Second Life and Virtual Worlds
The main viewer has updated to version 4.0.7.318301. This was formerly the Maintenance RC Viewer. There are a lot of fixes in this update. Oz Linden points out that work is being done to prevent viewer crashes. This release dropped the crash rate by 4%, which is huge.
One fix in that line is in the image processing. When video memory filled up and there was no way for the viewer to handle the texture… it crashed. Now it will simply skip rendering the texture and color the object gray.
In the last 10 minutes or so of the Third Party Developers’ Meeting the problem with AMD video cards problems came up.
It seems especially the R series of video cards (RX480 etc.) have a problem with OpenGL. See: BUG-20057 – Visual Artifacts with ALM enabled on some AMD graphics cards.
This bug is dependent on screen size. So, you may be able to escape it by changing your viewer window size or screen resolution.
There is a thread in the AMD forum about the problem. It is way techy. See: OpenGL display artifact on W7100.
This is an interesting update on the current bugs and progress on the head bones. Matrice Laville, the programmer for AvaStar speaks about several issues.
One of the people working with Bento is totally frustrated. She provides us a textbook case of victimization and projection. Wow. She is having problems with the Bento Collada file in the SL Wiki dated Aug 6th. Even after several people downloaded and checked the file during the meeting then told her the file was complete but had bone position issues, which were talked about earlier, she couldn’t hear them.
In building my new computer I needed to verify my calculation of the amount of power required. What size power supply do I need?
By my, mostly in my head, calculation as I selected parts I need 500-550 watts at peak demand. I select a continuous supply rating based on my anticipated peak demand. While power supplies have built in the ability to handle peak loads that exceed their continuous rating and that often gets advertised, that ability usually comes from considering what all the parts can stand when pushed to >100% of their design spec.
Humans can walk all day at 5 mph. But, we can only run at 20 mph for a few minutes. Sort of the same thing with computer power supplies. At some point in time they overheat or an individual component overheats by too much and the unit fails. Some units have anti-self-destruct protection, which reduces the power supplied to save itself. And what does that do to the rest of the computer? Nothing good.
The main channel got a new package this Tuesday. This is the package that has minor internal changes. These are usually security and logging things. This particular version of the package was delayed a week to fix for BUG-37573 “Rez silently fails on RC Magnum, RC LeTigre and RC BlueSteel regions.”
The RC channels remain running the same package. No new package.
The main viewer is still version 4.0.6.315555.
Earlier today I was thinking Firestorm would release soon and it was later in the day, Monday. The announcement is here: Firestorm Release 4.7.9-50527. Inara has her coverage here: Firestorm 4.7.9.50527: “I see jelly people!”
Mac and Linux users lose the Havok add-on features for Pathfinding and mesh uploading. Inara has more details on that subject.
This brings Firestorm on par with the Lab’s version 4.0.6, the current main viewer. But, we may see a new Linden version promoted this or next week. Firestorm is scheduled for its next release in 3 months.