Second Life and Virtual Worlds
General Viewer Information
With the release of the VLC viewer (4.1.1.320331) we will see the video market in Second Life start changing. It as of today, it hasn’t changed much. As it has in most of the rest of the RL world. So, with 4.1.1 we will have a better experience with YouTube and other services.
NOTE: On starting the 4.1.1 viewer I started crashing. I changed regions and all seemed OK. Before I logged off I got a notice that a newer version was available: 4.1.2.320461. I’ve installed it and it seems to be OK.
There are no rolls to the main channel today.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, a new package will roll to the RC channels, all three get the same package.
This new package has more minor internal changes, supposedly security and crash fixes along with changes to data logging. More interesting is the addition of the new scripting function for forced sit. I find the deploys notice and the release notes in disagreement. But, recent Server Beta UG meetings have been discussing the forced sit function. So, I expect it to be in the package.
For more details, see: Second Life: New Forced Sit Coming
The former main viewer was version 4.0.8.319463 with the Visual Outfits Browser. Today we got version 4.1.1.320331, the VLC RC version of the viewer. This is the one that switches how streaming media (video) is handled in the viewer.
I am looking forward to checking out how it works. I haven’t used this RC. I also removed QT for security reasons, I’m on Windows 10.
Now it is up to builders and content providers in Second Life™ to change their content over to more modern streaming formats.
RC Second Life Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.320160 – This RC version also updated this week from version 5.0.0.319893. Changes are bug fixes. The Bento feature is unchanged.
RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.9.320231 – This is a new version to, updating from 4.0.9.320038. I have details of this version in last week’s news. Second Life News 2016 w40.
Updated: Nov 8, 2016
Kate Amdahl has posted an article titled: A Better Way to See in Second Life. It is inspired by Penny Patton’s articles on Scale and camera positions: The Improved SL Camera.
These tips came out in 2011. They inspired me to write my version: Second Life Camera Position Tips. I never run a viewer using the default camera position these days. I change them first thing.
RC Second Life VLC Viewer version 4.1.1.320331 – updated Thursday (10/6). This update fixes a problem setting volume. Moving the slider to MAX turned of sound. Oops. This version is in good shape and doing well in RC, meaning few crashes and complaints. This viewer version will probably to promote to the main/default SL viewer in week 41, likely Tuesday.
The RC Second Life Bento Viewer updated to version 5.0.0.320160 Friday. It too is doing well. But, don’t expect it to release this month. The Lindens are letting us use it hopping to find any surprises. There is a crash problem that is fixed in this version. Plus it Improves mesh upload and I think has the bone position lock. There will be Bento meeting in week 41. We’ll likely hear more. Be sure to check: Second Life: Bento Hands – Vista Animations Beta Out.
RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.9.320231 is also doing well. Last week I provided some of the details.
On quality any version could be next main viewer. But the VLC version is a security fix for those using QT on Windows. If you have QT, you should remove it from your Windows machines.
Friday in the Third Party Developer’s Meeting OZ and Troy Linden announced a new feature coming to Second Life™. It is going to be a quick 360 snapshot thing. If you haven’t seen 360 images, click in the image below and drag.
The image was made by Inara Pey, She explains how she made it using the Illiastra Panoramic Camera. (Version 1.3 L$999). See her blog article The Illiastra. Strawberry Singh has also written about making 360 images with Illiastra. I’ve written about the tech here, 360 Image. This is a new tag and it doesn’t pull all my 360 articles, yet.
There is a roll to the main channel this morning. The package running on the RC channels advances to the main software for all servers this week.
This is the package with ‘minor fixes’ and BUG-40565 “Significant script performance degradation observed in server version 16.09.14.319788” fixed.
There is no new package rolling to the RC channels. So, all regions will be running the same package.