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Catznip or Firestorm?


Lara Aulder
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Firestorm has some new useful object inspection tools to see mesh LOD behavior, not sure about Catznip as it is only available for the Bloatware OS from Redmond. As most creator work is done outside SL nowadays anyways, viewers are not that important unless you do landscaping. Whichever you choose in the end, always do an additional graphics preset with Object LOD-factor 1.5 to see how default SL viewer folks see your meshes...

Edited by Fionalein
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@Fionalein makes great points.

I've used FireStorm for years, since back when it was Emerald (Yes, I know; don't ask) - I've made the switch to Catznip myself and loving it.

Here is how I see them in comparison to each other:

Firestorm pros:

  • Great if you are an in-world builder and need those extra builders and object inspection features
  • Great if you insist on spying on others (Hide my look at/show look at, etc.) - Which everyone else does, so it cancels itself out LOL
  • Great if you have a supercomputer with supergraphics that you can set draw distance to 4096, etc. (Yes: sarcasm)

Firestorm cons:

  • Crash-prone for me and many others I speak to
  • VERY SLOW rezzing for me and many others I speak to (as compared to other viewers)
  • Seems to always require a relog (for me) after a few hours online

Catznip pros

  • Has most features that FS does, except privacy-breaking and fancy builder's features (though many located in different places)
  • Huge performance boost over FS (for me) such as way more framerate and smoother movement at same graphic settings (as FS)
  • Amazing inventory-management features, such as setting any folder as a system folder, choose where to put received items, etc.
  • User Interface is most similar to official LL viewer, low learning curve from there
  • I regularly go very long without any crash or relogs  ( 4AM to 3PM SL time on average)
  • Rezzing is amazingly fast: with my own tests: 3 to 4 times faster than FS with same setting/sim/crowd of Avies (and flushed cache)

Catznip cons

  • User Interface is most similar to official LL viewer, high learning curve from FS (because FS is training people wrong in my view)
  • Many of the same features as FS, but located in different areas, example: Refresh Attachments in Advanced Menu, Zoom to Avatar in "People" box, etc.
  • ... thinking of more... ummm... Nope, can't think of any more, truthfully speaking. Someone may come up with something here.
Edited by Alyona Su
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21 hours ago, Lara Aulder said:

I use firestorm, I want to switch to Catznip.

do so and try yourself? Install both and work with them.

except of the objective tool for inspection as Fiona pointed to, it's totally subjective, no standard in experience for anyone, all depends on like and your machine/connection.

I have a quite standard machine, Firestorm works good on it.
Problem is mostly: people use it out of the box, and just drag as many sliders to the right as possible. That makes even the high end newest machines to lagmonsters.

 

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Try them both and pick your favorite.

The only thing that really matters is that you use SL and your choice of viewer complements that.

 

We don't have or maintain a list of differences or reasons why to use Catznip, although as a tip for newbies to the viewer I would say "right click" and join the in world group (Top bar > Help > Catznip Support Group).

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I realized the Firestorm crashes a lot, my connection is very good (100mb) also my graphics, sometimes I use the wifi, maybe thats it. I think him a little heavy. I wish something more practical and "light". I'll try Catznip and see if  works better for me.

Thanks all for make it more clear.

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12 minutes ago, Lara Aulder said:

I realized the Firestorm crashes a lot, my connection is very good (100mb) also my graphics, sometimes I use the wifi, maybe thats it. I think him a little heavy. I wish something more practical and "light". I'll try Catznip and see if  works better for me.

Thanks all for make it more clear.

Way to go.

Here's how I ended up switching and I'm not saying you or anyone else should switch. My process was like this:

Have both installed - have both pinned next to each other in my launch bar.

  • Launch the new viewer (Catznip or any other you're checking out) - Spend an entire day with it (do not use your 'regular' viewer for an entire day in SL) No matter how frustrating anything seems, that will subside as your comfort level grows.
  • Use your regular viewer the next day, but if you relog, use the newer viewer (force yourself to use it)
  • Do this for at least a couple days of SL time.
  • After a couple days of switching back and forth: try to use the new viewer all the time.

Then after a week or so this will happen: If you find you never go back to your previous viewer, you can unpin it from the taskbar (but don't delete it) or if you find you keep popping back to your previous viewer because you need [specific feature and cannot find it in newer viewer] then keep both and use one for 'fun' and the other on as-needed basis or if you find you are still always returning to your normal viewer, ditch the new one and know that you gave it a fair shake. :)

For myself, I found that option one was my case. Everyone is different, so as was said: go with what YOU like the best. Because the world on the other side of that viewer is always going to be the same world. :D

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1 hour ago, elixdude said:

My problem on catznip is that catznip don't have option to hide other's avatar like the option on FS :D

From Catznip beta 12.1.6 ... not all of this is publicly available, I'm not sure what the current beta on the website has, it's a little behind.

qlmk53X.png

Here is me at a party rendering my friends normally and others as silhouettes.

PGHsvZ1.png

The drop down has been added in the current beta, so maybe give us another shot in the next release. :)

Everyone normally : 19.8 fps

Everyone as Imposters : 31fps

Everyone as Silhouettes : 27fps (this needs work, it should be at least as fast as imposters, idea is to remove texture load)

Myself and exceptions : 37 fps (the 4 avies in colour in the above picture)

Only Myself : 63 fps

Edited by CoffeeDujour
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16 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

From Catznip beta 12.1.6 ... not all of this is publicly available, I'm not sure what the current beta on the website has, it's a little behind.

qlmk53X.png

Here is me at a party rendering my friends normally and my others as silhouettes.

PGHsvZ1.png

The drop down has been added in the current beta, so maybe give us another shot in the next release. :)

Everyone normally : 19.8 fps

Everyone as Imposters : 31fps

Everyone as Silhouettes : 27fps (this needs work, it should be at least as fast as imposters, idea is to remove texture load)

Myself and exceptions : 37 fps (the 4 avies in colour in the above picture)

Only Myself : 63 fps

It's still not available on the download page, still only Beta 1 available. It's my must need option since i usually shopping at events and stuff with full of sim landed there :D . Can't wait it released officially~

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From our own testing at shopping events (we do that a LOT) being able to switch everyone off is awesome fast.

It really goes to show that avatars are SL Achilles heel .. ironic, and kinda sad. We were loathed to do it as an empty SL isn't any fun.

The current beta period has been a little weird, there has been a lot of work done & its been released to patreon supporters, but we have had a couple of showstopping bugs that have ment putting every one out as public wasn't possible (and a good thing we didn't).

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1 hour ago, CoffeeDujour said:

From our own testing at shopping events (we do that a LOT) being able to switch everyone off is awesome fast.

It really goes to show that avatars are SL Achilles heel .. ironic, and kinda sad. We were loathed to do it as an empty SL isn't any fun.

The current beta period has been a little weird, there has been a lot of work done & its been released to patreon supporters, but we have had a couple of showstopping bugs that have ment putting every one out as public wasn't possible (and a good thing we didn't).

because at events other than shops most stores just jabe 2 or 3 items on display, visit some of the notoriously laggy stores which do gigantic textures for each item and you will come to a different conclusion...

It's ignorance, not avatars which causes lag. 

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  • 1 year later...
3 hours ago, cafekan said:

I had to download firestorm because RVL only works with Firestorm. RVL  led me to Catzip viewer 

Assuming you mean RLV... it doesn't just work with Firestorm or Catznip.

31 minutes ago, Aishagain said:

What on Earth is this topic doing in the Server thread??  It wasn't here earlier today.  How is that even possible?

A moderator did an oopsie, most likely.

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Scroll up to one of Alyona Su post. She does a great job answering the above question. I don't know what the different is between firestorm and Citznip is. What I do know is my user name password did not work. Not sure if Catznip has to have its own or what. Like I've posted before, I had to download Firestorm only to because of RLV having to do so. From there I came across, Catznip. I didn't see a payment option to help pay and support their program. I did enjoy seeing that. Our privatize group is in the process of trying to building a , privatize Second Life viewer. Free is not an option. Seeing all the new many viewers is making easier to understand how too build one.

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On 11/13/2019 at 12:40 PM, cafekan said:

Scroll up to one of Alyona Su post. She does a great job answering the above question. I don't know what the different is between firestorm and Citznip is. What I do know is my user name password did not work. Not sure if Catznip has to have its own or what. Like I've posted before, I had to download Firestorm only to because of RLV having to do so. From there I came across, Catznip. I didn't see a payment option to help pay and support their program. I did enjoy seeing that. Our privatize group is in the process of trying to building a , privatize Second Life viewer. Free is not an option. Seeing all the new many viewers is making easier to understand how too build one.

Good luck with that. I do believe you will get a lot of push back though for charging money for a GPL/LGPL open source project.

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2 hours ago, MarissaOrloff said:

I do believe you will get a lot of push back though for charging money for a GPL/LGPL open source project.

not only push back, using GLP/LGPL open source and selling it is a big NO NO, also distributing code (as is in the viewers) could lead to serious legal issues .. it''s not without reason there's a few pages of contributing people in  the viewers. For commercial use you'll need a agreement with all.

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You can resell gpl code. Thats fine or else Red Hat will be in big big trouble! However.. there are many commercial 3rd party programs used in SL that would require licensing to resell. Cafekan would in all likelihood end up spending more in attorneys and licencing fees than what she would get in receipts for selling her viewer.  

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney

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33 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

not only push back, using GLP/LGPL open source and selling it is a big NO NO, also distributing code (as is in the viewers) could lead to serious legal issues .. it''s not without reason there's a few pages of contributing people in  the viewers. For commercial use you'll need a agreement with all.

a tiny point.  We are able to sell any program that is built from GPL or LGPL source code. When we do then we must provide our buyer with  a copy/link to the source code. Our buyer may then distribute our source code free of charge as they choose as the license grants them

in terms of people contributing to the Linden viewer code base then clause 2 d) of the Contribution Agreement. Link here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Contribution_Agreement

the Work (viewer) is currently released under LGPL 2.1, the contributors code is bound to this license

edit add. what Marissa said

Edited by Mollymews
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  • 1 year later...

When I build. edit, work on sim I prefer Firestorms robust features.

When in RP and looking around I prefer Alchemy or Catznip so I maintain higher fame rate with shadows and effects at max (in alchemy i do bump the LOD up above its default using debug).

SL is very CPU Dependent. So with an I9 or higher end AMD's that are 8 or more cores with IP double cache, you will perform better. Yet some of the viewers offset textures to the GPU better then the SL default viewer that is planned to be redone after the merger. 

 

Edited by anthonytorino
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  • 2 weeks later...

My vote is clearly going to Firestorm. I have been a region operator since 2008 and Firestorm offers me the best tools for this. The "Replace to last Position" tool alone saves me around 50 hours of work per seasonal changeover, since I can use it to restore objects to the regions with one click of the mouse. Even if I accidentally pick up an object, that way I can put it back in exactly the right place without having to make great adjustments. For me, over the year, including setting up the Christmas market and the Christmas decorations, this means a time saving of around 300 working hours that I can invest in other productive work.

Edited by Miller Thor
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