Permanent Test Grid

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This thread got me thinking. Why don't we keep a test grid up throughout the development cycle?

This could benefit both residents and developers:

- It could be a solution to try things out without affecting the real world
- It would allow residents to upload and test textures without losing money (especially clothes)
- It would allow a benign testing ground for objects which handle money (ie vendors, gambling machines, etc) and be a good environment to explicitly invite people to try to hack/exploit them to help root out bugs
- It could also be a good way to get feedback on new ideas before actually implementing them (as in the linked thread).

Obviously nothing you build or do will be transfered from the test grid to the real grid, and that fact would be clearly established, just as it is now.

The test grid wouldn't even have to be 6 regions; I think just 2 would suffice for most situations.

I've seen at least one other multiplayer environment (SWG) run a test server continuiously, so I thought maybe this idea might be worth consideration.

I'd only suggest this though if it wasn't that much trouble for LL to maintain, such that it's benefits outweigh it's liablities. If any Lindens are listening, I'm curious if this would be trouble to maintain, or if the idea had even been considered?

How does this sound?

-- Kex

I think this is a great idea. With a nod to Jack's situation and the gambling machine exploit, as well as the clothing test.

I agree! This would be great.

It might also be nice to make the whole test grid a big sandbox that was wiped periodically. Sort of like a big Cordova.

I think the best test grid would be five sims: this would give all possible types of junctions between sims.

That's a great idea, although I suspect the usual $10 fee per texture upload is a conscious decision designed to create a money drain. It sucks but I understand the need.

Aye! No better way to test new features except to let us play with them. Often, with new features such as XML RPC and the such, the scriptors out there can help find the defeciencies in implementation and help the LL staff best implement the newest toys, err umm, I mean features!


And to further Kex's point in case, I found that SWG's perminant test grid was always fun... Often, I'd find myself there more than in game for the fact that it was always interesting to see what new things were coming, and see them come together in front of your eyes. Heck, the bugs often created very interesting results to have fun with, and of course report


Julian, huh? $10? Huh, Umm, ok, I'm confused Kex's idea is that its a replication with no bearing on the main grid... Cross post?

I think the L$10 is to keep people from uploading too many textures.

I also think Kex's idea is great.

I agree. I would also like to see the test grid open permantly. Also, when are they going to bring it back up? It has been down since yesterday afternoon.

I'm not trying to hijack, just clarifying:

The idea is that you go to the test grid and use your test wealth to upload textures and test them until you get them right. Then you go to the real grid and spend only $10 of your actual SL money for the final upload saving yourself a lot of money in the end. Clothing makers can sometimes spend $300-500 getting a single texture right. This I believe is a conscious money sink designed by the Lindens, and their lack of response to requests for an offline personal sim or an offline avatar editor seems to back it up.

While I like Kex's general idea I don't think the Lindens will be thrilled about helping us to circumvent this specific aspect of SL and the resulting economic impact.

I like the idea and heardidly(sp) endorse it.

Maybe reset the grid every week, backup everyones inventory to most recent and reset bank accounts to 10kL$ every week.

I think this could come in handy for both Lindens to test new things and get opinions and users to plan ahead their current scripts/whatever with upcoming changes that may effect them.