Kirsten Returns: New Version of Shadowdraft Available

After a relatively long and definitely lamented absence from coding open source Second Life viewers, clever Ms. KirstenLee Cinquetti posts news on her blog today: a new version of her Shadowdraft client, which incorporates Lindens' dynamic lighting code still not implemented in the official viewers, is available for download. Get it here, the "S17" file. And consider hitting the PayPal donation button on her blog, to encourage Kirsten's shadows to keep coming.

Comments

[Marianne McCann]

/me still wishes someone with enough gumption could do a Mac savvy shadow client.

[qarl]

Marianne - my understanding is that the shadows just won't work (yet) on the mac. apple's open gl drivers are missing some necessary functionality...

[Foobar Merlin]

crash at login

[Patchouli Wooollahra]

qarl:

my understanding is that the shadows just won't work (yet) on the mac. apple's open gl drivers are missing some necessary functionality...

Seeing as Apple is the company in charge of releasing graphics drivers on Apple Macs, I fear this state of matters will only be remedied by massive pressure from companies that need it.

Yeah, Autodesk, looking at you too.

[Zoe Visconti]

i crash too during login

[Tary Allen]

I crash at login too (I have Vista and a nvidia 8600). I wanted some much to see the shadows!

[Detail Deviltry]

uh, Hamlet, is she compliant with the GPL this time? This person keeps violating the GPL. I don't see any evidence that this distribution is GPL compliant.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

Aw jeez, are we going to start with the GPL enforcement nonsense again? Here's a big hint - the code is publicly available (albeit obfuscated) as render-pipeline from Linden Lab's beta source trees.

If she's not altering it too much this time and/or is regularly contributing her changes to the code back to LL as source patches, stop bugging her dammit. Go bother the correct code archive already. She's not making one iota of coin from building and distributing this client, and if she does as I suggested, I see no reason to harass her on her problems with GPL compliance if she complies to the major points.

[Detail Deviltry]

@Patchouli Woolhara

No, Kirsten modified and delivers the application, she has to make the code available. Them's the rules. Either play by them or find another game.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

I'm very pleased with this version, other than the changes to the pie menu. The previous version, despite claims that it was much more stable, actually crashed more often than the Linden client on my machine. But Kirsten's got it right with this one; I can run this for hours, it seems, and no problems at all.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

@Detail:

And if she contributes it back into render-pipeline for patching at LL? a code tree which is publicly available? (albeit not accessed as often due to its alpha status)

I would consider this to fulfil the FOSS requirement that upgrades and alterations to FOSS code be republished openly.

[Hamlet Au]

"Either play by them or find another game."

Devilty, as I recall, KristenLee previously had trouble finding a way to subsidize hosting the code online. If you're so concerned about compliance, perhaps you could volunteer to help her out?

[Details Deviltry]

Blameshifting Fail.

If KirstenLee has problems distributing the source than s/he shouldn't shouldn't have accepted the responsiblities implied in the license when s/he made the binary available to people.

S/he doesn't even have to *host* the code online. All s/he has to do is make the code "available".
KL could mail CDs to people who request it. KL could use a service like YouSendIt to get it out.

And actually, how hard is it to zip your files up and post the code to some free repository online? There are tons of them. Sourceforge?

You could look into that site, rather than asking snide, motorized-goalposts style questions of users who question one of your apparent favorites. Why? Because, after much pressure, apparently KL did:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kirstensviewers

Boy, that was hard to do, eh?

[Hamlet Au]

DD, you didn't answer my question, which I suppose is an answer in itself. Open source licenses were largely created to enable a community of developers who could help each other share resources and innovation. It's interesting (if strange) that some people seem to understand the letter of open source, but not its spirit. To be sure, others seem to grasp the spirit of open source but are a little lax with the letter. Seems to me the best thing for everyone is if both sides would try to help each other in good faith-- lest innovation gets stifled by legalistic antagonism. At that point, it's no better than coding for Microsoft. (Then again, I was just at a conference where an EFF lawyer praised the liberality of one of Microsoft's licenses, so maybe poles are getting reversed in this regard.)

[Archie Lukas]

Huzzah!!!
Kirsten is back

I love the S16 viewer and was wondered what to do when the next mandatory viewer upgrade was enforced by LL.

(Kirsten was reported as 'retired')

If you haven't tried it do; its faster, better graphics (side-by-side test)
and has a nice feel to it.

[Gareth Nelson]

Pointing to LL's source tree meets neither the spirit or the letter of the license.

The spirit is that you should be able to modify and redistribute the code however you like. The letter says you must provide "complete, corresponding" source code.

Who cares it's not done for money?
"I'm giving the finger to everyone who's contributed to the viewer, and to any users who want to make use of the rights they have by law, but at least i'm not making money in doing so!"

[Archie Lukas]

Damn

I amazed, what a load of whingy whiney bastards.
Go back to your cess pool and do not bother people who at least have the talent to try and improve something.

For fecks sake!!!

[Boy Lane]

That's a completely irresponsible posting, misleading people into using an instable crashing viewer that potentially will lead to loss of work and eventually even money. Without putting a warning here that this code is pre-alpha and not to be used in any production environment.

Boy

[Gareth Nelson]

"Here's a big hint - the code is publicly available (albeit obfuscated) as render-pipeline from Linden Lab's beta source trees."

I tested this earlier, putting aside the point that it obviously doesn't have Kirsten's name on it and thus violates the letter of the license (which could be tolerated if she claimed to be offering a mere compile), it lacks a whole pile of features in Kirsten's code and crashes fairly quickly.

To be clear though, Kirsten has I believed uploaded the source to sourceforge this time (haven't checked this, but I hear it's true).