One thing I neglected to mention in my recent review of Firestorm 4.4.0 is the inclusion – by Cinder Roxley – of Vincent Nacon’s alternative cloud maps, which can be used to change / enhance the rendering windlight clouds.
The default cloud layer seen over Extropia, using the AnaLutetia-outdoor windlight setting and the sun adjust to around 10:00.
I’ve no excuse for this, given Cinder actually nudged me on the matter prior to the release; just blame it on me having a blonde moment…
So, what is it all about? Quite simply, Firestorm now includes additional cloud maps made by Vincent Nacon, and which Cinder has added to the Preferences > Firestorm > Windlight tab for easy selection.
The Windlight cloud options
This presents you with four basic cloud types – the default map, Altocumulus (a middle altitude cloud, usually characterised by globular masses or rolls in layers or patches), Cumulonimbus (the familiar towering cloud formations associated with thunderstorms) and a “Layered” map. Do note that selecting any option other than the one already in use appears to require a viewer re-start in order to take effect.
Exactly what effect these different maps will have on your in-world view is a matter of experimenting with the various available windlight settings within Firestorm (a task made easier thanks to William Weaver’s Phototools). However, they can be used to produce some stunning effects – the images here are simply to provide some form of comparison.
Extropia seen under the same windlight setting as the first image in this article, but using the Layered cloud map.
What’s more, as Cinder indicated in her little nudge to me, you can create (or obtain) cloud maps of your own and add them to Firestorm to create your own unique cloud looks. “Drop any 8-bit grayscale tga with a power of 2 size you make or find under app_settings/windlight/clouds,” she comments, “And they’ll be automatically added to the list.”
For those wishing to try the cloud maps on other viewers, Vincent provides forum thread in which his discusses the maps and provides guidelines and caveats on their usage in viewers. Links to download the maps are also provided.
The Cumulonimbus map applied to the sky, using the same windlight setting and time of day – note the “stacking” effect visible in the formations on the right of the image, given the impression of some additional vertical height
The maps appear to be particularly well-suited to sunrise / sunset images, where the combination of sun and clouds can be particularly dramatic and result in some incredible images.
The blog post says it all – “old school” – a simple message with a lot of meaning. Kirstenlee Cinquetti has been twiddling under the hood with the S19 (v1-style) version of Kirsten’s Viewer with the result that an updated version – code-named “Blackbird” (version S19.404 at the time of writing) was released via Google Code on Wednesday 24th April.
This is the second time there has been a surprise update to one of Kirstenlee’s viewers – in September 2012 a couple of updates were made to the v2-style S22 viewer. As with those updates, the new release of S19 does not mean that Kirstenlee is returning to the field of viewer development per se. Nor is this a complete update – although it does incorporate a lot of v3 code and is Server-side Baking ready. As it stands, the release – as with the S22 releases in September 2012 – is offered “as is” and without support – and there is no time scale or firm commitment where further updates are concerned.
As readers, know, I’m not a fan of the v1-style interface, but I admit there is something pleasing about loading and running this release – quiet possibly because it is one of Kirstenlee’s builds, which, despite the odd hiccup between the viewer and my hardware, I’ve always felt pretty much at home with. Perhaps it’s the green :).
Some of the New Bits
I’m not proposing an in-depth review, but here are some of the main features in the update.
Server-side Baking / Appearance: as mentioned above, this update is “server-side baking / appearance ready – it will render avatars correctly on SSB/A-enabled regions and avatars using the viewer will render correctly to others. However, the new “hover” mode partial z-offset “fix” is not included in the Edit Appearance floater.
SSB/A-OK: O the left – S19 Blackbird rendering my Alt (on the SL SSB/A beta viewer) and I correctly on an SSB/A-enabled region; on the right – I render correctly in my Alt’s view
Mesh Uploads: Nicky Dasmijn’s mesh uploader is included in this release of S19, again bringing it into line with other viewers and the age of mesh.
Anaglyph [3D] rendering: Kirsten’s first introduced 3D rendering in the S22 viewer. While still very experimental, with all the interest in Oculus Rift, its inclusion in S19 with this release is perhaps a little pertinent and timely as a means of generating a 3D view in a viewer.
If you have 3D glasses, Kirsten’s latest S19 (404+) gives you a 3D world
Restrained Love: RLV comes to Kirsten’s viewer with a dedicated preferences panel which includes the ability to set a “profile” against your RLV use – one of “BDSM Persona-Player”, “BDSM Role-player” and “Non-BDSM”. These define how many (and which) RLV controls can be blacklisted (i.e. prevented from operating), so that, for an example, someone using the “Non-BDSM” option can make use of options such as automatic chat redirection, shared folders for changing outfits and “forced” teleports which necessarily having to also have the more restrictive RLV options active.
RLV comes to Kirsten’s Viewer – complete with a set of “profiles”
Pathfinding: Kirsten’s Viewer S19 also gains options to display pathfinding information on linksets and characters. These options are on the Tools menu. As S19 supports OpenSim, there is no navmesh visualisation as there is no Havok sub-licence agreement.
Comments
Overall, this is a sudden and interesting update to Kirsten’s original v1-style viewer, incorporating a lot of v3 code which more than makes it capable of running on today’s grid. On the whole I found it to be stable, and with performance levels I’ve tended to get from Klee’s builds (somewhat lower than with other builds for reasons I’ve never fully fathomed). I did encounter an odd issue – while I could run the viewer in deferred mode, when I enabled shadows, my in-world view turned black, and refused to come out of its sulk until I disabled shadows once more. Whether this was due to a problem with the viewer, or simply another of the hiccups which seem to occur between my hardware an Klee’s viewer builds at times, I couldn’t say.
There are a few bits missing from the update as well – no Depth of Field for photographers, for example, (although Dawny Daviau, Kirstenlee’s partner, tells me this might be coming). So don’t expect it to be fully up to S22 / v3 standards in terms of options, etc.
Again, this release is not a return of Kirsten’s viewer per se, although there is an open invitation for those who like the viewer or the v1-approach to give it a go. Just remember, support isn’t given – and it may be a while before a further update arrives.
In the meantime, some more 3D, this time courtesy of a video demonstration from Chantal Harvey, filmed back when the capability first appeared in Kirsten’s Viewer.
Update April 29th: Don’t forget my additional piece on the new cloud options in Firestorm 4.4.0.
Firestorm 4.4.0.33720 made its formal debut on Monday 22nd April, although it has been well and truly put through its paces by both the Firestorm beta testers and the preview group for some time now, in order to ensure it is as ready for mainstream release as possible. It includes a huge number of updates and revisions, both from the Firestorm team and their contributors and from Linden Lab.
Given the size of the release, this is not intended to be a review of absolutely everything within Firestorm 4.4.0 – please refer to the release change log for that. Instead, this review focuses on what I regard as the key updates / changes. As always, credits for the various updates and contributions to Firestorm which re mentioned here can be found in the release change log – again, please check them there.
Server-side Baking /Appearance Support
Note that this item is Second Life-specific.
This isn’t actually a visible change to the viewer in term of UI, etc., – but it is an important one.
Server-side Baking / Appearance is a major change within Second Life which is primarily aimed at reducing or eliminating issues of “bake fail” (when the avatar skin & clothing layers fail to render correctly and with remain blurred or show the avatar wearing the “wrong” outfit). This capability is being introduced in two parts: viewer-side support and server-side support.
Viewers which do not have the viewer-side support will not work with the Server-side Baking / Appearance service once it starts being deployed on the grid – people using them will increasingly see grey avatars around them. Therefore, it is essential that Firestorm users update to Firestorm 4.4.0.
Server-side baking and how others see you: (l) if you continue to run a viewer without SSB support when the new service goes live, others will see you as a cloud, (and, other than attachments, you’ll see them as grey); (r) when you’re running a viewer with SSB support, you’ll appear correctly to everyone else – and they will to you.
For further information on Server-side Baking / Appearance, see the following blog posts:
This release sees a large number of Preferences updates, all of which are reported in the change log, and which include:
Chat:
General: new option to select display name format for IM tabs – a drop-down list of: Display Name, Username, Display Name (Username) and Username (Display name)
Notifications: a new option to Show group chat in chat console (useful if you opt to hide chiclets – see below); new drop-down option for IM receipt sounds: Play sound only if not in focus
Graphics:
General: the Quality and Speed slider incorporates additional settings (Low-Med, Med-High and High-Ultra); Lighting and Shadows is renamed Advance Lighting Model (as per the LL viewer); the Depth of Field check box is moved to the Depth of Field tab; the Windlight Sky Detail slider and the Avatar Physics slider swap positions
Rendering: Max number of concurrent HTTP GET requests slider removed; check box to Enable rendering of screen space reflections added
Sound and Media > General: uses radio buttons to show stream title notifications in chat, toasts or to be turned off
Move & View:
View: new check boxes to: disable the mouse wheel from controlling camera zoom; Show user interface in Mouselook; Enable context menus in Mouselook and Leave Mouselook after regaining focus
Firestorm: new check boxes to Reset camera position on avatar movement and Show the default camera controls mini-floater always as opaque
User Interface > General: new check boxes to open group profiles, teleport history, landmarks, place details, block / mute list in their own floaters; adds an option to show / hide the media control in the menu bar (useful when using a skin which includes the media controls elsewhere) and an option to hide IM and group chat chiclets completely (the notifications envelope and the number of IM’s will remain on the screen all the time whether or not chiclets are disabled)
New User Interface > General options
Skins: new colour option (Ectoplasma) for AnsaStorm
Firestorm:
Windlight: new capability to define cloud texture
Build: options to default prim settings, texture and permissions on creation – see the Firestorm Custom Prim Parameters video tutorial and the Firestorm wiki
Backup tab – see below.
Custom Quick Preferences
A popular feature with Firestorm is the Quick Preference floater which, as the name suggests, provides fast and easy access to some of the most frequently used options in the viewer without having to open the “full” Preferences floater.
With release 4.4.0, the Quick Preferences floater has been made somewhat customisable – essentially allowing almost anything which is a debug setting to be added to the floater. However – be warned that this capability is considered to be for advanced users, and does require a willingness to delve deeper into the viewer than some users may be used to. Further, not every debug setting can be added to the floater.
Cutomising Quick Preferences (click to enlarge)
For those wishing to find out more, Firestorm have produced a tutorial video on using the Customise Quick Preferences option, and a Firestorm wiki page.
Settings Back-up
Often, when installing a new version of a viewer, the recommendation is that one performs a “clean install” – removing all cached and settings files. This can make any viewer installation labour-intensive, as settings all need to be restored after the installation is complete, and this can take time and effort.
Firestorm 4.4.0 attempts to ease some of the pain by presenting users with a Preferences option which allows them to back-up many of their global and account settings to a local hard drive. Once done, the back-up can then be restored to an updated version of Firestorm following installation; so providing the back-up is kept up-to-date, restoring the majority of preferred settings is no longer a chore.
The Preferences Backup tab and options
The back-up option can be found in Preferences > Backup. To use it, simply select a folder on a local hard-drive as the back-up location, then select those options which are to be saved; you can then delete all files associated with Firestorm prior to performing a clean install.
The Singularity team released version 1.8.0.4114 of their v1-style viewer on Sunday April 21st. The chief update with this release is for server-side baking / appearance, which I’ve covered extensively in this blog.
The following is a look at the principal updates in the 1.8.0 release. For information on contribution credits, please refer to the Singularity release notes.
Server-side Baking /Appearance Support
This isn’t actually a visible change to the viewer – but it is an important one.
Server-side Baking / Appearance is a major change within Second Life which is primarily aimed at reducing or eliminating issues of “bake fail” (when the avatar skin & clothing layers fail to render correctly and with remain blurred or show the avatar wearing the “wrong” outfit). This capability is being introduced in two parts: viewer-side support and server-side support, with the former occurring first.
Viewers which do not have the viewer-side support will not work with the Server-side Baking / Appearance service once the server-side of the capability has been activated on the grid. People using them will increasingly see grey avatars around them. Therefore, it is essential that Singularity users update to Singularity 1.8.0.
Server-side baking and how others see you: (l) if you continue to run a viewer without SSB support when the new service goes live, others will see you as a cloud, (and, other than attachments, you’ll see them as grey); (r) when you’re running a viewer with SSB support, you’ll appear correctly to everyone else – and they will to you.
For further information on Server-side Baking / Appearance, see the following blog posts:
Singularity 1.8.0 gains options to display pathfinding information on linksets and characters. These options are on the Tools menu > Pathfinding sub-menu, or by right-clicking on an object / character and selecting MORE > MORE > PATHFINDING from the pie menu.
Singularity 1.8.0 adds Pathfinding Linkset and Character floater support
For those unfamiliar with working with pathfinding, I have two summary articles:
Note this release of Singularity does not include navmesh support, so as to maintain compatibility with OpenSim.
Mesh Upload
Mesh upload capabilities also reach Singularity with the release of 1.8.0, with the incorporation of the non-Havok based uploader by Nicky Dasmijn.
Mesh uploads with Singularity on Aditi
Script Info
Script information can now be displayed for both your own avatar and for your current region in one of two ways:
Right-click on the ground and select ABOUT LAND from the pie menu and click on the Script Info button displayed in the General tab of the About Land floater
Right click on yourself and select TOOLS > SCRIPT INFO.
Either option will display the Script Info floater, with tabs for region memory information or avatar script information.
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: April 21st, 2013
SL Viewer updates:
Beta viewer released version 3.5.1.274264 on April 19th – core update: Server-side Baking / Appearance (release notes)
Development viewer released version 3.5.2.274273 on April 18th and then 3.5.2.274345 on April 19th
Recent updates to the Exodus viewer have been a little slow in some respects. This is in part hardly surprising – at least one member of the team (Geenz Spad) has been up to his eyeballs in working on the materials processing project. However, other factors – such as real life commitments – have meant that other members of the team have also been unable to focus on the viewer perhaps as much as they would have liked.
As a result of this, both Clix Diesel and Ayamo Nozaki have decided to step aside from lead roles in the project and pass the torch on to others – with Katharine Berry taking over ownership of the project and the role of lead developer. Clix himself made the announcement in an Exodus blog post on Sunday April 21st, which reads:
Hello everyone!
I know it’s been a while since an update but we have some important news to share with you.
I would like to announce Katharine Berry as the new lead developer and owner of the Exodus viewer project!
Exodus has been a passion of Ayamo and myself for just shy of two years now and we have enjoyed leading the project immensely. Originally we built Exodus as a viewer to compliment various Second Life combat scenarios, Exodus has since catered for a wide variety of user and continues to provide a the best viewer experience we possibly can thanks to the skill and dedication of my team. This will never change. Recently we have not been able to focus on viewer development as much as we would like. Ayamo Nozaki will be leaving as our lead developer and passing the torch to Katharine Berry. Katharine is also the ideal candidate to hand ownership of the project, as Ayamo and I cannot spare the time to do so any longer.
Thank you everyone, from Ayamo and me, it’s been a blast!
Exodus remains one of the three viewers I most frequently use, depending upon what I’m doing in-world, so I look forward to seeing what this hand-over brings; I also wish Clix and Ayamo the best for their future endeavours, in-world and elsewhere.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 