So you’ve heard that Mono has arrived on the Main Grid and are eager to test it out, just to see how well it runs your scripts? Well, right now, you have two options: either test them out on the Preview Grid first or wait for Linden Lab to bring out the next version of the SL client, which should be released in a few weeks as a “beta version”, and in a few months as the official client.
Sadly, for the impatient people like me, that’s simply too long to wait. I’ve tried Mono out with all my scripts on the Preview Grid; I know it works well; now it’s time to test them on the Main Grid, and flood it with Mono-recompiled scripts and get increased performance for all your users now, not in “several weeks”.
Since the Preview Grid Client flawlessly allows you to compile scripts to Mono (it’s done server-side anyway, unlike the current LSL2 Virtual Machine bytecode, which gets compiled on the viewer), why shouldn’t we use that client instead?…
Thanks to the tip by Tateru Nino, this is now perfectly possible:
- Download the Preview Grid Viewer from http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php and select the one for your platform
- Launch it and patiently wait for everything to load (e.g., Torley’s images of SL showing up, as well as all the info panels)
- Here comes the magic: just press Control-Shift-G (works under Windows and Mac)
- You’ll instantly get a new dropdown allowing you to select any of the available Linden grids (it appears at the bottom, just to the right of the “Quit” button)
- Select “Agni” (Main Grid)
- Now log in normally
Although this is the Preview Grid SL client, it will allow you to connect to the Main grid without problems, and you can enjoy the power of compiling to Mono and use the llDetectedTouch*() functions on any Linden Sandbox (which are all Mono-enabled) very easily, or on any of the lucky sim owners that already have the Mono server on their sims.
It works wonderfully 🙂 Naturally, none of these will work on the remaining 24,500 non-Mono sims (but Linden Lab plans that these will be upgraded between Monday and Wednesday next week), but at least you can compile your scripts directly on the Main Grid and see how they work for real.
Oh, beware if you use the brand-new llDetectedTouch*() functions, though. If you use them to create one-prim complex interfaces, check first if the user is using the Preview Grid SL Client (the page for that function explains how to do the check), since it won’t work on the regular client. Mono, however, will work well, no matter what the client, since it’s all server-side (of course, you can’t recompile something back to Mono if you revert to the current SL client, edit your script, and save it… you’ll have to do those recompiles always with the Preview Grid SL Client).
Hooray to Babbage Linden, Periapse Linden, Prospero Linden (and whoever else at the ‘Lab is assigned to this amazing project), and thanks to Tateru Nino for the incredibly useful tip!
