Enabling Shadows in Firestorm Viewer

One of the questions you have to ask yourself when new features are added to the viewer is -- Can my system still perform well enough when I use them?  I am still on Firestorm viewer 3.0, but hope to move up to 4.0 soon.  While I do enjoy being an "early adopter" I also temper that by waiting a bit to see what feedback has been given.

I already knew that my system could handle the "Ultra" graphic setting for some time now, but never took that one step further by enabling "shadows" in the preferences.  As you can see from these pictures, the addition of shadows adds so much more depth to the graphics.  I often admired the photos that I have seen taken with shadows and wondered if I could do the same.

I am happy to say that so far (fingers crossed), things seem to be OK.  I have heard that some users do experience lag with them enabled and I have experienced some of that in certain conditions, but overall, I have been pleased with this new ability.

My First Year in Review - Part 2

Rocky returns to SL with a new computer and realizes the huge difference a better graphics card can make on his SL experience.

Getting land and making a home in SL was a pretty cool thing after spending months homeless and looking for discreet places to change clothes in.

Keeping up with all the changes going on with the club and keeping the community spirit that makes Jake's a home for everyone who comes out to party with us.

Meanwhile, my friend list begins to grow. I become good friends with Troy Antwerp, Patty, Ritch, Tyler and my huge Jake's family. I also get connected with my blog buddy and friend JC who shares tips with me and inspires me to look for ways to make my blog interesting. I also become a co-author on the Jake's Club blog.

Brady and Troy's wedding last year was another first for me and I was so happy to be a part of that experience.

Then came getting SL voice to work and joining my SL friends on Skype. Another cool experience that I would recommend others participate in.

These days its all about spending time with my Duke. He has become my very best friend and partner.

Looking back I can see that Rocky has come a long way to where he is today, but it is not without all the great friends who have shared the adventure with me. Love you all and I look forward to many more awesome experiences. (((HUGS)))

Rocky at Home

You can probably expect to see me share more photos of my activities here in SL now that I have much improved graphics. This shot is outside in my yard out near the water's edge. Beautiful.

Rocky Returns Home to SL

It's so good to be back home in SL. My new computer is working out really nice. The first time I logged back into SL was a real eye-opener. It was so amazing to see how rich and detailed the graphics are. I was previously running SL on the bare minimum system requirements. I am also noticing my avatar's movements are much easier to navigate too. It really is good to be back home.

Video Card

I will keep this post short. Tried to re-install the upgraded video card and ... almost got it to work right, but even after adjusting the screen resolution, I was not able to get the start button and task bar to appear on the lower part of the screen. I give up! Back to the on board card. It was a nice idea, but no piece of cake. I will survive without it.

Today in SL

I spent some time roaming around SL this evening. I was hoping to get in and organize my inventory when I got an IM from Brady. Ok, so the distraction was a better choice. I guess I will have to tackle the inventory another day.

I broke away for dinner and then came back and had problems with crashing. I actually discovered that there is problem with my video card according to the message on the blue screen. It looks like I need to knuckle down and get back to putting in that new video card I got to upgrade several weeks ago. This will be especially important if the on board card goes kaput.

I tried to contact Jamie a few times and we did manage to connect albeit briefly before the computer crashed again. I will probably just give up on getting into SL for tonight.