Servers
Maestro Linden is going on vacation. But, he did post the Deploys post Friday. It is planned that the Experience Tools package will be promoted to the main channel Tuesday, thus making it grid wide by late Wednesday.
Music Concert 2014
There are no noticeable feature changes using the current SL Viewer. One needs the Experience Tools Project Viewer to use the changes provided by the server update. There is no official link to that viewer on the Project Viewers page, yet. Once the beta testing proceeds to Experience User testing we’ll see that viewer appear. For now testing is with Experience Creators.
Server RC’s
Blue Steel and Le Tigre will continue to run the maintenance package from last week with the updates to the main channel being added. The visible change is in transaction reporting.
Magnum will get a new package that Maestro says is related to the changes in the Skill Gaming policy. This also sounds very much like the changes that will be running on BS & LT.
Viewers
The main SL Viewer is: 3.7.11-291465. This is the Snowstorm version that has a collection of open source fixes and improvements. Probably the most welcome change is STORM-1831 – Obtain LSL syntax table from simulator so that it is always up to date. This means that as soon as the servers implement LSL changes they show up in the viewer. Previously we had to wait for a viewer update. This feature has been on the verge of release for months. Several weeks ago the server side changed and now the viewer side has caught up.
Another visible change is STORM-1966 – Block installation on old and unpatched versions of Windows. This means that versions of Windows XP without SP3 will no longer be able to install the SL Viewer. You may notice on the main SL Viewer download page it now says …on Windows works with Vista, Win7, and Win8.
STORM-2010 – Fix AutoAcceptNewInventory for note cards, landmarks and textures. I think that is self explanatory.
Another welcome fix is: STORM-2011 – Improve loading of Group member list. We should have fewer stalls loading large group lists. This is a big win for those that have to manage large groups.
For those of us that build and create things: STORM-68 – Allow setting of default permissions on creation of objects, clothing, scripts, note cards, etc.
In general we could say this is an update for builders and scriptwriters.
RC Viewers
There is only one RC Viewer as of Monday morning early: Maintenance Viewer version 3.7.12.291824. This viewer includes a couple of dozen fixes.
Note: MAINT items are internal to the Lab and not viewable by mere users, so no links.
MAINT-2980 – Reevaluate the 512 meg texture cap. I think this is a step in increasing the video ram the view is able to use.
For Mac users this fix should be welcome: MAINT-3154 – Alt zoom zooms way out when attempt to zoom in on Mac build running with external monitor.
Estate managers will like: MAINT-3746 – Viewer UI to rebake region is broken for parcel owners.
MAINT-4001 Received Folder is movable within Recent Tab
This fix may be the cause of some bake fail problems people have been reporting. MAINT-4216 – Double clicking on anything in COF removes it from your avatar – including skin, shape, hairbase and eyes – results in bakefailed avatar.
Project Viewers
We have 3 Project Viewers:
Project Refresh Viewer version 3.7.12.291799 – This version uses the newly reorganized software libraries that Monty Linden has been cleaning up. For Mac users that means the viewer WILL NOT run on version 10.5 and earlier.
This version also has a work-around for a bake fail condition coming from various ISP and networking configurations. See JIRA items:
The Lab cannot reproduce the problem as their network and ISP are not inducing the problem. But, they hope this change will help or solve the problem.
There are changes in Zlib, Libpng, OpenSSL (Heart Bleed), C-Ares (cURL and DNS), Libxml2 (Linux), … etc. The full list is in the releases notes.
Project GroupBan Viewer version 3.7.11.291394 – I am hoping by now that you know what this one does. I expect this version to make it to an RC level soon.
Project OculusRift Viewer version 3.7.8.289834 – No changes here. I would expect this version to get the other changes going into the main release… some day. There won’t be any other changes until the Lab is working with the Oculus DK2. I am guessing that development for the Oculus UI will be a shared project between SL 1 & 2. So, seeing an update to the Oculus UI is probably a ways off.
FBX
This is a 3D model format converter. AutoDesk the makers of 3D Studio, Maya, and AutoCAD made the converter to move models in and out of their software and third party software. Blender is working to support it better. But, it is a licensed proprietary format. So, things are complex. For now the Lab has decided that adding FBX support to the SL Viewer is low priority. Work on it was started. But, those working on it estimates they would need a couple of months on the project to get it working. But, it may become a third party developer project.
Texture Thrashing
You’ve probably read my complaining about this problem growing and annoying me. The SL Viewers suffer the problem. Firestorm does not have it. Oz Linden tells me that he has people working on it. But, they aren’t sure what the problem is.
Also, since the problem is in areas where I shop and almost non-existent in other places, it is NOT likely a materials issue. I can’t imagine people using materials in the typical promo prims used as vendors.
Hair Fair
It opened Saturday. As yet I have not been able to get in. Palladium and Ruthenium are the landing areas of entrance to the Fair. There can be 20 to 40 people cued up waiting to get in from those two regions. The limits on the regions seem to be set at 40. I’ve seen as many as 46 people in a region.