Phoenix Viewer Fixes

Bunches of people have had problems getting Phoenix to run. Actually regardless of which viewer you use you are likely having problems. Tuesday Linden Lab rolled out a server upgrade, so hopefully some of the problems will stop.

For those having problems there are two things to consider. The Phoenix Viewer Wiki article: Troubleshooting and Quick Fixes. The other is the Phoenix Viewer Additional Downloads.

Quick Fixes

The Wiki page is under construction. So, not all the answers are there. However several important ones are there. You will see several of these fixes are in previous articles here. But, the wiki has them in one place. The most common fixes are:

HTTP Texture – Avatar Render Problems

Hopefully you know by now this is Linden Lab’s new way to download textures. It uses the same protocol that web pages use and is much faster than the UDP protocol previously used. But, it also involves some problems because of the way JPEG2000 images work. This has created lots problems for most TPV’s. Part of the problem is because of the restrictions on KDU (Kakadu), where SL viewers can use it and TPV’s supposedly can’t. Whatever TPV Dev’s are getting it sorted out.

The texture problem causes odd problems, the most annoying of which is your avatar does not render. So, change your HTTP Get Texture setting. If off, turn it on and try it. Of course if off, turn it on. (Edit->Preferences->[Phoenix]->[Advanced]->[Page 2]-[Advanced Graphics] and uncheck or check HTTP Get Textures) Once you change the setting, do a cache clear, relog, and once logged in: rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R). Hopefully that will fix up AV and region rez problems. You may need to rebake 3 times… that’s what I’m told… to get the AV to render.

If your AV is still not rendering after the HTTP Texture change then if you are wearing a bald, change to another bald. If you aren’t wearing a bald, put one on and rebake.

If that doesn’t work strip, everything; clothes, attachments… everything. Change your skin, eyes, the bald, and your shape, as in wear a new shape. Your avatar should rez with one of those changes. If not, then Ruth/Roth yourself. (Edit-> Advanced->Character->Character Test->Test Male/Female) This will put you back into full noob. But, I’ve never had this fail to rez my avatar.

Once you rez, you can redress your avatar. All should be ok.

Techno-babble: If you wonder what actually causes the problem it is in how the images are compressed and decompressed. KDU/OpenJPEG encode and decode a little differently as they compress the image. Decoding a KDU encoded image with OpenJPEG doesn’t always work as expected. Since encoding levels depend on the image content it is not possible to predict which images will be a problem. AFAIK all images are encoded server side with KDU. An image that is a problem with one viewer may not be with another viewer.

In the open source mailing list several people are tackling this problem. A collection of test images is being gathered. Those are then used to test and benchmark KDU/OpenJPEG image decompression. Test code is being made public to make testing and benchmarking easier for others.

The Bizarre Problems

Short of the viewer crashing on launch most problems are because of a cache problem. This is especially problem if you use more than one viewer and play in more than one world. All viewers use the SL default cache by default. I have no idea why it has not occurred to TPV Dev’s to create their own cache. Since they haven’t, you have to do it.

Open your viewer, you don’t have to login. In Edit->Preferences->Network browse for a new cache location. You will need to create a new folder for your cache. I suggest you name the cache the same as the viewer. If you use multiple viewers, you should have a cache for each viewer. Caches are typically located in:

C:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\Local\[cache_name]

Once created close the viewer and restart. Once logged in you will be reloading your inventory. I suggest you do NOT open it. Travel to an empty SIM or at least unpopulated one. Once there open your inventory and type in a search term. If your inventory is already downloading, do not TP until it completes.

Viewer Crashes on Launch – Additional Downloads

For many people there is a problem with the viewer crashing on launch. This generally comes from two causes. One is trying to use an SSE optimized viewer on a computer that does not support SSE. The Imprudence Viewer wiki has a good page on SSE and which CPU’s support it. See: SSE2 Optimization

The other is not having the Visual C runtime, a library usually found installed on Windows computers, but not always. Phoenix has a download that installs the VC2005 runtime in Additional downloads. Running that program often fixes the launch problems.

Related Problems

VWR-20946 – Snowstorm crash on launch…

VWR-12473 – Crash immediately at startup before login screen loads.

Can’t Login – Avatar Ghost

Regardless of viewer used many are hitting this problem. They are advised they will be logged out and try in 5 minutes or whatever, or something similar. Problem is later produces the same error. This is actually because a vampire stole your soul and locked it in a sim somewhere… not really.

Due to lag, a sim failure, network glitch, or some disturbance in the force you were not properly logged out. The last sim you were in thinks you are still there. Your login is being rejected because wherever you are attempting to land when you login is where your avatar is stuck.  To fix the problem you need to login into to some place different. So, visit the Second Life Destination Guide and pick a place.

You should be able to login. To clear your ghost, visit the sim it is in. Travel there and when you arrive you should absorb your ghost which solves the problem.

If you still cannot login, call support or file a ticket. Or wait until Tuesday when they rollout a new grid release, which essentially restarts all the regions and will vaporize your ghost. After the sim your ghost is stuck in restarts, you should be able to login.

Lost Inventory

This article gives you the details in recovering lost inventory: Second Life Lost Inventory and Missing Inventory Fix – Help

Summary

A large verity of problems is caused by a few core problems. A considerable number of these have to do with the viewer cache. Separate caches for each viewer and a cache clear before logging in with a new version of a viewer can do a lot to reduce problems.