What Features Are Missing From Other Viewers That Would Get You To Use Them?

[Blush Bravin]

2 hours ago, Evangeline Arcadia said:

Oh and I like the Render only friends

I was very surprised to see this feature included in the latest LL viewer update. It's still kind of buried in the developer menu > avatar > character test > render only friends. But it's nice to have it available. I use it a lot when I want to shop in crowded events.

[Charlemagne Allen]

BIGGER BOOBS ON EVERYONE

[JUSTUS Palianta]

Properties Paintbrush for prims and textures, save us some work, oh wait no viewer has that, whatever viewer puts it I'm using it. 

[lovestofu]

Features from existing viewers I'd like to see everywhere

• Area Search
• Radar announcements for chat range, draw distance, region
• XML export for profiles, group descriptions, Area Search results

Features I have not seen anywhere

• Multiple camera save states
• Online cache purging
• Plugin environment for user defined functions to run (Lua, Python)
• Private communication between the viewer and the above plugins (not LSL bridge)

[Harper Held]

On 7/24/2024 at 5:42 AM, Cristiano Midnight said:

I have seen a lot of discussion recently about Alchemy as an alternative to Firestorm, but for me it lacks a few key features that keep me on Firestorm. I use the hell out of Favorite Wearables and also Contact Sets, but I have not found any other viewer with similar functionality. I also like some other QoL features in Firestorm that I have not seen elsewhere. I do use Black Dragon for photography at times, and I know Alchemy has adapted their posing tool, but neither viewer makes me want to switch full time away from Firestorm. What keeps you using the viewer you use?

😈 Opensim support, obviously, but I probably shouldn't mention that here! 😈

OK -excluding that? Commands like gtp,gth,mapto etc; I use those not just every day but darn near every time I log in!

I need to be able to save my builds to OXP, that's a biggie -I'm not sure if Alchemy, Black Dragon or anything else supports that. I *think* CoolVL Viewer supports XML backups, God bless Henri's heart, but XML doesn't save a lot of crucial information (current location when backing up -wich makes it a LOT easier to restore); I'd be surprised if it saved Materials, either (recent versions of OXP does). 

Recent Firestorms come with updated camera presets -I'm not sure if any other viewer does or not but yeah, it would suck to go back to setting those by hand again...

Edited July 26 by Harper Held

[Harper Held]

15 hours ago, JeromFranzic said:

Cool VL and Genesis run the V1 interface fairly well, I think. In that case, I'll take Cool VL.

Cool VL isn't my cup of tea, but it gets mad props from me

Edited July 26 by Harper Held

[Evangeline Arcadia]

7 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

I was very surprised to see this feature included in the latest LL viewer update. It's still kind of buried in the developer menu > avatar > character test > render only friends. But it's nice to have it available. I use it a lot when I want to shop in crowded events.

Thank you,  I did't know that:)

[Henri Beauchamp]

4 hours ago, Harper Held said:

I *think* CoolVL Viewer supports XML backups, God bless Henri's heart, but XML doesn't save a lot of crucial information (current location when backing up -wich makes it a LOT easier to restore); I'd be surprised if it saved Materials, either (recent versions of OXP does). 

Its ”Object backup” feature (1) does save PBR materials (as JSON strings in the XML file), but I just noticed that it currently has a bug (fixed for next release) causing it to fail to notice that a face bears a PBR material whenever the latter material does not use an override (2)...

The ”Import” feature will also check, before importing, whether you already got the PBR materials and/or their textures in your inventory, and will only upload missing textures from the exported ones (i.e. it will avoid pointless and costly texture uploads) and automatically recreates material assets as needed from the saved JSON data and textures.

So yes, as long as you are the creator for the materials and the textures they use, you can export prim-based objects using PBR and legacy material alike from SL and reimport them in OpenSim (as long as, or when the latter provides full PBR materials support).

As for the ”crucial information”, I am sorry, but the ”current location” is certainly not one... You do not want to import an object in another sim or another grid where you won't have rez rights to do it !

------

(1) Which only works for your non-mesh objects, but gLTF scene import (and export ?) will be ”soon” implemented by LL, so you will be able to import your creations anywhere without the need of such a backup feature.

(2) If you build the viewer yourself, change LLGLTFMaterial* gltfp = tep->getGLTFMaterialOverride(); for LLGLTFMaterial* gltfp = tep->getGLTFRenderMaterial(); line 956 of linden/indra/newview/hbobjectbackup.cpp to fix that bug.

Edited July 26 by Henri Beauchamp

[Marianne Little]

Alchemy performs so much better than Firestorm, even if I miss some things from Firestorm, I use Alchemy now.

I worry that if Alchemy becomes a Firestorm clone, it slow down to Firestorm performance.

Maybe a poll over what people miss most?

If Area Search slow down the viewer as much as the creator of Black Dragon says it does, I will not sacrifice speed only for that tool. Even if the majority ask for it...

If Alchemy and Firestorm is equally slow, I can use Firestorm since it is what I am used to.

After Area Search, I miss Favorite Wearables most. Chat commands like ght is nice, if it can be implemented without performance loss.

[Conifer Dada]

I'm using Alchemy too at the moment. It works fine except for occasionally losing things from inventory. Luckily I had the textures backed up for the ones I lost.

I would like to go back to using the LL viewer, and the missing feature that would tempt me back is . . . if its performance improves so that I can actually visit places with more than 2 or 3 avatars present.

[Qie Niangao]

17 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Render only friends. That's one I don't use a lot, but it can be useful at really busy events.

I really tried to find this, but I'm stumped. When I search for "friends" in Firestorm's preferences, I find Move & View / Teleports / "Keep 'Show friends only' enabled after teleporting" but I can't find where to enable that setting itself. 

I'm trying to figure out why this is such a big deal because both Alchemy and the Linden viewer have an "Always Render Friends" checkbox next to the Avatar Maximum Complexity slider in Graphics preferences, which is what I've used on the (very) rare occasion I want to see only my friends. Theoretically it's not the same because I guess with Firestorm you can arrange to block the view of friends with excessive complexity as well as all non-friends, whereas the logic of the other viewers' checkbox would show all friends regardless of complexity and optionally non-friends with complexity less than a threshold. But that seems functionally equivalent for any practical use case I can dream up—iff Firestorm's thing works as I surmised, but I've never used it and can't seem to find it to test.

[EDIT: Oh, I see now, it's in the "World" menu. Hmm. Do people really toggle this on and off so often it needs a slot in a top-level menu?]

Edited July 26 by Qie Niangao

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

I really tried to find this, but I'm stumped. When I search for "friends" in Firestorm's preferences, I find Move & View / Teleports / "Keep 'Show friends only' enabled after teleporting" but I can't find where to enable that setting itself. 

I'm trying to figure out why this is such a big deal because both Alchemy and the Linden viewer have an "Always Render Friends" checkbox next to the Avatar Maximum Complexity slider in Graphics preferences, which is what I've used on the (very) rare occasion I want to see only my friends. Theoretically it's not the same because I guess with Firestorm you can arrange to block the view of friends with excessive complexity as well as all non-friends, whereas the logic of the other viewers' checkbox would show all friends regardless of complexity and optionally non-friends with complexity less than a threshold. But that seems functionally equivalent for any practical use case I can dream up—iff Firestorm's thing works as I surmised, but I've never used it and can't seem to find it to test.

I use it for shopping very busy stores/events/sales/free head giveaways. It derenders everyone except any friends I happen to be there with. I use it as a quick way to reduce lag. Helps immensely during Lel's Christmas event because those stores get PACKED for days and I just want to get in, slap a vendor, and get and out.

[Blush Bravin]

38 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

I really tried to find this, but I'm stumped. When I search for "friends" in Firestorm's preferences, I find Move & View / Teleports / "Keep 'Show friends only' enabled after teleporting" but I can't find where to enable that setting itself. 

I'm trying to figure out why this is such a big deal because both Alchemy and the Linden viewer have an "Always Render Friends" checkbox next to the Avatar Maximum Complexity slider in Graphics preferences, which is what I've used on the (very) rare occasion I want to see only my friends. Theoretically it's not the same because I guess with Firestorm you can arrange to block the view of friends with excessive complexity as well as all non-friends, whereas the logic of the other viewers' checkbox would show all friends regardless of complexity and optionally non-friends with complexity less than a threshold. But that seems functionally equivalent for any practical use case I can dream up—iff Firestorm's thing works as I surmised, but I've never used it and can't seem to find it to test.

[EDIT: Oh, I see now, it's in the "World" menu. Hmm. Do people really toggle this on and off so often it needs a slot in a top-level menu?]

I use this feature so much that I have added a toolbar button.

[Harper Held]

5 hours ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

As for the ”crucial information”, I am sorry, but the ”current location” is certainly not one... You do not want to import an object in another sim or another grid where you won't have rez rights to do it !

 

First, thank you for your detailed reply!

This, I'm going to disagree with -strongly! If I'm restoring a backup, I have the awareness to restore to a place where I have rez rights. I often use the restore feature to recreate places on regions that "oar" file backup isn't an option (like SL). For instance, if I am renting a new homestead (in SL) and the original object is lost in my inventory, or if I've rented a new region on a closed grid or even an open grid -but I want to restore all of the textures and scripts automatically instead of being forced to do it by hand.

Especially recently. I have building projects I started on grids that are out of business so when I move to a new grid, I want to restore them from OXP files on my hard disk.

I respect that it's your viewer and your choice -at the end of the day you're making it for yourself. Honestly, if I had the skills I'd do the same (I don't); so this isn't a request or insisting on doing something you don't want to do. Not at all! I am only pointing out that there is a case for preserving last location details. It's a backup feature I've relied on heavily for nearly ten years now!

[Qie Niangao]

17 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I use this feature so much that I have added a toolbar button.

Yes, and Ayashe's example of LeL's Christmas event helps me with a use case. So now I wonder why it just never occurs to me that I'd benefit from such a thing under similar circumstances. It might be because I routinely run with "Always Render Friends" and otherwise very restrictive avatar rendering, such as a maximum of maybe 6 or so non-imposters. (Also a max complexity of 100K but that only very rarely blocks anybody anymore.) I don't actually know which of the different settings actually reduce lag, though; I could easily be doing it all wrong to have that effect.

[Blush Bravin]

42 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Yes, and Ayashe's example of LeL's Christmas event helps me with a use case. So now I wonder why it just never occurs to me that I'd benefit from such a thing under similar circumstances. It might be because I routinely run with "Always Render Friends" and otherwise very restrictive avatar rendering, such as a maximum of maybe 6 or so non-imposters. (Also a max complexity of 100K but that only very rarely blocks anybody anymore.) I don't actually know which of the different settings actually reduce lag, though; I could easily be doing it all wrong to have that effect.

Oh I'm an avid people watcher. I love to see how people dress up their avies, so I wouldn't want to run around with render friends only on typically. I only use it for very busy shopping events where I want to get in and out quickly and don't want to be hindered waiting on people to rez rather than vendors.

[animats]

On 7/24/2024 at 7:11 AM, Blush Bravin said:

Currently, I've been derendering a boat that crashed into my neighbor's land. The neighbor doesn't have autoreturn turned on, so that boat just sits there making a horrible racket.

You can file a ticket for "object littering". Eventually governance will delete it.

Or you can rez a prim or prims, slide them onto your neighbor's land, and use them to push the boat around. I did this once with a boat that had escaped the Blake Sea (probably because the driver came off at a region crossing), jumped a pier, and was wedged in a storefront. By slowly moving some prims around, I was able to push the thing out of the store. It went zooming off into the Blake Sea, hopefully to land somewhere that would return it.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

If the LL viewer did the following things, I would switch in a heartbeat as its performatively better than any other viewer out there.

1. Allowed you to modify the chat bar so you can have V1 style chat instead of pop out windows in pop out windows.

2. Allow you to ignore group chats.

3. V1/FS style search.

4. Easier way to stop your head following the mouse pointer.

[Starberry Passion]

I wish Firestorm had Tilting in it, like Black Dragon, for taking photos.

Sometimes Black Dragon destroys my P.C. and crashes the graphics card, so can't use it unless I planned on restarting my computer.

If I had Camera Rotation, (shift + Q, Shift + E) Then I'd be able to just take photos.

Plus Firestorm should adopt the Avatar Poser, that would be great.

I like Alchemy viewer but I don't like taking photos on it for some reason. When you rotate/tilt the camera and you set a width and height, it really doesn't allow you to preview your photo at that length, like it does with black dragon, and your avatar looks more crowded, instead of it taking in more area and more depth of field. 

[Nalates Urriah]

Favorite Wearables

Area Search

PhotoTools - having all the settings in one panel

Alchemy is enough like FS and LL that I can usually find the menu items I am looking for without too much hunting.

I like the viewer.I have two installs of it. One plain and one with ReShade.