[Viewer 2.4 Released!]

Most of the development work in Viewer 2 is constantly being reviewed by the many of us that download their Snowstorm daily (or more often) releases.  This means that issues get logged and noted earlier - so it should mean that the Beta and full releases have less bugs.  That doesn't mean they are all spotted and occassionally some bugs get re-introduced by apparently unrelated changes (e.g. the '???' bug on names).

Esbee tells it as it is - she knows that Viewer 2 isn't perfect, but it is getting better - I'd rather we had more Lindens like that rather than the stuff the PR focussed Lindens give us on stuff like Display Names - they don't realise that we'd rather they were honest about failings and limitations.

Totally agree with you on releasing new versions at the end of a week - it is foolish to roll it out just before a weekend.

[Viewer 2.4 Released!]

For 'Opaque Water' go to 'Preferences->Graphics', select 'Advanced' and then ensure that 'Transparent Water' is unticked.

[Viewer 2.4 Released!]

One big improvement for those on lower-powered machines is 'opaque water' - it not only speeds up performance but actually makes the water look better if you are not using shaders.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

In my case, it's not irrational, it's based on a single issue.  The im notifications/windows are simply too difficult to see.  In my business (live music venue owner/promoter) being able to track and respond to multiple ims (often half a dozen simultaneously) while keeping eye on my surroundings and open chat is simply too important.  In V.2, it's just way too difficult to see when you have an im incoming and keep track of multiple simultaneous conversations.

When I want to see someone's profile, Phoenix lets me do so by just clicking on the name in the chat or im box.  I can't function with a profile taking up half  my screen (often the profile of someone I know well, like one of my hosts).

 

Have you tried using tabbed IMs - it is very similar to tabbed IMs in 1.x - but without the linked in local chat (but if you balance the tabbed IM window above it works pretty well)?

With the profile problem try detaching the profile from the sidebar and then resizing it smaller as much as possible.  It won't go as small as Viewer 1 but is not as bad as it used to be (though the room that the name takes is ridiculous); minimise it when finished with and then when you select another profile it will open at the same smaller, detached size.  One issue for club owners I have also heard is one of opening multiple profiles - but I believe this may be addressed when the team which is re-doing profiles reports back.

Hope that helps.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

As Terveys has noticed, when adding Viewer 2.4 Beta 2 yesterday LL appear to have broken the download link for Windows.  No doubt they will fix this soon, but until this then I suggest you use the link in the release notes mentioned in Jack's message.

Beta 2 improves handling of opacity in the windows and of avatars names.  Also the animation now works when a snapshot is saved, like it always did prior to Beta 1.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

Samm - some of the ProductEngines (the contractors LL has working for them) decided that this would be a good idea for the chat toasts.  I have asked them to rethink it - unfortunately it is hard-coded, so I cannot change it in the StarLight skin, a new version of which has just been released as well.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

One really unpublicised good feature for lower spec machines in 2.4 Beta is the work of the Opaque Water Project - With no shaders on and 'Transparent Water' unticked water doesn't just look better it also gains you around 5 FPS - a great improvement.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

Please make the background download optional. To brute force a background download is a particularly bad idea for folks on slow, metered or mobile connections.

The option can be unset in the "Preferences" - but I would also like to see it being 'opt-in' rather than 'opt-out'.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Is this a Chinese Govt run Blog ?

Seems like a whole bunch of comments got deleted.

 

Maybe they felt it wasn't the Hara and Rene blog either!

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Looks like they are working on it as they have assigned a generic address to working on it.

November 25th - Yoz Linden changed the Assignee to 'WorkingOnIt Linden' on WEB-3308 (I can't use the blogs with my newly created account created with the new "Username" one name system)

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

The '???' issue is a known and reported bug that LL will be fixing.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Viewer 2.1 will no longer work.  If you can't get 2.3 to work I suggest you wait for Viewer 2.4 Beta (which should be out in the next couple of days).  From my own tests 2.4 Beta is the fastest Viewer 2 yet on low-powered machines, but it may also be the buggiest thanks to a lack of proper QA at LL nowadays.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

There are now two forms of recording IMs/chat - the standard text files and a more detailed .llsd file (currently without an easy viewer but it opens ok in WordPad).

If anyone wants to comment on or suggest viewer ideas I suggest the Snowstorm  Product Backlog & Idea Discussion Meeting (Wednesdays from 8:00am to 9:00am PST) held by Snowstorm Product/Business Lead, Esbee Linden - 'If you have ideas for  Viewer improvements, usability enhancements, new features, or just have  questions about our backlog, this is the meeting for you!'. Esbee has been a resident for 4 years and does get in-world!

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

You should be ok with that super spec Kristen - if you contact me when I am in-world will discuss some ideas that might be able to fix your problems (fingers crossed).

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Kristen - it should work ok on all but the most basic machines - is working ok on my old 1.8GHz Celeron laptop.  Maybe there are certain not so obvious settings that need tuning - or you might like to try 2.4 Beta when it is out in the next day or so, that has a couple of things that seem to boost performance.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Group Titles and all the various name options can be selected/deselected from with the Preferences->General panel.

You can set a display name by clicking on the 'Wrench' icon by your name on the 'Me' side-panel.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

You can untick 'Show Display Names' in Preferences->General

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

the logs still record you by your username.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Some answers to other posts on here:

• LL have addressed a number of bugs as evidenced in the release notes.
• Performance on my four-year old Celeron 1.8MHz laptop with an average ATI card for those days is marginally better than before (but far better than 2.0 or 2.1) - and definitely useable - those with more powerful machines that are having problems should raise it in a JIRA if they cannot resolve the problems.
• The limit of 64 characters only appears to apply to entering classifieds - this is because they failed to correct a line in the xml that said '64' to '255' - may have been that they didn't spot it until immediately before release.   It has been fixed in the soon to be released Viewer 2.4 Beta.
• You can choose to hide/ignore Display Names by ticking the box in Preferences->General if you don't like them.
• If you are still having problems with texture loading please make sure you enable HTTP textures and then clear all caches.  Second Life seems to object if you mix HTTP with non-HTTP textures.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

The official Viewer - and the one with the main panel on the downloads page is 2.2

The one under 'Second Life Beta Viewer' is the Beta version of the forthcoming 2.3.

The latest (and with the most features) version of the viewer (which will go towards 2.4) is available daily from the Snowstorm team.  This version may have occassional bugs as it is just a development viewer.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

I would really like to be able to use just one viewer but as of now, there seems to be some sort of glitch in 2.2 that makes using it near impossible due to a stuttering issue on my system, but phoenix doesn't seem to support media on a prim.  I'm wondering, are there any TPVs based on the 1.23 viewer that support media on a prim?  Will there ever be?

Seems unlikely unles they make a very substantial redesign.

And what are the chances that mesh will never get third party support either? 

The Mesh code has been given to TPV developers so displaying and playing with mesh shouldn't be a problem.  However the upload process for Mesh uses proprietary Havok software that is rather expensive - so it may be a little while before something can be written to replace that element.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

the main reason i DON"T use LL viewers is it doesn't have the RLV feature.  Phoenix seems to be still, the more stable and feature loaded viewer but of course, its all based on user preference. 

 

Both Catznip and the Restrained Love Viewer now are Viewer 2-based TPVs running with RLV.  Both also improve on the features offerred by the official viewer.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

The reality is that Viewer 2.2 is several weeks old - because there has to be a point at which the code is pulled off Snowstorm and and put through full testing together with other Viewer changes from other teams before being released.

KL pulls from the latest Snowstorm build each time and rapidly gets out a working version.  This sometimes means that Linden-introduced bugs get carried through into production.  Kirstens Viewer is cutting edge and the users get used to the problems, and benefits, associated with this - such an approach is not suitable with a Viewer intended for general use.  Long may both approaches continue.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

I will try and get other colour schemes out as time and ability permits - the elusive dark-on-light interface is proving surprisingly hard to finish off and has been in development for a month now.  I have also been messing around with fonts/spacing/padding to try and get a more legible format especially when using a notebook, the screen of which Viewer 2 fills up with too much blank and unproductive space.  The standard Viewer 2 interface is poor for anyone with less than perfect eyesight, and even then the colours/contrast are far from perfect.

While I will try my hardest not to get hit by a truck I do know that Linden Lab do plan to look at skinning as part of their backlog, and there are already at least four TPVs out there based on Viewer 2 and a number of talented open-source developers working with Linden lab on Viewer 2, so more people are becoming skilled in modifying it, and hopefully this will result in more choice for the future.  So, truck or no truck, the progression of Viewer 2 and choices based around it should hopefully continue.

[Viewer 2.2 Available Today!]

Transparency Grrrrrrr!

Just had begun to work on an Project and I only can set the transparency to 90 % but no more to 100 % Like it was before!

Krystall - I've changed that in the StarLight skin (mentioned earlier in these comments) - just pop that on top and you can build completely invisible stuff.