In SL User Survey, Mesh Viewer Adopted by 56%, Mesh Content Purchases by 17% - But 1 in 4 Get No Mesh at All!

Here's the results of last week's survey on usage of the mesh-enabled SL viewer: With 390 SL users voting (a large sample, far as NWN surveys go), 56% report using the mesh viewer "often", while 17% "often" buy mesh-based content:

Based on those results, I'd recommend that SL content creators be pretty conservative about how much mesh-based stuff they make and sell -- the market is not yet avidly embracing that category just yet.

Interestingly, 1 in 4 users who took the survey have not adopted the mesh viewer at all, even to try it out. (If they had, presumably they'd answer they "sometimes" use it.) From one perspective, this is actually good news: When SL Viewer 2 launched, upwards of 50% of users didn't adopt it, but instead, switched to a third party viewer. From another angle, that's still surprisingly low adoption rates, especially when it means not seeing all the high quality mesh content. Why do you supposed that is? If you're in that category, please share in Comments.

Comments

[desdemona enfield]

Desdemona adopted the mesh-enabled viewer simply to be able to build with prims up to 64 meters in size.

[Anonymous]

I think this vote is still a bit vague for the overall status of viewers, and only skims the total population. After all declaring a viewer doesn't define the codebase specifically behind it. KLV vs Phoenix is the difference between 2.58 code merge with updated LL code + tweaks and 1.8 code + tweaks to make 2.* code features work. This often fragments the argument of viewers because users simply don't understand the difference between viewer 2.0 and 2.0 codebase reference. Most of what holds people back on older codebase is the UI features, which can be duplicated in 3.0 codebase if the developers take the time to modify the XUI the 3.0 code is using.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

A lot of people on Viewer 1, or Phoenix (and that will have mesh soon) won't bother switching until they see a reason to do so. Until they start seeing the benefits of mesh, or their friends persuade them, they won't bother switching from a Viewer 1 (or V1 based TPV) now if they haven't in the last 17 months.

Your figures actually seem to suggest mesh purchasing levels are quite good as there is still little on the market to buy as yet.

[Adeon Writer]

Once Phoenix has mesh, adoption will easily pass 80%

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Aspects of the mesh implementation (particularly the inability to mod it) are problematic for me.

When and if those are addressed to my satisfaction, I will likely leap upon the wagon with great enthusiasm. I see a lot of potential with this tech, when they finish it properly.

[Henri Beauchamp]

Adoption of mesh viewers does not imply adoption of v2/3 based viewers... Mind you, there have been v1 based viewers with mesh support since the very week LL updated the grid with production mesh-enabled server versions.

[Toysoldier Thor]

Actually what surprised me is that the adoption rates were much higher then I expected. But the way the survey was worded was rather confusing and/or does not tell a complete story. For example, many respondents have possibly used mesh enabled viewers but not to use mesh. Many may have it to test out the beta of Firestorm (like me).

As a landscape sculpty maps creator / merchant, the topic of when to start creating and selling mesh has been a hot topic in the merchant forum threads.

I hold to the belief that mainstream adoption of Mesh will not be until Q1 or Q2 2012. Prior to that you have the "MESHANISTAS" (as we call them) that are just simply excited about playing with the technology. They are invaluable for the rest of us because they are working out all the kinks and bugs and limitations of mesh on the grid (and there are limits) so that hopefully when it goes mainstream in 2012, the rest of us sculpty creators can much more easily walk in and create / sell mesh with little issues.

Until then, adoption will be slow and creating/selling mesh will be for the bleeding edge merchants.

Toy
http://ToyTalks.weebly.com

[Scarp Godenot]

Why do people not use the mesh viewer at all? Several Reasons as best I can gather.

Number one is they don't like the Linden Viewer interface. Enough to make it a deal breaker.

Number two is that they felt 'burned' by the whole viewer issue to the point that it is a point of honor and pride NOT to use the Linden Viewer. To use it would be like switching from Apple to PC in terms of loyalty.

Number three is that people have had issues with the Linden Viewer enought to the extent that they have lost faith in its ability to perform for them at all.

Number four is the Luddites. People that just hate change and don't want to learn a new set of tools when the ones they have work for them just fine.

I myself use V3 beta and don't have problems and now that I have learned it, it is seamless.

Just reporting my observations on the Viewer Wars issue.

[Deep Semaphore]

As a builder I upgraded a product, Gameboard Revival on marketplace so that as to make use of mesh capabilities .... for e.g. instead of having sculpty chess pieces, or other little game pieces ...animals and so on, I shifted to mesh. The mesh objects were a lot easier to develop and looked much better, and rendered quicker. BUT I had to revert back to the sculpty version because folks asked me to ... and over a week I did not come across any buyers who wanted mesh. May be this is only because it is early days for mesh, but am hoping things will improve in the future.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

It'll take more avatars downloading a mesh viewer, but also better application of mesh, as in applying the suggestions in the JIRA vote. I've purchased a few mesh items, but I'm not thrilled for the most part. The only ones I like so far are my SLINK boots, because I don't fit the mesh as I am in the other clothes.

As for "inanimate" objects," that's another kettle of fish entirely.

[Softpawthefairycat.blogspot.com]

I haven't switched to a mesh viewer for one reason mostly.

I REALLY need spell check.

Once Firestorm is given Spellcheck I will switch over to it. Even though they plan to give Phoenix Mesh, it wont be a viable viewer for much longer. Spell check is the only reason I haven't already switched to Firestorm.

As to actually BUYING mesh items. Unless its an accessory or none wearable, I wont be buying it. Not until if/when they ever get the no mod issue fixed or make it so it fits to your body and not your bones.

I have enough issues with clothing as it is being a fur. I NEED to be able to mod my hair. There is no way I can wear any hair with out making adjustments to it. I don't even buy no mod hair now.

My body shape is fixed to my personal preference and what I need as a fur. I would not want to change it just to fit into a gown. And unless you can layer alpha layers, just throwing one of those on is out as I already wear one on my legs.

[Carla]

mesh so far is just disappointing .... especially the no-mod/not fit to shape stuff .... until this changes i see no need to even bother installing a new viewer.

[Ciaran Laval]

@Toysoldier Thor "Actually what surprised me is that the adoption rates were much higher then I expected."

Pfft some of us did try and tell you that your 2% figure was ludicrous ;)

@Hamlet Mesh was officially launched just over a month ago, people are reluctant to change their habits too quickly and the TPV's have been playing catch up, some of them have been adding Mesh due to demand from users. Phoenix doesn't yet have Mesh support, although they are importing it into the codebase, that will change the figures quite dramtically I'd imagine.

[Orca Flotta]

I've tried Firestorm beta but soon found out it still has too much V2-ishness to it to be usable for me. Most things I do take longer and need more mouseclicks in V2 based viewers. And my alltime favourite grievance: the profile! I love to play with my profile, always put new picks and pics in and change it all the time. Why o why did LL take it to an offworld database? And why did they change the pictures formats once again? That's so clunky and slow now if you want to "perv" a profile. The fun is gone.
Also there are just too many dealbreaking bugs in Firestorm. Right now I'm kinda forced to use Firestorm for when I want to use vehicles and switch back to a functional viewer for everything else. From what I hear several people even switched back to Snowstorm (or Snowglobe) in order to be able to run SL at all.

LL's production viewers are out of the question for me since at least 3 years, so sorry I'll give everything coming directly from the lab a pass.
And my reason why I tried out the Firestorm had nothing to do with mesh whatsoever. I found it gives me a better framerate and seems to run more stable. That's most important functionality, not to view the very few mesh pieces in world now.
Also I think mesh is a bad idea for clothes. So until I see mesh houses, mesh vehicles and mesh gimmicks up to a point where I absolutely need a mesh-enabled TPV I won't use it.

Will mesh give the grid more stability? Will mesh reduce lag? Will mesh give us less crashes? These are the only important questions I have about mesh, the rest is just useless and sometimes even stupidly dangerous eyecandy. But then I hear from mesh vehicle developers and testers that it is indeed very laggy.
Bingo! There you have it. Mesh in itself could turn out to be the major dealbreaker, robbing SL of its own basic existence!

[Eyeball Soup]

@Orca - Despite me being able to absolutely shred your fallacious assertion that things in the V2 viewer require "more clicks", I'm going to be nice to you and suggest you learn the keyboard shortcuts. If you've been in SL long enough to have a last name, you should have learned what CTRL+I does by now.

As for most of the rest of you, I know this isn't a technical discussion of "mesh" but you guys honestly don't know what you're talking about. Mesh has been in SL since the beginning. Avatars are a mesh, prims are a mesh, terrain is a mesh. Mesh doesn't make things 'slower', if anything it makes them faster because the SL simulator and viewer don't have to calculate a bunch of prim faces you can't see. In fact the only empirical evidence I've seen so far would prove that a scene created entirely of mesh much faster and easier to render on even ancient hardware.

New doesn't always mean bad, nor does it always mean it has steeper hardware requirements.

[Danielle]

I'm disappointed to see that SH-2374 has beed downgraded from a near term fix (sprint 28) to "Someday/Maybe" without any explanation. Given that 650 people voted for this issue and 258 are watching it, at least some feedback from Linden Lab would have been polite. To change it in silence I will take to mean "The Lab doesn't think mesh adapting to our avatar shapes important enough to comment on".

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SH-2374

[Toady Nakamura]

@ Eyeball Soup... No need to be rude, honey. Some people can't use Keyboard Shortcuts for example folks (like myself) working with only one hand have one heck of a time typing many of them. There's also no reason to insult people about having a last name or not, that's counter productive, unkind to newer users and unnecessary roughness.

As for us "guys not knowing what we're talking about" that's your opinion. I don't agree with you, I see several people who do very much know what their own experience is with the program.

I don't see where people implied new was bad, and I'm not seeing many say their computer won't stay up with the new software either, except for the occasional antique laptop user. I'm afraid you've fallen into the trap of ego building through *Ad hominem* attacks without realizing the rest of us see them as simply spurious arguments often used by trolls trying to score points.

@Topic (i.e. Mesh)
One thing I've noticed on mesh objects is that compared to multiple prim objects they are blurry looking. I think this is because you have to wrap a single 1024x1024 texture on a mesh, whereas on multiple prim objects, you can texture each prim for more detail.

I had a good laugh at the avatar who arrived in a mesh torus (I was looking at something on V1.23 temporarily)... and this poor guy didn't realize that the painted crotch area including excretory area shading was pointing up and out. So to the non-mesh viewers this guy was rolling around with his slit in the air, bent over thighs, lower legs, all on the outside of the torus... his head was on the inside of the torus somewhere and the entire thing was two shades of murky brown. Returning to mesh-enabled viewer, the avatar wasn't that much more spectacular.

All joking aside, I don't think many people are willing to get an avatar that only 1/2 to 3/4ths of the people in any particular place (maybe less) can see. I hear from customers they don't like the idea of being forced into a shape to use mesh avatars nor do they like being naked or wearing only that one designer's clothes. Wearing a full mesh avi is a great way to get banned from PG sims because the naked skin on the torus looks just like what some silly griefer built with a torus and a skin and tried to pass off as as "mesh avi."

I think Hamlet is right though, many creators are "waiting and seeing" not drinking the meshy kool-aid the minute it's offered. I've heard from other creators on their group chats that they are waiting for the dust to settle to release mesh products.

I also think there's a feeling of "let's see if SL is here long enough to worry about learning mesh." So much on this blog and elsewhere seems to point to trouble on all sides with Lindens running around like little Dutch-boys poking the dike and wondering why it won't stop springing leaks.

[Ananda Sandgrain]

I'm in the "wait and see" camp for a number of reasons - the biggest of which is the ongoing reports of people crashing all the time while attempting to use the new mesh-enabled viewers. The second reason is that I don't see anything in the mesh implementation that says I can actually *use* meshes, - only that I can buy them from people who made them in 3d party programs. I guess I'm old-school in that regard, I still like having the ability to make, modify, mess with every single thing I use in SL, not just purchase it and put up with some other person's idea of what it is for.

Finally, though, I'm only in SL a couple times a week so I haven't had a compelling reason to upgrade yet.

[ZZBottom]

being o sl for the last month for more then 8 h daily i can say.
No meshes avatars, around, no meshes at all around and beleave i been around to many places.
Reason nr 1, Phoenix, that is used still by more then 75 pct of the reg sl users, the ones that log in at all days for more then a few minutes.
Still even after phoenix has meshes i think that it will take a long time to see meshes around.
They break one of the most amazing features of Sl, to be able to build in world.

[Connie Arida]

Well..would be nice if the mesh viewers had fewer bugs. That's the gist of why I stick to Firestorm Beta ( no mesh). I can take shadow enabled pics without fighting the (More) numerous bugs in the LL and Kirsten's viewer. I took my time moving to a V2 based viewer and I see no reason to rush headlong into the bleeding edge. SL has enough issues as it is.