Why exactly is it that we are migrating to V2 viewers?

[Brian Eiren]

The Phoenix home page reports an upcomming move from V1 to V2 type viewers, making V1 veiwers obselete.

We've had both V1 and V2 working at the same time for a while now, and as the old saying goes " If it ain't broke don't fix it."

Could someone explain to me whats 'broke'  such that we need to entirely disable V1?

[Bactine]

Well, they're saying that because with mesh, v1.* type viewers will not be able to render mesh. Also, as LL brings out more features to SL, they will render the v1.* type viewers useless at a certain point. Theres no need to make the move now, but one day you will have to.

[Rolig Loon]

To save the effort of retyping it, here's what I posted here to another version of the same question about an hour ago:

From a resident's perspective, my life will change dramatically once mesh appears on the main grid.  A lot of 3D modellers who have been ignoring SL so far are already gearing up to bring very detailed, high-quality work into SL.  If LL can get the cost issue under control, many sims are going to have more intricate builds and there will be a growing number of flashy cars and other high-end consumer products.  If I don't have a V2 viewer, I won't be able to see them at all.  Imagine what SL would look like today if you could not see sculpties (and avoid walking into them).  It would be like walking through SL with a guide dog.  Even if mesh objects only make up 10% of the total, that's a lot of SL to be invisible.

More important than that, almost, is the fact that once mesh is introduced, LL is very likely to accelerate changes to their server code.  I expect that within a few upgrades, the servers will no longer support V1 viewers adequately.  If you don't migrate to V2 (LL's version, Firestorm, Kirsten, etc...) , you'll experience more and more crashes, you'll find that you can't get newer scripted objects to respond (look at Prim Media today, already.....), and you won't be able to use in-world Search. You'll spend more time cursing and less time enjoying SL.

I have been holding off on the switch to V2 as long as I can, because I truly don't like LL's user interface.  When Firestorm went to beta 1, however, I took the plunge, and I'm now quite comfortable with beta 2. I can see the handwriting on the wall.  The time has come.

One of the nice things about SL is that since LL made the viewer code open source, we have had a choice of viewers.  That's still the case with V2 viewers.  The choice that's disappearing is V1.  It won't happen with a bang, but it will happen soon enough that I don't feel comfortable waiting any longer.  You can make up your own mind.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Well for one thing Display names are all ready broken for V1 users.  And when mesh is released, that will be broken for V1 users.  Its also likely that the maximum prim size will go up to 64m and that will be broken for V1 users.  And of course the multiple attach points are also broken along with no tattoo layer and no alpha layer.

--Cinn

[Peggy Paperdoll]

It all boils down to either you stand on the side of road watching the world go by (and whining) or you pull out your keys to your car and join the rest of us driving into the future.