Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Things about SL
Good way to start the month, release a new version of one’s viewer. The Dolphin blog announced today the release of version 38. It seems the build numbers common in other developments is not used in Dolphin versioning, as I over looked last Dolphin update.
Get your copy here: Dolphin Viewer 1.5.38.3627
Of course ‘interesting’ means interesting to me. There are other updates, additions, and fixes that I haven’t mentioned. See the link above.
Today S20(42) was released. A couple of days ago I was wondering what was up with the (42) release I saw come up in my RSS feed. By the time I got around to looking at the blog the article was gone. Today Kirsten explained what happened, basically a change of mind. Kirsten decided the version was too buggy to be out.
We are also warned that this release is likely to be buggy. This version, while not appearing dramatically different, is a big change. The entire viewer has been stripped down and redone as a combination of the Mesh Project Viewer and the version 2.5.x viewer code was incorporated.
Viewer Changes
The mesh upload interface has been revised in the Mesh Project Viewer and the upload reworked. One can get the latest Second Life Mesh Project Viewer and check it out. I think the layout is much nicer. (Also this link should always point you to the latest Mesh Viewer.)
This version is likely the user interface that we will have at Mesh rollout.
Lots of people want working fingers, which requires the addition of more bones to the avie. No word if that is going to happen. I personally have my doubts, but may be down the road.
Currently the only usable skeleton in SL is the avie’s. But, having other skeletons that could be animated would make things like dragons, horses, and dogs much easier to animate. Whatever, they will not be part of the initial rollout of mesh. However Prep Linden is working with them.
There is soooo much misinformation out about Display Names. I think it also reveals how few Second Life residents actually know how to research anything about SL. That they are willing to post their imaginings, without any checking, in forums and blogs is even more … choose your own adjective here. Sheeesh…
Jessica Lyons wrote a post on the Phoenix Viewer web site/blog that does a good job of getting the facts stated clearly. She provides good information on how to use them in world and for logging into the web sites and grid. She covers how to use older series 1 viewers with the new Display Names. She also points out the eventual coming end to Phoenix Viewers as they move to their series 2 viewer Firestorm Viewer.
See: Display Names and new SL Account names explained…
Also if you use the URL http://www.phoenixviewer.com you may find the URL http://phoenixviewer.blogspot.com/ much nicer to use. The first URL cannot be added to an RSS subscription. The second one can.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
The Dolphin Viewer (3627) has been updated to use Display Names and fix several general SL problems. The version number did not change. However, in Help -> About the version date did change, Nov 21 2010 13:50:52 (Dolphin Viewer).
Also a problem encountered when using the viewer on OpenSim has been fixed. Several viewers would crash when double clicking a texture while on OpenSim. The problem was also found in several other viewers including the SLV2.
In some viewers there has been a problem with the viewer crashing if you turn your avie in a 360 degree turn, spinning in place. Swinging the viewer to see new areas can cause crashes. Dolphin does NOT have that problem.
The release announcement is here: Dolphin Viewer 1.5.37.3627 and includes link to downloads.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, depending on your region, the server’s software is updated and the region restarted. New versions are rolled out early morning. On Tuesday it is the new Production version that is rolled out. On Wednesday a new Release Candidate is rolled out to the test regions. The Tuesday process takes between 4 and 5 hours.
The changes just rolled out and upcoming changes are discussed in Server Beta Office Hours. Here are the things I found interesting from the latest Server Beta office hours. One is a big one for builders.