Disclaimer

Black Dragon is MY Viewer, i decide which feature i want to add and which to remove, i share this Viewer to show the world that user base size is not important, i do rate quality by effort, thought and love put into the project, not some rough estimated numbers. I consider feature requests only if i you can name proper valid reasons i can agree on. It is my (unpaid) time i'm putting into this project, i'm not here to cater to every Joe's desires.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Black Dragon Viewer - Update 2.5 - Alpha 2 "Beyond"

This update focuses on the very scarce feedback i've gotten so far.

It should fix quite some enormous log spam, errors, wrong debug options, some debugs possibly not saving, as well as some people's problem not being able to enable Deferred with mid-range GPU's.

See the changelog for all the changes and tell me if your issue was fixed.


Lastly i made some quick comparison shots too, so i can remind you of the basic graphical differences.

Note: I tried using the same camera position and rotation, using scripted camera on the first 2 shots and manual positioning on the last 2 ones. I've also used exactly the same sky preset and used max graphics on both Viewers (except the last shot where Volumetric Light makes little sense). Both Viewers use different camera settings and the world rendering screen in the LL Viewer is slightly smaller in height which changes the field of view outside of your own field of view setting making it impossible to get the exact same shot, but they should suffice i suppose. Also clouds, freaking impossible to sync up in both viewers... ugh.







Changelog



2.5 Alpha 2


Changed: Set Window Size floater layout and style to match the new stylings in Preferences.
Changed: Increment steps of SSAO Factor slider to 0.01 for greater precision.
Changed: Applied SSAO Factor increment changes to Machinima Sidebar slider too.
Changed: Display preferences layout for better readability.
Changed: Joystick floater (Flycam Setup) layout and title colors to comfort the style used in preferences.
Changed: Made feathering sliders spinners for easier and more precise control.
Changed: Camera, Keybinds and Sound preferences layout slightly for visibility.
Changed: Applied the new preferences layout to UI Colors preferences tab.
Changed: Trigger threshold for texture memory warning raised to 1024mb total.
Changed: Make SSR stronger.
Changed: Disallow Third Person Steering mode in Mouselook.
Changed: Toggle Third Person Steering Mode off when switching to Mouselook.
Changed: Version to 2.5 - Alpha 2.
Fixed: Warning in floater_window_size.
Fixed: Warning in preferences floater.
Fixed: Several warnings about missing fonts used for languages we don't even support anymore.
Fixed: Set Window Size resolution buttons not working.
Fixed: Compile error in render pipeline.
Fixed: Wireframe mode in Deferred.
Fixed: Almost everything being invisible in non-Deferred.
Fixed: High UI/Find Widget frame spikes and errors of wrong control types.
Fixed: Right-Click touch being greyed out at all times.
Fixed: Bottom buttons in Places floater not clickable.
Fixed: (Potential) Some people not being able to turn on Deferred due to incompatibility with forced advanced shader level 2. Keep forcing shader level 2 as option.
Fixed: bindTexture and enableTexture spamming into the millions.
Fixed: Loading presets causes the display to go all crazy and breaking the display panel.
Removed: 800x600 Resolution from Set Window Size floater.
Removed: Shadow Occlusion.
Removed: First shadow split offset. (Seems to fix the ugly double-shadow on some windlight presets)
Removed: RenderShadowType control call.
Misc: Some Vector4 implementation cleanups. VW still not triggering a callback.
Misc: Viewer care and feeding, cleanup and unbreaking more tiny stuff that will never make a difference.


13 comments:

  1. Hi Niran, Thanks for this update. Maybe you would like to have some feedbacks on what problem is solve and what is not. First, the problem I had with objects that was not visible seems to be solve. Now I see walls around houses, hair on my head and shoes on my feet. But the problem I had to enable Deferred is still here. I don't know if it's related to it, but sims water realy look poor: no reflection and no wave. Thanks again for your good work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No Deferred means almost no graphics. Without deferred broken objects, textures, missing stuff and ugly looking everything is absolutely normal. Welcome to Second Life 2007. I need hardware information (sys specs) and your log file to see what might be wrong and why you can't enable Deferred still.

      Delete
  2. Maximum avatar complexity seems to be implemented in this version. I'm pretty sure this feature should never be in a client that targets photographers as part of its user base.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remember that the goal of this Viewer is not photography specifically but rather graphics in general. Having ways to improve graphics by removing graphics that don't fit in is part of that. Removing ugly, performance killing Avatars is just a part of the entire Viewer experience as is changing the controls and camera. Avatar Rendering Complexity is also a Linden Feature and as far as i understand the TPV ToS i have to include its functionality. I see Avatar Rendering Complexity as a potentially great way to improve Second Life by hardcore derendering everyone that has a big enough impact on the Viewer performance. If Linden actually tried they could force it down everyone's throat, forcing people to optimize their shit, forcing creators to optimize their shit, which means we get better and faster content, which means that more and better graphics are possible with the same framerates.

      Also: It's just an option. You can always just turn it off if you don't want it. You should be lucky that i don't force it the way i would want Linden to force it uppon everyone. I would have totally done so in the past.

      Delete
  3. i been enjoying this viewer again though sometimes takes forver for a sim to load. these a couple pics, using tone mapping as well
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jredstar/25954976274/in/dateposted-public/
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jredstar/26532654791/in/dateposted-public/
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jredstar/25912178813/in/dateposted-public/
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jredstar/26156503481/in/dateposted-public/

    ReplyDelete
  4. you should try videoing a wedding Niran! damn near every guest is pegged way into the red. FPS just drops like a rock

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's easy, you derender everyone except the 2 wedding partners.

      Delete
  5. Hey Niran, awesome update, and runs smoothly.
    Just 1 question. How can you set that the snapshot has by default Freeze World active rom start. When I login, in my first snapshot the Freeze World is always unchecked, once I have checked it from then on it stays on till I logoff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can't, that was a bug which was fixed in the last update.

      "Fixed: Freeze World always enabled when first opening the snapshot floater."

      Delete
    2. Aaaah OK. Well will use a workaround then...

      Delete
  6. working a midrange computer.. Niran your sunsets are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay is...is this going to be a running gag now?

      Am i suppose to answer with the questionable sentence:"If you like my sunsets, you'll really enjoy seeing my 'sun' rise"?

      Delete