Archive for the 'Announcements' Category
March 1st, 2010 by Jacek Antonelli
Oh look, Imprudence 1.3 beta 1 is now available! And just as I happened to be writing up this blog post to announce it, too. What a fortuitous coincidence!
There’s still a sizable chunk of work to be done before the final 1.3 release, but we’ve made a lot of progress, and we wanted to give you all something fresh to play with. 
One of the major focuses of Imprudence 1.3 has been to bring Imprudence up to date with SL 1.23. In addition to gaining the features and improvements from that feature, updating makes it considerably easier to port features and changes from other viewers. The update has been a big effort, and there are still some issues left to fix, but the dust is finally settling. My sincere thanks to everyone who has given us feedback about the 1.3 merge test build. You guys rock!
The other big news with this release is that we have incorporated the texture and object engine improvements from Snowglobe. You should notice significantly faster rezzing of textures and objects than in Imprudence 1.2!
Also in 1.3, you can now choose a legacy pie menu layout that’s quite similar to the layout used in SL 1.22 and earlier. Just turn on “Preferences > General > Use legacy pie menus” and off you go! This should be a big help to users who have the old layout ingrained from years and years of use.
Beta 1 also includes client identification and clothing layer protection, several smaller improvements, plus plenty of bug fixes, so be sure to check out the release notes for the full details. (If you used the test build, you’ll notice a great many bugs have been fixed from that as well, although we didn’t list them in the release notes.)
There’s still plenty of work left before we’re done with 1.3, but we hope you’ll enjoy the current progress! 
Remember: We rely on your feedback to help improve Imprudence, so please post in the forums or leave a comment here on the blog. We want to hear from you, no matter whether your experience is positive or negative!
Enjoy!
February 21st, 2010 by Jacek Antonelli
If your avatar first and/or last name has more than 16 letters in it, here’s a quick fix to let you log in with Imprudence! Just download this XML file, following the instructions below. It should work for Imprudence 1.2.0, 1.2.1, and the 1.3 merge test build. Other versions don’t need this fix.
Installation instructions:
- Linux and Windows: Download the file to Imprudence/skins/default/xui/en-us/panel_login.xml (where “Imprudence” is the directory you have installed Imprudence).
Mac: Download the file above. When choosing where to download it to, press ⇧⌘G (Shift-Command-G) to open the “Go to Folder…” prompt. Type in /Applications/Imprudence.app/Contents/Resources/skins/default/xui/en-us/, then press Go. Then press Save to download the file to that directory. (If you have installed Imprudence somewhere other than the Applications directory, you will need to type in a different path above.)
This issue will be fixed permanently in 1.3, so you won’t have to go through all this again.
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: 6fa04ef13d88e393737e20e9a431f3a8)
- 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?
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!
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 15th, 2009 by McCabe Maxsted
Want to change something?
In looking over our How You Can Contribute page, it occurred to me that we’ve never formalized our patch submission guidelines. To rectify this, I created a new page on the wiki for submitting patches.
There are three ways to submit a patch to Imprudence:
- (preferred!) Clone Imprudence on GitHub.com and push a branch containing your patch, then let us know about it either on the ImpDev mailing list or on the forums. This allows other developers to cherry pick your change and include it faster (see git tutorial).
- Attach your patch in our forums. If you’re solving a bug or implementing a feature, attach it to the appropriate post. Letting us know on ImpDev it exists will also help get it applied faster.
- Submit your patch directly to the ImpDev mailing list.
I understand not everyone’s keen on mailing lists, but posting on ImpDev is the best way to bring your patch to our attention (bonus points for having a git repository we can follow!). I’ve also included some guidelines for what we like to see in patches, mainly UI-related things.
If you’ve never generated a patch before, that’s okay. There’s a section on that, and I’m always available inworld to help, even if it’s just a one line xml fix.
We’ve got a bunch of cool stuff coming up in the next version of Imprudence. I hope to see some of your names in our release notes!
September 1st, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
It was one year ago today that McCabe and I launched the Imprudence Viewer project with the goal of greatly improving the usability of the viewer through a more open, pro-change, community-driven development process.
A great deal has happened since then; some good, some bad. There have been unexpected developments, and surprising changes in the viewer landscape. We’ve made a good deal of progress, but perhaps not as much as we wanted to.
The first few months of Imprudence went fairly smoothly. We established the project online, started discussion, generated interest, and pushed out the first release candidate version by mid-November, and the first full release version, Imprudence 1.0, just a month later. It worked fairly well, but it was missing some major features: sound, streaming music and video, and voice chat.
Linden Lab uses properietary software for those features, which meant that we would have to replace them with open source software. Unfortunately, the struggle to do that — and to get it to work across all platforms — took over 4 long, grueling, frustrating months, and thoroughly burnt us both out. Then to make matters worst, when we were nearly recovered and ready to start again, I was loaded down with a stressful and never-ending project at work, which very nearly burnt me out all over again!
So, although Imprudence has been around for a year, only the first four were spent at a healthy pace of development. The past eight months have, rather unfortunately, resulted in very little visible progress on Imprudence.
In the meantime, new viewers have come to the foreground. Emerald appeared on the scene this past spring, and has introduced a great many useful new features. Meerkat, although founded around the same time as Imprudence, finally established itself this summer with new releases boasting an object backup tool and enhanced inter-grid support. And of course, Linden Lab launched its Snowglobe project, attempting to alleviate many of the same development problems that prompted us to start Imprudence in the first place.
Naturally, with Imprudence’s lack of visible progress, the attention of most third-party viewer users and developers shifted to these other viewers. Speaking candidly, Imprudence has become mostly irrelevant.
This sobering thought raises the question: “So, what are you going to do about it?”
Our answer is simple: We’re gonna kick it up a fuckin’ notch, that’s what!
The first order of business is to “catch up” and become active again. We’re aiming to release Imprudence 1.2 by the end of September. The key features of that release will be:
- Object import/export support, borrowed from Meerkat.
- Account/grid manager. Also borrowed from Meerkat, but we’ll be giving it a major usability overhaul.
- RestrainedLife API support via Kitty Barnett’s RLVa.
- Many smaller features from Emerald (avatar scanner, phantom mode, sit anywhere, double-click to teleport, and perhaps others).
- Rebased to SL 1.22 source. In the interest of getting Imprudence 1.2 released ASAP, we’re putting off updating to SL 1.23 until Imprudence 1.3.
Also, we’re welcoming Armin Weatherwax as a full-fledged Imprudence team member, joining McCabe and myself. Armin has been a great help over the past year, contributing many patches and porting over features from other viewers and from JIRA patches. Indeed, Armin has already ported several of the main features that will be in 1.2, as well as many smaller enhancements. So, it’s about time that we officially recognized his efforts! Thank you, Armin, and welcome aboard!
Imprudence’s future after 1.2 is still being charted, but it’s safe to assume that we’ll soon be contributing new features, fixes, and usability enhancements to the third party viewer ecosystem again. We’re meeting every week to discuss and plan Imprudence’s development, and we’ll continue to post regular updates here on the blog, as well as transcripts on the wiki.
So, happy birthday Imprudence, and cheers for the year to come!
August 19th, 2009 by Jacek Antonelli
After a lot of distractions and procrastination, I’ve scheduled the weekly ImpDev Meetups to be every Tuesday at noon SLT. The first meetup will be next week, August 25.
- What: ImpDev (Imprudence Development) Meetups
- Who: Imprudence developers, and anyone else interested in following Imprudence’s progress
- Where: The Imprudent Alcove in Second Life
- When: Every Tuesday at Noon SLT (i.e. San Francisco time)
The meetups are meant for Imprudence developers to get together, socialize, talk about what we’ve been working on, and come up with plans and ideas for the future. The meetups will be pretty relaxed and informal, and I think will usually run for less than 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, there was no possible meeting time that would have been compatible with the schedules of everyone who responded, so I had to give priority to people who are already fairly active with Imprudence development. But even if you can’t attend the meetings, you can get involved through the mailing list and IRC channel, and of course through the forums. Transcripts for the meetups will be posted on the wiki, and I’ll also try to post summaries here on the blog.