[Opensim-dev] OpenSim 0.6.8 source packages now available for download

[Justin Clark-Casey]

Hi folks,

The OpenSim 0.6.8 source release packages are now available from

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Download

In this release, the grid service moves into ROBUST, so anybody upgrading from 
0.6.7 to 0.6.8 will need to do some configuration migration work.  Thanks to 
Diva, there are instructions at the bottom of

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/ROBUST

for this.  I also overhauled the main configuration page at

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Configuration

to better reflect current configuration realities with 0.6.8.  I also 
considerably rearranged the text to split instructions into specific 
'standalone' and 'grid' sections.  It's still far from perfect but I think that 
it is an improvement (even if I say so myself :).

Here's an extremely high-level and subjective summary of the changes between 
0.6.7 and 0.6.8

     * The minimum level of Mono required to build and run OpenSim is now 2.4.2.
     * The version of libomv used by OpenSim was upgraded to 0.8.0-pre.
     * The grid service has been moved to the new ROBUST infrastructure.  The 
User and Messaging servers still exist as specific executables.  If you're 
moving to OpenSim 0.6.8 from 0.6.7 then there is migration information on the 
wiki.  The OpenSim configuration wiki page has also been changed to reflect the 
current setup situation with 0.6.8.
     * Parcel information was added to OpenSim region archives (OARs).
     * Inventory Archive (IAR) functionality was improved.
     * JPEG2000 texture generation was considerably improved, which should mean 
less missing texture information in general.  However, 64 bit users may see an 
increase in the number of exceptions with the new CSJ2K code which replaces the 
OpenJPEG library in various spots.  Bug reports are welcome.
     * Considerable work has been done to reduce memory leaks.
     * Excessive flailing when an avatar walks over very moderately bumpy ground 
was fixed.
     * Objects on sale at L$0 can now be bought.
     * The Linden Lab Second Life client stack was overhauled.  This should be 
improve server responsiveness to client requests.
     * OpenSim's use of the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) physics plugin was 
improved to increase performance.
     * The DotNetEngine scripting engine was removed.  We recommend that anybody 
still using it migrate to the XEngine scripting plugin (which has been the 
default for sometime).  This does not affect anything at the language level - 
all scripts will continue to work as before.
     * The performance and reliability of scene object manipulation code was 
improved, though some bugs will remain.  Linking code is as yet largely 
unchanged, hence existing object linking bugs very probably still remain.
     * Prim collision meshing has been improved.
     * An issue where avatars could not automatically land on prims was resolved.

This is duplicated from my blog post at 
http://justincc.org/blog/2009/12/23/opensim-068-source-packages-released/

I didn't incorporate this into the release itself since it's inevitably somewhat 
subjective (it naturally emphasizes the things I know most about or can most 
easily learn through documentation).  A high-level changelog should contain more 
perspectives - it might be possible to do that for the next release, or perhaps 
it doesn't really matter.  A low-level git commit log is probably still better 
than nothing so that may be worth considering too for the future.

Some bugs were reported against this release in RC1 testing, in particular 
Mantis 4351.  However, this bug is proving very difficult to resolve and as it 
doesn't affect everybody I decided to go ahead with the release regardless 
rather than hold things up further.  I have to strongly invoke the alpha code 
disclaimer here.

I'm hoping the usual good people will produce binary packages and
installers :).  I know I said this for 0.6.7 but judging from the rumbles in the 
jungle I think that it is more likely to happen for this release.

Merry Christmas everyone!

-- 
Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
http://justincc.org
http://twitter.com/justincc