Nalates Urriah

The current SLViewer is 2.7.4. If you really mean your having a problem with SLV 2.0, you need to upgrade. I belive the current Firestorm is using SLV 2.5 code. In both cases I would not be surprised that your having some script problems. The current SLV Beta is 2.7.5. I expect that to change yet this week, but may be not untl next week. We should see a 2.8 version go beta soon. The current Development Viewer is 2.8.1. If the current viewers do not have a problem with the scripts, then you have found the problem. If the scripts still fail put all the information in a JIRA ASAP. There has been a slow script problem for a couple of weeks see: JIRA SVC-7079.

Updating to a new Series 2 viewer is a good idea. But, you may not need to do so for your use. The things you cannot use in SLV 1.23 are usually video on a prim. The other item is Enhanced Avatar Physics. Without these features some promotional stuff and video tuorials are not visible within the SL world. Genrally it is not big loss. The Physics Layer si a clothing item that conteols breasts, belly, and butt bouncing. In Series 1 viewers those avatars wearing a physics layer may not render correctly. So, by using a Series 1 viewer your aren't missing out on much... yet. However by the end of August we may have mesh appearing on the grid. Then Series 1 viewers will miss out on more and more of SL. So, now is a good time to upgrade to a newer viewer. If you hate new user interfaces and not being able to find the controls you use, Firestorm is a good viewer to use. It is still in Beta, but it works well. It can be cusomized to be more like a Series 1 or 2 viewer. They have a video on Youtube on how to make the change. Plus Firesotrm is going to be updated to stay current with Second Life. If you are looking at other viewers, check out my blog with viewer reviews. See the signature for a link. At the blog look for the menu item Viewers.

There are several possible causes for items in inventory not to load and appear lost. I have a list of the possible causes and fixes here: Lost Inventory and Missing Inventory Fix – Help

Mickey, Linden has a wiki article on Lost Inventory. It is written for those using the SL Viewer... and assumes your using just one viewer. For any type of technical question it is a good idea to paste in your systems specs. The stuff pertinent to SL can be found in the viewer by clicking HELP -> ABOUT and copy pasting. SL seldom really looses inventory... compared to inventory just appearing to be lost, which a common problem. If you use more than one viewer, you will want to read: Lost Inventory and Missing Inventory Fix – Help I think I explain more about the why and how to avoid the problem. Read through it even if you only use one viewer. You may find something you have not tried. After you have tried everything then it is time to file a support ticket.

When you can see your avatar correctly and others can't your cache is generally ok. What happens with avatars is a unique situation in SL. Your computer downlaods all the textures for your skin, hair, clothes, and etc. and then renders them on the avatar. So, if you look ok to yourself that happened correctly. The viewer then "bakes" a new texture that is a composite of your skin, clohtes and etc. That new texture is uploaded to SL for everyone else to see. This is done to save everyone having to load shirt, jacket, pants, etc and build their own composite. Something in the upload is failing. It may be your connection. Test that at SpeedTest.net. Also look at your Viewer Stats (Ctrl-Shift-1). You are looking for high PING and Lost Packet numbers. 250ms and higher is not good, 2% and higher lost packets is not good. If you are using a Thitd Party Viewer (TPV), you probably have the choice to use or not use HTTP Get Texture, a setting in Prefernces (it is better if you have HTTP Get enabled). You can try changing that setting. After you change it, do a rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R). Wait 5 minutes and repeat. It can take 3 tries. Have a friend tell you if you rendered. Do this in a deserted region, the less stuff and people the better. And... as bizzare as it sounds, change your active group. Which group doesn't matter, just that you change groups. The links to the other infromation are good. If these quick fixes are not working, defintely try them. I wrote a set of fixes and explanations for avatar render problems that is here: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth

Call Linden Lab. These numbers are only for login and billing issues: UK: 0800.048.4646 The main toll free number: 800-294-1067 The toll charged line is: 703-286-6277 France: 0805.101.490 Germany: 0800.664.5510 Japan: 0066.33.132.830 Portugal: 800.814.450 Spain: 800.300.560 For other issues read: Contacting Second Life/Linden Lab

Monti is right about trying another location. There is a thing in SL called ghosting and your avatar may be a ghost somewhere in SL, likely the region where you can't login. A ghost can be created when the viewer crashes on logout and fails to tell the region bye. The region assumes you are still logged on. Normally one gets an error message rather than a freeze. If your ghosted you can try Linden Support, wait for the region with your ghost to restart, or read I Can’t Login to fix it your self. It may be the viewer is failing on login. The settings for the viewer are kept in the same file for all avatars that use that viewer. Settings are per viewer, not per login, UNLESS you log onto your computer with different ID's, which would be very unusual but not totally out of the question. So, I'm not sure deleting any files will, especially since you can logon with other avatars from the same viewer. I would try the other solutions be deleting files. To know where to find the files, we need to know which operatng system you use. If it is Vista or Win7 read Clean Install to see where the files are and delete just the files in [user_name]\AppsData\ locations. You can restart the viewer and it will recreate the files. Deleting the files will affect viewer settings and erase chat logs for all avatars. If your in XP or Mac, look in the SL Wiki for Clean Install and find the file locations. Monti's solution to do a reinstall may be necessary if all else is failing. I consider doing a clean install a last resort. If you use only one viewer, a clean install is not that complex. If you use multiple viewers, even if they are all Linden viewers, then things get complex and reading Clean Install is a must. It helps with a technical questions to click into HELP -> ABOUT and paste that information in the post with your question. It makes for faster and more precise answers.

Whenever you are asking for technical help you need to provide good information on your system. The easy way to provide the information relevant to SL problems is to be logged in and click HELP -> ABOUT. Copy that info and paste it in with your question. Lag has many causes and there are different types of lag. So, is it you or the SIM? To find out press Ctrl-Shift-1 (a toggle) to open the stats panel. If the problem is the connection you will see PING over 250ms and lost packets over 2%. The higher the numbers are the more likely it is a connection problem. BUT, a poorly performing SIM can spike those number up sort of giving a false indication. Look at SIM and Physics FPS. Both of those are ideally 45 FPS. The smaller the numbers the more likely it is the SIM and not you. In which case Ping and Lost Packets may be high because of the SIM. Obviously part of the troubleshooting should be going to another SIM. If you experience the same problem in other regions, it is something on your side or the connection. You can go to SpeedTest.net and test your connection. If you don't know how to change draw distance then it is unlikely you changed the setting. So, if things used to work and don't now, that probably is not the solution. Try Preferences (Ctrl-P) -> Graphics and lower your settings. That changes the Draw Distance (DD)and a number of other settings that affect performance. If you use Advanced settings (a button in graphics) you'll see an individual setting for DD. It is a handy simple change you can make when in a shopping mall to speed things up, like 64m for malls. The info you paste in will tell us if you are in a release channel testing SIM region or on the main region SIM software. The release channels can suddenly have problems the rest of the grid doesn't. While some of us keep track of those things, that information is seldom placed in Grid Status announcements. So, ask here. Otherwise, the status can explain sudden changes in performance. There a numerious other possible causes. Check these and see if you get a better idea of the cause. Oh... and some regions are just SLOW! If you go the an event, like the Hair Fair, then you will walk forward and then snap back or ahead, called rubber banding. You'll see ping and SIM Physics FPS degrade in such cases.

We don't know if Mesh will be in August or not. The Lindens have made a conditional time line to have mesh on the main grid by August. But, the provision is; if there are no big problems. For several weeks the Mesh Prep and Mono2 updaes have been cycling through the Release Channels. That they test, fix, and return to testing means they are not moving on to the next step but bug fixing. I would not be surprised if Mesh were postponed. But, as yet the Lindens seem to think August mesh roll out is possible. They have not said otherwise. The teams are finding some serious infrastruct issues. In the past they put bandaids on them. Now they pursue real fixes. Some high level concepts of how to do some things have changed several types of server architecture in the utility and services servers. In the server group today they were talking about finding a new problem where a small failiure in texture downloads was casscading into a chaotic failure. It takes the servers several minutes to recover and in the mean time we all wait on textures to download. A fix is in hand and will soon be tested in the Beta grid ADITI. I know from talking with OSGrid people that mesh is changing so fast the coders over there are sort of waiting for things to settle down before trying to change their systems to support the new MAD Mesh objects. So, the mesh project has not been abandoned.

Advanced mode is better than Basic mode. There is more to learn in Advanced mode. However, you should be able to go places in Basic mode. Detinations takes you to places and there are normally people in those locations. I haven't used Basic mode in so long... I can't remember if there is a Search in Basic Mode. If there is, search PLACES for dance or clubs. There is also an Adult setting. Actually three settings; PG, Mature, and Adult. The setting affects what you see in Search. To use Adult you must Age Verify. Check out the SL Wiki for help on Age Verify. Once verified you can see all the results. You can always change the setting once verified. It is then possible to Search for PG, Mature, or Adult with just a settings click.

The only way to stop people from seeing a profile on any viewer is to make it an empty profile. If you mean how do you keep people from knowing you are online, go into your friends list and uncheck the setting for that individual. HOWEVER, that does not keep a determined person from getting your status. There are HUD's that will do that. So, which viewer is not really an issue.

As the others said, it depends why you are contacting Linden Lab. A collection of contact information is here: Contacting Second Life/Linden Lab Reaching the top management at the Lab is difficult. However, reaching the programmers is easy. While they are limited in what they can fix or address, they usually prove a rich source of information and often can direct you to the right person within the Lab. Check out the User Groups to find when they will be in world. See: Linden Lab Official:User Groups

Void is just hinting at the complexities of running your own server. You're open a boat load of worms. OpenSim ofers what you are thinking of. OSGrid is an OpenSim grid that is donation funded. You can down load the software and either run it pure stand alone or put it on the grid or Hypergrid. OSGrid provides asset servers and registation servers, if you want to go on the grid. It is an ideal solution for running a SIM at home. DynDNS.org can provide free DNS. I run a 9 region SIM on my home computer. It takes some study to figure out if you want to run in Windows or Linux. Then you need to decide if you are OK with the simple SQLite or MySQL. Then there is the matter of having assets on OSGrid or local. I'm just getting started. The virtual world you see in SL is not like a Doom server where things can be P2P. Explore the possibility of OpenSim.

There are several things that can cause that problem. To know which are most likely we need to know more information about your situation. In the viewer's top menu, click HELP -> About and copy that information and include it in any post when you are asking for technical help. Not knowing if your Apple or Windows or using a Linden Viewer or third party viewer makes it difficult to give advice that is aplicable. In general, when you appearance is not showing up for others it is an upload problem. Check your connection on SpeedTest.net. Also press Ctrl-Shift-1 (toggles on and off with each press). Look at PING, Lost Packets, and bandwidth. If ping is over 250ms that is a problem and you will have problems. If lost Packets is more than 2% you may have problems. The higher that gets the more likely you are to have problems. You can also press Ctrl-Shift-3 to see if textures are downloading or hanging. If the connection is good, then you may be wearing Alpha Layers. They will cause parts to go invisible if they are the top layer. Try removing all clothes and attachments and starting over. You may have corrupt textures in the cache. Clear the cache. Ctrl-P or top menu Me -> Preferences. Then Advanced -> Clear Cache and restart the viewer. Some viewers have a problem with Avatar Physics layers. If you are using the Linden standard viewer, check the wiki (search second life download) for a newer version. If these tricks are not clearing the problem read through Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth for other possible fixes.

When you have a technical problem like this it is best to give us the specs of your computer. Login and click HELP in the top menu. Next ABOUT. Copy and paste that information with your request for help. That will save everyone time and hopefully get you a quick answer. When your viewer crashes it is a good idea to restart your computer. Often processes remain running that create problems when you try to open the viewer. Also, the video state can be left in an unpredictable state. A restart handles both of those issues. If you have an ATI video card, search the forum here for more information about your card and possible problems. Apple is not very good at supporting OpenGL something that SL uses heavily. Unfortunately the newest drive for ATI is not always the best driver for SL. The tp may have a video problem as textures load and unload. But, its a slim possibility. Often crash problems are from bad settings. I don't know where they keep them on a Mac. The file is named settings.xml and it lives in a folder named user_settings. Where that is on your Mac can be found in the SL wiki. Rename that file and restart the viewer. Teleport problems can be caused by the scripts you are wearing. Shoes and hair may have hundreds of scripts. Strip to clothes only and try tp'ing. Anything over 100 scripts on an avatar can cause problems. THe busier a region is the more likely the scripts will cause a problem. Also where you are tp'ing from can make a difference. A seriously lagged region can cause tp problems. In Preferences->General is a setting to show a login location when opening the viewer. You can type in a region name like Pooley and login. Pooley is mostly deserted and empty. You should be able to tp out of that region. If not... When you get the HELP-ABOUT info we can tell if you are in one of the release channels (RC). This past week they have had lots of problems. An update has a problem. Today they were rolled back. If you were in the RC's, it may be SL and not you. Peggy Paperdoll's suggestions are the most likely fix. But, this will give you bit more to consider.

I ran into this problem in Kirsten's viewer. But, I have not seen it in other viewers.

There are viewers with Radar that allow you to find people and tp to them. The range is limited. 512m ? I've seen ranges listed up to 4,098m but I've never tried to tp or cam to anyone that far away. Some viewers allow you to send the camera to them without a tp, if you really want ot be sneaky. But, that too has a range limit. There are stalker HUD's that have various capabilities. That these tools are labeled 'spy' and similar things should give you some clue they are not favorably looked on by the majority of residents. Just as there are HUD's for finding people, there are HUD's that warn people when they are being spied on or people are approaching. Don't get all excited about getting spy devices. A new parcel setting is in the works that will allow a privacy setting. It is server side so it will presumably be harder to defeat.

There are already normal maps in SL. For now it is a limited set of maps you find in the Build Tool's Texture tab. The feature has not yet been added to mesh. The challenge is in getting that data stored and figuring out what poorly made normal maps will do to performance and cost. Expect to see this feature discussed some time after mesh is working well and some what stabilized. Even then I doubt it will be a high priority. Until then one has to use the normal map in their modeling tool to bake a texture with the normal map created detail. then use that texture in SL. Because this is far more efficient for SL, it is unlikely LL will be in any hurry to add the feature to mesh. But, I could be wrong.

Griefing is not uncommon in SL or any any virtual world. The Lab does all it can, but just like anti-virus software if the user does something silly the griefer wins. In SL you never accept things from people you do not know. You don't sit on things in places you don't know. If you want an animation, buy it or find it in a freebie store. Merchants have too much to lose to grief you. So, stores have some level of safety. Freebies sitting in odd places and anything promising of free Lindens should be suspect. When in doubt, ask someone.

If you want to follow Mesh Development and are OK with layperson style of explanation, follow developements here: blog.Nalates.net. If you want to get Mesh News and a more technical side, attend the Group's Office Hour Meeting. Second Life User Groups It is also possible to subscribe to a single section of the SL Forum. If you use a Reader then subscribing to various forum sections can keep you updated on all the goings on in SL.

Congratualtions!!! :matte-motes-smile: Do take pride in your achivement. Way to go.

ImNotGoing Sideways is probably right. The Mesh Team has not said how mesh will roll out. The rumor from some Office Hour meetings is the roll is a two step process. So, it will roll to the entire grid, which is not the usual process. The code rolls out but the feature is disabled. Then individual regions will have it enabled. Presumably those will be the Release Cahnnel regions. It may be that the Mesh Prep in the Release Channel now is the typical RC roll out test for mesh. When it is working well with mesh disabled, it will then roll to the main grid, still disabled. That is the only way the rumor and basic testing plan seem to make sense to me. Then the RC regions would have mesh enabled to test the update live. The problem this presents is that server versions could be the same ID in disabled and enabled regions because it is a switch. So, we may only be able to tell by looking at the UPLOAD item in the Build Menu. There is no Mesh Upload item if it is disabled. I suspect it will be announced and we are very likely to hear first in the Office Hour meeting.

Building and testing... yes. Reporting... not so much. I'm never sure if it is me or a bug. I usually read the forum trying to decide whether to report or not. So, far every problem I've found is already reported.

Collada does provide the infromation SL needs to correctly apply the texture. The problem may be in how you are applying the material in Maya/Blender. As suggested, using a test texture may reveal the problem. Importing the test texture to SL and applying it may make it more clear what is happening. If you do find it is just not working, you may want to file a JIRA and give the Blender file to Linden Lab to look at. You can do that and make the files only available to LL. Also, someone that well understands Maya/Blender may offer to help. I'm learning Blender texturing too.

There are many different reasons for this problem. Read: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth