Category: Viewers

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 28

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday July 13th, 2014

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 updated to version: 3.7.10.291265 July 8th – formerly the Snowstorm viewer – Windows XP users, please note that you must have Service Pack 3 (Win XP 32-bit) or SP 2 (Win XP 64-bit) in order for this viewer to install (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):
    • SL Maintenance RC version 3.7.12.291824 released on July 10th – almost 40 MAINT fixes from the Lab “to make your Second Life smoother”  (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • Project refresh viewer version 3.7.12.291799 released on July 10th – contains an update to a large set of libraries used by the viewer to provide security, stability and consistency improvements to this and future viewers (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on July 12th – Stable release to version 1.26.12.7 and Legacy version 1.26.8.65 – core updates: please refer to the release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 27

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday July 6th, 2014

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

  • Black Dragon updated on July 2nd to version 2.3.9.9 (c) – core updates: fix for motion blur issue as a result of fitted mesh updates to avatar skeleton – change log

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on July 5th – Stable release to version 1.26.12.6 and Legacy version 1.26.8.64 – core updates: please refer to the release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Firestorm Mac 64-bit: coming soon

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoOver recent months we’ve seen 64-bit versions of some third-party viewers arrive, notably Singularity and Firestorm, both of which are available in Windows and Linux flavours. Their arrival has raised questions both on when we might see a 64-bit version of the official Linden viewer and  – more particularly in this case – when users might see a 64-bit Mac viewer arrive for Firestorm.

Well, the answer to this second question might be in the famous phrase, Real Soon NowTM.

Tonya Souther, a member of the Firestorm development team, brought word on Wednesday July 2nd that a 64-bit version of Firestorm for OS X should debut with the next Firestorm release – although it is liable to be a few months before that release is made.

Tonya has been building on the work started by Cinder Roxley – whom she acknowledges in the blog post – and has been getting things to a point where it is possible to compile a 64-bit version of Firestorm which will run on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later.

Firestorm developer Tonya Souther
Firestorm developer Tonya Souther

A major part of this work has been in rebuilding the third-party libraries used in compiling the viewer, and Tonya explains some of the bumps in the road she encountered along the way to getting things sorted out. She also offers her own code repository for people to see what she has done in bringing everything together.

The results of Tonya’s efforts now resides in the Firestorm master repository, and will build successfully in either 64-bit or 32-bit, should anyone who self-compiles the viewer wish to give it a try.

Tonya advises anyone who does so, that in order to build a 64-bit Mac version, they must use Nicky Dasmijn’s version of the autobuild tool and specify the -m64 switch, although nothing else changes.

Tonya also goes on to state in reference to self-compiling:

If you’re switching from building a 32-bit Firestorm to building a 64-bit version, you should probably specify --clean to make sure you start fresh with everything at 64 bits. You also need to do a --clean when building for OS X from repository revisions after the change (revision 42327 or higher) if you’ve previously built for revisions before the change (42298 and lower).

As noted towards the top of this article, .DMG files for the Mac 64-bit build will probably not be made available until the next formal Firestorm release for all three platforms, so please do not request them from the Firestorm team before then. Also, and as with all 64-bit viewer versions, there will be no SL-specific version of the Mac 64-bit release when it does officially arrive, until such time as the Lab provides a 64-bit version of the Havok library used within SL-specific viewers.

Finally, and as advanced warning, Tonya notes that once the 64-bit version of Firestorm for Mac officially debuts, the Firestorm team will cease their support of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard – which is in keeping with the Lab’s ceasing support of OS X 10.6 in April 2014.

For further information, and for technical enquiries, please see Tonya’s blog post.

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 26

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday June 29th, 2014

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: 3.7.10.291134 June 23rd (formerly the SL Share 2 RC – ability to upload Tweets and snapshots to Twitter and / or snapshots to Flickr) (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):
  • Project viewers:
    • Group Ban project viewer updated to version 3.7.11.291394  June 24th – allows certain group members to ban avatar from a group or from joining a group  When an existing group member is banned, they are also automatically ejected from the group (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Black Dragon updated to version 2.3.9.9(B) on June 28th – core updates: bug fixes; ability to invert pitch controls (change log)

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on June 21st – Stable release to version 1.26.12.5 and Legacy version 1.26.8.63 – core updates: please refer to the release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 25

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday June 22nd, 2014

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: 3.7.9.290582 June 16th (formerly the MemShine RC – combining the MemPlugs memory leak fixes and sunshine AIS v3
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • SL Share 2 RC viewer updated to version 3.7.10.291134 on June 19th – ability to upload Tweets and snapshots to Twitter and / or snapshots to Flickr (download and release notes)
    • Snowstorm viewer prompted to RC and updated to version 3.7.10.291042 on June 19th – numerous code contributions including STORM-1831 Obtain LSL syntax table from simulator so that it is always up to date; STORM-1966 Block installation on old and unpatched versions of Windows  and STORM-68 Allow setting of default permissions on creation of objects, clothing, scripts, notecards, etc. (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • Group Ban project viewer version 3.7.8.290887 released on June 17th – allows certain group members to ban avatar from a group or from joining a group  When an existing group member is banned, they are also automatically ejected from the group (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Black Dragon updated to version 2.3.9.9(A) on June 17th – core updates: please refer to the change log
  • Restrained Love Viewer updated to version 2.9 on June 18th – core updates: new RLV camera commands (release notes)

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on June 21st – Stable release to version 1.26.12.4 and Legacy version 1.26.8.62 – core updates: please refer to the release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Restrained Love 2.9: scripted camera controls

Posted on by Inara Pey

On June 16th, Marine Kelley recently updated her Restrained Love viewer to version 2.9. It introduces a new series of camera control options, offering a range of potential opportunities for those wishing to create puzzles, mazes, immersive quests, etc., as well as being applicable to the general use of RLV!

Marine provides the details on the updates, but here in brief is a summary of the key additions, together with an  image I’ve borrowed from her blog:

  • @camdistmin and @camdistmax force the camera to stay within a range (0= Mouselook any value above 0 actively prevents Mouselook being engaged)
  • @camdrawmin and @camdrawmax simulate fog / blindfolds by obscuring the world around the avatar (not around the camera, as with the windlight settings)
  • @camdrawalphamin and @camdrawalphamax indicate the closest and farthest opacities of fog defined by @camdrawmin and @camdrawmax
  • @camdrawcolor sets the color of the fog defined by the above (black is the default)
  • @camunlock prevents the camera from being panned, orbited, etc. away from the avatar – so can prevent someone from peer through walls, etc.
  • @camavdist specifies the maximum distance beyond which avatars look like shadows (think ssing people in a mist or heavy fog)
  • @camtextures renders the world grey, other than avatars and Linden water. Marine notes that bump mapping and shininess remain untouched, as even someone blindfolded or in heavy fog can still feel their way around
  • @shownametags hides the radar, name tags, and prevents doing things to an avatar through the context – useful for games involving trying to find someone without them being betrayed by their name tag.

There are three additional camera presets added as well (left, right, top), to allow some additional camera options when @camunlock is active. There is also a new debug setting, RestrainedLoveCamDistNbGradients, to go with the camera options, as well.

RLV 2.9 adds some interested scripted controls for the camera which could have a range of uses, such as locking the camera to the avatar and controlling how far the user can see, a
RLV 2.9 adds some interesting scripted controls for the camera which could have a range of uses, such as locking the camera to the avatar and controlling how far the user can see (image: Marine Kelley)

Again, please refer to the RLV 2.9 release notes for full details of these, and the other updates with this release.

The new camera options, as noted, could have a range of potential uses, and demonstrate (once again) that RLV isn’t just about “teh bondages”  – it’s an extremely flexible extension to her viewer (note that they are only applicable to her RLV viewer at this time). Those wishing to find out more about it and who may not have taken a look at it previously, can find more information both on Marine’s blog and on the RLV API wiki page.

Related Links