Zalificent Corvinus It wouldn't require shutting SL down...they have an entire test grid for stuff like that. And regions in the live grid are split between official release and release candidate versions, so it's a thing that could be gradually introduced once it's stable on the test grid (in theory). And though I'm sure there's still a lot of old code, keep in mind they had to do extensive rewriting of large swaths of it to make it work in the cloud, and even more to make the name change service a thing.

Yes, I am aware of the Dev only alpha grid, the beta grid and the RC channels...

You're missing the POINT. The way a more modern "game" designed by "game devs" handles wold region or "cell" transitions is vastly different to the way SL does it.

T put it bluntly, SL Devs had no fugging clue, and did it WRONG. Fixing that with a new system, would mean shutting down the "wrong system grid" and starting it back up as the "right system grid".

Now theoretically, that could be done with a single special rolling restart, except, rolling restarts chaange regions in stages, so old grid regions could not connect to new grid regions, because "different fugging system".

So you need to take ALL the regions offline, then start them all back up together, that's a shutdown for a half day minimum.

Then there is the viewer problem, every viewer is built to use the current "wrong system". S changing the whole system means changing EVERY SINGLE VIEWER.

So LL have to auto-force update the 30% of customers using the Official Fail-Viewer, then convince FS too force-update all the 60+ % FS users THE SAME DAY.

Then you have to get all the other TPV's to force-update.

The updates will NOT include the non-PBR viewers, so you just LOST all the "can't/won't use PBR" people, so goodbye to 10% - 15% of the concurrency and paying customers.

So you have to shut the grid down for at least a day, lose 10% -15% of your players and hope you don't lose more because the shutdown makes them think you're done.

THAT is why they HAVEN'T fixed it in the last 20+ years.

This isn't something trivial like re-introducing last names.

Zalificent Corvinus Again, not entirely true. The viewer problem is solved by having an "If new then do new, else do old" setup. Last I knew the LL viewer does auto-update, but Firestorm and others will still need to convince their users to update, true. The can't/wont use PBR crowd was down to 9.7% as of February, as per Firestorm's own data, and it's going to be less than that by now.

And as far as losing people because they think a shutdown means SL closed? It'd be the height of irresponsibility to not announce this prior, of course they'd say something first. Popups on the log-in screen, MotDs, emails.

Using modern games to compare really doesn't work in this situation. They're optimized differently, and don't have user-made scripts and physics and such, and as such don't need to reboot once a week to clear out the memory of residual stuff.

Dar gods of the grid preserve us... "if new use new if ld use old" is MORONIC, adding complexity to the viewers, and that still won't update the older viewers.

You damn Futureness Cultists are systematically destroying SL...

PBR, a half finished abortion of a cut down version of the LOWEST standard of PBR, that STILL doesn't work.

New Texture scripting, that breaks good ld Blinn-Phong alpha settings with new PBR failure.

A change to the Voicespam system, that still doesn't work properly, complete with a begging message by Rosedale hoping we'd all downgrade to PBR so we can listen to him pontificate in NU-VoiceSpam.

An updated map tile limit that means older viewers can't see the world map.

A suggestion at a TPV meeting to replace IM's and local chat with a new system, so older viewers won't be able to talk to anyone.

All these HALF FINISHED "improvements" that don't actually improve a damn thing, and which ONLY drive off a MERE 10% of the user base.

Those "10% LOST PER CULTIST FUBAR" concurrency losses add up, we'll soon reach the tipping point when LL will simply close the platform down because it doesn't pay for it's self.

LL have already started DELETING old under used continents, like Gaeta I, to either re-purpose or just cut costs.

Zalificent Corvinus "Futureness cultist"? People have been demanding for decades that LL fix and update SL, and now they are people are complaining that they're doing it. Go figure.

"Voicespam"? We get it, you don't like using voice. So don't. Turn it off, and let those who do use it have the newer more secure version (which also doesn't require LL to pay for the licensing that Vivox required, AND restored Linux support).

And everything else you've mentioned other than the malarky about cults and FUBAR sound like bugs that need reporting/upvoting, to me, provided they didn't already fix them.

What's going to cost them the money and users isn't going forward, it's stagnation. New people aren't going to come if it's still the same as it was 20 years ago. And you're entitled to think the new things improve nothing, but others are entitled to disagree with you. And though civil disagreement is fine, your declaration that anyone disagreeing with you is "moronic" is out of line.

Futureness Cultists... Idiots who demand change for the sae of change, usually with fraudulent reasons...

Example.

"We must have PBR so we can have MIRRORS"

Wrong, working mirrors were in Sims 2, in 2006, SEVEN YEARS before the FIRST experimental PBR game engine.

"We must have PBR for better terrain texturing"

Wrong, games like Skyrim have MUCH better terrain texturing than SL, from 2011, TWO years before the first experimental PBR game engine.

"We must have PBR because it will bring in a VAST untapped new market of young people"

Wrong, most "young people don't even KNOW what PBR is, or care, and they won't come t SL because "it takes more than 3 hours to play".

"We must have PBR because it will attract NEW CREATORS who make for Unreal engine!"

Wrong, see, the problem isn't that we don't have enough creators, it's that we don't have enough CUSTOMERS for the creations. also, no we haven't seen a vast influx of Unreal Creators.

"We must conform to industry standards"

Which industry though? The Bread making industry? The car industry? The Unreal first person shooter industry? We don't need to conform too standards of an industry we're not part of, or which are not relevant to us, or suitable for us.

As for "fixing bugs" LL have a proven track record of giving up on projects without ever finishing them or fixing all the bugs in them. PBR is a fine example of this, a half finished abortion of a cut down version of the LOWEST standard of PBR, riddled with bugs, that still haven't been fixed several years later.

I said it's moronic, because it is.

You are part of a Cult... You want a constant stream of "new shiny" even if the bloody things don't work, never get fixed and are bloody useless.

PBR is a fine example of this, crappy frame rate reduction, loads of render glitches, fubared script support, it makes everything look like it's coated in polyurethane varnish, the tone mapping is a worthless fuster-cluck compromise that makes everything look bad, it's NOTHING like a real PBR system from a REAL game by REAL game devs.

And frankly, PBR's ONLY advantage over Blinn-Phong is for specular highlights on Metals, and PBR is 100% dependant on a PBR compatible lighting system, which SL does not have. To roll out a lighting system dependant render engine without the lighting system is INCOMPETENT.

Cooter Coorara, because it can not.