This is not the week for news. Because of the US holiday Thanksgiving Second Life™ is in technical lock down, no changes. So, there are no server upgrades this week, main or RC channels.
Viewers
Viewers are included in the tech freeze. So, the main viewer at version 4.1.2.321518 will remain there until Monday 11/28 or later. Word is it is much more stable than the previous version. It has a lot of fixes.
I haven’t used it much. It is the viewer to use in the Horizons Experience. Firestorm and most third party viewers will have problems when you need to use the Horizons gun. A recent Linden fix has broken most weapons in SL. Third party viewers decided to back out that ‘fix’. Because of Horizons, the Lindens can’t.
Our only RC viewer is: Second Life Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.321598. We won’t see it release until the 28th or after. This version is an update from week 46. It has the Viagra feature removed…
A maintenance version should show up soon. May be even this week but, more likely not until after the 27th.
Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 4.1.2.321431 is the same version we were using last week.
Summary
Things are changing in Second Life and bits here and there suggest the Lindens have other things in the works.
Designing Worlds has a meeting today (1PM SLT – Their place), on video later, to talk about the future of SL. Patch Linden will be there. Also, some of the other movers and shakers of SL will be on a panel.
We may find out somethings that haven’t been previously revealed or thought of. For instance, Hamlet has posted an article on JohnC’s (presumably John Carmack) thoughts on VR platform makers not making worlds: Why Do Virtual World Companies Rarely Build Virtual Worlds?
My recent thinking on Hamlet is he does little to actually examine the thinking or positions he reports on. Hamlet does acknowledges that the Lab has built examples using SL new tech. With Sansar the Lab is bringing in people to build worlds rather than building their own. But, there mentions of their building a base world. So, we probably will have the ‘model worlds’ not just the bricks and limber John and seemingly Hamlet expect.
With any luck we will see ideas like JohnC’s discussed and put in perspective.