Nalates' Things & Stuff

Second Life News 2018 w03

2018/01/23 by Nalates Urriah

No Deploys post this morning, 9 AM. There is/was an in-world notice the main channel was being restarted. My home in the main channel regions saw a restart.

JUSTICE LIZA BOOTS GIFT OF THE GUARDIAN – here

Viewers

The main viewer was still 5.0.9.329906 this morning. We saw this version appear in week #49. Later in the day Alex Ivy was promoted to the main viewer. So, Second Life Alex Ivy Viewer version 5.1.0.511732 which appeared in week #2 became the main viewer today.

Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.0.10.330173 – This is an update replacing last week’s 5.0.10.330148. So, this one is getting a fast series of updates.

Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.0.10.330039 – Last updated in week #50. This version is working well and is the second most likely to promote to the main viewer. So, we should see this one get the 64-bit update and come out as a new version later this week.

Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – no update since week #27. This viewer is supposed to move from a project viewer to an RC version soon.

Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.0.10.330058 – Last updated in week #49. We are not likely to see any changes here. Work is on the server side and fixing animesh behaviors. Animesh is pretty much feature locked for the remainder of this phase.

Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.0.511604 – Last updated in week #2.

Third-Party Viewers

Black Dragon did NOT update this week. But, NiranV has an article on optimizing an avatar, My Adventures In Optimizing My Avatar.

Firestorm has not yet released an update. The last new version, 5.0.7, was released in the last half of June 2017. The release before was 6-months previous. So, the stated quarterly release plan is shot. I am still hopeful we will see a release this month. But, I wouldn’t put money on it.

I have seen FS users posting in Firestorm Support with a version 5.0.11. So, there is a beta version running around being tested. It is just a matter of when the general user will see it.

Catznip – I’ve tried this viewer several times now. I wrote about just after the latest update in January, Catznip Viewer R12 – Awesome or Not?

I love the viewer except for it not rendering textures until I run my cursor over them and then they don’t stay rendered. Over a three-week period, I’ve seen this as a consistent problem. As it only happens with Catznip and not 3 other viewers (LL, FS, BD), I’ll say it is a viewer issue with Catznip.

Other News

Penny Patton has an article up, The No-Mod Rebuttal. Her point is in our oh so poorly optimized world of amateur-made content we need to be able to optimize what we buy. So, avoid No-Mod items whenever possible.

I think Penny oversimplifies. But, I agree with her basic idea. Most things do NOT benefit from being No-Mod. A few things do need to be no-mod. Those things that depend on scripts to work use No-Mod to prevent spy scripts being added. If griefers could easily gain information on the communications channels, HUD to item, then they could easily mess with us. That would force designers to add encryption and other complications that would drive up the script load.

In the ever-escalating war with griefers, No-Mod is often the outer fence. Yes, it can be scaled and penetrated. But, it is something.

Justice & Underground – I am not sure why I haven’t come across the Justice and Underground brands before. I stumbled across them today. Justice is clothes to buy and wear. Underground is about buying the designer kits to make your own stuff. The stores are here.

Ebbe Altberg @ CES

2018/01/15 by Nalates Urriah

The site Venture Beat has published an article, How companies can build VR spaces inside Linden Lab’s Sansar.

There are a couple of new… concepts… revealed in the interview.

It is interesting to find out the names of people we know from movies and books are people looking at Sansar. The reproduction of the CES show in Vegas and the creation of Ready Player One are apparently impressive.

Ebbe is still saying we are in the very early stages of development. If you have been in Sansar™, you’ll probably agree. I do.

This year will see a shift in the Lab’s focus from developers to consumers. This is the year Sansar will ‘LIKELY’ come out of beta. But, I wouldn’t bet big money on it. We may see it slide into 2019.

Second Life: Third-Party Viewers 2018 w2

2018/01/15 by Nalates Urriah

There is some interesting news. Not much but a bit.

The Alexy Ivy Viewer was updated in week #2. This is very likely its last update in the RC stream. The next step for Alex Ivy is a promotion to the main viewer.

Oz Linden expects that to happen in week #3. Of course, this depends on not finding any show stoppers in testing.

When Alex Ivy promotes, Oz plans to publish a blog post to encourage people to update to 64 OS. The difference in crash rates is HUGE.

The Maintenance Viewer is there…

The Voice Viewer has no known problems. So, it will be the next likely to promote after Alex Ivy.

The 360-Image Viewer is out there… Oz says it is verging on becoming an RC version.

The Animesh Viewer is expected to move to RC status in a couple of months. If you are following the Content Creation UG meetings you know not much new information is coming out. The project is into the ‘make things work correctly’ phase. So, no changes or additions.

The Rendering Viewer is fixing render bugs.

Oz tells us will be a new media update branch. Things like CEF will be getting updates.

Also, another round of tool updates is planned. The Visual Studio version the Lab I suing is 1 version behind.

HTTP, when Alex releases the Lab will be depreciating all non-HTTP API’s. Older viewers not using HTTP will lose functionality.

The Lab will start work on ACI in a couple of weeks. Oz says they plan to fix bad incentives. Some things are calc’s to cost too much and some cost too little. So, they’ll be tweaking the ACI.

No word on a Firestorm release date. But, Firestorm is limiting LoD settings to <=4. Higher values will NOT persist. Plus, they are adding warning and advice not to change because of some notecard advice in the Debug Settings.

Oz says they found backend problems in the group notices system. Partially fixed. Memory leak. Restarting the servers solved most issues.

28:30 – Oz talks about Linux 64-bit viewer. TL:DR – There is one, but it doesn’t work.

EEP – Rider Linden is making the EEP assets. Once done, test regions in Aditi will come up. So, the project is progressing.

New Skies for Firestorm

2018/01/12 by Nalates Urriah

Hamlet has an article about Stevie Davros’ enhanced skies. In 2011 Firestorm added a feature that allows replacement of Second Life™ clouds. Thank you for the computer code, Cinder Roxley. Back then Vincent Nacon was creating new cloud images for this feature.

So, this feature is not new nor limited to Firestorm. JuicyBomb wrote a tutorial NEW CLOUDS FOR SECOND LIFE, May 2013, for those using the Linden Viewer. The instructions are good for any viewer.

Not much has changed since then. I just checked in the Linden Viewer 5.1.0 and there is still no provision for selecting a different cloud texture. So, it is still a manual change.

Sansar: Lindens Can Be Slow Learners

2018/01/122018/01/11 by Nalates Urriah

Warning – Things are changing quickly as this story unfolds. Some blog articles have changed since I started writing… So, if something is different from you expect from reading this… please remember time and change are factors.

We just witnessed a community backlash against the Lab’s heavy handed Intellectual Property Rights protection when Strawberry Singh was order to take down a Second Life tutorial for new users. Now the Lab has ordered Ryan Schultz, the author of Sansar NewsBlog, to take down pictures of the Intel-Linden build in Sansar, Aech’s Garage. See UPDATED: First Pictures from Aech’s Garage, the Ready Player One Movie Experience in Sansar.

It has apparently taken a couple of days for Ryan to reach a boil. See: I’m Taking A Break (1/10). That cuts off my primary source of Sansar news. 🙁 I’m not a daily reader, but more than once a week… Have you tried to find another dedicated to Sansar source?

So, what is going on? Is there a new employee at the Lab trying to make their bones? Someone that doesn’t like Ryan? Some new emphasis on a legal policy?

The Lab has already stated they need to rethink and reword some of their IP protection policy. One would think information about respecting helping those helping the Lab would make it through the company without regard to which project people were working on. It would seem to be a corporate culture thing to cultivate. But, I guess not.

Many of us have over a decade of experience with SL and LL and the engineers and managers. And some a bit with the Lab’s legal and marketing people. We have seen their blind spots and dumb mistakes. The last few years I’ve seen a change in those running SL, which I attribute to experience. The development of mesh was shaky, in not listening as well as they might to user feedback. Material, Fitted Mesh, Bento, and now Animesh are examples of good communication, better than mesh. I didn’t say ‘perfect’. And in that time how bloggers and other fans are treated has matured. At least this last go-around with Strawberry had me thinking so.

But, it looks like the Sansar team is going to have to go through the same learning curve. But, I had hopped the SL experience of the Linden support people, like accounting, legal, marketing…, would carry over. I suppose not, now that I see this second ‘take down’ call.

I think I’ve met Ryan in Sansar. Based on my biases and prejudices I am way cautious trusting him. But, what he has said so far is very basic. Paraphrasing, they asked me to take down these pictures, I took them down, and I’m pissed. Excuse me while I go cool off. So, there is not much room for drama or spin in what he has said. A bit rare for this community.

I do agree with him something isn’t right, or fair if you are still into ‘fair’. Other sites are posting similar images. So, what’s up?

#SansarCensor

UPDATE: Ryan has commented below. Seems the Lab has changed its mind. Images are back up. This is a good thing. My confidence in LL is increasing.

UPDATE 2: Seems problems are not over. More of the story is coming out. See Ryans new(er) post: I’m Taking A Break, which I think is an edit of the original.

Second Life News 2018 w2

2018/01/10 by Nalates Urriah

Ugh… still fighting something between a cold and flu…

Servers

The main channel is getting a restart but will continue to run version #17.12.01.511131 rolled out 12/12.

All three RC channels with get version #18.01.08.511751. This change is declared to have internal logging improvements.

Viewers

The Main viewer remains version 5.0.9.329906. We first saw this version as a RC candidate in week #47 as a Maintenance version. It promoted to the main viewer in week #49.

Second Life Alex Ivy Viewer version 5.1.0.511732 – This is an update from 5.1.0.511248 which we saw in week #48.

Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.0.10.330148 – Another update. Replacing version 5.0.10.330123 out week #51.

Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.0.10.330039 – Last updated in week #50.

Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – no update since week #27.

Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.0.10.330058 – Last updated in week #49.

Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.0.511604 – has updated from version 5.1.0.511446 released week, #50.

AS of this morning the Wolfpack version of the viewer has disappeared. As this is a version of the main viewer with additional data reporting, I think we can expect it back when the main viewer next updates.