Dolphin Viewer Update 3.2.8.23163

There is a new version of the Dolphin 3 Viewer out. Dolphin Viewer Download.

This version of the viewer removes Qarl’s Mesh Deformer.  You probably know that Mesh Deformer 0.2 is out and is included in some viewers. Nirans ran into some problems getting it to work. It seem Lance did too. With some question about the new viewer policies it seems Lance decided to leave it out of this version. He plans to put it back in when the Deformer is further refined.

There is a WebKit upgrade in the Linux version… I doubt Linux users follow this blog, so I seldom have much about Linux here. But, this is one of the noted changes in the release annuncement.

One nice feature added to the Dolphin Viewer is the ability to use all of the keys on your keyboard for gestures. If you have made gestures, you know that in the SL Viewer and several others you are restricted in which keys you can assign to a gesture.

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Cool VL Viewer 1.26.2 (17) Released

There are not many changes in the last two versions. But, the experimental version 1.26.3 has an important change for me, which is the addition of Qarl’s Mesh Defomer 0.2. Henri has done something a bit different in his implementation. In his words from the forum:

Second version of Qarl’s mesh deformer implemented (with a new “Force Mesh Deformer” advanced settings in Advanced -> rendering, to force the same behavior as in the first version, i.e. to apply deformers even to meshes which were not designed for them): the new default/normal behavior of the code is to apply deformers only to meshes which were flagged as deformer-compatible at upload time (with a new “Deform to avatar shape” option added to the “Upload Options” tab of the “Upload Model” preview floater).

This should give us the ability to see how the 0.1 and 0.2 versions of the Deformer differ.

Download

I found the download horribly slow. It basically ran at 150kbps taking 30 minutes to download. My connection will handle 31mbps according to SpeedTest.net. Other downloads were running well, so who knows…

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Mesh Deformer 0.2 Update

The Mesh Deformer is still alpha software. However, it is now in its second iteration. I think it works better. Well… some of it does and some of it doesn’t. Until more viewers have Deformer 0.2 code I can’t tell if it is the viewer or the Deformer that hiccups.

Another gotcha at the max breast size setting

I downloaded Nirans Viewer because Niran let me know the new Deformer code was included in version 1.25, which is a Large Address Aware (LAA) viewer. I’m on a 32-bit system so I’m not sure how that may or may not affect things. Whatever, the viewer runs and the Deformer deforms.

Enable Deformer

In Nirans Viewer 1.25 the control for the Deformer is in Preferences->General->UI Settings. Look in the upper right of the panel for Enable Qarl Fizz’s Mesh Deformer.

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Nirans Viewer Gets Mesh Def 0.2

A couple of days ago Qarl release a revision of the Mesh Deformer code. Today Niran got it working in Niran’s Viewer. Niran posted a comment on the Deformer update article. Nirans link leads to this Nirans Viewer Download page. The 1.24 version is still on the Download Button. Find the 1.25 version, which has the Mesh Deformer.

The download is slow this morning, but I’m having network problems.

As soon as I get a copy downloaded and the network retuned, I’ll be checking out the new deformer.

Remember. The Deformer is still alpha code.

#SL Firestorm 3.3.0 (24880) Release Review

I heard there is a new Phoenix Hour out. I suppose someday it will change to a Firestorm Hour. At about the same time the Phoenix Hours restart the next release of Firestorm is released.

This release has a load of features. As best I can tell all the Phoenix features have made it over to Firestorm.  In addition to those features new ones have been added. A good example is the Particle Editor. The code for the Particle Editor was written by Zi Ree. I understand it was written for Firestorm and shared with the community. I first saw the editor in Dolphin Viewer-3 in mid December last year. It has been popping up in other TPV’s ever since.

Particle Editor

Finding the Particle Editor is a bit trick. It is not part of the standard build panel as I expected it would be. After all one is editing a prim’s attributes, so it seems to me that is where it would be. The number of controls in the panel would be difficult to put in a build panel tab.

The Particle Editor

To use the Particle Editor create or edit a prim. Then in the top menu open Build -> Objects -> Edit Particles. Not overly intuitive. It would seem a button in the Build panel to open the editor would be more intuitive. The Features tab seems like an obvious place to put a button.

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#SL Content/Mesh Creation Week 6

Mesh Physics – A question was asked about creating efficient physics for mesh houses. I’ve seen people having problems getting mesh objects they think are more efficient polygon-wise to actually produce less Land Impact (LI) cost. A few ideas came out in the discussion.

Runatai Linden Avatar - Way Cute

Nyx Linden says from Havok’s perspective, the physics engine, the simplest physics volume is a box. If you want to specify your own mesh, each triangle in the mesh is roughly as complex [physics-wise] to compute as a box. Ultimately using prims as physics shapes shouldn’t necessarily be problematic, though having a custom mesh can be better under certain circumstances.

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MetaReality with the Exodus Viewer Team

MetaReality did an interview with members of the Exodus Viewer Team. It is presented as a PODCast. I’m curious about viewers and the teams that make them, so I had to check it out. Following is my take on the interview. I’ve included time marks so you can jump to parts of the interview you may be interested in. The PODCast runs 1 hour 15 minutes.

Metareality Podcasts

Exodus Team; Clix Diesel, the voice of Exodus Viewer and project lead, Ash Qin is Exodus’ Linux developer and owns and runs the popular Sci-Fi sim Deshima, Geenz Spad is Exodus’ graphics guy, and Ayamo Nozaki (not present on the podcast) is the lead developer for Exodus.

0:00 – 3:45 – Introductions, we gotta know the players.

3:34 – 4:00 – Clix talks a little about the direction of the Exodus Viewer Development. Mostly that it is targeted at the SL gamers. I take that to mean those that play in the combat SIM’s. They probably take a broader view, but they are from a hardcore combat group in SL.

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