Server

#SL News Update Week 35

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Le Tigre

It has gotten a little confusing as to what is or is not running in the Le Tigre release channel. It is officially now reported as an infrastructure package with no anticipated changes for the regions. There is some rumor that these are network exploit fixes. But, it is hard to know. Others have said it is an isolated SVC-8124 fix for the bandwidth problem, which is what I’ve been thinking. I’m at the point I just don’t know. I lean toward the network exploit fixes now. But, since we can’t see any operational differences the point is mostly moot.

Server Beta Group

SVC-8177

SVC-8177 – here is different behavior between the RC channels and the main channel involving permissions, objects loose modify permissions. This problem may be the sole reason that nothing rolled to the main channel this week. The RC’s are running a fix for the problem. However, there are some reports the problem persists.

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Havok Collision Points

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For some time people have been fighting with getting roads to work well in Second Life. The subject came up again this week. Andrew Linden gave us some information that may help some work around the problem:

It [the road seam bounce] is a really hard problem to fix… it is a basic quirk of the physics engine. It might be fixable with careful content workarounds, but it is very hard for us to fix by tweaking vehicles any further.

I don’t know the best way to work-around the seam jump. I’m guessing that you could add a “transition slope” at the edge of the roads pieces that drop down, and overlap the meshes there.

What happens is that the physics engine will produce collision points between the car and some surfaces that are “behind” others … if they are on distinct objects.

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#SL News Week 35

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Server Updates

All of the software packages running in the release channels had problems. So, there was no roll to the main channel. The main channel will continue to run the same software as lat week.

Release Channels

Blue Steel and Magnum will continue to run last week’s packages with some additional big fixes.

Stacked Physical Cubes
Stacked Physical Cubes

Le Tigre is going to get a revised server maintenance package.

It seems there was a security patch in the previous week that caused problems for all the release channels and is the reason none are being promoted this week. Tomorrow it will be isolated into the Le Tigre package… I think isolated. It’s a security thing so the Lindens aren’t talking.

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#SL News Update Week 34

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First… there will be no MetaReality podcasts until September 24th, due to RL problems and RL work load. So, I doubt we will see an update on the Mesh Defomer before then. 🙁

SL Support

If you use a Third Party Viewer (TPV), Second Life™ support can be really annoying. There are viewer problems and server side problems. If it is a server side problem, it really doesn’t matter which viewer you are using. Support should help out and get the problem fixed regardless of the viewer being used. That idea is taking root at the Lab.

Scripting-Server UG August 2012

Now that the MAJORITY of viewers in use are TPV’s, this problem is a significant pain. A process is starting to change that and hopefully reduce the problem. BUT… and this is a big butt… er but… first level support people have a hard time figuring out what are viewer and server side problems. So, some work is going into developing processes to help them decide.

To understand what is happening and what to expect one has to understand the problems support people face. One problem is the Lab’s support people are not trained in how to use or help with TPV’s. That would drive the support training costs and time requirements beyond anything reasonable. If only some TPV’s were supported to reduce cost and time required, there would be a load of drama about which viewers were selected. So, that means an all or nothing approach. It is going to come down on the nothing side.

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#SL News Week 33

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Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a problem right now. Those using capped services and those having ISP’s with a strict abuse ToS are supposedly running into problems.

Server & Scripting 8/2012

The Magnum release channel seems to suffer the most. The worst case is when approaching the SW corner of a region that has 3 adjacent regions. Large draw distance aggravate the problem.

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#SL Server News Week 32

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There isn’t a lot of news yet this week. I think everyone knows that Pathfinding rolled out to the main channel. You can find most of the information about Pathfinding in the SL Wiki: Second Life Pathfinding  Category. The new Pathfinding Tools are in the Beta Viewer.

It is unclear, at least to me, when those tools will roll into the production release viewer. There is no estimate when the third party viewers (TPV) will have all the tools. I expect the Linden and TPV’s to catch up this month.

Server Scripting August 2012

Simon noted Tuesday that the crash rate for Pathfinding (PF) regions had jumped up after the roll out. But, it seemed to be stabilizing and coming down. I suppose when one adds 5 times more regions the possibility of finding problems goes up five-fold too. Whatever, as of the time of the meeting the Lab was only collecting data and watching the system.

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