Nichole Bergamasco Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Hi all, I just got a new windows laptop for Christmas, used to go on sl with a mac but I have the sl viewer like I had on my MacBook and the graphics don't seem that great, so my question is since I haven't used windows in so long, what is the best viewer for sl for windows as far as running the game smoothly and good graphics? Thank you for any help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Reddevil Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 I personally love Firestorm. It may not be The best but the support for it is undeniably very good. I don't think I've ever had a question or issue that wasn't solved by someone in the in-world support group quickly. I've been using it for years with no major issues, even with updates and they have some nice features that the original viewer doesn't have. Get a few ideas for viewers and check them all out to see which one you like the best as you may find another you like better. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionalein Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 5 minutes ago, Nichole Bergamasco said: Hi all, I just got a new windows laptop for Christmas, used to go on sl with a mac but I have the sl viewer like I had on my MacBook and the graphics don't seem that great, so my question is since I haven't used windows in so long, what is the best viewer for sl for windows as far as running the game smoothly and good graphics? Thank you for any help That is a different question... depends a lot on what other features you want. Right now there are just three animesh viewers I know of, the prerelease Firestirorm beta, the SL viewer and Black Dragon. I would install at least FS and or SL viewer on top of any other... it is always helpful to have a well suported secondary viewer to test wether you have a cache problem or your account is actually borked... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arduenn Schwartzman Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 The official version 6 SL viewer and Firestorm for highest streaming and frame rates. Other TPV are probably not very different. Singularity for best user interface, because of its simplicity and least amount of clicks needed (50% less, in most cases) to achieve something, but the fps are much lower and streaming (downloading in-world stuff from the asset servers) is horrible. FS still has a better UI than the official viewer. Just go by FS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionalein Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 1 minute ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said: Singularity for best user interface, because of its simplicity and least amount of clicks needed (50% less, in most cases) to achieve something,... Unless you want to teleport... Hell I hope they include an optional location bar in the upcoming update... actually I would like it if it had - so it is just my "use less resources" viewer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norajulian Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Alchemy is another great option, although I don’t think they’ve upped to Animesh just yet. Granted, I don’t find myself i situations that deem it necessary but I’ll use Alchemy for photos on occasion and frame rates are great. OP, as others have said it depends on what you do with your SL and what your goals are. It would also be helpful to see the stats of your particular rig. If you are using Intel graphics, there is a current bug that may be causing your usual SL viewer to bug out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThorinII Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Fionalein said: [...] Right now there are just three animesh viewers I know of, the prerelease Firestorm beta, the SL viewer and Black Dragon. [...] 1 There are more than three Animesh viewers available, as far as I know. Additional to the viewers you already mentioned, there are the latest versions of Kokua Viewer and Restrained Love Viewer -- and also the Cool VL Viewer, in case one prefers the old V1.x user interface. 🙂 I wouldn't recommend the other TPV's though if you want to see the latest shinies, like Bento, Animesh etc: The latest Alpha ("automated") build of Singularity hasn't been updated for 9 months now, it's still in a Pre-Animesh state. Alchemy is still in version 5.0.7, hasn't been updated since Nov. '17. And Catznip, with the latest version R12.0, hasn't been updated for a year either. Edited January 7, 2019 by ThorinII 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orwar Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 As mentioned, it depends on what features you want. I use Firestorm, it suits my needs - occasionally I do give Black Dragon a try, but... The UI difference makes me feel completely lost in it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BilliJo Aldrin Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Too bad you didn't ask what is the worst viewer, that one would have been easy 😂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibiusa Ling Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) 13 hours ago, Nichole Bergamasco said: Hi all, I just got a new windows laptop for Christmas, used to go on sl with a mac but I have the sl viewer like I had on my MacBook and the graphics don't seem that great, so my question is since I haven't used windows in so long, what is the best viewer for sl for windows as far as running the game smoothly and good graphics? Thank you for any help Not exhaustive and may have missed a few things but roughly.... --Graphically-- -Official -Alchemy -Black Dragon [Super computer required 😂] --Features-- -Firestorm -Catnipz -The Cool Viewer -Performance- -Official -Alchemy -The Cool Viewer -New UI Style- -Official -Catnipz -Old UI Style- -Firestorm -Singularity -The Cool Viewer -Hybrid / New UI Style?- -Alchemy -Black Dragon Edited January 8, 2019 by chibiusa Ling 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionalein Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 10 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said: Too bad you didn't ask what is the worst viewer, that one would have been easy 😂 That Android thing? I doubt it would have been easier... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BilliJo Aldrin Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Just now, Fionalein said: That Android thing? I doubt it would have been easier... Wasn't even thinking about that one. I was thinking about viewers that you run on your computer. And yes Lumiya runs on a computer if you use an emulator, but why would anyone want to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionalein Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Just now, BilliJo Aldrin said: Wasn't even thinking about that one. I was thinking about viewers that you run on your computer. And yes Lumiya runs on a computer if you use an emulator, but why would anyone want to? Can't wait for Phil to pop in and tell us mobiles are computers 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyona Su Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) 19 hours ago, Nichole Bergamasco said: Hi all, I just got a new windows laptop for Christmas, used to go on sl with a mac but I have the sl viewer like I had on my MacBook and the graphics don't seem that great, so my question is since I haven't used windows in so long, what is the best viewer for sl for windows as far as running the game smoothly and good graphics? Thank you for any help The best is the official Second Life viewer from Linden Lab. Unless you need or want RLV abilities. Then it's a grab-bag: Firestorm is the most feature-rich, but also a bit bloated with features most casual users never use (and crash-prone if your computer isn;t up-to-snuff). In terms of features-list: Kokua is probably the closest to the Official viewer in terms of features and performance, albeit with RLV support. Catznip would be the next most "feature-rich" - its big claim to fame is the way it allows you to manage your inventory and keep it that way, and the next update (Animesh and Bakes on Mesh) is expected presently Then, in my estimation, you have the Firestorm-level of features, must-have if you're a builder or creator - also the most popular because it's so old and still continually developed. The big "wow" right now, but those evangelizing it, is this Black Dragon viewer - what Firestorm is for creators, Black Dragon apparently is for Snapshotters (A.K.A. "SL Photographers") - but it requires major relearning of the interface or a lot of time "customizing" it to be "normal". I tried it and didn't care for it, but its power was not lost on me. My absolutely highest recommendation: Download them all, try them out, keep what works best for you, uninstall the rest - always keep the Official LL viewer installed if you go with a third-party viewer - best for any troubleshooting problems: if it works on LL viewer then your other viewer is borked, if it's broken on LL viewer, then it's your entire computer or SL that is borked. Edited January 8, 2019 by Alyona Su 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syo Emerald Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 The graphics mainly depend on your computer (a "windows laptop" doesn't say anything about your hardware), not that much on the viewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BilliJo Aldrin Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 10 hours ago, Alyona Su said: The best is the official Second Life viewer from Linden Lab. Unless you need or want RLV abilities. Then it's a grab-bag: Firestorm is the most feature-rich, but also a bit bloated with features most casual users never use (and crash-prone if your computer isn;t up-to-snuff). In terms of features-list: Kokua is probably the closest to the Official viewer in terms of features and performance, albeit with RLV support. Catznip would be the next most "feature-rich" - its big claim to fame is the way it allows you to manage your inventory and keep it that way, and the next update (Animesh and Bakes on Mesh) is expected presently Then, in my estimation, you have the Firestorm-level of features, must-have if you're a builder or creator - also the most popular because it's so old and still continually developed. The big "wow" right now, but those evangelizing it, is this Black Dragon viewer - what Firestorm is for creators, Black Dragon apparently is for Snapshotters (A.K.A. "SL Photographers") - but it requires major relearning of the interface or a lot of time "customizing" it to be "normal". I tried it and didn't care for it, but its power was not lost on me. My absolutely highest recommendation: Download them all, try them out, keep what works best for you, uninstall the rest - always keep the Official LL viewer installed if you go with a third-party viewer - best for any troubleshooting problems: if it works on LL viewer then your other viewer is borked, if it's broken on LL viewer, then it's your entire computer or SL that is borked. A lot of long time SL users will say that SL 1.2x was the best LL viewer ever and that when SL 2.0 came out LL totally messed it up big time, and never recovered. It's as if the official viewer was designed to frustrate noobs and drive them away. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibiusa Ling Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 19 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said: A lot of long time SL users will say that SL 1.2x was the best LL viewer ever and that when SL 2.0 came out LL totally messed it up big time, and never recovered. It's as if the official viewer was designed to frustrate noobs and drive them away. It really was though. 2.0 was horrific and 3.0 is not far off in terms of the UI and its general setup. I think thats part of the reason why Firestorm and Singularity were so popular, they keep in line with the V1.0 style. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BilliJo Aldrin Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Just now, chibiusa Ling said: It really was though. 2.0 was horrific and 3.0 is not far off in terms of the UI and its general setup. I think thats part of the reason why Firestorm and Singularity were so popular, they keep in line with the V1.0 style. I use Firestorm with the Phoenix layout. I recommend it to everyone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibiusa Ling Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 32 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said: I use Firestorm with the Phoenix layout. I recommend it to everyone. If you want the ultimate authentic v1 experience use the cool viewer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThorinII Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 14 hours ago, Alyona Su said: [...] My absolutely highest recommendation: Download them all, try them out, keep what works best for you, uninstall the rest - always keep the Official LL viewer installed if you go with a third-party viewer - best for any troubleshooting problems: if it works on LL viewer then your other viewer is borked, if it's broken on LL viewer, then it's your entire computer or SL that is borked. 😀 And yes, I did test all Viewers I installed. Although my own top favorites are Firestorm (in Phoenix Mode), Cool VL Viewer, and Singularity - in this order. The main reason: I just don't like the new UI the official viewer (and the other TPV's) uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyelaNewLife Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 23 hours ago, chibiusa Ling said: -Black Dragon [Super computer required 😂] For normal use sure, but I've found Black Dragon in "photo mode" to be a massive step up from Firestorm in terms of performance and reliability, and saving a snap at triple my monitor's resolution takes a fraction of the time. But even so, it has it's problems in "every day" situations, so I swap between the two. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyona Su Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 9 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said: A lot of long time SL users will say that SL 1.2x was the best LL viewer ever and that when SL 2.0 came out LL totally messed it up big time, and never recovered. It's as if the official viewer was designed to frustrate noobs and drive them away. I agree that 1.2 was the best, though that old UI was so far away from standards that 2.0 was an attempt for better retention. Whether it worked or not is something only Linden Lab will ever know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Reddevil Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 9 hours ago, chibiusa Ling said: If you want the ultimate authentic v1 experience use the cool viewer Is that even updated anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Reddevil Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 10 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said: A lot of long time SL users will say that SL 1.2x was the best LL viewer ever and that when SL 2.0 came out LL totally messed it up big time, and never recovered. It's as if the official viewer was designed to frustrate noobs and drive them away. I tried very hard to use and like the 2.0 viewer and just couldn't. That's exactly why I switched to Firestorm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemeraraGirl Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I have all viewers installed and time to time I play with them to check their new features. But, in the end, I always stay between Firestorm and Black Dragon. Firestorm for everyday usage. I can't live without its Wearable Favorites window and other handy features. Black Dragon for snapshots, because of its Animator tool, Machinima bar and other useful features for pictures like the freeze screen option that in my opinion works better than in any other viewer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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