Imprudence Viewer 1.4.0 Beta Part 3 "Unexpected Problem's Arise"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Well I certainly can understand problems popping up with Beta software, here's what happened. The first setback, at least as far a using Imp1.4 with SL. Is one that has been plauging most V1.x and V2.x viewers since the introduction of Display Name's on V2. And that is the inability to read your old Log and chat files. I have documented it several times here on this blog.

    I never use the default installation location for my Log file's, they are placed on a separate Hard Drive for safe keeping. The problem stems from the way LL chose to use a slightly different format : Example JayR_Cela was the old legacy format, JayR.Cela is the new V2 format. That should not be a problem if they had added a backward compatibility function in the Client's code base. The only TPV I know of so far to have addressed this Issue is the Phoenix Team. Take a look at these snap shot's.

Phoenix 1.x and or 2.x

Log File Location                                     ( /media/5058D37758D359F4/SLLOGG )

Imp1.4 Beta

 

 Both point to the same location              ( /media/5058D37758D359F4/SLLOGG )

     As I said Phoenix & FireStorm are both capable of reading the legacy format, and so far they are the only 2 viewers able to do this so far.

    Ok as far as Open Sim is concerned this is not even an issue.

    The second Issue I discovered today however is. Severe sporadic, intermittent massive slow down's ( Extreme Lag ) seem to come an go at will. Along with sudden screen lock up, again this issues seem to be random. Making the viewer completely unreliable for any purpose.

    I suppose I did first notice it yesterday, but I was not really spending any prolonged period's of time in-world while writing the previous Post's. Today however during the under water Mermaid build project, it kept popping up so many times, I could no longer continue my work.

    This is a minor setback, I fully intend to continue exploration of various Open Sim Hyper Grid worlds, I just need to reconsider my strategy, unfortunately it will not be including Imp1.4.0 Beta.

    Stay tuned, I'll come up with something soon.

JayR

Imprudence Viewer 1.4.0-Beta Part 2 "Getting to Know You"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     For this Post "Getting to Know You" ( Imp1.4 actually ) I'm going to take a close look at some options,  settings, and a few of it's extra features. First off you can see I have switched skins from Gemini to the Dark selection.

Much easier on my eye's
And my personal favorite
for all 1.x series viewers.












    Next I will activate the Advanced Menu ( CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+D ) ~ or ~ Drop down the View Menu and select Advanced in order to access the Debug settings. I want to get rid of that pesky search bar at the upper right hand corner of the screen in order to reveal my network statistics display.

Easy enough to accomplish, once Debug is available simply scroll down to "Show Search Bar" and change the value from True to False.

Good now that that piece of worthless garbage is gone, I can easily keep an eye on my network connection's general performance status. Lets start by exploring the UI's general layout. Very clean, well organized, easy to comprehend and use.

Any 1.x veteran should feel right at home and comfortable in this environment.

And yes, your Draw distance slider, preset WinLight, and custom sky editor are pretty much right where you would expect them to be.








Here's a cool feature, a highly advanced advanced Radar System, not to mention some other very sophisticated area Item search tools as well.


Advanced percision build setting's.

 Teleport history

An Enhanced Mini Map

     Ok I think we have established that Imp1.4 is a very well designed 1.x series viewer with some nice added features along with the package. Nothing overly fancy so far.
 
    Criticism's, I would really like to see the Full Radar and Area Object Search features be available via a button rather than  Advanced Menu selected items. Also I don't seem to recall finding a Re-bake Texture's item in any of the menu's. 


     For Part 3 of this series, we'll test out some building and editing capabilities.

JayR :_)

Open Sim "And this Blog" Why The Shift of Focus ?"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    So why the sudden shift of focus for this Blog, from SecondLife to Open Sim ? Actually it is, and will be a gradual progression. July 31st will mark my 1 year anniversary developing and writing this Blog, mostly dealing with the various viewers available for SL, and this September will be my 6th year as a SecondLife customer. But it's time to start preparing for the inevitable future.

    Several month's ago I changed the name from "The SecondLife Technologist" to "The Virtual World Technologist" Let's just say "I have seen the Writing, and it's on the Wall"

    LL and SL may be riding high on the hog right now, and Open Sim is defiantly still considered to be in it's Alpha stage's. But I recall the day's of yore when most people thought the Internet consisted of, figuring out what  a TCP/IP stack was, opening "Archie" from the command line to do their internet exploring, and later "Gopher", a semi CLI based Internet client. The list goes on and on during the early days of adaption.

   Later there was CompuServe and AOL, both with their own proprietary User Interface's. Then one day  the first truly easy to use UI for the Internet, Mosaic, which eventually morphed into NetScape Navigator came to be, and the World Wide Web was officially born. The world has not been the same since.

     I believe we are witnessing the same sort of parallel's now. And I want to be there when it happen's.

                                           Nothing more, nothing less.

JayR Cela :_)

The Imprudence Viewer 1.4.0 Beta and Open Sim ~ Interconnected and How Much So ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok any one that follow's this blog know's I love SL, and my feeling's towards LL are a bit jaded at times. But hey, someone has to do it, no butt kissing here.

     A couple of month's ago I swore off from reporting on LL's Version of Viewer2 until 2.8 is officially released. And I intend to do just that, wait until the Lab, hopefully get's it's act together.

    So let's get down to the focus of today's post, and the next few week's series. Imprudence 1.4.0 Beta, and Open Sim. Just how important and interconnected are the two of them ? And what and where is the future of Virtual World Technologies leading us too.

     Back around the first of the year, the Imprudence team made a bold announcement, they were not abandoning SL. The development team however  had made the decision to turn their focus towards Open Sim. An excellent choice in my opinion. The emerging Hyper Grid business, eventually will one day eclipse the walled garden of SecondLife. And leave the Lab smoldering in the ashes of the fire. That ironically they themselves started 3 years ago in a partnership with IBM and the now abandoned Inter-Op Project.( The ability to inter connect diverse Virtual World Grids seamlessly. Just like The World Wide Web is today ) Inter-Grid connectivity is not going to go away folk's, it's just getting started !

    So this bring's us to Imprudence, which it seems has become the  Virtual World ( VW ) Viewer of choice,  and  DeFacto Standard of the expanding Open Sim Meta-Verse. I intend to spend the next several week's using Imprudence 1.4.x ( Imp1.4 ) for the  purpose of  learning everything I can about it, Open Sim, and Hyper Grid. ( and to do some Grid Hopping )

    This is not going to be a totally new learning experience for me, as I have already dipped my toe's into the OS water's. The InWorldz, SpotOn3D and 3rdRock grids are all Open Sim based Virtual Worlds. However none of them are Hyper Grid connected. My intention's are to first, familiarize myself  with Imp1.4  And then see what the heck all this Hyper Grid business is about.

    I have recently started a new project for my SL partner Cathy. She has been having a good time as a Mermaid lately, so I decided to do something special for her. We have some spare space  beneath  the pier at our riverfront home, on the Mallard River in SecondLife. This seems like as good place as any to get to know Imp1.4 before I venture out into the wild, wild ( Open Sim ) West. ( so to speak )

    As you can see, Imprudence 1.4.0 come's right out of the box ready to explore Virtual Worlds, other than SecondLife.

 


     The initial preference's setup menu is very straight forward and generic, which is a good thing considering the circumstances involved with crossing from one Virtual World to another.

 

     Ok now that I have taken care of the initial setup, we come to the log-in screen.

 

 
     And now arrive at my River Front Project in SecondLife, where I will take a day or so getting comfortable with Imp1.4 These four white homes you see were all designed and built by myself over the course of the past 7 month's, using the Phoenix Viewer. ( my personal favorite for building purpose's ) So considering that, Imprudence will have to meet some pretty high standard's in order to make a good impression.

 

     One of the first thing's that I truly fall in love with right off the bat, is the ease of which group chats I can readily choose to mute. If you happen to belong to an overly chatty group, no problem, just un-check the appropriate box.

 

     I'm using the Gemini Skin right now, and the color scheme seems a bit difficult on my eye's, so next time around I will try one of the other 3 supplied.

   


     Well time to descend into the river, and give this project some thought.

    As you can see, I have already started working down here using the Phoenix Viewer, and Cathy has begun setting out some Mermaid furniture. My intention's are to use Imp1.4 to finish it.

 
 
     I am very excited about writing this forthcoming series of post's. It is something I have been wanting to do for quite some time now.

     My recent renewed interest in Open Sim was first sparked by Hypergrid Business, http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/  a wonderful Blog written by journalist Maria Korolov, her coverage of the emerging Open Sim phenomena is unsurpassed and quite extensive.

    The tipping point came this morning upon my reading of the Imprudence Blog. They announced the new 1.4.0 Beta Viewer, ( look for the June 22 post here )  http://blog.kokuaviewer.org/  And the extensive Release Notes on version 1.4.0 can be found at. http://wiki.kokuaviewer.org/wiki/Imprudence:Release_Notes/1.4.0
Needless to say, these folks are seriously devoted.

     If the thought of an inter connected Virtual World intrigue's you, may I suggest downloading the Imprudence Viewer 1.4.0 Beta, and follow along with me for the next several weeks. It should prove to be interesting.

JayR Cela :_)

P.S. I am hoping readers so inclined, will please consider making your idea's, advice, suggestion's  and questions heard, via our comment's section.  Thanks :_)


xxxx

SecondLife "Rod Linden" "Audio Interview SL Celebrates 8 Years" & "The Future Looks Bright" You can get the Link Here

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Rod Humble a.k.a Rod Linden CEO of Linden Lab, recently granted a live audio interview to the well know MMO On Line Blog MASSIVELY, discussing SecondLife's first 8 years and possibly the next 8.

    Pretty much he goes onto say what any old time Second Lifer has know all along. SL as a platform is unique, it is definitely not a game, rather it is an immerse'ive  creative environment.

    It's about a 30 minute discussion with Bill Hindman of Massively.com and definitively worth the listen. Here's the link.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06/23/second-lifes-ceo-rod-humble-talks-anniversaries/

JayR :_)

Phoenix FireStorm Beta "Day 4" "My Over All Impression's" " Very Positive"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Personally I think this is an excellent viewer for every day use. When you consider the fact that it is based on V2.5 code ( currently LL is at 2.7.x and it is still a piece of crap ) this is a truly an amazing feat. Aside from some quirk's, and lack of a few building feature's. The Phoenix team actually listen's to their user base, and implement's the suggestion's and idea's people express.

   Customers have been complaining to the Lab about the piss poor User Interface of V2 since day One !!!

    The Phoenix team has corrected 90% of the original design flaws of Viewer2 in a few short months. While  LL muddles along a year and 1/2 later with the same piss ass design. Go figure that one out.

    There are a ton of hidden gems ( feature's ) in the various Preference's Menu's, but hey finding them is half the fun. Some ruff edge's here and there need to be ironed out, ( it is after all still a Beta )  but at least they ask for your opinion's and implement them when possible. A perfect example is the user opinion survey, currently available on the Phoenix home page.

http://www.phoenixviewer.com/  


     Now when was the last time you can ever remember the Lab actually listening to their customer's ?

JayR Cela :_)

The Phoenix FireStorm Viewer Beta "Day 3" "Building~How Does it Stack Up" "To The Standard Phoenix"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Sad to say this, but FireStorm Beta is not ready for prime time quite yet when it comes to building in SL. It is missing a few key features found in Phoenix. Such as the custom setup option's in preferences.

                                                                                                       

     Also while editing object's,  Taper 2 X ~ Y, Radius & Revolutions, and Edit Access at Root. I'm sure these Item's will eventually find their way into the FireStorm Viewer. And for the average person, these features are inconsequential.

 
    One thing that I discovered while building a new home, the texture picker is really odd, and behaves erratically. This particular feature is of extreme importance to builders. That fact that it's operation is so seriously flawed, makes FireStorm, virtually impossible to work with as a building tool.

    Give it time, this Viewer is still a Beta.

         So how does FireStorm stack up against Phoenix as a building tool ?
    Not Even A Close Race, Phoenix Smoke's It, and is still the reigning Champion of all SL Viewers.


JayR

The Phoenix FireStorm Beta Viewer "Day 2" "Second Impressions" "Kick Ass !"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok I'm still exploring all the feature's of this wonderful new Viewer for SL, it's gonna take at least several more day's to do a full review.

    I'm using the Windows version, mainly because, I am experiencing a problem with Linux and playing Audio Streams. I'll get around to figuring that out at a later time, it's not important to me right now.

    But I got to tell ya, this is one killer product. I can finally Mute Group Chat's. I can also read all my old 1.x Viewers saved SL Log File's. And as far as speed goes, even on my ageing computer, it's pretty darn quick. As an example I took a pop back on over to SL8Birthday event today. Everything rezzed quickly, the amount of lag, was minimal to say the least. Even in a relatively busy sim.

 

 I was still getting a very acceptable a 10 to 13 FPS

 
     I could instantly open and work with 2 separate inventory windows, and the camera controls are absolutely a dream to use. No longer will you have to put up with the over sized way to large and pretty much worthless version the standard LL V2 offers.

    I have not tried building anything with FireStorm Beta yet. But my general impression is that this version of the V2 based code will go a long way towards getting people to finally accept it as the standard and abandon the older 1.x based viewers all together.

JayR Cela :_)

SL8B "Several Nice Pre-Opening General Screen Shots"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    I received a Press Release Invitation, ( For early  Pre-Open to the Public ) to the SL8Birthday party currently going on this week. So I figured I had better take the opportunity to get in a few snap shots, before the place got to crowded.

    It look's pretty cool, lot's of nice interesting builds, a number of merchant and SL Group exhibits, along with some unique stuff by individual content creators.

    Just thought you might like to have a look.

JayR Cela :_)

P.S. If you've never attended one of these thing's before ( I've been to 5 so far ) be patient, They are usually quite crowded, and can tend to be very laggy.

How Many People Want to Piss Me Off ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

     I have said this several time's. I'm not playing with a full deck.

     I will continue to publish, until I'm shut down.

     My sanity is judge'd by you, the reader's.

Quite Frankly I Believe I Went Off The Deep End Long Ago.

JayR Cela :_)

P.S.
    Keep chuckling, there is more insane madness and humor to come *Bigg Huggs*