Viewers

General Viewer Information

Imprudence Experimental Viewer 2011.4.2 Review

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Imprudence has release a new version of their viewer, version 2011.04.02. They are still calling this an experimental version. I’m not sure that makes any difference at this point. This version has the ubiquitous bug fixes and some NEW FEATURES.

Download & Install

I noticed the announcement about an hour after it was posted. Trying to download the 35mb file was a problem. I was getting about 100k/sec download. I canceled and retried, still painfully slow. I got a copy of the SL Beta viewer (25mb) in about 5 seconds. So, it’s not my network. Slowly it improved, but not much. By the time you are reading this the rush should be over and you’ll have a faster download.

The install remains the same as previous versions. You have the option to associate SLURL’s with Imprudence.

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KirstenLee’s S21(6) Released Review

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Kirsten S21(6)
Odd Things Happen

Today Kirsten released a new version of the S21 viewer. This is not a release candidate. I suppose we can call it a production version. Whatever we call it, it is out and we can use it. Kirsten S21 Download The Mac and Linux versions will be up soon, if not already.

Download and Install

The download size is 29 mb. The install is typical of the S21 viewers. There are no special instructions from Kirsten about installing. The previous version must be uninstalled before the install will proceed. The uninstall process is built into the install program. That keeps things simple and easy. The cache is removed. The settings are retained.

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Network Performance Tip

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As residents of SL we get lots of information about tweaking our systems for better performance. Mostly we get information about the viewer and its settings. We are often referred to various network speed testing sites, like www.speedtest.net, to test network performance. But, seldom are residents told about tweaking their DNS resolvers. So, here is some information on tweaking your DNS settings.

Windows Network DNS Benchmark Tool
DNS Benchmark Tool

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SL Viewer Ranking Update

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Today I see the Wiki page on Third Party Viewers (TPV) was updated last night. We now have more information on how the Lab ranks the viewers. Plus they make a good point about variables I did not consider.

Crash Report? - Image by: ♥ellie♥ @ Flickr

Oz Linden added that a viewer’s crash rate is the percent of that viewer’s sessions that end in a crash. So, whether there are a thousand people using the viewer or ten thousand, the rate is representative of that viewer. This means there is no popularity factor in the number. More users of a given viewer will make the viewer’s rate more accurate and representative.

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Second Life Viewer Rankings

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Viewer Ranking
Second Life Viewer Ranking

If you have not looked at the Third Party Viewer (TPV) list in some time, you might be surprised to know the viewers are now listed in the order of Crash Rate. The viewer with the lowest crashes first. Of course to be rated, the viewer must report crashes.

You can find the list here: Third Party Viewer Directory

Surprisingly the viewer that crashes the least is the SLV 1.23, which is the oldest usable Linden Lab viewer available. This is probably predictable as the viewer uses all the old and well tested technology. Few, if any, of the new features are included in the 1.23 viewer.

Also the ranking does not take into account performance. That is performance in the sense of rez speed or inventory load time both things the new series 2 viewers do better. Nor are the number of features considered. Things like built in AO and Speed Rez that reduce server lag are not considered.

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Second Life Viewer Evolution – Week 12

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Some new things are moving forward in the viewer. Here are a few I think interesting.

Windlight Settings for Estates – We sort of have this in OpenSim where it is called Lightshare. The idea is that an estate owner can set the Windlight settings for their estate. When a resident comes to the region, the viewer’s Windlight settings change to the estate’s settings. This means no more note cards about how to change your Windlight settings for best effect.

I noticed the other day a special note card in a purchase I made (demo skin). In Kirstens S21 viewer it had a new icon. The card was a set of Windlight settings. When I clicked on it my Windlight setting were changed. Pretty nifty.

The change coming to the SLV is the addition of controls for the estate manager to use to set the region’s default Windlight settings.

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