Deploys for the week of 2013-10-07

[Maestro Linden]

Second Life Server (main channel)

No updates are planned for the main channel this week.

  

Second Life RC BlueSteel, RC Magnum, and RC LeTigre:

All three RC channels are on the same server maintenance project as last week.  This project includes a fix for a group notice delivery issue, introduces a missing JSON operation to LSL, and includes preparatory work for an upcoming viewer with scene loading (interest list) improvements.  The only change from last week's version is to address an issue with the llGetCameraRot() LSL function.

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_RC_BlueSteel/13#13.10.03.281989

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_RC_LeTigre/13#13.10.03.281989

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_RC_Magnum/13#13.10.03.281989

Scheduled Wednesday 2013-10-09 07:00-10:30 PDT

 

We will be monitoring this thread as the code gets released, so feel free to note any observations you have about the server updates.  If you have a specific bug you'd like to report, please file a Jira. 

[Lydia Craig]

If you are indeed monitoring this thread, please do not be fooled by the apparent lack of response, for things have gotten no better since the last restart and, in fact, have gotten worse, so rather than reflect player satisfaction in this lack of response take it instead as a total lack of trust in either LLs interest in making things more stable or ability to do so if they want.  Right now rather than rush ahead with more changes LL needs badly to step back look at the current problems and fix them, and then and only then decide if the course of change they want to follow is possible or even needed.

At the moment these problems center around three issues which until the current round of changes began were not serious problems.  They are rezzing which until recently was working remarkably well under the new SSB protocol, lag and teleports.  At the moment all of these issue appear to be more related to timing rather than to any overt changes LL has made in server code, though there is a chance that in the last few week new functions have been shifted to local servers whcih those servers cannot support and this has in fact led to the lag and above mentioned problems.  Still, most of these problems seem to act more like timing issues, and this is especially true of teleports which lately take an incredible time to complete and quite often end in failed ports or worse yet crashes. Also once completed, about half the time these ports lead to a serious period of lag in the destination server that effects not only movement, but such things as rezzing and even chat.  Chat lag both in IMs and open chat is another problem and from time to time it becomes absurdly disruptive.  Another and possibly timing related problem is logins and these fail at a remarkable rate and even when accomplished are often accompanied by incomplete rezzes or lost inventory.

Now for those of you that will insist that these problems stem from my connection or a computer or settings that are below those specified for SL let me point out that my connection is running at very nearly its maximun capacity, my computer is within sl standards and my settings have not changes more than a very little in the last month and a half and in fact still remain within the given sl limits.  There is, of course a strong possibility that these problem come neither from my connection, computer or even LL itself and my represent a problem in the servers that LL hires to transmit its data, however, maintaining and monitoring these servers is not the players responsibility but LLs and if they are underpowered or otherwise have problems it is LL responsibility to see to it the problem is fixed and not the players.

Basically at this point players have apparently lost both faith and trust in the intentions of LL and have given up on things getting any better.  This, however, is not anything either LL or its supporters should be happy about because if things do not improve soon they will begin to leave as they did last January and this time they may not return as they are starting to do now. Far from being a sign of player satisfaction the almost total absence of player comment upon the problems they are facing reflect a general belief that such comments are unwanted, unlistened to, and in the end a waste of time, or of the fact that many of those who have paying accounts and thus have a voice in these forums have already left or have decided to leave sl and do not feel like wasting their time any longer with these forums.  This possibility should be even more alarming for it is these players who through their membership and tier payments keep sl afloat and if they have been alienated and no longer take the time to voice their concerns then SL is in truly deep trouble.

Now for those of you who will immediately choose to castigate me as just another ranter and prophet of doom, let me remind you that I have been active in SL for over seven years and am more than willing to praise LL when they do in fact get things right,  Unfortunately, this time they have not "gotten things right" and SL is now less stable and less playable than it has been in years, and if LL expects players to accept this continued diminishment of services they should reduce the rates the charge to reflect that dimished level of service and quit pretending that what they are doing is in any way improving the quality of player life, or the sl economy.

[dd Temin]

Hi Lydia

Can you give some details of these issues  you are experiencing in the last couple of weeks?  For Example...Are you having slow rez , slow or failed teleports, or  chart lag  on a private islands  or on a Mainland region?  or both?  What type of sim  servers  main/agni.....magnum...blue steel ?  If you can tell me the exact names of some of these regions you are using........I will be happy to run some test myself in those regions.

Also can you tell me what  country  you are logging in from   as there have  been some issues with transalantic connections during some hours.

In the  sims  where you see these issues....what does the  statistics window show for  total script times and total spare script times?

Are these  sims  empty of other Avatars?   or   have a only a few avatars?  or  perhaps have  more than 10 avatars?

What is  your FPS , view  distance setting .  graphics mode  you typically use.  FPS  as I am sure you know is very dependent on the direction you are viewing...i.e    High fps if  looking at  Ocean only  or looking at a  very sparsely textured region. and  much lower FPS if  looking towards a complex highly textured scene.

Its a lot easier to get support from the Lindens  if  we can prove  that  many residents are experiencing  the  same exact problems that you are....so i will be more than happy  to add my support if in fact i can observe  some of the same issues your are experiencing in those same regions.

 

[Ayesha Askham]

dd

I am not one to rant and whinge, but some of Lydia's points are quite valid.  There is without doubt some issue regarding server function at Linden Lab.  The variation in sim ping and resultant packet loss when pings exceed 250ms is something which I have experienced first hand.  This phenomenon does not seem related to particular channels, since Main Server sims can vary by up to 100ms, for no apparent reason.  Certain sim crossings when undertaken on vehicles are quite good, even between different channels, but some, and these can be between two Main Server sims can be dreadful and may result in either mangled data crashes, unseating of passengers, camera angle distortion or other occurrences...I have seen all of them at one time or another.

That there is also a server latency issue with Abovenet is certain (I have data), but whether there is also an issue with either LL's internal  comms or the first stage of data transmission from LL I do not know nor can I determine.

I have raised an LL Bug report BUG-4025, and I know there are others, but of late I have seen little or no action on this.  The US admin shutdown has complicated tracing issues, but I believe they still remain unsolved and unsorted.  There is no doubt that on some sims as soon as one lands after a TP and for up to 5 minutes after rezzing, there are are waves of data being sent to the client (seen as periodic rises in bandwidth being used) irrespective of draw distance.  That is not normal but what it signifies I do not know.

Lydia

There is a fundamental disconnect between us the users of Secondlife as an environment and the developers at Linden Lab.  They simply do not wish to be bothered with ironing out what they see as minor failures in their work.  Certain Linden employees and ex-employees who have tried to get them to focus on getting SL running properly liken the task to herding cats or sieving a gas.  It is almost impossible, despite its significantly negative impact on both us, the users of SL and its perceived image in the wider business.

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Lydia Craig wrote:

If you are indeed monitoring this thread, please do not be fooled by the apparent lack of response, for things have gotten no better since the last restart and, in fact, have gotten worse, so rather than reflect player satisfaction in this lack of response take it instead as a total lack of trust in either LLs interest in making things more stable or ability to do so if they want.  Right now rather than rush ahead with more changes LL needs badly to step back look at the current problems and fix them, and then and only then decide if the course of change they want to follow is possible or even needed.

 

 

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Lydia, here's a thought - maybe you're allergic to your friends Alexi and/or Lea, who hang out at the same places, belong to the same groups, who talk about exactly the same problems on the forums in exactly the same ways, and who are frequently logged in at the same time you are.