project comprising script fixes and internal improvements.
The lack of recent deployments remains down to ongoing infrastructure updates occurring across the Lab’s simulator servers.
SL Viewer
It is anticipated that an RC viewer – mostly likely either the current Maintenance RC or the HTTP / Vivox RC will be promoted to the de facto viewer this week. However, at the time of writing, the list of official viewers still stood at:
Current Release version: 4.0.1.310054, dated January 15th – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer
Release channel cohorts:
Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.312297, dated March 11th
Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.0.2.312269, dated March 10th
HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer, version 4.0.2.312094, dated March 9th
