Category: Viewers

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 4

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: January 26th, 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 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)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Maintenance RC version 3.6.14.285499 released on January 23rd – core updates: assorted MAINT fixes, refer to the release notes for details (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Dolphin updated to version 3 3.5.99 (30446) on January 25th – core updates: latest Viewer-release vode and RLV, Sailor’s Mini Map V2, avatar name in the title bar, bug fixes

V1-style

  • Cool VL:
    • Available for: Windows, Linux
    • Stable version: 1.26.10.8 – January 25
    • Experimental version: 1.26.11.8 – January 25
    • Legacy version: 1.26.8.45 – January 25
    • Release notes (all) – core updates: “Use legacy names” added to the “Options” tab of the radar; FMOD Ex updated to v4.44.30; code cleanup; fix for rare crash bug.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 3

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: January 19th, 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 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 updated on January 9th to version 3.6.13.284995 (formerly the PackageFix RC) – core update: fix for old versions of the viewer executables not being removed during viewer installation after the executable was remained in the 3.6.12 code (release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • HTTP RC version 3.6.14.285253 released January 16th – core updates: DNS look ups changed; improvements to mesh uploads / downloads (download and release notes)
    • Fitted Mesh RC version 3.7.0.285178 released January 16th – core updates: latest changes and fixes to the Fittted Mesh project plus a number of STORM contributions (download and release notes)
    • “Project Interesting” RC  updated on January 14th to version: 3.6.14.285213 – core updates: more viewer-side control of which objects are loaded in memory at any given time; more aggressive scene caching; faster scene load when visiting a region never previously visited; expanded performance metrics (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • HTTP and Fitted Mesh project viewers retired due to RC releases

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • No updates

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Lab issues Fitted Mesh release candidate viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update January 22nd: As per the comments below, Oz Linden has posted the correct region restart sound to STORM-1980, and the sound is now included in the boday of this report.

On Thursday January 16th, Linden Lab issued a release candidate version of the Fitted Mesh viewer. Given the changes made to the avatar skeleton, the  release sees the viewer’s release number increment by 1, so the Fitted Mesh RC is version 3.7.0.285178.

The upgrade of the project to a release candidate status had been expected to come relatively early in 2014, given that Oz Linden gave a “last call” for issues in which he indicated that a release candidate would be forthcoming “after the holidays”. Speculation that the RC was at the status of Real Soon NowTM was heightened at the Open-source Developer meeting on Wednesday January 8th, when Oz further revealed that as far as the Lab was concerned, there were no further outstanding issues.

It is currently not clear as to how long the viewer will remain as a release candidate prior to promotion to the de facto release viewer.

STORM Contributions

As well as the Fitted Mesh updates, the new release candidate includes a number of open-source contributions from Jonathan Yap and Ansariel Hiller.

Jonathan’s contributions notably include the following, but please refer to the viewer release notes to see all of them:

STORM-1975: IM windows occasionally report false typing status – an annoyance to many for some time has been the situation whereby, during an IM conversation, the recipient of an IM will see the “…. is typing” message (where “…” is the other person’s name), even though the other person isn’t actually sending a message. This update should fix this issue.

STORM-1980: Region Restart Warning Changes – described in the release notes as “World-shaking improvement to region restart warnings”, STORM-1980 is designed to improve the awareness of region restarting message and add a default region restart sound. The sound is designed to be played automatically by the viewer on receipt of a region restart message, adding an additional warning of an approaching restart (for those with their viewer’s sound on!).

STORM-1981: Changes to Tracking Beacons – alters the behaviour of three types of tracking beacon: the avatar tracking beacon, the landmark tracking beacon and the beacon shown as a result of clicking on the map. Under these changes:

  • Beacons begin at a height of 0 metres and extend up to the maximum unassisted flight ceiling (5,020 metres)
  • The beacon colour is blue from 0 metres to the base height of the object being tracked, and red from 5,020 metres down to the height of the object being tracked
  • Users can optionally set the beacon to pulse towards the target object using the CheesyBeacon debug setting (Advanced->Highlighting). The blue beacon will pulse up towards the object, the red beacon will pulse down towards the object.

Ansariel provides two contributions in this release aimed at fixing a couple of issues in the UI:

  • STORM-1979: Groups count in groups list does not display if the floater is resized
  • STORM-1984: Mousing over UI elements does not make them light up.

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 2

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: January 12th, 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 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 updated on January 9th to version 3.6.13.284995 (formerly the PackageFix RC) – core update: fix for old versions of the viewer executables not being removed during viewer installation after the executable was remained in the 3.6.12 code (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:
    • No updates

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • Cool VL updated on January 11th to:

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Kokua Mac test viewer: request for assistance

Posted on by Inara Pey

kokua-logoOn Saturday January 11th, Nicky Perian announced a test version of a Mac build of Kokua is now available, and has also issued a call for assistance from Kokua / Mac users.

The blog post reads in part:

Several hours ago the first Mac build completed and I logged on to Second Life beta grid, Aditi. Rebranding from Second Life to Kokua is needed. If there are Mac users that would like to help in this area please respond and I’ll help set up a build environment on your system. I would like Mac users to test and provide look and feel opinions as comments to this post. If there are bugs please report them to our issue tracker.

Having a Mac build of the viewer has been one of the more popular requests made to the Kokua team, so if you have a Mac system and are willing to help out test-driving the new Mac build and reporting back both opinions (via the Kokua blog post) and on any issues you discover (the latter via the Kokua issue tracker, as indicated above), please download the viewer from the Kokua nightly builds directory.

Similarly, if you are willing to help with rebranding the viewer from Second Life to Kokua (which, as noted above, will require a viewer build environment created on your system which Nicky can provide help with setting-up), do please contact Nicky either directly (via in-world IM or through the comments on the Kokua blog post.

(Please do not leave feedback or offers of assistance on this blog, they may not be picked-up.).

Release Notes

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 1

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: January 5th, 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 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 updates
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • PackageFix Viewer RC version 3.6.13.284995 released on January 2nd – core updates: fixes an issue introduced with the 3.6.12 code base whereby the Windows executable name was changed from ‘SecondLife’ to ‘SecondLifeViewer’, but old executables were not removed from the installation folder (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • HTTP Project viewer version 3.6.13.284698 redleased on January 3rd – core updates: DNS look ups changed; improvements to mesh uploads / downloads (download and release notes)
    • Merchant Outbox Project viewer version 3.6.13.284731 released on January 2nd – core updates: fixes for accurately detecting Merchant status and improves recovery for Merchant Outbox errors (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • No updates

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Group Tools updated to 2.2.26.8 on January 1st – core updates: unknown; no release notes

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links