SLV2, 3, 4, 5, 6. & 7 Series

The Linden made series of viewers

Second Life News 2014-41 #3

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Viewers

The main viewer is 3.7.17-294959

Server Scripting 2014-41
Server Scripting 2014-41

RC Viewers

A Maintenance Viewer version 3.7.17.294943, which is on the Alternate Second Life Viewers page. You can read its release notes here: 3.7.17 Release Notes. Fixes and improvements are:

  • Voice – These updates fix a number of problems. Oz is encouraging dev’s to get the updates for voice into their next releases.
  • privacy
  • rendering
  • texture animation
  • avatar distortion (Avatar distorted when changing outfits)
  • inventory management
  • sounds
  • mouselook in Mac
  • scripting crashfix
  • multiple UI fixes in script editor, Pay flow, chat, stats floater, edit menu etc.

Login Viewer version 3.7.17.294959 – Release Notes – This is the viewer with the new login screen. 

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Second Life news 2014-41 #2

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Viewers

EXCITING NEWS! The HTTP Pipelining Viewer will be going to RC Viewer status as soon as it completes the Lab’s internal QA. Expect it SOON, but not this week. And expect some impressive changes. Monty Linden is calling this viewer the Drano Viewer.

Whirly Fizzle is in Europe and ran some tests. She cleared cache (between each test), and then logged in. With the standard non-pipelining viewer the 105k item inventory took some time to load.

Second Life 3.7.16 (294015) Sep 10 2014 11:08:26 (Second Life Release)

  • Session 1: 16 mins 28 secs
  • Session 2: 17 mins 53 secs
  • Session 3: 17 mins 18 secs
  • Session 4: 17 mins 51 secs

Then again clearing cache between each run and switching to the new pipelining viewer:

Second Life 3.7.17 (294571) Sep 26 2014 12:32:36 (Second Life Release)

  • Session 1: 2 mins 29 secs (I literally had a holy shit moment here lol = Whirly)
  • Session 2: 2 mins 17 secs
  • Session 3: 2 mins 11 secs
  • Session 4: 2 mins 27 secs

If you are measuring load time, you can get exact numbers from your viewer’s log file. Look for “LLInventoryModelFetchDescendentsResponder::httpSuccess: Inventory fetch completed” in older viewers. In the pipelining viewer look for 2014-10-08T23:00:22Z INFO: idle_startup:  Inventory and 2014-10-08T23:25:38Z INFO: LLInventoryModelFetchDescendentsResponder::httpSuccess: Inventory fetch completed. 

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Second Life News 2014-40 #2

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Servers

The main channels did get a roll out. It was the package running on the RC channels for the last 2 weeks (38 & 39 or 39 & 40 depending on how you count weeks for rollouts). This was the package with teaks to the Experience Tools project. It also included some bug fixes.

Bryn Oh Exhibit LEA 9 - 2014
Bryn Oh Exhibit LEA 9 – 2014

RC Channels

The RC channels all got the same package. This is a package that fixes a problem unique to the Skill Gaming regions.

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Second Life News 2014-40

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Changes

The Lindens have a new post in the SL Forum titled: An Update on Several Improvements to Second Life™ (9/30 9:36AM SLT).

The first thing they mention is their changing the viewer from using a list of graphics cards to determine what settings to use to using a benchmark process to test the installed video card. Based on the tests they estimate what the card is capable of doing.

The viewer that has this change is a Project Viewer and can be found here: Second Life RC Viewers. I would call this more of a beta version than an RC version. Whatever it is, the Lindens could use some help testing it, especially if you have one of the newest video cards out. 

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Second Life News 2014-39 #3

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The Third Party Developers Meeting was Friday (9/26). So, we have some news about what is happening on the development side of Second Life™.

Juke Jazz 2014
Toby’s Juke Joint Blues Club 2014

Viewers

The main viewer is: 3.7.16.294015, which is the maintenance release I covered last week in Second Life News 2014-38 #2.

RC Viewers

There is still only one RC viewer: Login Viewer version 3.7.16.294345, I covered it earlier this week in Second Life News 2014-39.

Oz Linden tells there are other viewers in the pipeline that will appear “very, very, very soon”.

One he mentioned in the meeting is: a Pipelining Viewer, which is going from QA to RC Monday or Tuesday – This is said to be a way faster viewer. It is compatible with CDN and the two changes are synergistic. Monty Linden described the two working to gather as a “friggin’ scary good” change. 

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Second Life Viewer Tips + Firestorm

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I’ve been attempting to do more video/machinima in Second Life™. I also make tutorials from time to time that can be improved by the use of video. And just the other day read Jo Yardley’s Comparing the official Second Life viewer with Firestorm. While reading I realized both she and I need to know more about our alternate viewers. She uses the Firestorm viewer as her main viewer. I tend to use the SL Viewer more than Firestorm. I am switching back and forth between the two more often these days. The Photo Tools in Firestorm are the enticement that draws me to Firestorm.

Server-Scripting UG 2014-39
Server-Scripting UG 2014-39

I am more familiar with the SL Viewer. But, I have used Phoenix or Firestorm off and on since the great viewer purge… when Emerald was excommunicated.

Chat

If you do machinima you want to kill chat and notices. Depending on the type of video you plan to make you may want to still have the user interface showing, like tutorials. Both viewers have a load of chat settings. A big difference is Firestorm puts most them out in the User Interface (UI) where users can more easily get to them and remember where and what they are. 

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