Second Life and Virtual Worlds
General Viewer Information
There is a roll to the main channel this morning. The package running on the RC channels advances to the main software for all servers this week.
This is the package with ‘minor fixes’ and BUG-40565 “Significant script performance degradation observed in server version 16.09.14.319788” fixed.
There is no new package rolling to the RC channels. So, all regions will be running the same package.
Caleb Linden is taking some heat for announcing an update rolling to the Blue Stool [sic] channel.
The main channel is not getting a new package. The planned roll was held back to add a fix for slow script performance.
All three RC channels, including Blue Stool, are getting a revised package with Minor Internal Changes and Fixes BUG-40565 “Significant script performance degradation observed in server version 16.09.14.319788”
Oz Linden reviewed the status of viewer development. He pointed out that the Visual Outfit Browser (VOB) is now in the main release version of the Linden made SL Viewer.
They updated the VLC RC and Bento RC viewers with VOB.
Both RC viewers are doing well in the crash rate stats. Oz expects the VLC version to release to main viewer in week 39. That will leave the Bento RC as the only RC. Seems like the pipeline is emptying out…
Oz pointed out the Lab did block a few old viewer versions. Saying, ‘Only a few thousand users…’ would be affected. That number can sound bad. But, as a percent of SL users it is way small, likely way less than 1%.
Thursday about noon the Lab announced some of the things that will be changing in Second Life™ viewers. We know viewers will change. But, never exactly what change is coming. See: Important Viewer Evolution Update.
Most of the changes mentioned, we know about.
The viewer’s built in web browser is changing over to Chromium Embedded Frame work. So, it is basically a new browser, like Firefox or Chrome. This affects lots of things inside the viewer, search, profiles, etc. Most importantly it is part of the frame changing how streaming media is handled. There is an RC version of this change on the Alternate Viewers Page.
The avatars are changing and the RC version of the Project Bento Viewer is out, also on the Alt Viewer page.
Servers This week there was no rollout to the main channel. We did get a new package for the RC channels. All 3 are getting the same package: 16#16.09.14.319788. The release notes describe it as; Minor internal changes. Viewers The main viewer is now version 4.0.8.319463. Formerly this version was the Visual Outfits Browser RC … Read more
The Lab announced today that the Visual Outfit Browser viewer has moved from RC to main viewer. See: Visual Outfit Browser is Live! I like this feature. I started writing about the VOB Viewer in early July of this year. Learn more about the feature in the SL Knowledge Base. Access the feature via your inventory. … Read more