Nalates' Things & Stuff

#SL News Update Week 34

2012/08/25 by Nalates Urriah

First… there will be no MetaReality podcasts until September 24^th, due to RL problems and RL work load. So, I doubt we will see an update on the Mesh Defomer before then. 🙁

SL Support

If you use a Third Party Viewer (TPV), Second Life™ support can be really annoying. There are viewer problems and server side problems. If it is a server side problem, it really doesn’t matter which viewer you are using. Support should help out and get the problem fixed regardless of the viewer being used. That idea is taking root at the Lab.

ServScript120817_001 — Scripting-Server UG August 2012

Now that the MAJORITY of viewers in use are TPV’s, this problem is a significant pain. A process is starting to change that and hopefully reduce the problem. BUT… and this is a big butt… er but… first level support people have a hard time figuring out what are viewer and server side problems. So, some work is going into developing processes to help them decide.

To understand what is happening and what to expect one has to understand the problems support people face. One problem is the Lab’s support people are not trained in how to use or help with TPV’s. That would drive the support training costs and time requirements beyond anything reasonable. If only some TPV’s were supported to reduce cost and time required, there would be a load of drama about which viewers were selected. So, that means an all or nothing approach. It is going to come down on the nothing side.

Firestorm Support Island

2015/09/042012/08/25 by Nalates Urriah

Now Open: Second Life’s Firestorm Support Island by Firestorm/Phoenix – Click to visit. Today is the official opening of the Firestorm Island. See: Firestorm Support Island Opening for more pictures and information. For information from an interview with Jessica Lyon see Inara Pey’s article: Helping the community: the Phoenix Firestorm Support region. Update: Opening Speech.

#SL Group Edit Update Week 34

2012/08/25 by Nalates Urriah

Baker Linden got us some new information this week in the Server-Scripting UG on the fix for Large Group Editing Problems.

For the last two months he has been trying to solve the problem of getting large data sets to transfer reliably via the current API (application programming interface) running over UDP (an Internet protocol – think of it as a spoken language), which is the protocol all viewers use now to get group member lists. It is when that UDP transfer fails that people have problems with group member lists failing to load. Those failures also create some simulator side issues that degrade performance.

KittyKat3756_068a05d59d — Large Groups – Image by: KittyKat3756 – Flickr

The practical limit for use with UDP is a member list of about 10,000 members. Any group larger will not reliably download. On some connections even the smaller 10k list will have problems. Sometimes larger lists will download. Sometimes they won’t. Baker has optimized the SQL query that pulls the list and eliminated as many timing problems as possible. I get the impression that several SQL tricks were tried, like breaking up queries and batching group of members for transfer were tried. But, in the end it simply is not going to work. So, the new API is going to use HTTP for the transfer. Eventually the UDP service tube for group member lists will be eliminated.

Bad News on Bandwidth

2012/08/24 by Nalates Urriah

Just after I got my article out on Bandwidth and SVC-8124 I heard that there will be no promotions from the release channels to the main channel. This means the fix for SVC-8124 will NOT roll to the main channel next week. There is a problem with permissions. See: SVC-8177 – There is different behavior between the RC channels and the … Read more

Second Look at Steam

2012/08/24 by Nalates Urriah

Darrius Gothly has a new article out about Second Life™ and its coming addition into the Steam Library of games titled: More Steam, Cap’n! I think it is worth a read. Darrius’ biases and frustration with the Lab is in there, but the points made are thoughtful.

I agree and disagree with Darrius on various things… in general not just in the article. But, he always seems to have some interesting insights. I’m going to cover a number of the points he covers in the article giving my spin on the issue. That doesn’t mean he is wrong, I just see it differently. I could be wrong… nah… not me. You’ll make your own decisions on that.

Bandwidth Problem Update

2012/08/24 by Nalates Urriah

With the release of the Havok 2012.1 update and Pathfinding came an increase in bandwidth used. In the articles #SL News Week 33 and #SL News Update Week 33 I mention the problem. See JIRA: SVC-8124 – Excessive “ParcelOverlay reliable” messages sent by regions since last rolling restart (2012-08-08). Votes=124 – Watches=90 – 8/24. Resident interest in the JIRA shows it obviously not a big issue, unless you have a bandwidth capped/metered Internet service.

The fix for SVC-8124 was added to all 3 release channels to increase the probability that it can roll to the main grid next Tuesday.

I asked Oskar Linden if the Lab has seen an increase in bandwidth used since the PF release and 8124. He says not that he has heard. I suppose that means either it is a small enough problem, for the Lab, that they aren’t talking about it in house or Oskar has had his head down working and not noticed it.

SL Support

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