As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information and feedback.
On Tuesday, November 3rd, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package previously deployed to BlueSteel and LeTigre, comprising a simulator crash fix
On Wednesday, November 4th, all three RC channel received a new server maintenance package comprising a fix for group invite throttle notifications, and an internal server code clean-up.
Part of the code-clean up for the RC channels deployment appears to involve a fix for the region edge issue I reported on in my week 44 report, with Simon Linden commenting at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, November 3rd, “The new code going into RC has one interesting tool in it for our support staff … there’s a sim console command to reset the land edges to match what’s visible.”
SL Viewer Updates
The HTTP release candidate viewer (Project Azumarill) updated to version 3.8.7.306796 on Monday, November 2nd, possibly the last update before this viewer gets promoted to the de facto viewer in week #46.
Group Issues
There are a number of issues with groups the Lab is aware of, including those who are ejected from a group whilst in a group chat session still being able to continue using the chat until they close the window (see SVC-32), an issue not fully resolved when group bans were introduced.
This issue is one that the Lab is hoping to address, however, it is dependent upon some infrastructure changes being made, so may now happen in the immediate future, although the hope is to get the underpinning work done “pretty soon”.
On Tuesday, October 27th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package as deployed to the three RC channel in week #43. This comprised server-side improvements for delivering group notice attachments, together with some simulator crash fixes and code to prevent the uploading of “hacked” mesh content (e.g. mesh items which show a LI of 1 no matter what their actual complexity, or which spoof a creator’s name).
On Wednesday, October 28th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
BlueSteel and LeTigre will each receive the same new server maintenance package, comprising a simulator crash fix
Magnum will also receive a new server maintenance package, comprising the same simulator crash fix as BlueSteel and LeTigre, together with a fix for a security issue.
SL Viewer
On Monday, October 26th, the Notifications viewer was promoted to the de facto release viewer. Version 3.8.6.305981 comprises the new floater for managing incoming notifications (Group, Transactions, Invitations, System).
The notifications viewer became the de facto release viewer on Monday, October 26th.
Also on Monday, October 26th the HTTP release candidate viewer updated to version 3.8.6.306549, which includes fixes for the following issues:
MAINT-4952 Replace old http client usage with llcorehttp
In my last project update, I reported on asset upload validation checks, and the Lab’s work to move them from the viewer to the simulator (e.g. checks to ensure animations are what they say they are, further checking of mesh uploads to ensure they can be rendered correctly, etc.). the overall aim is to improve reliability in SL. However, one impact of these changes is that once implemented, it will no longer be possible to upload mesh items weighted to attach points.
While the Lab has never regarded this as a supported means of handle mesh attachments, it has nevertheless been widely used by creators in SL. So much so that when Firestorm removed the ability to upload such meshes from their viewer, it caused some consternation (see FIRE-17144).
Once implemented, the change should only affect new uploads of mesh weighted to attachment points, and not affected any items already uploaded and in use within SL. However, a JIRA on the matter has now been raised directly with the Lab on the issue (see BUG-10543), in which creators who use the technique can provide input and use-cases to the Lab on why the approach is used (if you wish to leave a comment, please try to make it constructive and provide examples / reasoned argument, as these work better than rants).
Commenting on the JIRA, Troy Linden has said, “We realise that there will be a lot of residents/assets affected by this and currently looking into it. Sorry for the inconvenience and worries it caused. Please stay tuned.”
Adding to this at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, October 27th, Oz Linden said:
Up until a couple of days ago, we didn’t know anyone was doing it. You’d be amazed how often that happens. So please allow us a little time to digest what we’ve been learning. It’s actually one of the great things about working on SL. While we don’t always love how people apply their creativity, we all just love seeing how creative our users are.
Region Edge Issues
There has been an occasional problem encountered along the edges of simulators in which, when terraforrming and using the Smooth option, a very thin “cliff” can be raised into the air (see BUG-5979), or where when an avatar gets close to a region, it falls through a “gap” (see BUG-242).
Various reasons have been identified for this – as noted in the bug reports – and at the Simulator User Group meeting, Simon Linden said, “I think I found the cause of those odd region edges you sometimes see, where you can’t move in the areas you think you should at the edge of the land. It’s actually not the navmesh [which had been thought to be one of the possible causes] but it is the physics shape of the land.”
Essentially, the simulator, where no longer connected to a region which might once have been next to it, gets confused as to what it thinks should be alongside it. It then attempts to match the physics and land to what it thinks is in the “neighbouring” region, rather than simply resetting itself.
The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, October 23rd, 2015. A video of the meeting is included at the end of this report, and time stamps to it are provided. My thanks as always to North for the video recording and providing it for embedding.
Deploys for Week #43 – Recap
There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, October 20th. On Wednesday, October 21st, all three RCs should receive the same new server maintenance package, which include server-side improvements for delivering group notice attachments, together with some simulator crash fixes and code to prevent the uploading of “hacked” mesh content (e.g. mesh items which show a LI of 1 no matter what their actual complexity, or which spoof a creator’s name).
SL Viewers
[00:00] There have been no further updates to the SL viewer currently at RC or project status since the update to the Quick Graphics RC, which I covered in part 1 of this week’s report.
It still appears as if the next RC that will be promoted to a de facto release status will be the Notifications RC viewer (currently version 3.8.6.305981), although this won’t be confirmed until the start of week #44.
[00:37] As previously noted, the Quick Graphics and HTTP viewers still have some problems which need to be addressed before either one can proceed forward to release status. So except to see further RC updates to both of these in due course.
[00:54] The Chromium Embedded Framework project viewer is getting some good public testing, and is expected to get some “fairly frequent” updates.
[01:05] The Oculus Rift viewer currently isn’t being worked on, as attention is focused on the other viewers in the various pipelines. However, it is hoped work will resume “pretty soon”.
[01:20] There are further bug fixes and updates in progress, including some fixes for some minor regressions in the current release viewer, and these are getting fast-tracked and will be appearing in a further Maintenance RC in due course.
[15:00] It is likely that when the next release viewer promotion takes place (Notifications viewer), the Lab will block a series of much older versions of their viewer, but not the Obsolete Platforms viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, which they still plan to have available until such time as it simply stops working – although it should be remembered this viewer is already regarded as unsupported by the Lab.
Grid Status Page RSS Feed
[01:58] In week #31 I reported that the Lab are working to update the Grid Status page RSS feed from RSS version 1 to RSS version 2. As existing web pages, etc., using the feed may need to be adjusted to accept the updated feed format, a proxy URL (http://beta.status.secondlifegrid.net/feed) has been available for testing purposes. It now appears that the switch will be thrown very soon to make the new version 2 RSS feed the default.
Inventory Updates
[02:15] As per the Lab’s recent SL improvements blog post, the first set of viewer-side updates aimed at improving inventory reliability are being queued up ready to appear in the project viewer. however, these are unlikely to appear before the HTTP updates currently in RC reach a release status. Once the viewer-side changes appear, the Lab will start work on deprecating the outdated inventory messages which are no longer required on the simulator side.
Server-side Upload Checks for Assets
[02:50] As a part of their overall work in trying to improve reliability within second Life, the Lab is looking to add further server-side checks to ensure viewers aren’t attempting to do anything the simulators aren’t equipped to handle, or which may cause unintended issues or outcomes, etc., for users.
This work will see the introduction of further validation checking on various asset types at upload. An example of this might be checks to ensure animations are what they say they are, further checking of mesh uploads to ensure they can be rendered correctly, etc.
[08:00] In particular with mesh, a simulator check is to be introduced to prevent the upload of mesh items weighted to all attachment points. There has been a viewer-side check designed to prevent such mesh items from being uploaded, which will in future be enforced simulator side. Existing content weighted in this way should not be “broken”, appearance-wise; but the simulator check will ensure such meshes cannot be uploaded (see FIRE-17144 for further details).
Attachment Point Validation
[04:20] Alongside the above, the Lab will be looking to introduce simulator-side attachment point validation checks. Right now, it is possible to have the viewer attach items to an avatar using points with are not correctly defined on the avatar skeleton. This can result in other viewers showing the item randomly attached to the avatar (or possibly floating nearby – for those with long memories, think of the Emerald “attachment tail” which multiple attachments were introduced on that viewer without adequate simulator support).
To prevent this, the Lab are looking to enforce the recognised attachment points simulator-side, so that any attachments using an incorrect attach point will be mapped to a defined attachment point, and moved there. This work will be carried out incrementally, and will initially offer the changes to Aditi to allow for testing.
Other Items
Firestorm is now in Feature Freeze in preparation for the next release, which is now undergoing testing. Assuming no major blockers are uncovered, the next release should be available in November. This will be up-to-date with the Lab’s current release viewer (3.8.5.305531 – Maintenance release), and may included some additional items cherry-picked from upstream of that release. However, it is unlikely to have the new notifications updates, HTTP, Quick Graphics, etc.
On Tuesday, October 20th, Linden Lab issued a blog post highlighting upcoming technical improvements to the service, particularly viewer-side updates, which will shortly be making an appearance, or which are already available in the form of release candidate or project viewers.
Regular readers of this blog will hopefully already be aware of most of the improvements mentioned by the Lab’s post, as I’ve covered them through various updates and focus articles in these pages.
The first to get a mention is the Project Valhalla viewer, which introduces Chromium Embedded Framework functionality to Second Life to replace the ageing LLQTwebkit functionality, and which I initially previewed here. Commenting on this viewer, the Lab blog post states:
A new age of modern HTML5 content is upon us, and we’re overhauling the way shared media (aka “media on a prim”) works so that you can enjoy all kinds of modern web content within Second Life. Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is coming to replace the ageing QTWebkit framework. What you can now see in a Project Viewer is the latest released version of Chrome – so it will render all modern web technologies – like HTML5, CSS3, WebGL; has the latest security patches; and will be easy to keep updated to a recent version. What does this mean for your Flash content? What about QuickTime? They may still work, but because both can only be viewed if the user has correctly installed a 3rd party plugin, we can’t promise support and you shouldn’t expect that it will work for everyone. Standard HTML5 is the way of the future and this Viewer will enable it for anyone. There are still bugs to squash, and we’re iterating quickly to bring you a smooth in-world media and browsing experience. If you have comments about this feature – please post to the forum thread about this topic – located here.
My own quick-and-dirty demo of using a viewer with the CEF code (in this case, the Black Dragon TPV, as I don’t have a video using the Valhalla viewer) to access WebGL content displayed both on prims in-world, and via the viewer’s built-in browser. The WebGL demonstrations are provided via David Walsh (with thanks to Whirly Fizzle for the link), and this video is intended to offer a simple overview of some of the capabilities, which as mentioned in the notes from the Lab are actually far more extensive.
The major take-away from the CEF introduction at this point is that if you make use of media within your products (e.g. TVs, etc.), or as a part of you in-world presence, now is the time to be looking to convert them to using HTML / WebGL, etc., testing them against the Valhalla project viewer, and reporting any issues / highlighting any concerns. The Lab is more like to address matters / consider changes while the viewer is will at project status, rather than when it reaches a release candidate status.
Also mentioned in the post is the new Notifications RC viewer and the Quick Graphics viewer, both of which are both available as release candidate viewers. The former provides a new front-end for handling incoming notifications (and which I previewed here). The latter provides both the new Avatar Complexity functionality (which replaces the old ARC / ADW) and the abilities to create, save and quickly re-use sets of your own graphics presets for use in different environments and settings. Again, I’ve previewed both of these here and here.
The notifications viewer offers a new way of managing notifications and is featured in the Lab’s blog post
Additional insight into Avatar Complexity is provided, both through the post and via a link to the Knowledge Base article on it. a request is also given that anyone who has general comments on the capability to please post them to the related forum thread (comments posted to this blog may not be read by the Lab).
Mention is also made of the HTTP updates which have been undertaken by Rider Linden (Project Azumarill) and which are also available in a release candidate viewer. This project builds on the foundations laid by Monty Linden with his HTTP work, further enhancing the use of HTTP capabilities to provide more robust communications capabilities with the simulators and back-end services. Finally – at least in terms of available viewers – the updated mesh importer viewer, recently promoted to de facto release status, gets a mention.
The Quick Graphics viewer allows you to create and save your own graphics presets to suit different requirement,s and which can be quickly loaded and used with just a couple of mouse clicks
Also referred to, although it has yet to appear in a project viewer, is a further inventory related project. This is being led by Aura Linden, and the aim is to improve the overall robustness of inventory handling, the work being carried out in two parts, as I was (again) able to preview recently, courtesy of a Third-Party Viewer Developer meeting:
The first part will see the removal of all of the old UDP inventory messaging paths used by the viewer which have already been replaced by more robust mechanisms, but which have until now remained a part of the viewer’s code – this aspect of the work should be appearing in a project viewer viewer soon
The second part will comprise a refactoring of the viewer inventory files and functions with the overall aim of making the code more readable and easier to maintain.
As the Lab’s blog post indicates, this project further builds on the on-going work we’ve seen during the course of the last few months to improve inventory performance, reduce the number of inventory losses users may suffer, and provide assistance with inventory-related problems which affect things like logging-in to to SL.
Finally, the Labs blog post also reveals that Flash has now been removed from the secondlife.com website, noting:
Due to the numerous recent security problems affecting Flash, it has been completely removed from our website. A modern way to animate starter avatars in the join carousel and some other exciting news for registration is coming out really soon. Keep an eye out!
This announcement again signifies that while the Shining Project many have ended, and things may have been a little quiet of late, things are still being progressed. As it stands, the notifications updates may well be promoted to the de facto release viewer in week #44 (week commencing Monday, October 26th). In the meantime, the links below will take you to the latest (at the time of writing) versions of the viewers mentioned here and in the Lab’s blog post. If you find any reproducible issues with any of them, please raise a JIRA, and remember to post any general comments you may have on the viewers to the official forum threads mentioned above.
There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, October 20th.
On Wednesday, October 21st, all three RCs should receive the same new server maintenance package, which include server-side improvements for delivering group notice attachments, which is hoped will provide some improvements to issues of trying to open such attachments from the group notice notifications.
The update also includes some simulator crash fixes, and while not advertised in the release notes, should also include simulator-side code to prevent the uploading of “hacked” mesh content (e.g. mesh items which show a LI of 1 no matter what their actual complexity, or which spoof a creator’s name).
The Quick Preferences RC viewer was updated to version 3.8.6.305942 on October 19th, most likely bringing it up to parity with the current release viewer.
Commenting on the status of the current RC viewers during the open Source Developer’s meeting on Monday, October 19th and in relation to any possible viewer promotion in week #44, Oz Linden said, “The Quick Graphics viewer has too many bugs to promote; mostly minor, but there’s no reason to go forward with it yet. HTTP has a couple of significant bugs to fix. So if I had to bet on the next promotion I’d guess the Notifications viewer.”
Expect more news on viewers following the TPVD meeting on Friday, October 23rd.
Other Items
A question was asked during the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, October 20th about making script time for in-world objects in a parcel available to the parcel holder (e.g. an extension of the region-wide Top Scripts functionality available to region / estate owners / managers). The idea here being to help parcel owners better understand how in-world objects within their parcel might be impacting simulator resources (see this forum thread and SCR-60 as well).
Commenting on the idea, Simon Linden said:
Since we send it to the viewer already, you have access to the info … You can probably get some of that info by scanning but I can see it would be a lot easier to get that in a different format. One of the limits (I’m sure you all know) of LSL is it’s not good with large data sets, so I’m not sure how you can expose that info for a large number of items … so maybe the top 10 or 25 objects on a given parcel? I can totally see the need for that to manage land.
… HUDs and attachments add a twist to it … they would probably be lumped together with the AV as they are now. I wonder if it would be easy to add something like PARCEL_SCRIPT_TIME to llGetParcelDetials()? that doesn’t give you what you want, but is a higher level for finding the parcels with the most scripts.
Those looking for such a capability are advised to raise a JIRA feature request.
As noted in part 1 of this week’s update, there were no deployments to either the Main (SLS) or RC channels in week #42. This means there will be no deployment to the Main channel in week #43 (week commencing Monday, October 19th).
The RC deployment planned for week #42 was ultimately postponed pending further work.
Week #43 RC Deployment
The deployment originally planned for week #42 is now targeted for deployment on Wednesday, October 21st. It will include the server-side updates intended to help prevent attachment links in group notifications from going stale. However, as per the first part of this week’s report (see link above), because it is also believed that there are some viewer-side issues causing these problems, the update might not fix all situation where an attachment to a group notice fails to open when viewed in the incoming notification.
The reason for the late postponement of the release in week #42 was because the Lab wasn’t entirely happy with aspects of the update, and as a result of recent issues in attempting to deploy some server-side improvements to inventory handling which lead to unanticipated side-effects, caution won the day.
This RC release may also incorporate a server-side update to prevent the uploading of “hacked” mesh content (e.g. mesh items which show a LI of 1 no matter what their actual complexity, or which spoof a creator’s name).
SL Viewer
The Notification RC viewer updated to version 3.8.6.305981 on Wednesday, October 14th, following the promotion of the Maintenance viewer to the de facto release viewer. This release adds a further set of fixes to the viewer:
MAINT-5370 [Notice] Hard to operate with notification window control
MAINT-5694 [Project Notice] Links on the 1st line of a group notice message are sometimes not clickable.
MAINT-5708 [Project Notice] Images shouldn’t be displayed in notification titles
MAINT-5730 [Project Notice] Text overlapping in group invites with non-default group role.
The notifications viewer update corrects four issues within the viewer relating to layout and control of notifications
European Connection Issues
Thursday, October 15th saw a DNS issue upstream of Second Life impact users in Europe, and notably The Netherlands, preventing people from logging-in to SL and from accessing web properties such as secondlife.com and the Marketplace, etc. The situation occurred as the Lab were also carrying out some unscheduled maintenance on the grid, prompting them to update the original Grid Status report with news on the DNS issue:
[Updated 4:27 PM PDT, 15 October 2015] We’ve received confirmation from our upstream provider that a widespread DNS outage is impacting parts of Europe, including the Netherlands, and possibly other regions. We’re monitoring the situation and will report on developments.
Sorrow, Paper Dinosaurs (Flickr) – blog post
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 