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Best Viewer?


Ricky40
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Define 'best'.

Personally I use the official LL viewer because I want to see what is 'standard'.  A lot of people hate it though.  NB:  There's good reason to hate the latest version*, use the previous one.

[*My avatar goes transparent, or black occasionally, leaving just the clothes and attachments.  Same with the land]

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Firestorm is the mesh enabled version of Phoenix and you'd need to change however, when you do you will find that it's a lot like V3.  I am now using V3 (though I hated V2) and have added the new skins to remove the side bar.  Actually works pretty good but takes some time to set it up the way you want it.  The great part is that you can now alter your viewer to better suit you which is a plus.

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if you require mesh, and stability, then I can suggest Cool VL. it has a V1 style interface, but seeing as you're a phoenix user that's a bonus and not a drawback. it doesn't have quite as many features as phoenix though.

Astra (from the people that worked on Meercat) is another option, although I don't know anything about it other than it is supposed to have mesh support.

obviously vaniLLa V3 has mesh, and the V2 interface (probably a drawback for you), it's stable for some, but doesn't seem to be for more than a few, and of course doesn't have all the extra features.

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Despite their admission that it is full of bugs, Firestorm is still the best viewer right now, imho, for a few reasons.  (Btw, if impatient people weren't being ungrateful asshats, the mesh update would proabably not be so buggy because we'd still be waiting and they wouldn't release it until it was ready!!)  First and most important to me as a former devoted Pheonix user myself, is the ability to customize it to use many aspects of the UI to V1 style that I wasn't willing to give up, and that they give you step by step instructions for how to set that up.  Secondly, SL runs better, with less lag and a significantly higher frame rate for me on Firestorm.  My computer is only midrange, but I can play comfortably on ultra graphics now, where I never could before.  With this update came a few of the Pheonix features I was missing, such as showing what others are looking at- that showed as an option on the last version of Firestorm, but it didnt' work, nor did it work to turn off broadcasting my own which is a pain... I like to pervcam ninjastyle!  That appears to have been fixed.  

The thing is, all viewers are buggy.  The development team @ Pheonix is just more honest about their issues than LL.  The only way to know for sure which is the best viewer for you is to try them out, because everyone's machine is different.

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Phoenix & Firestorm are different viewers made by the same team, which add options & additional features to the official LL viewers, but do not use web profiles.

Phoenix is based on LL Viewer 1 & does not have multi-clothing layers, shared media or mesh, which are all V2 features.

Firestorm is based on LL Viewer 2/3 & is very new, it has most of the extra features from Phoenix  as well as the V2 features mentioned above, but as others have mentioned already, the latest official LL mesh viewer is buggy & so Firestorm has inherited some of those bugs from it.

The bugs in Viewer 2/3 & Firestorm only affect particular computers not everyone, so it is possible to use either of these viewers without any problems, but the chances are if you have problems with one of them you will have the same problems with the other.

There is no "Best" viewer, just the viewer that is best for you. We all use SL in different ways & we are very fortunate nowadays that we have a choice of viewers and we can all find one that caters for our particular needs & preferences. 0143.gif

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I'm using Phoenix Firestorm non-mesh version. I like Phoenix for the extra features, dunno why LL can't incorporate some of these same features into the standard viewer. Phoenix also has a help group you can join in-world that's extremely useful and available 24/7 that also conducts in-world classes as well, so great customer service there. I'm not using any mesh version viewer atm because I hear its buggy, so am waiting on that. But sometimes you can't go with the viewer you'd like to use, sometimes you have to go with the viewer your computer will LET you use lol. So far no probs with Phoenix for me on that score.

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I would recommend all who use the official viewer to change their preferences so that you install new versions manually. It is too many new versions too often, just install a new viewer when it is a new feature you want. Or you think that the version you have is slow or laggy, maybe a newer version will run better. 

And ask first (In the forums) if us users are satisfied with the latest version. This way you will avoid many upstart problems like clouded avatar, black avatar and inventory not loading.

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They did something really cool with firestorm in this latest release in addition to making mesh viewable.  Sure it's got bugs, it is still in beta after all. But the cool thing is that they fixed something (I don't know what it was but it meant that firestorm was mega laggy on my computer and that nothing ever rezzed, the whole of SL was gray) that was so broken before.  Now I can actually use the viewer!

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1.23.5, that is 50-60 fps fast reliable and super easy to use. Very very productive and efficient for me as High Definition creator.

Shared internet on a prim? Not needed since it isn't shared in any way.

Avatar physics. Not needed, i am always wearing quality wear underwire (* laugh !)

64m prims, uhmm wel i do use a simple workaround by a script, it is even possible to size prims to 0.001 LOL.

The Mesh hype. It's the same as a sculpty, Mesh is differently exported and imported. However the two different technics behind the curtain can't exactly excite me much.

The new search. It can't excite me much. It is even much more of a mess.

Invitation to other social media. Nop not needed. I am in SL to play SL, not FB or whatever.

Dynamic shadows. Not needed, it is most irritating, and drops fps hard. But it is irritating anyway.

DOF. Lol Photoshop does a way better job.

3Rd party viewers... Nop, not ever. I have seen to much security compromises on that matter.

All in all i am not motivated yet to change to V3. V2 was a dramatic experience like i was a beta tester instead of an SL player. Innovation is good, but without serious degradation, and all the promo's about V3 are pimped as per usual. What you see first is not what you get ;)

SMILING :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So your eyes can see the difference between your 151.7 and 60 FPS? nop. LOL.

Ehmm, and likely you LCD panel is limited to 60 (perhaps 100 if it is up market or a quality TV).

But sure it looks macho hahah. 

Eyes don't see any difference above appr. 17 btw. But 5 good grief that was a pain. 60 Works for me excuisite.

<--- and 3Rd party... Nop i'm not going to touch it.

But hey, your cool with your 151. It does look cool:smileyvery-happy:

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Ok, but HD video no i don't actually do need that since i hate toying with tech stuff, but ok nice info. I just play my SL, not esle is needed as long as it is efficient, easy and smooth and up quality content which i can perfectly create and see.

Lol, rest assured then that 1.23.5 is still strong for me.

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if your screen refresh rate is above 60hz then yes, you can see a difference. but I laugh at people who paid the ridiculous price tag that comes with a 120hz flat screen. however when I was still using a CRT I used 85hz and you can catch the difference easily if you know what you are looking for

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Personally prefer to use the oficial LL viewer,

i'm satisfied by viewer 3, works well and I like.

But still have a little problem...... is called  Web Profile, lasts up to 5 minutes until I can see someone's profile,

can make LL this "Web Profile" optional (in oficial LL viewers)..... or more faster ?

I say this because this "Web Profile" forced me to use another viewer (now i use Firestorm)

Note : im not a specialist, im a simple Second Life user.

Thanke You.

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I notice you're looking into the sky with one tree in view. What's your fps in a busy club in SL with 40 avatars dancing in front of you?

 

I use the LL Official release V3, Firestorm Mesh beta, and LL's V3 Development Viewer. All get roughly the same fps in similar situations and identical settings.

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