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January 2007
Points of Interest
apollo [blog] Tue 30th @ 07:50 EST
first look, musing, torley
Following an old rule of thumb, I neglected to update for a few days because I had nothing really significant to say. Today I have a few random points to make, so here's a handy list:
- I haven't tried recent updates of the First Look viewer recently as some people are reporting issues with it and while I don't mind helping with beta testing I've come to think of the First Look client as the "in development" real client and the really real client as, well, unusable from my perspective.
- Torley has a most fantastic list of cool places to visit.
A short list, yes, but perfectly formed.
On Viewer Choices and Menu Options
apollo [blog] Sat 20th @ 19:48 EST
first look, sl client, viewer
By way of following up it's only fair to mention that a new First Look client has been posted and is ready for download. This new version of SL in general is something of an oddity given that the 1.13.2.11 real SL client was released with some Known Issues that were partially but optionally fixed a few days later. As this release had already been previously posponed, I can only assume that the new networking code is that fundamental to the future operation of SL that delaying this release for another week for additional feature polishing ended up not being an option.
Moving swiftly on to the 1.13.2.x First Look viewer I am noticing even more smoothness and even higher framerates under certain conditions. While I agree that chasing framerate purely for the sake of being able to show off a higher number is not necessarily all that productive, I honestly do not believe the LL developers are falling into this trap at all. What I see with the FL viewer is a genuine and wonderfully useful attempt to clean up the gross computer resource wastage of the "current real" SL client.
More efficient use of the available resources can only be a good thing, and it is certainly proving to be that way on my hardware at least. For reference, I run an [Intel] Core2Duo 6400 with 1GB system RAM and an [nVidia] GeForce 6800GT with 256MB of onboard RAM, which I consider to be a fairly decent middle-of-the-road system for this point in the endless cycle of hardware upgrades.
In terms of options to try in the FL client I have noticed in this new version that going into the "Client"* menu and enabling "Run Multiple Threads" under the "Rendering" options afforded me another performance gain in addition to enabling VBO and further increased the feel of creamy smoothness. Of course your mileage may vary, but I thought I would mention it regardless.
* If you can't find the Client menu in SL, press Ctrl+Alt+D or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D on the PC, and possibly Ctrl+Option+D on the Mac but don't quote me on that.
The Staus of Beta
apollo [slupdate] Wed 17th @ 19:18 EST
1.13.2.11, beta, first look, patch comments, sl patch
Given the huge list of fixes in the release notes for the update today you'd think I would be happy about this release. In many ways I am as bug fixes are ultimately never a bad thing, but sadly the "current at the time of writing" version of the First Look Viewer cannot log into this new version of The Grid and so I must use the regular SL client for the time being. That causes me some minor consternation because the new release version of the SL client does not have the new rendering tech found in the First Look Viewer.
Returning to the old rendering code only confirms that my initial thoughts about the FL client are indeed accurate for my specific computer system and I can't wait for a new FL release that's compatible with the 1.13.2.x Grid so I can get back to enjoying SL the way it should run on my PC.
I'm not really complaining here as much as trying to highlight just how fundamental this new rendering tech is and how it will positively affect your experiences in-world when that version of the codebase has been perfected and finally becomes the latest official release.