Qarl Alignment Tool Rejected

Tateru Nino has an article about a reject response from Linden Lab in the JIRA STORM-468 comments. Charlar wrote the comment.

Thanks for making this effort. Alignment and snapping are an area where there are useful enhancements to be made.
However, we are not able to accept this contribution as it is.

These are the primary issues we found which resulted in that decision:

  • The feature should support the same modes as the other manipulation modes.
  • It does not work for non-mod permission objects. This functionality should work for all objects that the user can manipulate in-world.
  • It only supports World snap mode, not Reference and Local modes, unlike all our other manipulation modes.
  • It packs and aligns to the face of the object bounding box. If objects are not cubes and do not share the same alignment, or aren’t aligned with the world coordinates (see above), the result of the operation is unexpected. Ideally the operations would use the actual shape of the object for aligning and packing.
  • There are also some coding implementation style issues that would need to be addressed. These can be covered in more depth after the functionality is dealt with.
  • In it’s current form, this is usable for purely prim-based builders under specific circumstances. It’s less useful for building with non-cube prims, mesh, sculpties. It’s minimally useful for building when the structure is not facing a global direction (ex: North, South, East, West). It’s not usable by non-building residents who need to place and organize purchased items.

    I found many of the comments to Tateru’s articles interesting examples of transference. I always find it odd that people when told why something is rejected speculate on why it’s being rejected. Whatever…

    Read more

    #SL Viewer Update Week 45

    The main viewer has moved up to version 3.2.0-244443. The Beta viewer is now up to 3.2.1-244666 (someone have a sense of humor?) And today the Snowstorm Development viewer is at 3.2.3-244722. I mostly use the Development viewer. So, I’m always unsure what the main viewer is doing or what is or is not included in it. I’ll explain what the viewers are and where you can get them and what other Linden Lab viewers are available.

    Second Life Viewer
    Dev 244722 on ADITI

    Other Viewers

    The three SL Viewers listed above are the primary viewers in use by residents, excluding third party viewers. But, they are not the only Linden Lab viewers available. The above viewers are available from the main Second Life Download page. Under More Viewers (More or Alternate Second Life Viewers) is a link to the Wiki page listing the other SL Viewers and Third Party Viewers (TPV.)

    Read more

    SLViewer 3.1.1 (242977) Crashes

    I’ve done pretty well with the development viewers, until today. I installed Second Life 3.1.1 (242977) Oct 16 2011 10:50:04 (Second Life Development). I started it and crashed shortly after login. I think as soon as it tried to render the world.

    Error Message

    We have seen lots of viewer crashes from the OpenGL problems. Most of those have been with the new video cards and drivers. With this version of the SLViewer I got an error with my 8800 GTS and driver 270.61 (8.17.12.7061).

    Read more

    Second Life Viewer Non-Update Week 30

    I often use the SLV Development viewer. I’m on one of the version 2.8.3 builds. So, I have a sense of how well it is or is not working. But, that tells me nothing about planning for the viewer. For that information I rely on the Office Hour or as it is now called the Viewer Evolution User Group meeting. Recently that meeting has not been happening. Actually for the last two weeks the Lindens are not showing up. This group was one of the most informative and communicative. Now it is one of the worse if not the worst. So, it is hard to know what is going on with the Linden Lab viewer.

    Viewers to be Blocked

    Opensource Obscure noticed in the wiki a note in the 2.8.0 viewer release notes about versions of the SLViewer 2 series being blocked. Viewers from version 2.1.1 to version 2.6.8 will be blocked at logon. As the Lindens have promised the 1.23.x viewers are excluded and will be able to login.

    I think there are enough code changes and new features in Second Life that one needs a 2.7 or better viewer to get the most out of SL. The blocked viewers are using support services that will likely be turned off in the coming days.

    Read more

    New Second Life Web Profiles on Demo

    UPDATE: These profiles have now gone live in Second Life. Just open your profile to see it.

    In the Phoenix Hour Jessica provided a link to the new Twitter like web profile. Fredrik Linden is leading the way on this project. Live feed in your profile is an interesting concept. It also reveals the direction the Lab is heading. I think it also gives a keen insight into what much of the BIG announcement at SLCC may be.

    Demo Second Life Twitter-like Feed in Profile - Click to Enlarge

    Shug Maitland asked about what the impacts of this new move toward Social Networking would mean for SL residents that want to avoid mixing real life and Second Life. At this point I don’t know. This is the first of the new Web Profiles 2 that I’m seeing. So, more coming soon.

    The image above is from the Firestorm Beta 2 Viewer. It is NOT part of the current Firestorm Profile panel. The team will add a button to Firestorm to allow one to access the shown profile in the next release.

    To see the profile in all its glory open Fredrik’s profile in a web browser. Also, see the image below.

    Read more