Tonya Souther On Latest News of SL 2.0

Tonya Souther, the head of Firestorm's Apple Client team, recently had a few things to say about Ebbe Linden's recent talk about SL 2.0, or "Next Gen" as Linden Lab prefers to call it. Of their plans to not make the new virtual world open source, "possibly never," Tonya expressed her disappointment on her blog.

"... it doesn't speak well for their openness to NIH ('not invented here') ideas on the new platform. Basically, they're saying 'we know what's best for you, so shut up and eat your Brussels sprouts'. We've been here before. Remember Viewer 2? Yeah, me too. There's a reason that Firestorm has the overwhelming majority of users on Second Life, and Viewer 3 (the descendant of Viewer 2) is in third place: LL's viewer does not fail to suck. Users told LL all about that, loud and long - and LL didn't back off and didn't listen."

Toyna went on to say she could understand why Linden Lab was keeping their viewer closed - gaining control of their platform. Not being in control of it with Second Life  put them in "a very unenviable position for a business." But given their track record of listening to their customers with their first virtual world, how well does this bode for their viewer for the new one?

"... there has to be a happy medium there somewhere. I'm disappointed they're not even trying to find it."

For Tonya Souther's in it's entirety, click here.

Commentary: Doing the Lag-tastic

If there's one thing that bugs each resident almost constantly, it's the ever-present lag. Sometimes it seems worse than usual. Those of us with longer memories may wonder, "Is the lag really worse than usual, or is it just me?" So when a few others also complain, well, you figure you may be right.

But if person after person complains, saying they've had to stop using a new viewer for an older one, well, you may be pardoned for wondering if there's something rotten in Ahern.

So what's behind the lag behind these complains? Some I chat with blame the more recent updates to the viewer. And indeed the most recent update to the official Linden Lab viewer frequently causes things to freeze or even crash whenever I Instant-Message someone, or get an IM from someone. Others complain about their Firestorm viewers, going back to the old Phoenix, even if it's no longer supported by the team. One person compared it to going back to a worn and ragged but comfortable pair of old shoes when the new shoes kept pinching your feet.


For myself, Firestorm doesn't work on my computer, and except for the first release or two never has. The bugs I found in the official viewer meant going back to full time use of Cool VL, but the version I use is some months old, and at times such as a crowded sim can show its age. For some peculiar reason, their more recent Mac viewers won't work for me. Then a friend and I were talking about the Singularity Viewer. Mentioning I stopped using it when it stopped updating their Mac client, she told me they had started doing so again and the most recent update was just a few weeks ago. So I gave it a try, and it worked!

Well, not perfectly. Things still take a while to load. But it did put a stop the the occasional "invisible jacket" Cool VL sometimes game me. Then again, maybe the lag seeming so bad is just my imagination.

Bixyl Shuftan

Phoenix Viewer Support to End Dec 31st. (Full Article)

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Monday Dec 17th, Jessica Lyon announced on the Phoenix-Firestorm blog that support for the Phoenix Viewer would soon come to a close. There had been a meeting Saturday the 15th in which the details were discussed. The news about the viewer support ending was first announced there. The reason: Linden Lab's plans for improving Grid performance in what they call "Project Shinning," which involves what the Second Life Wiki calls "Server side 'texture baking.'" For newer viewers the result will be less lag, at least according to Linden Lab. But for Viewer-1 based viewers, the result is what Oz Linden was quoted as saying "a world of gray, cloudy avatars."


"The clock is now ticking,"  Tonya Souther, the leader of Phoenix-Firestorm's Mac viewer development team, wrote in her blog, "We asked for at least two months' ntice, and yesterday we got that." She stated Linden Lab would like to bring the code active in February, but would work with Team Phoenix-Firestorm and other third-party viewer teams to make sure all have it and work it in before it finally arrives, "you will have to upgrade your viewer sometime in February or early March. No exceptions."

Oz Linden had made his intentions known months earlier in July, which Tonya commented put Viewer-1 viewers on "borrowed time … The loan is about to come due."

Jessica Lyon on the Phoenix-Firestorm website stated emphatically they were not trying to tell Phoenix users what to use, nor were they or Linden Lab blocking or actively stopping the Phoenix Viewer. But there were changes coming, and they had to change along with them. "I realize this decision will not be popular among our Phoenix users, and I apologize for that," but she asked users to read the facts, or watch the Office Hour video she made. before complaining.

In the speech she made, Jessica reminded Team Phoenix-Firestorm were volunteers, working without pay, whom liked helping people, being appreciated for it, and coding new features. They had created Phoenix more than two years ago in order for Second Life residents to keep using the features of the defunct Emerald viewer. But over time, it was becoming clear updating it with the Viewer 2 features was becoming increasingly difficult. So they created the Firestorm Viewer based on Viewer 2 technology. Continuing to work with the Phoenix Viewer was just simply becoming too difficult. "Can we keep it alive? Yes we can, but it would be a heck of a lot more work than it's worth." If someone wanted to "fork" the Viewer and develop it further themselves, they were free to do so. Though they knew of only "one or two copybot viewer developers" who were doing so.

Support for the Phoenix Viewer would officially cease on December 31, but they were creating a new "peer to peer support group" for those who still insist on using the viewer: "Phoenix Viewer Self Help." "It will largely be a group of Phoenix users helping Phoenix Viewers."

Tonya's comments to those whose computers couldn't use Firestorm or other Viewer 2 or Viewer 3 viewers: It was time to either upgrade their computers, or buy new machines, "Sorry, folks, but you will have to spend some money. There's no way around it."

Responses to both Jessica's announcement and Tonya's blog entry were mostly civil, even positive. Some responders called the move to halt Phoenix development "long overdue," happy to hear the team was free to concentrate solely on Firestorm.  Some, mostly polite, stated they would be sticking with Phoenix for now saying Firestorm didn't work on their computers as well. A couple readers stated that they would be preparing to leave the Grid, one saying, "Thanks everyone on the Phoenix team, the best viewer I've ever used in my time in SL. I'm really grateful and appreciate all the hard (no-pay) work you have done over the years. … But everything has an end, and this will be mine."

To watch the Office Hour video, Click Here.

Inara Pey's article on Project Shinning and "bake fail" Here.

For Daniel Voyager's article: Click Here. 

Sources: Phoenix-Firestorm Blog,  The Tigress Second Den

Bixyl Shuftan

Phoenix Viewer Support to End Dec 31st

Jessica Lyon announced on the Phoenix-Firestorm blog that support for the Phoenix Viewer would come to a close at the end of the year.

More on the story later. For now, check the Phoenix-Firestorm blog Here.

Phoenix Development May Stop Soon

To Phoenix fans, Tonya Southern of the Firestorm/Phoenix team has some less than pleasant news, "Viewer 1 is officially on borrowed time." In the latest post on her blog, she talked about a recent third-party viewer meeting with Oz Linden about some upcoming changes with Second Life. Specifically, Project Shinning. While it should stop "bake fail" in newer viewers, "it is incompatible with current viewers. … The result of the server-sized bake is that viewers that don't handle it will simply see gray avatars, with no way to fix them."

It was Tonya's opinion that the old Linden Lab Viewer 1, when this happens, will no longer be useable, along with third-party viewers not actively maintained. Aside from Singularity and possibly Cool VL, she didn't expect any other third party viewers based on Viewer 1 technology to continue, "Nobody else is developing a V1 Viewer any more."

And the Phoenix Viewer, which continues to be the most popular of the third-party viewers? Team Phoenix has yet to make a decision, but in Tonya's opinion, "it's time to say that we are not going to put any more effort into Phoenix."

"As far as I'm concerned, it's time to put Phoenix to rest. The developers don't like working in the codebase, as in many ways it's an unmaintainable tissue of hacks, the support team barely remembers how to run it, and Firestorm now provides essentially all of the function Phoenix has, and much more besides."

Tonya recognized this would be an unpopular change, especially those who won't or can't run Viewer 2 and 3 Viewers, but "there comes a point when making an old program run in a new environment simply isn't feasible." Her advice, those who vowed not to run Viewer 2 better change their mind or make plans to depart Second Life. Same thing with those with older computers, "Me? I'll be happily running Firestorm 5."

Tonya's post got a mixed reaction. While some agreed, others did not. It was similar with the article New World Notes did, people saying there was no way Team Phoenix would give up on the most popular Second Life Viewer.

If the Phoenix Viewer is becoming harder and harder for its team to work with, it may not matter much to them if they stop the updates. From the very beginning, they've been a volunteer project. Success or failure, they don't make any money, only prestige.

Fortunately for Viewer 2 haters, or those whom have no personal problems with it but their computers can't run it, Singularity and Cool VL are still out there, though Singularity hasn't had a Mac update recently. And what if down the road all V1-based Viewers stop working? For some, it'll be time to get out the credit card (though Mac lovers will feel a bigger bite on the wallet). Though it isn't hard to imagine some die-hard V2 haters, and sadly a few on older machines with limited budgets (or whom get sold a newer machine that performs worse), whom say farewell to Second Life. It should be interesting to see how many head to Opensim worlds.

Sources: The Tigress's Second Den, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

A Commentary about "Every Viewer But V2 Will Die"

For some time, I've been hearing various people say that Linden Labs plans to suddenly block Viewer 1, Snowglobe, and all Viewer 1-based third party viewers from Imprudence to Singularity to Phoenix, etc. Viewer 2 and any third party viewer based on it, which for now includes only the Firestorm Beta, will be the only ones allowed to access the Grid. With the development of mesh, the whispers became a little louder, and recently people have been talking about a matter of weeks.

The reality is most likely not going to be that one day soon Viewer 1-based viewers will be blocked from Second Life, but rather objects made of Mesh will be fuzzy to them. But just how bad will it be? A quick look at the Phoenix blog read "As many of you have heard, V1 viewers including Phoenix will soon become broken and mostly unusable on the SL grid as LL begins to turn off server side functionality these viewers require."

In my opinion, the Lab is not going to turn off the ability of Viewer 1 viewers to access the Grid, at least not if they're smart. The protracted recession has meant that people whom would have otherwise upgraded their computer or gotten a new one have postponed doing so. While some residents have refused to use Viewer 2 out of finding it hard to use, others, such as myself, have found it simply won't work on our computers. While some would dig a little deeper in their wallet should Linden Labs do such a thing so soon, many will simply sigh, and email their best buddies on the Grid they'll have to wait until they can scrape enough money for a new machine before getting back on.

Most likely, residents stuck with Viewer 1 will simply find a few more inconveniences, depending on how popular Mesh is. In fact, some Mesh users may cut back on it's usage if many residents can't see their new products.

Myself, I've tried using Viewer 2, and the Beta V2-based Firestorm. The pictures show as far as I've gotten. They won't work, even though I recently updated the Operating System. While I can use viewers that it once couldn't handle, Viewer 2 is not among them.

Am I worried? Maybe a little as the Lab has pulled some boneheaded things in the past. But I'm not expecting to email my friends saying they'll have to wait to see me for a while and writing about Second Life from the outside.

Bixyl Shuftan

New SL Viewer 2.7.1, “With Improved Search and Real-Time Shadows

With all the hype about SL8B, it was easy to miss the news of the latest version of the official viewer being released. What do the Lindens have to say about it?

In the latest version of SL Viewer (2.7.1) released today, we’re introducing the new Search beta as the standard search technology that helps you find interesting people, places, events, items for sale, and other things to make your inworld experience more fun, collaborative, and meaningful.

They talked about “Enhanced Classified Listings,” “sorting features” that enabled residents flexibility in search for example searching for someone by either their user name or display name, and “featured land listings” for “quick links to available properties.” They’ve also “added a few subtle, but helpful, usability enhancements ... based on resident feedback.” They did remind readers that, “SL Viewer Search is still in beta and we continue to smash bugs, tweak relevance, add features, and optimize it for international Residents.”

They mentioned one other improvement:

You might have noticed the cool log-in screen images with shadows that give them greater dimensionally and lifelike feeling. Now, you can have them too. This version of the SL Viewer introduces dynamic lighting for multiple local lighting sources, as well as high quality real-time shadows from the sun or moon. And, it’s easy to enable. In the SL Viewer’s Advanced mode, choose Me > Preferences, go to the Graphics tab, click the Advanced button, and just check Lighting and Shadows.

But of course, “If your graphics card can’t support this option, then it won’t be available.”

Yours truly can’t use Viewer 2, at least not the latest versions. Checking the forums, threads such as “Viewer 2.7.1 Search page never loads” and “Crashing after update,” suggests other residents are having trouble logging in as well.

So what do you the readers have to say? How much improved are Search and Shadows?

To view the official blog post, Click Here.

SL Groups Raised to 42, But Your Viewer May Not Show It

A bit more than a week ago, FJ Linden announced in the official blog that the group limit of 25 per account, long the source of complaints by residents, was finally raised to 42. There’s just one slight hitch ...

Linden Labs says you need to be using Viewer 2 to join more groups.


To add groups beyond the previous limit of 25, you must be using Viewer 2.4 (or a more recent version). And if you’re still using Viewer 1.23, or a third-party viewer based on Viewer 1.23 code, then you can add more groups in Viewer 2.4 and they will still be accessible when you switch back to Viewer 1.23.


Viewer 2 has always gotten mixed reviews from Second Life residents. With improvements, some people adopted it. But even after a year, the majority of residents still use other viewers most of the time. This includes yours truly whom relies on Snowglobe. The last few times I tried Viewer 2.0, the result was a cloud instead of an avatar, and finally the latest version would not work at all on my computer. And from what I’ve been hearing, some people trying to use it crash frequently.

So does this mean we have to use a buggy viewer to join more groups?

Not necessarily.

When I stumbled across a “click to join group” poster recently, I decided to give it a try, and went ahead and clicked to add myself. And it worked! So apparently, other viewers also get the new group limit, even though they still say you have a maximum of 25 groups.

Hamlet Au also did an article on the subject, and his readers commented on various viewers. It seems Viewer 1.23 and all third-party viewers based on it can also be used to join more groups. It’s just when *starting* a new group that you’ll need Viewer 2.

In the official blog, there were numerous replies of thanks for the group limit raised. There were some who did bring up the issue of Viewer 2.

On another note, the blog post mentioned improvements for teleporting and sim crossings, saying on average they’ve dropped 40%. Yours truly hasn’t noticed much of a difference.

For the Linden Blog post and comments, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan