Preview release 1.7.0(26) is now available!

Preview release 1.7.0(26) is now available for residents with existing accounts on the main grid.

The preview grid is for testing purposes only. While user information is fetched from the main grid, all currency, content, land, and other transactions are transitory. Updates made on the preview grid will not be applied to the main grid. All users will have a starting L$5000. As with object, attachment, clothing, etc. updates, monetary transactions on the preview grid will not be reflected on the main grid.

The preview environment is transitory and for testing purposes only!

To report a bug in 1.7.0, please use the in-world Help menu and go to the "Report bug..." window and provide detailed feedback about the problem that you are experiencing. We will soon be announcing updates on the status of known issues -- check here for updates!

Unfortunately, the preview grid is currently only open to adult residents; teens are not permitted at this time.

The preview viewer can be downloaded at http://secondlife.com/preview/

Preview Release Notes:

Second Life 1.7.0(26) Aug 30, 2005
==================================
Major Features:

* Simulator Performance Improvements
o Previously the simulators (also known as "sims" or servers)
would run as quickly as they could, regardless of whether or
not they had something to do. When there were tasks to do
(scripts to run, moving objects, people connected) they would
run at "normal" frame rates, like 60 frames per second. But
when not loaded, they would report frames rates over 1000.
This was not a very efficient mode of operation.
o In 1.7, the simulator now attempts to run at a fixed frame rate
(45 frames per second) which is the same as the physics frame
rate. This means that if there are a large number of scripts
on the simulator, the frame rate will stay the same, but all of
the scripts will run less frequently/slower
o In addition, there has been a major redesign of the way we
transmit objects from the simulator to the viewers. Internally,
we call this code the "interest list".
o These improvements reduce the load or "lag" when lots of people
are on the simulator. For example, a big event or party should
result in less load and smoother motion.
* Added Multi-Select in Inventory
o Most inventory operations (move, delete, drop in world) can now
be done on multiple inventory items at a time.
o Ctrl-Click and Shift-Click are both supported.
o Some move operations don't support multi-select; in these cases
the last item selected is used.
* Added a HUD attachment point
o Attachments appear in the Users Heads-Up-Display (HUD) and not in the world.
o These attachments can only be seen by the person wearing them,
not by other residents.
o Eight HUD attachments were added.
* Full Bright Objects
o Objects now have the ability to be lit with a full brightness
lighting effect. It makes the faces (textures) appear as if the
sun is shining directly on them, regardless of the time of day.
o This effect can be applied to all faces or individual faces of an object.
* Improved World Map
o More details for each square tile.
o Less server load to generate the map.
o Auto-complete when typing in estate name, landmarks and friends online.
o Removed the drop down dialog from the Map Region Box, because
it has too many regions in it for a menu.
* Added a "Publish on to web" checkbox to the Resident Profile UI and
Postcard Dialogue UI that controls whether information can be seen
on the Second Life web site. Profiles are always visible inside Second Life.
* Residents can no longer be negatively rated. Old negative ratings
have been removed.
* The land sale tool has been reorganized.
o Land sale includes confirmation before setting land for sale for zero dollars.
* New "Open" window to interact with object contents
o Only available when object is rezzed in-world.
o Replaces using "Edit" window to view object contents.
* Residents can create classified ads in the "Profile" window.
o Ability to advertise for a fee; includes image, location and information.

Minor Features:

* Added a clear cache button to the Network tab in the Preferences window
* Updated the Toolbar
o Added "Build" and "Clothing" button
o Combined "Find" and "Events" under "Directory"
o Renamed "Mini-Map" to "Radar"
* Removed "Net Worth" From the Leaders page in the View menu
* Enable Windows XP Limited User Accounts the ability to run Second Life
o Admin and Power Users are still required to install Second Life
* We now ask on a client crash if its ok to send in your crash report,
rather than on install
* For Preview: Inventory is now fetched from the main grid, so new
users can now run preview
* Music is no longer auto started on parcel entry
* On receiving of an item, the dialogue box now distinguishes
between objects and avatars
* The Terms of Service (TOS) has been updated
* Turned off ability to negatively rate a resident

Script Changes:

* Users can now set the default pay price and the quick pay button
values via the script llSetPayPrice function.
* Add DATA_SIM_RATING for llRequestSimulatorData to query the rating
(PG or MATURE or UNKNOWN) of a simulator.
* Added llGetInventoryType - Give users the ability to get the type
of an inventory item.
* Added Full Bright option to llSetPrimitiveParams:
o Usage:
llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_FULLBRIGHT, side, enabled);
o Enable full bright for an entire object:
llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_FULLBRIGHT, ALL_SIDES, TRUE]);
o Disable full bright for face 2 of an object:
llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_FULLBRIGHT, 2, FALSE]);

Bugs Fixed:

* Objects move when scaling w/ grid snap
* Camera view when zooming in on prims doesn't work
* Leave a group confirmation, "are you sure" box should be modal
* Uploading image files without an extension causes crash
* Stop button broken in New Gesture console when creating a new gesture
* Objects being auto returned to trash
* Client crashes when moving no-copy objects to inventory and ignoring pop up
* Selection silhouette outlines only 50 prims
* Show all folders option does not work properly for multiple inventory
and filter windows
* The parcel object count is incorrect when max objects reached and items
selected during a parcel subdivide/join
* Taking Snapshot w/UI in next snapshot feature enabled is broken
* Mac OS X: Computer accounts encrypted with FileVault? are unable to hear
UI and user sounds
* Should always be able to reduce group land contribution to 0
* Movies no longer appear on texture if url or auto-scale option changes
* Group signup fee is ignored if the group is open enrollment
* Touch events make objects draggable by owner
* A large gesture wait time can cause a client crash
* Ask on crash about sending crash reports, not on install
* Installer pauses without message for 3-4 seconds
* Set bandwidth on first login based on download rate
* Distinguish object vs avatar gives in notification box
* Avatar skin and clothing permissions work around
* Edit window tab pane bounding box extends off the window
* Vendors get messages that "objects" were purchased
* Force parcel ownership can cause incorrect object returns
* Residents can delete their Trash folder
* Deleting a script removes object's phantomness
* Avatars can be set collisionless using llVolumeDetect()
* Child prims do not maintain phantom status on unlink
* Name tab background is visible from far away
* Locked object cannot be unlocked
* Typing sounds when focus in chat editor and mouse event
* High res snapshots give no progress feedback
* Minimize and restore breaks 'Mute Audio' in preferences
* Add a time window for honoring money transactions
* Calling cards all say (no modify) (no transfer)
* Base64 encoder/decoder doesn't understand Unicode
* llSetText, llSetSitText and llSetTouchText can now display unicode.

Known issues (more detail to follow):

* Sale info and other object properties lost on attachment rez
* Many objects on the map appear black
* Custom terrain textures not shown on map
* Teleport location for downed sim appears as valid on map.
* Objects don't appear after teleport until you move
* Cannot drag a folder of items
* Searching twice for a resident in same Find session blanks out blue buttons.
* Sims offline at time of map update are not visible
* Pressing the build button pops the cursor to the center of the screen
* llSetScale on a child prim of an attachment moves the prim.
* Button up after mouse steering when button down was on an attachment moves cursor to middle of screen
* Offer Teleport is broken
* Directory is labeled ""find""
* New buttons on bottom bar don't work in 800 * 600 resolution
* Viewer fails to tell the user they were disconnected when someone logs in at another location
* Region boundaries show up on a plane instead of in 2-D
* Propery lines draw in front of everything when HUD object has alpha
* All shiny objects appear full shiny on NVIDIA 5500, 5800
* Cracks in terrain
* TargetOmega rotation stops on selection

Hmm, I cannot fail to notice that there isn't a single line on Havok 2, HTML in-world, or intra-object communication...

Were all these features

a) dropped?
b) under development while the Preview is up?
c) postponed to a subsequent minor release (ie. 1.7.X)?

Sorry, I'm just curious

Quite a hefty bundle of fun. Thanks, Karen!

Gwyn? I think Havok2 at least was scheduled to go in 1.8(aka 2.0).
Though, I do note the absence of a mention of the anticipated moz/html integration. Possibly an oversight. Possibly one of those annoying dev delays that you sometimes get.

I love to see this stuff. We never had so much good stuff in TSO.

coco

Unfortunately Havok 2 didn't make it into this release. Several changes in 1.7 put the infrastructure in place for Havok 2, but we wanted to be sure that all scaling and performance issues were in place first. We don’t currently have a date for release, but please rest assured that it remains a high priority project.

Similarly, html support isn't included in the Preview. This feature is mostly complete and will be pushed soon; however, we removed this feature from 1.7 in order to complete the upgrade in a more timely fashion and to continue to push ahead with performance enhancements.

What great list of features and fixes.

At the moment, i see great potential for this.

Will certainly come and test some of these new features out.

Thanks for the update, Robin! Mmmm. HUD attachments. Something I was thinking of just the other day.

Ok color me stupid but I just went over the hill the other day. What is a HUD attachment and what is the signifigance for my SL?

First thing I noticed too.

Can't help but be disappointed...again....hehe. Not too suprised anymore though, since we just keep hearing of all these great new features, and nothing gets done. :T I mean weren't they talking about havok 2 back for 1.4?




Hm, seems like that's said after every update...



And maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't XML-RPC supposed to be crippled only briefly? I thought there was a blog post about llList2Notecard as well.

*waits for Havok 2, Mono, a new rendering engine, full XML-RPC, object to object communication, HTML on prims, a Linux client, and some form of scriptable persistent storage*

C'mon, give us some of the juicy things we've been promised.

This is an attacement that the attachee can see but others can't. It'll be useful for displaying information to yourself that you don't want others to see.

The steady frame rate sounds like a major improvement. I'll be throwing stuff at it to see if it flinches. I'm also glad to see the the multi drag for the inventory. Not to sure about the content window. People have asked for it but it doesn't seem very condusive to dropping textures into trees while editing them. Everything should revolve around editing trees. The world would be so much simpler then.

OMG we have a terrain map that shows only the terrain. An actual map, why Scarlett, I am faintly swooning. Thanks for that.

Of course, I couldn't resist to make a short trip to the 1.7 Preview Grid

My first reaction was "hooray! I have all my objects " So it seems that either the 1.7 Preview Grid is "talking" directly to the main grid's servers, has a very very recent backup, or using my cached inventory. Whatever the reason, it was good not to be thrown backwards in time for a few months...

Ok, so no HTML, no Havok 2, and no inter-object communications. *Sigh*. To tell the truth, these were the only features that really interested me, but it's also important for future development - meaning that now I can plan to change (or not) some of my own projects, and at least look forward on the upcoming in-world HTML (the functions are already there, hooray! - although a 20 second delay on refreshing an URL will make many of my own intended applications pretty pointless).

The HUD is a very interesting concept. I suppose that we're finally able to do card games As for the rest of the functionality for doing some better games (ie. like better manipulation of the "harm" system), I didn't saw any new functions to address those. So I guess it's just the HUD for now. Still, it'll make interesting new ideas. Of course, without inter-object communication, this will just mean - more lag with llShout() Ah well...

As to the rest, again, I'm surprised at how few bugs there are already. Great job! Really, the sims crashed more than my own SL client - I guess the new way the sims handle the script load have made them quite a bit more unstable. The first impressions were excellent, though. Pretty high frame rates (no wonder, on empty sims...), all the tools worked like I expected them to do, and there were no visible quirks on the few hours I spent in-world, although, to be truthful, it is a bit annoying to see sims go down so easily all the time.

Nothing that some good 2-3 weeks of debugging can't fix My guess is that if LL finds out what's wrong with the sims, this is something "almost ready" from what we can see - and the waiting time should shortly be over!

Havok 2 has been coming Real Soon Now since beta. Or so older players say.

Ah well - let's face it, they haven't started the work on Havok 2 yet, lol. They're awaiting the upcoming Havok New Generation for 64 bit CPUs (just joking)

So, we'll have to survive on the crippled physics system for another year or two. That's not so bad. It means that real-time games and vehicles will continue not to be SL's biggest attraction...

I was surprised about the missing inter-object communication, though. This would really close down the so many llShout scripts and definitely become a big improvement overall, not to mention a much better development environment. I can't imagine a reason for not deploying it. I mean, compared to things like the fade-out colours in the telehub coverage area in the map, it can't be much harder, since most of the work on linked messages is already done (or even if this system would go through the "database" functions - another alternative - most of the work would be ready as well). Expanding functionality when there is a framework is always easier than starting from scratch.

As for HTML-on-a-prim - I'll wait to see what comes out of it. It seems that LL has decided to go all the way through - ie. no intermediate HTML-in-a-floating-window, although that feature would also be wonderful to have. Well, since we got HUDs, we can always attach a prim with HTML glued to our face and use it as an in-world, privately-viewed browser. It should work as fine, although not so "integrated" into SL's interface.

I have also noticed a certain lack of a link to download the Linux version

So, all this is for SL 3.0 due in 2009. I'll wait, I'm very patient

In the mean time, it was nice to be in the Preview Grid in Gibson, talking to some residents also previewing, fetching textures at 400 Kbps (not bad, not bad...), having 1500+ active scripts, and still around 10 fps on average (15 fps with some camera angles). Not bad, not bad at all. I'm eagerly awaiting the first Lag Fest in SL 1.7 with 40+ avatars in their primmed hairs, and then we'll do serious comparisons, but the first feeling is that script lag has been very well handled in 1.7...

We would have had to survive on the "crippled" physics system for a while anyway; I seem to recall Andrew saying that at first, Havok 2 would function basically the same as Havok 1 does now (minus deep-thinks) until they were sure its implementation was bug-free, and only then would we begin to see new features (of which new prim types, prim allocation increases were a few, and possibly even chains and ropes were a few). Of course, I'm too lazy to dig up a forum post (which is where I saw that) supporting this assertion, but I'm pretty sure he said something along those lines. Might have been in a Hotline post.

Hey, First of all the buttons at the botton look ugly to me, the clothing idea is good but i see no reason for apperance and build as you can do that in the pie menu, seems like a waste of space to me, and dont look nice like that, and second, i hate the idea of having no drop down menu, the way i used to look for sims was alot easyer and this way seems annoying,having to type the name in everytime, just to find where the sim is grrr lol i am lazy and this way would take longer



oh and for some reason i cant del ojects :/

Before my time but I believe it. I wish they'd just be honest with us. Obviously Havok 2 wasn't "close" back in 1.4 since we still don't have it now. I'm normally patient, but stop promising things if you're not going to come through already.

Well, from what it looks like, it's the servers that are not handling the load very well. The new code for dealing with laggy scripts is really amazing, but it's also very "new" I guess. I found out that a few minutes after being unable to delete objects, the sim crashes.

Strangely enough, Gibson, which is very high texture-intensive, as well as running over 1500+ scripts, does not crash so much as the other sims. Perhaps it's on different hardware, but hopefully it gives LL an opportunity to compare Gibson with the other sims and try to understand why it works so well on one and not on the others.

After some thoughts, I finally got a few ideas for the HUD attachments It's true, new features stimulate creativity Since there is only one new feature to play with, it's up to us to explore it the best way we can

I know this from the last preview in that the servers are very old machines, most if not all are the ones that have been retired from the main grid, so thats to point out the processing power isnt there and that many if not all of these will be single processor machines maybe class 1,2 and lucky if there is any class 3's unless one is needed just to keep the grid alive.

On top of that this is the first public release of the server code, so its going to be very fragile, especially if you dump alot of users in it across many sims, running physics across sim boarders on old machines, they are going to go down, but in doing so hopefully will provide them with logs their side, along with any logs of crashes our side.

This is why programmers should never agree to deadlines on anything really non-trivial. It has a way of just not working out. They originally were talking about Havok 2 for September 2003. As said, XML-RPC was supposed to be hobbled for only a short time, but look how long it's been a minimal implementation (and it only works in one direction.) As for the new render engine, last December I believe Cory said we'd have it by now.

Really, anything that hard to put together should not be promised by any particular date. It's just asking to be bit in the ass. I've seen this happen in my own experience as well as from watching the news on various companies. (Remember idSoftware's common "in two weeks" answer?)




So far vehicles are not working too good in Preview. I get a lot of "twilight zone for five seconds" when I enter Bonifacio. I don't know if it's just on an old machine or if there are a lot of scripts or what. Other sims seem less messed up. (This is with no one other than myself in the sim.)

Indeed, Nathan. This is actually a very good procedure for testing out new releases. If things run smoothly enough on old machines, they will very likely run much better on the "real grid" No complains here, just asking myself if the repeated sim crashes on most preview sims is just lack of processing power, or any other reason. I really hope it's just another reason - as said, I'm pretty much impressed by the speed of the Gibson sim (the others are far harder to judge; sure, the sandboxes, with 15+ avatars, run at 30 fps for me, an astonishing feat that I can't duplicate on the main grid's sandboxes, but then again, the preview grid's sandboxes are still "mostly empty", and I can only drool a bit if that's the expected speed we're going to get in 1.7 (for the record, 1.6 was, for my humble Mac, around 20-50% faster than 1.5, and 1.5 was slightly faster than 1.4...).

A big advantage is having a very updated version of the asset server (I almost believe that we're talking to the "real" one) and being able to test very recent objects/scripts. Kudos to that as well!

I'm also seeing a far larger number of people testing 1.7 than 1.6 Of course, I also am aware that we have twice the population now; but it surely shows that people are quite willing to spend some time in doing a more thorough debugging. I can only applaud that effort

So you're saying that having the thing declare my password to be incorrect all throughout today to be normal and that it's actually just been down all day?

I'm not sure what you mean by "twilight zone for 5 seconds", but I noticed a number of "twitches" trying out different vehicles - seperate from the normal "falling for 5 seconds after crossing sim boundaries" - Every vehicle I tried out would start rotating for a second or two, which I'm also accustomed to, but this was a bit faster and happened almost perpetually; my airship looked like it had developed a nervous tic. :/

Yes i've noticed the border crossing problem, feels like 2 seconds or freefall after you cross the border you turn right and the right wing tip your down, then when you recover its like driving a car with a buckled wheel.

This was when there was some problem while setrot and alike so im hoping it was linked with that and the vehicles were having problems with positioning.

But that along with getting a face full of hair and shades if i use mouselook across a border they've had a few bug reports from me to do with vehicles lolol and i not got round to the vehicle test yet