Second Life News w/3rd Party Dev Meeting 2019 w03 & 4

There is news. Everyone has been back to work long enough post-holiday for things to be getting completed. So, changes are in progress. I am behind, again. So, I’m just getting this converted from my notes to something readable.

Servers

We did get a Deploy post, appearing Tuesday afternoon.

The Rainforest Photo Contest, Entry # 2

The Rainforest Photo Contest, Entry # 2

The main channel updates to version #19.01.09.523003. This version is listed as having logging collecting data to build a baseline performance measure. Also, more internal logging.

My empirical take is things have degraded. But, without some objective measure that is only an opinion. As I started flying a complex Shergood helicopter in July 2018 my perception of region reliability has likely changed. But, my observation of what happens when crossing region boundaries is more factual.

Using the Firestorm Viewer, I have the option to cross regions in two ways. The default is to cross using the basic viewer prediction of what should happen for a smoother appearing crossing. The other is sort of stop-action crossing. (Preferences->Move & View->Movement->Movement at region crossing: Predict or Stop)

The complexity of the helicopter leads me to use Stop. While in a crossing-state key presses or lost and at some point, piled up. As the servers and viewer catchup post-crossing the collection of dropped key presses and delayed key presses often leads to unexpected behavior. So, Stop seems to work better for me.

In mid-2018 I would fly to a region crossing, mostly everything would stop for a couple of seconds, then things would continue. Not having measured the ‘stop’ I’ll say they lasted for 1 to 5 seconds, likely dependent on a number of things. Some lasted longer. But, much over 15 seconds and I was likely to see the viewer disconnect. I was almost certain to see my avatar separated from the helicopter if I didn’t disconnect.

Now in early 2019 after some Linden improvements to region crossings I am observing a different behavior. I stop at the region boundary as before. As the seconds tic on I can see a couple of behaviors. Of course, there is the normal crossing where I continue on. There is also a case where I snap to the regions 0,0,0 coordinate. My green dot on the mini-map moves too. Next, I sometimes snap back to my original position and continue on. Other times just my helicopter continues on. I get rezzed on the ground or ocean floor at the region corner or original position. Not like a TP. I just poof into that spot. Other times I pop back into the destination region somewhere along my previous direction of travel. Yet, other times, skip across the destination region and end up in the next region.

In those cases where I make it into a next region, I may or may not have control of the helicopter or the avatar. Often the helicopter’s HUD stops responding to key presses and only responds to mouse clicks. If I am lucky, I have time to try to reconnect (appearance & attachment re-bake/refresh can fix it, stand and sit – that is tricky in a flying helicopter -, or using the helicopter’s built-in HUD Connect) and regain control. Even when I do, things are not completely right. Some helicopter or viewer things may not work. I may have to relog.

I may also lose parts of my avatar, even when all else seems to go well. It seems that some avatar parts connected to the same attachment point are more likely to not get reconnected. I’ve generally moved new attachments off the Right-Hand (the default location) when first unpacking them. There is still a need to have some items on the same attachment point. Mixing outfits for RLV and other play in SL makes deciding on attachment points complicated. Whatever, I often end up with no head, only hair, eyes and teeth.

I think I am seeing more down regions these days. I either fly into a region that is apparently offline or see regions shaded red on the World and Mini maps. Flying into an offline region usually disconnects me form SL. That takes some time. So, once I’m sure I am screwed, I go ahead and relog.

When I come back online, I can sometimes chase down my helicopter, which is often still flying, jump back in, and continue flying. Other times I see it get returned from some region far far away from where I got unseated.

Blue Steel was updated to #19.01.18.523336. This is the EEP (Enhanced Environment Project) version. You’ll need to use the EEP Project Viewer to see the change.

Simon Linden at Tuesday’s UG meeting said, “Yep, EEP is rolling onto RC tomorrow.” Previously EEP has been in only the Snack Channel. Reading the Deploy post you’ll see the same version is running on Blue Steel and Snack.

Rider Linden says Snack was on Aditi… I am confused. I know EEP has been on EEPTesting in Aditi for some time. I think the Snack channel is an AGNI channel… maybe ADITI too.

Whatever the case, if you want to start conforming your region-Windlight to the new feature, you can ask support to move your region into the Blue Steal channel. Rider will appreciate any testing help.

Le Tigre and Magnum got version nothing… they stay on version #18.12.05.522294. This is a change to voice.

Snack is on version #19.01.18.523336… wherever Snack is…

Cake is rumored to be on 19.01.16.523246, but we have no clue yet what that is about.

Server Side Baking was updated to fix the problem with Tiny avatars floating above the ground. This is a backend system and not a part of the regular information flow for users. The system has been getting changes as part of the Bakes On Mesh Project.

More pages… links below.

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