In week 26 the Third Party Developers’ meeting ran 47 minutes. As it is a holiday weekend in the USA many of the regular attenders were not there. But, we did get some good information and lots of dates, which is unusual. So, this gives us a good guide for what is coming and when.
Weekly Fitmesh Finds & I’m up for auction!
Viewers
Second Life Inventory Message Viewer version 4.0.6.315555 – This RC viewer is almost certain to see a Tuesday promotion to the main viewer.
This version removes the old inventory messages (API calls) and exclusively uses the new AIS messages. Soon the servers will stop supporting those old calls. Likely in the Q4 of 2016 with more certain dates TBD in the next couple of months.
This upgrade is part of the ongoing effort to build more robust and reliable inventory,
The change will eventually break Obsolete Platform Viewer. It will NOT be updated. The viewer will not stop working or be blocked but, parts of the inventory panel and inventory operations will stop working. The crash rate on this viewer in Windows XP is horrible. The Lab sees no reason to extend its life.
Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.6.316883 – This version is doing well. It is likely to be promoted soon after the inventory viewer, at least that’s the plan.
Second Life Project VOB Viewer version 4.0.6.316123 – Is expected to promote to an RC version in week 27 or 28. That, of course, depends on how well it performance and whether any bugs are found.
The Second Life Project Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.317134 version is working toward RC quality and likely to be promoted to RC status pretty soon. There are a couple of bugs to kill and a couple of decisions to be made about what the Lab will and won’t support.
Second Life Project Oculus Rift Viewer version 4.1.0.317313 – THIS IS A NEW BUILD of this version. It was built only for Windows on Friday. If it works they will update Rift to RC status soon. Eventually Oculus support will merge into the main development channel. So, this is huge!
As to support for Vibe… It is something the Lab would like to do. We haven’t heard much more from the Lab and Oz didn’t go far down that road. I am guessing we will see Oculus pick up Mac support in SL. Then not much more until we see the 64-bit Linden viewers roll out.
A 64 bit Project Viewer is planned for release in July 2016… Wow! An ETA. Of course it is not a hard release date. It is just the plan. Events and problems could delay the project.
There is the possibility of a Linden 64-bit Linux viewer. I’m not that into Linux. Sill I recommend not holding your breath on that one. A Windows and Mac 64-bit versions are coming. If things go well then possibly a 64-bit version. But, I take it that this is not a high priority with the Lab. Meaning if all goes well and they have time left over from Windows and Mac development and can get a Linux viewer done in the extra time… they will do it.
If the clock runs out… then they are back to helping third parties that many want to do the work.
Second Life Project VLC Media Plugin Viewer version 4.0.6.316258 – This version is likely to move from Project status to RC in week 27. In that version QT is gone on the Windows side. It will live on in the Mac side until the 64-bit viewer rolls out, which will be changed over to VLC.
MOV files may or may not work with VLC. The VLC plugin and standalone support different MOV formats, with the standalone supporting more formats. So, some mov files that play in the standalone that do NOT play in the plugin. The SL viewer will use the plugin. So, SL can only play a more limited set of mov files. That is not going to be considered a bug.
The solution for SL is to avoid making MOV files and use MP4 files. It is possible to convert mov to mp4. Better yet go with HTML5.
Right to left language support – not on the Linden road map
Another page, link below.