This is an informal test and I use the word ‘test’ very loosely. I just wanted to see what the commotion about crossing in the new AWS servers was about. There is no hard data in this experiment. My computer and connection are irrelevant IMO. The Viewer is Firestorm 6.4.5 Beta, which I used because I have it setup to work with OBS.
I started my trials in Blake Sea – Half Hitch, Aditi (SLURL). If you search for the region in Aditi, include the Blake Sea part.
There is a long 1 sim wide run from Blake Sea – Azimuth to Blake Sea – Bering of 17 regions. That is a 4.352 kilometer run or about 2.7 miles for the metric challenged. Plenty of room to max out my Bandit 380R (The Mesh Shop – Map URL).
I want to mention The Rubber Bunny. That HUD on the left is made by Kaliska Dismantled of Rubber Bunny. Kaliska makes easy to modify HUDs for various boats and vehicles. I’ve bought a couple (L$49). Plus making some fun vehicles. Among them hovercraft which are a novel SL driving experience.
In my previous article, I recount how I sailed across dozens of region-crossings without crashing. Now I am reading of others testing the new cloud-based region servers having the same experience.
Cloud-based? You probably know the Second Life™ system is moving to the cloud. We don’t get to hear much about it as user knowledge of changes messes up the bug reporting. But Mazidox Linden posted, Blake Sea is now up on Aditi! (July 20, 2020) And wow…
Those invisible region crossing walls…
If you don’t know, Aditi is the beta test grid for the Lindens. Also known as the Preview Grid. They allow us to use it too. Only selected parts of the main grid are in Aditi. Plus, the Aditi grid changes… a lot and unexpectedly and often goes down as they restart tests. Unexpectedly for we mere mortal users. Aditi is the Linden workspace and their testing takes first priority.
Every so often the Lindens need some genie pigs… er… beta testers. The Thursday UG Server Beta meeting is usually the place for those requests. Meeting participation there has been declining since most server news over the past few months was just internal fixes and other stuff they couldn’t talk about. The servers run on proprietary software and contain the security for the system. So, there are limits on what they can say, which makes sense.
Whether that is the reason Maz posted in the SL Forum’s Tech->Server section or not, there the post is.
The post tells us they are testing region crossings. The test scenarios are for regions within the same host and in different host servers. The article has links to the test regions in Aditi. Plus, there are a few accounts from people participating in the testing.
The majority find the crossings are ‘barely noticeable’ or a total fail with the vehicle lost and never returned. To me this sounds like progress. It also tells me the Lindens are getting close to having region servers running in the cloud. The region servers are a huge part of the system using a large number of computers.
This should make for dramatic changes in SL. The Lindens are excited. It leaks out here and there and user complaints at UG meetings about annoying problems are often addressed with an intimation that will sort of get solved with the move, ‘uplift’, to the cloud.
Whatever, I think it interesting and exciting. Only time will tell if this is the big FIX we all hope for.
I haven’t posted in a while. I was feeling the URGE… to post, silly. So, I stopped to think about what is happening in SL that might be interesting.
Sailing
I like to sail and fly. I have a Bandit-55 sailboat that is great fun. Saturday, I sailed it around Eden. If you haven’t been to Eden it is a fun place to sail and fly. It has handy ports and landing fields. There are even some GTFO stations. And there are some large open space areas. I seldom have problems with security orbs there.
Eden: August 2018 – With Aviation Grid
The remarkable thing that may be interesting, was to me, is I put in and sailed from Eden Cygnet, the hedonistic Bumrose for elegant avatars (horny will suffice), in the upper northwest to the East-Southeast edge then around and south then slowing tacking my way North West, with wind from the NW, to the far western edge. Then back North to Bumrose.
What is interesting is I was never detached from my boat nor did I crash nor did I run into a security orb. Amazing. I sailed for hours.
I often strip down to my fewest scripts, often none attached, and drop my ACI by wearing only my classic avatar body. This trip I worn my mesh body, head, and mesh outfit (wearing it here – white top and jeans shorts – like 130k ACI). Dropped off my various HUD’s and jumped on my Bandit-55.
This was an amazing trip. Sailing for hours without a crash is very unusual. Eden was not deserted nor was SL. Concurrent users was in the high 40k and low 50k. So I am surprised there were no problems.
Was it Eden, SL, me… not sure but it was a nice time. Plus, I have been needing to work on my tacking for some time. This was a great opportunity. I think I improved my skill. I still cheat now and then and use the motor. But mostly I moved Northwest under sail. Yay, me!
Linden Lab to be Purchased
On another note, a little-noticed post on the Linden Lab website announced that the Lab is being purchased. It says little more than an agreement has been made and who the acquirer is.
Their homes are on a new continent to the southeast of Sansara. As of 4/18 word is this Linden Homes continent is named Bellisseria. Will find a number of the regions are named with the prefixes SSP and SSPE.
Get The Freight Out Map of Continents
The new Bellisseria continent is connected by ocean regions to Sansara. Thus, the interconnected area we can sail and fly in has increased considerably. Initially, there were no public lands on the new continent where one could rez a boat or aircraft. However, at the time the group GTFO (Get the Freight Out) had members living in the new continent that had set their property to Rez-OK.
I am not providing the SLURL’s as I haven’t asked permission to share them and with new Rez-OK places popping up you won’t need them. These private places seem to be a thing shared only among the GTFO players/participants. Continue reading →
Airports – There are large flying and sailing communities in Second Life™. However, finding airports, landing fields, boat launches, and marinas can be difficult. Making it easier is Shergood’s website with the virtual world’s equivalent of Google Earth. Their version is for airports, seaports, and landing fields. It lists about 280. Unfortunately, many are no longer around. So, the list is somewhat out of date. But, the best I’ve seen so far.
I don’t know of an equivalent for marinas.
Over St Martin – 2014
Kelly Shergood (Airport facilities – Marketplace) is the maker of Shergood’s ultra-realistic helicopters (Group URL). Realistic enough that if you can’t start a RL helicopter, you can’t start one of these. That isn’t strictly true, there is a qstart command to get you going. But, use it and try to fly without knowing something about helicopters is a certain path to a quick and exciting crash …and these helicopters burn when crashed. So… how would I know that? :/
The flight engine designed for these models is unique to Shergood products. The wind and inertia play apart in flying these helicopters. Plus, controls are of the RL kind. This means if you apply a control it compounds over time. One is applying a control that applies a ‘thrust’ and the effect of that ‘thrust’ builds up until the control is ‘centered’, returned to the neutral position. Things can quickly get out of control just as in RL. Continue reading →
