Tag Archives: Catznip

Viewer round-up summary: week 24

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This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of  all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: June 16th, 2013

  • SL Viewer updates:
      • Materials Processing beta updated to version 3.6.0.277285 on June 12th and then to  3.6.0.277409 on June 14th (release notes)
      • A Beta Maintenance viewer, version 3.5.4.276827 was release on June 14th – core updates: lots of fixes and improvements (incl. updates to the ongoing ultra-high resolution snapshot issues, mesh improvements, etc.) - release notes
  • Catznip released version R8 on June 8th (missed from last week’s summary as a result of a website redirector error)  – core updates: SSB/A and pathfinding – release notes
  • Cool VL updated on June 15th to:
  • Littlesight Android client updated to version 1.4.0.1 on June 12th, no release notes
  • Lumiya updated to version 2.4.6 and then 2.4.7 on June 12th  – core updates: general bug fixes; support for multiple attachments and clothing layers; in-world hovertext display; search places; updates SSB/A support; improved support for emotes in chat – release notes
  • Mobile Grid Client updated to 1.20.1185 on June 10th (and slipped into the week 23 report as a result) – release notes
  • Pocket Metaverse updated to 1.8.1 on June 10 (and slipped into the week 23 report as a result) – release notes

Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers

  • SL Development viewer – depreciated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

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Catznip R8: purring with delight at SSB/A support

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catznip logoCatznip slipped out R8 on June 11th. I actually missed it, as it appears the redirector to their wiki page was still pointing to the old blog, so when checking I was still seeing R7 as the last release; so I was a little surprised to check the link this evening and end-up at the Catnip wiki and see Catznip R8 sitting there and purring at me!

Anyway, the important thing is the release is here and sees Catznip join the ranks of Server-side / Appearance ready SL viewers, gain pathfinding functionality and become the latest viewer to offer full Havok support, as a part of the Lab’s Havok sub-licensing arrangement. As well as these two major updates, R8 gets a number of improvements and bug fixes.

Server-side Baking / Appearance

Not actually a lot to say here, other than “it works”!

Catznip R8: SSB/A ready: (l) my Alt (at the back), running the SL SSB/A-rady viewer, renders correctly in Catznip R8, while (r) I render correctly in the SL SSB/A-ready viewer

Catznip R8: SSB/A ready: (l) my Alt (at the back), running the SL SSB/A-ready viewer, renders correctly in Catznip R8, while (r) I render correctly in the SL SSB/A-ready viewer

When tested on an SSB/A enabled region, Catznip R8 rendered my Crash Test Alt (running on the official SL viewer, which is SSB/A ready) and my avatar correctly, as did the official SL viewer. No grey ghosts or clouds with either.

Pathfinding and Havok Sub-licensing

A major element missing for the last Catznip release – R7 – was pathfinding support. This wasn’t because the Catznip team have anything against pathfinding; they simply found time working against them, as I noted in my R7 review:

Catznip R7 does not include any pathfinding tools, as the team had enough on their hands getting all the updates, changes and fixes already planned for this release merged, tested and made ready for release. This doesn’t mean pathfinding is being ignored, however. Expect to see it in a future release.

R8 rectifies this. Not only does it provide the expected Linksets and Characters options, Catznip R8 becomes the latest SL viewer to sign-up to the Havok sub-licence agreement, meaning it also gains the ability to visualise the navmesh when working with pathfinding.

The pathfinding navmesh can now be visualised in Catznip R8

Pathfinding arrives in Catznip with the release of R8, and the Havok sub-license agreement means that the release includes navmesh visualisation

A further benefit with the agreement is that Catznip can also use the official Havok-powered mesh uploader.

Further Updates

In addition, Catznip sees the following added / updated:

  • Addition of a “Per user” option to the “Show friends permissions” in the friends gear menu to always show non-default permissions
  • Addition of an Edit Hover button functionality to show the shape editor, scrolled down to the “Hover” wearable param
  • Addition of a further toolbar at the top of the world view
  • Addition of a Close All Folders button to the inventory outfits view toolbar
  • Addition of alignment options to toolbar buttons. Those at the bottom of the screen can be centred or left or right aligned, while those to the side can be aligned to the top or bottom of the screen as well as in the centre.
Catznip R8 adds left/right alignment to bottom toolbar buttons and Top/bottom alignment to side toolbar buttons

Catznip R8 adds left/right alignment to bottom toolbar buttons and Top/bottom alignment to side toolbar buttons

  • changed : highlight the currently worn outfit folder in bold
  • changed : rearrange the avatar inspector to add extra lines to the profile description
    • one extra line added by default through layout changes
    • two extra lines are added by expanding the textbox to fill the volume slider space if voice is disabled
  • changed : report more useful information about memory state in case of a crash
  • changed : allow multiple crashes to be selected in the “Crash reporting” preferences panel.

There are also a number of bug fixes which have been implemented by the Catznip team and / as a result of fixes coming out of the Lab; there are also a number of updates to RLV/a. For details on all of these, please refer to the R8 release notes.

Feedback

This isn’t a huge update compared to others, but it marks a significant step forward for Catznip both with the Havok su-licence support and, most importantly, the SSB/A support. I also have to admit I like the button alignment options (something we’re unlikely to see in the official viewer, but which is so very handy in making screen space more usable.

Given this release is to ready Catznip for the grid-wide deployment of Server-side Baking / Appearance, it is strongly recommended that if you are a Catznip user and have not updated, that you do so ASAP.

Performance-wise, Catznip R8 on my PC offers around the same performance as most viewer releases over the past few months. Running with Advanced Lighting Model off while in my home region with around four other avatars, FPS varies from the high 20 through the high 40s, depending on my altitude. When running with Advanced Lighting Model enabled but no shadows enabled, rates tend to range from the low teens through to high teens / low 20s.

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Viewer round-up summary: week 23

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This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of  all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: June 9th, 2013

  • SL Viewer updates:
      • Materials Processing beta updated to version 3.6.0.276961 on June 5th and then to  3.6.0.277049 on June 8th (release notes)
  • Niran’s Black Dragon beta updates to version 2.2.1 on June 4th – core updates: UI and skin changes
  • Cool VL updated on June 9th to:
  • Moble Grid Client updated to 1.19.1182 (minor improvements on user interface) and then to 1.20.1185 (show elevation in nearby chat and nearby people list)
  • Pocket Metaverse updated to version 1.8.1 on June 10th  – core updates: general bug fixes; improved About screen accessible from Settings screen, now displays device info (MAC address) necessary to provide Linden Support if user can’t log in

Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers

  • SL Development viewer – depreciated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

Related Links

Viewer round-up summary: week 22

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This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of  all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: June 2nd, 2013

Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers

  • SL Development viewer – depreciated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

Related Links