Viewers

General Viewer Information

Dolphin Viewer 3 (3.0.10) Review

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Lance has release a new version of the Dolphin Viewer. A problem with it not saving your preferences has been fixed.

Download & Install

This one is a very standard download and install. Nothing new and no gotcha’s to deal with.

Experience

I stumbled across the Local Bitmap Browser that has apparently been part of the Dolphin Viewer since version 3.0.9. This feature allows you to work with textures on your hard disc without having to pay an upload fee. This is like the Temp Uploads in other viewers with some nice differences.

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New Development Viewers

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I came across an old wiki page that is getting new updates. Rob Linden started the page in 2006. For the last few months Oz Linden and Wolfpup Lowenhar have been updating the page almost weekly. If you are interested in what is going on in viewer development, you may find the page interesting.

Downloading test builds

You can get versions of development viewers made by the Snowstorm Team and TPV Developers.

Be warned that these viewers may have more or less problems than the current stable release of the SLViewer or related TPV.

The Snowstorm download on the ‘test builds’ page seem to the the same link found on the Snowstorm Project page.

The latest Snowstorm Development Viewer is: Second Life 3-1-1-242785 Development.

Exodus Viewer Feature Explanations

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Thursday a new post appeared on the Exodus Viewer blog explaining two features of this new viewer. HDR and FXAA. I had guessed, wrongly, that the HDR was High Definition Render. It is High Dynamic Range. My guess average is sliding down…

Exodus Viewer

The article provides a good explanation of the subject terms HDR and FXAA. But, they don’t explain all the terms they use, like MSAA and others. So, I’ll give a try at an explanation too.

HDR

HDR or HDRI is High Dynamic Range Imaging. Exodus explains it and you can find more detailed information in the Wikipedia: HDRI.

If you have used film based photography or the older digital cameras you have run into RANGE problems. Neither could handle the range of bright and dark the eye can see. So, photographs and digital images never looked quite real because we could not see detail in the bright or dark areas of a picture. The top edge of tire in a car’s wheel well would disappear into the black of the wheel well.

Photoshop users can correct the problem to some extent using LEVELS or CURVES.

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Consumers’ Guide to Mesh Clothes

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Tateru Nino of Dwell On It linked to Satiated Desires’ post, A consumer’s guide to Second Life mesh.  This is a must read for Second Life resident considering buying mesh clothes. No tech or geek, just the stuff you want to know.

If you think I’m geeky when explaining mesh, check out Satiated Desires. Satiated explains things in plain English.

I did notice one inaccuracy. When one rezzes mesh for the first time one cannot be sure the creator understood how many prims the object actually costs. Everyone is learning. Also, if you scale it up or down, you can increase the Land Impact cost. This can trigger things to return when its Land Impact cost exceeds the land’s limit.

Satiated says this could cause part of your home to be returned. Until recently the things returned were unpredictable. The Lindens have been working on that. Now the most recently changed thing should be returned. In most cases that will be the mesh object you just rezzed.

 

Exodus Viewer Review Initial Release

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There is a new kid on the block… The Exodus Viewer has just been released as a beta version. I got a download. \o/ Seems there was a minor goof. If you downloaded in the first couple of hours, you need to get a new download. Something about the settings not saving.

The viewer is based on SLV 3.0.6 code.

A New Viewer

FAQ

There is a FAQ page up on the Exodus site. It provides developer names, SL names. None tie to RL names. So, I’m curious if anyone knows the developers?

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