Servers
This week there is no roll to the main channel.
Fantasy Fair 2014
RC Servers
Blue Steel and Le Tigre will remain on the inventory update package, Sunshine/AISv3.
Magnum will get a new maintenance package that fixes some network issues affecting busy regions.
Viewers
The main viewer this morning is 3.7.7-289461. No change since last week. This version has lots of code clean up work. It is the Interesting Viewer promoted. It should render a region faster and more intelligently.
RC Viewers
These viewers are getting all the code updates now seen in the main release. The versions here should have the changes. Expect to see the next promotion to main viewer in week 19th.
Maintenance Viewer version 3.7.8.289922 – Mostly fixes:
- lots of crash fixes
- performance improvements
- GPU table updates
- Multiple fixes to Mac viewer
- Help system update
- fixes in Recent tab, Chat, LSL editor, land management, etc.
- Lots more listed in Release Notes.
SL Share Viewer version 3.7.8.289775 – This is the reapired viewer for Facebook with the addition of Twitter and Flickr posting. This version fixes a Flickr tag with an empty parcel name.
Sunshine Viewer version 3.7.7.289441 – This is the viewer that works with the changes in Blue Steel and Le Tigre. It should have far fewer bake fail and inventory problems.
Project Viewers
Zipper Viewer version 3.7.5.288507 – This is the fast install version of the SL Viewer.
Coming
Memory leak fixes are coming to a viewer near you. We will see those arriving in RC viewers likely within a month and may be in a week or 10 days.
Monty Linden is working on WebKit. We should see something in a couple of weeks. Monty is unhappy with the QTWebKit. He may take a break.
He is also working on Collada something. This work does not affect mesh importing. But, has to do with viewer operation… and no I don’t quit understand what they are doing.
Monty is using a viewer using the cleaned up libraries.
Oz is working on an improved build process for the viewer. It will make sure the correct sets of code are used, meaning avoiding mixing incompatible libraries.
64-bit viewer libraries are on the list of things they would like to do. But, there will not likely to be moved on until after the Lab updates all their tools to the 2013 version compilers and libraries.
The Oculus Viewer remains semi-closed beta.
A Group Ban viewer is on the way. Baker Linden says he has 2 big bugs and some minor bugs left in Group Bans. But, it is close enough that it can become public. The code repository is public. So, third party viewer developers have access to it.
The server side is working only on ADITI. Test on Morris, ADITI if you get the code and build a viewer. This code is to be kept off the AGNI grid as it can cause some odd problems for Group Bans. So, do not expect to see viewers with this code in AGNI until after the server side rolls for AGNI main channel.
Since the rollout cue for server channels is pretty much empty this should roll quickly. I’ll say 2 to 4 more weeks.
Firestorm is planning to put the Group Ban into their nightly builds as quickly as possible. This means as soon as the server side rolls out the FS Support team will be using it with their support groups. People will find they cannot join a group they have been banned from. Their viewer without the group ban code will not explain what is happening. So, we will have a window of odd happenings as this rolls out.
LEAP Motion
The LEAP Motion people are looking for viewer developers to work with them on an SL Viewer interface. FS Team is short personnel. So, as of last Friday no one was working on LEAP. The LEAP people are meeting with Ebbe, so things may change.
There is the possibility of being hired to complete work on the LEAP/Oculus interface for an SL Viewer. Contact: doh@ocuspec.com, but only of you are serious.
LEAP is expected, or at least some hope, to be the ‘mouse’ for Oculus Rift.
Stats
Oz Linden is working on stats to get better numbers out. The Lab is starting to filter out numbers generated by Windows XP users.
The release of the Breakpad code has increased the reporting of crashes for the SL Viewer. The Lab now believes it is capturing 60 to 80% of Windows crashes where it was capturing about 20%. On the Mac they think they were catching about 10% of crashes. Now they think they are at about 90%.
This provides lots more information for the engineers to work with. I expect this means we will see more fixes over the next few weeks than on average.
Most of the logout crashes were previously missed. Now they are being caught. The immediate result from a user perspective is the coming memory leak fixes we will expect to see in an RC Viewer this month.
Mac-Cocoa
There is progress. The Lab now has someone working on Mac bugs. Work is being done on the Alt-Cam bug. This is a big and complicated problem. It is expected to take some time to unravel and fix.
Ebbe Update
Word is Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab CEO, is spending quite a bit of time in SL. So, you may see him around. He hangs out until the crowd gets too big. He does talk to people.
Flickr
The communication used with the Flickr is changing to use the SSL protocol. Viewers not using the new protocol will not work with Flickr. So, the SL Share 2 feature may get bumpy. That change is expected to happen at Flickr in June.
News Flow
June 6th is next TPV Meeting. So, we will be without much news for the rest of the month.
Other people have been commenting on the apparent slowing of code coming out of the Lab. Oz Linden says he is unaware of any code avalanche that might be building. Think of code being worked on an not being released as building up then falling on third party devs in a huge release.
If nothing is building up… what is the Lab doing? I guess all the engineers could be hanging out in SL…