Third-Party Viewer Meeting 2018 w07

Not much new information in this meeting. But, lots of updates.

As you probably know the Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer is out as the main viewer. Another update quickly followed the initial release, the Voice RC version was added.

Some third-party viewers have install instructions that tell you to find the SL-Voice files in the Linden viewer and copy them into the install. There are reasons for that, but they are too geeky for now. That copy-paste won’t work with the new voice version. Because of security issues the voice modules have changed and are no longer compatible with the viewer that have not added the supporting changes.

Oz Linden tells us there is another SDK for voice coming with a Mac fix. Also, the spatial sound is now working on the Mac.

There is a Maintenance RC viewer that is out.

Also, a Media update RC viewer with updates to CEF bringing the viewer up to latest Chromium version.

Oz is expecting another update for the Rendering Project Viewer. Expect to see more rendering changes. Oz says he has gotten a programmer with render engine experience back from the Sansar project. Some render improvements were put off because Oz felt the team lacked the necessary experience. Now they have it.

Charlie, there is Soon-To-Be another update for the 360-image viewer.

When asked about the Estate Management Tools Oz said it got pushed to the back burner. Higher priority stuff pushed it. But, it is on the Do SOON List.

Also, we are closer to animesh RC viewer. This has a wide range of implications. More about that in another post, soon.

Also, we are soon to have a project viewer for the 1024 bake textures. This will be a prelude to the release of the Bakes-On project. Watch at 05:00 for details and I’ll be posting more.

The new avatar texture is more for bigger av’s, like elephants. 1024 not needed for human size avatars. Thou some will disagree. For instance, last I read in Slink ‘how-to’ we are supposed to huge textures for fingernails… 512 or 1024, I forget. Fingernails generally appear as 5 or 10 pixels on our screen. Even if we zoom WAY in they only use about 18×32 pixels (or 576px). So, what does the system do with the other million plus pixels? A lot of wasted work discarding them.

You may know the HTTP asset fetch has been online for some time. Long enough that it is now integrated into most 3rd party viewers. So, the plan is this summer the API’s using UDP texture fetch and inventory update will be removed. Old viewers that do not support HTTP will not work. They will have trouble loading textures and using inventory.

Those sticking with older versions for whatever reasons will have to make some decisions.

Will see the API changes over on the Aditi grid in late Spring and then the main grid sometime this coming Summer.

The goal behind the API changes is to make inventory much much more robust.

Earlier I wrote about ARCtan in another article. I was hearing on video and was unsure what was being said. In Pantara’s video at 13:00 Oz is explaining it and explains more at 25:00. Those conversing in text chat were spelling it, so ARCtan.

ARC is Avatar Rendering Cost. Tan? I doubt they are figuring in the degree of tan on an avatar…

ARC has problems if you don’t know. I’ll provide more in an upcoming article. Whatever, the Lindens are looking at revising ARC to better reflect the work your computer has to do to render a thing. At the same time, they will revise the Land Impact Costs too.

Oz is preparing the Linux buckets getting them ready for code patch submissions. The Lab is changing to the Debian flavor of Linux. There are a few problem libraries. The plan is to rely on more standard Linux libraries. That requires some viewer changes and compiler make-file changes. This is happening over next few weeks. It is a low priority.

The Lab and third-party teams have a problem because of a shortage of Linux developers.

Oz is putting off some things as the Lab is trying to release some cool things at Second Life’s 15th anniversary… that sounds fun. But, no one is saying what.

The server side is getting a new capability (cap) that will supply categories for abuse reports. As it is now they are built into the viewer. So, those people that do not use the latest versions of the viewer are often out of sync with the support people. This change will let everyone draw the latest list from the same place.

If you have seen the Avatar Poser in the Black Dragon viewer, you know it is pretty awesome. Oz wants the poser, developed by NiranV, for addition to the Linden viewer. Expect some changes. The Lindens see some issues protecting IP stuff.

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