Firestorm Viewer – Soon?

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

There is a new article up on the Firestorm Viewer site. See: Be Careful What You Wish For. I can read a lot into the article. That doesn’t mean I have it right. The things I am pretty sure of follow.

We have known for some time that the FS Team planned a viewer release for November. It seems the release date is sliding. I am guessing Jessica is feeling pressure or anticipating blowback from users when the release goes out and thus posted the article. We know from her own words blogging is not a thing she really enjoys. Thus we can assume something is motivating the post.

Jessica is explaining the difficulties of releasing a viewer and deciding what is and is not going to be in this release. Her estimated release date is ‘a few weeks’… the word ‘few’ is ambiguous. Dictionaries define ‘few’ as a small number of things. As examples they give 2 to 5. But, in my family 2 to 5 was a ‘couple of’ and ‘a few’ was closer to 10. We have no way to know what ‘few’ means to Jessica. But, I suspect this puts a viewer release nearer to the end of November and possibly into December. 

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Second Life News Bits 2014-32

Viewers

The Group Ban Viewer has been promoted to the main viewer: 3.7.13 (292225). The release notes are here. So, if you own a group and have problem people, you can ban them and they will not be able to get back in.

Otherwise there are no changes to the Linden Lab viewer line up.

Warbug @ Landing Field - 2014
Warbug @ Landing Field – 2014

Dolphin Viewer

A beta version of the Dolphin Viewer  is out, 3.6.99.32369. There is no new information on what is in this viewer. I assume this is just a bug fixed version of the July release.

See: Finally! The first public beta of the new Dolphin Viewer 3!

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Cool VL Viewer Release 1.26.8.22

Henri Beauchamp has released a new viewer version of his Cool VL Viewer. The blog is here: Cool VL Viewer. The release notes are here.

If I understand correctly, this version is using the render engine from the SL Viewer 3.5. That would mean the engine is Materials Capable.

There are bug fixes that deal with mesh objects download and rigged mesh causing crashes. Memory problem detection has been improved, meaning  less crashes. Also changes for more efficient use of memory. FMOD Ex has been updated, this has to do with sound other than voice.

There is an experimental version of the viewer: 1.26.9.22 that includes Materials support from SL Viewer code version 3.6 and the Mesh Deformer. This version should have those features enabled on both OpenSim and SL grids.

Scroll down the blog page to find the 1.26.9 Experimental download.

 

Viewer Updates 2013-27

We seem to be coming to a crunch point in viewers. The Lab is changing things so quickly third party developers have a challenge keeping up. Henri Beauchamp does well with Cool VL Viewer, which is a viewer based on V3 code with a vintage V1 user interface.

Kitty
Image by Kitty Barnett

Niran seems to have leapfrogged the Niran’s Viewer to having all the latest Linden features by jumping to a recent SL Viewer V3 model. Niran’s Viewer is now Nirans Black Dragon viewer. Niran’s features from previous versions are being added to the new SL V3 Viewer code in Black Dragon. Eventually Niran will have Black Dragon on a feature par with his previous versions.

So, both of those viewers have materials. Firestorm 4.4.1 doesn’t and Tonya Souther of the Firestorm Team explains why, in a blog post: Tracking LL’s big changes, and why the 4.4.2… well now that there is an emergency roll out… 4.4.3 version won’t either. 

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S19 Viewer Controversy

For some time I have covered Henri Beauchamp’s Cool VL Viewer and KirstenLee Cinquetti’s Kirsten ‘S’ Series Viewers. So, I am bummed to find out something is not right and we appear to have another viewer scandal.

KirstenLee Viewer
KirstenLee Viewer

Henri’s viewer uses a V1 interface, which I gave up on some time ago. But the viewer is a solid viewer made mostly of V3 or, at least, V3 adapted code. Probably more accurate way to say this is to say Henri has adapted a V1 user interface to run on new V3 code. Henri has been contributing viewer code to the community for a long time, well before I came around.

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