Viewers

General Viewer Information

FireStorm Team Q&A 2014-2

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The Video

The last Q&A, Jan 11, was recorded by Chakat Northspring and placed on YouTube. It runs about 2 hours. I’ve covered the parts I found interesting. The video is not edited, that would be a big job, so it is hard for me to sit through. Too much dead air. I am happy Chakat recorded it, as these meetings are not announced until shortly before they start, making it hard to know about them and get there. This seems to be the Firestorm team’s way of avoiding an over loaded region for the meeting.

[youtube Hk74R3Dsh_Q]

Firestorm Support

Ed Merryman at Saturday’s Firestorm Questions and Answer secession spoke about their support volunteers. They are not paid. Therefore, they are not assigned shifts.  But, they will be trying to provide one-on-one support to those needing help. 

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Fitted Mesh and Firestorm

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When is the next Firestorm release? According to Ed Merryman: when it is ready.

The next Firestorm release is waiting on Linden code for the new Inventory API’s. These are changes that improve inventory loading speed and reliability. They are changes that are targeted at fixing the last of the avatar bake fail problems.

Fitted

If you use Firestorm, or any Second Life capable viewer not yet updated for Fitted Mesh (meaning most viewers), and come across someone wearing Fitted Mesh, depending on how it was made, you may see parts of the item stretching off toward the southwest corner of the region. 

Fitted Mesh in older viewers - image by Inara Pey
Fitted Mesh in older viewers – image by Inara Pey

It is thought there is a fix for the problem prior to the roll out of Fitted Mesh. The problem is caused because the avatar used by Fitted Mesh viewers is different than for non-Fitted Mesh viewers. There are additional bones in the skeleton. If your viewer doesn’t know about those bones, it does not know what to do with clothes that use the new bones. The result is vertices in the clothes are moved toward the 0,0,0 coordinate of the region (the southwest corner).

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Second Life Viewer 3.6.13-284995 Released

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The main Second Life™ Viewer is now release 3.6.13-284995. Release Notes. This the RC Viewer known as the Package Fix RC Viewer. The primary change in the update is described in the Notes as:

The 3.6.12 release [previous release] changed the Windows executable name from ‘SecondLife’ to ‘SecondLifeViewer’, but did not remove any executable using the old name that was in the install folder. This could cause some problems with old shortcuts (not including the default one updated by the install) running the previous version (which might then insist on being upgraded, but the upgrade would not correct the old shortcut).

This (and any subsequent) release removes any executable in that install folder that uses the old name; using those shortcuts will now cause Windows to display an error message that the program is not there, so the user will need to modify or replace them with one that refers to the new name.

The folder and executable name changes meant that some people were experiencing a continual update loop. They would update automatically placing the new version in the new and differently named folder, the viewer would restart and work. The new version was being run. At the next login the viewer would tell them they needed to update, it would update, and run. But, each viewer start would require another update.

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Second Life News 2014-2

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Recently we have seen a number of people complaining about getting disconnected, repeatedly. No one has determined if it is an SL problem or just problems local to the users being disconnected.

Viewers

The main release SL Viewer today is: 3.6.12-284506. I expect that to change this week.

The RC viewers are now:

We have more project viewers this week:

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Second Life Viewer Fix

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I wrote about a problem with the viewer repeatedly downloading updates. The cause is the shortcut a person uses to start the viewer. Initially it was the folder name that changed and threw off the shortcut. Now my recent update to 3.6.13 went into an update loop.

It seems the SL Viewer program in 3.6.11 was named SecondLife.exe. The new 3.6.13 program is named: SecondLifeViewer.exe. So, if you have a shortcut pinned to your desktop, you will probably need to change it again. Just unpin it.

The viewer update or install will create a new shortcut on your desktop. That new shortcut can be pinned to you task bar via right-click drag and drop.

You can also find a shortcut in the Second Life folder in: Programs Files (x86)/SecondLifeViewer. That can be dragged to the task bar and pinned too.

Second Life News Week 51

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Second Life is now in a no change window. So, there will be no server rollouts this week. Nor will the main SL Viewer update. We might still see an RC Viewer update or two. The current no change window ends January 1. That only leaves two days in the week for changes to rollout. I don’t expect much change in that two day period.

Holidays are here and I’m busy with real life stuff. That means there won’t be much stuff in this blog for the next couple weeks.

Inara Pey has an article up about Fitted Mesh. See: Fitted Mesh: “last call” for issues; release candidate “after the holiday”. Inara points out the Lindens’ calls for feedback on Fitted Mesh. It seems the Lindens’ plans are to have a project viewer out early in the new year. Early as in just after the holidays. That makes it urgent to get your feedback regarding Fitted Mesh in as soon as possible.

This is sort of a ‘speak now or forever more hold your peace’ type of thing.

While Oz Linden has said they may make additional changes to the avatar, the window for changes to be made to the avatar skeleton is closing. Changes and fixes to the skeleton not made now will likely have to wait some time, like years. So, get the Fitted Mesh Project Viewer and make sure things work as you want.

Suggestions, changes, and feature suggestions should be made in FITMESH project section of the SL JIRA.

Avastar users should keep checking the download page for test versions that work with the new avatar skeleton and collision bones.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!