Release Notes/Second Life Release Candidate/1.21

Release Notes for Second Life 1.21(0) August 28th, 2008

Pardon our Dust!

This iteration RC0 has some important Known Issues that we are working on right now. For example, we are investigating why RC0 does not run on a Mac PowerPC processor.
Please see the section Known Issues for RC0 below.

New features:

Support for Mono

New option in the Tools menu > Recompile Scripts, to allow your scripts to compile in Mono or the LSL scripting engine.
- Support for Mono has been integrated alongside the original scripting engine, so the use of Mono is completely opt-in. Unless your scripts are explicitly converted to run on Mono, they will continue to run exactly as before. There is no automated conversion to Mono.
- Mono provided immediate performance benefits to scripts. In addition, the integration of the Mono virtual machine will makes future improvements possible.
Learn more in a Video Tutorial about Mono or read the Mono project page

IMPORTANT: This feature requires Server 1.24 or higher

This feature only works on regions running the new version of the server 1.24. This version will soon be upgraded everywhere on the Second Life Grid. You can check the version of your current location by clicking Help > About Second Life.

Moderation for Group Text and Group Voice

This viewer introduces the ability in group roles to 'Moderate Group Chat', which includes both voice & text conversations in a Group chat session.
- Moderation is only available for formal Groups in Second Life.
- Moderation is not available for conversations that happen on the fly (i.e. ad hoc or impromptu gatherings of avatars in Local Chat, nor the spatial voice chat in proximity around you). Moderation is not available for one-to-one IMs or one-to-one voice calls
'Moderate Group Chat' is an ability that is automatically part of any new Group Owner and Group Officer roles. It can be changed or added to other roles.
- NOTE: Also, all Group Owners (past and present) have been retroactively given the ability to 'Moderate Group Chat'. This covers all Group Owners, but not necessarily old Group Officers.
- The 'Moderate Group Chat' ability can be seen and managed in the existing Group Information window
- Like other abilities, this ability is permanent until changed by a Group owner, officer, etc.
Using the Moderator Controls
- A person who has been given the ability to 'Moderate Group Chat' will be labelled as a ...(Moderator) in the Participants List when she or he joins a chat session for that Group.
- There can be more than 1 moderator in a session at the same time.
- A moderator does not have the ability to create other moderators during a conversation.
- Only moderators have access to special controls in the UI of the Group session:
  - For every participant, they can choose at any time to:
    - [X] Allow voice chat for that participant (note: this works on a Group Call only)
    - [X] Allow text chat for that participant
  - For Group Calls, they may also set the Voice behavior for all speakers who join the Call, and for everyone on the Call, all at once:
    - [ Voices on by default ] **
    - [ Voices off by default ] **

**NOTE: In RC0, this dropdown is inadvertantly still labelled by its beta name ("Open Voice" vs. "Moderated Voice"). We have corrected the names in the next iteration, RC1.

IMPORTANT: This feature requires Server 1.24 or higher

This feature only works if you, the moderator, are located in a region running the new version of the server 1.24. This version will soon be upgraded everywhere on the Second Life Grid. You can check the version of your current location by clicking Help > About Second Life.

llDetectedTouch features in LSL

A new UV-picking feature that allows a prim to report where on its surface/texture it has been clicked.
- This project adds the following new LSL commands:
  - llDetectedTouchUV() - returns the UV coordinates of the point touched.
  - llDetectedST() - returns the surface coordinates of the point touched.
  - llDetectedTouchFace() - returns the face of the point touched.
  - llDetectedTouchPos() - returns the world coordinates of the point touched.
  - llDetectedTouchNormal() - returns the surface normal of the point touched.
  - llDetectedTouchBinormal() - returns the surface bi-normal of the point touched.
  - These commands are valid in the events touch_start(), touch(), and touch_end(). in the case of touch(), where events are triggered as long as the mouse is held down - each event has the current surface point data (allowing grabbing, sliders, levers, and all sorts pseudo GUI builds.)

IMPORTANT: NOTES ON COMPATIBILITY
- Since versions prior to viewer 1.21 do not support sending coordinates, when a Resident clicks on an object using an earlier viewer (e.g. viewer 1.20), the coordinates will be reported as -1, -1
- Scripters take note! You can build your scripts to detect the value -1,-1 as an "Undefined" touch. The creator of such objects must decide how to handle, message to, or warn avatars who are not running a supported viewer for their content.

Changes:

Changed: VWR-6328: Request for "Tools" menu to not auto-hide anymore
Changed: VWR-4541: Move the Release Keys button to the World menu
Changed: Improve Friendship offers to include 1 line of freeform text to allow requester to clarify their request
Added: Allow inventory to be dropped onto IM windows
Added: Show confirmation for inventory dropped onto IM windows
Changed: Update the Second Life Installer on Mac to use new, better artwork
Changed: Change the nameplate on text you type in chat, from "You:" to "{Your Name}:"
Moved: Move link to the Release Notes is under Help > About Second Life... and point to wiki page of Release Notes

Changes to LSL:

Add an LSL call llGetRegionAgentCount() for count of agents in region
Add an LSL call llGetAgentLanguage() to get user's viewer language setting
Add "touch position" information to touch-events in LSL
- llDetectedUV()
- llDetectedST()
- llDetectedTouchFace()
- llDetectedTouchPos()
- llDetectedTouchNormal()
- llDetectedTouchBinormal()

Temporary Changes:

We have enabled some special debugging checks during the Release Candidate cycle. These have a short term effect of causing the viewer to crash more when something goes wrong, but it assists Linden Lab to improve stability by identifying those failure cases. We appreciate that you send us crash reports that occur!

These extra checks WILL be removed in a later iteration of the Release Candidate. But these can be turned off by a Resident at any time:

Turned on Thread monitoring (Watchdog) during the Release Candidate cycle
- Thread monitor will detect when the application is frozen for a period greater than 20 seconds and possibly force a crash with detailed logs
- Thread monitor can be disabled by choosing to never report crashes, or with a command line setting "--set WatchdogEnabled 0"
- The threshold timing of the thread monitor is set in the file \SecondLifeReleaseCandidate\app_settings\settings.xml under the key "MainloopTimeoutDefault"

Usability Improvements and Fixes:

Improvements to Menus and Shortcuts:

Fixed: VWR-6328: Request for "Tools" menu to not auto-hide anymore
Fixed: VWR-4541: Move the Release Keys button to the World menu
Fixed: VWR-2651: Sunset shortcut triggers Beacon shortcut (shortcut for Beacons Always On is too easy to hit)
- Also Fixed: remove keyboard shortcut for Show Updates as it was too easy to hit accidentally
- Also Fixed: Always turn off the "Show Updates" debug tool on startup

Improvements to Friendship Offers:

Added: Improve Friendship offers to include 1 line of freeform text to allow requester to clarify their request

IMPORTANT: This feature requires Server 1.24 and higher

This feature only works if both you and the new Friend are standing in a region running the new version of the server 1.24. This version will soon be upgraded everywhere in Second Life. You can check the version of your current location by clicking Help > About Second Life.

Improvements to Inventory Offers:

Fixed: VWR-1754: unclutter notification/confirmation about items given (Render slurls in Inventory offers as a clickable element)
Added: Allow inventory to be dropped onto IM windows
Added: Show confirmation for inventory dropped onto IM windows
Added: Pop open the Inventory window when you receive new inventory items.
- NOTE: You can turn this off in Preferences > Popups tab

Improvements to IM and Chat:

Fixed: VWR-4345: Chat log scrolls up when the names list is expanded (<<) (Autoscroll disengages in chat history when window is shrunk)
Fixed: Make the Active Speaker sorting pause when your cursor is over the panel, making it easier to select a name.
- Also Fixes: VWR-4139: Active Speakers list should default sort differently (to make it easier to select a name)
Fixed: Add a minimize button to Group IM sessions
Fixed: Pasting multiline clipboard content into Group chat loses newlines
Fixed: Modify Chat Console code (llconsole.cpp) to wrap cleanly when the window is resized
Fixed: Make text chat on the Chat Console default to larger, less transparent, and have it stay on screen longer before fading away
- Also Changed: change the default color of Object text chat to orange
Added: Add the preference "Turn off typing animation" to Edit > Preferences > Text Chat

Improvements to the Snapshot feature:

Fixed: VWR-2491: Save snapshot should save in PNG, BMP, or JPEG
Fixed: VWR-3067: Depth Snapshot To Disc Crashes Viewer
Fixed: Cannot change save location of snapshots after first one in a session
Fixed: Changed destination terminology in the Snapshot feature to "Send via email", "Save to your inventory", "Save to your hard drive"
Fixed: File menu > Take Snapshot should behave like "Refresh Snapshot" if the Snapshot Preview floater is already open
Fixed: Cannot change custom height and width when trying to upload a snapshot

Improvements to Estate & Abuse tools:

Added: MISC-713: Add the ability to "Return All Objects" of a specified resident as an Estate-wide feature
- Fixed: Clean up the button layout for Region/Estate > Debug tab
Added: Add Time Stamp to Parcel Object List
Added: Add Time Stamp to Top Scripts Colliders List
Added: Add more categories to Help -> Report Abuse...
Fixed: "Remove" buttons associated with parcel banned and allowed lists should enable only when list elements are selected

Improvements for new residents:

Fixed: VWR-6428: teleport First Use dialog is incorrect
Changed: Change the nameplate on text you type in chat, from "You:" to "{Your Name}:"
Changed: Re-labeled the startup screen button from "Connect" to say "Log In"
Added: Add "Create new account" hyperlink to the start-up screen
Fixed: Make terms of service on startup use an "I agree" checkbox
Fixed: Make the Community Standards window look more consistent with the TOS window
Fixed: The Help button on the Lag Meter directs to the proper KB article
Fixed: Remove "Your character is loading" dialog that appears for a brand-new account, and made the character loading faster
Fixed: Movement and Camera floaters are not centered if window is resized at the login screen
Fixed: Move default location of browser tutorial to the left of avatar head
Fixed: Make "Your connection to the SIM is broken" error message more human readable
Fixed: Make the error message for failed viewer login more human readable when due to missing the First or Last Name
Fixed: Persist visibility state of the browser tutorial between logins

Improvements to sculpted prims:

Fixed: VWR-5432: Ability to Flip Horizontal/Vertical on Sculpt Texture to Fix Inside-Out Sculpties
Fixed: VWR-6682: Shader and Client Option to mirror sculpted prims along selected axes
Fixed: Add an option for oblong tessellation for sculptie meshes, to distribute the sculptie vertices in a non-square way

Improvements to Terrain Editing:

Added: VWR-2331: Added a variable "strength" to the Terraform tool
Fixed: VWR-3257: Terrain editing bulldozer's white marker dots are difficult to see

Improvements to Script Editor:

Added: VWR-5283: Line number gutter for script editor
Fixed: Make your selection of the "Case Insensitive" checkbox sticky in the Script editor

Other usability Improvements:

Fixed: VWR-1417: Info in About Land window disappears when focus is lost
Fixed: VWR-5664: Object stays selected (yellow glow) after Buy or cancel Buy in some conditions
Fixed: VWR-1746: Profile > Web > Load, Open & Home buttons enable, disable, or change name in a very illogical way
Fixed: VWR-3312: Hover tooltips bleed through other windows
Fixed: VWR-1320: Full Linux crash by mouse movement + cursor change with fglrx drivers for ATI graphics
Fixed: VWR-1820: Map Search Results won't scroll using mouse scroll wheel
Fixed: Remove "Classified Ad" checkbox from the World Map
Fixed: Extend list-box component to support colored text.
Fixed: Defer QuickTime initialization until after login, to speed load time
Added: Add a "loading..." placeholder when Map tiles are loading on the World Map, and for snapshots in a Landmark preview
Added: Add a "Loading..." texture placeholder to all instances of texture control
Fixed: Add resident names to title of the Profile window

Bug Fixes:

Fixed: SVC-972: Viewer is logged out during failed teleport
- Also Fixed: VWR-2999 Viewer Crashes after every Teleport
Fixed: SVC-1507: Notices failing for larger groups
Fixed: VWR-6: Poor warning message when message template not found
Fixed: VWR-7126: Camera Smoothing causes errant rotation of camera when panned left or right, the closer the camera rotation is to +/- 90 degrees
Fixed: VWR-6616: Cannot scroll through more than 17 classifieds in Profiles
Fixed: VWR-702: Provide better feedback when the server connection is lost
Fixed: VWR-1079: Group Notice dialog: message text can't be copied and pasted
Fixed: VWR-6000: In-world browser/Html search renders a black/blank area on Mac in full screen mode
Fixed: VWR-6838: IM logging set to "off" in prefs, but IM window warns logging is taking place
Fixed: VWR-5457: Setting Abuse Email Address in Region Estate dialog, then hitting apply will clear the email address you put in
Fixed: VWR-5785: Large sculpts don't load correctly until selected.
- Also Fixed: VWR-3922: Sculpties/Sculpted prims rez differently after each login
Fixed: VWR-6019: If rename an item in the inventory and press ESC while editing, the new name was set, not restore the old one
Fixed: VWR-4575: IM tabs no longer blink when new IM text is received
Fixed: VWR-1789: Dragging multiple inventory items onto someone's profile only transfers the last selected
Fixed: VWR-7571: Viewer crashes when dragging photo from inventory into classifieds
Fixed: VWR-3598: Non-group owned objects appear to belong to the group of the last selected object, no matter the owner/group.
Fixed: VWR-3450: Font size increases after clicking "Apply" in preferences
Fixed: VWR-6336: World Map>Landmarks dropdown doesn't work for some landmarks
Fixed: VWR-7511: Changing Preferences > Text Chat > URL color only changes the color of *some* avatar names in chat history window
Fixed: VWR-6854: -noquicktime fails to work (Crash at startup, before login screen, allegedly due to problems with Quicktime)
Fixed: VWR-5587: Setting a Facial expression when uploading an animation has no effect (no facial expression included in the animation)
Fixed: MISC-1463: Edit in pie menu only working with Admin menu shown
Fixed: VWR-8221: Upon hitting "Stop All Animations" in the new RC, Avatar starts to sway and bend
Fixed: MISC-1109: Change the autoresponse text when Abuse Reports auto-warn about reports of copyright infringement
Fixed: VWR-7292: "Failed to load [body part]" dialog improperly implies that the content creator is primarily responsible for the error.
Fixed: VWR-2255: Mac updater does not log output
Fixed: VWR-6154: Decoded audio WAV files have 8 bytes missing at the end (llaudiodecodemgr.cpp)
Fixed: VWR-4110: Comment patch for llparcel.cpp for beta 1.19.0.76838
Fixed: VWR-5320: Implement seek() for GStreamer Media Implementation
Fixed: VWR-3340: Login State change should display the definition and not the code itself
Fixed: VWR-7297: Chat history URL highlighting should treat \n as a terminator
Fixed: VWR-3619: An incorrect comment in llfont.h
Fixed: VWR-219: vorbis radio streams crash linux client
Fixed: Tab order on Group notifies puts text field before buttons
Fixed: Disable Appearance editor for Ruthed avatar
Fixed: Suppress "Save Changes" dialog for Ruthed avatar
Fixed: Build window has no title bar
Fixed: A superfluous "Price" text appears in Build window
Fixed: Remove superfluous TAB characters visible on "Show in Search" dialog
Fixed: Close the Inventory window's menus when focus goes to top menus
Fixed: Checking/Unchecking the 'For Sale' checkbox has no effect when multiple 'For Sale' items are selected
Fixed: Voice chat listening point doesn't follow Flycam
Fixed: Camera pops when using camera controls
Fixed: LSL Changed event on region cross behaves poorly
Fixed: Dialogue message error when land is purchased for L$0 in 1.19.0 region
Fixed: initial Win32 status displays when you launch the viewer aren't antialiased
Fixed: Traffic numbers aren't displayed on Logitech LCD displays
Fixed: Rewrite LLString::format() to address various bugs
Fixed: Create unit tests for LLString::format()
Fixed: fix drag-and-drop confusion when dropping many objects onto a single-accept target
Fixed: ToolTip visibility refactoring (drag-and-drop tooltips not displaying / LLToolDragAndDrop::handleToolTip not being called)
Fixed: Minor LLWearable cleanup
Fixed: LLPanelFriends::refreshNames causes viewer to stall
Fixed: LLPanelFriends::refreshNames called every 5 seconds, whether needed or not
Fixed: Remove unneccessary memory check of 10*1MB each frame
Fixed: warning spew during Linux viewer packaging
Fixed: linux viewer not using elfio code, generates lame stack-traces
Fixed: Include the selected language and system locale in log output
Fixed: format_map_t usage is quietly very error-prone
Fixed: message.xml is not able to be located in development builds
Fixed: Mac viewer should use ~/Library/Caches for cache directory
Fixed: Coverity Dumpster investigation
Fixed: linux viewer: Investigate using gcc4 visibility rules instead of the objcopy hack for symbol scoping
Fixed: linux viewer: Investigate using gcc4 visibility rules instead of the llkdu -Bsymbolic hack for symbol scoping
Fixed: Uninitialized members in Constructors
Fixed: Uninitialized members in Constructors part 2
Fixed: Uninitialized members in Constructors part 3
Fixed: CID-1035: process_copy_inventory_item() NULL-check

Bug Fixes to the rendering system:

Fixed: VWR-3798: Sculpt textures have WAY too low a priority in the interest list.
Fixed: VWR-7805: Edit tools aren't antialiased
Fixed: VWR-7860: Crash with ATi 8.6 drivers and Atmospheric Shaders on Radeon HD 2900 XT
Fixed: VWR-4022: Improve image upload robustness when an image is mislabeled by file type
Fixed: When editing a prim's rotation in a linked, sometimes only the silhouette moves
- Also Fixed: VWR-6288: Childprim needs about 5 seconds to move if position is changed with spinEdit buttons from Object window
Fixed: Closing LLFloaterBuildOptions with the Build button resets the camera to "default position" instead of "user-defined zoom position"
- Also Fixed: VWR-7592: Using SpaceNavigator, using flycam mode, editing object, closing edit window causes camera to fly off into the distance.
- Also Fixed: VWR-8099: Flycam active, open and close edit window = camera boomerang/ av flying
Fixed: Snapshot window flashes briefly before opening
Fixed: Detect newer Linux ATI drivers and treat them differently.
Fixed: viewer crashes when avatar position is out of bounds
Fixed: While in Edit Linked Parts mode, using the Rotation spinners to edit the Parent Prim also rotates linked child prims
Fixed: ATI 2600 does not do hardware skinning
Fixed: Turn off Impostors and Occlusion culling which can cause stalls on the MacBook Pro / 8600M graphics card
Fixed: When rotating a multi-prim linked object, the whole object sometimes shakes and not rotate smoothly
Fixed: Can not select child objects in a linked object set.
Fixed: Avatar seated on linked object moves when root prim is repositioned
Fixed: Add an Advanced > Rendering option to simulate memory leaks (available only in --qa mode for testers)
Fixed: Limit number of visible avatars to a reasonable maximum to improve framerate in crowded areas
- Added: Add a new debug setting to limit to the number of visible avatars to draw, and all others fade in & out of invisible (Advanced > Debug settings > RenderAvatarMaxVisible)

Bug Fixes to the new "touch position" feature:

Fixed: VWR-8560: Move Tool does not work with llDetectedTouch* functions
Fixed: VWR-8400: UI scaling affects position of uv-picking clicks
Fixed: SVC-2857: Touch_End Event does not apply to llDetectedTouchUV and llDetectedTouchST calls
Fixed: SVC-2762: Mono beta: llDetectedTouchBinormal returns zero vector following camera mode changes
Fixed: LLDetectedTouchUV() doesn't work with planar mapping:

Localization Fixes:

Fixed: VWR-8688: Wrong dialog message in Portuguese for an inventory offer
Fixed: Restore the Japanese & Korean translations of Joystick monitor
Fixed: Remove a few typographical errors in XML strings
Fixed: Add name= parameters to all <editline> nodes in alerts.xml
Fixed: Move hard-coded F1 Help links to floater_html.xml
Fixed: Remove errant English string in Abuse Report floater for other languages

Bug Fixes from the Public Nightly viewers

Partial Fix: VWR-8736: 1.21 nightly: Linden Trees do not render
Fixed: VWR-8782: 1.21 nightly: no audio in linux (still)
Fixed: VWR-8579: 1.21 regression: IM names are duplicated in busy mode
Fixed: VWR-8610: 1.21 nightly: memory use climbs excessively when Window minimised returns to normal when un-minimised
Fixed: VWR-8524: 1.21 nightly: Camera moves wildy/unexpectedly when alt-clicking [with video repro]
Fixed: VWR-8667: 1.21 nightly: Camera floats away when clicking your nametag in edit-appearance mode.
Fixed: VWR-8659: 1.21 nightly: Script Editor Line Gutter Illegible on classic skin / Missing on Silver skin
Fixed: VWR-8514: 1.21 nightly: silver skin chat console is harder to read than the classic skin
Fixed: VWR-8515: 1.21 nightly: Fully rezzed avatars have attached "cannonballs"
Crash Fixed: VWR-8520: 1.21 nightly: Avatar Rendering Cost crashes viewer
Crash Fixed: VWR-8519: 1.21 nightly: World > Region/Estate > Debug > Get Top Scripts crashes viewer
Crash Fixed: VWR-8691: 1.21 nightly: crash on startup (due to GL ERROR)
Crash Fixed: 1.21 nightly: Crash on refresh snapshot, if you have resized the SL window
Crash Fixed: 1.21 nightly: Crash on Editing appearance then quitting
Fixed: 1.21 nightly: linux audio is broken

Source changes:

Fixed: VWR-4814: Solaris port - include llstring.h in llfloaternamedesc.cpp
Fixed: VWR-4812: Solaris port - include llstring.h in llfloateranimpreview.cpp
Fixed: VWR-4813: Solaris port - include llstring.h to llfloaterimagepreview.cpp
Fixed: Clean up the C++ codebase to more safely use strings
Fixed: Robustify LLDir::getExtension()'s behaviour
Fixed: Eliminate char arrays from the Viewer code, use std::string and wherever reasonable, and eliminate the need for LLString
Fixed: LLStringBase cleanup for Linux
Moved: Moved OpenGL related files from /llwindow and /newview into /llrender.
Moved: Split newview/llglslshader into newview/llviewershadermgr, llrender/llshadermgr, and llrender/llglslshader by class and function
Added: Add 8KB default avatar clothing assets to viewer VFS to speed up avatar loading time in orientation
Removed: Clean up 7MB of unused image files from viewer VFS to reduce download size
Removed: Clean up 7MB of unused HUD textures and Orientation Island resources from viewer download
Removed: Remove unused code regarding SABINRIG
Removed: Remove ReleaseNotes.txt from viewer installation package

Known Issues for RC0

VWR-8801: This iteration RC0 will not run on Mac PPC

STATUS: Our apologies for this bug which we just discovered. We are working to resolve it immediately for RC1.

VWR-8718: The 1.21 viewer will not show Syntax Errors in LSL scripts, when compiling on a region running Server 1.23 !
- IMPORTANT: Until the 1.24 server is upgraded across the entire Second Life Grid (scheduled to be complete by Friday, 29 August 2008) you should either:
  - a) compile your scripts only on a region running Server 1.24. Most sandbox regions (Goguen, Newcomb, Wanderton, for example) are running Server 1.24, which you can confirm by standing in a region and clicking Help > About Second Life...
  - OR
  - b) Do not use this RC0 viewer when you want to compile scripts.

STATUS: This subtle bug is already fixed this issue for the next iteration, RC1. Also this bug will not affect you once the entire Second Life Grid is running the new Server 1.24 upgrade.

VWR-8735: Sitting avatars are displayed with wrong rotation

STATUS: We have already fixed this issue for the next iteration, RC1.

VWR-8662: URLs/SLURLs do not work correctly at the start of a line