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: June 9th, 2013
SL Viewer updates:
Materials Processing beta updated to version 3.6.0.276961 on June 5th and then to 3.6.0.277049 on June 8th (release notes)
Niran’s Black Dragon beta updates to version 2.2.1 on June 4th – core updates: UI and skin changes
Moble Grid Client updated to 1.19.1182 (minor improvements on user interface) and then to 1.20.1185 (show elevation in nearby chat and nearby people list)
Pocket Metaverse updated to version 1.8.1 on June 10th – core updates: general bug fixes; improved About screen accessible from Settings screen, now displays device info (MAC address) necessary to provide Linden Support if user can’t log in
Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers
SL Development viewer – depreciated 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
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.
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.
Saturday May 25th saw the arrival of Lumiya 2.4.5. Something of a maintenance release, rather than one which offers heaps of new features, the update should help improve the overall experience for users who make use of Lumiya to access Second Life while on the go. Which is not to say there aren’t any visible updates to the app – there are; however, these are more aimed at also enhancing existing functionality, rather than adding new bells and whistles.
This update also sees Lumiya made available via Android Pit as well as Google Play, allowing it to be purchased via PayPal.
Profile Pictures, Picks and Notes
Perhaps the most visible change with the 2.4.5 update has been made to the profile display, which now includes the ability to display people’s profile pictures within Lumiya, together with pictures included in their Picks, and which also allows you to add notes of your own to their profile.
Accessing your own (or a friend’s) profile will now display their profile picture on the left of an updated profile display, with their on-line and payment status information displayed to the right of it, together with their SL age. The selected individual’s About information is now displayed directly under their profile picture in a manner which mirrors the legacy “in-viewer” profile floaters which are common to v1-based viewers and popular with some V3-based TPVs.
Tapping the Picks tab will display a list of available Picks for the selected user, any of which can be accessed by tabbing on them, and will display their associated pictures after any descriptive or other text. Use the Back button on your device to move back and forth between Picks or to exit a profile display altogether, as per usual.
The Note functionality is also accessed by tapping a tab at the top of the profile display, and works exactly the same way as the notes option in viewer profiles – the notes you add are only visible to yourself.
Inventory Search
Lumiya 2.4.5 adds the ability to search your inventory for an item or items matching a given keyword. The search option is accessed by opening your inventory and then tapping the button with the magnifying glass icon (again in keeping with V3-based viewers). This will open a search field at the top of the display as well as displaying the device keypad to input a search term.
Lumiya 2.4.5: Search inventory (l): select a storage device (c) and deactivate a group tag (r)
Deactivate Current Group and External Storage Device Support
With Lumiya 2.4.5 you can deactivate your current group tag, and also define which storage medium you wish to use for the Lumiya database.
The latter – selecting a storage device for storing your Lumiya database – is controlled through Lumiya’s Settings options (accessed through the Menu button on your device). It can be found under the Cache section of settings, towards the bottom of the list of options (“Database location”). Tap to display a list of available alternative (e.g. “Internal storage” and “SD card”) and then tap the desired option.
Deactivating a group tag is a simple matter of displaying your list of groups, then long-touching the name of the active group and tapping the displayed option to Deactivate. This will uncheck the Group name in your list, and will result in your avatar’s tag only showing your display name and / or user name in other people’s views. You can of course activate any group tag simply by long-touching it and then tapping the displayed Activate option once more.
Under the Hood
The under-the-hood changes to Lumiya are designed to improve your experience when running Lumiya and comprise:
Auto reconnect after connection loss.
Improved handling of large inventories.
Runtime texture compression to reduce memory usage.
Online/offline notifications in chat windows.
Option to deactivate active group.
Feedback
This update to Lumiya is again somewhat “low-key” compared to some of the previous releases, but this doesn’t make it any less valuable. Alina is focusing on refining the client and the options it currently offers, rather than looking to add a lot of additional bells and whistles at this point it time. As such, this update is very evolutionary rather than revolutionary – and there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that, and is a very worthwhile download if you don’t have Lumiya set to auto-update.
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.
Kirstenlee Cinquetti has issued a further update to the S19 version of Kirsten’s Viewer – version S19 1.19.4 (407). Released on Thursday May 16th, 2013, the update primarily fixes a nasty cache crash when user settings and local cache are manually deleted.
There have been a lot of questions as to why the S19 (v1-style) viewer from Kirsten’s stable is being updates rather than the S22/S23 viewers. In a blog post accompanying the release, Kirsten/Lee gives an answer:
So I guess the most pertinent question is why? It is probably the most pointless one to answer also.
But lets just take a wild stab at it!
I need to be in SL occasionally so I need a viewer (Duh), V2 is dead sorry S22 it was fun, V3 is well lets just say it’s not my cup of tea. I could just download someone else’s viewer but thats not what I want.
I LIKE S19 it was and still is quick, its code in comparison to newer clients is simpler it has much more modest hardware demands I can merge from many sources more rapidly etc, etc, etc.. It ticks all my boxes, on a more personal note it’s NOT limited to Second Life.
That is important to me, so it may have bugs, it may not compile on macs very well… sorry.
But if I wish to drift around SL or jump into Opensim I can.. anyway hope that kinda answers some of my motivations, and why I share the corresponding installer.
As mentioned in my last piece marking the “return” of the S19 viewer, and people shouldn’t anticipate routine updates and improvements; as Lee indicates in his bog post, this viewer has been updated and is being tweaked purely to suit his needs – and rightly so.
A couple of notable changes have been made since version S19.1.19.4.(404), the last version I used. Preferences have been moved from their “traditional” location in the File menu to appear under the S19 menu, and Depth of Field (DoF) has been added to the Graphics tab, in a dedicated sub-tab.
DoF is back!
Sadly for me, I’m unable to test DoF, as deferred will not run on my hardware set-up, no matter how I fiddle with AA (which was Lee’s suggestion to me after I’d encountered problems with the 404 build). But then, as I noted last time, while I’ve always like Kirsten’s Viewer, my hardware has tended to sulk badly when using it.
However, for those of you missing Kirsten’s Viewer, here’s yet another update for you! Going on feedback following my original piece on S19’s return (in comments, IMs and DMs), it’s good to know the viewer still has loyal fans!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 