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

The Linden made series of viewers

Second Life Integrating with Facebook?

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Daniel Voyager came up with information about Second Life™ adding more integration with Facebook. Daniel has apparently found some of the leaks I use to learn about what is coming to SL. From what he has found the Facebook Floater is apparently due out in viewer 3.6.6 next week. I’m not so sure it will be next week or in 3.6.6.

Second Life's Facebook Page
Second Life’s Facebook Page

I just don’t think it will happen that fast, but it might. Viewer 3.6.6 is already in the viewer pipeline and you can download a copy from the Beta/Alternate Viewers page*. I’ve been using the Ribbon Viewer 3.6.6 (280938). As best I can tell this feature is not in it. 

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Ribbon Particles in Second Life

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These have been the works for some time. The server side was completed earlier this year. The Wiki was updated in the spring. But, we have not had a viewer that could display the particles. That is about to change. We should get a RC Viewer tomorrow, Friday. And as usual that might not happen.

Server Beta Meeting 2013-37 - Particle Demo Object
Server Beta Meeting 2013-37 – Particle Demo Object

Or you can go here now: Ribbon Viewer. If you choose to get and use this viewer, turn off all automatic updates. And leave them turned off until you reinstall the main viewer. This means if you have the main viewer installed, disable ‘willing to RC’ and auto-update. Then install this viewer.

Realize you will most likely break your current install pipeline until you do a default install of an RC or the main viewer. So, install at your risk.

This version is not likely to be up to date with other viewer updates and fixes. It is very likely behind. So, if you do try it out, get the RC version from the pipeline tomorrow.

Do NOT call support if you are using this viewer!!!

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Second Life News 2013-37

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I was hoping to hear some word on what new projects the Lab is working on. But, not yet. May be in a couple of weeks.

Interest List Viewer Side

For a few weeks now the server side of the Interest List changes have been done and rolled out. But, the viewer side of those changes is taking some time. The team working on the viewer side is still stomping on bugs.

TPV Dev Meetin 2013-30
TPV Dev Meetin 2013-30

When changing Interest List code there is lots of opportunity for mistakes and things not to work as expected. The team is working to avoid a bad launch of the viewer side changes.

And we are told this viewer side Interest List stuff is not one of the secret things coming…

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Second Life’s SSA 2013-34

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Server Side Appearance baking is considered a success. We still have some bake fail issues and I’ll get to those. The Firestorm team has put out an article about SSA here: Server Side Appearance a Success! This article is worth the time to read. Jessica Lyon points out how the ignorant are complaining about how the Lab should have worked on something that really needed fixing… like bake fail was not a big enough problem.

Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-34
Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-34

Nyx Linden spoke at the TPV Dev’s meeting Friday (week 43) about SSA. Friday a new set of SSA changes were going external that means the SSA code the Lab has been working on for the viewer was made public. TPV Dev’s can now look at the code, find bugs, problems, and begin adding it to their development code.

Nyx says the Lab has this new code working in their development viewers. But, they currently consider it mostly untested. I suppose that means it has not passed through formal QA testing on the way to a viewer release candidate and remains mostly in development. 

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GPU Table & Performance

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The Lab rates video cards into 5 classes. They setup your default viewer graphics preferences based on those classes.

There is an update coming to the GPU Table, which is what the viewers use to figure out what class your video card is in and choose your initial settings. We should see it in one of the viewer release candidates this week or next.

The GPU Table has this information:

// Class Numbers:
0 – Defaults to low graphics settings. No shaders on by default Not supported
1 – Defaults to mid graphics settings. Basic shaders on by default Supported
2 – Defaults to high graphics settings. Atmospherics on by default. Supported
3 – Same as 2, but with lighting and shadows enabled. Supported
4 – Same as 3, but with ambient occlusion enabled. Supported
5 – Same as 4, but with shadows set to “Sun/Moon+Projectors.” Supported

You can find a copy of the GPU Table in the viewer’s install folder. Its secret name is: gpu_table.txt. You can look up your model of video card to see how the Lab thinks it should be supported. 

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