Second Life 2.6.3-225584 VS2010 Review

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?

Second Life
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.

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Second Life Viewer Beta 2.6.3 Released

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.

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Second Life Viewer Breasts Physics

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!

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Second Life Viewer Evolution – Week 12

Some new things are moving forward in the viewer. Here are a few I think interesting.

Windlight Settings for Estates – We sort of have this in OpenSim where it is called Lightshare. The idea is that an estate owner can set the Windlight settings for their estate. When a resident comes to the region, the viewer’s Windlight settings change to the estate’s settings. This means no more note cards about how to change your Windlight settings for best effect.

I noticed the other day a special note card in a purchase I made (demo skin). In Kirstens S21 viewer it had a new icon. The card was a set of Windlight settings. When I clicked on it my Windlight setting were changed. Pretty nifty.

The change coming to the SLV is the addition of controls for the estate manager to use to set the region’s default Windlight settings.

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Second Life Viewer Update Week 11

I messed up the publish dates on the post and the one below it… So, this is older information on the SLV2.6 viewer than in the article below it.

Changes to the Second Life Viewer are always interesting to me. Today I just downloaded a new copy of the SLV Development version 2.6.0-224080. Some of the changes and coming changes follow.

Viewer Performance

This 2.6.0-224080 is getting 40 to 60 FPS in my little cottage. In Celtic Myst, a complex region I like to test viewers in – plus I like the magic jewelry, I get 28 to 35 FPS. I think the viewer had memory leaks and other problems. Closing the viewer appears to fail to clear all memory used. I have to restart my computer to get something like 20% of my machines memory cleared. Also, once memory in use gets to about 85% I risk a computer lock up. I’ve been getting computer locks with the Development Viewer since 2.5.1.

Viewer Evolution Group

This is new user group. You’ll find it in the SL Wiki under Viewer Evolution Group. It is for those that want to work with Linden Lab to improve the SLV2.

The viewer still does not allow removal of the SPEAK button. The chat field can be resized. Search is still slow and sucks.

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Second Life Development Viewer 2.6.1 Update Review

Write a viewer update and the next day something new comes out…  This is about the new SL Development Viewer, the nightly build viewer. No claims of stability are made for this viewer. You may find it buggy. It is the generalized bleeding edge viewer from Linden Lab. So, use it with trepidation.

Viewer Modes

The 2.6.0 Beta viewer I was looking at yesterday does not have ‘modes’. Only the 2.6.1 Development version has modes. For now there is a BASIC and ADVANCED mode.

SLV2.6.1
SLV 2.6.1 Login Modes

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