Lab rearranges viewer development. Adults-only content trumps other work
by Tateru Nino 
Mar 29th 2009 at 10:00AM
Filed under: News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds
Over the next week or so, we've been expecting a new Second Life viewer release-candidate (1.23), with the usual slew of bug-fixes, and stabilization enhancements (1.22 yielded a 20% drop in overall viewer crash rates), and very likely the first real release of the dynamic shadows code.
Now, it seems that that is not to be. 1.23 is being pushed out to (probably) June, and the focus for this next release-candidate series will be code-support for the new Adults-Only content category. We're not sure how much of the regular fare will make it into 1.23, as just the AO-content support promises to be quite a substantive code-drop, and it's something that needs to 'just work'.
Linden Lab has always teetered on the fence between pure stabilization and performance improvements on the one hand, and new features on the other. However much users ask for the former, there's a measurable drain of users over time when the Lab doesn't provide at least some of the latter. We all beg for bug-fixes, but get hugely excited about flexiprims or dynamic shadows.
Sometime after all of that has been shaken down, and Adults-Only content support is sorted, we're looking forward to a new project codenamed Viewer 2009 (though if we'll actually see that finalized before 2010 is anyone's guess).
Viewer 2009 seems like it will involve an almost complete rework of the much-maligned Second Life user-interface, with two big-name companies reinventing it. Big Spaceship (whom we already know) appear to be primarily involved with design and feel, while 80/20 looks to be producing the implementation. We don't believe that any additional customer input is being entertained in the meantime, judging by Benjamin Linden's long absence from his regular office hours.
Third party viewer developers have been taking advantage of Benjamin's absence to consolidate wishlists from Second Life users at the scheduled office hours for incorporation into their own viewers.
It looks increasingly as if there will be two entirely divergent user-interfaces evolving through this year. One based on what the users say they want, and one based on what the Lab and two design firms believe they want. That's going to be an interesting showdown, and no mistake.
 |
Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop. |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
aki.shichiroji said on 11:34AM 3-29-2009
what the Linden blog post had me wondering was whether it applied exclusively to UI or to the whole viewer in general; IE: if everythign is being put on hold to make the AO continent possible, what's happening with further development on stuff like oblong sculpties, shadows, etc?
I agree, the fact that they've labelled 1.24 '2009' is ominous. it could arrive just before Xmas holidays and consequently see very little support as everyone flees to be home with their loved ones.
As a matter of curiosity, how many versions did we go through in 2008?
Reply
Tateru Nino said on 12:40PM 3-29-2009
Four or five, plus a couple sidelines like the SLim First Look viewer, depending on how you count them. 1.18 overlapped 2007/2008 and 1.22 overlapped 08/09
Opensource Obscure said on 5:45AM 3-30-2009
I'm running a Linux Second Life client that features dynamic shadows, multiple spotlights and projected textures. It's awesome - have a look to media below.
The viewer is still buggy but it didn't need patches, and it wasn't very difficult to build it from Linden Lab 'render-pipeline' codebranch, so I'm pretty sure that someone else could do the same for Windows and Mac OS X.
If you a friend that can do this for you, or know a developer you trust, ask them to build a shadows viewer for you. I'd be glad to help even if I'm not a competent developer - feel free to contact me in-world.
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceobscure
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/opensourceobscure
(recent stuff is about shadows only)
Jay said on 3:17AM 3-30-2009
Oh wewt, forced underwear unless you are on the Adult Continent or an estate marked as mature entry only.
Don't laugh BTW, teens have forced and un-removable underwear.
Reply
Opensource Obscure said on 5:34AM 3-30-2009
nonetheless, LOL (not going to happen).
Reply
Tateru Nino said on 5:48AM 3-30-2009
Some folks seem to think that all the mature content is being moved off to adults-only. Go figure.
Nadine Neddings said on 7:53AM 3-30-2009
I still find it bizarre that the more obvious fix, a PG-only continent, isn't acted upon.
They can call it Puritannia and not force an exodus amongst the many parcel owners whose content might be in that grey area of what will broadly be defined as "adult".
Reply
Johnny Mann said on 10:36AM 3-30-2009
yeah I think most users know this is a bucha crap. this AO garbage was pulled out of nowhere. I wonder if LL knows something we don't (pending lawsuit?) or if one of their retarded community managers actually thinks that they are losing users to AO Content. OMGZ B00BIEZ!
Either way it is a really stupid move on LL part, but will they listen to their users?....nahh.
Reply
Maggie Darwin said on 11:04PM 4-02-2009
"I wonder if LL knows something we don't ..."
It's possible that this is the motivation and explains the timing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_pornography
Eris said on 3:03PM 3-30-2009
If the timing made more sense I'd say we were about to see LL 'relaunch' Second Life to a wider public.
They seem to have made an ongoing commitment to content and commerce by buying the two web commerce sites. There's now an unusually urgent timetable to implement controls over adult content. We're getting rid of land-cutting on an industrial scale and considering what to do about bots. There's a completely new UI about to appear in parallel to the existing one...
So maybe the timing isn't so far off, that lot will take at least until Autumn to implement, past the 'quiet' Summer months and ready for a big push at the beginning of Winter? Second Life II anyone?
Reply