Viewers

General Viewer Information

Can’t Login Second Life

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There is a known problem with login going around. It is not the only login problem. However, the Firestorm-Phoenix team and Lance of Dolphin Viewer fame have provided suggestions for those using their viewers and described the problem. There are possible fixes, if your login problem is from the Viewer 3 Bug in mesh capable viewers, that’s my name for it…

A possible fix is to login with a pre-mesh capable viewer. Once your in, you can logoff and come back with a Viewer 3 version. This problem affects all viewers using SLViewer 3 code, which is all of the new Third Party Viewers with mesh render ability. I think the problem started to appear with version 2.8.something. Any viewer prior to 2.8 should be able to clear the problem.

Another suggested fix is to change your DNS service. When making a change most switch over to the Google public DNS. You can Google for instructions on how to do that on your system. A trick they do not tell you when changing your DNS service is to ping the services you are currently using and the Google services. Place the service with the fastest ping as your preferred first choice. Make the slower of Google or your current DNS the second choice. To make your system more robust use 3 or 4 DNS addresses.

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Dolphin Viewer 3 Version 3.0.3.20418 Review

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Another third party viewer (TPV) releases a mesh capable viewer. Dolphin 3 Viewer is the latest. See the announcement on the Dolphin Viewer blog.

The article lists the features now in Dolphin Viewer 3. Some are features that have been in the SLViewer 2 and 3 for a time. Some are Dolphin features not in the SLViewer. The current combination of features makes Dolphin Viewer 3 one of more feature rich power-user viewers.

BIG TIP for Blocked Login

I’ve seen a number of people complaining about not being able to login. This is a problem thought to be in the Linden Lab code for version 3 viewers, basically mesh capable viewers. Once one runs into the problem it seems to be very difficult to get around it and get logged in. This problem is not Dolphin Viewer problem. It is an SL problem.

Lance provides a work around for the problem. He suggests logging in with a non-mesh viewer. Once logged in, you can log out and come back with mesh enabled viewer. Why this works probably has something to do with the mesh up load enablement flags, but that is a guess on my part.

Mesh Render Capable

The Dolphin Viewer 3 will render mesh. It will not allow you to upload mesh. Uploading requires a special set of calculations handled by the Havok Physics Engine. A TPV developer must purchase a license from Havok to use the same software the Lab licensed from Havok and uses.

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Kirsten Viewer Stops Development

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KirstenLee announced that due to health issues within the RL family, development on the Kirsten Viewer will stop.

You can read the announcement here: Sad Farewell

Image by: migasun of Flickr

The end of the Kirsten Viewer is a great disappoint for many of us. The Kirsten Viewer has been the cutting edge viewer. It built on Linden Lab technology. It has better renders and dynamic shadows than the Lab’s viewers. That cutting edge is gone.

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Firestorm Viewer Mesh Beta

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The Firestorm/Phoenix Team is releasing a mesh capable viewer. However, the Internet connection to their site is having problems. A main trunk line was cut by some kind of construction. It should be repaired sometime Thursday. So, if you have trouble getting to the site, don’t freak.

Information about the Firestorm Mesh Viewer 3.0.1.22525 is on the blog site, if you can get to it. I find the site a little slow, but working. The download came down without a problem.

Problems

Jessica tells us that under normal circumstances they would not be releasing a viewer with this many problems. But, the demand for a mesh version of the viewer is so high, they decided to release it bugs and all. There are some serious bugs. Read the bug list in the wiki. Hot LL JIRA Issues Of The Day. These are serious problems as in Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) serious. So, read the list before you decide to install it.

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Review Cool VL Viewer for Second Life

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I don’t write much about the Cool VL (Virtual Life) Viewer a viewer made/maintained by Henri Beauchamp. However, if you are using any viewer for Second Life or OpenSim, you are likely running some of Henri’s code. I won’t try to itemize all of his contributions to the SL and OpenSim communities. I will say his contributions and name shows up in many places. Today I saw that the Cool VL Viewer, formerly Cool SL Viewer, has a new release: 1.0.26.0.16 – 2011-08-27. So, I wanted to take a look at it.

Mesh Support Issue

You can learn about the viewer on the viewer’s web site:  SLDev.free.fr. You can Download Cool VL Viewer here.

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Minor Mesh Problems

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Several people have not been able to upload Mesh in ADITI, the preview grid, but they can in AGNI, the main grid. Most often this is because they have not run through the Intellectual Property thing for ADITI. Yes, you have to do it twice, once for AGNI and once for ADITI. For ADITI visit:  https://secondlife.aditi.lindenlab.com/

Also, after viewer and server updates some people are crashing when the attempt to tp to the mesh sandboxes. See: VWR-26698

Also, the 3.0.0 has a video gotcha that causes some people problems. If you are having a problem, visit the Snowstorm Page and get a copy of the latest development viewer. There are some video fixes included that have helped some users.

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