January 31st, 2010 by Jacek Antonelli
Hi ho, friends! It’s time for another status update from the Imprudence team!
January has been somewhat of a slow month in terms of viewer development, due to RL obligations for Armin and McCabe, and myself feeling a bit under the weather. Even so, we have been making progress on Imprudence 1.3, fixing the issues you guys reported from our 1.3 merge test build. I want to send out a heartfelt “Thank you!” to everyone who tried out the test build and reported issues in the forums and comments. You guys really came through for us, identifying a wide range of issues for us to fix. We really appreciate your assistance and feedback! 
The other bit of news is that in-world “Imprudence Viewer” groups are now open in both Second Life and OSGrid! If you have a group slot available, joining the group is a great way to show that you love Imprudence, and to support us by raising awareness of the viewer. The groups have a variety of fun group titles, including “\m/ Imprudence \m/”, “Imprudence Rocks!”, and the oh-so-tasteful “I do it Imprudently”. 
To join the group, do a “People” search for me (Jacek Antonelli), then find the group in my groups list. (Alas, Imprudence’s group search does not yet work in OSGrid.)
That’s all the news for now. We’ll continue to post updates as we make progress on Imprudence 1.3. Ta ta!
January 4th, 2010 by Jacek Antonelli
The Imprudence 1.3 merge test build is now available for testing.
Please be aware that this is not 1.3 final. It’s not even a preview or a beta: it is a test build. It does not have most of the new features we will be adding for Imprudence 1.3, and it may be buggy. If you download it, consider it your duty to tell us how well it works for you!
The purpose of the test build is simply to confirm that Imprudence still works as expected after merging the Second Life 1.23 source. It should have all the features of Imprudence 1.2, plus the changes from Second Life 1.23. If anything from Imprudence 1.2 or Second Life 1.23 is missing or broken, please tell us about it. (However, experimental shadow support is “use at your own risk”. If it doesn’t work for you, or makes the viewer crash, or messes up your snapshots, or eats your cat, don’t bother reporting that. Well, maybe report the cat thing.)
The test build also includes a few extra improvements that we have made already:
- “Use legacy pie menus” option in Preferences > General (about 1/3 of the way down the window). This option changes the pie menus to resemble the pie menus of Second Life 1.22 and earlier. No viewer restart is necessary, just turn it on.
- There are a few improvements to the Profile window. You can now drag-and-drop items anywhere on the profile window to send it to that person (in 1.2, you could only drag to the box in the bottom right corner). There is also a new “Copy Key” button to copy that person’s UUID to your clipboard, so you can paste it into scripts and such.
- The script editor has a new menu item, “Help > Launch Autoscript…”, which will load the awesome Autoscript web tool in the web browser.
Remember: If you try it out, tell us how well it works for you! If you don’t give us feedback, we’ll have to spank you. And not in the fun way, either. 
Download:
- Linux (32 bit) (md5sum: d25db5f96c2700c569702d3c83590f71)
- Linux (64 bit) (md5sum: 6a68d71ccaca940d7c64ce1d71edfabd)
- Mac (Intel only) [Updated January 4, 6PM SLT.] (md5sum: 260bbd868ae517563264993300ece2c4)
- Windows (md5sum: 9b7bf948b7b572252020569ec35c23ad)
P.S. Did I mention that you should tell us how well it works for you?
December 31st, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
Greetings all, and happy (soon to be) new year! I thought I’d take a moment to update you all on the current goings-on of Imprudence.
The first bit of news is that Armin has been working on compiling Imprudence for 64-bit Linux. He has made good progress, and we hope to be able to offer 64-bit Linux versions in future releases. He needs some more testers to try it out and give him feedback, so if you’d like to run Imprudence on your 64-bit Linux box, have a look in the forums!
The second bit of news is that starting in 1.3 we will be offering an option to use an alternative pie menu layout that is similar to the menus in SL 1.22 and earlier, but with a few new menu items for features SL doesn’t have. We believe that our current pie menu layout is more self-consistent and easier to learn than SL’s layout, but we understand that a new layout can be a significant source of frustration for users who have the old layout ingrained from years of use. (In other words, it can be annoying as hell until you get used to it.) We haven’t yet decided which layout will be the default, but you will definitely be able to choose which one you want.
The third bit of news is that we will be having a competition or commission to create new viewer skins for Imprudence. We’re looking for a well designed skin to give Imprudence its own look and feel. Being an open source volunteer project, we don’t have a lot of cash to throw around, but there will be modest cash prizes for the selected skin(s). More details to come.
The final bit of news is that we’re planning to release some early test builds this weekend. We’ve been working on rebasing Imprudence to the SL 1.23.5 source, which will bring full support for “Adult” areas and search results and many other enhancements to Imprudence, including experimental shadow support.
The test builds are essentially Imprudence 1.2 + SL 1.23, so they won’t have the other awesome new stuff we’ll be adding in 1.3, like font controls, jiggly boobs, built-in animation overrider, or prim import/export as HPA. We’re still working on all that stuff. But while we’re doing that, we need you guys to doubly-triply-quadruply check that all the current stuff still works right and that we haven’t missed anything!
We should have the Imprudence “1.2 and a half” test builds out this weekend. Stay tuned to this blog for that announcement.
November 26th, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
After many months of development, we’re extremely pleased to say that Imprudence 1.2 is finally available!
If you’re new to Imprudence, you should know that the purpose of the project is to improve the viewer’s usability: to clean up the UI, add new tools that make the viewer more useful, and make a more satisfying viewer experience. Part of that process involves making changes to the UI, which can cause some temporary confusion if you’re expecting the UI to be the same as the UI of other viewers. So be aware: the UI is not entirely the same! Give it time, and we’re sure it will grow on you. If you can’t find something in the UI, just ask in the forums.
Imprudence 1.2 adds many new features, fixes, and improvements to the viewer experience. Here are a just few of the new features and improvements since Imprudence 1.1:
- Backup your builds, your scripts, and your avatar’s shape. If you created it, you have the right to back it up or move it to a different grid. (See Content Backup for more info).
- Double-click Teleport and Autopilot. We’ve taken the popular double-click teleport feature and improved upon it. The default behavior can now be set in Preferences > Input & Camera. We’ve also added an ignorable confirmation dialog to reduce the chance of accidental teleportations.
- Improved minimap with built-in radar. The minimap now has enhanced zooming and panning, a built-in avatar radar to see who is nearby, plus optional chat notices when avatars enter or leave chat range or the sim. (Enable minimap notify in Preferences > General.)
- Improved OpenSim support. We’ve added a list of popular grids to connect to, as well as a grid manager so you can add your own. You can also enjoy many building benefits when using OpenSim, such as the ability to build and edit prims larger than 10m on a side!
- Restrained Life support. Thanks to RLVa by Kitty Barnett, Imprudence now supports the Restrained Life API for BDSM items and scripted gadgets.
- Windlight toolbar. We’ve added a new tab along the bottom of the screen for quick access to your Windlight presets and certain graphics options. We’ve also added a variety of Windlight presets from Ana Lutetia, CodeBastard Redgrave, and Torley Linden!
- Numerous other features that improve the viewer experience, such as double-click to wear attachments in Inventory, optional vertical IM tabs (in Preferences > Communication), unread IM count, search inventory by creator or description, better profile window layout, select default chat channel, Link/Unlink in the Build window, sim avatar counts on the World Map, and many more.
For full details about all the changes and improvements we’ve made, please refer to our extensive (and rather intimidating) Release Notes!
Now without further ado, the goodies (you should download these even if you have downloaded 1.2.0 before):
We want to hear about your experiences with Imprudence — both positive and negative! Please post your feedback in the forums or comment here on the blog. Thank you! <3
Enjoy!
November 17th, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
The Imprudence 1.2 development cycle has taken a lot longer than we had hoped, but it’s finally coming to completion. With some luck, we hope to release the final version of 1.2 tonight or tomorrow!
The most recent delay was due to our efforts to ensure that we’re giving proper credit and respecting the licenses of all the various software libraries that we use and distribute with the viewer. We may be imprudent about changing the viewer UI, but we take our obligations under these licenses quite seriously.
This has been a tedious and wearisome process, as there are 50 or more libraries used by Imprudence, considering all operating systems. For each one, we have had to read and understand our obligations, verify that we are fulfilling them, and in many cases correct errors or omissions. Here are some examples of the obligations we have had to check:
- Nearly all of the libraries require that we publish its copyright and license notices, although the details vary from library to library. It generally takes 5-10 minutes per library to find the information and verify that we are giving proper credit, or to fix or add an incorrect or missing notice.
- As well as distributing the libraries with the finished Imprudence installers for our users’ convenience, we also package them up individually for use by developers who want to compile Imprudence themselves. Since those packages count as distribution, we also have to make sure we’re including proper credit in each of those packages, which is another chore in itself, adding another tedious 5 or so minutes per library. (That’s not mentioning the 20-30 minutes it took to create each package in the first place. Oof.)
- Some libraries (in particular, those licensed under the GPL or LGPL) also require that we also offer the source code if we distribute them in compiled form. So, we have had to locate and host a copy of the source code for each of those libraries alongside the compiled packages. (You can find the sources here. We are still in the process of collecting all the necessary source packages, but should be done soon.)
On average, it takes about 20 minutes per library to verify and possibly fix all the details. Multiply that by 50 libraries (it comes out to nearly 17 hours), and consider the dullness of the chore, and you’ll begin to understand how much fun it was not. But as tedious and thankless a task as it is, it’s important to ensure that the library developers are given proper credit for their work (not to mention our legal obligation to do so).
Despite all that effort, we may have made a mistake or two. (Indeed, we’ve found at least one serious mistake of this kind in Linden Lab’s own library distributions. We will be privately contacting them soon so that they can fix it.) If you find an error in the way we’ve dealt with the licenses for any of the software we distribute, please don’t hesitate to contact me so that we can put things to right as soon as possible.
October 31st, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
Imprudence 1.2 has a feature borrowed from the Emerald viewer: double-click teleport, i.e. double-clicking somewhere in the 3D view will instantly teleport your avatar to that location. There are also pie menu entries, “Go Here”, which do the same thing as the double-click teleport.
However, some users have commented that the double-click is too easy to accidently trigger, and can interfere with double-clicking on scripted objects. We have added a confirmation dialog to prevent accidental teleports, but that isn’t an ideal solution, because confirmation dialogs can be annoying and disruptive too.
We’ll be adding an option to allow users to choose whether they want the double-click behavior, but we’re still deciding whether it should be enabled or disabled by default. Mostly this depends on whether more people find double-click useful or annoying.
So, here’s a chance to have your say: Should double-click teleport be enabled or disabled by default?
Head to the forums to vote, or leave a comment here on the blog!
October 10th, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
The Windows installers for Imprudence 1.2.0 beta 2 have been updated. There was an issue with the old installers having an out-of-date settings.xml file, which made radar notifications (when people enter chat range / enter the sim) not work. If you downloaded the Windows version before today, we recommend that you download and run the new installer:
The Linux and Mac versions are not affected.
October 9th, 2009 by McCabe Maxsted
Imprudence 1.2.0 beta 2 is now available! Hooray! This is mostly a bug fix release, but there are a few feature improvements too. Hopefully it will fix most of the issues posted in the forums. If you’re new to Imprudence, read the previous blog post for the major features found in 1.2.0. For the full list of the changes in beta 2, check out the release notes.
Note: The pie menu has changed somewhat. See the release notes for details.
This is still a beta release, so expect some issues, particularly when logging in/logging out. As always, please post any issues you have in the forums.
Downloads:
Update: there was an error in the original Windows installers that caused them to use the old beta 1 settings file. Fixed versions have been uploaded.
September 28th, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
We’re super stoked to announce the release of the Imprudence 1.2 beta. This new version has tons of great stuff that we know you guys will love!
- The Object Backup feature allows content creators to import and export objects they’ve created to their hard drive. You can save backup copies for safekeeping, or even migrate your products to another grid! Woot! Thanks to the folks at the Meerkat Viewer for developing this great feature!
- The Grid Manager allows you to customize the list of grids you can connect to, plus it comes pre-loaded with a variety of popular grids already. This is just the first step in our ongoing commitment to enhanced interoperability with OpenSim grids. Thanks to the Hippo Viewer and Meerkat folks for developing this.
- Optional Restrained Life support allows Imprudence to work with a variety of BDSM items and scripted gadgets. Our gratitude to Kitty Barnett for her excellent work on RLVa.
- The new Minimap Radar shows you a list of all the nearby avatars within a customizable range. Try selecting a name on the list to make their minimap icon big and red!
- A selection of great Emerald Viewer features: Phantom mode, search inventory by creator name, double-click someplace to teleport there, and a bunch more!
- The Windlight toolbar tab gives you easy access to to your sky settings, including a built-in selection of presets from Ana Lutetia, CodeBastard Redgrave, and Torley (thanks, guys!). Plus, click the arrow to expand it and adjust your draw distance on the fly!
- Tons and tons and tons of other cool features, fixes, and improvements! Check out the release notes for all the juicy details.
This is a beta release, though, so expect to see some bugs. We’ve got a list of issues we already know about; in particular, you should probably avoid using the Logout feature until we fix a peculiar bug related to that. If you encounter any other issues, please post about them in the forums so we can make sure to fix them!
Now for the goodies:
Enjoy!
September 28th, 2009 by McCabe Maxsted
With the 1.2 beta coming up, I’ve updated our How To Compile page. The Windows build instructions should be a bit more straightforward, and I’ve added some missing links, as well as instructions for building with Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, Microsoft’s free C++ compiler, which is now supported in develop.py (would love to know if Visual Studio 2008 works; anyone want to test and/or submit patches?). The downloads page is also up to date with links to the latest source.
As some of you might have noticed, there were a few annoyances when compiling Imprudence 1.1 on Windows. These should all be fixed in 1.2 (if not, lemme know on the forums, or better yet submit a patch to fix it). Cheers.
