New Second Life features due next week

by Tateru Nino on Aug 15th 2008 5:00PM

Linden Lab is expected to roll out SLS1.24 (version 1.24 of the Second Life server/simulator code) this coming week with both the new Mono script-engine runtime and Qarl Linden's new touch-position code. We're confident that you'll see announcements for those on Monday or Tuesday (the 18th or 19th) describing the update schedule through the course of the week. We wouldn't be surprised to see something of a media push accompanying it; that would be consistent with the way the new Lab is operating these days.

The Mono script-engine runtime increases the amount of memory available to new or recompiled LSL scripts (from 16K to 64K) -- though at the expense of increased memory consumption -- while also largely increasing the speed of them, especially for intensive calculations. Mono is, primarily, part of the platform stabilization project rather than a new feature for the sake of new features.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Qarl's touch-position code, on the other hand, seems to be a nifty feature -- with beneficial side-effects. By allowing scripts to detect where an object is touched (rather than just that it has been), some objects can be composed of fewer discrete parts, reducing the overall object load on both simulators, viewers and asset clusters.

The viewer itself likely won't be fully able to accommodate these new features in the currently released version (1.20). Expect to see new Release Candidate branch (version 1.21) within 5 to 8 working days with the required support. Unfortunately, yes, that means moving away from the official viewer to take advantage of new server-side features. Those of you unable to run 1.21 (or, worse, who haven't been able to run 1.19) will be out in the cold as far as creating scripts for either of these features, we're afraid.

Tags: lsl, mono, patches, qarl-linden, second-life, sls-1.24

Reader Comments (3)

I have had a chance to play with the new Touch functions on the beta grid and I can see this changing the way a lot is scripted in SL.

Especially useful for HUD creators who till this point would use upwards of 100 prims for multiple buttons and even resort to physically flipping the HUD objects around to reveal opportunities for more buttons without adding more prims. These new features will allow for 1 prim to have virtually unlimited buttons (like an image map on the web.) And with the extra script memory mono affords you, you could change textures and go to a new state in the script for an entirely new "page" of buttons without flipping any objects around.

Of course this would cut down on agent time big time. And there's a ton more applications for these new features, like buttons on a Contest Board, or a Vendor object's arrow buttons... But also I feel this is a step closer to a virtual world wide web where avatars are able to interact with a 3D prim as if it were like a webpage in virtual space. (Now we need the web on a prim feature to move from the Parcel tools to the object Edit tools!)