Black Dragon Viewer Questions

[Nikita Neuman]

So finaly i used the Black  Dragon Viewer and as many told me, No you can´t use, it´s only for High End Computers, what is a total Nonsense and wrong.

My Machine is now four Years old and i got a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, but the Black Dragon Viewer worked perfect, no Problems, so idk why some say its only for High End Pc´s, maybe its cause the Black Dragon Viewer does High Quality Pixel Cam Photos and they don´t want to spoil Photographer Secrets.

Now normaly i use the newest Firestorm Viewer and he got the Setting "Video/Avatar Detail"  , what i can set to 10, my Question now, why Black Dragon Viewer seems not to have that Feature, why?

Also why in Black Dragon Viewer is California Windlight not Available?

And how can i turn off, when i use the Arrow Keys, that WALK TO RIGHT and LEFT? Cause this is a bit confusing, feels like i´m in some Full 3D Game

The last i need to know, is thereany Chance, when i turn around with my Cam, so my Avatar dont turns with, so i can see me from Front like in Firestorm?

Tysm all

[Charalyne Blackwood]

I'm running the RX 580, which is allegedly a better graphics card. AMD Ryzen 7 2700 CPU,16gb ram. Black Dragon crashes when i take a photo in any graphics quality setting. Perhaps it's finicky and tends to run better in higher end machines? One person's experience doesn't set the overall standard.

[Nikita Neuman]

Hmmm, weird, my Graphic Card is older than yours, but for me Black Dragon runs like a Torpedo. Weird.

[Aiyumei]

Few things you should know about black dragon. It's not all about what graphics card you use but over all system specs. There are settings in the viewer that greatly affect the performance, even if you are with high end configuration, the viewer can still make drop to 2fps.

There are plenty of video tutorials how to work with the viewer and there's dedicated menu in the Settings for keybidings and control, look it up 

Windlights: , Black Dragon does not contain the same windlights as Firestorm because it's completely different viewer. Just as the regular SL viewer contains different windlights

Camera control: Just like in FS you have different camera controls(Camera controls button literally, check your menus first ). It's true that your avi will rotate with the camera but you can easily change that as you stand still, all you need to do is press Alt+Left mouse click over yourself or anyone for that matter and you get free camera rotation over the selected area.

Photo Quality: Taking quality photos is not again about graphics card but how you are able to position your frame. The settings toolkit you have is incredible and you can do wonders if set correctly. I use a nVidia 1060 GTX and I can easily capture very high quality images without cranking up the graphics to max, in fact I use my daily settings for my photos which are somewhere between medium and high quality. Once again, it's all about positioning of your frame with post shoot editing to enhance it even further. Plenty of tutorials about that as well 

You can also check NiranV's blog https://niranv-sl.blogspot.com/ for useful info or join the Discord channel.

[Nikita Neuman]

Yea i played with the included POSER and i was able to create a very amazing Pose, but, how can i save such a POSE on my Harddisk?

There must be some Way, i mean, it would be a little bit unfair if thatis not possible.

Tysm

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Nikita Neuman said:

Yea i played with the included POSER and i was able to create a very amazing Pose, but, how can i save such a POSE on my Harddisk?

There must be some Way, i mean, it would be a little bit unfair if thatis not possible.

Tysm

https://niranv-sl.blogspot.com/search?q=Poser

[Zeta Vandyke]

16 hours ago, Nikita Neuman said:

Yea i played with the included POSER and i was able to create a very amazing Pose, but, how can i save such a POSE on my Harddisk?

There must be some Way, i mean, it would be a little bit unfair if thatis not possible.

Tysm

You can save them in your viewer though, to use again on a later time. There's a save and a list button in the poser next to where you can type a name for the pose. Fact that you can not pose in world or export them is a LL limitation.

[Nikita Neuman]

Whaaaaat? LL PROHIBITS THAT. Sorry, hahahaha, this is Ridicolous, this can only be a Joke, for what Reason Pleaaase? With which Purpose they dissalow that?

Dont tell me the included Poser belongs to the Famous POSER Program Company with the High Poly Mesh Models, they are buyable? 🤨

Normaly i only would need to write out all Values i am in Pose and Paste them into a bvh Script i got and that would work immediately.

Thx

[NiranV Dean]

On 2/20/2022 at 3:53 PM, Nikita Neuman said:

So finaly i used the Black  Dragon Viewer and as many told me, No you can´t use, it´s only for High End Computers, what is a total Nonsense and wrong.

My Machine is now four Years old and i got a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, but the Black Dragon Viewer worked perfect, no Problems, so idk why some say its only for High End Pc´s, maybe its cause the Black Dragon Viewer does High Quality Pixel Cam Photos and they don´t want to spoil Photographer Secrets.

Now normaly i use the newest Firestorm Viewer and he got the Setting "Video/Avatar Detail"  , what i can set to 10, my Question now, why Black Dragon Viewer seems not to have that Feature, why?

Also why in Black Dragon Viewer is California Windlight not Available?

And how can i turn off, when i use the Arrow Keys, that WALK TO RIGHT and LEFT? Cause this is a bit confusing, feels like i´m in some Full 3D Game

The last i need to know, is thereany Chance, when i turn around with my Cam, so my Avatar dont turns with, so i can see me from Front like in Firestorm?

Tysm all

Since your questions have been generally answered already i'll be going into detail.

Video/Avatar detail

I assume you mean the object and avatar quality settings which can be found in Preferences - Display, pretty much right at the top you'll find the Quality options section. You can find Avatar and Object quality there, note that Object quality cannot be set higher than 4 (the widely accepted new maximum). Setting this higher via debug does not work and will be ignored, the Viewer hard caps you at 4. This was a design choice.

Windlights

Since EEP Viewers do not come with windlights anymore (exception being Black Dragon) any and all windlights can be found (or imported) via the inventory library where most common ones have been exported to. Black Dragon specific however you can still load and save old windlights directly just like you used to, they still go in the same windlight folders in the user_settings or app_settings folder. This is in addition to EEP settings being supported from inventory. Note that old windlights will look different than they did before or might straight up break due to the differences.

Controls

Go into Preferences - Keybindings, make sure you are in Third Person mode (at the bottom dropdown menu), find the entry that says Move Left - slide_left - Left, remove it. Find the one for right and remove it as well. Now find the Turn Left - turn_left - Q and double click it, hit Arrow Left and confirm with "Bind", repeat the same with Turn Right and Arrow Right.

Camera

I assume you are looking for an option to turn off the left-click on your avatar putting you into steering mode. There is no such option but as others suggested, turning said option off does the same as Alt-Camming on yourself instead. You can resume orbiting your camera around at any time by holding and dragging right-click, you don't need to Alt-Zoom again on something.

20 minutes ago, Nikita Neuman said:

Whaaaaat? LL PROHIBITS THAT. Sorry, hahahaha, this is Ridicolous, this can only be a Joke, for what Reason Pleaaase? With which Purpose they dissalow that?

Dont tell me the included Poser belongs to the Famous POSER Program Company with the High Poly Mesh Models, they are buyable? 🤨

Normaly i only would need to write out all Values i am in Pose and Paste them into a bvh Script i got and that would work immediately.

Thx

More specifically LL prohibits posing others. I have made them several offers that i want some sort of synchronization through the server so everyone can see you pose, one that isn't an animation export. I am very adamantly against implementing an exporter as it means not only increasing the complexity of the Poser's surface functionality, it will undoubtedly also cause a lot of trouble and a lot of headaches, specifically an exporter would mean i can no longer offer the Poser to put you into a snapshot of whatever pose you currently were at the time of hitting the Start Pose button as LL sees this as possible copybot/abuse tool for what would essentially become worthless assets at that point (single frame poses). I'd have to force the poser to put you into T pose every time you start posing, which eliminates one of the key features the Poser was meant to be used for, fixing poses. Being able to make new poses from scratch was merely a side-effect of being able to fully edit your pose. See the whole conundrum about EEP and its settings being pointless intellectual property and being protected by a broken permission system and how much trouble it has caused us, the same would happen for poses.

There is no reasoning with LL and there is no common sense with this kind of thing. LL wholeheartedly believes any and all assets must be protected, no matter how pointless, stupid or useless it is. The moment i'd add an exporter, single frame poses would become essentially worthless asset, anyone can create them at any given time directly inworld, perfectly fit for their avatar and any and all situations. Selling them or even considering them sellable items would become pointless. But look at windlights...  they are graphics settings for the lighting system... look at shapes... they are "graphic presets" for your avatar shape... and they are both still being sold... sometimes for up to 1000L$ and no mod. LL is lucky i'm not in control, i'd stopped this nonsense over a decade ago, don't care about lil whiney people "but muh IP" -> "Dude any and all content uploaded to SL belongs to LL and we just decided that you need to stop selling 2 minute no-mod DIY shape presets for 1000L$"

[Nikita Neuman]

Ok thanks, na i asked, cause i wanted to create my own Poses for myself too.

So means i must find another Solution, Program for make extern Poses, like WIngs 3D i heard of.

Tysm

[Charalyne Blackwood]

7 hours ago, Nikita Neuman said:

Ok thanks, na i asked, cause i wanted to create my own Poses for myself too.

So means i must find another Solution, Program for make extern Poses, like WIngs 3D i heard of.

Tysm

I've been using Qavimator. Everything but Bento

[Nathalie Evergarden]

Hi,

My Lumipro has ceased working in Black Dragon, both the projector and the wearable lights.  When I click on them nothing happens.  There is no additional light source anymore.  So I must have accidentally changed some setting.  I have been looking and looking and I can't find it.  Can anyone help me with this? 

 

[Aiyumei]

7 hours ago, Nathalie Evergarden said:

Hi,

My Lumipro has ceased working in Black Dragon, both the projector and the wearable lights.  When I click on them nothing happens.  There is no additional light source anymore.  So I must have accidentally changed some setting.  I have been looking and looking and I can't find it.  Can anyone help me with this? 

 

Make sure these are turned on. You can find them under Display > Advanced Settings or in the Machinima bar under Misc Options - you access it by pressing F1 key.

 

[NiranV Dean]

In addition to the above, make sure Render Projector Image Reflections and Spotlight Light Refractions are on too, they are for the receiving end of projector lights (e.g the actual light and texture being projected ontop of something as well as the light reflection it creates on light reflecting surfaces). Also make sure Global Light Strength is NOT set to 0.0 is affects ALL lights.

[Echelon Alcott]

After hearing so many good things about Black Dragon, I finally installed it. I'm impressed with Poser and Machinima Sidebar. Great job, @NiranV Dean!

A few minor things do not seem to work as expected  (e.g., unable to remember user on login screen, unable to remember flying state at logout under Login Options), but the one that is troubling me the most is how in a particular case EEP behaves differently between Black Dragon and Firestorm/SL Viewer, and I'm wondering if anyone would be able to shed a light, and maybe share EEP best practices to ensure that builds will look consistently across different viewers.

This is how I created and tested EPP for one build in Firestorm and standard SL viewer:

Here is what it looks like in Black Dragon:

After investigating this, tinkering around the EEP settings, I found out that if I drop Moisture Level down to 0, the sky in Black Dragon looks blue like in Firestorm. Any ideas why Moisture Level has such impact? Any other things that we should know when using EEP? Or do I have an incorrect expectation for same results for an EEP setting across different viewers?

[NiranV Dean]

On 2/25/2022 at 4:44 AM, Echelon Alcott said:

After hearing so many good things about Black Dragon, I finally installed it. I'm impressed with Poser and Machinima Sidebar. Great job, @NiranV Dean!

A few minor things do not seem to work as expected  (e.g., unable to remember user on login screen, unable to remember flying state at logout under Login Options), but the one that is troubling me the most is how in a particular case EEP behaves differently between Black Dragon and Firestorm/SL Viewer, and I'm wondering if anyone would be able to shed a light, and maybe share EEP best practices to ensure that builds will look consistently across different viewers.

This is how I created and tested EPP for one build in Firestorm and standard SL viewer:

Here is what it looks like in Black Dragon:

After investigating this, tinkering around the EEP settings, I found out that if I drop Moisture Level down to 0, the sky in Black Dragon looks blue like in Firestorm. Any ideas why Moisture Level has such impact? Any other things that we should know when using EEP? Or do I have an incorrect expectation for same results for an EEP setting across different viewers?

I didn't even know Moisture level has any impact whatsoever but i'd assume it's probably because the Viewer is currently not up-to-date with the latest changes. It has been lacking behind several many versions, several of which are most likely EEP fixes and improvements.

About the remember login and fly state I'll have to take a look into. As far as I can tell it remembers me just fine i can just hit login whenever the login screen comes up but that might be because my details are already saved and there is no issue reading them, just saving them might be broken.

EDIT: Both remember login (and remember password) as well as remember fly state on login work fine. Are you using the latest version?

Black Dragon 6.4.18.48191 (64bit)
4.0.5 - Refreshing Dragon

Edited February 28, 2022 by NiranV Dean

[Echelon Alcott]

10 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:

I didn't even know Moisture level has any impact whatsoever but i'd assume it's probably because the Viewer is currently not up-to-date with the latest changes. It has been lacking behind several many versions, several of which are most likely EEP fixes and improvements.

About the remember login and fly state I'll have to take a look into. As far as I can tell it remembers me just fine i can just hit login whenever the login screen comes up but that might be because my details are already saved and there is no issue reading them, just saving them might be broken.

EDIT: Both remember login (and remember password) as well as remember fly state on login work fine. Are you using the latest version?

Black Dragon 6.4.18.48191 (64bit)
4.0.5 - Refreshing Dragon

Hello Niran! Hope all is well. Yes, I'm using the latest version. I just installed Black Dragon on my computer.

Here is what I see when I change moisture setting in Black Dragon, and how it impacts the atmosphere. Moisture set at 0.600 shows blue in Firestorm and standard viewer, but red in Black Dragon. However, if I change moisture to 0.000 in Black Dragon, it looks more like what I see in the other viewers.

[NiranV Dean]

10 hours ago, Echelon Alcott said:

Hello Niran! Hope all is well. Yes, I'm using the latest version. I just installed Black Dragon on my computer.

Here is what I see when I change moisture setting in Black Dragon, and how it impacts the atmosphere. Moisture set at 0.600 shows blue in Firestorm and standard viewer, but red in Black Dragon. However, if I change moisture to 0.000 in Black Dragon, it looks more like what I see in the other viewers.

I don't seem to be able to reproduce this:

I expect it to be fixed with an upstream code merge but for now i can't reproduce it, i'd need that windlight preset you are having this issue with to test

[Echelon Alcott]

14 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:

I don't seem to be able to reproduce this:

I expect it to be fixed with an upstream code merge but for now i can't reproduce it, i'd need that windlight preset you are having this issue with to test

I used "Overcast (night)" sky setting from ColeMarie's Windlight Set [Marketplace]. Hope this helps. Thanks!

[Nikita Neuman]

What i must say, when i take my Photos, the Weather, so Sky Settings are a bit nasty, cause i find only Dark ones, nothing for a Beach Day where only a few Clouds appear and the Sun shines full and when i have to use 12pm.

Also turning the Sun like in Firestorm so, that she shines on my Body/Face is very difficult for me, cause i always have to look which Bar it is i need to move, so the Sun rotates to the other Side.

Btw, one Question, i got Nodd Hand Hud for give my Fingers a special Pose, why when i am Posing with POSER, the Hud get ignored, i can click at the Hud as much as i want, my Hands dont react to the Hud?

Tysm

[Aiyumei]

21 hours ago, Nikita Neuman said:

Btw, one Question, i got Nodd Hand Hud for give my Fingers a special Pose, why when i am Posing with POSER, the Hud get ignored, i can click at the Hud as much as i want, my Hands dont react to the Hud?

That's because the built in Poser overrides every other animation HUD you have. My advice is adjust your pose as much as you can via the HUDs you use and then turn on the Poser for even finger tuning and finishing touches. 

For achieving good beach day photos, you honestly don't need any specific windlight, I use the 12pm or 3pm ones for all my day time photos. All you need is to play around with the sun angle to get the desired shading and adjust Haze Horizon, Blue Density, Ambient, Sun Color, Density Multiplier. It takes some time until you get used to work with them but once you get the hang of it, you will do wonders.

[NiranV Dean]

On 3/6/2022 at 10:03 PM, Nikita Neuman said:

Btw, one Question, i got Nodd Hand Hud for give my Fingers a special Pose, why when i am Posing with POSER, the Hud get ignored, i can click at the Hud as much as i want, my Hands dont react to the Hud?

Tysm

16 hours ago, Aiyumei said:

That's because the built in Poser overrides every other animation HUD you have. My advice is adjust your pose as much as you can via the HUDs you use and then turn on the Poser for even finger tuning and finishing touches. 

If the poser wasn't overriding all your animations it wouldn't be working at all, which can sadly sometimes happen with some very very specific unknown animations on pose stands that i can only explain as being super hacked priority somehow. The poser uses an internal priority higher than any animation can ever have and it is still sometimes overwritten by some random pose-stand animation.

This however gives me a new idea of a "recapture" function. Since you can disable individual bones to allow them to be animated, i could use that to have a function that allows you to take another snapshot of the current pose of all currently deactivated bones.

[Aiyumei]

2 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:

If the poser wasn't overriding all your animations it wouldn't be working at all, which can sadly sometimes happen with some very very specific unknown animations on pose stands that i can only explain as being super hacked priority somehow. The poser uses an internal priority higher than any animation can ever have and it is still sometimes overwritten by some random pose-stand animation.

This however gives me a new idea of a "recapture" function. Since you can disable individual bones to allow them to be animated, i could use that to have a function that allows you to take another snapshot of the current pose of all currently deactivated bones.

What I meant to say here is that sometimes certain body attachments that are controlled via HUD are either partially affected or not affected at all by the poser. In some cases although you captured the current state of the pose in the Poser, you can still adjust parts using their HUDs. 

I personally have had cases when my eyes animation or tongue(when I use facial expression AO) remain animated after using the Poser even thou you can still manipulate them through the sliders. In those cases I usually resort to the Animation Control option in the Machinima bar to freeze myself.

As for my previous comment, I meant it as means of good practice to follow when setting up a pose and then fine tuning it.

[NiranV Dean]

8 hours ago, Aiyumei said:

What I meant to say here is that sometimes certain body attachments that are controlled via HUD are either partially affected or not affected at all by the poser. In some cases although you captured the current state of the pose in the Poser, you can still adjust parts using their HUDs. 

I personally have had cases when my eyes animation or tongue(when I use facial expression AO) remain animated after using the Poser even thou you can still manipulate them through the sliders. In those cases I usually resort to the Animation Control option in the Machinima bar to freeze myself.

As for my previous comment, I meant it as means of good practice to follow when setting up a pose and then fine tuning it.

Certain animations will not be blocked by the Poser due to how it works, the Poser only effectively blocks movement and rotation on all main bones, if your animations do special things (such as deforms) to animate it won't be blocked by the poser. SL is a really hacky place and so are animations.

[Nikita Neuman]

SO i got the Lelutka Evo X Avalon Mesh Head, that Head like all others have some Animation Hud for open Mouth a bit or move Eyes, but POSER blocks that Hud and with Animare, i did Poses before i cant set Eyes, cause its only for Body!

Meanwhile if some interested in, i found out you can turn off all Group Conferences by click Status Do not Disturb! Than you got your Peace from all IM and Group Nitifications!

One Thing in the POSER, sorry, but what the Hell is WINGS good for? Is this when someone plays a Demon and has Wings on the Back?

Thx

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Nikita Neuman