Second Life 1.10.6 release on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006

Plans have changed, and we're going to release Second Life version 1.10.6 this week on Wednesday, July 12th 2006 pending final verification. Second Life will be unavailable from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM PDT/SLT for the update. New client software will be required to access 1.10.6.

The Preview grid for 1.10.6 is now available. Please check it out and report any issues. Grab a Second Life viewer for the preview from: http://secondlife.com/community/preview.php.

1.10.6 is planned to include:

* The PvP History option has been replaced by "Bumps, Hits, & Pushes" under the Help menu
* "Find" changed to "Search", default for new users is to search "All" content types
* Parcel "access denied" lines now fade significantly faster with distance
* Parcel owners can ban users based on account settings

Bug fixes:
* Banned users cannot be heard from your parcel
* The "Open" option appears when right-clicking a child prim of an object with contents
* The Linden Locations list now shows Mature areas
* Fixed a bug that prevented some offline IMs from appearing
* Fixed a bug with the INSERT key and text fields
* AGP enabled for additional graphics cards
* Small flexi objects are now rendered correctly
* Stars are back!


Full release notes to follow just before the release.

Joshua Linden

Below is an explanation of the three key changes in 1.10.6.

PvP Abuse has Returned
The "PvP Abuse" option has returned to the "Help" menu as the new and improved "Bumps, Pushes, & Hits" option. Instead of automatically opening each time you are bumped, it instead tracks any bumps, hits or pushes for your reference (along with a timestamp of when it occurred). We encourage Residents to use this information when filling out Abuse Reports.

Several Small "Find" Changes
1.10.6 includes several changes to the Find menu. First, "Find" has a new name, "Search". Also, the "All" tab has moved from the far right to the default position on the far left. Another new Search feature is that the default for all new users includes all content types (both Mature and PG) – this means when a new Resident opens their Search menu, they’ll be able to locate all content within Second Life immediately, regardless of where the item is located. The default state of the Events and Classified search remains the same (without "mature" selected as default).

Parcel Control Improvements
1.10.6 also includes several improvements to parcel controls for land owners to better control the access to their land.

The biggest improvement to parcel control is the ability to use the Account Type information to determine which Residents can access your parcel. This setting is located in the "Access" tab under "About Land". Land owners can choose to allow access only to accounts containing "Payment Info on File" (this means that the Resident has billing information in their profile but has not yet used it to purchase anything) or "Payment Info Used" (this means that the Resident has used the billing information in their account successfully) in their profiles. The default setting of "None" means that no restrictions are in place based upon Account Type.

The second change prevents Residents banned from your parcel from being able to stand next to it and harass you. With 1.10.6, anyone who has been banned is automatically muted and you won't be able to see their chat. The final change improves the aesthetics of the parcel ban lines – the "No Entry" lines now fade significantly faster as you move away from them.