Rainbow Viewers for Virtual Worlds

The free software here is not provided, supported or approved by Linden Lab. No surprising or unexpected functionality other than listed in the releasenotes is included. No private data is collected. There is NO warranty or liability. Use at your own risk

Shadow Viewer 1.23 (Windows and Linux)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 10:07:11 AM

[4 April: Updated to new SVN version 1.23.0.116519]
Music...eehhh...Shadows for the Masses smile...
Shadow Viewer is an early build out of the development branch for the upcoming 1.23+ SL viewer (obviously) implementing the new shadows features...and they really look great! It is purely meant as an early preview, perhaps to take some nice snapshots, and play around, but it is not meant for any serious work. It is something pre-alpha, it will crash. So be prepared and don't complain later p.

This is a new build based on latest SVN 1.23.0.116519, that's 3 revisions from the previous Shadow Viewer and there are a lot of changes for the rendering pipeline. I only tested it shortly, but alpha issues are still there.

What has also changed is the brand new installer/uninstaller that works similar to LL's installation, however it doesn't call home and it creates own and independent file structures for the Shadow Viewer.
It will install the Shadow Viewer into C:\Program Files\ShadowViewer and it should not mess up any existing Cool Viewer or SecondLife installation. But of course it may as it is as buggy as it gets. Please note that this is a *FULL* installation and does not require (nor would it work) to install a LL viewer before as with Cool Viewer.

It detail it uses (that's for XP):
Main installation: C:\Program Files\ShadowViewer
User settings: C:\Documents and Settings\<you>\Application Data\ShadowViewer
Cache: C:\Documents and Settings\<you>\Local Settings\Application Data\ShadowViewer

To install the Shadow Viewer you need to run the installer you can find here::
http://coolviewer.googlecode.com/files/ShadowViewer_1-23-0-116519_Setup.exe


You still need to add the not redistributable components. The installer will show a text info about this automatically after successful setup.

Please start the Shadow Viewer with the included Shadow Viewer.lnk shortcut only!


And here comes an additional Linux build (Ubuntu Jaunty). I had to split the package again in two files due to the upload filesize limit here. You need 7zip to unpack it (in Ubuntu "sudo apt-get install p7zip", then use the archive manager). Excluded are non-redistributable voice and KDU parts as in the Windows version. Please get them from an official 1.22 viewer)

http://files.myopera.com/boylane/files/SL/ShadowViewer-i686-1.23.0-R2-Linux.7z.001
http://files.myopera.com/boylane/files/SL/ShadowViewer-i686-1.23.0-R2-Linux.7z.002


To enable shadows you need to go to Edit / Preferences / Graphics / Hardware Options. There select "OpenGL Framebuffer Objects" and "Enable per-pixel lightning and shadows". Please note that Antialiasing did *NOT* work for me (Nvidia GTX260).


This is *NOT* a Cool Viewer. It has a number of features of CV included, but it doesn't have the legacy UI or RLV. These represent too many changes to apply to a moving target and are simply not worth to spend any time on yet.

Included features are:
Bulk permission editing (part of official 1.23 to come)
Enhanced building tools (part of official 1.23 to come)
Flexible Sculpties
Double click to wear attachments
Large Prims (only for Opensim grids)
Maximized Network Bandwidth
MUPose Style
Worn Inventory Tab
Teleport History
...and a number of more goodies and (hopefully) stability fixes. Too many to mention here smile. Please check the included releasenotes.txt for details.

Sources:
http://files.myopera.com/boylane/files/SL/src_shdw_1.23.0_2.tar.gz
http://files.myopera.com/boylane/files/SL/src_shdw_1.23.0_3.tar.gz

bigsmile

Luv,
Boy

Cool Viewer for ATi (Windows) with OpenGL fixes - some more testers needed!Cool Viewer 1.22.11.0 R7

Comments

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 6:20:46 PM

Yelo Uriza writes: I just downloaded and installed it, it works pretty well considering I run sl on a laptop and have nvdia gforce 8600... I didn't quite figure out how to create a working desktop shortcut as it keeps breaking each time I try and the only viewer draw back I see is that my avatar's eyes are glowing in an odd way. overall, it is much much better from when I tried the pre alpha shadows over a year ago. I feel no extreme lag and the alpha issue that the kirsten viewer had is gone too.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 6:54:23 PM

Damien Fate writes: Fantastic stuff, thank you!

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:21:02 PM

Kira Zobel writes: I am using a desktop pc, running Windows Vista 64bit, with a nvidia geforce 9800GT. This client is running smoothly and beautifully. There was one moment of flashing rainbow colors all over the screen upon walking in a sim full of objects, but I haven't encountered it since. Bravo! This will be my primary viewer for a while.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:10:40 PM

Anonymous writes: I'm running it on a ATI HD4870 and I'm experiencing significant issues with animated textures. The client seems to fail to animate the textures(skipping animation frames) depending on the cameras relative location to them. Also, I'm seeing rather obvious shadow banding at medium distances and onward. My hair mesh is also being rendered incorrectly; it's now transparent and jutting sharply in an odd direction. Going into edit appearance seems to crash as well. Regardless of those bugs, the client does seem to run at a significantly higher framerate than the official Release Candidate, which is very welcome.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:22:23 PM

Anonymous writes: ^ Amending my previous comment. The hair mesh's vertices are actually being handled correctly it would seem, but rather, the client appears to be using the default texture, at 50% alpha, on it, opposed to the one it's supposed to have, which obviously makes things look a little... odd.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:44:17 PM

Lordfly Digeridoo writes: This is too sexy for words. Only complaints (probably not your fault, due to the viewer code) is that shadowmaps sometimes take up to 30 seconds to update after moving prims (no big deal), and that transparent prims are either entirely shadow-opaque (meaning casting full shadows) at 39%, or completely gone according to the shadow renderer at 40% and above.

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:58:33 AM

Imnotgoing Sideways writes: CPU: AMD (Unknown model) (3000 MHz) Memory: 2048 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Build 2600) Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation Graphics Card: GeForce 8600 GT/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW! OpenGL Version: 3.0.0 Good frame rate. Shiny is very bright. I notice that textured light will cast shadows but untextured light won't. And I'm seeing default avatar skin face details baking on top of the tattoo layer skin textures. Namely, a big-fat-unibrow. (^_^)

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 11:56:02 AM

Anonymous writes: I love the idea of this - but am a Mac user..........any plans for one? <3 your work

Boy Laneboylane Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:04:06 PM

/me laughs...buy me one and I may try smile

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:39:56 PM

Kae writes: Snazzy; it sort of works on my radeon mobility 3450HD (after I discovered I had to fudge drivers to get them to install on laptops...) It seems my avs shadow isn't rendered, some shadows flicker, and framerate wasn't good; but still, I'm looking forward to it being stable enough for use. :D

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 2:40:10 PM

Fmeh Tagore writes: This seems really cool so far :D I notice some issues around alpha layers--some layers it just won't show at all now. At my club I use a lot of multi-layering, and many of those layers just aren't showing at all.

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 11:08:28 PM

Anonymous writes: I downloaded the viewer and had no problem logging on, the features added for flexi sculpties works great. Changing permissions on scripts embedded in child prims also works fabulously. Only problem is I can't see shadows, I'm not sure if there is something else I need to do or if my video card can't take it. I've made the adjustments in Hardware Options and went back to make sure they stuck, did I miss something? video card is Nvidia GeForce 6200 Thanks

Anonymous Thursday, April 2, 2009 11:48:28 PM

Flew writes: For me it keeps crashing at the login screen. The screen turns black and the viewer shuts down. Running it on vista dual core and a NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE

TrasheVyper Friday, April 3, 2009 3:09:25 AM

does this one have updated opengl librarys ?

Boy Laneboylane Friday, April 3, 2009 4:54:48 AM

I think it requires at minimum Nvidia 8xxx or ATi HD3xxx series. At least that was the requirement for the older shadow versions from KLee. So with older cards it will likely not work.

Here is an older link with some more info: http://www.vintfalken.com/kirstens-viewer-sl-shadows-for-the-masses-with-good-enough-pcs/

And yes, it has the OpenGL fixes.

TrasheVyper Friday, April 3, 2009 5:21:38 AM

ok i will try it with the first chance!!! smile

Anonymous Friday, April 3, 2009 3:24:53 PM

Tillie Ariantho writes: Crashes right at login (WinXP). :-(

TrasheVyper Friday, April 3, 2009 9:10:59 PM

ok crashing during the login ...but the fonts are fixed!!!
ati 4830 windows xp sp3 ... hmm looking promising too bad i cant yet see it live smile cheers!

Boy Laneboylane Saturday, April 4, 2009 3:28:30 AM

If you crash please try to delete your complete SecondLife application settings folder you can find here:
WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<you>\Application Data\SecondLife\
Vista: C:\Users\<you>\Appdata\roaming\secondlife\
(make a backup of your chat and IM history first if you use that)

Many people run into issues because of old settings from other viewers that are not working with this test build. And please start all the viewers, shadow or cool, always with the included .lnk shortcut. I can not mention it often enough.

Anonymous Saturday, April 4, 2009 9:44:22 PM

Anonymous writes: Ok i have tried this with and ati 4850, enable all the options and get know shadows and my pants mess up... running the latest drivers 9.3 but good news is that the font is fixed, i also crash when going into appearance so i dunno.. also suffer from crash at log in. and yes i did delete the app settings but did not work

AlecDaniels Sunday, April 5, 2009 12:43:16 AM

Oddly enough, I'm trying the r3 on ATI Radeon HD 4850, I got all the options on, but it's not turning on Shadows.

If I remember right its the option "renderDeferred" in debug, which when I check it through the Advanced, is set to false, and always returns to false.

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 2:41:45 AM

cuddledragon writes: Shadow Viewer 1.23.0 (116519) Apr 4 2009 23:18:09 (Cool Viewer) Versionshinweise Built with MSVC version 1400 CPU: Intel Core 2 Series Processor (2405 MHz) Memory: 4095 MB OS Version: Professional (Build 7000) Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation Graphics Card: GeForce 9600 GT/PCI/SSE2 OpenGL Version: 2.1.2 libcurl Version: libcurl/7.18.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3 J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.2.0, Runtime: 1.2.0 Audio Driver Version: FMOD version 3,750000 LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.22948 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.20_0000000000) even with the solution you provided earlier, viewer crashes at "initializing world"

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:13:21 AM

Anonymous writes: In my case it work flawlessly... it doesnt crash, doesnt slow down machine, doesnt drop fps... oh wait, thats because damn thing DOESNT EVEN START! nv 8800gt, Core2Quad and 4 gigs of ram...

TrasheVyper Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:22:03 AM

people no need to complaint this is an alpha version still way to early on developing just try it if not works well it will get better soon wink

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 4:02:49 AM

Anonymous writes: quote: "people no need to complaint this is an alpha version still way to early on developing just try it if not works well it will get better soon" we're not complaining. we're filing bug reports. that's what you do with alpha versions.

Boy Laneboylane Sunday, April 5, 2009 4:04:16 AM

As the main posting says: "It is something pre-alpha, it will crash. So be prepared and don't complain later p"

It works for some, it doesn't work for others. Worst so far seem to be ATi cards, nothing unexpected. Also everybody has some specific config on their machine, different drivers, different settings, that may work or may not. Lucky if, but hey, read again on top smile.

One more thing to suggest is to disable all specific tuned optimized graphic settings you may have done in you graphics control panel independent from SL. Also make sure you use the latest drivers. If you run Vista and have Aero enabled, switch that off too.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/easily-disable-vistas-aero-before-running-an-application-such-as-a-video-game/

Boy Laneboylane Sunday, April 5, 2009 4:05:54 AM

@cuddledragon

Is that Windows 7? Did anyone get it running on Win 7?

TrasheVyper Sunday, April 5, 2009 11:46:59 AM

who ever run it on ati got good frame rates ? for example 3870 like -10% if we compaire with 8800gt ? 4870 more than 9800 cards and 8800 ?
if this is happening (hope so) looks like they are on good road to fix the ati prob p since i suspect they need to update some thinks at the graphic engine so maybie this need opengl 2.0 for example wink so they have to update gl librarys and sutch fanctions wink

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:17:37 PM

ARCTiC writes: 2009-04-05T15:14:34Z WARNING: LLVOAvatarBoneInfo::parseXml: Bone without position 2009-04-05T15:14:34Z WARNING: LLVOAvatarSkeletonInfo::parseXml: Error parsing bone in skeleton file 2009-04-05T15:14:34Z ../../newview/llvoavatar.cpp(1401) : error 2009-04-05T15:14:34Z ERROR: LLVOAvatar::initClass: Error parsing skeleton XML file: C:\Games\SLShadowViewer\character\avatar_skeleton.xml

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:20:59 PM

RT writes: After I log in...the default av's eyebrow is still appear on my av's head o_o! Because can't see the shadow, so is it need to turn on something to let the shadow be seen???

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:36:18 PM

RT writes: Oh sorry i found it is same way as Kirstens viewer to see to shadow.. but when change angle , the shadow will keep shaking D:

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 4:05:41 PM

Sephy writes: avatar body is see through when near objects with glow Mini map is not showing land just block colours like pink blue green still showing no shadows with a full reinstall of SV renderdeferred does indeed resets itself back to false. per pixel shading and lighting, unticks with each log in. still crash with going into appearance PC info is :- CPU: AMD (Unknown model) (3199 MHz) Memory: 6143 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001) Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc. Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series OpenGL Version: 2.1.8543 Release (me thinks OpenGL 3 is needed officially)

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 4:14:21 PM

Anonimo writes: To fix "LLVOAvatar::initClass: Error parsing skeleton XML file". It is a old bug affecting linux and mac users. It's about the decimal separator in a certain countries. If you windows env uses "," (comma) you need to change it to "." (dot) and the client will starts correctly.

Anonymous Sunday, April 5, 2009 6:13:13 PM

Imagin Illyar writes: If this is the alpha version I am very excited :) 32 bit Windows XP Quad-core processor 8Gig Ram nvidia 9800GTX - The shadows are exceptional! Everything works, avatar, solid, transparent, animated. Trees cast shadows on their own sculpted trunks, light & shadow plays across the avatar as I walk through them - simply spectacular. Just seeing your avatar's shadow stride along beside you in sunset mode is amazing. - Performance is great, no noticeable hit in framerate even with graphs on high and water reflections turned on. - The lighting effects outside are amazing but inworld lights are very, very bright. - In some areas I can see overlays of stripes and/or dots over some transparent prims, like trees. - As you said, anti-aliasing doesn't work. Took me a while to notice though :) - The details of the shadows are pretty much true to life. I have a fancy wrought iron gate. The frame is sculpted and the "insert" is a prim with a transparent texture of the wrought iron pattern. The whole thing's shadow renders flawlessly, you can make out the pattern on the stone walkway.

Anonymous Monday, April 6, 2009 1:46:43 AM

Jesse Barnett writes: Kudos on the installer! Very nice job Boy! Shadow Viewer is definitely alpha with some serious alpha sorting issues but the is a very nice tease of things to come. What does work looks very, very nice.

Anonymous Tuesday, April 7, 2009 12:22:19 AM

Leah McCullough writes: Hey!! I tried it but it crashed on login :( i also tried deleting the Second Life folder as you said above but it didnt work either... it keeps crashing on login... here is my pc information... in case it helps :)) CPU: Intel Core 2 Series Processor (1795 MHz) Memory: 3323 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Build 2600) Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GT/PCI/SSE2 OpenGL Version: 2.1.2 I can't wait to see it!! the pics i've seen look AMAZING!! hugssss see you in Plurk :D

TrasheVyper Tuesday, April 7, 2009 5:32:45 AM

deleted the folder etc nothink i gues i have to wait a bit smile

Anonymous Tuesday, April 7, 2009 9:01:36 AM

Anonymous writes: Quote "Is that Windows 7? Did anyone get it running on Win 7?" Another Windows 7 user here(Build 7000). Crashes at or just after logging in, sometimes requires a system reboot. HD3870 here. Tried deleting the appdata folder too.

Anonymous Tuesday, April 7, 2009 3:18:09 PM

Sephy writes: Make sure you drag those files specified on the read me, and hopefully it should let you log in each time, and for warning for ATI users, shadows do not work in this release...*mumbles... Nvidia, get all flash features....* regards

Boy Laneboylane Tuesday, April 7, 2009 3:58:32 PM

@Sephy

Shadow viewer runs without the files in the readme, that is mainly the llkdu.dll library. If it is not there it will only run slightly slower. The voice components you can skip completely.

It also works for ATi, at least for some, and it also doesn't work for some Nvidia, 8800GTS I think mostly.

Mileage varies as I wrote before and there are too many factors that so far nobody can really reproduce. Therefore it is important to post your success or failure here, including your hardware and software (driver) details. That's the only way to improve these new fancy features you all obviously love and perhaps make it into an RC or even offical viewer one day. Linden's are watching.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 8, 2009 11:58:05 AM

Tillie Ariantho writes: Still crashes instantly at the login status bar. Clean install into a fresh folder, copied the DLLs, renamed the config folder, started it via the *.lnk file which I edited to point to my own folders. I dont install stuff on C:, this drive is for the OS only. WinXP 32bit, SP3, all patches nVidia 260 GTX

Boy Laneboylane Wednesday, April 8, 2009 12:14:20 PM

@Tillie

Non-english Windows? Change you regional settings to use a decimal dot (.) instead of comma (,). That seems to be the major culprit and a bug reintroduced from 1.19 smile

Anonymous Wednesday, April 8, 2009 10:27:04 PM

Tillie Ariantho writes: Yay, that was it, thanks. :)

Anonymous Tuesday, April 14, 2009 11:18:18 AM

Anonymous writes: Just confirming it works fine on Windows 7 (build 7057 on an 8800GT w/ 181.71 drivers). Fantastic frame rate compared to what I've seen from other shadow viewers too. Only issues I can see are unrelated to the OS, I think: 1. Avie eyes seem to be set fullbright 2. Generated shadows are REALLY low-rez (is there a debug setting for this?) 3. Turning on AA in the viewer crashes it out. Forcing it via NVidia settings for shadowviewer.exe doesn't get you AA but does get you a horrific framerate. Anyway, great work. I could pretty much live in this viewer for day-to-day use if I needed to.

Anonymous Wednesday, April 15, 2009 5:00:37 AM

LizzLove writes: Like several others the Shadow Viewer will not even start. When I click on the shortcut, I get the hourglass cursor for a second or two, then nothing.. I checked the shortcut, renamed the settings directory (I did not want to lose all my chat logs), and disabled all the anti-Alising in my Nvidia control panel for the Shadowviewer.exe. Nothing seems to let it run. Shortcut properties "C:\Program Files\ShadowViewer\ShadowViewer.exe" --channel "Cool Viewer" --settings settings_1.23.xml --set SystemLanguage en-us The earlier Kirsten's SD4-R1 ran fine. If anyone figures out how I can get this working please let me know. System Specs Windows XP - SP3 Intel Core2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 2 gig ram DirectX 9.0c Nvidia 8800GTS Driver 182.08 320 MB Video Ram

Boy Laneboylane Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:12:55 AM

A number of people reported it doesn't work with cards with an S like GTS or GS. So seems to be a hardware issue.

Could anyone confirm success with such a card?

Anonymous Friday, April 17, 2009 10:33:00 PM

LaurentR2D2 writes: On a laptop HP Pavilion with Nvidia Gforce 9600M GT 512 Mb, the viewer crashes while loging on SL. The only working shadow version was Kirsten SD5-R1. OS is Windows Vista and the laptop has 4gb RAM

Anonymous Sunday, April 26, 2009 5:18:46 PM

Anonymous writes: As cool as the shadows are they are only cast by the sun and moon, at least on my system. Are there plans to allow object lights to also cast shadows? Granted this is going to add work to the rendering given the number of objects typically casting light, especially all those face lights on avatars.

Anonymous Sunday, April 26, 2009 8:10:16 PM

Anonymous writes: Downloaded to desktop. Combined two part installer into one. Ran install. Got text box pop up. Copied below files from SecondLife folder to ShadowViewer folder: llkdu.dll SLVoice.exe alut.dll vivoxsdk.dll ortp.dll Double clicked shortcut on desktop. Nothing happens. I uninstalled, then reinstalled, and still the same result. System specs below: Mainboard :MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD Neo2-FIR Chipset :Intel P31/P35 Processor :Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2400 MHz Physical Memory :4096 MB (2 x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM ) Video Card :NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 Hard Disk :ST3750330AS (750 GB) Monitor Type :Samsung SyncMaster - 19 inches Operating System :Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 Service Pack 3 DirectX :Version 9.0c (May 2007)

Boy Laneboylane Monday, April 27, 2009 2:18:38 AM

@Anonymous 1
This viewer also works with shadows and projection from objects and textures. But I read something this feature has not been commited to the latest sources. Not affecting Shadow Viewer.

@Anonymous 2
Cards with and S are prone not to work. I don't know why.

Also, do you use a non-english version of Windows? If so check if you use a decimal comma and replace it with a dot.

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