Viewers

General Viewer Information

Second Life: Alchemy Viewer 3.8.0

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A new release of the Alchemy Viewer is out, Alchemy Beta 3.8.0. This not new news… I’m just catching up. There is not much one can say about what is new in Alchemy as they aren’t telling, deciding to let it be a surprise to users. Right.

Ladies of Summerfest '15
Ladies of Summerfest ’15 by Kaelyn Alecto, on Flickr

The release notes read:

  1. Up to date with Second Life 3.7.30
  2. Included Experience Tools Project
  3. Lots of other new sh!ts

But, there are a number of Alchemy changes if you scroll down. One interesting one is the ability to export a group membership list to a CSV file. That could be useful. Exporting ban lists for use in other groups might be more useful. Also, added to the inventory panel filters is an option to filter LINKs, the basic entry used in the Outfits folder. Third party viewers allow LINKs to be created outside the Outfits folder. So, I can see a need to search for LINKs.

Second Life: Experience Tools Released

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Tuesday (6/30) at about 11 AM PT the Lindens announced the partial release of Experience Tools. I write ‘partial’ because they are only fully released to Premium Members. This afternoon the 3.8.0 (302622) Jun 12 viewer automatically downloaded and I installed it.

This is also the main viewer now. Look at the download page.

That is a Jul 2, 2014 video.

The announcement is here: Experience Tools Available Now For Premium Members!

All users can get the viewer and use it. My understanding is only Premium Members can build experiences with this viewer, but all users can enjoy the experiences.

There is a knowledge Base article that helps you get started creating experiences. See: Experiences in Second Life. This is for both those wanting to participate in an experience and those wanting to create an experience.

There is a forum section the beta testers and early adopters used. It is now open to all. See: Experience Tools Forum.

You can find experiences to play in Second Life™ here; Resident-created experiences in our Destination Guide  and the Linden Portal Parks.

Second Life Viewer Problems

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Slow Render

I’ve been seeing slower rendering of scenes in Second Life™ for some time. It’s like taking 4 steps better-forward, 2 worse-back, 1 back, 1 forward… changing often with each viewer release. It is hard for me to tell if it is me/my-computer or actually the viewer changing. Now others are mentioning that things are taking a long time to render, which suggests it is more the viewer than it is me. Enough so that a developer asked at the Third Party Devs’ meeting if there had been any changes to the interest list processing that may have slowed things down.

254. Eyes Wide Open
Eyes Wide Open by Scarlett Loxingly, on Flickr

Oz Linden answered there have been no deliberate changes to the interest list. He also points out that as complicated  as the SL system is other changes could affect the interest list processing. So, Oz wants to hear about misbehaving render.

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Second Life: Firestorm a Designer’s Problem?

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We still have a debate ongoing in Second Life™ over on SLUniverse in the discussion started by Adeon Writer, Dear Mesh Content Creators: Please stop making your content on Firestorm, continues. I provided my thoughts in Second Life LoD Problems – Is Firestorm to Blame. In that article you’ll see I think designer and consumer ignorance are to blame. I also see plenty of fascist rule makers out proposing their solutions.

I prefer freedom and free market solutions over rules.

SlackGirl - Sue
SlackGirl – Sue by Rehana Seljan, on Flickr

One of the solutions proposed in:

BUG-6243 – Provide an informative warning when creating sculpts or mesh that may render improperly for others.

That places everything on the designer and provides no incentive for the designer to comply. I prefer something to provide information to everyone about what everything is doing to our render efficiency. That is why I filed: 

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Second Life Viewer Update Week #25

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Last week (#25) was the Third Party Developers meeting. We have interesting things to talk about from that meeting. Since I am doing short periods of writing between my Norco inspired naps that news will out in a series of short articles.

*144
=”*144 by Mia Sparks, on Flickr

Viewers

RC Second Life VMM Viewer version 3.7.31.302677 is out. (NMM = Viewer Managed Marketplace) The comment in the release notes says, “This viewer allows Merchants to manage inventory associated with Marketplace Listings from within the viewer. In addition to making management of Marketplace Listings easier, sale of items that Merchants do not have the right to copy will now be supported with Viewer-Managed Marketplace.” 

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Second Life News Week #25

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Servers

This week the main channel got an update and roll. This package ran on the RC channels for 2 weeks. There isn’t much to say about it. The changes are to server logging and how member lists for large groups download.

Beware @ The Conquest
Beware @ The Conquest by Brattilicious, on Flickr

Since there is no new package running in the RC channels, we are unlikely to see the main channel get an update and restart in week 26. Hopefully there will be something new for the RC channels in week 26. 

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