Month: March 2014

Firestorm 4.6.1: Firestorm full-on

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoUpdate: Shortly after release, Jessica Lyon dropped me a note to say the Vivox files didn’t actually make it to the release, but will now be made available via a separate download.

On Wednesday March 12th, the Firestorm team released Firestorm 4.6.1.40478, bringing with it a lot of features, fixes, updates and enhancements.

The complete list of changes, together with attributions, can be found in the release notes, and I refer readers to that document for specifics on contributors, FIRE JIRA, etc. The following is intended as an overview of some of the more major / interesting changes to be found in the release.

The first thing to note with this release is that it is, with the exception of the Linux 64-bit version (which is beta), a full release, not a beta or alpha or anything else.

So, if you’ve been avoiding trying 4.5.1 because it was a beta release, now is the time to consider updating. Do make sure when doing so that you take a look at the Firestorm 4.5.1 release notes, which provide a lot of information on that release as well which will of benefit to you as you gain familiarity with 4.6.1. You can also read my review of the 4.5.1 release here.

Downloading – a Reminder

This will be the first release of Firestorm following changes at Google forcing Firestorm to discontinue using Google’s download service (see the Download Server section of my Feb 15th FS meeting transcript for an explanation). This means that all Firestorm downloads starting with this release are via the team’s own download server.

As this is the only server the team has at their disposal for downloading the viewer, you may experience some delay / issues when attempting to download the viewer due to the volume of downloads the server is handling, particularly during the period following the release announcement. Should this occur, the Firestorm team request a little patience, and if you can, to consider re-trying a little later.

Installation

As always, a completely clean install of the viewer is recommended.

Windows 64-bit Installer

Those who have previously installed the windows 64-bit version will be aware that the installer could be painfully slow. With this release, the Windows 64-bit installer has been overhauled, and should be appreciably faster, and also includes some additional tweaks:

  • Added estimated installation size (200 MB)
  • Add/Remove panel icon (shared with 32bit installer for simplicity)
  • Added website URLs (shown in the bottom section of the Add/Remove panel)

Viewer and Installer Blocks

The release of 4.6.1 means that all versions of Firestorm prior to 4.4.2 will be blocked from accessing Second Life in around a week’s time. Additionally, and in reference to the Windows version of Firestorm, note that:

  • The 32-bit installer blocks the installation on any Windows operating system below Vista, except for 32-bit Windows XP with Service Pack 3
  • the 64-bit installer blocks the installation on Windows 64 bit on versions older than Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Updates from the Lab

This release brings Firestorm to parity with many of the Lab’s more recent updates, highlights of which include:

  • Code parity with Linden Lab’s 3.7.2 code base
  • Fitted mesh support – for those unfamiliar with Fitted Mesh, I have an overview here
  • HTTP updates for improved rendering
  • Request Teleport feature
  • Region Restart updates
  • Vivox 4.6.x updates
  • SL Share (link to Facebook)
  • Temporary attachments no longer get removed improperly
  • … and more

Request Teleport

The Request for Teleport option (show from the People floater) and request.
The Request for Teleport option (show from the People floater) and request.

A feature contributed to the SL viewer by Jonathan Yap, Request Teleport allows users to pass a request to others asking that they be teleported to their location.

I covered the capability when it first appeared in an SL project viewer in September 2013, so in brief:

  • Select the person to whom you wish to teleport (from your Friends list or Nearby list, etc.), and select Request Teleport
  • Enter a message in the pop-up, if required, and click OK.
  • At the “other end”, the recipient of the request will receive the request and can either accept the request, sending a teleport offer, or reject it, in which case no message is sent
  • If the request is accepted, the sender see the usual teleport offer pop-up.

Note that Request Teleport is not a replacement for Firestorm’s “teleport to” capability, which remains unchanged.

SL Share and Facebook

The four tabs of the SLShare floater (as seen on the SL viewer), which allow those who want to to share their SL times via their Facebook account
The four tabs of the SLShare floater (as seen on the SL viewer), which allow those who want to share their SL times via their Facebook account

SL Share is a means by which those who have no issue with linking their SL account with their Facebook account can do so and send messages, photos, etc. to their Facebook account.

This was a feature released by Linden Lab again in September 2013, and I provided an overview at that time. however, it is probably worth repeating a couple of core points:

  • The feature is opt-in, and available to those who have no problem linking their SL identity with that of their Facebook identity
  • It has proven very popular among many users who have no problems doing so
  • It’s not about the “Facebookisation” of Second Life or trying to “make” SL users also use Facebook.

Region Restart Updates

The region restart updates comprise two main elements:

  • The new on-screen region restart warning, accompanied by a sound and camera shake
    The new on-screen region restart warning, accompanied by a sound and camera shake

    A new region restart warning notification, which is displayed in the centre of the viewer window every minute, on the minute, for the last five minutes prior to the region restarting, and which includes a countdown (in seconds) until the regions restarts

  • A camera-shaking warning which occurs every minute, on the minute for the last five minutes prior to the region restarting, causing the world view to shake., and which is accompanied by a region restart sound.

Note that both the new format notification and the camera shaking can be disabled / enabled as follows:

  • New region restart notification: Preferences > User Interface > Toasts > Use new region restart notification
  • Camera shaking: Preferences > User Interface > Toasts > Don’t shake my screen when region restart alert message is shown.

In addition, teleports to regions which are in the final 60 seconds before a restart will be prevented and the viewer will display a message in the format: “The region you’re trying to enter is about to shut down”.

Phototools

Phototools is updated to version 1.2, bringing with it a lot of enhancements, including:

  • An option to enable / disable screen space reflections (when shadows options are enabled)
  • The removal of legacy specular highlight and camera aspect ratio controls
  • Additional sliders/spinners and controls for RenderShadowBias, RedershadowBiasError,  CameraMaxCoF, FSRenderShadowSplitExponentY, FSRenderShadowGaussianX, FSRenderSSAOEffect and FSRenderShadowGaussianY
  • Increased editable value ranges for many spinners allowing greater control
  • Numerous other updates and amendments.

Details on the Phototools floater can be found here.

In addition, William Weaver, who first developed Phototools, has produced a series of video tutorials on using the floaters, the latest of which is provided below, which also looks at some of the most recent updates:

Contact Sets

Contact Sets, which allows Firestorm users to group their friends / contacts into groups or categories (friends, business contacts, members of s specific RP group, etc.), has been completely revised with this latest release of Firestorm.

Contact Sets now form an additional tab in the Conversations / Contacts floater, and as well as the familiar means of accessing it (via the Contact Sets toolbar button, or by Comm > Contact Sets or by pressing CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-C), it can now be displayed by any of the following methods, and then clicking on the Contact Sets tab:

  • Via Comm > Conversations / CTRL-T or via the Conversations toolbar button
  • Via Comm > Contacts / CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-F
  • Via Comm > Friends / CTRL-SHFT-F  or via the People / Friends toolbar button
Contact Sets is now integrated into the Conversations - Contacts floater (image courtesy of Firestorm)
Contact Sets is now integrated into the Conversations – Contacts floater (image courtesy of the Firestorm team)

The new layout is tidier and more integrated into the Firestorm UI, although a couple of options – such as the Rolodex functionality – are no longer present. New buttons provide a more intuitive approach to managing Contact Sets, and include the able to display friends and contacts using their Display Names or even set your own aliases for them (only visible in your Contacts Sets tab).

An overview and instructions on using the new Contact Sets can be found here.

Continue reading “Firestorm 4.6.1: Firestorm full-on” →

Lab issues call for Oculus Rift beta testers

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeOn Wednesday March 12th, Linden Lab issued a call for people willing to help beta test the upcoming Oculus Rift enabled SL viewer.

The call, made via a blog post, reads in full:

The Oculus Rift offers exciting possibilities for Second Life – the stereoscopic virtual reality headset brings a new level of immersion to our 3D world, making Second Life a more compelling experience than ever before.

Though a consumer version of the headset isn’t available yet, we’ve been working with the development kit to integrate the Oculus Rift with the Second Life Viewer. We now have a Viewer ready for beta testers, and if you have an Oculus Rift headset, we’d love to get your feedback.

If you have the Oculus Rift development hardware and would like to help us with feedback on the Viewer integration, please write to sl_oculus_beta@lindenlab.com to apply for the limited beta.

Oculus Rift: the headset-enabled viewer is now ready for beta testing
Oculus Rift: the headset-enabled viewer is now ready for beta testing

As noted in the post, the headset isn’t commercially available as yet, but the pre-release version with the Oculus Software Development Kit is currently available for $300.00 directly from Oculus VR themselves. If you have a kit already, now is the time to sign-up!

As I reported in December, VoidPointer Linden had indicated that the work on making the viewer operate with the Oculus Rift headset was “feature complete”. This fuelled an expectation that a project viewer might make an appearance either before, or soon after Christmas, 2013.

However, Oz Linden shortly afterwards indicated the “soon” might be something of a relative term. Since both of those announcements, the Rift viewer has been working its way through the Lab’s QA process, and while it didn’t appear as quickly as perhaps VoidPointer had hoped. Even so, when commenting on the status of the viewer back in December, he was able to confirm a few things about it:

  • The same viewer can be used in both a “normal mode” and a “Rift mode”
  • There will be no apparent changes to the viewer / UI when in “normal mode”
  • Frame rates when in “Rift look” will be very much down to the user’s own hardware  (unsurprisingly).

Elsewhere, it had been indicated that when in “Rift Look”, UI menus may float over the user’s head, keeping them out of the field of view until such time as needed. This was certainly the case when Simon Linden tried the viewer earlier in “013, but it is unclear if this approach has been carried forward – so that’s one for the beta testers to discover.

There is no timescale for how long the beta testing will last, but this announcement brings official support for Occulus Rift (users can also use David Rowe’s CtrlAltStudio viewer, which provides preliminary support for the headset) a step closer to reality.

The park on the rock

Posted on by Inara Pey

LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014 – click any image for full size

I was fortunate enough to be tipped the wink about LennonParkOnTheRock, a full region held by Darth Kline, which he has developed into the most incredible parkland for visitors to enjoy.

Darth’s profile pick for the region reads:

A beautiful forested parcel in a private and exclusive Island. Lennon Park on the Rock is intended to be a sanctuary, the ideal place  for you to enjoy your second life.

My home and my place of solitude. come for a visit, stay a while.

LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014

“Stay for a while.” That’s a wonderful invitation, and likely anyone visiting the region will want to do. Here is a place to wander, sit, relax, share time with a friend or two, explore or simply forget the worries of whichever world happen to be on your mind.

It’s very easy to slip into hyperbole when describing a region in Second Life, but this is one that really is visually stunning in design and execution, and packs a heck of a lot into it without ever feeling overcrowded or losing what is an entirely natural look and feel.

LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014

From the arrival point alongside what appears to be a venue for live music, you can wander along the trails and paths around the region, from the diner up to the lookout tower on the plateau overlooking the region, or down to the coastal areas, waterways and the beach. Along the way, there’s a lot to discover and see, and more than enough to keep the SL photographer snapping away left and right.

The attention to detail here is fabulous, be it in the way the footpath, stone walls and the sim itself have been carefully blended to provide a lovely route up to what might be little holiday chalets overlooking the stone bridge leading to the lighthouse, or in the way the region has been given a feeling of use and history, through the inclusion of an old car wreck, a faded sign here and there and with some of the buildings looking is if they could use a little TLC.

LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014

This is a place to be explored, rather than described; words alone cannot really do it justice. Not only is this because of the scenery or the fact that there are a fair few things to do around the region (including riding a number of rope slides for the daring), but also because there are little stories waiting in the various scenes which unfold as you explore, which demand stories of their own. Take the rusting wreckage of an old fighter plane lying half-submerged in a small lake, for example. Clearly there is a history to how it came to be there, but what is its tale? That’s for you to decide.

One thing to keep in mind should you visit is that the region has an adjoining homestead. While this enhances the look and feel of LennonParkOnTheRock by presenting a series of offshore islands, it also appears designed as a residential area, so do please be aware of people’s preference for privacy, just n case there are folk living there.

LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014LennonParkOnTheRock, March 2014

I’ve little doubt this is a place to which I’ll be returning as time allows and for as long as it remains open to public enjoyment.

Thoroughly recommended.

Related Links

SL projects updates week 11/1: server, viewer, group bans

Posted on by Inara Pey
Simulator User Group meeting (stock)
Simulator User Group meeting (stock)

Server Deployments: week 11

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread in the forums for the latest updates / changes.

Main (SLS) Channel

On Tuesday March 11th, the Main channel was updated with the server maintenance project deployed the BlueSteel and LeTigre channels  in week 10. This contains the following bug fixes:

  • Fixed a bug in which the server release notes link in “About Second Life” would sometimes fail to appear
  • Fixed a bug in which certain objects had incorrect status when crossing between regions
  • Fixed a crash mode.

A question in the forum thread following the week 10 deployments  about the nature of the fix for “bug in which certain objects had incorrect status when crossing between regions” was responded to by Maestro Linden, who explained the fix was limited to what appears to be a single-case issue.

Release Candidate Channels

On Wednesday March 12th, BlueSteel and LeTigre should join Magnum in having support for a new version of the inventory service, AISv3, enabled.  This service requires the use of the Project Sunshine RC viewer.

SL Viewer Updates

On Monday March 10th, the Maintenance RC viewer was promoted to the de facto release viewer, version 3.7.3.287491 (download) – release notes are here.

A new hotfix release candidate appeared on Tuesday March 11th. The FmodEx Hotfix version 3.7.4.287875 (download and release notes) is intended to correct a suspected thread race crasher in the FmodEx audio streaming library.

Otherwise, all other viewers remain as listed in my Current Viewer Releases page.

Group Ban list

Baker Linden, ironing-out viewer-side issues with Group Bans
Baker Linden, ironing-out viewer-side issues with Group Bans

Baker Linden is working to fix issues which were picked-up on during some initial public testing of the Group Ban functionality on Aditi during the Server Beta User group meeting on Thursday March 6th. Those issues already identified with the viewer code can be found here.

Allowing for further testing and scheduling, the current plan is to have the server-side elements of the Group Ban functionality deployed across Agni prior to the viewer code being released in an RC viewer.

Until that happens, the viewer code will either remain as a direct download or may filter into a project viewer at some point once the server code is ready to start being deployed on Agni (there is currently no date as to when this will be).

Currently, the development viewer is available for Windows or Mac OSX or Linux, but the group ban functions will only work on the Aditi test regions such as in Morris (at the Server Beta UG meeting area).

JIRA: Old BUG issues Can be Made Visible

The re-opening of the JIRA occurred in week 10, and at the time, only BUG issues raised after the re-opening would be available to public scrutiny. However, it now appears as if reporters have the option of re-opening their old issues to public viewing if they so wish. Callak Skytower, for example, has made BUG-4427 publicly viewable once more.

Other Items

Group Role Updates

An issue with group roles was raised at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday March 11th. If a member of a group is assigned a new / additional role, the update occurs server-side, and is reflected in the Group floater for the owner / officer (or whoever is empowered to grant roles), but the change is not reflected in the Group floater of the person who has been granted the new / additional role until such it as they either re-log or are sent a re-invitation to join the group.

This has not been a cause of major concern, possibly because there is little in the way of role re-assignments occurring in groups on a daily basis. It is not currently clear as to whether the matter will be addressed, although there was general agreement that updates to role assignments should require something like a relog in order to be seen in the Group floater.

My thanks to mona Eberhardt and Rex Cronin for the meeting transcripts.

Fashion Pride: raising funds for the AIDS Committee of Toronto

Posted on by Inara Pey

fashion pride 2014Running from Monday March 10th through until Monday March 17th inclusive, the Fashion Pride Second Life Fundraiser, in association with sponsors RGF Estates, Master S&M Estates and Fire Island, is now raising money for the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT).

The press release for the event reads in part:

HIV and AIDS still impact the lives of millions throughout the world today. Its impact in urban areas is often understated publicly, but the effect it has on those it touches profound, transforming lives, destroying health, and devastating families.

Second Pride, the organization that creates Second Life’s largest pride celebration, is holding a fundraiser for AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT), to raise funds to increase awareness of the disease, assist those living with HIV, and service the community, while researching its impact on various segments of society.

Fashion Pride is an exciting shopping event that will take place from March 10th through March 17th 2014. It will include fabulous shopping, fashion shows, entertainment events, and live music from Tamra Sands to raise funds for both the Second Pride main festival in June and ACT. All proceeds from exclusive items created by designers will go to ACT.

The event region has been generously donated by Marcus Lefevre, and the organisers hope that people from across Second Life will attend. Please refer to the event schedule for details of entertainments planned for the week.

Related Links

With thanks to Firestorm and Fashion Pride Second Life.

Paradise Lost: exclusive invitation to bloggers

Posted on by Inara Pey

Basilique-logoI’ve been mentioning the Basilique Performing Arts Company’s upcoming season of  Paradise Lost: The story of Adam and Eve’s original sin, for the last few months, and with good reason: the production is one of the most ambitious and anticipated to be taking place in Second Life.

I most recently posted that curtain up on the premiere performance will take place at 13:00 on Saturday April 5th, 2014, and that such has been the demand for tickets, a second premiere event will taking place on Sunday April 6th at 12:00 noon SLT.

Bloggers

SL bloggers now have the opportunity to see the production ahead of the official opening, at a special invitation-only performance to take place at 13:00 SLT on Saturday, March 29, 2014. Places for the preview are limited, and so early registration is advised, as not everyone who applies may be invited to attend.

As well as possibly receiving an invitation to the preview performance all bloggers registering their interest in attending the event will:

  • Also receive a complimentary ticket to attend a performance of Paradise Lost, complete with audience mesh avatars by Sian Pearl (L$ 1000 value, 50% of which will be donated to the WWF’s Adopt a Gorilla programme sponsoring the welfare of a mountain gorilla)
  • Have access to the Paradise Lost Media Kit which has all the information needed to write a post apart from seeing the show itself!
  • Have their blog listed on the three websites associated with the production and have their name and URL added to the official information kit and programme
  • Be offered the choice of participating in the Paradise Lost Blog Hunt, which runs from April 5th through April 12th, and have their blog details shared among the Basilique’s 2000+ list subscribers.

So, even if you don’t receive an invitation to the preview performance, there are a lot of reasons to register you interest. Make sure you follow the registration link above and apply today!