Second Life 40 Groups

by

Updated 2010-01-13 – 6:15 PM – SLT

Several blogs are reporting that in some regions with some viewers one can now have 40 groups. There is no Linden Lab announcement out. So, this is testing and it may change at any time. Try it at your risk.

Update: So far there is still no official word. Speculation is that one going over 25 groups may lose those if Linden Lab turns the feature off. Whether the excess groups would be lots in alphabetical order or join order or something else is unknown. Actually whether they would be permanently lost or come back when the limits is raised is unknown.

Using Phoenix you will see the limit listed at the bottom of the Groups panel listed as 25. This does not mean that is the limit. That is just a cosmetic thing. One is supposed to be able to set the Debug Settings value in Phoenix40GroupsSupport to TRUE and see what limit the server is using (requires a viewer restart). Update: Phoenix is rumored to only support a max 40 groups. Whatever the case the next version (Firestorm) is planned to have better group support.

Read more

Predictions 2011

by
Predictions
Image by garryknight @ Flickr

I usually prefer to read others predictions rather than make them. The Dolphin Poll on users’ preference got me thinking and I have not seen many predicting a lot about where viewers are going. Of course that may be because it is a foregone conclusion. But, since this is my blog, I get to voice my opinion and ramble or rant on about it until you click away from boredom. Hopefully not. In this case I think I can put things in terms you’ll find interesting.

I think the viewer development path using series 1 viewer code is a dead end. At some point viewers based on series one code are going to go away. I think this year.

I think the series 1 User Interface (UI) will last longer may be even into next year, but it too will disappear. Simple, end prediction. Following are my reasons and thinking for why I believe this will happen.

Read more

Dolphin Viewer Poll

by

Lance is running a poll at the Dolphin Viewer site. It seems he is in the process of deciding which development path to follow, series 1 code and user interface (IU) or series 2 code and UI. Voice your opinion and vote. I think the results will be interesting, if enough people vote, and it … Read more

Dolphin Viewer 1.5.42.3627 Released

by

This release is announced as a bug fix release with no new features or visible changes.

The fixes are to the Group Limit code (coming group limit increase) and texture caching.

Texture caching is a big thing. Some weeks ago the Snowstorm Team made some comments about finding some bugs in the caching code. I’ve wondered why, if we have a caching, does my cottage’s door have to download a texture each time I open the door. My door is one of those where the entire wall changes from solid to phantom and the texture changes from a closed door to an open one. The idea for this style door is to reduce the prim count. However, they used two textures that have to download. For better effect they could have placed both open and closed textures in one texture and just shift position to affect the change.

Read more

KirstenLee S21(3) RC2 Review & New Profiles

by
KirstenLee Viewer S21
KirstenLee S21 Logo

This article covers more than just the S21 viewer review. KirstenLee’s S21 reveals some of the changes coming to SL. I touch on those as part of the viewer review. KirstenLee is working on the release of her cutting edge viewer S21, now out as a release candidate. Today Release Candidate 2 was made available. This version uses the new resident Profile System.

If you have not used KirstenLee’s viewers, the S20 and S21 viewers are series 2 viewers with a modified SLV2 User Interface (UI) and a custom render pipeline. The S21 viewer has additional UI changes. KirstenLee is making UI change to make the S21 more compatible with SLV2 skins. Of course making a better interface is part of the process too. For compatibility KirstenLee has put the sidebar control back on the right side of the screen.

The S21 is based on SLV2 code from Linden Lab’s Mesh Project Viewer. The viewer will render mesh. It does not yet have the ability to upload mesh. Only the Mesh Project Viewer has that ability. S21 also has Qarl’s patches… there’s more than one? The main one is the prim alignment tool. I’ll have to look around and see if I can find out if there are other Qarl additions.

KirstenLee Viewer S21
Shadows & DoF

Read more

Coming Server Updates

by

Lil Linden posted an update about changes and upgrades coming to the grid. See: Deploys for the Week of 2011-01-10.

It appears the Compression upgrade is moving to the main grid. All regions will get it. This will greatly reduce region crossing time (see previous post for graphs) and cut the number of failed teleports. Along with it comes the Encroachment feature that allows one to return prim that are only partially on your land.

Read more