Second Life and Virtual Worlds
As of December 7 there will be 9 days left to raise the funds to keep the Kirsten Viewer alive. Today 25% of the needed funds have been raised. Unless a white knight shows up or people get a move on, it looks like the Kirsten Viewer is a goner. See: http://www.kirstensviewer.com/ Visit CrowdFunder to … Read more
In my article Kirsten Viewer Update I covered the effort of people to raise enough money to pay Lee to continue development of the Kirsten Viewer. That effort is under way. This is a reminder of the need for more money. Remember, you get your money back if the project does not reach its goal. … Read more
Today Lee posted on the Kirsten Viewer blog. The post is an update on the current effort to get Lee funding so that he can afford to work on the viewer and support Dawny. He discusses the goals for and results of the funding.
[youtube fZ811O1hlx4]
Lee is looking for funding to reach the point it can cover a year of development. For one with obligations that is understandable. Basically he is saying, hire me for a year or I need to get a job that will. That covers his comfort zone.
Hamlet Au at new World Notes posted an article on saving the Kirsten Viewer. From information coming from Dawny and Lee the problem is a change in their income from health issues. Hamlet put together that if the money comes from developing the viewer, development could continue. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that.
See: Kirstens’ Viewer Development Could Continue – If Kirstens’ 8500 Users Donated $6 Each!
I’m not buying the $6 per year average. Hamlet basis his number on the 8,500 downloads of the Kirsten S21(9) viewer. That is a recent development. The typical download is 2,000± per version. I think it more likely that there are 1,500 or so devoted fans of the viewer.
The recent increase in downloads is likely due to the fact that until just recently, Kirsten’s was the only mesh capable viewer, other than the Lab’s. Capable not just in the sense that it can render mesh, it also uploads mesh. AFAIK, it is the only TPV that can upload.
KirstenLee announced that due to health issues within the RL family, development on the Kirsten Viewer will stop.
You can read the announcement here: Sad Farewell
The end of the Kirsten Viewer is a great disappoint for many of us. The Kirsten Viewer has been the cutting edge viewer. It built on Linden Lab technology. It has better renders and dynamic shadows than the Lab’s viewers. That cutting edge is gone.
The Third Party Viewer (TPV) List is ordered on crash rates. To day the list was updated and Kirsten’s Viewer is the top TPV. The Lab’s 1.23 version viewer is still the most stable viewer. But, it is a very obsolete viewer. Kirsten’s is the cutting edge viewer. That its crash rate is less than the SLV 2.7 … Read more