Second Life

Things about SL

Milkshake Viewer

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The Milkshake Viewer definitely started out as a personal viewer shared with a few friends. Thanks to Facebook’s confusing security controls news of a new fun viewer leaked to the world. Now the complexion of Milkshake is changing. It seems to be becoming more open and out there. A support policy, instructions for using the AO, and more information are appearing in the Milkshake part of Codeplex site.

While using the features of a repository service to provide a wiki and forum is unusual, it works for other development projects. It’s just out of the norm for what we see in SL related projects… or has been.

Cinder’s support policy is simple. You are pretty much on your own. There is no way Cinder can develop the viewer and provide support. So, Cinder has made it clear use of the discussion and issue tracking sections of Codeplex are the support channels.

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#SL Exodus Viewer News and Changes

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The Exodus viewer has some quick fixes added and version Beta 7 (12-01-03b) has been released. The version numbering in the blog and in the viewer is a little different. One uses 12-01-03b and the other 12.01.03.1… and they are Beta 5, 6, and 7… which is a little confusing.

The alpha textures render problem is fixed. My HUD’s are now usable and the tree outside my house looks right through the window.

The Animation Overrider (AO) has a bug and may crash the viewer when the note card loads. That may be from the LL bug that has a fix now in testing in the release channels. All three release channels are running the same server maintenance pack and one of the fixes is about a problem with note cards.

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Niran Funk Lifting

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…this situation is funny… I can empathize with Niran clearly remembering my bouts of depression and periods of grieving. So, it’s not like I’m unsympathetic. But, seeing human nature in play in others makes it easier to see the silly and humorous aspects that make us human. I wish him all the best. …is he staring at her… ummm… chest, that a good word.

Today Niran is more into things and has obviously taken the time to take a serious look at the Exodus viewer and compare it to his viewer. He has posted a new article explaining what he found and how he perceives the match up. See: Exodus vs Nirans.

Exodus vs Nirans

Niran sees his viewer as providing a better render of Second Life. He could be biased. He has a comparison set of pictures. I have a small version of the images above. Please don’t try to use them for making a comparison. Visit Nirans blog and take a look at them. Once there click on one to bring them up in full size. Take a close look at them and see what you think. Niran didn’t say which image is from which viewer. That makes it interesting figuring out which is which.

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Exodus Viewer Beta 6 (12-01-02) Released Review

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A new release of Exodus is out. This one has lots of new features. Many are for photography and machinima. The viewer may be losing it emphasis on being a gamer’s viewer and being a photographer’s viewer. But, one may as well expose controls to the video pipeline while working to optimize it. So, it may be too soon to say.

Looking Good in Exodus Viewer Beta 6 (12-01-02)

The Exodus Devs have noticed the coverage in the blogs. So, they added some features just for the photographers and machinima peeps. Nice. I hope they keep their gamer focus and avoid trying for a viewer that is all things to all people.

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Nirans Viewer Releases Deformer Version

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Niran has added Qarl’s Mesh Deformer code to the Niran viewer 1.03. I tried it out and played with mesh. There are some things I learned.

Fit

The size of the mesh does matter. The Deformer does not move all mesh to the outside of the avatar. In some cases I found small mesh clothes were inside the avatar. Also, large clothes left a space between the avatar and the mesh.

[youtube gRT0fWacyEY]

An explanation of the video is below in the Video section.

So, I guess the base avatar that one designs mesh from is going to be important. I’ll have to do some experiments to see how using a personal shape avatar works compared to using the base avatar.

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