#alchemyviewer — Public Fediverse posts

@AVILIFE Another thing that's important for Second-Life-to-OpenSim converts to know:

OpenSim does not generally have a list of viewers and viewer versions which it allows or doesn't allow. You are not limited to the latest three versions of Firestorm, nor are you generally limited to the latest version.

There are only two kinds of limitations.

One, the viewer should be sufficiently compatible with the OpenSim versions on the grids and sims you visit. The vast majority of the Hypergrid is running on OpenSim versions that have EEP, so your experience with a viewer that's so old that it still only supports Windlight may not be the best.

Two, some sims and some entire grids block certain versions of viewers or only allow certain versions, but for different reasons than Linden Lab.

For example, ZetaWorlds blocks Firestorm 7.1.9. The reason is because Firestorm 7.1.9 for OpenSim is so buggy that it poses a risk to the grid which puts stability and reliability above everything else. Firestorm 7.1.9 for Second Life was quite thoroughly tested, but of the 20 Firestorm devs, only one is a part-time OpenSim user, the other 19 are all only in Second Life. Thus, any and all testing of Firestorm for OpenSim is done by its users after the roll-out of a new version.

As far as Firestorm is concerned, OSgrid requires version 6.4.21 and newer because older versions may cause too big compatibility issues. At the same time, OSgrid lets Firestorm 7.1.9 in because it generally runs on a development version of OpenSim that already supports PBR.

And seriously, even though most other grids might allow you to use Firestorm 6.0.2 or even newer, that's no joy in times when almost all avatars use BoM which Firestorm 6.0.2 doesn't support yet.

Certain sims may have even stricter viewer version limits, especially version limits for Firestorm. They may only allow one or two versions. That's because the sim owners want to keep copybotters out. Copybot viewers can pretend towards OpenSim that they're legit versions of Firestorm. But they can only mimic versions of Firestorm that were out when their latest versions came out themselves.

A copybot viewer that came out before Firestorm 6.6.17 may be able to mimic Firestorm 6.6.14 and older, so a paranoid sim owner may take anything that identifies as Firestorm 6.6.14 or older as a potential copybot viewer that's being used to steal non-copyable content from the sim.

However, a copybot viewer that came out before Firestorm 6.6.17 cannot mimic Firestorm 6.6.17 or 7.1.9 because the devs of that copybot viewer can't look into the future and know the next Firestorm versions beforehand. So if a viewer identifies as Firestorm 6.6.17, it is Firestorm 6.6.17, which means that this version can be trusted for now.

Thus, Firestorm 6.6.17 and 7.1.9 are allowed on these sims, and Firestorm 6.6.14 and older aren't because the risk is too high for them being copybot viewers.

The reason why Alchemy no longer works with OpenSim is not on OpenSim's side. It rather looks like the Alchemy devs decided not to bother with extra development for OpenSim anymore, probably because none of them is in OpenSim, and simply threw any and all OpenSim-specific code out once and for all.

Install Alchemy, launch it and look at it. The total lack of a grid selection field at the bottom that'd allow you to log into something else than Second Life is not a compatibility bug. It's a fully intentional design decision.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #OpenSim #OpenSimulator #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #FirestormViewer #AlchemyViewer

@AVILIFE

Currently SL forced an update that has made firestorm and alchemy unable to support opensim at the moment.

Don't worry. If you have Firestorm for OpenSim installed right now, Linden Lab cannot do anything to make this installed Firestorm incompatible with OpenSim.

In order to be able to do that, they would have to either force files onto your computer with admin/root rights and change something that has nothing to do with Second Life or force OpenSim to change something that breaks compatibility with Firestorm for OpenSim. And Linden Lab has no power over Ubit Umarov and the other OpenSim devs.

Also, no new Firestorm release has come out since version 7.1.9, the first version with PBR support and multi-threading. That version works about as well with OpenSim as it does with Second Life. If you check the Firestorm website, the blog has no newer post than the 7.1.9 announcement. So there's nothing indicating compatibility breakage with OpenSim in a current or future release.

If you've read somewhere that Firestorm drops OpenSim support, check the date. It's probably from 2019. That's way, way, way outdated.

(By the way, you've downloaded and installed Firestorm for OpenSim, right? You can't use OpenSim with Firestorm for Second Life. These two are different.)

As for Alchemy, I've read somewhere that they've dropped OpenSim support altogether a year ago even though they halfway advertise it here and there. Currently, the only viewers that support OpenSim are Firestorm, the Cool VL Viewer and Radegast which is text-only with no graphics.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #SecondLife #OpenSim #OpenSimulator #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #FirestormViewer #AlchemyViewer #CoolVLViewer