Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Update: 2010-11-03: Be sure to click more
I think Kirsten’s viewer is probably the most advanced viewer currently out. I’m not saying it has the most power user features. But, it has the most SLV2 features working, and working as well or better than Linden Lab’s SLV2.2. I’m just now downloading this viewer and have yet to try it.
See the first round announcement in Kirsten’s blog: KirstenLee S20 Build 41 (Release)
On Tuesdays we usually get new software for the grid. On Wednesday new software arrives on the Release Candidate areas of the grid. The big feature for the main grid is TMalloc, which is about memory allocation and providing information to Linden Lab (LL) for debugging the software. I think this may also provide some improvement for region crossings.
It looks like we are getting caught up on fixes and will start to see new or improved features coming out. Most of these features are still in the line of problem solving, but will do things in new ways, hopefully reducing lag and other problems.
The End of Imprudence Viewer
Today the Imprudence peeps announced that they are moving to the next stage of their viewer and naming it the KoKua Project. Kokua is a Hawaiian word meaning mutual assistance or helping out. Those formerly known as the Imprudence peeps got the KoKua name from Hamlet Au, the editor of New World Notes blog.
Version 1.4 of Imprudence Viewer will be the last. For now it is being developed in parallel with Kokua. The 1.4 version is planned for release late November or early December. Then all development will shift to the KoKua Viewer.
Most of us are curious about which viewer is popular and most used. We only know how many people are logging on with a particular viewer when Linden Lab decides to tell us, and that isn’t often. Viewer developers can usually tell us how many downloads have been made. Some that use their own web based splash page can tell us how many unique visitors come to the page. But the information is sketchy at best.
This blog has stats and I’ve tried to make the viewer articles easy to find via Google/Yahoo search. The top two viewers bringing visitors to my site are Ascent and Emerald. Interest in Ascent has lead the stats here for weeks. Ascent is 1st, Out of Emerald’s Ashes… 4th, Greenlife Emerald 5th, Phoenix 7th, Greenlife Emerald Breasts 8th, Phoenix 9th, and Emerald 10th.
The minutes from Mesh Office Hours Meeting are out. This time they were placed on the blogrum as well as the Wiki. See Mesh Office Hours 10-25-2010 for the full transcript. I’ve covered the parts I think are interesting.
News is leaking out that Linden Lab will be running a closed beta on Skylight, a browser based viewer for Second Life. Only selected regions and people will be allowed into the test. I first saw the news on New World Notes (Linden Lab Testing Version of Second Life That Runs on a Web Browser).
I’ve since come across a first hand account with the details here: Beta Testing of Skylight Web Viewer for Second Life