Open Forum: What Are Your Favorite Features in the New SL Viewer? Least Favorite? (Updated)

I still plan (hope) to do an extended review of the new Second Life viewer later today, but want to start by opening the conversation to my readers. What are your favorite features of the Second Life viewer 2.0, and why? How about your least favorite element? Rant and rave away in Comments, with possible highlighting later!

Update, 10:45pm

Here are some most liked and least liked features from readers:

Favorites:

• Web on a prim (Rodion Resistance)
• Multiuser web (Nink)
• Teleport History (Isle Lunasea)
• Teleport Favorites (Hitomi Tiponi)
• Alpha skins (Osprey Therian)
• Left click to copy/paste (Ivey Deschanel)

Least Favorites:

• Identity merged in profile (Ziki Questi)
• High-res snapshots seem broken (Alicia Chenaux)
• Tab placement (Ivey Deschanel)
• Delete command slow (Isle Lunsea)
• Camera controls (Hitomi Tiponi)

Comments

[Osprey]

Alpha skins.

[Osprey]

And Hippos!

[Ivey Deschanel]

So far my faves are left click to copy/paste, the tattoo and alpha layers and webpages on prims. I'm still discovering though. Cant wait to see what else I'll find. Not too fond of the placement of the tabs though. The inventory and such on the left is bothering me because thats where all my accessory attachments like AO, mystitool etc are. I wish it could be detached and moved. It's only the beta though, so we'll see! All in all so far I think its pretty win

[Isle Lunasea]

The right-click/delete is under a 'remove' sub menu, and that annoys me greatly. Highlighting and hitting the delete button on my keyboard doesn't always work well when my bandwidth is poor.

I would like the 'delete' moved back to the main right-click menu.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

based on just an hour - so may change later. So far have just tried doing normal stuff and not tried out the new capabilities.

Favourites are:
tp favourites bar
the whole sidebar thing
look and feel

Dislikes are:
the way IM/chat is handled
camera controls
the minimap has problems

[Hitomi Tiponi]

ohh - and just watched the intro video. Is anybody else rather worried that a Linden has 'Old people cheap' as a landmark?

[Isle Lunasea]

Things I do like,

-in the inventory menu...when doing a search, the search term stays static for both the "my inventory" and "recent" tabs, so I don't have to growl, delete it and type it into the right tab (which I have done countless times)

-browser features: Home button, forward and back, favorites bar for LM's

-under Places on the sidebar, My Landmarks and Teleport History. Yes!!

-on the bottom toolbar, seeing Conversations, Notifications and Inventory drops, in a nice tidy spot. When I log in and miss seeing some things popping up, I can just look down there and get a history of what happened. Nice.

-Under "People" the 'Nearby' is nice, but if you click on a person's info, the 'Add friend' button can be easily clicked by accident when trying to see "Profile" instead.

Also, I miss an easily accessible "Maps" button. I use minimap a lot. Snowglobe does have the "Maps" button integrated, but not Mini-map, I think.

-Maybe kill the Move or View at the bottom, (I use keyboard anyway) and replace one with map/minimap.

*Disclaimer* I haven't been able to give the new viewer a really good workout, and these are simply my quick and dirty observations.

[Nink]

Multiuser Website & Flash on Prim is a GAME CHANGER for education, government and business. Now you get an emersive environment with all the features of the internet.

Everyone was focusing on putting a shared virtual world in the browser while Linden was focusing on putting a shared browser in the virtual world.

[Alicia Chenaux]

High res snapshots are broken. Or at least, making a custom size one is! I like my pics BIG for editing. I can only use the current window size because if I go bigger, they end up like this.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/4383077985_246a82c708_b.jpg

[Ziki Questi]

Most disliked feature of v2? How about "In Subtle but Powerful Shift, New Second Life 2.0 Viewer Merges Real Life & Avatar Identity Onto Single Profile Panel" ;-)

[Rodion Resistance]

I just changed my Facebook status on a webpage embedded on my SL Refrigerator's door! Hahaha! As soon as I finished doing that, a friend of mine TPed in and he saw my Facebook page on my refrigerator door, and he too browsed his own Facebook page. Since he's viewing it on MY refrigerator door in his OWN SL viewer 2.0, he can only see information privy to HIMSELF ONLY, (yes I saw the refrigerator door Facebook page change the moment he started to use my refrigerator door, but I only see stuff that my friend opted to share, and thus not jeopardizing his privacy requirements). Web on a prim DEFINITELY ROCKS!

-RODION

[Just Some Guy]

Great stuff. I'm all in, the webkit, the simplification for new users ('creatives' can still get work done), it's all good.

My only complaint currently is that multiple objects appear the same in the inventory view as single objects. In other words, you can't tell if you're about to drag out 1 prim, or 300. Without going into too much detail, it's also a problem for builders (who will have many objects named object, which all look the same).

I'm sure that'll get top priority in the fix though. Over all, bang up job LL! It really is a major step forward for public adoption.

[Lili]

Oh wow, it's great! It's like being high on crack after a three day drinking binge and going home to sew up a rip in your pants while wearing work gloves as your pet monkey is busy beside you posting endlessly on facebook.

Actually, when I wasn't crashing, which I did four times in the thirty minutes I tried it, it sucked. The crashing turned out to be the highlight of the experience for me.

[Lili]

Oh, almost forgot. The snowglobe version sucks even worse. It's the crash master. I really hope they get this into use fast. I think it should be mandatory for free accounts.

[Osprey]

Unfortunately I hit a glitch and decided to uninstall 2.0.

It took out everything connected with the official Second Life viewer. Chatlogs, settings, my custom UI, etc.

[Fogwoman Gray]

I will not be able to try it for a bit (new computer incoming). But hope the rubber band camera move when you open and close windows is not as bad as it seems in the video. I literally had to stop the video as I was getting nauseated watching it from the bounce back.
Love the web on a prim! Have PLANS for that one (not facebook on the fridge, but sounds fun).

[Loki]

about web on a prim. Alot of things that where once scripted objects can now just be replaced by a webapp. Message boards can now be simple shoutboxes. More creativity can be put into information posters that are interactive and have menus. Arcade machines can actually have games you can play and friends can watch you play in realtime. 'Prim apps' are going to change EVERYthing in SL.

Weather doing animations called from the web will reduce script lag ive yet to be told. I currently have a deadly cold which is not allowing me to be in SL and enjoying the buzz of viewer 2.0.

[Rodion Resistance]

Another fun adventure I had today was creating a prim, assign http://www.wikipedia.org website on one of its sides, then attaching the prim to my chest, and voila...I'm now a "Walking Wikipedia"! Yes, my friends can actually touch the prim on my chest, and submit their Wikipedia query when I happen to be in the neighborhood! :D

-RODION

[anna begonia]

I'm excited (but still have to try) about the new features: * Web on a prim (Rodion Resistance)
* Multiuser web (Nink)
* Teleport History (Isle Lunasea)
* Alpha skins (Osprey Therian)

I hate the greysh, blackish colour sorrounding everything.
The new chat with little icons and a "gap" between each intervention (it's like an hiccuped chat... I mean, it breaks the flow. In addition I can assure that i'm able to read line after line without getting confused.

the side bar... it's obtrusive, is there, you always see it. It disrupt immersion.

I still have to play a little more with it, but by now... why don't we use the new features with the old interface? I don't see the new one more "intuitive" than the old one (i.e. did not manage to turn off the music that was playing when I logged in... and I'm 3 years old in SL...)

[Scree Raymaker]

Tried this for a few hours (couldn't take any longer) and really don't like it. It makes doing anything a lot more difficult than it currently is in 1.x-based clients (even LL's). Unless major changes are made I don't see myself using this at all.

Like:

Favourites bar
Tattoo layer
Alpha layer
Worn items list

Dislike:

Sidebar has major problems (My Profile opens in edit mode, opening it covers right-aligned hud items while pushing left-aligned ones off-screen, client has serious lag when loading images, uses up a huge chunk of screen space when opened, among other problems)
Seperate windows for local chat and IMs mean more screen space is taken up (even selecting tabbed IMs they're still seperate from local chat).
No Build option when right-clicking on a prim, meaning an extra click is required when building in skyboxes or on prim ground.
People nearby doesn't include distance (I use this in Emerald to move away from a TP point without bumping into people before they've rezzed for me).
Can't drag from Recent Items into main Inventory list (a key feature of good inventory management).
Need to open a sim's info to see whether I can rez, fly, etc.

[Mootly Obviate]

The interface is smoother, and many items are better integrated.
- The new IM is a little awkward, but should be easy to get used to, at which point it will probably be better.
- The ability to create aliases in folders instead of having to copy something to each folder you want it in is a big boon and probably a server saver in terms of inventory storage. I am assuming I can do that with everything and not just my current outfit. Haven't tried yet.
- Load times appear to be faster and, interestingly, terrain seems to be visible well beyond set viewing range, it is just content that doesn't show.

But things I am still looking for:
- Region management tool for private sims. Can find land management but not full region management.
- Picks list which is how I usually find something I like >> edit or info >> creator profile >> creator picks.
- The ability to add and remove tabs from the side menu. Aside from using it to clear up rez issues, I haven't edited my appearance in the appearance editor for over a year. Though some of the new toys may alter that, I would still most likely want to set them up as outfits then not have to deal with anything but inventory after that.

Other issues:
- Mini-map is much harder to find and seems to close each time I restart. Needs to be some place obvious. Also now stays on top so I have to close it when other menus are open under it instead of being able to click on a menu to foreground it.
- Why is "My Outfits" based on the library. I never use the library outfits. Haven't for years. Hopefully I will be able to delete all those from this view and add my own?
- Two different profile menus for other peeps. Right click and double click. One contain voice chat and one contain IM. Both should have both, or both should be on one and not the other.

Still have to play with inventory. Hopefully you can still open multiple inventory windows to help with inventory management. And still have to play with build tools. I want to be pleasantly surprised by some new, powerful ones, but I am not hopeful.

And looks like someone made a valiant attempt to get shadows to work on Mac. Instead of render deferred doing nothing it truly and sincerely messes up the screen. Ah well.

[Crap Mariner]

The thing I like best is something I don't think you'll notice easily... it looks like they've improved the rendering priority on objects and textures.

Go to a sandbox with some complex sculpties with textures on them, scatter them around, toss up a few items to block/occlude a few of them sculpties, clear cache and log off, and then go back in.

Keep a close eye on what renders first.

Good for a slow connection.

-ls/cm

[Lalo Telling]

Like:
- The basic design, and the charcoal color.
- Most of the menu reorganization.
- Notice handling: Death to the blue-box group notices!

Dislike:
- The sidebar (see Scree's comment).
- The dis-integrated Chat and IM windows (see Scree's comment again).
- The redesigned camera controls, requiring extra mouseclicks to switch from pan to orbit mode.
- The illogical placement of the audio/media controls... and btw, "autoplay" on did not work -- I had to re-start the stream after each teleport.

Dislike Intensely: This viewer is a CPU hog. It maxed-out my dual core many times during the 8 hours of use last night, froze solid a few times without crashing, and crashed completely during a tp.

Don't care: HMTL on a prim. I have Firefox on a second monitor for multi-tasking. I see its benefits to others, but I don't need it.

[Valentina Kendal]

likes compared to Emerald/Snowglobe 1.24
-speed
- new layers
- web on a prim - I guess, but I can't get it working on a Mac yet

dislike
- dirty white font on brown, really? really?
- the sidebar should not push the world view when it opens, it should slide over it, like in the past - I find this *really* disruptive to the immersive experience
- the new IM/Chat interface - blech
- the changes to the Profile screens - do they have any idea how much time people put into what goes on the different tabs in the Profile? and how much time users spend reading Profiles - the new profile screens are clunky

[Arwyn Quandry]

Web on a prim Web on a prim Web on a prim, and did I mention web on a prim? Especially being able to attach it to myself. Running around with Hulu playing on my chest is fun.

[Raven Haalan]

I love the tattoo/makeup later. It's probably my favorite thing, since I've wanted it for so long.

Have to say I'm eager to see enhancements in inventory management (which are hinted at in the notes, but yet to be implemented).

I really dislike the expensive cost of the screen real estate, the layouts are so large and I'd welcome them tightening up a lot on that.

[Bixyl Shuftan]

I ended up looking like a cloud.

"Needs improvement"

[Yak]

Opening the sidebar makes feel like my chair is moving to the right...

[Beatrix Noel]

Things I like are:

Outfits folder, that's going to be really nice.
Teleport history and being able to hit back to go to the last place you were at (although I've accidentaly hit a few times)

Alpha layers, haven't actually used them yet but they seem cool and I can't wait to see what creators do with those.

The favorites bar

Things I don't like:

When you mouse over an item for sale it gives an item description but not the price.

Inventory - it doesn't tell you how many objects there are in your inventory. This is really not good. I know a lot of people like to keep their inventory under a certain number.

There's not enough contrast between the background and text. It just looks murky and dark.

Don't like the notices popping up from the bottom, I keep turning off my ao when I'm dealing with them.

The default way chats are set up, I switched it back so I don't have the profile pictures and names above the line of chat.

Really hate that when I logged in the first time the streaming music was on and the volume was at max. It blasted my ears out.

Things I'm trying to figure out:
Events. I know I can search for a keyword in events, but I always liked to browse through events and see what is upcoming and what is going on. Can't seem to find a way to do that.

Things I would have liked to seen-

Way to tell how many items are in a folder in your inventory.

[spyvspyaeon]

Fast prim and texture rendering. Never saw my Imac 2.6ghz (cable internet) run at 36 fps. Totally amazing (don't know if it is a feature on the new viewer) but I have tried using on a laggy place and saw my fps at top speed as my PC can. (even faster than emerald used to be known as a fast viewer than the official one). For me it is the highest news, since my second life depends entirely of FPS (machinima dude)

[nike shox]

The right-click/delete is under a 'remove' sub menu, and that annoys me greatly. Highlighting and hitting the delete button on my keyboard doesn't always work well when my bandwidth is poor.

I would like the 'delete' moved back to the main right-click menu.