CHUI: progressing towards mainstream release

I first took a look at the CHUI – the Communications Hub User Interface – project viewer on its announcement and release back in October. Since then, as noted in my SL project news updates it has gone through recent updates as it progresses towards readiness for mainstream release, quite possibly in the early part of 2013.

The past week has seen new updates to both the “release” version of the project viewer (December 22nd) and also to the “development” version of the viewer (December 24th). Both are available from the viewer download wiki page.

The “main” release – viewer 3.4.3.268591, was announced via a forum post, which highlighted the updates as:

• Addition of notifications and notification preferences
• Smaller Conversations and People windows with increased resizability
• Adding more ways to get to certain functions. For example, we added a speak button to the Conversations window toolbar
• Improved performance
• Bug fixes and polish

The new “Speak” button in the conversations floater – available for IMs and open chat

The resized floaters is a good step forward, as is the greater control now available in resizing windows. There are still some elements missing from the conversations floater people my find convenient (or at least annoying because of their absence), in particular:

• An ability to range IMs horizontally rather than vertically: many people prefer to have their IMs ranged horizontally, possible as a holdover from the “old” integrated conversations floaters which stretched back in 1.23.5. The problem here is that any move to incorporate this into the design would break with ergonomics of the “collapsible” nature of the current floater using the right / left pointing chevron buttons
• The inclusion of a teleport button for the IM windows: this is altogether more useful, and it is hard to see why this was dropped from the redesign, given it is part of the current IM floater layout, and most likely a button which sees frequent use. OK, so teleports can still be achieved via the right-click context menu, but if convenience is the name of the game, it is hard to see why the teleport button has been ignored

The three compact views of the Conversations floater: one reason horizon IM tabs may not be incorporated

Whither the Survey?

One thing still very much missing from the CHUI project is the promised user survey. When the project viewer was first launched in October, the Lab specifically asked people to try it out and consider a number of questions relating to it, noting that, “We’ll ask you to complete a survey in approximately one week to gather your thoughts on these questions.”

The survey has yet to appear. Whether this is because the feedback coming through the CHUI JIRA has been sufficient for the project team (and the amazing Whirly Fizzle has been generating an incredible amount of detailed and informative feeback!) is unclear.

Current Status

The precise status of the project is unclear, but it appears to be reaching a “feature complete” status – which again raises the question as to whether we ill see a survey on the project or not. Merging the project viewer to the 3.4.3 code base would appear to move it one step closer towards a viewer development  / beta viewer merge (both are now 3.4.4 code), but there are wider issues within the viewer still be rectified. For example, nothing happens at all when right clicking on any object contents – the usual context menu fails to appear. It’s therefore unlikely that the CHUI code will make an appearance in a development or beta viewer until such time as it has been confirmed problems like this have been identified and resolved.

In the meantime, and if you haven’t already done so and would like to, the CHUI JIRA remains open for comment, and the project viewer can be obtained from the SL Alternate Viewers wiki page (links below).

Related Links

• CHUI blog post
• SL wiki page for alternative viewers (include the “release” and “dev” versions of the CHUI project viewer)
• CHUI JIRA

“Tiling” snapshot fix (and more) now in the SL release viewer, Dolphin, Niran’s and RLV

Snapshot Tiling Fix

The snapshot tiling fix (MAINT-628) can now be found in the following viewers:

• Dolphin viewer 3.4.6.26773+ (current release now 3.4.7.26856)
• Niran’s Viewer 2.0.5+
• Restrained Love 2.8.3.5+ (Windows)
• SL release viewer 3.4.3.268262+ (released: 18th December).

Tiling test for Dolphin (3.4.6.26773+): image taken at 3500×2134 resolution using Dolphin 3.4.6.26773. Location: The Island of Armenelos (M) (click to enlarge) – fix also in the latest SL official viewer (3.4.3.28262), Niran’s Viewer (2.0.5+) and RLV (2.8.3.5+)

Graphics Preferences Updates for GPU Classes

The SL viewer, Dolphin and RLV all include the new Graphics Preferences settings related to the ongoing GPU table updates. These new options place additional “stops” on the Quality and Speed slider between the four original settings of Low, Mid, High and Ultra, which are intended to better represent the default SL capabilities of different GPU classes,

The new “intermediary” graphics settings intended to better represent the default SL capabilities of different GPU classes

SSAO Fix for Horizon Haze

Also included in the recent Dolphin and Niran’s Viewer releases, is Tofu Blizzard’s SSAO improvements for generating horizon haze over Linden Sea (“ambient  distance fog”). This helps overcome a long-standing bug within the viewer which has effectively broken / nerfed horizon haze over Linden Water for a considerable time.

SSAO haze effect – fix from Tofu Blizzard, available in deferred mode on Dolphin and Niran’s viewers. (image courtesy of Niran V Dean) – click to enlarge

Space Reflections

Niran’s viewer also introduces an interesting / experimental viewer-side feature from Tofu Blizzard called “space reflections”, designed to create reflections on shiny surfaces when running in deferred mode and with the appropriate Graphics Preferences option enabled. It’s not perfect, but it can be used to produce some interesting effects, as shown below, if only for those running a viewer which can render the desired results.

Tofu Blizzard’s “space reflections”: (l) a viewer running in deferred mode; (r) Niran’s viewer running in deferred with “space reflections” active to produce reflections both on the floor and inside the large sphere (click to enlarge)

Related Links

• Dolphin Viewer blog
• Dolphin Viewer 3.4.6.26773 release notes
• Dolphin Viewer download page
• Niran’s Viewer blog
• Niran’s Viewer 2.0.5 release notes
• Niran’s Viewer download page
• Restrained Love Viewer 2.8.3.5 release notes
• Restrained Love Viewer (Windows)
• SL viewer download page and 3.4.3.28262 release notes

WOOT! Snapshot tiling fix is here!

Back in July 2012, I indicated that Runitai Linden had a long-awaited fix for the “tiling” issues affecting high-resolution snapshots for some people.

The issue was initially reported in JIRA MAINT-628 at the end of 2010, and has impacted viewer releases since then, becoming the subject to intense investigation by users and LL alike. The problem has tended to make itself known when taking images at a higher resolution than that of your monitor, resulting in lines breaking-up the captured image in a tiling effect.

In July Runitai commented on the JIRA thus:

Runitai Linden added a comment - 18/Jul/12 1:57 PM

Fixed in viewer-cat

Fix was to use a large render target for snapshots that are larger than the window, but only when lighting and shadows is enabled. Screen space effects will still show seams when lighting and shadows is disabled.

If the graphics card is unable to allocate a single render target large enough for the high res snapshot, the old method of tiling is still used. On my GTX 580, I could take artifact-free snapshots up to 3500 pixels wide, but could not allocate a full set of render targets at 4000 pixels wide, so the old method is used.

Changes involve an invasive set of changes to LLRenderTarget, so QA should be careful to check various shadow modes, ambient occlusion, depth of field, and anti-aliasing with lighting and shadows enabled. Running with Debug GL enabled will likely cause a crash now when taking high-res snapshots (expected and acceptable behaviour), since the driver reports “out of memory” when trying to allocate a large render target. When Debug GL is not enabled, the viewer handles this error condition gracefully and continues to function.

Sadly, in the interim, things went slightly pear-shaped with LL’s viewer code, with major bugs appearing in the beta code branch which brought updates to a juddering halt which they were sorted out. Those reading my weekly project news updates will be aware of the issues, which were finally sorted out last month. However, in the interim, a LOT of high-priority work has backed-up, with the result that MAINT-628 appeared to be in a holding pattern with a lot of other work, waiting for the high-priority stuff to clear. When I asked Oz Linden about the situation, he could only say that the JIRA looked likely to be out “pretty soon” – which suggested a potential wait of a few more weeks.

However, for those using the SL viewer – the wait is over!

Beta viewer 3.4.3.267755 was released on December 5th, 2012, and the release notes contain a small but significant entry:

MAINT-628^[c] Highres snapshot – Rendering artefact (Window sized frame buffer regardless of snapshot size)

I’ve just been playing with the release, having long suffered from the tiling issue when trying to capture images at almost anything over my screen resolution of 1440×900 and the results are superb. The following two images were captured at the same image resolution (3500×2154). The top was captured using the current SL release viewer, and the lower image with the new beta viewer. The results are clear – but click to enlarge each, if required. Note the tiling line across the sky in the first image and the lack of any such line in the second.

The problem again: an image captured on my PC at 3500×2154 resolution, using the release SL viewer, 7th December. Note the tile line in the sky (click to enlarge)

Roughly the same image shot using the new beta viewer at the same resolution – no tiling line (click to enlarge)

So, for those who have been afflicted by the tiling bug, the wait is almost over. You can either grab the beta viewer and start snapping in high res, or wait for the fix to arrive in your favourite viewer – the wait shouldn’t be that long now, hopefully!

SL production viewer reaches 3.4.2

Update 18:35 GMT: Sometimes one reads the release notes and misses things. See the section on the Volume Controls towards the end of this article

The official SL viewer has now moved to the 3.4.2 code base with the release of version 3.4.2.267137.

This release brings with it a couple of signficant changes and a host of updates and fixes.

Steam Link-up Changes

Anyone performing a completely fresh install (including the removal of all account-related folders from the computer) will clearly see that the code for the forthcoming link-up with Steam is now present in the viewer, as the prompt to create an account will be prominently displayed.

The prompt displayed for anyone who installs the SL viewer for the first time – primarily aimed at those who will soon be able to download the viewer through Steam without necessarily having an SL account.

For those who do not perform a clean install, the prompt will not be displayed (as the viewer will locate existing account-related folders), nor will anyone who automatically updates their viewer should they see a prompt to do so. This means that the pop-up dialogue will not plague everyone who has an SL account, so shouldn’t be a source of annoyance. However, the cleaned-up bottom section of the screen (also with a “Create Your Account” option in the lower right corner) will obviously be visible to all, and gives a further indication that things are progressing.

This change also doesn’t mean the Steam link-up is live; I understand from Linden Lab that there are still some steps to be completed outside of this work. But again, given the viewer updates are starting to appear, it is reasonable to anticipate the time for a formal announcement to be drawing closer.

The prompt will also (I believe) be seen by those who come to SL via the “traditional” route of signing-up for an account first via the SL website (or any of the third-party sign-up options which may still be available) and then downloading the viewer. As such, it’ll be interesting to see if anyone gets a little confused by a prompt asking them to create an account when they believe they’ve already done so, rather than simply ignoring the pop-up by clicking CONTINUE.

Group Services Code

Large group management via HTTP service now part of the official release viewer

Key among the rest of the updates to the viewer is Baker Linden’s Group Services code designed to make use of the new HTTP service already available on the grid.

As there has been some confusion as to what this is all about, and at the risk of repeating myself, here’s a quick recap of the main points:

• The new code allows for improved loading of membership lists of very large groups, together with improved reliability in editing such groups (i.e. assigning roles, removing people, etc.), by the group moderators
• Until such time as the viewer-side code has been incorporated into all TPVs, the “old” method of loading group lists into the viewer will still be available. However, viewers using the “old” method (a protocol referred to as UDP) will have group loading capped at 10K members. This means:
  • That for groups with 10K or fewer members, there will be no change regardless as to whether the viewer is using HTTP or UDP
  • But for groups large than 10K, viewers running the UDP code will be unable to load the group until such time as they have been updated to the new code
• The code will not lead to any improvements in group chat reliability, and is not aimed at improving group chat.

The new code is gradually appearing across all third-party viewers, with many already incorporating it ahead of this release from LL. Further, the Lab will not be “turning off” the UDP service in the short-term, so there is no risk of a viewer which hasn’t yet updated being completely unable to load any groups at all.

Volume Controls – Update

New volume control options

This release also see the official viewer adopt the “Quick volume” controls from Firestorm. These provide access to ALL major volume control options for the viewer, rather than just the master volume control, and can be accessed by hovering the mouse over the speaker icon in the top right of the viewer window.

The controls appear colourless as they are awaiting work to render them in the official viewer UI skin colour; as this work has yet to be completed (JIRA STORM-1868), I missed the fact that the update has reached the release version of the viewer when writing this update.

Other Notable Changes

The list of updates for the release is extensive (and unfortunately without any JIRA references where relevant and tha JIRA themselves are still public). As such, it is advisable to take a look at the release notes to determine what has been fixed / updated.

What’s NOT Included

The new HTTP texture fetching service code from Monty Linden is not in this release. this work is currently a part of the beta viewer project (viewer code base 3.4.3), and will be making its way into the release version of the viewer in the near future.

Performance and Feedback

Performance-wise, 3.4.2.267137 is very good on my personal set-up, and allowing for the arbitrary nature of such FPS tests.These were performed in my “new” test area, a premium sandbox with 3 other avatars present (and building):

• Deferred off:
  • Ground: 38-39 fps
  • 370 metres: 43 fps
  • 2875 metres: 62 fps
• Deferred on + lighting set to Sun/Moon + Projectors; ambient occlusion off:
  • Ground: 11 fps
  • 370 metres:16-17 fps
  • 2875 metres: 18 fps

The non-deferred rates have me wondering what might be achieved on an i5 machine with something like a GTX660 and oodles of memory with a 64-bit OS…

This is a somewhat overdue update to the official viewer and marks a return to periodic viewer releases. Linden Lab still have much more in the pipe to filter down to the release viewer, and it’s liable that we’ll be seeing Christmas before everything is sufficiently caught up such that the release cycle returns to its normal pace. In the meantime, there will be on-going frequent beta updates with changes filtering through to the release viewer as and when they are deemed ready. Overall, however, this release should be welcome news for those who use the official viewer.

Related Links

• SL viewer download page
• SL viewer articles in this blog