SL on Surface Pro

[friscolives]

I've heard time and again laptops and wireless are not a good SL option. I need something highly portable, so granted I understand It won't provide the best SL experience, is the Microsoft Surface Pro an option for SL?

I spoke with the guy at the Microsoft store, who basically explained the Pro is more computer, the RL (I think that's what the beginner version is called) is more an app device and SL doesn't appear to have an app available. The need is small and portable, and wireless is a must. Is any one running SL on the surpace pro, or maybe a convertible laptop or even an Android tablet with any success?

[Madeline Blackbart]

There is a app on android for SL... called Lumiya? It renders very basic scenes minus windlight. Not sure how good it works but it is popular.

[Dora Gustafson]

It boils down to two questions
If you can answer yes to both then you can use it for SL

1. Can the device download and run the viewer program like a normal PC?
2. Are the graphic abilities powerful enough?

I am sure that Lumiya is no solution.
It will take some time before you can run an Android app on a Microsoft device

:smileysurprised::smileyvery-happy:

 

[friscolives]

---

Dora Gustafson wrote:

It boils down to two questions

If you can answer yes to both then you can use it for SL

1. Can the device download and run the viewer program like a normal PC?
2. Are the graphic abilities powerful enough?

I am sure that Lumiya is no solution.

It will take some time before you can run an Android app on a Microsoft device

:smileysurprised:

:smileyvery-happy:

 

---

Thanks for the smiley faces. The question wasn't whether you could run Windows on a Surface, it was whether or not SecondLife could run on a portable device  such as Surface Pro OR an Android based tablet. I was just curious if someone here was running it on Surface or a Galaxy tab and could comment on it.

[Jean Horten]

I do not know any tablet that is capable of running a fully featured SL viewer, these toys don't come with a graphics card that can handle SL. You can use a text based client to log in on them.

[Cerise Sorbet]

Hi, yes, SL runs on Surface Pro. It does not get great SL performance, same as any  machine with Intel HD graphics, but it should run. Make sure you get your graphics driver from Intel, the version supplied by MS for Surface Pro is known to have issues with SL. There are also known driver issues with SL and HD4000 on external monitors, so expect that to crash SL until Intel can fix their driver.

Note that MS already announced Surface Pro 2, to be released about the end of October. MS is claiming better color fidelity and a 50% improvement in graphics performance with an update to HD 4400. The better speed may or may not carry over to SL, but the release is close enough that you may want to wait.

[Qie Niangao]

Right: I'd also suggest waiting for the Surface Pro 2, if possible. I would expect significant improvements from that Haswell chip, specifically for graphics performance that's so crucial to SL experience. (It's still only just a tablet, and won't be remotely comparable to the graphics experience of a decent desktop, but it may approximate that of a several-years-old GPU-equipped notebook.)

The non-Pro Surface tablets use a different processor family to run "Windows RT" as opposed to Windows 8. It has a nasty chicken-and-egg problem: not many folks are using it, so there aren't many apps ported to it, so not many folks are using it.... (That said, an old Surface is really not bad if absolutely all one wants on a tablet is Microsoft Office and Microsoft's browser. Last I checked, even just a Chrome browser wouldn't run on RT.)

On Android, Lumiya is an impressive bit of work and gets better all the time, but it's not going to be satisfactory any time soon as a primary interface to the SL world.

[Sassy Romano]

If you wait a few months, you may find that Microsoft will be paying you to take a Surface Pro out of the shop in a brown paper bag to hide the embarrasment.

(IF... (big if), you can leave a PC running SL, then a really good option is to use Splashtop HD from a tablet to that PC and render the SL experience remotely.  I found that worked far better than trying to run SL on a laptop with Intel graphics and works great on a tablet too)

[friscolives]

Thanks for the advice. I did get a notice about the Surface Pro 2, and from that info I will absolutely wait for it. My current laptop is fairly functional, and used Intel 3000 graphics. I realize quality wise its not the same as my desktop (where I use a Nvidea GT 650) but Im hoping to bring something portible with me to work (I work late nights and have a good amount of down time, so being able to go online and visit SL would be nice--and if I could do some photoshop and blender stuff there too on the really quiet nights than all the better. The big issue is being portable.  I cant bring my desktop to work and the computers there don't let us load anything. A nice, small laptop is ideal--and surface pro seems made to order.

 

Not sure why people are so negative about the surface, I've seen it--as well as some of the convertible laptops--and it seems really nice. Would seem to be the best option for any sort of decent SL performance there is.

 

[MystyBoots]

Your not really asking the same question....  a tablet like the Android will not run SL.. it will only run Apps like the one mentioned and a few others.  Surface Pro and the new Surface Pro 2 shipping Oct 25 is a computer and will download and run the normal SL viewer, not an App.  You can get into SL through either device, but on one hand you're using an App and on the other, you're using the actual viewer.

 

[Allley Gotter]

Lumiya is lovely on a droid.

I wouldn't run it on a low end droid something dual or quad core.

Its no that difficult to get the hang of, and when the gfx are bett err so will its rendering.

Intel is not famous for their gfx cards. Kinda dissapointing actually.