New Firestorm Viewer Update, Promises To Fix Some PBR Issues

 

After Firestorm released their PBR viewer in June, while there was praise for it as it allowed people to see what could be done with this new feature in Second Life, there were also numerous complaints about lag and crashes. In August, Firestorm announced they were making a change to their three-viewer policy and keep the last viewer before PBR, 6.1.17, around permanently, recommending those who were having serious issues temporarily downgrade, or adjust their viewer Preferences, while they were working on an update. A few days ago on Tuesday September 17, they announced that their new viewer update, one that would deal with some of the issues caused by the PBR technology, was ready. 

...a significant minority of our users have been struggling with the higher performance demands of the last release (7.1.9). We have been in discussion with Linden Lab since that release, and, as you can read in the Second Life Blog post linked at the top of this section, there is a significant focus on making the viewer more capable and performant on lower spec and older machines. These updates are being delivered in phases, and this release delivers the first batch (aligning us to the Second Life release known as Atlasaurus). It does not mark the end of those improvements, Linden Lab has laid a roadmap of at least two further releases (DeltaFPS and ExtraFPS) that specifically focus on performance.

This release fixes a swathe of issues, those of you plagued by crashes after TP were almost certainly victims of the “mirror at home” bug. This bug was fixed soon after the release and has been tested throughout our beta phase for this update. the crash rate for this viewer is far far lower than for the 7.1.9 update. Performance too, the performance updates, should see most of you enjoying better, more consistent frame rates and where you had high rates already, simple seeing more consistency as you move around the world.

Also, the viewer was the first to be able to use Second Life's new Voice technology, WebRTC, Linden Lab switching away from Vivox.

This viewer release ushers in a new-era of voice services in Second Life. Linden Lab has been working on a replacement for the ageing Vivox “SLVoice” solution for some time now. The new voice system is based upon open standards, notably WebRTC. The new voice services significantly improve voice quality over the legacy voice system, offering up to 48Khz CD-quality audio. They are directly embedded inside the viewer, removing the dependency on an external support process (slvoice.exe) and hopefully increasing voice stability. Linden Lab has also used the migration to WebRTC to enhance security and reduce “data leakage.” WebRTC point-to-point calls will all route through a Second-Life-managed proxy service, ensuring that your IP address and identity are always protected.

For those used to using the SL-provided voice morphing, this will no longer be available. The team at Linden Lab has put together a FAQ page to help you resolve any questions. Importantly, WebRTC is not compatible with SLVoice. Moreover, the back-end services that support voice cannot co-exist so once Linden Lab roll out the new WebRTC services across the grid, the older voice services will cease to work.

To make it very clear, when Linden Lab rolls out the WebRTC backend across the grid, SLVoice will cease to work FOR ALL VIEWERS. This is not something Firestorm or any TPV can alter/fix/workaround.

For the blogpost in full, Click Here. 

Back Online

 

I often say the Newser updates 364 days a year, allowing a day for technical difficulties and the unexpected. Well, on Sunday came the unexpected technical difficulties, which a simple rebooting of the Internet equipment didn't solve, and had to call the company. It's fixed now, and we'll soon be posting as before.

Once again, sorry about the crash.

Image Credit: Erik Mondrain
 

Bixyl Shuftan, Editor, SL Newser

Video Game Collecting: Part 3 - Get Consoles For Cheap

Today, Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich Resident) has the third part of his series of video game collecting. The obvious problem with collecting older game units is that much of what's out there is broken. But instead of throwing away consoles that don't work or pay someone huge amounts of cash to fix one, another option is learning to reapair them yourselves. While some are no doubt beyond the ability of all but more experienced repair artists, once you set your mind to it and get the right tools, you'll find some are surprisingly easy to get working again once you learn a few things.

Read Cyfir's article in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Cleanup in Montecito Bay Begins

It was a week and a half ago on February 2 that Montecito Bay experienced a number of buildings in the southwest corner of it's sim getting demolished. As everyone was partying in their newly opened Magnum Opus Lounge at the time, no one saw who or what caused the damage, though there was a picture taken of what looked like a flying saucer in the distance. After some going through the rubble by investigators, the cleanup and rebuilding has begun.

The crop-circle patterns on the streets are still glowing. Curiously, a new one has appeared at the sim's entry point, also glowing. As with the original patterns, no one knows how it came to be.

Some strange red stains that look suspiciously like blood splatters remain up. Presumably, investigations are continuing on what it really is and how long it's been up. No investigation findings of either the massive wreckage or the mystery spots have been made public.Neither has a date been given on when the cleanup and repairs are expected to be finished. One date that has been given is for the notices for the club events to be printed in color again instead of the basic black and white pictures they've been for the past two weeks, on February 18. Montecito Bay official Emorald told the Newser that the print shop normally used to make the notices was among those wrecked on Groundhog Day. It wasn't stated though whether or not they'd continue to have the strange hieroglyphic-like symbols on them that had been appearing for weeks.

Addition: Talking to Moff later today, he remarked, "... the cleanup is continuing. We have the Crux Construction Company working 'round the clock to at least get the place cleaned up. It might not get rebuilt right away, because there's all kinds of issues involved with rezoning. But at least we won't look like a junkyard for too much longer."

Stay tuned for more details.

Bixyl Shuftan

Note: The preceding is a fun article based on goings-on by the people of Montecito Bay themselves and not the actions of any griefer.

Cartoon of the Day

Vehicles in Second Life can be a bit tricky. When things go wrong, is it because of a bugged script in the engine, or is it lag?

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday Cartoon: WW2 RP Area

By Bixyl Shuftan