The Quick Graphics Viewer is out. Some people are having some problems with the viewer. A semi-clean install seems to fix the problem. So, what’s semi-clean install?
Hell Is Other People
- Restart your computer. Do NOT start the viewer.
- Download the viewer from Second Life Download.
- Find your install folder, usually C:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLifeViewer (Windows)
- Delete it. This deletion will not erase your settings, cache, inventory cache, or chat logs.
- Install the SL Viewer using the file you downloaded. The installer will say you already have it installed and ask if you want to install anyways. Yes.
- Try it.
It appears some file or files are not being over written in an upgrade install. I suspect that is caused by the SL viewer shutting down cleanly. But, instead crashing somewhere along the shutdown procedure. There is no way to avoid a shutdown problem if you do the automatic upgrade. With a manual upgrade you can close the viewer, restart the computer, and install the new version you download.
Not everyone is having problems. I suspect it is just those that are having crash problems. So, I don’t recommend this procedure for everyone.
I know Firestorm highly recommends every version of their viewer be installed in a clean install process. It takes a bit more effort and I wonder why they have not yet changed their install tool to handle all the backup, removal, and upgrade-install, and settings restore. Sometimes I do a clean install. Most of the time I just install over the existing install. It usually works.
But, if a new version is giving me problems right out of the box, my first trouble shooting step is to do a backup, manual removal, and upgrade-install… a clean install. I save my chat logs, settings, and caches. If that fails I remove the chat logs, settings, and caches and try again.
In testing this install to see if there were any side effects from the step by step above, I find all runs fine. I also seem to have much better FPS (frames per Second) than before I did the semi-clean re-install. Even with Google running I was getting 20-40FPS with Sun/Moon/Projector enabled. I’ll have to spend more time using the newly promoted Quick Graphics viewer before I decide if the semi-clean install actually helped.
Norton AV
Some are having problems related to Norton Anti-Virus. Some have had to uninstall Norton using the Norton removal tool and then reinstall Norton-AV.
In general the problem is having your chat posted echoed back to you, so you see it twice. Firestorm users seem to see this more than others, but we don’t have good numbers for comparison.