KirstenLee has the new release candidate of S21(8) out. This one has 3D. This is anaglyph 3D, the red and blue shift image one looks at using blue/red glasses. 3D is not the only change, but it is the big change you can see on your screen.

Second Life 3D

3D in Second Life

We are seeing more 3D in theaters and 3D TV’s are on the market. There are several types of 3D. Anaglyph was first used in movies in the 1950’s. Eclipse, Interference, Pulfrich, Spectral, Lenticular, and Autosterioscopic with all except the last two requiring some type of glasses to view. Anaglyphic glasses are cheap running from US$0.03 (Amazon) to $10. Glasses for Eclipse (shutter glasses) are typically over $100.

Nvidia has an Eclipse system that works with their video cards (US$130-$150) and is primarily for computer games. Eclipse  and anaglyph type of 3D has been around for Second Life for some time (See New World Notes – How To Display Second Life in 3D – 2009  and in 2007 VWR-2972 and VWR-25697 in 2011). Linden Lab has not designed their viewer to work with 3D systems. One has to hack and compile their own version to add the links needed to get it working. Also, the cost of the shutter glasses system has kept 3D from being popular. Also the graphics load is roughly doubled for Eclipse. Plus your monitor really needs to be capable of 120hz operation for good Eclipse viewing. Most good monitors are 60hz, double what you eyes need for regular viewing. 

One can set their nVida to generate anaglyphic images and use the cheap red/blue glasses. In which case, the 3D viewing would be independent of any particular viewer. Kirsten’s change means one does not have to deal with the patches SL seems to need to implement anaglyphic viewing. Anaglyphic is not as great a load on the graphics card as Eclipse.

I’m new to this idea of 3D and Second Life. So, I may have some of this wrong. I did some quick research this morning and I need to do some more.

3D/Stereoscopic Second Life Settings

You can turn on the feature in: S21→Preferences→Graphics→Advanced→Misc

Mine on my 8800 GTS didn’t work. I suppose that is why it is a Release Candidate. The image shows my purple outfit in normal view on the left.  (The sculpty walk is hiding my N-Core shoes 🙁  ) The KV modified view in the right. Oops.

At this point I don’t yet know if it is me or KV that is the problem. More research is needed. I’ll probably update this later today.

Mac Fixes

Mac users will be happy that many of the Mac specific problems, mostly shadows stuff, have been fixed. There is a more complete list of fixes and changes here: Download KirstenLee Viewer s21(8).

Experience

Download and install is same as always, I’m in a hurry today… click Viewers→KirstenLee Viewerto read the details on download and install details in previous articles.

The viewer is running about 25 to 30 FPS and slows by about 10 FPS when I turn on 3D.

I’ll probably write more later today.