Tag: Simulator User Group 2016

Hell’s Crossing – blog post

Server Deployments – Recap

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

• There was not deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 21st.
• On Wednesday, June 20th, the three RC channels were updated with the same new server maintenance package, comprising  minor internal changes and Tool Tip/Constant text fixes.

The RC update includes a fix for BUG-18251, and a further fix for the Bento attachment issue documented in BUG-10979, which doesn’t change Bento models or how avatars are rendered by the viewer.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated on Friday, June 24th to version 4.0.6.316883.

The remaining official viewers were not updated during the week, leaving them as follows:

• Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
• Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
• Project viewers:
  • Project VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316258, dated June 15th – replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows viewer with one based on LibVLC
  • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
  • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th – bug 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.

Larger Animation File Sizes

There has been a long-standing request to increase the file size for animations, a request which has been enhanced by the development within Bento, where there is now a far larger number of bones to be pushed around (see BUG-11836).

While the Lab had been open to this idea, it looked as if any change would be deferred until after the back-end services had been updated to deliver animation assets via the Content Delivery Network (CDN), which at the time of writing is used to deliver meshes and textures to the viewer.

However, the Lab has now decided to bring this change forward, rather than wait for the move to the CDN. As this is a server-side update, it is currently due to be in the Release Candidate channel updates for Wednesday, June 29th (from Caleb Linden, talking at the Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, June 23rd). This will see the animation file size limit raised from 120Kb to 250Kb.

One thing to bear in mind however, is that until animations are moved to CDN delivery (where they should enjoy somewhat faster delivery to your viewer on a first-time load), they will be delivered to your viewer via UDP, and the larger file size, as it comes into use, will probably mean a slightly longer delay before animations kick-in while they are being downloaded. Obviously, once caches locally, this should be an issue (unless you clear cache).

Vir Linden discussed this change at the Bento Project meeting, and I’m including the audio extract from that meeting below.

The Looking Glass – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

• There was not deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 21st.
• On Wednesday, June 20th, the three RC channels should be updated with the same new server maintenance package, comprising  minor internal changes and Tool Tip/Constant text fixes.

The RC update includes a fix for BUG-18251, and a further fix for the Bento attachment issue documented in BUG-10979, which doesn’t change Bento models or how avatars are rendered by the viewer.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the Lab’s viewers so far this week, leaving the list currently as:

• Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Maintenance RC viewer, 4.0.6.316614 dated June 16th
  • Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
• Project viewers:
  • Project VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316258, dated June 15th – replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows viewer with one based on LibVLC
  • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
  • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th – bug fixes
  • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated on October 13, 2014 – 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.

In terms of the Oculus Rift viewer, speaking at the SL13B Meet the Lindens event on Tuesday, June 21st, Ebbe Altberg indicated that he’s been invited to a demonstration of the updated viewer. This doesn’t necessarily mean the viewer will be  updated in the Oculus project channel immediately, but it might be taken as a sign of the continuing progress with the viewer.

Other Items

Utility Server Maintenance

There will be further maintenance on a cluster of the Lab’s utility servers on Wednesday June 22nd, at 01:00 SLT. During this time:

• Residents served by the cluster may be logged off of Second Life, and unable to relog until the maintenance is complete
• Resident groups served by the cluster may be unable to send messages or initiate group chats during the maintenance.

Users are advised to monitor the Lab’s Grid Status Twitter feed at @SLGridStatus. This is reportedly the last phase of current Utility Server Maintenance work, with previous phases occurring on June 17th and June 21st. While it is only speculation on my part, I suspect this work might be in connection with the core database cluster issues experienced on Friday, June 10th.

CTRLALTStudio Withdraws from Third Party Viewer Directory

The Oculus Rift supporting CtrlAltStudio viewer has withdrawn from the Second Life Third-Party Viewer Directory following an announcement by its developer, Strachan OFarrel (aka David Rowe), in which he states that while the viewer remains available for download, it is no longer being maintained.

Many thanks to Dave for his work in developing CtrlAltStudio and for his ongoing work with High Fidelity.

La Vie – blog post

Server Deployments – Recap

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

• On Tuesday, June 14th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance project, as previously deployed to all three RC channels, comprising “minor internal changes”
• There was no deployment to either the LeTigre or BlueSteel Release Candidate channels
• After being in doubt (see part 1 of this report), the Magnum RC deployment did take place. This contained the same code as is currently on the RCs, other than some additional diagnostic code executed when some enters a region.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated on Thursday, June 16th to version 4.0.6.316614, which includes two additional fixes:

• MAINT-6446 Correct password length handling to match web sites
• MAINT-6486 Recompile Scripts does not process beyond first object/prim.

The VLC Media plug-in project viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316258 on June 15th, which includes on additional fix:

• MAINT-6488 [Win LibVLC] After using a drop down list on a web page, it remains stuck on-screen even when URL is changed.

All other viewers remain unchanged:

• Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18 – formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
• Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
• Project viewers:
  • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.316366, dated June 10th
  • Visual Outfit Browser viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th – ability to preview images of outfits in the Appearance floater
  • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014 – 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.

Group Ban / Chat

A major annoyance among many groups is that when an irritant is banned / ejected from a group whilst already engaged in group chat, they can continue to engage in the chat session until they close the group chat session window / tab – see SVC-32. However, an upcoming change to the group chat services, currently undergoing testing on Aditi, will change this.

While subject to change prior to going live, the updates on Aditi worked so that:

If a person banned or ejected is in the same region as the person banning them, the banned individual sees a dialogue box displayed over their group chat:

When they click on OK, the dialogue clears and the group chat closes. The group should also be removed from their group list, preventing them from re-joining the chat.

If the person being banned / ejected is in a different region to the person banning / ejecting them, there is no dialogue box displayed over their group chat. Instead, the chat window remains open, but any attempts to post chat messages result in the system message:

The group will also remain in their group list until such time as they re-log. However, if they close the chat window and attempt to re-join it, they will receive the following message:

Currently, it appears as if this update will be included in a main grid Release Candidate update for week #25 (commencing Monday, June 20th).

Bento Fix

A fix for BUG10979 – “Scripted attachments attached to the new enhanced skeleton attachment points show as worn on ‘Invalid Attachment Point’ in the script limits floater” is available for  testing on Aditi on the Fire Ant 1 region, if anyone wishes to try the fix. If all goes according to plan, it should also be on the main grid in a Release Candidate server maintenance package in week #25.

With thanks to Rex Cronon for the SBUG meeting chat tanscript.

Khaled – blog post

Server Deployments

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

• On Tuesday, June 14th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance project, as previously deployed to all three RC channels, comprising “minor internal changes”
• It is likely there will be no planned deployment / restart for either the LeTigre or BlueSteel RCs.

There is a deployment listed for the Magnum RC, which quotes the same version number as last week’s deployment. When I asked Simon whether or not this indicated there would be a deployment, he replied:

I believe they won’t actually roll it. The two versions in RC were almost identical, except for one bit of code that executed when entering a region.   We were comparing them for speed and are promoting the less laggy one. The slow code was kinda nice in that it gave us better diagnostics but wasn’t worth it.

Weekend Issues

On Friday, June 10th the main grid experienced a series of issues which appeared to be very similar to those which occurred at the start of May and were related to the central database node failure. I asked Simon if we would be seeing a further write-up from April Linden or another member of the ops team, prompting him to reply:

I’m not sure if April was going to write up another report. Last Friday’s outage was another main database failure.  I know they’re looking to see if there is any noticeable cause we could address.

Should a post appear, it will most likely be via the Tools and Technology blog, and I’ll of course cover it through these pages.

SL Viewer

Friday May 10th saw two viewer updates:

• The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316312
• The Bento project viewer updated to version 5.0.0.316366, comprising a small set of bug fixes.

Otherwise, all viewers remain as per my last projects update:

• Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
• Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
• The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th. See my overview of the viewer for further details
• VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, dated June 3rd. Sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/) Mac viewer currently unaffected.
• Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
• 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.

 

 

 

Gates of Melancholy – blog post

Server Deployments

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

• On Tuesday, June 7th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package, comprising the addition of mnemonic names to be used in LSL scripts when attaching to the new attachment points on the Bento skeleton extensions and minor internal changes
• On Wednesday, June 8th, all three RCs should be updated with a new server maintenance package comprising “minor internal changes”.

SL Viewer

There have been a number of viewer updates and appearances in the various viewer channels.

Maintenance RC Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer was updated to version 4.0.6.315924, on June 2nd. The update includes a series of additional fixes and a more descriptive set of release notes to describe the changes.   In particular, there are a new series of fixes for the recent release of the Avatar complexity / Graphics Presets viewer release, comprising:

• A fix for some cases of invisible avatars due to JellyDolls feature.
• A fix for the Appearance update being broken due to COF version getting out of synch. It will now be … *nsync.
• A change so that Invisiprims are now preloaded and will remain transparent, not grey or black.
• The Maximum Complexity setting will be set to recommended setting on first run. A Default preset will be added based on recommended settings, but not applied, so your current graphics settings are unaffected.
• A “Show original” menu item has been added to the Appearance/Wearing tab.
• A fix for an unhandled error when deleting empty list of graphics presets.

For the full list of updates, please refer to the release notes.

VLC Media Plugin Project Viewer

Released on June 3rd, the VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/).

Note that is change is for Windows only at present, and is due to Apple discontinuing QuickTime for Windows support, leaving vulnerabilities within it.

Currently the Mac version of the viewer is unaffected, as Apple still support QuickTime on that platform. However, it will be updated to use LibVLC in the upcoming 64-bit versions of the official viewer.

Visual Outfits Browser Project Viewer

The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123 appeared on June 6th. Simply put, it allows you to use the Appearance floater to capture / upload / select images of your outfits and save them against the outfits in a new Outfit Gallery tab within the floater. See my overview of the viewer for further details.

Remaining Viewers

All other viewers currently remain unchanged from week #22:

• Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
• Inventory Message Viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
• Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.315657, dated May 26th – includes the “reset Skeleton” option and additional slider updates
• Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
• 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.

There is an update in progress for the Oculus Rift viewer, but no time frame on when that might appear. Currently, both it and the Obsolete Platform viewer are TLS 1.2 compliant (see below), so it will be interesting to see what happens with them both over the coming few weeks.

TLS 1.2

Linden Lab has issued a further reminder that as from June 15th, all Second Life users must be using a viewer and / or web browser that supports TLS 1.2 in order to make use of the Second Life WEB cashier services for L$ transactions (e.g. to send, receive, or exchange L$).

Actively maintained web browsers and viewers (official and TPV) should support TLS 1.2. However, older versions of third-party viewers and those viewers which have not been updated in recently, may not support it.  Users are therefore advised to visit https://www.howsmyssl.com/ with their browser and, if they are using an older version of a viewer, the viewer’s internal web browser, to check whether their browser / viewer supports TLS 1.2.

As has been previously noted, this isn’t an arbitrary change on the part of the Lab. It is in response to an ongoing  set of regulatory / compliance requirements (as explained by the PCI Security Standards Council) which are global in scope.