Second Life

Things about SL

Second Life Server Updates Week 2

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Here is an update on the changes happening with the grid servers.

The Encroachment Project, the feature to allow one to remove prims encroaching on their property, failed to pass its test in the Blue Steel Release Channel. That means it is stuck in Blue Steel for another week with new fixes applied. With any luck it will roll to the main grid next week.

The Le Tigre channel was testing the new Simulator Shutdown code. It passed its tests and was rolled to the main grid. This code improves several things on the server side of the Second Life Grid. Faster simulator restarts and fewer inventory problems are two expected improvements.

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Singularity 1.5.3 Viewer Review

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Playing with the new group limit I was joining all the viewer related groups I found. The Singularity group is one I joined in the process. The other day that got me a notice that a new version of the Singularity Viewer is out. I’ve never used the viewer. For that matter I’ve never heard about it. It is not in the TPV Directory. But, I’m curious so I wanted to try it. I have an avatar just for testing viewers not in the TPV Directory.

The viewer’s web site is, of course, Singularity Viewer. It is a nice looking site. They have a knowledgebase, download, forum, and a link to the Github for the source code. The forum appears to be a Google Group, not what I think of as a forum.

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New Things Coming to Second Life

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There are several projects now making their way into the Release Channels and soon to the main grid. None are as fun or exciting as mesh, but they are things that should make SL faster and nicer to play in.

Faster Non-Texture Assets

Monty Linden attended Oskar’s office hours meeting. There is a small project (small code-wise) coming to the grid soon that will speed up non-texture assets moving through the system. Now is that cryptic or what?

Seems Monty means sounds and wearables. The change won’t be as dramatic as ‘Compression’ is for region crossing, but it is expected to be significant and have noticeable effects. The change has to do with making the process smarter, whatever that can mean in this case. Monty describes it as removing artificial slowdowns… which may have mostly to do with making the path things take through the system more efficient.

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Second Life Mesh Update 2011-01

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Second Life Mesh
Image by M_Shahab @ Flickr

Not much excitement in this area lately. Development is proceeding. The Lindens are not saying when they will arrive on the grid and more and more people are whining about that. The Lindens are not going to say ‘when’ until they have all the complex problems solved. I’m not expecting to see them hit the release channels for 2 or 3 months and I think that is optimistic. 🙁

Nyx Linden said in the last office hours meeting for mesh that they are looking at how to roll out mesh. Discussion is about a staged release. No real decisions so what is actually going to happen is up in the air.

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Second Life 40 Groups

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Updated 2010-01-13 – 6:15 PM – SLT

Several blogs are reporting that in some regions with some viewers one can now have 40 groups. There is no Linden Lab announcement out. So, this is testing and it may change at any time. Try it at your risk.

Update: So far there is still no official word. Speculation is that one going over 25 groups may lose those if Linden Lab turns the feature off. Whether the excess groups would be lots in alphabetical order or join order or something else is unknown. Actually whether they would be permanently lost or come back when the limits is raised is unknown.

Using Phoenix you will see the limit listed at the bottom of the Groups panel listed as 25. This does not mean that is the limit. That is just a cosmetic thing. One is supposed to be able to set the Debug Settings value in Phoenix40GroupsSupport to TRUE and see what limit the server is using (requires a viewer restart). Update: Phoenix is rumored to only support a max 40 groups. Whatever the case the next version (Firestorm) is planned to have better group support.

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Predictions 2011

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Predictions
Image by garryknight @ Flickr

I usually prefer to read others predictions rather than make them. The Dolphin Poll on users’ preference got me thinking and I have not seen many predicting a lot about where viewers are going. Of course that may be because it is a foregone conclusion. But, since this is my blog, I get to voice my opinion and ramble or rant on about it until you click away from boredom. Hopefully not. In this case I think I can put things in terms you’ll find interesting.

I think the viewer development path using series 1 viewer code is a dead end. At some point viewers based on series one code are going to go away. I think this year.

I think the series 1 User Interface (UI) will last longer may be even into next year, but it too will disappear. Simple, end prediction. Following are my reasons and thinking for why I believe this will happen.

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