Second Life News 2017 w47

Servers

The Main channel was restarted with version #17.11.11.510664. This update includes Internal Fixes and a fix for BUG-139176 Issue with OBJECT_REZZER_KEY reporting incorrectly after linking and delinking prims. This version has run on the RC channels for a couple of weeks.

The Fire Within
The Fire Within

There will be no updates to the RC channel this Wednesday. The next day is a holiday in the USA. So, the RC channels will continue to run the packed just promoted to the main channel.

The internal fixes are typically security fixes and data collection changes. Recent some of those changes had to do with various copy exploits. Simon Linden says they have caught a bunch of people trying to use those exploits.

However, there are still exploits allowing copying without the Lab being able to detect it. So, Simon asks that people keep filing JIRA and Abuse Reports. Lindens are still working on closing the exploits. So, the reports guide their work. Help by filing a report, if you have actionable information.

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Second Life Third-Party Dev Meeting 2017 w46

The next Third-Party Dev meeting is 12/15.

Alex Ivy

Alex Ivy RC Viewer is holding up well in testing. Actually, better than ever.

There is the one startup crash, they haven’t been able to reproduce. The one they think likely from benchmarking crashing systems. They think they have a fix. The supposed fix will be in next update of Alex Ivy, likely arriving from QA just after Thanksgiving.  If that fixes the crashes, then they will be ready to release Alex Ivy in Early December as the main viewer.

Zenos Profile Photop
Zenos Profile Photo

This is sort of a big deal. I’ve been using 64-bit viewers almost exclusively. They are WAY more stable than 32-bit viewers. If you are not running a 64-bit OS, update ASAP.

When Alex Ivy is released the Lab will have a 32 & 64-bit Windows viewer. They have a 64-bit Mac viewer and no 32-bit Mac.

Linux

If things go as planned, they will build a Debian 64-bit Linux viewer. They will not be able to put much time in on QA. But, they plan to get a Linux build out.

The Lab is counting on the community to provide QA and fixes. Otherwise, this won’t be a working Linux version. Think of the Lab as providing the foundation. The rest is up to the community.

Oz Linden tells us there is a 64-bit Linux version in the Rendering branch. More about the rendering branch below.

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Second Life News 2017 w46

Servers

Again, there is no roll to the main channel. It continues to run #17.10.06.509394.

Blue Steel, Le Tigre, and Magnum will update Wednesday to version #17.11.11.510664.

  • Internal Fixes
  • Fix BUG-139176 Issue with OBJECT_REZZER_KEY reporting incorrectly after linking and delinking prims.
~~ Hunt Dolls ~~
~~ Hunt Dolls ~~

Viewers

The main viewer remains 5.0.8.329115, released in week #42.

Second Life Alex Ivy Viewer version 5.1.0.510354 – No update, released week #44.

Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.0.9.329795 – This is a new version. The previous version 5.0.9.329707 was released in week #42.

Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.0.8.328552 – released in week #42. No update.

Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – no update since week #27.

Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.0.9.329815 – This is an updated version. The previous version 5.0.9.329458 was released in week #42.

Third-Party Viewers

Black Dragon got some updates and a new version is out. 2.9.1

NiranV also has a huge article out on alpha blending verses masking and how broken the viewer is.

Cool VL Viewer v1.26.21 is out and the version with Animesh support, sort of. Animesh is not completed and may change. So, what is out is supported.

Firestorm – We are waiting. Soon, before the end of year… maybe.

Third-Party Dev Meeting (Leaks) 2017 w44

There is some news this week. Most are from a couple of leaks. They give us a clue as to why the release of the Firestorm viewer is delayed. So…

The Linden Voice RC Viewer has 1 bug still left. The Lindens are hunting for the cause of an intermittent channel misconnection. If I understand the voice system mistakes which region you are in and connects your voice to the wrong region. Of course, voice doesn’t work when that happens.

in simple words
in simple words

Vivox, the providers of SL voice, is working on the problem and thinks it is in the SDK….

The Alex Ivy RC Viewer got an update Thursday. The viewer is doing well and Oz Linden is happy with it. However, there was a bug in the updater part of the code. It caused those updating some problems. I ran into it. A manual install corrects the problem.

The Lindens can’t get a good grip on how well the 64-bit viewer is doing as the 32 & 64-bit versions report as the same viewer. From other indicators, the Lindens know 32-bit version has people crashing way more often than previous versions. The 64-bit version is crashing way less than previous versions. Apparently, there is a WAY SIZABLE difference between 32 and 64-bit versions.

Crashes are typically early in the login… Oz suspects it is crashing during the benchmarking tests.

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Second Life Third-Party Dev Meeting 2017 w38

The Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer will update early next week (#39). The last couple of blocking bugs are being fixed. Oz Linden thinks they are probably down to 1 problem last blocking problem, pipeline stalls. A special branch of the viewer is designed to find and fix that problem. Those experience the problem will get a copy of it for testing.

Voice is getting a new SDK update. It addresses couple long-standing problems.

There is a fix in Linden Viewers where the Lindens extended the retry time. So, they are being more successful connecting to voice. It takes longer to connect when there are problems, but it is more successful. If there are no problems, it is a quick connect.

Darling
Darling

Manually killing the viewer’s voice server prevents it restarting as it once did. Now, restart the viewer to kill and start the voice server. Then it works.

The Maintenance viewer just went out a couple of hours before the meeting (Friday noon). It uses new Vivox SDK. This version is Not compatible with previous versions. Some third-party viewers and Linux versions commonly require users to copy the app from the Linden viewer and drop it in the third-party viewer. Or to use older versions of the voice app with new versions of the viewer, for various reasons. That is not going to work.

Now the viewer and voice app will need to be versions made after the change to the new Vivox SDK are built in.

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Second Life Third Party Dev Meeting 2017 w36

Some interesting stuff this week.

There is little change in the viewer pipeline. There is a new maintenance version, a new Alex Ivy version, and a new Voice version. All these versions are basically a folding in of recent main viewer update.

Horses
Horses

Alex Ivy, the 64-bit viewer, has 1 or 2 more bugs to be fixed before it is a candidate for promotion to the main viewer.

The Voice version has an elevated crash rate, but it is better with this last fold in.

All viewers have been tending to crash more over last few months than previously.

Third-Party Dev’s are not getting Linden reports on their viewer performance. Oz will be getting reports out Monday… events permitting.

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