A new version of the RLViewer was released and announced by Marine Kelly. RLV is for those that enjoy dominance/submission play. So, it or feature sets form its code are popular with numerous role play regions in Second Life.
This is a special viewer and has features and foibles that are atypical to other viewers. The install is unique as is the use of the viewer. Enough so that videos have been made to show people how to install it and use its special features and toys made for it. The basic viewer is as easy to use as Linden Lab’s viewers.
You can read about the new features and fixes in this version in the RLV Blog.
Download and Install
The download is a bit slow. It is 27mb so it’s not bad, two or three minutes. You can download the viewer from: Restrained Love Viewer Download. Pay attention to which version you download.
The install is typical up to a point. But, enough different that TrixBraveHeart has made the YouTube tutorial above for the install. The install video is 4 minutes long and covers some possibilities I skip in my instructions.
The install program places the program files in their own folder. C:\Program Files\RLV is the default location. If you chose to install it elsewhere, that works, remember where you installed it because you’ll need to navigate there later.
The problem is with the voice support. To distribute the VIVOX files that make voice work requires some agreements with Vivox. So, that legal obstacle has been stepped around by having you install those files on your own. You need to copy some files from the SL install.
SL is typically installed in C:\Program Files\SecondLife\. You need to find these four files:
- SLVoice.exe
- vivoxoal.dll
- vivoxplatform.dll
- vivoxsdk.dll
Copy those files to the folder where RLV is installed.
One last step is making an icon to start RLV. Find the file RestrainedLove.exe in the RLV folder. Right-click and drag the file to your Desktop or Launch Bar. When you release the button you will have a choice to create a shortcut.
Cache & Settings
The viewer appears to use the default Second Life Viewer’s cache. As this viewer appears to be more closely based on Linden Lab’s code than most, sharing the cache may not be a significant problem. I still recommend creating a separate cache.
The viewer uses the same settings file as the Lab’s main viewer. It is possible to change that behavior with command line values. Open the start icon you made earlier. Right-click it and select Properties. In the Shortcut tab in Target you will find the entry read: “C:\Program Files\RLV\RestrainedLove.exe”. Change that to read: “C:\Program Files\RLV\RestrainedLove.exe” –settings settings_rlv.xml.
The file name can be whatever you want, as long as it ends in XML. This will force RLV to use a separate settings file. I don’t know if this change is necessary. Most Third Party Viewers (TPV) have additional settings they save. In the past the compatibility of mixing unknown settings in with the Lab’s viewer’s settings created problems. I make sure each viewer has its own cache and settings file, so, I haven’t seen those problems and can’t really know if they still exist. I recommend the change to be on the safe side.
Experience
The viewer is very much a version 3 viewer. It has the V3 Flexible User Interface and most of the panels are as they are in the Lab’s viewer. There are differences. For one there is a RLV item in the top menu.
Performance is like the other 3.2.7 version viewers, about 15 FPS in my home.
Profiles use a different panel than the web page used by the SL Viewer. The layout is nicer than the web page. Also the information seems to be from the new web profiles, but its hard to know. There doesn’t seem to be any connection to the web profiles’ Feed and other social tools. I may just not be finding it.
I used the viewer for a number of hours. Around 4 or 5 hours I would get a crash. Each time I was doing something different and I couldn’t see memory use going up, so I have no clue what the problem is/was. But, up until the crash everything was fine, then poof.
How To Use
…I have no clue. However, there a number of training videos about using the viewer and toys made for RLV. Visit YouTube and type in RLV to start finding them. Also another interesting search term for the those interested in bondage is to type in Toy Slaves at YouTube. Be warned it is not a safe search for in-office.
Summary
The viewer is stable I used it most of Monday without problem. But, never over about 4 hours at a time. Tueday I used it for longer periods and had some crashes.
I don’t call my use of this viewer and article a review, because I’m not using the features that are its reason for being. But, I was curious to see it and play with it. I suppose I’ll have to find a boy toy for further testing.
The viewer is a specialized viewer. It’s neat that someone is making this viewer for the community .
I downloaded installed threetimes stupid compputer says successful but I cannot find it, when I search for it says not there, what am I doing wrong??/ Any help is appreciated
can u please help me hear and talk in the veiwer it no let my voice thing work
I installed many times cannot find the stupid thing either so how do I look for it? Any help is appreciated
fed up erdette
The same RLV functions are available in Dolphin 3, Firestorm, and Catznip viewers… and others.
So the viewer has voice now? We can talk and hear people talking?