Second Life and Virtual Worlds
It isn’t contagious. This problem passed quickly, I think. I didn’t run into it, so it is hard for me to know. But, it revealed another part of how the Second Life™ system works.
Backend Serve updates – there are a number of backend services needed to support Second Life. When the Lab is changing/updating them they generally provide no public notice, unless users need to change behavior, like refrain from transactions or rezzing no-copy items (which hopefully is changing).
From the Third Party Developers’ meeting last Friday we got some news. Not much from the Linden side. I am often wondering if there is really so little for them to talk about in regard to Second Life™ or if the community is wearing them down and they are talking less as a defense. We have been down that road before.
RC Second Life Project Oculus Rift Viewer version 3.7.18.295296 – This view is often left behind. Oz describes it as being ‘preempted’. They have more important things to do and spend time on those rather than updating this version. I suspect few people are using this version as the Oculus type headsets it is designed for are not yet in retail release.
I’m playing a lot with Firestorm Viewer these last couple of days. After a bit more use I am finding a few more things.
Yesterday I wrote:
After 30 minutes or so I start to get mini freezes and black screens. I get that with the Linden viewer too… this may be me and not the viewers.
I am seeing a few more people experiencing the same problem in FS Support. One was Windows 10 user who’s anti-virus was apparently the problem causing 100% disk use while the viewer ran. In Windows 10 the Task Manager has a resource monitor built in. You can see how busy the CPU, disks, network, and etc are. So, it is easy to check to see if you have resource over-use as a problem or performance issue.
I have gotten to use the viewer (4.7.3 x64) for a bit now. There is too much new stuff to step through item by item. So, this my limited experience take. Regardless of whether I like the viewer, its having Viewer Managed Marketplace (VMM) compatibility makes it a must have for many Firestorm users.
Download and Install – Nothing unusual. All smooth and no problems. I did do an uninstall before adding the new version.
Performance – It is too early to say, but in general my Frames Per Second (FPS) are about the same as with the Linden 3.8.3 version, provided I use similar settings. I am finding it seems a bit faster in areas where I am alone. It has problems in areas built with heavy mesh use, but so does the Linden viewer.
After 30 minutes or so I start to get mini freezes and black screens. I get that with the Linden viewer too… this may be me and not the viewers. I notice that once the memory use at launch (300+/-k) climbs into the 2 GB range I start having problems.
Some users are having problems with no-copy avatar skins. They don’t render. A default Ruth skin renders. It is not very many. So, it is likely a hardware related problem.
The chat panel no longer has a minimize button. It is either open or closed.
The Firestorm team has a new release out, version 4.7.3-47323. It is the viewer Managed Marketplace capable viewer. The team has post up on the blog: Firestorm Viewer 4.7.3-47323 Release! They explain they had some problems getting this version out and it is therefore a bit latter than they wanted. But, it is here now. 🙂
The VMM news is good. Also Experience Tools, attachment fixes, and other problems are added or fixed.
A new version of Kokua Viewer has released: 3.8.2.36975. This is a VMM (Viewer Managed Marketplace) compatible viewer. The release notes are here.
This version is not up to date on RLV.
The Linux version has several caveats.