Kohua has a new viewer out (3.8.4-37026). This one has an updated RLV. They can’t really test it because no one at Kokua is a RLV user. So, if your into the RLV feature use, help ‘em out.
Viewers
General Viewer Information
Avatar Complexity Update Week 37
Second Life™ is getting a new tool to hopefully induce people to reduce avatar generated lag; the Avatar Complexity Rating. I’ve written about it before and I am trying to play with the Project Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.4.304761, which adds avatar complexity settings and notices.
The notice that appears in the upper right of the screen just after login tells you your avatar complexity number. I suggested that it be colored, green good and red bad, just as the Show Avatar Render Complexity Information (ARC) display does.
Instead, they added a link in the notice to this SL Wiki page: Avatar Rendering Complexity.
They note the other factors that can cause avatars to be rendered a Jelly Babies;
- total attachment surface area
- total attachment byte size
You can change the values of these settings in Debug Settings. See:
- RenderAvatarMaxNonImposters – The maximum number of avatars closest to your camera who may be fully rendered. Avatars beyond those will be rendered as ‘imposters’, which means that the rendering will be a little simpler and they will be updated less frequently. Increasing this value can cost you in performance if you’re in a crowd. This does not cause them to render as Jelly Babies.
- RenderAvatarMaxComplexity – Any avatars over this complexity will be drawn as solid color outlines. Changing this value directly may cause problems; use the slider in the advanced graphics preferences floater.
- RenderAutoMuteSurfaceAreaLimit –The limit for the total surface area of attachments before switching to solid color rendering. The default (10 million square meters) is intended to protect against deliberate abuse and should rarely be encountered.
- RenderAutoMuteByteLimit – The limit for the total number of bytes of attachments before switching to solid color rendering. The default (10 million bytes) is intended to protect against deliberate abuse and should rarely be encountered.
As you may have guessed, the last two are mostly to stop some griefing issues. But, those settings can be used to improve viewer performance.
Changing RenderAvatarMaxComplexity in the Debug Settings doesn’t seem to be a problem. Whether I change it in the Preferences panel as the Lindens recommend or in Debug Settings the change is reflected in the other. But, getting to the Preferences setting is much easier. Whether changing the setting there affects other settings not affected by using the Debug Setting, I have no information. It is a possibility, but I have not seen anything that leads me to think that happens. But, this is a Project Viewer and it will change.
Link to more pages below…
Second Life Quick Graphics Updated
As of 9/3 we have a new version of Project Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.4.304761.
My first experiences using it are not good. Within 5 minutes is was getting 2 or 3 FPS and going Not Responding. Memory use wasn’t all that high, 1.3gb. But, using System Explorer (free program) and clearing memory still helps.
The main viewer, Second Life 3.8.3 (304115), ran much better. So, unless you are wanting to play with the Graphics Settings feature or Complexity Settings, you may want to wait a couple of weeks before you try it.
Second Life Bits Week 36
Loki Eliot has an article up on why we aren’t hearing much about Experience Tools or seeing much in the way of ‘Experiences’. See: Where are the Seamless Experiences?
SL Streaming
In an earlier post I wrote of YouTube Gaming. Below is a recording of someone using it and streaming motion-capture into Second Life™. Hamlet has a mention of it too: Motion Capture Dancing Streamed Live Into SL! The video is an hour and 42 minutes… I have video starting the stream where you can see the avatar following Jessyka Richard as she does her thing.
All the details you need to connect up a system and do this are pointed to by Hamlet in another article: How to Connect Kinect Motion Capture to Your SL Avatar. It leads you to: Kinect, Rinions, and Second Life.
Zombie Eye in Second Life
It isn’t contagious. This problem passed quickly, I think. I didn’t run into it, so it is hard for me to know. But, it revealed another part of how the Second Life™ system works.
Backend Serve updates – there are a number of backend services needed to support Second Life. When the Lab is changing/updating them they generally provide no public notice, unless users need to change behavior, like refrain from transactions or rezzing no-copy items (which hopefully is changing).
Second Life CEF Update Week 35
We don’t hear much about this Second Life™ change. But, Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is coming and will affect our use of Second Life in many ways.
The viewer currently uses Webkit, an old unsupported tech, to display a number of viewer panels (like Search). It is also the tech used in Media On A Prim (MOAP). It is a part of SL Televisions.