This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information as the week progresses
The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
Updates for the week ending: 23 December, 2012
SL Viewer updates:
Release version rolled to 3.4.3.268262 on December 18 – release notes
Beta version rolled to 3.4.4.268497 on December 20 – release notes
Development rolled to 3.4.5.268547 on December 21
The CHUI project viewer rolled to 3.4.3.268587 on December 22, which saw some updates to the CHUI UI and a move to the 3.4.3 viewer code (latest dev version now 3.4.3.268591 / Dec 24)
Dolphin rolled to 3.4.7.26856 on December 17 – core updates: primarily under-the-bonnet (/hood) fixes – release notes
Kokua rolled to 3.4.3.r2 on December 18
Zen Viewer rolled to 3.4.3.1 on December 20 (mis-labelled “20 November” on release notes page) – core updates: Large Group Servies update; removal of mesh deformer; removal of AudioEngine log spam; fixed Web Profile floater not showing when web profiles check box selected in Grid Manager; removed “>” Character from localhost loginuri in Grid Manager.
Cool VL updates – three versions for the time being, all updated on December 21:
Stable version rolled to 1.26.6.2
Legacy version Legacy (v2.6 renderer) rolled to 1.26.4.45
The RC channel deployment took place on Wednesday 19th December as planned, with no major hiccups or issues apparently being felt / reported. This release saw all three RC channels receive the same package, which is the Magnum deployment from week 50, with a single additional bug fix.
The release notes (for Magnum, but applicable to all three RC channels) can be found here, and the forum discussion thread is still open should anyone have comments (allowing to the start of the holiday period & delays in any replies from LL).
SL Viewer Update
The last beta release of 2012 arrived on Thursday December 20th with the release of 3.4.4.268479 – which as the name suggests, uses the 3.4.4 code from viewer-development. Chief among the updates in this release include:
Moving viewer crash logger and SLPlugin from the Carbon API to Mac OSX Cocoa for the Mac viewer
Fixes for fontconfig crash-on-start issues experienced with Linux
Revisions for pathfinding options, including additional of tear-off option for Pathfinding menu when opened from Build menu; introduction of Region Rebake option to Pathfinding menu
Fixes for 3.4.2.266708 release issue of flexiprims stopping flexing after teleports
Alongside of the upcoming materials processing capabilities of normal and specular maps, the SL viewer will be receiving further rendering improvements in 2013, comprising:
Gamma correction capabilities
Improvements to the “Shiny” capabilities in the viewer (Build floater > Texture tab >Shiny button) when running in deferred mode, to make shine appear more as it does in the real world, with the level of shine based on the amount of reflected light / angle from which a shiny object is viewed from relative to the light source
In-world scene reflections on shiny surfaces.
Gamma correction: from Exodus to the SL viewer in 2013
Gamma correction is a process by which lighting on a screen can be adjusted to make it look more natural to the human eye by adjusting the RGB channels to give a more natural-light contrast. It can also be used to produce interesting photographic effects. Exodus viewer already has gamma correction, which can be adjusted via the Visual Settings floater (above).
A simple, if extreme, example of gamma correction used for a photographic effect: both images were taken under the same deferred lighting conditions, the image of the left with “normal” (default) gamma correction in the viewer, the one on the right taken with all three channels increased in value to produce an image with a much deeper contrast
As with materials processing, all three of the new capabilities are being introduced to the SL viewer via the Exodus team, lead by Geenz Spad, who indicated that in the case of gamma correction, the new capabilities will be somewhat more capable as a process within the SL viewer than is currently the case with the Exodus viewer.
As with material processing itself, which is still progressing, as I reported last time, there are no time frames as to when each of these new capabilities will be available within the viewer.
Threaded Region Crossing Code Test
Wednesday 19th December saw a “pile-on” test take place on Aditi for the new threaded region crossing code. The test has been called by Caleb Linden with a view to trying-out region crossing under a range of tests, including avatars with heavy scripted loads, repeated crossings by vehicles, via teleporting, etc.
In all, six regions were / are available for tests: GC Test 9, 10, 15 and 16 forming a block of four running in “threaded” mode, and GC Test 2 and 8 running in “unthreaded” mode, but otherwise the same server code.
Turn-out for the tests wasn’t particularly great (around 15 people together in the test region at any one time), with a range of ground and air vehicles being used to try-out the crossings and compare them directly with crossing between the two unthreaded regions (and testing between threaded / unthreaded).
The overall consensus from those at the tests were that crossings between threaded regions were somewhat improved – but the overall improvements were not that spectacular. At times recovery from loss of control of a vehicle appeared to be faster – a matter of one or two seconds – but at other times, things seemed to be the same, with vehicles ploughing through the ground / flying into the air for 6-7 seconds at a time before recovering, giving pretty similar results to those encountered crossing between threaded / unthreaded and between unthreaded regions.
Crossing between threaded regions in a vehicle: some improvements, but not a lot
Crossing between regions on foot, even under an excessive HUD / attachment script load (373 scripts accounting for 2.87800ms cpu time) and with vehicles zinging back and forth, did appear to me to be somewhat improved, with little or no “rubber banding” or walking off into the sunset, but a recovery of control after just a few paces.
Post-test, Caleb has requested those participating in the test file JIRA on any specific issues they encountered, and include “Region Crossing” in the description / subject heading for the report.
With thanks to Darien Cauldwell for information on the viewer enhancements discussed at the Opensource Dev meeting.
Tiling test for Dolphin (3.4.6.26773+): image taken at 3500×2134 resolution using Dolphin 3.4.6.26773. Location: The Island of Armenelos (M) (click to enlarge) – fix also in the latest SL official viewer (3.4.3.28262), Niran’s Viewer (2.0.5+) and RLV (2.8.3.5+)
Graphics Preferences Updates for GPU Classes
The SL viewer, Dolphin and RLV all include the new Graphics Preferences settings related to the ongoing GPU table updates. These new options place additional “stops” on the Quality and Speed slider between the four original settings of Low, Mid, High and Ultra, which are intended to better represent the default SL capabilities of different GPU classes,
The new “intermediary” graphics settings intended to better represent the default SL capabilities of different GPU classes
SSAO Fix for Horizon Haze
Also included in the recent Dolphin and Niran’s Viewer releases, is Tofu Buzzard’s SSAO improvements for generating horizon haze over Linden Sea (“ambient distance fog”). This helps overcome a long-standing bug within the viewer which has effectively broken / nerfed horizon haze over Linden Water for a considerable time.
SSAO haze effect – fix from Tofu Blizzard, available in deferred mode on Dolphin and Niran’s viewers. (image courtesy of Niran V Dean) – click to enlarge
Space Reflections
Niran’s viewer also introduces an interesting / experimental viewer-side feature from Tofu Blizzard called “space reflections”, designed to create reflections on shiny surfaces when running in deferred mode and with the appropriate Graphics Preferences option enabled. It’s not perfect, but it can be used to produce some interesting effects, as shown below, if only for those running a viewer which can render the desired results.
Tofu Blizzard’s “space reflections”: (l) a viewer running in deferred mode; (r) Niran’s viewer running in deferred with “space reflections” active to produce reflections both on the floor and inside the large sphere (click to enlarge)
Tuesday 18th December saw the Main Release channel get the maint-server release as deployed to Magnum in week 50, as Maestro Linden indicated might be the case during the Server Beta meeting on the 13th December. There have been some reports of teleport issues following the deployment, but these are thought to be a network-side issue, rather than a problem with the server code itself.
All three RC channels should be receiving the same package on Wednesday 19th December, 2012 which is also the Magnum deployment from week 50, with a single additional bug fix.
Release notes (for Magnum, but applicable to all three RC channels)
This is the last set of server-side deployments for 2012.
A low-key Simulator User Group meeting on 18th December, the last for 2012
SL Viewer Updates
The release version of the official SL viewer rolled to the 3.4.3 code on Tuesday 18th December, with the release of 3.4.3.268262. Among a range of updates, this release include the major GPU table updates seen in recent beta viewer releases, the additional graphics settings and the tiling fix for high-resolution snapshot (MAINT-638). This release also sees the return of JIRA numbers to the release notes, matching the recent beta viewer release notes update.
The new “intermediary” graphics settings intended to better represent the default SL capabilities of different GPU classes
The beta viewer should be moving to the 3.4.4 code with the next release, although it is not clear whether this will be before or after the holiday period.
Interest List Update
Andrew Linden has been tweaking and optimising his Interest list code. The first phase of the new interest list code is aimed at reducing the amount of information being sent to the viewer by the server. Speaking at the Simulator User Group meeting on the 18th December, Andrew commented, “Last week I managed to find an optimisation opportunity in my Interest List project, which shaves a few hundred usec off of some cases where there are a lot of Full Object Updates. So this would translate to better server FPS when in large groups of avatars or when in the presence of stuff that is generating lots of full updates.”
As I reported last time, object updates take three forms, Full, Terse and Delete. Full updates are generated when an object is seen for the first time, or which is undergoing a constant change in appearance / position. Terse updates are sent only when an object changes its appearance / position. Under the current Interest list system, both types of update are sent to the viewer, regardless as to where the viewer actually needs to process them. A primary part of Andrew’s work has been reworking the code so that updates – particularly terse updates – are only sent to the viewer when the object generating them is in the camera’s field-of view. This new optimisation work should further help reduce the number of updates being sent to the viewer regardless as to whether or not it has to process them.
I’ve been covering the upcoming improvements to region crossings – referred to as threaded region crossings – in my weekly SL project reports.
During the Server Beta meeting on the 13th December 2012, the subject came up for brief discussion, during which I suggested to Caleb Linden (who is heading-up the work) that perhaps a pile-on test would be an idea.
I’ve no idea if he read my suggestion, or was already planning to go ahead with such a test, but on Monday 17th December, 2012, he posted an announcement of just such a test to the Server thread of the TEchnology forums. The announcement reads in full:
In an upcoming server build, Linden Lab has changed the way agents and their attachments get carried over in the event of a region crossing. And we need your help to test region crossing in a pile-on fashion.
On Wednesday, December 19th at 16:00 PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) please join IRC (EFNET -> #sltest) to launch Second Life and join us via the following SLurl GC Test 9
In the meantime, please let us know if you need access the test regions mentioned on the wiki or have additional questions.
How the tests will be carried out, and on the wiki page, Caleb invites suggestions to be e-mailed / forwarded to him. Currently, ideas for testing include:
Region crossing with regular avatar
Region crossing via manual TP
Region crossing on a vehicle (including Mesh based vehicles)
Region crossing while sitting on moving objects
Region crossing via scripted TP
Region crossing with attachments of varying sizes (including complex HUDs)
Issues have already been found with the new code when wearing script heavy objects during a region crossing and with repeated region crossings on vehicles, and the pile-on test looks in part to be a further investigation of these issues, as well as testing for other possible problems.
Note that this test will be on the beta Aditi grid, so you will need to be able to access that grid. If you haven’t done so in a while, you may want to check your ability to log-in, given recent issues. Also, as this is server-side code tests, it should not be required that you use a specific viewer, but keep an eye on the forum thread in case a decision is made to use a particular viewer.
This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information as the week progresses
The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
Updates for the week ending: 16 December, 2012
SL Viewer updates:
Beta version rolled to 3.4.3.268139 on December 14 – release notes
Development rolled to 3.4.4.268156 on December 14
The Sunshine Project viewer (avatar baking) arrived with the release of 3.4.4.268071 on December 14th (wiki page) – note this viewer is not recommended for daily SL use
Dolphin rolled to 3.4.6.26773 on December 11 – core updates: snapshot tiling fix (MAINT-628); fixes and improvements for the image quality with SSAO enabled, and for ambient fog over water (distance haze) with shadows enabled; Some Windlight preset files renamed to avoid issues; Teleport to ground level enabled via keyboard (CTRL-SHIEFT-END) – release notes
Niran’s Viewer rolled to 2.0.5.2346 on December 11 – core updates, snapshot tiling fix (MAINT-628); fixes and improvements for the image quality with SSAO enabled, and for ambient fog over water (distance haze) with shadows enabled; new “space reflections” feature – release notes
Restrained Love rolled to 2.8.3.5 on December 16 – core updates: fix for those encountering build problems using 2.8.3.4, plus latest beta updates from LL, including snapshot tiling fix (MAINT-628)
Cool VL updates – three versions for the time being, all updated on December 16:
Stable version rolled to 1.26.6.1
Legacy version Legacy (v2.6 renderer) rolled to 1.26.4.44
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 