Category Archives: Snowstorm

Qarl Alignment Tool Rejected

by

3

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…

    Continue reading →

    Old #SL Viewers Fading Away

    by

    0

    We have all heard about the Lab’s version 1.23 viewer disappearing, no longer available for download. It is no longer just the 1.23. Over the last couple of days several of the older versions were taken off the download server and marked as ‘Not available for download’ in the Old Versions list.

    You can find the list in the SL Wiki here.

    All versions prior to 3.0.0 have been removed from download availability.

    There is information about which viewers can connect to the grid and which cannot. Plus there are instructions for how to get them to connect if you really need to.

    #SL Viewer Update Week 45

    by

    1

    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.)

    Continue reading →

    Pages: 1 2

    SLViewer 3.1.1 (242977) Crashes

    by

    2

    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).

    Continue reading →

    Second Life Viewer Non-Update Week 30

    by

    0

    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.

    Continue reading →

    New Second Life Web Profiles on Demo

    by

    2

    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.
    Continue reading →

    Second Life Outfit Folders

    by

    3

    I like the way the new SLV2 Outfits work, somewhat. I have several problems with how the sidebar handles them. There is a work around that I came across in the JIRA that handles my problem with organizing outfits.

    Outfits Panel

    Problem

    The Outfits Sidebar provides only a single list of outfits. This mixes together the outfits I make and the default outfits provided by Linden Lab. As I create more outfits this is going to become more of a problem. So, I want to create folders in the Outfit Panel. But, that is not possible.

    There are a number of JIRA feature requests and bug reports about the lack of folders in the Outfits Panel. I’ll get to those later.

    Work Around

    There is a way to get outfits into folders, sort of. First off, know this is for Series 2 viewers. Don’t mess with your Linden Outfits Folder in Series 1 viewers. Doing so is likely to cause you problems. Also, know you will get different results depending on which version of a Series 2 viewer you use. So, you may need to be flexible.

    Continue reading →

    Second Life Viewer 2.7.2 (232036)

    by

    0

    The Development Viewer is an Alpha level version that users can test. A recent release of it has a couple of changes to the cache. Cache size has been increased to 10gb. There is now a real Cache Clear button that actually clears the cache.

    The operation of the previous Cache Reset button was confusing. It has been renamed to better represent its action, Default Location, which resets the cache’s location to the default location.

    The changes and new buttons have been moved from the Setup tab to the Advanced tab. Me→ Preferences → Advanced.

    Chat Logs are saved by some residents. To facilitate saving logs there is a control to allow you to have the viewer use a location other than the default location. While it seems odd to me, the setting is on the Privacy tab. Me → Preferences → Privacy.

    Search – The new search is in this version of the viewer. It still has some oddities. When searching for people use the People filter. Otherwise names and display names can make it hard to find a person.

    The frame rates (FPS) are low on this version.