It's been twice now that I logged into the new Second Life 1.8.0.0 Preview to find Ashen Stygian nearby and calling my name. Ash, of course, is my peer in what is termed "P@P ROX!", which is on occasion known by the blander name of "P2P Teleportation". Which annoys some people who think of "P2P" = "Peer-to-Peer". So be it.
Besides enabling P@P ROX!, 1.8 also has some additional scripting commands and a "minor feature" which happens to be the return of ripplewater. Actually, scratch that, the previous incarnation was a twisted, hideously confused mask of the grotesque coupled with the beautiful. This latest rippled water, as you can see from screenshots like this by Cory Edo and that by Cubey Terra, seems to be all sublime.
I would have more pictures but there's no outbound email on the Preview Grid, this one known as DURGA (as opposed to 1.7's SHIVA). Ash has been taking a lot for me like the two below, tho, because I can't see rippled water. I'm wondering right now if this is a bug, or simply because my older graphics card—which does handle an earlier version pixelshaders—just isn't up to spec.
More experimentation continues.