The viewer using the new mesh format should be out Thursday of this week. The ADITI grids should have the new server side mesh software installed across most of the mesh regions. Mesh in ADITI will likely vanish as it is returned. New versions of user mesh will have to be uploaded. We’ll see an announcement when the sims and viewer are ready.
Update: See warning below.
#SL Mesh Design Blender 2.57b
New Format
With any luck the new mesh format will be published on the Wiki this week. That means OpenSim coders can start making their changes.
Lots of confusion and server problems this last week. New code being merged into the servers caused problems. For viewers the result has been problems and things not working. If you aren’t checking the SL Grid Status, you can’t tell if it is the viewer or the grid. Things are calming down and work is resuming on the viewer.
Region WindLight
More work has been done on getting controls built for setting a region’s Windlight values. The control dialogs are being arranged this week. Once that is done we’ll get a project viewer for testing. Of course, you can only test it if you have a region you manage (estate manager). If you are a region manager and willing to test the feature, get in touch with Oz Linden.
Oz expects the server side code to be on the grid by the time the Project Viewer Rolls out. So, I think we are talking a week or two…
I’m always curious about what new toys and fixes we are getting that makes a difference in how we use Second Life or at least the viewer. I don’t really care that a button is in the wrong place or some text is not highlighting correctly. But, I love learning about features that make something easier or solve a problem. So, what is in the tube?
Some of the following are being worked on, others are in the ‘Backlog’ of things to do. If you see something here that you would like to hurry up, visit the JIRA and add yourself to the watch list. Voting is pretty much depreciated.
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.
