Following-on from his work to add the ability to let users wearing the Oculus Rift headset to turn their avatar with a turn of their head when seated (see my update here), Dave Rowe (Strachan Ofarrell in SL) has added some more tweaks to the Alpha version of his viewer with the release of version 1.1.8.34412.
One of these updates is directly related to the Oculus Rift and another is for using stereoscopic glasses with the viewer. Both of these can be found under Preferences > Graphics > Display Output.
The two new additions to Preferences > Graphics > Display Output
The first option, Set Output to 120Hz is the stereoscopic update. As the name implies, it sets the display output to 120Hz, which is useful if you have shutter glasses and want to only display at 120Hz when you use the viewer.
The second option, Turn Speed, is a slider to control speed at which turning your head in Riftlook turns your avatar. Note that it will only work if Head Turns Avatar After is checked.
In addition to these updates, version 1.1.8.34412 addsvariable avatar walk / fly speed for SpaceNavigator proportional to pressure applied to knob (i.e., similar to SpaceNavigator flycam control), up to maximum of configured walk speed. Adjusted SpaceNavigator default values to suit. There’s also an update to the GPU table as well.
Sunday February 9th saw the Black Dragon viewer updated to version 2.3.9.3. Dramatically referred to as an “emergency” update, the new version is another interim release, with major changes on the horizon as the viewer moves ever closer to the 2.4 version number.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure quite what warrants this being called an “emergency” release. The quoted reasons for the update (HTTP and Fitted Mesh) haven’t exactly been hidden away by the Lab, but have been talked about openly for a while – and the code (while still being tweaked and banged on in the case of Fitted Mesh, admittedly), has been available for poking-at. But anyaway, suffice it to say the new version is here, comprising a lot of nips and tucks, as listed in the change log with the release notes.
This isn’t intended as a full review, but more an overview of key changes.
The first of these is that the viewer is up-to-date with the Lab’s 3.7.0 code base, and so includes Fitted Mesh, which the Lab announced as officially released on February 10th.
Niran is a keen gamer, and as such put considerable work into his first viewer in adding options and controls other gamers would find familiar, such as offering more shooter game style camera placement, etc.
With this release of black Dragon, he’s put effort into enhancing the ability to map the viewer’s options and functions into game controllers – most notably the Xbox 360 controller. In carrying out this work, he notes:
Works with up to 16 buttons (for other controllers or joysticks)
Adds the ability to map zoom in/out/default, roll left/right, jump, crouch, toggle flycam, toggle run, toggle fly and Mouselook to available buttons
Certain mappings only work in either Avatar / Flycam or Build mode.
A video has been produced showing avatar movement using a game controller.
In another move to provide a game-like feel, Niran has duplicated the click-and-hold left mouse button and then use the mouse to rotate the camera / move your avatar to the right mouse button, as demonstrated in another video, which demonstrates the capability in conjunction with using the movement keys.
As noted, this is a duplication of the original left mouse button click / hold functionality, which can still be used by those who are already used to it.
Alongside of both of these, although not directly related to it, he has also added the option to disallow using Mouse-wheel to change values in spinners. Prevents some nasty problems with hover tips accidentally getting set to infinite.
In lin with recent LL RC and release viewers, this Release of Black Dragon includes a good number of MAINT, STORM and OPEN fixes and contributions including STORM-1980, the updated region restart message and STORM-1981, the updates to avatar tracking beacons. All of these updates, together with Niran’s own fixes, additions, changes and tweaks can be found in the release change log noted above.
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 Viewer Round-up 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
By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
The Viewer Round-up Page also 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: no change (version 3.6.13.284995, formerly the PackageFix RC)
Fitted Mesh RC updated on February 5th to version 3.7.0.286015 – core updates: latest updates to the Fitted Mesh project (download and release notes)
Google Breakpad RC version 3.6.14.285686 released on February 4th – core updates: update to Google Breakpad and restructures the crash reporting mechanism to support out of process crash reporting (download and release notes)
HTTP RC updated on February 3rd to version 3.6.14.286010 – core updates: DNS look ups changed; improvements to mesh uploads / downloads (download and release notes)
Project viewers:
Sunshine / AIS v3 project viewer version 3.6.14.285190 released on February 4th – core updates: removal of old viewer-side baking code, stability and performance improvements (download and release notes)
Black Dragon updated to version 2.3.9.3 on February 9th – core updates: merge with recent LL code release, including Fitted Mesh; merge with latest RLVa, improved game controller button mapping, right-click rotate cam/turn avatar (release notes)
V1-style
Cool VL:
Available for: Windows, Linux
Stable version: 1.26.10.10 – February 8th
Experimental version: 1.26.11.10 – February 8th
Legacy version: 1.26.8.47 – February 8th
Release notes (all) – core updates: sim map texture tiles and 3D (relief) sculpt maps saving; improved watchdog timeout code; improved algorithm for the login screen login credentials; backport of crash bug fixes from LL’s viewer-interesting branch; code cleanup and unused code removal
The Firestorm have been working hard on readying a new release of the viewer. Beta version of Firestorm 4.5.2 have been under beta evaluation for the last week or so, (and is looking good – the most recent version appears to have cured an issue I’ve had with Firestorm and my GTX 660 GPU, so right now I’m a very happy bunny).
There are still some decisions to be made, as a result, the next Firestorm Q&A session will be on Saturday February 15th. As per usual, the venue for the meeting will be the Phoenix Firestorm Support Island theatre, commencing at 16:00 SLT.
Jessica and the firestorm team promise “exciting news” at the next Q&A session
References to some “great news” and “exciting times are coming” within the blog post announcing the meeting has led to speculation as to what might be announced.
As well as working directly on the viewer, members of the Firestorm team have, as reported in these pages, been working on integrating Leap Motion into the viewer on behalf of the Lab and Leap Motion – so rumours have been circulating that the next release will include Leap Motion support, and it would seem that initial support for the device may be available in one form or another.
Those who use Firestorm for their SL photography may well have a nice little surprise waiting for them as well 😉 , as might Linux users.
However, the best way to be sure of what is coming is to attend the meeting. As usual, and on behalf of the team, I’ll be providing a transcript after the fact.
On Tuesday February 4th, Linden Lab released the new Server-side Appearance (SSA) / Advanced Inventory System (AIS v3) Sunshine project viewer – version 3.6.14.285190.
The SSA “polish” / AIS v3 Sunshine project viewer was released on February 4th
The SSA updates in this viewer primarily comprise:
Stability and performance improvements for SSA: retry logic, removal of redundant requests, detecting various appearance stuck conditions
Code cleanup with the removal of a lot of code related to the old client-side baking framework
Bug fixes, mostly appearance-related.
The AIS v3 updates require server-side updates to be deployed as well in order to be used. Once this has been done, users should note improved the reliability of outfit changes, including speed of changes and a further reduction in the failure rate experienced when changing outfits.
There is no current release date for the server-side support for AIS v3, and there will likely be further testing prior to a deployment being made; the Lab has actually been waiting for more TPVs to produce test viewers with the AIS code in order for this to happen. Hopefully, with the code now in a project viewer, more TPVs will be in a position to build test viewers for this purpose.
However, anyone wishing to specifically test the AIS v3 code, particularly if they have been experiencing outfit change issues, might want to try the project viewer on the four SunshineTest regions on Aditi.
Lance Corrimal has given a couple of short updates on the status of his efforts to get his Dolphin viewer back up to speed.
In a brief update on January 25th, he reported that the work had seen Dolphin gain:
Latest Viewer-Release+RLV
The Sailor’s Mini Map V2
Avatar name in the title bar
Several bugfixes
However, as he goes on to note, there’s still a fair amount still to be done, including: improved build tools and area search, the machinima floater and the Flickr upload capability, the inventory Worn tab and the advanced inventory search / filter, as well as things like viewer rebranding and preference pages for the Dolphin-specific features. Nevertheless, progress is being made.
In a further update on January 29th, he provides an update on Dolphin and openSUSE:
openSUSE 12.2 is officially End-Of-Life as of January 27, 2014. That means, I won’t be providing rpm packages of the Dolphin Viewer 3 for openSUSE 12.2 anymore. The last one available for openSUSE 12.2 will be 3.4.14.
That being said, if you are running openSUSE 12.3, and have been using the Dolphin Viewer 3 through packages from the RPM repository, try a “zypper install dolphinviewer3-beta” if you feel like it
Once I have an actual release, the beta version will uninstall itself, just like magic.
There’s still no actual release date on the horizon for an updated Dolphin; things are dependent upon RL and Lance’s work schedule – so please don’t ping him asking, “When?”! Suffice it to say that further updates will appear on the Dolphin blog as they become available.
Following-on from his work to add the ability to let users wearing the Oculus Rift headset to turn their avatar with a turn of their head when seated (see my update here), Dave Rowe (Strachan Ofarrell in SL) has added some more tweaks to the Alpha version of his viewer with the release of version 1.1.8.34412.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 