This page contains all the articles I’ve written related to Second Life scripting.
There is a good sized update on the wiki page for JSON Usage. So, if you’re considering using JSON, you should probably check it out.
Thursday we got some news on the recent rollout. The Main channel rolled as planned. The Blue Steel and Le Tigre rollouts didn’t last the day. In just a couple of hours they were rolled back. So, now those two release channels are running the same software as is on the Magnum channel.
Server Beta 2013-24
Magnum is running the planned rollout, Interest List and fixes.
Wednesday Maestro Linden posted: “BUG-2850 is severe enough by itself to warrant a rollback – Le Tigre and Blue Steel are rolling to the same version as Magnum.”
The Server Beta meeting provided more insight into new Linden Scripting Language (LSL) functions, but no rollout surprises. Server rolls were as planned, see: Second Life News 2013-24 #2.
Server/Scripting Meeting 2013-24
Kelly Linden posted in the Deploys thread about the new LSL functions for returning items. (See: post) Kellz provided some basic guidelines and thoughts on exploits.
We have a fairly new page in the Second Life™ wiki for the new JSON functions. If you do not know, JSON is used for moving data to and from web sites outside SL. Use of JSON should make applications simpler and more reliable.
See: JSON usage in LSL
Today we are getting the server maintenance package that ran on Blue Steel and Le Tigre this last week. This is the package that addresses the disconnection issue people have been experiencing.
Content & Mesh Meeting 2013-24
These release channels will be getting a new maintenance package. There are some interesting fixes and additions in this package.
There is a bit of news coming from various places.
Server Side Appearance has a problem that the Lindens have been working on for the past week. Well, thinking about, I’m not sure they are writing code. I first mentioned the problem of corrupting modifiable eyes and skin when going in and out of SSA enabled and disabled regions here: SSA Coming Not Too Soon.
Corrupted Textures
Some people say the problem is unique to the Phoenix Viewer. Latif Khalifa tried the SL Viewer 1.23, pre-SSA Singularity, Imprudence and Phoenix. But, only found the problem on Phoenix. Whirly Fizzle said. She could reproduce the problem on the SL Viewer 1.23. Whirly says old FS viewers were OK and did not have the problem.
Kelly Linden let us know he is working on two new additions to the LSL (Linden Scripting Language). They are:
The functions require the prim containing the script be owned by parcel owner or estate manager. The function only operates on objects on land in the same region/parcel as the script.
The ByOwner version takes a scope flag of PARCEL, PARCEL_OWNER or REGION (only usable by estate managers). They require a runtime permission (PERMISSION_RETURN_OBJECTS). This permission is *special* and the permission can be asked of and granted by group owners to operate on group owned land.
They do not handle encroachment.
The functions will return the number of objects returned OR an error code.
There is a throttle on the number of objects allowed in your parcel-pool per hour. If your parcel has a limit of 2000 you can return 2000 objects per hour.
llReturnObjectsByOwner cannot return objects owned by the parcel owner or estate managers.
llReturnObjectsByOwner will return all objects owned by the ID specified – for example Maestro could return all objects owned by Kelly on Maestro’s parcels with 1 call.
These should be a welcome addition to SL. It will make it much easier for land owners to deal with griefers. Kelly does not have an ETA, normal. But, since we are haring about them, they are close to candidate release.
With the coming of Materials, being able to use normal and specular maps, how one builds is more important. Knowing or not good building practices is going to determine the experience in Second Life™. Poorly built items, whether clothes or objects, have a detrimental effect on our frame rates.
Penny Patton Efficient Building
The SL Wiki has a page about Good Building Practices. There is lots of good information there. But, a significant number of creators ignore the guidelines or don’t know about them. Or… it may be they don’t understand them.
Penny Patton has a new article up titled: Building a Better Second Life – Tips for squeezing both better performance and more detail out of SL through efficiently made content. This article is something that every person building in Second Life should read and learn.
Penny covers using textures and scripts. She gives examples of what efficiently built things look like. Her M&C fantasy build (some sections are NSFW) is an example of efficient building practices. Penny does get to her ubiquitous near mantra ‘build to scale.’
I believe her points are keys to a better SL.
