Second Life News 2013-2

Sever Side Avatar Baking

This change touches many parts of the Second Life™ system, both server and viewer side. The server side changes are nearing completion and the viewer side changes are about midway, IMO.

Third Party Viewer Developers are working to get the code changes merged into their projects. This is a VERY complex task because of the changes TPV Dev’s have made and the changes from Server Side Avatar Baking. (SSAB)

Since the SSAB clock started ticking most of the time has been used to sort out merge problems. I get the impression that is getting worked out and TPV Dev’s will soon be in a place to actually run their test viewers.

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Looking Back at Second Life 2012

The Linden Blog has a new article this month titled: A Look Back at Improvements to Second Life in 2012 and Forward to 2013. It is worth the read, but it is pretty small. Having written 568 posts this year I thought it was a little light. So, I decided to look back over the year. I had no idea how much work I was getting into.

This article is the result of my look back at 2012. I have uploaded the WORD (docx) file I used to compose the article. I think it makes for a handy quick reference that can be searched. I find trying to search the blog for specific information less than ideal. So, if you want a quick reference to when things happened, get the file. Please do not re-post or publish it.

This article is long. But, check it out to see how many things you remember. I was surprised how much I had forgotten. I was also surprised how fast and how slow some things happened.

For a short version of this article see: 2012 – The Short List

Please forgive the poor use of tense. I found writing in past tense rather awkward. Also, notice I have made page numbers correspond to months.

Update: I have added the 2013 review here: Second Life 2013 in Review

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#SL news #3 Week 51

It is the Christmas Season and in the merriment some news is leaking out about things to come.

Avatar Baking

I think most of you have heard a public countdown clock is running on Third Party Viewers (TPV) being able to deliver this service. Those that don’t change over will render avatars as grey or clouds.

Yuzuru Driving to User Group Meeting
Yuzuru Driving to User Group Meeting

What is less known is the new service only uses the HTTP protocol to deliver baked textures. In most ways this is a good thing. However, a number of people in Japan are seeing problems with HTTP texture being slow. Most of the rest of the world outside of Asia is NOT seeing that problem. They see a speed up. So, if you are in Japan and you are seeing a slower HTTP delivery of textures, get in touch with Monty Linden. But, be sure you know it is not your computer and be sure you can add information to the discussion before contacting Monty. 

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#SL News Week 51

Today I made it to the Open Source meeting, something I seldom do as it is too early for me, 7:00 AM. A few interesting things came up.

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Phoenix Viewer

Oz was asking how the community was talking the ending of Phoenix support and the end of the Phoenix Viewer’s useful life. From my perspective, it has been surprisingly quite.

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