Version 1.4.0

Forum Link: Original Post

Colin Linden

Second Life 1.4.0 June 15, 2004
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More detailed information on the new features in Second Life 1.4 can be found in the starter guide that can be found at http://secondlife.com/download/guides.php

Audio
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Audio in Second Life has been improved, with a rewrite of the core audio engine. New features and improvements to existing features include:

- HTTP audio streaming on a per-parcel basis. You can specify an HTTP audio stream on a parcel from the parcel properties pane, which will be played on a parcel if the user has enabled streaming audio.

- Audio can now be localized to your parcel by checking the "Local Sound(?)" check box in the parcel options dialog. This is the equivalent of putting that parcel inside a soundproof box - no outside sounds will be played in the parcel, and none of your sounds will be heard outside of the parcel.

Bug fixes and improvements include:

- Mute no longer requires a restart to take effect, and will properly stop transfers of audio data.

- Sound preloads should no longer dramatically decrease the performance of viewers in the area.

- Much improved prioritization of audio downloads.

- Improved prioritization of playback priority - in particular, looped sounds should work much more effectively.

New Vehicle modes
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- Camera/mouse-driven vehicle control - vehicle turns in direction of camera.

- Camera can be either object-relative (look to the left and vehicle keeps turning left) or world-relative (look to the north, and vehicle turns to the north).

Custom Animations
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- You can upload animations from Poser 4 or 5 by exporting .BVH files

- Various settings can be changed for the animation, at upload time only.

- New script call - LLGetAnimationList() returns a list of all active animations.

- Animations can be triggered by scripts by name if and only if they sit in the object inventory.

Custom Gestures
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- Gestures have been changed significantly for the 1.4 release. They now reside in your inventory as items, and can be copied and traded.

- Gestures can now be composed of multiple steps, which can be animations, sounds, chat, and pauses.

XML-RPC
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- XML-RPC has been completed and integrated into the 1.4 release. See Preview guide and scripting documentation for more information.

Object Transmission
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- Transmission of objects to you from the servers is much improved, with better allocation of bandwith by importance of the object.

Inventory
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- Faster inventory downloads.

- Separate library for common items. Inventory items that are shared by everyone are not stored in an Inventory Library.

Improved Build Tools
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- Object position/rotation/scale always visible (which one you see depends on which tool is active).

- Rotation now works at 1 degree increments, from 0 to 359 degrees.

- New rotation snap tool allows you to quickly align object axes along world axes.

- Streamlined all manipulator tools (only important information shown)

Scripting Language Changes
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- LSL state changes to the same state no longer trigger either state_exit or state_entry events.

- Fixed a compiler problem where repeated compiles weren't cleaning out all temporary data.

- Fixed texture typo in llSetPrimitiveParams.

- Parenthesis weren't evaluating to the correct type.

Private Islands
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- You can set the sun position to a fixed location on your estate.

- It is now possible to have different terrain textures on different simulators.

- There are now access/ban lists for estate owners.

Minor Changes/Bug Fixes
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- Bandwidth settings are now a single slider, from 50 to 1000Kbps in 50 Kbps increments. The default is 300Kbps.

- There is no longer an "Audio Download" indicator - there is now a separate graph in the debug panel for "Asset", which keeps track of how much bandwidth is being used to download audio files and animation files.

- Paying someone via the "Find" directory now includes the user to be paid in the dialog.

- Hovering the mouse over land with no scripts allowed shows "No Scripts" in the tooltip.

- Delete key behavior changed. If focus is in a text editor and delete will actually delete something, then delete the text. Otherwise try to delete selected object in world.

- Land selection highlight now correct when selecting land across a simulator boundary.

- There is now a "Partner" field in your profile.

- Officers can modify group parcel access even if the group isn't currently set as active.

- Improved fast UI update mechanism.

- "Recenter every click" option has been deprecated.

- Teleport blocked message is more informative.

- Fixed bugs that would occasionally result in incorrect updating of terrain at edges of simulators.

- Added one new tree type.

- There is now a nighttime brightness slider in the Preferences/Display panel.

Various scripting language fixes:
- if (vector) should now work properly
- for (i=0,j=0;...) should work properly
- script interface now includes integer in XML-RPC return message
- fixed torus parameters in llSetPrimitiveParams