Tag: Simulator User Group 2022

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for updates.

• On Tuesday, May 17th, the SLS Main and Event channel server were restarted by left on simulator version 05-05.571557.
• On Wednesday, May, 18th, the RC channels should be updated to simulator version 05-06.571613, which contains the server-side fixes for off-line Friend and Group invites going stale. In addition, server-side generation of Calling Cards when a friendship offer is accepted has been removed. This feature moved to the viewer several years ago and now accepting friendship offers creates, at most, two Calling Cards, one for each party.

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – No change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571736, May 12.
  • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• Bug 232091 – “Implement object_rez_failure Event” has been accepted as a feature request by the Lab and is liable to be implemented, providing testing doesn’t reveal any backward comparability issues – but no date for possible implementation.
  • This request led to a degree of discussion on the nature of the event (and the possible need for a new function to support it).
  • BUG-228939 – “on_rez action delayed for 2 to 3 seconds in many regions” and BUG-231929 – “llCanRez or something equivalent to check if an object can rez at the location it will try to in the future” are also touched upon in the discussion.
  • The broad discussion on object rezzing and control took up the majority of the rest of the meeting – please refer to the video below for details.
• Bug 231582 “Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances” – should have a fix available in the week #21 RC maintenance release.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Apparently, there was an “issue” with the week #18 deployments which has lead to changes being deployed this week. .

• In short, the list of avatar appearance details for a given agent that could be returned by llGetVisualPrameters (which went grid-wide with the deployment of server release 571166 to the Main SLS channel in Week #18) gave rise to a host of “Shape Stealing HUDs” that allowed people to obtain the full set of avatar body shape details for any shape (including those sold as “No Mod” by shape creators.
• As a result, both the SLS Main deployment on Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 and the RC deployments of Wednesday, will see the list of returned values significantly reduced to:

33 – height	503 – platform_height	756 – neck_length
38 –  torso_length	616 – shoe_height	814 – waist_height
80 – male	692 – leg_length	842 – hip_length
198 – heel_height	693 – arm_length	11001 – hover

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571507, May 5.
  • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.5.570983, April 26.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• There was a general discussion on multi-region events, in part focused on a) the incorrect assumption that adjoining regions are running on the same simhost (this has never been guaranteed, pre- or post-AWS uplift) b) visibility issues for those in the “audience” region of a multi-region event (i.e. being unable to see everything in the “performance” area that sits in another region); and c) the new Event regions (see: LL launches Event region product + some thoughts).
• On the subject of Event regions, Mazidox Linden has provided information on how LL evaluated the region performance on the forum thread about the product.
• There was further discussion on the requested scripted object capabilities for EEP See the week #18 summary), which will be “coming Soon™” – at some point.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment forum thread for the latest information.

• Tuesday, May 3rd saw the SLS Main channel updated to server release 571166, which includes:
  • A new LSL function llGetVisualParams(). Returns a list of avatar appearance details for a given agent.
  • New options for llGetParcelDetails(): PARCEL_DETAILS_LANDING_POINT, PARCEL_DETAILS_LANDING_LOOKAT, PARCEL_DETAILS_TP_ROUTING, PARCEL_DETAILS_FLAGS, PARCEL_DETAILS_SCRIPT_DANGER.
  • New options for llGetObjectDetails(): OBJECT_MATERIAL, OBJECT_MASS, OBJECT_TEXT, OBJECT_REZ_TIME, OBJECT_LINK_NUMBER, OBJECT_SCALE, OBJECT_TEXT_COLOR, OBJECT_TEXT_ALPHA.
  • New options for llGetEnv(): “agent_limit_max”, “agent_reserved”, “agent_unreserved”.
• Wednesday, May 4th should see all RC channels updated with a new new infrastructure server that sees an update to code housekeeping within the simulator, but should not result in any user-facing changes.

Available Official Viewers

The current official viewers are as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.4.570575 – formerly the Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, promoted Monday, April 18 – No change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.5.570983, April 26.
  • MFA RC viewer, version 6.5.5.571282, April 26.
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.570163, dated April 4, issued April 14(?).
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• The fixes for off-line Group and Friend invites were due to go to an RC update this week, but have been delayed pending further testing.
• BUG-231582 – “Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances”: a fix is in development and should be appearing in an upcoming simulator update.
• BUG-232107 – “Bring back fun Sim Channel Names” – the simulator RC channel names (e.g. LeTigre, Magnum and Bluesteel for the main three, plus the likes of Cake, Ferrari, etc), were all obfuscated some time back.
  • The reason for this was that people would frequently assume the simulator channel on which their region was running to be the cause of any issues being experienced, and insist their region be moved to another channel – even if that channel was using the exact same simulator release.
  • However, the obfuscation has caused an equal amount of confusion for some and added the need to constantly cross-reference simulator version numbers when troubleshooting, ergo this request has been made to revert the obfuscation, something that the server engineering team indicated they might be willing to entertain at the week #17 meeting.
• There was an extensive discussion on making EEP more robust for estate owners by allowing better control of the environment through script objects (which essentially send out region settings every 2 minutes and request viewers switch to them). Some of this work may be addressed by Rider Linden in the near future, and details supplied when this happens.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment forum thread for the latest information.

• Tuesday, April 26th saw the SLS Main channel restarted but without any new deployment, leaving all simulator on release 570305.
• On Wednesday, 27th April:
  • The RC channel regions already on release 570936 (comprising under-the-hood improvements and fixes for some crash modes)  will be restarted without any deployment.
  • Those RC channel regions on simulator version 570305 will be updated to either release 570936 (above) or release 571166, which includes:
    • A new LSL function llGetVisualParams(). Returns a list of avatar appearance details for a given agent.
    • New options for llGetParcelDetails(): PARCEL_DETAILS_LANDING_POINT, PARCEL_DETAILS_LANDING_LOOKAT, PARCEL_DETAILS_TP_ROUTING, PARCEL_DETAILS_FLAGS, PARCEL_DETAILS_SCRIPT_DANGER.
    • New options for llGetObjectDetails(): OBJECT_MATERIAL, OBJECT_MASS, OBJECT_TEXT, OBJECT_REZ_TIME, OBJECT_LINK_NUMBER, OBJECT_SCALE, OBJECT_TEXT_COLOR, OBJECT_TEXT_ALPHA.
    • New options for llGetEnv(): “agent_limit_max”, “agent_reserved”, “agent_unreserved”.

Available Official Viewers

On Tuesday, April 26th:

• The Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.5.570983 was released.
• MFA RC viewer, updated to version 6.5.5.571282, bringing it to parity with the current release viewer.

The remaining official viewers are as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.4.570575 – formerly the Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, promoted Monday, April 18 – No change.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.570163, dated April 4, issued April 14(?).
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• The fixes for off-line Group and Friend invites should be going to an RC update in week #18. This will likely be on a dedicated RC channel.
• BUG-4245 “Feature Request: Prim property for blocking client-side interpolation (positioning, rotating or scaling) plus LSL constants for llGetStatus() & llSetStatus()” has been on the books for a while, and have now been re-opened for further consideration.
• The majority of the meeting revolved around building efficiency, textures, scalable vector graphics (SVGs), object faces.
• Mostly general discussions on possible options and requested features (e.g. BUG-230904). Please refer to the video below.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 19th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment forum thread for the latest information.

• Tuesday, April 19th saw the SLS Main channel updated with server release 570305, comprising:
  •  Fixes issues with llRequestAgentData and llRequestSimulatorData sometimes failing after they’ve been called repeatedly.
  • A couple of crash fixes.
  • Additional logging around simulator start-up.
  • This was intentionally a slower-than-usual deployment so the Lab could monitor progress after some recent rough rides.
• Wednesday, 20th April should see a small subsection of the Release Candidate channels updated with server release 570936 comprising updates that leverage more recent technologies from the viewer which the simulator can utilise as a result of the recent tools updates.

It is hoped that the upcoming week will see Rider Linden’s work with llGOD, llGetEnv and llGetVisualParams will make it to an RC deployment.

Available Official Viewers

All official viewer pipelines are as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.4.570575 – formerly the Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, promoted Monday, April 18 – NEW.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.570163, dated April 4, issued April 14(?).
  • MFA RC viewer, update to version 6.5.4.569725, on March 24.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• As noted in these pages at the time, the channel name a region / simulator is running on was removed from the viewer a number of years ago.
  • The reason was simple: too many region holders tended to blame any performance woes they felt they were experiencing on the channel their region was a part of, and so would insist on a channel move – even if the alternate channel was running on the same simulator code.
  • However, and subject to a formal feature request Jira, the server team are open to considering re-surfacing the channel name within the region details found in the viewer’s Help floater.
• It was asked if things will ever reach a point where there is no need for RC channels to run separate simulator on the main grid. The response was that this is unlikely, simply because even with extensive testing even with internal test grids and Aditi, all the available testing environments are too controlled to catch all possible use cases that might cause problems.
• EEP: the ability to able to override a setting in the shared environment via script is promised for a possible simulator update that may surface in the next month or so.
• There were further requests for a function that warns of possible issues if an avatar / object / vehicle attempts to enter a parcel with access restrictions – forgetting that BUG-231802 “Prevent vehicles from entering parcels their riders cannot access” has already been accepted, but no ETA on implementation.
• Much of the latter part of the meeting focused on upcoming or potential script updates – see the video for details.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

• There was no deployment to the Main SLS channel on Tuesday 12th, April.
• Wednesday, April 13th should see the completion of the RC deployment of server release 570305, which was suspended last week. This comprises:
  •  Fixes issues with llRequestAgentData and llRequestSimulatorData sometimes failing after they’ve been called repeatedly.
  • A couple of crash fixes.
  • Additional logging around simulator start-up.

Upcoming Server Releases

There are a number simulator releases in the works, including:

• One contains some reworking of a few of the internal subsystems, which are now suitable for update now that the tool uplift is completed.
• One that contains some long requested additions to llGetObjectDetails and llGetEnv as well as a new LSL function.
  • llGetObjectDetails will gain a series of new constants: OBJECT_MATERIAL; OBJECT_MASS; OBJECT_TEXT; OBJECT_REZ_TIME (a timestamp); OBJECT_LINK_NUMBER and OBJECT_SCALE.
  • llGetEnv will gain:
    • “region_agent_limit”: Current maximum population for this region.
    • “region_agent_limit_max”: Maximum population setting possible.
    • “region_agent_unreserved”: Current limit on unreserved population.
    • “region_agent_reserved”: Current number of spaces reserved for premium.
    • Further options may be added prior to release.
• Two further updates that respectively repairing offline friendship and group offers.

Available Official Viewers

All official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – No Change
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • MFA RC viewer, update to version 6.5.4.569725, on March 24.
  • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.569349, dated March 14.
  • Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569191, issued on March 11.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

• Monday, April 11th saw the SL log-in servers updated. Those running scripted agents may need to check their bots to make sure they are accessing SL correctly.
• There were some requests for things like avatar height to be added to llGOD. After looking into it, Rider Linden feels it does not make sense put it there.
  • Instead, he is adding llGetVisualParams, which will give access to any of the visual parameters that are sent to simulator from the viewer. These will be accessible either by their ID number or the parameter name.
  • These are the parameters found within avatar_lad.xml.
  • It was noted that these parameters could be used to auto-size scripted clothing/attachments.
• There has been a request made to allow Experience owners who build games using a specific EEP environment to be able to check whether or not all players are using the environment and not “cheating” by using a more advantageous EEP.
  • Note the request was not to determine what EEP settings a player is using, just as simple “yes / no” on whether or not they are using the game’s EEP settings.
  • This drew an over-reaction from some that doing so would be a means to “spy” on other users; a statement that at best seems to be a stretch, given the functionality and the fact it would be opt-in.
  • However, it was also acknowledged by LL that given the viewer is open, there’s a risk things degenerate between attempts to present cheating and finding way to cheat.
• The above lead to a broader discussion on games and capabilities within SL, and some of the issues that can be encountered: latency over the Internet, general message handling, etc.