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What is the least sucky browser for SL?

Misty Rookstown
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Misty Rookstown

Misty Rookstown

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I have Firestorm and use the LL current browser ... the current browser I am lost on coming back into SL. Where are picks? I select profile and can't see people's picks for instance. But if I go to Firestorm I can see the classic profile. Someone also suggested Singularity. What is your favorite and why? Without trying Singularity or any others I have to say Firestorm because it is best for building for me with options to copy prim locations sizes etc. Also are there things I should open up on the LL official browser? 

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June Starlight

June Starlight

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My personal favorites are Catznip and Black Dragon.

Lately been using the latter mostly, since I am having a fling with SL photography and Black Dragon has nice shiny toys to go with this hobby. But if you have troubles finding where things are in Firestorm, Black Dragon will give you a headache, its UI is very different from the standard viewer.

And Catznip is just great. I rest my case.

Edited by June Starlight
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Qie Niangao

Qie Niangao

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2 hours ago, Misty Rookstown said:

I have Firestorm and use the LL current browser ... the current browser I am lost on coming back into SL. Where are picks? I select profile and can't see people's picks for instance. But if I go to Firestorm I can see the classic profile. Someone also suggested Singularity. What is your favorite and why? Without trying Singularity or any others I have to say Firestorm because it is best for building for me with options to copy prim locations sizes etc. Also are there things I should open up on the LL official browser? 

Huh? I mean… huh?

image.png.6a61506563953cc1d1fa1a8ee1f50088.png

As for which viewer to use, the correct answer is Catznip because we, its die-hard users, don't evangelize. 😛 

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Coffee Pancake

Coffee Pancake

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(I'm a Catznip developer)

Obviously I'm biased as to the best viewer, but really .. it's not a competition, those days are all long past. 

Find a viewer that fits your style, usability needs and works well for you (although mad respect for Firestorm Support, those peeps rock).

Stick to projects listed on the Third Party Viewer listing. Only download from a projects official website.

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

What matters is you get on SL and have fun, that is after-all why we're all here ❤️

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Rowan Amore

Rowan Amore

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3 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Huh? I mean… huh?

image.png.6a61506563953cc1d1fa1a8ee1f50088.png

As for which viewer to use, the correct answer is Catznip because we, its die-hard users, don't evangelize. 😛 

You can hide your picks on the web style profile which is all the LL viewer uses, I believe.  On Firestorm, you can choose to use legacy profiles.

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Qie Niangao

Qie Niangao

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4 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

You can hide your picks on the web style profile which is all the LL viewer uses, I believe.  On Firestorm, you can choose to use legacy profiles.

This is all kinds of baffling to me.

  1. I'm not sure why anybody would make Picks they didn't want to make fully public, but I see there's a "Privacy" tab in the web-based profile editor that could restrict that to just friends, or to SL only. So… okay I guess.
  2. But if this is possible on the web-based profiles but not on the "legacy" profiles that Firestorm uses, that "Privacy" tab in non-Firestorm browsers is kinda mis-named. (Well, I guess all things online labelled "Privacy" are kind of fanciful.) But is that really how it works?
  3. People are willing to admit they'd be disappointed not to be able to see stuff the owner expressly wanted to keep private? ("VOYEURS UNITE!" ?)
  4. I thought I heard that the Linden viewer is preparing to switch off the web-based profiles. Would that mean all profile Picks would be public? (Obviously I don't care for my own Picks, but I'm thinking of that "Privacy" tab again.)

Pretty sure I'm misunderstanding all this.

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Codex Alpha

Codex Alpha

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I like Firestorm for technical info that it provides - much appreciated.

I run Opensim and SL with two installs of Firestorm, but sadly they seem to want to use the same cache folder, which seems to cause problems. FS reads the OS and SL versions as the same and confuses users and passwords.

Second Life Viewer was my go to for many years, mainly on trust but as I wanted more info than it provided, I needed more. Right now though, it seems to be displaying the environment and lights much better than FS, and crisper for some reason, so there's that.

Tried Black Dragon, but it is a bit taxing of course and is not friendly to UHD displays with the tiny UI.

Edited by Codex Alpha
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Sid Nagy

Sid Nagy

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I've always used the LL viewer.
Lately I use Catznip too.
It is all about to use a browser where you find your way easily. And that can be different for everyone.
That is the main reason I don't use Firestorm. To much differences with the interface I'm so used to.

Edited by Sid Nagy
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Misty Rookstown

Misty Rookstown

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On 5/20/2022 at 12:08 AM, Qie Niangao said:

Huh? I mean… huh?

image.png.6a61506563953cc1d1fa1a8ee1f50088.png

As for which viewer to use, the correct answer is Catznip because we, its die-hard users, don't evangelize. 😛 

Weird. My reinstanted Avatar Sorina Garrigus picks comes up blank and no tabs in the profile. But when looking in Firestorm it works fine. 

Edited by Misty Rookstown
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Misty Rookstown

Misty Rookstown

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On 5/20/2022 at 7:34 AM, Codex Alpha said:

I like Firestorm for technical info that it provides - much appreciated.

I run Opensim and SL with two installs of Firestorm, but sadly they seem to want to use the same cache folder, which seems to cause problems. FS reads the OS and SL versions as the same and confuses users and passwords.

Second Life Viewer was my go to for many years, mainly on trust but as I wanted more info than it provided, I needed more. Right now though, it seems to be displaying the environment and lights much better than FS, and crisper for some reason, so there's that.

Tried Black Dragon, but it is a bit taxing of course and is not friendly to UHD displays with the tiny UI.

I noticed that the lighting and such did look better in the official SL viewer which is partly why I asked. 
I was going to install the firestorm viewer for open sim and look about there. 

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Nalates Urriah

Nalates Urriah

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@Misty Rookstown Over all the least sucky viewer is Firestorm... my opinion.

Firestorm is the Swiss Knife of viewers. It has more of the most popular features of all the viewers. Handy Phototools and environment settings panels. For a time this was the photographer and machinimist's choice and is still often the builder's choice. It is a generally stable viewer with a low crash rate.

SL Default Viewer - The Lindens now make the cutting edge viewer. So, if you want to try out new features, this is the viewer to try. You can click a setting in the viewer and switch to using the release candidate viewers to help the Lindens debug the viewer. The SL Viewer is a must install for debugging problems and getting support from the Lab.

Black Dragon - This viewer has taken over photographers and machinamist's hearts. It has a built-in Poser that can be used to pose your avatar. It has additional render features that are not in most other viewers.

Catznip - This is the viewer with the BEST inventory tools.

Cool VL Viewer - This is a viewer holding on to the OLD v1 user interface. The insides are updated and improved making it one of the top performing viewers. However, I haven't checked its performance in forever.

And there are others.

 

So... as you have been told, it depends on what you do in SL that determines which viewer you are likely to enjoy. But, on any given day any given viewer is a candidate for a "This SUCKS" award.

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Henri Beauchamp

Henri Beauchamp

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On 5/22/2022 at 12:37 AM, Nalates Urriah said:

Cool VL Viewer - This is a viewer holding on to the OLD v1 user interface. The insides are updated and improved making it one of the top performing viewers. However, I haven't checked its performance in forever.

Hey, I'm not THAT old ! 👴

And the v1 UI is by far the best anyway (unbeatable for productivity and screen estate)... 😜

As for checking the performances, well, you should really give it another try now... But be careful, because speed can be addictive ! 😛

Edited by Henri Beauchamp
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Modulated

Modulated

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35 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Hey, I'm not THAT old ! 👴

And the v1 UI is by far the best anyway (unbeatable for productivity and screen estate)... 😜

As for checking the performances, well, you should really give it another try now... But be careful, because speed can be addictive ! 😛

I have used your viewer and it is quite fast, but ONE thing, can you please have an option to make unfocused floaters opaque? I don't like the transparent thing on floaters.. Thank you .

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Henri Beauchamp

Henri Beauchamp

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1 hour ago, Modulated said:

ONE thing, can you please have an option to make unfocused floaters opaque? I don't like the transparent thing on floaters.. Thank you .

A rather unusual request, that should go to the Cool VL Viewer support forum... (*)

But you can do it yourself, by editing just one line in skins/[default|dark|silver]/colors_base.xml: 

<DefaultBackgroundColor value=”62, 62, 62, 140” />		<!-- Background color for unfocused floaters -->

Replace 140 with 255 and voilà !

----------

(*) You will find many answers to questions already replied on this forum too... Including how to create your own custom skin (which may only differ by the default colours) or override the existing ones...

Edited by Henri Beauchamp
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Modulated

Modulated

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2 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

A rather unusual request, that should go to the Cool VL Viewer support forum... (*)

But you can do it yourself, by editing just one line in skins/[default|dark|silver]/colors_base.xml: 

<DefaultBackgroundColor value=”62, 62, 62, 140” />		<!-- Background color for unfocused floaters -->

Replace 140 with 255 and voilà !

----------

(*) You will find many answers to questions already replied on this forum too... Including how to create your own custom skin (which may only differ by the default colours) or override the existing ones...

Yeah sorry, didn't mean it to be a request but was more curious than anything. Gonna take a look at this, seems easy enough! Thanks again. 👍

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Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva

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On 5/20/2022 at 12:18 AM, Misty Rookstown said:

I have Firestorm and use the LL current browser ... the current browser I am lost on coming back into SL. Where are picks? I select profile and can't see people's picks for instance. But if I go to Firestorm I can see the classic profile. Someone also suggested Singularity. What is your favorite and why? Without trying Singularity or any others I have to say Firestorm because it is best for building for me with options to copy prim locations sizes etc. Also are there things I should open up on the LL official browser? 

Alchemy is my absolute go-to, necessary browser to have a nice, neat, clean, fast, full, search that returns 125 easy-to-read and clickable lines on a term like "Ravenglass" so I can see my own search ads I pay for neatly arranged. I can't see them on the regular SL browser where search is being...repaired.

Alchemy stalls when you try to look up names in a group, even partial names. The SL browser makes you put in only partial names; if you paste a full name, it says "non". I stick with the SL browser for lots of reason. Many people cite area search for Firestorm, but for that, there's always Searchbert.

Edited by Prokofy Neva
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Conifer Dada

Conifer Dada

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I use the standard Linden Lab viewer which is pretty reliable these days. I've only resorted to using other viewers for SL at times when the LL one was going through a bad patch.

I also have Firestorm, which I use to access my Open Sim standalone and, occasionally, the OS Grid.  It works OK but I find the Firestorm environment graphics are not as good as LL however much you play around with the settings.  

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Modulated

Modulated

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12 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

A rather unusual request, that should go to the Cool VL Viewer support forum... (*)

But you can do it yourself, by editing just one line in skins/[default|dark|silver]/colors_base.xml: 

<DefaultBackgroundColor value=”62, 62, 62, 140” />		<!-- Background color for unfocused floaters -->

Replace 140 with 255 and voilà !

----------

(*) You will find many answers to questions already replied on this forum too... Including how to create your own custom skin (which may only differ by the default colours) or override the existing ones...

I was able to edit the skin colors base just fine, didn't know it was so easy! ty ty

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JeromFranzic

JeromFranzic

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Windows:

1. Firestorm (SL Havok version)

2. Black Dragon

3. Catznip

4. LL performance viewer

5. Cool VL

Linux:

1. Firestorm (Open Sim version)

2. Black Dragon (via Wine Staging)

3. Alchemy (having to use pipewire kills my hardware volume buttons, AKA F10/F11 but OK)

4. Cool VL

5. Kokua


Haha... I used to use a few others, including Little Penguin and Kirstens but now I've whittled it down, barely... 99% of the time it's Firestorm, then BD if I want the crazy angles for photos and that signature BD look.

Edited by JeromFranzic
Why do you ask LOL... ok tiny corrections
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AnthonyJoanne

AnthonyJoanne

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I've found that, for me, Firestorm sucks the least.

Of course they ALL suck massively if you want to run multiple versions the way I do. That having been said ... I've been able to get 3 versions of FS operational on the same PC and keep their caches etc separate, but it's a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I also have the LL viewer, Singularity and Kokua installed ... but haven't fired them up in well over a year so they are hopelessly out of date.

Frankly I'd ditch the lot if someone had enough nouse to develop a truly standalone/portable viewer.

 

 

 

Edited by AnthonyJoanne
typo
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