I mentioned previously that the latest version of WindLight® was an abomination, but only now is the true measure of FAIL being discovered.
Apparently, the issue with C:SI swords and other attachments being partially visible (or as Colin puts it: "turned my Wave into airport landing lights) when they are not supposed to be is intentional.
Lemme just pause while that last sentence sinks in….
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Yes, Seriously. Torley Linden specifically commented on this fact way back on 2007-12-13, but I only discovered it today on the Torley Linden/Project Updates page of the Second Life® Wiki. Specifically, here’s what that page has to say regarding the issue:
[2007-12-13] [WINDLIGHT] Alpha textures becoming opaque at a distance
Yes, it’s intentional that alpha (32-bit, see-through) textures become opaque (solid) at a distance — this was done as a speed booster, since layered alpha textures decrease performance.
At the same time, I know how ugly it looks in some situations, and how it impairs other things — for example, if want to take a picture of an apartment building and the contents of its floors, but when I zoom out, the glass windows (alpha textures) go opaque, blocking my view.
I wonder if it’d be a good idea to map this to Objects Mesh Detail… or provide an option in Debug Settings.
Next steps: collate Issue Tracker stuff related to this like VWR-3101, forward to our Developers on Team WindLight® for a better solution…
There are apparently no less than 20 issues in Jira related to this, and it seems from everything I’ve seen so far (especially given the amount of time that this issue has apparently already existed), that there is no intention of fixing it. The best indication that I’ve seen thus far that LL has any intention of doing anything at all is a quote from Torley on the 15th :
Look for a fix for this soon — the transition should be more reliable.
In other words, "we intend to keep alpha textures opaque, but we’ll try to make it so that it only happens at 5 meters instead of 0.5", or something very likely to that effect.
Thinking forward, since WindLight® is effectively a beta test version that runs on the main grid, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that they intend to migrate this fucked up idea to all versions of the viewer in the future.
I’m so flabbergasted I can’t think of anything else to say. I’m just…
Seriously, Linden Lab® : WTF were you thinking? Do you *ever* actually USE Second Life?
P.S.: I know that at least Torley uses Second Life® and I love Torley, but Torley is an always-optimistic, "make the best of things" person who doesn’t appear to be the one making these asinine decisions, so please don’t think I’m picking on Torley in this post.
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There are more facts about this stupid decision in the following Second Life Forums discussions:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=237091
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=237122
It’s a bit embarassing too. I sparred for like 1 hour tonight. Wound up saying “ready” with my sword sheathed like 3 times. My opponents were nice enough to give me heads up. I was like, “sorry, WL makes every friggin thing visible.” LOL, now I give a test kick before saying “ready.”
This is the most ridiculous idea I’ve seen from LL yet. They’ve got havok 4 on the way and Mono following to help deal with some of the performance issues. There are some new features specifically to help with performance in the Windlight viewer like impostors (a togglable feature I might add) and now, despite the angry mob gathering outside their offices with pitchforks, torches and freebie paintball guns they don’t seem to be prepared to remove this terrible eyesore. I’m in the US. My jaw? It’s in China.
Malachi says: “I’m in the US. My jaw? It’s in China.”
Well said. That is exactly how I feel about this issue
I believe it was unintentional to make alpha culling optimizations (opaque alpha textures) occur without atmospheric shaders enabled. Otherwise, I agree with you guys - a seriously screwy decision on the part of Linden Labs. Some of the jira issues related to this have been marked “Fix Pending” so hopefully I’m right, this is an unforseen bug, and it won’t be an issue with the next WL version.
I hope so as well!
I can’t turn on Atmospheric Shaders without cutting my FPS to 1/3rd of what I get with them off, and I’m not entirely sure what it would buy me anyways.
But even if I *do* turn on Atmospheric Shaders, I don’t want to see my supposedly sheathed sword, nor do I want to see people’s supposedly-invisible “naughty bits”. They need to fix this issue by doing more than making that one setting act as a toggle.
As far as I’m concerned, Windlight has somewhat prettier skies (which I couldn’t care less about) but the avatar lighting, the oversized and poorly done sun, the odd colors, the poor water shaders (no fresnel term ugh), and the overuse of HDR bloom makes everything else look horrible. I honestly wish they’d put aside the concentration on pretty baubles and focus more on the fact that with *ALL* current versions, both my wife and I crash every 5 minutes or so, and I know with absolute certainty that this is an extremely common problem.