Tuesday, October 5, 2010

SecondLife(R) Viewer 2 TURBO-CHARGED / Kirstens S20(39)

Hey there, glad your back and reading my ongoing exploration of the various viewers available for SL.
 I originally started to write this post on Saturday, but was having so much fun using this latest build, it took me several days.
So today I will be showing you around the wonderful world of the Kirsten viewer, S(20) Build (39) This particular client is not intended for the faint of heart, or a sub par rig. My box is the last of the Pentium 4's, so it mimic's a dual core configuration. You will need at least one of the last P4's, or a dual core or better motherboard and CPU, and a good video card, in order to run this viewer properly. I do not think an intergrated video chip will fair very well. Sorry to most laptop owners. I may be wrong, and you can always try. It's either going to work, or it wont. Regardless, this is one Kick Butt version of Viewer2.




 There are tear off menus for just about everything, and they can be re-sized. The color scheme with the Azure skin is very easy on the eyes. All of the V2 properties are present, alpha and outfits, and a ton of WindLight customization features. This Viewer is geared towards the ultra high end. The ultimate that V2 is capable of achieving. And is a wonderful  choice for taking pictures in SL

If you have been following this blog, you are well aware, that I am no big fan of Viewer2, in my mind it never should have been released in the first place. But here I make an exception. And all of the Kirsten mods are in the official SVN. So if the folks involved with the SnowStorm team eventually WAKE UP ! and actually take a look, perhaps one of these years, some of these improvements will filter down to the standard viewer.
Don't hold your breath.

I have been watching the SnowStorm team, and I wish them all the best. My personal feelings are, if you get LL completely out of the picture, and move forward, Viewer 2 has tons of potential, but the process that has been imposed on the Open Source Devs by the lab is unacceptable. Just my own opinion, mind you :_) SnowStorm is a step in the right direction, there are nightly builds, and I plan on reviewing them every Friday, and we will see what happens.

Anyways Kirsten has really done it right, this viewer for SL ~ ROCKS, there are still a few bugs that need to be ironed out, Anti Aliasing is one of them, easy enough to fix by tweaking the extensive options available.Turning on Frame Buffer Objects solves the jaggies problem, but does take a hit on the FPS. Again if you are running a good caliber rig, this should make no describable difference for you.

So I think what I will do here today, is just put up a bunch of screen shots. Hopefully someone at LL will stumble upon this blog and take notice, Esbee and Oz Linden are you listening (reading) ?
As you can see the setup preferences menu's are quite extensive. Just about every aspect of this viewer can be tweaked to your hearts content.







It is available for Windows, Mac & Linux, I was not able to get the Linux version to load and run, but I believe this is just a problem on my end and the Linux distro I am using.



























I think the coolest thing about the Kirsten viewer is the WindLight settings. If you are a SL photographer, 
this  is an excellent choice
You cant get any better, for ease of use. In a previous post I was demonstrating the Ascent viewers WindLight PreSets, and that just what they are, pre-set modes of the WindLight settings. With the Kirsten Viewer you have full access, and complete control over all the available options.  It can seem a bit daunting at first, but with some patience and experimentation, you will have the potential for really spectacular results.



It is very hard to find any flaws with this viewer.

Its Fast !
















Its Easy !













And
Its Fun !












If you want all of the advantages of Viewer 2, I would not even bother wasting your time with the Official
V2 - 2.1.1.208043. that bloated turkey has been around for several months, unchanged. The Project Viewer with the Display Names feature, don't make me laugh, come on Jack Linden, cant you think of something more useful to do ? The Development Viewer, Project SnowStorm ? Well sorry to the folks working on this. But you have just been SMOKED ! Left completely behind in the dust, by Kirsten

JayR Cela :_)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has this version had the Key logger removed LOL

JayR Cela said...

Wow, thats an unexpected question, I was not aware of any keylogger spyware in any of the previous versions of the Kirsten viewer. Where is your proof? and since you are an Anonymous commenter. I tend to think that your intentions are to spread viscous rumors, about a perfectly well done piece of software. If you are unwilling to post your SL name, and stand up to your accusations, get lost !!

JayR Cela

Matthew Kidomen said...

I have used Kirstens S18 for taking pictures in SL for a while. Was fantastic. On my monster computer, no game has slowed it down, but when I loaded Kirstens S20 and cranked it to max everything, it brought my system to its knees. WOW! The pictures were spectacular. Here is an example how SL looks to me using Kirstens S20 at max. http://snapZ.me/i/456225.jpg Sadly, I can no longer get Kirstens to work, and I don't know what is wrong. In Viewer 2, the world of SL seems flat. Eventually there will be a new Kirstens viewer that will work again. When that happens, there will be dancing. Well maybe SL dancing. haha

JayR Cela said...

Hi Matthew
I believe you need to do a complete un-install, and remove all traces of the previous ones.
this web site has some free tools that should help out
http://www.iobit.com/

Monderas Bristol said...

Good to see someone else being positive about kirstens and viewer 2. http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8MwOyNhB8 Vid was on build 37 because it has more transparency in the sidepanels and they can be made smaller than on later builds.

JayR Cela said...

Hi there Monderas, so happy that you have found my blog. Yes this viewer is just what Philip was promising at the SLCC, Fast,Easy,Fun. It is a shame, that the powers that be in the Lab, have made some very poor choices in regards to V2. It has wonderful potential. I would like to see the Radar feature from the Phoenix, Ascent, Dolphin viewers added. But I can manage to live without it for now. I talk with Kirsten on a regular basis and there are plans to add this soon. Thanks again for dropping by and reading, please tell your friends :_) *bigg huggs* Byee:_)

Cisop Sixpence said...

Kirsten's Viewer is certainly my favorite. Yes this viewer uses the V2 interface, but Kirsten makes it look good and functional. Excellent graphics, and my laptop can keep up, although if I crank it to the max, the fps can suffer and it does get a bit warm. ;) I love this viewer so much that I really get depressed when I have to use a V1 style interface when checking out other virtual worlds. Yes - this viewer rocks!

JayR Cela said...

Hi there Cisop, yeah this is defiantly an excellent choice for exploring SL. Everyone I know that has tried it,thinks the same. Thanks for reading my blog :_)

JayR Cela

Matthew Kidomen said...

Well there is dancing tonight. Loaded the new Kirstens S20 (39) and it works. Yeah! I prefer it far more than V2. Still am experimenting to see what I can and cannot do. Have to figure out how to make voice work, but at least now I can get back to my SL photography.

JayR Cela said...

Matthew, Wow that's great, I really like this viewer too. I'm not sure about problems with voice, I think is just a check box in preferences, and maybe a relog, first I heard of this issue. Have you checked out the blog ? and asked for assistance, Kirsten is very responsive to solving problems.