Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, August 4th
This summary is generally 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 Current Viewer Releases 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. This page 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.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5, promoted June 18 – No change.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, July 21st
This summary is generally 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 Current Viewer Releases 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. This page 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.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5, promoted June 18 – No change.
Release channel cohorts:
Love Me Render viewer updated to version 6.2.4.529302, on July 15th.
The EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.529247 on July 15th (dated Friday, July 12th).
Project viewers:
360 Snapshot project viewer updated to version 6.2.4.529111, on July 16th.
On Monday, July 15th, 2019, Firestorm released version 6.2.4.57588 of their viewer.
However please note that this release is for Second Life only.
Essentially a maintenance update, Firestorm 6.2.4.57588 brings the viewer up to parity with the official viewer, adding a range of fixes, improvements and updates from both Linden Lab and via the Firestorm team. The major new feature for this update is the Estate Access Management options.
As such, this release paves the way for Firestorm to be able to adopt the Lab’s Bakes On Mesh and Environment Enhancement Project, once these have in turn been released by Linden Lab.
As per usual, this article provides an overview of the more visible updates in the release. Please refer to the release notes for a full list of updates and all associated credits. Also, note that this update means that version 5.0.11.53634 will be blocked from logging in to the Second Life grid in about three weeks.
A small personal note: my apologies to Firestorm users who may have been directed to this post by the Firestorm team’s release announcement or the Firestorm 6.2.457588 release notes and were unable to find it. My ISP suffered a major (8+ hour) outage some 90 minutes before the release was made, preventing me from uploading and posting this overview.
Why A Second Life Only Release?
As noted above, Firestorm 6.2.4.57588 is for Second Life only. This is because Firestorm are changing how they support Second Life and OpenSim grids. You can read the full details in the official Firestorm blog post Second Life and OpenSim are No Longer Joined at the Hip, but in short, and in the future:
The Firestorm code is forked into two repositories: Second Life and OpenSim.
The Second Life dedicated viewer’s grid manager will only offer Agni and Aditi (SL main and beta grids).
The OpenSim dedicated viewer’s grid manager will NOT offer Second Life grids.
If you wish to access both OpenSim and Second Life, you will have to install both versions of Firestorm
the two versions will install entirely independently to one another and will not share settings or cache, so they will not conflict with each other.
To assist is identifying the two differernt grid versions, the Firestorm downalod pages has been changes to clearly differentiate between Second Life and OpenSim.
The revised Firestorm grid download selections
Note that at the time of writing, the OpenSim download page points to Firestorm 6.0.2.56680, which still works on both SL and OpenSim, and will use the same settings folders as 6.2.4. This will change with the next Firestorm update.
The Usual Before We Begin
As per my usual preamble:
There is no need to perform a clean install with this release if you do not wish to.
Do, however, make sure you back-up all your settings safely so you can restore them after installing 6.2.4.
Please refer to the official release notes for a full breakdown and changes, updates and credits associated with this release.
Lab Derived Updates
Firestorm 6.2.4.57588 brings the Firestorm viewer up to the current (at the time of writing) Linden Lab release viewer, version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer promoted on June 18th, 2019.In addition, this release includes some upstream fixes from current LL RC viewers, such as the HiDPI retina display support on Mac systems (Love Me Render RC).
Please refer to the Firestorm 6.2.4 release notes for details of specific Lab-derived fixes for this release.
Estate Access Management (EAM)
It has long been the case that the lists for managing access to a region / estate have been crammed into the General tab of the Region / Estate floater (World > Region / Estate or ALT-R). This has made the management of these lists – particularly the Banned list – difficult when reaching large numbers.
The Estate Access Management (EAM) project was introduced by Linden Lab to address the various shortfalls with the presentation of these list, through both back-end changes and a refactoring of the Region / Estate floater. Firestorm release 6.2.4.57588 includes the updated viewer UI, allowing estate owners and officers to make use of the improved tools.
In particular, the EAM moves the access control elements of the Region / Estate viewer away from the General tab and into their own dedicated tab (show below).
Estate Access Management: as they have previously appeared (left) and as they are under EAM (right) – note: user names have been redacted from this lists shown
In terms of adding or removing names and groups, the new Access sub-tabs work in much the same way as the list boxes in previous releases. However, with the new design, additional functionality is added to some of the lists:
The Banned list additionally records:
The last date on which a banned individual logged-in to Second Life (to assist with housekeeping the list – if an account hasn’t been used in X months or years, why keep it on the list?).
The date on which an individual was banned.
The name of the estate officer / region holder who implemented the ban.
The Banned tab can be sorted into ascending / descending order by banned name, date last logged in, date banned, or by person banning them. Click on the column title to sort.
The Banned list provides more functionality: search, re-ordering, date banned, who did the banning (only applicable for banned implemented after the EAM back-end was deployed by Linden Lab earlier in 2019, pre-existing bans will have “n/a” in the new columns, as indicated by the Banned By column in this image. Note that names have been redacted from this list
The Estate Managers, Allowed and Allowed Groups tabs can be sorted into ascending / descending order by name. Click on the column title to sort.
The Allowed Groups, Allowed and Banned tabs all include a search option.
The number of allowed Estate Managers is increased from 10 EMs to 15 EMs – again in response to many requests from region holders.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, July 14th
This summary is generally 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 Current Viewer Releases 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. This page 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.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5, promoted June 18 – No change.
Release channel cohorts:
Bakes on Mesh RC viewer updated to version 6.3.0.529185 on July 11th.
Love Me Render viewer updated to version 6.2.4.529065 on July 9th.
Kokua updated to version 6.2.3.45800 (non-RLV) and 6.2.3.45801 (RLV variants) on July 12th (release notes).
V1-style
No updates.
Mobile / Other Clients
Lumiya is currently unavailable through Google Play – see my article and update here. However, it remains available to new users (or can be re-purchased if urgent) via SlideMe.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, July 7th
This summary is generally 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 Current Viewer Releases 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. This page 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.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5, promoted June 18 – No change.
Catznip updated to version R12.2 on July 6th (release notes).
V1-style
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated 1.26.22.53 to version and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.23.6, both on July 6th (release notes).
Mobile / Other Clients
Lumiya is currently unavailable through Google Play – see my article and update here. However, it remains available to new users (or can be re-purchased if urgent) via SlideMe.
Saturday, July 5th, 2019 saw the release of Catznip R12.2.
With two major releases on the horizon from Linden Lab – Bakes On Mesh (BOM) and the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) – R12.2 is intended to be primarily a maintenance and “quality of life” release.
In this, Kitty notes that starting with R12.2, she hopes to de-couple these smaller “maintenance” style of release from those containing major new features and capabilities, and to be able to make this style of release on a more regular basis as a result.
The following notes cover the key improvements seen with R12.2. For a full breakdown of the release including all improvements and bug fixes can be found in the Release Notes.
Maintenance Releases Transition Times
Kitty also notes that with these maintenance releases, there will be a shorter transition period before they become mandatory for all users. For R12.2, this means that it will become the default download from around July 19th. Therefore, if you experience any problems with R12.2, the request is that you contact the Catznip team sooner rather than later, or offer feedback via the viewer.
Linden Lab Updates
Catznip R12.2 brings the viewer up to parity with the (at the time of writing) current Linden Lab viewer – version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5th and promoted on June 18th. This version specifically contains a Windows 10 fix for some Nvidia users, where on exiting Second Life, the system video is distorted. It was this update in particular that encouraged Kitty to release Catznip 12.2.
Quick Preferences Updates
Worn Items
With R12.2, Quick Preferences adds a further button to the Worn Items display. This uses the same shirt icon as the top-level buttons on the Quick Preferences panel, and when clicked, will open the Wearing tab of the Appearance floater.
The new Worn Items button in Quick Preferences that opens the Wearing tab of the Appearance floater
See: CATZ-475: Add button to open wearing panel to the ‘Worn Items’ QuickPrefs panel.
Inventory Folder Button
Similarly, if you have a folder set for the Quick Access inventory button, there is a new button (again using the same suitcase icon) that will open the corresponding folder in your inventory.
The new inventory option to open the inventory folder you’ve set for quick access display in Quick Preferences
See: CATZ-476: Add button to open the selected folder to the ‘Quick Access’ QuickPrefs panel.
Inventory Improvements
Catznip R12.2 includes a number of improvements to inventory.
Show In Inventory
Ever wanted a quick way to locate a worn attachment in your inventory – particularly if you have multiple links to it scattered through your Outfits? Well, Catznip has the answer: Just right-click the worn item and then select Show In Inventory from the Context Menu.
With Catznip R12.2 allows you to quickly locate, in inventory, an item your avatar is wearing
See: CATZ-501: Add ‘Show in Inventory’ to the worn attachment context menu.
Clear Inventory Filter on Close
Inventory filter are useful – but can be annoying if you forget to clear them; if you do, you can re-open inventory and be confused as the last filter is still active. Catznip 12.2 solves this problem by adding an option to the filters selection panel that, when checked, will ensure any set filter is reset when you close inventory.
The Reset Filter on Close upon will automatically reset any inventory filter that has been set, when you close the inventory floater
See: CATZ-494: Option to reset the inventory filter when closing the filter floater.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 