KnownBugsAndWorkrounds

There is a lot of collected information about known bugs and workrounds at ArianeB’s site: http://members.cox.net/arianeb/there.htm#bugs (dead link).

Versions of There

• Currently running: V2.12, since 2004-05-12
  • Tyr housing
  • Deeds
  • setting music volume to zero really mutes all music, rather than just silencing the nearest loudspeaker.
  • developer female bunny slippers
  • lag and rubberbanding fixes
  • voice/IM bug fixes
• Previous version: V2.06, from 2004-03-30 to 2004-05-11

Bug 38509: Invisible Avatars

Problem: this usually manifests as a vehicle apparently moving around without a driver. In fact, the avatar driving the vehicle is invisible to you. You can communicate via IM or voice chat, but not by text chat as the avatar’s chat bubbles are invisible too. Any objects the avatar is holding are also invisible: however, if the object held is a paintball gun you can see the paintballs impact.

There version: possibly since November, definitely in V2.06, V2.12

Details: if you look at the thob for the avatar in question, you may find that one of the dasps is missing. Specifically, the one that describes the avatar’s skeleton.

Workrounds:

• If you see this, please ask the invisible avatar to change clothes and let us know whether that helps.
• The blind avatar can teleport away to another sector and back again.
• The blind avatar can walk to another sector and back again.

Bug: item take-out timeout leaves item without “take out” option

Problem: since V2.06, inventory is handled differently, with inventory items always appearing to be in your menu even if you teleport or otherwise move into another sector. When you attempt to “take out” the item, the system actually fetches the item from wherever it is to where you are; this normally takes a couple of seconds. Sometimes the operation times out, leaving the item without a “take out” tag. This condition persists through log out/log in.

Workround: the item still has a “lend” option in your inventory. Lend the item to someone nearby and have them take it out of their inventory. You will then be able to put it back in your inventory, with the problem cleared. Alternatively, lend it to someone else and just retrieve it.

Bug 37550: Animations Broken

Problem: some objects which used to have animations no longer have them. Examples include:

• paintball targets
• both of the windmills near Dune Valley
• the fan in The Old Waterin’ Hole
• the large flag in Sirocco
• the cooking animal in Sirocco
• The Pool of Narcissus is not rotating (although the water is still animated, the lilies do not move)
• The Monkey Crater UFO

Workround: none known.

Bug 37304: Shop Unit Collision Problem

Problem: clients and servers disagree about the location of the collision mesh for designer “shop” buildings. The server’s idea of the collision mesh is displaced by a couple of metres or so in the direction of the entrance so that it extends out of the “front” and does not properly cover the “back” of the shop.

Symptom 1: if you pick up and replace an existing designer “shop” building, it jumps backwards away from the drop point. The (invisible and misplaced) collision mesh will still be inside the PortaZone, but some of the visible structure may extend outside.

Symptom 2: if you walk around a designer “shop” building, you may be rubber-banded backwards if you try and walk through the (invisible and misplaced) collision mesh. Similarly, you can walk through the back wall of the unit, or the back halves of the side walls.

Cause: client and server ThereScript and model files for the shop objects disagree. For example, for the “Old Stone Room” shop unit, the ThereScript file is gamekit/epobs/fu/74086611.ts; the version on most client machines points to fu/74086611.model while the server one points to gamekit/partykit/m208pk_shop.model. (One interesting observation is that the two shop models described here are not quite the same even from the point of view of the visual appearance of the models; the window shape in particular is very different.)

Status: apparently introduced Wed, 20040324 as a result of an attempt to merge identical models. Resolved in V2.06 in that client and server now agree, at the cost of changing all designer shop models to have “hourglass” windows and shifting their in-world location. No statement yet on whether this will be fixed properly at a later date.

Workround: Don’t pick up the shop unit to try and fix things, as it will just make things worse. If you delete the .ts file for the piece, your client will see both the visual object and its collision mesh in the right place. However, other people will be a bit confused about what is going on so it is perhaps not such a great idea to do this. In addition, it is not known whether a fix for this problem will use the old model or the new one (given that they are visually different as well as having different origins).

Speculation: this is the same kind of problem that has caused all designer gothic seating units to float when re-placed since V2.04.

Speculation: the difference between the two model files (apart from little details like the window shape) is that the reference point, or origin, is different.

Bug 37128: Invisible Chat Bubbles (B)

Problem: sometimes, avatar A can’t see avatar B’s chat bubbles. The two avatars can usually communicate by IM, or by a system of “one jump for yes, two jumps for no” or via a Kilroy sign. Yes, this looks identical to bug 36949 but it is a different bug.

Cause: this variant is very specific. You need to exit from There (not just log out) and log back in while chatting to exactly one other avatar.

Status: fixed and under testing. Speculate that the fix will arrive as part of V2.08.

Workround: log out properly using the Logout option rather than the Exit option. The other workrounds listed under bug 36949 don’t for for bug 37128.

Bug 36949: Invisible Chat Bubbles (A)

Problem: sometimes, avatar A can’t see avatar B’s chat bubbles. The two avatars can usually communicate by IM, or by a system of “one jump for yes, two jumps for no” or via a Kilroy sign.

Status: fixed; arrived 2004-03-30 as part of V2.06.

Workround: the avatar whose bubbles can’t be seen can:

• teleport to another sector and back again
• hop on a HoverBoat and jump off
• log out and back in again

None of these are guaranteed (particularly the last, which actually seems to be related to the cause of the problem as well), but they do seem to fix the problem a lot of the time.

Bug 36840: Apparent Early PortaZone Retrieval

Problem: a PortaZone will disappear from the world before its time runs out. You can tell that the problem isn’t just a slow loading issue because you can walk through the space where you know the PortaZone lives without rubber-banding. You can do things like place another PortaZone in the same place. After some time, the original PortaZone will reappear in-world, embedded in any other PortaZones placed there in the meanwhile. During the period that the PortaZone is not in-world, the owner’s possessions such as signs, scrolls and loudspeakers are not “protected” by the PortaZone and may also be retrieved.

Cause: this is due to a deep cache protocol issue that sometimes arises when one of the simulation servers (ihosts) is reset.

Status: the particular variant that was originally reported involved PortaZones being missing after the early morning reset of the production cluster. This bug was fixed 2004-03-30 as part of V2.06. However, there is some evidence that a very similar problem persists in V2.06 under other circumstances.

Workround: do not fiddle with the PortaZone in an attempt to fix the problem. After half an hour or so at the most, the PortaZone will reappear in-world just as if nothing has happened. Place a couple of Casual PortaZones if you want to hold your spot; they won’t interfere with the original PortaZone’s reappearance.