BY CHIEF STAFF WRITER PAYPABAK WRITER
I’ll just say that the release of the new beta viewer is a very exciting moment in the history of Second Life. It is a major revision of the viewer and turns it into a social media browser, retooling controls to fit in better with how browsers work as well as how standard applications behave when you point and click. It will put an “unlearning curve” to what veteran SLers need to use it, but it will help new users become familiar with it’s myriad controls more intuitively. Some people might not agree with my simple assessment and so what I am going to do here is deliver a listing of blogs and reports and videos on this epochal event and let you decide.
(Note in the enlarged thumbnail of the SLV2 screenshot I took that in the background, the FilterCam is showing a cracked-glass screen. The top of the screen is very much like the top of a browser, even with Favorites listed across the top and with forward and back enabling you to teleport back and forth! Profiles carry second and first life information and pictures in Linden Lab’s unsubtle attempt to get people to fill them out. Yes, chat text no longer streams across the screen but you can clear the chat box from the screen once again by clicking on the background!)
In Emerald, you would see the Moonletters.com poster, in SLV2 you see the blog itself and can scroll through it!
I think the biggest thing here is that there are a variety of viewers available for SL and what it may boil down to is using what fits the way you use SL. Nonetheless, Linden Lab has moved forward toward making SL a more standardized application, inviting those who tried SL in the past and gave up another opportunity to test drive it.
Anyway, this is not by any means exhaustive, but I hope it serves as a general index of what is being said about the viewer.
Video Tutorials and Interviews
Here’s the main page for tutorials
Torley in Drag …. er, Appearance Features
Linden Homes …OK, not SLV2 Beta …
This is fun! Ashton Kutcher’s face on an avatar!
Reactions, Reflections, and Interview with Mark Kingdon
Gwyneth Llewelyn: Business and Technology in Second life
ArminasX Saiman: New Viewer, New Thinking
The Interview, Framed by Wagner James Au
OMG! Daniel Voyager Beat Me to It! (At least in terms of SL Blogs!)
Dusan Writer: Where Is It Going?
Dedric Mauriac: Initial Impressions
The Metaverse Journal looks at it
The viewer as presented at last year’s SLCC by Tom Hale
Nyuk, nyuk … watch out for NSFW language!
Cabal Online Phillipines takes Five on viewer
Must-Read! Juicy Bomb looks at new skins layers
Anything more you need to read can be found by Googling for heaven’s sake!
Wow that does look different than other upgrades. I’ll have to try this one.
I tried the new viewer & although it’s quite different, I have to say I’m impressed; Checking out the YouTube tutorial before I logged on proved to be a great help as I didn’t feel as flummoxed as I might have!
I urge people to download it!
Loving the first picture by the way :) xo
I’m glad, jellie! Didn’t mean to put you on the spot! I was rushed to get the article ready and excited about a certain development that I wasn’t completely thinking it all through. Good call about the tutorials–I think they can prepare veteran users to handle the changes.
You didn’t put me on the spot at all!! All good hun. xox