Second Life News 2018 w39

Lots of interesting news and updates… I’ve combined information from the Third-Party Dev meeting and my regular Tuesday updates. There is normally about two working days between the Third-Party and Server-Scripting meetings. Not much changes in that time. So, I combined them.

Servers

No roll to the main channel. It will continue to run #18.09.04.519319.

The Forum Deploys post says the RC channel roll is to be determined. Rider Linden at the Server-Scripting UG says no RC packages are ready to roll out. We’ll find out Wednesday what actually happens.

Guardians
Guardians

He did however, provide a new server package update for EPP on the ADITI side.

He said, “It [EEP server update] will address some validations where FS had much larger ranges of values than the lab did.

I’ve dealt with a cloud speed issue that had annoyed me and I forgot to get in before we sent out the preview.

Oz Linden at the Friday Third-Party Dev UG announced they will be turning off the UDP Asset Fetch API’s in January. Most viewers no longer use them. But, there may be one or two that do… These API’s do not pass through the CDN servers so are slower and add more load to the region and asset servers.

Old viewers will likely break. Old as in like 4 years old.

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Second Life News 2018 w38

Servers

The main channel has updated to version #18.09.04.519319, labeled a change in logging.

The RC channels remain running the same version, #18.09.04.519319.

Simon Linden at the Sever-Scripting UG meeting said the RC roll is still undecided. That wasn’t noted in the Deploys thread. So…

♥♥♥ LTModa Wedding dress photo contest ♥♥♥
♥♥♥ LTModa Wedding dress photo contest ♥♥♥

I am not sure, but I think the operating system of the simulators and backend machines have been being updated. Some feel this may have affected various HTTP connections. Simon Linden says this update includes lots of low level updates and changes. So, it is possible.

Viewers

The main viewer is version 5.1.8.518593, since week #34.

Second Life Animesh Viewer version 6.0.0.518949 – Last updated in week #35.

Second Life Bugsplat Viewer version 5.1.9.519462 – Last updated in week #37.

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Catznip Beta 12.1.1 vs Firestorm 5.1.7

I just noticed a post from a couple of months back on the difference between Catznip Viewer and Firestorm Viewer. Alyona Su provides a good comparison based on her experience. She switched and is now using Catznip as her primary viewer. Not my experience.

Catznip vs Firestorm September 2018 – FS on timer: 00:01:23 @ DD 256m

Those switching to Catznip experience it being faster and less crashy than Firestorm. Remember. Viewers are very sensitive to the computer they run on. What is crashy on one machine may not be on another. Viewer speed in FPS and render time is also sensitive to your hardware and connection. So, Catznip may crash more and be slower on your hardware. But, try it and know. Hopefully the chance is you’ll have good results. If not, well no one will make you use it.

The release of Catznip I last used was Catznip R12 – Dec 31 2017 12:50:12 (64bit) (Catznip Release). Visiting the Catznip website you’ll find R12.0 is still the main release, Catznip R12 – Dec 31 2017 12:50:12 (64bit) (Catznip Release). OR version 12.0.6.180160035. No update since then.

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Second Life News 2018 w/37

Servers

The main channel’s version remains #18.08.24.519036. No roll this week.

Tralala's Diner
Tralala’s Diner

Seems there was a glitch last week. So, this week the RC channels are getting the real version #18.09.04.519319.

To quote from the Deploys thread, “NOTE: The expected version wasn’t updated last Wednesday. The correct version is scheduled to be deployed this week 9/12 (18.09.04.519319).”

In the Server-Scripting UG Simon Linden said, “… there isn’t much server news this week.   Our update to the main channel today (9/11) was canceled when we found a minor issue with the version on the RC servers.   Those will get updated tomorrow.   I don’t think there’s anything visible in those changes.”

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Second Life News 2018 w/36

Monday was a US holiday, Labor Day. So, scheduled things are off this week. As of 9:45 AM this morning and 3:45 PM this afternoon there is no Deploys thread post in the forum. However, my mainland home region did restart this morning.

Sea Life
Sea Life

There probably was no roll and this was just a 2-week restart for performance’s sake.

RL pulled me away today and I missed the Server-Scripting UG meeting… 🙁 

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Second Life ACI is SO Screwed…

This week has seen discussion on the ARC/ACI values and how broken they are. See the SL Forum thread: Rigged mesh LoD bug. I knew ARC/ACI weren’t all that accurate. But, I thought they were reasonable comparisons. I still believe once up on a time they were. But, in light of this new information I can’t prove that.

ARC = Avatar Render Cost
ACI = Avatar Complexity Index

Comparing ACI in LL, FS, and BD viewers

The purpose of ACI is to influence users and designers to buy and create more efficient mesh content. Something along the lines of Consumer Reports, but free and in your face.

A couple of things have happened that has not only changed ACI’s usefulness but distorted it and pushed us away from its goal. Possibly even making it counterproductive

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