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Windlight is here folks |
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Infrared Wind
Gridologist
Join date: 7 Jan 2007
Posts: 662
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11-15-2007 04:31
It has both the volume clouds of old, and the new ones. The new ones also look better than they did in the old first look, they appear much higher. Volumetric clouds are at the same height; I know for sure as one of my sky platforms was placed pre-Windlight right at the top of them. What's new for them is that they reflect whatever sky theme's being used. - Infrared |
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Hiro Queso
503less
Join date: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,753
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11-15-2007 04:37
/me has been hypnotised by the water.
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Hiro Queso
503less
Join date: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,753
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11-15-2007 04:49
Now I'm unsure whether to bake shade into textures any more or not! Doing so makes a build look so much better with the regular viewer, but with windlight there is no need; in fact it probably looks better without baked textures. Soon we will be getting into the issue of client-safe textures/colours, in the same way web-safe colours is an issue (though not as major as it once was).
I think it's a nice problem to have though; I love it! I just hope that it will end up being more compatible with Vista than the regular viewer  edit to add: There is still a place for baked textures, you still don't get the same shadow effect that you do rl, but the contrast between a surface lit by the sun and a surface in the shade is a lot more stark. |
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Raudf Fox
(ra-ow-th)
Join date: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 5,119
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11-15-2007 04:50
I really like the fact that instead of two tabs for graphics, we now have one. I think that I'll be tweaking it as I work on a dress or two today.
One thing that might actually bug me is HOW aggressive the culling has become. In some cases, it'll defeat the purpose of having the camera constraints disabled. _____________________
DiamonX Studios, the place of the Victorian Times series of gowns and dresses - Located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fushida/224/176
Want more attachment points for your avatar's wearing pleasure? Then please vote for https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1065? |
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Hiro Queso
503less
Join date: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,753
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11-15-2007 04:56
I really like the fact that instead of two tabs for graphics, we now have one. I think that I'll be tweaking it as I work on a dress or two today. Yes I like that too; it always seemed a little odd to have them separated before. |
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Cherry Czervik
Came To Her Senses
Join date: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 3,680
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11-15-2007 05:58
I'm scared of Windlight.
I am building enough already ... I know what I am like, I can already feel land going "buy me! buy me!" - don't need even more incentive! |
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Hypatia Callisto
metadea
Join date: 8 Feb 2006
Posts: 793
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11-15-2007 06:13
Now I'm unsure whether to bake shade into textures any more or not! Doing so makes a build look so much better with the regular viewer, but with windlight there is no need; in fact it probably looks better without baked textures. Soon we will be getting into the issue of client-safe textures/colours, in the same way web-safe colours is an issue (though not as major as it once was). what we really need with windlight is light mapping !!!!!!!! Especially for indoors. Indoors should not look the same as outdoors. http://www.flipcode.com/articles/article_lightmapping.shtml I think it's a nice problem to have though; I love it! I just hope that it will end up being more compatible with Vista than the regular viewer Using it with Vista with no problems here edit to add: There is still a place for baked textures, you still don't get the same shadow effect that you do rl, but the contrast between a surface lit by the sun and a surface in the shade is a lot more stark. I'll say it again... light mapping! or some sort of real time per-pixel lighting, but I would assume light maps would be the easiest to implement. _____________________
... perhaps simplicity is complicated to grasp.
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Michael Bigwig
~VRML Aficionado~
Join date: 5 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,181
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11-15-2007 06:19
Everything looks great (albeit running at 5 fps on my P3).
Two questions: 1) Certain textures (floors & walls) are way over-exposed. Blown-out. What do you think the best way to fix this is? Darkening the ambient color of the texture? Or the diffuse channel? 2) I see that WL incorporates glow...awesome...now how do we turn that on. I looked in the prim's 'features', and didn't see a glow tab. Perhaps the 'light' feature is what makes something glow, but my vidcard (Geforce FX 5600) doesn't support HDRI or glow...*shrugs* I'm super impressed with the reflection and refraction of water. That ain't easy to reflect everything realistically like that...games (DX and OGL) have been struggling on that for years. It's great that a VRML world supports that, and it looks great. I mean, seeing even the clouds in the water is so lovely...I'm such a geek for game engines and technology. One more thing...I noticed someone above mention that baking shadows isn't necessary now...why is that? Windlight doesn't incorporate self-shadowing or real-time shadowing...so why wouldn't we still have to create shadows or self-shadows ourselves? _____________________
~Michael Bigwig
__________________________________________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs  |
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Jannae Karas
Just Looking
Join date: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 1,516
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11-15-2007 06:48
TY to who ever it was above with the water/fog reply. Missed the environment adjustments first time through
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Taller Than
I Imagined, nicer than yesterday. |
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Hypatia Callisto
metadea
Join date: 8 Feb 2006
Posts: 793
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11-15-2007 06:56
I'm super impressed with the reflection and refraction of water. That ain't easy to reflect everything realistically like that...games (DX and OGL) have been struggling on that for years. It's great that a VRML world supports that, and it looks great. SL isn't VRML... VRML isn't SL. SL is a virtual world, but it's not VRML based. One more thing...I noticed someone above mention that baking shadows isn't necessary now...why is that? Windlight doesn't incorporate self-shadowing or real-time shadowing...so why wouldn't we still have to create shadows or self-shadows ourselves? What we need is a materials system. It's on the render roadmap on the SL Wiki. In that materials system, we desperately need a way to lightmap prims and meshes. It's very important for good lighting with a realistic renderer such as Windlight. _____________________
... perhaps simplicity is complicated to grasp.
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Dnali Anabuki
Still Crazy
Join date: 17 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,633
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11-15-2007 07:13
thank god i'm in that 20% Me too and if I wasn't, I would upgrade to be in it. Its worth it. Windlight is mind blowingly beautiful! |
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Michael Bigwig
~VRML Aficionado~
Join date: 5 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,181
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11-15-2007 07:16
SL isn't VRML... VRML isn't SL. SL is a virtual world, but it's not VRML based. Well...SL spawned from VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) I use the term loosely. Much of the code involved with SL is pulled directly from VRML. _____________________
~Michael Bigwig
__________________________________________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs |
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Brenda Connolly
Un United Avatar
Join date: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 25,000
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11-15-2007 07:22
When this becomes official, will it be selectable? I doubt my video card will handle it and upgrading just is not a high priority right now.
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Don't you ever try to look behind my eyes. You don't want to know what they have seen.
http://brenda-connolly.blogspot.com |
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Rita Hainsworth
Registered User
Join date: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 93
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11-15-2007 07:23
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Blot Brickworks
The end of days
Join date: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,076
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wind light
11-15-2007 07:25
ooer wow its like i cleaned my glasses ,so far i love it Blot
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Marianne McCann
Feted Inner Child
Join date: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 7,145
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11-15-2007 07:31
I've been dying for WindLight for some time, an now dat I have it, I've been snapping piccies like crazy
I note it doesn't work so well on baked stuff, as well as skins with heavy shading: the lighting adds a lot of that. I also find that turning graphics to "low" makes it oh so much easier to walk. Mari _____________________
 "There's nothing objectionable nor illegal in having a child-like avatar in itself and we must assume innocence until proof of the contrary." - Lewis PR Linden "If you find children offensive, you're gonna have trouble in this world  " - Prospero Linden |
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spinster Voom
Registered User
Join date: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 1,069
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11-15-2007 07:37
ok, I am probably very naughty posting this here cos I already posted it in the first look forum
/333/18/223516/1.html but I am beginning to suspect that not many people scroll down that far, and you've all been rabbitting away about it here all day and ... anyway .... I am having HUGE problems with windlight - 1 - my arms are broken ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7994626@N08/2031933536/ I remember this happened once before with one of the normal client updates and there was something I switched off in preferences, but I can't remember what it was, and can't find it in the firstlook preferences. 2 - very basic rendering of plain white surfaces ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7994626@N08/2031933756/ This building is all plain white, no texture, but shows as grey unless i check "full bright", as I have here, with one section on the left. Also, I get grids of red splodges on angled surfaces, which disappear as i get closer. I have tried tweaking various settings but nothing seemed to make much difference. For the moment, I have turned everything back to default. I'd be grateful for any tips on how to get this working properly, as water and clouds do look lovely, and I don't seem to have much of a drop in framerate. CPU: Intel Core Series Processor (1662 MHz) Memory: 1022 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Build 2600) Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc. Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 x86/SSE2 OpenGL Version: 2.0.5527 WinXP Release (and yes, I have checked my graphics card drivers are up to date) Oh well, probably just as well it's not working for me as I am supposed to be working. |
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Kelly Kuiper
Registered User
Join date: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 357
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11-15-2007 07:57
I took a quick looky earlier and was very impressed. At first though, water was a really unnatural shade of bright blue and there were none of those nice reflections I've seen in photos. But playing about with the graphics preferences, I set 'speed' (not sure if that's what the slider is called... I can't get in-world right now) from the third setting along (fast?) to the secong (normal?). Then those lovely reflections appeared. The light seemed less harsh too. Though i can foresee a sharp rise in the use of facelights.
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Infrared Wind
Gridologist
Join date: 7 Jan 2007
Posts: 662
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11-15-2007 08:39
Well - Here's my initial report:
I'm impressed. WindLight is working pretty well on my less-than-optimal system. I had very low expectations based on the last FirstLook WindLight. But I am pleasantly surprised. WindLight is totally beautiful, especially since I spend a lot of time on the water...and looking at the sky. I've been playing the settings...and there are lots... There's definitely a cost to WindLight in terms of CPU and memory, but Linden Lab has done a good job in this new FirstLook release. My biggest complaint of the previous WindLight release was that there was band between sky and horizon. That's fixed. The other was that volumetric clouds were gone. They're there now. It takes a fair amount of hardware to run the highest quality of WindLight, one can adjust down to fit the hardware.  -Infrared |
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Marin Mielziner
Registered User
Join date: 19 Mar 2007
Posts: 293
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11-15-2007 08:58
Can someone double check something for me? I have a texture that isn't rendering (water texture) and before I file a bug report I'd like to make sure it isn't just me... http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Botanical%20Gardens/229/71/27 (There should be water in that fountain, not grey boxes...) Thanks! I suppose many of you will check this, but last night a friend using Windlight was at my house last night and would occasionally see boxes everywhere and my avatar seemed to disappear to him at one point leaving just my name floating. Maybe it's a bug. But he WAS very enthusiastic at what he was seeing at other times. |
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Michael Bigwig
~VRML Aficionado~
Join date: 5 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,181
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11-15-2007 09:00
Why does the sailboat not reflect in the water? I thought 'reflect everything' meant everything.
BTW--that shot looks freakin beautiful. _____________________
~Michael Bigwig
__________________________________________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs |
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Maggie McArdle
FIOS hates puppies
Join date: 8 May 2006
Posts: 2,855
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11-15-2007 09:01
So, has anyone come up with a decent realistic day yet? Something decently long, and with a 24-hour time on it? Would love for this to actually experience longer/shorter days, and so on... thats where i have problems, every time i try to set it up i either crash, or it wont start  HALP?_____________________
There's, uh, probably a lot of things you didn't know about lindens. Another, another interesting, uh, lindenism, uh, there are only three jobs available to a linden. The first is making shoes at night while, you know, while the old cobbler sleeps.You can bake cookies in a tree. But the third job, some call it, uh, "the show" or "the big dance," it's the profession that every linden aspires to.
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Ava Glasgow
Hippie surfer chick
Join date: 27 Jan 2007
Posts: 2,172
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11-15-2007 09:11
When you mention shaders, are you referring to the shaders in the graphics tab of the preferences section? I was able to resolve the issue quickly and easily without going there. Did you try going to World > Environmental Settings > Environment Editor? Adjusting the water fog there cleared up my lagoon beautifully. I wont have to miss my fishies. The water fog adjuster is grayed out. It doesn't work if your graphics card doesn't support the shaders. |
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Marianne McCann
Feted Inner Child
Join date: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 7,145
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11-15-2007 09:12
_____________________
"There's nothing objectionable nor illegal in having a child-like avatar in itself and we must assume innocence until proof of the contrary." - Lewis PR Linden "If you find children offensive, you're gonna have trouble in this world " - Prospero Linden |
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Conifer Dada
Hiya m'dooks!
Join date: 6 Oct 2006
Posts: 3,716
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11-15-2007 09:26
Shadows (and by extension, walls that block light) won't be something you see any time soon, sadly. Maybe not, but the system knows where every point in space is and from which direction light is coming, so the data is there already. It's just the processing of it to make shadows they've got to work out LOL! But on a more serious note, I'd have thought that if the system can render basic reflections on water and on shiny prim surfaces, it should be able to do shadows too. _____________________
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