Kirsten Viewer S21(7a) Release Review

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Kirsten S21(7)

Today (5/11) the release of S21(7a) or 2.7.8.7 came out. This is version 7a because the Lab alerted viewer developers that an exploit was found in the Second Life System. Unpatched viewers are vulnerable to the exploit. Kirsten’s 7a has the patch and is safe from this exploit. If you downloaded (7), go back and get (7a).

Build 7 has a load of new features and fixes. I’ll touch on those I find interesting. The list of them is here: Kirsten Viewer Release Notes. These are not necessarily the first appearance of these features. Some will be familiar to you if you have used the 7 RC’s.

Kirsten’s code includes SL 2.6.8 code items. My latest development viewer from SL only shows 2.6.7. So, this may be the most leading edge viewer available.

This version has Enhanced Avatar Physics. In other words; Boobies Bounce.

The new mesh statistics stuff has been added. Since this is one of the first Third Party Viewers (TPV) to have mesh upload ability this is a big deal. The new preview and other mesh stuff is included. This viewer can upload mesh. WARNING! This week the mesh data format is changing. So, this week or next we will likely see revisions for the new format. Do NOT reload your entire mesh inventory again. Wait for the coming changes.

Voice, Webkit, Collada, OpenJPEG and QuickTime have all been upgraded.

Crash on Start for non-English languages fixed.

A fix for packet loss on avatar texture bake uploads… when you change clothes the system bakes a new texture for your avatar made from skin and clothes and uploads it to SL for others to see. When this fails the avatar can fail to render or appear nude. Those with poor network connections have seen a lot of this… or is that a lot of them has been seen?

Added the ability to disable the teleport blanking screens. The important aspect of this feature is that one can continue to chat and handle IM’s while the teleport is in progress. Beats looking at a black screen and progress bar. However, teleporting in general is much faster now.

OPenJPEG is using SSE3. This is a bit geeky and I’m tired of explaining it. Search this blog for SSE2, search is on the left side. What this means is some older computers will have to revert to an older version of OpenJPEG or give up on the S21… or think about a computer upgrade. I’m thinking about it and I have SSE4 capability.

Apple Mac Shadows fixed.

Download & Experience

I’ll post my experience with the viewer after I get to use it for a time. I expect it to be similar to the earlier 7 RC releases. If you have not read those reviews, click Viewers in the top menu and select Kirsten for a page of just the Kirsten reviews.

 

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