From the Third Party Developers’ meeting last Friday we got some news. Not much from the Linden side. I am often wondering if there is really so little for them to talk about in regard to Second Life™ or if the community is wearing them down and they are talking less as a defense. We have been down that road before.
Viewers
RC Second Life Project Oculus Rift Viewer version 3.7.18.295296 – This view is often left behind. Oz describes it as being ‘preempted’. They have more important things to do and spend time on those rather than updating this version. I suspect few people are using this version as the Oculus type headsets it is designed for are not yet in retail release.
The Lindens have the intention to update this version. If they get the time, it will get updated. However, the ‘update this week’ song is old and no one is going to hold their breath at this point. There are other things they think are more important and I agree, there are.
Second Life Project Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.4.304433 I covered in some detail here: Second Life Project Viewer version 3.8.4.304433.
Firestorm has their recent Firestorm Viewer 4.7.3 release out. Now the FS team is looking for stats on the viewer from the Lab. I like the viewer, but I’m one of the ones that is having crash problems and mini-freezes. So, I’m playing with several viewers.
Other people have had a problem named ‘zombie eyes’… That isn’t a Firestorm problem. It is something in the backend servers at the Lab. So, that problem should quickly correct, if it hasn’t already. Another problem for some is fewer languages are supported. If you want those languages back, step up and help with the translating.
Another annoying problem is WebRoot™ anti-virus. People are having problems with it, as, I am told, it cannot white list a folder. The result is extremely slow mesh & texture loading, disk use pinned at 100%, high ping, low FPS, and it breaks copy paste in the viewer. So, Webroot is a very poor choice for anyone wanting to use Second Life and especially with Firestorm.
Third Party Viewers
More and more third party viewer are adding or have added support for the Viewer Managed Marketplace. Now that FS has their VMM compatible version out we can say most viewers in use now support VMM.
Alchemy Viewer
Word from Sovereign Engineer is Cinder is pushing hard to get the Alchemy Viewer updated Once per month. The current release is: Alchemy Release 3.8.2.
Cinder tells us a lot about what is going on with the viewer. It has some interesting features. One is in how it handles mapping of textures. If you have ever fought with planar mapping and trying to get textures to look right on tortured prims, Cinder is providing some help.
Cinder and crew are looking for people that speak English and Japanese to help with translations.
With this release of Alchemy the viewer fully supports OpenSim. The team is looking to start helping with improvements in the OpenSim worlds. You may not know, but some time ago, a couple of years (?) ago, there was a wall between viewer and simulator developers in OpenSim. It was there for legal reasons. You worked on one of the other. That wall was taken down and now those working on the server can work on viewers and vice-versa. Removal of the wall opened the possibility of faster development for OpenSim simulators and viewers. I think Alchemy is the first I can think of to take advantage of that change.
So, if you play in OpenSim this is definitely a viewer to try.
Black Dragon Viewer
Apparently Black Dragon Viewer was last updated 7/23 as version 2.4.4.1 on par with SL version 3.8.3 – VMM capable.
CtrlAltStudio Viewer
This is the alternative viewer for Oculus Rift type headsets. The viewer is based on Firestorm 4.6.9 (June 2015).
Kokua Viewer
Last update was about mid August 2015. Now on version Kokua-3.8.3.38326 Test.
Catznip Viewer
This viewer last updated in May 2014. That makes this an out dated version. It is now 15 months old. A lot has changed in that 15 months. – This viewer should be moved to the ‘Out of Date’ category.
Cool VL Viewer
There is a reason this viewer is named COOL. The latest release I find is version 1.26.14.4 (2015-08-15). It is VMM compatible.
Singularity Viewer
The latest release of Singularity Viewer, I find, is: 1.8.6 – Feb 2015. I would guess this version does NOT have Viewer Managed Marketplace compatibility.
Restrained Love Viewer
RLV Version 2.9.12 Posted on 06/26/15. Download.
UKanDo Viewer
The UKanDo Viewer is not one I have used. The latest update is: 3.8.3 and is on par with SL 3.8.3.
You are correct. Singularities latest version currently does not support VMM.
as for Nirans, he Updated just today: http://niranv-sl.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/black-dragon-viewer-update-2442-bugfix.html
Thanks