Dolphin Viewer Release Review

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A new release of the Dolphin 3 Viewer is out: 3.3.3 (23731). This one seems to be mostly small bug fixes. The announcement on the release lists these:

  • The avatar offset reset button in the status panel is now properly hidden in mouse look.
  • A new setting in Preferences -> Dolphin Viewer 3 -> UI that controls what the Dolphin does when a scripted object sends you several menu popups at the same time.
  • A new reset button in the extended build options floater, which resets the pivot offset options so that the coordinate origin is back in the center of the object again. My wife is happy about this one.
  • A fix for how fading music in and out behaves when you teleport within the same parcel.
  • A fix for the bug that prohibits the mouse cursor from switching back to the normal arrow shape when hovering over certain UI elements.

Download and Experience

All seems very typical and nothing out of the ordinary.

I find the viewer gives me about the same performance as the Linden Lab® Development Viewer, 10 to 15 FPS in my Core2 Quad w/ASUS GTX560Ti.

The Viewer’s Fast Timers show it is spending 62ms rendering a frame. My CPU cores are run about 25% and the 560 about 15 to 45% load. There are almost no page faults. So, I don’t see a hardware bottle neck. Viewers using the latest Linden Lab® code are just slow. Finding a fix is like questing for the BIG ‘O’.

Beginner’s Second Life Mesh Tutorial

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Gaia Clary has 3 new tutorials out from a new series of mesh tutorials for Second Life® users new to mesh. This tutorial series starts with the basics of mesh and defines what vertices, edges, faces, polygons, and quads are. I think it is a great series for anyone considering building with mesh and unfamiliar with 3D modeling.

New Machinimatrix Tutorials

There are 10 videos on the new Mesh Path page at Machinimatrix.org. All but the 3 Coffee Cup tutorials I have seen before. Some use Blender 2.49 and other various versions up to Blender 2.62. The new Coffee Cup series uses 2.62.

It may be subtle but, the Coffee Cup tutorials are about 3D modeling concepts more than they are about using Blender. Additionally, the overall focus is about modeling for Second Life. The other 7 video tutorials take one farther into modeling for Second Life.

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#SL Removing Scripts from Stuff

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I have some older accessories in my inventory that have color changing or sizing scripts. They do not have a Remove or Delete Scripts feature. Some of the items have hundreds of scripts in them. Fortunately they are Modify-OK so I can remove the scripts. The challenge is how to get them out and not die from repetitive script deletion syndrome.

I found a way! Here is a handy tutorial for removing scripts from jewelry, shoes, hair, and whatever.

Script Library

You may know about the script library, if not you should. It provides scripts to solve all sorts of common problems. The best part is all the scripts are free for you to copy and use.

Visit the Second Life® Script Library to see what they have stashed away in there.

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#SL The Great AO Debate

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From a couple of sources we have bits and pieces that suggest the Lab is looking to provide a built in viewer feature for handling avatar animation. Currently we use animation overriders (AO) to override the built-in avatar animations. Most of those are a HUD of some type.

Animation Overriders

Discussion is in progress to determine what AO feature set is needed for the Lab’s viewer. Since AO’s are basically free (only the animations cost) the user’s choice of which one to use is entirely based on features and personal preferences. Free market principals allow the best to become the most popular.

Concern is voiced by some that a built-in replacement for AO’s by the Lab may limit our freedom of choice. However such limiting would break a considerable amount of existing content. Breaking all the existing AO’s, or any content, is something the Lab is loath to do. So, I can’t image the Lab will take that path. Whatever they do, will allow users to still use their AO’s.

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#SL News Update I Week 15

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Oskar Linden updated us on this week’s server updates.

The Lindens had planned to roll out the threaded region crossing update that has been in and out of release channels for weeks now. Last minute build errors prevented its promotion. So, Phase I Threaded Region Crossing goes back into QA. We won’t see it reappear for a few weeks.

Beta Server Meeting in Morris, ADITI

Coyot Linden says the reasons for the fail are not relevant to SL users. I suppose that means it has more to do with the Lab’s compile and update process than a failure in the region crossing part.

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Second Life Interesting

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Strawberry Singh with her fun nature does a fashion blog and a hilarious Plurk line (example she Plurked about: Brown Vag) I check both each day. She finds awesome skins and lingerie. Great photography. But today she surprised me and posted about doing a promotional piece for Linden Lab. See the image. I think it is one of the best promotional pieces for Second Life that I’ve seen.

Strawberry's Blog and Art

To see it on the Second Life site, you need to log out of the SL web sites. Then visit SecondLife.com. You may not see it as the first image. However there is a pager button in the images so you can look through the images. I have all the ones that came up for me, 5, after the fold.

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