Category: Viewers

Viewer release summary 2012: week 27

Posted on by Inara Pey

The following is summary of changes to SL viewers / clients (official and TPV) which have taken place in the past week. It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, which provides 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 being in adherence with the TPV Policy.

This summary is published every Monday, and by its nature will always be in arrears. Therefore, for the most up-to-date information on viewers and clients, please see my Viewer Round-up Page, which is updated as soon as I’m aware of any changes, and which includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., for Viewers and clients as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: 8 July, 2012

  • SL Viewer updates:
    • Development: rolled to 3.3.5.261334, July 8th
  • Dolphin rolled through two releases 3.3.12.24704 on July 6th, which had an issue with broken shadows and so was followed by 3.3.12.24707 on July 7th – core changes (taken from the release notes for both): FIRE-913, FIRE-6551 & FIRE-6823, FIRE-6774, FIRE-6862 all incorporated from Firestorm; “Return to last in-world position” inventory option removed as the functionality has been broken server-side by LL; CTRL-SHIFT-P to activate or deactivate the “Places” window; ALT-SHIFT-P to activate or deactivate the “Picks” window; bug fix for shadows issue  (24704 release notes; 24707 release notes)
  • Niran’s Viewer rolled to 1.44 a little after this summary was published on July 9th – core changes: use of LL’s Viewer rendering code; performance improvements; faster rendering of shadows, local lights, occlusion, etc.; integration of tone mapping from the Exodus Viewer
  • Zen Viewer rolled to release 3.3.5.1 on July 3rd after version 3.3.5.0 was rolled-out and removed due to bugs – core updates: Updated Spell Checker with Auto-Replace and Dictionary Import; Texture Compression Checkbox Graphics/Hardware Pref. Panel; Banlines Extended to 5000m; Cleanup for Texture Picker and IM Panel (release notes)
  • Cool VL Viewer rolled to 1.26.4.21 on July 8th – core changes:  New “Object Weights” floater that can be opened from the Inspect floater; Improved Build floater; Improved avatar picker; Added the pathfinding related LSL functions and constants; Added a setting to disable default pose when opening the “Appearance” floater (Preferences->”Cool features->Miscellaneous); bug fixes and code improvements  (change log)
  • Lumiya rolled through release 2.1.0 on July 5th and then 2.1.1 on July 6th to fix crash issues – core updates: improved 3D view performance; OpenSim support; multiple account support; highlighting selected objects in 3D view; teleport home and close chat options added (release notes)

Related Links

Lumiya adds OpenSim support and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Alina Lyvette continues to develop Lumiya, the Android client that offers 3D rendering capabilities. This week saw the roll-out of two releases in quick succession: versions 2..1.0 and 2.1.1 on the 5th and 6th July respectively.

Version 2.1.0 saw Lumiya expand its reach with support for OpenSim grids being added. Also included in the release where:

  • Significantly improved 3D view performance
  • Support for multiple accounts
  • Highlighting picked objects in the 3D view
  • New Teleport Home and Close Chat options.

Version 2.1.1 was released around 24 hours after 2.1.0 to correct some issues found in the latter.

OpenSim Support

Lumiya now supports a number of OpenSim grids by default and provides an option to add further grids yourself. The grid list can be displayed by tapping the grid selection button (which also displays the currently selected grid), sitting below the user name and password entry fields of the sign-in screen.

To select a grid, enter the user name and password and then tap the grid selection button to open the grid list. Tap the radio button for the grid you wish to access. The grid is selected and you are returned to the log-in screen an. Tap Sign In to log in.

Grid selection button (L), default grid list (c), manually add a grid (r)

To add further grids to the list, tap the Add Another Grid option at the bottom of the grid list. This will open a custom grid screen (above right), which prompts you for the name of the grid and the URI.

I tested Lumiya on InWorldz and Kitely. Accessing both was straight-forward, although you will need to use the plug-in independent method in order to log-in to Kitely. Once in-world, things rezzed OK in the 3D view, and I was able to move around with ease. As I was at a sandbox in InWorldz and a little pushed for time, I didn’t stay too long. With Kitely I took extra time as I was logging-in to my own place there, Fallingwater, and was impressed with the way the client handled rezzing the house – but did notice that it seemed unable to handle the system trees, which were completely absent from my in-world view.

Fallingwater on Lumiya

Multiple Accounts

Lumiya will now store passwords for multiple accounts and for different grids. This means that once you have entered the log-in credentials for an account and providing you’ve checked the box, you only need to enter the user name (and select the required grid if necessary) – the client will automatically associate the required password based on user name / grid selected, making signing-in to your grids less typing intensive, which is always a boon when working on compact virtual keyboards.

Other Goodies

Lumiya will now highlight objects that are picked in the 3D view, making it easier for you to see when you have selected the item you require – particularly useful if you are touching objects from a distance. Selected items are highlighted in red, and if any associated event triggered, the chat screen is displayed, allowing you to take the required action / select from the associated menu.

In terms of rendering the 3D view in Second Life, Lumiya does seem somewhat faster. While previous releases weren’t exactly slow on my Galaxy S2, it could take a while for some textures to rez. With 2.1.1, the delay is a lot less noticeable – if it happens at all. Even when jumping around several sims, things within my draw range rezzed and textured very fast, and the client handled distances of 96 metres somewhat easier than I remember from previous tests.

Object Filtering

Object filtering options

The object list now has an enhanced filter capability. To be honest, I’m not sure when this was added – I don’t remember seeing it in the last releases of Lumiya I reviewed, but I may have simply missed it. The new filter options are displayed by accessing the Objects list and then tapping the More button alongside the text input box. The options allow you to control the range at which Lumiya will scan for objects and define the type(s) of objects you wish to have listed via a set of check-boxes. Combined with the use of an object description or keyword, this can significantly reduce the number of items displayed in the Objects list, and is a good step forward.

Finally, Lumiya 2.1.1 also adds a couple of new options: Close Chat and a Teleport Home button. The latter appears to get your home location from the server – this is the first time I’ve used Lumiya since moving to a new region, but it had no problem in teleporting me back to my new home as I jumped around the grid.

All-in-all another great set of updates, tightly packaged and which significantly adds to Lumiya’s capabilities and appeal – particularly with regards to the addition of OpenSim support.

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2012: week 26

Posted on by Inara Pey

The following is summary of changes to SL viewers / clients (official and TPV) which have taken place in the past week. It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, which provides 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 being in adherence with the TPV Policy.

This summary is published every Monday, and by its nature will always be in arrears. Therefore, for the most up-to-date information on viewers and clients, please see my Viewer Round-up Page, which is updated as soon as I’m aware of any changes, and which includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., for Viewers and clients as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

A relatively quiet week. I’ve attempted to add summaries of what might be regarded as “core” changes / fixes to Viewers (where possible); these aren’t in any way supposed to be exhaustive – that’s what release notes and change logs are for! Hopefully, they’ll give a flavour for what has changed within a release.

I’m curious to know how many find these summaries and the main Round-up Page useful, and whether the additional information on release changes as seen here would be more appreciated if seen in the main Round-up Page.

Updates for the week ending: 1 July, 2012

  • SL Viewer updates:
    • Release version: 3.3.2.260300, June 25th (release notes)
    • Development: rolled to 3.3.4.260726, June 27th
    • Pathfinding updated to 3.3.3.260597, June 26th
  • Dolphin rolled to 3.3.11.24694 on June 30th – core changes: columns in the Area Search floater now resizeable; fixes for sound issues, STORM-1890, memory leaks,  overlapping Ignore and Block buttons when a script dialogue contains less than 3 buttons  (release notes)
  • Niran’s Viewer rolled to version 1.43 on June 25th – core updates: set time after which topbar will hide; new world display; zoom-in on avatars within draw range; assorted tweaks and fixes to the UI; rendering updates; re-inclusion of webkit (release notes)
  • Cool VL Viewer rolled to 1.26.4.19 on June 23rd – core changes:  Separate settings for “private look at” and “private point at” (Preferences->Cool features->Miscellaneous);  re-enabled the Edit pie menu entry for objects selected on no-build parcels; assorted fixes and internal updates  (change log)
  • Group Tools rolled to installer version 1.1.89 on June 28.

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2012: week 25

Posted on by Inara Pey

The following is summary of changes to SL viewers / clients (official and TPV) which have taken place in the past week. It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, which provides 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 being in adherence with the TPV Policy.

This summary is published every Monday, and by its nature will always be in arrears. Therefore, for the most up-to-date information on viewers and clients, please see my Viewer Round-up Page, which is updated as soon as I’m aware of any changes, and which includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., for Viewers and clients as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

A relatively quiet week. I’ve attempted to add summaries of what might be regarded as “core” changes / fixes to Viewers (where possible); these aren’t in any way supposed to be exhaustive – that’s what release notes and change logs are for! Hopefully, they’ll give a flavour for what has changed within a release.

I’m curious to know how many find these summaries and the main Round-up Page useful, and whether the additional information on release changes as seen here would be more appreciated if seen in the main Round-up Page.

Updates for the week ending: 24 June, 2012

  • SL Viewer updates:
    • Beta version: 3.3.3.259953, June 18 (release notes)
    • Development: rolled to 3.3.4.259223, June 9th, which adds Kity Barnett’s contributed spell check to the Preferences -> Chat (button)
  • Dolphin rolled to 3.3.10.24429 on the 25th (just after this summary came out, so I’ve updated) – release notes here
  • Kokua experimental rolled to 3.3.1.22989 Beta-1c on June 22nd, with a mesh uploader fix
  • Restrained Love rolled to 3.8.3.3 on June 24th, which includes Kitty Barnett’s spell checker contribution to LL’s official code (available in the current LL Dev release) and numerous bug fixes (release notes)
  • Zen Viewer updated to 3.3.4.2 on June 21st, core updates: additions to the Grid Manager and updates to HACD and OpenAL (release notes)
  • Cool VL Viewer rolled to 1.26.4.19 on June 23rd – core changes: Implemented an import feature for Shape, Hair, Skin and Eyes in the appearance customize floater; Exposed the “Show media HUD” option in Preferences->Audio and Video; improved the texture exporting algorithm for the Object backup feature to prevent it hanging; increased the maximum size of scripts sources from 64Kb to 128Kb; numerous bix fixes  (change log)
  • Libretto rolled to 0.18 on the 20th, core updates: fix to a “clothing not rezzed issue” and fixed avatars not being removed from radar when moving out of range (release notes)

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2012: week 24

Posted on by Inara Pey

The following is summary of changes to SL viewers / clients (official and TPV) which have taken place in the past week. It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, which provides 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 being in adherence with the TPV Policy.

This summary is published every Monday, and by its nature will always be in arrears. Therefore, for the most up-to-date information on viewers and clients, please see my Viewer Round-up Page, which is updated as soon as I’m aware of any changes, and which includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., for Viewers and clients as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

A relatively quiet week. I’ve attempted to add summaries of what might be regarded as “core” changes / fixes to Viewers (where possible); these aren’t in any way supposed to be exhaustive – that’s what release notes and change logs are for! Hopefully, they’ll give a flavour for what has changed within a release.

I’m curious to know how many find these summaries and the main Round-up Page useful, and whether the additional information on release changes as seen here would be more appreciated if seen in the main Round-up Page.

Updates for the week ending: 17 June, 2012

  • SL Viewer updates:
    • Beta version: 3.3.3.259197, June 12th – core fixes / updates: VWR-8761 Cannot delete object description; VWR-21538 SLVoice does not exit after viewer exits;  SH-2668 “ocean” water is always 20m high instead of the Region Water Height; SH-2689 worn mesh rezzing issues; improved language support (VWR-21538, VWR-23844, VWR-26542, VWR-28950; implements STORM-1819, Ternary/graded shadow support (release notes)
    • Development: rolled to 3.3.4.259223, June 9th
    • Pathfinding: 3.3.2.259040, June 11th
  • Dolphin Viewer rolled to 3.3.924419 on June 14th – core changes: fixing graphics bug partially breaking UI; updates to latest LL Dev Viewer & Marine Kelley’s RLV 2.8.3.2; incorporation of  Liny Odel’s fix for SH-3153
  • Niran’s Viewer rolled to 1.41 on the 11th June – UI tweaks, Windlight preset additions and tweaks, additional work on translating panels & right-click menus; bug fixes for Viewer crashing on Invalid Texture Index and RLV/a minimap issue (release notes)
  • Cool VL Viewer rolled to 1.26.4.17 on June 9th – core changes: fixing render crashes due to objects rezzing badly / incompletely (& a hardening of render code); improvements to the Search floater; additional v3.3 code backports, including: latest LLCurl and increasing ban line height to 5000m; arrow keys can still move avatar with chat input floater open (but not focused)  (change log)

Related Links

Kokua and Firestorm: moves and views

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s been relative quiet on the Viewer front of late. However, there is now news emerging about two TPVs: Kokua and Firestorm.

Kokua

Nicky Perian has updated the Kokua code on Bit Bucket to release 3.1.1.22989(Beta-1), dated June 11th. Available for Windows and Linux, it is unclear as to how “official” this release is  – there is no blog post associated with the release, nor does it appear on the Kokua wiki download page. Notice of its arrival has, however, been doing the rounds on Twitter.

I’ve not had a close look at it as yet, but it appears the release is more about bug-fixing and general enhancements of the current code (with fixes code that addresses both SL and OpenSim) more than prepping a major release and shouldn’t be treated as such – or even as a recognised experimental until the team release further information. As it stands, the release still references itself in places as the “Second Life Viewer” rather than Kokua, again indicative that this is very much still a work in progress. One thing it does do away with is the console window that would open on starting the Windows version of Kokua (and which you had to keep open while logged-in to SL in order to avoid the Viewer crashing).

I’m not recommending the release be put to general use – that is down to the Kokua team; rather I’m reporting that the version’s availability has been reported on via Twitter. Those wishing to know the exact status of the project should keep an eye on the Kokua blog, where hopefully there will be an update soon.

Firestorm

After an extended period of quiet from the Firestorm end of things, I recently noticed Jessica Lyon logging back in to SL once more after what appeared to be something of a period of absence. She’s provided a blog post at Firestorm entitled “Progress Report” , which indicates that the team had in fact  eased off from development; with some taking an outright break from things, as burn-out was becoming a factor.

The announcement highlights three things:

  • The team has new developers in the form of Holy Gavenkrantz, who has been a regular code contributor to both Firestorm and Phoenix, and Armin Weatherwax who, co-incidentally enough given the information on Kokua above, was formerly a lead developer on that project
  • And update on the status of the Firestorm 4.1.1 release, which is still officially labelled “coming soon” but which will include various requested tools and capabilities including Growl support, an LSL pre-processor, additional Windlight effects an “improved build floater”, and a host of goodies
  • The news that the team is branching development for Firestorm between Second Life and OpenSim.

This last point is interesting, as Firestorm has been gaining popularity among OpenSim users (Kitely even set it as their default Viewer).

The use of Viewers to access both SL and OpenSim has been the subject of much debate in the last couple of months since Linden Lab announced they were sub-licencing elements of the Havok physics engine. This requires that any applicable Viewer using the licenced code to only connect to LL’s own servers. In May, Jessica gave a hint that the Firestorm team were considering their options vis-a-vis SL and OpenSim, commenting on SLU that:

There is the possibility that we could have Havok code disable when the viewer is not logged into the SL grid. I have asked Oz if this would be acceptable and he is looking into it. If it turns out this is NOT acceptable, we will provide two versions of our Firestorm viewer. One for SL and one for everything else.

While she has not followed-up the comment with further information directly, it would appear from the blog post that – for whatever reason – the Firestorm team has opted to take the route of developing two flavours of the Viewer. It will be interesting to see how this actually plays out.