Imprudence 1.0 released for Second Life
by Tateru Nino 
Dec 14th 2008 at 9:00PM
Filed under: Patches, News items, Second Life
The Imprudence project has reached the end of the first release cycle for their Second Life viewer. Imprudence is now in official release, and will soon show the first of their 1.1 series of viewers, sporting sound and more extensive modifications.
As is proper, there's very little difference between the release version and the release candidate. Pretty much just a couple fixes for memory leaks, and some minor tweaking. OpenJPEG 1.3 removes issues with transparent skirts.
Aside from the temporary lack of audio, this seems to be the smoothest and most reliable viewer presently available based from the 1.21 code-base.
Known Issues
- Still no sound or voice yet.
- Login screen misleadingly displays the last grid you had selected even if you use the --loginuri command line option (IMP-29).
- The menus for non-English languages still say "Second Life" in some places where they should say "Imprudence" (IMP-27).
Changes
This version of Imprudence includes the following changes (as compared to Imprudence 1.0.0 RC2):
- Rendering: Windows version ships with OpenJPEG 1.3. This fixes the issue of skirts and some uploaded images appearing half-transparent. Thanks to McCabe and everyone who helped us identify and test that!
- UI: Added support for displaying a test version identifier (e.g. RC2) at the login screen and About Imprudence, to help people tell the test versions apart. (Note: you won't see it in this release, because this isn't a test version!) Thanks to McCabe for adding that!
- UI: Rebranded the Help menu at the login screen to match the main Help menu (IMP-23). Thanks to Balp Allen for reporting that, and McCabe for fixing it!
- UI: The "Release Notes" link in About Imprudence now takes you to the release notes on the Imprudence wiki, instead of to a bogus page on the Second Life wiki. Thanks to McCabe and Jacek for doing that!
- UI: Grid selector at the login screen no longer has a duplicate entry (IMP-24). Thanks to Balp Allen for fixing that!
- Misc.: Fixed the viewer stupidly creating a url_history.xml file in
C:\on Windows, and perhaps in/on Mac (VWR-5808). Thanks to McCabe for fixing that! - Code: Patched two small memory leaks when uploading scripts (VWR-9400). Thanks to Carjay McGinnis and Henri Beauchamp for making those patches!
- Code: Patched two minor code cleanliness issues (VWR-10759, VWR-10837). Thanks to Aleric Inglewood for making those patches!
As always, you should consider the risks before installing third-party binaries on your system. Imprudence viewer 1.0 is available for Linux (33MB), Windows (20MB) and Mac (66MB universal binary), or go to the project's download page where you can also get the source code. As usual, the Imprudence team has provided a forum for feedback on this release so that you can pass on your experiences and suggestions.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Valiant Westland said on 10:04PM 12-14-2008
It's great to see an alternate viewer project making progress. Once sound, a must have for many people including myself, is available, I'll do a head-to-head feature/function/stability comparison and see how it compares to the latest production LL/SL browser.
Of course the one key feature that we will likely not see in a LL/SL browser is the ability to use it to easily log in to multiple grids. As the number and quality of these grids grow, a multi-grid compatible browser, that is stable, has an improved UI and all the needed features will have a distinct competitive advantage.
I would personally love to see the a FireFox, Microsoft and/or Google get behind a project like this. If not one of the big three, maybe a 2nd-tier gaming company, that would release it with one or more 2nd-life-based entertainment titles/venues on a self-contained server that could be installed either locally, on a LAN server or on a hosted server.
Of course, I would also like to see this type of client/server combination packaged for retail sale (can you say the SIMs) and/or download for $9.95 - $29.95. You could even offer different versions (start-up packs) for those interested in the main existing genres of SL, such as Gorian, Elven/Mythical, Furry, Sci-Fi, etc. Heck, you could even shed all pretense and market a version to be sold through "Adult" establishments that focused on ...
Once again, congratulations to everyone who has made this imprudence release a reality. I look forward to running it through its paces!
Reply
Moggs Oceanlane said on 11:36PM 12-14-2008
I'd love to see LL/SL focus more on improving the server side and maybe one day leaving the business of creating viewers to others (they'd obviously have to make information available for this). Let everyone focus on what they're best at...
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Opensource Obscure said on 6:07AM 12-15-2008
> Of course the one key feature that we will likely
> not see in a LL/SL browser is the ability to
> use it to easily log in to multiple grids.
:-?
Linden Lab browser already lets you log in to multiple grids. Just enable ForceShowGrid option in Debug Settings
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Debug_Settings
If you'were implying that Linden Lab is trying to avoid people logging in to other grids, I'd say you'were wrong.
Since only a very small subset of users logs in to 3rd party grids, I think there's no need to enabling it in the main log in page by default.
Reply
Johnny said on 9:38AM 12-15-2008
Sorry, but how can you release a "1.0" if sound isn't even working yet.
The whole reason behind your mission statement was to create a viewer free of bugs etc and to move the platform forward yet your viewer hast a host of "game-breaking" bugs that actually trumps the SL native viewer.
No sound?.... I mean... come on!
What is the point.
Get sound working and I will try it out.
Keep in mind I wouldn't have even had any negative comment if this was version 0.98 or something, but to launch 1.0 w/o sound really looks terrible in my mind.
Reply
McCabe Maxsted said on 10:17PM 12-15-2008
"yet your viewer hast a host of "game-breaking" bugs that actually trumps the SL native viewer."
Where? We have more crash/memory leak fixes than the current LL release. If you find an actual "game-breaking" bug, please feel free to post on our forums so we can investigate and fix it. Otherwise, read the release notes. Sound will be in the next version.
Honestly, I don't like releasing a viewer without sound enabled either, but this is so trivial as to be nitpicking.
Johnny said on 9:28AM 12-16-2008
Sorry, I apologize regarding the game breaking bugs statement, but what I actually meant was the sound not working. Bad terminology on my part.
To me, the lack of sound is game breaking, personally.
I know I sound like a dick, but why take it to v1.0 w/o sound? It's too damned silly for words.
To most residents thats a huge deal, most residents use sound...wouldn't you say?
Also v1.0 is a huge deal..it's when people may/may not try out an alternate viewer...I dunno.
I wish you the best in your efforts to do w/e the heck you are doing....w/e that is.