I am distracted by RL work events and running a bit behind. I’ve barely been in-world since last Thursday. We did get a rollout Tuesday to the main channel. The main channel got the Interest List update. This should be noticed as a little bit faster rezzing of regions you are visiting for the first time.

Image from Sorcerer and White Snake

Rollouts started for today, Wednesday, on the release channels. All three are getting the same package. It includes the new LSL functions I’ve been writing about. If you have missed those articles take a look at the release notes. These include additions to Pathfinding and object returns. 

Viewers

The main viewer does not yet have Materials. It is still on version 3.5.3-276452. If we are lucky we will see that change this week.

If you are on automatic updates you probably noticed your viewer settings clear and have had to reset them. Annoying.

The Beta Viewer, on the main download page, is now at version 3.6.0-277409. This is a Materials enabled viewer.

There is also a Maintenance Beta Viewer out. It is version 3.5.4-276827. This version has a different set of features and fixes than either the main or Materials Beta. It does include Materials. Check the viewer’s release notes, this is the more user friendly notes, for information on those additions and fixes.

Be warned this version on Mac OS 10.6.8 can lock up when you are taking snapshots. It is a known bug. It also has problems with multiple teleports. So, if you are into region hoping in a single session, this may be a problem.

Firestorm

Jessica has a post up on the Firestorm Viewer blog. See: Server Side Baking on the Way. Jessica is talking about the unpredictable nature of viewer update releases coming from the Lab. See my: Second Life News 2013-25 for details. This is making it difficult for her and the team to predict when they will make their next releases and what will be in them.

She points out that something like 140,000 users have yet to update. She is expecting there to be a rush to update when Server Side Appearance (SSA) is enabled across the grid. That is when people will start seeing gray avatars that never render. It will probably be the first time many of those 145k people have heard of SSA and the need to update.

The result of that ignorance is going to be a wave of support questions on the SL Forum and the Firestorm Support channels, asking why their avatar is not rendering.

Additionally there will some portion of those people that have update/install problems, questions on the user interface (where is…), and general frustration grips. So, if you are in that group that have yet to update, update now. That can save you waiting in line for help.

For those that handle their frustration by bitch’n at others… be warned that a large number of rubber stamps and forehead ink have been delivered to support people. Most are single word nouns that seem none too complimentary.

Most third party Viewers (TPV) have been updated. The two notable exceptions are Phoenix and SL Viewer 1.23. Neither of those will be updated. They have both been unsupported since December 2012. Also, I have not noticed the Imprudence viewer updating to have SSA support, but I may have missed it. Nor have I seen an SSA update to Kirsten’s Viewer S19.

Cool VL Viewer and Singularity are the best choice for those that are going to upgrade and want to keep the V1 user interface.