Day: March 17, 2010

New Release

LL have released an update to Viewer 2.0. It incorporates some positive actions, but still leaves a lot of issues uncommented on. LL are at least still taking feedback, but I’d venture to suggest that they’ll stick with Tom Hale’s put-down made back on the 23rd Feb that what we’re seeing is pretty much *it* and that large-scale changes (even those that make sense) aren’t going to happen.

Nevertheless, the improvements are somewhat welcome and we’ll hopefully see more tweaks as time goes on.

Of Polls and Surveys

A new survey on Viewer 2.0 has also been released. After the outstanding joke of the original “poll”, as put up by Amanda Linden, this one at least has the appearance of seeking feedback from residents.

The original poll is, sadly, still available on the front page of the Viewer 2.0 forum, where it appears to make glowing reading – 67% of those asked apparently love the new Viewer! It is only when the actual poll itself is viewed that one gets the full measure of the spin involved:

• Only three responses were obtained before the poll was locked
• The three options that followed the question, Do you like Viewer 2.0 were utterly skewed towards favouring a “positive” outcome, given they were:
  • “I love it!”  – i.e. overwhelmingly “in favour”
  • “I like most of it” – i.e. still “in favour”
  • “I’m indifferent” – i.e. can be counted as “in favour” as it doesn’t actually say “dislike”
  • “I don’t like it” – i.e. only giving a 25% chance of wholly negative feedback

Many of us took Amanda to task over the poll when published, and this may have influenced the shut-down.

I’m curious as to the new poll on four counts:

1. Whether the results will be made public – I’ve yet to find a link allowing me to view results.
2. What degree of spin will be employed on the results should they prove negative (remember, Hamlet Au over at the Herald managed to turn one poll that had a 66% negative feedback into a positive, simply by only mentioning that 33% of those polled were “in favour”  – making it sound as if this was the largest portion of votes received).
3. How the poll compares to this one, which does include the ability to view the results
4. Whether LL will even publish the results or simply push them to one side if the feedback tips strongly towards the negative.

Security Worries

One of the new features in Viewer 2.0 that has caused much commentary is shared media. However, the commentary hasn’t been entirely positive, raising issues over security and privacy. So much so that it prompted Samuel Linden to post on the subject.  It was supposed to smooth over the concerns and calm residents.

It didn’t. While it is reassuring to know – as posted in response to the thread – that LL are “working on” the specific issues vis-a-vis potential exploits provided by shared media, which really weren’t addressed in Samuel’s blog post, it is still somewhat worrying that LL were seemingly aware of the risk that resident’s computers may be exploited through the unscrupulous use of shared media and still opted to set Viewer 2.0 to a default of auto accepting shared media.

It’s also worrying that while most web browsers – which seem to be the paradigm for the new Viewer – give the option to turn off things like Javascript support, etc. (or rather, turn them on) – LL’s wisdom was to have them turned on by default, with no option currently included – or originally going to be included – in the Viewer to turn them off.

Samuel states LL will now be providing this functionality in the next Beta release, albeit it somewhat grudgingly:  Obviously disabling JavaScript will severely limit the functionality of websites, and turning off plugins will render Flash inoperable, but these are features that were requested, and we are providing them in the next Beta release.

It is comforting to see that LL are listening and responding to user concerns relating to security around shared media – but it is also worrying that they opted to take such a cavalier attitude towards security in the first place. If nothing else, this again points to the fact that Viewer 2.0 is – primarily – viewed by LL as “business tool” aimed for those whole will (in theory) be using it alongside their SLE product, nice and safe behind a corporate firewall, where fears flash and other tools being hacked are pretty much eliminated.

The First of the Third Party V2.0-based Viewers

Elsewhere, the first of the third-party iterations of Viewer 2.0 has popped up. KristenLee Cinquetti has always had a reputation for producing really top-notch Viewers which incorporate a lot of very useful features. Of all the Viewers out there, hers has always been my favourite simply because of the fact that her custom graphic pipe means that things like dynamic shadows actually work, and her graphics settings allow a whole new level of realism. Sadly, she does not embrace RLV functionality, which means I stick with Emerald – which, admitedlly, is almost there with the shadows.

Her first attempt at a “Viewer 2.0” compliant KLee Viewer incorporates elements that have found their way into the latest Beta update – so some may wonder at the fuss. That her mods were slightly preempted by LL is a shame – but they at least show how things can be done.

The major changes made are:

• The Sidebar no longer shunts the world view to the left when opening (now in the latest official relase)
• The Camera controls have been tweaked to something like the old system – both move and rotate are on the same toasty (pop-up). Admittedly, they still vanish if you click elsewhere – which is annoying and the control itself is still overly large, but at least there is no need for painful toggling
• About Land is back on the top bar as standard – an XML tweak has previously been provided by Alexandrea Fride for Viewer 2.0, and its inclusion here is very welcome and makes the Viewer land management friendly once more
• Some attempt has been made at making pop-ups, etc., transparent when the focus is moved from them but – frankly –  the interface really doesn’t lend itself to this. While this is hardly Kirsten’s fault, it still renders the effort on her part as almost wasted (transparency has also been somewhat introduced to the official Viewer)
• Preferences -> Graphics includes an additional tab that allows the more “advanced” user an even greater degree of control over how their SL experience looks and feels – and this is very welcome
• The Map and Mini Map button have been returned to the bottom toolbar. While both are very welcome additions, the former is huggable, as it means the bloody Sidebar can be totally avoided when trying to use the map!
• Inventory is also back on the toolbar – so **HUGS** again as the Sidebar can be avoided!
• Speed – as with all Kirsten’s Viewers, the average fps (for me) is around the 30 mark – considerably faster (and smoother) than the official viewers.

There are some things that are currently missing – but this could be down to the fact that the interface doesn’t (if Tom Hale is to be believed) make for significant changes. The Sidebar, for example, does not turn transparent when left open and the focus moved from it. Again, it may be entirely possible that making it so wouldn’t so much to change the impact it has on the immersive experience but there is a lot of black in the Sidebar, and it would be nice to see some of it “vanish” when forced to keep the bloody thing open. But then, like the official Beta, this is just a first stab at V 2.0.

Overall, I have to say that Kirstenlee’s approach is a major step forward in developing a Viewer that actually addresses two somewhat disparate audiences – the “old” and the “new”. What is more to the point, it goes a long way to ensuring that Viewer 2.0 doesn’t become increasingly annoying to “new” users as they gain grater familiarity with the Viewer and the platform and simply want to enjoy their in-world experience as a 3D experience rather than a 3D background to a clunky interface.