A Perspective on Viewer 2

[Einsman Schlegel]

As I've noticed on Viewer 2, a lot of people seem to be having some trouble with this new viewer.  As I can see its a completely new layout, it took me awhile to get used to, but once you get to know the viewer its just like getting to know anybody, you start getting familiar with it. 

If anybody needs the assistance with the new viewer (Viewer 2) I'm normally available inworld to be spoken to or you could simply reply here with what you need.  I'm open for assistance.  As well as my partner Reincaschi Reinard, either of us are inworld at any given time.

Peace out.

Einsman Schlegel

[Jayvell Villota]

Yeah, when Viewer 2 was released, I didn't like it at all at first glance, mostly because I was too used to the UI of the classic viewer, along with the pie-charts for building with.

But, I gave it time and eventually started to like it even more and more, until it eventually replaced Emerald / Phoenix and became my main SL Client.

Not only that, but I found that Viewer 2 was much more stable with rendering graphics and had better options for hardware settings, making everything look much more nicer and less rigid than it did in previous viewers.

I can't wait for them to roll out more updates for the viewer, such as the new feeds that they had discussed about in their most recent blog.

But I do sure agree with your words "Like getting to know anybody, you start getting familiar with it." as that is true, and I do believe that people that don't like Viewer 2 mostly because of the new UI and how it'll make things a little awkward when building as they've been too used to using the pie-charts when right-clicking objects (Like I was) I'm sure they'll begin to use it more frequently, too!

[Six Igaly]

I think a lot of people does not have problems with viewer 2 but with the fact viewer 2 was introduced. Changes! That's what most people dislike. For me viewer 2, i liked it from scratch. I took me about an hour to get used to it (beta release once). Can't imagine people are swearing by a viewer that looks if it was from the early 80's. I hope we'll soon have a viewer 3!

[Ansariel Hiller]

People don't like it because they are too lazy to get used to it, it's just the fact that V2 has the most horrible, cumbersome, screen-cluttering and patronizing user interface ever invented! Simple tasks requires you to push around the mouse back and forth and more clicks than before, lots of screen estate is wasted with overbordened chrome and the blatant ignorance of LL in terms of the patronizing sidebar, that is what scares people away from V2.

[Penny Patton]

My main complaint with the current LL viewers is that LL really hasn't been bold enough with the new design. It's still the same old SL Viewer, just the textures are a little snazzier, the menues have been reorganized for the better, and most of the previously freefloating windows are now shoved in a sidebar that is itself a mixed bag of pros and cons.

Although they renamed "File" to "Me". it's still set up like a file editing programme. That's just silly because SL isn't a file editing application. 

They also rushed headlong into trying to make SL look more like a web browser, just as web browsers themselves were abandoning the interface LL was mimicking. So now we have a nonsensical "Address bar" that is one of the first things I find myself getting rid of when I customize the interface preferences.

 

SL has far more in common with videogames than it does with a web browser or a file editing programme. Why doesn't LL pay more attention to what videogames do?

[Thinkerer Melville]

I have externsive coverage of how to use Viewer 2 on my blog.  That includes a lot of annotated screen shots from versions 2.6 and 2.7.  There is an organized  table of contents here;

Hobo Kit on the Web

http://thinkerer.org/SLintChan/SLiHoboKitonWeb.htm

Thinkerer

[Chronometria]

I think its ok, but as recent updates mean i cant use it to build (cant count prims or objects), i find this a real kick in the teeth. Thats worthy of a hotfix really as its crippling.

 

New person gets into second life, tries the build tools "oh, its broken".

New person gets into second life, tries to count prims on their furniture "Oh its broken".

 

What kind of message does that send out about viewer 2 and second life in general?

[Aluminum Foil]

"People don't like it because they are too lazy to get used to it, it's just the fact that V2 has the most horrible, cumbersome, screen-cluttering and patronizing user interface ever invented!"

 

I completely agree! V2.0 has made my second life much, much harder than it needs to be, and why exactly?

Don't get me wrong; I'm not one of these people that instantly just hates on "the system" when ever I don't get my way about something =) ... But honestly, 2.0 is actually ..... really ... really ... really annoying for me to use because, 2.0 acts NOTHING like any of my other games, programs, or web services that I use.. I get that they want to make it "less scary" for new users, but your'e right, it seems awfully patronizing to me too.