Scripting

#SL llListen() Functions

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When I first started learning to write scripts for Second Life I heard how bad LISTEN was for performance. In last Monday’s Scripting UG I learned that a llListen() is not as bad as I was previously told. That will certainly change how I script. If you are curious about how LISTEN affects your scripts, read on.

Frames

Everything in SL seems to be keyed to frames. The meaning of fames in SL basically the images rendered to the viewer. We see that in the Viewer Statistics (Ctrl-Shift-1) as both viewer FPS and server FPS. Both the viewer and server take a fragment of time and do all the calculations to figure out where everything is and draw the picture we see on the screen.

The servers run at 45 FPS, unless they over load and start to slow down. Your viewer runs at whatever it runs. Ideally your viewer runs at 45 FPS. It been some time since I’ve seen my viewer run that fast. But, 45 FPS gives the server and viewer 22.2 milli-seconds to figure out where everything is and draw it.

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#SL Scripting llGetAgentList()

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Kelly Linden announced Monday in the Scripting UG and again in the Tuesday Server/Sim/Scripting Ug that he has progressed far enough on the function that it is now in QA and winding its way to a Release Channel. It is probably two weeks away from a roll out on an RC.

You can find pre-release information in the wiki: llGetAgentList(). The page was posted 3/20.

This function will return a list of the agents in a specified area within a single region.  The areas you can specify are;

  • AGENT_LIST_PARCEL – returns only agents on the same parcel where the script is running.
  • AGENT_LIST_PARCEL_OWNER – returns only agents on any parcel in the region where the parcel owner is the same as the owner of the parcel under the scripted object.
  • AGENT_LIST_REGION – returns any/all agents in the region.

The function will return a list of avatar keys. The limit is 100 avatars per the wiki. There is no discernible order or randomness to the list.

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#SL Pathfinding Tools in Beta

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Pathfinding is advancing. Tuesday Lorca Linden visited the Server/Sim/Scripting User Group and updated us on Pathfinding.

New Pathfinding Viewer Tools

Lorca told us the Pathfinding Viewer Tools need testing. The tools are built into the viewer and interact with the SL Servers. The system is ready for Open Beta testing. Of course one needs a viewer with the tools. You can now get that at: Second Life Alternate Viewers.

Next one needs a place where the tools work. The place is ADITI in the Path Test regions. Use the World map once in ADITI to find them.

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Second Life News Update Week 11

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There are a few interesting things that came up in Andrew’s late Friday afternoon meeting.

Scripting-Server Meeting

Encroachment Return

Andrew has been building a script to turn on Encroachment Return across the grid. The feature made it through QA and has been rolled out for some time. But, enabling it in thousands of servers is not small chore.

The script was run Thursday morning. So, you should now be able to return encroaching objects.

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Second Life News Week 11

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Information is starting to leak out about new features coming. We are getting more details on the features we know are coming. So, it has been an interesting week.

Also, meetings are overlapping with the same subject coming up in different meetings. Rather than have parts of the subject scattered throughout various articles, I’m trying to condense them. So, information in the article is from one or more meetings. Thus the title change.

Open Source Meeting

The image shows the meeting place for Open Source. This is the site that is the subject of the build competition being run. See: Hippotropolis Theater Design Competition.

Server Rolls

From this week nothing has rolled out. On the other hand the last two weeks have seen a major change to the better in stability stats. While teleporting is still a problem, the number of failed teleports is decreasing.

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Receive Items Folder – Update II

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Today in the Commerce group word came through that Oz Linden and Brooke Linden posted in JIRA SVC-7748. The word is that after 300+ posts in one day on the legitimate use cases the proposed change to llGiveInventoryList() would create, the change will be rolled back.

The change was in the Release Channels on Blue Steel and Le Tigre. The llGiveInventoryList() change broke RLV and I hear some other use cases, but no one can tell me what those are.

So, the Lindens are listening.

The comments made are:

Oz Linden added a comment – 12/Mar/12 11:35 AM

We hear you, we’re checking on it, thanks

And:

Brooke Linden added a comment – 12/Mar/12 11:51 AM

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. We will be rolling back LeTigre and BlueSteel on Wednesday, and will not re-deploy until this has been fixed.

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#SL Video of Linden Realms Tools

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Lots of us are interested in the tools used by the Lab to build Linden Realms. Some of us have called them the Linden realms Tools or LR Tools. At practically every Linden UG meeting someone asks about them.

[youtube mGPiywc6Hh0]

Yesterday near the end of the workday the Lab posted a log article about the new tools. They have named them the Advanced Experience Tools. We now have a preview of which tools are being released. The only timeline we have is over the next few months. (Reference)

Professional Creators Program

Within the post is information about a new Professional Creators Program. The Lab says, “This program will provide members with helpful resources, such as tutorials and exclusive closed betas.”

Many of the features in the Advanced Experience Tools (AET) would be a griefer’s dream. The Lab has to come up with some means of restricting the tools and avoiding having them used for griefing. Remember Rod saying they had plans for griefers?

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#SL Scripting UG News Week 10

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The previous Monday meeting fell on a holiday, so no meeting. This week some interesting items but not much news.

Second Life Scripting Meeting

Last Names

I think we all know Rod Humble, LL CEO, had to walk back his idea to bring last names back. The interesting part is Kelly Linden had not heard the story by the time of Monday’s meeting. My point being: the Lindens are not a homogeneous well informed body. They often have their heads into their projects and are oblivious to much of the goings on in Second Life.

llGiveInventory()

This week’s roll to the main grid has the relaxed llGiveInventory() throttle. This doubles the rate subscribers and other messaging and delivery systems can send. The new rate is 2,500 sends per 15 minutes.

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