Linux status

[animats]

Here's the status of viewers on Linux, as I see it:

LL viewer:

• Windows version will run under Wine 6.0, but the updater will report "Failed to execute script SLVersionChecker". The viewer will still run. The installer may crash but the installation succeeds anyway. LL refused to handle bug reports on this because Linux is not supported.

Firestorm viewer:

• Firestorm 6.4.21.64531 for Linux runs fine on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. This version does not include the ability to upload meshes, because that's Havok code. However, voice works, provided that Wine 6.0 is installed. There may be problems with DLL files being needed to get voice to work. (Firestorm doesn't know what Vivox's dependencies are, so the error messages are poor.)
• Firestorm 6.4.21.64531 for Windows mostly runs fine under Wine 6.0 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Random crashes on teleports. Region crossings work. This version can upload meshes. Firestorm support refuses to handle bug reports on this because Firestorm under Wine is not supported. (Any help on this would be appreciated. I don't have a Windows development tool set, so I can't build Firestorm with debug symbols and run it under a debugger. Someone who has all the MSVC tools could probably diagnose this quickly.)

So it's still possible to run on LInux. Everything almost works. If anybody cared, this could work perfectly.

 

[Candide LeMay]

3 hours ago, animats said:

Firestorm 6.4.21.64531 for Linux runs fine on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. This version does not include the ability to upload meshes, because that's Havok code.

The only thing viewers without havok can't do is to use the decomposition of physics shapes into havok specific hulls. You can still supply your own physics shape and upload meshes fine. This may or may not be a drawback based on what you're uploading, but "does not include ability to upload meshes" is nonsense.

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

I agree with Candide, I am using the Linux versions of Singularity, CoolVlViewer, Firestorm, and all are quite satisfactory for mesh uploads.

[Coffee Pancake]

No havok also means you lose access to the pathfinding & physics navmesh.

[Henri Beauchamp]

The Cool VL Viewer is (and has always been) primarily a Linux viewer, since 2007.

It can do everything the official SL Windows viewer can do (and more, such as Lua viewer-side scripting), with the exception of the ”path finding capsule” visualization (because there is no Open Source alternative for the closed source Havok code it uses), including uploading meshes with Physics decompositions (based on HACD, which replaces Havok for this task).

Edited July 29, 2021 by Henri Beauchamp

[Candide LeMay]

2 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

The Cool VL Viewer is (and has always been) primarily a Linux viewer, since 2007.

It can do everything the official SL Windows viewer can do (and more, such as Lua viewer-side scripting), with the exception of the ”path finding capsule” visualization (because there is no Open Source alternative for the closed source Havok code it uses), including uploading meshes with Physics decompositions (based on HACD, which replaces Havok for this task).

I got curious so I tested uploading a simple mesh in FS with havok hulls, itself as the physics shape and then uploading it from CoolVL with its hull decomposition.

The wall is thinner than 0.5m so this produces the infamous "why can't I get through the door" problem with non-analyzed physics shapes. I'm happy to report that the hulls produced by CoolVL work just as well as havok hulls in this case and my "door" was working properly. Good jorb Henri!