Drax, Jo, Widely, and the Rift

I haven’t been taking the time to listen to Drax and Jo’s Drax Files Radio Show. Just too many other things to do. But, the information about the Oculus is of interest and I wanted to hear it. Waking up far too early this morning I took the time.

As always this synopsis is what I heard. Before reacting to anything written here take the time to listen to the original audio of the show: Show #10: Oculus!!!

Time marks are approximate, but they should get you into the audio before the subject’s start point.

Synopsis

00:00 Intro and description of the show contents: Oculus Rift – SL Oculus Viewer version goes to Beta. The Show gave away a LEAP Motion controller. They are giving away another. You need to answer a question to win. Instructions are related between time marks 03: 00 and 04:00.

04:00 More discussion about show content to be covered in this episode.

05:00 Discussion of the ToS. It is apparent from this part of the audio that Jo and Drax are accepting of the verbal position the Lab has stated: ‘We do not intend to steal your stuff and sell it.’ It is obvious that for Jo, Drax and many others this is believable and the problem is with the legalese of the ToS, which I think is a reasonable position.

The show moves forward and presents what I’ll call the state of the industry/things, showing this is the way things are and the Lab is conforming to a generalized behavior of the industry with its ToS.

[youtube yzyafieRcWE]

A clip from South Park and clips from the movie Terms and Conditions May Apply (movie trailer above) is played.

At 07:00 at the end of the clips they start talking about Emily Short, of Versu, being in a future show.  ??? 

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Firestorm Update

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

I am finding that I can’t stay logged into SL for more than a couple of hours, if that long, before the viewer starts to lag out. I have mini freezes and periods where the frame rate (FPS – Frames per Second) drops to 2 or 3 and PING jumps up into the thousands of milli-seconds.

Testing with the OS ping to the SL servers at the same time I am not seeing those long times. Nor with the SL Viewer am I seeing those long ping times. Also, I had occurrences of the screen going black then coming back. There is some kind of video problem happening.

I just added the 335.23 driver to my GTX560. So, it should be good. But, doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. 

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Second Life News 2014-11 #2

Servers

There is not much news to relate about servers. We already know the package that rolled out to the main server channel consisted of bug fixes. The only one which is noticeable, unless you were experiencing one of the bugs, is the fix for Help→About Second Life. The viewer would not consistently report the server version. Now it does.

Server Beta 2014-11
Server Beta 2014-11

Server RC’s

In week 10 the Magnum EC channel ran the Sunshine package, the one that supports AISv3. These are the changes to the way the system will deal with inventory. There are no user interface changes. The changes are all backend things. Users should only see more reliable inventory loading and fewer bake fails.

That package is now running on all the RC channels.

Maestro Linden is hoping the Lab can release the project soon. It has been on the RC channel for some weeks now.

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Firestorm Viewer 4.6.1-40478 64-Bit Review

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

I got to use the new Firestorm Viewer release 4.6.1-40478 64-bit. My first impressions are:

The download file size is 67.6mb. The 64-bit viewer installs in a separate folder from the 32-bit version. On 64-bit systems you’ll find the 32-bit version installing in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Firestorm-Beta. The 64-bit version installs in: C:\Program Files\Firestorm.

You can run both the 32 and 64 bit versions. I think you should be able to share the cache between 32 and 64 bit versions. But, by default the viewer uses a separate cache for the 64-bit viewer: C:\Users\[Win_Login_ID]\AppData\Local\FirestormOS_x64\ .

It also places the chat logs in their own folder, separate from the 32-bit versions: C:\Users\[Win_Login_ID]\\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm_x64.

The install created a new Firestorm icon for me. I was using the Firestorm Beta, which has a uniquely named icon. So, if you have not been using the beta, it may overwrite the 32-bit icon. So, pay attention to which version you actually start by checking the Firestorm Help→About. Or… the version info is on the splash screen too. 

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Firestorm Viewer 4.6.1-40478 Released-Review

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

The Firestorm announced the release of their latest version of Second Life’s most popular viewer. The release came out yesterday March 12. This is a full release. Previously the 4.5 version was a beta version. Not this one, it is the main production version. Well… the Linux version is beta.

Video about PhotoTools. 20 minutes.

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You may remember Jessica had spoken at a Q&A meeting about the possibility of their server not being able to keep up with the download demand. I downloaded just fine this morning. I downloaded the 64-bit version (67mb file). It was quick. 

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