Invisiprims

TM 18:40 – Oz was telling us there was no update or news on invisiprims and then they updated us on the status… it’s a bit ambiguous. So, no update on the final tech fix for invisiprims, but they have done some work on the problem.

=”~Just relaxing around~

While Oz was saying they haven’t forgotten the invisiprims problem and haven’t resolved a final fix, Grumpity pointed out they fixed the latest break that is currently a problem. This fix just returns invisiprims to their previous (month ago) clunky behavior. No one was clear if this fix is in the current Maintenance RC Viewer or not.

New Problem

Seems there is a new render problem with avatars. Imagine you hear (chat or voice) someone talking. You look around and the only avatar around is WAY over there, like 400m away. No one close. Your mini-map or the People Panel shows an avatar standing 3m away.

The problem is the render window is rendering the avatar in the wrong place. The mini-map and people panel show the correct location, so the viewer has the right information, but is rendering it incorrectly. The rendered image of the avatar is detached from its actual location.

Those in the Firestorm team seeing the problem have not reported it in JIRA as they cannot reproduce the problem. It happens when it happens.

People have been noticing the problem starting about Christmas. They have seen 3 versions of apparently the same problem. The variations are the avatar appearing far away when near, appearing near when far away, and something in between that I didn’t understand.

The Firestorm Team is deciding if the problem is Firestorm specific or general across all viewers. If you see the problem and want to help, get a screen capture with the mini-map or people panel included, note the location where you saw it, collect the viewer logs, and note as specific a time as possible. Get that info into the JIRA ASAP so the Lindens can capture the region and related server logs.

To get the server logs the Lindens only have somewhere between 24 and 48 hours before the logs are overwritten.

64-Bit Linden Viewer

The news is the Lindens are building 64-bit viewers now. They have been working on them for a few weeks but work was on getting the supporting libraries in shape, converting them to 64-bit. The library work is finished. Work is actually on the viewers now.

Gateway API

TM 38:00± – The Lindens have been working on the Gateway API. They have decide to avoid being sued out of existence, the API will have to work like Paypal does.

The Lindens are aware of problems associated with that type of operation. But, it best they can do via legal restrictions and the state of tech.

Some info a third party just can’t be allowed to handle. So, Lab has to handle it. This means gateway sites are likely to a page within a page, or iframes in HTML speak.

There has been the problem that gateway pages (those in a third party sites) had everyone fill out all their sign up information, including avatar name/user ID, and then send the info via the API to the Lab. The name was already in use, so the signup bounced and the person had to start over. While the starting over and having to type everything in again was frustrating, re-entry of info could have been mitigated with current web tech. But, European privacy laws complicate what tech can be used. It’s a legal mess. Thanks to nanny-like governments supposedly making us safer.

The new gateway API is a better way to navigate the legal complications. It is progressing and we hope to see it go live soon.