Second Life

Things about SL

JIRA Change to PUBLIC

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Those old JIRA BUG items that the Lindens left as unreadable… Well, the one that filed the report can mark it readable. So, if you have a bug that has not been closed and want help with it, or feel it should be open to the public for some reason, change it.

This change is only possible for your BUG items. To make the change so it is open to everyone for reading look in the horizontal middle of the report heading where you’ll find an item labeled Security Level. It will likely be marked Triager and Reporter. Change that to Public. Done.

This option allows people to keep issues private. Since it was known the issues were private at the time of filing, it would be rather rude to remove privacy when there was an expectation. This choice to leave it to the one that made the report, allows the privacy to be protected or removed at their discretion. Smart.

All newly filed BUG reports will be PUBLIC by default. But, this gives us a way to open up older reports filed during the JIRA dark period.

Firestorm Viewer 4.6.1-40478 64-Bit Review

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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

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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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Linden Lab Opens Oculus Rift Beta

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Wednesday about 11 AM the Lab made a blog post: Second Life’s Oculus Rift Integration is Ready for Beta Testers. They provide an email address for those that would like to participate in the beta testing.

Ciaran Laval posted talking about it. See: Linden Lab Oculus Rift.

To be part of the beta team you need to have an Oculus Rift. The only Rift hardware currently available is the Developer’s Kit, US$300±. Some Second Life residents have a Rift. They are the people the Lab is looking for.

No Rift? Don’t bother applying.

CtrlAltStudio makes a viewer that supports the Rift. It is a branch of the Firestorm Viewer. See: CtrlAltStudio. But, David Rowe, the developer, has not been big into the user interface. He has been waiting on the Lab to develop that.

Also, David has joined the Firestorm development team. May be join is too strong a word. Partnered… whatever they are working together. That suggests to me that the Firestorm viewer will probably release Rift support shortly after the Lab’s viewer makes it to the RC stage. Or… not. They may decide a better UI is possible and go to work on their idea of better one, which would delay their release…

At this stage I suspect this beta team for the Lab will have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Everyone is trying to figure out how to do UI’s for the Rift. So, my guess is the Lab will want to make their release a surprise.

Slink Visage Heads Released-Review

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Slink released the new mesh heads as promised this past Saturday. I didn’t get to check them out until Monday night. They are interesting. But, they are not for me. I do think they are really nice. They show what our avatars could be.

Comparison
Comparison

There is some interesting slight-of-hand tech used in making animated mesh. Any animation or change of a mesh shape is done by making each mesh shape somewhat like drawing each frame of an animation. Then making the shape one wants to see now visible and all the other shapes invisible. When ready for another shape the currently visible one is made invisible and the newly desired shape made visible. This technique makes for really high polygon count items. I can’t tell if that is what is being done with Slink’s heads. But, it is the only way I know to change the shape of a mesh item.

The weights of the two heads are shown in image #1. Don’t pay much attention to the Land Impact or Physics. I did not bother to make a physics layer for my import of the SL Avatar head. So, those numbers are distorted. 

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Second life News 2014-11

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Servers

The main grid did get a roll out this morning.  The package was previously running on Blue Steel and Le Tigre. It is a maintenance upgrade with bug fixes.

Furniture Shopping
Furniture Shopping
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed a bug in which the server release notes link in “About Second Life” would sometimes fail to appear
    • Fixed a bug in which certain objects had incorrect status when crossing between regions
    • Fixed a crash mode

RC Channels

The RC code running on Magnum will now run on all three channels. This is the Sunshine RC with the AISv3 code that improves how inventory works adding reliability and stall prevention. It is considered additional work in the Bake Fail or Server Side Appearance project.

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