Snowstorm Project
If you don’t already know, the Snowstorm Project is the SL Viewer (SLV) development project. There are several things currently going on that will affect new releases of the viewer. These are the ones I found interesting.
Prim Alignment Tool
Many of you have seen the Qarl Fizz Prim Alignment Tool that is now starting to appear in TPV’s. It is in the Imprudence Experimental viewer. It is great. See: Qarl Fizz Prim Alignment Tool
Because of some technicalities about signing agreements and code licensing it appears Linden Lab cannot just ‘use’ the code. So, whether they are going to talk to Qarl and come to some agreement or write their own version of alignment has not been decided. Whatever, the feature is in the backlog. You can vote for the feature here: STORM-468 Add Qarl Fizz Prim Alignment Code to SLV2
Update: Esbee Linden Started prim alignment design document.
Preferences Interface Cleanup
Esbee Linden is cleaning up the interface in Preferences. Discussion is about which Debug Settings to move into Preferences. If you have a favorite Debug Setting you use often, email a rational explanation of why it should be in Preferences and why you use it so often.
Lights
This setting has appeared and disappeared. It is coming back. The light rendering setting is being changed so that getting it set is not so confusing. The viewer can render way more local lights than we see now. Kirsten’s viewer appears to render more lights than the SLV2 viewer because by default Kirsten’s has the render on by default and SLV2 has them off by default.
Kakadu
This is the 3rd Party software that LL uses to encode and decode JPEG2000 images. Merov Linden is sorting through the new improvements and getting LL’s version updated. We should see better performance and fewer images hanging in the decode pipeline as this gets upgraded. The recent Development Viewers should have some of the KDU upgrades.
TPV Licensing
Oz Linden is working on the licensing pages in the wiki. Open Source Documentation team and Oz are working to resolve some issues.
Beta 3
Cleanup work is being completed. This means a new main viewer is likely to release soon. Which features will be included in the release and which held for more testing is being decided.
Sidebar Help Problems
The context help is not working right. Paul ProductEngine was working to find the problem. Fixed and sent for review (11/5).
Crash Decoding JPG Image and others
STORM-472 is fixed and going into testing. STORM-343 – Bottom bar buttons auto-hide is broken is closed as no one in the Lab can reproduce the problem. Work has started on STORM-261 – In V2.2.0 Script Editor, cannot see any line numbers other than the current one. STORM-520 – crash at LLViewerObjectList::removeFromLocalIDTable): – resolved as a dupe of VWR-23444 – which is already fixed. STORM-318 – The Advanced menu cannot be activated under Linux: Broondas’ fix, assigned to Esbee for approval. STORM-104 : kdu upgrade: committed the static linking changes to dev repo. STORM-284 – The “+” sign appears when user tries to drop a landmark to Favorites bar from in-world object contents – Fixed. STORM-189 – [TRUNCATION] many langs – select build tools dialog – Fixed. STORM-320 -Script Editor in Viewer 2.0+ “tabs” incorrectly – in progress. STORM-546 -Remove lots of dead renderForSelect() code from the rendering pipeline. STORM-52 -Hook up external script editor – coming soon.
Mute vs Block
There is ongoing discussion about whether LL should use the word mute or block. Previously LL used ‘mute’ for those tasks. User testing shows new users expect ‘block’ as it is more common in other MMO’s. I expect LL is going to stay with ‘Block’.
Summary
Lots of things are getting fixed. Progress is being made. Once the major problems in general use areas are cleaned up, Esbee says they will be looking at improving the content creation aspects of the viewer. I think this is one of the SLV2’s weakest areas. Many of the features in Imprudence make building far easier and more enjoyable. Prim and texture alignment remain tedious and awkward. It will be nice to see those improved.