Snowglobe - Second Life OSS - LL's open source viewer

I've tried the Snowglobe viewer, and it crashes too frequently to keep trying it.

Snowglobe is the name of the new viewer created by Linden Lab's new open source viewer system. Info is at wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Open_Source_Portal and there's a blog post at https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/technology/blog/2009/03/30/intensifying-open-source-efforts .

What's your experience with the Snowglobe viewer been?

Anyone have any comments on this new Linden Lab produced alternate viewer?

Hmm there is no First Look Viewer download currently I can see , if there was we would have seen it in Australia 18 hours before US, unless it's getting pulled in the future due to all the negative comments that are going to be in this thread

I just finished trying it myself. Too many lock-ups for me. I'll come back to it a little later and see if I can find reproducible causes of the lock-ups.

Remember, it clearly states on the wiki: "VERY ROUGH, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!"

Kitsy
^.^

Yes, there is no "First Look" viewer - but I gave links to what I was talking about. If there was a forum specifically for this new viewer then I would have posted there, but there isn't one. The "First Look" viewer forum was created for viewers that are experimental that can be used on the regular grid, that is, don't require a change in the backend server code in order to test the new features. That's similar to what the new Snowglobe viewer is.

Here's the links I gave above: "Info is at wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Open_Source_Portal and there's a blog post at https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/t...fying-open-source-efforts ."

The wiki page has links to the downloads: "* Downloads: Recent installer downloads (VERY ROUGH, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!):"

Windows http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2298/Second_Life_1-23-2-2298_OSS_Setup.exe

Mac http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2298/SecondLife_1_23_2_2298_OSS.dmg

Linux http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2298/SecondLife-i686-1.23.2.2298.tar.bz2 (Build 2298, May 22nd, 2009)

So for us less technical people, what has it got the standard viewrs don't? Any cool features or is it mainly UI?

I spent a little time on it yesterday running shadows; I need to put more time into poking around in its corners, and hope to download it when the build changes (good intentions). It ran ok, but that's about all I can say.

The most interesting Snowglobe feature in this round, the HTTP textures, can't really be used for a lot yet. Most of the other new features in it are from the RC.

Shorter term, the map uses it with the new slurl.com tiles. It makes the map WAY more responsive but from the user-facing side it doesn't look like much (same old map, terrain tab went away, it just loads a lots faster).

Soon the long-dormant HTTP texture delivery from the asset servers should be done (that's server-side work being done in parallel), and that will be a bigger deal, albeit a nearly invisible one. It's expected to cut the in-world texture download times roughly in half.

Perhaps someone could start trying to work the Project Natal controller into the Snowglobe code.

What is the Project Natal controller?

Natal is a new 3D camera and mic gizmo that sits atop a display, it's the XBox response to the Wiimote.

There is a long thread on the sldev list about this, apparently LL already did experiment with the same kind of camera and decided that other schemes would be more interesting to them. That thread starts here.

https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev/2009-June/014166.html

I cant get the tihng to run at all: though I will say right up front im using the Linux version

Here is the result from Terminal when I try to run it:


I can run the official linux RC just fine.

The main point of Snowglobe is a faster and smoother way of accepting and including code contributions by 3-rd party developers, since this cannot be made in the main viewer.

Important note:
regular users who're not willing to deal with frequent errors, crashes and bugs shouldn't use this viewer. Please provide useful feedback through appropriate communication channels (SLDEV mailing list and PJIRA tracker) if you use it.


my experience:
Runs quite OK, it's more crashy than other viewers, and I got a few freudian, embarassing texture/transparency bugs (that is, appearing naked to other while you think you're wearing clothes).

@Aelon:
I never got that error on Linux while using Snowglobe. Did you try this recent build?
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev-commits/2009-June/002761.html

re: Project Natal
Note that you'd need to buy dedicated hardware for that (Depth Cameras), while Snowglobe will include (this year) code to make your avatar move according to your upper body's movement, by using common webcams.

Oh, it sounded like some new teledildonics pregnancy simulator

There's also the Sony video controller scheme, that uses a video camera along with a "wand".

For a company with a mission statement that is so broad and abstract that it doesn't include any reference to virtual worlds, the internet, or anything specific at all, there seems to be a narrowness of focus on some issues. One could just as well have rejected software that uses a mouse as a controller on the basis of requiring dedicated hardware.

There will be many opportunities to see what companies B, C, and D do with hardware company A deemed unworthy of support.

I think there will be a lot of success for software that doesn't require a keyboard and mouse to operate, or that will allow greater expressiveness with the use of additional controllers.

Is there a more convenient method of finding the latest installer file than looking through the mailing list?

there should be, eh? I think it's being worked on. This may interest you in the meantime:

(it's a template that gets included in the Wiki Open Source Portal)

Here are the links for the release candidate

Windows
http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2435/Snowglobe_1-0-0-2435_Setup.exe

Mac
http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2435/Snowglobe_1_0_0_2435_SNOWGLOBERELEASE.dmg

Linux
http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/downloads/2009/http-texture/2435/Snowglobe-i686-1.0.0.2435.tar.bz2

I have been using various builds of snowglobe for weeks. It seems to follow one version behind the RC as far as features go.(as the latest two version have the new pie menu order)
What's new is HTTP texture sortin and it's ease of 3rd party patchs.

Personally I am getting great results. Cached texture sorting feels much improved.

One thing I haven't tried is pushing the new http texture stuff. I asume it is only functional in certain beta regions. I could be wrong though.

[ i m g ] https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Template:Ossbuild-installers [ /i m g ]

The method of trying to sneak around this forum's crippled state by enclosing urls in i m g tags causes the urls to disappear completely for me.

I only see them if I can tell something is missing and click the Quote button.

Now if there was just a page in the wiki named "Snowglobe latest version" or "latest Snowglobe" with just the needed links and no reference to wiki templates and such.

Thanks for the link.

It only works with "Show Images" disabled in the forum User CP Options. People using this hack should include the url outside of the img tags as well for those of us who prefer seeing the images

I tried Snowglobe on my high-end Mac. It had many of the good features of the 1.23.4 release client, such as bulk permisions changes, and so far hasn't had the "disapearing avatar skin" glitch from 1.23.4.

BUT...

My frame rate dropped from 35 FPS under 1.22, to 17 FPS with SnowGlobe, in the exact same spot, with the exact same avatars and graphics settings!

YUCK.

I don't know if it's just me, but when i use firefox to open an SLURL to tp, it doesn't work. All it said was:

"Second Life is already running.

Check your task bar for a minimized copy of the program.
If this message persists, restart your computer."

Snowglobe is now on the regular download page. That's good.

Snowglobe seems to work fine for me, I don't suppose it has shadows by the looks?
And still I can't find a menu option to turn on the advanced menu. Had to keep trying random ctrl/alt keys till I found it :/

The shadows are there but hiding, you have to mess with deferred rendering in debug just like in regular 1.23, and it's still in the same buggy experimental condition.