Back on again!

Yes, been back on a little while, although I shall be intermittent until January. My how Second Life has changed! So many places gone. I have a new store now, see the Mode Provencale blog.

Intel Extreme Graphics

I normally run a Mac, but am temporarily using a Dell Dimension 1100 running Ubuntu Linux. It's below min spec, has a P4 Celereon inside and only 512Mb RAM, and Intel Extreme Graphics.

This latter appears to be the problem:

Intel Extreme graphics are not compatible with Second Life. It may be possible for certain configurations of hardware and software to successfully run Second Life while using Intel Extreme graphics; however, these configurations are not inherently stable, and small changes to Second Life (as Linden Lab provides better graphical features and support for compatible graphics cards) may leave these systems once again unable to use Second Life due to incompatibility.

That's according to the SL wiki
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/I%27m_experiencing_issues_with_Intel_Extreme_graphics

Oh dear. Obviously all these years I've been right not to have Intel Inside lmao.

There's a similar problem, ongoing for 2 years, about avs rendering parts of the environment or IM window, and the most recent reply from Esmee Linden:

This is fundamentally tied to our rendering architecture. Fixing it requires redoing big chunks of our texture pipeline. Although it's a bug, we're not currently working on it. However, we might at some point in the future.

Fine. Just add more stupid features instead. From the JIRA https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3282

Stripey Avatar

Well, I've still got the stripey avatar problem. Since I'm on a below spec machine, chances are zero I'll get any help with this. They'll just say buy a new computer, video card or update the drivers lol. However if that were just the case, I can't see why my av and clothing draws okay when I log in, change clothes, go into Appearance or Rebake, and then after a variable period from a few seconds to an hour or so, I get a new rebake sent down with the stripes. The extra texture seems on close inspection to be the login screen, though I can't be 100% certain of that.

I wonder if it's a Linux bug. I get it using both Phoenix and Viewer 2 with my main account and an alt. But it does vary. Other people see me stripey too. But I have been told my av was okay when it was stripey to me, that it was stripey to them when it's okay to me, and stripey to both me and others.

What perturbs me, and doesn't seem to for many others is why if you switch viewers you suddenly have on clothing you last wore 2 days ago, and HUDs too. That sounds more like an asset server problem, and info not updating properly. If that was local to the viewer, then when you switched back you should return to what was on that viewer, but it doesn't, it goes to the other viewer settings. Truly bizarre. But if there's an asset problem there, then god knows what else is wrong the the assest server sub system.

So upshot is I see other avs okay, and prims whether worn or not, but my mesh clothes, skin eyes etc are stripey.

I've uninstalled the viewers, reloaded, manually trashed the hidden .secondlife folder, cleared cash etc etc all to no avail.

If it doesn't go away, I guess I'll have to put up with it, which will make life a bit of a bugger when it comes to designing clothes. I thought after 2 and a bit years away, Linde Lab might have sorted some of the other problems out, but of course they haven't. Sigh.

Probably time to consult the JIRA.

In the meantime my new nickname appears to be Zebra. :)

Getting there!

Well, getting there slowly! New look to the blog, both this one and the Mode Provençale one. Some changes, lost of the links checked, except in old comments etc. So stay tuned for more news!

I'm Back!

Back at last, having lost my internet connection, and had my power board accidentally zapped by 500 volts. More soon, once I get the hang of all that's changed, on SL, the demise of SLX, OnRez, SLQuery, SLBuzz etc etc

New UK Consumer Protection Laws

From today, there are new consumer protection laws applicable in the UK, which outlaw all sorts of rogue trading, bogus selling and advertising. This will include misleading blogs by companies.

New rules for consumer protection
Will fake business blogs crash and burn?

These are actually an implementation of EU directives. Ireland already has such laws, and the other EU countries either have, or will implement such laws. Something else to remember next time UK citizens bleat about the EU being a waste of time.

Windlight and Havok - more havoc!

Ah, here we are, Havok 4 having moe problems than thought, not just vehicles, but rotations and flying at the top of stairs and tripping over things, and unrealistic immediate stop physics. And shiny new Windlight, which 50% of people can't use, and the new 1.19.1.4 viewer causing loads of crashes. Even the Linden blog says 50% rave and 50% threaten death to Lindens lol.

The new viewer a well oiled machine?

Strangely, that has stopped them just three blog posts later making 1.19 MANDATORY !!

Update to second life - 1.19 viewer now required

They should learn what is working and what doesn't, and instead of switching back and forth each update, incorporate two code streams like the rest of the industry does. Certainly never going to be Web 3 at this rate lol.