Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Things about SL
This week there is no roll to the main channel.
Blue Steel and Le Tigre will remain on the inventory update package, Sunshine/AISv3.
Magnum will get a new maintenance package that fixes some network issues affecting busy regions.
The main viewer this morning is 3.7.7-289461. No change since last week. This version has lots of code clean up work. It is the Interesting Viewer promoted. It should render a region faster and more intelligently.
A new Firestorm viewer is out. I gather it was released this weekend while I was off doing Mother’s Day stuff. See the announcement: Firestorm Viewer Release 4.6.5-40833. Also, Inara has a nice review of this release up here: Firestorm 4.6.5: steady as she goes.
This release addresses a number of the complaints that users of the prevision have made. Mac users get benefits from this update too. So, if you use Firestorm and have been having problems, you will want to update to this version.
Some Mac users are complaining about typing in chat. That can still be v e r y s l o w. Others are pointing out that an update to a new OS fixes the problem… I’m not sure what the complete story is. As I’m not a Mac user, I can’t research it.
Some big news today… almost… see Group Ban below.
There were no rollouts to the main or RC channels this week. But, a T-Rex was pitching baseball in San Diego.
However, the backend servers for chat got an update. These are the updates Simon Linden has been working on and that several of us have been testing in ADITI over the past few weeks.
People are probably not going to notice much difference. Any difference will be subtle. But, the code adds more analytics to the chat system. The new information should give the Lindens a better idea of what can be fixed to improve performance.
As soon as I post about a viewer, things change. The main release viewer upgraded from 3.7.6 to 3.7.7-289461. The release notes for this version are here: SL Viewer 3.7.7. The is the Interesting Project Viewer updates. I goofed and clicked the wrong link going to the release notes earlier. I’m trying to do too many things at the same time.
This version includes the changes for faster scene rendering. The changes, to a large extent, are about how the viewer handles cache and the order in which things are rendered. For caching, the first time to arrive in a region, everything in the region is sent to the viewer and the viewer caches it. This means fewer server requests for stuff.
There are no roll outs this week.
The main viewer remains: 3.7.6-289164
No changes since the last report.
Jo Yardely posts about Ebbe’s saying new avatars are coming. Originally he said they would arrive in March. It looks like they will get released this month now. So, we will have more ‘Library Starter Avatars.’ This will make it easier for new users to not look so noobie.
That of course assumes they don’t walk around nude flashing everyone. (face palm)
[youtube BNsrK6P9QvI]
There is an interesting discussion in the SL Forum about a problem some people have had making Normal Maps for Second Life™. Jake Koronikov opened the thread. Jake had a problem with the normal maps creating a visible seam in the model.
For instance, the seam between the front and back sides of the avatar leg. Of you were making a manikin and using a normal map on it that seem would become visible as a step on the surface rather than the smooth surface it is supposed to be. You can see his images of the problem in the thread: Tangent spaced Normal Map seam visible in UV border area. (2017 – The images are gone.)