Third-Party Viewer UG Meeting 2017 w50

This week lots of things got discussed and explained in the third-party UG meeting. So, we have some information on Second Life™ viewers and some hints on the directions the Lindens are going.

I have some time mark information in my summary. Some of the sections I’ve just said what they are about as the discussion is too time consuming to accurately summarize. These are sections you should watch if you have an interest in the subject.

Alex Ivy has one more bug to fix, an updater problem. It is expected to release Friday, as another RC. With any luck we will see the version go out as the main viewer before Christmas.

There are some challenges getting the Linden Updater working with third-party viewers. Oz Linden says the Lab will work with third-party developers that want help with it. 

Viewer version 5.0.6, the HTTPP Assets version, will become the minimum version of the Linden Viewer that will run once Alex Ivy is released. At some point in 2018 the API’s that support the UDP delivery of assets will be turned off and removed from the system.

The Voice Viewer is looking solid. If Alex Ivy doesn’t make it out then the Voice viewer may. But, they want Alex out first. If Alex makes it, voice may get one more Vivox update before it is released. This current version seems to have solved the connection issue people are having.

There is a new Maintenance version out.

The Wolf viewer is the one with extra code for catching obscure errors. It gets updated to match the main release viewer.

A new 360-image viewer version is coming soon… sure. The holdup is integrating the 360-image part with the SL Places pages. This is a feature that will allow easy insertion of a 360-image in Place Pages. The changes will get merged into a main viewer line and become an RC viewer, soon. So, we are likely to see the project version become a RC version maybe this month. Don’t hold your breath. Oz expects us to see this viewer arrive after New Year’s.

The Animesh viewer is coming along. I suspect Oz is seeing management milestones and bug fix schedules completing. Oz isn’t up on lots of details. That is Vir’s job.

There is a new version of the Render Pipeline Update viewer.

Firestorm is rumored to release Dec 17. Jan 2 is when the No-Change window is completed. The 21st is when it starts. So, a 17th release is cutting it close.

Whirly Fizzle, she knows all, says the plan is to release the public Firestorm RC/Beta version and let it run over the holidays and release the final version after New Year’s. I think this a much more likely scenario.

10:00 – EEP Update – Work is continuing. Oz expects this to release as a server update and project viewer shortly, not soon, after the new year. So, we will likely see it early first quarter on ADITI.

The beta server and project viewer likely won’t have the full range of EEP changes. Said another way, all the new settings for Windlight and script controls are not likely to be included. The beta is for testing the viewer-server changes needed for WL settings to be assets.

NiranV has something I can’t get figured out from the video. Oz likes it and wants to do it. But, Oz has not gotten to it as he and staff are making their 2018 plan of neat new stuff to build.

14:15 – Teleport home button for OTHER avatars is gone from the viewer. Oz says some of these things are going into enhanced tools for managers. One change is EJECT will be changed to send avatars far away. Another is adding information about who banned them and when to the ban list for group managers. I think a why is included, but not sure. Plus, there will be bigger selection windows.

Remember. There is a bounty on bugs the Lindens do not know about.

22:00 – Linux build. Not much going on. Only after Alex Ivy is released will Linden attention turn to a Linux version, Debian package. The Lab will release a base version. But, it will be up to the community to provide enough fixes to get it working. If the community supports it, the Lab will release it as an official viewer, I think official.

You’ll need to listen/watch Oz speaking on what is going to happen and why on this subject. The TL:DR is that it is up to the community to support it as the Lab doesn’t have the resources.

26:00 – Mac – Oz is running 10.13 and 64-bit. Says it is fine.

18:15 – Texture Memory Improvements – The Rendering Project viewer has some texture improvements.

Another in-house viewer has a newly structured texture cache. Actually, a series of experiments. Oz says they haven’t worked very well. Progress is slow there and they are sort of on hold. But, in the planning.

Oz plans to work on the Rendering pipeline in early 2018. He thinks that dovetails well with the new Windlight settings coming with EEP.

30:30 – Server-Side Skeleton Reset. Discussion. See BUG-11310[BENTO] Repro for avatar shape being deformed after removing rigged mesh – requested by Vir.

37:00 – Local Mesh – Listen to the discussion. TL:DR is this would be like local textures, which can be applied to test models visible in the viewer before being uploaded. The textures are read from the local drive. So, creators are looking for local mesh, local animations, etc.

This would make for faster design saving the upload sequence to ADITI, test, change, repeat.

42:00 – Shape Sliders for Animesh. Not in the first release, if ever. There are a number of follow up things planned for Animesh. Whether shapes will be added is questionable.

45:00 – Script, Physics Limits – Some are talking about scripts or physics things that crush region performance. This is a long nebulous discussion with lots of background information on server operation and testing.

51:00 – Links in Chat – Spoofing of URL’s is possible in chat links. Discussion. The TL:DR is to use an external browser for links opened from within the viewer.

 

Next meeting in 4 weeks, January 12, 2018.

 

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