In short, there are no deployments scheduled for this week. The Main (SLS) channel will remain on release 17#17.01.27.323172.
While there had been an RC release planned, it apparently didn’t clear QA in time, so all three RC channels will remain on 17#17.01.27.323172 as well. However, all three channels will be restarted on Wednesday, February 15th, in keeping with the Lab’s policy or restarting channels every two weeks, whether or not there is an associated deployment.
SL Viewer
The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.0.2.323567 on Tuesday, February 14th. As reviewed in this blog, this viewer includes a number of updates and new features, including the ability to select your own preferred folders for uploading image, animations, sounds and mesh models.
Outside of this update, the viewer pipelines remain as per the end of week #6:
Current Release version: 5.0.1.323027, dated January 25, promoted February 3 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer.
RC viewers:
Love Me Render RC viewer version Version 5.0.2.323361, dated February 9th – rendering pipeline fixes and improvements
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer, version 5.1.0.501863 for Windows and Mac, released on January 10
360-degree snapshot viewer updated to version 4.1.3.321712 on November 23, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review.
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.
Nvidia Driver 64-bit Viewer “Blue World” Bug
As I reported in week #4, Nvidia’s release of their 378.49 driver on January 24th resulted in many 64-bit viewer users (TPVs and the Lab’s own Alex Ivy 64-bit project viewer) seeing their Second Life world view turn decidedly blue when running with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) disabled.
The Nvidia 378.66 driver should fix the “blue world” issue for those using 64-bit viewers with ALM disabled
On February 14th, Nvidia release the 378.66 driver package, and this reportedly fixes the SL issues.
On Tuesday, February 7th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package a deployed to the three RC channel in week #5.
There was no planned deployment to the three RC channels for the week.
SL Viewer
Love Me Render
On Thursday, February 9th, the Lab released the first of the new branch of release candidate viewers focusing entirely on fixes an improvements for the viewer’s rendering system. To distinguish it from the current Maintenance RC viewer, the rendering RC has been called (for this release, at least) Love Me Render.
Version 5.0.2.323361 comprises a handful of updates – but as the Lab notes, changes to the viewer’s rendering system can be a little scary, and things can easily go wrong, so huge lists of updates for this type of viewer may not be common. This first round of updates comprises:
An improvement to mesh LOD calculation (account for CTRL+0).
A fix for a mesh avatar deformation issue, which was due to bounding box / LOD swaps.
A fix for the issue where some mesh becomes invisible when camming. This was due to an earlier fix for another issue (non-public JIRA MAINT-6125).
A fix for the bug where setting one avatar to Do Not Render (right-click avatar context menu) caused all avatars to become imposters.
The last item above is related to the Avatar Complexity code, which gets which also gets what might be the most important change in terms of rendering / performance. With this viewer, agents (avatars) which are rendered as “Jelly Dolls” should now have any attachments they are wearing render at 0 LOD.
This change is designed to prevent attachments with high render LOD from being loaded into memory, thus further deterring worn graphics crashers. Note that in order for this improvement to work, you must leave the debug setting RenderAutoMuteByteLimit at its default of 0.
Remaining Pipelines
The rest of the official viewers list remains as per the start of the week:
Current Release version: 5.0.1.323027, dated January 25, promoted February 3 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer.
RC viewers:
Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.0.2.323359 released on February 3 – new features, improvements and bug fixes
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer, version 5.1.0.501863 for Windows and Mac, released on January 10
360-degree snapshot viewer updated to version 4.1.3.321712 on November 23, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review.
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.
Where Is Everybody?
Regular attendees of in-world meetings cannot help but have noticed that the majority of meetings this week were cancelled, mostly due to scheduling conflicts with internal meetings at the Lab. Normal service resumes in week #7 (commencing Monday, February 13th). As the cancellations for this week included the TPVD meeting for this week, this will also now take place on Friday, February 17th, 2017.
On Tuesday, February 7th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package a deployed to the three RC channel in week #5. This includes a follow-up to fix BUG-3286 “Can’t move object” fail notifications, which was partially fixed in an earlier deployment. This release should also see some improvement in off-line IM and group notice delivery.
There is no planned deployment to the three RC channels for the week.
SL Viewer
The release viewer updated to version 5.0.1.323027 on February 3rd. This was formerly the Maintenance RC update with some 42 fixes and improvements.
A new Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.0.2.323359 was released on February 3rd, which contains new features, improvements and bug fixes. You can read an overview of the release features here.
Outside of these changes, the remaining viewers in the various official pipelines are:
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer, version 5.1.0.501863 for Windows and Mac, dated January 10th
360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review – still pending completion of work on the 64-bit viewer, and no updates expected in the immediate future
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.
Simulator User Group and Content Creation User Group Meetings
Due to scheduling conflicts with internal meetings at linden Lab, there was no Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, February 7th, and there will be no Content Creation User Group meeting on Thursday, February 9th. The dates for the next of these meetings are:
As I reported in week #4, many people on 64-bit viewers are seeing their Second Life world view turn decidedly blue. The issue is only encountered when Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) is disabled in a 64-bit viewer, although it can have odd behaviour (e.g. get it on one viewer, then launch another 64-bit viewer and it many not occur with that viewer).
The Nvidia 378.49 driver bug which can occur with 64-bit viewers when ALM is disabled, as seen on a 64-bit version of Windows) – this is not fixed by the recent 378.57 Hotfix issued by Nvidia
The cause of the issue appears to lie with the Nvidia 378.49 driver, released on January 24th. A Hotfix for the driver was released on January 31st (378.57), but this does not fix the SL “blue world” issue.
On Friday, February 3rd, Linden Lab released the latest Maintenance RC viewer – version 5.0.2.323359 – which brings with it another round of updates and fixes, together with a couple of new features requested by users, one of which could prove popular for creators and builders: the ability to select default folders for saving uploads.
Also for builders, the RC includes some long-awaited fixes to the build floater / objects when building. Several other niggles people have had with the viewer are also fixed with this update, making it a handy set of improvements to have.
The following is not intended as an in-depth review of the RC, but is intended to highlight the core changes.
Custom Folders for Uploads
With Maintenance RC 5.0.2.323359 users can now select their own preferred inventory folders into which uploads – images / textures, sounds, animations and mesh models are saved by default (rather than having all textures + images go to Textures for example).
You can select your own preferred folders for image, animation, sound and mesh uploads, rather than using the normal default folders
To set a custom folder for an upload type:
Go to Inventory and right-click on the desired folder.
Select Use As Default For. This opens a sub-menu of upload types (shown on the right).
Click on the type of upload you wish to always save to that folder.
Note that this only applies to uploads: images / textures, mesh models, etc., received via transfer will still go to the their “default” folders.
So, for example, an animation passed to you in-world by someone else will still go to your Animations folder, regardless of any custom destination you have set for animation uploads.
You can also review which custom folders you have set at any time via Preferences > Uploads, a new tab in the preferences floater. This list updates dynamically as you select / change custom locations for your uploads.
The new Uploads tab in Preferences, with a custom location set for mesh uploads
Other Requested Fixes / Updates
There are several other oft-requested updates are also included in the RC:
New Block list tally
A long-term and understandable annoyance among role-players / combat players is that a change made by the Lab some time ago meant that the Damage icon would not show in parcels that were damage-enabled. This has now been reverted.
The issue of the Sun sometimes appearing to jump around rather than moving incrementally has been fixed.
The Block list has been updated so that the last name on the list once again displays correctly, and a tally has been added to show number of avatars / objects blocked, and total limit (see right).
Avatars should now correctly display after a fresh inventory fetch.
Changes in wearables should now properly save.
Build / Edit Improvements
The following build / edit fixes and improvements have also been made to the viewer:
Repeats per meter value is now correctly saved.
An object created when a linkset is open is now shown in the linkset list.
Select Face will now show selection for all faces until such time as an individual face is selected.
The contents of any object worn from the ground should now correctly update.
The Script Debug Floater should now be useful once more.
Other Updates and Improvements
The release notes for the viewer also draw attention to the following updates:
Hanging texture downloads have been cleaned-up for better performance (via contribution from Ansariel Hiller).
Viewer Login will no longer save password when it is not supposed to.
Beacons will once more show when in Mouselook.
Teleport location selected from World Map no longer omits Z value.
Grid selection short cut at login is fixed.
Crash Fixes in LLPanelEditWearable::isDirty(), LLFloaterIMContainer::visibleContextMenuItem(), opening many scripts.
/displayname and /completename no longer change when toggling “View Display Names”.
Link added to Events in World menu.
Full details on the viewer updates, included a list of resolved MAINT JIRAs can be found in the viewer release notes and download page. Note that as they are MAINT (LL internal), not all of the JIRAs may be open to public view.
There was no deployment for the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, January 31st, although the regions on that channel were restarted in keeping with the Lab’s policy of restarting regions every 2 weeks, regardless as to whether there is an accompanying deployment.
On Wednesday, February 1st, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package. This includes a follow-up to fix BUG-3286 “Can’t move object” fail notifications, which was partially fixed in an earlier deployment. This release should also see some improvement in off-line IM and group notice delivery.
SL Viewer
The Maintenance viewer RC was updated on Monday, January 29th to version 5.0.1.323027 (dated January 25th). Otherwise, all other viewers in the current pipelines remain unchanged from the end of week #4:
Current Release version: 5.0.0.321958, dated December 1st, promoted December 5th, 2016 – formerly the Project Bento RC viewer
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer, version 5.1.0.501863 for Windows and Mac, dated January 10th
360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review – still pending completion of work on the 64-bit viewer, and no updates expected in the immediate future
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.
Non-Player Characters
There has been an ongoing debate about implementing non-player characters (NPCs) in the form of “created agents” or “scripted agents” (essentially avatars), which can exist in-world without the need for a controlling viewer / client. See feature request BUG-11368 for more.
NPCs are not new to SL, and it had been hoped that Pathfinding (introduced in 2012) would lead to an uptick in their use. However, Pathfinding has never really received widespread acceptance / use, and still carried with it many of the limitations in using “bot” based NPCs – such as the need for each bot to have a direct connection to a managing viewer / client.
Scripted agents, by virtue of using the existing avatar system, coupled with being a new class of object would overcome many of the limitations and issues with the current approach to NPCs and other creature creations. However, implementing such a system is seen as a major undertaking, and one with some major hurdles to clear were it to become a project.
If agents (avatars) were to be used, for example, how can they be kept “alive” when there is no controlling client / viewer connected to them? At the very least a new class of hybrid avatar / object would need to be developed (complete with inventory support). If these agents are to be used to provide things like animals – horses, etc., – there is then potentially the problem of how to change the system so that one avatar can ride another (e.g. your avatar on the NPC horse avatar), and so on.
Currently, there is no planned project to take-on NPCs of this kind – but they are a repeated topic of conversation at Simulator User Group meetings, and it is an idea some at the Lab have been mulling over.
Next Meeting
Due to scheduling conflicts, the next Simulator User Group meeting will be on Tuesday, February 14th, 2017.
Things are still warming up after the holiday period, so not a lot of fresh news.
Server Deployments
The Main (SLS) channel was restarted on Tuesday, 17th January, although there was no associated deployment. This is in keeping with the Lab’s new policy of restarting the server channels every 2 weeks, whether or not there is an associated code deployment (the RC channels were restarted in week #2).
A new server maintenance package will be deployed to the RC channels on Wednesday, January 18th. This includes a partial fix for (non-public) BUG-3286, “Can’t move object” fail notifications (fixes for regions/objects with longer names are pending), together with enhanced server logging and minor internal server enhancements.
SL Viewer
The viewer pipelines at this point remain unchanged from week #2:
Current Release version 5.0.0.321958, dated December 1st, promoted December 5th, 2016 – formerly the Project Bento RC viewer
Maintenance RC viewer version 5.0.1.322791, dated January 12th – some 42 fixes and improvements
Project viewers:
Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer, version 5.1.0.501863 for Windows and Mac, dated January 10th
360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712, date November 23, 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.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 