Second Life & the Mountain Lion

By all accounts, Apple's "Mountain Lion" operating system will be released today (Web), a bargain at only $19.99 for a slew of features (Web). However, RoaringApps reports (Web) that the Second Life viewer is NOT compatible.

Note that they list a slightly out-of-date version of the SL viewer, the current being 3.3.3 released to the wild on June 21st. Whether this assessment is valid or not depends on your exact configuration, of course, as a peek at the SLviewer System Requirements (Web) shows. Based on that information, my 27" iMac shouldn't really be able to access SL even now and yet I do. The only third party viewer I found in the list was Phoenix and that was listed as having questionable compatibility.

Shadows!

My final graphics wish for Second Life is here: Shadows. I've been trying to use them on the excellent Kirstens Viewer (Web) but had poor results and I continually crashed or horribly lagged. With today's release of the Phoenix Beta viewer (Web) my whole computer froze and required a restart after trying to activate shadows. But the recent official Project Viewer (Web) from The Lab worked great and it's features are in the newest official viewer, v2.7.1, along with the new Search (which popped up unexpectedly last night in the previous official viewer, actually). Read more about the new viewer on the official blog (Web) and then download it (bottom of the same page) for results like these:

Without shadows, this scene is lifeless despite realistic textures that are properly applied.

With shadows, the same scene takes on more depth, including (to my surprise) the water. Makes me glad I put that palm tree near the bar in my SL8B build.

Despite the lack of crash, there is still some lag on my 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card inside my 27" iMac (with all the latest drivers) but at least my avie can move, I can cam around, and take pictures. The feature can easily be turned on and off so I can pose, set the Windlight they way I want it (I have 400+ options that I installed), get the shadows on, and then take pictures or just lounge about. Kudos to the Lab for making shadows work with very little pain.

Dolphin Viewer

A chat group that I belong to for one of the third party viewers (TPV) lit up today with lots of questions and a member mentioned several times that s/he enjoyed the Dolphin viewer. When someone agreed, making me wonder how the moderator(s) for this non-Dolphin group was taking the chat, I thought it might be worth a look. So I downloaded Dolphin Viewer 2 (a v1.x-based option is available) and began to experiment. As you can see in this first pic, it is nicely loaded (I won't comment on everything ... just what really caught my attention):

Up top, just to the right of the Navigation Bar info, is an unmarked slider that adjusts your avie's Z-offset, so you can change how high off the "ground" you are. Great for really small shapes like my pixy alt or for furries with prim feet. The next slider is for your Draw Distance. Very convenient for photos and to reduce lag. I also like the lag meter on the far right. The Inventory slider has a very convenient filter and folder management buttons. The Official Viewer needs these. In the Preferences > Dolphin Viewer 2 > User Interface pane you'll see some really cool options, like Paste as Link (so you can control what is seen in Outfits), and the ability to change tag color options. Not shown because it is inactive is the Voice Speak button next to the Chat box on the bottom. If Voice isn't active, the button disappears to save space.

In the Preferences > Dolphin Viewer 2 > Navigation pane, there are some nice options to control how the Mini-Map works. For example, you can have it show a "Range Ring" that indicates chat distance, 20m in any direction. Having the ability to pinpoint physical prims, like the swimming eel in the Lesbos Mermaid Lagoon, is helpful. These are rendered in green if you own them and in red if someone else owns them. Physical prims can impede avie and vehicle motion so if you drive anything, this is handy. And the Camera option you see is nice for when you teleport into cramped spaces and the view jumps around. I'd still like to see a radar-enhanced Mini-Map like the Imprudence viewer uses or at least an inclusion of a Mini-Map in the People > Near By slider pane, as seen in the Official viewer. I'm sure updates will have the latter.

The best feature of the Preferences > Dolphin Viewer 2 > Graphics pane is the Sculpty Detail slider. Normally one has to activate the Advanced menu then open the Debug tools then type in RendervolumeLODFactor to adjust this number. The higher it is, the faster sculpties fully render. Most creators recommend a setting of 4, but this option only goes up to 3. If you want a higher number then you need the menu settings method. Checking the first box under Alpha Mask Rendering seems to reduce conflicts between overlapping alpha texture prims, much like you'd see in a tree, but I don't think that is what it is for, really. I locked up my whole computer when trying to activate 'Lighting and Shadows' to really test it. Second Life really hates ATI Radeon chipsets.

Preferences > Dolphin Viewer 2 > Miscellaneous isn't terribly special but I like the the two "Other Options," particularly about rezzing objects under the Land's group setting. Countless times just yesterday I had to go back and find objects with the wrong group lest Auto Return became active and everything was returned. The OOC option shown is nice for role play gamers. Just start your chat with (( and type your sentence then hit the Enter key and the viewer will tack on the closing )) to show you are speaking Out Of Character. If your character's name is not the same as your own then you'll still need an OOC device (like you can get from the freebie board at Mystara), but this is a nice option.

The Dolphin viewer also has a really interesting Media Filter option. Essentially it is a firewall for media URLs. When the music stream changes, for example, a popup shows you the new URL and gives you the option to allow, deny, or add it to lists for always play (Whitelist) or never play (Blacklist) before the stream changes. Great for folks who try to slip in spyware URLs. Of course, the lists can be edited. Apparently, the Phoenix/Firestorm viewers are going to get this feature, too.

Also, Web-based profiles are gone. In the Official viewer they are slow and take up a huge amount of screen real estate despite using fonts and images that are too small to be useful. Profiles are back to the the pre-v2.5 viewer behavior, showing up in the side bar. I prefer the separate panes that the pre-Alpha release Firestorm viewer uses, but this rollback by Dolphin is still a big improvement.

Dolphin appears to be fast, solid, and includes nice enhancements over what is available in the Official viewer. The only issue I have, aside from the crash I created while testing as mentioned above, is the wearing of clothes and attachments. Normally if you choose Wear for an item, the previous item worn is removed. With Dolphin, Wear behaves the same as Add ... each item remains on your avatar. The Add function still works, but there is something wrong with Wear.

Other than that, I like Dolphin and I hope to see it improve so there is a variety in the viewer ecosystem, thus spurring competition and growth. If you like to fiddle around with viewers, you should give it a try.

Viewer Resources Use

After announcing in the previous post that I was going to use the Imprudence viewer (Web) for a week, I logged in with it and started to change my outfit for an event at the Isle of Lesbos only to find that multiple attachments per point and multiple textures per clothing layer are not supported. It shares many of my favorite features on the Phoenix viewer (Web) and has the best radar available (integrated into the Mini-Map ... epic WIN), but I need those layering and attachment options. So I loaded up the Kirsten's viewer (Web) to tackle the event, but it seemed so slow.

Later I decided to see which viewer really was the slowest by semi-scientifically checking the system resources usage of each under the same circumstances. I cleared caches, rebooted the computer, and started a fresh session of each viewer in turn while watching the Activity Monitor that I have running. I reached a few subjective conclusions right away. First, Kirsten's seems to load images more slowly. Imprudence tends to leave textures gray longer, particularly alpha textures. Phoenix makes me wonder how safe it is to use every time it starts. The Official Viewer freezes upon start up one in three times.

Each viewer continually uses up RAM as time passes, even if actual activity is minimal (I stood in a poorly populated area while wearing very little, draw distance set to 130m, and a mix of prim types around). And each uses more CPU time as the session length increases but they all top out at about 60% maximum, occasionally dropping lower. Kirsten's used between 43% and 63% over all, the broadest range and the lowest minimum. Interestingly, the Phoenix viewer used only 9 processor threads while the Kirsten's viewer used 12 threads.

Practically, all the viewers are about the same. How slow one is depends on how long it has been open, what is within my draw distance at the time, what else is running on my computer or network, and how cranky I am (the latter being measured by chocolate and Mt. Dew levels).

All this testing helped me to decide that rather than test the Imprudence viewer for a week, I'm going to run Kirsten's for a week. I missed the v2.x interface it uses and it has some new features found only in the Official Viewer's beta (Web), like logging in to a Favorited location and the new Web-based profiles. I'll keep you updated.

By the way, the pic in this post as nothing to do with the topic. It just seems fitting.

Phoenix Viewer Test Wrap-Up

Though I vowed to try the Phoenix viewer (Web) for a week, tossed in the towel after five days because I simply didn't like it. The primary problem is that I don't like the v1.x-style interface any more.

Things I liked, in no particular order:

• The option to delete Landmarks when unpacking a box. This can usually be done with textures and note cards in other viewers, but when I'm opening several boxes from the same vendor, losing the Landmarks is good.
• Bouncy Boobies. 'nuff said. Well, let me add that bouncy boobies don't play well with chest attachments, like prim clothes.
• Windlight settings are saved per avatar. If I ran my Draw Distance at 128m but other users on my machine set higher/lower values, my settings remained when I logged in, for example.
• Windlight settings per parcel. As mentioned in my January 31st post, parcel owners can set specific Windlight settings and the Phoenix viewer will change to them after asking permission. This needs to be added to the Official Viewer.
• Remembering Resident Name on the Log-In screen. I didn't let the application remember passwords, though. I share this machine with another SL user. If I need his password, I know where to find it. And if the machine needs to go in for service, no one at that shop can access our accounts.
• Radar. Tracking people via the radar is handy for security. As I'm writing this I'm helping with a Griefer attack in the Caledon sims.
• Enable "Always Fly." This was removed from the "sneak around" setting to get in in the Official Viewer. It is pretty silly to have a region that encourages winged creatures to visit but won't let them fly.
• The Profile panes and the pop-out pictures there in. I mentioned these in my February 3rd post.
• The Worn tab in the Inventory. It duplicated the Current Outfit folder in the Inventory, but you can see the folders that each item is in, so you can remove things one folder at a time, rather than hunt for each alphabetically-listed link. This means that attachments and clothes can be removed in one pass.
• Inventory filters. Right there in the header. Cool. Plus the Collapse and Expand buttons. Very handy.
• Saving pictures as .png files. Very nice option. Not everyone likes the usual format. You can also save as .bmp or .jpeg files.
• Temporary file uploads. I like the idea. I didn't try it.
• Fast access to Windlight and Graphics settings. This "widget" at the bottom-right of the window let me quickly enhance my experience and control lag via adjusting graphics qualities. Implement this as an Advanced User option in the Official Viewer, please.

Things I didn't like, in no particular order:

• Incoming chat taking up most of the screen. As with most of my dislikes, I feel that the Official Viewer handles this better. The text is less obtrusive, the area it uses is resizable, and the formatting is flexible. I don't need to pop up a "Communicate" window to manage how much screen real estate chat uses.
• The Communicate window is annoying. "Haters" of the Official Viewer complain that the sidebar takes up too much space. Consider this, though ... the sidebar is collapsable. IMs appear in individual, hideable windows with chat bar-level activity indicators. I found myself running Phoenix full screen more often than not to make room for all the windows.
• I can't pick useable window sizes for when I'm not running full screen. I usually run the Official Viewer at 1920 x 1080, a good size to see many things, it is not taxing the video card too much, and I can easily work with other windows.
• Having to use my Inventory for Landmarks. The separate, collapsible pane is much handier, and works well with the fabulous Favorites bar and Navigation bar in the Official Viewer.
• Radar. Nice to have, but very clunky to use and it takes up too much screen space.

Keep in mind that neither list here is wholly inclusive. I probably missed things in both. But in general, I don't need all the very advanced features that Phoenix offers and I find the Official viewer much more to my liking for speed, clarity for my visual impairments, and general features. There is a good chance that I'll still rely on Phoenix or other viewers for my "serious" in-world photography because of some of the features that I liked.

Now I'm going to try Imprudence (Web) for a week. Or as close to it as I can get. It still uses the older interface, but I know from using it almost exclusively before switching to the Official Viewer that it is pretty cool.

Phoenix Render Bug

And I can't get Voice to work at all.

Spot The Lesbians

The Phoenix viewer makes it easy to use an old geek trick in Second Life: Look At. When activated, crosshairs appear to show where various avatars have their camera focus and in this third-party iteration, user names are rendered with each crosshair. This makes it very easy to play Spot The Lesbians. Just hang out at a mixed-gender venue, preferably a nude beach, and watch where everyone's crosshairs go. I'm less likely to chat up a girl that tends to cam on men. This also lets you see which women are closet lesbians. I've met several women who have "no girls" stated in their profiles yet have consistently cammed to certain parts of my anatomy. Spotted!

I've also met others that use this feature to see who is checking them out so they know who to pursue. A habit of camming on everyone near me at some point or another formed from working security at the Isle of Lesbos and my "wandering eye" has been picked up by Look At-using men who have then tried their own pick up. I know. I asked.

Trying Phoenix for a Week

The Official Second Life Viewer (v2.4; Web) has been crashy of late, slow to load, forgetful of my preferred settings, and more, so I thought I'd give "everyone's preferred viewer" another chance, so I'm going to use Phoenix (v1.5.2 ; Web) for a week. One of the first things I noticed after tweaking the vast selection of settings and venturing out into the world is that most people I see appear to be using the Official Viewer. Phoenix and other viewers will display this information in user tags and except for some friends, I don't see many folks sharing the flaming bird experience with me.

But I'll take the buzz about Phoenix's user numbers as gospel for now while I compile a list of things that I miss about the Official Viewer: The Landmarks pop-out, the handy Favorites and Navigation Bar, the chat and IM experience, and the ability to set specific window sizes, to mention the most obvious.

Phoenix has some features I like, however, such as the the old-style Profile panes, the ability to easily allow Fly in areas that have turned off the feature, and the chat bar-level access to Windlight settings. The latter can be auto-controlled by region owners in this version of the viewer with and I think that is pretty cool, too.

To try this, I visited Traxx (SLurl), a place that my friend мεɢ αυđισρђιℓε (kuthola.homewood) runs and one that I know uses the feature. So here I am in the first pic, before accepting the viewer's request to change the settings. It looks like standard Noon to me.

The second photo shows the same view after I accepted the new settings. I thought the sky looked like Verdigris, a preset I tend to favor for photography. I used Search to pop back a bit later to see if I could confirm this and found (/*Windlight Sky: "Verdigris" Water: "[TOR] Claira"*/) in the description. Odd, but I guess putting that information in the parcel description is how the feature works. I wonder what happens if someone visits but doesn't have the preset installed. Though, I'm guessing they are all included with the viewer. One other place I found, The Wonderful World Of Meeroos (SLurl), has (/*Windlight Sky: "AnaLu *studio* 5"*/) in it's land description while another part of the region has (/*Windlight Sky: "[EUPHORIA] Plum sunset"*/) and other areas have still more variations. Really cool.

Phoenix has many other interesting features. I'd like to try the integrated Animation Override, but that would require me to move my No Copy AO animations from the HUD to my inventory and I'd have to remember to attach a HUD with a different AO when using other viewers. The Lab could easily make this a standard feature. Having a radar is nice for when I work Security at the Isle, but it is cumbersome in use.

Like my transition to a v2.x viewer from the v1.2x viewer, some of the differences will require acclimation. At first I was not a fan of the next generation of viewer but I came to find it is very nice. Let's see how my week with "moving back" while moving ahead works out.

Confused Terrain

While working on Pixy Hollow at the Isle of Lesbos, I needed to log in a second avie to adjust poses, so I fired up Imprudence (v1.30 , Web) as I was already using the Official Viewer (v2.40, Web). I love the mini-map in Imprudence and find that it plays nicer with the System Resources than any third party viewer. I'm not a fan of the older 1.x-style interface, but it is my go-to viewer for when I need multiple log ins or to take pictures.

But I was surprised to see the ground texture changed. One of my next tasks was to manage the sand texture you see in the first picture, from the Official viewer, as I think it spoils the view. I could change the Texture Elevation Ranges in the Estate tools, but the boss would likely object, so I started thinking about using a prim rock face, perhaps, but I wanted to investigate the discrepancies between viewers first.

The same shot, roughly, taken with the Imprudence viewer shows the sandy area to now be grassy. Camming around the region I found that the textures were different everywhere that a transition existed. I had seen variations like this occur over a period of time while using the same viewer, but never had I noticed such difference when using different viewers on the same day or at the same time.

Mind you, all the graphics settings are the same, particularly the ground texture detail settings. And I matched the Environment settings, too. Logging out then logging back in made no difference. So I tried the current

Kirsten's Viewer build (v2.60, Web) and the result was slightly different as the third picture shows. Again, camming the region showed differences much like I found with Imprudence. There is more sand with Kirsten's, but the level is more acceptable.

Bring on the Phoenix (v1.5.2, Web) and behold! Another variation despite the similarities. This viewer renders less sand and does so more naturally, but on my 27" iMac it uses far more System resources than any other viewer. I'm not sure that trade off is worth it despite the addition of bouncy boobies.

So, what does all this mean? I'm stumped. On the one hand, it is great for nature to take its course, but as a landscaper I have certain things in mind and would appreciate some consistency. I'd rather not have to worry about who is using which viewer when I landscape. Maybe the Lab should look at the current terrain mesh as they evaluate other aspects of Our World during the inevitable transition to a browser-based viewer. Or, perhaps, someone in my readership has ideas? Please feel free to post comments, even if it is advice to simply stop being so picky and just let the terrain be confused.

Update (January 25): Logging in with the Official Viewer today I noticed that the terrain looks like the Phoenix picture. My, how time changes things.

Riding a Phoenix & Viewer Development

After updating my Seawolf dragons (Web) I found that one of the sculpted prims wasn't rendering correctly and after consulting other dragons at the sales site I decided to try another viewer. Lo and behold, logging in with the Imprudence viewer (Web) showed that the problem was likely with the official 2.x viewer (Web), but to confirm it, I needed to try another viewer not based on the v2.x system and that meant skipping over Kirsten's viewer (Web). With limited choices I decided to try the Phoenix viewer (Web) despite misgivings about security and safety from being unwittingly duped into illegal activities. And I found it's actually rather nice in many ways.

There are features of v2.x that I miss, like the sidebar, the address bar, and the Favorites bar, but the UI skin makes it nearly as clear to use (and thus easy on my eyes) as my preferred viewer. With all the advanced features, however, I was greatly surprised to not find the ability to use preset window sizes, a very valuable feature that helps reduce viewer-side lag (the larger the window, the harder your graphics processor has to work) and one that helps create consistent snaps in-world.

This picture was originally taken full-screen (2560x1305) with Phoenix while I was experimenting with the Windlight controls near the Chat bar. They are nearly as useful and as easy to use as those in Imprudence giving all but the most advanced tools in one, neat little pop-up window. The image is a HDR-like* composite of three different snaps taken with different Windlight presets.

But back to the Phoenix viewer. I found it faster in all respects than my sessions with the now defunct Emerald viewer. Much faster, actually. I wonder if that can be credited to less bloatware than the latter or improved texture handling. Looking through the menus and preferences there are still an unbelievable number of functions I either don't want, need, or understand. Like I get two notification windows when someone logs on or off, one being the traditional "blue note" and the other is generated by Phoenix elsewhere on the screen. Why do I need both and can one be turned off? At least it is better than the near lack of notification given by the v2.x viewers and it is nice to see a record of same in local Chat History.

Differences like this are why The Lab needs to encourage third party viewer development, regulated for user safety, and then learn from the features that prove popular. This might improve Resident retention, provide a better experience for new Residents, and generally foster time spent in-world. It's pretty clear that while quite a few things were done well, the v2.x viewer was developed in Shrödinger's box with seemingly little regard for the community. I hope that going forward the process of viewer development is more interactive with all parties cooperating one what is best for all.

*Read more about High Dynamic Range imagery here. Click the image above for a larger version.