We very much hope that our current Genesis testers will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to your testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those people using the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.
Genesis Viewer, Release 1.9.1032 (August 2024)
Main changes since: 1.8.957
For a log of all that has transpired from the last Release, please see the Nightly build notes listed immediately below this story.
This will be the last release version that still contains the original Vivox voice system before it is replaced with WebRTC.
New:
- Friends Volume (aka Hearing Voices).
This feature permits the users to reduce the volume of nearby avatars who they are not friends with. This makes it easier to hear your friends in busy voice places.
Open the Quick Pref for Sound (Bottom Right) and use the "Non Friends Att(enuation)" slider to reduce the volume of non-friends.
You can still raise and lower individual volumes of friends and non friends from the main chat menu. Click the >> chevron at the top right to expand the names on those on voice, click their name to highlight, then use the slider at the bottom to adjust the volume on the resident you selected. (Can also be applied in Active Speaker floater).
- Additional 'Contact Set' preference options.
These control how the contact sets colors are displayed for the avatar: Tag, Local/IM chat, Radar and Nearby Voice window.
Preferences: Genesis > Contact sets.
- Particles slider in QuickPrefs previously offered zero then 256 as its first increment. It can now be increased in 64s, i.e. 0, 64, 128, 192 etc. This is a good feature for admins who want to easily detect particle griefers without running the risk of their GPU being overtaxed.
- Added Crashpad to help diagnose issues for users wherelogging is unhelpful or non-existent. Limited to 24mb. Privacy: Please note this does not store or send information to us. To share your dump file, you have to manually email it to us. Even when you do, it does not contain any sensitive information, only details of the driver versions the program is using and information about the operating environment.
- Refinement of ability to temporarily derender assets from the pie menu ('more'option). Previously an asset was permanently blacklisted until removed from the mute menu. Temporary blacklisted objects will be cleared from the blacklist upon teleport or on the next session.
Fixes:
- Updated runtime libraries (DLL's) that had caused login issues for some users when their computer's version was older than the library the viewer was built with.
- Fixed aspect ratio in snapshot, i.e. the saved output now matches preview.
- Fixed: Material folder name (llbadfolderlookup), the code was not included in the last release.
- Inventory can now edit/save and manage Material Assets.
- Fixed inherited bug where script error floater fails to identify owner of object with issues.
- Fixed info freeze about Computer and Operating environment in "About Genesis" menu.
- To fix the 'hover/flight at login' issue, the debug value for Nimble now defaults to True.
- Updated terminology for region maturity ratings to bring us in parity with all other viewers, replacing PG with General and Mature with Moderate.
- Fixed bug where the viewer forgot if you had the favourites bar enabled. It now remembers and persists to next session.
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those on the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.
Genesis Viewer, EIGHTH Release 1.8.957
Main changes since: 1.7.880
Download: https://genesisviewer.org
For a log of all that has transpired from the last version to this version, please see the Nightly build notes listed immediately below this story.
New:
- For your security, MultiFactor Authentication is fully supported See the SL blog.
- Introducing Temporary Asset Blacklists, accessed from the pie menu, 'more option'. The temporary list is cleared down on Teleport.
- Genesis now has its own Splash screen on start up, to keep you up to date with events in world and developments with Genesis Viewer.
- Introducing Multi-threaded rendering. Why limit render decoding to a single core when most computers have more than 2 cores? Faster rendering via Preferences > Genesis > Texture Management.
- Ability to render/derender "sim" water from the Quick Preferences menu. Sim water is always rendered, even if it is 100m below the region. By disabling sim water, better frame rates can now be achieved.
- Substantial rework of internal AO engine. Multiple note cards for multiple sets of overrides are now supported.
- Complete rework of Object Area Search and ability to Cam-To
Changes:
- Added "Use the legacy font" to Preferences: Genesis> Main.
When enabled Genesis will use the smaller DejaVu font that supports a much wider range of high/extended ascii characters (unicode) commonly used for display names that use arabic letters. Left unticked, Genesis will continue to use its existing clearer and larger font, which doesn't support the full unicode range.
Caveats:
Genesis is optimised for the existing font, so when switching to Deja Vu, you will most likely need to also adjust (FontsDPI) Preferences > Genesis > Adv. Features "Screen font DPI."
Apply and Save.
You need to restart the viewer when switching between fonts.
You need to restart the viewer when changing sizes of fonts.
Should you lose any windowed floaters from your screen by changing these settings, see the section called "I've accidentally dragged my chat floater off screen", in FAQs
- Nightly Beta versions will now expire on a 3 monthly cycle, to prevent potentially unfinished versions of the viewer being used for a protracted time.
- Mouselook crosshairs: Using OpenGL, the size of mouselook crosshairs can now be increased/decreased GenxCrosshairSize (factor) See Prefs: Input.
- Viewer now supports the uploading of 30 second wave files
- Estate Management tools: Increased banned agent limit from 500 to 750.
- Estate Management tools: Increased estate manager limit from 15 to 20.
Fixes:
- Fixed font issues in certain floaters.
- Don't show the favourites bar when in (M)ouselook.
Genesis Viewer, SEVENTH Release 1.7.880
Main improvements since: 1.6.799
Download: https://genesisviewer.org
For a log of all that has transpired from the last version to this version, please see the Nightly build notes listed immediately below this story.
New:
- Substantial rework of internal AO engine. It now supports multiple configuration settings for different AO's and will remember the last AO setting and persist upon relog.
- New snapshot floater brings Genesis inline with SLV style snapshot previews and refresh.
You can toggle between old and new style. Debug GenxSnapshorFloater = True / False
- Ability to change screen font size via a slider in Genesis > Adv. Features. Default is 104. Setting this to either 96, 104, 112 will give the equivalent of small medium and large. Mileage will vary because of the multitude of different screen sizes everyone uses.
- Stop Animations, handy one-click to stop now added to the bottom user toolbar next to media options.
- Avatar distance can now be displayed in with the avatar name, group bubble over the avatars head. Genesis > Tags: Show Avatar distance.
Changes:
- Viewer now supports the uploading of 30 second WAV files (previously 10 seconds).
- Genesis Viewer now supports long password up to 16 characters, SL grid maximum. (previously 12).
Fixes:
- Fixed font issues in certain floaters, most notably "build" so land impact and group settings no longer truncate.
- Fixed very long text truncating in blue dialog boxes.
- Fixed seeing holes in terrain caused by archaic inherited hard coded region "assumptions".
- Fixed: there should be no need to scroll Profile tabs to use "notes" when using default size screen font of 104 dpi.
- Fixed: unlimited zoom via camera constraints.
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers
will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those on the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.Genesis Viewer, SIXTH Release 1.6.799
Changes since Release: 1.5.764
New:
- Estate Menu : Ban The Bots facility Estate setting, tick box for "must not be a scripted agent" (defaults to false). To ban bots except your own, add your bots to the Estate Access list.
- Search in Preferences. Enter a keyword in preferences and relevant option tabs contained your word will highlight. So handy, this is the main reason for this release.
- Added Bounding Boxes to Preferences > Genesis > Adv. Features
- Added Hit Boxes for combat > Genesis > Adv. Features (also Alt+Shift+B)
- Play Bento Animation on idle when no AO active. No more splayed fingers. Prefs > Genesis > Adv. Settings.
- Added "Turn Around Speed" setting for combat gamers in Prefs > Genesis > Adv. Settings. It sets the speed that your avatar turns direction.
Changes:
- Updated language packs: German, French, Italian, Portuguese.
- Play Bento anim on idle, Debug set to True.
Fixes:
- Hit boxes are no longer drawn around your own avatar to avoid them appearing in mouse-look.
- Console Window and Debug Console setting no longer persists to next session, thus ending the problem where a user turns it on and doesn't know how to turn it off again. Re-log will now 'fix it'.
- Fixed Inherited Bug: Object Edit "Ruler" world/local/reference drop-down arrow now changes between the options. Previously you needed to click the word itself (not the arrow).
- Repaired XML alignments for language packs so text is not longer than space provided in floaters.
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers
will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those on the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.Changes since Release: 1.4.706
New:
- Search and Replace links in 'saved outfits' to globally update all outfits.
Scenario: when a mesh body has been updated, you would search the old link in an outfit, right click it and 'replace link' with the new object, which will create new links throughout your 'wardrobe', replacing the original link.
- Search and Delete links: You can also delete a link entirely through-out saved outfits. Scenario, you have a non-bento item that has accidentally been saved throughout your wardrobe and you don't want it any more.
- Customise your friendship requests in Prefs > Adv. Chat setting a new default message when offering friendship. (Left blank, it defaults to 'Would you like to be my friend?', in your chosen language.
- Drag and Drop inventory from one tab to another.
Example: You are in 'Recent' tab and wish to move an item into your "all" tab. Click and drag the item to the 'All items' tab. This will change your active tab, and whilst still holding the mouse button, locate where you wish to place the item in your folders and drop it in there.
- Hit Boxes for combat players. Toggle on/off with Alt+Shift+B
- Group notices can now either display at the top left or top right. Handy if you frequently get dialog boxes about payments opening over the top of your notices (when set to default, right). Prefs > Genesis > Adv. Features
- Graphics Quality presets are now available by using /setdebug gestures. Please collect the Gesture pack from the Genesis main-store. You can also create your own including effects, windlight and more. (You must enable, Prefs > Adv. Chat: Chat/IM and enable "set /debug".
- Right clicking a person's name in their profile opens a menu subsystem including ability to Abuse Report with name already filled in on report.
- Ability to Abuse Report by right-clicking a Resident's name in any text chat, IM or group IM.
- Ability to constantly have Frames Per Second on screen via, Prefs > Genesis > Adv. Features "display FPS on screen" and tick to show at the top of the screen or un-ticked for bottom (default).
- Active (voice) Speakers can additionally be controlled by clicking the chevrons ">>" in the local chat floater. This setting will persist through relog, until you choose otherwise.
Click the persons name in the right side panel for moderation and adjusting individual volume for that resident.
Fixes:
- "..is typing bug", when no one is typing! Although if a user presses the space-bar or a character and does not send the message, it will still appear.
- Fixed FPS appearing in snapshot mode :)
- Fixed annoying typo's when initialising cache system.
Changes:
- Don't log group notices to genesis.log they are irrelevant.
- Fetch recent chat history, only if it is Group Chat and not private IM, because this is already handled locally in Viewer Preferences / chat logging options.
- Removed more chunks of Opensim code for optimising Genesis for SL. Still much more spaghetti to unravel. Opensim code is a bit like Norton's, it exists everywhere.
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those on the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.
Changes since Release: 1.3.662
New:
- Group Chat History. See group chat whilst you were offline, by opening the group chat. Also shows the last hour if a group chat opens on a new message. Older messages show in italic. See Notes below.
- Added ability to have digital read out for FPS at the top or bottom right of the screen. Prefs > Genesis > Adv. Features.
- A faster cache poke when initialising the viewer.
- Drag and Drop open IM floaters, reworked.
Fixes:
- Fixed rare cases of worn items moving to Lost and Found on login.
- Fixed login from command line, to launch the viewer from a command prompt and login.
- Fixed double message being received when group IM history opens on its own.
- Fixed sometimes an open IM tab needs to be pressed twice to bring it to focus/foreground.
- Fixed profile floater jumble on Spanish language.
Changes:
- Removed "please wait" on group chats when there is no need to wait!
- For bug a squashing introduced round-robin log files. Genesis log will now keep the 5 latest log files and dispose of them first in, first out. Format is: Genesis-yyyy-mm-day-session_starting_time.log
- Program Markers reflect Genesis as program name
- Change default value for CulTimeoutLowSpeedTime from 30 to 100 to help with older or not standard sample rate streams, (but for optimum performance use 56k or 128k when possible).
- Changed default (on initial install) for online friends pop-up chiclet from True to False (hooray!).
- Tied in FPS to the cancel button which was missing on Nightly 700.
- BroadcastViewerEffects particle beams (when selecting, inspecting, editing) defaults to off on initial install. Better for privacy.
Notes:
In an effort to get this release to you as quickly as possible due to the inconvenience of the Lost & Found server bug, we have held back a couple of fixes for testing and will get these done during the week for the Nightly build users. They are:
We are aware that the search floater cannot be resized on 1024 x 768 displays and will fix this in the Nightly builds shortly.
Aware that FPS will show in snapshots unless you disable FPS digital readouts first.
Finally.. Group IM Message history is liable to change due to a bug Linden Lab found in their code. We will adjust ours accordingly when they apply the new routines.
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly. Those on the Nightly build will always get features and fixes quicker than the Releases. This release build is identical to the Nightly build of the same number.
Release #3 - January 30th 11th, 2023.
Genesis Viewer, Third Release 1.3.662
Please see the videos associated with this new release if you are updating from 1.2.594:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaTJjNL89eU (Jan 29,2023)
NEW:
Quick Preferences icon which was just another arrow on the UI now carries the Genesis logo.
The "Genesis Button" bottom right, will launch Quick Preferences for easier navigation.
Added change Toolbar Options to Quick Preferences.
Added Preferences short-cut to Quick Preferences for newer residents.
Ability to drag and drop tabs in communications floater, so you can prioritise open IM's.
Added Teleport Home button. See options in (Genesis button) Quick Preferences > 'Change Toolbar buttons'. 4th check box down says "TP Home". Enable or Disable. TP home honours your setting for WarnTeleportFromLandmark, ie whether or not to confirm TP first.
Choose Who to render from Preferences > Genesis > Adv. Features.
Choose to render only you, only you and your friends, only avatars below a certain complexity, or everyone.
Ability to IM yourself for keeping notes and pasting Slurls for immediate or later use. To IM yourself, use the up arrow next to the communications button and choose IM Myself.
Ability to delay UI Tooltips in preferences before hints are displayed. Prefs > Genesis > Advanced : Tooltip delay.
Ability to search group names from group floater (works the same way as searching friends).
CHANGED:
Show/Broadcast selection beam particles is disabled by default for your privacy. (Top menu > Tools)
Moved WASD options to Prefs > Input > Input and Movement. Special note: with WASD disabled, typing opens the bottom chat bar. For those of you who do not use the bottom chat bar, leave WASD enabled, and you can still use the keyboard arrow keys to move.
Camera constraints now default to off.
FIXED:
Fixed: Alphabetical sorting for contact sets.
Fixed: Inherited bug: Friendship requests from muted avatars are no longer displayed.
Fixed: Inherited bug: Using Ctrl-x to cut an item from inventory in a new inventory window caused a viewer crash. Also 'cut' items no longer go to trash.
REMOVED:
Removed inherited, ludicrous debug where the viewer is timed to crash after specified time.
Removed long forgotten routines to optimise code.
Removed the deprecated Web search options that are no longer used as SL returns to Legacy style.
Please join the in-world Genesis Group and check out our YouTube channel:
Release #2 - December 11th, 2022.
There is a new Genesis Viewer Release.
Version 1.2.594
This release is primarily to address the Chromium updates that bring the viewer in parity with Second Life Viewer's media abilities for shared streamed content, in particular, the rise in the popularity of HiVid TV.
HiVid TV media is now supported.
We added a cache system for Contact Sets to make them respond faster.
The Active Speaker list can now be paused, reactivated and refreshed.
The GenxProfileFloater is a new experimental profile floater that you can opt in and out of by enabling it in Debug. When fully implemented it will become an option in Preferences, but already, you can upload a profile picture without incurring any upload fees.
Added some hover text help for some ambiguous settings in Preferences.
Added an additional 7 skins for the User Interface. You now have a choice of 11. Check out 'Second Love' if you like extra colourful, or 'Snow White', if you want a Wintery theme.
Developers and Support team can now be identified by "Genesis Viewer Team" appearing in their profile.
The Script editor now uses a mono space font.
A group invitation is offered (once) to the account logging in on the first session of a new install.
--
Release 1 - 5th November 2022
Genesis: A 1.23 style Second Life viewer for Windows 10/11.
Genesis is part of Linden Lab's Third Party Viewer program: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory
This release will mirror the nightly build version 522 and be installed in \Program Files\Genesis
We very much hope that our current Genesis testers will continue to use the Nightly Builds. It is thanks to their testing that we can find and fix issues quickly and there is still so much more to come.
Upon this release, we will immediately begin work again on adding some of the best suggested improvements from the community, with a second release following quickly. Those wishing to experience the new features as soon as they are included are reminded to stay on the Nightly channel releases.
What is in Genesis?
A fast, responsive, low memory footprint viewer designed with laptop users in mind.
We inherited some very old code and settings, better suited to computers over a decade ago and have brought the code and settings up to date. A low-spec computer manufactured in the past ten years, should be able to run Genesis and enjoy improved performance.
We diagnosed and corrected many inherited errors in open-source code that v1.23 users have lived with for a number of years, the most obvious one being constant teleport and region hand-off failures. Sometimes it was as easy as changing the order that certain capabilities were called and sometimes it meant rewriting or back-porting entire portions of code.
Genesis is currently provided with 4 skins, GenX (our default), Dark, Classic and Dazzle.
New Features:
- Network Bandwidth is set to Adaptive by default. This makes your connection to SL the best it can be. It checks for packet loss and ratchets down during times of trouble then upward again. You can override this setting should you wish: Prefs > Network and set your own limits. You should, from time to time check for "packet loss" as the viewer will relinquish monitoring, when adaptive was disabled. (Stats: Ctrl+Shift+1).
- Zoom in on any resident on a region, using our "All roads lead to Rome approach", by right-mouse-clicking any menu (radar, sound explorer, active speaker etc) and choosing which ever option you need from the context menu. Additionally moderation controls for land owners can be accessed from any of these menus.
- Contact sets: You can now group friends, business partners or anyone you like into their own contact set from the main communication menu. Options for Contacts are in Prefs > Genesis > Contact sets.
To add a contact; Open a residents profile and click the contact set. You can rename and recolour sets from the main communications floater. You can choose to have their IM and local chat in its own colour.
- Profile Notes: You can colour users whom you have left Profile Notes about from the Genesis > Tags/Colors menu. Additionally you can change the default name tag colour from salmon to whatever you wish.
- Word wrap now works on profile notes.
- Teleport that works reliably. A lot of work has gone into the Teleport code. Many bugs associated with this problem including About Land not updating, the agent crossing the region and keeping on walking until disconnect, have fixed.
-Peek inside folders. You do not need to load an entire new instance of inventory. Right click a folder and "open in new window" for an immediate pop-up. This has already proved so popular that other viewers have already adopted it!
- Update Outfit: You can update items you are currently wearing to be automatically included in the clothing folder by clicking on 'File' in the Inventory window and choosing, update outfit.
- Hovering your mouse over another Resident will display their complexity value.
- Favourite's TP Bar. By dragging Landmarks to the Favorites folder in your inventory you can populate the bar on the top of your screen. You can drag and drop your favorites on screen to rearrange their order. The bar can be disabled in Prefs > Genesis. You can also temporarily hide this bar by clicking the left arrow at the top of the bar.
- The main communication floater has a handy button that will open the Genesis in-world group for user to user help.
- BackgroundYieldTime (the amount of resources your computer still allocates to the viewer when it is not in focus, can be controlled in Prefs > Genesis. 40 milliseconds is default, but you can increase this to give more processing power to the CPU when Genesis is in the background. Please be aware that setting this too high on an older computer could cause the viewer to stall when being swapped back into focus, so everyone's mileage will vary.
- EEP is emulated via Windlight so that you can go to an island with EEP and enjoy a similar experience to everyone else. Additionally you can exchange fixed sky EEP with others and right click it in your inventory and apply it to yourself. Day/Night cycle is not supported at this time but is a priority for subsequent releases. EEP is emulated to preserve existing frame rate. The user should see no appreciable deterioration when switching from their default setting to an EEP setting. Currently you cannot set EEP in a region, but you can see it. Work will continue in subsequent releases.
- Vivox 4.1 for voice. Better and more reliable.
- Updated FMOD for sounds and gestures.
- Bulk uploads fixed. They used to stall after the third or fourth file as the old code used to quite literally guess at when the next file should be uploaded by adding a random pause. This is now fixed and files are not sent until the server sends an acknowledgement that it is ready.
- Radar can now alert you to people only entering a region, or only exiting a region. Previously it would only indicate both and was for that reason verbose and slightly annoying. Additionally people with profile notes, have a new icon in the radar to plainly indicate that. You can change the reorder of radar by clicking the title bars within the floater.
- VLC and all other dependencies are now included in the package. This substantially improves installation time because it removes the reliance on slow distro sites.
Some cosmetics..
We have cleaned up Abuse Reporting, Ascending/Descending Date order of Group Notices, the snapshot floater, and multitude of other cosmetics and artefacts from another age.
Profiles and other floaters will now remember where they were last opened and open there next time. This setting does not persist through login to protect people from lost floaters. Should you lose a floater, relog and it will go back to the middle. Profiles no longer need to scroll left to right to see all the available tabs.
Friends online/offline can have a toast appearing, or appear in local chat, or both. set this in Prefs > Genesis.
Clickable links made much easier to see. They will be underlined. It is up to you if you click them or not, but making them stand out was an important security issue.
Technobabble: Performance: We replaced gDirUtilp->getDireDelimeter by LL_DIR_DELIM_STR for performance reasons. Detect Cuda compatible GPU and use nvJPEG2000 instead of OpenJpeg
Fixed various inherited bugs related to Old Names, DisplayNames and combinations of both. It was all rather tangled and now works as intended way back when this was first introduced.
Previously undocumented, you can change any debug value from typing in (local) /setdebug debug debugvalue when the option is only true or false /setdebug debug with toggle from true to false. These commands can be stacked in gestures (with a short pause between commands) for settings such as photography where you might wish to enable shadows, high graphics etc for photo's then revert to your regular settings. You should always look to see what a gesture does, when accepting them from other residents. (This option is disabled by default, but can be enabled in Prefs > Advanced Chat > setdebug checkbox.
What is NOT included in this release? These are the things that did not make it into this initial release because we feel we needed to make a release instead of staying in perpetual test mode.. So these are the items we are actively working on now in new Test builds.
MFA/2FA Multifactor authentication - EEP day/night - Ability to create EEP environments, Ability to open profile floater from mute list - Ability to sort login names on login page - Make favourite bar movable - Pop-Out profile from search - Transaction thresholds - Auto move lock (without a bridge).
... and lots of other features and improvements suggested by Genesis users.
Again, we urge our Test users to stay on the test builds as you will get these features long before they go into release and your feedback is vital to the project.
Please enjoy this first release of Genesis Viewer.
* We aim to incorporate all of the latest technology, but of course this takes time, so whilst most of the functionality is already supported, this remains an ongoing project.
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We very much hope that our current Genesis testers
