SLV2, 3, 4, 5, 6. & 7 Series

The Linden made series of viewers

New #SL Project Viewer

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Oz Linden has put up a link to a new HTTP Project Viewer. You can find it in the SL Wiki on the Second Life Alternate Viewers page.

Part of the Shining Project is improved client/server communication using HTTP. Redoing the HTTP coding in the viewer and servers is the project. The stated goal is:

The start of a unified approach to HTTP-based communications between the viewer and grid services with a goal of achieving reliability, consistency and a better overall experience on the grid.

This project viewer has some of the changes the Lindens think will improve things. They are looking for bugs, gathering data, and asking for feedback. The project viewer will allow people to help out.

Oz says:

…if you have had problems when you enable the use of HTTP, we would very much appreciate your giving this a try.  We know that it does not yet solve all the problems, but we think that it solves some and provides the first steps needed for solving some more in the future.

If you are one of the people that have had problems with things rezzing slowly, inventory failing to load then this is something that may help you or, at least, get the Lab the data they need to fix the problem.

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#SL Viewer Updates Week 30

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We have new updates to Linden Lab’s viewers. I haven’t had much time to play with them. I’ve only been on a couple of hours in the last few days because of RL work. But, I do have them installed and running.

Slow Rez in 3.4.1

Second Life 3.4.0 (262596) Jul 26 2012 – Second Life Development

I’ve seen some odd behavior in this viewer. I had problems installing it. Files like static_data.db2 failed to update giving an error: can’t write to file. I think there were 3 of them, all dot DB2 files. But, the viewer seems to work.

I have noticed that some mesh avatars and mesh objects disappear as LoD levels change. Oskar Linden wears an avatar (or outfit) that blinks in and out as you move away from it.

I am getting more FPS from this version which is nice. With L&S, Ambient Occlusion, and Sun/Moon enabled I’m staying in the 20’s tending to be around 28 FPS in my house.

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#SL Viewer Problems

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If you haven’t run into viewer problems, you must be new. A couple of problems have come up recently. Readers have asked or sent me IM’s on them. So, I’ll mention them because they seem to be biting some people. Also, because when I started experimenting I started running into problems.

Second Life Viewer 3.3.3

In most day-to-day use you are not going to run into these problems. But, it is depressing when you do.

Groups

You probably already know large groups, over 5,000, can be a problem and over 10k are a problem. They can be slow to load and nearly, if not completely, impossible to edit and work with.

One of the problems that seems a bit worse is opening a large group can lock up the viewer for over a minute and reportedly in some cases 3 or 4 minutes. I saw my viewer locked up while opening the Phoenix/Firestorm Support group, the largest group of which I’m a member.

See VWR-29124– Severe performance issues on 3.3.2 (258114) Release and 3.3.3 (259197) Beta in “Add scroll list item.” Thanks to Stephan Gaudio for pointing it out.

You’ll notice we currently are past those versions. But, I’ve run into the problem with 3.3.3 (260300) Jun 21 2012.

Baker Linden has been working on the problem for a couple of weeks with some help from other Lindens. But the previous article on Chnages Coming to SL shows there is lots going on. So, I suppose some of of the changes, like fixing groups, are shooting at moving targets.

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Interestingly Odd

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I started up the latest Pathfinding viewer: Second Life 3.3.3 (260669) Jun 26 2012 18:41:51 (Project Viewer – Pathfinding). In it I found this:

 

OSGrid? Is this a grid manager? Click to Enlarge

OSGrid? Are we going to get a grid manager in the Linden Viewer? Is this a slip leaving some testing code got in this version?

We can speculate endlessly.

Second Life Stable Viewer 3.3.3 (260300)

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We got a new release of the SL Viewer from Linden Lab: 3.3.3 (260300). I’ve crashed it several times. So, I’m not very happy with it. I tried using the previous version at the crowded Mesh User Group. It crashed as soon as I took a picture. It also tended to ‘occasionally’ crash on exit. So, one is probably as well off with the newer one. It tends to crash on exit too.

Spell Check & Auto-Replace

This new version does not yet have Spell Check or Auto-Replace. It does have 78 different fixes. You can find the list of fixes here.

I don’t notice any control changes. But, I’m only making a quick look.

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#SL Viewer Update Week 21

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Today I saw that we have a new Development Viewer out. It is version 3.3.3 (257716).

UPDATE: 2012-05-27 – Version 3.3.3 (258100) is out.

I’ve had some interesting experiences with it. The previous version had horrendous memory leaks. In a couple of hours I would be down to 6 to 8 FPS and memory consumption would be approaching 1.5 gigabytes.

This version took an unusually long time to initialize the texture cache when I first started it. That seems to have been a one time thing. But, I haven’t had much time to play with this version. I’ve been too busy redoing my clothing tutorial.

Once I started the viewer and in 5 minutes it crashed. I have no clue what happened. The next time I ran the viewer for over two hours with no problems.

I also find my Core2 Quad w/GTX560Ti is running at 15 FPS at times when it used to be running at 6-8 FPS.

Not for Everyone

If you are not into problems and cutting edge tech, avoid trying the Development Viewer. The viewer is not intended for every day use. It is a pre-Beta version.

However, if you want to help the Lindens with crash and bug reports then jump right in.