Upload Testing Regions

With the news of the heterogeneous grid in the blog, there's a pretty real possibility that the beta grid itself will disappear, as beta software could be tested in the main grid in specific regions with first look clients. While this is GOOD in terms of development and testing for bugs and features, it's bad in that the beta grid enables us (at least those of us who thought about it or were told about it) to upload content for testing essentially for free without actually paying for it for the purposes of testing. To clarify, this would allow you to upload a texture to the beta grid, see that it doesn't look right, and then go back and edit it, repeating until you get the texture you like. This is important because it allows you to test things (especially animations, but textures and sound clips too) over and over again in the intended situations (like pose ball arrangements) without spending money needlessly.

This thread is a discussion thread for possible replacements, should the beta grid actually disappear, allowing us to test our uploads without having to permanently lose money on testing.



The immediate solution that pops into my mind is sandbox areas would allow for temporary content. Anything uploaded in those sims stays in those sims alone and no money is actually spent. This would greatly expand on SL's focus for allowing anyone to try anything, as artists could upload with impunity without having to worry about making money on SL first. Once testing is completed in such areas, the upload could be made again outside of the sandbox area and the L$10 would be deducted. When I say "sandbox area" I don't necessarily mean an actual sandbox sim (as those are often times griefed and/or full), but rather a parcel setting enabling an area to be part of this "sandbox" ideal. Many of the sims in furry areas for instance have large areas dedicated to sandboxes, and these areas could be parceled off and set to sandbox mode. To counter "upload griefing" that would bog down the asset servers and greatly extend the need to add storage space, I propose that any sandbox areas upload to a separate sandbox asset server (either separate entirely, or just a segment of the current one) which is wiped on a regular basis (3 hours or so). While I feel this is an ideal solution, it's also quite possibly the most labour intensive to set up.


Another option is the oft mentioned "timed trial" method, where by any upload is not immediately deducted from your account, but is time stamped and after X minutes from creation it triggers the deduction of the upload. Any upload that is deleted in this time is utterly deleted, not just removed to the trash in one's inventory, eliminating the possibility of bypassing the deduction when the trial period is over. While this system works, I like many others am forgetful, and I've no doubt I'd be uploading and uploading and uploading without remembering that many of my textures are going to be deducted soon. This would also hurt if you, say, upload a bad article of some kind and then something happens; your net goes down, you're forced to reboot, act of mom, whatever. It's very likely you won't get back in time to delete that bad upload.


The last solution I can see is that beta sims in the het-grid will give the player L$5000 extra upon entering not change the player's account no matter what they do, like the beta grid now. I see this being a very unpopular choice though because people might want to opt in to the beta program, but still have vendors in their sim (especially if those vendors are their major source of income). Having L$5000 free for buying stuff would seriously impact the economy if beta sims COULD change the player's account, while nothing that people buy would carry to the stable release sims and the sim owner would make no money if they COULD NOT change the player's account regardless of bonus testing money.

Well I hope the Lindens read and take in the feedback here. I must admit I sort of understand what they are trying to achieve but not why they are doing it. We have a way to test almost ready software in the live environment (First look viewer) but for initial beta testing of anything (our items as well as the SL software) you really need an isolated system. Somewhere you can test things and push things knowing that if it messes up you wont loose inventory, money or friends!
If I was to suggest running beta software in my 'production environment' in my RL work I would be shot down before I even started. SL is a game to some but also it involves real money as well. Okay, merge teen and adult grids of that will help but keep an isolated beta grid please.

They won't be merging the teen and adult grids, that'd make it impossible to segregate the two. As for beta testing on public servers, it's not like they're forcing it. They're asking people (sim owners) if they would like to try out the new code. In the past, sim code has failed because it wasn't properly stress tested, but the average users online in the beta grid is less than 20 spread out over a dozen sims. I think the most people I've seen in any one sim at a time is 8 people in a sim, and that was during the initial impact of sculpted prims. By testing on production servers, they can stress test code properly, and by asking residents to decide themselves they clear themselves of fault and offer a recovery option just in case stuff goes wrong.

We all say "teen grid", but as far as I know, the teens log on to Agni just like we do. We share the same grid, there's just an artificial barrier that prevents crossing over.

Nope. Try searching for someone on the teen grid. They don't show up.

Their assets are also inaccessible (and vice versa).

They're on the same grid as us:
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Estate_Visibility_Functional_Spec
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Estate_Visibility_test

Ah ha. There is data on it. Makes sense.

The beta grids will still be around. Het-Grid is merely an add-on, not a replacement. Sorry for the confusion!

"The beta grids will still be around. Het-Grid is merely an add-on, not a replacement. Sorry for the confusion! "

Thanks for the information. It all makes sense now and I fully understand what is being done and agree. Am happy now

HetGrid enables SL 2.0 (though Zero Linden winces at the term). The beta grid itself will no doubt be a HetGrid though not as far a long in development for any given feature and only LIndens and Alplha testers will get the viewers required to enter/use (or even be aware of!) certain sims (or so I would expect).