As mentioned in the update to my previous post, we found and fixed the cause of the crash on editing appearance (VWR-6792), and fixed a few other potential crashers as well. Second Life 1.20 RC4 has spent the day in QA and is now available for download from the test software page.

Reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please try the RC viewers only if you want to participate in the bug reporting process and identify issues before they become the default viewer. You can have both a Release Candidate and the primary viewer installed side by side on your computer, so if issues are encountered when testing the RC viewer you can switch back to the production viewer.

Fixes:

• VWR-6286: changed the method LLControlGroup::loadFromFile to only load values of settings that are persistent
• VWR-6792: Instant Crash on Editing Appearance
• Fixed: Crash in LLFloaterIMPanel when starting conference
• Fixed: Crash on LLVOVolume::sculpt - newview/llvovolume.cpp

Changes:

• llLoadURL now opens web pages in external browser by default

Known issue:

• On MacBook Air notebooks, only the High Terrain Texture ground texture displays. The other 3 Terrain Textures in the Region/Estate dialog’s Ground Textures tab do not display.

Please continue to report any new issues in the Issue Tracker and be sure to set “Affects Version/s” to “1.20 Release Candidate“.

Thanks for your patience and help in finding/fixing issues!

[UPDATE: 2008-04-24 9:27am PDT] Thanks for the quick feedback on 1.20 RC3.  We’ve found and fixed the cause of the crash on editing appearance (VWR-6792) and will be making 1.20 RC4 available later today.  We’ve removed RC3 from the download page.  Please use 1.20 RC2 or the 1.19.1 primary download until RC4 is available.

Hi again everyone.

We’re back to weekly Release Candidate releases. We increased the frequency of Release Candidate viewers last week in an attempt to gather more info/feedback on the Nvidia issues that have been reported (VWR-6343). Second Life 1.20 RC3 is now available and includes a batch of fixes to issues reported in the previous 1.20 release candidates (RC0, RC1 and RC2) and new code that we believe should address the Nvidia issues. Please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.20 (RC3) Release Candidate viewer.

Fixes: (more…)

Happy Friday everyone!

A new 1.20 Release Candidate Viewer (RC2) is now available with fixes based on issues reported in RC0 and RC1. Please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.20 (RC2) Release Candidate viewer.

The Linux viewer crashes on startup found in RC1 have been fixed and the Korean, Japanese and German viewer crashes found in RC1 have also been addressed. Source code will be available for download soon.

We’re still working on a complete fix for the Mighty Mouse issue, but in the mean time, if you are experiencing issues, try this:

• From the Edit menu > select Preferences > choose the Input & Camera tab
• Click on ‘Joystick Setup’ button
• Un-check the checkbox ‘Enable Joystick’

One known issue for Mac users, but with a workaround:

• Release Notes launch every time 1.20 RC2 is started on Mac
• To stop this from happening, launch RC2, dismiss the Release Notes, and quit Second Life without logging in
• Release Notes will not appear on the next start of the RC2 viewer

As a reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please download the Second Life 1.20 (RC2) Release Candidate viewer only if you’re interested in helping us test these optional viewers.

Changes:

• Record Movie to Disk option missing intentionally removed (VWR-6315)
• Color changes to improve text contrast in title bar, scroll bar and menu highlight
• Updated disabled button art
• Updated login/teleport progress screen art and colors
• Set the top-level ‘opaque’ parameter to false in menu_viewer.xml

Fixes:

(more…)

[UPDATE 2008-04-15, 5:16 pm PDT] Linux viewer crashes fixed!: We’ve fixed the issues that were causing the Linux 1.20 RC1 viewer to crash. Please download the new Linux viewer here. Thanks for your patience!

[UPDATE 2008-04-16, 1:02 pm PDT] Korean, Japanese and German viewer crashes: We have investigated a problem that causes this Release Candidate (1.20 RC1) to crash on startup for foreign languages; this will be fixed in the next Release Candidate (1.20 RC2). To revert to the English version of 1.20 RC1, you can delete the malformed file in the language folder .\ko, \ja, or .\de as appropriate:
..\skins\xui\de\panel_speaker_controls.xml
..\skins\xui\ja\panel_speaker_controls.xml
..\skins\xui\ko\panel_speaker_controls.xml

[UPDATE 2008-04-15, 3:47 pm PDT] Linux viewer crashes: We’re investigating a problem that causes the Linux 1.20 RC1 to crash on startup. Linux users are encouraged not to upgrade at this time. In order to prevent the viewer from forcing you to download an update, open gridargs.dat in a text editor and edit the text that reads:

secondlife --channel "Second Life Release Candidate"

so that it reads:

secondlife --channel "skipRC1"

We’ll post an update here when a more suitable Linux release candidate exists.

A new 1.20 Release Candidate Viewer is now available with some important fixes and changes.

If you’re interested in helping us test these optional viewers, please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.20 (RC1) Release Candidate viewer. Source code will be available for download soon.

Changes:

• Reminder that the Tools menu now displays in the main menu when editing/creating objects. Click on the Build button or right click and select Create. Existing short cuts (CTL + 1, 2, 3) all still work and will also activate the Tools menu.
• Disabled Avatar Imposters to address suspected cause of increased crashes on nVidia cards
• Allowed disabling of Joystick devices globally and selectively for avatar/build/flycam
• Backed out changes to put the Friends dropdown back on the world map (VWR-6243).

Fixes:

(more…)

We’re excited to announce that Second Life 1.20 RC0 is now available for download from the test software page. This Release Candidate viewer brings lots of goodness in the form of fixes, a new UI look and feel (formerly codenamed ‘Dazzle’) and UI improvements, scriptable glow and better support for 3D input devices!

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a known issue in this Release Candidate on OS X with Apple’s Mighty Mouse. The primary mouse button will toggle the “Flycam” mode. This will cause unusual behavior and we do not suggest using Second Life 1.20 RC0 with a Mighty Mouse at this time. We will fix this bug in the next RC.

[UPDATE 9:48 AM] Tools menu: The Tools menu has not gone missing!  It now displays in the main menu when editing/creating objects.  Click on the Build button or right click and select Create.  Existing short cuts  (CTL + 1, 2, 3) all still work and will also activate the Tools menu.

Reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please try the RC viewers only if you want to participate in the bug reporting process and identify issues before they become the default viewer. You can have both a Release Candidate and the primary viewer installed side by side on your computer, so if issues are encountered when testing the RC viewer you can switch back to the production viewer.

Details:

UI: This Release Candidate includes significant updates to the visual design and architecture of the Viewer’s user interface, including:

• A new, lighter color scheme
• Improved UI graphics (icons, buttons, etc)
• Ability to customize text color of Instant Messages
• Enhancements to the UI texture rendering system
• Ability to reference textures by filename
• Support for non-powers-of-two textures
• Support for PNG textures

Some important notes regarding the new UI appearance:

• The new UI appearance is installed by default with 1.20; Residents who wish to continue using the pre-1.20 UI appearance should not update to 1.20.
• Based on feedback from the Dazzle First Look viewer, we are tracking a number of bugs related to the new UI appearance; see PJira for the complete list.
• 1.20 includes a limited capability to create custom UI “skins.” Although this functionality is not officially supported by Linden Lab, a basic overview of the current XML functionality for creating custom skins is available on the Second Life wik
• The new UI appearance was developed in parallel with ongoing initiatives to improve Viewer stability and crash rates, and did not impact those important projects.
• For more information about the new UI appearance, including a list of frequently-asked questions, please see the Dazzle page on the Second Life wiki. For more information about Linden Lab’s longer-term plans to enable Resident-created UI “skins,” please see the User Interface Roadmap.

As always, Residents concerned about user interface and usability issues are welcome to attend Benjamin Linden’s weekly in-world User Experience Office Hour, held every Thursday at 3pm in Beaumont

LSL scripting for object glow!

• Script a prim’s glow attribute, details on the Second Life wiki:
• You may want to try a script such as THIS!
  default
  {
  touch_start(integer total_number)
  {
  list values = llGetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, 1]);
  float glow = llList2Float(values, 0);
  llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 1.0 - glow]);
  }
  }

Improved Joystick and 3D input device support

• Integrated a new open source library created by 3Dconnexion designed to integrate multi axis input devices with Second Life
• Joystick devices can now control the Avatar, Edited Objects, or the Flycam (View menu > Joystick Flycam)
• Added a “Joystick Setup” window to the Preferences under “Input & Camera” for adjusting multi axis input devices
• Settings are currently optimized for Logitech’s 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator but should be tunable for any joystic or 3D imput device

Other changes:

• Removed voice setup wizard from Viewer
• Removed “Detecting hardware” from first-use startup to save 10 seconds of start time
• Removed “Critical Message” string from startup community standards dialog
• Removed “Start Gesture” from menu bar
• Removed “do you want streaming audio” dialog
• Removed Friends dropdown on Map
• Display the Camera and Movement controls by default
• Added online offline notification to open IM windows
• One click sit not be available if you’re already sitting
• Replaced “(hippos)” and “(waiting)” with “(Loading…)”
• Print the name of the missing gesture in the error message
• Double-tap forward to run
• Adjusted the right-justified text on the splash screen
• Ctrl-shift-1 now displays Statistics in a floater
• Login progress bar change
• Option available to turn off all group titles to make name tags smaller
• Small UI tweaks made to the “near me” floater for usability

List of fixes:

(more…)

We will be deploying server version 1.19.2 to the Second Life Grid this week. We have found and fixed the problem that caused us to halt last week’s deploy (described here) and revert to 1.19.1.

As we have been doing, this week’s server deploy will be done via a three-stage rolling restart. At some point this week during the deploy windows given below, each region will be down for 5-10 minutes as the host on which it is running is updated with the new 1.19.2 code.

The schedule is planned as follows:

• Tuesday evening, 8:00PM-9:00PM PDT : we will deploy the new server code to ~500 regions.
• Wednesday morning, 7:00AM-9:00AM PDT : we will deploy the new server code to an additional ~1500 regions.
• Thursday evening, 6:00PM-11:00PM PDT : we will deploy the new server code to all remaining regions running the main Second Life Server.

Regions running the Havok4 Beta Server will not be affected by this deploy.

[Update 2008/03/25 10:15] The deploy to ~1500 regions will occur Wednesday morning rather than Wednesday evening, as originally announced. The schedule above has been updated.

[Update 2008/03/25 20:35] The deploy to 510 regions is done. The version being deployed is 1.19.2.83236.

[Update 2008/03/26 10:24] The deploy to an additional 1133 regions has completed. There are now 1642 regions on version 1.19.2.83236.

[Update 2008/03/26 11:20] Here is the list of regions which have been upgraded to Second Life Server 1.19.2. You can determine which version is running on the current region by looking at Help:About Second Life.

[Update 2008/03/28 00:43] The full rolling restart of Second Life is complete. This restart is upgrading the grid from server version 1.19.1.81992 to version 1.19.2.83236.

A new 1.19.1 Release Candidate Viewer (RC3) is now available with fixes based on issues reported in RC0, RC1 and RC2.

Remember: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.19.1 (RC3) Release Candidate viewer if you’re interested in helping us test these optional viewers. Source code will be available for download soon.

Changes and fixes new in 1.19.1 RC3 since RC2: (more…)

A new 1.19.1 Release Candidate Viewer (RC2) is now available with fixes based on issues reported in RC0 and RC1.

As a reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.19.1 (RC2) Release Candidate viewer only if you’re interested in helping us test these optional viewers. Source code will be available for download soon.

Changes and fixes in 1.19.1 RC2: (more…)

We’ve updated the 1.19.1 Release Candidate Viewer with fixes based on issues reported in RC0.

If you’re interested in helping us test these optional viewers, please visit the test software page to download the Second Life 1.19.1 (RC1) Release Candidate viewer. Source code will be available for download soon.

Fixes since 1.19.1 RC0:

• VWR-5479: The option “Save Texture As” from File menu is not active in 1.19.1 (0) (Second Life Release Candidate)
• VWR-5087: Attach To… from inventory ignores selected postion and attaches to stored location.
• VWR-4899: Windlight Particle System - burst severely weakened
• Crash when quitting from login screen
• SVC-1764: Setting parcel media for a single agent is broken with new media functionality ( PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_AGENT broken)
• Scripted object for playing movies no longer functions under 1-19-1
• FireGL and Quadros no longer show ‘unsupported’ dialog
• Crash: ‘Error parsing skeleton XML file’
• Crash when opening the expanded media control
• VWR-4959: WindLight: “Sculpted Prim” preview makes a huge distorted mess of polygons
• Propagate client language setting into search URL

NOTE: We’re keeping a close eye on issues reported in the public Issue Tracker and already have an RC2 in the works.

Please continue to report any new issues in the Issue Tracker and be sure to set “Affects Version/s” to “1.19.1 Release Candidate“. Resident participation is always welcome at our weekly (Wednesdays @ 3pm PST time) inworld bug triages, too!

Hot on the heels of Second Life 1.19.0 becoming the primary download, we’re making a new Release Candidate viewer available. Second Life 1.19.1 RC0 can now be downloaded from the test software page

As a reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please try the RC viewers only if you want to participate in the bug reporting process and identify issues before they become the default viewer. You can have both a Release Candidate and the primary viewer installed side by side on your computer, so if issues are encountered when testing the RC viewer you can switch back to the production viewer.

This Release Candidate contains the following new features and changes:

• Physically accurate atmospheric rendering and lighting (previously code named WindLight)
  • Animateable day cycles
  • Vastly improved realistic water with reflections and glimmer
  • “Glow” as new object attribute
  • Avatar Impostoring, which can speed up crowded scenes tremendously
  • A new cleaned-up, easy to use Graphics Preferences tab with simple and advanced options for performance/quality settings
  • See release notes for list of additional rendering optimizations, too!
  • For more information, check out the WindLight page on the wiki

• Parcel Media - adds the ability to display Web based media on a parcel (see Jeska Linden’s blog post for more info!)
  • New API for Media Rendering
  • Enables Web content inworld
  • Added two new click actions, one for playing movies, and one for opening media
  • Embedded web browser
  • Added support for Media resizing

• Estate-Level Abuse Reporting
  • Estate owners and managers now have the ability (under World > Region/Estate) to enter an email address where abuse reports will be sent.
  • If this address is empty, abuse reports will go to Linden Lab as usual. If the address is present, the abuse reports will be sent there instead. In both cases, all abuse reports are logged by Linden Lab.

• Voice changes
  • Changed the default voice volume to be a bit higher, to better match the volume of in-world sounds
  • Changed the voice volume slider to default to the middle of its range, so voice volume can be boosted above the default

• Improved Linux Voice support
  • Better support for USB headsets and other devices
  • Better voice audio quality

Fixes include:

(more…)