Tips and Tricks

Thanks for another great video!

Definately an improvement.. although after 4 years in SL it still boggles my mind why the advanced menu isn't always on. Hiding it doesn't give you any more room for viewing or placing anything. You could place menus all along that bar and it wouldn't make an ounce of viewing difference. It just seems like an annoyance having to turn on something that turning off carries no benefit (unless im missing something?)

Nice to see multiple viewers go from an operating system tweak to a viewer preference!

I should also mention that ANOTHER place to find the Advanced menu in Viewer 2.4 Beta is World menu > Show > Advanced Menu, where the shortcut is also shown.

@Adam You're most welcome!

Some Residents find the very sight of extra options scary, and are afraid they might activate something they shouldn't. Also, visual clutter is a concern for some. So there's that ongoing balance of "When you need it, you can find it easily."

It makes sense to "hide" the advanced menu for several reasons.  Most new residents have difficulty walking, talking (text chat), and turning off their voice meanwhile it is screeching up a storm from feedback.  Often they don't read any tutorials and rather just "experiment".  Since several settings in advanced are persistent, well it makes sense to keep the newer residents away from them until they can at least walk without running over everyone.

Personally I think some aspects like the viewer 2 "nearby" feature should have been put in the advanced menu.  New residents tend to spam everyone in range with teleports, friendship requests, IMs etc.  Which is causing some locations to ban all residents under the age of 30 days as a result.

-DB

Thanks Torley!  A menu item will be much easier to explain to a newbie who needs to Rebake Textures or Stop Animations, than a preference or a shortcut was.

Having tried this beta, I remain baffled as to the whole V2 project. From day one, it was a kludge. Now much effort is being expended to bring it up to the design standards of TPVs of two years ago.

Cut your losses. Begin work on V3.

"viewer 2" "much easier"

Hahaha. Making little things easier and ignoring the huge UI flaws (like the sidebar). Ah well. Maybe next year.

I want radar (with all its features) and doubleclick teleports as Phoenix have ... those are kinda absolutely vital for me atm.

 

Maybe old-school UI layout (per option) would be awesome ...

Torley, visual clutter is exactly what the sidebar is.  It is also damaging to the peripheral vision.  I sincerely hope someone at the Lab realizes this and at least gives users the option to hide it completely. It would also be nice to resize the clunky view window.

As your friendly-neighbourhood mark-up parser, may I point out that <BRIAN BLESSED Blessed>ETERNITY!!!!</BRIAN BLESSED> is a syntax error?

It should be <BRIAN BLESSED Blessed>ETERNITY!!!!</BRIAN BLESSED Blessed>.or maybe you meant <BRIAN BLESSED>Blessed ETERNITY!!!!</BRIAN BLESSED>

It's important to get these things right, Torley

I want radar (with all its features)

Maybe STORM-642 will bring that.

and doubleclick teleports

In 2.4 preferences, try tab Move & View, checkbox Double-Click to: (enable that), radio button Teleport

On Windows, double-click your existing Second Life Beta Viewer shortcut  (it's probably on your desktop). On Mac, right-click the app package and  select Duplicate, then double-click the copied app. (I don't know what the Linux process is, please deplete my ignorance.)

On linux, just do again whatever you did to start the first viewer instance: If you ran the ./secondlife wrapper-script from a terminal, get another terminal and run it there, too. If you double-clicked the script in your file manager, just double-click it once more. If you clicked a launcher on the GNOME panel, double-clicked one on your desktop or started SL from your Application- or K-menu ... just repeat that.

double click teleport exists in the the viewer.

after enabling the advanced menu, enable the develop menu, go to UI, then double click teleport.

It should also be noted that viewer 2.4 takes away the ability to utilize the "fast alpha" option in the develop menu, which easily corrected many of the problems that occur when viewing two objects with transparency over top of each other (like in windows, trees and chendeliers, etc). it was only by luck that i found the "fast alpha" option in the old viewers. This is a VERY significant problem that has been over looked by the developers for far too long and will aggravate current users and builders, as well as deter new ones.. My suggection would be to bring back fast alpha, and make it a default setting to have it ON.

Xavier, I never used the "fast alpha" option so I don't know how it worked, but try checking

Develop > Rendering > Automatic Alpha Masks (non-deferred)

This seems to fix the double transparency bug that *I've* noticed, anyway.  I'd be interested to know if it works for you too.

No I tried both....deferred and non deffered and i get no difference. I even tried checking them both.....no good. This could be due to the fact that the new viewer doeznt list my video card as being supported anymore. Dare I go and buy a new video card which will inhibit me from giving LL my money for rented land and uploaded textures?

Thanx for your reply samm!

Sorry; I know nothing about graphics cards.   I've got a MacBook Pro with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, whatever that means.

For posterity, maybe I should be specific about what it "fixed": if I'm in a building with semi-transparent walls, and create a semi-transparent cube inside, then that cube initially appeared invisible whenever the two textures overlap.  When I checked "non-deferred", the cube became visible again.

That bug was driving me a little nuts, and I never would have looked in the Develop menu if it hadn't been for your comment, so thank you very much!

You're very welcome! The problem with transparencies stem from two things. One being two objects with transparencies and either object (or both) having a texture on "FULL BRIGHT". The other problem is the way users are creating their transparencies. The best way to fix the issue when creting an  image using transparency is (in your preferred texture editor) to include  a layer under your image with the black covering the entire image canvas area, and then turning the black layer to 1% opaque (almost totally invisible). With every pixel in the image containing some opacity of color, fast alpha treats it almost as a solid texture, though its still transparent where its supposed to be.

If more people would've realized these tricks a long time ago, along with the use of fast alpha, it would very much cut down on the problems objects using images with transparency anywhere on SL.

I am glad to see that some others are having a lil bit of trouble with Viewer 2. I have tried it a few times, it just feels like I am using my left hand and feel like a noob as to where everything is...why make such drastic changes? It also seems more cluttered in viewing area.

The radar thing on other viewers is cool, but not real important to me, i prefer less lag and from what i understand radar is worst kind of lag. The Imprudence viewer gives you the option to reduce the range at least.

If you incorporate a radar into Viewer 2, maybe something that gives users the option to increase/decrease the range like Imprudence.

I havent used Imprudence lately, but the range adjustment was on bottom of mini map, just use the slider to change the range. I stopped using it when I figured out I was crashing when someone changed the music stream. ( And I dont crash alot with any other viewer )

Ohh, one last thing, I always have my Camera Control tucked in the corner, its small and I use it often, but Viewer 2 has this huge control box, wayyyyy too large to leave it on screen. I learned how to "dock" it... that helps...just hit it when you want it and click anywhere "in world" and it hides...but still...why so big???

The Viewer2 Camera Controls were a blessing for me, of sorts, as they encouraged me to learn how to control the camera via keyboard; using the control panel seemed like such a newbie thing to do.   The only time I use the Camera window now is to get a "Front View", and if I could only figure out how to get that functionality in a HUD, I could banish the menu from my bottom bar entirely.

Hi Samm, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed lol so I am a lil lost here. Are we talking same thing? You mention wishing to have a hud for it, I use the camera control box because I use the mouse alot in sl, except for walking and talking lol. I also use ALT + Mouse to zoom in on items. Having the small camera control on screen tucked in the corner is a hud. You simply click on the direction you want to scan or rotate, also zoom in and out.

I have done some hosting and I have ran a couple clubs so I got used to the camera controls in helping to scan around with just using the mouse.  When you are greeting, you can continue to type as you keep your mouse over the camera hud to keep aware of whats going on. Usually use Alt + Mouse mostly to get somewhere and camera hud to rotate in a certain area. The Viewer 2 camera hud control box is big, a lil too big to leave on the screen. There may be a better way, its how I got used to doing it.

Thanks for your reply

Yeah, I should have been more specific: since there's only two buttons I ever use in the Camera Window, I'd rather boil them down to a tiny little toggle button somewhere in an attached HUD, rather than keep the whole camera window open (because it is big).  (And if the Camera window is closed, it takes two clicks to switch to Front View or Rear View.)  But I haven't figured out how to script the camera so that it always stays in front of me and facing back at me, even when I move.   (Oh, I could do it with a timer and a series of adjustments, I suppose.)

Hmm, I wonder if the Camera window can be skinned?

it just feels like I am using my left hand and feel like a noob as to where everything is

Don't worry, that mainly because you're not used to it, yet. That feeling will go away after longer usage. Well, mostly.

...why make such drastic changes?

Drastic changes aren't necessarily bad. It's not like the 1.x series of viewer didn't have any flaws. The question should be: Why make all this drastic changes at once and behind closed doors without continuous user feedback? While the reasons for that decision are still a mystery, the Lab seems to have learned its lesson and changed to a more open development process.

It also seems more cluttered in viewing area.

It is.

The radar thing on other viewers is cool, but not real important to me, i prefer less lag and from what i understand radar is worst kind of lag.

Other than (LSL-)scripted radars which put load on the simulator by constant polling, a client side radar shouldn't cause much lag, as it merely displays data the Viewer already has: The region sends it anyway, for the minimap etc.

If you incorporate a radar into Viewer 2, maybe something that gives users the option to increase/decrease the range like Imprudence.

The Imprudence viewer gives you the option to reduce the range at least.

For the reason above, I don't think the purpose of the range limit is to reduce lag, but rather to let you control what you want to see on the radar, just so the list doesn't get unnecessarily cluttered.

Other than (LSL-)scripted radars which put load on the simulator by constant polling, a client side radar shouldn't cause much lag, as it merely displays data the Viewer already has: The region sends it anyway, for the minimap etc.

Indeed. What many don't notice is that Viewer 2 has a good inbuild radar. The sidebar displays who is near, and you can zoom in towards the individual resident. The minimap that also gives the resident name when you hover the mouse over it.

@Torley. Is the above an idea for a vidtut?

Samm.Florian said
The  Viewer2 Camera Controls   encouraged me to learn how to control the camera via keyboard; 

Jackal Marksman said
Are we  talking same thing? You mention wishing to have a hud for it, I use the  camera control box because I use the mouse alot in sl, except for  walking and talking lol. I also use ALT + Mouse to zoom in on items.

There's also + ArrowKeys and + PageUp/PageDown which allow similar camera movements as some of the controls on the panel.

The only  time I use the Camera window now is to get a "Front View", and if I  could only figure out how to get that functionality in a HUD, I could  banish the menu from my bottom bar entirely.

since there's only two buttons I ever use in the Camera Window, I'd rather boil them down to a tiny little toggle button somewhere in an attached HUD, .  But I haven't figured out how to script the camera so that it always stays in front of me and facing back at me, even when I move.

This should be possible. Try Torley's FollowCam HUD. It should be modifiable, so you can see how it works and adapt it (or copy parts) for your own needs. In case it isn't, an earlier version by Dan Linden can be found on the wiki. There you'll also find links to the documentation of the used script functions, so you can read what exactly they'll do.

Hmm, I wonder if the Camera window can be skinned?

I wouldn't know why not, but I haven't tried. To make it smaller, you'd probably have to provide your own image files for the two round control-thingies (except you want to remove them completely).