Server Deployments week 48

As this is Thanksgiving week in the USA, it is a code freeze week with no scheduled deployments for the grid. Deployments will resume in 49.

SL Viewer

There are no planned RC releases or updates for week 48, again because of the Thanksgiving code freeze.

Oz Linden is, however, working on getting another maintenance RC together in the near future, although it’s not clear exactly what this will contain at this point in time.

There have also been reports of issues with test versions of viewers built using the latest Sunshine External repository (the SSA “polish” code and AIS v3). The exact cause of the problems is not known, but it is leading to a high number of Current Outfit Folder mismatch issues on Windows. A request has been passed to the Lab to check the automated build process in order to help ascertain if there is a problem in the code, or whether an issue in merging the code is causing problems. These issues don’t affect any released versions of viewers, only those using the latest SAA / AIS v3 code for testing purposes.

Default Object Permissions

A number of TPVs include the ability to specify the default permissions applied to a new prim object (cube, cylinder, torus, etc.) on creation. A similar capability is being developed for the LL viewer (STORM-68) by Jonathan Yap, a long-time contributor to the viewer. However, this work also requires updates to server-side capabilities, and Andrew Linden is now looking into this, and at the moment is specifically trying to figure out how to propagate the default perms through teleports and region crossings.

Other Items

Region Crossing Issues

The three RC channels are all running the same simulator version, which includes a fix for “Sim crossing on vehicle fails when parcel at opposite sim border is full.” (BUG-4152). Describing the issue at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday November 26th, Simon Linden said, “The server was doing a parcel check at the wrong location … you’d cross, and at one point it would check a parcel based on the new region coordinates in the first region. If that happened to be a full parcel, it failed.” This issue has been reported as occurring on Main channel regions as well, under a variety of reports including SVC-8007. As such, it is hoped that when the package currently on the RCs is promoted to the Main channel in week 49, these issues may also be rectified.

In the meantime, and to test whether the fix may work for SVC-8007, the mainland region of Epirrhoe has been moved to the Magnum RC to allow vehicle crossings to be tested between it and the neighbouring region of Jodis, which has been a crossing which has experienced repeated issues with SVC-8007 for the SLRR.

llSetCameraParams([CAMERA_DISTANCE, x])

Many vehicles of all types in SL use llSetCameraParams to establish a “follow camera” which allows the vehicle to be effectively guided by the driver / pilot. However, there has been a long-standing issue the CAMERA_DISTANCE rule, which is clamped to distances far shorter than draw distance. This can make it next to impossible to create a scripted follow camera for very large vehicles such as realistically sized spacecraft, airships and ships.

The original JIRA (SVC-3499) was closed as “Won’t finish”. However, commenting on the matter at the Simulator User Group meeting, Andrew Linden said:

If we were to expand the clamp limits then some poorly written scripts will change behaviour. How much do we care about breaking such poorly written scripts? And… I wonder why it was clamped so tight? It would be nice to ask around to see if anyone remembers why some limits were set … Well, it would be possible to expand the distance limit and test to see how it works with different limits. If nothing breaks too bad, then perhaps we could ship it.

A new BUG report has been filed as a feature request for this to be looked at (BUG-4594), which is likely to be looked-at the next time feature requests are sorted, and quite possibly passed to Maestro Linden.

Region Restart and Visibility Issues

An unusual issues has been reported which appears to be related to region restarts and visibility, but it only noticeable on regions which have multiple neighbours, all of which are restarted at more-or-less the same time (within about a minute of one another). The problem can be broken down into a number of related points:

Observers are standing in region A, which is surrounded by regions B, C, and D – all of which are restarted at pretty much the same time

Following the restart, there is a high probability that some or all of regions B, C, and D will not be visible to those observers on region A (which was not restarted), and they show-up as red on the mini-map – something which has been confirmed on both the SL viewer and Firestorm

However, anyone entering region A after the restart will see all of regions B, C, and D as expected. Similarly, anyone on region A at the time the other regions restarted can resolve problems by relogging

the restart will see all of regions B, C, and D as expected. Similarly, anyone on region A at the time the other regions restarted can resolve problems by relogging Those observers who were in region A at the time the surrounding regions were restarted are able to fly into any of them which are showing as red on the mini-map, and although nothing physically renders for them, they will experience object collisions. Furthermore, it is possible to exit the “red” regions on the mini-map and fly into the void where no regions actually exist.

In tests with a specific set of regions, the above issues occurred in 8 out of 12 tries. That there is a unique problem with the regions on which the tests were carried out has been pretty much discounted. Whirly Fizzle, who has been poking at the issue with a number of people, provided a screen capture show how her alt managed to fly through a “red” zone and into the void where no region exists.

Commenting on the matter, Simon Linden said, “It sounds like it’s getting confused and not realizing the old connection went away … I’d bet on the timing.”

Agreeing with this point of view, Andrew added: “If Region A thinks your viewer can already see into Region B, it wouldn’t initiate the connection,” hence why relogging would appear to fix the issue for those experiencing the problem and those arriving in the region after those around it have been restarted: as you arrive in the region, it (re-)initiates the connection between the viewer and the surrounding regions. This is also why people encountering the situation can enter void areas where no regions exist, as Andrew also explained: “The region you’re on expects the other region to inherit your avatar, o it lets you walk beyond the region boundaries until the other region picks you up. But if the exchange never completes, you get to walk around outside of the region boundaries for a while.”

This can be seen in the image Whirly supplied: while she is clearly in a void space where no regions exist, the title bar of her viewer still reports her as being in Mote (her “region A” during the test), because the “hand-off” between Mote and Droom (shown in red on her mini-map) never completed.

Andrew recently fixed another issue related to connections to neighbouring regions, and has offered to look into the matter himself to find out what is going on and how it can be rectified.