1.21 RC1 is available

THIS IS THE FORUM THREAD FOR DISCUSSION OF RC1!
[NOTE: I will be reading and checking this Thread twice per day on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. When RC2 is released, this thread will be closed. Also, due to time constraints, I will not be able to respond to other threads. Thank you again for all the great feedback!
-Ramzi Linden]


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We are releasing the second iteration of the new Viewer 1.21 Release Candidate (RC1). Please help us to identify new bugs (and try out the new features) before it becomes an official download for Second Life.

(Participating in the Release Candidate viewers is completely optional. You may install this viewer side-by-side with the official 1.20 viewer that you normally use.)

We have addressed some of the bugs that appeared in RC0, but not all bugs you have reported in the Issue Tracker. A complete list for RC1 is available in the Release Notes page:
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Release_Candidate/1.21

We still need your help to find crashes and other feedback! We have improved the precision of crash information that we receive when you send us Crash Reports. With the reports that you send us from RC1, we will be able to create a more stable RC2 and RC3 viewer.

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NOTE: Because of a number of known bugs, we have made this RC1 viewer an optional upgrade from the previous Release Candidate. This RC1 fails to run on a Mac PowerPC again. For PowerPC users, please wait for RC2 before upgrading your Release Candidate.
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Please visit the Test Viewers page to download the 1.21 RC1 viewer at your convenience:
http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php#download-Testviewers

Be sure to report new issues at jira.secondlife.com and set the "Affects Version/s" to "1.21 Release Candidate."

expected: normal log in
results: 'login failed' message

Downloaded and logged in with no problem. Let's see how this one performs.

Second Life 1.21.1 (95603) Sep 3 2008 10:09:14 (Second Life Release Candidate)
PU: Intel Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon (0.25 micron process) with external L2 cache (2669 MHz)
Memory: 2048 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 8600 GT/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 2.1.1

Logged in without problems, too. Liked "Enter Second Life" more.

Will test today, how this one works, the first RC was not bad at all. But i noticed already the first bugfix - SLURLS open correct again. Nice.

Excellent! Frame rate has improved dramatically and I was even able to bump up my draw distance another 100m before the lag light went red.

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Model Name: MacBook Pro 17"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP21.00A5.B08
SMC Version: 1.14f5

Ramez, if you use the tags your URL's will be click able, like this:

It makes life easyer when you refer us to several links

Frame rate looks lots better - but I would prefer to read the frame rate and other information from the lcd screen of my Logitech G15 display. I bought this keyboard just for this feature, but it isn't supported in the RC anymore --> VWR-8553.

/me agrees - the frame rate does seem a lot better with RC1. Yay, Ramzi! I'm still crashing, though. Boo, Ramzi!

Ramzi, any sorta general guidelines on how long we should stick with it if we're crashing, say, once an hour? If we seem to have the same sort of crash over and over, does it actually help you guys if we keep sending them in?

I understand that many things can cause it to crash and that things that look the same from a user perspective aren't always the same. Just wondering if you have any general thoughts on this..

Also, does the crash info we send back get automatically parsed into some sort of signature? I'm wondering about the possibility of ever having the crash reporter say something like "thanks but we've seen this one 1000 times - you can go back to to the previous version for now" or "hey, a new crash - ty for sending it! please keep running this version and sending crash dumps so we can squash this bug" sort of thing.

I agree. I tested between 1.20 and 1.21 RC1 (identical settings), and the framerate do seem to be the same. Congrats on that.

Well it doesn't do what RC 0 did with my XP system (and what I had never seen before in any viewer-yes, I must have been lucky...)-crash within 20 minutes due to a memory leak the size of Alaska-RC0 just kept eating away at my RAM and when it reached a page file size of 2 Gig, it just crashed. RC1 doesn't. This is a definite improvement!

First time using it. Crashed when I appeared, dropped to desktop.

But it is an early RC so that is ok

Other than that when I did log in with it, everything look Mahvelous.

Was on today with RC1 for over 2 hours with no crashes at all and I had 10 more FPS than I did with RC0.

So far, so good.

Better then the RC0! Will see, 1 random crash so far!

Random folders are showing as empty, which gave me a heart attack,
but when I switched to the regular client, they were there and intact.

Is there a way to refresh the Inventory view other than relogging in?

Not really... That's pretty much it, just clear cache and relog. I know I ran into that problem when I installed RC0 because I never did really uninstall the 1.20.xx RC and 1.21.xx is using the same folder... Talk about a mish-mash... (>_<

Chii, also note that SL is having network issues...

http://status.secondlifegrid.net/2008/09/05/post233/

Since inventory servers were specifically mentioned in that posting, I wouldn't be surprised if some inventory showed missing, hopefully only temporarily, until this is cleared up.

Yep, clearing the cache lets the viewer build the Inventory list correctly.
I forgot about that trick.

And I keep separate cache directories for the various SL clients, within
a temp disk which I clear out manually now and then.

DAMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNN

I cant stop crashing every 5 minutes. FIX this crap...... Can't the crap thats always broke be fixed yet?? Its so fun to log on & to get crashed out log back on crash back off.

Whenever I TP into a new area it seems to take the new RC's (This happen in RC0 as well) a long time to download all of the various images and textures, so there is a lot of grey. I also notice this when other avatars tp in and they seem to take for ever to rez. I have the settings the same in both the RC and the 1.20 client, and there is no problem with the display in 1.20. Hope this helps.

Maybe it doesn't like the size of that ginormous signature?

It would not be alone..

broken avies are back with this release. I haven't see this glitich since ...1.13.. ?
Avatar suddenly looks like their head is up their butt. I took snaps, but i see i cant post attachments

1.21 RC1 so far is the best viewer for a Macbook Pro ever!! you know, the one with the ever popular nvidia 8600mGT. The extremely slow rezzing issue in RC0 is gone for me. great fix. while using matched preferences, approximate rez time at home was >3 mins on RC0, >2 mins on RC1, <45 seconds on 1.20. cleared cache for each session. Definitely noticed an improvement in fps which now seems comparable to Windows on the same hardware. Used to get 2-10fps, now I'm in the 15-30 fps range and it looks amazing!

I do wish it was more stable, not sure if it's the thread monitoring but I'm experiencing severe system and viewer freezing and it doesn't always crash after 20 seconds. freezes last for about a minute, stop for a second, freezes for another minute. after a few relogs and a cache clearing things seems to stabilize.

new features?
as for the button semantics between "Connect", "Enter SL", and "Login", it doesn't really matter, stop changing stuff that doesn't need changing. lol I did actually laugh the first time I read "Enter Second Life"... "Connect" wasn't good enough or too confusing?

this is the first time I've ever felt like i need to change my chat color - high contrast, vibrant colors that are hard to read. again: ain't broke, don't fix.

Release Keys has moved? FINALLY!!! joy!! that one deserves a beer.

continuing to evaluate RC1, looking forward to RC2. Awesome Viewer, Great Job!

This Version runs really nice for me. I love it.. BUT!
Regarding Web tab in our profiles
Is it just me? Or are the options to view web page not working? Load , Or open doesn't seem to work for me all of a sudden

I just tried RC1, having read all the good reports. Unfortunately, for me the frame rate is WAY down compared to 1.20. About 3-4 fps.

No crashes... works great, memory error is even fixed... great job.

Most stable version I ever had seen... been online for more then 12 hours.