Second Life and Virtual Worlds
The Linden made series of viewers
This viewer is dated Dec 4 2013 04:55:18 (Second Life Release) in Help->About… But, it just updated on my machine today as a required update. Meaning I needed to install it before logging in. I still find that annoying.
But, the release notes for Second Life Release Viewer version 3.6.13.284757 just popped up on the wiki. So I expect to see another update soon.
Changes in 3.6.13 are:
From the Third Party Viewer meeting we learn that the viewer install code has been changed to make use of RC and Project installs easier for the Lab and TPV Dev’s. Earlier I mentioned Name RC Viewer as having the program code changes that allow viewers to be more easily named. Being able to better control channel names cleans up some install problems as well as data tracking.
I am taking what I hear Oz Linden saying about not wanting to get into the details of this change to mean it is complex with Linden preferences driving some of the changes. As long as things work better, none of the detail matters to me.
The Maintenance RC Viewer had a really bad crash rate. It has been withdrawn and users pushed to other viewer versions. If you installed it and disabled automatic updates, you need to replace it.
VoidPointer Linden is telling us Oculus Rift support is now feature complete. We should see it release Linden ‘soon’. Apparently he is one of the ones working on Oculus and the Viewer.
If you are not using Oculus then there is no apparent change to the viewer.
When asked Void answered things look ‘really’ cool. He also mentioned he was using Oculus during the meeting. If you have seen Void’s avatar, you can imagine that it would be pretty awesome.
Apparently no one has tossed their cookies in testing.
Void says he has a pretty hot machine, but he is getting close to his normal FPS. So, it may not be that much of an additional load. But, it will be another machine by machine thing.
Void is keeping it a secret what they have done with the viewer control panels. We have to wait for the release and official notice. The same with what he is using for a controller, mouse, LEAP, something else… no word.
Watch for the official announcement. It is hard to predict when that might be. I am guessing not before January.
PS: it works with shutter glasses.
Tuesday the viewers on the RC Viewers’ page updated. We have two new RC viewers added. One is a Maintenance Viewer 3.6.12.284430. The other is the Name Fix Viewer 3.6.12.284323.
The Maintenance Viewer has 29 fixes. You can read about them in the release notes. One of the fixes solves problems with how names render in the chat floater. Problems with the Current Outfit Folder not displaying in viewers with the new Chat Hud UI are solved. Also the problem of the CHUI being moved below the bottom buttons and lost is fixed.
There are other fixes but none all that interesting. Plus the Lindens use JIRA MAINT item ID’s. these are only readable by Lindens. That limits the usefulness and interest in the fixes.
There are currently 8 known issues that have not been resolved. Several of these have to do with how ‘bumpiness’ and transparency render.
The Name Fix Viewer 3.6.12.284323 is a change that has to do with how those making viewers name their viewers. The change is important for TPV Dev’s and the Lab. It allows them to more easily track bugs and separate the tracking data by viewer version. For the rest of us this is an invisible change. Eventually we will see it improve viewer development.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Interesting RC Viewer and Fitted Mesh Project Viewer remain unchanged.
There will be a roll out Tuesday morning. The package running on Blue Steel and Le Tigre will get promoted to the main change. This is the one that includes the vehicle region crossing fix.
Wednesday there will a single package rolling out to all three RC channels. This package contains a fix for: llGetAgentInfo() so that it now detects AGENT_CROUCHING correctly for avatars who have custom ‘Crouching’ or ‘CrouchWalking’ animations (BUG-4431). There is also a crash mode that has been fixed.
Since they aren’t saying much about the crash mode, I assume it is some exploit or other security fix.
There is one RC viewer and one project viewer on the RC Viewers page. As of late Monday those haven’t changed from last week. The Interesting and Fitted viewers are it.
In the Third Party Viewers class Firestorm has moved back into first place for the most stable viewer. I say first because I don’t count Radegast as a viewer because it is not a graphical viewer in the sense that other TPViewers are. I just don’t see it in the same class.
LEAP Motion Controller is the mouse free controller for your computer. I figured this would be a good device for use with the Oculus Rift. I went on eBay and picked up a near new one for US$50. I tried it out with the default apps and some free games.
It does not come with any app or adaption for Second Life™. One needs a free or retail app to adapt LEAP to SL. Drax made a video showing his experience with LEAP and Second Life.
[youtube mso4D8sOLmY]
The app Drax is suing is Game Wave (US$4). I tried some free apps. I didn’t find anything that would work well. So, I tried the app he is using in the video.
It has a good introductory manual, a tutorial if you will. The best I have seen explaining hand gestures for the LEAP.