realXtend 0.3 has been released and is available for download from http://www.realxtend.org/page.php?pg=downloads. The realXtend July release includes exciting new avatar features definitely worth checking out.

Inside information about the server performance: In our internal tests we run the new server in a very old AMD Athlon 3400+ single core with 1 Gig ram using the livingroom world. 10 people logged in about the same time with empty caches in their viewers and the server run just fine. The peak memory consumption was around 450 Mb while the server was sending the asset packages to the clients.

Change log for the 0.3 viewer:

- Avatar generator integrated to the viewer
- New avatar generator interface
- Inverse kinematics for avatars
- Skype plugin
- Address bar
- Action icon system
- Optional Ogre renderer object selection mode (hold down Z key to use)
- Attachments now have proper names
- New avatars (Jack, Kate, Roboto)
- New attachments
- Animated avatar meshes now require an xml file that contains specifications for the animations & appearance controls the avatar contains
- Avatar attachments may now be attached to the avatar itself, not just to a specific bone
- Avatar attachments may now be rotated / scaled in the attachment tool
- Avatar attachments may now be skeletally animated, provided they share the skeleton with the avatar or that the animations have same names as the avatar's animations
- Physically simulated clothes for avatars
- Body morph controls for avatars
- Selectable walk style for avatars
- Ogre avatar animations can be used in gestures
- Maximum prim size increased to 128x128x128
- Maximum hollowness of prims increased to 99%
- Destination world address is sent to Authentication server when logging in so that it can verify one is logging into the right world
- Disabled renderer toggle in Second Life mode (because in SL mode Ogre renders an empty world)
- Fixed few rare crash bugs.
- Fixed crash if server does not send Capabilities response on login
- Fixed bug with local avatar loading when Windows username contains non-ASCII characters

And the server 0.3 changelog looks like this:

- Merged Opensim code (revision 4238), physics code uses Opensim revision 5082
- truststore.xml works now as a banlist
- Support for new avatar system (*)
- IK animation support (*)
- Adjustable walk speed for avatars (*)
- Skype support (*)
- Personal global inventory (*)
- Global friendlist (*)
- Several bug fixes (including DNS resolve fix, llisten works from python)
(* = requires realXtend Viewer 0.3)

New video showing new and cool avatar face technology is available at http://www.realxtend.org/page.php?pg=media. The video features FaceGen technology: how to create your own face and how it looks inside realXtend. The end part of the video has been recorded with the latest development version of the realXtend viewer.