Your Experiences with the New Server SSA Roll-Out Week

[KarenMichelle Lane]

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MalkinAmistery wrote:

Well.. Today the rollout became complete.. All "official" like..

 

Since the beginning of this "upgrade" I have had nothing but trouble..  and now.. It is worse than ever..  My SL freezes up intermittently, usually when actually trying to move or turn..  Less so when camming.. and I have even turned my settings DOWN to get a tiny improvement... (like 1 fps).. 

 

Someone said that this has nothing to do with other prims/textures rezzing, but in fact it has to, why?  Have they set up separate servers for avatar baking?  NO.  Have they upgraded the servers in preparation for this? NO, Is this now putting more load on the existing servers? YES

 

It is bound to be a failure, like most "upgrades" sl does..  the only thing we can hope for, is a few months from now, something gets tweaked by a fluke, and it improves.. Otherwise.. Welcome to the new age.. So they say. :matte-motes-evil-grin:

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MalkinAmistery,

I have no reason to believe you would be able to understand a System Architecture diagram, nor do I have any faith that you won't simply call this a lie because you seem to be in the "Everyone Lies to Me" conspiracy camp. But this deployment was one of the smoothest, cleanest implementations I've ever  experienced in my 6+ years in SecondLife. My credentials? I spend a long time supporting my own group of regions in the OSGrid using and living with the open source base code  Linden Lab gave to that effort long ago. It's amazing what you learn when you get your hands dirty and into the code.

The careful Release Channel implementation of the preparatory Server Code over the past several months  and the constant Viewer upgrades to support this new code and it's features was bumpy but now that I see it in widespread production I'm so very pleased with the end result. The number is issues in SL Answers related to this deployment seems to be less that 10!  LESS THAN 10. After a upgrade of this magnitude!  WTG Linden Lab - I've been on the complaining end of some of the Server Updates updates in the past but this one had someone with their head in the right place leading it.

So MalkinAmistery, have you even bothered to post a question to SL Answers? Have you included your PC Make and Model. Your GC's Make and Model, Your OS details and your internet communication details? Your skimpy problem description sounds like you are one of the smug wireless internet users who assume they know everything about TCP/IP packet communication thus, their PC "set-up" can't possibly be at fault.

Do something constructive and post your issue in SL Answers where the Volunteers, many with a 1000+ hours of SL experience, can assist you. 

Take this link to post a Question in Sl Answers

               ---------->> http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Answers/qac-p/Answers <<----------

 

Sunshine Details Follow:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Project_Sunshine-Server_Side_Appearance

 

Project Sunshine-Server Side Appearance

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Second Life Wiki > Project Sunshine-Server Side Appearance

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Contents [hide] 1 Server Side "Texture Baking" Viewer Release 1.1 Structure of Server side texture baking 1.2 Viewer Architecture changes 1.3 New Network Protocols 1.4 Forwards and Backwards Compatibility 1.5 Status of viewer repository 1.6 Reporting Bugs, assistance with merge issues 1.7 Source code & build links

Server Side "Texture Baking" Viewer Release 

Structure of Server side texture baking

Viewer Architecture changes

In order to accommodate the back-end server code we have refactored a significant portion of the avatar appearance pipeline. There is now a new "project" in the indra directory called "llappearance" which defines a set of interface and functional classes that are shared between the viewer and the back end rendering system. These classes were pulled out of newview, and range from avatar definitions (LLVOAvatar), to tex layers and visual parameters. In addition, a number of texture functions and classes have been moved from newview to llrender. In some cases, these classes were subclassed to contain the viewer-specific functionality back in newview.

Since some of the functionality of the classes was moved to a different directory while other pieces stayed, many merge tools will get confused and not necessarily move your changes to the correct place and in some cases may believe that the proper solution is to remove your fixes or be unable to merge the patches at all. Expect that there will be some manual merging necessary, especially if your viewer has made avatar/appearance changes or tweaks. We will assist whenever possible with questions about the new architecture or merge questions, but the new changes will be necessary for viewers to have after we start to roll out new servers.

 

New Network Protocols

To support the new featureset, a few of the network protocols have been modified or added to:

1. login now returns a texture fetch url for any baked texture requests
2. Agent Appearance message now contains an extra visual parameter to indicate that it is a new-style message
3. Agent Appearance message has an extra (optional) block to indicate appearance version number and current outfit folder version number
4. Regions now have a new capability to request an appearance message which will return or regenerate the agent appearance message
5. Regions now accept a flag on the reply of a RegionHandshake message that will allow the simulator to identify SSA-capable viewers.

Forwards and Backwards Compatibility

This project was designed under the assumption that viewers will be updated before the server code gains widespread adoption. However, the server code will take a while to test, scale up, and roll out. As such, the viewer code provided can work fine on the grid as it stands today. The new code should still upload new baked textures and use the old protocols on the main grid. Once a new viewer connects to a new server, that user's appearance message will be converted to a server-generated message that will persist even once you return to an old region. New-style appearance messages will remain flagged as such even when sent by an old region. Since textures are fetched from a central service, updated viewers will be able to fetch an avatar's textures even if the server your agent is on does not support it.

If you force a rebake or change your outfit while standing on an old-style region, however, your viewer will revert to uploading its own bakes. These will be overwritten when you return to a new-style region.

Our testing regions on Aditi are set up next to some server-trunk regions so that you can test these transitions. Please be certain to test with multiple viewers so that you can verify that avatar appearance is consistent from multiple users.

Testing has shown that there is a danger of asset corruption if AvatarAppearance messages for your own avatar are sent to viewer 1.x clients (Phoenix specifically). To combat this, the new simulator will not send such messages for yourself until your viewer can be verified as compatible. As soon as a new region receives an updated RegionHandshakeReply message, or an appearance request from your viewer, it will be marked as compatible. This compatibility flag will follow you as long as you stay on a SSA-enabled region.

Status of viewer repository

The initial version of the SSA viewer has been released with viewer version 3.5.1. Additionally, the RegionHandshakeReply patch has been released separately here: RegionHandshakeReply patch . A second round of changes has been started in the sunshine-external repository, but changes located here are not considered of release quality yet. Additional work is required, along with extensive testing. Most Third Party Viewers have integrated the first round of changes, and have been testing its functionality against test regions on Aditi and Agni.

Known issues include:

1. Agni test regions do not yet protect against SUN-74, the asset corruption bug on Phoenix viewers. This will be fixed with the next server rollout.
2. Avatar hover works differently than previous third-party implementations. Hover/offset is adjusted via a wearable parameter update, and must be saved to take effect, making it useful for outfits that need to always be adjusted. This does not cover every use-case for the current third party implementation.
3. A handful of difficult to reproduce cases of avatars failing to load exist that are fixed by forcing a rebake or relogging. These appear to be mostly inventory-related and should be improved in later releases.

 

Overall the system appears to be nearing readiness for an initial release. Any users that notice bad behavior on test regions/viewers should report them as soon as possible, so any impact on release schedules can be evaluated.

 

Keep checking in for additional information on known issues and updates. More code will be pushed periodically as we fix the remaining issues and make any refinements.

Note that once this starts to roll out, users who do not update their viewer will not resolve properly to other people. They will see avatars using the new system as grey. See this blog post for details: Faster Avatar Loading on the Horizon

Reporting Bugs, assistance with merge issues 

The viewer should work as it does today on the main grid. There are regions on Aditi that have the new code ( SunshineTest, SunshineTest1 ).

Bugs and edge cases with the current state of code, whether in the viewer code or the back-end service should be filed in JIRA under project sunshine (SUN).  If you are a developer and cannot access this project, contact User:Oz_Linden.

If you are having trouble with the new re-architecture or merging your appearance changes into the new codebase, please reach out to Nyx Linden (nyx at lindenlab.com).

[KarenMichelle Lane]

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Theresa Tennyson wrote:

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MalkinAmistery wrote:

Well.. today the rollout became complete.. all "official" like..

 

Since the beginning of this "upgrade" I have had nothing but trouble..  and now.. it is worse than ever..  my sl freezes up intermittently, usually when actually trying to move or turn..  less so when camming.. and I have even turned my settings DOWN to get a tiny improvement... (like 1 fps).. 

 

Someone said that this has nothing to do with other prims/textures rezzing, but in fact it has to, why?  Have they set up seperate servers for avatar baking?  NO.  Have they upgraded the servers in preperation for this? NO, Is this now putting more load on the existing servers? YES

 

It is bound to be a failure, like most "upgrades" sl does..  the only thing we can hope for, is a few months from now, something gets tweaked by a fluke, and it improves.. otherwise.. welcome to the new age.. so they say. :matte-motes-evil-grin:

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Actually they HAVE set up separate servers for avatar baking. Therefore, it is actually putting LESS load on the simulator servers. Besides, server operation has next to nothing to do with viewer FPS. Did I miss "Opposite Day" again? Darn.

 

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Naaa you just missed "wiener" day ! When all the wiener's whine [as they boil in the hot water].

[Dillon Levenque]

When I saw this title I thought it was current. I see I'm wrong, but since it's been necroed already I'll jump in.

I didn't have a whole lot of time to get inworld tonight (Day One of the Sunshine Revision). Home worked fine but then, why wouldn't it? I decided to TP to places that would normally be occupied: I picked Mon Tissu and Maitreya, in that order. It took forever for the TP to finish in both cases; I think maybe every other SL resident who was on had the same idea—TP someplace busy!—so we might have all been getting in each other's way. The good news is that the two or three people I saw before I said 'screw it' and bailed were in fact visible in all their glorious colors.

You have to use a way more than usual poetic license to get this to work. A variation on a song, composed for the occasion.

I logged in.
I didn't even think about
The changes.

I wandered.
I looked around, and saw
A lot of people who were gray
I know that happens every day
Should I log or should I stay?

In fact I waited, but then I realized
That they rolled the rev today
And that change is here to stay
So no matter what I say,
Nothing,
Nothing is......the same.

 

I am not a Streisand fan, but while the song I tried to rip off for the lyrics has been done by many...in my opinion nobody ever did it better than Streisand.

[Sassy Romano]

Well my first impression, VERY SLOW.  Much slower to render both my own appearance change and that of the avatars in a busy region.  30 Seconds to add a piece of clothing?!

[Jo Yardley]

To me there is a clear improvement.

Avatars rez faster and so does everything else.

[Phil Deakins]

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MalkinAmistery wrote:

Well.. today the rollout became complete.. all "official" like..

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Not quite. To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't yet been rolled out on the BlueSteel sims. I believe that's due later today.

If the Blue Steel sims do have it, then I haven't noticed any difference at all. In fact, I'd be disappointed that avatars still start and stay as clouds for an appreciable amount of time before rezzing.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

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MalkinAmistery wrote:

Well.. Today the rollout became complete.. All "official" like..

---

Not quite. To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't yet been rolled out on the BlueSteel Sims. I believe that's due later today.

If the Blue Steel Sims do have it, then I haven't noticed any difference at all. In fact, I'd be disappointed that avatars still start and stay as clouds for an appreciable amount of time before rezzing.

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Phil, The Server release logs show all the Release Channel groups are moving to a 13.08.+ version of the Server code. I'm not 100% sure but doesn't  that point increase indicate the the whole of Project Sunshine is implemented as well?

 

[Phil Deakins]

I've no idea Karen. I don't think that BlueSteel had SSA up to this week and, since the LL message on login says that all sims have it now, I'm assuming that it will be in BlueSteel after this week's update, which is today (a few hours from now) - always on Wednesdays.

If we've already got it, I don't see any difference. Or... I have been noticing that, lately, my avatar stays a cloud longer that it used to. Maybe BlueSteel already has it and that's the result. I do know that my alt sees my main fully rezzed significantly before my main sees my main fully rezzed. (I use 2 screen and always have 2 viewers running - one for my main and one for my alt. My alt logs in first, which is why I notice it). I hadn't noticed that before, so maybe BlueSteel really does have SSA already. I was expecting SSA to make clouds a thing of the past.

[Phil Deakins]

Today's update has been done for the BlueSteel sims, and I notice a definite difference when logging both avatars in. I would say that BlueSteel got SSA today.

[Coby Foden]

http://status.secondlifegrid.net/

Posted by Status Desk on August 21st, 2013 at 06:55 am PDT

[uPDATED 6:55 AM PDT, 21 August 2013] Rolling restarts for the RC server channels are now in progress.

[postED 11:58 PM PDT, 20 August 2013] We will be performing rolling restarts for regions on Magnum, BlueSteel and LeTigre RC server channels. They will begin on Wednesday, August 21st, at approximately 7:00AM PDT
[unquote]

After all of today's (Wednesday) RC channels rolling restarts have been completed SSA will be active in the whole grid.
That is: SSA is active in Main server channel (was already on Tuesday) and in all RC server channels.

 

[MalkinAmistery]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

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MalkinAmistery,

I have no reason to believe you would be able to understand a System Architecture diagram, nor do I have any faith that you won't simply call this a lie because you seem to be in the "Everyone Lies to Me" conspiracy camp. But this deployment was one of the smoothest, cleanest implementations I've ever  experienced in my 6+ years in SecondLife. My credentials? I spend a long time supporting my own group of regions in the OSGrid using and living with the open source base code  Linden Lab gave to that effort long ago. It's amazing what you learn when you get your hands dirty and into the code.

The careful Release Channel implementation of the preparatory Server Code over the past several months  and the constant Viewer upgrades to support this new code and it's features was bumpy but now that I see it in widespread production I'm so very pleased with the end result. The number is issues in SL Answers related to this deployment seems to be less that 10!  LESS THAN 10. After a upgrade of this magnitude!  WTG Linden Lab - I've been on the complaining end of some of the Server Updates updates in the past but this one had someone with their head in the right place leading it.

So MalkinAmistery, have you even bothered to post a question to SL Answers? Have you included your PC Make and Model. Your GC's Make and Model, Your OS details and your internet communication details? Your skimpy problem description sounds like you are one of the smug wireless internet users who assume they know everything about TCP/IP packet communication thus, their PC "set-up" can't possibly be at fault.

Do something constructive and post your issue in SL Answers where the Volunteers, many with a 1000+ hours of SL experience, can assist you. 

 

Here is a suggestion for you..  possibly stop being a conceited ass?  I was stating what I knew from the sources I had..   if I am wrong, so be it..  today, things seemed to be a bit better.. so I am hoping that is the case..  I have been in SL for 8+ years, and I also have computer science schooling..  the point is here.. it was never an insult directed at YOU personally, so, next time.. try not handling it as such.  Thanks.