Not long now…

… I hope …

In case you aren’t aware, for about 10 weeks my main machine which could handle Windlight well went out of action. At first we thought it was the Motherboard that was bricked so we sent it off with the warranty and then found out that it was not the case. So then we discovered it was really the graphics card that was to blame for the problems. Assuming that everything else is fine I should have the machine back very soon and enjoying Second Life like I should have. It’s annoyed me to no end because I wanted to fully experience things like SL5B and the Relay for Life.

So while I was in the downtime I managed to get my old computer up and running again. During the downtime some things went wrong with the machine. But it gave me a chance to experience Second Life from the older hardwares perspective. It intrested me because I always hear people with low end machines complaining that their machines are unbearably slow and get 1fps. It makes me think, what exactly are they putting the Settings at with the viewer. Case and Point this screen capture of my settings, hardware and frames per second.

This machine right here is about 4 or 5 years old now. Yet I seem to be getting 17fps on this low hardware. The only problems I get sometimes is that the machine will hang for a few seconds. But that is down to the machine having 512 MB of memory. Now I understand that some people having laptops and they really do suck for Second Life if they are cheap laptops but the fact is if you buy one of those cheap laptops you are shooting yourself in the foot for any 3D application. I know because I got one for the laptop and yes it sucks big time. I wonder what other people with older hardware get when they are on Second Life. If you read this blog let me know in the comments.

Somebody Dazzle Me?

OK so the next release candidate for SL was released featuring the new and amazing Dazzle UI. As much as the Linden Lab™ says that this is more than a colour change, it really just is a new lick of paint to an interface. and I personally do not like the interface..

It doesn’t seem to change the core way that it is laid out. That is a problem for me because I am a resident of nearly 2 years of age and I still to this day find things in the interface that I didn’t know about in the beginning days and it makes me wonder, what does the new Second Life resident think of this interface.

Not to mention…Dazzle is too…vista-like for me. Some argue that it is more Aqua like but I don’t think so. Its more of an Aero on spearmint flavoured steroids. The more I use the interface the more I want the old interface just because of the colour. Maybe if Linden Lab™ implemented a skinning scheme where users can create their own interface, sort of like Firefox does it, then I would be happier. Possibly people could sell their skinned SL themes but only as an option. Sort of like what they are planning with Windlight.

The only feature I like in the client so far is the in-built Anti-Aliasing. To those who do not play games and most likely will not of heard of this amazing technology. Anti-Aliasing is the art of pixel smoothing in 3D graphics which makes everything look a whole lot better. In some enviroments 2X is fine. Snapshot lovers will want to go as far up as possible to get the best photographs as possible.

Don’t think that going all the way to 16X Anti-Aliasing doesn’t affect performance. It puts a lot more pressure on a graphics card. Top that off with Windlight/Draw Distance and everything else and you have got to need a powerful rig to handle it all.

Havok4 and Windlight Arrives!

Mobile post sent by stuwarf using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Windlight Warf

I decided to try my hand once again after a year with Fraps. Now that I have a new powerful computer it should run fine. So in this video I tried to push it to the limit and set all the windlight settings to the max…and this is what I came up with

Windlight Bug

Windlight Bug, originally uploaded by StuWarf.

My laptop does not seem to like Windlight at all and always gives me this grey cloud effect which sucks…

Moses Anyone?

Moses Anyone?, originally uploaded by StuWarf.

This is one of my photos that I have taken with Windlight (on the PC that works with windlight)

My Days..are numbered

Recently on The Podmafia Podcast me and Gomem spoke about the fear of one day going in to Second Life and getting a message saying our machine is not good enough. Today I got the new Windlight on my laptop and, well this message appeared .

Its funny, my system requirements are largely higher than the minimum system requirements. I am sort of afraid for my Second Life now, but I think I’ll have to stick with the non - windlight viewer now because one day, and that day may never come… I may be unable to log on to Second Life on this laptop. Sure I expect cruddy performance, it is after all a laptop. But I don’t expect to be locked out of SL, I got this laptop so I could be in Second Life at nights and party away with friends in SL.