This is intended to be a weekly round-up of current public SL viewers (of which I’m aware). Links to my most recent reviews of said viewers will be included, but may not reflect the current release. As few Viewers are static, and releases are made according to individual development cycles, further versions of any given Viewer may well be released between these updates, and as such the information here may become out-of-date as the week progresses. Please check with the relevant download pages.
Text clients I am able to run and review may be included in the future, depending upon how useful this page proves to be.
SL Official Viewers
Available for: Windows, Linux and Mac
Current Release version: 3.2.6.248086 (download page)
Beta version: 3.2.8.248668 (released: Jan 30th) (download page)
Development version: 3.3.0.248913 (released: Feb 6th) (wiki page)
Simplified Inventory Project version 3.2.8.248008 (wiki page)
The development of the Kokua and Imprudence Viewers has been somewhat stalled for several months for a wide range of reasons, all of which are understandable given the voluntary nature of Viewer development in general.
At the end of January 2012, the Kokua / Imprudence team held an open meeting at which the future of both viewers was discussed, and following this, a blog update was put out summarising the conclusions reached, and which reads in part:
We’re going to continue to develop Third Party viewers with a focus on cross supporting Second Life and OpenSim/Aurora. However we’re going to focus on Kokua in the future, the ultimate fate of Imprudence is still undecided though as we may push for a final 1.4 release but nothing that takes up too much of our time. Kokua will use Second Life v3.2 as a base, we feel the LL code for v3.2 has matured greatly beyond v2 and v3 and we’ll of course make our own modifications to it to make it more “purple” in flavor. It is also our intent to finalize the name change from Imprudence to Kokua, Imprudence and Kokua are separate viewers and the project has historically been called the Imprudence project. The intent was to switch from Imprudence to Kokua as the next generation client was released but it has been dragged out for quite a while now and caused confusion, so we’re going to finish the change over to Kokua.
This is excellent news for the SL TPV / OpenSim worlds, as Imprudence has long had an outstanding reputation for usability and has been popular across the wider metaverse (may of us who bounce between SL and other grids find it to be our Viewer of choice when outside of SL). That the expertise that has made Imprudence so popular and so capable a Viewer is now being brought to bear on the V3.2 FUI and capabilities is good news and means that both OS and SL stand to gain given wider choice in Viewer options.
Of course, many will lament what amounts to the eventual passing of Imprudence – but again, all Viewer development is only voluntary, and teams / devs must move in the direction that they feel is most appropriate for them in terms of building and maintaining a viable Viewer and it would be unfair to chastise the Kokua / Imprudence team for their decision.
Work will, for the forseeable future, focus on Windows (32-bit) and Linux 32-bit & 64-bit), although it is hoped both Windows and Mac 64-bit options will be available “down the road” – with the further caveat that Mac development is dependent upon the team gaining a Mac developer. Sounds reasons are given for not focusing on a Windows 64-bit version from the off, although the 32-bit version will have SSE optimisation.
Alongside the core work on the Viewer, the Kokua / Imprudence blog & forums are liable to see an overhaul in the near future as well.
As well as the blog post on the subject, you can also read the full transcript of the meeting, if you were unable to attend.
Update January 27th, 2013: The Zen viewer has been discontinued by its creator.
Zena Juran released a new version of the Zen Viewer over the weekend – something I almost missed due to being busy with other things in-world (of which I’ll say more another time). As mentioned in my original review earlier in the month, Zen is aimed at bringing an enhanced build experience to the V3.2 environment.
Currently still only available for windows, this new release (3.2.8.7) remains based on LL 3.2.8 Development / Project Viewer code, but sees some major changes and additions in terms of the TPV code that has been merged.
Installation and Start-up
The EXE retains more-or-less the same size as the 3.2.8.6 release, and the Viewer installs the same, complete with dedicated user folders and cache locations (rather than using the SL defaults).
Logging-in reveals little in the way of changes between 3.2.8.7 and earlier releases – other than the fact that the UI buttons are no longer transparent (more on this in a moment), the layout is the same as 3.2.8.6 and prior releases. However, open up Preferences, and the updates immediately make themselves apparent.
New Preferences Tabs
In my original review, I commented that Preferences were little-changed from V3.2, but Zena would be adding to the list of capabilities over time. Well, she has – and massively so! At the same time she’s also re-arranged things somewhat.
Expanded Preferences
Release 3.2.8.7 sees one tab in Preferences removed (LSL Pre-processing), and five new tabs added, together with an overall re-ordering of things which may initially catch used to operating by wrote a little off-guard (Graphics, for example has gone from near the top of the tab list to fairly well down the order of things). This shouldn’t interfere with overall usability, however.
The five new tabs are (in the order displayed:
Name Tags: Pulls together the V3.2 (usually found in the General tab) and popular TPV options relating to name tags (setting colours, etc.) together into a single tab
Shadows: pulls-in the shadow options popular among TPVs, and which can be found in a variety of locations (a sub-tab under graphics, for example)
Camera: pulls-together “standard” options such as view angle & distance (from MOVE & VIEW), disabling camera constraints (from the Advanced menu), depth of field on/off (duplicated from Graphics), and camera / DoF sliders again found in other TPVs
Build: presents the Build enhancement tools first seen in the likes of Emerald / Phoenix, and now widely used in TPVs
Visual Auto-Mute
This is perhaps the most interesting change within Zen (and potentially the most drama-risk feature to pop-up in the Viewer code in general for a while), and is the first merge I’ve seen of a new functionality from LL that was recently released as a changeset (my apologies to other TPVs if they’ve in fact merged it as well, I’m still trying to catch up on 3 days of missed blogging and updates).
Visual Auto-mute
Essentially, this functionality allows you to set thresholds above which avatars with a very heavy load (high-res textures, complex attachments (multiple prims, flexi prims, sculpts, and what have you), etc., – but not scripts, which are a completely different kettle of fish) will not be rendered by your Viewer. Instead, they will appear as “grey ghosts”, similar to when you’ve muted someone; however, you will still be able to IM them and chat with them. This should theoretically reduce the load placed on the Viewer and your system in terms of rendering, and lead to an improved SL experience.
The Graphics tab in Zen’s Preferences has also been updated, with an improved overall layout, largely due to the removal of the low-med-high-ultra slider from the top of the tab (itself no real loss), although a full screen option has yet to appear.
Graphics tab updates
UI Skins and Button Transparency
This release sees the range of skin options (colours) expanded, with gold, purple and red being added to the original LL teal and Zen blue. It also appears that Zena has taken-up the comment I made in my original review about having the transparency of the UI buttons user-adjustable. This release sees an opacity slider for the buttons added to the UI Skinning tab – so while the buttons are initially solid on first-time start-up, you can adjust them to a level of transparency to suit your needs.
Zen Menu Updates
Zen menu
The Zen menu sees a couple of updates. The Notifications to Top for moving incoming notifications to the top right of the screen has gone (it can now be found in PREFERENCES->NOTIFICATIONS). This moves the Pie Menu option (on by default) to the top of the menu, while an option for accessing Preferences slips-in at the bottom.
I’d still prefer to see a button added to simplify accessing preferences, but this is still a logical addition that streamlines access to frequently used menu options.
Opinion
This release moves Zen up a notch. While performance is unchanged on my usual system (no surprises there given it’s still effectively the LL 3.2.8 Development / Project Viewer code base), the additional preferences options help make the Viewer more accessible and potentially feature-friendly to SL photographers who prefer something closer to the “official” Viewer rather than plunging into Exodus or Niran’s (although Zen does not have the advanced capabilities of either of these two Viewers, obviously).
The Build heritage for Zen is clear – drawing heavily on Firestorm in terms of floater layout and the availablity of popular tools. I’d personally still like to see the camera floater get some button functionality, and still am undecided on the complete removal of button-based functions from some of the menus. Some might find it feature-light compared to other TPVs (the list of what’s not there is still pretty much as it was for 3.2.8.6), but I don’t count this against Zen in any way. Overall this is still a Viewer that presents something of the best of both worlds – good, solid building capabilities wrapped up in LL’s 3.2 code. With it now listed in the TPV Directory, it’s worth a look by anyone who might be considering easing away from the official Viewer to take advantage of TPV-originated tools, but who doesn’t necessarily want to get swamped with additional features and options.
A new set of functions has been released by LL as a changeset, and is starting to find its way into SL Viewers.
Essentially, this functionality allows you to set thresholds above which avatars with a very heavy load (high-res textures, complex attachments (multiple prims, flexi prims, sculpts, and what have you), etc., – but not scripts, which are a completely different kettle of fish) will not be rendered by your Viewer. Instead, such avatars will appear as “grey ghosts”, similar to when they’ve been muted; however, IMs and chat can still be exchanged. This should theoretically reduce the load placed on the Viewer and a your system in terms of rendering, and lead to an improved SL experience.
It’s important to note that the functions only affect how such avatars are rendered in your world-view; they will still render normally in their own view, and for anyone who hasn’t set thresholds / has higher thresholds than you. Also, your avatar will remain visible in your view, no matter how you set the limits.
The thresholds are governed by two functions, initially released by LL as a set of debug settings:
RenderAutoMuteByteLimit – Maximum bytes of attachments before an avatar is automatically visually muted (0 for no limit)
RenderAutoMuteSurfaceAreaLimit – Maximum surface area of attachments before an avatar is automatically visually muted (0 for no limit)
These currently require numerical values to be entered. However, it is possible that they’ll find their way into at least some Viewers as Preferences options, possibly using sliders. Zena Juran has already opted for this approach with the latest release of the Zen Viewer (below).
Visual Auto-mute as presented in the Zen Viewer
The functions are supported by a new addition to the Develop menu: Render MetaData->Attachment Bytes. When active, This displays a set of figures over / near avatars, which can be used to help you to determine the byte and area thresholds you should set.
The approach has already come in for considerable discussion on the SLU forum, where opinion seems to be weighted towards the favourable.
Certainly, it can’t be denied that avatars can impact Viewer performance enormously, so any moves that enable the user to have a greater degree of control over what is hurting their SL experience is potentially a good thing. But lag is a very sensitive subject – as anyone who has encountered upsets in the past due to people using ARC as a Big Stick can testify.
This approach would appear to be a lot more beneficial than something like ARC and its successor, Avatar Draw Weight (or ADW) are concerned, as it should hopefully reduce the amount of finger-pointing and hostility that goes on when people have arbitrary figures in red floating over their heads like a glaring accusation of wrong-doing.
It’s also somewhat friendlier than the other alternative to “blocking” “overloaded” avatars: that of audio mute, which denies any communications capabilities where some might be preferred and which can, if done on a group basis, leave a poor soul ostracised in silence with no idea why.
There are, however, some drawbacks. On the minor side, it is possible that setting the options when entering a popular venue may well result in you finding one or more friends around you turn into grey ghosts – or that you end-up greyed-out in their view. This might in turn result in strained relations, but shouldn’t really be anything reasonable people can get past – and even joke about privately.
This isn’t necessarily a “one size fits all” solution as well; it is possible that, depending on the type of venues a person visits (in terms of popularity popularity, nature of the activities carried out, etc.), the thresholds may need adjusting from time-to-time in order to gain the best benefits / compromise in terms of performance benefits and visual appeal. This may limit the scope to which the new functions are used, as people are not always willing to fiddle around with sliders as they teleport around SL.
It also needs to be remembered that avatars aren’t the only load placed on the Viewer, and using functions like these might not help tremendously when moving around an environment that has dozens upon dozens of high-resolution textures all over the place (such as a store or mall). In this regard, the effectiveness of the system needs to be balanced against alternative approaches (such as the use of avatar imposters, or by simply turning-down your draw distance and turning down / off various options within the Viewer Preferences) in order to improve one’s in-world experience.
The biggest question-mark over the new controls, however, is that of effectiveness. If the results of playing with the new options is an improvement of a couple of fps in overall performance and/or a very slight improvement in rendering time, then it is unlikely that they are going to gain a lot of traction. But if people see a demonstrable improvement in their overall experience, then it is liable that the functions are going to prove more popular.
That said, anything tha moves us further away from the finger-pointing extremism that has been the plague of ARC /ADW, has to be a step in the right direction, doesn’t it? One possible benefit from this approach is a greater awareness and consideration of just how one’s own avatar might be impacting other people’s experience within SL, simply by seeing that it exceeds the thresholds one is setting against other avatars.
ProductTeam Linden (who he/she? is it Rhett in disguise?) has posted to the Technology Forum about a new option for presenting Inventory within the Viewer. Apparently, when the Viewer was split between the Basic and Advanced modes, moves were made to try to improve / simplify inventory presentation, but they never made it to a final cut of the Viewer.
Now they have, and Linden Lab is asking for feedback. The announcement reads in part:
For new users, managing and understanding inventory is often challenging. Drag and drop over large inventories can be problematic and daunting. New users are often confused about the meaning of certain system folders.
Today we have released a Project Viewer beta that includes this simplified presentation of inventory as an option. Before we consider any widespread changes to inventory, we want to know what you think about the Simple Inventory UI, noting that the target user is someone just starting out.
The Simple Inventory UI offers new users:
A simple display presenting only one folder at a time
Improved wayfinding and findability
Faster load of inventory items
The article then invites users to download a Project Viewer which includes the new Inventory presentation, and to provide feedback (via the SL forum), with any bugs that are found logged in the SINV Project JIRA. In doing to, the article notes:
It’s important to note that Simple Inventory was intended for Basic mode before Basic and Advanced modes were merged. It is still experimental and so it is unclear how it will function with extremely large Inventories, so if you have a large Inventory we don’t recommend using Simple Inventory as your only view.
There are also some incomplete features and some known issues, again as LL note.
So, what is it like? As I have a fairly extensive inventory that (if I say so myself) is well-managed and ordered that I’m in no mood to mess with, I tapped my CTA (Crash Test Alt) on the shoulder and took the Project Viewer for a spin.
Quick Tour
The Viewer has an initial release number of 3.2.8 (248008), and installs into is own folder but shares the standard cache and user folder locations as all other SL installations. Once started, the Viewer has the same funky blue/teal UI as the DD Project Viewer – so I assume this is to provide a simple means of recognising that you’re running a Project Viewer. Otherwise, the Viewer looks and behaves like a “normal” release.
Opening Inventory initially reveals a familiar panel (for those that use the official Viewer), but one with a new SWITCH TO FOLDER VIEW link in the top right corner (below left). Clicking this brings-up the revised layout (below, right).
Inventory: from hierarchical view to folder view
Key points of the new layout:
Inventory is divided into clear sections: MY INVENTORY, LIBRARY, RECEIVED ITEMS (for the forthcoming Direct Delivery) and TRASH
You can have more than one section open at a time
Sections can be resized by hovering the mouse at the bottom of an open section so the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow. Click and hold the left mouse button to drag the sections beneath the open section up/down
Within a section, folders and contents are listed alphabetically (so system folders do not appear at the top of MY INVENTORY by default, and folders are not sorted to the top when mixed with objects)
As the view is not intended to be hierarchical, there are no arrowheads to the left of folders or any ability to open them within the displayed panel. Instead, opening a folder is now achieved in one of two ways:
You can hover the mouse over a folder to highlight it with an ACTIONS option. Clicking this will displays context menu from which you can select OPEN IN NEW WINDOW (below, left)
You can double-click on the folder and have a new view of the contents slide neatly into the existing panel, replacing what was already there.
Note that to prevent accidents, system folders automatically have the options to move, rename or delete them disabled.
Whether you opt to open folders in a new window, or display them in the existing panel, the end result is the same in terms of what you see (below, right).
Opening folders: either hover the mouse over the folder and Click ACTIONS for a menu (l) or double-click a folder. The contacts will be displayed (r)Inventory breadcrumbs
If you opt to drill down through your folders by opening each in a new window, then navigating back and forth is a relatively simple matter of swapping between windows and closing those you’ve finished with.
However, the system also makes it possible you to navigate up / down a set of nested folders within a single panel by adding breadcrumbs to the top of the panel (right) as you open each successive folder, allowing you to navigate back up the tree. At the same time, hovering the mouse over MY INVENTORY will reveal another ACTIONS option from which you can elect to go BACK TO TOP FOLDER.
Once in a folder, items can be highlighted and the ACTIONS menu used to manipulate them (e.g. wear, move, rename, delete) – again displayed options are context-sensitive (so if you are wearing an item, that option is not displayed, for example).
You can move items around your inventory in several ways:
Use the ACTION menu to select MOVE for an item / folder. This opens an additional window in which you can navigate to your desired destination (double-click through the required folders), before clicking MOVE TO SELECTED FOLDER to finish the task
You can also simply drag-and-drop items / folders within a panel
You can drag-and-drop between inventory windows
You can drag-and-drop between sections (between RECEIVED ITEMS and MY INVENTORY, for example) – the destination section does not have to be expanded in order to do so.
A couple of things I did notice during testing were that a) worn items are not highlighted / indicated in any way and b) there is no option to remove / detach a worn item. There also appears to be a bug, as selecting WEAR appears to ADD the selected item to your avatar, rather than replacing anything already worn – my CTA ended up clumping around in two pairs of boots….
Feedback and Thoughts
I don’t really have any issues with the functionality presented here per se. It works OK, the overall layout within a panel is fine, and (known issues and bugs notwithstanding), it all works pretty much as expected. There do appear to be some issues that do need addressing, however, and as LL asked for feedback on the system as presented (and allowing for the fact it is only an initial iteration, here’s mine:
Add the ability to see what is actually being worn or is attached to the avatar within the Folder View
As most people are likely to be moving folders from RECEIVED ITEMS to MY INVENTORY, it would make sense to move RECEIVED ITEMS above LIBRARY, to reduce the chances of a mis-click dropping items into the Library section
As currently supplied, the functionality is perhaps a little too limited – no ability to create sub-folders, for example, so the ability to organise one’s inventory is restricted to drag-and-drop into whatever is already there
Don’t be afraid of using menu options at the top of the inventory panel (File, Create, Sort, etc.) – they are lot more intuitive for users new or established than having options buried behind obscure “+” symbols and cog-wheel icons.
Also, if it is intended provide both views (Hierarchy and Folder) within the inventory panel of the a release Viewer at some point in the future, then I’d also suggesting ensuring that the top-level folder presentation is consistent between them (i.e. scrap the “system folders to top” default in favour of an alphabetical listing for the Hierarchy View), as this will assist familiarity in switching between views.
Thoughts
Candidly speaking, this alternative presentation comes across as yet another Linden curate’s egg. On the one hand, it cannot be denied that there are issues around how the inventory panel functions (the “high-speed scrolling” that can occur when trying to move an item from one folder to another, for example), and that things could be improved in terms of presentation. On the other, this approach is perhaps a little too simplistic to make a valid judgement at this point; too much functionality has been stripped away. Looking at it in the form presented, it’s hard to see the direction in which it’s liable to grow (if any) – which I think may be the issue LL are having, hence the low-key call for assistance.
I also cannot help but think LL “misunderestimate” new users here. While people are new to SL, it’s doubtful they are new to computers and things such as file management tools like Windows Explorer and the Mac Finder. After all, they’ve managed to find their way online, navigated the web to the SL website, found the Viewer download link, downloaded the Viewer, found the installer on their computer and installed it… As such, is understanding the nuances of inventory management that big an issue for them? I’m not convinced.
That said, there are undoubted benefits in some aspects of what is presented here: a “flat file” view may well be more to some people’s liking (providing it is better integrated with a hierarchical view as well), and the use of a pop-up “move” window could be preferable to some than relying on drag-and-drop – and it’s good to provide alternatives. I just can’t escape the feeling the perhaps LL are missing an opportunity. Given most people are liable to be familiar with the likes of Explorer and Finder, why not grab the bull by the horns and make inventory more approachable by presenting it in a similar manner to those tools – perhaps a two-panel display, with scrollable hierarchical view to the left, open folder view to the right with the associated drag-and-drop capabilities?
I’m not saying it would be easy to do (or even necessarily a short-term development). but were it possible to achieve, I’d venture to suggest it would meet with significant approach from established and new users alike.
I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on this to see how things develop. In the meantime, and given feedback is being sought, if you’ve not already taken a look at the Project Viewer, I’d encourage you to do so & pass your thoughts / suggests to LL via the forum.
Update Jan 24th: Version 1.14 is now available which fixes the snapshot floater iessue meantioned in the article, and which also see the Main Menu moved to F1 from ESC, thus resolving the camera / Mouselook reset issue also mentioned here. The download location remains the same.
Good grief! I turn my back on SL for 1/2 a day to go shopping and take care of that “real life” thing, and what happens? Another Viewer update pops up! :).
NiranV Dean has been busy scribing away (do coders scribe, I wonder?) on Niran’s Viewer of late, with 1.12 appearing earlier in the week and now we have 1.13 arriving. NiranV’s aim with the Viewer is not to come up with the fastest (in terms of frame rates) or the most features and functions – but rather to focus on developing better graphics and a more flexible user interface. This combination has made Niran’s Viewer daringly different – and release 1.13 continues with this.
Main Menu
On starting the Viewer there is also little sign of any changes within the release. However, tap ESC and you’ll receive an interesting surprise: the Viewer has a “main menu”!
Niran’s: Main menu
The options on the menu are self-explanatory, and NiranV clearly states this is only an initial pass at the menu – the style and layout will be subject to change, and constructive feedback on the idea is welcomed via his blog.
I have to admit that when the idea was first explained to me, I was sceptical as to its use – but I’m not sure I fully understood what NiranV was proposing. On seeing the menu, I can see that there is potential here. However, I’m not sure that using ESC is the right key function. While I understand it may be a common approach in “traditional” games (I’m genuinely not qualified to comment either way on computer games), it has to be said that ESC has long had a “traditional” use in SL: for resetting your camera view or popping out of ML. Ergo, there is a risk here that putting ESC to another use is going to cause frowns among some users, other options for getting into / out of ML notwithstanding.
I did have problems with the My Profile and Outfits options on the menu (neither worked for me), but again, this is an experimental feature.
Snapshot Floater
The revised snapshot floater in V3.x has always struck me as being a tad on the large size. Niran’s addresses this by offering a more compact floater, although it needs a couple of tweaks to finish things off – the “expand” chevron and image resolution information is somewhat squeezed by the image preview pane, and the expanded Advanced Options slider could do with being just a little wider (the closing bracket of “(fullscreen)” seems to “fall off” the edge of the panel a little. However, this is, to me at least, an improvement over the default floater in terms of size.
Snapshot floater: a trifle squeezed?
Looking at Snapshot actually reminds me to comment on the top-to-bottom fade found in the floaters on Niran’s Viewer. I’m not sure how recent a change this is – I first noticed it on the 1.12 release – but it is really rather smart and I find it adds a little something to the Viewer as a whole.
Gestures Enhanced and Other Bits
This release sees gestures enhanced with additional trigger options, as NiranV explains, “You can now use additional trigger keys for gestures, which are E Q R F I T Y Z G C V M O P and Space, you can set them in the Shortcut key combo NOT MODIFIER!”
Also in this release as an experimental option is the ability to bulk upload .anim files via NV->FILES->UPLOAD->BULK UPLOAD.
The revised Build floater, introduced in 1.12 has gained popular feedback from the core Niran’s Viewer users and has received some nips and tucks as a result.
Build floater: nips and tucks
Version 1.12 also suffered from locking issues that appeared to be related to Shining fixes. However, following investigations, NiranV found the problem seems to actually be connected to inventory loading, and has this to say on the issue and Shining fixes in general within 1.13:
“Well with 1.12 I added some Shining fixes that seemed to cause initial freezes on login, but no ….its your Inventory! IF you freeze several times on login before [the] World turns smooth, then your Inventory has been fetched … If you want, I can do an option to disable initial fetching.
“Apart from that, I´ve added a few other Shining fixes which fixed the Underwater Crash I´ve noticed when you look into the “void” (the blue water fog at the end of a sim) and transparent meshes -> meshes should now render correctly when setting them to 1% transparency or having a transparent texture on them … instead of vanishing completely. [Be aware that] the bump map on mesh crash is still present; don’t set bump maps on meshes unless you want to crash. The bump map will be set after your relog.”
Feedback
Niran’s Viewer doesn’t have everything I like to see in a Viewer – but then again, if it and every other Viewer did have everything we all wanted, they’d all likely be exactly the same. However, it is still very much a Viewer I enjoy using. However, recent releases have suffered where I’m concerned, as they have tended to push my system to its limits when I’ve wanted to use the bells and whistles.
While Niran isn’t focused on the “traditional” elements of performance (and remembering that they are always subjective and subject to a myriad of factors that cannot always be managed in everyday use of the Viewer), I have to say the 1.13 has so far reversed performance issues for me somewhat, and has been more amenable to me running with shadows, occlusion and so on switched on. This has been a pleasant surprise, as alongside Exodus, Niran’s is my Viewer of choice for what passed for photography in my hands.
Outside of this, I think the main menu idea could well have more traction than I’d given previous credit. The inclusion of such a menu may seem out-of-step with Viewer development to date, but I have to admit that were it to be used in a Viewer specifically aimed at new users, for example, it could have considerable positive impact. As it is, it’ll be interesting to see how the idea develops within Niran’s Viewer, and whether any other TPVs adopt the approach.
All-in-all, an interesting update, with more to come in the future, going on NiranV’s blog comments!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 