Second Life News 2013-8

I got a surprise this morning. Looking through the open source communications I see an ongoing problem with items not registering changes in the viewer and scripts breaking. I suspected some of this was from the Interest List changes and would hold that project back. (Note: scroll down for info on the video. It is not related to my surprise.)

BUG-840 – Viewer 3.4.2 (Beta) breaks almost every sliding door script in SL

Description:

Sliding doors will not render their movement correctly. They “open” correctly (Viewer renders the [visual] movement and [collision] physics correctly) but when they close (by timer!!, which is common habit), then [collision] physics “close” (move the prim/mesh back into the “closed” position) while the graphics still render the door [visually] as being “open”. This occurs when the door is not within the viewer “field of view” (when you turn your back to them), and not when you keep the door within the field of view. As a result people run against an invisible wall while trying to pass the door when they face it the next time. This affects ANY of the most used sliding door scripts in entire Second Life.

This is what I believe is a problem in the Interest List changes. So, when I saw that the Interest Changes are scheduled for rollout to the main channels this week, it was a surprise. Andrew Linde has mentioned the problem, so there may be a fix in the rollout…

Even more surprising is the Materials System is rolling to the main channel with the Interest List. Wow! I did not expect that at all.

No matter which viewer you are using, you should see the Interest List code take effect. These changes are mostly server side. So, viewer version is not going to matter. I do wonder if what I am seeing in the Open Source mailing list discussion is indicating that some improvements will be needed in the viewer.

Honour has been complaining about texture rez problems for a week or more. It is making it frustrating for her to get snapshots as she explores the grid. I even visited some of the places she has been visiting to see if I had the same problems. I’m not sure they were the same problems, but texture rez and the regions were lagging. I was seeing the high network time and Time Dilation problems. These are problems that event managers have been complaining about for weeks… if not months. Whatever the cause, it is a pain.

We still do not have a Materials System viewer. The Project Viewer for Materials is still a closed project. But, the server side of materials rolling out suggests we will soon see a viewer roll out. When that is going to happen is unclear, as we have a number of things rolling to the viewer. I think the CHUI update is ahead of Materials.

Blue Steel and Le Tigre are getting a new package that deals with object rez speed improvements.

Magnum is getting the package from Le Tigre. It has more fixes for server crashes and the restart notification change. For months we have had problems with server restarts not notifying us in a NOTICEABLE way. This notification is not going to be effective for shut downs until after this update is on the servers. So, we probably won’t see any difference until next week.

Torley Video

Torley has a new video out on the Destination Guide and finding communities. The video is above. The video is mentioned in a post on the Lab’s blog: QuickTips – Connecting with Second Life Communities.

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