#SL Pyramid Warning Symbols

Recently a number of us have been seeing a flock of organdy-yellow pyramids appear around us when trying on mesh. They look very much like the script warnings we see when a script fails. However, they are a little different in that they do not have the little piece of paper denoting a script within the icon.

These non-script inspired pyramids are caused by mesh failing to rez. It is unclear whether this is solely a viewer issue or a viewer and server issue. Whatever the case, the quick fix is a relog or teleport to another region.

One can also change the viewer settings to reduce the likelihood of being a roosting perch for a flock of pyramids. The setting can only be founds in the Debug Settings.

This is hard to test so I’m doing some speculation on whether or not the change is worth the effort.

MeshMaxConcurrentRequests – Number of threads to use for loading meshes. Default value 32. It is probably better to reduce this setting if you have a slower connection. Try increasing it if you hang out in places like TRUTH Hair. I know at least one person setting this at 256 and claiming it cured the problem. I’m not convinced.

I suggest leaving it at 32 unless you have a significant and persistent problem. If you do decide to change it, try 16 or 64.

I can’t find any other settings that limit mesh render. I seem to remember there were more. But, they have disappeared from recent viewers. So, there is little we can do to avoid the problem.

Griefer Monday Postmortem

Oskar Linden: “Let’s talk about Monday. So, as you all are more than well aware, some of the tools in the experience tools project on Magnum got abused over the weekend (week 22). Monday morning (week 23) was pretty much fire drills all day. I rolled out of bed and logged in and BAM, even before my coffee.

We do take active griefing vectors seriously. [We] determined a fix for the issue. We got it tested and deployed Monday afternoon. The griefing exploit was unintentional.

The exp tools project was removed from the [release channel] grid this week. It lost its slot on Magnum [RC]because of other security issues, those that were addressed in this meeting actually. I want to thank all of you for the feedback you gave to Huseby last week.”

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Greifer Monday

Today we are seeing new griefer toy creating chaos.

The new Linden Realm’s Advanced Creator Tools currently in Magnum is being user to create teleporters with broken permissions. When taken outside Magnum the toys will teleport people without their permission.

This morning I got to see the Cornfield for the first time. Then they teleported a load of people into the Scripting UG Meeting.

An immediate fix is for a region owner to turn scripts off.

Or, if your region is in the Magnum Release Channel it is immune.

Otherwise expect chaos until the Lindens figure out a fix, which may be to roll the package running on Magnum to the main grid.

PS: Motor Loon says, “Hi mom!”

UPDATE: The server updates rolled  late Monday seems to have fixed the problem.

#SL Mesh Defomer at Risk

Scanning the Second Life® news today I found an article on new World Notes by Hamlet about Oz Linden reconsidering whether the Mesh Defmer is worth the effort… the bother to add it to Second Life. Hamlet’s article is: Linden Lab Needs Mesh Samples to Test Qarl’s Mesh Deformer — Or May Not Incorporate It Into SL Viewers At All.

Crying Leo by storyvillegirl on Flickr

If you don’t know the Mesh Deformer or the Parametric Deformer is the missing part of the mesh project that was never completed. The Deformer will allow mesh clothes to change with avatar shape controls. It causes mesh clothes to follow the Enhanced Avatar Physics, the clothes bounce with the boobies. The Lindens are considering dropping the project. We need to demonstrate support for the project for it to continue. This article is about getting the support into a visible place for the Lindens to see.

I found Oz’s comments in the JIRA STORM-1716 item.

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#SL Scheduled Maintenance May 8, 9, 10

Taken from the Second Life Grid Status page.

[Posted 9:45am PDT, 8 May 2012] We [Linden Lab] will be performing scheduled maintenance [on the Second Life system] today, Wednesday and Thursday of this week (May 8, May 9, May 10), beginning at 6:00pm PDT each day. Each maintenance is scheduled to last around 8 hours. Please save all builds and refrain from rezzing no copy objects, as some regions may be taken offline and remain offline for extended periods of time. Please follow this blog [Grid Status blog] for any updated information.

See the coming SL News post for some speculation and ideas to what is going on.

Also…

Spikes, Slow Restarts For Some Regions Overnight

[Posted 9:25 pm PDT, 07 May 2012]

Some regions are taking longer than normal to work their way through restarts this evening. In addition, they’re reporting higher-than-normal spikes in performance and viewer instability.

Our engineers have done the preliminary work tracing the problem and will be forming a team early tomorrow to fully diagnose and correct it.

Tonight, please file a “region offline” service request as needed for any region which remains inaccessible to you for longer than 15 minutes or so, and we’ll work with our network engineers to assist the restarts as needed.