Linden Lab identifies simulator performance problem

Despite initial denials of problems at front-line support, Linden Lab has investigated the performance issues reported by Second Life users yesterday, and discovered the problem affecting the new version of the simulator code.

Bounds-checking code, intending to provide a more stable and less crash-prone environment apparently caused a major performance hit. On the plus side, however, Joshua Linden reports that the cause of the performance problems has been identified and fixed, and that the updated version of the code will actually see a small performance gain, without compromising the safety checks.

There is still testing to be done on the changes tomorrow (Wednesday) which will be followed by a test rollout to 500 simulators. If all goes well, the remaining regions will be updated on Thursday evening. As a bonus, more diagnostic code is included to attempt to diagnose disconnection during teleport attempts.