Category: SL Tech

UKanDo catches-up; Black Dragon tweaks

Posted on by Inara Pey

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.

Related Links

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.

with the accordion tab removed, and the list sorted so that on-line friends always appear at the top, their names coloured blue, the Friends List in black Dragon 2.4.1.8 (left) is a lot more streamlined than previous versions (right), which also saw on-line friends duplicated between the "online" and "All" accordion tabs
with the accordion tab removed, and the list sorted so that on-line friends always appear at the top, their names coloured blue, the Friends List in black Dragon 2.4.1.8 (left) is a lot more streamlined than previous versions (right), which also saw on-line friends duplicated between the “Online” and “All” accordion tabs

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”.

Related Links

SL project updates week 6: server; mesh importer project viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Umbral Photography, Hydra Isles (Flickr) – blog post

Server Deployments Week 6

On Tuesday, February 3rd, the Main (SLS) channel received the server maintenance package deployed to the three RC channels in week #5, which includes:

  • a fix for BUG-8247 “[Experience Tools] Issue with llRequestExperiencePermissions() triggering experience_permissions_denied() and XP_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED_LAND after prior 5 minute no response period.”
  • Internal improvements for experience tools key-value functions.

There were no deployments to the RC channels for the week.

Following the Main channel deployment on Tuesday, a number of regions reported issues with objects failing to load and render, textures remaining grey, mesh outfits failing to rez / render teleport issues, etc., all of which appeared to be consistent with region capabilities failing on re-start, and thus requiring the affected regions to be manually restarted. As reported by Whirly Fizzle in the forum thread linked-to above, this has been an intermittent problem which has been occurring for over a year.

SL Viewer – Mesh Importer Update

On Wednesday, February 4th saw the release of the Importer project viewer, version 3.7.25.298441. This viewer brings various improvements to the mesh uploader / importer, which are given in the release notes as:

In this viewer we’ve modified the importer to (optionally) improve debug output, perform name-based LOD association, and handle models with many materials.

Using these new features, models with more than 8 unique faces can be imported. Gone are the days of importing complicated meshes in pieces with “some assembly required”. At import, these models are automatically split into pieces so that each satisfy the current face limits for a volume.

  • The same limitations on LODs and materials remain in place (e.g. your low LOD mesh materials must be a subset of the full LOD materials).
  • LODs and Physics reps can now be explicitly associated with a given mesh in the full LOD model using name-based matching.
  • By properly naming the meshes in your lower LOD meshes and physics reps, you can avoid issues with ordering of the meshes within your DCC tool and other material mismatching errors.
  • An ImporterDebug option has been added to the settings.xml file which, if enabled, causes more information to be output during import than you can shake a stick at. The extra output can be very helpful for diagnosing authoring errors (e.g. violating the material subset constraints mentioned above) and pinpoint what needs to be fixed in the source model for successful import.

Note that project news is a little light this week due to on-going SL planning meetings taking place at the Lab.

OnLive open SL Go Island

Posted on by Inara Pey
SL Go user? Now you can get help and personal assistance through the SL Go Island - and it's a good place for escaping the worlds, as well!
SL Go user? Now you can get help and personal assistance at the SL Go Island – and it’s a good place for escaping the worlds, as well!

Important note: The SL Go service is to be shut down on April 30th, 2015. For more information, please read this report.

On Wednesday, February 4th, Dennis Harper, OnLive’s Product Manager for SL Go kindly invited me to preview the new SL Go island in Second Life, which is designed to offer users of the the SL Go service a in-world place they can visit should they need assistance.

SL Go Island officially opens its doors for business at 10:00 SLT on Thursday, February 5th, 2015, and is modelled along similar lines to the Firestorm Support Island, which originally opened in August 2012 (see my review on it).

The idea for such a in-world venue was originally suggested during the special Firestorm Q&A meeting, alongside the idea for the SL Go support group, which launched in January 2015.

The landing point offers information and clickable signs for obtaining assistance - and more
SL Go Island: the landing point offers information and clickable signs for obtaining assistance – and more, with the SL Go greeter bot standing alongside

SL Go island offers a rural environment, with the landing area acting as the support hub. Here information boards and signage provides initial assistance.

A main board offers basic information, while thee signs hanging from it will take visitors to the OnLive Support web page, the support forum, and – for those who have yet to try it, a link to the SL Go sign-up page. A further sign allows SL Go users who have not already done so to join the in-world SL Go support group.

However, it doesn’t end there. On the table under the main noticeboard sit s small silver bell. If a member of the SL Go support team isn’t already on the island (they all tend to spend a fair amount of time there) or near the landing point, ring it, and personal help should be forthcoming.

SL Go support staff can frequently be found at the beach bar ....
SL Go Island: support staff can frequently be found at the beach bar ….

The rest of the island, all of which has been designed by  OnLive web engineer and Second life resident Jersey Silent, is given over to walks among the trees and down to the beach. Here sits a bar (providing support is thirty work!), and if folk aren’t around the landing point, they can generally be found here. There are also a number of spots scattered around the island, make it a welcoming place for those who wish to sit and relax.

SL Go Product Manager, Dennis Harper, in-world
SL Go Product Manager, Dennis Harper, in-world

“I really like it here,” Dennis said to me as he and Jersey showed me around. “If you want to find me, I’m usually at the beach bar, it’s a great place to relax, although there’s a cool swamp on the other side, which is also nice to visit after a day at the beach. But we’ve tried not to make it anything fancy – just a place to hang out.”

“But don’t forget, for the fastest and most timely support for SL Go, visit us on SL Go Island!” He added.

Wandering the island with Dennis and Jersey, I  couldn’t help but notice the care take to keep things open, relaxed, and as welcoming as possible. Jersey’s Landscape blends content from a number of designers who are bound to be familiar to many visitors, and she’s taken a huge amount of care to provide open spaces and quiet little spots for visitors to enjoy.

So – if you’re an SL Go user and need help, or if your curious about SL Go, or if you just want somewhere new to wander and spend time in, SL Go island may offer the perfect solution!

Firestorm Tool Tip: getting the most from Auto-Replace

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoJessica Lyon was back on Tuesday, February 3rd with another Firestorm Tool Tip Tuesday video, and this one focuses on the use of the Auto-Replace function, and how it might well be more useful than people might appreciate.

As explained in the video, Auto-Replace can be found under Preferences > Chat > Text Input in Firestorm, and generally under chat in other viewer supporting the same Auto-Replace functionality. It is shipped with two lists: Spelling Corrections, which offers corrections for common spelling errors, and Abbreviations (which is the list I actually use and have customised myself).

The Auto-Replace function in Firestorm
The Auto-Replace function in Firestorm and the supplied lists

The Abbreviations list converts commonly used abbreviations such as bbl, afk, gtg, etc., into their long-hand equivalents (be back later, away from keyboard, got to go, etc.), just by typing-in the abbreviation followed by a space.

So far so good, nothing especially exciting there. But did you know, using Auto-Replace you can:

  • Create a custom greeting you can use when working as a greeter or host, or simply on meeting people?
  • Combine abbreviation entries to create statements?
  • Use abbreviations to display SLurls and URLs in chat without having to type them long-hand?
  • Export  / import your lists so you can share them with friends or easily copy them between the computers you use with SL?

If you didn’t – then this video is certainly for you, as Jessica reveals all!

Note that you can use Auto-Replace like this in any viewer that supports the same Auto-Replace functionality as found in Firestorm, including the official SL viewer.

SL Go: OnLive announce teleport issue fixed for users of SLV

Posted on by Inara Pey

SL go logoImportant note: The SL Go service is to be shut down on April 30th, 2015. For more information, please read this report.

OnLive, the company providing the SL Go service, announced on Tuesday, February 3rd, that they had implemented a fix for the issue that prevented users of their SLV version of the viewer (the version based on the Lab’s code) teleporting anywhere when using SL Go.

As I reported on January 30th, because of the frustration the problem was causing, OnLive extended a free month’s use of the SL Go service for all users with an active subscription.

The news the the fix had been made broke on the SL Go support group when Dennis Harper, OnLive’s SL Go Product Manager announced, “I’d like to announce:  THE SLV TELEPORT ISSUE IS FIXED AND LIVE ON  PRODUCTION!”

The problem initially started around week 3, with a handful of users initially reporting problems in teleporting, but only when using SLV  – the version of Firestorm running on SL Go was unaffected. However, this gradually spread until anyone using SLV could not teleport.

By Friday, January 30th, the Lab had traced the issue down to something going wrong within the handshaking between the two simulators involved in a teleport attempt, although at that stage, what was initially triggering the problem had yet to be determined.

Further investigation revealed that a recent server-side update involving a cleaning-up of the code related to how avatars are handled during region crossings (see my week 3/1 SL project update) has triggered the issue. Essentially, the update removed the ability to have a single quote (“‘”) in the viewer’s channel name. Unfortunately, the channel used with SLV had been called “‘Onlive”, and the presence of the quote lead to teleports failing.

Once the problem had been identified, OnLive were able to make a small change to the SLV viewer via a command line change, and after some extended testing, were able to deploy that change to the production SL Go service.

As a result, any users employing the SLV viewer on SL Go (whether via computer, iPad or Android tablet)  should find teleports are once again working as soon as the log-in to the service; there is no requirement to re-download the SL Go client or anything.

I’ll have more news from OnLive ans SL Go coming later in the week.

2015 viewer release summaries: week 5

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday February 1st, 2015

This summary is published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.

Official LL Viewers

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer updated on January 31st, the Sable branch to version 1.26.12.29 and the legacy branch to 1.26.8.87 (release notes for both)

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No Updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links