Tag: Simulator User Group 2022

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 22nd, 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

The week #7 Main channel restart and RC channels deployment were described as “bumpy”, prompting the Lab to dig into things. It is believed the cause of the problems has been identified (the failure of one of the tools used by the Lab) and a fix put in place. To this end:

• There was no deployment / restart of the Main channel on Tuesday, February 22nd.
• Wednesday, February 23rd will likely see a limited restart “on just one or two small RC channels.”

Available Official Viewers

The J&K Maintenance viewer updated to version 6.5.3.568554 on Tuesday, February 22nd.

This list reflects the rest of the official viewers currently available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • 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

• At the week #7 meeting, a suggestion put forward (by a user) was to have a vehicle given the lowest access permissions among those avatars seated on it. That way, if any agent attached to an object cannot enter a parcel, the vehicle would treat that parcel as a solid obstruction – see feature request BUG-231802. At this meeting,
  • Rider Linden indicated the Lab is considering ending the ban line info for an entire region to the viewer  earlier as part of the parcel flag info.
  • The request is listed as Awaiting Review, but Rider intimated to could well enter the queue of work for the Lab.
• A request was made for the ability to put objects inside the contents of child links (such as animations) and be able to read it and play that animation stored in the child link (see BUG-231848). Rider Linden noted that “it is an interesting idea but it is going to take some thought.”
• A request was made for the ability to pitch shift sounds (similar to SVC-4373). This would have multiple potential benefits from avoiding the need to upload multiple sound in order to create a meaningful pitch change through to enabling a grater range of musical instruments in SL. As SVC Jiras are no longer active, a request was made for a new feature request on the idea.
• There was a lot of general discussion on WIMNIs for SL and what might be done by way of improvements to things like region crossings, etc., but nothing that is currently being actioned as a project, so please refer to the video below for these items.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 15th, 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 SLS Main channel on Tuesday, February 15th, 2022, but the simhosts were restarted.
• Wednesday, February 16th should see the RC channels updated with simulator release 568051, postponed from week #6, and which includes a series of bug fixes (including one for BUG-230771 “llRequestUsername returns invalid data when invalid key is provided”) and adds a feature to LSL: OBJECT_ACCOUNT_LEVEL flag to llGetObjectDetails(): when called on an agent in the region, returns the agent’s premium status.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those viewers available via the first four links in the LL Viewer Resources section, below.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
  • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • 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

• A request was (again) made to have simulator behaviour change such that vehicles hitting a parcel ban  / ban lines are “bounced” (much like they do on reaching an edge of the grid) rather than avatars being unseated / dumped and the vehicle returned to the owner’s Lost and Found.
  • This has been requested before, but rejected.
  • During the meeting, the idea was referred to as something that “might be possible”, although it would require protocol changes, if tackled.
  • An alternative suggestion put forward (by a user) was to have a vehicle given the lowest access permissions among those avatars seated on it. That way, if any agent attached to an object cannot enter a parcel, the vehicle would treat that parcel as a solid obstruction. This was seen as potentially more “doable” idea, and a formal Jira Feature Request was asked for – see BUG-231802.
• A request was made for a grid-wide KVP (or KVP-style) database (as is available to Premium members under the Experience Keys system) to be made available that could be used as a permanent data store (see BUG-231801) available to all who need it.
  • Some of the ideas put forward around this at the meeting included updating the script engine so that scripts can dynamically write data to note cards – something as seen as problematic by the LL or have the viewer use local storage for data generated for use by the avatar (e.g. from a HUD) – something that could be an issue if data is stored on one machine is needed when on another device.
  • Cost of storage was noted as a possible issue, with the suggestion that perhaps (and whilst not permanent) KVP-like storage could be made available along the lines of Local Textures: the data is available for use for as long as a person is logged-in, after which the storage used would be cleared.
  • A further alternative suggestion made by LL – again, note the word suggestion – was the provision of a LSL API that could be used to access AWS services like Dynamo – that is, LL supply API and data movement, users wanting to use the capability supply the account and credentials. This was suggested with an idea of soliciting feedback on the idea.
  • A suggestion was also put forward for a new asset type specifically designed for read / write data storage, but capped at (say) 64 KB.
  • Again, this was a discussion – there are currently no plans to implement any of the above.
• An issue with uniformly applying EEP settings across multiple regions in an estate via scripted means and smoothly applying it to avatars into and through the estate. A specific bug requiring rectification via the use of fast timers has been identified, together with a possible improvement to handling EEP settings via script. A bug report (BUG-231806) and a couple of feature requests (BUG-231807 and BUG-231808) have been filed on the matters – please refer to them and the video for more.
• There was a lot of text chat around Avatar Expressiveness – however, as most of this was was subjective and the Lab is not yet in a position to provide further information on the capability, I’ll leave it to the video, below.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 8th, 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 SLS Main channel on Tuesday, February 8th, 2022, but the simhosts were restarted.
• Wednesday, February 9th should see the RC channels updated with simulator release 568051, which includes a series of bug fixes (including one for BUG-230771 “llRequestUsername returns invalid data when invalid key is provided”) and adds a feature to LSL: OBJECT_ACCOUNT_LEVEL flag to llGetObjectDetails(): when called on an agent in the region, returns the agent’s premium status.

Please refer to the forum Server Deployment thread for further updates.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers currently available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
  • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Multi-Factor Authentication

• Following the announcement that LL are developing viewer-side multi-factor authentication (MFA)  – see my week #5 TPV Developer meeting summary – there have been renewed calls for LL to broaden the means by which MFA can be used beyond the need for a phone phone an authenticator app.
• These requests are for e-mail support as a bare minimum.
• However, and to point out yet again:
  • MFA with SL is opt-in, rather than opt-out.
  • For those who wish to use it, the Lab have provided a bare-bones means for users to use MFA using a unique key reference available via their account dashboard at secondlife.com. See: Second Life Multi-Factor Authentication: the What and How.

In Brief

• There was further discussion on region crossings and future work. A lot of this centred on corner crossings.
  • In short, SL doesn’t really support corner crossings (avatars  / vehicle must first pass from the “departing” region to one sitting to one of the cardinal points, and then from that region to the “destination” region).
  • This can result in a lot of timing issues and data hand-off, etc.
  • LL acknowledge more work needs to be done in terms of better handling, data checking, etc., between the involved simulators and the viewer.
  • Currently, no significant project in planned for region crossing work – which does not men it will not be looked at.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. No video for this week, as Pantera was unable to attend.

Server Deployments – Restarts Only

All simhosts are being restarted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 (SLS Main channel) and Wednesday, and February 2nd, 2022 (SLS RC channels). No deployments will form a part of the re-starts.

There should hopefully be a new simulator version available for the RC deployments in week #6.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers currently available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – no change.
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • 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 core of the meeting was a user-to-user discussion about BUG-231634 “[Feature Request] llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_BODY_SHAPE_HOVER_HEIGHT”, and the exact requirements for calculating and avatar’s position (notably relative to a sit object), where the issues lay, and what needs to be done. However, given the Lab’s response to the feature request, it appears unlikely this will be a focus of work near-term.
• Leviathan Linden is compiling a list of feature requests that he will likely be tackling as he eases back into working on Second Life. As s first part of this work, he has been looking at requests related to llGetPrimitiveParams(), noting:

I’ve already overhauled the logic to allow me to call the fundamental logic in llGetPrimitiveParams() via llGetObjectDetails() but will have to translate the parameter values. I’m at the point where I’m wondering which should be supported and which should not.

This sparked a discussion on the parameter should be supported, with suggestions including: PRIM_SIZE, PRIM_TEXT, PRIM_BOUNDING_BOX, etc., leaving Leviathan noting:

Well, my inclination would be to expose a few safe parameters to llGetObjectDetails() and add more later after more discussion/feedback.

So expect this to be a discussion for future SUG meetings.

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary. Note this summary focuses on the key points of the meeting; where there is something to report, the video should be referred to should full details of the meeting need to be reviewed.

Server Deployments – Main SLS Channel Restart Issue

Despite being updated in week #3 with simulator version – 567269  – and with no RC update available for deployment, the SLS Main channel simhosts went through a restart on Tuesday, January 25th – and ran into a problem, with many regions remaining down for far longer than expected.

• No detailed explanation for the issue has been given as yet other than, “one of our internal systems got a bit confused about what was started and what needed to be started.”
• However, the issue was not in any way related to the simulator version itself, so no danger of the improvements it contains being rolled back.
• Wulf Linden noted that the situation has provided LL with a lot of data that will hopefully allow them to “smooth out the pavement for the future.”

At the time of writing, any deployment to the RC channels for Wednesday, January, 26th was still TBA. Check the Second Life Server section of the forums for any possible announcement.

Available Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers available.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – 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).
  • Maintenance RC viewer, version  6.5.3.567451 issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.5.2.566967, dated December 17.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
  • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

The Return of Andrew (Leviathan) Linden

The first person Philip Rosedale hired when establishing Linden Research (aka Linden Lab) was one Andrew Meadows. As Andrew Linden, he was pretty much the lead engineer for the server side of things, hosting what was the Tuesday Server and Scripting Meeting, (alongside Simon Linden) which later became the Simulator User Group Meeting. Andrew departed Linden Lab at the end of 2013 to join Rosedale at his (then) new venture, High Fidelity Inc.

Following news that High Fidelity had invested in Linden Lab (in what is increasingly looking like an informal merger) and that around seven High Fidelity staff were moving to work on Second Life, I pondered whether Andrew might be among them – and even publicly mused if indeed he would be in a later post on that subject.

Well, turns out he has, but under a new Linden name, that of Leviathan Linden. Appearing at the Simulator User Group Meeting on Tuesday, January 25th as Leviathan, Andrew has some trying to guess (good naturedly) at the reason for the name change – including having forgotten his old password! However, the explanation was simple, as he indicated whilst also noting the areas he’ll initially be working on.

Leviathan was the name I wish I had picked years ago. It seemed like a good pick for a new beginning. I’ll be working on simulator stuff. I’m getting back on my feet by fixing bugs and implementing small features.

Leviathan Linden (formerly known as Andrew Linden)

His appearance at the SUG meeting was positively received, as was the news he’ll once again be working on simulator-related projects. Which just leaves me room to say, “welcome back, Leviathan!”

In Brief

• Following the reports of teleport disconnects / general region crossing issues, a further Jira has been filed noting recent events – BUG-231683 – in keeping with the request made at the last meeting, and this is now being investigated by members of the QA team.
  • Monty additionally noted other reports on crossings have also been filed and he is digging through them and the associated server-side logs.
• User testing around BUG-231582 ” [Simplified Cache] Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances” suggests the issue is not cache related, but might be related to the Interest List, with it being noted the problem may have surfaced around the time back-end changes were made to the Interest List in preparation for the 360-degree viewer.
• A question was asked on whether the tools update would impact anything with Key Frame Motion (KFM) behaviour on animations, with it being noted – anecdotally at this point in time – that the moving_end event seems to happen while the animation is still underway. None at the Lab appear to be aware as to why the updated server code should impact animation events, and a bug report has been requested if the issue is found to be reproducible.
• The latter part of the meeting delving into a discussion involving a future implementation of HTTP/2, updates to libcurl, etc., and issues around them. Again, rather than me mangling things – please refer to the text in the video.

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary. Note this summary focuses on the key points of the meeting; where there is something to report, the video should be referred to should full details of the meeting need to be reviewed.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates and information.

• Tuesday, January 18th saw the SLS Main channel updated to server release 567269, comprising a tools update previously deployed to the RC channels.
• There is no planned deployment for the RC channels set for Wednesday, January 19th, and they will remain on server release
• 567269.

In terms of the improvements wrought by the simulator updates, LL states that they have seen a considerable performance increase especially with respect to the number of scripts executed per frame, while Monty Linden added:

I’ve written up some release notes. Relevant points:

• More script code executing may engage more throttles and drive external http services harder than previously.

• SSL library updates move http-in/out away from sslv3, tls1.0, tls1.1.

• This release does move the sims story forward a bit. We have seen http-out targets (llHTTPRequest) that only talk sslv3/tls1.0, for example.

• Login is unchanged. Web properties have their own story.

In theory, some day, we’ll line up all our ingress and egress points and actually be able to tell you what’s going on there.

Available Viewers

This list reflects those viewers available via the first four links in the LL Viewer Resources section, below.

• Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – NEW.
• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • The Jenever Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.2.566860, issued on December 17.
  • The Koaliang Maintenance 2 RC viewer, version 6.5.2.566879, issued on December 17.
  • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
• Project viewers:
  • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
  • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.5.2.566967, dated December 17.
  • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
  • 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

• Some are seeing an uptick in disconnects during teleports, prompting an extended discussion (full context in in the video, interwoven with a discussion on pivot points arising from the previous CCUG meeting).  In short:
  • Frustration has been voiced that Jiras have been raised in the past on specific TP issues and “nothing was fixed”.
  • Regardless, LL are still requesting reports with information – who, from, to, exact time – of teleports that fail in a specific way, filed in a timely manner so that the relevant server files can be reviewed for possible clues / causes.
  • It is the specific nature of the failures that is of particular interest to LL, with more than one user reporting them, as Monty Linden noted, also replying to the critique that because “Lindens are in California” (only partially true) “with tiny ping times”:

I want a handful of user events that match their idea of a *specific* type of TP failure and the data so that I can go trawling for insight. As for ping times, this absolutely does colour how lindens understanding networking issues. But I’m in Boston so have poor ping times as well. All TP/region crossing failures are not the same. I want to filter down on a single type – not the rainbow of failures I already know are present.

• • Logs attached to Jiras for these cases do not necessarily need be be captured using the official viewer.
• The issue of Friends lists failing to load (see BUG-231680) should be improved / resolved following a (non-simulator) deploy due on Tuesday, January 18th.
• There has been a noticeable uptick of avatars taking longer to rez / remaining as clouds over the last couple of weeks or so. Some have mistakenly seen this as a simulator issue – although assets come via the CDN. Jiras have been raised on this, and the Lab is looking into matters.