#SL Texture Loading Freeze

SH-2738 – Texture fetching freezes due to LLcurl. If you have seen textures refuse to download and/or rez completely you may be having a problem described in SH-2738. (There is no link because the JIRA item is one of the Lab’s private items. I should point out the JIRA tends to make items in some topics private, unless the Lindens remember to override it.)

Whatever the reason for privacy, this fix was included in an SL Viewer 3.2.5 build. Presumably it is in the Beta version of the viewer (246559) and later, but I can’t be sure. If you are having texture loading problems you may want to try the Beta version of the viewer.

Remember. The Beta is a beta and there is no guarantee it will work. It is a testing viewer, which means no whining about it. If you have a problem, file a JIRA report and send in your crash logs.

A related texture problem SH-2512 – Some avatar textures in welcome area never load on first visit. Could also be in this Beta release.

SH-1912 – Shiny metal texture characteristics entirely lost when Lighting and Shadows turned on. This fix could also be in the 3.2.5 version. Runitai made this fix in the Shining branch about 2 weeks ago. I see where it made it into the Dev Viewer (branch) about 12/12.

 

 

#SecondLife Global Illumination

You may not have noticed the Graphics Setting feature: Global Illumination. It began appearing in viewers some time ago. But, now it has disappeared from the SL Viewer. So, what’s up?

What it is…

Global Illumination is the label used to describe how light is handled in 3D games. Its purpose is to make lighting more realistic. It adds ‘reflected’ light effects. This means if you are standing with a blue wall to the right and the sun to the left, some blue light will be reflecting on to your right side.

Status

Back in May 2009 the Lab, Runitai Linden, posted a video showing new features they were working on. See: SL Tech Demo above.

The video (above) includes Mesh and Global Illumination. At about 1:34 in the video you can see a sun cycle that shows an example of Global Illumination. (GI) Notice how the sun seems to reflect off surfaces and illuminate other surfaces. That is the Global Illumination.

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#SL Viewer Status Week 48

Main & Beta

The current main viewer for Second Life is version 3.2.1.244864. Of course, this version is available from the main Second Life download page. Also on that page is the Beta version of the viewer, which is now version 3.2.2.244666. And the link to the wiki page Linden Lab Official: Alternate Viewers with development, project, and alternate third party viewers is there.

Currently Second Life viewers are running slow. In my previous article I was researching how to get more speed out of my viewer. The information you need to diagnose your computer’s performance is there. How to get a Faster Second Life

Direct Delivery

The Direct Delivery Project Viewer is currently at version 3.0.2.239555. This viewer is currently for use on the ADITI grid where the servers are setup to test Direct Delivery.

Project viewers tend to come in two versions, the current Project Viewer and the Latest Build version. The latest build is similar to what many call a nightly build version. Today the Direct Delivery project’s Latest Viewer page is not loading.

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#Second Life Spell Check

From a post on SL Universe I got a lead to STORM-83 – As a user who cannot type of [SIC] spell to save their life, I want dynamic spell check for everything I type, so I a little bit more literate. 🙂 It has a total of 5 Watchers as I write this.

Several Third Party Viewers have spell check for local and group chat. But, not the SL Viewer. It seems that will soon change. Oz Linden posted in the JIRA to thank Kitty (Barnett? I’m guessing) for the coming spell check feature. I suppose Kitty has contributed the code to add spell check to the SL Viewer. If my guess is correct this Kitty is the Kitty that provides the RLV code used in several third party viewers.

Every so often I forget the SL Viewer does not have spell check and pop open Preferences to turn it on and soon have a Doh! moment. It will be nice to soon have spell check.

#SL Viewer 3.2 Keyboard Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts in the SL Wiki have been updated to show shortcuts for version 3.2. This is the one with the new user interface. You could memorize them and remove all the buttons from your viewer setup. Not something I would do. But, there are some handy shortcuts. I’ll explain some of the ones I like.

The wiki page: All Second Life keyboard shortcut keys.

For User Interface (UI) developers there is a special page for working out shortcut keys based on operating systems. See: Shortcuts SL-UX.

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#SL Viewer Update Week 45

The main viewer has moved up to version 3.2.0-244443. The Beta viewer is now up to 3.2.1-244666 (someone have a sense of humor?) And today the Snowstorm Development viewer is at 3.2.3-244722. I mostly use the Development viewer. So, I’m always unsure what the main viewer is doing or what is or is not included in it. I’ll explain what the viewers are and where you can get them and what other Linden Lab viewers are available.

Second Life Viewer
Dev 244722 on ADITI

Other Viewers

The three SL Viewers listed above are the primary viewers in use by residents, excluding third party viewers. But, they are not the only Linden Lab viewers available. The above viewers are available from the main Second Life Download page. Under More Viewers (More or Alternate Second Life Viewers) is a link to the Wiki page listing the other SL Viewers and Third Party Viewers (TPV.)

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