A new Phoenix Hour meeting was last week. I’ve indexed the video below. You’ll see indexing after the summary. You can find the video here: Phoenix Hour Oct. 18, 2011.
Summary
There is not much new information this week. I decided to condense it down to quick summary.
Both Firestorm and Phoenix are waiting on Linden Lab fixes to problems in the V3 code. That means we do not know when we will see the next release of either. Last week several adoption blockers were discussed. Most of those are now taken care of, so the next release probably won’t be a beta.
Also, the next release of both viewers will have mesh rendering. Firestorm almost has a working mesh upload. They will also include a right click feature to have the selected texture download from the server. This is for those things that just simply won’t rez.
Currently there are problems with OpenGL. Something like 50% of users cannot turn on basic shaders without crashing the viewer. GPU table fixes and OpenGL fixes are needed to correct the problems. There are additional login problems that all viewers are experiencing. Some login fails are due to inventory problems. The next release will have a much improved inventory.
The FS/PH Team is unhappy with the Lindens building a new user interface in secret. That is likely to make problems for all the Third Party Viewer Dev’s.
FS/PH Support was a large part of the show. We did get some tips on a couple of the most common problems. The largest being Bake Fail. Which is when your avatar does not render or mis-renders. When running into bake fail AVOID CLEARING THE CACHE. Instead change your active group, change your ‘bald’, and/or press rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R).
Blurry textures and textures going blurry after a rebake are another common problem. To fix that in the Phoenix viewer there is a Preference to set the number of concurrent texture requests. Reduce that setting by half. An additional step is to reduce the texture memory setting by 25%. As a last resort turn of HTTP Get Texture.
Mac users are running into DNS problems. These manifest as connection fails. The easy fix is to flush the DNS cache. Next check your anti-virus. If that is not doing it, change the DNS servers you use. Google for how to make those changes. They are not SL specific, just Mac specific.
Show Index
00:00 to 02:44 – Introductions.
03:15 – When will Phoenix have mesh? The mesh code is in PH repository now, meaning it is almost ready. It is in FS Beta now but its buggy. 50% of users can’t use basic shaders because of mesh render problems and GPU table problems. Table fixes and OpenGL fixes are in progress. The current FS Beta went to FS testing group. There is no ETA for the fix and viewer release. Same for FS. Most adoption blockers have been fixed.
09:00 – There have been problems logging into SL w/FS. FS viewer goes into Not Responding. Large inventory is a contributing factor. Inventory taking forever to load is another problem. A new fix makes inventory much better and much faster. Opening a second inventory window is instant. The fix will be in next release.
12:02 – New User Interface and changes: Linden Lab working in secret is a problem. For one thing it cuts off feedback. Remember 2.0. FS/PH team somewhat upset.
14:30 – Other side of working in secret story.
16:50 – Support stuff
18:00 – Support staff suggests everyone needs to go to the FS/PH classes… 4 basic classes, customizing, 2 on preferences, 1 covers all menu items.
Viewer crash rates are 15% of crashes from form the viewer. The rest are caused by LL, connection problems or bad viewer settings.
FS/PH AO classes are coming. Classes on other viewer features are coming.
20:56 – Bake Fail – Top issue FS/PH deals with. FS/PH support hands out note cards. The Wiki lists various fixes. Don’t clear cache.
23:09 – Cache Clear Rant – explains cache, last thing to do is clear cache.
24:50 – Curing bake fail, change group, change bald, rebake.
29:00 – Right click reload texture new feature FS force server to resent texture.
30:35 – Break – 33:00
33:40 – About Wiki w/information about wiki. RTFW = read The Fine Wiki is a basic support team seniment. It has PH and FS sections.
36:15 – OpenGL issues
37:00 – Blurry textures – seen after one bakes and then the texture goes blurry. Cut HTTP requests in half, reduce texture memory setting to 75%, and turn off HTTP get texture, which requires a cache clear. Changing HTTP Get can cause cache corruption.
40:00 – JIRA issues
41:00 – Mac Issues DNS Problems – FS Dns error. Look at AV Avaste, DNS flush change DNS server crash on to, no friends… change dns Google and Open DNS – FS & V3
44:15 – Inventory jumping – inventory scrolls/jumps when a friend comes online or you get a note card. This is fixed for next viewer release.
46:00 – Lots of fixes and features in next release.
50:00 – LL support has been helping PH/FS support. Izzy Linden is a big help.
51:00 – FS/PH Halloween Party 10/29 – 2 Pm SLT will be on blog and will send LM via support group.
52:30 – Q&A Start – PH Inventory slow loading and incomplete. Switch to FS for instant inventory. Comes in clumps/blocks. V1 does it item by item and gets tired…
54:30 – current use and crash – PH most stable last 2 months – FS very stable
55:50 – Will FS have mesh import, yes. Some physics problems but mostly working.
56:30 – Review of hour.
60:00 – End