Home
Official OCS Viewer for Second Life PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 04 January 2009 23:44

The Official OCS© Viewer for Second Life®

What is it?  It's a Second Life® viewer that integrates with the Omega Combat System© to facilitate a better playing environment and combat simulation for all participants.

What have we done to it? Oh, terrible, unspeakable things.  (Don't let children see this list!)

  • No more minimap.
  • No avatar 'blips' on the world map.
  • No Advanced menu, Debug or Admin Options.
  • No name tags over the heads of avatars.
  • Forced regional environment, i.e. no forcing daylight.
  • Strictly enforced cam and select distance limits.
  • Interfacing with the OCS HUD and OCS system to specify regions that require use of the OCS viewer to use OCS weapons in that region.

How do I install this?

  1. First, download the OCS viewer here:  OCS Viewer for Second Life (Windows) -or- OCS Viewer for Second Life (Mac OS X)
  2. Unzip the archive to a convenient location, and open the folder named OCS-SL-1.22.9.
  3. Now, simply doubleclick the executable 'secondlife-ocs.exe' - Make a shortcut on your desktop to make things easier.
Windows® users:  You will need to be running a fully up to date version of Windows for this to work.  That means Windows XP with SP3 or Windows Vista.

How do I use this?

Once you have completed the installation as explained above (Or in the 'READ ME' contained in the download) log in to Second Life using the OCS viewer.

You will need to be using OCS HUD version 1.4 or higher, which will verify that you are using the OCS Viewer.

Players using the OCS Viewer are easily identified even outside of regions mandating the use of the viewer by their OCS player presence messages. A confirmed viewer will show up in these messages as [OCS Viewer].  For examples:

  • Attached HUD: April Heaney / d9e62346-2ee3-43d7-84d9-f7860dc8bf7e/ [ND] / 01DD99E7D1/B1.4
    • [ND] on attach means 'No Data' - the HUD has not had a chance at attachment to confirm nor deny the use of the OCS Viewer.
  • Entered Region: April Heaney / d9e62346-2ee3-43d7-84d9-f7860dc8bf7e/ [OCS Viewer] / 01DD99E7D1/B1.4
    • [OCS Viewer] means this person is using the OCS Viewer and it has been authenticated by the OCS HUD.
  • OCS Player April Heaney (Level 13) of faction New Eastern Bloc is in this region. [?]
    • [?] means the HUD does not know what viewer this person is using. It could be that they are not using the OCS viewer, or that for some other reason the HUD was unable to verify the viewer.
  • OCS Player April Heaney (Level 13) of faction New Eastern Bloc is in this region. [OCS Viewer]
    • Same presence message as above, but for a player with a verified OCS viewer.
  • Detached HUD: April Heaney / d9e62346-2ee3-43d7-84d9-f7860dc8bf7e/ [OCS Viewer] / 01DD99E7D1/B1.4 
    • Detachment message for player using the OCS viewer.

Do I have to use this?

No.  OCS will function as it always has, that is to say with any other viewer and all across the grid wherever you fancy a little of the ol' ultraviolence.  However, the mighty OCS server in the sky can set specific regions to require players to be using the OCS viewer in order for a player to be able to use OCS weapons in that region.  Fulda Gap is obviously the first region to be designated as such.  The extended player presence messages as above were put in to allow independent groups of players to decide for themselves if they wish to mandate that their players use the OCS viewer.

That's it! Enjoy, and thank you for your interest and participation in OCS.

And a big thank you to Chalice Yao, who really did all the heavy lifting on the client side to make this happen. :)