#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.

Google Chrome: Your Profile could not be opened correctly

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If you are seeing this problem, it is annoying. The fix that Google Chrome Support recommends is a disaster. One loses all their browser data, bookmarks, passwords, etc. For someone that researches online that would be a disaster.

Google Chrome Error: Your Profile Could not be opened correctly

Fortunately, there is a fix that may get you going and save your data.

The Google Support fix is here: Create a new browser user profile. I don’t recommend it except as a last resort.

Google Support has a troubleshooting guide: Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. These are good steps to try, but don’t wipe out files or your profile.

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Blender Retopology – Clothing Update

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In April I posted an article on retopologizing (like that is a word – redoing the topology of) mesh objects in Blender. See: #SL Blender Clothes Retopology. In Blender 2.62 I kept having problems getting the method to work. I think it was more me than Blender that was the problem. Whatever… today a decided to figure it out.

#1 Getting Surface Snap to Work - Click to Enlarge

I plan to do more tutorials. One of the things I want to do is work with weight painting to see if I can make skirts that work better than what we have. The current mesh mini-skirts show it all when one sits down. I don’t think it has to be that way. Now I need a well made skirt to work with. So, I’m studying 3D modeling. One of the things modelers deal with is redoing the topology of high polygon into low polygon models. Using the tools built into blender can make changing the topology much easier.

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nVidia Driver Update

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NVIDIA LOGO - Click for Download Page

nVidia has a new driver out today, version 301.42. This is the first WHQL-certified driver in the 300 release series.

This update provides WHQL support for the 600 series nVidia cards.

It provides performance improvements for 500 series cards.

There is a whole load of stuff added. FXAA has been improved to be 60% faster at MSAA 4x levels. Adaptive vertical sync has been added. I doubt the SL viewers can use that. Target FPS is included but games have to support it. Does SL? I don’t think so. But, I don’t know. New multi-screen, 3D Vision, and SLI features.

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Second Life’s Bumpy Roads

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Mesh Road Bumps

It has been noticed that there is a problem with using mesh road sections. At each edge of the mesh cars bump.

Drongle McMahon points out that a bug causes the convex hull to be smaller than the bounding box. That leaves a gap when one butts two mesh obects together. See: VWR-28416 – Mesh: Default convex hull is smaller than it should be.

Image by Brron - Flickr

SVC-7883

SVC-7883 – Discrepancy between actual convex hull physics weights and documented calculation. This is about getting the wiki information updated. If you read the wiki, you’ll likely under estimate the physics weight. Nyx Linden expects the wiki will get updated some time after Pathfinding is released, as Pathfinding will being a change in how Land Impact Costs are calculated.