Both the UKanDo viewer and Black Dragon saw updates in week #6. Each of the release contain under-the-hood (so to speak) changes, with UKanDo in particular being something of a catch-up release more than anything else, as noted below.
UKanDo 3.7.24
The last UKanDo update was in October 2014, so it’s been something of an extended period between releases for the viewer. However, there is a good reason for this: Connor Monaron, the man behind the viewer has a good reason for this: he’s been off in the United States tying the knot with his SL (and now real life) partner. So the first thing to do here is offer congratulations to Blackrose and Connor.
Obviously, being away and being focused on such a major event in one’s life means that all things viewer naturally take a back seat. As such, the new release of UKanDo, version 3.7.24.28064, released on Wednesday, February 4th, is more about catching-up with all of the recent output from the Lab. This being the case, the release see the viewer gain parity through and up to the following LL releases:
- 3.7.18.295539 – the POODLE vulnerability threat fix from October 2014
- 3.7.19.295700 – Monty Linden’s last round of HTTP updates, also for October 2014, which improve texture and mesh data fetching and which offers significantly faster inventory loading
- 3.7.20.296094 – the GPU removal update and the subsequent 3.7.22.297128 update which fixed an inherent crash issue within the 3.7.20.296094 release
- 3.7.21.296724 – the winter open-source contributions release from November 2014, providing improved Japanese language input, improved projectors rendering, fixes for object editing when rotating and for an OS X Yosemite full screen crash issue
- 3.7.23.297296 – the winter maintenance release from December 2014, which included a range of fixes to voice, texture animation, object rendering, privacy, inventory management, etc., and which included fixes to previously released changes in the way joint offsets in rigged meshes are handled
- 3.7.24.297643 – the Experience Tool viewer (at the time this article was written, the de facto release viewer from LL).
As well as these LL-derived updates, this release also sees UKanDo reach parity through recent RLV updates from Marine Kelley from 2.9.3 through to the latest 2.9.6.6,
So while this release many not offer anything “new” in terms of TPV updates, it does bring the viewer right up to the cutting edge in terms of formal releases from both LL and RLV, which should be more than enough to keep UKanDo users happy.
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Black Dragon 2.4.1.8
The latest version of Black Dragon, version 2.4.1.8, was release on Friday, February 6th, and is the latest in a series of nips and tucks to the viewer as Niran continues to integrate code updates from the Lab and also work on refining the UI.
The core update from the Lab with this release is the inclusion of the winter maintenance release code from the Lab’s 3.7.23.297296 release, including the fixes for previously released changes in the way joint offsets in rigged meshes are handled. This means that deformations to an avatar’s shape are more intelligently tracked, and the viewer should be able to correct them without necessarily having to have the attachment causing them removed, or requiring a re-log in order to fix.
The other major update for this release see the Friends List undergo a revision. The accordion tabs separating on-line from off-line friends have been removed, and the Friends list rationalised so that on-line friends appear at the top – their names now in blue – and an duplication of names has been removed.
The release notes also list the following updates / changes:
- A possible fix for RLVa detach and re-attach issues via RLVa commands
- A possible fix for a crash caused by the connection issues panel when the region becomes invalid
- A viewer compile fix
- Max VRAM has been changed 1024 Mb in Preferences > Display Settings
- Incremental steps for Shadow Blur changed to 0.1 in Preferences > Display Settings
- The connection issues panel will no longer briefly appear when logging-in with the viewer
- Appearance floater outfit status colour has been changed
- Worn items are now listed in italics in the Appearance floater, rather than in bold
- Beacon colour has been changed to stream “blue-ish”.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
A welcome update for me and my soul mate, Ukando gives us the same performance in ultra then LL latest official viewer and some useful features that i do hope LL will integrate soon (a way to change draw distance via a slider and wind light settings = quick tools, hope it is on the move from the lab to do such), besides Rlv (even if i did got used to be without it, now).
And it is working flawless in our rigs,
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Nice that Connor is back on his viewer and congratulations for him. On the other hand, there was no updates and no news on his website since October, letting his users to wonder what happened or if the project was dead. Although this is understandable and UKanDo is still a good idea, this also shows that it needs a team or at least some coworkers, because indeed these things happen. Good luck to Connor, thank you for the update, and keep up the good work.
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Pixel, all the viewers i see being updated the fastest to be au pair with LL relases are done by single workers:
Marine Kelly, Henri beauchamps, Niran Nv.
The only team viewer that is in fact au pair with LL code is kokua.
Catznip, Singularity, Firestorm, all team viewers are well behind LL.
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That’s not my point, zz: if the single dev of those viewers is forced to stop or he/she has enough of it, the project is halted or dead. UKanDo is made in a way that should be easy to maintain, but as you can see, no Connor = UKanDo stops. Obviously the viewer doesn’t update by itself. If Connor had a coding mate, UKanDo didn’t stop. So I think that UKanDo would benefit from extra coders and that would make it more reliable and less likely to halt or die for whatever reason could happen.
As for Singularity, in their website you can read: “I, Siana Gearz (Second Life Resident) am the sole maintainer of Singularity Viewer”. Maybe there are helpers with other things, but AFAIK only Siana works on coding for the viewer. The last release so far is dated September 2014.
I’m not sure how many people are actually coding Catznip, but in their last blog (dated October) “Kitty Barnett Home from Hospital […] As you would expect she isn’t really up to sitting a desk and writing code. Work on Catznip and updating RLVa is on pause and will be ready when it’s ready, when she wants to get back into it.” Their last release for now is dated May 2014.
As for Firestom, it is developed in a way that seems to make it more complex and longer in merging the code than UKanDo and other viewers. They want to hunt for more bugs too; so they are slow because of their own work choices, rather to being a team. And even if the updates take a while, Firestorm looks always alive anyway. And if one of their coders quits, there are others.
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Almost every viewer on the TPV directory is a mostly a one person project as far as coding is concerned even though some have the appearance of a team.
Firestorm – about 90% of the coding has been done by Ansariel Hiller for the past 2-3 years or so. If she stopped working on Firestorm, there is probably a good chance the project would die or development would become so horrendously slow its future would be in serious jeopardy.
Singularity – the vast majority of coding in recent times is done by Lirusaito Kanya (Faers, or some other last name variations)
Catznip – it’s almost all Kitty Barnett’s work
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Thanks, indeed Catznip looks pretty jeopardized already.
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So to resume, all the viewers can end development if one quits.
Therefore, yes , all Pixel Said about Ukando also applies to any other viewer, besides LL official one, as they are in fact made mostly by one person..
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