Tag: Simulator User Group 2023

2023 SL SUG meetings week #13 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
WQNC, January 2023 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 28th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, March 28th, the SLS Main channel servers received the Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”).
  • On Wednesday March 29th, all simhosts on the RC channels will be updated to run the same simulator release, comprising the new LSL Functions llList2ListSlice, llSortListStrided, and llListFindListStrided (per BUG-231545). It also has a fix for DATA_SIM_STATUS from llRequestSimulatorData(), and doubles the amount of memory available for Linkset Data (LSD) to 128k.

Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)

This is the simulator update referenced in the March 10th Lab Gab session – see: Lab Gab summary: Grumpity, Mojo & Patch – SL Mobile, land, bots & more – Bots and Policies).

  • The update includes a console variable that can be set by estate managers to either True or False. When set to True it will prevent Scripted Agents from entering regions in an estate (those required by the estate can be added to the access list so they can continue to access regions).
  • This will be supported in time by a viewer UI update to allow the option to be managed more directly – but it will still be a while before this UI change surfaces in the viewer.
  • There will be a policy change update published soon which will further cover these changes and the operation of Scripted Agents.

Further changes have been suggested within the Lab – notably to traffic – but it has yet to be decided on whether / when these will be implemented. In the meantime, please also refer to this FAQ.

Viewer Updates

On Tuesday, March 28th:

The remain viewer pipelines stand as:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.10.578270, issued February 24.
    • Performance Floater / Auto FPS RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578172, February 21, 2023.
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578921, March 23 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

Reminder: LSL XML-RPC

Linden Lab is going to be shutting down LSL XML-RPC functionality completely. This was announced at the last SUG meeting, and confirmed by a later blog post. Please see either Shutting Down LSL XML-RPC (Linden Lab) or SL Scripters / creators: LSL XML-RPC shut-down (this blog) for details.

In Brief

  • This was another meeting with live music, so technical discussions were not up to the usual amount.
  • There was a general discussion on testing vehicle region crossings and on the deployment of the LSL functions currently being deployed and mentioned above. Please refer to the video for details.

2023 SL SUG meetings week #12 summary: “Ban the Bots” Simulator Update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Highland Retreat, January 2023 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 21s, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, March 21st, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
  • On Wednesday, March 22nd, one half of the RC channel servers will receive an update to their current simulator release, the remainder will gain the Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”).

Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)

This is the simulator update referenced in the March 10th Lab Gab session – see: Lab Gab summary: Grumpity, Mojo & Patch – SL Mobile, land, bots & more – Bots and Policies.

  • The update includes a console variable that can be set by estate managers to either True or False. When set to True it will prevent Scripted Agents from entering regions in an estate (those required by the estate can be added to the access list so they can continue to access regions).
  • This will be supported in time by a viewer UI update to allow the option to be managed more directly – but it will still be a while before this UI change surfaces in the viewer.
  • There will be a policy change update published soon which will further cover these changes and the operation of Scripted Agents.

Further changes have been suggested within the Lab – notably to traffic – but it has yet to be decided on whether / when these will be implemented.

Viewer Updates

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578792, March 15 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

LSL XML-RPC

Linden Lab is going to be picking a date for shutting down LSL XML-RPC functionality completely. This has been deprecated for well over a decade, and and LL has long been warning about shutting it down, and the vast majority of traffic has moved to HTTP-In, as recommended as a secure means of communications. Given the low volume of traffic – given as only a few dozen requests per hour, LL would rather put resources towards new developments, rather than supporting an outdated and insecure service. The next step will be a blog post with a date, and maybe some circuit-breaking exercises where we will shut it off temporarily, to make sure all creators have moved their services away from LSL XML-RPC.

In Brief

  • There was a fair amount of discussion concerning the Puppetry project. However, as this will be subject to a meeting on Thursday, Marcg 23rd, for which I plan to have a summary, I’ll leave updates on this work until then.
  • BUG-227303 – “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” – this bug is still awaiting work by LL.
  • Please refer to the video below for general discussions.

2023 SL SUG meetings week #11 summary: “Ban the Bots” Simulator Update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lyric, January 2023 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 14th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, March 14th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
  • On Wednesday, March 15th:
    • The BlueSteel & Magnum RC channels will receive the Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)
      simulator update.
    • The Ferrari and LeTigre RC channels will be started without change.

There was no promotion to the Main SLS channel as a bug on the RC deployment made to Ferrari and LeTigre causing issues for some breedables.

Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)

This is the simulator update referenced in the March 10th Lab Gab session – see: Lab Gab summary: Grumpity, Mojo & Patch – SL Mobile, land, bots & more – Bots and Policies).

  • The update includes a console variable that can be set by estate managers to either True or False. When set to True it will prevent Scripted Agents from entering regions in an estate.
  • This will be supported in time by a viewer UI update to allow the option to be managed more directly – but it will still be a while before this UI change surfaces in the viewer.
  • There will be a policy change update published soon which will further cover these changes and the operation of Scripted Agents.

Further changes have been suggested within the Lab – notably to traffic – but it has yet to be decided on whether / when these will be implemented.

Viewer Updates

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578613, March 10 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

In Brief

  • A general discussion on scripting – such as adding a TypeScript-style support for writing LSL to script memory, use of C#, use of containers for services, LL selling AWS services through SL for scripters / scripted services, etc. This took up most of the meeting, so please see the video for reference.
  • BUG-227303 – “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” – this bug is still awaiting work by LL.

2023 SL SUG meetings week #10 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Aurelias, January 2023 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 7th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, March 7th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
  • On Wednesday, March 8th:
    • The majority of RC servers will be updated to simulator release 578370, first deployed in week #9 to the BlueSteel RC.
    • In addition, there may be a deployment to the Ferrari RC comprising new LSL Functions llList2ListSlice, llSortListStrided, and llListFindListStrided (per BUG-231545). It also has a fix for DATA_SIM_STATUS from llRequestSimulatorData(), and doubles the amount of memory available for Linkset Data (LSD) to 128k.

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2, 2023.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578526, March 3, 2023 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

In Brief

  • Several general discussions:
    • Camera tracking for one’s own camera.
    • Particle size limits seen as possibly more a Content Creation User Group meeting discussion.
    • An idea to allow mesh vertices to be edited in-world without generating new assets in the process.
    • Using Media on a prim with HUDs, and the limitations therein (also related to the week #9 discussion of sending the contents of notecards in response to HTTP requests.
    • Image uploads and compression.
    • Please refer to the video for more on these.

2023 SL SUG meetings week #9 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Buddha Garden, December 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • On Tuesday, February 28th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
  • On Wednesday, March 1st, the majority of RC servers will be restarted without any change. However, those on the BlueSteel RC will be updated with server release 578370.

Available Official Viewers

On Tuesday, February 28th, the Maintenance R RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578285.

The rest of the official viewers currently available remain unchanged from the start of the week:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.10.578270, issued February 24.
    • Performance Floater / Auto FPS RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578172, February 21.
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578161, February 14. This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

In Brief

  • BUG-233440 “Add a method for dealing with user-customized keybindings in user-visible text” came under discussion, the Maestro Linden suggesting one approach, per the comments in the Jira.
  • The above segued into a general discussion on note card parsing commands in note card (with care!), making things like URIs within note cards clickable, and having an LSL command (e.g. llHTTPResponseNC() ) which could allows scripts to reply to HTTP requests within note cards – so if a HUD is using MoaP, JSON in the HTML could send commands back to it via post.
  • Please refer to the view below for other topics.

2023 SL SUG meetings week #8 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Moruya Sanctum, December 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 21st, 2023 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form 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

  • There are no planned deployments for the week, so the various channels will just be restarted.
  • Release 578100, made to the BlueSteel RC channel had to be rolled back post-deployment as a result of BUG-233402 “Second Life Server 2023-02-02.578100 – LSO scripts not running on_rez() event.”

Available Official Viewers

There have been no updates to the current crop of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2, 2023.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578161, February 14, 2023. This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.

In Brief

  • Whilst not simulator-related, there have been some additional requests for improvements to the particle system – see: BUG-233438 “Larger particle size limits”, BUG-233439 “Per-generator particle limits” – it is possible these and requests such as BUG-5307 “New Particle texture parameters (repeat/offset/rotation/animation)” might received some attention in the near future – although a request for more information on the first two has been made.
  • A possible reason on why objects don’t always rez on login-in / following a teleport has been identified. Essentially, on arrival in a region, the viewer must inform the simulator as to its camera placement and rotation. It does so via an AgentUpdate. However, this in turn requires the viewer to receive an ObjectUpdate confirming the avatar has arrived. As there is a delay in these two events, the interest list can start sending data ahead of the camera position being confirmed, only for the camera to “jump” once its position has been confirmed, and this leads to confusion as to the data the interest list needs to send, resulting in some data being missed, and thus objects failing to render. If this is correct, there needs to be better check on synchronisation between the viewer and simulator before interest list information is sent.