Tag: Exodus Reviews

Exodus: updates and the future

Posted on by Inara Pey

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.

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Exodus Viewer: dedicated combat Viewer with mesh

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update January 2nd, 2012: A new Beta of Exodus has been released, and I have an overview available. As such, comments on this page are closed. Please feel free to read, but comments are best related to the latest release, and posted on that page.

A new Second Life Viewer has been launched with an emphasis on in-world combat gaming and which includes mesh rendering capabilities.

Exodus has been developed by Clix Diesel, Genz Kitten and Ash Qin – all of whom are combat veterans in Second Life, and involved in ARK, a cyberpunk-oriented combat environment. As such, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the Viewer’s performance – something that is vital to the gaming world in Second Life.

The Viewer is currently classified as a Public Beta, so if you give it a try, remember that it may not be entirely stable, and your experience may differ from mine.

Installation and First Looks

Exodus is based on Viewer 3, and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit versions), Mac and Linux. The installer will be familiar to anyone who has installed a Viewer, and offers not surprises. System folders are created and a shortcut added to the desktop a-la most Viewers.

Starting the Viewer displays 3.x-style login screen, complete with BASIC and ADVANCED modes (defaulted to ADVANCED). The Viewer doesn’t include the new Viewer 3.x log-in display for the Main grid, with its Destination Guide options etc; instead, the splash screen is a black background upon which is displayed the Viewer’s stylish logo and recent update notes.

On logging-in, the Viewer presents a Viewer 3.x look and feel with a few subtle differences.

Exodus UI

The Sidebar includes two tabs dedicated to Exodus, one of which replaces the HOME tab, and has a stylised E as the tab logo. This provides access to the latest news from the Exodus team and displays the current Version number (in my case, 11.09.28.2), and a link to the Exodus blog. The second tab, bearing a familiar gears icon, provides access to the Exodus Preferences, of which more anon.

The toolbar button at the bottom of the UI has, by default: the Voice button, a client-side AO ported from Firestorm, a gears button providing access to a number of Quick Preferences somewhat similar to the Quick Preference found in Firestorm; and the familiar Gestures, Move, View, Snapshot and Search buttons. Unlike other V3 TPVs, Exodus has the Navigation Bar turned off by default, together with the Favourites Bar, and opts to use the Mini-location bar. The Advanced menu is displayed by default, as is the option to run multiple copies of the Viewer; and there are some dedicated menu options (see below).

Preferences

The main Preferences floater (Me -> Preferences) offers few differences to the standard V3 Viewer – although it does include Kitty Barnett’s Spell Checker, first seen (for V3.x) in Catzip.

There is a further interesting – and experimental – addition to the Graphics tab. Where, alongside the HARDWARE and ADVANCED buttons, there is a SPECIAL button. This will display the High Dynamic Range (HDR) settings (currently called the Advanced Graphics Settings in the actual floater). HDR should be of benefit to machinima makers and photographers, as it allows for enhanced colour correction, etc. As Geenz explains in the blog post on the subject:

“HDR stands for ‘High Dynamic Range’. HDR doesn’t necessarily increase rendering quality on its own (after all, HDR is only adds a higher dynamic color range for us to do nifty things with later on), but it does allow us to add different effects into the render pipeline like, color correction, gamma correction, and scene brightness that’s completely independent from the rest of the environment.”

HDR Options

A further enhancement to the Viewer that is not so obvious (given it is automatically activated), is the FXAA, or “Fast approXimate Anti-Aliasing” function. This provides an alternative to the “standard” anti-aliasing process used with deferred rendering, and it is intended to make the process a lot faster and should present smoother results. FXAA is apparently a feature that Linden Lab are developing for the official Viewer, but the Exodus team have implemented it through their own efforts.

You can read about both FXAA and HDR in Geenz’s blog entry.

Combat players may also like the fact that Exodus has the Mouselook zoom functionality included, making target sniping, etc., a lot easier. The function works identically to v1.x viewers that include it: enter Mouselook, press and hold the right mouse button and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in / out (with the wheel depressed).

Sidebar Preferences

exodus-2The Sidebar preferences can be accessed by clicking on the tab with the gears icon, or by clicking on the >> tab. This comprises a number of drop-down lists (see right) which provide access to a range of settings, some of which will be familiar to users of the likes of Phoenix and Firestorm, others of which are quite unique.

By default, the tab tends to open with the Chat Command Settings displayed by default (although on my version, the tab would sometimes switch between this and opening with all the drop-down lists closed).

The Chat Commands provides a breakdown of the chat command shortcut (“/dd” for setting draw distance, for example), defaults, together with an explanation of each shortcut – which can be set to any personal preferences.

After this, things get rather interesting. The next tab is Interface Settings. This reproduces a number of options commonly found in combat HUD systems. Given the intended use of the Viewer, this is a very good idea, and like the built-in AO, helps move functions from a reliance on server-side code execution directly to the Viewer.

Settings are available to customise your crosshairs, rangefinder and threat indicators. I confess, I’m no combat specialist (I’ve only ever visited one combat sim to my knowledge – and that was on Avination), but these look to be the kind of options combat players will find useful.

Coupled with this are the Minimap Settings, which provide a range of customisable options for tailoring the mini-map to suit your specific combat requirements (such as making it easier to identify friends and foes).

The remaining drop-downs provide access to specific Viewer functions, bringing them together under logical groupings: rendering teleport and sound settings (reproducing those options found in Preferences -> Sound & Media, and additional chat and display options that otherwise tend to be spread around a number of different tabs in Preferences.

Continue reading “Exodus Viewer: dedicated combat Viewer with mesh” →