Are shaders in 1.9.1 gone?

One of 1.9.1's biggest new features were the enhanced graphics capabilities. Every MOTD crowed about it...

Now, as or 1.9.1.24, they're gone. In fact, 1.9.1 seems to have -less- graphics options than 1.9.0.

No more shiny on transparent, no more specular lighting, no more vertex shaders...

Can we get some insight as to why they were dropped? I tested these on several machines, and honestly, systems with graphics cards that were even -slightly- recent (read: 5900, 6600, 6800, etc) handled them just fine. On the low settings, my laptop's 6200 could even handle them.

They were optional: people could have turned them off... and they didn't default to on.

Were they removed simply because they were too confusing? Or is there a possiblity that we will see them again in the future?

Hello Michi, it appears you've already heard from Zero Linden about what's going to happen:

/290/fa/105534/1.html

The simple way to look at it: "Vertex shaders are cool, but they've got some slowdowns and bugs we wanna work out first. So we'll take out what's not working for now, fix it, and put it back in."

Historically, if a feature is "dropped", it isn't permanently axed for the end of all time. Another good example I can cite is the "click actions", which were removed from 1.9.0 but are going to be introduced in 1.9.1 because of bugs that were fixed and greater refinement to the icon art used for them.

Many things are also wished for, attempted, and if can't be done right using today's tech, maybe it'll come true in the future.

(THIS ISN'T THE LAST WE'LL SEE OF SHINY TRANSPARENT!!!)

We simply don't want to encumber Residents with broken features. Second Life can be complex enough; these things are meant to be enjoyed, not suffered through.

So don't worry--I enjoy those special effects too! ^^