There are a few interesting things happening in the Snowstorm Project. It has been awhile since I looked at where they are and what they are working on. For a time they have been focused on getting the code to compile with MS VS2010, which while important is boring to read about. But there are a few things going on I find interesting.
VS2010: They are still working on the VS2010 compile. I suspect some part of this work includes the effort to merge in the mesh code and mesh upload features. From the server development group we know the mesh code is being merged into the main grid’s software.
There are new things coming for the Basic Mode of the SL Viewer series 2.
Sign Ups Per Day - from Dwell On It.
We are seeing more signups per day now. About 3 weeks ago I would not have agreed it was a trend. I think it is still early but the spike is different than the one in November. So, something seems to have changed. It may be the Basic Mode is having an effect.
Basic Mode
The top question of new users in Basic Mode is: where is my inventory? Another is: how do I get to Advanced Mode? Where is the sidebar?
If you have thought about that Advanced Mode one, the answer is unnecessarily difficult. The answer is: Close the viewer, restart, but don’t login, change to Advanced, close the viewer, open the viewer and login. Whew! This has to be made easier. Even something like how the clear cache process works would help.
Also, because so few of us are unfamiliar with the Basic Mode we cannot answer a new resident’s questions. We want them to change to a series 1 viewer or advanced mode. At that point the new users is swamped. So, while we have a much better beginning step, the next step is still too big.
It appears that Basic Mode users are going to get an inventory. I wonder if the easier way to open packages and wear items that Rosedale spoke of at SLCC 2010 is going to be implemented. That would be nice. Whatever the case I suspect some simplified inventory will appear. But, with inventory are new clothes and appearance tasks to learn. It will be interesting to see how the new Basic Mode changes.
You may know that most Third Party Viewers (TPV) have in-world groups for user support. You may not know that there are in-world groups for the Second Life Viewer (SLV). There are some other groups that are for SL support too.
The Groups:
SL Open Source Contributors
Second Life Beta
AW Groupies (See: SL Wiki) Architecture Working Group
Second Life Source Developers
Second Life Viewer 2.0
The Second Life Viewer 2.0 group is slightly misnamed. The group is for all SL series 2 viewers, not just 2.0. The group was founded by Teqi Falta and was recently given to Opensource Obscure (yes, that is a resident’s name).
Opensource Obscure’s blog is in Italian, http://opensourceobscure.com/, but it translates pretty well with Google Translation. It is a good blog for those with Italian as their mother tongue. It is technically oriented.
If you have friends using SLV2, recommend the group to them.
This is still an issue that Linden Lab has not figured out. It is too hard for new residents to find the support groups they need.
The tools used to build our viewers are not the hot topic among most residents. However, the VS2010 in this latest project test build is all about the tools. VS2010 means Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Getting to where this tool can be used to develop the SL Viewer has been a main topic in the viewer development circles. Why is this important to you?
Celtic Myst
It will be a big deal for those with newer computers. First, the VS2010 is a tool much like Microsoft Word but for programming. Developers use it to write programs. It enables links to programming libraries, like Word has Thesaurus and Dictionary. It has syntax checking that is very much like spelling and grammer checking for word. Imagine if you could literally not read a document, it scrambled all over screen, just because a comma was in the wrong place. That is the level of precision with which programmers must write. VS2010 provides lots of help and support. While that is nice for the programmer, the benefit seen by residents is faster updates and bug fixes.
I previously wrote in the server update that gzip was added into the inventory download process. At the time there was no viewer that used the feature. The change over to the new HTTP with gzip inventory download is the new feature in this Beta release.
This version also has the avatar physics, bouncy boobs, bellies and butts. It is officially labeled Enhanced Body Physics. See: Enhanced Avatar Physics courtesy of Bea Linden.
There are some boring bug fixes in this version.
There are some known problems too. A big one is the Crash on Start if English is not the default language. Also, tattoo layers lost the ADD choice. They are WEAR only. That is a bug. Some body parts may disappear… guys be careful… a relog should fix the problem.
If you compile your own viewer, you can now compile using VS2010.
OK… this is the third article about breasts. I’m not obsessed with breasts. It’s more a fisherman and bait thing. 🙂 The Mesh Project Viewer Snapshot (2.6.3-255638) has the new feature. The Project Viewer available today is (225675), which does not have the new feature. Whatever, the Project viewers are only for the curious or those helping develop the Mesh Project.
New Physics Type Clothing Object
If you look you can notice at the bottom of the Mesh Project Viewers page is a list of older versions. 225675 is the current Project version today. That page shows the two previous versions; 225641 and 225624. I tried both and neither of those have the feature.
Now things get a bit interesting. In the current version of the viewer that item is not in the menu. So, while the video upload date is 4/2, the viewer version (225638) is dated April 1. OMG!
