As soon as I post about a viewer, things change. The main release viewer upgraded from 3.7.6 to 3.7.7-289461. The release notes for this version are here: SL Viewer 3.7.7. The is the Interesting Project Viewer updates. I goofed and clicked the wrong link going to the release notes earlier. I’m trying to do too many things at the same time.
This version includes the changes for faster scene rendering. The changes, to a large extent, are about how the viewer handles cache and the order in which things are rendered. For caching, the first time to arrive in a region, everything in the region is sent to the viewer and the viewer caches it. This means fewer server requests for stuff.
The order in which things are render is better. Large nearby items should render ahead of smaller far away things. The Torley video released weeks ago shows the details of how this works. Suffice to say, you should quickly see the walls and floor around you ahead of walls and things at a distance.
There is a fix for crashing while reading chat history. I don’t think I’ve run into that problem.
There are 11 other fixes. Mostly things we would only perceive as: Dang the viewer crashed… So, suffice to say this version should crash less often.
There is a fix for the Mac problem reported as Out of Memory.
This version has the problem of attachments getting stuck on a world coordinate and appearing to detach from the avatar. At every teleport I see the attached item out of place. This is an OLD bug that has crept back in. It can be annoying. I was exploring without a foot today. :/ But, that is not as bad as hen my hair ends up attached to my butt. Whatever, take a step away and the attachment hangs in the air.
I have not found a good fix. I can replace the item with a different one. The replaced one still often appears at the next teleport. But when I walk away my avatar looks OK. When I login next time I may be wearing both items. So, I have to fuss with appearance at most every login.