Second Life News 2013-7

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We have had about a week with the new rollouts. There doesn’t seem to be any major problems. Nothing had to roll back. I’m not clear whether the Interest List or the maintenance package will roll to the main channel this week. We’ll see something post later today when the Lindens make a final decision.

This seems so like SL -
This seems so like SL –

Interest List

The bot users have seen a huge drop in the data being delivered to them. Even beyond the amount added with the Interest List bug. Andrew Linden was considering what changes, other than the bug fix, may account for the saving in bandwidth use.  Some of those items are:

  • Removal of the data needed for the old particle clouds.
  • Fewer wind data updates.
  • Improved server side culling.

The whole point of the Interest List update was to improve server side culling, meaning to have the server only send object information for the objects an avatar can see. That has improved.

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Metareality 2013-6

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Metareality released a podcast Friday titled: Delusions. The Zanex people are going to love Drax.

Metareality Podcasts
Metareality Podcasts

Again I paraphrase rather than quote. So, listen to the podcast before reacting to anything you read hear.

0:00 – 03:00 Zanex talk… yadda yadda

03:00 – About my blog – I am going to have to have a sex change so I can stalk Drax…

04:25 – Linden Lab told scheduled guest they ONCE AGAIN couldn’t talk on the podcast about …some subject, so they were again a no show. This happened last week too.

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Crazy Fish Test

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Ener Hax has a post titled: use fish to test your hardware graphics! With a title like that I had to look. Ener has found a site with a test for graphics processing of HTML5 graphics. It uses fish as a test of hardware handling of HTML5.

HTML is the Hyper Text Markup Language and the ‘5’ indicates the version. I think the HTML5 test gives us an excellent way to compare desktops and mobile devices.

Comparing Performance
Comparing Performance

Your web browser knows how to render HTML. In most cases that means displaying formatted text and pictures along the lines of what one would see in a magazine. HTML had its beginnings in 1980 and the concept originated with Tim Berners-Lee, a contractor at CERN back in the day. Tim implemented a browser and server that could display, deliver, and react to HTML. By 1995 the use of HTML was spreading.

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Second Life News 2013-6 (2)

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Kelly Linden has been working on fixing some problems with avatar banning from land. Those fixes have rolled out. BUT… there is a problem in the Phoenix Viewer. One can ban an avatar using Phoenix and it appears to be banned. But, that data is not getting to the server. So, the system does not ban the avatar.

The work around is to do bans with a viewer other than Phoenix.

Server-Sim-Scripting 2013-6
Server-Sim-Scripting 2013-6

Whirly Fizzle described it this way: “Oh, re estate bans, Zi Ree, one of the Phoenix/Firestorm developers found a bad bug in Phoenix viewer yesterday which *may* account for some reports of estate bans failing. Phoenix has an estate ban feature called GTFO. If a user bans a resident using this option, the residents name will be added to the estate ban list but the resident doesn’t actually get banned. If anyone sees reports of estate bans being ineffective, please make sure they didn’t ban using Phoenix viewer. I’d so, remove the ban & reban using Viewer 3/Firestorm etc.”

Simon Linden noted, “I don’t remember the details, but I believe Kelly did find some cases where he thought bans could be bypassed, or issues when the ban list was full.”

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Second Life News 2013-6

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This week the main channel is getting the package that ran on the Le Tigre RC channel. The release notes lag behind. So, I’m fuzzy on what all is in this package. Maestro Linden describes it as miscellaneous bug fixes. I think that includes the fixes for scripting attachments to the Neck and Center attachment points and the change to how abandoned land is handled.

Centent & Mesh Meeting 2013-6
Centent & Mesh Meeting 2013-6

Release Candidates

Blue Steel continues to run the Materials Project update. We still do not have a test viewer, so we cannot play with the new feature. I suspect that may keep the package in the RC channels until after we get a project viewer. But, I could be wrong about that.

Le Tigre is running a maintenance package with unspecified bug and crash fixes. I always assume that means some security fixes.

Magnum is to get the updated Interest List package with fixes for the increased bandwidth problem. Bots that used LibOMV were hit hard by the problem. Some users were too. Also, the Materials updates are in this package too.

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Materials System Update 2013-6

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Last we were hearing is that being able to change Normal and Specular Maps via script was not going to be possible. We have some clarification on that.

When the Materials System is first released it will not be possible to change the Normal and Specular Maps via script. The reason is that feature is just not going to be added in phase-one of the rollout. There is no other technical or mystical reason than the work to add the ability is just not being done. It is a time availability thing.

Changing the normal map requires the server to update everyone that can see the object being updated. All those that do not have the new map will have to download it. So, there is a load placed on servers and viewers for each map change. The same is currently true of texture changes, which are scriptable now. So, if people request the ability to change Normal and Specular Maps via script, it may be added at some point. Don’t bother requesting it now, unless you have a really good user case. I suspect the Lindens are waiting to see if scripting for the maps is really needed.

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