Server

Second Life News 2013-50

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Tuesday the main grid will get the roll out expected. This is a small maintenance package has a fix for llGetAgentInfo() so it now detects AGENT_CROUCHING.

RC Channels

All three channels will get the same package. The Maestro Linden in the SL forum describes the new packages as: “ This project contains a single bug fix, related to vehicles becoming stuck in the ‘sat upon’ state (which prevents parcel autoreturn).”

This will likely be the last set of server updates until after January 6th.

Viewers

Read the viewer update in the previous article for the latest viewer news.

Regions Closing

Beach Front Reality closed as I mentioned last week. They ran about 50 regions. Ciaran has an article up: Private Sim Losses Swell Due To Large Estate Closure. Ciaran’s suggestion that the Lab should approach some of the people that owned 50% or more of a region, is something I think would have been smart.

Fifty regions at $300± per month is US$15,000 or $180,000 per year. I would think that marketing or customer service could have put someone on contacting these people and making a deal with them.

Second Life News 2014-49 #4

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From the Third Party Viewer meeting we learn that the viewer install code has been changed to make use of RC and Project installs easier for the Lab and TPV Dev’s. Earlier I mentioned Name RC Viewer as having the program code changes that allow viewers to be more easily named. Being able to better control channel names cleans up some install problems as well as data tracking.

Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-49
Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-49

I am taking what I hear Oz Linden saying about not wanting to get into the details of this change to mean it is complex with Linden preferences driving some of the changes. As long as things work better, none of the detail matters to me.

The Maintenance RC Viewer had a really bad crash rate. It has been withdrawn and users pushed to other viewer versions. If you installed it and disabled automatic updates, you need to replace it. 

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Second Life News 2013-49 #3

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Next week (50) we will likely have a rollout to the main grid and another to the RC channels. Then we enter a no change window. We won’t see any new rollouts until probably January 7th.

The packages in the tube right now are minor packages with only a small number of problem fixes.

Viewers have the same no change window. We might see RC and Project viewers updating. But, the main release viewer is unlikely to change after next week (50).

Fitted Mesh Viewer

A new version of this project viewer is out: 3.6.12.284458.

This version lists JIRA item STORM-1985 – Mesh garments don’t adapt to changes in avatar shape.  One of the things mentioned in the JIRA item is FITMESH-6 and how enabling and disabling the Advanced Lighting Model changes the behavior of the viewer’s ability to render shape changed clothing items in wireframe mode. For those of us looking to see how well demo clothes are made before purchasing, this is a definite problem.

Presumably this is fixed in this version.

MAINT-3311 – Skinning to some collision volumes is broken. I can’t read details on MAINT items. But, presumably this too is fixed.

Download here: Alternate Viewer Page.

Second Life News 2013-49

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There will be a roll out Tuesday morning. The package running on Blue Steel and Le Tigre will get promoted to the main change. This is the one that includes the vehicle region crossing fix.

RC Update

Wednesday there will a single package rolling out to all three RC channels. This package contains a fix for: llGetAgentInfo() so that it now detects AGENT_CROUCHING correctly for avatars who have custom ‘Crouching’ or ‘CrouchWalking’ animations (BUG-4431). There is also a crash mode that has been fixed.

Since they aren’t saying much about the crash mode, I assume it is some exploit or other security fix.

Viewers

There is one RC viewer and one project viewer on the RC Viewers page. As of late Monday those haven’t changed from last week. The Interesting and Fitted viewers are it.

In the Third Party Viewers class Firestorm has moved back into first place for the most stable viewer. I say first because I don’t count Radegast as a viewer because it is not a graphical viewer in the sense that other TPViewers are. I just don’t see it in the same class.

Second Life News 2013-48

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Viewers

The GPU Table Viewer was promoted to main viewer status. So, it is gone from the RC Viewers’ page. This should fix several problems for those with newer video cards. From what I have heard, it may also have created some problems for those with cards that do not meet system requirements. But, there isn’t enough information to know. Reports in the forums are always lame.

The Break Pad Viewer is undergoing updates and doing a better job of error reporting. So, for now you won’t find it on the RC Viewers’ page. It will be back. The Lindens are getting the system figured out. But, they still are figuring out problems. Once this is in place and released it will help the Lab and TPV Dev’s find bugs faster.

TPV Meeting 2013-47
TPV Meeting 2013-47

Interesting Viewer 3.6.11.283895… yep it is still out there, still getting fixes. I was using it, until Fitted Mesh came out. It does make a difference in render performance.

The Fitted Mesh Viewer  3.6.11.283899 currently includes the GPU update. I think it excludes the Interesting and Breakpad code, but I’m not sure.

All the RC and Project viewers are getting fixes. But there will not likely be any new RC releases this week as it is a no change window, US Holiday Thanksgiving Nov 28 to Dec 1. 

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Second Life News 2013-47 #2

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There is nothing new on the server front since Tuesday. See: Second Life News 2013-47 for details on the servers.

Next week (48) is a no change window. That means no rollouts. Also, there will not be a Server Beta User Group meeting that week.

Server Beta User Group 2013-46
Server Beta User Group 2013-46

Since the revised Grey Goo fence settings came on line the Lindens have not heard complaints in that regard. So, they are assuming their fix is working. This is about large building rezzers failing because the tighter settings for the fence was catching them. Unless the Lindens see complaints, this problem is considered fixed.

There was discussion of problems with scripts using collision detection and crossing regions. Air planes using Mono scripts with collision cannot cross regions. This may be related to BUG-4084. 

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