Second Life News 2014-15

Viewers

The main viewer is  version 3.7.4-288138.

Immersiva Photoshop Night Vision

Immersiva Photoshop Night Vision

This is the version that got the FMODEX fixes that solved a race condition. For the less geeky, a race condition is a common problem in multi-threaded programs. You can think of the threads as separate processes or programs that run at the same time. Once up on a time computers had only one CPU running programs and race conditions were not as common. Now with 2 to 8 cores (CPU’s) built into a single CPU chip the computer can do more than one thing at a time.

A race condition is a situation in which 2 or more threads are using the same variable or data at the same time and one of them is changing it. If thread #1 is running an IF X=1 statement and thread two changes X while #1 is testing the value the choice #1 makes may be out of date by the time it can do its thing. Results can be unpredictable.

Photoshop Pixelate Filter

Photoshop Pixelate Filter

The problem is avoided by thread #1 locking X so only thread #1 can change it. This means thread #2 has to wait until #1 has done its thing. Should thread #1 lock a value thread #2 needs and thread #2 locks a value thread #3 needs which has a value locked that thread #1 needs the race may result in a dead lock. You can see that a system could have problems if a programmer forgets to unlock a shared value.

Race conditions often result in intermittent or unpredictable problems making them difficult to track down.

FMODEX is a library of sound handling functions and somewhere in it was a race condition.

Photoshop Paint-ish Fillter

Photoshop Paint-ish Fillter

This version has some known but rare problems:

  • MAINT-809 [PUBLIC]Setting 16x antialiasing crashes Viewer in Ubuntu 11.10 with GeForce 6600
  • MAINT-3200 WL Haze effects are inconsistent between solid and transparent objects under water.
  • MAINT-3197 Rigged alpha attachments don’t render for impostors.
  • MAINT-3198 Legacy bumpiness renders funny on HUD faces with custom alpha mode
  • MAINT-3213 Brightness and Darkness legacy bump maps render incorrectly on Intel GPUs.
  • WEB-4659 Direct Delivery Outbox fails in Linux build
  • MAINT-3135 Cocoa Viewer: Mac: Maximizing the viewer leaves garbage on the screen

RC Viewers

We have six RC’s out this Sunday:

Google Breakpad Viewer version 3.7.5.288464 – This version is an update of the Google Breakpad debugging tool. Users should see no difference in their viewer performance when using this RC.

Interesting Viewer version 3.7.5.288404 – This RC has more known bugs (11) than the other viewers. It has the code for better server-viewer cooperation and caching.

MerchantOutbox Viewer version 3.7.5.288408 – This version fixes a number of problems related to the Merchant’s Outbox:

  • ACME-1219 Merchant Outbox viewer crashes on Exit on Windows 7
  • ACME-1220 User needs to click OK twice to dismiss Merchant Outbox notification
  • ACME-1221 Merchant Outbox Initialization fails with 404 error with new account in Merchant Outbox viewer
  • MAINT-2287 Merchant Outbox panel unusable and unrecoverable if outbox folder disappears
  • MAINT-2301 Send to Marketplace from Merchant Outbox says it fails when it doesn’t
  • MAINT-2452 Merchant outbox with genuine failure “409 conflict” causes all further imports to fail
  • MAINT-3319 Merchant outbox: Second Life 3.6.8 (282375) build – results when user has a merchant outbox misplaced in inventory.
  • MAINT-3320 Viewer crash when deleting trash which contains Merchant Outbox

This version has been around for a time. It has some known bugs (7), but they are the same bugs seen in other RC’s.

StatTest Viewer version 3.7.5.288371 – This RC will never become a release version. Users will see no difference from using this version. It is a text version that provides some debugging information to the Lindens. Expect it to disappear once the Lindens solve the problem it targets. It has the same 7 bugs other versions have.

Sunshine Viewer version 3.7.5.288573 – This is the RC with the second set of bake fail improvements made to inventory handling. For a user to see the new code in action, they need to be in a region that is a member of a server RC channel. All three server RC’s have the new AISv3 update enabled and running. This version has fixes for 80 bugs related to bake fail. If you are having avatar appearance problems, you may want to try this version. It has known bugs (8) common on most of the RC’s.

Voice Viewer version 3.7.5.288516 – This viewer uses the new Vivox 4.6.x libraries instead of version 4.5  libraries for improved stability. If you are a Mac user, this RC may fix your voice chat problems. It has the same known bugs (7) common in the RC’s.

Photoshop Grain Added

Photoshop Grain Added

Project Viewers

 SLShare2 Viewer version 3.7.5.288424 – This is the version with the new Twitter, Flickr, and restored Facebook sharing features. If you want to provide the Lab feedback on how the user interface works for you, now is the time to run this Project Viewer.

The viewer includes image processing filters and the capability to add more. So, if you are a Photoshop-phob, this could give you some simple image processing options.

Photoshop Mix of Pixelation and Raw Image

Photoshop Mix of Pixelation and Raw Image

 Zipper Viewer version 3.7.5.288507 – This is the fast install version. No one is really sure about the motivation for creating this project viewer. It has the same common bugs (7) as the RC viewers.

Project Viewer Installs

These viewers install into their own folder and are separate from the main or release candidate installs. Just install and go. Both the project and main or candidate viewers will be installed and operational. Be careful when you uninstall a project viewer. I am not sure how well the uninstall works.

I’m wanting to try the SLShare2 Viewer. So, I may get around to finding out how well the project viewer’s uninstall does or doesn’t work.

Images

Image filters can be impressive. But, it requires some talent to ‘improve’ an image using filters. The best way to learn about them is to play with them. They may save a weak  image or kill a good one.

None of these were made with SLShare2. Except for the night vision one these are 15 second slap-a-filter-on-it examples. But, there are the sorts of things one can do with filters. None of these are particularly ‘artistic’ examples.

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