Second Life News Update Week 27

You may have had problems logging in Thursday. Around 1 PM SLT things were getting sorted out. Thursday was to be the main roll out to the main channel. That had to stop because of network outages. I was trying to make it in about that time. No login errors. Viewer would just sit there doing nothing.

Beta Server Meeting

As to exactly what the network problems were no one is saying. That means either they don’t know, some information travels slowly within the Lab, or it was security related.

The roll of the Pre-rendered Library Avatars package was stopped. The Linden regions got the roll. The network outages forced a stop before the roll out could be completed. So, the grid is in a rather unique state this week and will be until next Tuesday. Then the Pre-Render package will go grid wide.

Release Channels

It is unclear which channels will get which packages next Wednesday. But, which packages are decided.

The Pathfinding Release will return to the release channel next week. It has the Havok update and region crossing updates.

The Advanced Creator or Experience Tools, whatever you call them, will be back in a release channel. These are the tools for those building ‘experiences’ like Linden Realms. This is the package that had the permissions issues and let the griefer dogs lose.

In there somewhere will be another maintenance package. As Wednesday approaches Oskar will have more detailed information.

Continent Wide Channels

You may remember from last week that Oskar Linden was thinking about making entire continents into release channels. The reason for that, is the Havok Physics Engine. Different versions of Havok create region crossing issues, like you can’t cross. It has to do with how Havok handles free form mesh objects.

Whatever, it sound like Oskar had to give up on the idea. The resources needed to change the channels and do the type of rolls they hoped just are not available. So, basically, it is not possible.

That means when we have a Havok update rolling through the release channels to the main channels we will have region crossing problems until the update is running on ALL regions. Fortunately that only happens a couple of times a year.

They may still find a work around. But, for now the time will be sent on higher priority issues. The idea remains in the plans for future enhancements.

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