Tag: Simulator User Group 2016

2016 SL project updates 45/1: server, viewer, attachment issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Dystopia // [flit ink] + aberrant; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr Dystopia // [flit ink] + aberrant – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, see the server deployment thread for the latest updates and information.

  • There was no Main (SLS) channel roll on Tuesday, November 8th.
  • On Wednesday, November 9th, the three RC channels should all receive the same new server maintenance package, which includes:
    •  llGetEnv() will support “region_max_prims” (feature request BUG-40825).
    • llGetObjectDetails() will have a new OBJECT_GROUP_TAG function  (feature request BUG-20064) – when pointed at avatars it returns the group tag you see floating above them; and also OBJECT_TEMP_ATTACHED – to tell you if something is a temp attachment (feature request BUG-5195).

SL Viewer

There have been no changes to the current batch of viewers in the various pipelines since the end of week #44, leaving things as follows:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.321250, dated November 2nd – bug fixes
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.1.2.321183, dated October 28th – over 70 crash fixes, improvements and other fixes
  • Project viewers:
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.2.320965, dated October 26th – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review
  • 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 Attachments Being Unexpectedly Detached

This has been an issue for a while, but has recently seen an uptick in occurrences. IN essence, and for some reason, when undertaking at TP or physical region crossing (both amount to the same thing), a “kill object” (attachment) message can be sent by the simulator.

Essentially, there is an issue in messaging between the simulator and the viewer during region crossings (physical or teleports), which can result in attachments being detached or, harder to detect, attachments being removed server-side, but remaining visible (but effectively ghosted) in your view, and which cannot be individually removed, as the simulator doesn’t recognise them as being there.

Whirly Fizzle has posted on possible fixes for the issue, including details of an experimental fix from the Firestorm team which might be included in the next release, pending Linden Lab addressing the root cause of the problems

One of the most common occurrences for the problem is having multiple items on a single attachment point (rigged meshes can often all default to the right hand, for example). So, should this problem occur, and once you’ve corrected matters (such as be a forced rebake (CTRL-SHIFT-R) or a complete change of outfit, for example), check the items affected by the problem, and if they do share an attachment point with one another or other attachments your avatar is wearing, trying relocating them to unoccupied points (this should be particularly easy to do with rigged mesh, which can be attached pretty much anywhere and render at the correct point on your body.

2016 SL project updates 44/1: server, viewer, land

Posted on by Inara Pey

Everwinter; Inara Pey, October 2016, on Flickr Everwinter – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 1st, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package as deployed to the three RC channels in week #43. This comprises: a fix for the bug introduced in week #42 – see BUG-40735 “Paying an object with [slgaming] in the object name (most skill game machines) fails on the RC 16.10.14.320687”; two fixes for issues with the new llSit function for Experiences, and additional internal updates.
  • On Wednesday, November 2nd, all three RC channels are set to remain on the same server maintenance package as week #43. However, there should be a rolling restart across the RC channels.

SL Viewer

On Friday, October 28th, the Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.1.2.321183, and came with an expanded set of release notes offering a better overview of changes and updates. These include, but are not limited to:

  • You can now see your Temp attachments via Appearance > Wearing > Temporary attachments
  • Cut items won’t be put in Trash any more to avoid inventory loss. Instead they’ll be visually greyed out but remain in place until the next operation is performed
  • Rigged Mesh LOD is now size-dependent, not just avatar-dependent. Improves how LODs are swapped
  • In a related case, wrong bounding box location was affecting LOD calculation causing some mesh avatars to deform
  • PRIM_TEXT draw distance limit can now be changed up to 300m via debug setting “PrimTextMaxDrawDistance”
  • Avatar Complexity notices can now be disabled from Preferences > Notifications: “Warn me about my avatar complexity changes” + “Warn me if my avatar complexity may be too high” settings
  • A warning is displayed when trying to put too much inventory in coalesced objects and will still be blocked
  • A warning will be displayed when creating or wearing HUDs that can cause critical performance hits
  • This RC release restores weapons behaviour to same state as in the release viewer
  • Buying L$ links will once again open in internal browser by default
  • You can now “Wear-Replace current outfit” even if the new outfit is a subset of the old one
  • Accidentally scrolling the mouse wheel while renaming an item in inventory will now cancel renaming instead of moving the item. True for any operation where ‘renamer’ moves out of visible area
  • Multiple crash fixes.

Other viewers in the viewer pipelines remain as per last week:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331, dated October 4th, promoted October 10th – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.320815, dated on October 20th
  • 360-degree snapshot project viewer, version 4.1.2.320965, dated October 26th – hands-on review
  • 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.

Mainland LI / Prim Allowance Increase

Update, November 3rd: following the complete announcement on the prim changes and the timeline, full details on the changes for Mainland, and those to be applied to private regions are now available in this post.

As is increasingly being noticed, Mainland regions on the Main (SLS) channel received an increased LI allowance with the deployment on Tuesday, November 1st, with Full regions now having a total capacity of 22,500 LI (or prims, if you prefer).

The change in land impact (/ prim allowance) was noted in Mainland Full regions on the SLS channel as they started coming back on-line following the November 1st deployment restarts
The change in land impact (/ prim allowance) was noted in Mainland Full regions on the SLS channel as they started coming back on-line following the November 1st deployment restarts

The change isn’t a mistake, and there will be an official announcement on Thursday, November 3rd about what is going on. As noted in my preliminary article linked to above, I’ll also have more at that time 🙂 .

2016 SL project updates 43/1: Server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey
A panoramic image of Holly Kai Park's pavilion, captured in the news 360-degree snapshot viewer - see below
A panoramic image of Holly Kai Park’s events pavilion, captured in the news 360-degree snapshot viewer – click on the image to view in 360 via Flickr, and see my article here

Server Deployment

The RC deployment in week #42 introduced a bug, so there was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, October 25th.

The three RC all received the same server maintenance package, comprising: a fix for the bug introduced in week #42 – see BUG-40735 “Paying an object with [slgaming] in the object name (most skill game machines) fails on the RC 16.10.14.320687”; two fixes for issues with the new llSit function for Experiences, and additional internal updates.

SL Viewer

360 Snapshot Viewer

The new 360-degree snapshot project viewer arrived on Wednesday, October 26th, with the release of the first iteration of the project viewer, version 4.1.2.320965. There is an accompanying wiki page for the viewer, and I have a hands-on look.

Other than this, the viewer pipeline remains as per my TPV Developer meeting summary of October 21st:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4), promoted October 10 – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Release candidates:
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.320815, dated October 20th
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.1.2.320804 dated October 20th
  • Project viewers:
    • None.
  • 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.

Aditi Weekend Issues

Some people trying to access Aditi, the beta grid, encountered problems over the weekend of the 22nd / 23rd October after a database for that grid failed. As Aditi doesn’t have either the same level of redundancy or the same urgency of repair that Agni (the main grid) has, the database didn’t get sorted out until Monday, October 24th.

2016 SL project updates 42 (1): server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

TaKe Heart; Inara Pey, October 2016, on Flickr TaKe Heart – blog post

Server Deployments – Week #42

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for updates or changes.

  • On Tuesday, October 18th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed to the 3 RC channels, comprising the new Experience Key scripted sitting:
  • On Wednesday, October 19th, the three RC channels should all be updated with the same new server maintenance package, comprising internal simulator changes and a fix for (non-public) BUG-37758 “OBJECT_REZZER_KEY returns creator key of root key with all in-world copied objects instead of the agent who copied it.”

SL Viewer Updates

The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.1.2.320461 on October 11th, shortly after my SL projects update for week #41.  Since then, there have been no further viewer updates, leaving the list of available official viewers as:

  • Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4), promoted October 10 – formerly the VLC media plug-in for Windows RC
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.1.2.320461, dated October 11th – over 70 crash fixes, improvements and other fixes
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.320160, dated October 7th
  • 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.

Other Items

There has been discourse over feature requests via the JIRA, with some concern that requests are being closed without “proper” consideration, and that once closed, there is no further recourse for discussion outside of the weekly in-world meetings. The Lab gives assurances that all requests are considered and weighed by developers, QA team members and product people on a weekly basis. Things aren’t simply closed on receipt.

While they do not guarantee success, Simon Linden provided some pointers on filing feature requests which might help them gain attention:

  • Make sure it’s one idea per JIRA. multiple ideas (even if related) can cause confusion
  • The idea needs to be clear and specific and somewhat reasonable
  • Most important: explain why the idea is of benefit to Second Life as a whole – make a case that will stand out against the 10 or 20 other ideas that might be vying for the Lab’s attention at the time of submission.

2016 SL project updates 41 (1): server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Venta Silurum; Inara Pey, October 2016, on Flickr Venta Silurum – blog post

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for updates or changes.

  • There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, October 11th.
  • On Wednesday, October 12th, all three RC channels should receive a new server maintenance package comprising the new Experience Key scripted sitting (Project Espeon). Note that at the time of writing, the release notes were awaiting update to reflect this.

SL Viewer

The VLC Media Plugin RC viewer was promoted to de facto release status on Monday, October 10th. Version 4.1.1.320331 includes a new media plug-in based on LibVLC, which replaces QuickTime as the media player in the WINDOWS version of the viewer. Other versions of the viewer will be updated to use VLC when their 64-bit versions are issued.

The leaves the current viewer pipeline as follows:

  • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions) viewer version 5.0.0.320160, dated October 7th
  • Maintenance RC viewer version 4.0.9.320231, dated on October 4th – over 70 crash fixes, improvements and other fixes
  • 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.

Premium Weapons Testing and New Sandbox Quad

There is a new Premium users Weapons Testing sandbox available, which has been requested numerous times by Premium users. It sits kitty-corner with the existing Weapons Test sandbox.

The new Premium Weapons Testing Sandbox on the world map
The new Premium Weapons Testing Sandbox on the world map

There is also  a new 4×4 group of general sandboxes coming on-stream, with each of the regions is running on one of the four simulator channels (Main SLS, BueSteel RC, Le Tigre RC, and Magnum RC). These are designed to make easier for creators to make comparisons between the four underpinning simulator versions during product testing, etc. They are:

All have a General rating.

2016 SL project updates 40 (1): server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey
Neverland - Calas Galadhon Halloween
Neverland – Calas Galadhon Halloween – blog post

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for updates or changes.

  • Tuesday, October 4th saw the Main (SLS) channel updated with the server maintenance package previously  deployed to the three RC channels, which includes a fix for BUG-40565, introduced as a result of the deployment of the week #38 server maintenance package.
  • There is no planned deployment / restart for the three RC channels, although there should be a new RC package available for week #41 (commencing Monday, October 10th).

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer was rapidly updated on Tuesday, October 4th, after only having been released on September 28th. Version 4.0.9.320231 see the addition of a Project Espeon fix (“Experience permission dialogue should include “Sit your avatar””), suggesting this project is making progress.  Overall, this viewer includes over 70 crashes and bug fixes and improvements – refer to the release notes for the full list.

Excluding this update, the remainder of the current crop of official viewers remains unchanged:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.8.319463 (dated September 9), promoted September 15 – formerly the Visual Outfit Browser RC viewer
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.319893, dated September 22nd
    • VLC Media Plug-in Viewer RC, version 4.1.1.319856, dated September 20th – replaces QuickTime in the Windows viewer with a media plug-in based on LibVLC
  • 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.