Second Life and Virtual Worlds
General Viewer Information
The Arda people put step-by-step instructions on their site. See: How do I Login to Arda Grid
If you need detailed step-by-step instructions use the link above. Below I’ve provided the quick summary. Also, this type of setup works with the SL viewer. Be warned that both the SL and Emerald viewers have some grid hopping gotcha’s, which I’ll get to.
Massively has someone that likes this viewer and generally writes up good reviews. This one is a bit sparse, but they link to the Imprudence site’s notes.
Notice the word TEST in the title. This is a beta version viewer. They included dynamic shadows in this one. Then made disclaimers about it. So, if you want shadows use Kirsten’s S18 Viewer. See: New KirstenLee (215) Viewer Out – Review
KirstenLee released an update of her S18-1 (215) viewer. I’ve downloaded it. KirstenLee S-18 Viewer
Previous blog: KirstenLee’s S18-1 (214)
Previous blog: KirstenLee Cinquetti S-17 and S-18 (208 & 209) Viewer Review
This (215) update includes some fixes, a bit more speed and nicer graphics panels in preferences. However, tis update is mostly about Niran’s Mod exposing more advanced graphics options for end users.
The image left shows the AVATAR scanner/radar. This scanner is more combat RPG friendly than others. Those with the tracking ability are usually frowned on by most RPG combat players. It makes it impossible to escape a pursuer.
Several viewers are adding support for multiple avatars. Most of us selling products in SL have at least a second AV for testing our packaging and permissions. Combat RPG players use several to allow them to play different characters in the same or different games. Some people share a computer and have separate accounts and with alternative AV’s the may have several ID/login’s to deal with. The multi-login feature is popular.
I have a friend that has a couple of SIM’s in Second Life. She started looking at the cost of a build she would like to make. The pricing on the OSGrid is much lower. So she started playing on the OSGrid to see what is possible. That got me interested in my private open simulator grid (OSGrid or OSG), which broke on my last update.
Getting my grid updated and running again is another story. I was having trouble with Emerald on the OSGrid. Camera and select problems mostly and the camera zoom. (I can go change values and fix those but…) I decided to try the Hippo Viewer.
Emerald released version 1.23.5.1101 in a normal and optimized version today.The downloads have been temporarily taken down. The new install was breaking voice. If you broke yours, install the voice pack from the previous install (950). They are fixing it and downloads will be back ‘soon’. UPDATE: New files went up about midnight SLT.
There is a new Imprudence Viewer out, version 1.2. Massively’s Tateru Nino has a write up about it. They have itemized the new features and improvements, so I’ll skip repeating that.
The viewer has a User Interface (UI) that is a bit different than other viewers. Expect to take some time to get used to it.
Imprudence has added chat with vertical tabs, which I love. This change puts the tabs on the left side rather than bottom of the chat dialog. You can see many more tabs. It makes it much easier to keep up with ongoing IM’s. They don’t get scrolled off so easily.