New code is rushing to the viewers in a torrent. This release of KV has lots of fixes and new stuff. Unfortunately the Apple versions are lagging because the machine used to compile those versions is overheating. The Windows version RC3 is out today.

 

Enhanced Avatar Physics: This is the booby juggle code for bouncing breasts, belly, and butt. If you don’t already know one adds their breast enhancement by going into clothes and creating a physics layer. It can be worn just like clothes. Other people will see you bounce or not according to your settings.

Mesh Upload: More work done on the mesh uploader.

Code Updates: The Windows code is now being compiled to the Windows 7 Std. Developer’s Kit. For most of us this means little. The benefits are not so much in your face as they are about making things more efficient when running in newer Windows versions.

Library Updates: Kirsten says new code is being used for the various libraries; Collada – the mesh format the viewer reads to import mesh made in 3DS, Blender, or whatever, Webkit – this deals with rendering the picture for the in viewer browser and Media on a Prim (I think), Voice – obvious, OpenJPEG – this is the compression and decompression code that reads all the images and textures used with SL, and QuickTime – QT is used by SL for movie display in the viewer. I’m guessing all the new code adds features that these 3^rd party people have been adding to their products and the bug fixes. Now that VS2010 is optimizing for Win7 there should be some performance improvement, whether we will see that in Frames per Second, I don’t know.

Download & Install

KirstenLee Viewer S21 Download

File size is about 29mb. The install is the typical Kirsten S21 install. The previous version is automatically uninstalled.

The OpenJPEG file shows as: J2C Decoder Version: S21J Runtime: 2.0.6, which appears to be the same as RC2.

In group chat the question came up as to whether Kirsten’s new OpenJPEG file could be used with other third party viewers. The answer is a qualified yes. I think it makes some viewers a bit faster. But, the file swap only works with some TPV’s.

Phoenix 1050: J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.697, Runtime: 1.4.0 – Does not use openjpeg.dll

Dolphin 2: J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.3.0, Runtime: 1.3.0 – Uses OpenJPEG.

Imprudence: J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.565, Runtime: 1.4.0.565 – Uses OpenJPEG.

To swap out the files one needs to rename the existing openjpeg.dll so it is not overwritten. This allows you to recover if things don’t work.

Copy 3 files from S21 to the other viewer; Openjpeg.dll, msvcr100.dll, and libmmd.dll. It should work. I’ve tried it with Imprudence Experimental. That worked well. I’ve been told that Dolphin 2 would not use it but I have not tried it yet. I don’t see anyway to use it in Phoenix 1050 as it does not use a file named openjpeg.dll.

Experience

With Lighting & Shadows + Ambient Occlusion and no Sun/Moon I get about 30 FPS in my cottage and 14 FPS in Celtic Myst.

The avatar physics in KL and SLV viewers seems different. I’ll have to play with this some more but my ‘Firm’ physics puts my breasts into slow motion. I continue to… oscillate… long after I’ve stopped walking.

It seems the Lindens have changed how the settings work, which changes how my breasts bounce.

Remember there are breast, belly, and butt settings in Advanced Parameters. These work together with the basic settings. I think the idea is to have the Advanced settings represent your body and the basic Breasts Bounce to be how clothes influence them. But, who knows? One just has to deal with both sets of settings.

It seems like the basic settings work better with some Mass, Gravity, and Drag in Advanced. Start off with a value of 10 for each.

Also, the Physics Layer is not showing up in My Appearance → My Outfits. It does show in Outfits Worn.

If you are considering buying Physics Layers for your avatar, I suggest you put off the purchase. It is likely things will continue to change and ruin any no Mod physics layers..

Summary

I used the viewer for a couple of hours. No problems.

It seems those that have switched to the Series 2 Snowstorm code are getting loads of new code and SL features. It seems to be a challenge just to keep up with Linden Lab.

Those that have tried to port the new code to series one viewers are getting swamped. I think we will see development on series one viewers stopping soon. It will be more work than it is worth to port new code back to an old system.

Also, it is looking like mesh is getting close to release. I suspect once mesh releases the series 1 viewers will be dropped and no longer allowed on the grid. Or Linden Lab may allow people to continue use them. But, as more and more mesh appears on the grid, those using series 1 viewers will miss out on more and more features of SL. People will likely want to be able to see what everyone else is seeing and upgrade and overcome their aversion to the series 2 viewers.