Second Life Server

[Simon Linden]

Region idling is a new technology added to the Second Life system that will help better share server processing power between regions that are busy and regions that are empty.   Here are answers to some common questions about region idling.

How does region idling help Second Life?  

Region idling will help Second Life server performance and stability by lowering the amount of computing power used by empty portions of the grid.   If the servers spend a little less time simulating parts of the virtual world where the are no residents, this CPU power can help busier areas.

When does a region idle?  

Regions will start idling when there are no residents on that region, or in adjacent regions looking into it.   The instant a resident teleports or looks into a region, it stops idling.

Is Linden Labs turning off my region?  

No, regions are not turned off or shut down.  They merely run at a slower frame rate when nobody is there.   They will appear exactly the same way as before in search, the world map and other Second Life features.

Can I disable region idling for my land?  

No.  Region idling will eventually be enabled for all Second Life regions.   If you believe region idling is causing issues for your land or content, please file a jira bug report with clear information describing the problem and the exact times it happened.

Is there any LSL support?  

The llGetRegionTimeDilation() function will report a high time dilation when regions are idling.    You can now pass “region_idle” into the llGetEnv() function to determine the current idling state on a region.

What about LSL network functions?  

Any scripts that use LSL network functions will suspend region idling for a short period of time to allow them to function normally.   This will allow scripts that connect to outside services via email, http and xmlrpc to run as expected.

My region monitor object is telling me the region slow, what should I do?

In-world objects that use the llGetRegionTimeDilation() function will see increased time dilation during region idling.   This is to be expected.   The scripts should be updated and use the llGetEnv() function, passing in “region_idle” to see if the increased time dilation is due to region idling.

How is this being deployed?  

Region idling will first appear on the Second Life BlueSteel RC channel.   We will closely monitor these regions for issues as we do for any server update.  When we are confident there are no problems, it will be enabled on the full grid.

I found a bug caused by region idling.  What should I do?  

If you believe region idling is causing issues for your land or content, please file a jira bug report with clear information describing the problem, the exact times it happened, and why you think region idling is the cause of the issue.

[Celestiall Nightfire Member]

Hmm, just saw my email from Oskar and followed the links, and have now read all about the Region Idling..and it sounds good. 

*This* is the type of work that people are looking for...thanks...for looking for solutions to the in-world stability issues. 

Oh, thanks to Oskar Linden and team  : )

[Allen Kerensky]

Excellent idea and pretty decent sounding implementation.

[Tabby Fenwitch]

And how will this effect the breedables? Are we going to have to park ourselves on our land to make sure that the breeding cycle doesn't extend exponentially?

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

Wouldn't that depend on how the breedable measures time?

I can't see that being answered usefully by a Linden. You need to ask the person who scripted the breedable 

[Stickman Ingmann]

Depending no how they did the details of region idling, and how the breedables were created, there could potentially be problems, but I doubt there will be. It all depends on the way the timer is set for the breedable, and how low the framerate gets. Once more information about region idling is released, you can contract the scripter of your breedable and ask them if it would be a problem.

My guess is that it won't be.

I posted some technical details on why, here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Region-Idling-coming-to-Second-Life/m-p/153619...

[Dilbert Dilweg Contributor]

Hmm Very Interesting..

[Stickman Ingmann]

Short answer to breedables: They won't even notice if the region goes idle.

Long answer, Simon Linden explains here http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Region-Idling-coming-to-Second-Life/m-p/153657... that frame time is reduced to 8-10 frames per second. While he didn't answer all my questions, this information means that as long as your script doesn't try to call a timer() event more often than 0.125 seconds, most scripts probably won't even notice if the region is idling. This includes breedables.

If there is any breedable on the market that has a constant timer running at 0.125 seconds or less, I would recommend you do not do business with them until they improve their scripts. A breedable with a script that aggressive would be take up more resources than it should, and be a hinderance to a lag-free experience for everyone. Most of the breedables I've seen appear well made, and would not fall into that category.

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

That is more or less what I figured.

Since this still depends on competent scripting, and on Linden Lab informing scripters in time for them to resolve any issues, expecting this new feature to get out there without problems is about at the same level of wisdom as betting on slow horses.

[Innula Zenovka Recognized Helper]

How, if at all, will this affect timer events with a long interval?

I'm not all sure how timer events calculate the passage of time, but I've seen it suggested that it's based on execution frames rather than directly on the system clock, in which case that would presumably make the timer run slowly while the region is idling, thus throwing out timers that try to schedule things to happen every n hours or whatever.

But perhaps it doesn't work that way and my concerns are misplaced.