Firestorm

Today the Third Party Viewer List was updated and the new Firestorm Viewer release has moved to the top of the list, being the most stable viewer in use, congratulation FS/PH Team.

Dolphin Viewer 3 follows Firestorm and is ahead of Imprudence.

I have yet to crash while using Firestorm… There are other minor annoyances, but crashing is not one of them.

More Phoenix users are changing to Firestorm. There are no numbers out on how many or how fast. They are rather secretive about those numbers.

Main Channel

This week the main grid is getting new software. The Lindens have decided the Advanced Creator Tools will be rolled out to the main channel. The Advanced Tools are also known as Experience Tools. These are the functions that were used to build Linden Realms.

This feature adds new functions to the Linden Scripting Language (LSL):

• llAttachToAvatarTemp(integer attach_point) – Similar to llAttachToAvatar(), except the attached object will not appear in the user’s inventory, and will disappear on detach, or SL disconnect. When an object is attached temporarily, a user cannot ‘take’ or ‘drop’ the object. The user is ‘automatically’ the owner of the object. Temporary attachments cannot use the llTeleportAgent() or llTeleportAgentGlobalCoords() functions.
• llTeleportAgent(key agent_uuid, string lm_name, vector landing_point, vector look_at_point) — Teleport Agent allows the script to teleport an agent to either a local coordinate in the current region or to a remote location specified by a landmark. If the destination is local, the lm_name argument is a blank string. The landing point and look at point are respected for this call. If the destination is remote, the object must have a landmark in inventory with the teleport agent script. lm_name refers to the name of the landmark in inventory. This function cannot be used in a script in an object attached using llAttachToAvatarTemp.
• llTeleportAgentGlobalCoords(key avatar, vector global_coordinates, vector region_coordinates, vector… — Teleports an agent to region_coordinates within a region at the specified global_coordinates. The agent lands facing the position defined by look_at local coordinates. A region’s global coordinates can be retrieved using llRequestSimulatorData(region_name, DATA_SIM_POS). This function cannot be used in a script in an object attached using llAttachToAvatarTemp.

There is a catch. When this update rolls out it will be disabled. At some future time they will enable it. Remember, they have a new tool that lets them enable and disable features without having to restart the regions.

Also, with any luck the rolls will pick up speed and be faster than the last couple of roles.

Blue Steel gets a maintenance pack. There are at least 10 JIRA item fixes in this update.

SCR-311 : llGetAgentList() is fixed in this package, SVC-7917 : Self Muting disallowed fix, and 8 others not so interesting.

Le Tigre and Magnum get the Pathfinding Project. The last week revealed some problems with vehicles. With any luck those are fixed in this new release. A new version of the Havok Physics Engine comes with Pathfinding. Regions running different version of Havok creates region crossing problems.

The Pathfinding Project Viewer is needed to see the new Pathfinding Tools. There is a link in the left column of the blog.

Pathfinding is no longer be a problem for builders, well at least not as big a problem as it could have been. See: #SL Pathfinding Update Week 20. In Pathfinding Havok has to figure out where all the solid objects are in a region so it can guide Characters (your programmed characters) around them. When you rez a cube creatures should go around it rather than through it. It can take Havok 30 seconds to several minutes, I understand usually under 10, to figure out where creatures can go and where they cannot.

Originally one was going to rez a cube, which would then be no edit until you put the Havok’s Pathfinding map into edit mode. Now that is changed. You can edit and rez cubes just as you always have. The Havok engine will wait until you are done editing and then rebuild the map.

During the time you are editing prims Pathfinding characters will not know the prim has; rezzed, moved, or changed size. Once the Havok engine decides you have stopped editing it will recalc the map and then characters will avoid or otherwise respond to the new prims. There is a Pathfinding button that appears on your screen, very much like the STAND button you see when you sit on anything, that can be clicked when you finish editing to trigger the Havok recalc. This change relieves new builders from having to understand Pathfinding before they can build.

There are a number of pages in the wiki for Pathfinding and the associated Linden Scripting Language (LSL) functions. See: SL Pathfinding.

SL Viewer

More rumors and vague comments that Runitai Linden has more render pipeline optimizations out.

VWR-29271 – Flexi softness of 1 causes prims to become flat at lower LODs. This problem has shown up in development viewers over the past week.

The SL Viewer 3.3.4 is having problems and will not be advancing just yet.

Viewers are running using Intel HD 3000 and 4000. But, there is a problem with the viewer recognizing the video.

Summary

While we will get a roll this week, Experience Tools, they will be disabled. So, we won’t actually see them this week. I suspect that some regions will be enabled. Because of the griefer problems we had last time they rolled out to RC the QA team is probably testing security.

Pathfinding will remain in RC and we can play with it. It also adds region crossing problems to those regions in the Pathfinding Beta group on the main grid.

It looks like we are getting close to having 2 larger projects roll out. I suppose it is possible some people will move from these projects to the Shinning Project. Several comments have come up about the Lindens being swamped with work. So, I expect to hear of more projects as the move toward beta testing.