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Linden Lab ramps up open source viewer program
Linden Lab founder and chairman, Philip Rosedale, yesterday announced changes to the open-source Second Life viewer program that would enable the fast-tracking of user-contributions to the code-base. The viewer source-code was originally released just a little over two years ago on 8 January 2007, and spurred an immediate surge of development, spurring developments of a variety of software including third-party server opensim. The procedure for actually submitting patches to the codebase however was clunky, and some contributors abandoned their development efforts after contributed code (some which corrected egregious problems) was left to languish for many months without approval. The new scheme seems set to fast-track user-contributions and eliminate that particular problem.
Linden Lab's collective copyright conundrum
Over the last few months, there's been an increasing amount of talk about the modified Second Life viewer being used with Open Life Grid (a third-party virtual environment based on reverse-engineered and open-source systems and protocols). Most of the talk centers around copyright infringement -- or license violations, if you prefer. It's claimed that the operators of Open Life Grid are failing to comply with the source-code licenses (the GPL with FLOSS exceptions) under which the Second Life source code has been made available. Now, while the issue has been reported to Linden Lab's license-infringement hotline, the issue is actually a bit trickier for the Lab than it would first appear. You see, the viewer code contains contributions from a number of third-party contributors, each of which retains their copyright, intellectual property and rights to their contributions under the terms of the contribution agreement. All of whom have the right to commence their own actions.
Imprudence 1.1.0 RC2 available
The Imprudence Project has a release new candidate viewer for Second Life available. Imprudence 1.1 RC2 (unlike Linden Lab, the Imprudence Project counts starting from one, not from zero) features a number of improvements and fixes over RC1. This release candidate has a new storage allocator for Windows which improves frame-rates, reduces memory-usage and is all-around more efficient. Several crash-bugs have been fixed, and support has been improved for Linux systems that use the PulseAudio sound server. A few UI tweaks and inconveniences have also been tidied up. Unfortunately there is still no version for the Mac as the Imprudence Project is starving for a Mac developer to handle that side of the code. Full release notes are after the jump.
Imprudence 1.1.0 RC1 available
The Imprudence Project has a release new candidate viewer for Second Life available. Imprudence 1.1 RC1 (unlike Linden Lab, the Imprudence Project counts starting from one, not from zero) features a number of substantial improvements over 1.0, including openAL and Gstreamer support for general sound, as well as audio and video streaming. This release candidate also features updates to the user-interface, arithmetic expressions in the build floater's texture and object tabs, quick-filtering for the inventory and more. Unfortunately there is no version for the Mac as the Imprudence Project is starving for a Mac developer to handle that side of the code. Due to licensing issues, Imprudence cannot ship with voice components, but you can add them yourself very easily. Full release notes are after the jump.
Imprudence 1.0 released for 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.
Imprudence 1.0.0 RC2 available
The Imprudence project now has its second release candidate viewer for Second Life available. Building on the feedback from RC1, Jacek Antonelli, McCabe Maxsted and team have churned out a whole slew of bug-fixes for the already tasty RC1. Crashes when clicking on some hyperlinks have been fixed (the problem was traced to the Linden build system pulling in the wrong library), the debug console window has been hidden away (as it should be), the search interface no longer clears results between invocations, a prospective fix for issues with palletized textures (which could be related to a lot of minor issues) and more. The transparent skirt issue will be fixed in the next (and likely final) release, but you can fix it yourself now with a fresh library. Full release notes after the jump.
Imprudence 1.0.0 RC1 available
The Imprudence project now has its first release candidate viewer for Second Life available, and far sooner than we expected. It's impressive work for a first release candidate as well. We've not had such a fast and smooth viewer experience since Nicholaz "The Mad Patcher" Beresford's series of Second Life viewers. Indeed, many of Beresford's patches are also a part of the Imprudence project. Imprudence necessarily replaces proprietary fonts with Liberation Sans and Bitstream Vera Mono, which look a little peculiar the first couple of times out, but score high on improved readability. There's no audio either, yet, as the proprietary FMOD audio system has yet to be replaced with OpenAL, but that is coming soon, we understand. As for the change from Kakadu/KDU to OpenJPEG -- this is supposed to be fractionally slower, but honestly, the whole experience was so smooth we never noticed.
ZMP sells bi-ped robot source code to spur development, uprising
Tokyo-based ZMP has already teamed up with a consortium of other Japanese companies to take on the encroaching robot threat from South Korea, and it's now taken another step to spur on development and released the source code to its nuvo series of robots. Unfortunately, it's not going the open source route, with interested researchers and mad scientists instead required to dole out ¥257,250 (or $2,355) for a package that includes a nuvo robot, the source code, an electrical circuit diagram, three days of training, and an ID to give you access to the nuvo community. You'll also have to sign a non disclosure agreement with ZMP, and if you're not one of the first fifty to sign up, you're out of luck for now. Not exactly casting the widest of nets, but those looking for less expensive, more open robot platforms to play with certainly have plenty of other options to consider.
Roku serves up Netflix Player source code
Hope you're not too sleepy, you hacker you, 'cause we've got a juicy one coming your way. No sooner did we find that the Netflix Player would be streaming content from other players in the industry later this year than Roku opens up the source code vault. You heard right -- the GPL code has now been posted for the world to see, meaning that there's just one link standing between you and umpteen delicious tarballs. Mmm, tarballs.[Via Hack-A-Day]
Avatar puppeteering code has strings attached
Avatar puppeteering has unexpectedly turned up as a source-code branch in the Second Life viewer source repository. This is still a largely abandoned feature, but the code is being put in front of open-source developers to see if they can actually do anything with it. It is important to stress that the code is far from complete or fully-tested. There is a simulator on the Aditi (preview) grid which has some matching code written for it (the simulator is called Puppeteering - and may only be accessible by logging directly into the sim). The simulator code is also unfinished, insufficiently tested, and likely not stable. If none of that dissuades you, and you'd like to play with this code, then good luck! Learn more about Avatar Puppeteering.
New release: Blender animation exporter
Jacek Antonelli has released a new version of her Blender animation exporter that allows use of Blender's sophisticated (and free) animation suite to create animations for Second Life. This release focuses primarily on the user-interface, improving the layout to make things a whole lot easier for those who are not already Jedi-masters of the Blender package; and a mighty good change it is, too, as you can see above.
High-end graphics features planned for Second Life
Linden Lab is tinkering with a set of Second Life graphical improvements for high-end graphics hardware. Dave Parks, software engineer at Linden Lab has been working on a set of features tailored to the Geforce 8 set of GPUs. Users without the required hardware would not suffer any performance reductions as a result of the new features. The featureset (which is available as an experimental branch called shadow-draft in the viewer source repository, for the curious), includes hard Sun-shadows, per-pixel lighting, support for an uncapped number of point-lights, and lighting costs based on screen coverage.
From Blender to BVH via Antonelli
One of the more sophisticated animation tools out there is Blender, a cross-platform, free suite of 3D creation tools. Blender allows a lot of animation tricks that are normally only found in packages costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. The eclectic, artistic, and highly-animated Jacek Antonelli has released a script, scene and animation skeleton that allows users to create and export high-quality animations from Blender into the BVH format used by Second Life.
A look at METAbolt -- a non-graphical Second Life viewer
Ever log in to Second Life, run around awhile, and then shake your head and think, "this place is nothing but a glorified chat room! And that's what I like! I don't care about all this graphics stuff!" Well, frustrated, graphics-hating Second Life user, METAbolt has what you crave. When we heard someone had written a text-based Second Life client for computers that just couldn't hack the graphics, we were sort of expecting something like a regular graphical client, except where all the images were made of tiny little text characters... like the picture above, which is not from METAbolt, alas. (It's Second Life on Linux run through the aalib graphics-to-text library)As a chat room, though, METAbolt has some good points and some not so good points. For one, every time you log in, you are placed in the Welcome area. While this may be the fastest way to put you with potential chat-mates, it's not really the sort of thing you expect. Gone were all saved landmarks as well. You will arrive in the Welcome Area, and you will enjoy your time there.
CCP responds to EVE source code concerns
News that the source code for EVE has been hijacked has been traveling faster than the speed of light. Damage control units in tow, the CCP crew is making a valiant attempt to clear the space lanes of hazardous debris. This effort reached Massively in the form of a kind note and a link to a press release published earlier.In response to allegations of a galaxy wide crack down on posters in the EVE forums, CCP announced that "there have been no mass bannings." They wish to remind everyone that discussions concerning compromising the source code on the forums are a violation of the EULA and Terms of Service. They are actively enforcing this policy and any attempts to violate it will be met with a torrent of anti-matter and pulse lasers.As for the possibility of a security breach, CCP stated that they have completed an internal investigation. They have determined that the code was not leaked by an employee nor stolen. EVE, which is coded in Python, could easily have been decompiled. CCP says there is nothing to worry about since they have systems in place to protect the game. Your billing is safe, your stores of rockets and missiles are not at risk, and you can continue the business of destroying one another at any time.
EVE's source code has been stolen and seeded
It was a rather peaceful day in the world of EVE. Ratters happily uncloaked and went searching for a few vessels to destroy. Pirates were eagerly tracking down their prey. Miners were digging into asteroids and hauling their goods back to station. Just when you thought it was safe to log in and join your fellow capsule pilots in a quest for money and power, news reached us that the source code for EVE had been stolen. The code has now made an appearance in the form of a torrent on a few notorious websites. Luckily for us, in space, no one can hear CCP scream.The anonymous soul behind the theft supposedly flaunted the achievement to a CCP employee. If this is the case, sad memories of stolen lunch money and taunting bullies come to mind. As they brace to control the impact of the theft, CCP has stocked up on turret ammunition and kicked in the afterburners. They are reportedly seeding the stolen source code in an attempt to ban anyone downloading the file who also maintains an EVE account. This merciless tactic comes as quite a shock and some claim that this is a classic example of overreaction. In addition to this, users on the EVE forums who even mention the torrent are having their posts edited and locked or simply deleted. Bans are flying around the forums and EVE players are warned to do their best to avoid a collision. Keep an eye out for more details as they arise.
Mad Patcher's final fling
Nicholaz Beresford has released one final viewer. The EC-e "Eye candy" release is designed to run against 1.19.1(4). This version plugs a key memory and changes the viewer icon. As one happy user said to us today, "The worst edition of the Nicholaz viewer is better than the best viewer Linden Lab has ever released." -- Many would find that hard to disagree with, including a few Linden Lab employees.
llMozlib2 source code now available
The source code for llMozlib2 (an essential piece of glue library enabling in-world and in-viewer HTML rendering for Second Life) is now available on Linden Lab's public subversion version control system, and is now the single source of the code, rather than having a second (possibly divergent) version tucked away in an internal repository. Linden Lab so far is continuing to release source code for both viewer and server-side components progressively (a process initially announced in late 2005 and given an expected timeline of several years), despite some fears that the process might suddenly cease after the departure of Linden Lab CTO Cory Ondrejka. While only a few server-side components have so far been released, there is no sign yet that that process will be or is being stemmed.
RealXtend viewer now on Sourceforge
Sourceforge - billed as the largest open source website in the world -- is now host to the source code project for the RealXTend viewer (rexviewer) for Second Life. RealXtend claims to have replaced all of the license encumbered portions of the viewer with GPL-friendly alternatives, though they are still having some issues decoupling FMOD from their VoIP solution. The project website remains at rexviewer.org, while the project page and source code (available via subversion) is now on Sourceforge. Rexviewer is only in alpha at present, but has a number of distinctly interesting technological features, and more planned.
RealXtend releases updated software
Barely a fortnight after their initial version 0.1 software, Finnish developer RealXtend (in conjunction with OpenSim, Admino Technologies and LudoCraft - I think we might have to just start calling it the 'RealXtend Project' in future to save on typing) has released the next version of their software. An avatar portability system that allows your avatar to be transferred to any compatible world where you have an account is definitely a handy feature now that additional Second Life style grids are starting to spring up all over. "We have been testing and fixing bugs as much as possible and we have a few new major features. One of the new features is the Avatar system, under RealXtend your avatar has been completely redesigned to support transfer between virtual worlds. Earlier avatar systems used by other virtual worlds have been tied to one world or grid only and could not travel with the user," said RealXtend project manager Jani Pirkola. RealXtend's viewer is licensed under the GNU GPLv2 (sans quicktime components), and all the server-side code as a part of OpenSim is under the BSD license, which is a very broadly permissive open source license.