Cool VL Viewer forum

With CoolVLViewer-1.26.8.80-Windows (Basic Shaders on), what was okay, now has some new random problems of overly darkened backgrounds, walls and objects. But then, turn off Basic Shaders and most of it "flips" to overly lightened stuff. . . What a mess.

( Below is the scene with Cool VL Viewer 1.26.4 (98)Basic Shaders OFF)
I use darker lighting effects for that forest, normally and .4 is the viewer that I love & trust, normally!

No log = no diagnostic

Follow the rules !!!

Yes, and the Rules also want the About... information, below.
A log and dmp file are attached.
(They are several days, old and do not go with the graphics problem, but Rules are Rules.)

"Cool VL Viewer 1.26.8 (80) Oct 25 2014 10:49:24 (Cool VL Viewer)
Release Notes

You are at 257579.7, 130032.0, 401.0 in Nakayoshi located at sim10774.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.56.64:13020)
Second Life Server 14.10.17.295641
Release Notes

CPU: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5800 @ 3.20GHz (3200.04 MHz)
Memory: 4062 MB
OS version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Memory manager: OS native
Graphics card vendor: Intel
Graphics card: Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
Windows graphics driver version: 8.15.0010.2226
OpenGL version: 2.1.0 - Build 8.15.10.2226

J2C decoder: KDU
Audio driver: FMOD Ex 4.44.46
Networking backend: libcurl/7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1h zlib/1.2.8
Embedded browser: Qt Webkit v4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Packets lost: 0/484 (0.0%)

Built with MSVC version 1600

Compile flags used for this build:
/O2 /Oi /MD /MP /DNDEBUG /D_SECURE_SCL=0 /D_HAS_ITERATOR_DEBUGGING=0 /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /GR /EHsc /Oy- /GS /arch:SSE2 /fp:fast /TP /W2 /Zc:forScope /Zc:wchar_t- /c /nologo /DLL_WINDOWS=1 /DUNICODE /D_UNICODE /DWINVER=0x0501 /D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0501 /DLL_PRIVATE_MEMORY_POOLS=1 /DLL_VB_MEM_POOL=1 /DLL_VOLUME_MEM_POOL=1 /DLL_USE_OLDFILESTREAMS=1 /DCARES_STATICLIB /DLIB_NDOF=1

I know that the viewer reports your GPU as "supported", but the support of such a lame and slow GPU (if it can at all pretend to be qualified as a 'GPU') is extremely minimal (class 0), and the newer renderers truly properly work with OpenGL v3.3+ capable GPUs (the OpenGL v2.1 minimum requirement still listed in the SL viewer minimum requirements dates back from 8 years ago and is pretty outdated nowadays).
The reason is that most of the rendering operations have been moved from fixed OpenGL functions (partly executed by the CPU) to shaders (entirely processed by the GPU).

There is likely nothing wrong at all with the viewer itself (nothing wrong in the logs, apart from the warnings about the GPU's lack of features). It's just the GPU not being modern enough to support the new rendering routines.

You could try with v1.26.12 however, since its (SL's v3.7) renderer might have some workarounds for older GPUs that were not yet implemented in v1.26.8's renderer (SL's v3.5).

If you still don't see things "right", try the current SL viewer: if you see the same thing happening, then it's not a Cool VL Viewer bug and I can't do anything to 'fix' your issue.

Thank you, Henri, for all of your excellent work and very prompt reply.
So, I just re-uploaded and re-installed your current CoolVLViewer-1.26.12.22-Windows-Setup.
And it all looks the same as my v1.26.8 exanples, above, even after every graphics option has been tested.
(Perhaps, I have not found the proper workaround "combination", yet?)

*** Just for others, who are following along with this message. ***
Singularity can run on the same PC, along with the Cool VL Viewer.
So, I did a test and picture of that same BC Dragon & Trees with Singularity_1-8-6-6156, Basic Shaders ON.
And it looks exactly the same as my perfect 1.26.4 (98) example, above. (I am not wasting space on this forum.)
But with Basic Shaders ON, get ready for moving a lot slower. . . For me, LL Mesh "destroyed" a lot of SL fun.
(And with Basic Shaders OFF, it is still a bit random with its darkness & brightness, so it is your call, folks?)

Singularity doesn't use LL's viewer shaders, but its own (modified) set and a different render pipeline, so it means nothing relatively to a potential bug in the Cool VL Viewer (which shall be compared with LL's viewer as far as the renderer is concerned).

This said, if Singularity works fine for you, then great: you found a solution (for now, because you'll still have to upgrade your hardware at some point in the future...).

I thank you, Henri, for allowing this message into your Forum, and for those of us, SL folks, who no longer matter.

To our older PC users, I am still using Cool VL Viewer 1.26.4 (98) with Basic Shaders OFF...
*** It does have some problems with "beams of textures", from Fitted Mesh, hitting and blinding me. ***
But it will view Rigged Mesh, which might seem a little bit dark, but it still works great, otherwise.
*** This might still be the fastest & most accurate viewer for building and viewing the rest of our textures? ***
At login, I receive 4 "New" avatar pieces and I simply remove the New Shirt and delete them, no probs.

One of my group's members suggested that I try the Cool VL Viewer 1.26.10.
(I only have version (19) but it does show both Rigged and Fitted Mesh. And I receive only 3 "New" pieces.)
Btw, you will have some unique darkening, here and there, with Basic Shaders OFF.
And then with Basic Shaders ON, it will look like my top picture, above.
But in this mode, get ready for some of that old "slow & stuck-in the mud" performance, you know.

Thank you for listening and please, respond here with your questions.
(A member asked me about my mesh tests, so I told them that I have bought several nicely rigged pieces
But at this point, with LL's strange Mesh Market, buying any of that Fitted beta-product, seems silly to me.
And for LL's Material Market, maybe it will become something like FTF, for Fear The Fluffy LL graphics on SL?

***
And I would really like to know: Why is Basic Shaders required just to see our normal textures and lighting?
( During my 5 years, I have never needed Basic Shaders to properly see what I have bought & built.)
***

... Tig ...