I actually missed this at the start of the month (blame it on my birthday and work…). The new Viewer UI has taken a step closer – it’s now at Beta (3.2.1 244227), and includes all the latest revisions, including:
Interestingly, the Direct Delivery Received Items section of Inventory, that was present in the Development Viewer is not present in the Beta release (nor is it visible in the latest Development Viewer release (3.2.2 (224260)). Is this an indication that LL are heed calls from merchants not to release DD before the New Year, or that the code slipped into the earlier Development releases in error?
I’ve taken it for a quick spin, and found performance to be equitable to earlier releases, and other than the translation and Destination Guide tweaks, I’ve not come across any significant changes – but it was a quick spin.
Given the UI is now in Beta and caveating the DD situation and – more importantly – the progression of the OpenGL fixes, this could be taken to mean the UI will be in a release update sooner rather than later – although admittedly not as soon as part of me thought LL might shunt it out.
There have been a couple of recent Viewer updates in the last 24 hours. Yesterday I reviewed the latest Exodus Viewer release; it wasn’t alone – Dolphin 3 also saw a new release – 3.1.1.21151.
Both of these are interesting as they include support for two new avatar attachment points: Neck and Avatar Centre.
Neck will allow the wearing of items at the neck point (such as necklaces, collars, etc.), which will move with normal avatar body movement
Centre is a “fixed” attachment point which is static – so it does not move with your avatar’s movements (i.e. in response to an animation such as a dance, etc). This allows attachments that do not need to be seen to be attached to the body, or can be used with reference to vehicles, etc.
New attachment points
Both attachment points are also available in the latest SL Development Viewer (3.2.2.244260 or above) and in any self-compiled builds from the latest Firestorm code release.
There are a few things to remember when using these new attachment points:
As one might expect, items will require a degree of adjustment to fit correctly – especially on the Neck attach point
Don’t use the Avatar Centre point for anything you wish to be visible and needs to move with your avatars movements – it won’t. Avatar Centre isn’t the place for skirts and belts, unless you want them standing on their own on the dance floor while you gyrate!
Until the code is fully supported across all Viewers, to anyone not using a Viewer supporting these attachment points it will appear as if you’re wearing items incorrectly (as with the old Emerald multi-attach issue). Once the code is absorbed into all Viewers, this issue should go away.
If I’m totally honest, there is perhaps too much movement encountered with the neck attachment point – if your AO causes a lot of natural head movement, you may find necklaces, etc, vanishing into your collar bones or into your chest rather a lot. Those familiar with wearing collars may find that rather than the collar remaining relatively static compared to head movements (as when attached to the Spine or Chest points), the collar moves rather disconcertingly.
The combat-dedicated Exodus Viewer received a series of updates this month, as did the Exodus website. This article outlines the most recent, for releases 11.10.10 (b) through to 11.10.31 (b).
Most of the changes take the form of small tweaks and additions, but which themselves all bring Exodus even closer to matching the capabilities of more established TPVs. These include:
MU* poses (i.e. use “:” instead of “/me” for emotes)
Out-of-Character (OOC) auto close (so the closing “))” is automatically added when you commence typing with “((“)
Option to display emotes from yourself and others in italics on your screen
Option to disable Viewer tag detection (Sidebar Preferences tab, under VARIOUS PREFERENCES)
Additional chat line commands added:
The “rezplat” command has been added to the command line shortcuts, and supports prims up to 64m in size (so “/rezplat 64” will rez a platform 64x64x0.5)
Active gestures are now listed in Inventory in terms of their key assignments (where applicable) – such as “XXX Active on F12”
The THREAT INDICATORS option (SIDEBAR -> EXODUS PREFERENCES -> INTERFACE SETTINGS) now includes options show / hide Friendly and Hostile indicators
The Raid Advisor (ALT-R) now has working import / export buttons which allow the details of raids to be exported (backed-up) either to a file on your computer, or to your Inventory (where they are located in #EXODUS -> #RAID ADVISOR BACKUPS)
Raids are exported individually to either a file or an inventory item
Exported raids can be deleted if required & restored using the IMPORT button
Raids exported to inventory can be passed to friends; double-clicking on a raid stored in Inventory will restore it to the Raid advisor
The mini-location bar will be displayed when using Mouselook (and will toggle on/off automatically when entering / leaving Mouselook if the full navigation bar is displayed in third-person view)
The “i” icon in the navigation bar / mini-location bar now open the ABOUT LAND floater
Display names are now disabled by default
Nearby chat window auto-resize feature
Edit menu item on worn attachments, to automatically select/edit attachments that are hard to select
Exodus now uses a dedicated cache location, rather than the default Second Life location
Support for the new Neck attachment point has been added
Syntax highlighting for /* */ style comments added
There are also a number of issues and bugs that have been squished, details of these can be found on the Exodus website itself for each of the releases made this month.
Help Updates
One of the more noticeable additions to Exodus comes in the form of a new Help option – and which harks back to the days when we actually had live, in-world help available to everyone in SL. This is the ability to launch an IRC connection to the Exodus Viewer Support Chatroom. clicking on the link with open a window prompting you for a nickname (your avatar’s name is automatically entered, but you can change this if you wish). Clicking CONNECT opens the support chat:
Exodus Support Chat
The chat applet supplies a warning that support may not be monitoring the channel all the time, so replies may take a few minutes – which is fair enough – but I found enquiries were responded to very rapidly once a question was asked.
The IRC chatroom includes the option of private messaging others who are logged-in: left-click on a name and select the PM option from the menu that appears. Icons are used within the chat window to distinguish support personnel:
White spanner on a red circle – Viewer developer
White question mark on a blue diamond – Viewer support
This is a major step-up from “traditional” means of in-world support, and is doubly useful given that the chat applet is also embedded in the Exodus website – so if you don’t want you in-world view blocked by the chat floater, you can simply log-into the chat. Considering the issues inherent in using Group chat, etc., this move on the part of Exodus really raises the bar on providing support. There is currently a slight bug in the chat client when displayed in the Viewer, however; pressing “/” or SHIFT-? causes the cursor to re-focus on the local chat in the Viewer, but other than that the integration of the IRC client and the Viewer is very smooth.
Advanced Graphics Presets
Another major change with the latest release is the inclusion of both a presets option and the ability to import / export presets in the Exodus Advanced Graphics option (PREFERENCES -> GRAPHICS -> SPECIAL).
This allows personal presets to be created and saved and easily reloaded. Additionally, the export options allows you to back-up your personal presets to your computer or save them to your inventory. Presets saved to Inventory are stored in #EXODUS -> #ADVANCED GRAPHICS PRESETS and can be shared with others.
Exodus Advanced Graphics presets
Saved presets can be deleted, if required. The IMPORT button will allow you to restore any saved presets saved on your computer, while double-clicking presets in your inventory (either saved there or passed to you by a friend) will automatically restore or load them to your preset list in the Advanced Graphics floater.
In a further move to make the newer graphics options accessible, the Exodus Advanced Settings have been re-written so as not to required deferred rendering being enabled.
I finally had time to sit down and play with the latest update to Radegast – version 2.2.1171. This isn’t a major update per se, but it certainly adds some very nice capabilities to what is, from a straightforward user perspective, the most flexible of “text” clients for Second Life and OpenSim.
As always, comment here are based on using the Windows version, and this article supplements my previous reviews of Radegast and Radegast 2.0.
The .EXE file comes in at around 8.3Mb, and as with previous versions, installation is very straight-forward, although I was surprised when it gave the install directory as Radegast-experimental, given this is a formal release; quick update needed there! The login / splash screen hasn’t been changed since the 2.0 release, and logging-in brings you to the familiar chat tab in the main window.
The key updates with this release are:
Multiple attachment support
View your own attachments in the object tracker & touch them
Temporary texture uploads
Change Profile Picture
Inventory backups can now save textures and snapshots
Multiple Attachments
This sees an ADD TO WORN option added to the menu when you right-click on an object in Inventory, allowing you to wear it at the pre-assigned attach point (body or HUD) in addition to whatever else is already worn at the point, exactly as with a graphical Viewer.
Additionally, any objects attached to your body or a HUD position are now listed in the main OBJECTS tab, as well as TOOLS -> MY ATTACHMENTS or CHAT -> [Avatar]-> ATTN. Providing you set the Objects tab to display objects by DISTANCE from you, rather than NAME, worn items will always appear at the top of the list, making them easy to locate.
Attachments now listed in OBJECTS tab
As with other scripted objects, you can access the menu for any attachment by either right-clicking on it and selecting CLICK/TOUCH from the drop-down menu, or left-click on it and then clicking on the TOUCH/CLICK button.
This now allows you to view / edit any scripts / notecards contained in an attachment (subject to permissions):
To view the contents of the root prim: right-click to select an attachment, then click on the CONTENTS button to the right of the Radegast window.
To view the contents of a specific component / prim, highlight the required prim in the panel at the bottom of the OBJECTS tab, then click on the CONTENTS button
In either case, a list of the prim’s contents is displayed. Click on the require script / notecard and click on OPEN.
Temporary Uploads
Image file temporary uploads option
As with a number of third-party graphic Viewers, Radegast now supports temporary texture uploads. Select FILE ->UPLOAD IMAGE. The option to upload a temporary texture is on the main selection / upload panel.
Temporary uploads follow the same rules as for graphical Viewers (no SL charge on upload, cannot be transferred, etc).
Profile and Picks Images
Radegast 2.2 includes the ability to change your Profile image, or any images associated with the Picks in your Profile.
Select your avatar’s name in the Chat window and click on the gear icon to open your Profile
Size / position the main Radegast window (or your inventory window, if you have that open separately) so you can see both it and your Profile window
To change your Profile picture, navigate through your inventory and select the image you wish to use for your new Profile picture. Drag and drop the image into the image area of your Profile
To change the image for a Pick, open the required Pick in your Profile. Navigate through your inventory and select the image you wish to use with the Pick and drag and drop it into the image box on the Pick display in your Profile.
Drag and drop images from your inventory to update your Profile and Picks
Additionally, when you right-click on an image in your Profile or Picks you can now:
SAVE them to your inventory
Locate an original in your inventory using SHOW IN INVENTORY
Copy an image to your clipboard
Copy the UUID of an image to your clipboard.
Other Features and Fixes
Features
Francogrid (OpenSim) added to grid presets
Option to save images and inventory list to inventory backup
3D scene viewer renders megaprims even if their center is beyond the draw distance as long as their closest edge is within
Auto Item accept
Ability to see group and group roles keys
Fixes
[RAD-268] – merged ‘Chat+Objects’ Tabs can’t be re-opened
[RAD-280] – Autoresponse triggers on System Messages
I reported on the last Phoenix Hour update recently, in which Jessica made it clear that where new releases of Firestorm are concerned, the team is pretty much waiting on Linden Lab and fixes to the OpenGL issues (for which the team are also providing assistance).
At the time of that broadcast, LL were saying that it could be another couple of weeks before suitable fixes are in place and ready to roll. However, since that time, progress has been made, although there still issues to be resolved. Among these is an issue with Mac systems using nVidia, which can experience black screens when running SL.
While there is still no date for merging the revised code into the main Viewer code, the progress, together with the fact that it has been a little quiet over on the Phoenix blog has prompted Jessica to drop a line or two on what is going on.
In the post, Jessica discusses the OpenGL issue, before going on to state:
“As of yesterday Firestorm development shifted into release mode. This means we are now focused on fixing the significant remaining bugs, polishing up any unfinished features that have been in progress and we’ve started an intense QA program. If all goes well, the next release of Firestorm will be the big one!”
Of course, such an admission is bound to bring cries of when, as Jessica acknowledges. However, she will only say:
“Unfortunately it seems every time we announce a date.. something goes wrong to jinx it, so I won’t go down that path, but I will say.. VERY SOON!”
This is pretty positive news, as the release promises to be pretty amazing, featuring, among a long list of things:
Spell checker
AO updates
Inventory “jump” fix and improved inventory load times
Mouselook zoom
Notecard text search
Chat bar auto-hide
More V1-style functionality in the Phoenix mode
Radar-in-a-floater
Right-click -> reload texture
Mesh uploads!
Commenting on the promised mesh-rendering version of Phoenix, Jessica indicated this will be following a couple of weeks behind the Firestorm release.
I’ll be aiming to bring a review of the release as soon as possible after it hits the download page!
This week’s Phoenix Hour saw a couple of guests sharing the sofa with Jessica: Ed Merryman and Lette Ponnier, who would be joining Jessica and Phaylen in a discussion on matters relating to Viewer support. Ed actually heads-up the Viewer support side of the Phoenix / Firestorm group, and both he and Lette provide classes in using Firestorm.
To kick things off, however, Jessica ran though the latest status for both Phoenix and Firestorm before going on to pass comment on the new LL Viewer UI – which, at the time of her comments, was about to be merged with the Development Viewer code but had not actually been released for anyone to see.
The Viewers
Overall, not a lot has changed since my last report on The Phoenix Hour – the team are really waiting on LL to resolve issues their end before making any further releases of either Phoenix or Firestorm.
Phoenix Status
The mesh rendering code, supplied by Henri Beauchamp, is in the Phoenix code repository
The current graphic issues being experienced with the Firestorm Mesh Beta (and other mesh-capable Viewers) will be in the code for mesh rendering in Phoenix; Jessica estimated that around 50% of people using mesh-enabled Viewers are caught with the issue (basic shaders causing Viewer crashes)
This issues are Linden Lab issues, and as such, Phoenix is being held pending a fix or fixes from the Lab
The team have been working with LL with these bugs, and a version of Firestorm would be pushed to the Beta group to assist with further testing on the working being undertaken to fix things.
Firestorm Status
The next release of Firestorm is good to go, but again awaiting the GPU-related fixes from Linden Lab
All blocking issues from with the Firestorm project that might have delayed a release have now been resolved
There are still a number of targets the team would like to achieve prior to a release, but these are not blockers to a release; so if a graphics fix comes out of LL before all the targets have been reached, a release may still go ahead
Issues and fixes for Firestorm can be tracked via the project JIRA – although people will need to register in order to gain access
Focus has been placed on Firestorm locking-up and going into “(not responding)” mode and also inventory load times; Nicky Dasmijn has, in Jessica’s words, “Made a world of difference” to the issues
Jessica is convinced even those who didn’t have major inventory load time issues are going to notice a significant performance improvements as a result of this work once the new release can be rolled out
As an example of the improvements, she stated her own 72K+ inventory now takes around 20 seconds to load!
While the new mesh uploader will be in the next release, as per the last Phoenix Hour, there are some issues around the physics weight calculations for mesh objects (which are presumably being worked on)
New feature: Jessica revealed during discussions that a new feature has been added to Firestorm for the next release: right-click -> reload texture. This forces the server to re-send a given texture (worn or on a prim) which has failed to rez.
So to repeat: progress on both Phoenix and Firestorm has been good, but until the graphics issues are resolved by Linden Lab, there will not be any releases. As a side note, Jessica and Ed said the Lab themselves are indicating it will possibly take another two weeks of effort on the Lab’s part to resolve the issues – but this is not guaranteed.
New Official Viewer UI
Jessica expressed disappointment around the way in which Linden Lab has handled the new Viewer 3.x UI, going so far as to state the view that working “in secret” on the UI was “Wrong. In so many ways”. Given the degree with which TPV developers working on V3-based code have been trying to make the Viewer more accessible and acceptable to die-hard V1.x users, one has to admit it is hard not to agree with her – although not necessarily for the reasons she cites.
Had the Phoenix team, for example, been made aware of LL’s plans, they could have made a choice as to whether to pursue the massive amount of effort they’ve put into creating a V1-style option for the Firestorm UI or whether to direct that effort elsewhere – such as in supplying even more help to LL in trying to resolve the current graphics problems. As it stands, a lot of effort on the part of the team may well have been wasted, and LL have run the risk of alienating TPV developers who might otherwise be well-placed to assist them with future issues.
However, the flip side to this is, of course, that the new UI hasn’t been developed “in secret” in the strictest sense. While the code may have been developed without much in the way of consultation with the user community, Linden Lab nevertheless do have over 18 months of considerable feedback from users on the Viewer 2 UI. They’ve also taken positive steps to better understand its limitations for themselves, as demonstrated at SLCC 2011. Ergo, the redevelopment work isn’t directly comparable to the situation that brought about Viewer 2.0, with the work being carried out in an apparent vacuum.
Support
The core of the show was devoted to support issues – especially in relation to Firestorm, but some of which also applied to Phoenix. This started with a review of the Firestorm courses the team offer, the schedule for which can be found on the Phoenix / Firestorm wiki, before moving on to the most common issues the support team deal with.
Bake Fail
Bake fail is the number one issue for the Phoenix / Firestorm support team, despite the fact it is not actually a Viewer issue per se. Rather it is a server-derived issue involving a communications failure, such as between the server and your computer, or the server and someone else’s computer / a group of computers. Typical examples of each are:
Everyone else sees you in an outfit you just changed into, but you still see yourself in the previous outfit = you have suffered bake fail
You see yourself wearing the outfit you’ve just changed into, but others see you still in your previous outfit = others have suffered bake fail.
Oz Linden has defined this problem as being the result of a series bugs within the rendering pipe (not all of them directly connected with bake fail itself) that have individually been treated with a band-aid at the time they occurred, with each bug causing the next bug in the chain. This has resulted in an issue that – as much as Oz has stated he’d personally like to see fixed – is next to impossible to sort out without significant time and effort (and risk) being put into the rendering pipe itself – a piece of code LL tend to treat with the utmost caution.
Ed makes a point of expressing the value in making sure you make a “backup” copy of your appearance as far as you can – skin, hair shape & suitable clothing. If you have severe rendering issues, and REPLACE CURRENT OUTFIT isn’t available as an inventory option because it is grayed-out, drag the folder with the back-up from your inventory and drop it onto your avatar.
Blurry Textures
If your avatar bakes, then the textures go blurry, you rebake & go blurry, try:
Reducing your texture memory allotment by around 75% of the current setting
If both of these fail to resolve the issue, disable the HTTP Get function entirely (uncheck USE HTTP TEXTURES in Firestorm or GET HTTP TEXTURES in Phoenix, which are contained in the respective Viewer Preferences tabs defined in the above steps. If you disable the option, make sure you clear cache to avoid texture corruptions.
HTTP get texture options – possible aid in resolving avatar blurring issues
I See Grey People
An interesting tip from Ed Merryman formed a part of the bake fail discussion: if you see a grey avatar or avatars near you, don’t ask them to rebake – try changing your Group tag.
DNS Issues
Lette offer a number of solutions were offered for those experiencing a DNS related error on trying to log-in to Second Life:
Check your anti-virus software, some anti-virus software mistakenly view the Viewer as somehow harmful / trying to make an illegal connection and block it from doing so (some may even throw out a virus infection warning)
Change your DNS server to Google Public DNS or OpenDNS.
DNS errors appear to be on the increase across all Viewers, although why this should be isn’t clearly understood at this point in time.
The Phoenix / Firestorm Wiki
One of the best places to get help for either Phoenix or Firestorm is through the wiki. This includes details on basic troubleshooting, dealing with issues such as bake fail (as described above) and information on Firestorm classes, etc. The wiki also has a number of pages that cover broader issues and items, including:
The hot LL JIRA list – those items that are on the Linden Lab JIRA as known issues
Both of these pages are being continually updated, so people are asked to take a peek at them when encouraging issues.
The Phoenix Team Halloween Party
At 14:00 SLT on Saturday 29th October, the Phoenix team will be hosting its second annual Halloween Costume Party. Arrangements are still being made, but details and an LM will be sent out via the support group nearer the date.
Interestingly, the Direct Delivery Received Items section of Inventory, that was present in the Development Viewer is not present in the Beta release (nor is it visible in the latest Development Viewer release (3.2.2 (224260)). Is this an indication that LL are heed calls from merchants not to release DD before the New Year, or that the code slipped into the earlier Development releases in error?
The combat-dedicated 
I finally had time to sit down and play with the latest update to Radegast – version 2.2.1171. This isn’t a major update per se, but it certainly adds some very nice capabilities to what is, from a straightforward user perspective, the most flexible of “text” clients for Second Life and OpenSim.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 