Category: Viewers

2015 viewer release summaries: week 33

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday, August 16th

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

  • Current Release version: 3.8.3.304115, August 18th – formerly the summer maintenance RC download page, release notes
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • Notifications project viewer updated to  version 3.8.3.304107 on August 13th – new Notifications floater separates incoming notifications into System, Transactions, Invitations, and Group. It provides a better way to view, interact with, prioritize and manage incoming notices for busy residents (download and release notes).

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Kokua  issued a test version -3.8.3.38326 – on Friday, August 14th containing fixes for issues with SL Experiences and includes the My Suitcase support from Cinder Roxley – release notes

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.14.4 and the Experimental branch updated to 1.26.15.3, both on August 15th – release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2015 viewer release summaries: week 32

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday, August 9th

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

  • Current Release version: updates to version 3.8.2.303891 on August 3rd – formerly the Viewer-Managed Marketplace RC (download, release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Mesh Importer RC viewer updated to version 3.8.3.304090 on August 6th – multiple improvements to the mesh uploader + optional logging (download and release notes)
    • Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 3.8.3.304115 on August 6th – comprising some 50 updates, fixes and features (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Kokua updated to version 3.8.2.36075 on August 7th – core updates: parity to release 3.8.2 of the LL viewer (Viewer-Managed Marketplace) – release notes
  • UKanDo updated to version 3.8.2.28127 on August 3rd – core updates: Viewer-Managed Marketplace release – release notes

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.14.3 and the Experimental branch updated to 1.26.15.2, both on August 8th – release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Kokua 3..8.2: new tools build, VMM and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

kokua-logoOn Friday, August 8th, Nicky Perian announced the release Kokua 3.8.2.35975, which brings the popular SL and OpenSim viewer to parity with recent Linden Lab code releases, and includes additional tweaks and fixes from the Kokua team.

The release marks a considerable amount of work under-the-hood for the viewer, which is now built using the new tool chain for both Windows and Mac (with acknowledged thanks to Gavin Hird (aka Dayturn) for his work in getting the latter working). Also with regards to the new tool chain, the viewer has been available in test builds using the new tools for a while, but 3.8.2 marks the first official release.

In all the code updates from the Lab incorporated in this release comprise:

  • Release 3.7.28.300918 – new tool chain
  • Release 3.7.29.301305 – global system layer limit of 60 wearable layers in any combination
  • Release 3.7.30.302599 – DLL update to provide MSVCP100.DLL and MSVCR100.DLL which were missing from the Windows version of the viewer, and as a result causing problems for some users by their absence
  • Release 3.8.0.302622 – Experience Keys / Tools support
  • Release 3.8.1.303130 – Project Big Bird attachment loss fixes
  • Release 3.8.2.303891 – Viewer-Managed Marketplace

Experiences

Kokua 3.8.2 provides the expected floaters and tabs for Second Life Experiences. The main floater is accessed via the View menu. However, there is a slight glitch: when opening an Experience Profile from the list of Allowed Experiences, the viewer opens the Profile, but then displays an error message which suggests it is trying to add the Experience to the grid manager.

Kokua 3.8.2 does throw an error message when viewing an Experience Profile, but this doesn't interfere with things - click OK to clear
Kokua 3.8.2 does throw an error message when viewing an Experience Profile, but this doesn’t interfere with things – click OK to clear

The message doesn’t interfere with accessing Experiences or managing your Allowed / Blocked, etc., Experiences – just click OK to clear it. I’ve reported this issue to Nicky. Other than this, everything I’d expect to work with Experiences worked (albeit it in a rapid-fire test at the Lab’s PlaeoQuest). The expected Join dialogue was display, items attached as expected once permissions had been granted, and permissions were detached and permissions revoked on leaving the game play area.

Viewer-Managed Marketplace

The Marketplace Listing Panel is access via the View menu, and Kokua 3.8.2 completely removes the old Merchant Outbox (which no longer works anyway, following the VVM migration). Again, in a quick trial run using a single, uncomplicated item, I didn’t notice any obvious issues. The Marketplace Listings folder is also correctly hidden within Inventory, and the expected warnings are displayed on attempting to delete anything from the Listings Panel.

Kokua 3.8.2 provides full VMM support to SL users
Kokua 3.8.2 provides full VMM support to SL users

Other Notes

A high-speed flight across Blake Sea yielded a positive result with attachments. I neither parted company with my hair or my feet / shoes throughout – which is pretty much a given for me on any viewer without the fixes after just a couple of crossings. I did part company with my MD-900 somewhere over Dutch Harbor (so apologies if anyone found themselves getting slapped in the back of the head by a fast-moving helicopter!). However, that’s just a fact of Second Life, and not something endemic to Kokua!

There’s no RLV implementation with this release; it will likely be added in a test version in the near future.

As always, please refer to the Kokua release notes for the full list of updates and known issues.

I’ve not put this release through an extensive test; however, the time I have spent using it (roughly 5 hours on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th August), I’ve encountered no issues other than the niggly little error message thrown by Experiences, as notes above.

Congrats to Nicky and all involved on the update, and in getting Kokua shifted to the new build tool chain.

Related Links

2015 viewer release summaries: week 31

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday, August 2nd

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

  • Current Release version:  updates to version 3.8.2.303891 on August 3rd – formerly the Viewer-Managed Marketplace RC (download, release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • The viewer Managed Marketpklace RC updated to version 3.8.2.303891 on July 29th, however,the viewer was subsequently promoted to the de facto release viewer, as noted above
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.14.2 and the Experimental branch updated to 1.26.15.1, both on August 1st – release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2015 viewer release summaries: week 30

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday, July 26th, 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

  • Current Release version: Current Release version: 3.8.1.303130 – no change
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • No updates
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Black Dragon updated to version 2.4.4 on July 22nd and then to version 2.4.4.1 on July 23rd – core updates: incorporation of the Viewer-Managed Marketplace functionality – change logs

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.14.1 and the Experimental branch updated to 1.26.15.0, both on July 25th – release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Black Dragon updates: attachment fixes and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Blackdragon logoNiranV Dean once again issued a rapid-fire series of updates to Black Dragon in week #29, upping the version number from 2.4.3.6 to 2.4.3.9 in the process.

The reason for the speed of updates is a combination of the Lab pushing through quite a lot at the moment, and Niran providing some tweaks, fixes and updates of his own / sourced from other RPVs.

The first update out of the gate was 2.4.3.7, on Monday July 13th, which incorporated the Lab’s summer Maintenance release (version 3.8.2.303563 at the time of writing – see the release notes on the Lab’s release for a list of the updates incorporated into Black Dragon).

This was followed on Wednesday, July 15th by version 2.4.3.8, which incorporated the Lab’s Project Big Bird updates. These are a series of viewer-side fixes for a fair number of attachment issues people have been experiencing since the arrival of AIS v3, and some which pre-date it. These include, but are not limited to, teleporting / crossing a region and having attachments removed; teleporting or crossing a region and losing attachments in your view while others can still see them (and vice-versa); seeing attachments as removed but the viewer reports them as attached, etc.

This version also incorporates Kitty Barnett’s “borderless window mode” (Preferences > Display). when enabled, this will expand the viewer window to the full size of your screen, hiding the title bar without the need for a re-log. When disabled, will return the viewer window to its last framed sized.

The borderless window option with expand the viewer window to your full screen size, hiding the top bar and borders
The borderless window option with expand the viewer window to your full screen size, hiding the top bar and without the need fora re-log

Released on Sunday, July 19th, version 2.4.3.9 contains further maintenance tweaks and updates, notably the official code for right-clicking and selecting worn mesh.

Niran has also addressed the issue found in the Notifications Viewer, where the buttons for accepting / declining a group invitation are only displayed when an invitation is received – if you miss it due to AFK or anything, and then open the invitation in the Notifications floater, it is displayed without any means to act upon it – see BUG-9625, which also points out that invitations to Experiences, and requests to accept deny debit permissions suffer the same issue).

group join
Niran has added the buttons for accepting / rejecting a group invite when it is displayed in the Notifications floater.

As well as the above, Niran has included a range of fixes and updates with each of these releases – please refer for the relevant release notes for details – and is continuing to tweak things on the rendering side of things, improving things like lens flare, ans also tweaking the Unified Snapshot floater.

There will doubtless be a further Black Dragon update winging its way towards release very soon, one which contains the Lab’s Viewer-Managed Marketplace updates. In the meantime, these updates ensure Black Dragon remains on a par with the majority of the Lab’s offerings available in the viewer release channel.

Additional Links