Imprudence Viewer Experimental 2010.10.17

Even if you are not an Imprudence user this is an important read.

The Imprudence team has a new release of the Experimental (Imprudence beta) viewer out. The building tools in Imprudence continue to improve. Also the Imprudence site is doing a good job of listing the changes in each new release. Rather than repeat that information here I think I’ll just touch on the changes I find interesting.

The Imprudence Viewer download and information. 

The building tool now shows the link number in linked sets of prims. For those of us that script this is a really nice addition.

Settings Files – Viewer Start Crashes

This version is the first TPV, AFAIK, to say something about separating the viewers settings. Some viewers place their settings files in a special location. Typically:

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Imprudence\user_settings

I’ve suspected the settings files were causing some problems when people upgraded or when they run multiple viewers. I had started experimenting with clearing these files to fix ‘crash on start up‘ problems.

Recently I’ve run into problem when installing new viewers, I’m up to 15 different ‘brands’ and versions. I install one and then several others suddenly stop working. I now make additional Restore Points so I can easily reverse unpredictable changes made by new installs.

One extreme example is the Naali Viewer. It appears to make some changes to the DirectX files in the system. That impacts all other graphics programs on the computer. Naali is for use with simulators running RealXtend’s version of OpenSim. (Note: While it may not be Naali’s fault, things went sideways for me after its install.)

If one looks in the ‘Roaming’ folder they can see which viewers use separate settings files.

  • Hippo
  • Imprudence
  • In-Worldz
  • Kirstens
  • Meerkat
  • OpenLife
  • RealXtend
  • Second Life

Any viewer not in that list is likely using the Second Life file settings location. Phoenix is an obvious omission. If one checks the date and time on files in the Second Life folder as they use a viewer, they can confirm whether or not the viewer is using the SL settings files. If so, and update or change in the viewer of the SL viewer can cause problems in the other viewer.

Imprudence now places the Experimental viewer’s settings and cache in folders separate from the main viewer. I think that suggests there are more problems associated with these files than I thought.

Can one safely delete these files. Yes. One loses all their viewer settings when they do. The viewer reverts back to the defaults for their hardware, which can force the cache back to the SL cache. Sharing caches has its own set of problems. Also, depending on whether you do a total deletion, everything in the Roaming\Imprudence folder, or just delete the user_settings folder, you may also wipe out chat/IM logs.

OpenSim

Imprudence Viewer is very popular on the OSGrid, OpenSim’s big grid. The previous two updates on OSGrid and the recent Imprudence updates have given me fits. My avatar was ghosting EVERY time I logged in, which is why I have so many ghosting and inventory fixes listed in articles here. I can see both the viewer response and the simulator console errors as an avatar renders and inventory loads.

Today I am running both a new release of OSGrid simulator software and a new version of the Imprudence Experimental viewer. While I can’t say one or the other has been the problem I can say these two are working well together.

Now if Imprudence just had mesh upload…

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