Viewer changes are picking up speed. As the new multi-channel process moves forward we will see more viewer projects moving forward. Some of these things are things I’ve written about weeks and months ago.  Now they are coming to a viewer near you.

TPV Dev’s Meeting 2013-24

Inara has written an update on the SSA (Server Side Appearance): SL projects update 24 (5). See it for details. The summary of that news is simple. We are likely to see SSA enabled over the next 2 to 6 weeks. I expect it to SLOWLY creep across the grid. The server side code has already been rolled out to the main channel. Now it is just a matter of enabling it on the regions. But, there are concerns about problems and whether the new servers can carry the load. So, this will be a very careful roll 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. 

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

Blue Steel and Le Tigre

These release channels will be getting a new maintenance package. There are some interesting fixes and additions in this package. 

At the Content and Mesh User Group meeting the topic of the Mesh Deformer came up. Oz Linden attended the meeting to field the question posed by Mona Eberhardt : “What’s the current status of the mesh deformer? What features have been requested by content creators? Of these features, which are the most important and which could be omitted or postponed?”

A Drunk Bear and a… whatever that is.

Oz Linden’s response, “The deformer is waiting for LL resources to evaluate how well it works and what its performance impact is. I have not been able to get the required people on it yet. I’m optimistic that will happen, but can’t offer any timeline.

Sorry… I know that’s not a great answer, but consider that it could be worse.”

There is a bit of news coming from various places.

SSA

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.

There no rollout to the main channel this week. None of the release candidates made it through testing.

Release Channels

Blue Steel and Le Tigre will get a new package for testing. This package addresses the disconnection issue many have been experiencing. (BUG-2564) This is the one where numerous avatars in a region would suddenly be disconnected. It also included LSL scripts using HTTP connection being disconnected too.

Plus there is a crash mode fix.

Magnum will continue to run the package from last week: The Interest List improvement for faster rendering of a never be for visited region. The only change to this package is the adding of the disconnect-fix-code also running on Steel and Tigre.

SL10B Contest

The Lindens have announced a contest as part of the celebration of SL10B. The first place prize is a Homestead Region for four months. Second and Third place winners will get a homestead region for 2 months.

The Linden Lab Logo for SL10B

You’ll find the rules and guidelines here: SL10B Celebration Snapshot Contest. 

No one on the Linden side is saying WHEN we might see SSA (Server Side Appearance baking) roll out. Today at the Server Beta meeting we found one reason it is taking longer than anyone would like. I think the Lindens are ready for SSA to rollout. But, they have to get problems fixed and they have a dandy one.

SSA is in testing on the Preview Grid (ADITI). You can go into Testy Sandbox and Lagland to try it out. But, be warned, read the rest of this article first.

Corrupted Textures

JIRA SUN-74 – Apparent avatar skin and eye texture asset corruption with Server Side Appearance.

This bug is about SSA corrupting textures your avatar is wearing. Skin and eyes are definitely affected. It appears any Mod-OK skin is at risk.