Firestorm 4.4.0 On the Way

Update: The viewer has been released as 4.4.0 (33720) today about 3 PM SLT or PDT. Download: Firestorm Major Update.

I’ve been hearing rumors that a new release of the Firestorm Viewer is imminent. Some expected it Sunday. Some are saying today. We will have to wait and see when it releases. I expect it soon, like today. But, that could be wishful thinking on several people’s part.

But, we do not have to wait to see what is in this release. As part of a release the development team builds release notes. The team tries to do things professionally and have everything ready for users, including the viewer’s release notes. It usually is not too hard to find those once one knows a release is imminent.

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Exodus Viewer Team Change

We haven’t seen anything on the Exodus Viewer blog since last August 2012. There have been some releases sense then. But, no news proper. Today, Sunday, I see there is a new post up.

It seems Clix Diesel and Ayamo that has lead the team for two years are turning over development of the Exodus Viewer to Katharine Berry. They say she will be lead developer and ‘owner’ of the viewer.

In software development ‘owner’ can mean something different that ‘owner’ of a car or house does. So, be careful what you read into that.

Clix and Ayamo site a lack of time to develop the viewer as the reason for their leaving the project.

See: Katharine Takes the Lead!

What does this mean for the Exodus Viewer? I have no idea.

Second Life Viewers 2013-16

We have new Beta and Development Viewer releases out.

The current beta viewer is: 3.5.1 (274264) Beta. This one has some changes;

  • Merge Sunshine Beta 2 crash fixes
  • Bulk Delete on Unassociated Inventory results in Error message
  • Bulk Delete does not work on Unassociated Inventory if listing exists
  • Crash on shutdown in logMetricsTimerRecord()
  • CLONE – [crashhunters] crash in LLViewerObject::processTaskInvFile
  • SH-4063 User does not see their update to hover state, but other users do
  • SH-4056 Changes to hover state show before saving shape but then not after while still in editing mode
  • SH-4060 Setting hover to a low value causes it to be set to an even lower value.
  • SH-3331 LLCore::HttpOpRequest::readCallback warning in secondlife.log after ViewerAssetMetrics sent
  • SUN-63 Avatar sits in the air if set “Hover 100” and click “Sit here” on the ground
  • CHUI-872 [CHUIBUG]Torn off chats with message panel hidden sometimes disappear after entering and exiting mouselook
  • SH-4099 Avatar sits in the air if set “Hover 100” and click “Sit here” on the ground

The Development Viewer is: 3.5.2 (274345) Development. There are no published release notes, as it really hasn’t been released.

The Materials Viewer is still build: 274082. Be careful with this viewer. It can possibly mess up existing content. Users have reported it is reasonably reliable and usable. A couple of people use it as their everyday viewer. But, that does not mean they have done everything you may try to do.

As always use these at your own risk. If you have a problem that is unbearable, one of these viewers may have the fix for it.

Second Life News 2013-14 #2

The server updates seem to have gone pretty well. There are some good things and some bad things.

Region crossings are way better. A couple of sailors and pilots have commented in the Deploys thread about how much better things are.

[youtube t8IUxCMyElU]

With this rollout the problem of some items simply not rendering has gotten worse. If one clicks on them they show up. So, the server has told the viewer they are there. But, for some reason the viewer is not rendering them. It seems the problem is showing up in Linden and third party viewers. 

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Wackadoodles

These wackadoodle people show up in so many places… it gets infuriating. I see where Jessica Lyon responded to one in the Firestorm Viewer blog. I mention this because I am impressed by her statesman like response. Well done Jessica.

The blog article is announcing the re-opening of the Firestorm Viewer’s Preview Group. This is a group that will get Firestorm’s Beta version of their viewer. The team wants people that will help them test the viewer before it goes to main release.

Just as the Lab rolls server updates to 30% of the main grid for testing in a more diverse environment so too, the FS Team needs a larger selection of equipment and driver versions running their viewer before making a final release.

So, if you are interested in helping the team, check out: Feeling Brave? If you are NOT willing to file JIRA bug reports, please don’t bother.

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