Available viewers

[Cienna Rossini]

I have an older MAC (specs below). I was able to access SL with Firestorm (until update) and SL viewer ( won't load any longer). Unsure what the issue is. I know my Mac is older but have not had a problem until recently. I now have good internet. Does anyone see anything in my specs that might be an issue with the viewers or can you suggest a better viewer?

Thanks for any help. I am not super tech.

Model Name:    iMac
  Model Identifier:    iMac13,1
  Processor Name:    Intel Core i5
  Processor Speed:    2.9 GHz
  Number of Processors:    1
  Total Number of Cores:    4
  L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB
  L3 Cache:    6 MB
  Memory:    8 GB
  Boot ROM Version:    292.0.0.0.0
  SMC Version (system):    2.9f5
  Serial Number (system):    C02JT7L6DNCT
  Hardware UUID:    36AE3F9C-547D-53D8-A97C-446F3C0770EC

Cien

[Henri Beauchamp]

You do not give the version of macOS running on it, and this is the determining factor.

Newer viewer builds require macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or better. Your iMac13,1 is apparently (from a quick web search) capable of running 10.15 (Catalina), so if you are running an older macOS, you should be able to upgrade and run SL viewers again.

[Possum888]

It seems you’re running a computer very much like mine.  I have a late 2013 iMac running Catalina v10.15.7.
Model Identifier: iMac14,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB

Unfortunately there is one model of iMac where you can't upgrade the memory, and guess which one I've got........

I don’t care for the official SL viewer, so I started using Firestorm, mainly because so many others were using it, but I found it ridiculously laggy, sometimes to the point where I started moving in delayed jerks rather than walking or dancing or whatever.  I tried a number of other viewers (there aren’t that many for Macs compared to PCs, so it didn’t take a ridiculous length of time to try them out).  A couple were supposedly less resource hungry that Firestorm, so should have run quicker, but I didn’t notice any difference.  I ended up settling on a viewer called Singularity, which I found gave me the best results on my poor old machine, although in some really busy places I have to turn the graphics down as low as they can go at times.

Someone told me that the people who came up with Singularity aren’t issuing any more upgrades, but that doesn’t bother me as long as it keeps working.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Possum888