Second Life and Virtual Worlds
General Viewer Information
If you have not yet tried the Chat Hub User Interface (CHUI) take a look at Loki’s review: LOKI vs CHUI.
I like first users’ impressions of things. Nice review and lots of pictures of the interface as it is now.
Loki’s opinion of it and how he does nearby and group chat and IM’s is interesting. His feeling that he is likely to change how he has been doing chat to get the benefits of the new CHUI speaks well of the new interface.
A new version of the Development Viewer came out yesterday: 3.4.6 (269073) Jan 15 2013. I figured this would be a good viewer to use for testing the Interest List improvements running in Blue Steel and Le Tigre RC channels. It is an interesting change.
To try the Interest List you need to find a shop in an RC region (Second Life RC LeTigre 13.01.04.268719). I tried:
Then I compared to a standard region in the main channel without the Interest List improvements.
I find it interesting that this viewer is running at 15 to 75 FPS and probably averaging in the 30 to 40 FPS range. It did that in all three regions. I’m running one setting under ULTRA with Draw Distance at 128m.
I see there is a new version of the Chat Hub User Interface Project Viewer out. Version: 3-4-4-268981.
Download the viewer here: CHUI Project Viewer.
Drongle McMahon is into mesh and does lots of experimenting. When I see his posts in the SL Forum I usually check them out to see what he has to say. I learn a bunch. The more I learn the more I cut from the cost of my mesh objects. So, while this article may get geeky it can save you Lindens.
Recently he has been seeing oddities in the physics model’s cost affect on items using prim type physics, which you may need to use for some objects like walls with doors. There is a thread titled: Triangle physics weight – Cautionary tales, episode 2.
His post points out some problems with physics models and how one of his went from a Land Impact (LI) of 7,671 to 0.5… why is worth knowing and understanding.
This is an experimental version of Cool VL Viewer just released. Henri Beauchamp posted in the comments for the SL News 2013-2. I want to point out that Experimental Cool VL Viewer v1.26.7.5 has server-side baking support.
The feature is only available on the ADITI grid. But, using the viewer will test its ability to work with the legacy system on the main grid… well… legacy sounds a bit odd in this context. But, it soon is to be a legacy system… about February.
In the ADITI/Beta grid you can test it on both types of servers. See: Project Sunshine-Server Side Appearance.
The Second Life Viewer is getting lots of changes. Even more are to come in the next weeks as the Materials System that allows the use of normal and specular maps. The 3.4.5 version is currently in pre-beta stage, Development. You can download a copy by looking in the left column for: SL Dev Viewer DL.
Second Life 3.4.5 (268856) Jan 9 2013 13:53:27 (Second Life Development)
The file size when downloaded is 29.6mb. It is fast. The viewer installs in its own folder. So, you can have it and other SL Viewers installed without conflict. It also uses its own settings file. It won’t up set the settings on your other viewers.