Tag: Server Updates

SL project updates 16 9/1: server deployments; SL viewer, misc news

Posted on by Inara Pey
Casabalanca: Rick's Café Américain - "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."
Casablanca: Rick’s Café Américain – “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” – blog post

Server Deployments

The Main (SLS) channel was updated on Tuesday, March 1st, with the server maintenance package deployed to the three RC channel is week #8. This comprises a server crash fix and “minor internal improvements.”

The server deployment thread lists any RC deployments for the week as “TBD”. however, speaking at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, March 1st, Simon Linden indicated it is unlikely there will be any RC deployment until week #10 (week commencing Monday, March 7th 2016). These will apparently have an update that addresses a means by which a simulator can be intentionally crashed.

SL Viewer

Currently, the official viewer from LL remain unchanged from the end of last week:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.1.310054, January 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes
  • Release candidate viewers:
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.0.2.311655, dated February 26th
    • HTTP updates and Vivox RC viewer version 4.0.2.311302, dated February 22nd
    • Quick Graphics RC viewer version 4.0.2.311103, dated February 17th
  • 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 version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015.

OpenSSL Update

As noted in my last TPVD meeting notes, the Lab were awaiting an update to OpenSSL. This has now been released and there is minimal impact for SL. This therefore should require any fast-tracked update to the viewer.

Grid-wide Experiences

The simulator user group meeting saw a general discussion about allowing broader access to the Experience Keys database (the KVP) without land owners necessarily having to grant permission to specific Experiences.

The idea here is that there are applications which rely on persistent data or utilise grid-wide data exchange (e.g. a teleport network, a vending system network, etc.), and applications which require script settings survive the script reset. Currently, the way to achieve this is to use external data stores (see BUG-11499 for one example).

Some feel that if there were a way to dissociate the KVP database from things like avatar influences, then it could be used for such applications, removing the need for external data stores and the rick of those data stores vanishing / not being available. However, this is not something the Lab is particularly keen on, for a number of reasons. For example, it could result in their servers storing a lot of data and carrying a lot of database quires and updates, something that might not scale terribly well with volumes and associated storage space cost. Nor would it necessarily safeguard the data any better (if the Experience owner downgrades to Basic or ceases paying their Premium subscription, the data will be lost).

During the discussion Oz indicated that the Lab has no plans to make grid wide experiences available any time soon, due to concerns about how “certain internal features” would scale.

SL project updates 16 8/1: server deployments; SL viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Yorkshire Moors; Inara Pey, February 2016, on Flickr The Yorkshire Moors – blog post

Server Deployments

There was no scheduled Main (SLS) deployment on Tuesday, February 23rd. On Wednesday, February 24th, all three RC channel should all receive the same new server maintenance package, comprising a server crash fix and “minor internal improvements.”

It is likely the server deployments will remain at a slower pace over the next few weeks as the Lab focuses on internal infrastructure changes.

SL Viewer

On Monday, February 22nd the HTTP / Vivox RC viewer updated to version 4.0.2.311302. The see the additions of the following fixes:

  • MAINT-5295 Extra setopt in PUT case for llcore::http forces PUT to POST
  • MAINT-5625 [Project Azumarill] Selected Objects Show Land Impact of 0
  • MAINT-5628 [Project Azumarill] When posting to Flickr, Upload button does not grey out when upload is in progress, clicking Upload more than once results in all images failing to post
  • MAINT-5629 Viewer Makes Request for SRV Records on Login
  • MAINT-5676 Azumarill repeatedly requests weight of selected objects in edit mode
  • MAINT-5978 Convert the Vivox state machine over to a coroutine implementation
  • MAINT-6071 Reference to a UUID used after iterator is lost.
  • MAINT-6086 Crash when removing non added Vivox session.

The remaining RC and project viewers remain unchanged from week #7:

  • Quick Graphics RC viewer, version 4.0.2.311103 dated February 17th Avatar Complexity options and the new graphics preset capabilities
  • Maintenance RC viewer,  4.0.2.310545 dated February 2nd – 38 updates. fixes and tweaks
  • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.310099 dated 20th
  • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296 dated October 13th, 2015
  • 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 all leaves the release viewer unchanged: version 4.0.1.310054, dated January 15th.

SL project updates 16 7/2: Unscheduled server deployments; SL viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Goatswood; Inara Pey, June 2015, on Flickr Recalling  Goatswood) – blog post

Unscheduled Server Deployments

Update, February 19th, 22:40 GMT: the SLS channel restarts have been completed and the Lab has issued a blog post on why they were required, which I’ve also blogged about. 

Update, February 19th: the deployment of the update referred to below will commence at 15:00 SLT. 

On Thursday, February 18th, there was an unscheduled server deployment to all three RC channels, which at the time of deployment was described as an, “Update on the simhosts. Nothing is changing Second Life functionality wise.”

Speaking at the Server Beta User Group meeting following the deployment, Steven Linden had this to say:

We had an unscheduled RC deploy earlier today. It’s for a security vulnerability that was released, and we discovered that Second Life regions were vulnerable. A full public post-mortem will be coming after we deploy to the rest of the main grid. I can’t say until it goes out to the rest of Agni; I can say that it was related to region availability only…. I honestly can’t say a great deal, other than we have a fix, and that it’s coming very soon to the rest of Agni.

All Steven could say about the issue was that a) it was related to region availability; b) it could only be exploited from within Second Life; c) there has been no evidence the issue  is being actively exploited on Agni.

However, given the apparent urgency of the situation, it is likely that the update deployed to the RC channels will be also be rolled to the Main (SLS) channel well ahead of Tuesday, the normal day for Main channel deployments and restarts.

I’ll have more on this following the post-mortem release from the Lab.

Scheduled Updates

Details are scant at the moment, but Wednesday, February 24th should see a new server maintenance package which includes some code clean up around the area of parcel bans. There’s no new functionality being added, and the changes shouldn’t break anything. More details when the update notes are published.

SL Viewer

The Quick Graphics RC viewer updated on Wednesday, February 17th to version 4.0.2.311103. This sees the addition of the following resolved issues:

  • MAINT-1945: Outgoing packets logging always says 0 bytes
  • MAINT-5613:  Complexity readings vary greatly for each avatar using the QuickGraphics viewer
  • MAINT-5620: Clicking on Graphics Preset title triggers favourite
  • MAINT-5681: Particles still render when complexity threshold is reached
  • MAINT-5682: Some avatars are invisible
  • MAINT-5685: Light still renders when complexity threshold is reached
  • MAINT-5690: Viewer crash when zooming out
  • MAINT-6070: Add detailed logging for how Avatar Rendering Complexity is computed.

The updates also sees the removal of SL-217: Document Avatar Complexity, from the list of resolved issues, presumably because the documentation is still a work-in-progress.

Other Items

Aditi Intellectual Property Tutorial

As mesh content creators are aware, in order to be able to upload mesh content to Second Life, you must a) have payment information on file, and b) complete the Intellectual Property Tutorial.  The same is also true for Aditi; however, a problem with the Aditi services has meant that some people have been unable to complete the tutorial there (accessed when you log-in to your Aditi dashboard), due to the test page failing to load / failing to display all the questions.

If you wish to use Aditi to upload test models of your mesh content, but have encountered issues in trying to complete the tutorial, the interim workaround is to try refreshing the page to force it to load, as there appears to be a load balancing issue in the Aditi back-end services. However, the issue is expected to be resolved for next week.

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.