We updated the system today, bringing in updates from OpenSim 0.8.1 and 0.8.2 (Dev).
You can see the full list of changes in OpenSim 0.8.1 here: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/0.8.1_Release
Since OpenSim 0.8.2 hasn’t been officially released yet, there’s no comparable page that shows which changes it contains. However, we’ve noted some of the important changes in this release below (changes in both OpenSim 0.8.1 and 0.8.2).
All of the Scripts Need to Be Recompiled
Scripts in OpenSim are written in the LSL programming language, but before they can be used they need to be compiled into a DLL. Compiling scripts is a slow operation, so we compile each script only once and from then on we reuse the compiled DLL.
The new version of OpenSim has changed the format of compiled scripts. (This was done to make scripts more reliable if they need to be terminated; this is called setting “ScriptStopStrategy” to “co-op”.) Therefore, all of the scripts in Kitely now need to be recompiled. The first time any world is started after this update it will spend some time recompiling its scripts. During this time the world will perform slower than usual, and scripts will be slow to start. This will take a few minutes, and it will only happen once.
Scripting Changes
This release contains a couple of new OSSL functions:
There are also some new and improved LSL functions:
- llCastRay – this function has been much improved
- llGetGeometricCenter
- llGetBoundingBox
- llGetEnv
Other Notable Changes
In order to make it easier to change terrain, terrain updates are now sent first for the area the user is near. This makes terrain editing faster. However, it means that far away terrain changes may not be displayed as quickly.
The algorithm used to calculate performance metrics such as frame time, fps, etc. has changed. If you’re used to the old performance metrics then the new metrics will look very different. The performance of OpenSim hasn’t actually changed (well, except for improving a bit): only the numbers shown have changed, to be more accurate. If you would like more technical information about this change then see this post: http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/2015-April/025621.html.
World managers can now Kick a user using the Estate Management dialog.
You can now “Grab” objects: use Ctrl+Drag to move them, and Ctrl+Shift+Drag to rotate them.
And finally, there have been numerous changes to many aspects of OpenSim that are too small to mention here, but together can have a big impact. Please let us know if you encounter any problems.
