Eye On The Blog: "Faster Avatar Loading on the Horizon

By Bixyl Shuftan


In its latest blog post, Linden Lab announces another update for it's viewer ready to be downloaded by the residents. It says it's been updating "Project Shinning - an initiative that will make avatars load and rez more quickly and reliably."

We’ve tested changing of outfits, avatar swapping, and initial avatar loading into worlds, and our tests showed performance gains across the board. Bottom line, Second Life users will experience less time in “clouded” or untextured avatar states and/or completely failed bakes that require relogs.



They included a video, narrated by Torley Linden, with details. The blog post promises "important updates you'll need to enjoy the benefits of Project Sunshine, so update if you haven't yet."

My own personal experience with the new viewer, based on a day's experience, was mixed. Avatars can still take a while a load. But eventually they did, although it could still take a few minutes, even in a place with just several other avatars. For someone used to chat interfaces based on Viewer 1, the communications HUD left something to be desired, especially when getting a number of Instant Messages. When I had to talk to several people at once, I had to log off and go back to Singularity. And once when trying to log on, the viewer just refused to coooperate (picture above). On the other hand, the glitch from the last official viewer of freezes and crashes when making IMs seemed to be gone, when it was working anyway.

Linden Lab promises two more updates, the first being "A server-side update, rolling out soon. It's at this point that you'll began to notice significant improvements in avatar and object load times and reliability." But for those who don't upgrade, the Grid will be a gray world. And later on, "A second Viewer update, released after the server-side improvements are rolled out." It's with this third step that the Lab says users will get "the full benefits of Project Sunshine."

With many residents still using the older Phoenix Viewers rather than the official viewers, it remains to be seen if everyone will benefit from Project Sunshine.

For the blog post: Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Doing the Lag-tastic

If there's one thing that bugs each resident almost constantly, it's the ever-present lag. Sometimes it seems worse than usual. Those of us with longer memories may wonder, "Is the lag really worse than usual, or is it just me?" So when a few others also complain, well, you figure you may be right.

But if person after person complains, saying they've had to stop using a new viewer for an older one, well, you may be pardoned for wondering if there's something rotten in Ahern.

So what's behind the lag behind these complains? Some I chat with blame the more recent updates to the viewer. And indeed the most recent update to the official Linden Lab viewer frequently causes things to freeze or even crash whenever I Instant-Message someone, or get an IM from someone. Others complain about their Firestorm viewers, going back to the old Phoenix, even if it's no longer supported by the team. One person compared it to going back to a worn and ragged but comfortable pair of old shoes when the new shoes kept pinching your feet.


For myself, Firestorm doesn't work on my computer, and except for the first release or two never has. The bugs I found in the official viewer meant going back to full time use of Cool VL, but the version I use is some months old, and at times such as a crowded sim can show its age. For some peculiar reason, their more recent Mac viewers won't work for me. Then a friend and I were talking about the Singularity Viewer. Mentioning I stopped using it when it stopped updating their Mac client, she told me they had started doing so again and the most recent update was just a few weeks ago. So I gave it a try, and it worked!

Well, not perfectly. Things still take a while to load. But it did put a stop the the occasional "invisible jacket" Cool VL sometimes game me. Then again, maybe the lag seeming so bad is just my imagination.

Bixyl Shuftan

Figuring Out Viewer 3

As demonstrated in the recent "Relay Rap" article, it seems my Cool VL Viewer is having a harder time in Second Life these days, objects and people taking longer to rezz. Firestorm won't work on my Mac, for whatever reason. So I'm taking a look at the official viewer from Linden Lab, Viewer 3 (or rather, Viewer 3.4.5 as the latest version is called).

So far, it does rezz objects and people faster, sometimes. Other times, it can lag almost as badly. Although items rezz eventually, it seems more likely to freeze up and crash. The interface is quite different from Viewer One and similar Third-Party viewers. I had to look around for the minimap and movement controls for a minute. Looking for the map took time. I still haven't figured out yet how to shout a text beyond 20 meters. And multiple IMs can be a problem.

And oh yeah, if you log off V3 in one avatar, use another in Cool VL (and presumably Phoenix, Singularity, and others) and log out without changing, logging back into Viewer 3, you'll be wearing both avatars. Quirks like these can result in a few surprises.

Hopefully I'll be figuring this out soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: November Update

A little over a week ago, Linden Lab released their November Update. While talking some about imbox messaging when off the Grid, the blog entry was mainly about the new viewer: Viewer 3.2. They described it as offering a “customizable user interface for a more flexible workspace.” In it, the “Basic” and “Advanced” modes are gone. Instead, you have what is a single modifiable viewer, at least that’s what’s advertised.

The new viewer was advertised as offering “drag and drop” buttons on the toolbar to change ordering, an option for one to three toolbars, and a choice of either icons or labels. “The new Viewer also makes it easy for new Residents to find the essential basic functions, as well as access more advanced functionality as they grow in Second Life.” The “new user functionality” included a “How to Window” for “step by step instructions for common tasks,” A Destinations button, An avatars button to chose from various appearances, an inventory button, and a shop button to take residents to Second Life Marketplace. “By merging the Basic and Advanced modes, users no longer need to switch between modes, which improves usability – and ultimately enhances the Second Life inworld experience.”

A number of people seem to be impressed with the changes. In the official forums, a number of people called it a real improvement, though not a perfect one. “I have to say that V3.2 finally fixed enough of the V2 problems to allow me to uninstall V 1.23.5. With the death of the mandatory sidebar and the reintroduction of a text entry field that moves with the nearby chat floater, I can manage to work around most of the other flaws in V3.2 ...” Not everyone was impressed though. One problem mentioned repeatedly, a slower frame rate than previous viewers.

Among those not satisfied were blogger Tateru Nino. Among the problems she cited were getting booted off Second Life “pretty much every single time a teleport fails,” having to shut off basic graphics settings, and when “Click-to-Move” was enabled, steering by mouse becomes reversed. She had forty people commenting on her posts. There were a few complements, but the majority had complaints. Among those, “Those are your only complaints ...? My God, (Viewer 2.3) is like built to hate users who do stuff other than walk around.”

Inara Pey also had a review of Viewer 3.2, as a developmental viewer release in late October. Her review was, “for all the positives around it in terms of customization and button placement and cleaner look, I have to say there is not enough here to entice me away from Firestorm. I’m happy to remain with that Viewer and see how the team adapt to, and adopt, this new interface.”

And yours truly can’t use it, as Viewer 2 and Viewer 3 won’t work on my computer.

Sources: Linden Blog, Linden forums, Dwell on It, Living in a Modem World

Pictures from Linden forums

Bixyl Shuftan