Are TPVs jumping the gun on Pathfinding Support?

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

Like it or not, the official Linden Labs viewer is used by a minority of residents, and many of these people are likely to be new to Second Life. And the Viewer tools to manage Pathfinding are still in beta. Part of the delay is in sorting out the documentation. Until it is possible to point to reliable and complete documentation, Pathfinding is going to be officially in Beta

Several third-party viewers are including a partial set of Pathfinding tools. One of the important features depends on code which is not open sourced, and so Viewers will have to become SL-only. But if  you're not building stuff, will you ever need that feature? I can imagine a return of the Basic Viewer concept, leading to something which is controlled exactly like any other viewer, and which has a minimal set of building tools.

But can we trust the Lindens not to change anything before the official live date comes? Is it worth a resident bothering with these new Viewer versions, unless they want to make things which take advantage of Pathfinding? Can the PF-tool versions be regarded as not being a Beta, when Pathfinding itself still has beta status?

All I can be sure of is that I am glad I have older copies of installers, for versions that don't include PF-tools, nice and safe on my computer. Because I wouldn't be astonished to see some new and dreadful bug, hitherto unreported, affect all these new Viewer versions.

[Innula Zenovka]

Speaking as someone who uses TPVs other than Firestorm and Phoenix almost all the time, I certainly find it no hardship to relog in the official viewer on those (for me, rare) occasions when I need to import meshes or use pathfinding tools.

 

[Perrie Juran]

Whether or not it is premature for the TPV's to be incorporating Pathfinding tools is a hard call.

At a certain point in time the TPV's have to incorporate new functions that LL adds or they will get "left behind."

I know we all dislike being guinea pigs, that we would all love a perfect finished product with out any burps, farts, pimples, warts, moles  and excessive body odor.  But SL has never functioned that way.

Because they need to incorporate the new functions or get left behind, it makes more sense for the TPV's to get in on the ground floor rather than playing catch up later.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Doesn't it depend on the "new feature," though?   To take the example of mesh, it's obviously very important that all viewers can see mesh, but I'm not convinced it matters much to a lot of people whether they can upload it or not.

As to the Pathfinding tools, I don't see there's any huge advantage to adopting them while they're still in beta.

I suppose it partly depends on whether you don't mind switching between various viewers depending on what, in particular, you want to do, or whether you want a Swiss Army Knife of a viewer that has every tool anyone might want, even though most of the tools are probably of little interest to any particular user.   There's arguments both ways.    

[Lori492]

Being a Firestorm devotee, I just installed the latest update with the PF tools.   Though I will probably never use it, not really being a builder, the additional fixes and updates makes it run far better than previous versions on my computer.   And better than the SL official viewer ever did.  So for me the PF question is immaterial compared to the question of improved overall performance. .

[mikka Luik]

Well, I tend to switch between viewers (generally there are three or four installed, including right now the LL Beta) depending on what I am working on. I have the one for general all purpose stuff (building, scripting) and have played with the PF toys (and mean that in a good way)  enough to .. to see its not a primary interest for me right now. The changes making a viewer SL only (you mean Havok i expect) again don't worry me in the slightest.

Jumping the gun? Not really I think. Its just another alternative, so go for it =^^=

[Perrie Juran]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

Doesn't it depend on the "new feature," though?   To take the example of mesh, it's obviously very important that all viewers can see mesh, but I'm not convinced it matters much to a lot of people whether they can upload it or not.

As to the Pathfinding tools, I don't see there's any huge advantage to adopting them while they're still in beta.

I suppose it partly depends on whether you don't mind switching between various viewers depending on what, in particular, you want to do, or whether you want a Swiss Army Knife of a viewer that has every tool anyone might want, even though most of the tools are probably of little interest to any particular user.   There's arguments both ways.    

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Trying to be all things to all people can create its own set of problems.

Everybody wants a Viewer that runs smoothly and puts at their fingertips the functions they use on a regular basis.  Of course I could be wrong about the "everybody."  But I know I do.

I would gladly embrace a Viewer with NO BUILDING TOOLS if it gave me better performance and stability when I'm just out and about in SL exploring and socializing.

For a new person looking at the Menu's in the Viewer, it can be scary. After 5+ years in SL, there are still a lot of things I have no idea what they do.  I even get the impression that many of the Linden's have no idea either.

One thing I do know is that Linden Lab's failed attempt at a "Basic Viewer" highlighted their poor understanding of what the average SL'er needed at their fingertips to half way enjoy SL.

Each TPV developer has to make a choice what to embrace or what features they want to highlight. 

I of course am a vocal advocate of "Your World, Your Choice Of Viewers."

I am glad that we do have choices.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

There are already viewers that cater to differnt memebrs of the comunity.  Some have great building tools, others are designed for photographers and machinima makers, for example.

I am a content creator and build, script, create textures etc.  I use TPVs with bells and whistles for these things.  However . If there were a viewer with basic features for just casual SL activities, and it performed better in traditionaly laggy situations, such as a live music event with a big crowd, I'd use it for those occasions. 

Actually the concept of having a basic viewer for newbs wasn't a bad one, they just handled it wrong in my opinion.  The basic viewer they offered was too basic and referring to the two modes as basic and advanced probably made new people who used the basic mode feel like they were in kindergarten.  SL would be better off offering a 'Standard" viewer that is more efficient for and has what you need to particpate in the casual and social SL activities with some basic tools to adjust clothing or things, and a "Content Creators" Viewer.with advanced buiding tools, developement menus etc.