New viewer

[victoravatar]

Let's talk about black dragon viewer 

[Fritigern Gothly]

How is Black Dragon new?

[NiranV Dean]

14 hours ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

How is Black Dragon new?

Eh according to users it is a new viewer every update!

[Fritigern Gothly]

28 minutes ago, NiranV Dean said:

Eh according to users it is a new viewer every update!

Niran, how long ago did you release the first version of Black Dragon? Alphas and betas also count IMO.

[Lokiande]

BDV is my new favorite viewer, great for epic photography PLUS with its fullscreen/windowless mode, ability to change text size, darker UI and darker default environment settings I don't get eyestrain as often!

Also the controls and shortcuts are neat ^^

[NiranV Dean]

3 hours ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

Niran, how long ago did you release the first version of Black Dragon? Alphas and betas also count IMO.

21th May 2013. Black Dragon Beta.

 

That's 3109 days, not including today.

• Or 8 years, 6 months, 3 days.
• Or 102 months, 3 days.
• 268 617 600 seconds
• 4 476 960 minutes
• 74 616 hours
• 3109 days
• 444 weeks and 1 day

 

If we count Nirans Viewer into Black Dragon's development cycle (which was its previous name before it turned into Black Dragon), which has been released 13th September 2011 that would be 3725 days.

• Or 10 years, 2 months, 11 days.

If we compare this to my account age: 6th January 2007 thats 5436 days.

• Or 14 years, 10 months, 18 days.

So roughly 4 years and 8 months after joining SL i started making my Viewer.

In this time i've released well over a 200 updates.

Edited November 24, 2021 by NiranV Dean

[Henri Beauchamp]

Wow... Useless stats and shameless bragging !... I can do it too ! 😜

Let's see...

Cool VL Viewer fact sheet:

- First Linux TPV. First still maintained TPV (it was the third, fourth or fifth released TPV, since there was Nicholaz Beresford's and Dale Glass' Windows viewers, and perhaps a couple others, before I released publicly mine, but none of them survived). Only still maintained (and kept on par with LL's current viewer features) v1 UI viewer.

- First (public) release on 2007-11-16: that's 14 years and a few days ago. I joined SL on 2006-10-06 and I made my own (private) viewer as soon as LL opened their viewer sources...

- Number of releases: I lost the exact count because of the various branches (up to 3 branches maintained in parallel) and releases per branch to count before I opened my own forum to announce them. For the ”stable”, ”experimental” and ”legacy” releases starting from v1.19 (i.e forgetting probably a couple dozens in the various v1.18.* branches), here is the count I just made:

v1.19.0/1/2: 90
v1.22.11: 11
v1.23.2/3/4: 18
v1.23.5: 37
v1.25.0: 41
v1.24/25: 42
v1.26.0: 32
v1.26.1: 9
v1.26.2: 26
v1.26.3: 9
v1.26.4: 99
v1.26.5: 22
v1.26.6: 21
v1.26.7: 21
v1.26.8: 94
v1.26.9: 37
v1.26.10: 21
v1.26.11: 21
v1.26.12: 50
v1.26.13: 19
v1.26.14: 14
v1.26.15: 13
v1.26.16: 16
v1.26.17: 14
v1.26.18: 36
v1.26.19: 38
v1.26.20: 50
v1.26.21: 17
v1.26.22: 67
v1.26.23: 19
v1.26.24: 24
v1.27.0: 4
v1.28.0: 20
v1.28.1: 10
v1.28.2: 48 and counting to date...

That's over 1100 releases to date...

So... What did I win ?... A cookie ? 🤣

Edited November 25, 2021 by Henri Beauchamp

[Jackson Redstar]

My Momma says viewers are like a box of chocolates - so many flavors and everyone has a favorite! 😆

[Ardy Lay]

4 hours ago, Jackson Redstar said:

My Momma says viewers are like a box of chocolates - so many flavors and everyone has a favorite! 😆

And don't forget the surprise allergens inside or that particular filling that you do not like.  EEW

17 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:

21th May 2013. Black Dragon Beta.

Nope.  Not "new".

6 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

First (public) release on 2007-11-16:

Nope.  Not "new".

But what's new got to do with it?  Oh, it's the topic!  So, is there a "new" (least old) Second Life viewer?

[Aishagain]

14 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Wow... Useless stats and shameless bragging !... I can do it too !

Aww lighten up Henri!  Niran WAS asked and I thought his response was quite amusing.  By the way I used your viewer too for many of my early years in SL and I can confirm that, like me,  Cool VL is definitely not new! 😁

Edited November 26, 2021 by Aishagain

[NiranV Dean]

7 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Wow... Useless stats and shameless bragging !... I can do it too ! 😜

Yea, that was in no way bragging, just a rough information dump, one that was particularly interesting for myself too since i have never actually counted.

On another note, i can't even tell how much releases i made since i don't have a way of counting them (other than manually scrolling through tens of thousands of commits...) but searching for my usual "Changed: Version to X.Y.Z i found 103 entries back until 2016. I guess i haven't noted version changes before 2016... and i've only just started with release tagging since i switched to Gitlab.

Another side note, as far as i can tell you have been doing weekly releases without fail. Assuming 56 weeks per year thats 784 releases, just one version. If you've been maintaining 3 versions that would push the number all the way up to at least 2352 releases. My release cycle on the other hand has never been stable nor with any system, i release whenever i feel like i have something to show (or whenever it is required due to a showstopper issue), this could range all the way from 3 releases a day (back in Nirans Viewer) down to 1 release roughly every month.

Another another side note, i knew you'd say something about this and i knew you'd blow me way out of the water, you have been around both as developer and as user far longer than i have been. I wouldn't even have started making my own Viewer if Kirstens hadn't stopped but i'm glad it happened, i learned a lot of interesting things and it only cost me my sanity and the feeling of surprise and joy whenever i see something that i don't know how it works. I truly learned the meaning of "ignorance is bliss".

[Henri Beauchamp]

33 minutes ago, NiranV Dean said:

Yea, that was in no way bragging

I did add the ”sticking out tongue” smiley for a purpose... I'm quite the teaser, you know. Don't take it as an attack, for it is not ! 🙂

Quote

Another side note, as far as i can tell you have been doing weekly releases without fail. Assuming 56 weeks per year thats 784 releases, just one version. If you've been maintaining 3 versions that would push the number all the way up to at least 2352 releases.

Err... On my calendar, the year counts 52 weeks, not 56... 🤣

As for the viewer branches, I do not always maintain three in parallel. The legacy branches only exist for a while whenever a breaking change happens in SL for ”old hardware”, such as the v1.19 branch (with 90 releases), which was the last up to date pre-Windlight viewer available to log into SL (many graphics cards could not do Windlight back in those days)... As for the experimental branches, they only exist when new features are introduced, that do need a lot of testing and debugging; the last such branch was for EEP (and the integration of the dual (WL+EE) renderer now available in my viewer). Finally, it also happens that I do not release a viewer on one particular week, whenever too few things happen on the coding front in SL.

Quote

Another another side note, i knew you'd say something about this and i knew you'd blow me way out of the water, you have been around both as developer and as user far longer than i have been. I wouldn't even have started making my own Viewer if Kirstens hadn't stopped but i'm glad it happened, i learned a lot of interesting things and it only cost me my sanity and the feeling of surprise and joy whenever i see something that i don't know how it works. I truly learned the meaning of ”ignorance is bliss”.

AFAIK, you and me are the only TPV coders/maintainers working alone on ”our” viewers, and our viewers are unique in the SL ecosystem, for they both provide unique features not seen in any other viewers. Believe me, I do respect you as a viewer developer, for I know first hand what it entails in term of dedication and perseverance !

But when I saw the breakdown of the years in days, hours, minutes and seconds, I laughed my ass out and just could not resist adding more (and bigger) numbers. 😜

Edited November 25, 2021 by Henri Beauchamp

[Kathlen Onyx]

1 hour ago, NiranV Dean said:

Assuming 56 weeks per year thats 784 releases, just one version.

 

1 hour ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Err... On my calendar, the year counts 52 weeks, not 56... 🤣

 

If you switch to the BDV do you get an extra 4 weeks in a year?  I might have to switch now!  You really should be advertising this new feature more aggressively. 🤩 

[NiranV Dean]

6 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Err... On my calendar, the year counts 52 weeks, not 56... 🤣

5 hours ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

If you switch to the BDV do you get an extra 4 weeks in a year?  I might have to switch now!  You really should be advertising this new feature more aggressively. 🤩 

Ah oof. 52, yea. Now where did the 56 come from. That still makes it 2184 releases though.

You sure 4 more weeks per year would be good? I'm pretty sure that just means working 4 more weeks per year, all of which are most likely unpaid. I could offer you a 25 hour day once a year though.

I suppose this is the explanation why i missed Halloween.

6 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

As for the viewer branches, I do not always maintain three in parallel. The legacy branches only exist for a while whenever a breaking change happens in SL for ”old hardware”, such as the v1.19 branch (with 90 releases), which was the last up to date pre-Windlight viewer available to log into SL (many graphics cards could not do Windlight back in those days)... As for the experimental branches, they only exist when new features are introduced, that do need a lot of testing and debugging; the last such branch was for EEP (and the integration of the dual (WL+EE) renderer now available in my viewer). Finally, it also happens that I do not release a viewer on one particular week, whenever too few things happen on the coding front in SL.

AFAIK, you and me are the only TPV coders/maintainers working alone on ”our” viewers, and our viewers are unique in the SL ecosystem, for they both provide unique features not seen in any other viewers. Believe me, I do respect you as a viewer developer, for I know first hand what it entails in term of dedication and perseverance !

But when I saw the breakdown of the years in days, hours, minutes and seconds, I laughed my ass out and just could not resist adding more (and bigger) numbers. 😜

Well even if we count an average of 1 update per week that would still be 728 updates.

If you mean truly alone then, yes. Any and all other Viewers have had at least another person work on the Viewer at some point.

I used a quick website to translate the years into days and it also spit out some fun stuff like seconds and a properly formatted bit (months, weeks, days etc). I like fun little details like this sometimes.

6 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Believe me, I do respect you as a viewer developer, for I know first hand what it entails in term of dedication and perseverance !

Also these are quite some big honoring words coming from you, color me surprised. You always had my deepest respect but i was never sure whether this was mutual. I'm glad knowing that it is.

Edited November 26, 2021 by NiranV Dean