Second Life

Things about SL

nVidia Driver GTX 460 Problems

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It seems a number of people are no longer able to open SLViewer version 2.7.4 and newer. The problem apparently started in June 2011. So, what is the problem and what is the fix?

nVidia and Second Life Shaders

Some change in the Second Life render pipeline’s shader code has created a problem between the nVidia driver and the OpenGL drivers used by Linden Lab in the viewer. It appears the nVidia GeForce GTX 460 card with any driver newer than 260.99 has a problem.  If the graphics level is set at the default or on High or Ultra, the viewer crashes on login.

The problem does not exist in the nVidia driver 260.99 WHQL and presumably earlier drivers.

Updated 8/15: See TIMOTHY LOTTES‘ article NVIDIA FXAA.

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Second Life Statistics

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In April the signup process for Second Life changed. Since then we have seen a sustained increase in sign ups. Sign ups have gone from averaging about 10,000 per day to around 15,000 per day. It is a pretty good increase.

User Signups per Day

We don’t have any numbers on how many are staying after they signup. The empirical evidence I have says there are more new people in SL. Many places that I go now have new players. There seems to be many more new player questions in the forums. But, that is totally subjective and it does not give any idea of how long they may be staying.

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Phoenix to Firestorm Viewer Tutorial

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One of the impressive things about the Phoenix-Firestorm (PH/FS) team is the documentation they are creating for their viewers. From what I see being asked in the PH/FS group and SL Forum I suspect many PH/FS users are unaware of the documentation to be found in the team’s PH/FS Wiki.

Phoenix to Firestorm Migration

I suspect one of the most over looked yet useful articles in the PH/FS Wiki is the Migration Guide. The article is short, by my thinking, just 750 words. It does link to a YouTube video: V1’ify Your Firestorm Experience! The video runs about 12 minutes.

[youtube 3y4PH0rczJQ]

The underlying theme in the Migration Guide is to tweak the Version 2 viewer Interface to be more like the Version 1 Viewer Interface. Having this flexibility built into Firestorm allows for a more pleasant migration experience.

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Script Counts and Fun Hair

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Some weeks ago I was astounded when I saw some people wearing 800 to 900 scripts. Since then I have been watching my script weight. I even went to the Market Place and got a scale, so I could weight myself. That feature is built into some viewers. But, I use some viewers that do not have that feature. Here are some interesting things I learned.

Weight Conscious - Weight Your Scripts

Weight Your Scripts

Once I started weighing scripts (with a free scale) I learned that some of my jewelry was a bigger problem than my hair. Literally some of the jewelry’s sizing and coloring scripts number in the hundreds. I knew hair typically has hundreds of scripts. But, jewelry?

Also, some of the hair I thought I had cleaned scripts out of, still had a load of scripts. With my script scale, I realized that and went to work cleaning them out.

Neat Animations

Animation Overriders (AO) HUD’s have scripts. Several viewers now have built-in AO, so a HUD is not needed. Switching from viewer to viewer during the day and installing 1 or 2 new viewers, or at least new versions, per week it is easier to use a HUD based AO. I love my sexy runway walk and I’m not giving it up. With my nails, hair, AO, and other necessary HUD’s my script count is 8 with 272kb of memory used. Not bad.

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SL Notice Attachments Fail to Open

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This is an old problem that has returned. You belong to a group, you get a Notice with an attachment. You click the attachment expecting a Note Card or Landmark to open. But, nothing happens. If you’re lucky to can go to the group’s list of notices, open the notice, click the attachment, and have it work. Or maybe not.

I’ve been noticing this in SLViewers 2.? and up. The first report was with viewer 2.0.0. My current Second Life 2.8.3 (237297) has the problem. I suppose it could be the server. Whichever is the case the bug is reported as a viewer bug. See the JIRA item SVC-7129.

If you are having the problem, please drop by the JIRA and click Vote and Watch. If you don’t already know, the Lindens look at the Watch number. I am sure they do not completely ignore the Vote number. But, attention comes to those things with high a Watch number.

Favorite Social Network?

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Daniel Voyager is taking a poll of which network is your favorite. Jump over and give a click.

See: Which social networking site is your favorite for Second Life in 2011?

Some choices are not what I would consider social networks, but that is just me. I suppose I can see how Flickr might be a social network. I just never thought of it that way.

With 16 votes Twitter is leading… we need more votes to get an idea of where SL Residents hang out.

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