Cincia Singh

I always install the newest version of each viewer I have on my machine; LL Development Viewer (Snowstorm, updates almost daily), LL Mesh Beta Viewer, Firestorm (V2), KirstenLee's Viewer (V2), and Lance Corrimal's Dolphin Viewer (V2). I'm a sucker for new shiny and enjoy learning new software and playing with the new features like Mesh, real Shadows, web profiles and etc. It's also fun to dig into the debug settings to see what changes I can make to maybe make my SL more interesting and enjoyable. Having multiple viewers on my machine, each with their own cache folders, comes in handy if an update goes awry and one viewer or another develops a nasty crash for me.

From a functionality perspective, not an impressive release. We need fixes.

My experience is different than yours, and you should use whatever viewer works best for your system. That said, V1 versions are history and there's no point in discussing them; they will become unusable after mesh rolls out to the grid. As far as V2's are ocncerned, you obviously need to tweak your settings when running LL's V2. In fact I tweak my settings for each viewer I run and at one time or another I use them all. Only one V2 TPV uses Kakadu for the graphics rendering (that's what the LL V2's use, too) and I use it and it gets 80-85% the FPS of the standard LL V2. The LL Development Viewer V2 (Snowstorm) is even faster than the current LL standard V2although alittle less stable (it's a development viewer). The other TPV V2's use a different, and slower, graphics renderer and they get about 70% of the FPS of the standard LL V2. That's my experience. Your mileage may vary. But always keep in mind that no matter how much you dislike LL and it's viewer, the other viewers are all made from the LL viewer and without the LL V2, we would have no viewers. Have a nice day.

Hang in there Oskar ... I know you'll get it figured out.

I don't know what the problem is with the main server channel. I don't much care to get involved in long discussions of "metrics" and TD and script times. What matters in a social environment like SL in the clubs and welcome areas is basically "does it work?" I'm sorry to say right now it doesn't. Notecards don't open, objects don't rez, once rezzed you can't delete them or pick them up again, TP's are failing all over the place, rubber banding when trying to move from the lag even on freshly restarted regions both mainland and estate is appalling, audio streams and video streams are jittering, and overall the experience inworld has taken a definite turn for the worse in the last 2 weeks. I don't know or care what broke it, but it needs to be fixed ASAP. Frankly you can't roll new projects (i.e. mesh) to servers running this poorly and expect any semblance of useful data and eventual success. Please. Fix the main server channel.

People using avatars are "playing" (role playing) and SL really is a very fine MMORPG. I understand it's very important to many people, myself included, but that doesn't change what it is.

I Googled and found no game development company that's ISO certified.

Thanks for the pending fix, Oskar. Better a fix that works than a hurried fix that breaks things even worse. /me gives Oskar a fire extinguisher to deal with the flames.

Don't expect "everything" that V2 offers, this public beta is built off version 2.5.1 of the development viewer and the development viwer is now at 2.7.3. Most noteably mesh support is absent.

I'm confused (nothing new but it causes me to ask questions). If the main channel AND the RC channels have all been rolled and are now supposedly running 11.05.19.xxxxxxx, why is Quordlepleen region on the mainland still running 11.05.05.228940 (apparently a Blue Steel release from May 5th)?

Besides Bay City land being crazy expensive, there's only so much you can do with a 1024 sq m parcel, even if it has double prim allocation.

Since I first came to SL in 2007 things have become remarkably better; less lag, more stable, regular updates, enhanced features, better graphics. I no longer sink into the terrain like in 2007, the land around us doesn't bounce or shift nor do we slide down slopes unwillingly like we used to. All that said, I think SL will never be mainstream because mainstream computer users and even mainstream gamers have limited interest in a social environment intended to foster communications and interactions while allowing the residents to express themselves artistically. The one constant in SL, just like in RL, is change. People come and go all the time as they change their hobbies or become bored or get mistreated by someone which is why we find old haunts closed or empty. Actually, considering there's no off-the-shelf 3D virtual world that is plug-and-play (I can't find on the shelf at best buy), I think LL has done a reasonably good job of maintaining the grid and enhancing its capabilities over time. A lot of people will disagree with me but I think they've also done a decent job of improving the viewer.

The RL economy has been in the tank for years and it's finally showing up in the SL stats as flat performance; no surprise there. From my perspective, in the last year I have spent less in SL, not because I couldn't spend as much or more than previous years but because I'm finding it hard to appreciate the things creators are making; either things are just re-colors of what I already have or they're over the top insane crazy and fugly! If shop wants better sales they should get innovative and create something new and exciting. On the usual viewer controversy, I see about 1/2 Phoenix (about to become obsolete) and 1/2 V2 viewers. To each their own. And I personally own more land now than I did last year; thank you to the "sky is falling" crowd for making land so cheap.

Reduced lag? You're kidding right? That has to be tongue in cheek! Do yourself a favor and get out of the Linden sims and visit someplace with some traffic and real people doing real things inworld. The crippling mono bug is as potent as ever and anyone who doesn't restart their sim every day or two is wading knee deep in vintage Linden lag. You need less marketing and more fixes for the sims!

Flogwars taken inworld are the easiest to end. There's this handy little button called "mute." Use it and the "Drama Llama" who just can't get enough said in the flogs is sent to the ether where they can flame to their heart's content.