Second Life viewer on a tablet? Oh yeah! :)

[Sassy Romano]

It's a question that has long been asked, where is LL's viewer for tablets?  Well they copped out and went down the virtualised SLGo streaming route but that in itself carries limitations like inability to upload and others that I won't get into here as that's not my intention.  Yes i've used SL Grid Client and Lumiya on Android and Radegast for text only when i've been away and stuck with an awful work laptop before.

In the past, i've connected to my home PC via Splashtop on an Android tablet and used it like that and that works but recently, I was curious about the little Windows tablets.  No, not a Surface Pro or similar but right at the bottom end of the market.  My curiosity got the better of me and I bought one of these, an 8" Windows tablet running full Windows 8.1 on an atom processor with 1GB RAM.

http://www.linx-tablets.com/linx-8.html

(Amazon is one place that sells them here in the UK and the price is just unreal, presently £89.99)

So you're thinking... nah!  Atom processor?  1GB RAM?  Intel graphics can't work... or can it? :matte-motes-evil-invert: so I went into full on :matte-motes-nerdy: mode and the first bit of software that I installed was Firestorm viewer.  I have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, so paired those for the following demo, as it was easier to get around.

My following video lets you make up your own mind as to whether this could be a suitable "extra" to have in the bag (quite literally).  If you watch it in 1920x1080, you should be able to see the frame counter. 

Just to describe what I was trying to illustrate here, a busy area, bit of walking around, turning to change view.  At 4'50", I logged out and picked up on my desktop.  i7 with a GTX 680 just for comparision.  The tablet was on default graphics (lowest) and the i7 GTX 680 was on ultra, everything max including shadows.

The video from the tablet was captured from the HDMI out port using a game capture device so no software overhead, desktop was captured by Fraps software but the machine has so much grunt that there's no overhead from this.

It goes without saying that the i7 with GTX 680 is hugely superior but that's not the objective of the comparision.  What I want to show you is really just how good the little tablet actually is!  It's no worse than the first laptop that I used with SL.

If i'm away, i'll have no hesitation at all just relying on connecting the HDMI of the tablet to a hotel TV and will likely get 1920x1080 as I did here and take a keyboard and mouse with me and for people who need to be utterly mobile but may still want to have intermittent access, like merchants for example, I believe it to be an astonishing little device, I love it already. :matte-motes-inlove:

Take a look... (my bluetooth portable keyboard doesn't have PgUp/PgDn or some other crucial keys hence the "Move Controls")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWspWxT1UBI

 

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Sassy,

You are a STAR - I've had one of those in my in-basket for a few months and I hadn't used it yet since my Accounting Business doesn't need it and my Moto-X phone has been allowing me access on an emergency basis.. SCORE!

[irihapeti]

thats pretty good. I like