Viewers – Page 158 – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

Exodus 13.09.21.1: materials arrival

Posted on September 23, 2013May 25, 2020 by Inara Pey

The Exodus team released Exodus 13.09.21.1 (Beta) on September 21st, which sees support for materials processing arrive in the viewer.

The release is only available for Windows and Linux, but it sees Exodus come pretty much up to par with the official SL viewer, including the most recent materials fixes and updates which saw light of day as an RC viewer prior to becoming the de facto SL viewer release in week 38. Also included in the release are updates from the recent SL CHUIStorm release, the FMODex updates and the Cocoa updates.

Visual changes to the viewer include the additional texture map options for materials, and an option in the Exodus Preferences floater to enable / disable the replacing of your avatar name with “you” in your chat.

Exodus 13.09.21.1 includes materials processing support (l) and an option to replace your avatar’s name with “you” in your chat window

The installer weighs-in at 35 MB, and installation was for me, as usual, smooth and without incident, including the required Windows extras. One point to note that this release see the Windows installation move from “ExodusViewerBeta” to “ExodusViewer” – so if you have a previous version installed, it will not be overwritten, but can be removed independently of this viewer (just use the uninstaller within the older version’s installation folder). This change is a part of Exodus adopting the Lab’s version update mechanism, becoming the second v3 viewer to do so alongside Kokua.

The release notes give a rather false impression of the amount of work which has gone into the update, but for those who wish to check on what has been included, the viewer’s commit history provides a complete breakdown.

Overall a nice update which brings two versions of the viewer back up to speed. The release notes indicate that this version “will not contain an OS X release”, so I assume Mac users will have to wait for a future release to get back on a par with their fellow Windows and Linux users.

Viewer release summary 2013: week 38

Posted on September 23, 2013March 16, 2020 by Inara Pey

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.

Updates for the week ending: September 22nd, 2013

Official LL Viewers

Current Release channel updated on September 19th to version 3.6.6.280963, formerly the Materials RC viewer (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):
- Maintenance RC updated on September 24th to version 3.6.7.281385 (download and release notes) – support for new particle capabilities; automatic avatar render limit and feedback system
- Snowstorm Contributions RC updated on September 20th to version 3.6.7.281199 (download and release notes) – request teleport feature
Project viewers:
- None at present

LL Viewer Resources

Alternate Viewers wiki page – LL
Viewer Source Repositories wiki page – LL
Test Builds wiki page – LL
Supported Viewers wiki page – LL
Viewer release process overview – this blog
SL Viewer updates and reviews on this blog

Third-party Viewers

V3-Style

Black Dragon updated on September 18th to Alpha 2.3.2 – core updates: merge to SL 3.6.6 code base; addition of Tofu Buzzard’s Screen Space Reflections; tone mapping tweaks (release notes)
Exodus updated on September 21st to version 13.09.21.1 (Windows & Linux only) – core updates: merge to SL 3.6.6 code base; materials processing; FMODex updates; Options to enable / disable “you” chat in CHUI; assorted bug fixes (release notes)
Kokua updated on September 19th to version 3.6.6.29733 – core updates: merge with SL 3.6.6. code base; OpenSim 4096 region TP but fix; stream enhancements, incl ability to copy stream URL to clipboard; ability to zoom-in on an object via context menu; assorted updates (release notes)

V1-Style

Cool VL updated on September 21st to:
- Stable version: 1.26.8.29
- Experimental version: 1.26.9.29
- Legacy version (v2.6 renderer): 1.26.4.93 (final update; version now feature frozen)
- Release notes (all)

Additional TPV Resources

Third-party Viewer Directory – LL

Discontinued Viewers

Niran’s Viewer – discontinued as of version 2.2.0.2701 & superceded by Black Dragon
SLiteChat removed from listing; no updates since 2011, removed from TPV Directory & no response from developer
SL Second Life Beta viewer – deprecated as of version 3.6.2.278491, July 15, 2103
SL Development viewer – deprecated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

Lette Ponnier: “The three hours that can change your SL”

Posted on September 20, 2013May 25, 2020 by Inara Pey

Letter Ponnier, one of the core support staff on the Firestorm viewer, runs her own blog, which often focuses on Second Life, the user’s experience and more. Obviously, as a member of the Firestorm team, many of her posts are Firestorm-centric – but this doesn’t make them any less a worthwhile read. When it comes to understanding SL and the viewer in general, Letter has much to say that is very much worth taking the time to read.

In a recent post, she covered The Three Hours That Can Change Your Second Life. As many know, the Firestorm team run regular classes throughout the week focusing on many aspects of Firestorm and getting to grips with it. In her blog post, Lette points to four lessons the team run, three of which could lead to anyone, regardless of their viewer preference, to enjoy their SL experience a lot more and gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of the viewer and Second Life.

These classes are:

Preferences 2 – covering the Graphics and Network & cache tabs – which is definitely of use to anyone using SL, regardless of viewer
Lag – a mini-class which explains the major types of lag and dispels many of the myths surrounding lag – once again useful for anyone who has ever felt their SL is suffering as a result of “lag”
Basic Troubleshooting – which may be useful to anyone who experiences issues and problem, again regardless of their viewer
Reporting Bugs, Requesting Features – which is more Firestorm-centric, but can still be useful for those using any viewer which has a JIRA-based bug reporting system.

Details on when these lessons are held can be found on the Firestorm wiki.

As well as the blog post, which provides an overview of each of the classes, Lette has provided an audio recording for those who can multi-task and wish to listen while doing over things. You can find the recording at Vocaroo.

If you are at all interested in making your SL experience more enjoyable and / or in getting to grips with your viewer, I recommend three things – take a read of Lette’s post or listen to the audio, read Lette’s blog (you’ll also find a link in my blogroll, right), and try popping along to the Firestorm lessons.

Singularity 1:8:3: Export textures with your Collada files

Posted on September 19, 2013May 25, 2020 by Inara Pey

Singularity 1.8.3 has been released and as promised by Latif, it sees the recently added export capability updated.

With the new version, the Collada .DAE export option can now also include textures, rather than just exporting the bare prims. Additionally, it has the ability to apply texture parameters such as repeats, offset and others to the exported UV map, combine prim faces with the same texture and colour into one submesh and optionally skip transparent faces.

This makes the export tool even more powerful for those wishing to save their own in-world creations locally. Again, it’s important to remember that the export capabilities will only work if you are the creator of all elements of the item you are attempting to export – including the textures.

To export an item, including textures using the Collada DAE format:

Make sure you are the creator of all parts of the item (and any textures used with it that you wish to export)
Right click on the object and select More > More > Tools > Save DAE (if you cannot export the item, this option will be unavailable)
A floater will open displaying information on the item, including the prims and textures you can export
Use the Options section to define whether or not you wish to export the textures, the format in which you want them exported (.TGA being the default), and whether you wish to export the texture parameters (repeats, rotation, offsets, etc), and / or wish to skip transparent textures / consolidate faces
Select a save location for the object and save it.

The Collada export option now has its own floater, which will indicate the prims / textures in an object you can export (arrowed) & which allows you to set additional options for the export, including the preferred format for textures

The item will be exported and saved, and can be uploaded as a mesh .DAE object into any grid supporting mesh / mesh uploads. Note that if you don’t have the right to export any of the textures in the object, they will be stripped from the copy of the object on export.

If you export an item you created but which includes textures to which you don't have the right to export, they will not be saved with the object — If you export an item you created but which includes textures to which you don’t have the right to export, they will not be saved with the object

4096 Bug Fix

This version of Singularity also offers a fix for the “4096 bug” in OpenSim, wherein teleporting more than 4096 regions can lead to problems / failure. See also SVC-2941 and FIRE-11593.

Other Updates

In addition, version 1.8.3 includes the following updates Please refer to the release notes for the correct attributions):

Restored Teleport, Pay, and Log buttons in the IM window
Spanish translation update
Audio code crash fix
Fix for crash when RLV is enabled and viewing inventory forbidden
Made the map dot color for everyone else customizable
New debug settings
- ResetViewTurnsAvatar allows preventing avatar turning when camera position is reset after zooming (addresses VWR-27956)
- LiruNewMessageSound allows users to mark a specific chat session important, so “ding” sound is played for every message, not just when the conversation first starts
- NewIMsPerConversation when set will count number of new IM conversations, not just total number of new IM messages when the communicate window is closed
- NewIMsPerConversationReset allows new IMs button’s visibility to be reset when the communicate window has been opened and closed
- LogShowHistoryLines allows setting the number of lines displayed in a new IM window from the previous conversation.

Related Links

Singularity 1.8.3 download
Singularity 1.8.3 release notes
Singularity blog
Article on using the object export capabilities – John Lester (with comments from Latif Khalifa on texture export)

Firestorm meeting 14th September, 2013 – video and transcript

Posted on September 17, 2013May 25, 2020 by Inara Pey

On Saturday 14th September 2013, the Firestorm team hosted another informal question-and-answer session. While the meeting was recorded, the Firestorm team are aware that many of their users have hearing difficulties, and / or prefer to read text. It is because of this that this transcript has been provided. When reading it, please remember:

This is not a word-for-word transcript of the entire meeting. While all quotes given are as they are spoken in the video, to assist in readability and maintain the flow of conversation, not all asides, jokes, interruptions, etc., have been included in the text presented here
If there are any sizeable gaps in comments from a speaker which resulted from asides, questions to other etc,, these are indicated by the use of “…”
Timestamps are provided as guidance should anyone wish to hear the comments in full from any speaker on the video
Questions were asked in chat while speakers were talking. This inevitably meant that replies to questions would lag well behind when they were originally asked. Therefore, to provide context between questions and answers, questions in the transcript are time stamped at the point at which each is addressed by a member of the Firestorm team
Some questions were asked and answered purely in text. These have been excluded for one of two reasons. Either a) they lacked context with the voice conversation, or b) the seating arrangements in the auditorium meant there were some questions or answers which didn’t appear in my local chat window.

Please note: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. As such, questions on technical issues relating to Firestorm and / or project-specific questions cannot be answered here unless one of the Firestorm team drops by.

Video courtesy of Northspring

Continue reading “Firestorm meeting 14th September, 2013 – video and transcript” →

Viewer release summary 2013: week 37

Posted on September 16, 2013March 16, 2020 by Inara Pey

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.