Second Life Server Update Week 28

I’m writing this the last day of week 29. But, server news is always after the fact. For those working on Linden server code things have been busy for the past weeks. Updates to the community seem to be more brief than usual. They have been fixing more and writing less. So, my updates lag as I try to figure out where things are and make sense out what I read and hear. So, here is the latest information I have.

Proof Server Folks are a Bunch of Sharks (Inside Joke)

Week 28

Oskar Linden tells us that several things went wrong in week 28. We saw emergency roll backs. In the Mesh Prep 2 regions sculpties were suddenly being converted to tori. Not all sculpties were converted. Only those sculpties using a stitching type of none.

Stitching types are the way objects are unwrapped to work with how textures are applied. It is a sort of UVMapping thing. Cylinders have a simple style of unwrap that produces a rectangular shape. Think of cutting a cylinder down one side and spreading it out flat.

The Second Life system allowed a setting of none for the unwrap/stitching. As best I can tell, the system then uses the default stitching of a plain for each face, or something like that. This behavior was something apparently created by others some time ago and the possibility of using a NONE-setting was unknown or forgotten in the creation of Mesh Prep.  Nobody knows everything the SL system does or how everything is related. So, from time to time gotcha’s popup.

In Le Tigre any sculpty with a None Stitching that was existing in-world, any being rezzed, or worn were converted to a torus. Existing content was breaking. Something the Lindens really try to avoid.

Rolling the Release Channels back takes about an hour, they are done only as a last resort, and they require executive approval.

Lost Work

I had seen several people complaining about losing work recently. Changes and things built had disappeared after restarts. Kelly Linden says that on a clean shutdown no work should be lost. However, there is a small window in which work can be lost. Plus in any condition other than a clean shutdown work can be lost. A crash can definitely lose one’s work.

Week 29

In week 29 the Parcel Privacy Setting was rolled to the main grid. There is a wiki page that shows the setting and explains what it does here: Hiding avatars and restricting avatar sounds.

This is the feature that allows you to make avatars invisible to those outside your parcel. It also stops local chat at the parcel boundary.

There are some minor fixes that remain. For instance from outside the parcel other avatars can still see selection beams.

Some other things I would think would work differently are intended to work as they do. For instance on mini maps the green dots will still show up. So, there is still no way to hide in a combat game.

Mono2 or the Homestead Performance fixes is back in Magnum. Kelly says it seems to be working well so in week 30 we should see it roll to the main grid.

Mesh Prep 2 is back in Le Tigre.

Mesh on the Main Grid AGNI

Most of you know about the pre-roll out of mesh on the main grid. A small number of private regions can volunteer to have mesh enabled in their regions. Also, there are now mesh region sandboxes. The Mesh Live Volunteers wiki page explains the details of volunteering and the limits of using mesh. See:  Mesh/Live Volunteers.

Along with mesh comes the 64 meter maximum prim size. There is some confusion as to whether that limit is enabled or not. I think the confusion comes from the use of different viewers. Older Linden viewers have a limit built into the viewer. Only newer viewers will have the new size limit. However, for some time Third Party Viewers (TPV) have had increased or settable limits that work on other grids. Those viewers will allow one to take advantage of the increased size limit in SL.

This means one can use a TPV in the Mesh Sandboxes to build large prims, take them into inventory and use them in other regions. One can then work with them much like one works with Mega Prims. As long as you do not try to resize them things work. Plus llSetScale() works from within scripts run in the mesh regions. DO NOT try carrying mesh outside the mesh regions. Taking mesh out of a mesh region to a standard region or mesh disabled region will break the mesh permanently and it will have to be re-imported.

Mesh to Release Channel

As of Friday it was looking like mesh would make it to a release channel in week 30. We’ll know if that is true Tuesday the 26th.

Profile Permissions

Also in week 28 Profile Permissions broke. See: JIRA item SVC-7104. Non-web-profile-viewers broke. They could not change permissions for friends. The bug is a bug and not part of conspiracy against older viewers. However, the problem does highlight the increasing number of problems with older viewers. It also gives a good indication of which people are into conspiracies and card carrying members of the Wacko Party. You may want to take names for future reference.

The fix for the problem should be in a Release Channel in week 30 (7/27).

Gorean Door Fail

This is a scripting problem that is being fixed. As best I can tell it got its name because the first reported instance of the problem was in a slow, smoothly opening door script used in a Gorean castle or dungeon.

Kelly has found the problem that has something to do with system trying to trigger events in crashed scripts.

Inventory Lag

Those using viewers with the newer Direct Delivery code are seeing an annoying 2 second or so lag in their inventory. Pick something or try and scroll inventory and there is a delay. Often selecting an item to wear sees a 2 second dely for the wear/add menu to appear. Making the selection then freezes the viewer for 1 to 2 seconds and the worn/added object does not even start to appear on the avatar for 10 to 15 seconds.

See: JIRA item VWR-26405 and check out the thread in Kirsten’s Forum, Inventory delay. There is a problem solution for those that compile their own viewers.

Summary

It is looking like mesh is more stable now. If the Mesh Prep 2 update survives the Release Channel testing and makes it to the main grid I suspect some of the pressure will reduce. Then may be updates and communication will return to normal levels.

 

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