Emerald Viewer advantages?

i already answered this on the bog, err blog.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/72377#72377

but on there i forgot to add vertical tabs, 100% transparency, and increased build precision

also i said it in the post of mine i linked but it's important enough to say again here:

EVERY VERSION GETS FEATURES WE ASKED FOR!!!


by the way, forget who mentioned it now, but the radar cam-to is not limited to 96 meters, it is limited to whatever your draw distance is set to and also affected by the debug setting of how many avatars at a time you can render. once an avatar has begun rendering you can cam-to as far away as 1024 meters, at least in teh current version. not sure what version draw got boosted in.

Well Emerald viewer appears to be clean (for now!), but there's at least one 3rd party viewer out there that phishs SL login passwords. It's a dangerous game not knowing who the developers are of these new generation of Viewers.
As i've stated elsewhere, it won't be long before we'll see malicious 3rd party viewers that have Trojan horses (server plants) embedded in a non-functioning button...or Malware. The same happened during the the history of IRC chat clients, chatters were getting hacked left, right and centre!!. When you have Open Source software, plenty can be added or subtracted to the coding. The fact remains, that some of those Emerald script kiddies started out their developing lives adding Copybot functionality to their viewers (Vlife,CryoLife & Phox SL). Why did they do that, knowing all the hoohah surrounding SL content theft? What made them turn over a new leaf?

Having said that, there are trustworthy 3rd party viewers around like Hippo, RealXTend, the old Onrez viewer, Cool Viewer, the old Nicholaz viewers, Imprudence to name a few.

Tis true the emerald team delivers on features. Wish I could still use it. But I can't.

And watch out for setting the draw distance to 1024 lol. My video card can't handle it. Wish it could.

the source is there. is the issue you don't speak of, something that you could work around by hiring someone you trust (if there is anyone lol) to code you your own compile? i realize and accept that you might not be able to answer that, just asking in case you can. of course i suppose it's possible that if said coder is brilliant enough you could cherry pick the features you like and marry them to the official source.


in passing and not related to anything you've said except by the most remote tangent, but someone else said earlier that Emerald is now working with LL and that increased trust for them. not me, it decreases it lol. i saw a post on the Emerald forums some time back with something about Emerald doing some kind of phone-home if someone tried to rip a texture; that was edited out shortly after i saw it. and i saw noise in some blog or transcript or mailing list or something about an inventory sniffing routine to detect possibly copybotted stuff. that bothers me.

but i assume everything on my machine that is internet aware wants to bite me in the a-- and i do what i can to armor my a--. eventually my efforts may fail. next best thing i can do is limit my losses. my rl bank account never has more in it than i have to have to conduct a week's business. etc.

and yea neither can mine, i mean i can set it to that but it doesnt really do it lol unless i turn off render of everything i'm not interested in and leave on only render what i want. i can do 512 if i'm not trying to move around much and have all the eye candy off which i usually have off anyway.

I'm planning to buy a new graphics card this year. It is an "even" year so it should be a good year for a new nvidia card. Then I should be all set for filament hair in a couple years.

I suspect the emerald team is going to begin having a lot of positive influence over the development of this new uber sekret viewer LL is cooking.

That quick filter drop-down is a must have. Can't get by without that.

Along with temp uploads; Previously, I used to run an OpenSim to test sculpts and textures, I haven't run it since Emerald.

lol random thought i just had, re the oft-referenced erstwhile behavior of certain devs. who else remembers the scene near the end of 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' where the governor pardons the trio of crooks?

Pappy: It seems that Mr. Stokes has a grudge against the Soggy Bottom Boys, on account of their rough and rowdy past.
[boos]
Pappy: Seems, Mr. Stokes is the kind of fella who wants to cast the first stone. Well, I'm with you folks. I'm a forgive 'n' forget Christian, and I say, if their rambunctiousness, and misdemeanory, is behind them... [turns away from the mike, towards Everett] It is, ain't it, boys?
Everett: Uh, yes sir, it is.
Pappy: Then, by the powers vested in me, I hereby proclaim that they is pardoned. And furthermore, by way of endorsing my candidacy, the Soggy Bottom Boys are gonna lead us all in a rousing chorus of "You Are My Sunshine."
[Applause. Pappy turns away from the mike, towards Everett]
Pappy: Ain't you, boys?
Everett: Governor, it's one of our favorites.
Pappy: Son... you're gonna go far. [to the audience] Furthermore, in the second Pappy O'Daniel administration, these boys is gonna be my brain trust.
Delmar: What's that mean, Everett?
Everett: Well, that means we'll be the power behind the throne, so to speak.


if i was more in the loop i'd replace cast names with appropriate Lindens, devs, and certain vocal Emerald opponents.

Careful. You are about this close to painting people as KKK.

ugh. i hate having to explain humor. but Ann's right, so for the benefit of people that might stretch the comparison farther than i intended, i am only referring loosely to the humor i see of the parallel in the specifics of reformed crooks in the movie to reformed (allegedly reformed for anyone that wants to quibble, i have no opinion as to who truthfully has or hasn't reformed or how much) Emerald devs, Governor Pappy's pardon to ... hmm... Governor Linden's pardon lol ... and Stokes' decrying of the crooks' past to the very vocal opposition of Emerald by some, on the basis of certain devs' past. nothing to do with Stokes' or anyone else's other views or prejudices in the movie.

If I was going to seed SL users with a Trojan Horse, I'd bundle it with an external tool (say, an animation editor) using one of the key logging tools that don't show up in antivirus scans because the security company that makes them has an agreement with the antivirus makers.

No... how about viewer developers stay within the lines so there aren't viewer issues like that. I've been in SL for 3 years and have never ran out of attachment points. People who need more points are just abusive of the system.

I can haz a better idea. How about if they don't? It's much better that they continue to innovate and improve the viewer than let it stagnate.

I've been in SL for almost 5 years and have often wished there were more attachment points. Neck anyone? It's hardly an abuse of the system.

That's because you don't have a tail or paws. I have several coats with prim tails and belts that I've had to relink because otherwise I have no place for my tail. I don't use the emerald attachment points, but I would if they were standardized.

It's not the number of attachment points that's the problem, it's the distribution. Some of them are REALLY pointless (pectorals, for example), and some REALLY need duplicates (hands, pelvis). Plus there's joints like neck that exist in the skeleton but have no attachment points at all.

Just for this, I'll abuse the system with the existing attach points thankyouverymuch. (^_^)

Linksets can do more harm than megaprims, yet, megaprims are restricted. (=_=)

A user can take down a sim with a single attach point and the right script, let alone extra points. (=_=)

I wear a collar and a cooling pack attachment as part of my RP character. That takes up chest and spine. There are certain dresses that have shrugs, capes, bows and such that need the same attach points. (>_<

In the end, I'll still be wearing less than a grand total of 100 prims divided out to 4 attach points. =^-^=

But, if I chose to do so, I could attach 255 prims to achieve a grand total of 510 on the existing points out of spite. (^_^)y

Pectorals are good for mid-tummy belts and prim untucked shirts. =^-^=

That's very true. For me, areas like the pelvis/stomach and the neck/head always seem to be 1 short on available attachment points.

As for Emerald itself, I personally don't use or care about most of it's bonus features mentioned already. A lot of it seems pure novelty that I just don't have any daily use for, but it's nice that they're available for those who would use them. There's a few great features IMO, and those are probably the reason I still use the viewer instead of the official client.
1. The 100% transparency - A definate must have for building.
2. The Export current mesh -> save to .obj - Can't rave enough on this feature! Save body parts with your shape applied to a 3D file.. import into Blender, skin and stitch together, then resave. I now have a SL-perfect mannequin, which means every sculpt attachment I make is guaranteed a perfect fit. Every skin or clothing item I make in Photoshop CS4 matches my shape perfectly, and I can design and preview entire clothing ensembles OFFLINE, in 3D, and see it exactly how it will appear on my own AV, shape, skin and all. With this I don't even care about temporary texture uploads one bit.
3. Jiggly bewbs - Definately a novelty, but it's a fun novelty I leave on all the time. Disappointing that it's so broken when it comes to your own AV though.

The second attach points can be enabled in any viewer. The instructions are on the emerald forum. It is not something that is exclusive to emerald. Given how LL hates prim attachments and good looking avatars then we can expect them to refuse to make the secondary attach points part of the main branch.

It isn't something for people to bitch about. It is a matter of people choosing to not be compatible with the way the majority of the other active users. Sort of like LL viewers are like driving 2 stroke smoking rusted citrons with windows that won't roll up while the rest of the world drives modern day cars.

got any links to any tutorials about that?
pretty please?

Do you also not trust the other Emerald devs, who have never been involved in content theft? And does your distrust extend to other developers of third-party viewers like Henri Beauchamps and Boy Lane, who've certainly taken a close look at the Emerald code since they've adapted various features from Emerald for their viewers? Or do you say these people who've been involved in content-theft viewers are a lot smarter than the others and thus able to sneak stuff by them -- and also by LL, since it beggars belief that none of the technical Lindens have been sufficiently interested to take a look at the code for this widely-used viewer?

If I were going to worry about stuff, I'd be worried about someone in LL's accounts department having a secret drugs or gambling habit and abusing his or her position to fund the addiction. In my day job, as it were, I've dealt with such cases and know it's not that uncommon. Indeed, a relative had one of his credit cards maxed out by someone in the billing department of a very well-known and reputable British company to whom he'd given his details when paying a bill.

But I can't say it's an issue over which I lose much sleep.

All of that is inapplicable and irrelevant. Three people, who intentionally enabled thieves, are or were involved in the development of the Emerald viewer - not the other viewers that you mentioned, and it doesn't matter how many other people are involved with the Emerald viewer.

No. Presumably the concern about these people's involvement is that they might try to introduce exploits into Emerald, and I just don't see how such attempts could go undetected.

The Emerald website ask the question, "Why can you trust us?" and the answer it gives is that they provide the source code. If anyone has the capability to examine all the code for possible nasties, and wants to do it and compile it, then ok, but there is no way to know that the compiled viewer is compiled from the same source code that's provided.

It's not so much the possible secret introduction of exploits, or the secret gathering of account names and passwords - it's the characters of the people who are/were involved in the production of Emerald. They specifically and intentionally produced the means for them and others to steal content in SL, to the detriment of SL itself and the content creators in it. I see no reason to support the efforts of those people, and I see every reason to be wary of everything they are involved in.

Oddly enough, it was the sight of the "Why can you trust us?" thing that stopped me from downloading Emerald.

I'd add Emerald to the "trusted viewers" list. HOWEVER: There have been cases of people offering what they SAY is Emerald, but is not, and could contain phishing code. Be sure you only get the official version, direct from Modular Systems, not from some other website.

But of what, specifically, do you say you see "every reason" to beware, if it's not "the possible secret introduction of exploits, or the secret gathering of account names and passwords"? Given that everything any of the Emerald devs does is subject to the scrutiny of their other devs, most of whom have a good reputation, and of interested parties like other third party developers and the Linden Lab devs, I'm not sure what you fear these people might get up to, undetected.