Category: SL Tech

Kokua Viewer: first looks

Posted on by Inara Pey

kokua-logoKokua is the name of the new Viewer from the Imprudence team. It’s been in development for several months, and a “test release” or “Work-in-Progress release” has now been made available. Based on Snowstorm 2.4, Kokua represents the forth major TPV to be based on the Viewer 2, following Kirstenlee’s S20/S21 series, Dolphin 2 and Firestorm itself.

Given the version (0.1.0) on offer isn’t even an Alpha, it would be unfair to subject it to a full review; rather, here are some impressions after having taken it for a spin over a couple of hours.

Installation and Start-up

Installation was pretty much the norm for an SL Viewer, although running it might cause some surprises, at least on the Windows version, where it opens up a couple of unexpected terminal windows; one apparently monitoring the Viewer’s system calls, etc., and the other blank. Closing the latter will remove the blog display panel from the splash screen, but otherwise not impact the Viewer. Closing the other window – identifiable from the commands displayed – will also close the Viewer – it must remain open until you actively quit the Viewer (at which point it will close). Doubtless future releases will see these additional windows removed.

Hybrid Interface

Once logged-in it becomes evident that Kokua is something of a hybrid Viewer; while the layout of the UI is broadly Viewer 2, there are subtle differences. The most obvious of these at first glance is the menu bar, which is more Viewer 1.x in appearance than Viewer 2.x. Rather than the increasingly-familiar Me, Communicate, World, Build and Help options, Kokua presents us with File, Edit, View, World, Build and Help, together (as with Viewer 2) the optional Advanced and Develop menus.

Similarly, the toolbar at the bottom of the Viewer window presents additional buttons over Viewer 2’s default set (see below). Of particular note is the Sidebar button, which brings up a floating palette from which the various Sidebar tabs can be accessed. Anyone having used Kirstenlee’s S20 Viewer, will find this instantly familiar. However, there is a slight annoyance – close the Sidebar palette before you’ve closed any open Sidebar tab…and you cannot close the tab. You must re-open the Sidebar palette and click on the relevant button to close the tab.

Toolbars (From top: viewer 2.x, Firestorm, Kokua, Kirstenlee S21

Communications

One of the major frustrations with Viewer 2.x has always been in the area of typewritten communications which has exhibited various flaws, including much in the way of wasted space through the use of avatar icons in the actual chat / IM windows. While things have improved over successive releases of Viewer 2, Kokua sadly takes a step backwards.

The problem is that both the chat and IM window tabs take up an excessive amount of space when compared to Viewer 2 because both include a central “column”. In the case of IM tabs, this is used to display the Profile picture of the person with whom you are conversing and a series of Action buttons (Pay, Teleport, etc), as shown below; in the case of the Chat window, it displays a list of icons representing everyone in your immediate vicinity.

IM tabs (Left: Viewer 2.x; right: Kokua)

Truth be told, while not always ideal, Viewer 2’s use of icons at the top of IM tabs is a far better solution to providing access the options to pay, teleport, etc. Where the chat window is concerned, the list of avatar icons is…wasteful.

View (Camera) Controls

On a more positive note, a nice touch within Kokua is a revised View / Camera control palette which includes buttons for camera zoom and for entering Mouselook, as well as the more familiar control options. These are a very nice touch.

Performance and General Feedback

In terms of performance and use, Kokua sits right up there for me. My frame rate was hitting 50-55 fps when on my own, and dropping to around the mid-30s when interacting with a few others. This actually puts it top of the tree for me in comparison to the likes of Firestorm and even Phoenix 908/977. However, activating dynamic shadows did give me a massive performance hit; one far greater than with Firestorm, with my frame rate collapsing to around 7-8 fps.

Rezzing was also extremely fast on Kokua when compared specifically to Phoenix and Firestorm – both of which it beat hands-down when logging on to the same location with each Viewer and with a cleared cache. While it might be my eyes, Kokua also seems to render objects with a far greater sharpness than seems to be the case with Viewer 2, Firestorm or Phoenix.

When installed, Kokua leaves one of the bigger footprints on a hard disk – 137Mb. This compares to the 102Mb used by V2, the 129 by Klee’s S21 and the whooping 154Mb required by Firestorm. Memory usage for the Viewer equated to that for both Firestorm and Klee, with similar overall core usage on a multi-core (quad core) CPU, where three cores shared the load.

Conclusion

There is of course much that is missing from this release – hence the “test” and “WIP” warnings in the Imprudence blog; so those anticipating a Viewer comparable to the pre-Alpha of Firestorm should perhaps wait until the next release of Kokua comes along. Certianly, anyone requiring the Media Filter, RLVa, radar or a choice of skins would do well to wait.

People also shouldn’t expect things like web Profiles or Avatar Physics – these became available after the version of Snowstorm Kokua is currently based on, so it is frankly unfair to expect either, or critique the Imprudence team because they are “not there”.  Indeed, those expecting more would do well to read the Imprudence blog post caveats relating to the release, namely:

  • This is a test build. It will likely have many bugs. It might break your avatar or eat your pets. Use it for testing purposes only.
  • This is not a finished product. The UI is not final. The feature set is not final. Nothing about it is final.
  • We need your feedback to improve the viewer.

However, that said, there are two elements of the current release that I would change were I involved in Kokua. These are:

  • The current chat / IM window / tab layout: this is really irritating in the amount of screen real estate required to adequately display conversations – and it is simply not necessary. The central “column” for images and the like really serves no purpose that cannot be better met through other means. If nothing else, those routinely using SL from a laptop may well find the amount of screen display lost to chat very annoying
  • The Sidebar tabs really need individual options to close them in addition to being able to do so from the Sidebar button palette; relying on the palette alone is not really convenient.

Other than that, this looks like a promising start for Kokua, and I look forward to taking future, more advanced, releases for a more thorough test drive.

 

Phoenix .1050 goes “final”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Phoenix .1050 was issued as a Release Candidate on the 21st April, and slightly surprisingly made the jump to a Final release on the 26th, without requiring any further downloads. The decision to flip the status of the Viewer to Final was bashed on a combination of reduced reported crash rates and generally good user feedback.

The core changes to .1050 comprise:

  • Media filter
  • Bridge prim update (please see the Phoenix READ BLOG on this)
  • HTML link parser updates for local chat
  • Correctly identify server 2008 and 2008 R2, added detection for Windows 8 and Server 2012
  • Windows XP no longer shows as running compatibility mode in help → about
  • Added cookie support for internal web browser
  • Debug setting for making Linden chat blue (PhoenixColorLindensChat and PhoenixLindensChatColor)
  • URLs in picks and profiles are now clickable
  • Links in group charter are clickable
  • Sound fixed in Linux (no more needing to copy files from 373)
  • Sculpt rendering fixes (all those sculpts that didn’t look right should be fixed!)
  • Added more viewer tags
  • Added entries to GPU table to recognize more video cards
  • Messages that fail to send to a group now say what group it failed to send to
  • Ability to not show TP Offers (Prefs > Popups > “Show teleport offer popups”)
  • Added to windows install the ability to have this build used for handling SLURL links from web browsers.

Plus a series of bug fixes and under-the-bonnet interface improvements. From a personal standpoint, the clickable URLs are perhaps the biggest “new feature” in this release. As I run this and other blogs, having the means to direct people to them straight from my Profile without them having to copy/paste is a major boon. The same is very much true for any merchant advertising their goods on the likes of the Second Life Marketplace. If you plan to include URLs in your Profile, remember that they’ll only be active for others viewing your Profile – links will not work in your own view of your Profile.

There are still issues with 1050; many people are reporting reduced frame rates, while the amount of memory the Viewer uses appears far larger than either the last “Full” release (908) or the last Beta (977). Some have reported issues with rezzing and sculpties taking longer than expected to load as well. These last two points may be attributable to the fact that HTTP Get texture loading is now OFF by default. To turn the faster HTTP texture loading back on:

  • Preferences -> Phoenix -> Page 2 -> Advanced Graphics and check  HTTP Get Textures and then APPLY.

You’ll be prompted that you’ll have to restart Phoenix for the change to take effect. This is because your existing texture cache must be cleared. On initial re-logging, allow time for your inventory to full reload.

Another potential performance gain would be to re-enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects, which are turned off by default with this release:

  • Preferences -> Graphics -> click on the HARDWARE OPTIONS button
  • Check the option to Enable VBO and optionally enable Streamed VBOs.

In order to ensure these options are benefiting you, it is best to carry them out one at a time and monitor what happens – so enable HTTP Get and see if there is any significant improvements as you use SL before you try enabling VBOs.

The Phoenix release notes suggest that, as a last resort, you perform a completely “clean” install of the Viewer. However, before you do so, I would recommend you read Nalates Urriah’s excellent blog entry Second Life Clean install – it could save you a lot of time and frustration.

From a personal standpoint, I find 1050 a mixed bag; as stated, I like the click-enabled URLs when viewing other people’s Profiles, but at the same time, 1050 doesn’t get along well with my GeForce 9800-series graphic card as well as 977 or 908, and I’m still finding myself flipping between it and 977 at times.

Bouncing bewbs beget blog bit

Posted on by Inara Pey

Well, Enhanced Avatar Physics are finally formally released  – and blogged about by Samuel Linden, aided by Amanda Linden (honestly, the bouncy bits are that big they require a double team effort?!).

The news isn’t exactly new; people have been blogging and filming the new undulating body parts and having mild fits of hysterics playing with the sliders for a while now.

And truth be told, the enhanced physics are fun and add another level of realism to SL (and without the angst associated with the way bewbs bounce in viewers like Phoenix).

However, we’ve come through nigh-on a month of almost deafening silence from Linden Lab while a myriad of things bork, bomb and basically bugger-up (OK, not quite so alliterative, but you get the point). So you can understand it when people take a tongue-in-cheek line of reportage on the subject, or indeed, mix a little acidity into their view on the news, as Marx Dudek did (sorry; hard to avoid that particular alliterative bit) on Twitter:

What I like best about SL jiggly bits: My breasts bounce with just the right amount of realism while I hover after another failed teleport.

Yes, bouncy bits are fun – but unless this announcement marks a renewal of the Lab actively communicating with the community, people are going to remain pretty unimpressed, even if those of us blessed with them can have bits that wiggle and jiggle and bounce and flounce.

Viewer 2 Basic mode – where next?

Posted on by Inara Pey

Opinions relating to the Basic mode available in Viewer 2 are mixed. While finding it usable in my original review, several aspects left me concerned as to how well it might fill the role for which it appears to have been designed. I specifically questioned the fact that beyond things like basic movement, the view controls and communicating, it has very little in common with the Advanced mode – and there is no obvious continuity in the assistance available for those who opt to start with Basic and come to the point where they want to transition.

One Small Step for a Viewer; One Giant Leap for the User

In fairness, getting to grips with the Viewer at the best of times isn’t easy; while Torley has produced some outstanding videos, these aren’t always easy to locate. Worse, the So-called Quick Start Guide suffers from a combination of having the wrong emphasis in part and missing important and basic information (like actually modifying your avatar’s appearance, rather than simply changing clothes). Also, it’s fair to say the Quick Start Guide hasn’t been updated to reflect the arrival of additional and attractive functionality, thus putting it further out-of-synch with the Viewer.

Put all of this together – the more intense UI of the Advanced mode, a less-than-helpful Quick Start Guide, only the broadest elements of commonality between the Basic and Advanced modes of the Viewer, etc. – and it becomes clear that moving up from the Basic mode to the Advanced mode is not so much a matter of taking the next logical step as it is about taking a leap of faith that the effort is going to be worth it. This considerably undermines the usefulness of the Basic mode.

If the Basic mode is to prove worthwhile, work needs to be put into providing some level of continuity between the two modes of the Viewer to help those making the transition. Indeed, with a little forethought, re-working where and how people get help in the Advanced mode may well assist those leaping straight into it, opting to avoid the Basic mode altogether.

Such continuity / general assistance could be achieved first and foremost by incorporating the HOW TO button with an expanded number of pop-ups (providing overviews of, say, the Sidebar, the revised Toolbar, the menus and the Favourites bar). Doing this would immediately achieve two things:

  1. It would provide needed continuity of approach to seeking help for those moving up to Advanced from Basic.
  2. It offers an obvious place to find basic help and information for those leaping into the Advanced mode of the Viewer and bypassing the Basic mode altogether.

All the pop-ups associated with HOW TO (both Basic and Advanced) should additionally contain links to the Viewer Quick Start Guide, where more in-depth information would still reside. These links should display a pop-up informing the user the QSG will be opened in their external browser (although the Advanced mode should still retain QSG access from the Sidebar as an option).

To further increase the relevancy of the QSG, it should be re-formatted into two sections: BASIC and ADVANCED:

  • BASIC should provide additional information relevant to the Basic mode and which is not included in the HOW TO pop-ups (such as the more familiar WASD keys being available for movement, information on the various icons that appear on the right of the toolbar, etc.)
  • ADVANCED should provide more in-depth information available to Advanced mode users
  • Where any overlap occurs between the two modes, simple visual indicators should be used to indicate options those options only available to the Advanced mode.

Help, Don’t Hinder

It is fair to say that the current QSG is encumbered by several problems:

  • It is out-of-date
  • It lacks key information users will want to know – such as instructions on physically altering an avatar, as mentioned earlier
  • It contains a lot of what might be regarded as extraneous information. For example, while one understands LL’s desire to promote Premium Accounts, is it really necessary to have the latter third of the QSG read like a brochure for Linden Homes – especially as there is already an entire section of the Sidebar given over to this very topic?

It would therefore seem preferable that any re-vamp of the QSG should also focus on ensuring it is updated to reflect more recent version of the Viewer and on assisting the user more effectively, rather than engaging them in a sales pitch for Premium Accounts.

Obviously, a better alignment of the two modes of the Viewer and overhauling the QSG will not solve all the problems inherent in joining Second Life – there are many other aspects of getting into SL that also need to be addressed over an above the Viewer itself.

However, changes like these should help to ease people into using the viewer and encourage a greater tolerance towards it by presenting a more easy-to-follow route into getting help and understanding the UI. In short, it will do more to help users in gaining familiarity with either mode of the Viewer, rather than possibly hindering them.

As stands, as long as the  disconnect between both modes of the Viewer remains, it is hard to see how the Basic mode can achieve any lasting positive impact on new users.

More on bouncing bits

Posted on by Inara Pey

So, SL is all lit up about the forthcoming bouncing bewbs et al in Viewer 2; so much so that people are stampeding over to the website and downloading the Snowstorm latest development version (2,6,3) of the Viewer in which Avatar Physics are to be found.

Setting the Avatar Physics rendering slider

To determine how well your Viewer renders Avatar Physics, go to ME -> PREFERENCES -> GRAPHICS, click on ADVANCED at the bottom of the tab, and then adjust the Avatar Physics detail slider.

In what might cause a little confusion for those used to using breast physics in TPVs, Avatar Physics are treated as a new clothing layer in Viewer 2. To enable them, therefore, you need to:

  • Open your Inventory and click “+” at the bottom of the Inventory tab
  • Select NEW CLOTHES -> NEW PHYSICS from the drop-down menu that appears
  • A new clothing layer is created called, by default, “New Physics”.

Once created, wear the new clothing layer, and:

  • Swap to the My Appearance tab in the Sidebar
  • Click on WEARING
  • Right click on the New Physics clothing layer (or whatever you’ve renamed it to) and select EDIT OUTFIT
  • Click on the tools icon to the right of the selected layer to display the Avatar Physics options tab.
Avatar Physics - main options

This tab contains a number of controllers:

  • Breast Bounce (open by default on first use)
  • Breast Cleavage
  • Breast Sway
  • Belly Bounce
  • Butt Bounce
  • Butt Sway
  • Advanced Parameters

Each of the first six options comprises a series of sliders rated from 0-100 which adjust four parameters: mass effect, spring, gain, and damping.

Advanced Parameters contains an additional set of parameters (mass, gravity, drag) for breasts, belly and butt respectively. Again, each of these is controller by a slider rated from 0-100.

In all cases, 0 = effect not seen; 100 = effect on maximum exaggeration. The best way to sort out how to set the sliders is through experimentation and finding something you’re happy with. Once you’re happy with things, click the SAVE button at the top of the tab, or SAVE AS at the bottom, if you wish to rename the layer.

Some things to note:

  • Like the Breast Physics in TPVs, activating Avatar Physics in Viewer 2 broadcasts the effects to other compatible Viewers
  • The Avatar Physics system is not    compatible with the Breast Physics in TPVs – you won’t see bouncing bewbs for others using a TPV with Breast Physics enabled; similarly, they will not see your Avatar Physics.

Happy bouncing!

Bewbs bounce, bellies bobble and butts…umm…

Posted on by Inara Pey

Breast physics are not new to the world of Third-Party Viewers (or Third-Pervy Viewers as I once saw them called in a forum post). First introduced with Emerald, they are now available in most TPVs.

Until now, however, they’ve not been available in the “official” Viewer; but all that is about to change. Yes, bouncing bewbs are coming to Viewer 2. And not only bouncing bewbs, but also physics to make bellies and butt do their own thing.

Whether this leads to a wider uptake of Viewer 2 remains to be seen; I’ve personally found the bouncing bewbs thing to be a nevermind situation – I’m not particularly fussed if someone out there has parts of me madly boinging up and down to aid their visual jollies in a TP, but at least here, as a clothing layer, I retain full control of what is seen. This alone means there should be less screaming from people in terms of sexist attitudes or degrading the female form, as we’ve had in the past.

At the end of the day, if bouncy bits are fun to have and further mimic what we get in real life (well, if not taken to extremes), then well done to LL for finally jumping on the band wagon!

In the meantime – and with grateful thanks to Opensource Obscure, here’s a fun little video marking the soon-to-arrive features, currently available in Snowstorm.