Second Life News 2018 w19

Servers

The main channel updated to version #18.04.30.515008, this is the version that hopefully improves… not fixes, region crossings. Specifically, “Updates to simulator communication protocols aimed at improving region crossings and teleports.”

Blue Steel, Le Tigre, and Magnum all get the #18.05.07.515224 version. This is the version preparing for the name change feature by adding scripting functions to LSL.

New LSL Functions:

Seems some regions are getting two restarts today. I suspect that is somewhat common.

It's your move, pawn.

It’s your move, pawn.

Simon Linden tells us, “…the servers are now doing a better job tracking all the attachments and objects you may be sitting on [when crossing a region].   The goal is to know when the region thinks that’s all done, and the viewer acknowledges it.  If that doesn’t happen, it can do better fixing it

Viewers

The main viewer is version 5.1.3.513644. First in place week #16.

Second Life Love Me Render Viewer version 5.1.4.514788 – Released week #16.

Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.1.4.514802 – Released week #18.

Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.3.513006 – Last updated in week #10.

Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.1.4.514468 – Released week #16.

Second Life Project Bakes On Mesh Viewer version 5.1.3.513936 – Last updated in week #14.

Other viewers

Kokua Viewer 5.1.3.43237 & 8 have been released, an RLV and Non-RLV released respectively. Interesting for a few people is they have also released an Alex Ivy Linux version. That would be a 64-bit version.

They warn the Linux version is not a final working version. But, only an in progress and probably useable version. Try it if you would like to help with debugging.

Firestorm last updated in January. So, we are at a planned release date. However, the team tends to run behind. Until they are comfortable the viewer is ready they won’t release. There was a flurry of wiki updates that used to signal an approaching release but not so much anymore.

I’m hoping for a fix for the crash on exit. Seems if I use the viewer for more than an hour or take pictures it will crash on exit. But, I have had the viewer running for over 12 hours and it didn’t crash… well, on exit it did but not while being used.

Cool VL Viewer – Version 1.26.22.4 Windows 64 released 5-6-2018.

Singularity ViewerAlpha Build 6994 released 4-9-2018. If you are a Singularity user, you should probably be running the alpha version. The main release version is 1.8.7 Build 6861 released June 2016. So…

There are Linux and Mac versions of Singularity.

Other Third-Party Viewers – Maintaining a viewer is work. So, I understand that the additional work of updating a blog or release notes is a pain and takes time away from developing the viewer. Blogs and release notes tend to be ignored by some developers. So, I follow in-world groups of most third-party viewers. But, some developers now use Discord for their development discussions.

Other developers, like Slink, also use Discord over in-world groups. It is popular with developers. But, I don’t see developers telling many people about their Discord channel. It is sort of an invitation-only thing.

The result of these changes are some viewer development processes are just too difficult to keep track of…

Viewers used to make a huge difference in the Second Life™ experience. Not so much anymore.

The Linden viewer is now the cutting-edge viewer, a big change from 2008 when I came into SL. Third-parties do occasionally add features ahead of the Lab. But, not often.

Back when third-parties were the cutting edge for fixes and new features, staying up to date on third-party viewers was interesting and worth the effort. But, that has changed.

I think the last ‘new’ Third-Party feature I was impressed with and like is Catznip’s inventory handling enhancements.

The result is I use fewer third-party viewers and spend less time keeping up with what they are doing. I think the Third-Party Dev UG meeting is the most informative source for what is coming next viewer-wise.

Animesh and Bakes On Mesh are the coming big changes. The changes to viewers for these features is small. They aren’t really ‘viewer’ changes, but system changes. So, all viewers will get the features about the same time.

I think there will be some surprises for the SL15B… birthday party… but, those are being kept secret. I am not big on NDA’s. So, I’m not an insider.

4 thoughts on “Second Life News 2018 w19

  1. “The Linden viewer is now the cutting-edge viewer, a big change from 2008 when I came into SL. Third-parties do occasionally add features ahead of the Lab. But, not often.”

    Zowie, IMO Firestorm is miles ahead in feature rich options over SL viewer. Not to mention how clunky it is to even TRY to communicate on it. I’d be out of SL if forced t use that viewer.

    • There is no doubt Firestorm is the most feature-rich viewer used with SL.

      The cutting edge is about when a viewer gets new features. The Lab now has the more consistent cutting edge viewer. Catznip has released better inventory tools. They are ahead on that point. Black Dragon has more render quality and snapshot controls. Some of the BD features will be added to the Lab’s viewer. So, on that point, BD is ahead. But, animesh and Bakes On Mesh are Linden added features we will see first in their viewers.

      • “But, animesh and Bakes On Mesh are Linden added features we will see first in their viewers.”
        You can see them in the Cool VL Viewer already (and it has been so for many weeks).

        LL’s viewer also lacks RLV, Lua scripting (a Cool VL Viewer exclusive), OpenSim support, etc, etc, etc…

        LL’s viewer does not run under Linux (or without any plugin, not even a web browser)…

        We could multiply the examples endlessly.

  2. ” Maintaining a viewer is work.”
    Indeed, especially when doing it alone. And yet, it’s been 11 years I have been developing the Cool VL Viewer, alone, with weekly releases, on my sparse free time…

    “So, I understand that the additional work of updating a blog or release notes is a pain and takes time away from developing the viewer. ”
    Indeed, but weekly releases make less lengthy release notes.

    “The result of these changes are some viewer development processes are just too difficult to keep track of”
    You might want to have a look, at http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/alternative-sl-clients/ : most TPV updates are echoed here by the forum users.

    “Back when third-parties were the cutting edge for fixes and new features”
    The Cool VL Viewer still qualifies (with additional fixes and features that none of the other viewers get, since LL does not reuse my code by lack of a CA and since almost all other viewers are derived from LL’s code)…
    I will also add that some TPVs are *much faster and stabler* than LL’s viewers.

    “Animesh and Bakes On Mesh are the coming big changes. The changes to viewers for these features is small. They aren’t really ‘viewer’ changes, but system changes. ”
    Err… Nope !!! You got it all wrong here: Animesh involves a lot of viewer side changes (already integrated to the Cool VL Viewer) and, for now, Bakes on attachments (not just meshes… oh, and also in the Cool VL Viewer already) is a 100% viewer side feature !

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