Second Life News 2014-47

Group Chat

Simon Linden Tells us:

Yes some of the chat servers have been having troubles in the last few days.   I’ve been looking into that … the code running there isn’t super new, and the outages might be timed with some of those [hardware update] restarts.

In any case, there is an update soon for the chat servers, and already another in the pipeline.

Servers

Photo Shoot w/Mr. S
Photo Shoot w/Mr. S

This week there are no rolls for either the main channel or RC channels. Next week is a no change week. So, I expect no roll outs that week either.

We can expect tweaking to the CDN system. This week whatever they are doing that requires multiple restarts is ongoing.

The main reason for no updates is the hardware updating requiring the restarts scheduled for this week. Estimating time for any individual update or the group is difficult as Simon says, “We also have to actually open up the server box and look inside to see if it needs an update, so it’s random how long each one takes.

This shouldn’t do anything grid-wide, aside from extra region restarts.” 

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Exodus Viewer Beta 9 Released

A new release of the Exodus Viewer came out. The previous release was back in August 2012. This release is primarily to catch the Exodus Viewer up to Linden Lab releases. The label is 13.07.09.1. This comes in Windows, Mac, and Linux flavors.

New features I n the viewer are few, but they are the important ones that will extend this viewer’s life.

  • SSA – Server Side Appearance (Baking).
  • CHUI – Chat Hub with vertical tabs.
  • Mac Full Screen on Lion OS.
  • Mac Retina Display for Retina MacBook Pros.
  • Mac support goes from Carbon to Cocoa.
  • RLVa gets removed.

Katharine Berry, the current lead developer for Exodus, writes that RLVa is just too much for the small team to integrate with changes coming from the Lab. A decision was made to drop RLVa to simplify the task of keeping the viewer up to date with the Linden viewer.

It is sad to see RLVa dropped. For some it will be a serious downer. RLVa is quite fun and about more than just BDSM. 

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Viewers Update 2013-10

It has been a while since I took a look at a number of viewers. Rather than post them separately, I’ve lumped them together, except for Nirans. I had not used it for months, so I expected lots of changes.

SL Viewers

The main Linden Viewer is still at version 3.4.5 (270263), pre CHUI (Chat Hub User Interface). I seldom use the Beta Viewer now. It is more of a fall back viewer for when a Development Viewer version has problems. This morning the Beta is at version 3.5.0 (271345). The Development Viewer had been at version 3.5.1 (270826) for about 10 days. Today it updated to 3.5.1 (271386).

I am still fighting with the CHUI update to keep it the size I WANT IT. Other than sizing problems I like the new CHUI. The new build 271386 seems to have some of the sizing problems fixed.

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Exodus Viewer Beta 9 Release Review

If you are following my coverage of viewers, you know that most Third Party Viewer (TPV) Developers are NOT releasing production viewers, but instead release Beta or test viewers to save on paper work. So, I am not surprised that Exodus has another Beta version out.

Exodus Viewer gets the Navmesh

The Exodus blog lists the New, Fixed, and Changed features in this release. See: Beta 9 (12.11.24.1).

The release comes in both a 32-bit and a sort of 64-bit (LAA) version. The download file size is about 37mb and the download is quick. The install is simple and typical. I installed it over the top of my previous 8.1 install and it seems to work OK.

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Exodus Viewer Release Beta 8 (12.08.09b) Review

Exodus has new version of their viewer out. If you like Exodus, this is a must have update. I think that this release is labeled a Beta as they plan to quickly provide a main release with the New Pathfinding Tools. I am guessing they are just waiting on the Lab to OK it. Or may be there is some last minute Havok Licensing stuff going on. So, the tools may already be programmed in.

Exodus Viewer – Exodus Preferences

It gets confusing which version is a test version and which is a production release version. The idea with production releases is they are feature stable and intended for primary use by Second Life™ residents. Production viewers only have approved features. Test or Beta viewers can have whatever feature set a developer is experimenting with. This release had some of the experimental features taken out, like the Mesh Deformer. So, I find the Beta designation a bit odd, but it makes a sort of sense.

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