In our continuing effort to improve the Second Life experience, Second Life 1.8.0 is scheduled for release on Tuesday, December 13, 2005. The grid will be down from 6am to 12pm PT/SLT. A viewer update will be required to use 1.8.0.
The release notes are as follows:
Second Life 1.8.0 Dec 13, 2005
====================
+++Major Features:+++
* Point-to-point teleportation is now available in Second Life
** Residents may teleport freely to and from locations they are allowed to access
** The landing point on a parcel is determined by the location set by the land owner with the About Land > Options > Landing Point > Set button
*** If no landing point is set on a parcel, the resident will be delivered as close to the location specified on the map as possible.
** Estate owners may choose whether to allow teleport via point-to-point or Telehubs
** The Z coordinate is honored; teleporting (or logging in) to your Castle in the Sky will now put you directly there!
** Telehubs on the mainland now show up as Infohubs on the map.
** Teleports from "Offer Teleport" ignore landing points.
** "Show Telehub Coverage" no longer shown on map.
** Parcel owners can block teleports onto their land.
+++Minor Features:+++
* Ripple effect for water can now be turned on in the Graphics preference pane
** Ripple water uses the graphics card's pixel shading to create more realistic looking water
** The functionality will only be available for machines with cards supporting pixel shading
*** Turning on this feature will cause viewer FPS to drop to some degree on some machines, so it is not enabled by default
* Improved In-world Classified Ad System
** The new scheme features the following changes:
*** The new starting price for ads has been decreased from L$250 to L$50 for a one-week run
*** Dynamic pricing of ads
**** The poster determines the price they pay for the posting (starting at L$50)
*** Direct teleportation links are now embedded within each ad
*** The list of ads can be sorted by the price paid to post the ad (from high to low, or low to high)
*** We have also improved the interface to make it more intuitive to residents
+++Scripting Changes:+++
--- New LSL functions:---
* llMapDestination(string simname, vector position, vector lookat)
** Shows a given location on the map.
** Works in attachments, or during touch events.
** The "lookat" value is currently not in use, but will be in a later version
* llAddToLandBanList(key avatar, float hours)
** Add an avatar to the parcel ban list for the given duration.
* llRemoveFromLandPassList(key avatar)
** Remove an avatar from the parcel pass list for the given duration.
* llRemoveFromLandBanList(key avatar)
** Remove an avatar from the parcel ban list for the given duration.
---Changed LSL functions:---
* llAddToLandPassList(key avatar, float hours)
** Avatars can now be added to the parcel pass list with no time limit by passing 0 as the hours parameter.
---Future LSL functions:---
* llTeleportAgent(key avatar, string simname, vector position, vector lookat) (?)
** Teleport an avatar at a location (requires agent permission)
+++Bug Fixes:+++
* Viewer no longer becomes unresponsive the first time you open the Finder
* Show Updates debug option once again working as expected
* Objects are no longer momentarily visible at <0,0,0> before moving to their correct position
* Resolved a crash that occurred after declining an offer of inventory
* Fixed a crash when dragging texture onto base terrain swatch in Region/Estate tools
* Fixed some simulator crashes