Viewers

General Viewer Information

Qarl’s Alignment

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I found a post by Innula Zenovka on SLUniverse that says Qarl has donated his prim alignment tool code to Linden Lab. I wrote about the tool in October of 2010: Qarl Fizz Prim Alignment Tool. I included Qarl’s video about how the tool works and have copied it to this post too. The original development announcement can be found on Qarl’s blog as: setting things straight. Check out the JIRA links at the end.

[youtube 7UCeU8ItZGA]

You can see Qarl’s blog post about it here: thank you, back. Qarl links to Tateru’s article:  How to send Qarl money. It seems someone sent Qarl some money. As a way of saying thanks to whoever that was, Qarl donated the code to the Lab.

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Cool VL 1.26.3 Release Review

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There is a new version of the Cool Viewer out. I haven’t been keeping up with it because it uses the older V1 User Interface. But, I wanted to check it out. I’ve learned a few things that should be included in any review of Cool VL Viewer and may be about any V1 viewer. I’ve covered several points that affect all users regardless of viewer used, so you may want to skim this even if you are not interested in Cool VL. But, you are sure to learn some surprising things about Cool.

Get V1, V2, and V3 Right

In Second Life we have our own jargon when talking about SL. For instance the whole virtual world is mesh. Press Ctrl-Shift-R to see it. But, we call only some things mesh. We mean the new things we can make with ‘mesh’ models made in Blender and 3DS Max or Maya.

Cool VL Viewer 1.26.3 - Me Wearing Mesh Top

Our references to viewers and what code they are based on tends to be via shortened version numbers, thus; V1, V2, and V3. The problem now is that we no longer have viewers based purely on any one version of Linden Lab’s code.

Cool VL was based on Snow Globe code. Technically Snow Globe is version 1.5. However, that was a beginning point for Cool VL. It is no longer made from pure Snow Globe code. Code from the Lab’s version 2 and 3 are now part of Cool VL.

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Dolphin Viewer 3.2.3 (22899) Released Review

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A new version of the Dolphin Viewer 3 (DV3) is out. This release includes code from the Lab’s Shining branch and version 3.2.6. The fixes from the Shining branch should correct OpenGL compatibility problems for those with newer graphics cards.

Shadows in Dolphin Viewer 3

The compatibility issues have been around since mid 2011 and became a serious problem for those using nVidia 460 cards. See: nVidia Driver GTX 460 Problems. As more people updated to new 400 and 500 series cards we saw more problems. I think since the 3.2.3 versions we have been seeing fewer problems. But, there is supposedly more of the shining fixes in 3.2.6 than any of the previous versions. Whatever the case, I’m not having problems with my GTX560.

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#SL Viewer Performance

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Inara Prey recently wrote an article on Comparative Viewer Frame Rate performance. It is a handy reference. It took lots of effort to collect those numbers, which is why I seldom do rigorous tests.

Somewhat surprisingly it is the Linden Lab’s 3.2.5 viewer that is the fastest in the comparisons. I use the Development viewer 3.2.6, which is a little faster for me than 3.2.5.

The Lab’s viewers have not updated over the holidays. We may see some updates today or tomorrow. I suspect the Lindens are just getting back from the holidays and getting back into things. Also, it is a new year. People are fresh from a break and we may see some things change as they look at things with fresh eyes. Time will tell.

The main viewer is now 3.2.4. The beta version is 3.2.5. And the development viewer is 3.2.6.

The 3.2.6 is said to be the release with most of the Shining branch’s OpenGL fixes and changes for compatibility. I’ve been using a 3.2.6 version since December 12th (246465) with four updates; 246560, 246813, 246889, and now 246959. Of that series the 246959 version is the fastest, but not by much on my system.

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Milkshake Viewer

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The Milkshake Viewer definitely started out as a personal viewer shared with a few friends. Thanks to Facebook’s confusing security controls news of a new fun viewer leaked to the world. Now the complexion of Milkshake is changing. It seems to be becoming more open and out there. A support policy, instructions for using the AO, and more information are appearing in the Milkshake part of Codeplex site.

While using the features of a repository service to provide a wiki and forum is unusual, it works for other development projects. It’s just out of the norm for what we see in SL related projects… or has been.

Cinder’s support policy is simple. You are pretty much on your own. There is no way Cinder can develop the viewer and provide support. So, Cinder has made it clear use of the discussion and issue tracking sections of Codeplex are the support channels.

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#SL Exodus Viewer News and Changes

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The Exodus viewer has some quick fixes added and version Beta 7 (12-01-03b) has been released. The version numbering in the blog and in the viewer is a little different. One uses 12-01-03b and the other 12.01.03.1… and they are Beta 5, 6, and 7… which is a little confusing.

The alpha textures render problem is fixed. My HUD’s are now usable and the tree outside my house looks right through the window.

The Animation Overrider (AO) has a bug and may crash the viewer when the note card loads. That may be from the LL bug that has a fix now in testing in the release channels. All three release channels are running the same server maintenance pack and one of the fixes is about a problem with note cards.

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