Another beta version was released May 31. I’m just seeing it. They are much better about posting their change logs over at Modular Systems.
One interesting change is the inclusion of negative chat channels… for those of us that deal with HUD’s and other scripted items that must communicate, this should make testing easier. If it allows me to select negative channels to listen to… that could recreate problems for those writing combat meters. I can instantly think of ways to easy create problems for a couple of the meters I use. I’ll have to look at that.
Today Modular is announcing the release of a new Emerald Viewer Beta version. Yay!!! \o/
5/30 – Emerald Beta build 2028 is out. I don’t see a date or any new information at Modular. The Google wiki is not up to date. So, I’ll have to dig through the forums to find any new news.
They are warning this is an unsupported version. Plus it has known bugs… like which viewer doesn’t? So, this is bleeding edge technology. But, it has some nice new stuff.
Some of the new features are undocumented. What is a Growl Notification? Update: I found out what Growl is. It is a tool for getting notifications from SL while you are doing something else. It is a downloaded app. See Growl for Windows.
There is a new graphics setting page in the Preferences’ Emerald tab. (Page 2 – Graphics). There are new settings there. Fast Alpha has some problems. Check the image for the new page.
Both Second Life (SL) and OpenSim (OS) are advancing; changes, updates, events, people. Several are small things that I doubt deserve their own post but are worth noting. Also, I’m part of a Myst-Uru fan community. So, some things come from far outside the normal SL/OS circles.
If you are following this blog you know KirstenLee is updating her viewer faster than I can keep up with. She has also written about what a hassle it is working with some of the new 2.0 viewer code. I have no doubt the Modular people working on Emerald have several challenges adapting all their features to the new 2.0 style viewer.
I’m not plugged into Modular’s developers’ channel so things seem pretty quite to me. I have great hopes for Modular’s next release of Emerald.
If you need detailed step-by-step instructions use the link above. Below I’ve provided the quick summary. Also, this type of setup works with the SL viewer. Be warned that both the SL and Emerald viewers have some grid hopping gotcha’s, which I’ll get to.
Viewers are changing rapidly and there is lots of new information and mis-information. For Combat RPG’s some of the information is critical. (Continued from GreenLife Emerald Viewer Review)
Update 12/3/09: This viewer updates rapidly. I have made several posts here about the different features being added to Greenlife Emerald viewer and provided reviews. There is a trail of links you can read through to read them in order. Or you can click on the Archive page and select the Emerald Viewer Reviews to see all the posts that relate.
Most of the new viewers have a thing some call Radar and in Emerald it is labeled Avatar List (Ctrl-Shift-a or via menu Emerald -> Avatar List). In some other places in Emerald it is referred to as radar. In Emerald it is a handy floater listing all the nearby avatars and some handy information. See the image.
Once upon a time the mini-map was called radar, until Linen Lab renamed it for a better new player experience. But that is not the radar usually meant in comabt SIM’s.
Radar in Second Life previously was a script in a prim or HUD that used a SCAN feature in Second Life’s LSL scripting language. SCAN’s are notorious for creating lag. It’s just the way it works in SL. Good programmers avoid it as much as possible. Combat SIM operators simply ban prim/hud based radars or any high lag producers within their games. There are several reasons for the radar ban with lag being the biggest one. Since prim/HUD based radars were the only ones in existence, SIM operators never bothered to specify which types radars were banned or why, they just simply said radar is banned.
