Karl's Crowdsourced Second Life Mesh Fix Update: Linden Lab Working With Him, But Progress is Delayed

Remember the Kickstarter-style fundraiser to pay former Linden Lab graphics developer Karl Stiefvater $5400 to fix SL mesh so that it can better fit avatars? As first reported by Gianna Borgnine, there's good and bad news there: Linden Lab is now working with Karl to make his improvements part of the official SL viewer. But because of that, progress is being delayed.

"Oz Linden gave me a call," Karl confirms to me. "They want to play nice. The idea is to start a dialog now so we can maximize the chance Linden Lab will accept it when it's done. My feeling is this is the best possible result at this point. But it also adds delays: I don't have a reply to my initial spec, and I've switched to a different project while I wait. So."

So it looks like Karl's fixes, when they're implemented, will be accessible by all SLers. And for that very reason, that also means those fixes may take awhile to come.

Comments

[DMC Jurassic]

This is really a critical fix necessary to make the new mesh assets viable from both content creators perspective and end users.

[Nickola Martynov]

The reason we put up this money is because LL said 'someday maybe' on the project. While I think it would be lovely if LL cooperated, I'd rather get the job done and implemented in TPVs than wait until that fabled someday.

As a shareholder :-) I suggest that if they don't get back to Qarl by first thing Nov 21st, he should just go ahead without them.

[Kim]

I say fast-track it for Firestorm and other TPVs, then let the Lindens catch up if and when they feel like it.

[Chaotic]

All I can say is, I'm glad I didn't have the money at the time when donations were being accepted. If I had donated money, I would be extremely upset that the direction of the project had changed.

[bongo]

Is their a refund button on kickstarter?.. do they give back their percentage? Or is all this web2.0 just really kick another in the balls?

[Hitomi Tiponi]

I am surprised at the negative reaction to this. Surely it is much better if all, or as many as possible of the, viewers see the same thing. Otherwise we will be back to the days of the extra attachment points on Phoenix (actually we have those in Viewer 3.2.1 as it adopts two new attachment points not available in all viewers)

[foneco zuzu]

I don't regret at all the money i donate and wish that LL and Karl really work together and solve the problem, even if it means long time fort that!
But LL needs to be aware that other grids are also showing fast progress and stability, a lot more then Sl grid these days and with economical crisis all over, seeing all days Sims being closed, and still terrible issues with full sims, homestead performances not solved yet, really mesh is a thing that can wait, Improving servers, fixing long known critical bugs and lower tiers, that can't wait much more!

[Carol]

so SL users collect money to get a quick fix, then LL comes in and puts the project on hold ...

shouldn't they pay Karl then? and the users get their donated money back?

[shockwave yareach]

I am very glad to hear that LL is going along with it and will incorporate Karl's fixes. The delays are inevitable -- the only folks able to instantly fix code are people who are working totally alone and don't have to sync up with anyone. You all who contributed should be happy with this -- you're getting not just a fix for the TPVs but also a fix in the LL viewer so newbs coming in will also see the right things. And LL will be very loathe to change something that will break their own viewers, though they won't care if a nonofficial TPV "addon" that's not part of the original LL design gets busted. Having this incorporated into LL's viewer means a common experience for everyone and no worries about it breaking one day.

It's worth the wait. And Good Luck to you Karl.

[qarl]

guys - don't read too much into this - they haven't put the project on hold - this isn't a change in direction - the sky is not falling.

this is good news.

best,

K.

[Ezra]

Not even sure how significant the mentioning of a 'delay' actually is. Linden Lab's been quite fast this year in rolling out new features so I'm confident.

This scenario of Qarl working with Linden Lab from the get-go is much better than a gunslinger standoff weeks down the road over whether or not Linden Lab actually merges the code a whole lot of folks paid for. This should be entirely reassuring, not discouraging in the least bit.

[sirhc desantis]

No horse in this race personally but does look like good news all around. And yes - them thar delays ain't nowhere near as bad as they used to be.

[Amanda]

I am disgusted by this. Granted, I did not contribute to the original fund, but only because I'd just been made redundant and did not have the funds to be able to do so.

So, LL puts the parametrically rigged mesh issue on the back burner with the status 'sometime/maybe' and when a private fund is raised to get the necessary TPV fix created by an ex LL employee and succeeds in raising the necessary capital, LL are suddenly interested again? Really?

So, we had the chance to get the fix for TPVs and give people what they wanted and some had paid for and now that LL are involved again, getting the fix to THEIR cock up for free, they put it on the back burner once more.