Once again we find ourselves in the ever-stressful period we call “Release Mode”. This is where I set targets for things that should be fixed and determine what features and functionality make it into the release and what doesn’t, when I have to say yes to some things and no to others based on recommendations from folks on the team, suggestions from users and gut feelings, often disappointing some while pleasing others among the support team, QA and developers. It is all about balancing compromises and making tough, often unpopular decisions. It is when I am least popular among the team. That is just part of the job, I guess. It is also our busiest time for our Quality Assurance (QA) team and beta testers to determine what passes and what fails.In a few weeks we will have a newly released version out to the public with lots of new features, bug fixes and improved functionality!
Then the feedback cycle begins where our users tell us what they think about it, and often that feedback is less about what is new and more about what we “did not” release. So in anticipation of this I thought I’d write a note about why we do not always have the newest bleeding-edge features out the door as soon as they are available.Firestorm is not, and has never been, a “bleeding-edge” viewer. We have always focused on quality over quantity, stability over shiny. Slow and steady wins the day. Despite complaints and objections, this strategy has helped make Firestorm the most widely used viewer in Second Life by a long shot. In code, almost anything new has bugs and kinks that need to be worked out regardless of who wrote it and how vigilant they were at it.
Using RLV-Just the Basics Those who are seasoned RLV Users, can skip this. This is a very basic intro to RLV, for more info, please view the links provided. RLV is short for Restrained Love Viewer (used to be Restrained Life Viewer). RLV allows suitably scripted objects (e.g. MLPV2 items with.
That’s because despite how much testing you do, it isn’t until it lands in the hands of the many that the deepest rooted software glitches start to crop up. Knowing this is one of the reasons we do not merge in and release new features from Linden Lab right away. What is not in this releaseMany of you have asked us to release the functionality developed by LL, and why not! We were the ones who proposed it to LL, after all. Many others have asked us to release LL’s, which comes with photo filters and various other cool functions.
LL has recently released designed to improve server/viewer communications, and (Advanced Inventory System). In fact, LL has been doing some in the last year to improve the user experience dramatically!
But with all new things come bugs.It is risky practice to merge code out of order because you can easily miss fixes that were added later or accidentally destabilize the viewer. So we try hard to avoid doing so.
For us to merge Group Ban, SL Share and everything after it, we would first have to merge in AIS V3, which would bring you bugs like:,Every one of these would be a release blocker for us, so a month ago we brought these issues up with LL at a Third Party Viewer meeting. They immediately pulled a developer off what he was doing and assigned him to these issues.
As of just yesterday afternoon LL posted a viewer with these issues fixed. Kudos, LL!Some other issues cropping up with CDN:. The point is this: just because another third party viewer or even LL has released something does not mean it will pass our quality standards. A viewer with a small user share releasing bugs only affects a small share of users. With the number of users we have on Firestorm, for us to release something with nasty bugs would affect a majority of the population in SL and OpenSim.
We have a responsibility to you to deliver quality and stability over new shiny. The good news, though, is that if you really, really want the new shiny, you can always use the viewers that have it! That is the beautiful thing about viewer choices in SL. I am so glad there are viewer options available out there for you. For example, we ourselves have been using the LL V3 viewer to implement a group ban on someone and then returning to Firestorm. We have to do it, too. ?This upcoming release will not have SL Share, HTTP, AIS V3 and probably not Group Ban either.
But we absolutely will have plenty of other features, bug fixes and improvements worth updating for which I’m very excited about!I apologize to those of you who are disappointed by what we will not be releasing, and I can promise you that I wholeheartedly share in your disappointment. We use the same viewer you do and have to live without these cool new shiny features, too. So please keep in mind, when you fill my inbox with complaints about what features we have not released, that we have also spared you from the bugs that go with them. ?SincerelyJessica LyonProject ManagerThe Phoenix Firestorm Project. That makes sense.
With CDN, as far as I know that’s entirely on the server side and didn’t require any viewer code changes. It’s active on the entire grid at this point.It’s a little disappointing that group bans won’t be in the next release. As with most new features that require viewer code changes, it won’t get widespread use until Firestorm implements it. At least it’s usable somewhat by using the LL viewer.I will say my use of the beta viewer with the multi-threaded HTTP calls has shown some pretty impressive performance increases.
The downside is a similar increase in bandwidth use. When using aircraft other vehicles where one is crossing sims frequently, it is making the crossings MUCH smoother.
![Rlv Rlv](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125381112/555322017.jpg)
However it’s still only in beta so obviously not something you’d want to merge yet. It is one of those features that should be on the fast track to get into a release once it hits general release even if it means some other glitzy feature doesn’t.I really have to commend LL. They seem to be as much if not more focused on performance improvements as new features. The users have been screaming for exactly this for years, but at least it’s finally happening.
You guys are doing a great job anyway, in special way considering you are doing it for free, and I’m glad for your QA, and that there are fixes.I hope you will find a way to fix this bug too, that came out more than a year ago now:It makes it complicated to edit or to sit, requiring cam rotations and multiple attempts. This bug happens with sitting on vehicles as well, so with the missing HTTP pipelining etc as Crim Mip wrote too, for now to me LL Viewer feels better than Firestorm when I use vehicles.I wonder if the viewer can calculate where the top part will be, in order to adjust the menu position, if it goes out of the screen. I tried out the pie menu as a workaround, but I’m not comfortable with it, plus it requires multiple clicks for other operations that I use frequently, while with the normal menu it is just one click.There is also any chance to see fixes for the bugs that came out since Firestorm 4.5, such as the temporary freezes happening when you open your preferences or when you get a script dialog for the first time?I’m always looking forward for Firestorm progress. It has features that the LL Viewer hasn’t, even some very simple yet so handy. You are the active users of your own work and it may make a difference here. Plus it is also more stable and reliable, usually.
LL so far had impressive bugs too, such as WEB-4659, that would prevent merchants on Linux to use Direct Delivery, if it wasn’t for Firestorm. It is vital and it is there for years. At least, with the new CEO, it seems going in the right direction now. Jess, let me start off by saying I am proud of you for taking this stance. I think some of us will remember the “public beta’ you guys put out around this time last year.
It was said that was done to satisfy the user base and give them “something” before the end of the year. I have come to appreciate Firestorm for the stability and not the “bleeding edge” of features. I would rather take quality over quantity any day. Please do not release something just because the “featards” are whining.
Release quality. That’s what the majority of your user base wants and have come to expect from this team. Ansariel, i have to disagree her to your comment.
Marine’s RLV might not be used by much Users compared to Firestorm, but guess why so much use Firestorm and its RLVa implementation: right, because of all the other features that are missing in the Original Second Life Viewers or in Marine’s own Viewer, that basically is a modded SL version.I absolutely agree to the” Hover workaround” that Marine made is not implemented into Firestorm as long there is no official way that LL approves.But i really would love if in the upcoming release the RLVa would be updated to RLV V2.9 for the rest of the Features Marine implemented. That is just a blatantly false or totally uninformed thing to say. There are quite a few feature updates, bug fixes, and new features than just the camera tools.
If anyone is interested in an accurate list of the changes RLV has undergone since the archaic version in Firestorm, I suggest heading over to Marine’s blog and check out the release history of RLV there. If the Firestorm team is worried about damaging users inventory such as with the height offset code, I suggest implementing a debug variable, Off by default, that allows users the freedom to choose whether to hang themselves or not. This “Holier than thou” attitude that a few members of the core Firestorm team exhibit is quite unprofessional. I can understand and respect that Jessica, but what Ansariel painted out was a very different picture and my reply was based upon what I was given.Ansariel essentially suggested that RLVa and the changes within it were simply too unimportant to update. He or she did not for a second suggest that, “Well, we’d like to see it updated at some point, however there is a single person who handles that for all third-party viewers thus patience is required.”.
Right now if I wanna ever see my quick pref button again I have to hook up my second monitor which I don’t feel like doing, here’s hoping you guys get the new chat system eventually without the dumb chat bar at the bottom ruining everything else about the viewer! Right now if anybody else is sick to death of this old chat system, alchemy is what I use when I wanna chat and firestorm is what I’m using for everything else once I hook my second monitor back to get the quick prefences button back or maybe I”ll just wait for the update and do a clean install or wait for the next update that’ll maybe have the new chat boy I love that new chat system without the bar at the bottom getting in the way the lindens did an absolute perfect job on it. I don’t understand why people are so ungrateful and demanding.Back in the days when Emerald Viewer was the largest, I remember how much I hated the interface and ‘new SL’ (the current) and got enraged with it gone – forced to use either SL viewer of ‘phoenix viewer’ at the time, which obviously now is Firestorm.The push and force of switching viewer has opened my eyes how AMAZING this viewer is, more so than the old ones. And I am every day very grateful and overjoyed with it.
Not only me, but practically everyone I meet inworld. When there are bugs, they don’t complain or blame you guys. We simply try to fix it.I appreciate the hard work, and I truly suggest not to care so much about those that complain, because one day, if there would be no Firestorm, they will bang their heads the most against the wall because 1.
LL won’t even read their demands or request and 2. They will realize that despite all, this is the best viewer ever.With the newest release past few months; I have issue with the rezzing texture where it re-rezzes repeatedly and after relog sometimes fixes by itself. I never put complaint about it, because that minor issue is worth the quick rezz of objects, mesh and loading the world as well as the amazing development, and people should see this from the positive side. The blog you wrote is exactly my point: I rather you guys take it easy and focus on bugs once it’s able than new features for new features will always cause people to complain about other bugs.Thank you for the hard work. I appreciate, among many, many others.