Second Life: Firestorm Viewer Release News

As of Friday Jessica was planning to put a release out to their current preview group. She was writing an invitation to ask more people into the preview group or maybe she meant she is inviting more people to a larger secondary preview group. It sounds like they will stage testing, so multiple groups may help. So, the viewer will soon go out to the first with the current preview group then, if things go well, a week later with the larger group.

~Big Girls Cry~
~Big Girls Cry~ by Luaflor Moo, on Flickr

You can see the invitation here: WANTED: Brave Early Adopters and Testers… This request makes it clear this will be a second group different than their beta testers.

Read more

Second Life: Who is Using Which Viewer?

We seldom get stats on how many are using which viewer. But, there is a post over on Gaming World about the Imprudence Viewer and they include the most stats I’ve seen in a long time. Or so I thought. This page just popped up in my reader, but it is dated 2/23/2015… and the data seems to be much older.

It Can Be So Nice
It Can Be So Nice by Mr S. is looking at you, on Flickr

See: Gaming World Imprudence Viewer. (read on before you click) If you are clicking to the page, WARNING: be careful where you click. The page is full of ads and most clicks will speed you to someone’s ad site. 

Read more

Second Life News Week 13

From the Second Life™ Third Party Developers User Group meeting we have some news this week. Mostly update stuff.

Viewer Managed Marketplace

Brooke Linen says testing is going well and performance is good. There is a persistent problem with viewer, sim, marketplace communication. They are working on that. Brooke is thinking a couple of weeks to solve the problem.

Escapdes Island Duck
Escapdes Island Duck by Ciaran Laval, on Flickr

Jessica Lyon is deciding whether to try an include VMM or release FS without it. Being pressed Brooke pointed out they need to get two server updates through testing and rolled to the grid. Then they will start pushing the viewer. So, the road to VVM could be a couple of months long. 

Read more

Firestorm Viewer Update

The release date is getting pushed back… again… So, they are looking at a beta release then quickly (?) followed by a main release. So, we will probably see a beta viewer released in April. When will the main release appear? No one knows. I am guessing May…

Ever
Ever by Strawberry Singh, on Flickr

While the FS Viewer has caught up with the SL Viewer code-wise, they can’t release the viewer yet as they are still fighting problems. Some FS testers are finding many more problems with the internal FS QA release than with the SL Viewer. The basic complaints are slow rez, some objects never rez, and there are more attachments dropped on teleport problems.

Read more

Second Life: Firestorm Viewer Delayed?

Jessica Lyons was planning on releasing a new version toward the end of March. But, some of the things the Lab is releasing, she wants to get in this coming viewer release. The only way to do that is to delay the release. So, expect the release to slide back 2 to 4 weeks, mid to end of April.

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine
If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine by Charlie Namiboo, on Flickr

Oz Linden says the viewer side of Hover and Experience Tools are viewer side stable. So, the FS Team could start building those into FS. They have been holding off, busy with other stuff too, waiting for these to finalize. Oz is saying they pretty much have stabilized and the hold up is on the server side. 

Read more

Firestorm TTT – Clean Install 2015

Hopefully by now you know TTT is Firestorm’s Tool Tip Tuesday. This week Jessica walks people through the process of performing a clean install. First step is backing up your Firestorm Viewer ‘s chat logs and settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc0dBfVGJ0

None of the steps for a clean install are technically difficult for the intermediate computer user. However, if you are not used to working with files and navigating the hard disk, I suspect you will be in over your head. Copy-Paste, Move, and disk navigation using the Windows File Explorer (and Mac equivalent) are required skills.

Read more