Second Life New Stuff 4/2020

Monday 4/20 the Lab released Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP). (Ref)

The Monday before (4/13) the Lab released Name Changes. (Ref)

In 2010 the Lab took away user selected last names. Now they are bringing them back for Premium members willing to pay US$39.99 (or L$10,140). All the details can be found by clicking Ref above. There is a FAQ linked to from the article. It will answer most of the questions about names and what you can change and how often.

EEP

Inara has prepared a tutorial on EEP. You’ll find it here, EEP Tutorial.

Coming Updates to Second Life 2020

We haven’t been getting much news from the Lindens on what’s up with SL. That is part of the reason I semi-retired from blogging. Now I just post when I have something interesting… interesting to me at least.

The recent Lab Gab (Episode #14 – Feb 21) video gives one of the better updates I heard in some time.

Lab Gab #14 Feb 2020

In it Ebbe and Grumpty are telling us about what is coming. The TL:DR… well… R=Watch in this case. Basically, 2020 and probably into 2021 the Lab will be focused on UPLIFT, the move to the cloud. Parts have already moved and those moves have given Lindens great expectations for how well SL is going to run in the cloud.

The feature add-ons we know about are being completed, EEP, name changes, new Premium Pluuuus… or however Grumpty pronounces it, and some other things will soon be completed. Soon is a couple of months for some things.

Continue reading

There is a Firestorm Release Coming…

At some point in time there will be a new release of the Firestorm Viewer. It is over due by about 3 months. The team’s stated goal is a release every 3rd month. In practice it is working out to about one every 6 months.

There are some significant changes coming to viewers. You likely know about EEP, which will likely eventually replace the enhanced Windlight features in Firestorm. The team will likely figure out to have both EEP and Enhanced FS Windlight working together. Then in a later release remove the FS Windlight. The point being to allow those relying on FS Windlight to change over to EEP. But… I’m guessing.

" And It’s shaken me to stone "

” And It’s shaken me to stone “

Animesh is coming. The server side of that is figured out and looks to release in July. Its on the main grid in the RC channels. So, we’ll likely see it go to the main channels in week #27. BUT… the viewer side is a bit behind the server and likely to only appear as an RC viewer, project viewer now, toward the end of July.

For the Firestorm team this means they don’t have a final version of the viewer code to be working with. They are still likely having to deal with changing Animesh code that changes how Animesh renders. Continue reading

Second Life – New Thing…

Today the Lab announced New Feature to Make Life Easier for Estate Owners!

The feature is about allowing region owners and estate managers to restart their regions from the web.

Sangria Wine

Sangria Wine

This is needed because in griefing situations it is often not possible to get into the region to use the viewer controls to restart and clear problems.

Part of the feature allows the region to be restarted in ‘safe mode’. Safe mode disables scripts, collisions, and physics.

Second Life: Third Party Developers News 2016 w/40

Viewers

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.

Love You Forever

Love You Forever

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.  Continue reading

Second Life Server Update Week 41

The main grid got a new package Tuesday 10/6. There is no update ready for the RC channels. So, the entire grid is running the same package.

345 When night turns into day

When night turns into day

The package rolled out has fixed server crash and fixed the Region Debug Console help text. It also makes the new LSL functions for getting attachments functional grid wise.

Function: integer llGetAttached( ); – Returns the attach_point (an integer) the object is attached to or zero if it is either not attached or is pending detachment.

Function: list llGetAttachedList( key avatar ); – Returns a list of public attachments worn by an avatar.

Function: list llGetObjectDetails( key id, list params ); – Returns a list of the details for id, specifically those requested in params. – This is an older function but gets a new ability.

Simon Linden hopes to have a maintenance package ready for next week.

Second Life: Hover Adjustments

Lindal Kidd has an article up titled FLASH! Fine Hover Adjustments Return! Basically, she says Wow! Then points us to Inara’s blog where Inara has posted: Avatar Hover Height reaches release viewer. Inara is pointing out that the RC Hover Viewer version 3.7.26.299635 was promoted to the status of being the main/default viewer.

floating

floating by Kannazuki Koba, on Flickr

Fortunately Inara covers how to use the feature and a bit of the history leading up to it. So, I won’t be writing that up. For the TL:DR peeps the short story is: once you have the new viewer, right-click your avatar and select Hover Height. Then adjust.

I seem to remember the adjustment will only last for the secession. But, that may have changed as the last time I paid much attention was early in the development stage.

UPDATE: Oh….. the Linden announcement is here: Now Available: Hover Height Improvements.

Facebook, Flickr & Twitter from Second Life

SL Share is the feature name the Lab uses for their sharing feature. You probably remember that Facebook sharing was blocked for a time. Facebook advised the Lab on what had to change for the feature to be unblocked. The Lab made those changes. Now Facebook sharing is back.

While the Lab was making changes they added the ability to share with Flickr and Twitter. Torley Linden made a video tutorial that posted with announcement about the newly enhanced SL Share.

To use these new features you need to download and install the  Project SL Share2 Viewer version 3.7.5.288424Continue reading