New WindLight Viewer (79185) + ATI talk
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 6:50 PM by: Pastrami Linden
Hey all. New WindLight update with lots of tasty fixes! But before diving in, if you have an ATI card be sure to get the latest drivers.
Bugs fixed…
* Get the WindLight lighting calculations to NOT wash everything out
* VWR-3123: WindLight: Avatars with attachments at higher altitudes sometimes aren’t rendered
* VWR-3101: Alpha textures are opaque at a distance and the transition is ugly and unreliable
* Crash when popping up Havok 4 Het-Grid notification floater.
* ATI 8.1 Drivers fail to link many of our glsl shaders
* VWR-4337: WindLight: Fallback shiny is partially invisible
* VWR-4337: WindLight: Invisible prims appearing opaque at a distance
* Avatars are rendered in wrong region for a frame after crossing region boundary
* VWR-3160: WindLight: OS X 10.5 (Leopard) has poor performance and multitexturing problems with shaders enabled
* VWR-3373: WindLight: Daylight settings in Estate tools missing
* VWR-3529: WindLight: Saving snapshots to disk crashes viewer
* VWR-3172: WindLight: Property lines aren’t visible in shader water
* VWR-3268: WindLight: Ctrl-Alt-E (or AltGr-E) for opening Environment Editor makes typing ?-character impossible
* VWR-3984: WindLight: Certain snapshot options incorrectly capture a part of the screen
* bump map breaks when terrain is not visible.
* VWR-3124: WindLight: Glow not working on some ATI 2xxx graphics cards
* Setting Graphics Performance to Ultra immediately crashes viewer to desktop
* WindLight on Macs have lackluster frame rates
* Snapshot UI improvement
We were able to solve a lot of the ATI shader problems that existed, but in order to really take advantage of these fixes, we implore you to get the latest Catalyst drivers for your card.
In other news, this release includes most of the changes from the new 1.19.0 Release Candidate, including old-school login auth. With most of the login issues resolved, we should be able to get much better crash and performance stats with this new First Look. We’re getting very close to merging into RC, and are hoping to use better crash statistics to drive the crash rate far below where it currently stands.
Other than that, for those who are interested, you can see the full list of open WindLight bugs. Keep on using, issue tracking/reporting, commenting on the viewer, and especially attending our WindLight office hours. These are at:
- Brampton Linden Stage: 106/166/25
- Tuesdays 8:00am - 9:00am PDT (ongoing)
- Thursdays 1:00pm- 2:00pm PDT (ongoing)
If you miss a session, transcripts are posted here.
Below you’ll find links to important info related to WindLight:
Happy lighting!!
Regards,
Pastrami Linden and the WindLight Team
February 5th, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Very nice and thanks! but please fix the grid its been more than a little wonky for the last 2 days all the usual old issue are rearing their ugly head on both viewers somethings badly wrong and id love to know that you know so i know you know how to fix it O.o
February 5th, 2008 at 6:58 PM
being an ATI user, I’m getting the new drivers and praying to all hell these fixes work, much thanks for remembering the ATI crowd
February 5th, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Thanks for bringing out a WL with the 1.19 code. I can’t wait to fire it up.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Happy Mardi Gras, that’s two big phat fixes this Tuesday!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:09 PM
Thankyou for Mac fixes! Any news on 8600M issues + memory leaks?
February 5th, 2008 at 7:10 PM
I HAVE AN ATI CARD. CONGRATULATIONS.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:11 PM
Well I won’t be loading Windlight anytime soon as I have been battling and I mean batttling the most horrendous lag for the last 3 days. Nothing loading, clothes go missing, cannot build because of huge pauses, items go missing, sound or music breaking up, chat lag awful etc etc. There is something badly wrong in SL and it needs fixing quick. I believe it is all those people using Windlight - it is crashing all our viewwers. Oh and I crash around 6 times a day. And it says - you have been logged out - hmm.
Please do something soon!! I am exhausted.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:11 PM
Great job! I used the 1.19 RC for about 10 mins cause I missed Windlight. Now I can have both! Can’t wait to get home and try it out!
Thanks!
Elvis
February 5th, 2008 at 7:23 PM
too bad latest nicholaz builds finally stopped working
February 5th, 2008 at 7:23 PM
Excellent, looking forward to seeing the 1.19 changes then!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:24 PM
I would like to be able to TP without relogging please.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:25 PM
ATI doesn’t have any driver updated for Apple’s Leopard (OS X 10.5x). Any word on if we should avoid the newest Windlight build?
February 5th, 2008 at 7:25 PM
looks like i have to figure out how to bug report WL insta crashing in the Havoc 4 sims as soon as the camera moves
been a problem and looks to still be one.
sadly your jira system i don’t understand and can’t read to understand (text is too small and i got bad eyes and text can’t be made bigger)
February 5th, 2008 at 7:25 PM
Lindens, remember that the newest drivers arent always the best drivers. Because any computer is unique and several problems with WL cant be followed back by fixing with a newer driver. With ATI 8.1 i had some crashed on the desktop so i maked a driver rollback to 7.11 The most important thing you have to fix is the just endless alpha channel error which WL has since its first release. And dont forget to fix that login error which was also caused on the last release of Windlight. I dont want that hackers steal my “data”!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:26 PM
Thanks WindLight group
Almost there. right?
hugs all
February 5th, 2008 at 7:30 PM
Thanks for fixing the snapshot issue now i only have 1 reason left to log into RC.
Im noticing a long delay after clicking the map button before it comes up on this latest version.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:32 PM
I have always loved the windlight viewer and never had the issues other people seem to have with it. I love the new layout of the UI, it is very clean and neat looking. My only complaint is the release keys button is now where the IM received button used to be and it moves over when you receive and IM. It’s annoying, I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but it’s still annoying!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:32 PM
For the love of all that is reasonable, get the release keys button away from the local chat button! That thing has always been a minefield for players like myself, it dumps attachments, has no confirmation and causes no end of grief for people who are collared. Can we maybe have options for interface look, like, nicholaz legacy, this, or dazzle? Maybe a way to turn on and off on screen buttons? Decontainization of things like the inventory window and statistics readouts would help allot….
February 5th, 2008 at 7:33 PM
Should have added two things: Many thanks to the Windlight group. I haven’t used non-WL viewers in some time. I like the ability to scale performance based on what I’m doing and where I am.
And per my post in position #12, Apple reports I have the latest driver available. Here are my graphics specs …
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0×1002)
Device ID: 0×71c5
Revision ID: 0×0000
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxxx-139
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.139
Your “update your drivers” call has me a bit skiddish.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:34 PM
Uh hate to double post but i cant clear the red beacon from the LM i used via “clear” on map window although right now SL is so mashed up and unstable its hard to give any feedback on this latest viewer :/
February 5th, 2008 at 7:34 PM
The dynamic change that has been done to windlight is terrible…It looks horrific, puts the ‘release keys’ button EXACTLY where the ‘IM Received’ button used to be - trust me, that’s a pain in the arse. The whole HUD itself looks ugly and a bit backwards too (like the buttons being switched around). The frame rate appears to have gone significantly down (from the usual 20+ to less then 15 at all times). Good God, I’m glad you guys only screwed with the HUD, imagen trying to take on the game like always…*makes cliche’ missile-dropping whistling sound.*
February 5th, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Thanks for fixing the ground texturing problem on Leopard/ATI, and for getting rid of that incredibly slow web-based login page.
If you’re going to have a web-based login page, please have the actual login part be stored in a LOCAL html file in the client, and not on a remote server! Why should we have to wait an extra 3-5 seconds for a page to load before we can login?
February 5th, 2008 at 7:46 PM
thankyou! this now works well on my ssytem. you guys rock. and the alpha is fixed to?
brilliant, really. thankyou again,
February 5th, 2008 at 7:51 PM
After a quick glance the newer lighting does appear to be improved, and invis prims are behaving a lot better so far. Windlight is coming along nicely. However I’m not happy to see the terrible interface changes of the latest RC have made their way into Windlight too. It’s been mentioned over and over again on the 1.19 blog post, but I’d like to once again say that the “release keys” button is not something most of us ever want to press. If you absolutely must have these release/stand buttons etc. on the toolbar (and I recommend you remove release keys from the bar entirely and move it to a menu instead) then at least right-align them next to the media bar, and leave the IM button on the left. It’s important to have the IM button pop up by itself so we can tell at a glance when we have new IMs, and the “release keys” button being right there is probably the worst decision made in recent history. This is probably the #1 issue to a lot of residents right now as you can easily tell by looking at the 1.19 post.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:52 PM
Congratulations by the fixes, but after the update I can´t be Online more than three minutes. SL crash when you move the cam in lagged sims (all of them +-), again, after the update. But the new interface is very nice… (irony)
I have not words…
February 5th, 2008 at 7:55 PM
@24 Julia:
I fully agree with you, let’s move the release keys to the tools menu and off of the toolbar all together. I’d like a way to ‘lock’ attachments, not necesarily ‘marine edition’ level but at least close to that, i hate doing a ‘replace outfit’ only to spend the next 10 minutes redoing my huds, tatoo’s, etc…
February 5th, 2008 at 7:56 PM
VWR-3101: Alpha textures are opaque at a distance and the transition is ugly and unreliable
woohoooo!
Downloading now…
February 5th, 2008 at 7:58 PM
What is up with the black text on a dark grey background in all of the windows like “Contacts”, “Groups”, etc? This is VERY hard to read… in fact, it’s really unreadable. This is not a feature… if it’s something that I can change, please let me know how, if not, fix it!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:58 PM
Glad to see the problem of alpha’s losing transparency from a distance is fixed! That was getting annoying
Now if there was only some way to be able to view the environment shaders and shimmering water on a computer that uses a plain-old intel chipset for onboard graphics, we’d be golden 
February 5th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Voice enabled by default
Who’s idea was that?
Messed with the UI again, why, what was wrong with the layout for the old one (now I’d got used to it)?
Also, I got a popup that my Quicktime was out of date, it wasn’t yesterday on the old Windlight, did Apple release a new Quicktime at the same time you released a new viewer?
February 5th, 2008 at 8:07 PM
VWR-3101: Alpha textures are opaque at a distance and the transition is ugly and unreliable
This issue is still present
February 5th, 2008 at 8:10 PM
The little reminder box that popped up when I started up my viewer said “A new update is available, it is recommended, ((But now the choice is yours)).
when I logged in another window popped up saying a new version of windlight is available , This version is requierd to use SL.
Get it right please, Pleas FIX that reminder window in the Viewer start up screen. the text is misleading and and incorrect, please remove the part where it says the choice is yours when obviously it is not.
Also 1.19 has serious unresolved performance issues,
low frame rates, serious memory leaks, and Lag.
Not all of us can afford new computers with 2+ GHz of speed and 1+ gigs of RAM memory. Not every graphics driver can be upgraded.
please FIX the SL viewers so SL can be run on older computers.
The Following Mac issue STILL has not been addressed, please address it.
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2168
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: PowerMac6,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.6.8f4
GeForce FX 5200:
Chipset Model: GeForce FX 5200
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0×10de)
Device ID: 0×0329
Revision ID: 0×00a2
ROM Revision: 2068
DIMM0/J22:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM
Speed: PC2700U-25330
DIMM1/J20:
Size: 256 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM
Speed: PC2700U-25330
Total memory 768 MB DDR SDRAM
1.25 GHz PowerPC
Tiger 10.4.11
February 5th, 2008 at 8:13 PM
Your joking! they did pretty touchs to the UI design.
“* VWR-3123: WindLight: Avatars with attachments at higher altitudes sometimes aren’t rendered”
OMG really? LOLOLOLOL never so this bug occure. Are you sure! Oh gesh i love these types of fixes.
Ok then tell me how i saw bling and this man`s Penis 700 m high up. Oh please! share me the BS fixes and fit attachments in the butt and otehr major one this is a joke!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:15 PM
You need to fire your UI guy (ben linden?) about 3 years ago…really…no REALLY.
And why must the sun be the size of 10000 suns? Perhaps you need to take the windlight team out for a field trip. Point at the sky…make sure they look up!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:15 PM
“30 Partington Gould Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 8:00 PM PST
Voice enabled by default
Who’s idea was that?”
Oh BROTHER really! Jeska Linden please not everyon eis “SOLD” on voice. Stop forcing this crap down mouths! Great Real!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:19 PM
eek
i like but
like in RC0
debug menus dont drop down
love this version tho:p
February 5th, 2008 at 8:25 PM
I kept crashing this time. I could not last 5 minutes before everything frose up forever. The new key places take some getting used to, but they seemed ok. Will Shelli’s default file still work ok with this? Those were the best settings for default mode at midday. The avs actually looked gorgeous.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:28 PM
GREAT!
TOO BAD ALL MY WINDLIGHT settings (presets) are GONE!
Thanks LL another great job done.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:35 PM
When can we have render glow on particle?
Pleaseeee? Good work!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:36 PM
ok, Finally I can say “Wow” too.
My frame rate on Mac/Leopard has jumped from 8fps to 21fps. Textures for ground tiles 1&2 are now there.
But… that release key… I can’t risk the punishment from taking my collar off.
I think Ben Linden needs to be sent to a Gorean Sim for a week as a slave so he knows the bad choice he made here.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:42 PM
Hello ;D
Please make the old Interface Style, the new suckt very well ;D thx ;D
Greetings
Bogus
February 5th, 2008 at 8:43 PM
This is just typical of Linden Labs pathetic customer performance. The constantly update all of the extras and details, yet completely overlook the key issues. Linden, if you are reading this, the issue is not with the windlight or any other extras - the problems are with the main grid and the central gaming/drive engine for SL!!! For crying out loud …. listen to your customers!!! And telling us that we need to update our video cards is just you guys saying that you’re too damn lazy to fix the problem. Essentially, you’re saying its our fault. I’m telling you, Lindens, if you carried on with the pathetic level of customer service in the real world …. you’d be shut down quick smart. Get your act together, fix the main grid/central gaming-drive engine and give us the sort of internet game we deserve. Not this crap we currently have.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:46 PM
Here’s a list of changes that I have observed on two very different Macs:
- All objects are now transparent enough to show property lines through the objects.
- Ground is now transparent enough to show property lines through ground (you see this big pink wall through a white sand beach - very nice).
- List of friends or groups is shown with black writing on dark grey background. Hard to read, and cannot tell which one is selected.
- List of group members inside of group window has black names on black background. Impossible to see members.
Congratulations guys! That’s quite a list! LOL. I’m sorry for being a little sarcastic at this point but I can’t help myself. Do you test this thing before you release it? The same symptoms appear on two different Macs. Here are the specs for graphics:
Mac 1: ATI, Chipset: ATY, Radeon X1600 (Same setup as Uccello Poultry’s)
Mac 2: NVIDIA, GeForce 8600M GT (run under OpenGL Profiler, emulating Radeon X800 XT)
Looking forward to your next set of features. In the meantime I’m reverting back to the standard viewer because WindLights has now become unusable to me.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:51 PM
I happen to enjoy Windlight, but unfortunately… there’s a very irritating fact of life. I have a quad-core machine, and only one out of four cores can even be used. Of a 2.4 Ghz quad processor, only one 2.4 ghz core can be enabled while SL runs, or SL, merrily freaks out and slashes the framerate to one fifth of what it gets on one core, and what it gets on one core is fairly mediocre. This on a system that eats Portal with 4x antialiasing at a glassy-smooth framerate at a much higher resolution.
*PLEASE* add some real multithreading to the client. Windlight is not useable on a multicore system with only one core operating on the client, and not at all stable with multiple cores operating the client. My system runs with 8 gigs of PC6400 memory, dual 7900 SLI video, and a quadcore with a combined clock speed of 9.6 Ghz. Is 20 FPS something you think is appropriately adequate performance for a high-spec system? Multicore support already, *please*. It’s been two years since you stated it was coming.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:55 PM
Really appreciate that the alpha/opaque bug was fixed (for me at least), as well as finally being able to use the advanced sky editor on my lowly iBook (really missed that ability from the initial introduction of Windlight). Thank you. Really
Really really don’t appreciate the latest gui tweaks. Sort of scratching my head at anyone who thought those were a good idea. Text in friends list and groups (as well as in the pop-up menu of advanced sky editor) is very uncomfortable to read; release keys button is in a horrible place; the check boxes instead of icons in our friends list is unattractive and cluttering; I had to squint to see what the new blue Lindens icon actually was.
Voice now on by default: without giving your customers a heads up on that major change is really somewhat shameful.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:56 PM
Hmm, the dialogs are a little hard to read… Friends list, Debug Settings, Group Members… Black on Dark Grey is a very poor choice of colours.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Bring back the old HUD!!
February 5th, 2008 at 9:00 PM
@Selkit Diller
OOOh!! While I was aware that SL didn’t take advantage of multiple cores I had no idea that extra cores activated would mess with it!!! Ouch! That is very very not good. I would at least expect to be able to give SL a core to itself with other cores handling OS-functions, etc., but from your description it sounds like even that isn’t possible!
Another reason to not upgrade my Sempron yet
February 5th, 2008 at 9:10 PM
Ya, same here. The release keys location is a trouble (I don’t really like removing my mystitool all the time i get an IM), and the communicate interface has gotten very odd. Black on gray? Not good.
But it does clear up my leopard ground texture trouble, which is a big plus for me.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:12 PM
This is all wonderful, and I’m glad to see the shaders working, but honestly, we -really- need to get glow scriptable. I’ve already got several clients using glow who want to be able to turn it on and off, due to the fact it’s still visible even when the “host” prim is transparent.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:16 PM
Nice to know there are a lot of fixes, but the UI needs to be fixed up. Odd stretching on friend alerts, chat being smashed, and the Release keys and Mouselook buttons are no longer hooked to the toolbar and float right in the middle of your local chat. It’s quite frustrating since I use those tools all the time. Can you please patch up the UI? The new textures like new warning symbols and prefs are fairly okay, even a fresh compared to the old, but the bugs in it need to be fixed.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:20 PM
Im unable to assign new roles to group members!
February 5th, 2008 at 9:20 PM
Well well well u do seem to have fixed skirts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT everything is appalling. A lot of that is because you are using Release Candidate 1.19.0.0. And I’m wearing a hairpiece the front of which goes partially invisible when I pull the camera away and look from a distance. As this Viewer seems to rez so much quicker than other viewers, I’m beginning to wonder if the reason the other viewers are so slow to rez is that you are tweaking something to help Windlight. Well, back to good old Nicholaz.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:21 PM
Yes, it is disconcerting to read a message telling me the choice of whether to download is now mine, then be told a second later that the download is required. You should probably fix that.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:31 PM
You gonna love this new version, very nice performance and extremely stable for me which means a lot given the recent grid performance!
I ten to believe that users with wide screen displays can’t upload snapshots in correct aspect ratios or maybe i am just stupid
February 5th, 2008 at 9:31 PM
Harleen in http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-4541 mentions that editing panel_overlaybar.xml after making a backup and removing the release keys entry then rebooting will remove the release keys button from SL.
A workaround, but if you are a sub (or hate your attachments being detached) one that is worthwhile.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:32 PM
For the first time I must be really critical here. I love Windlight (although contrast is STILL too big at noon), but the current in-world performance needs to be fixed first. The 503 bug and slow texture loading are biting everyone!
February 5th, 2008 at 9:34 PM
Why do the IM tabs no longer blink? That was a change that didn’t need to be made and actually took away a good feature. The blink gets my attention, the way it’s acting right now (it just lights up, for lack of a better word) is easy to mess and less functional. Whose idea was that “fix”?
February 5th, 2008 at 9:45 PM
OK… if this is the upgrade i just downloaded… IT STINKS. 3/4’s of the keyboard commands that i used to be able to use, one in specific, CTRL W via the IM’s… DONT WORK ANYMORE.
I used to like windlight. But now i’m downgrading back to normal SL in hopes that it still works somewhat like it used to.
The old layout was nice… it was great. Now you come and move all the functions around and change all the look and the layout… and It is quite ugly. To the point of i refuse to use windlight. I could go on for hours… but i refuse to. Why do you always have to dake a decent layout… and screw it up? PLease… just find a layout that works… and stop changing it. i’m growing tired of having to learn a new layout, each and every time you guys decide to upgrade the viewer.
Hopefully the origional second life hasn’t been screwed up…
February 5th, 2008 at 9:53 PM
And an addendum… Just installed Second life… normal. IT works like old… but it messes my graphics card up so everything is 10 shades to white… so i’m physically stuck with the new… BAD look of windlight, hoping like heck that the next release is out soon
February 5th, 2008 at 9:58 PM
The sourcecode is not available yet?
February 5th, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Good god. I downloaded and installed this debacle. Lindens– I have applauded you in past, and I have criticized you. This is one occasion where I will be doing the latter quite singularly:
* VWR-3101: Alpha textures are opaque at a distance and the transition is ugly and unreliable
VWR-3101 is not “fixed”, it is simply back in the same unwanted state that machinimatographers really wish they had an offswitch for.
The new UI:
Who did this, what the hell were they thinking, and how quickly can you revert this change and/or give me an executable for the prior version of Windlight so I can downgrade? This seems chiefly to be the reason for my absymally bad framerate, as disabling it makes my framerate soar to 50+ from 20. The client freezes for three seconds everytime an online notifier blue-bar pops up, and the blue bars themselves are literally a third the height of the screen. The button layout is terrible, the icon change for no-push/no-build et-al was totally gratuitous (and will confuse many), and the layout, again, cannot be stated frequently enough? *TERRIBLE*. Horrid. Nauseatingly bad. Apalling. Revert this. Please.
Entirely glad I still have 1.18.3 to fall back on. I am discontinuing the use of Windlight in the face of these current and continuing issues. Give us an off-switch for VWR-3101’s alpha culling behavior. I didn’t ask to be saddled with that, I don’t remember anyone asking specifically for it, and now we machinimatographers are stuck with it, without recourse.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:15 PM
ATI sucks Nvidia is soooooooo much better!!!!!
February 5th, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Congratulations. In 5 minutes with the new version it has locked up on me twice, and you changed the interface AGAIN, just as we were getting used to the last changes to the interface. COME UP WITH A STANDARD AND STICK TO IT!
February 5th, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Is the memory leak fixed? I would really love to use Wind light.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:28 PM
I’m sorry, but I have to laugh at all the people complaining that they want the old windlight interface back. First everyone complained about the windlight interface for months on end, and now that the Lindens changed it, you want it back? Helloooooo logic…
As for the problems with the interface, I’m having none so far:
-Friends list show up normal, with nothing being black on black or dark gray on black. Only difference is that now we have checkboxes next to each name instead of below, which I quite like.
-Group member lists also look the same as always.
The only things that bug me a bit is the placement of the “Release Keys” button, and the fact that a lot of keyboard shortcuts don’t seem to function anymore.
Overall performance seems to have gone up for me. Normally I’d be around 13-15fps under ultra settings, now I’m closer to the 20fps region. Still wish sl would have proper multi-threading, though, since I have a quad core processor.
For anyone wondering, I have an Nvidia Geforce 8600GT with the latest drivers installed (169.25), running under Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bits.
So far I’m impressed, LL! Now to see if that nasty memory leak’s been fixed as well..
February 5th, 2008 at 10:35 PM
when i installed the new windlight viewer i was not prompted to set up voice. it just turned on by default. and the mic was on. somewhere it missed the fact it was a new install, did not bother to see my previous preferences was to have voice off, and simply turned on. mic or no mic this represents a violation of privacy and you better turn it back to opt in. check with your legal staff when rendering decisions like forcing people’s microphones on. for the pro voice crowd that likes to violate the TOS by suggesting any female avatar that does not want voice… there are people who have heard my voice so you can go violate the TOS with your voice fanboi flashmob somewhere else. and LL better start warning, suspending, and banning any account that keeps claiming all female avatars without voice are really males. again, check with your legal staff on allowing one segment to violate your TOS while enforcing it on others.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:36 PM
I just discovered another feature of the new WindLight: Cannot join parcels. The Join button doesn’t light up. Had to switch back to classic viewer in order to join parcels.
Keep it up guys! Good job
February 5th, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Freakin’ Hate it!
Just kidding, good stuff this…
February 5th, 2008 at 10:37 PM
I just noticed something with the new Windlight viewer I certainly do not like. It used to be if someone typed in an IM tab that was not your focus, that tab would flash, letting you know there was new activity in that tab. Well now, it flashes once, then turns an inperceptible shade lighter. I mean seriously, do I have to squint at the screen every time I want to know if other IM’s have become Active? The flashing made things crystal clear. This new UI feature might be okay, if the tab turned bright red or something, so you could actually tell it was different than the non-active. But the difference as it is now, is just much too small to be distinguished. :\
February 5th, 2008 at 10:37 PM
As per #43, property lines are now showing through everything, including the ground.
Also, why does the login screen insist on saying that upgrades are optional when they are mandatory? This is particularly hard to swallow when the upgrade includes UI changes that will come as a complete surprise to many typical users.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:38 PM
As usual, the sources are not made available together with the binaries…
Please, post the sources on the Wiki !
February 5th, 2008 at 10:38 PM
@68, I just split and joined a parcel with the new windlight, worked fine.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Ok, at first glance, I think that the new windlight, is bloody awesome..
BUT
On further assessment.. the program freezes every what.. 2 mins?
IF I am lucky enough to get that far.. as long as I do not move.
Plus, there is some ghost eagle at Romantic Joy, that looks as it someone rendered it to high heaven, and back again, and then just for kicks did it all over again..
Now I know for a fact, it did NOT look like that last night.
Is there nothing that can be done about that?
I mean, I relogged, I cleared my cache..
I did all the trouble shooting, and when as far as uninstalling, removing it from my pc totally, and then I reinstalled it, and its STILL doing it..
Don’t get me wrong, I love windlight… but.. if it freezes on MY system (a very high end one), then I can imagine what it does on ppl that have a lower grade one..
I can not figure it out.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Good so far, only a couple of things.
1) It complained that I didn’t have the latest Quicktime download, even though I do, and said that streaming video would be disabled - which it wasn’t, and didn’t need to anyway.
2) Voice on by default - please no, no a thousand times NO. We all know voice was a huge failure that nobody uses, do you really need to try and make it look like we use it by the hundreds of people who won’t realise what the white dot is and how to turn it off?
I’d love to see the stats for how many people have voice enabled, on any given day. My guess is about 6.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Voice enabled by default every time I log on.
You really really want to cram that PoS down everyone’s throats don’t you?
February 5th, 2008 at 10:54 PM
When people have been using SL for over four years they come to expect things to be in certain places. They don’t even need to look before clicking on an option or button.
The key to making a good interface is simply that it meets expectations. I fear LL may be assigning a new team of coders onto developing the interface which could be a big mistake because these new coders don’t come with any expectations.
My advice is that if LL really needs to make changes to the button layout then the changes need to be more dramatic and obvious. This will force the user to stop relying on muscle memory and to actually look before clicking a button. It’s the very subtle changes that can really confuse people.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Sorry to be off topic but people need to be warned, somebody inworld has started selling land with houses on it covering 16m plots in the middle of the land that they then offer to you afterwards at extortion prices, warn everyone you know and send something to out Lindens who allow this to go on unchecked, full story on the forums.
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=239295&page=5&pp=15
February 5th, 2008 at 11:19 PM
I have a Mac Pro. When I go to the AMD/ATI page, and look for drivers for my ATI X1900XT card running on the Intel platform, there’s no driver there. There’s only one listed for the Radeon X1900 G5 series for Mac. Any idea on if that driver would work for me? Or would I be better off sticking with the driver that’s currently installed?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:27 PM
I like the new UI, It’s smaller, better than the gurgantuan Friends/Groups chatbox of the previous versions.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:32 PM
@73, this problem may be specific to the Mac platform. On my system, Join Parcel used to work in Windlight, now it continues to work in classic viewer but no longer works in Windlight.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:32 PM
Would help if the ATI/AMD site wasn’t down. Won’t let you download the latest drivers.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:33 PM
THANK YOU!! The windlight snapshot “partial screen” bug was driving me nuts, as was the invisible-avatar-at-altitude problem!
February 5th, 2008 at 11:42 PM
Looks as if Shiny has changed?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:43 PM
OMG is this the new UI? can some one please make the release button for AO and object a LITTLE SMALLER! this is so bad. I wouoldnt say its a improvement but I wil not its a advance either. Gesh………..FPS is not improvement as of now. But we need to see how the teleports and stability is….
February 5th, 2008 at 11:48 PM
Sorry for the double post but I noticed this on the beta grid as well as the new Windlight client, you’ve disabled the ability to set RenderDynamcReflections to True, it’s always False now, you can’t click the drop down box to slect True, Booo,
I perferred the Dynamic reflections to the standard and very ugly plain reflections.
On the plus side I’ve got reflective water, I guess I can live with this trade-off for now.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:48 PM
i see that bit of shine on that new button on the left bottom corner. sneaky sneaky trying to slip in dazzle UI elements.
before i waste time on a jira entry:
has anyone else noticed glow brightness is primarily determined by the color of the prim behind it? i.e.; put something out with glow that looks good against subdued/dark textures. then look at it in front of light textures. lights up like a headlight.
i’m not even sure this is fixable after thinking about it for a while.
opinions?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Thanks for the bug fixing and general improvements.
One minor issue though: For the contacts GUI, could you please remove the ugly stack of checkboxes? This looks like some mediocre corporate GUI now, not at all like the greatest game on Earth.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:02 AM
well, can not connect to the new WL viewer, after each three tries, the program shuts down and sends a crash reor, any ideas??
February 6th, 2008 at 12:03 AM
OOOO Nice - windlight with so many corrections - please do take a look at group options in both windlight and the RC - the ok button wont lightup after changing someones role - I had to use the official viewer to change the group role for someone…
also the escape key doesnt get me out of the chat window anymore, have to click somewere on screen before I can use the camera to focus on something.
WTG Guys, keep on working on this project making our sl experience better!
Cheers for this one.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:14 AM
I like the fact that the bottom toolbar is now smaller. The highlighted icons and neat too. But REMOVE that releasy keys button. I won’t use WL because I know I will detach my mysti by mistake all the time. Who needs that button anyway? A menu option is enough.
Voice should be turned off by default, I agree that this is invasion of privacy!!
Aww my prim attachments look like plastic again. Please add this
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3775
to get rid of that effect.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:49 AM
Taking a little bit of getting used to (I have to agree that “Release Keys” should just be scooted off to a menu) but things look good!
Thunderous applause to the WL team and much love as always to the whole WL experience. My SL has never been more beautiful! Thanks!!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:03 AM
I was running th 8.1 drivers but both the 7.12 and 8.1 drivers crash to desktop 1-30 seconds after logging on. (I’m not sure if 1 or 30 secs is more annoying)
I’m currently only crashing every 30 mins or so on the 7.11 drivers, so I’m not prepared to go back to the 8.1 ones.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:07 AM
Pastrami-
An old problem seems to have returned with this version of WindLight… where the entire UI will “freeze” for about 2 seconds once a minute or two. All visual elements stop, and you can’t even type, or close windows with [x].
February 6th, 2008 at 1:10 AM
Jira still says patch pending. Is this fix available somewhere standalone?
VWR-3123: WindLight: Avatars with attachments at higher altitudes sometimes aren’t rendered
February 6th, 2008 at 1:15 AM
I like it, I like the new interface too.
Good job SL
February 6th, 2008 at 1:22 AM
I sure wish people would stop complaining about the new version! I love it! Sure, it has it’s minor issues, (the release key button, the non-blinking IM tab) but other than that, I think it looks more modern and streamlined, it’s brighter and more realistic looking, and things are easier for me to find with all the drop down menus. People need to just stop complaining and understand that this is a FIRST LOOK viewer and they are just testing stuff! Calm the heck down and get over yourselves.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:26 AM
Kristi, people would stop complaining when it works!!!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:30 AM
Just installed the 8.1 Catalyst Driver for Mobility Radeon X1600 as requested (ehm implored by Linden), but no way to have SL working
Screen is a pattern of 2 textures cycling…
February 6th, 2008 at 1:31 AM
It works, congratulations to Linden Team and much to ATI too .o) I´m longer then 5 minutes Online and Water-Refelctions are back.
ty. !!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:36 AM
As well as all the above problems does windlight cause the glow to pulsate when items selected for edit IE: building, I just noticed this damn annoying feature in the new test viewer as I was downloading WL before heading out to RL this Morn.
This throbbing glow is FRICKING annoying when building or editing and I hope its not a feature but a glitch, I havent ever noticed it on any other client build.
Dont the guys working on this play SL at all?
February 6th, 2008 at 1:40 AM
where I can get the older Windlight release?
February 6th, 2008 at 1:44 AM
Always nice to see some Windlight improvements, and as Havoc 4 starts to make its way onto the main grid things will really start looking up..thanks for the work. =]
February 6th, 2008 at 1:52 AM
exactly same bug as comment n.43 from Zeebster Colasanti on mac: cannot select anything in friend and group list as selection bar is invisible and color contrast awful
February 6th, 2008 at 2:00 AM
Attachments missing at altitude? Never noticed that one… and I build at 730m and socialise at 2500… Thanks be to rezzable build platforms…
Voice on by default was a little disconcerting… and one wonders how long it’s going to be before the option to turn it off gets “forgotten” in an update… but I’m glad to see at least that underwear layers can now be removed again from the pie menu… I was missing that feature; yet something tells me that it was only me who ever noticed that one…
February 6th, 2008 at 2:05 AM
when i go to click the lil arrow button near the media buttons down below i crash everytime…