Shadow Viewer 1.23

The search function in the Shadow Viewer is all messed up.

There's no longer an option for mature searches, and All Search brings up almost nothing but SL Wiki entries. Showcase has stuff from TSL in it.

Don't say it doesn't work. Here is Shadow Viewer running on HTC Diamond

I do think so. By 'Pretty much' I mean at most a 5-10% decrease in frame rate, but it was high enough before that it doesn't matter. I run on a 30" 2560x1600 monitor as well. Nothing like the 50% you have said. I have and do use this Shadow viewer, this is just my experience.

Coool! Do you have "shake to move avatar" working in your version yet?

I'm sorry, i don't have any explanation apart the fact that a gtx280 alone won't even run the standard client (no shadows) with *everything* on (including antialiasing) and a minimum distance of 256m at a reliable framerate (*i* consider a reliable framerate nothing less than an average of 40fps = under *any* circumstances) at 2560x1600.
I know that many people does have a different idea (i mean you don't really need to put all on, antialias, aniso, and the whole things... but without everything on i won't sleep the night... it must be because i feel unsure in RL lolz).

I do have two gtx295 (in SLI) and an i7 @3.8ghz with 6GB aboard, i may run the client maximized (including the antilias at a minimum of 4x ..i may even set it to 16x but i don't like the effect on the GUI), with a distance view of 256m (sometime at 512m when i need to build across sims) and i can hit that average FPS: ~65fps average, i rarely see the 40 (but i've seen it even with this configuration!) ...if i go on a desert sim, indeed i'm gonna have 130fps or more..

With the shadows i have to forget these numbas, i were able to go lower to 30fps or less (whenever the average is more than this) on fullfilled sims (and with antialiasing disabled! Coz it doesn't like it). At this stage is a damn frame killer. The whole point anyway is that SL is a framekiller (shadow or not), i think they should use it instead of the 3dmark ... but hey i have another PCI-e slot for triWAY, do you have 400 euro to spare?

EDIT: i fogort to mention (that's an important point): *IN WINDOWED MODE* ...full screen is a different matter (and not reliable for my usage).

I can't speak for your PC, but I have a QX9650 @ 4.0ghz /w a single GTX280 & only 2GB of ram and see little performance difference between the two clients.

5-10% total FPS difference is all I have seen @ max setting and max draw distance.

(Mainland might be another issue, I use this in my private sims. Mainland is a waste of time/fun to me.)

I also use it in windowed mode, full screen is a waste of 30"..


-edit-

also testing the client near flexible sculpted trees that cast shadows. Seems to work well.

That's the key point IMO: we are using the term "max" pointing to different settings. With max i mean really max, and there's not PC actually, neither mine if i add another gfx card, that can sustain it. Max is: all client options to ON / AA16Qx / Aniso16x ...Max view distance: 512m (official client limit). @2560x1600 ...you would count the fps on a single hand. That's why it is important to specify the settings exactly, because they would make a (huge) difference.



It's where you squish your setup, because all the components are there: graphic, usually fullfilled of prims and scripts, and high bandwidth demand. Ye i don't like mainland as well (well not all) but if you manage to go smooth there, you're safe anywhere else.



If you run it at 2560x1548 you gonna cover the whole screen anyway, it's not a matter of space for me, but for unreliability of app switch bugs under windows, it suddendly crash the app, it also fights with the SLI setup.

My pennyworth ...

My parner and I build houses for fun (last one a Roman Villa replica) but I'm put off by the lack of shadows in a build that would really benefit from sunlight streaming through a collonade.

A google about this threw up Kirsten's shadow viewer S17-2. For some reason my ATI Radeon X1300 wouldn't cut it , so I started researching graphics cards.

A survey in Dec 2008 seemed reasonably recent .. reviewed 'Mid range cards' (http://www.techspot.com/review/134-budget-midrange-gpu-roundup/). I actually managed to get hold of a Geforce 9800GT 512 for 85 quid second hand (it's a bit above 100 quid normally).

Kirsten's viewer was pretty good .. no crashes. Weirdly my avatar's shadow only showed my attachments although my partner's shadow showed up in full. In addition alpha textures would sometimes disappear .. a slight tweak of the viewpoint to the right and things would be OK.

I then found CoolViewer and this is what I'm using (1.23.0.0 R3 (b116519, 4 April)). Set up is nice (straight from SL's graphics 'advanced' setup). One crash so far .. after I swung the camera around fast on texture loading. No problems with the avatar view. I've had to turn my facelight off, and I've noticed on one house build the floor was set to full bright (why??) so shadows didn't show.

But .. the roman house looks cool, and for architectural demonstrations this option is going to be good. I'll run the full shadow stuff enabled on the main PC when I am building. Probably take it off for shopping and socialising but it'll get switched back on for some of the showcase sims. I'll run it considerably stepped down on the laptop, but this is what i like about the viewers .. they give me a choice.

It's noticeable that shadows hammered the card .. Kirsten's viewer far more than Boy Lane's. With Kirstens the graphics fan wound up to max .. with BL's the fan kicked in but to nowhere near the same extent ..

Full marks to LL for (and Kirsten, and Boy lane) for putting this in. Architectural views in SL are a joke without shadows. With them .. well, let's see what builds we get, shall we?

(Big note to those who worry about LL increasing hardware demands .. i was as suprised as anyone else to find that the 9800GT was a 'mid range' card. If I didn't have it, well, it's not the end of the world .. I just wouldn't be running SL in 'Ultra' mode)

Yeah, 9800's are cheap now and a basic spec games machine card really.I wouldn't even consider anything lower than an 8800 or 9600 in a machine nowdays.
the 8800's are near 5 years old and going to stop production soon, replacement for the 9600 & 9800 series has been out a couple of years now too, so their days are numbered. You really need to build a midspec games machine every few years to keep up, it saves a lot of hair puling using the right tool for the job.

Sounds nice, wish I could afford it.

You're pretty cluey, haven't considered building your own, it not rocket science
Just pick up a cheap box & PSU, pick a decent motherboard & CPU, some memory and graphics card over a few months, reuse your hard drives etc for a little bit, then upgrade them later. As long as you pick Intel/AMD and then stick to it so parts are swappable between later & earlier PC's if needed.
My latest one took me 6 months to afford all the bits part by part, but it's probably higher spec than I needed, though glad I did as it handles shadows pretty easily.

I ALWAYS build my own. I still can't justify it to my CFO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).

I managed to get my first SL photo with shadows. Since Snapshots don't work properly with the 1.23 RC viewer, I took a pic of the screen with a digital camera - so there's a loss in quality, but still impressive.



The place? Great Yarmouth - well worth a visit - it's still under construction.

Why didn't you just press your 'print screen' (Num Pad) key instead?

I know, I could have done but my mind wasn't focused enough!

Plus I was on a different computer to the one I usually use when on forums and Flickr, I sort of forgot that I could do it all on that comp!

It's a bit like how we might sometimes put breakfast cereal in our coffee mug by mistake sometimes!!

Well thankfully you was focussed enough to not do a cave painting of your monitor screen.




But if you didn't know about the Print Screen feature then don't be too embarrased. I learnt about it relatively late in life. and I'm a bit of a geek too!

I did know about 'print screen' but I have to admit I'd forgotten about it at the time as I've never needed to use it much!

Well the rest of the world can't hold up progress because a few CFO's are against it, it's a business expense isn't it?

OK, I decided to do some shots using 'print screen'! Here's one of them.

They killed reflections over less performance overhead and impact (even WITH a state of the art card) than this scheme. And I'd rather have reflections even if they're a hack.

Why do people take photos that are so dark? Do you have your monitor turned up to "trinity test" levels?

I think the dark is quite effective in the upper picture.

I fiddled with the settings a bit and I found you could get a nice afternoon light with stong shadows by making the sunlight stronger and more yellowy (by increasing the red and green), while making ambient lighting, which iluminates the shadow areas, a bit darker and more blue (by reducing the red and green)

Umm because it is supposed to be night/evening. BTW these are not photos, these are snapshots. Which reminds me of something: When will they implement photography simulation tools like exposure times, lens types, color filters?

Maybe, but I can't see it until I take off my glasses and smash my muzzle up against the monitor.
Why is the sky on a daytime setting?

This isn't just you. I have a hell of a problem seeing lots of snapshots that people post here.

As for filters, that's what Windlight is all about. It's certainly not for people who just want realism in SL.