Will viewers without the Havoc library still connect to the main grid?

[Mircea Lobo]

We all know the story of LL removing the --loginuri parameter and OpenSim support, in favor of adding path finding to SL. The official Second Life viewer can no longer connect to OpenSim grids for this reason. However, I was wondering if it will also be the other way around; Will SL viewers without that Havoc library remain supported on the Linden grid, if someone doesn't care to see client-side physics?

I use both SL and OpenSim, and in the current context I'd need the SL viewer for SL and a custom viewer (like Firestorm) for OpenSim. But I don't want to maintain two viewers... and at the same time I don't give a damn about path finding and using it on the main grid. So I'd prefer to use the OpenSim viewer of choice to connect to the Linden grid too.

Currently this still works. The opensim version of Firestorm as well as the Teapot viewer connect well to the main grid. But is there a risk of this changing, and logins being blocked for clients that don't have the Havoc library in the future? Or something else breaking if they don't? I assume not, but I'm still curious to know for sure.

[Innula Zenovka]

I have no idea what the answer is, but if you don't get one here, you might try asking in the SLU Alternative Viewers sub-forum, since the Firestorm devs do read that and post there a lot.

[Mircea Lobo]

Ok. It's not a Firestorm question specifically, I'm wondering about any custom viewer that doesn't have the Havoc library. Even if you'd download the official viewer's source code and manually compile it with --loginuri support (and of course without Havoc).

[Theresa Tennyson]

My understanding is that the Havok library in the viewer is only necessary for displaying and possibly editing the "havmesh" that pathfinding characters use. Everything else should work fine and you should still be able to go to a sim with pathfinding characters without the library in your viewer.

[Nalates Urriah]

The question is not that simple. But, the short answer is YES.

Firestorm is making 2 versions of their viewer. One with and one without Havok Library. They say both will connect to the SL grid. I base my yes answer on that.

As another said only the Navmesh display needs the Havok Library. So, you probably won't notice anything if your viewer is without the Library. You'll only notice if you are working with Pathfinding.

What I am more concerned about is what will happen when the Avatar Baking goes server side. Other grids are not going to have that server side service. I haven't heard anything out of the OpenSim crowd about how that is going to work, It may very well drive a big wedge between the grids.

[Norton Burns]

It would probably be more effort to pull the SSB code out of the OSGrid version than leave it in. 

SSB viewers will still have fallback to the old system; so there should be no problem.

[Mircea Lobo]

Sounds like it's all good in that case, thanks. The navmesh display is the last thing I could imagine ever caring about, so it's no difference to me and I can stick to only one viewer (unless / until OpenSim goes on its own path and its viewer will not work with SL grids any more).

[Ansariel Hiller]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I have no idea what the answer is, but if you don't get one here, you might try asking in the

SLU Alternative Viewers

sub-forum, since the Firestorm devs do read that and post there a lot.

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While they might read there, not everyone is writing/answering there because it's actually a sanitorium for nutters!