Where can I get Shadow Draft from?

I heard and even seen videos of a new first look viewer called Shadow Draft. It's like the latest version of SL just that it finally has some beautiful dynamic shadows like many Windlight fans wanted. Some people already have it so I was wondering, where can we download the beta from? They seem to have some SVN reps somewhere but I don't understand how to really install from there I use Tortoise SVN for other things but I'm afraid I may not have the compiler for it so I'd prefer an installable version of Shadow Draft if possible. Anyway can someone post instructions of how to get it installed? I wanted to see dynamic shadows since a long time ago

Taken from this thread:
/278/9a/270701/1.html

However, I haven't been able to get that to work yet. When i try to use the SecondLifeShadow.exe it starts the process, but that's it, and can no longer use the 'normal' release candidate .exe, and have reinstalled the release candidate after each attempt to be able to use SL again.

You may get it to work, iono, but good luck!

Also, this is NOT a beta. It's not even an alpha, it's not tested much and is not guaranteed stability whatsoever. Use at your own risk.

I got it to work on XP, NOT Vista.

I unpacked the files into a temp directory and manually dragged the app_settings folder into the RC version noted in the 'how to' instructions (very important).

Also copy the other couple of files outside of that folder into the SL folder, making a shortcut to the SecondLifeShadows.exe file.

Once in game, open the Advanced menu and follow the instruction in the correct format and Pow... shadows appear.

When I did it, the fps dropped and the sim pings rose to around 1000msec but I believe that was a SL thing, due to server roll backs etc.

Things I noticed:
My base hair would not show, somehow my head became bigger as well as my feet (even though the settings we as before, changing the settings made no difference).
Some items would not rez.
Some textures would not rez.
It was stable but unable to confirm effects on the client as the fps were so low, menus showing the effects, would not respond quick enough, although I believe this to be a coincedence with the server upgrading going on at the same time. No apparent increase in TextureUpdate, UpdateCull or other rendering pipelines. No texture warnings. It didn't seem to work on some sims.
As you are using a RC which potentially has the glow bug, which makes all glow items over powering, in the debug consul, look for RenderGlow and lower the setting from .950 to around .500 should make it a lot more bearable.

I will be looking at other effects, once the servers become more stable after this upgrade.

Thanks for the link. I tried it but my client doesn't startup and do anything for me so I guess it's not compatible with my configuration (I just get the SecondLifeShadows.exe process which eats 50% CPU all the time and nothing happens). So I'll wait until it appears with the original firstlook client then, can't wait

Is it possible for me to find RC 1.20.9 still, or not? It mentions that one, but I'm using the current 1.20.13 (Or whatever) at this point, due to forced updates. I think this MIGHT be my problem, but unsure. Still trying to get this to work.

And thanks ^-^

The problem with the programme using 50% resources and not doing anything is two fold.

You are using Vista.

You are not using the correct client version, which has a link in the installation note card where you can get the one that will work, when you unpack the zip file. DO NOT use the latest RC.

Note Card Contents:
-----------------------------------
Download the SecondLifeReleaseCandidate 1.20 RC9 from here:

http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php#download-Testviewers

install it and unpack this zip file into the installation folder (it asks to overwrite some files, chose yes).

Launch "SecondLifeShadow" client and:

- Make sure atmospheric shaders and avatar hardware skinning are enabled (Graphic Options).
- Set the debug setting (Advanced > Debug Settings...): RenderDeferred to "FALSE"
- Set RenderUseFBO to "TRUE"
- Set back the RenderDeferred to "TRUE"

Have fun!

NOTE: this client is based on a early stage experimental client, it's not even beta, use it at your risk!


Vittorio Beerbaum
-------------------------------

As I said before, simply extracting the zip file into the RC folder, will not work, you have to copy the app_settings folder over manually so it hits the target, and say Yes to overwriting the files. Then copy the SecondLifeShadows.exe file into the RC root directory, dragging a shortcut onto your desktop.
Then use the debug consol to make the right adjustments in the Client once logged in and suddenly, the screen goes black, and reappears a few seconds later and you have shadows.

If you meant me no, I use Windows XP Media Center SP2. Anyway I will try copying the files manually like you said, I read that note but got the impression I did what was said there (I only extracted the files directly from the archive and overwritten, didn't know there's any difference between that and copying the folder). Thanks for these instructions.

[EDIT] I tried it with the latest RC so that's why it doesn't work. Where do I get the compatible RC for it from? http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php#download-Testviewers takes me to the client download page where I only have the latest RC, the classic viewer or the preview grid viewer up for download (probably the preview grid one?). Anyone know where I can still get a setup for a RC that works for it?

[EDIT2] It was the Preview Grid Viewer. Use it on that rather then the latest RC and it will work, I got the client running. However there's another problem... I log in, follow all the steps in the debug settings, but whenever I try to set RenderDeffered to true in the last step the screen goes black for a little but there are no shadows and if I click anywhere I noticed RenderDeferred jumps back to False. Why does it jump to false, how can I force RenderDeferred on?

The release targets nVidia 8xxx and up; you said in another thread you're using an ATI card which could be a problem in and by itself.

Getting it to work from an RC is always going to be hacky and prone to random errors; just copy the actual shadow draft support files from the specific code drop it was compiled from.

And if it's the build that someone offered from the RA thread, that one wasn't that stable/functional compared to the previous one and is a few weeks out of date by now (there's generally a new sync every week).

Yes I use an ATI card. Does that mean there's no way to get it working on my end? Hope that won't be a problem with the final version though and it will be made to run on ATI too.

Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
OpenGL Version: 2.1.7537 Release

I hope this gets released in the first look /RC viewer soon because I really really really would like to kill my prim shadows.

That is correct. At this point the initial dynamic shadow client patches ONLY work with the NVidia 8xxx series cards, on Win XP.

may i ask if these include "cloud shadows" moving over the ground by chance?

Judging from a demo video that Torley did, the answer is yes.

YAY! Thank you, Mircea!

I got it working now that I knew which to use! FRICKING AWESOME!

This is what irritates me - I do not have any objection to LL spending time on making SL look pleasant, but restricting it to a specific class of hardware and a specific platform, I _do_ have objections to.

Yes. Well..kinda. I don't see any 'hard clouds' but more clouds makes it darker in a more realistic manner. I think this may also be true in the normal viewer however.

Either way, this looks awesome (Though my resolution is messed up...gotta figure that out.)

This is a pre-beta, unfinished product. It's not like they're doing it purely for that, but those are the ones that have the technology to handle it currently. Higher technology needs higher technology.

My results:

Slower rezzing of stuffs in general, though my frame rate is only really impacted while things are still rezzing for me. I can walk around fine and whatnot, and have it still operate smoothly.

For me, though, for some reason the shadows are rather..mm..jagged, sort of, and when I looked at a friend I noticed the shadows from her hair onto her chest were rather just little spots and not a solid shadow, which looked a little odd.

The client freezes for me if I zoom out too fast much, and it seems that a concentration of sculpties may do the same thing. I headed to Black Swan, and tried to zoom out and every time out of 3 I ended up with SL freezing. (SL, not my computer. I could win+D out of it and end the process).

I was, however, around sculpties fine at least some, it may have just been that it was still rezzing and I tried to look at too much, not sure.

I found that it also didn't look as clean or 'crisp' as my normal RC viewer, which may have also been why the shadows looked jagged.

I didn't check all settings, and probably could have somewhat fixed the jaggedness, really... maybe not though.


At any rate, it's fun, and promising, and I really hope it's being developed further.

Windows XP is not a "higher technology"!

Even excluding that, the graphics card requirements are very specific and that sort of exclusivity, in my opinion, is something that SL should most definitely be staying well away from. On the other hand I have said all this in other areas, so unless anyone wishes to debate it all again I will not continue.

If the current intent is on seeing what is possible and what the performance is and how to best go about it or try various approaches, aka experimenting, then it doesn't make sense to waste time supporting anything but the platform you're personally developing on.

They mentioned potentially merging the mesostructures work (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesostructures_GSoC_2008) into the shadow draft viewer as well and the plan for that is to simply have it around as a framework for potential features in the far distant future.

It's very much a work in progress and doesn't reflect on what the final version (which will likely be dissapointing compared to what's there now since they still wanted to place an entirely artifical restriction on the number of lights and shadows will likely suffer as well) will be like, or even what a first look would be like.

(Edited to add that I actually do agree with you btw . WindLight affected a lot of lower-mid end card negatively whether they want to admit to it or not and this definitely shouldn't be a repeat of that, but we can only guess what they have planned. That the viewer itself is rather restricted on what it will run on does seem normal to me)

It will still be restricted by graphics card though (unless I have entirely misread all those boring sldev threads).

Well it's actually user made from what i know, it's a 'plug in' for SL, not an official LL made anything. It's using the open sourse code from what I read. Of course the Lindens do occasionally liscence user made content. Either way it is a monster of a client, the makers are really the least of your worries. 99.9% of computers won't be even able to launch the viewer, I can't, tried.

As much as I fully agree with you here, it is true that this is not even an alpha yet. The SL Shadow Draft technology is as experimental as an experimental beta can be right now, so we're even lucky some people could actually trick the client and hit some console commands to get it to work. Just have patience, I'm sure in at least a few months they have to put it in firstlook and it will be available for everyone.

Either way this is why I don't like ATI like I do Nvidia. Their technologies seem to be running a bit off track and ATI is often incompatible with stuff. Next time I'm changing my card I'm getting a Nvidia again like I used to have in older times, they make video cards best for high-end 3D applications.

The development effort has come from LL I believe; actually compiling and releasing a working viewer is a resident effort.