Category: SL Tech

Niran’s Viewer 1.30: pushing the envelope

Posted on by Inara Pey

Note: Niran subsequently released versions 1.31 and 1.32 following this review. Both contain tweaks and additions to 1.30, including further floater layout alignments (most notably the People floater (1.31) and the Merchant Outbox is translated and functional in German (1.32). You can catch these updates on Niran’s blog. 

NiranV Dean has released version 1.30 of Niran’s Viewer, which is described as “a complete overhaul” – and there is enough that has gone into it to justify that comment.

The Viewer has been something of a differentiator in the TPV world on a number of fronts: elements of UI presentation are markedly different (such as the menu presentation and things like the Build floater), the Viewer also offers a huge amount of nips, tucks, tweaks and changes to the graphic end of things which, while geared towards higher-specification machines, offer much that is of benefit to machinimatographers and photographers. Finally, and as the Viewer has developed, NiranV has not been afraid to seek to incorporate more of a game-like approach to things.

The changes in this release are extensive – and some are not always obvious (such as localisation in the log-in and log-in progress screens),, which doesn’t make them any less time-intensive to produce. I’ve aimed this piece at covering the more visible changes.

Over-the-Shoulder

The first noticeable difference between 1.30 and earlier versions is that the camera default position has been moved to an over-the-shoulder view. This may not be to everyone’s liking, but it does offer an improved world-view in many respects. As someone already using Penny Patton’s camera offsets to achieve a similar result, I found the look very familiar and comfortable when I logged-in, although the camera position is a little closer than I’m accustomed to seeing. This isn’t a problem until one uses the DOWN ARROW / S-key for moving backwards; while this now turns your avatar around, it also tend to have your avatar well over to the left on-screen, making navigation even over a short distance a little harder. For those that aren’t keen on these views, it’s obviously possible to reset to a more “traditional” view.

Staying with the camera for a moment, mouselook also gains the ability to use the SHIFT key in combination with mouse movements to smooth the motion of the latter on-screen and provide precise tracking. Handy for those in combat / shooting situations.

Floating Away

NiranV’s work on redesigning various floaters continues. With this release, People and Mesh Upload come in for attention.

The People floater joins Build in going horizontal – – and this works particularly well with Nearby, wherein the people list and mini-map can be displayed without having to have a long vertical panel opening on-screen.

Revised People floater

Another nice touch with this is that both ONLINE and ALL are displayed side-by-side (although may require extra scrolling if you have an extensive list of friends!).

The Mesh Upload floater has been compressed and the lay-out tided so that it also doesn’t require so much on-screen real estate. The result is a clean, compact approach that is still relatively easy on the eye, although the ability to resize it via dragging might not go amiss for those who would prefer it to be a little bigger.

Mesh upload

The Build floater has been further tweaked and again provides a cleaner display and appears less cluttered than early iterations.

Menus and floaters have also had their transparency adjusted to give a consistent feel right across the Viewer, and to aid in readability.

“Pick a colour, any colour…”

Perhaps the biggest single update in terms of the ability to customise the Viewer is that users can now set the colour and transparency of every common floater in the Viewer and set colours against every common widget.

UI colour and transparency options for floaters

Changes to floaters require a Viewer restart to take effect, while changes to widget colours will be applied immediately.

For those missing KLee’s Viewer, a small nod has been added to Niran’s 1.30: the UI buttons can now by displayed in KLee Viewer style.

And there’s more…

As well as these changes, 1.30 also sees:

  • More work on translating the UI for German and French users
  • Improvements and tweaks to various Preferences panels
  • Fixes to media roll-off and max sliders
  • Incorporation of the latest Shining fixes
  • Text compression (which may help with some crash issues on older cards, but not recommended for ATi systems)

A full list of changes can be found at the end of the blog post on the release.  Gone from this release is the “main menu” option and the SL Kinect2 option. The former is being reworked, the latter may be gone for good due to compiling issues with Linux.

Feedback

I’ve always liked Niran’s Viewer – the “dares to be different” approach has meant that the Viewer has been very innovative and something very different from “standard” 3.x-based offerings. My experience has suffered over the last few releases because my PC has struggled to manage the Viewer, particularly when running some of the more advanced deferred rendering options. Whereas early versions ran very well – frame rates up in the mid-30s sans deferred options, more recent releases have been barely half that.

Release 1.30 goes some way to reversing this trend, allowing me to achieve frame rates of between 28-32 with 3 or 4 others on-sim, and deferred rendering is back on a par with earlier releases (around 8-9fps). This still isn’t as fast my PC can manage with other Viewers, but it’s a lot faster than I’ve enjoyed of late with Niran’s, and as such is very welcome.

In all, the Viewer runs smoothly, exhibits no proclivity towards crashing on me (it rarely has), and I had no lock-ups when taking lots of snapshots with deferred rendering turned on (an issue I tend to get with other viewers, particularly if I move the camera around a lot with the snapshot floater open when running in deferred).

In terms of the UI changes, the ability to make the UI multi-hued may find a lot of appeal among those who like a highly individual look to their Viewer. For me, I like the general tidying done to the Build floater – which is starting to grow on me – and I very much like the new People floater, which really maximises the use of space. The new default camera position is also something that appeals, given I already use something similar, although I’d personally prefer to set my camera back a little further.

Overall, a lot of work continues to go into this Viewer, it’s still one of my two preferred Viewers when it comes to my amateur attempts at photography, and given I’ve got a slight boost in performance with this release, it may well see a lot more use again as I hop around the grid exploring and snapping pictures.

Kudos!

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2012: week 11

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for week ending: 17 March, 2012

Updated 20th March to reflect Niran’s, Firestorm and Phoenix releases. Also, review links will take you to a library page for those viewers / clients I’ve reviewed more than once.

Changes since the last Round-up shown in green.

SL Official Viewers

Available for: Windows, Linux, Mac

V3.2-based TPVs

V1-based TPVs

Text-based Clients (New)

This is intended to be a weekly round-up of current public SL ciewers / clients (of which I’m aware / for which I have information / which I can run (Windows / Android)). As few Viewers are static, and releases are made according to individual development cycles, further versions of any given viewer / client may well be released between these updates, and as such the information here may become out-of-date as the week progresses. Please check with the relevant download pages.

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Dolphin 3.2.10.23198: removing the unwanted from your view

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update 16th March: features from this Viewer have been attributed as coming from NACL, which is apparently incorrect. As information is taken at source, I’ve now removed references from the article below. It is also reported that the Sound Explorer and Asset Blacklist may have licencing issues – see Comments.

dolphin-logoLance Corrimal is working steadily on Dolphin, with roughly a release every couple of weeks of late, providing plenty of new features and tweaks to the V3.2-based Viewer.

The latest release, 3.2.10.23198 offers potentially improved graphics handling for older / lower-specification graphics systems (with the exception of ATi systems) and provides blacklisting capabilities for those who are repeatedly troubled by unwanted sights / sounds or need to find an elusive sound.

Texture Compression

For graphics cards with 512Mb or less of memory, Dolphin will have texture compression enabled by default. This should help prevent such systems crashing when running SL. The option can be manually enabled / disabled via PREFERENCES->GRAPHICS->HARDWARE SETTINGS.

Lance advises that users with ATi graphics cards should avoid using the option, and keep it switched off.

Asset Blacklisting and Sound Explorer

The Asset Blacklist is a means of removing unwanted objects, textures or sculpt maps from your world-view. Sounds can also be blacklisted via the Sound Explorer (described below).

The Asset Blacklist operates in a similar manner to derendering an item, but with the advantages that a) items that are blacklisted remain so until de-listed, so that if you teleport away from a location and return, you do not need to de-render them again; b) the asset blacklist can be shared by accounts using the same Viewer; c) you can even share lists with other users – hand if you are running a Group or similar and your base of operations is blighted in some way.

Problems with things regularly ruining your personal world-view?
Add them to your Asset Blacklist
And enjoy the view

Items are added to the list by asset type – object, texture, sculpt map – and recorded by UUID to prevent a simple renaming of the object causing it to reappear.

Blacklisted items are managed via the Asset Blacklist floater (WORLD->ASSET BLACKLIST).

The Asset Blacklist floater and key buttons

The Sound Explorer allows you to list all sound sources operating around you. It is accessed via WORLD->SOUND EXPLORER. This enables you to filter the available sounds by type, listen to them individually, identify their location and, if required, add them to your Asset Blacklist.

Sound Explorer: locate, listen-to or even blacklist sounds in your location by type

Both of these make extremely useful additions to the Viewer, and will likely prove very useful for those who routinely visit places where there may be issues with items or sounds impacting personal enjoyment.

Other Nips and Tucks

  • Anti-spam also arrives in Dolphin with this release (ME->PREFERENCES->DOLPHIN 3-> ANTI-SPAM
  • Help has been extensively overhauled within this release of Dolphin so that all help buttons in the Viewer now redirect to the Dolphin Viewer forum
  • The “Items incoming too fast” pop-up behaviour has been changed so that it is no longer necessary to click OK in order to remove the message – it will now fade-out on its own (something I hope all other TPVs will adopt; the message is annoying in its default behaviour)
  • Anti-aliasing is no longer off by default as it doesn’t impact overall performance so much as it once did
  • Fly-after-teleport has been fixed within the Viewer so that if you were flying prior to a teleport, you’ll still be flying on arrival
  • There have been some performance tweaks.

Opinion

This release has some nice additions for those that suffer visual / audio blights around their home space in-world. While the “performance tweaks” aren’t specified in the Dolphin blog, while running this release I did obtain a very small improvement of my average fps rates  (around 3-4fps), with this release averaging around 41fps at 390 metres, and 23fps on the ground compared with the last release of Dolphin I actively tried (2.3.8.23163). With shadows enabled, this drops-off to around 12fps at 390 metres and 10fps on the ground (all checks with 3 other avatars on-sim)..

I also recently used Dolphin on Kitely, where it also worked flawlessly, making it my 2nd choice of Viewer for visiting other VWs, after Exodus.

Related Links

Text Clients 6: Lumiya

Posted on by Inara Pey

Oz Linden recently dropped by this blog and made mention of Lumiya, a new Android text-based SL client. As I have access to an Android phone, and have previously reviewed the Mobile Grid Client for Android, I decided to check it out.

Lumiya, developed by Alina Lyvette, is relatively new – the initial release appears to have been on January 12th 2012, although this is version 1.2.1, so it is possible there were earlier releases prior to it getting to the Android market. The Lumiya website itself is very polished, and provides core information on the application, including screen shots, support details (e-mail), version history and links for obtaining the client either via direct phone download or the use of a QR code.

Unlike Mobile Grid Client, there is a download fee for Lumiya: some $2.95 (£1.87 / 2.24 Euros) at the time of writing this review. After that, usage is free – subject to network charges, etc., when accessing SL when roaming.

Logging-in

Once you’ve paid for the app and it has downloaded & installed, staring it will display the log-in screen. Enter your avatar name and password – not that by default, your password is saved, allowing rapid log-in in the future. When done, tap SIGN IN to get started. The first time you do, you’ll be prompted to accept the SL Terms of Service.

On logging-in, you will be presented with the Local Chat screen (see below) and if media is available at your log-in location, you’ll be prompted as to whether you wish to play the media over your phone or not. If you opt not to receive the media stream you can turn it on later via the Media menu button.

Lumiya log-in screen (l); Local chat screen (c) and menu options (r) – click to enlarge)

The Local Chat screen (above centre) is a little devoid of details. This provides the maximum amount of space for chat, but I can’t help wondering if having the Contacts buttons displayed might be a good idea, rather than having hidden within a menu option (below). I’m also, if I’m honest, not overly keen on the white-on-light-grey text / background combination at the top of the screen, which some users might find hard to read. That said, in a rather charming difference to just having your avatar standing around (often times with arms outstretched on either side), Lumiya animates the ground sit for your avatar, sitting you wherever you have logged-in – which is probably a more natural pose for those observing you from in-world.

All major functions for the client are accessed via you phone’s menu button. Pressing this presents the following options:

  • Contacts: allows you to view your Friends and Group lists, and see who is nearby you
    • Tapping on any displayed name will open an IM / Group chat to the individual / Group
    • Friends online will have a green icon displayed next to their name
    • A sub-menu can be displayed, allowing you to swap to Local Chat, Recent or Landmarks (both below) or sign-out from SL
  • Recent: displays the last lines of any recent conversations. Again, a sub-menu can be displayed, allowing you to swap to local Chat or Landmarks or sign-out
  • Landmarks: lists any favourites you have set-up (V3.x & associated TPVs), and your landmarks. Tapping a favourite or landmark will open an option to teleport to that destination. A sub-menu can also be displayed, allowing you to (again) swap to local Chat, Recent or sign-out
  • Media: enables you to see if any local media is playing & listen to it.
  • Settings: accesses the client’s settings
  • Sign-out logs you out of SL.

You can also use you phone’s Back button to return to Local Chat from any other screen / menu.

Client settings options (click to enlarge)

The Settings option allows you a set-up a number of client preferences:

  • Start location: choose between last location visited or your default home location
  • Always in status bar: shows your on-line status in the phone’s status bar (although I didn’t actually notice any different toggling this off / on)
  • Message sounds: allows you to set a sound for Group chat / private IMs. If the option is unchecked, both are disabled. If checked, you can select a sound for each from a list (default is your default ring tone).

That’s pretty much it for the client at the moment. As it is fairly new, it’ll be interesting to see how it develops and whether features are added.

Opinion

While I find the Local Chat window perhaps a little too minimalistic, Lumiya is a lean client that does exactly what it sets out to do: provide you with a lightweight, mobile means of maintaining contact with those in-world when away from your computer. Once installed, the app may currently lack the capabilities in other text clients, but it does allow for fast and easy use for communications. The only issue I encountered with the app is that signing-out with a media stream playing didn’t shut down the stream; the only way of preventing this appears to be to go to the Media option and manually shutting-down the stream before signing-out. I assume this is the result of the app effectively calling a separate URL outside of the SL connection in order to play the stream.

For those who want a quick, fast means of accessing SL and who don’t necessarily need access to the likes of inventory, notecards, etc., or additional monthly use fees for the client, then Lumiya may well be the ideal solution.

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2012: week 10

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for week ending: 11 March, 2012

A day late due to RL commitments yesterday.

A quiet week – only the Usual Suspects 🙂 updating in the TPV arena – Dolphin, Niran’s, Zen and Cool VL  LL have updated their Beta Viewer, dated March 1st – although I swear that wasn’t the one I got in my weekly download / check for the March 5th Round-up. The Development Viewer has also been updated, with all others remaining as-is.

Changes since the last Round-up shown in green.

SL Official Viewers

Available for: Windows, Linux, Mac

V3.2-based TPVs

V1-based TPVs

This is intended to be a weekly round-up of current public SL viewers (of which I’m aware / for which I have information). As few Viewers are static, and releases are made according to individual development cycles, further versions of any given Viewer may well be released between these updates, and as such the information here may become out-of-date as the week progresses. Please check with the relevant download pages.

Related Links

Oz discusses TPV Policy changes

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Wednesday March 7th, Jessica Lyon of the Firestorm team sat down with Oz Linden to discuss the recent TPV Policy (TPVP) changes. Originally Oz had asked to appear with Jessica on the last Phoenix Hour, which is normally co-presented by Jessica and Phaylen Fairchild, but it was decided to hold-off on any appearance for a more focused presentation.

That Oz made the offer again speaks highly of his desire to engage openly with the community on what has become something of a sensitive (and in some cases incorrectly viewed, given the way it has been wrongly portrayed as stopping “any” innovation within TPVs) issue, and his willingness to try to provide further clarification on the changes and the reasoning behind them.

I’ve included a summary of the discussion on the following pages. As it is somewhat lengthy and potentially subject to “tl;dr” (shame on you!), I felt it better to provide my own thoughts on the discussion up-front.

Oz in conversation

While listening to the discussion I was also seeing Twitter comments appear on my screen relating to the posting of the interview video and was – to be honest – surprised at the negative tone of some of the comments being made. Overall, I felt the Oz was open and direct in dealing with the questions and statements directed at him, and he did much to fill-in the blanks. And before anyone starts on the, “But he’s only an employee” tack, I very much doubt that he was in any way speaking in isolation or sans the support for his management. As such, this is precisely the kind of engagement we should be applauding, even if the message may not be entirely what we want to hear,  and which LL should be seeking to undertake more regularly.

Some have complained that we “don’t know” any more following the discussion than we knew at the start. To them I’d actually ask, “What more do you want to know?” The boundaries of the TPVP changes have been given better definition – indeed, Oz has provided clearer definitions here, and prior to this meeting. Unless LL produces a set of stone tablets detailing every case, it’s hard to see what more can be said – and it should be remembered that tablets of stone can be as dangerous as having a broad definition. Things do cut both ways.

Sure, what has been said previously, and is said in this discussion, doesn’t provide any safeguards against any fear of how LL might at some point in the future choose to interpret the TPVP – but really, this is an unreasonable expectation. No-one can predict what tomorrow may bring much less a time eighteen months or two years hence, and it is unreasonable to expect any company to give guarantees where the security and growth of their business is concerned. At the end of the day, SL is LL’s business first and foremost – and I applaud Oz for being so frank on the matter of the business / platform relationship – and as such they can change the rules howsoever they like; as such the hammer could be dropped on TPV activities with or without the use of such a policy.

However, I think it fair to say Oz is being sincere both on a personal level and as a representative of the company when he says that LL is not looking to end TPVs, but wants to enhance and grow their working relationship with TPV developers. While it is clear from the phrasing of some of his answers that LL would like to see their effective market-share of users increase in terms of Viewer use, it would be a mistake to attribute the TPVP changes to purely that motivation. It’s fair to say that if that was the goal, LL could conceivably achieve it simply by removing the majority of their Viewer development back behind the curtain, leaving TPVs forever in a catch-up situation.

Nevertheless, the risk of stifling innovation is still there, howsoever small a part the “shared experience” has played in TPV development, simply because of the concerns TPV developers have around the whole aspect of having ideas and proposals accepted by LL as Jessica expresses in the video. This is something that LL need to remain attuned to and seek to demonstrate they will help and support TPV developers when and where they do see an opportunity for developing a shared experience capability that isn’t on LL’s radar or to-do list.

Some will most likely remain dissatisfied with the results of the discussion, which is a shame. While the proof of LL’s commitment to developing and evolving the TPV / LL relationship can only be judged on whatever occurs going forward, there is currently no reason to take what has been said at anything less than face value.

For my part, I would say that Oz’s openness and his candour in dealing with the questions and concerns relating to the TPVP changes is to be welcomed. I hope he does take Jessica up on her suggestion of future discussions of this kind, and that we may yet see LL encouraged to participate in other such opportunities to address user concerns on various matters as openly and directly in the future.

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