Questions Questions...

Well, as Firestorm hold the grid back with their unreasonable month delay in getting Fitted Mesh on the grid, leaving business and users in Limbo while they delay the adoption of fitted mesh, I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday this cropped up.
As I dont know where it came from, I wont include the names...

"Won't take long for TPVs to update to it. it's just copying two files over.
You can even do it yourself. In the viewer install directory there is a folder called 'character', copy the avatar_lad.xml and avatar_skeleton.xml from LL's 'character' directory to the TPV's 'character' directory.
And that's it. There are a few changes for AMD cards to fix some bugs, but overall this all that needs to be done for most people."

Now I wouldnt recommend actually doing this as all sorts of things may go wrong.
However.

[2014/02/20 15:50]  ********* *****: just tried that myself, on FS and seeing Fitted Mesh just fine

So... lets just get this straight.

1/ Go in to the firestorm directory on your PC, copy and back up avatar_lad.xml and avatar_skeleton.xml from the Characters folders.
2/ Download and install the official Linden Lab Viewer. Find the character directory and copy avatar_lad.xml and avatar_skeleton.xml, then go back to the Firestorm folder, and paste them in to the character folder.

Fitted Mesh now works? Apparently it does.

I have had a separate conversation with someone in the know since then, and I was told in a round about way, this is actually how it is. Patching over the AMD card bugs isnt difficult either and the whole process should take a few hours at max. It just a matter of sending out an update.

This leaves me with a large and concerning question.
If users can technically update their own viewer by copying across two files (for the majority to cases) and apparently its a few hours work to convert a viewer to Fitted Mesh, then why is it Firestorm are delaying the release of Fitted Mesh on the grid by an entire MONTH?

I will leave you to try and work that one out as to me, it doesnt make any sense at all unless they are deliberately doing this.