Her build incorporates Luricos Alderton patch for VWR-12540, and apparently some users are seeing a 40-100% increase in graphics performance on ATI cards!
Luricos’ and Boy’s efforts on this issue will benefit users of all viewer variants, so I encourage everyone to test it out and let Boy know how well it works for you!
As RC2 draws closer, sometimes you need to just take a break from working and play a little. In this case, playing involves applying Qarl Linden’s flexi-sculpt patch, based on a patch by Zwagoth Klaar (JIRA)
Flexi-sculpts in action:
Note that this viewer is NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED. It’s just for testing/fun, so if you crash, well, you crash. Don’t expect this feature in Imprudence until the performance issues can be sorted out.
I set aside some time this evening to generate source code patches for the Quickfilter feature we added in 1.1.0 RC1. Other developers can use these patches to add the Quickfilter feature to their own viewers.
There are two versions of the patch, the basic version and the full version. (You should only apply one or the other, not both.) Both versions add a working Quickfilter list to the Inventory window, but the full version also contains a lot of modifications to the inventory type filtering system to better allow filtering by specific types. The main user-visible difference is that the basic version lumps the Clothing and Body Parts types together, while the full version has them separate.
Both patches were generated against Second Life 1.21.6. They’re available under the same license as the Second Life viewer source (i.e. GPLv2 plus FOSS exception).
We’ll publish more patches for other features and changes we’ve made as we find the time. (Of course, our full revision history is available in our Git repositories. These patches just save other developers the trouble of sifting through the whole history to find the right changes.)
Imprudence 1.1.0 RC1 is now available for Windows and Linux! It is packed with a crazy amount of good stuff: Quick Filter and “Worn Items” tab in Inventory, math expressions in the Build floater, and, oh, two tiny little features we call sound and streaming audio/video. If that’s not enough, check out the bajillion other awesome-sauce changes we crammed in there!
But we’re bowing our heads in sadness as we think of our Mac-using friends, because there is no Mac version yet. As we’ve posted before, we really need a Mac developer to step up and help out with Imprudence. Until then, we won’t be able to make any new Imprudence releases for Mac.
We have two other important things to mention before you download the new RC:
There have been significant changes to the Pie Menus and other parts of the UI. These changes may trip you up if you’re not careful! Your first reaction will be that it feels “wrong”, because the old layout has been ingrained in your muscle memory. But if you take a bit of effort to focus on re-learning the new layouts, it will soon start feeling natural again.
We need your help testing audio and video streams. Please try as many different streams as you can, then head to the feedback forum thread and post your operating system plus the URLs and/or parcel locations for streams that don’t work for you.
Distractions and a mental roadblock this past week have set my schedule back a bit, but things are still moving along.
The dull rebranding work — sifting through the source code and replacing “Second Life” with “Imprudence” where appropriate — is mostly done. The replacement fonts are, barring any strong objections, chosen. The logo is still under discussion, but I expect we’ll be making a decision on that in the next few days.
We had a small meeting on October 4 to discuss the roadmap for Imprudence in the future, and decided on the bare bones of what our process will be, going forward. I’ll be posting more about that soon.
We still need someone with a Mac who’s willing to compile Imprudence and help us in making sure everything works on that platform. It isn’t painful, the software is free to download, and I can personally walk you through the process. If you’re up for helping with that, leave a comment or email me (jacek.antonelli at gmail) — you’ll be doing a service to your fellow Mac users!
Timeline. I’m aiming to have the first version of Imprudence finalized within the next week or so — say, by October 12. (“Finalized” means the code is ready to go, and just needs to be compiled and packaged for each operating system.)
Forums. There has been a lot of activity in the forums lately, and some very interesting discussions going on about topics as diverse as AOs, the Preferences window, Busy Mode, and plenty of others. Check them out, and let us know your thoughts!
I must say, too, that it’s great to see this level of activity and involvement from the community. I’d like to give a bit of special recognition to Amaya and dandellion in particular for their wonderful involvement in the forums lately. My personal thanks to them, and to all the others who are offering their comments, ideas, and feedback!
Logo. We need to replace the trademarked green eye-in-hand SL logo, but Imprudence doesn’t have its own logo yet. Anyone got ideas for what our logo should be? (McCabe has suggested an Imp of some sort, perhaps.)
I’ll be participating in a discussion at Orange Island tomorrow, Tuesday September 30 at noon SLT. I’ll be representing the Imprudence project as one of a panel of participants, including the lovely and talented Rheta Shan, who won the UI design contest a while back. The discussion will be moderated by Dusan Writer, and will cover innovation, UI, lightweight clients, and more! It should be fun times!
If I’ve been quiet here lately, it’s not that I’m slacking off. Quite the opposite! I’ve been busy importing all the patches that are going into the first version of Imprudence, and making some significant progress. I’d estimate that we are 85-90% done with the code work for the first release. Continue reading ‘Progress Update – September 22′
We’ll be having a casual discussion in Second Life tomorrow at 1PM, and anyone is welcome to attend. The topic will be ways to improve the SL user interface and usability. Lex Neva has kindly let us use her new plot of land in Hippotropolis for the chat. Thanks, Lex!
Topic: User interface, usability, accessibility, etc.
There are several topics of discussion than anyone and everyone can participate in to help guide the course of the Imprudence project. We’re trying to serve SL users at large, so we need as many viewpoints represented as possible!
Participating in the forums or mailing list is a great way to contribute to the Imprudence project, even if you aren’t a tech whiz or fancy artiste.
Here are a few of the topics of discussion on the forums right now:
The Little Things that Drive You Nuts: Hate it when the inventory opens up all your folders? Wish you didn’t have to go through so many clicks just to invite someone to a group? Want the ability to set perms on multiple objects at once? Those are just a few of the hair-pullers that people have posted in the forums! What are your SL interface pet peeves?
Favorite Usability JIRAs?: Do you know a good JIRA when you see it? Post the issue numbers of some of your favorite open JIRA issues. We’re especially looking for patches we could integrate into the Imprudence Viewer. (You can also chime in on the mailing list, if that’s more your style.)
Features and commands I never use in the official viewer: Ever looked at the UI and thought, “Why does _____ need a button / preference / menu entry? Who even uses that, anyway?” Help us identify some of the features and commands that don’t need to be featured so prominently in the interface.
See you on the forums / list!
P.S. We’re also looking for bloggers to make occasional summary posts like this one, to highlight what’s new and interesting with the project. Interested in doing that? Email jacek.antonelli at gmail.
