Server

We have had about a week with the new rollouts. There doesn’t seem to be any major problems. Nothing had to roll back. I’m not clear whether the Interest List or the maintenance package will roll to the main channel this week. We’ll see something post later today when the Lindens make a final decision.

Interest List

The bot users have seen a huge drop in the data being delivered to them. Even beyond the amount added with the Interest List bug. Andrew Linden was considering what changes, other than the bug fix, may account for the saving in bandwidth use.  Some of those items are:

• Removal of the data needed for the old particle clouds.
• Fewer wind data updates.
• Improved server side culling.

The whole point of the Interest List update was to improve server side culling, meaning to have the server only send object information for the objects an avatar can see. That has improved.

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Kelly Linden has been working on fixing some problems with avatar banning from land. Those fixes have rolled out. BUT… there is a problem in the Phoenix Viewer. One can ban an avatar using Phoenix and it appears to be banned. But, that data is not getting to the server. So, the system does not ban the avatar.

The work around is to do bans with a viewer other than Phoenix.

Whirly Fizzle described it this way: “Oh, re estate bans, Zi Ree, one of the Phoenix/Firestorm developers found a bad bug in Phoenix viewer yesterday which *may* account for some reports of estate bans failing. Phoenix has an estate ban feature called GTFO. If a user bans a resident using this option, the residents name will be added to the estate ban list but the resident doesn’t actually get banned. If anyone sees reports of estate bans being ineffective, please make sure they didn’t ban using Phoenix viewer. I’d so, remove the ban & reban using Viewer 3/Firestorm etc.”

Simon Linden noted, “I don’t remember the details, but I believe Kelly did find some cases where he thought bans could be bypassed, or issues when the ban list was full.”

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If you regularly read this blog you know that the Multi-Threaded Region-Crossing code rolled to the main channel last week (5). We’ve had the code running for a week as I write this. So, how is it working for you?

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot has written up his experience now that the code is in place. See: Region Crossing: A Report On Experience. Wolf thinks crossing are not as good as they once were… I suppose he means like ‘ever.’ Personally I can’t remember when they were better. But, later he says there is little if any change when walking across regions, which is my experience.

It is small, but I do think I get control of my avatar a bit faster after a crossing. But, it is hard to say.

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As reported earlier this week, things are moving forward with server releases. There isn’t much new to report. See: Second Life News 2013-5 (1). Things have gone pretty much as expected.

The Lindens think the package running on the Le Tigre RC channel will get promoted to the main channel in week 6. This is the package with the fix for regions not showing up in search. Yawn.

Region-Crossing

The Multi-Threaded Region-Crossing code rolled to the main channel this week. That mostly seems to have worked.

Don’t expect to see much difference when you cross a region. I think my avatar responses to navigation instructions faster after a crossing. But, it is not significant enough a change that I can be sure.

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This is short but exciting… The picks for this week’s rollouts are out. The main channel will get the Region-Crossing package on Tuesday. This package is running on the Blue Steel and Le Tigre RC channels. It has apparently done well in the RC, so it gets promoted..

Unfortunately the Interest List package has not done well, creating lots of problems for users. The package created high packet loss for many resulting in avatars and other objects failing to render. This week we will see a revised version of this package return to the Magnum channel. Hopefully this one will be better.

Blue Steel is getting the Materials System Package. We still won’t be able to try it out. There is no viewer that can take advantage of the feature. There are private testing builds. But, none most SL users cannot find or get access to them. So, I see this test as more of a compatibility thing.

Le Tigre is getting the fix for the World Map problem where some regions are not showing up in search.

I am hoping to see a Materials System Viewer soon.