New Release Candidate Viewer: 1.19.1 RC0 Available
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 3:25 PM by: Bridie LindenHot on the heels of Second Life 1.19.0 becoming the primary download, we’re making a new Release Candidate viewer available. Second Life 1.19.1 RC0 can now be downloaded from the test software page
As a reminder: Release Candidate viewers are optional updates that contain the latest round of bug fixes and/or soon-to-be-released new features. Please try the RC viewers only if you want to participate in the bug reporting process and identify issues before they become the default viewer. You can have both a Release Candidate and the primary viewer installed side by side on your computer, so if issues are encountered when testing the RC viewer you can switch back to the production viewer.
This Release Candidate contains the following new features and changes:
- Physically accurate atmospheric rendering and lighting (previously code named WindLight)
- Animateable day cycles
- Vastly improved realistic water with reflections and glimmer
- “Glow” as new object attribute
- Avatar Impostoring, which can speed up crowded scenes tremendously
- A new cleaned-up, easy to use Graphics Preferences tab with simple and advanced options for performance/quality settings
- See release notes for list of additional rendering optimizations, too!
- For more information, check out the WindLight page on the wiki
- Parcel Media - adds the ability to display Web based media on a parcel (see Jeska Linden’s blog post for more info!)
- New API for Media Rendering
- Enables Web content inworld
- Added two new click actions, one for playing movies, and one for opening media
- Embedded web browser
- Added support for Media resizing
- Estate-Level Abuse Reporting
- Estate owners and managers now have the ability (under World > Region/Estate) to enter an email address where abuse reports will be sent.
- If this address is empty, abuse reports will go to Linden Lab as usual. If the address is present, the abuse reports will be sent there instead. In both cases, all abuse reports are logged by Linden Lab.
- Voice changes
- Changed the default voice volume to be a bit higher, to better match the volume of in-world sounds
- Changed the voice volume slider to default to the middle of its range, so voice volume can be boosted above the default
- Improved Linux Voice support
- Better support for USB headsets and other devices
- Better voice audio quality
Fixes include:
- VWR-434: HUD textures are attaching but not being seen
- Bumpmapping flips on active objects
- Fixed various Teleport and Show on Map bugs
- VWR-2030: Avatar only turns half-way in Appearance Mode
- VWR-2920: Sculptie LOD causes object to be deformed into a flattened sphere close while correct far
- VWR-2164: Particle Alpha transition is done incorrectly
- VWR-1609: disabling “Show Selection Beam” makes beam render incorrectly for others
- VWR-2834: Builds fail on 1.18.4.0 with no mozlib
- More Help Buttons in Graphics Preferences
- VWR-983: Particles -> Offscreen/hidden particles get extended life -> as of 1.16.x at least.
- (Linux) Working device enumeration A.K.A. USB headset support
- Linux Voice quality issues in 1.19.0
- VWR-4921: not recognizing in Linux that client is already running
- Change the way local output volume is handled
- Checkboxes in About Land untick when selected
- Add missing header file to export list for public SVN repository
- Copy To Inventory fail to execute without any output feedback when Notecard has changes but not saved
- Resolve instant message crash report
- Textures/Snapshots in a Notecard are opened again when you click copy to inventory.
- VWR-882: Group name showing as (???) in About Land, IM tabs, and object edit window
- Packet-loss while viewing inventory currently results in perceived inventory loss
- Stop and pause Media and music buttons do not work
- Displayed page in the client browser disappears when crossing property boundaries.
- Replace misspellings in alerts.xml parameters (<message name=”messsage”) (3 S’s)
- Fix a misspelling of ‘participants’ in floater_chat_history.xml tool tip
- Clean up some viewer text strings related to Windlight features
- Media browser history dropdown does not save items across sessions
- XML CLEANUP: duplicate sibling names in en-us xml
- Crash in LLTabContainer::draw() if selected tab is invalid
- Sculpties on the top10 crash list
- The Search floater does not enable the “Search” button until the user has typed 3 characters to reduce db load
Source changes:
- VWR-3290: Linux scons build script doesn’t work with distcc
Known issues include:
- Ctrl+Command+D on MacOS to show the “Advanced” menu causes a crash
- Clicking on URLs in chat text now shows pages in the embedded web browser by default. Sites that show authentication dialogs will fail. Click “Open in My Web Browser” button to see such sites, and check “Always open in my web browser” if this behavior is not desired.
- Default water has repetitive, scale-like patterns
Please continue to report any new issues in the Issue Tracker and be sure to set “Affects Version/s” to “1.19.1 Release Candidate“. Resident participation is always welcome at our weekly (Wednesdays @ 3pm PST time) inworld bug triages, too! Thank you!
March 6th, 2008 at 3:26 PM
[...] « New Release Candidate Viewer: 1.19.1 RC0 Available [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 3:46 PM
Hope LL fixed Friends online !
March 6th, 2008 at 3:56 PM
It is a very poor idea to force RC users to accept Windlight. Many Many computers can’t function or function badly with windlight. Moreover, LL has not yet fixed all of the avatar appearance problems that have been mentioned many, many times in Windlight - making it an unacceptable viewer for many users.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:59 PM
Hopefully now they will get around to fixing VWR 2051 and VWR 4245, both being serious memory leak issues thats been ignored for months. :/
March 6th, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Web media content in parcels now? This is an intriguing update indeed, and I for one am glad that Windlight’s being rolled out better. I would, however, hope that the default is at the lowest settings possible. My previous PC wasn’t drastically old but suffered greatly during anything in which reflections and the like were enabled. On the other hand, such settings can be turned off, so I’d hope a wave of comments complaining about PCs not being able to handle it could be stemmed if users just look into the viewer’s settings more diligently.
One thing’s for certain - it’ll be nice to know more people can see the glowiness in new builds.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Crashes on Linux if you have a locale that uses “,” for fractional numbers. Workaround:
export LANG=C
This bug pops up every once in a while, you should put it into your regression test suite
March 6th, 2008 at 4:14 PM
The rendering of planar textures is STILL broken in this latest RC viewer. In several of my builds I am using sharp edged sculptie steps texutred in stone or whatever with planar mapping and they’ve been broken since the late 79xxx build of Windlight FirstLook. Everything seems fine in the latest official viewer but to see a release candidate with this bug disturbs me as I’ve not seen it mentioned anywhere else. To be clear, this bug affects the rendering of planar mapped textures on scuplted prims. I have no idea how to report this or make a JIRA - whatever that is… So could someone look into it please. Many thanks. I’ll stick to the official viewer for now. IM me in world if you want to help but have no idea what I’m talking about.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Booyah!
Finally - on the road home, there’s a ‘light’ visible at the end of the tunnel! Woot!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:19 PM
FYI to all- a WindLight-enabled viewer does not tax the hardware any more by default. We have set the recommended settings to match previous framerates. This will be an ongoing tweaking process, but WindLight itself does not mean a slower experience- it just means there is a new feature to use *if* you want it. In fact, due to avatar impostors and other improvements, many will see an increased framerate.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:22 PM
I’m glad I already dumped my ATI X1650 AGP for an nVidia, it’s ready!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Sidonie Larkham, perhaps it’s time you move to the official build if you do not want to test the Windlight engine in RC. Please read where is says NOT TO run this client if you do not want to contribute to identifying bugs. I have few problems with it, and unlike common hysteria Windlight actually has higher performance on older machines!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:23 PM
Por Favor minha placa Grafica Nvidia 7900GTX do not work a partir de hoje por favor fixem isto lol
March 6th, 2008 at 4:23 PM
Can you clarify the “Enables Web content inworld” and “Embedded web browser” stuff please?
Do we finally have HTML on a prim? Flash?
March 6th, 2008 at 4:30 PM
This looks terrible : (
My white walls are pink now (!) and i hate the way the water looks. There’s a reason I didn’t download and use Windlight… Thanks for making me do it anyway.
Yes, I’m aware I can use the production version but I liked First Look at a LOT more.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I don’t know how long this has been in there, but I never spotted it and I know some people have been complaining (without relief) - if you go into Preferences->General, and UNCHECK “Show Search Panel in overlay bar”, you’ll get your two little lag-meters back! Thank you LL!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:33 PM
Wow, this looks like an awesome RC! You have been busy haven’t you?! Can’t wait to download and try it out tomorrow! Thanks again for all the ongoing hard work.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:38 PM
where’s my glow level set via lsl? want it. been waiting too long.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Have also lost the ability to dock the communicate and inventory boxes at the top of the screen… when minimized they automatically return to the bottom and cover chat.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:58 PM
[...] would seem that today’s viewer update contains, among other things, the ability to display a website on a [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 5:09 PM
Finally, the functional little lag meters are back. Thank you, LL.
Now, if only we could get the Communicate window functional again. I know different people like to size it differently, but it would really be appreciated if you could allow those of us who want to to be able to resize it much smaller vertically, so it does not take up over a quarter of the vertical size of the screen at 1280 x 1024, to do so. At the vertical size it is now, it is extremely difficult to carry on an IM conversation while doing almost anything else in world because you simply can’t see what you’re doing.
The non-flashing IM tabs for new content in the Communicate window makes it very difficult to tell when someone you’re engaged in a conversation with has typed something new to you. In multiple IM situations, it becomes very easy to miss when someone has responded to you. Please bring the flashing tabs back to the Communicate window.
I realize you want your programmers to be programming instead of being in SL, but at least your interface programmers need to use the interface in real multiple IM situations and to IM when moving around and accomplishing tasks. Since the introduction of the Communicate window, the user interface changes have almost all been bad. Some have been play crippling bad, with no discernable reason why the working interface was changed and a total refusal to explain the changes or respond to the concerns of your customers.
If I believed in conspiracy theories, I would begin to think the purpose of the Communicate window was to make the text user interface so unusable as to drive everyone to voice.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:09 PM
Woah, who set the Glow control to the Heart of the Sun setting?
Water (and every other glowing object) looks ridiculously ‘overglown’ in this version. I’m on a Mac with an ATI card, is anyone else seeing this too? Thankfully Debug Settings can correct it but this can’t be the new default surely?
March 6th, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Was supposed to have a fix for VWR-3156 in it, does it?
(still downloading. My DSL stands for D**n Slow Link)
March 6th, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Oh, yes, I see a couple of comments that VWR-3156 has been fixed. Three cheers and a tiger!
March 6th, 2008 at 5:47 PM
o.O So RC was added to Windlight… now Windlight is added to RC? I’m getting confused here Pastrami… is the FL Windight client going to be closing then? You have too many partial clients.. RC-WL and WL-RC…. please pick one?
Garn
March 6th, 2008 at 5:48 PM
Tigers? In San Francisco?
March 6th, 2008 at 5:58 PM
I’m liking most of the new features, but not so keen on the windlight stuff. It would be really nice if there was a checkbox where we could disable windlight to get the ‘classic’ look. Sorta like voice has a box to disable it altogether.. I’d like a box to disable windlight. Otherwise, looks like lots of good stuff going on.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:02 PM
So far I have not installed the update on my desktop, mostly because of the lack of flashing tab. But also, on my laptop where I do have it installed, the friends list is almost constantly messed up. When I see notes saying these two things have been fixed, I’ll up date.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Wow, this sounds ridiculously superb!
March 6th, 2008 at 6:07 PM
If you turn off “basic shaders” in Windlight you get a much more “classic” look.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
There is, Atashi. It’s labeled “Atmospheric Shaders” in Graphics.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
To my eyes the Windlight rendering still falls short of the default renderer as seen in these two stills:
http://files.marinedalek.co.uk/images/glitchy1.jpg
http://files.marinedalek.co.uk/images/glitchy2.jpg
The texture rendering seems to have a large amount of messy aliasing present compared to the previous engine, and objects appear to have very jagged edges - this seems to be a result of avatar impostors being employed far too close to the camera.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:17 PM
I confirm that this RC-WindLight-HTML-On-A-Prim-Mega-Release definitely keeps the FPS settings for my card (ATI Radeon X1600 on an iMac) within the range of expected performance as the previous RC.
That was outstanding tweaking, Linden Lab, thanks very much!
@Sidonie, you can use the released 1.19.0 instead… it does include all the tweakings of the “former” Release Candidates and has no WindLight… and it might very well continue to work for quite a while!
March 6th, 2008 at 6:28 PM
Marinedalek, you can change the distance at which Avatars start getting Impostored by changing the Avatar Detail slider. The higher the detail, the further away they have to be to become impostors.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:29 PM
@29 Argent & @30 Buckaro — thank you, I have tried those options. They do remove a lot of the windlight funkiness but they don’t really look like what I’m used to either. Particularily the water - it goes from overly sparkly to almost invisible. When I’m feeling more patience I’ll spend more time messing with the various options but I’d still be happier with just one big “turn off windlight” button — and give me back the same ‘classic’ sliders and options.
One other thing I’m seeing is no matter how low I set the graphics options, my FPS still stay so low as to be intolerable — 5fps was the fastest I could get where I should be seeing 15 or 20. (20″ aluminum iMac / 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, Radeon HD2600 w 256MB ram.)
March 6th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
DON’T LEAVE THE AUDIO MIXER OPEN WHEN YOU LOG OUT!
Crashes when you try to log back in.
See https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5351 for a work around if you are suffering this.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:50 PM
Oh jeesh..I haven’t been able to use any viewer later than 1.18.3..and now I will be required to? I crash and burn everytime I tp with the newer versions.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:09 PM
[...] Linden Lab fez das suas, e sem revelar nada a ninguém, lançou uma versão nova do cliente Second Life que, para além de incluir WindLight e montes de truques divertidos, tem uma novidade que é [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 7:13 PM
Explain plz… since this is the future official release, does it means windlight no longer exists since it is now everything into one release? Or some of these WL options are missing from this new release? So there will be no future windlight versions .. correct?
March 6th, 2008 at 7:17 PM
i have all in the preference to maximun, i have draw distance in 512 meters and all graphics in 100 percent, and the second life looks gorgerous, in 2560 x 1600 screen resolution and for me all runs smotth, hehe, im happy for this stronge changes, i have two video cards 8800 GTX SLI , lol, i see a minors bugs, but that is a part of this process, go ahead with the lovely WINDLLIGHT!
THANKS TO LINDEN LABS,
March 6th, 2008 at 7:26 PM
cool, but when do we get lsl functions to set glow??
i would think: do an lsl interface before you do a user interface.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Source code please?
Although it’s on the CVS MAC v80977 doesn’t include the libllmozlib library and previous versions don’t have symbols needed.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:43 PM
cool.. WL is finally going to RC after the months of testing. Look forward to downloading this client after work, and i am guessing what you are telling us is that all future WL updates will be in the form of RC’s right?
March 6th, 2008 at 7:46 PM
Absolutely awful - I’ve gone back to the “normal” SL version with the crappy bigger communicate window, without doing the update too.
I was seeing tinges of red in odd areas (thought initially it was thick property lines showing) and tinges of blue like I’m seeing edges of water underground. I liken it to transparency being on, but without the image.
It’s a much darker feel (even at midday) which is really annoying.
I’ll have a fiddle with it when I’m in the mood, which isn’t now. But I shouldn’t have to get in their and tinker with the settings when I’ve not had to do that previously.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:48 PM
If anyone has nVidia drivers 169.xx ie OpenGL 2.1.2 please read up on https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5233. Under the ‘advanced’ tab click on ‘console window’ and restart SL before logigng in check the window for any errors with shaders not loading properly. This error was limited to the RC client for me but now I wonder with the migration of WL into the RC if this has been resolved for everyone. thanks.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:06 PM
Oh joy. Windlight. It has ALWAYS run slower than the other clients, when it worked at all on my systems. Lag is bad enough without adding such a feature in.
FIX THE EXISTING PERFORMANCE ISSUES BEFORE ADDING EVEN MORE!
March 6th, 2008 at 8:14 PM
VIVA WINDLIGHT!! I LOVE WINDLIGHT!! GO AHEAD LINDENS!!
March 6th, 2008 at 8:31 PM
Windlight should be an option, not default
March 6th, 2008 at 8:35 PM
Hi:
I have one issue/worry about AR’s going to estate owners. I’ve AR’ed estate owners before. While not common, it does happen. So if I see a casino device, and AR it will my complaint potentially go right to the person who placed it? I’ll ask the proper Linden this at an office hour if no reply here, but its been bothering me so I wanted to mention it.
Also should mention Pastrami Linden is a cool, professional guy both in blogs and in world.
-S
March 6th, 2008 at 8:57 PM
So far, since downloading this version, I have crashed more often in 2 hours, than in the last week. Thank you Lindens for giving me a pretty, and unstable, environment.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:09 PM
To all those who complain about the windlight must understand that the second life can not be delayed old and ugly, and obsolete, linden labs have to make an effort to go to improve everything, the graphis in old system are ugly, All these people who spend instead of complaining and dont like the windlight i say GO TO CRY TO MOTHER HOOD
March 6th, 2008 at 9:22 PM
I have a question about the ENVIRONMENT EDITOR / ADVANCED WATER / IMAGE settings. I like the ability to change the direction which waves appear to flow, but I don’t see any way to rotate the normal map for waves. My waves now appear to be flowing sideways.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:45 PM
[...] Lab has released a new release client, which includes a lot of exciting features that will soon become standard on the grid. [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 9:51 PM
The new water looks great!!! Almost real. I’m running with an NVIDIA 8800GT under Vista using the ultra graphics setting in game. It looks beautiful! keep up the god work!
You complainers need to upgrade your systems so you can appreciate the excellent graphics.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:59 PM
Just to clarify, I agree with others who have said they use the RC because it is generally more stable and usable than the regular viewer. Perhaps it’s time for a regular viewer update. And I cannot imagine LL is gonna be so stupid as to force ALL sl users to use windlight on the regular viewer. If they are, well, my money is out of here, that day. I don’t believe I’m alone in that.
Some of the things about windlight are gravy. Avatar imposters for instance. Some of it, like the overglow someone refers to and the harsh lighting are not.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:06 PM
Yeah, one quick note everyone- the posters here are correct - by disabling “Atmospheric Shaders” you will get a look very similar to old-school Second Life, just with nicer- albeit flat-looking -skies.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:12 PM
Why sound/voice floatie glue with menu? I can’t get rid of it or moving it around like Camera control float thingie. Can’t you make the sound/voice floatable, eh? (honestly, I *want* to rid of that most ugliest annoying-est useless sound/talk button. *spit* Sorry)
And about im thing. My friends talked about it that we do not like new im thing. We prefer the old im window. Why change? Change it back, that will make us happy and that will help us to stay in SL longer.
Comfortable is important. We haven’t complain about it. We never ask such as “oh we need a new fashion change im thing. We never ask. If you want to change or crave do it so, then don’t do it. That will upset million of people. Make a vote (poll) with screenshot first. Like we vote… (waiting). 
I demand you to make a vote then we will decide to say Love it or Hate it, then you build or not. Well… you do it, you will realized that waiting sux, that will teach you a lesson, anyway. Change Im, kay?
What about closed caption for the movies? Add it please.
Thank you
March 6th, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Ivantwin, try reading the comments before you tell people to “GO TO CRY TO MOTHER HOOD.”
My complaints are very real issues of PERFORMANCE and STABILITY. This release has gone backwards on BOTH. Sure, it looks pretty, while until it crashes again. Never mind that the frame rate is lower than the last release as well, without looking THAT much better.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:01 PM
I get much improved frame rates at a lower CPU usage (although Gigs Taggart insists that thats a bug) with windlight. I did notice some strange glitches with this newest RC release of Windlight but a reboot seems to have fixed them. I’ve been using windlight to my advantage in my builds for months now and I know many buidlers use it as well, inluding Lordfly Digeridoo and other members of Creative Zebra. Getting an average 25 FPS @ 1600×1200 with 4x AA and 4x AF. Standard client gets about 5-8 FPS on the same settings.
Viva la windlight!
March 6th, 2008 at 11:42 PM
[...] Second Life Blog New Release Candidate Viewer: 1.19.1 RC0 Available Quote from the site - Hot on the heels of Second Life 1.19.0 becoming the primary download, we’re [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 11:57 PM
The 30 second lockups are back on my system, Mac Pro 6gb. Fullscreen is worst than windowed.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:58 PM
@ 57
No Sara… it has gone back in performance and stability for YOU (and others). For me it’s working just fine. not a single crash in over 8 hours of use. So when is the last time you gave your computer a tune up?
March 7th, 2008 at 12:17 AM
Thanx lindesns for”Parcel Media - adds the ability to display Web based media on a parcel”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 7th, 2008 at 1:45 AM
[...] to a tweet by Jokay, I’m reading about the HTML-on-a-prim capabilities of the 1.19.1 Release Candidate and wondering if it’s worth installing just to see what this is all about and how it might be [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 1:53 AM
Since the ATI fixes the WL client worked better than RC clients for me… I’m glad they finally merged both branches =)
March 7th, 2008 at 2:08 AM
I’m glad WL is finally a part of the RC. Some people may not like WL as they comp cannot handle it, but they can turn of atmospheric shaders then its just the same as NO WL.
I still dont understand, why complain about WL being “forced” on RC users? When the RC is freshly installed WL is turned OFF, right?
March 7th, 2008 at 2:25 AM
Who cares at ths stage if it works thats what matters………….
March 7th, 2008 at 2:35 AM
1.19.1 RC is broken for Linux .. i get this in my logs
2008-03-07T10:26:53Z WARNING: parseXml: Bone without position
2008-03-07T10:26:53Z WARNING: parseXml: Error parsing bone in skeleton file
2008-03-07T10:26:53Z i686-linux-client-releasefordownload/newview/llvoavatar.cpp(1431) : error
2008-03-07T10:26:53Z ERROR: initClass: Error parsing skeleton XML file: /home/mercier/SLRC/character/avatar_skeleton.xml
What is bad with my ‘ skeleton’ ?
March 7th, 2008 at 3:00 AM
@67 Rominagrobis Ling: See comment #6. If you’re running a locale that uses “,” for decimal points (such as German, for example) it breaks. A workaround is to set the LANG variable to “C”. You can do that on the text console prior to starting ./secondlife or type it into the ./secondlife script in one of the first lines (not the very first, mind you
):
export LANG=C
Explanation: The avatar skeleton is an XML file. The bones of the skeleton are defined inside of this file as a series of floating point numbers. The file uses the decimal point notation, so you will see things like 1.234 as a fractional number. However, if your system is set up to use commas as decimal point, the XML reader will try to parse the 1.234 and gets stuck at the “.”, becuase this character does not belong there. It should have been 1,234. The workaround tells the XML reader explicitly to use the “.” notation.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:07 AM
Love Windlight. I agree with the idea that it should be the default, for the RC as this is a testing phase client, and once it goes “live” it should be the default in the main client, should the user’s computer be capable of handling it. Most people actually do like shading and effects. The entire videogame industry revolves around that idea in the push for better visuals. The idea that textures should “look like they do in Photoshop” is a very odd phenomenon that is, much like facelamps, fairly unique to SL.
That said, I do feel SL’s default settings are often overly-optimistic of what a particular computer might be able to handle.
Anyways, I’ve made a lot of Windlight presets for my own personal use in the Windlight First Look. Is there an easy way for me to copy these over to the RC client? Also, is there an ETA on Windlight settings being inventory “objects” we can pass around to other users?
I’ve also come around to the idea that maybe allowing parcel owners to set their own Windlight defaults might not be a bad idea. I dunno, still pros and cons to weigh on that one. Maybe allow people to toggle between sim default and individual parcel defaults? Just a thought, really.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:15 AM
Sorry, should have worked this into my first comment, however I’m also still concerned about the issue where alpha textures turn into broken opaque pixels at a distance. This problem first started popping up after the first couple Windlight updates, after WL returned from that long hiatus.
It makes getting screenshots incredibly difficult, and capturing movies pretty much impossible. The fact that Windlight has made the RC stage with that bug still present is reason for much concern among the machinima crowd, and…well…pretty much everyone. No one wants to see such an obvious glitch that pops up so constantly, and consistently.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:52 AM
When are you going to remove the ATI masks from the featuretable.txt file? I’m referring to the ones after the comment ‘Avatar hardware skinning causes invisible avatars on x2600… so I masked out other possible bad ones till it’s fixed in 8.2′. With Catalyst 8.3 available shouldn’t this have been done already?
March 7th, 2008 at 4:53 AM
you all must be brain dead / first you finally switch Inventory loading from UDP protocal to TCP and botch it / get your Sh*& together/ or start firing some of the morons that are doing your coding
March 7th, 2008 at 5:43 AM
Too bad that I have problems with the colors with this new RC.
The looks really are great, but the colors aren’t the way it should be…
I also don’t know what to do, because I tried to install new graphic drivers too…
I have a x700 card in my laptop (I play SL with my laptop), so I can’t change that…
I don’t believe that it could be the chip of the graphic cards, if it were, I couldn’t run SL at all… 
March 7th, 2008 at 5:52 AM
who half baked your brains ??? this RC is a piece of crap / get your Sh*& together / dumb~ass’s
March 7th, 2008 at 6:02 AM
the particle system is still broken. it starts with a way to low number of particles, and over time “grows” to the normal amount of particles.
has been reported, closed, reopened… but no changes. please fix it. ty
March 7th, 2008 at 6:14 AM
I can hardley wait for you all to screw up the Dazzle Client / it is the only good thing to come from you in a long time/ crap can this piece of junk and fire the person responsible
March 7th, 2008 at 6:15 AM
What happened to the search?.. the All window wont scroll down.. well.. it does but one cant see it.. plz fix it soon.. cos the search is pretty important
March 7th, 2008 at 6:26 AM
Thank you SOOOOO much Lindens. With this release, I now have to either quit SL or buy new computers. Is that your solution to the lag issues? Drive off users by raising minimum requirements for stupid features like Windlight?
My laptops, which have been just fine for over a year on SL, are now telling me with this release that they do not meet the min graphics requirement. I’m well and truly screwed then, since you cannot just replace the graphics card on a laptop.
This is what paying money into SL does for you I guess. That’s the last of my money you will see. Thank you very much.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:28 AM
@6 @67 @68: If your issue is related to decimal point, setting LC_NUMERIC to “C” rather than the entire LANG variable should be sufficient. (NOT TESTED YET, but pretty sure).
FYI, the variables are:
LANG
LC_CTYPE
LC_NUMERIC
LC_TIME
LC_COLLATE
LC_MONETARY
LC_MESSAGES
LC_ALL
March 7th, 2008 at 6:33 AM
@61
I give my computer regular tune ups. The problem is that for a long time, users of the latest ATI cards (like me) could not use Windlight at all because of a “bug in the ATI drivers” which affected Windlight, yet not one other game out there.
I have been developing computer software, including games, for over 20 years. I know a BS excuse when I hear one.
But, the result of their only getting ATI cards to work at all until very recently, is that they have not done the level of performance tuning that they have for other cards. Maybe, if they ever catch up there, I might see performance improvements.
But the fact remains, I, and others, DO see the performance degradation from this. And being flippant like that does not address the serious lag issues that have been plaguing SL for well over a year now. Issues that voice and Windlight are only making worse, not better.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:52 AM
Great, switching to whichever viewer which does not contain Windlight yet, now.
I used to like Windlight, back in May last year when it was in beta. The skies were realistic without making the whole landscape and the avatars, look rather fake. The lighting was very strong back then (like now), giving the avatars a rather strange and sharpened look, but local lights (such as facelights) softened that out, making it quite nice. Now? Local lights only strengthen the light more, making it even brighter than it already was. There’s no way to make the avatars look anything like they used to.
Fix that and I’ll be happy to use Windlight everyday as soon as my computer is able to run it properly.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:00 AM
@79 Akira Kuramoto: Thanks for the additional information. I didn’t go into detaill on this one myself. I simply set the LANG variable and all is fine. The shell (or script) is used only for Second Life anyway. But it never hurts to see what other options are out there
March 7th, 2008 at 7:28 AM
Sculpted prims have changed slightly so it affects designs…
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5172
IF YOU BOUGHT THE ZIGGY SHOES or THE DIVA HEELS - They will look worse - the eyelets appear sunken in the Windlight version. YOUR SHOES WON’T LOOK AS GOOD AS WHEN YOU BOUGHT THEM.
Please vote for this if you want your shoes to remain the way you saw them when you bought them.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:07 AM
I’ve played around a bit more with this RC viewer and here’s what I find — doesn’t matter if I turn everything graphics-related to the lowest setting, or the highest setting. The difference between everything maxxed out, or everything at the bare minimum, is one or two FPS. Even with the ugliest minimum settings, my FPS are unusably low.
Here’s the kicker though - this only happens when there are other avatars around. When I’m off alone somewhere, or maybe one other avatar in view, FPS are quite normal — again regardless of settings. If I go to where my friends are, only 3 or 4 other people, the FPS are in the toilet.
Re. turning off the atmospheric shaders to get a non-WL look: No, this does not make things look normal, it makes things look ugly. Specifically, water! turning WL off does not make the water look normal, it makes water look like a very faint blue fog with no surface detail. That is not normal, nor is it ‘SL Classic’, that is not ‘no windlight’. What it is, is just plain fugly.
However — I accept that it’s an RC and I don’t *have* to use it. I just hope they fix these problems, and add a true and honest ‘disable windlight’ option, before they make this the production viewer. Suggestion: have two graphics tabs in preferences, one with the classic stuff and one with the windlight stuff, and give us a checkbox to toggle which one we want to use. Want windlight? Then the classic tab is greyed out. Want classic? The windlight tab is greyed out. Let the customers choose how they want to use and view the product, don’t tell us or try to force us.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:12 AM
The game looks better but wow… No matter what I do I can’t get my frame rate to break 10fps.
If I set everything on high I get the same FPS as I do with everything on low.
I’m use to seeing 45FPS solid in the previous windlight release, this is a major let down.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:24 AM
Permissions of the Linux .tar.bz2 are rather odd in this RC. Neither group nor everyone has any permissions on the files which prevents it from being used when installed as root (I use to install it in /opt) directly. The permission scheme that was used in other/earlier releases was much more useful.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:31 AM
you all at LL are brain dead / this RC is garbage
March 7th, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Oh yuck, Windlight again. There are only two good things Windlight brings forth: pretty skies and pretty water. Everything else is horrid. Windlight destroys the verisimilitude of large spaces. If I hover at, say, 70m on a platform and look around, WL conveys the sense of being on a small island surrounded by dazzling wave rippling froth tossing season - it does this even if there are dozens of entirely land SIMs all around. Move forward but one meter and all of a sudden a meter’s worth of land and buildings suddenly appear out of nowhere. From dazzling sea and clear skies to *poof*, OMG, look at those clearly defined structures, is *not* how my eyes work.
I am forced to raise my view distance from 192 to 500m and even with *that* exrtreme setting, I still get the islanding effect. WL is unusable for airships of sailboats because of its extremely harsh pruning of both distant object and landforms.
And now I see WL ‘fixed’ particle alphas, rendering was used to be transculent particles as invisible. Great.
Until this gets fixed WL is a non-starter for me.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:55 AM
this is the best thing to ever happen since i hit puberty
March 7th, 2008 at 8:57 AM
[...] of Second Life, has been a long-requested feature. Now it’s here–mostly. Yesterday Linden Lab announced a new potential viewer for Second Life that allows for more Web content on a Second Life sim. [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 9:11 AM
well done guys….rc even made my old computer look good….hope this is it …an enjoyable experience for the average computer….
March 7th, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Argggg… can’t login with Linux client, crash everytime I try to login.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:46 AM
Quote post 84:
“Suggestion: have two graphics tabs in preferences, one with the classic stuff and one with the windlight stuff, and give us a checkbox to toggle which one we want to use. Want windlight? Then the classic tab is greyed out. Want classic? The windlight tab is greyed out. Let the customers choose how they want to use and view the product, don’t tell us or try to force us.”
I couldn’t agree more, but I hope to see the framerate droppings and lags being fixed! Does SL have weird colors with you too?
March 7th, 2008 at 9:52 AM
@ 92: Are you by any chance using another system language than English? A friend reported that it seems to work on his Ubuntu when switching to English. (Can anyone else confirm this on Linux?)
@ 93: Are you seeing reddish shades on some objects? Try disabling Beacons in the View menu. (Another bug that they’re enabled by default?)
March 7th, 2008 at 10:02 AM
If you love attachments, you better skip this RC:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5087
March 7th, 2008 at 10:09 AM
A question:
if we do this.. does Linden Lab deal with Abuse Reports or do you expect us to deal with them on our own estate?
“Estate owners and managers now have the ability (under World > Region/Estate) to enter an email address where abuse reports will be sent.”
March 7th, 2008 at 10:37 AM
yes SARA NEED A UPGRADE in your computer URGENT!! for me Windlight runs Excelent and i dont have a crash!! THANKS TO LINDEND LABS
March 7th, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Meh, Needs “classic fog” and “classic water” options for those who can’t or won’t run shaders… yes the speed is there without shaders but the water looks like an animated texture and everything is sharply cut off at distance.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:59 AM
92, Susua:
What error messages do u get? i am glad i could help.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:24 AM
yea i love WINDLIGHT FOREVER!!
March 7th, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Few things:
1) Release Candidate in software terms is OPTIONAL, not FORCED
2) I don’t know if it is the sim I’m in (at my home so far), but I can not put any clothes on. Wouldn’t that be lovely for the PG sims that I DJ at? The clothes that I am trying to put on SHOW that they are on in my inventory, but if you look at my AV, I’m as naked I can be. I hit “appearance” and the clothing shows, but as soon as I exit out of appearance, they vanish again. (if this continues, I will be submitting a ticket)
March 7th, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Quote post 101:
“1) Release Candidate in software terms is OPTIONAL, not FORCED”
True, but the WL features within the RC definatly are forced!
March 7th, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Quote post 93:
“@ 94: Are you seeing reddish shades on some objects? Try disabling Beacons in the View menu. (Another bug that they’re enabled by default?)”
No, I don’t see the beacons, I just don’t see the colors like they should be, like there are 256 colors used or so… Very weird… I can post a screenshot of it, if needed. I have this problem with WL itself too!
March 7th, 2008 at 11:55 AM
I’m using Second Life 1.19.0 (80044) -thw windlight viewer and it telling me i have to update to the RC 1.19.0 — is this the end of the windlight developement viewer ?
bloody hope not , its the best of the lot .
March 7th, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Hmmm…this is probably not the place to mention this, but…
Right clicking on an inventory object and selecting “Attach to…” (HUD or as a clothing item) results in the object being attached to whatever its last attachment point on the AV was (exactly like the “Wear” option).
So…if you had something were you wanted it already, great. If you’re building something new, you have to leave the RC and go the production clieat to attach it, so that it’s default “Wear” location is where you want it.
Is anyone else experiencing this?
March 7th, 2008 at 12:15 PM
I’m confused. I’m using Windlight 1.19.0. So does this mean I should uninstall it and then use this “newer” versiobn?
March 7th, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Ok, adding one more … I use dual monitors, and the old Windlight (yes, I prefer windlight over any other client) used to open on the 2nd monitor (like I want it). Now with this RC, it insists on opening on my first monitor. Its not much of a big deal, but it seems like it is not saving the last location run, like all previous versions used to do.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:21 PM
*Attachpoints Selection*
All was running fine until I created something and tried to attach it to a point I wanted namly the chest, and it still went to the hand so I tried attaching to the spine and still went to the hand.
But the rest so far has been cool.
Definatley a Leap forward on other releases.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:25 PM
@97
There you go being flippant again. I am supposed to throw out hundreds of dollars for a new laptop for SL, which the Lindens said was supposed to be for community and communication???
Not to mention all the time needed to move software and settings and documents. In excusable. The features, and therefore requirements, should be OPTIONAL.
@101
Yes, the RC is optional, but it is also a preview of what will come in the default player, at which time these changes will no longer be optional. Better to raise the issues NOW.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:28 PM
One issue that does appear to have carried to Windlight - Sl does not properly handle graphics card memory. The one change I made (and this worked on the previous RC as well) that gave the greatest frame rate benefit - telling SL I had half as much video memory as I do. I do not recall the issue number, but have seen this reported already.