Nalates Urriah

Yes, others are running into this. I first heard about this in the Kirsten Viewer group. The problem is dependent on your video card and driver version. With my 8800 GTS and driver 270.?? I do not have the problem. Discussion in the group indicates the 275.xx series of nVidia drivers has a problem with newer SL viewers. A roll back to an earlier driver version can correct the problem. I suggest you find a JIRA Bug Report before replacing the driver. Crash the viewer and copy the log file to a folder where it won't get over written. Include it in the JIRA you file. Be sure you understand what needs to be included in a bug report. It is explained on the first page of the JIRA. ...and you might roll the viewer back rather than the video driver. There is a previous version link on the download page.

Gaia and Feynt have given you good answers. I'm going to give you a very different and basic answer. Most Blender problems are install issues. Especially when you have two or more versions of Blender installed and have to start dealing with Python versions. However there is a simple solution. Uninstall all versions except one. May sure it is working. If there is any doubt, remove and reinstall it. Now visit the Blender download and get the Zip Archive Blender. Unzip it to a folder. It really doesn't matter where. Nor does it matter which Python version your running because the zip files has the right one and places a copy with the unzipped Blender. Find the blender.exe file in the folder you unzipped to. Right-click and drag it to the desktop. When you drop it select Create Shortcut Here... you now have a working copy of Blender and the appropriate Python version to go with it. It won't mess up your other version or Python installs. If you want more information on this install process see: http://blog.nalates.net/2011/05/15/blender-2-57b-released/ This makes it easy to add and remove versions and if you have other programs using Python, as I do, you don't have to worry about breaking them. Plus Python upgrades for other purpses won't break your Blender versions.

The RenderUnloadedAvatar setting forces the viewer to render an avatar, whether it has all the information needed to render it or not. If you want your avatar to look like what others are seeing, you need to fix the problem that is causing your avavatar not to render. Otherwise the viewer uses Ruth (default avatar) to fill in the missing parts. There are 2 primary causes. A poor Internet connection is one. Try SpeedTest.net to see how your connection is actually performaing. When in-world press Ctrl-Shift-1 (this is a toggle so press it again to turn it off) to open the viewer statistics panel. Look for Ping and Lost Packets. If ping is over 250ms then you MAY have a connection problem. Visit another couple of regions to see if ping improves. Ping can be a sim problem too, which all you can do is move to another region. Look at Packet Loss. If it is over 2 or 3 % you will have problems. Again try another region to see if it is you or SL. If it is you, talk to your ISP. You can send them the SpeedTest.net results if it shows packet loss. If your wireless, try using a network cable. Also, try these two quick fixes. Ctrl-Alt-R, which is rebake. It forces both the viewer and SL servers to take another look at your avatar and try to render it. The other quick fix is to change groups... set any other group you beleong to to avtive. Odd as it sounds this is an effective fix. If these fixes are not working, read this: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth It gets into the technical stuff. It explains why sometimes this problem happens and how to generally avoid the problem.

If you are having a problem getting you avatar to rez, read this: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth

If an item is Copy OK, there is no chance of a refund. People could return a copy and keep a copy. With my scripts and vendors I'll give a refund if the product does not work for them and let them keep it. But, we first try to find out why it is not working for them and get it working. But, SL is not Nordstrom's.

I'll wear my sword...

There is a post in this forum section about a problem with MAD links. They refer to this location for the newest Mesh Project MAD Viewer. http://automated-builds-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/hg/repo/mesh-development/rev/232677/index.html

Blender 2.57b will export simple things to Collada and works in SL. However, more complex things like rigged mesh simply don't work well. Blender 2.49 does handle rigged mesh. Since Blender 2.5x is easier to learn and some nice features (turn on the cool stuf in User Preferences -> Add-ons) many are building and texturing in 2.57b then opening the the blend file as a library in 2.49b to export as Collada files. Moving files from 2.5 to 2.4 and back to 2.5 can cause problems. Any editing in 2.4 can be a problem when one later tries to edit the same file in 2.5. So, using the 2.5 files as a library item leaves you a clean 2.5 file to work in. The Wiki is running behind. The best info is here in the forum.

You need to be on the ADITI (Beta/Preview grid) to be able to upload mesh. You'll find the ADITI grid in you location drop down. Remember. The main grid is AGNI. You may fail to login. If so, change you SL password and try again. You may have to wait 24 hours for the new password to reach ADITI. This is a problem is you do not often change your SL password. Once in ADITI search for regions with MESH in there name. Not all of ADITI is mesh enabled. You want he mesh sandbox regions. Sandbox 20 is a special region setup for the newest Mesh Project Viewer (Asset Depre). You need to read the Mesh Wiki page to know which Project Viewer to use where. Things are changing quickly. probably faster than the wiki.

The ATI card has some driver issues. Search the forum here for more information. The usual advice is to get the latest driver. But, in the case of ATI that is NOT good advice. Some of the newer drivers are a problem. You'll need to find which driver version is best. Just to be fair... the latest nVidia drivers in the 275 range are causing some problems for some. That just the SL Viewer crashes suggests it is more a viewer issue than a hardware issue. If the video card were overheating, you would have problems with everything that is running. You can try KirstenLee's S21(8) RC2 viewer. It is very SLV2 like but has a better render pipeline. There is an SL bug known as Time Warp that is crashing people. The Lindens are having a hard time find the cause. They actually have test software running on some regions to help track it down. I don't have the region names or a specific JIRA they are working on, sorry. You can search the JIRA to find a list of 'viewer closes' JIRA issues. Be sure to read how to report issues, that will give the info to submit a report that is likely to get some action. Some versions of the SLV2 have memory leaks that can cause the viewer to suddenly close. Also, the viewer does keep a crash log. After a crash you can read it to see what happened. It will give you a clue. Start at the end of the log. You'll find it here: C:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs. If you use more than one viewer make sure you get the correct log. They have obvious names. There was a series if SL Viewers that tended to crash. I'm not often using the std viewer or the Beta. I have been running the Development version. It updates everyday and some times several times per day. Plus there is a snapshot version that rapidly changes. The Snapshot can be unstable so unless you are into helping test the viewer, skip it. The Development viewer is a bit better, as in more stable. The Dev Viewer has the newest stuff and fixes. Unfortunately it has the collection of the newest bugs too. But I use it for most of my time in SL, so it is not all that bad. When you crash out of the viewer it is a good idea to restart the computer. The latest versions are better about crashing and not needing a computer restart. But, give it a try. System Explorer from SystemExplorer.net has a memory fragment cleanup utility in the Explorer and shows you what is happening with the computer. Using its mem cleanup is a pretty good idea to run after a crash if your not rebooting. Watching it you can see if a viewer is suffering from a memory leak.

Are you using KirstenLee's Viewer S21(8)? (Review) It is the viewer for those into machinima. If you click in the menu you can find more articles on the S21 viewer. You may also want to chase down Gaia Clary. She makes the video tutorials for Machinimatrix.org and I think is part of a team making other machina. She may know how to get the effects you want. Phoenix was adding features to their viewer. I seem to recall that some type of viewer programming was in the mix. Ask in the Phoenix/Firestorm group.

If you are not yet 30 days old, visit GuRL6. I think they still have a noobie offer. You'll have to dig around the store to find the offer. I got my first L$400 do from them. Once I made some L$ I bought several more from them. They have guy;s hair across the street from GuRL6 store. Visit Free Dove. They have nice free stuff. I still visit every so often and I usually find things I want. They have more stuff for the women but they do have guy stuff.

Kirsten Viewer users (S21(8) RC2) are finding some problems with the nVidia driver. The 275 versions are a problem for a number of people. The 270 and 266 versions are better. Some say they can triple FPS if they switch to a 266 version. I don't know that it is related. But, something in recent updates is causing problems across several different nVidia cards. Since Kirsten is using the newest LL code I suspect something in the LL code for the Dev and Proj viewers is conflicting with something in the nVidia drivers.

When you hit these problems always check the Grid Status. If it is a known problem or planned service outage, you'll see it there. You can go into large groups in-world and ask, even if it is off-topic. Most groups are tollerant of such questions as problems involve everyone. The groups will get to the quickest answer.

If this was on the main grid, you would have a rightious complaint. But, this is on the Beta grid where everything is about experiementing. Everyone is importing all sorts of thngs and no one is worried about IP because the stuff is cleared out every so many hours. If you are not aware of this: Second Life Mesh Enablement read through it and see if that helps your mood.

It is hard to say what Linden Lab intends when it comes to mesh. I think they have a very strong emphasis on providing a way for more professional moders to contribute to SL. None of the modeling programs I know of have a great Collada export. Blender 2.57 does not export rigged mesh and 2.49 does. I think I've seen some Maya and Max users write about having to tweeak the Collada files to get them to work as they intended. I find it odd that as popular as Collada seems to be it does not have better support. But, it is what it is. I understand Google Summer Code will be working on Collada as a project. I expect it to get better. Those working on Blender have been improving its Collada ex/import. So... I don't see this as a matter of the Lab ignoring Sketch Up as it is they are conforming to the Collada standard. A problem with Sketch Up is not going to get special treatment from the Lab. So, just as I have to work around Blender problems you'll have to learn to deal with Sketch Up problems.

For the type of problem you are having we need to know more about your computer and OS. You can click HELP while logged in and then ABOUT. Copy paste the information there into any request for technical help. When you say it won't focus, that sounds like Depth of Field (DoF). The idea is to have the viewer render an image more like what our eyes and cameras see. If we look at something close then distance objects are out of focus. I find it annoying. When you turn your graphics up to Ultra DoF is enabled. Go to Me -> Preferences -> Graphics then look through the left column of check boxes and near the end is the DoF check box. Uncheck it. That should clear up your focus problems. There are settings in Debug Settings to control how DoF renders. In the SL Wiki is a list of the settings and what they do. Darker... when you enable Lighting & Shadows you shift to a different rendering process for lighting. The over all light level may seem to decrease depending on where you are. The advantage is that rather than only seeing 8 or so lights render the number of lights jumps up to over 200. In general you have better image contrast. I doubt you are pushing an nVidia 275 past its limits. Technically it is not possible to push a card past its limits unless you use overclocking software or tweaks. There are free monitor programs for nVidia cards. So, you can actually see what your card is doing. Plus nVidia has some monitoring in the basic software. Google for 'how to'. If you have the CPU setting on the floor (way bad idea) you may have sucked the fans and airways full of dust. That can lead to over heating and shows up as graphics glitches. If you are comfortable opening the case, blow out the dust with canned air. DO NOT spin the fans with the compressed air. It is way easy to over rev the fans and damage the bearings leading to early fan failure, which usually kills a graphic card. You should be able to open a task manager and see how much of your computer's CPU you are using. ATI cards are known to have graphics artifacts, but nVidia should be fine. Make sure you have the latest drivers from nVidia. They seem to release one or more updates per month. Improving Performance There are lots of tweaks and things one can do to improve performance. I have an article on generalized tweaks. Graphics Tweaking for Second Life If you are not framiler with what various graphics features do then you should find it educational. The information is there so you will know which settings you can turn down to gain performance with minimal loss of image quality. There are specialized tweaks for specific viewers, which you will find in the viewer's wiki. Phoenix has an excellent wiki. There information applies to other viewers just as my article does. But they have the path to the settings for Phoenix. If you want the best render image possible, I suggest you look at KirstenLee's S21 Viewer. This is a bleeding edge viewer using a custom render pipeline and the newest code from the Lab. It is the choice viewer for photography and machinima in SL. It even has a FILM item in the menu that has most of the settings one needs when filming or taking snapshots. Now the bad news... Norton is a huge CPU hog. If you want to see a major boost in your computer's performance, switch over to ESET - NOD32. I've used Norton, AVG, and Kaspersky (sp?). I settled on ESET because it did not slow my computer as the others did. But, check the reviews before deciding.

When asking for help it really helps if you tell us which viewer and computer system you are using. Many people use multiple viewers (one for building, one for exploring, etc.) and some prefer older versions. All the various fixes for an avatar failing to render are here: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth

The Lindens are going to edit the error message to give better information. It is undecided if there is a bug in the viewer or a illegitimate error in the mesh. If you have all the LoD's loaded, it may be any one of them that is a problem. Try to isolate which one is creating the error. I've been told that using LoD's with the same vertex count will cause the problem. Remove those LoD's, set them to none, and try again.

Well... since most of us are not having those problems... that strongly suggests your decision that it can't be you and must be the SL servers is questionable. Also, the SL inventory system has changed over the last few months; how it downloads, what it contains, how we can organize it, and more. So, the idea that your continuing problems of the last 3 years remain unchanged suggests it is something on your side. You are welcome to reject that thinking and contnue to have problems. But, most of the rest of us have resolved our inventory problems. If you use the Preferences -> Setup -> RESET button to clear cache, you need to check the actual cache folder. The Reset button is changed in SLV 2.7.2 to be Default Location... because it does not clear the cache. They added a Clear Cache buttonto actually clear the cache. Different versions handle the RESET process differently, so one has to look in the folder to see if it cleared. The new Clear Cache button is in the Prefernces Advanced tab. I use several viewers. Long ago I recognized the problems created by sharing a cache between SLV2 and SLV1 style viewers. Phoneix, Imprudence, and all the third party viewers (TPV) need their own caches. More and more of the TPV's now create their own cache when installed. If you are mixing/sharing caches, that could be the source of your problems. Inventory download is suspectable to region problems. Downloading inventory in deserted empty areas usually gets one a good download. Attempting to tp while downloading forces the download stream to change route, which can cause problems. That is supposed to be changing, but the best recommendations advise one remain in region until the download completes. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are a bad time to try and correct inventory problems. New server software is rolled out then. Inventory organization is a problem in some cases. The older system would allow one to place any number of items in a folder. Experince revealed that having more than 250+/- items in a folder could cause problems. The SL system has been changed to allow 10,000 items per folder. Depending on your viewer and whether you are using series 1 and 2 viewers the organization can be causing problems. More information can be found here: Lost Inventory and Missing Inventory Fix – Help

You haven't said which viewer you are using. Phoenix and Imprudence use the older in-world profile as do many others. Depending on which version of which viewer there may be a mix of old and new profile in use. The SLV2 style viewers are using new web profiles in and out of world. If you update using a viewer connecting to the old profiles you won't see the changes on the web profile. Changing the web profile via the web may not update the in-world profile. If you are going to spend time on your profile use an SLV2 viewer or edit it via the web. We are going to deal with this issue until all the viewers update to the Viewer 2 code base.

In the group meetings this has been discussed several times. The Lindens are NOT looking to add 'flexi' to mesh. However, they are looking at other ways to get the same result. Using mesh to build cloth and hair with movement is some where on their roadmap. I doubt we'll see much work on it until mesh is working well.

June 2 on the ADITI grid a load test is being tried of the new? changed? text system. Thursday, the 2nd of June, 2011 @ 4PM PT see: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/GroupChatTest The Lab was working on a change over to XMPP Chat. Unfortunately testing revealed that it did not solve the chat problems. The pre-roll out code for XMPP was actually rolled to the main grid some weeks ago. The XMPP chat code was even added to the KirstenLee Viewer and in use on ADITI. Those working on the problem obviously misunderstood the problem. I suspect they underestimated the problem or had unrealistic expectation for XMPP. That embarrassment has made them re-access the SL chat system. Changes were made to the servers and possibly the viewers to collect more data on what is actually happening that causes the slow downs. I believe this June load testing may be proof of theory testing. So, if things go as they expect, they can move ahead on fixing chat. If not, they'll remain in research mode and figure out what is happening and we'll hear little if anything. Whatever the case, the load test is an indication work is ongoing to solve the chat problem. I suspect the plan remains simple and unchanged, fix chat. There may be parts of the plan we have yet to hear of. Those that have worked with XMPP Chat were expecting lots of new chat possibilities and possible ties into Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook. Those interconnections could be part of the plan. We just don't know.

Here is the long answer: I Can’t Login There is a thing called Ghosted. Because of a timing problem in SL known as the Time Warp, people get logged out. The Lab is working on finding the cause of Time Warp. Crashes and viewer problems can also log one out improperly. The result is the region still thinks you are logged in. Until the region restarts or the region owner kicks the avatar out the ghost causes problems logging in. In most cases, you can log into a diffferent region and make it in. Then track down your ghost and touch him. He will evaporate and the problem is solved. Regions typicall restart Tuesday or Wednesday mornings, but not every, just most. There is a faster way to get logged in than waiting on a trouble ticket or Tuesday restarts. Ghosts take a one minute break every 15 minutes. During that one minute window you can login. The trick is catching the 1 minute window. Read the long answer for details.

Assuming you are using SL Viewer 2 (now the default viewer), right click on your avater and select Edit Shape. This only works in Advanced Mode. Look at the top of the side bar panel that opens. You will see ♂♀ symbols. Click the one you want. It changes how the settings work for female/male breasts, hips, etc. as well as male package. You will still need to change skin and tweak shape. Depending on what you want to do with name, you can just change the Display Name. You don't have to create a new account. But, you can. Most stuff in inventory is No Transfer, so you can't give it to your other self, which is a bit of a pain.