Viewers
RC Second Life VLC Viewer version 4.1.1.320331 – updated Thursday (10/6). This update fixes a problem setting volume. Moving the slider to MAX turned of sound. Oops. This version is in good shape and doing well in RC, meaning few crashes and complaints. This viewer version will probably to promote to the main/default SL viewer in week 41, likely Tuesday.
Love You Forever
The RC Second Life Bento Viewer updated to version 5.0.0.320160 Friday. It too is doing well. But, don’t expect it to release this month. The Lindens are letting us use it hopping to find any surprises. There is a crash problem that is fixed in this version. Plus it Improves mesh upload and I think has the bone position lock. There will be Bento meeting in week 41. We’ll likely hear more. Be sure to check: Second Life: Bento Hands – Vista Animations Beta Out.
RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.9.320231 is also doing well. Last week I provided some of the details.
On quality any version could be next main viewer. But the VLC version is a security fix for those using QT on Windows. If you have QT, you should remove it from your Windows machines.
The 64-bit viewer is in the pipeline. Work is temporarily paused while they move to a new build pipeline for 64-bit. They are updating all of the pipeline except the compiler. They’ll update the compiler later. Point of these changes is to make pipeline easier to update and especially the compiler.
For now, the plan is to build the 64-bit libraries in week 41. Then expect a 64-bit build ‘soon’.
This update will change the Lab over to using new build scripts, which will use a new auto-build capability. The Lindens are just now updating on wiki to explain the changes. This will make it way easier to build and make changes to the pipeline. The wiki page apparently is not yet public. I can’t find anything about Autobuild Source Environment written recently.
360
360 Image I have an article devoted to the coming 360 Snapshot feature coming to the viewer. Click for a nice 360 Image made by Inara Pey. See Second Life: New Easy 360 Camera Coming.
ACI
The adjustment to the Avatar Complexity Information is still in progress. This is about adjusting Jelly Doll calculation. The ACI value determines whether the viewer renders an acatar or renders it as a JellyDoll.
The Lindens are considering and measuring the effect of various items attached to avatars via testing. People have been reporting instances where things are calculated inaccurately.
Oz Linden does not expect any dramatic change. But, there may be some tweaking. The change is going to take some time. So, even if we aren’t hearing or seeing much happen the Lindens are paying attention and spending time working on the problems. The holdup is simply a lot of number crunching has to be done and a lot of testing of any changes.
Snapshot Panel
The Snapshot Panel is going to get NiranV’s updates. They were submitted some time ago. Oz takes responsibility for the delay getting them implemented. Busy.
I think this panel update will allow users to access various filters in the Linden made viewer. If you remember the era of Kirsten viewers, you likely remember when filters were popular. I tend not to use viewer filters or depth of field because I do that editing in Photoshop. But, here is a viewer made image using a Whirly ‘cartoon’ filter.
Cartoon filter – Firestorm #SecondLife #SL @PhoenixViewerSL http://t.co/Z7cb1U4NUQ pic.twitter.com/wPOy3Mhb7d
— Whirly Fizzle (@WhirlyFizzle) March 25, 2015
Pretty nice.
Summary
To some extent the Lindens are moving off the back-end improvements and back to shinnies. That is kinda fun.