Tag: Simulator User Group 2017

SL project updates 28/1: server, viewer, misc

Posted on by Inara Pey

Gale Storm Retreat, Aphrodisia Isle; Inara Pey, June 2017, on Flickr Gale Storm Retreat – blog post

Server Deployments Week #28

This week’s deployment notice was thrown into disarray due to an 11th hour hitch in deployment plans.

Main (SLS) Channel

The planned deployment to the Main (SLS) channel did not go ahead on Tuesday, July 11th, which would have seen it receive the new server operating system update, which had been on test on the Magnum and Cake RC over the last couple of months. Instead the channel remains on simulator version #17.06.12.327066, originally deployed on June 20th. As the channel was restarted in week #27 there was also not rolling restart.

Commenting on the pulled deployment at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, July 11th, Simon Linden said:

[It] got cancelled due to finding a last-minute bug. We’re scrambling to get that fixed and hopefully back in the RC servers tomorrow. It was [an issue] with other back-end services … it wasn’t managing connections the same way as before and thus they were getting overloaded.

When asked if it was a little ambitious deploying a major update directly from one RC to the Main channel without expanding it through the remaining RCs first, he said, “It’s a tough call, actually … how cautious to go in increasing releases like that. At some point it’s just best to get it out and see what happens. We have spent a bunch of time trying to decide the best route. That release has been frustrating how long it’s taken to uncover some problems, so more exposure is better, I think.”

RC Channels

There will be no deployment to either the BlueSteel or LeTigre RCs on Wednesday, July 12th. They will remain on simulator version #17.06.23.327344. This contains internal fixes, and an update to the week #25 deployment (#17.06.19.327206). As there was no deployment to these channels in week #27, they should receive a rolling restart.

The Magnum RC will receive an update to the operating system upgrade package on Wednesday, July 12th. Simulator version #17.07.11.327548 should contain a fix for the issue Simon noted above.

SL Viewer

No changes to the SL viewer pipelines, which remain as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.0.6.326593, dated May 26th, promoted June 20 – formerly the AssetHTTP RC viewer – overview
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer version 5.1.0.507006 dated on June 30th
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 5.0.7.327250 dated on June 22nd
    • Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.7.327253 dated June 23rd
  • Project viewers:
  • 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.

Other Items

Simon Linden: 10 years in Second Life

Simon Reaches Ten

Simon Linden celebrated his the tenth anniversary of his rezday on Tuesday, July 11th. If he held a party, I wasn’t invited 😦  (joking!).

On a more serious note, a repeated Happy Rezday to Simon, who said of the occasion, “I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone for making this a really awesome fun place to work. I’m hoping for many more … or early retirement! :).”

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

Rider Linden hasn’t been able to progress the new Windlight environment enhancement due to a combination of working on other things and being on vacation.

Feature Request: llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_CREATION_KEY

This feature request – BUG-100487 – formed the backbone of the Simulator UG meeting on Tuesday, July 11th. It comes of the back of a multiple feature request (BUG-9666), although the other two items requested in that JIRA are seen as potential abuse vectors, and unlikely to be adopted.

The ability to have an non-changeable object creation key could have significant benefits, as outlined in the JIRA. Currently, the JIRA has been accepted by the Lab – meaning the idea is of interest to them, but does not necessarily mean it will be implemented.

SL project updates 27/1: server, viewer, misc

Posted on by Inara Pey
Simbelmyne – blog post

Server Deployments Week 27

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

  • There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, July 4th, and it remains on simulator version #17.06.12.327066. However the bi-weekly restart did take place.
  • On Wednesday, July 5th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel and LeTigre will remain on simulator version #17.06.23.327344. This contains internal fixes, and an update to the week #25 deployment (#17.06.19.327206 )
    • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package (#17.06.29.327400) comprising the ongoing OS system update for the simulators.

DJ Boards Issue – Magnum RC

The original deployment of this OS update to Magnum resulted in breakages to scripts used by various streaming service DJ boards (as noted in BUG-10073 and also in the forums). An initial attempt to fix the issue was made in June, but wasn’t entirely successful. The Magnum deployment (#17.06.29.327400) above contains a revised fix for the problem.

SL Viewer

The Project Alex Ivy 64- bit viewer moved to release candidate status with the release of version 5.1.0.507006 on June 30th.

The 360-degree snapshot project viewer updated to version 5.1.0.506743 on June 29th. This version still does not correctly define images for 360-degree playback on Flickr (tag must be manually set). I have a hands-on look at the updated viewer: Second Life 360 degree snapshots hands on II.

The rest of the viewer pipeline is as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.0.6.326593, released on May 26th, promoted June 20th – formerly the AssetHTTP RC viewer – overview
  • Release channel cohort:
  • 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.

User Group Meetings

  • There is no Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, July 4th due to the US Independence Day holiday.
  • The Content Creator User Group will be meeting on Thursday, July 6th, rather than being held over to allow for the Lab’s internal start-of-month meeting.

SL project updates 26/1: server, viewer, misc

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grumpity (l) and Oz Linden at SL14B, Thursday, June 22nd – transcript with audio and video

Server Deployments Week 25

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

  • There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 27th.
  • On Wednesday, June 28th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel and LeTigre should receive the same server maintenance package (#17.06.23.327344) containing internal fixes, and an update to the week #25 deployment (#17.06.19.327206 )
    • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package (#17.06.23.327348) comprising the ongoing OS system update for the simulators, which should have no visible functional changes.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.0.7.327250 on Thursday, June 22nd, and the Voice RC viewer updated to version 5.0.7.327253 on Friday, June 2rd. Both of these changes were to bring the two RC viewers to parity with the current release viewer.

This leaves the rest of the viewer pipelines as:

  • Release version: version 5.0.6.326593, released on May 26, promoted June 20 – formerly the AssetHTTP RC viewer
  • Project viewers:
    • 360 Snapshot viewer version 5.1.0.506488, dated June 19th (will not provide snapshots with the correct metadata for displayed is 360 images on Flickr)
    • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer version 5.1.0.505089 dated May 11th
  • 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.

Enhanced Environment Project

The details of what is to be included in this project to enhance the Windlight capabilities in Second Life (such as by making them inventory assets) are still be being Sorted. However, during the last simulator User Group meeting where they were discussed, the pre-Windlight volumetric style of clouds was raised. Rider Linden has since poked into the code (and is still poking at it), and had this to say on the matter:

I’m still looking into what we’d need for the volumetric clouds. According to legend, in “The Before Time”, we had volumetric clouds… but there were problems in the algorithm that caused every region to end up with one big cloud hanging over the centre.

Note this does not mean volumetric clouds (which the pre-Second Life version of Windlight was said to be able to support) will be a part of the project. Rather, Rider is looking at what was alongside of what has already been outlined as what is likely to be for the environment enhancements.

SL Golf Issues

There  have been ongoing problems across a number of SL golf courses since around May. These broadly tend to fall into two categories which may or may not be related:

  • The region terrain /water height appears to be adjusting itself
  • There seem to be terrain / mesh physics issues.

Both are resulting in unpredictable behaviour / physics issues on golf courses, a typical example being (and witnessed first-hand), a golf ball striking the overall between a mesh green surround and the terrain around it can result in the golf ball falling through both the mesh and the ground beneath it (as indicated by its contrail marker), disappearing deep into the “water” under the terrain (see also BUG-100693 for examples of issues).

The problem is this issues appear random and cannot be easily reproduced at any one golf course / hole with any predictability. So, if you are playing a round of golf and encounter these types of problems could you please take time out from your game, grab your viewer log files, and add a comment to BUG-100693, appending your log files and stating which course you were using at the time of the incident, what happened the hole you were on, what happened (and a screen shot of anything relevant)  and a SLurl to the location / course.

Oz and Grumpity Talk Second Life

At the SL14B Meet the Lindens, Oz and Grumpity Linden – respectively the Director of Engineering for Second Life and the Director of Product for Second Life, discussed the platform, recent projects and gave a look into the immediate future.

If you missed the discussion, you can find the video on the official Second Life video channel, and I have a transcript of “selected highlights” from the session (all the core questions and answers), complete with audio extracts of their answers.

SL project updates 25/1: server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

SL14B Stage Left; Inara Pey, June 2017, on Flickr SL14B Community Celebration – blog post

Server Deployments Week 25

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

  • On Tuesday, June 20th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with a new server maintenance package (#17.06.12.327066), containing fixes to help with the caps (capabilities) router, particularly with reference to trying to teleport to regions which have a heavy avatar load (see here for details),. These were essentially the same fixes as deployed to the Main channel on June 6th (server maintenance package #17.05.26.326655), together with additional internal fixes.
  • On Wednesday, June 21st, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel and LeTigre should receive the same server maintenance package (#17.06.19.327206) containing internal fixes
    • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package (#17.06.19.327192) intended to fix BUG-100830 (“HTTP_CUSTOM_HEADER no longer works on RC 17.06.13.327111”) and BUG-100831 (“Lelutka Simone bento head spits a script error when attached on 17.06.13.327111 regions (Magnum & Cake)”).

SL Viewer

The Asset HTTP RC viewer, version 5.0.6.326593 dated May 23rd, was promoted to de facto release status on Tuesday, June 20th.  This viewer includes avatar rendering updates – see my RC overview for more.

The snapshot viewer updated to version 5.1.0.506488 on Monday, June 19th. This version should include all the necessary metadata in 360-degree shoot to play them as 360 images on suitable websites. However, in testing, it does not appear to work with Flickr.

Otherwise, the current viewer pipelines line-up as:

  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer version 5.1.0.505089 dated May 11th
  • 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.

SL project updates 24/1: server updates

Posted on by Inara Pey

Le Sixième Sens, Le Sixième Sens; Inara Pey, June 2017, on Flickr Le Sixième Sens – blog post

Server Deployments, Week 24

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

  • There was no deployment to the main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 13th. Nor, as the channel was updated in week #23, was there a restart.
  • On Wednesday, June 14th, the server RC channels will be updated as follows:
    • LeTigre should receive a new server maintenance package (#17.06.12.327066), comprising additional internal logging and features and improvements to region start
    • BlueSteel should receive a new server maintenance package (17#17.06.13.327122) containing internal fixes
    • Magnum should receive an update to the new operating system update (#17.06.12.327060), which includes a fix for BUG-100737 “Shoutcast receivers unable to relay on RC Magnum” – see below for more.

Shoutcast Issue

The original OS deployment to the Magnum RC channel resulted in breakages to scripts used by various streaming service DJ boards (as noted in BUG-10073, above). This week’s deployment to Magnum fixes this issue, but it will require all scripts affected by the problem will require update.

The fix means the server will no longer allow newlines or other characters that don’t belong in URLs in the url parameter, but there will now be a new option HTTP_USER_AGENT that will allow a specific agent value to be added to the one generated by the server. The wiki documentation will be updated to reflect this update.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the LL viewers in the various pipelines. This leaves the list as:

  • Current Release version 5.0.5.326444, dated May 18th, promoted May 23rd
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 5.0.6.326731 dated June 1st
    • Voice RC viewer, updated to version 5.0.6.326589 dated May 31st
    • Project AssetHttp viewer updated to version 5.0.6.326593 dated May 26th
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer, version 5.1.0.505089, dated on May 11th
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer updated to version 4.1.3.321712 dated November 23, 2016
  • 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.

Windlight environmental enhancements

At the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, June 13th, it was confirmed that the Lab is starting work on a set of environment enhancements, including parcel windlight support. For the  fully details, please refer to my separate article. The informal name for this work is EEP – Environment Enhancements Project (!).

SL project updates 23/1: server, viewer, environment updates

Posted on by Inara Pey
Out on the Calas horse trails, Caitlyn leading the way – blog post

Server Deployments

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

  • On Tuesday, June 6th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with a server maintenance package (17.05.26.326655), containing fixes to help with the caps (capabilities) router, particularly with reference to trying to teleport to regions which have a heavy avatar load (see here for details).
  • On Wednesday, June 7th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel and LeTigre should each receive the same server maintenance package (17.06.01.326763), comprising internal fixes.
    • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package, but details were still TBD at the time of writing.

Capabilities Losses at Region Restart

Some regions are still suffering capabilities failures at restart (see this forum thread for an example, and see these wiki pages for more information on capabilities: Capabilities and Current Sim Capabilities). This overall caps system is shared at the server level, so when problems like this occur, it affects all of the regions on that server, which then require an individual restart to correct.

SL Viewer

There have been no further viewer updates since my last project updates article. This leaves the current viewer pipeline as follows:

  • Current Release version 5.0.5.326444, dated May 18th, promoted May 23rd – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer, version 5.1.0.505089, dated May 11th
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712 dated November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images
  • 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

Environmental Update

“We are going to kick off a set of environment improvements – exact scope is still TBD,” Oz Linden states at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, June 6th. “[but] there are a couple of hot problems that need to be stomped first.”

While the exact nature of these improvements is still TBD, the comment sparked a conversation on parcel windlight settings, which Oz indicated the Lab is still planning on implementing. While all discussion on this is still somewhat speculative, the current thinking on this at the Lab is:

  • The precedence will be 1) viewer local (so if you set a windlight through the viewer, that will take priority over any windlight indicated by the region / parcel) , 2) parcel (if allowed by estate), and 3) region
  • Currently, it is unlikely that the parcel controls will allow setting windlight environments by altitude (aka Firestorm zoning).

The latter point is perhaps the most contentious for those using the current Firestorm zoning for windlight – not only does this allow different windlight conditions for different altitudes (particularly useful in role-play regions which may have different locations stacked vertically, each of which is ideally suited it its own environmental setting), it also things like caves and caverns to have their environment set to midnight, naturally darkening them (a technique we use at Caitinara Bar for the benefit of those using Firestorm).

In addition to parcel windlight, the Lab is looking to add an experience-controlled way to change environment for an individual avatar – so that those joining an experience will have their viewer automatically adopt the windlight setting for the experience, if one is set. This could also provide a means for “altitude zoning” of windlights to some degree.

None of these additions will prevent users applying their own viewer-side windlight should they wish (as noted above).

Other subjects possibly on the list of environmental settings:

  • Selectable cloud textures (similar to the capability in Firestorm)
  • The ability to change the moon texture
  • Adjustable day length (so, for example, one SL day =  a physical world day)

As Oz noted in the meeting, the details of what the Lab would consider working on with the environment improvements has yet to be fully defined; however, he also added, “When we get to the point where we’re ready to start work on it (hopefully very soon), we’ll post a description of what we’ve got in mind … and yes, we’ll accept suggestions for improvements then.”