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 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.1.2.321518, dated November 10, promoted November 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes.
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.33 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.35, both on November 19th (release notes).
Mobile / Other Clients
Group Tools updated to version 2.2.42 on November 19 (no release notes).
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 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – no change.
Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.1.2.321518 on November 10 – over 70 crash fixes, improvements and other fixes (download and release notes)
Project viewers:
360-degree snapshot viewer updated to version 4.1.2.321431 on November 9 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review (download and release notes)
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.32 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.34, both on November 12th (release notes).
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 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – no change.
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.31 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.33, both on November 5th (release notes).
Lumiya, the go-to Second Life / Open Sim client for Android by Alina Lyvette, updated on Wednesday, October 19th, although it’s taken me a few days to get around to blogging about it.
Version 3.1.2 contains a single up-front change, but it’s one users are liable to appreciate: the ability to save chat and IM logs to their Google drive.
To do so, two things are required:
An active Google account with access to Google drive (no surprises there).
Download and install the Lumiya Cloud Plugin on the devices(s) you use with Lumiya.
Log-in to Lumiya and go to Settings via the menu (top left icon) and select Chat and Messages.
Tap Save chat history to Google Drive to enable it.
Setting Lumiya to save chat and IM logs to your Google Drive
A pop-up is displayed for your Google account (not your Second Life account). If you have more than one Google account, you may be asked to enter the details of the account you wish to associate with Lumiya.
Selecting your Google account
Providing you have selected the Google account you wish to use, tap Add Account.
A further pop-up is displayed asking you to allow the Lumiya Cloud Plugin service to access your Google drive in order to save and retrieve chat and IM log files.
Providing you’re happy, tap Allow.
Granting the cloud app permission to save and retrieve your chat and IM logs
And that’s it. You only need to do this once per device, you don’t have to do it for each of your SL accounts if you have more than one. When you log in to Second Life, your chat and IM histories will be available, and saved automatically.
If you ever want to revert to saving your histories directly onto your device, simply go to Menu (top left) > Settings > Chat and Messages and uncheck Save chat history to Google Drive.
Feedback
This is a handy update for Lumiya, offering a single location for chat and IM logs which could be especially useful for those who may use Lumiya on more than one device (e.g. a Tablet and a smartphone), as it removes discontinuities in saving logs locally – although obviously, you’ll have to use the Lumiya Cloud Plugin to associate each device with your Google account / drive.
And if Google Drive isn’t your thing? Then you can continue to save your logs directly to the storage on your device. Simples!
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 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.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.1.1.320331 (dated October 4th), promoted October 10th – no change
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.30 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.32, both on October 29th (release notes).
Mobile / Other Clients
Littlesight updated to version 2.0.0 on October 29th – New user interface.
On Wednesday October 26th Linden Lab announced the release of the 360o snapshot viewer, which I’ve had the good fortune to be able to play with for the last week.
The viewer is still very much under development, and has been released as project viewer with a number of caveats against it as development continues. Essentially, it allows you to take a set of images (6 in total) of the location around your camera, and then produce these as a scrollable 360o view – you can see the results in action on this sample page. Just click drag on an image to manually scroll around it.
The viewer is available via the Alternative Viewers wiki page as project viewer, with documentation on the wiki. As noted there are some caveats concerning it, which need to be kept in mind:
The 360o capture operates all around your field of view simultaneously. This can lead to conflicts with the viewer’s Interest List, so that objects which may be “behind” your camera position may not be properly rendered, etc. To avoid this, always pan your camera around (or turn your avatar around if you are taking a picture from your avatar’s position) to completely view the scene and allow things to initially load, before taking a shot.
The current viewer saves the resulting image to your local disk as a zip file. You’ll need to set-up your own local web host in order to view them (or if you have your own website, you could set one up there). Again, this will be changing as the project develops
However, even in this format, once you are viewing an image, you can download it in a 2:1 aspect ratio suitable for upload to Flickr for sharing with friends and viewing in 360o.
As I’ve covered three of the 360o camera HUDs available in Second Life, I’m offering the rest of this article as a walk-through in using the new viewer and viewing your photos.
Note – these instructions apply to Windows, I don’t have access to a Mac to provide guidelines for that platform.
Setting Your Viewing Environment
Before taking your photos, you’ll need – for the time being at least – to set-up a simply local web server. Callum Linden has made this relatively easy.
Download Python from the Python website. You can select to install either Python 3.5.x (latest) or Python 2.7.x (the Lab uses Python 2.7 as a point of reference).
When installing Python, make sure you add the installation to your Windows path.
If you are installing Python 3.5.x, simply check the box in the installer
If you are installing Python 2.7, click the Advanced button in the installer, scroll down the list of customisable options and set Add Python .EXE to Path to Will be installed on local hard drive.
If you are familiar with Mercurial, you can clone the existing web framework via the link given in the wiki page. I found going the ZIP file route easier.
Unzip the web viewer files to a location on your hard drive.
When you have unzipped the web viewer package, you should have a folder looking like this – note the SHOTS folder, this is where you’ll be wanting to save your snapshot sets (Windows environment)
Using the Viewer
When you have downloaded and installed the 360o snapshot viewer, proceed as follows:
Position your avatar / camera at the centre of the area you wish to photograph. If you are using your avatar, not that you should “hide” it via removing all attachments and alpha-masking, or by using something like a “vanish” gesture.
Note that you can positioning your camera for a 360o snapshot simply by positioning your camera (e.g. using ALT-zoom or by flycamming).
Make sure you freeze the clouds in order to assist the image “stitching” process, and to avoid visual discontinuities in the finished image. Use Menu > World > Environment Editor >Sky Presets > Edit Presets. You should also avoid using Depth of Field.
Set your preferred windlight / time of day setting.
Turn your camera / avatar slowly around in a circle to view everything in the field of view around it, and allow everything to render.
Open the Snapshot floater and click on the 360 option – not that although this displays the filter options for snapshot, the filter effects are not currently captured when taking 360o shots.
When you are ready, Click Save to save the image set – you will be prompted to save a ZIP file to your hard drive.
Navigate to the location where you unzipped the web viewer files (above) and then save the ZIP file (with a suitable file name) in the SHOTS folder.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 