Socially|Mundane

I did some looking at alternate Grid Viewers when Linden Lab released the current (as of this writing) Official Viewer (1.23.4) - and I plopped it onto my machine and discovered how riddled with bugs it is. After that harrowing experience (hey, you try installing seven viewers on one system then trying to compare them,) though I only spoke of five of the seven I played with, I settled on the GreenLife Emerald viewer.

Ironically, the day after I had completed all that and posted my thoughts on those, Linden Lab announces Snowglobe. The only 'feature' spoken of is how fast the map art appears and how ridiculously tight you can zoom-in on the mini map. Features I personally figured as being useless to me.

Then, Gwyneth Llewelyn posted an article on her blog with a video hyping-up the performance benefit of Snowglobe. This intrigued me as even though I truly enjoy all the wonderful whiz-bang features of Emerald and Gemini viewers, I'm really in preference of performance and Gwyneth's discussion convinced me I should look at Snowglobe.

I did. And I repeated Gwyneth's performance test, but with control rules to make comparison far easier. Hamlet Au posted my findings at New World Notes, so I won't bother repeating them here.

Of course I didn't expect everyone's result to be the same as mine, but I do suspect the majority will experience something similar.



I suppose when we know (or think we know) things, it's human nature to insist on broadcasting that, even when the actual fact in question carries no weight or contributes nothing to the discussion at hand, even when it comes-off and snarky and "greater-than-thou" elitist.

For example, these comments: (beginning portion unrelated to THIS discussion is 'snipped')

"Btw: I think *THE* most used alternative viewer will probably be Boy Lanes Cool Viewer."

Posted by: [redacted] | Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 08:20 AM

Okay, fair enough. I mentioned that based on my research, it is my impression the 'hot viewer' at the time of writing is the GreenLife Emerald. My opinion. This commenter then experessed their opinion that the "Cool Viewer" is most used. Yes, I know it was for quite a long time. Then they threw this in:

The most conclusive list of alternative viewers can be found here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Alternate_viewers

Posted by: [redacted] | Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 01:36 PM

This is correct. In fact, at the time I did my original seven-viewer comparison, this is where I went to shop for alternate viewers to try-out. So I replied with this:

@ [redacted] and others

That SL wiki that addresses alternate viewers is not really up to date. A few of the viewers listed are defunct and it does not list other viewers (for instance Gemini).

I concur that "SL Cool Viewer" was (until recently) the most popular after market viewer. And I still won't proclaim it's not.

However, Boy lane and the other developer have a falling-out so Boy Lane's viewer is now the "Rainbow" viewer (I could be wrong, apologies if I am) and the original developr is pushing-on with "SL Cool Viewer" ( or "Cool SL Viewer" I forget which).

The big buzz of late have been the GreenLife Emerald viewer because of the "Gee, I never thought of that!" type useful every day features. Gemini is based of Emerald, but optimized (configured better for) role players.

I agree with the statement above that says 'when Gemini viewer implements the speed improvements of Snowglobe - I'm all over it" (paraphrased, obviously).

:)

Posted by: Ari Blackthorne | Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 02:21 PM

Perhaps I should have made it clear these were my findings at that time and that what I am saying is not God's Law or Nature Eternal? I was just trying to be helpful and explain a little as to why I didn't include a couple other viewers in my test (in response to other commentaries.)

Which now somehow begets a snarky remark. Perhaps it was not intended as a snarky remark. But it came-off as a snarky remark just the same.

Ari, did yo actually LOOK at the Wiki page?

Not only does it mention if a viewer is defunct or not, there is also not a single viewer I know of who is NOT on this list.

You claim that Gemini is missing from the page, but in fact Gemini has one of the longest entries on that wiki page. If you look at the edit history, you will see that the developer of Geminim himself has added a lot of text to the article.

I stick to my statement that https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Downloads is *THE* ressource where you can find information on alternative viewers easiest.

Posted by: [redacted] | Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 11:19 PM

Wow.

Tell me how I wronged you in another life or something. I mean, what did I do to earn thy wrath?

Ummm, actually, yes. I did in fact look at the page. What I saw when I looked at the page, I described. However, it doesn't matter that at the time something could have happened, such as an archived version of the page coming up for some reason (hey, it's happened before) or that my browser cache was not updating (hey, it's happened before) or corrupted (hey, it's happened before) or that it may have even been a longer-time-ago than I remember as for looking at it (hey, it's happened before).

But the fact of the matter is that I did, indeed look at it. And I repeated what I saw for the simple purpose of answering the question of why I did not include some other viewer in my comparisons.

However, according to this commenter, I am either lying through my teeth to mislead the throngs for whatever reason that it should benefit me, or I am the dumbest idiot to ever touch a mouse and try to navigate the internet.

Okay, well, whatever. I've chilled out a lot. I mean, not long ago I would have unleashed brimstone and fire, but that serves no one anything but grief, why bother? So, still trying to be somewhat friendly and cordial, I replied as such:

@ [redacted]: It's okay friend, take a breath.

I looked at the page about a week ago when I did my 7-way comparison (for my own personal purposes.) Good if it's updated again. Though when I was going down the list at the time, it appeared to be rather (heavily and) quite out of date.

Skills - I look forward to playing with Gemini again. Subscribed to your blog on it (@ insilico blog) - haven't seen any posts as of yet. Is there an address I and others can regularly check to look for updates?

Right now I am on your RSS feed to the gemini post (as I suspect you'll up date that one with, well... updates.)

:)

Posted by: Ari Blackthorne | Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 09:06 AM

Again with the little smiley face to show all readers that even though the original reply to me was snarky as hell, I hold no hard feelings about it. I figure, end of story, let's all move on.

Then this:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Downloads&action=history

11:54, June 23, 2009 [redacted] (Talk | contribs) (31,883 bytes) (Restored proper alphabetical order)

03:01, June 21, 2009 Elsie Broek (Talk | contribs) (31,822 bytes) (Added Gemini Viewer (needs more information added))

Posted by: [redacted] | Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 09:53 AM

Okay. And this matters why?

So I as I said before, either the wrong page was coming up (hey, it's happened before) or I got my dates mixed up (hey, it's happened before). Since I am in the wrong and this commenter felt the utter need to show his superiority over all others in the Internet universe, I won't bother trying to defend myself against this horrific and earth-shattering infraction of getting dates and times wrong.

Especially when what I saw and when on that wiki page carries so much weight and life-or-death decision-making information to all readers with regard to which grid viewers are available and when. I mean... I should burn in hell for all eternity on that infraction, shouldn't I?

My final reply to the thread is simply:

Yes. Of course.

It's a 'competition' on who knows what, when. Right?

Heh. I was wondering what to scribble about next on my own blog. Thanks for the idea: "Insistence on one-upsmanship".

So I'll go fluch my browser cache and catch ya later.

Turns with a genuine smile and a wink.

Posted by: Ari Blackthorne | Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 10:34 AM

And so here is that post. Oh, and Mr. Redacted, if you knew me at all you'd also know I have serious dyslexia and the truth as any long-time reader of this blog already knows, is that I write and do these things for me.

No, I am not the best writer. I try to keep my spelling (and even sometimes the right word) in order. And I enjoy at least trying to be helpful to others wherever I can. Such as not keeping all my own test results to myself, when I did all that work for myself and only myself (I haven't even posted that 60-second rez test here on this blog, have I?)

But just the same, I willingly and voluntarily succumb to you, "oh greater-than-thou at all things knowledgeable, no matter what you saw, because I and only I am right." Not only do you win, but you can have that trophy. It's one I used to carry with pride. But have since decided I like it better being on the helpful side of life, not the 'greater-than-thou' side.

So no worries. I've been there. Remember it clearly and i know what you're thinking and feeling. But I won't insist on correcting you in a snarky way. In fact, I won't bother correcting you on anything, especially when said correction adds absolutely nothing useful whatsoever to the discussion. So have your way and be happy about it.

Hope you feel better. because I'd really hate to see your one-upsmanship efforts when you get pissed-off.

:)

Oh, and ironically, this person authors a blog. And I read that blog. And I'll continue to read that blog. Though I suppose my perspective as a bit askew from where it was previously when reading his writings. Now I supposed everything will have a considerably elitist slant to it in my mind..