Viewers

General Viewer Information

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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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.

Phoenix Viewer 1.5.2.1185 Released Review

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Today (8/2) the Firestorm-Phoenix team released a new version of the Phoenix Viewer. The announcement says a new griefer-crasher fix has been added along with several bug fixes. The full list is in the release notes. I’ll cover the ones I find interesting.

Phoenix Viewer Download and Release Notes

Blocking Phoenix

The rumor persists that Linden Lab will block Series 1 viewers. It doesn’t seem to matter how often the Lab says they won’t. Some rumors say all V1 viewers will be blocked. In general those rumors come from people misunderstanding what has been said and what will happen.

Rate of Change Continues to Climb

Most Series 1 or alternately labeled V1 viewers will never render mesh. The changes needed to a V1 viewer to accommodate the mesh render pipeline are massive and complex. It is easier to just start over with V2 code and add V1 features. Adding V2 features to a V1 viewer require extensive rewriting and are time consuming, which is why we see the V1 viewers fallen farther and farther behind the V2 versions.

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New Login Screen Arrives

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Opensource Obscure has been warning us a new login screen was coming. It seems to be here. It came up in my SLViewer (2.8.3) this morning.

You can see what appears on the new screen here: http://viewer-login.agni.lindenlab.com/

The old screen can be seen here: http://secondlife.com/app/login – that may soon redirect to the new screen.

The New Splash Screen

Older viewers may still use the old splash screen and some Third Party Viewers (TPV) will too. The rumor is the URL redirection will at some point be set to allow the new splash screen on older viewers.

Some TPV’s will switch over from their own screen. Some will likely create custom splash screens.

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