By Avatar JayR Cela
For those of you lamenting the demise of the Kirsten Viewer for SL, there is no need to fret. It's back and better than ever, in the form of The Niran Viewer 1.01, based on LL's 3.2.7 code but there really is no comparison to the Lab's version. And unlike Kirstens last several releases, you don't need $3000.00 worth of computer hardware in order to use it. The initial setup menus are quite extensive, so be prepared to spend some time tweaking it the way you like.
If you have been following this viewer through the Beta version's, this is the one that you have been waiting for, an official release. There is no Uninstall Routine in the beta's or this version either, but that's not a problem just open Windows Explorer goto Program Files and delete the appropriate folder. As always be sure to run a registry cleaner before you proceed with a fresh installation.
That being said, hows the performance ? Pretty good considering my hardware.
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz (3391.57 MHz)
Memory: 3071 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Build 2600) compatibility mode. real ver: 6.0 (Build 2900)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 210/PCI/SSE2
I managed to get some really nice pictures along the Mallard River on the SL mainland.
I did crash several times while taking these, but my draw distance was set above 400, so I have to blame my low end video card as the culprit. Speaking of video cards I found it curious that the maximum texture memory allowed is only 512mb, my card has 1gig, it would have been nice to utilize all of it.
It's very obvious that a lot of thought went into designing this viewer, it is miles ahead of anything Kirsten ever even came close to as far as usability is concerned. And is vastly different from any other viewer presently out there.
Performance wise on FPS is only so so, a little bit below average actually, and it does seem to gobble up quite a bit of system memory, about 1 gig more than what I am used to with other viewers.
Is it ready for prime time, I would say 80% yes, there are a few rough edges here and there. But to be fair here to Niran, and the fact that she is a 1 person team, that has single handily managed to take an already very advanced viewer that practically no one but the most advanced computer owners could even use. Has not only made it capable of working on an average rig, but in the process made it absolutely 100% better.
Will I use it as my main viewer of choice ? No not yet ! But this is defiantly worth the time to download and give it a try.
JayR Cela :_)
The Link is here
http://niranv-sl.blogspot.com/
