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 as the week progresses
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: 17 February, 2013
SL Viewer updates:
Current release version updated to 3.4.5.270263 on February 14th – release notes
Development viewer updated to 3.4.6.270268 on February 14th
CHUI development viewer reached release 3.4.6.270520 on February 18th
Sunshine (server-side baking project) project viewer updated to 3.4.5.270409 on February 14th – wiki page
Cool VL updated on the 9th of February and again on the 16th to arrve at:
Lumiya released version 2.4.3 on February 16th – core updates: flexiprim support; teleport to selected avatar; improved notification settings; corrected attachment positions on avatars – release notes
Metabolt updated to 0.9.62.0 (Beta) – February 17th – core updates:creator UUID now displayed for objects in Object Manager; radar now displays all avatars in the region; upgraded to the latest version of libopenmv; optimisations and bug fixes – release notes
Discontinued Viewers
Phoenix officially reached end-of-line for SL on December 31st – read more here
Zen viewer was withdrawn from the SL TPV directory and all repositories shutdown on January 27th, 2013.
Update February 25th: As per a comment from Jessica Lyon, Firestorm have now merged the Server-side Baking code and updates to RLVa into one of their private repositories.
Update, 19th February: A transcript of the core part of the meeting, including Jessica’s Firestorm status overview and the Q&A session, complete with the video recording, is now available.
Update, 14th February: The initial video recording of the meeting is now available on YouTube, and an HD version will be available soon.
Wednesday February 13th saw the Firestorm team host an open meeting to discuss what is happening vis-à-vis Firestorm given all the various ongoing viewer-related projects currently underway (CHUI, materials processing, server-side baking, plus Firestorm’s own updates and improvements) – and when the next release is liable to hit the public at large,
Several members of both the Firestorm development and support teams were on-hand to field questions, with Project Lead Jessica Lyon leading things off with a 15-20 minute overview as to what is happening, where the viewer stands at this point in time, what the plans are for the immediate future and what we might expect to see in Firestorm in upcoming releases.
The Short Version
The Good:
Firestorm will be supporting all of the new viewer capabilities coming out of LL, although CHUI will require careful consideration as to what is adopted and how, as Firestorm already offers several similar options to those being added to the viewer by CHUI
Firestorm will be getting a range of new features (although not all at once) which include: further work on re-implementing legacy search capabilities, the ability to save and reload personal settings; more OpenSim support; new windlight settings; new UI skinning; further work on adding v1-style functionality
The Not-so-good:
Serious crash and other issues have also come to light in merging Firestorm with the latest LL 3.4.5 code which the team are endeavouring to resolve
Server-side baking (SSB) is the priority for the Firestorm team at present (as it is with other TPVs), as it has a major impact on how people will see things in-world, and it is the project which LL are emphasising. However, integration of the SSB code into TPVs (particularly those supporting RLVa) is not proving easy
The emphasis on work at the moment is overcoming bugs, issues and problems and trying to get Firestorm to a point where it is running the SSB code.
Taken together, the latter points mean that while a new version of Firestorm is in development, there will be something a further wait before it appears, and when it does, it my not have such a huge range of new features as has been found in previous releases and might suffer from stability issues.
Jessica Lyon (seated centre, at the edge of the stage) with members of the Firestorm development and support teams, discusses Firestorm on Wednesday February 13th
Viewer Status
There are some serious issues within the Firestorm development code which are delaying progress towards a potential release. Firestorm has been merged-up to the Linden Lab 3.4.5 viewer code, and this has given rise to some severe problems for Firestorm (and is actually having an impact on other projects, as I reported earlier this week).
Commenting on the situation, Jessica Lyon pulled no punches, stating:
I’m going to be completely honest with you guys. Right now Firestorm, for us internally, is in pretty bad shape since our merge with Linden Lab’s TIP (3.4.5 code). There are a lot of bugs that we’ve inherited; there’s a lot of regressions which we’ve inherited. Ed [Merryman, lead for Firestorm Support] is crashing about two times a day – and for those of you know Ed, know that Ed never crashes. So if Ed is crashing on our recent builds, we’ve got some problems. We’ve got some log-out crashes, log-out things; log-in crashes … Basically, we’re not in great shape, and we’ve got a lot of fixing-up to do before we’re ready for a release.
As well as inheriting bugs, the merge has also highlighted bugs and issues within the Firestorm code itself which also need to be fixed. All of this adds up to recent builds for the viewer being “way worse” than the current release version in terms of stability and issues, and it is going to be a while before these issues are fully resolved.
Server-side Baking
Server-side baking is perhaps the most prominent viewer project underway at the moment, inasmuch as it is essential that all viewers connecting to Second Life be able to support it in order to avoid in-world experiences from being broken. Simply put, avatar skins and system clothing will not render on viewers which do not support SSB once the code is fully deployed, as shown below. )Things are somewhat more involved than that, and for those unfamiliar with the project, I’ve covered it in-depth in Avatar Baking: “and the clock has started!”. )
The SSB problem in part: I’m standing on an SSB-enabled region. On the left – as I appear to others who are using an SSB-enabled viewer; On the right, as I appear to others who are using a viewer which does not support SSB.
As it stands, Firestorm has yet to be merged with the Lab’s supplied server-side baking code for the viewer, although work has been underway within the team in a separate repository to the 3.4.5 code merge. A major problem here, as I again reported earlier this week, is that SSB has considerable (and negative) impact with RLVa. These problems are compounded by the fact that the test regions for SSB functionality are all on Aditi, which has considerable issues of its own at the moment, which are affecting people’s ability to reliably test code, and all have scripts disabled – which makes testing RLVa fixes alongside SSB somewhat difficult.
Currently, the Lab remains sympathetic to the issues TPVs are facing (and have offered help wherever practicable), and are not currently pushing a date by which TPVs must be ready for SSB to go live. They’ve also acknowledged that some of the problems TPVs are facing are down to delays on the Lab’s part, such as not making any bug fixes to the viewer code available until January 30th, some seven weeks into the planned eight-week window in which it had been hoped TPVs would be able to integrate the code. However, it is clear that TPVs are feeling under pressure to get SSB-capable versions of their viewers sooner rather than later.
Please use the page numbers below to continue reading this article
Jessica Lyon, project lead for the Firestorm team, has announced that there will be a limited capacity meeting on Wednesday 13th February at 13:00 SLT, to discuss the Firestorm project. The core part of the announcement reads:
Every once in a while, and probably not often enough, we host a Question and Answer session in Second Life for the Second Life community. The purpose is to give us the opportunity to update you all with what we are doing and give you the opportunity to have a say, ask questions you may have to the team, voice complaints, make requests and in general communicate with us directly. This Q&A will not be quite like our office hours. It will not be as formal, it will be far less structured, and it will not be streamed live.
Seating is limited to 70 avatars and is first come first serve. We will, however, try to record it and offer the recording for folks who couldn’t make it.
All are invited, fans and haters alike, people who use our viewers and those who don’t… everyone. All questions are welcome, we only ask that language be kept PG and folks be civil to each other.
Again, note that the meeting will not be streamed live. The venue for the meeting is the Firestorm Office Hours meeting place on the Phoenix Firestorm support region.
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 as the week progresses
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: 10 February, 2013
SL Viewer updates:
Beta version updated to 3.4.5.270034 on February 6th – release notes
CHUI development viewer reached release 3.4.6.270209 on February 9th
Kokua released version 3.4.425654 r6 on Feb 6th – core updates: Advanced Build Tools floater offers Imprduence layout and elements from Firestorm; Metropolis Metaverse added to OpenSim grid list – release notes
Cool VL updated on the 9th of February and again on the 10th to arrve at:
Lumiya has gone through a series of updates recently, cycling rapidly through versions 2.4.0 and 2.4.1 (the latter to fix an OpenSim teleport issue) on January 31st, and arriving at 2.4.2 on February 4th to fix some issues with mesh clothing uncovered by yours truly.
These releases see Lumiya introduces key features users have been waiting for, and start paving the way for future SL support. Taken together, the core updates comprise:
Support for mesh objects and clothing
Support for RLV
Support for server-side baking
Mesh Support
Mesh support works well with in-world objects, as the following image demonstrates.
A partial mesh house rendered in Lumiya (l) and a mesh enabled viewer (r). The inset images shows the hows as rendered in a non-mesh viewer
Mesh clothing was a little more problematic with the initial 2.4.0 / 2.4.1 release, for both rigged and non-rigged mesh clothing. While some would render correctly, other items would not, exhibiting issues with arms and / or legs, and even rendering as being worn back-to-front.
Mesh rendering in Lumiya 2.4.0 / 2.4.1. sometimes things went a little ka-ka…
The issue appeared to be with how the SL software treats both rigged and unrigged mesh. I’m not a technical expert (as most know), but was able to carry out a series of tests which gave Alina Lyvette, Lumiya’s developer, a start on carrying out her own investigations which resulted in her fixing the issue – hence version 2.4.2 appearing.
With the latest release, it appears the majority of problems have been solved, although there have been some reports of mesh attachments such as hair still failing to render correctly.
Certainly from my perspective, and while I admittedly have what is a far less than extensive mesh clothing wardrobe, the issues which all gave me problems while using the 2.4.0 and the 2.4.1 releases of Lumiya all now appear to be resolved, and my mesh clothing now all renders correctly for me, and I’ve had no problems with the likes of mesh footwear so far.
One side effect of this is that the mesh support has slightly impacted the positioning of avatar attachments with Lumiya. Alina has had suspicions that there might be a problem with attachments and the avatar skeleton which may affect Lumiya, and now the issue has been confirmed, it’s on her list of things to update.
The magic of mesh in Lumia: a rigged mesh catsuit in Lumiya (l) and a regular viewer (r)
A new setting is also provided within Lumiya for users to define the quality of mesh rendering on their device – useful if using an older, less capable GPU. The options can be found under 3D View on the Settings menu (device menu key > Settings), and comprise five settings: High Quality, Medium Quality, Low Quality, Lowest Quality and Disabled.
RLV Support
Lumiya, from version 2.4.0 onward, provides RLV / RLVa support. As with a traditional viewer, RLV must be explicitly enabled by the user via the Settings menu (device menu > Settings > Tap RLV enabled to check and turn on). Also, as with a traditional viewer, a restart is required once RLV has been enabled the first time.
Once enabled, behaviours are as seen with an RLV-enabled viewer: locked items are non-detachable; restricted options are removed from menu options; movement restrictions enforced etc.
RLV in Lumiya: in the left two images, the 3D world view Settings menu showing how active RLV restrictions remove options (Inventory, Minimap) from that menu. On the right, two images showing the removal of the Detach option from the object menu for an item “locked” via RLV
RLV Support Notes
As Lumiya does not currently support particle rendering in the 3D view, chain links, etc., will not be rendered
Similarly, because Lumiya does not currently support windlight, any windlight controls / restrictions related to RLV will no be applied to the in-world view
There is currently no #RLV shared folder support
Disabling RLV in Lumiya will turn the functionality off without a need to re-log (all restrictions on detachment, menu options, etc., will be lifted).
Server-side Baking
Lumiya now provides support for Server-side baking (SSB, also referred to as avatar baking), and so is ready from when the new service is deployed to the main grid.
While there is a test area for SSB on Aditi (the Beta grid), I have encountered issues with logging-in to that grid using Lumiiya, and so have been unable to test and obtain images for this review.
Other Updates
Additionally. versions 2.4.0 through 2.4.2 add the following to Lumiya:
Avatar direction indicator added to Mini-map (a small arrow is displayed over your avatar, indicating the direction it is facing)
Animation requests are no longer auto-accepted
Fixed display of outfit folders in inventory
Fixed duplicate messages in chat
Fixed inventory appearing empty after teleport
Fixed broken teleports on OpenSim grids.
Feedback
Another series of updates which see Lumiya move even closer to matching viewer-based capabilities, making it even more a genuine alternative for those on mobile / tablet devices who wish to access Second Life / OpenSim while on the move. Both mesh rendering and RLV support are liable to be popular additions, and the server-side baking should stand it in good stead for upcoming changes to Second Life.
For those using an Android device, there simply isn’t a better means of access your virtual world.
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 as the week progresses
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: 3 February, 2013
The major news for the week is that the Zen viewer has officially ceased development and has been delisted from the SL Third-party viewer directory at the developer’s request and all repositories removed from public access. The reason for this is unknown at the time of going to print with this summary.
SL Viewer updates:
Beta version rolled to 3.4.5.269698 on Janunary 31st – release notes
Development rolled to 3.4.6.269703 on January 30th
Mesh deformer project viewer rolled to 3.4.4.268558 on January 29th – core updates: code merged to 3.4.4 codebase
Sunshine viewer (avatar baking (SSB)) rolled to 3.4.5.269555 on January 30th – wiki page
CHUI development viewer rolled to 3.4.6.269797 on January 30th and then 3.4.6.269877 on February 1st
Dolphin rolled to 3.4.12.27293 on February 3rd – core updates: source up-to-date with latest LL development viewer code – release notes
Cool VL updates – three versions for the time being, all updated on February 2nd:
Stable version: 1.26.6.8
Legacy version: (v2.6 renderer) rolled to 1.26.4.51
Lumiya released version 2.4.1 on January 31st – core update: mesh object support; some mesh clothing support; RLV support; server-side baking (SSB) support; fixes and tweaks – release notes
Discontinued Viewers
Phoenix officially reached end-of-line for SL on December 31st – read more here
Zen viewer was withdrawn from the SL TPV directory and all repositories shutdown on January 27th, 2013.
