Emerald Viewer. the end.

Linden Lab has enforced their policy regarding third party viewers for Second Life.
The issue is about a violation of terms of service in regards to Emerald Viewer.

This decision of Linden Lab will affect anyone using Emerald Viewer, which is what I used. I adamantly refused to use the default SL viewer.
Emerald Viewer is a vastly superior third party viewer in all aspects. The vast number of people using Emerald is testimony to that fact.

Emerald gave the user many options and many controls.
The feature which I used the most was the control of lighting. I relied on this for my photography in Second Life. Any professional photographer knows that the mastery of light is paramount to producing quality photos. Without this ability, a photo is nothing more than a Polaroid snapshot.

Linden Lab is forcing users to use Viewer 2. This program is inferior to Emerald in so many way and lacks the many options which Emerald offered.

Many users of Emerald are refusing to log in to Second Life if they are forced to use Viewer 2. I am one of those users.

Until such time as a third party viewer comparable to Emerald Viewer comes along, I may not log into Second Life.

I am too busy in RL to research other third party viewers. If anyone knows of a decent third party viewer please post to my blog.
If I am not able to log into Second Life using Emerald Viewer, then I will use MetaBolt (metabolt.net) to check messages. This is a non-graphics text client.

To my dear and valued friends in Second Life, I miss you greatly, more than you know.

Until I return.

sincerely,
Regor Romano
Romano Photography

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more information can be found on the Emerald Viewer blog:
http://blog.modularsystems.sl/2010/09/01/the-end/

animate Linden Trees & Plants

How to animate Linden Trees & Plants:
go to: advanced on the top menu
CTRL + ALT + D  to toggle it on

click Debug Settings
a window opens at the bottom left
type:
RenderAnimateTrees
set the value: TRUE
close the Debug window

stop my hands from typing!!

ok, folks, hands moving when you type is so NOOB!!  please stop :)

there are 2 ways to stop the Typing Animation

1)
- at the Top Menu click Advanced. if not there, press Ctrl + Alt + D at the same time
- click Debug Settings
- another window opens at the bottom left of the screen
- in the white box, type PLAY.  the word playtypeanim will appear
- in the grey box below, the value says True. change that to False
- close the Debug Settings box

this is the long way, there is an easier way :)

2)
- on the Top Menu, click Edit, then Preferences
- on the left of the Preferences window click the Text Chat tab
- uncheck the box: Play Typing animations when chatting

I'll have further posts about other settings.

emerald viewer

you may have heard of Emerald Viewer. if not, check it out here. download the normal version.
Emerald Viewer is the most used third party viewer for Second Life, and it packed with some very cool features.

after much research, these are my personal preferences, but not written in stone, because i'm still poking around with the settings :)

many of the Emerald Preference pages have a Question Mark
click on that for brief information

Main Setting for Emerald Viewer:
- page 1 -
TP/LOGIN:
- uncheck: Double-click Teleport
- check: Double-click Autopilot
- uncheck: Send teleport destination
- check: Velocity Interpolate
- uncheck: Rotate Camera
- check: Always fly after teleports
- check: Additionally offset up by half
- check: Rotate avatar according to camera
- uncheck: Play Teleport sound effect
- check: Download new Client Tags
- uncheck: Display Client Tags
- uncheck: Color name Tags
- uncheck: Disable Teleport Screens (this way you can see if there is a delay in teleporting)
- check: Disable Login Process Screen
- check: Disable Logout Progress Screen

VOICE:
- do NOT adjust (unless you really know what you're doing)

SHIELDS:
- check: Clothing Layer Protection
- check: Dialog Anti-Spam
- check: CallingCard Anti-Spam
- uncheck: Show Load URL dialogs
- check: Disallow LLMapDestination
- check: Broadcast viewer effects
- check: Broadcast camera focus point
- uncheck: Broadcast pointer target
- check: Enable the active CryoLife code
Revoke Permissions
- check: Never (Original behaviour)

IM:
- check: Announce incoming instant messages
- uncheck: everything else below
- check: Request OTR if available (Off The Record)
- Vertical IM tabs: if you check this, changes the IM window to vertical format.  my preference :)

CHAT:
- uncheck: everything

MISC:
- check: Enable Always Fly
- check: Enable Ctrl-Alt-P to become visually phantom
- check: Enable Ctrl-Alt-S to ground sit anywhere
- uncheck: Block sitting on objects via left-click
- check: Show agent name for LookAt beacons
- check: ESC key to reset camera position
- check: Enable Minimap Rotation
- uncheck: Show the Search Bar
- uncheck: Always rez objects under the land group
- uncheck: Enable Restrained Life
check: Enable LSL-Client Bridge
- check: Radar use bridge
- check: True online status in profiles
- uncheck: Use IIMoveToTarget TP

CMDLINE:
- do NOT adjust (these are local chat commands)

AVATAR:
- set: X Modifier = 0.0000
- set: Y Modifier = 0.0000
- set: Z Modifier = 0.1000 (stops your feet from sinking too far into the ground. you may want to try setting 0.1500 or 0.2000. which, btw, will give an inaccurate setting to your height. i'm, like, 8' 4" when set to 0.1500 :)
- set: Agent Updates = 10
- uncheck: Render Avatar Invisible
Enable Selection Beam: personal preference

BUILD:
- check: Enable the highlighting of select prims
- do NOT adjust anything else - yet

- page 2 -
IRC:
- uncheck: both boxes

UTILITY STREAM:
- uncheck: everything

INVENTORY:
- check: Enable Mirroring
- SET: choose a directory on your computer to store
- check: Mirror Gestures
- check: Mirror Notecards
- check: Mirror Scripts
- check: Auto open Inventory window
- check: Wear objects in Inventory  via double-click (this works about 99% of the time)
Import/Export Backup Settings:
- check: all 3 boxes

EFFECTS:
- check: Enable enhanced physics on avatar breasts. click the Question Mark for details)
breast mass = 100
breast rebound = 60
breast max vel = 100
breast friction = 7
breast min vel = 7
- check: Enable New Shiny rendering

more information can be found on the Modular System website
further info found at: Freebie Telegraph

is the sky the limit?

Is there a limit to altitude in Second Life?  I don't know. But just for fun I thought I'd test that.
I ended up flying to 100,000 meters.  Yes, that's right - 100,000 meters! That is equal to 62 miles.
When I began my descent I started the stopwatch.  It took approximately 32-1/2 minutes to land; which also included the last 100 meters when my parachute opened and slowed my descent.  My speed of descent would be something like 124 mph.  Okay, I'd call that fast!