Exodus Viewer Feature Explanations

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Thursday a new post appeared on the Exodus Viewer blog explaining two features of this new viewer. HDR and FXAA. I had guessed, wrongly, that the HDR was High Definition Render. It is High Dynamic Range. My guess average is sliding down…

Exodus Viewer

The article provides a good explanation of the subject terms HDR and FXAA. But, they don’t explain all the terms they use, like MSAA and others. So, I’ll give a try at an explanation too.

HDR

HDR or HDRI is High Dynamic Range Imaging. Exodus explains it and you can find more detailed information in the Wikipedia: HDRI.

If you have used film based photography or the older digital cameras you have run into RANGE problems. Neither could handle the range of bright and dark the eye can see. So, photographs and digital images never looked quite real because we could not see detail in the bright or dark areas of a picture. The top edge of tire in a car’s wheel well would disappear into the black of the wheel well.

Photoshop users can correct the problem to some extent using LEVELS or CURVES.

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Consumers’ Guide to Mesh Clothes

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Tateru Nino of Dwell On It linked to Satiated Desires’ post, A consumer’s guide to Second Life mesh.  This is a must read for Second Life resident considering buying mesh clothes. No tech or geek, just the stuff you want to know.

If you think I’m geeky when explaining mesh, check out Satiated Desires. Satiated explains things in plain English.

I did notice one inaccuracy. When one rezzes mesh for the first time one cannot be sure the creator understood how many prims the object actually costs. Everyone is learning. Also, if you scale it up or down, you can increase the Land Impact cost. This can trigger things to return when its Land Impact cost exceeds the land’s limit.

Satiated says this could cause part of your home to be returned. Until recently the things returned were unpredictable. The Lindens have been working on that. Now the most recently changed thing should be returned. In most cases that will be the mesh object you just rezzed.

 

Second Life Server News Week 39

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Tuesday a new version of the server rolled to the main grid. Only one high priority fix made it to the main channel this week. This version contains the fix for SVC-7283 – llRemoteLoadScriptPin and llGiveInventory fail when installing non-full perm items into worn attachments.

This problem was causing the permanent loss of scripts in worn objects. As it was breaking existing content, this was a top priority to get fixed. It was considered enough of a priority that it was placed on all three Release Channels to assure we would have a fix this week, provided the fix passed testing, it did. See Second Life Server News Week 38 for more information.

Some are upset that it took 2 weeks to roll out this fix. The plan is to test and test and be sure a fix actually fixes the problem without breaking something else. That means a week of testing in ADITI and a week of testing in a release channel. The Lindens thought this fix important enough to place it on all 3 RC’s. If it had failed it would have failed all the release channels and delayed all other fixes in progress. Their concern and urgency on this issue pushed them to use all 3 channels. But, for some that is not good enough. That’s life.

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Shockwaves in Second Life

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End of SexGen?

The Alphaville Herald has a story about Stroker Serpentine leaving Second Life and making his Cadillac of sex beds, the SexGen Ultra 600,flagship of his SexGen line, available for free. Yes, for free. This was a multi-thousand L$ product.

Think about what that will do to other sex bed makers and the makers of sex animations. For them this is disaster, economic chaos. At least many are spinning it that way. When one considers there are entrepreneurs that sell prim cubes to noobies for L$100 one gives less credit to the sky-is-falling screams.

As The Herald points out, some regions pay tier from sales of their sex products. This release will impact many of them and we may lose a number of regions… or not. Only time will tell. But, it seems likely to me.

Read the article here: Free Sex Beds

There is lots of drama in the issue and RL lawsuits.  Some of the drama is… discussed… here: Jumpman Lane – The “Kang” of Second Life. This is an interview that appears in the Alphaville Herald. You’ll have to decide who is telling which truth or building drama and ego or whatever else you can read into it. I have no clue.

Getting the Free Goodies

The free stuff is sitting here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SexGen/131/120/22

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Exodus Viewer Review Initial Release

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There is a new kid on the block… The Exodus Viewer has just been released as a beta version. I got a download. \o/ Seems there was a minor goof. If you downloaded in the first couple of hours, you need to get a new download. Something about the settings not saving.

The viewer is based on SLV 3.0.6 code.

A New Viewer

FAQ

There is a FAQ page up on the Exodus site. It provides developer names, SL names. None tie to RL names. So, I’m curious if anyone knows the developers?

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