Alternate viewers

Introduction

The Extended FAQ states that it is okay to create and distribute homebrew viewers as long they adhere to the respective licenses for code usage and server usage.

The code itself is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which governs modification and redistribuition of the source code. Use of Linden Lab's servers will still be governed by the Second Life Terms of Service].

Homebrew viewers are obviously not associated with LindenLab, are governed by their own respective licenses. LindenLab is not responsible for any desired or undesired results in association with those viewers.

Note to authors: If you make a viewer available make sure to include platform, version numbers and dates.

     

Able Edition

Description

This is a Windows viewer is an unofficial build which adds a Mute Visibility feature, which allows objects in-world to be rendered partially or entirely invisible.

Extra Features

• Mute Visibility
• Improvements to the Mute List
• Muting objects applies to entire linksets

Links

• Website: Able Whitman on Blogspot
• Direct download link: http://ablewhitman.org/viewer/
• Source code: http://ablewhitman.org/viewer/

     

Dale Glass Edition

Description

This is a Windows (soon Linux) viewer which adds new experimental features. The features are intended to give users more information about the world and to simplify moderation by making it easier to tell where people are and what they're doing.

Extra Features

• Avatar Scanner
  • Shows nearby avatars, roughly in drawing distance range.
  • Shows name, age, payment info, current activity.
  • Land and estate commands for ejecting/banning multiple avatars at once
  • Integration with Luskwood moderation tools
  • Buttons to open profile, IM, teleport to or track selected avatars
• Event Log: Experimental feature, shows a list of active particle effects (soon sounds too), and their owners. Allows moving camera to emitter.
• Branding: Replaces LL branding with my own. Different login page, checks for updates against my server.
• Logging of the owner and location of speaking objects

Links

• Website: http://sl.daleglass.net
• Blog: http://daleglass.wordpress.com
• Direct download link: http://sl.daleglass.net/download
• Source code: http://svn.daleglass.net/sl/release/ ( subversion )

     

Nicholaz Edition

Description

These are Windows viewer based on SL builds with a focus on stability, usability and performance (see Installation.txt for homebrew disclaimer). Mac and Linux variants are available through other open sourcers (links on the website).

Extra Features

• Improved stability
• Lower memory footprint
• GUI redesigns
• Workarounds for common annoyances (Group IM Filtering, "Release Key" button, etc.)
• see this entry for an overview of different versions

Links

• Website: Nicholaz Beresford on Blogspot
• Direct download link: Download versions of this viewer
• Source code: Look at the download site for the source-xxx-zip files in the respective folders and see the readme.txt inside the archives

     

Marine Edition

Description

This viewer, codename "RestrainedLife" is an attempt at enhancing the experience of people who practice BDSM in Second Life. It is used jointly with simple scripts made to use its features in-world, such as making an attached object undetachable, preventing chat and such. An API (Application Programming Interface, a text file) is provided so that every content creator can create their own scripts to interface their own items to the viewer and use its features.

Extra Features

• Attachments can be made undetachable
• Chat and IM prevention on demand, with exceptions if needed
• Teleport and sit-tp prevention on demand, with exceptions if needed
• Editing and Rezzing prevention on demand
• Adding/Removing clothes on demand, + force remove clothes and force remove unlocked attachments
• Force sit and prevent stand up (even after a relog) on demand
• Manual (by IM) and automatic (by script) version checking
• API for content creators

Links

• Website: Marine Kelley's blog on Blogspot
• Direct download link to the Windows viewer: Download for Windows (Executable and readme)
• Direct download link to the MacOS X viewer: Download for MacOS X (Executable and readme, courtesy of Mo Noel)
• Direct download link to the Linux viewer: Download for Linux (Executable and readme, courtesy of Loom Kish)
• Source code and text API : Download (Text files)
• API as a wiki page : API (Wiki format)
• Specification to interface cages and furnitures with the viewer through the use of a relay : Relay Specs (Wiki format)

Version and timestamp

• Version : 1.11.2, compiled on SL official viewer 1.19.0.5
• Date : 05/29/2008

     

Henri Beauchamp Edition

Description

This viewer, codename "Cool SL Viewer" combines elements of several of the other viewers, as well as some extra patches very carefully tested.

Extra Features

• Reverses many of the unpopular interface changes made in the transition to voice being standard (including reinstating the packet loss and bandwidth indicators, the old toolbar and buttons layouts, the old, more visible, status bar icons, and optionally reinstating the old, more visible, tracking dots in the mini-map).
• Implements the "Restrained Life" API discussed more fully in the Marine Edition client.
• Defines double-click default actions for many types of inventory.
• Allows to optionally prevent IMs to show in the main chat.
• Allows to hide the "Release Keys" and/or the "Master volume" in the panel overlay.
• MUD/MUSH/MUCK/MU* style "poses".
• Allows to build and TP over 768m of altitude (and up to 4096m).
• Allows to build large prims (up to 100m in any or all dimensions) on OpenSim (not on SL, because of server-side limitations).
• Various patches by Nicholaz Beresford, Gigs Taggart, Blakar Ogre, and others.

Links

• Website: The Cool SL Viewer homepage
• Direct download link to the Linux viewer: Download for Linux (please, check the The Cool SL Viewer homepage for installation instructions).
• Windows viewer: See Boy Lane's site for files and instructions.
• MacOS X viewer: See Barney Boomslang's site for files and instructions. Beware: Barney's first version was not an exact port of the Cool SL Viewer: it missed the RestrainedLife features: be sure to download the latest release (1.19.1.4(b) or later).
• Source code: The standard Linden codebase is used, with the addition of the patches listed and linked to on the homepage.

Version and timestamp

• Version : i686 1.19.0.5 CoolRelease 11 (stable viewer)
• Date : 2008/06/01

• Version : i686 1.19.1.4 CoolRelease 7 (will not be updated)
• Date : 2008/05/09

• Version : i686 1.20.9.0 CoolRelease 1 (experimental)
• Date : coming real soon !

     

Kirstens Viewers

Description

These Viewers are custom built for win32 platforms, and take code from the SLDev and patches from 3rd parties or jira, and should be considered experimental compared to the standard release client, they are however compiled more or less exclusively for high end intel based machines for best performance or to fix specific problems and have proved very stable with minor performance increases and added stability in some cases.

Kirsten also builds Viewers based off snapshots, very experimental and sometimes not yet available from the official website.

Extra Features

• Compiled For Maximum Performance (Some Viewers High End Intel Specific)
• Quicker Loading,More Responsive,better memory use.
• Record Logins 19 to 20h Hours (Thanks to Phantium and Paulo For the Tests)
• Viewers Released to Fix specific problems (Including Kirstens Own Patches)
• Snapshots Preview Builds of Newest Viewers (Sometimes Before Official Release )

• Redesigned Skins on Certain Viewers

Links

• http://www.armyof4.com/Kirstenlee/

Version and timestamp

• Version : Kirstens Dazzle(Stable,Low Memory Footprint,Grey UI )
• Version : Kirstens 1-20-7-R14(SL edition) & 1-20-6-R13(Openlife Native)
• Version : Kirstens Retro ,For Older Hardware based on 1-18-6
• Date : 05/22/2008

     

Onrez Viewer

Description

The Onrez viewer was made by the Onrez company in connection with a Second Life themed story on the high tech forensics based TV show "CSI: New York".

Extra Features

• A back and history button for teleports
• In-viewer web browsing.

Links

• http://viewer.onrez.com for the download

Comment

The source code for this viewer is closed source.

     

RealXtend Edition

Description

The realXtend viewer is a heavily modified version of the Linden Labs' Second Life client by a partnership of two Finnish companies, ADMINO technologies and LudoCraft.

Extra Features

   * Second life compatibility mode for use in SL and Opensim worlds
   * Teleports between realXtend and Secondlife

Links

• Website: [1]
• Direct download link: http://www.realxtend.org/downloads.html
• Source code: http://sourceforge.net/projects/realxtendviewer/

     

METAbolt

Description

METAbolt is a non-graphical (text based) viewer. It's light weight and cross grid, which means it will work in Second Life as well as other grids that are based on OpenSIM. The viewer is Open Source so it's free. Currently METAbolt is only available for Windows platforms.

METAbolt is ideal if:

• the graphical viewers are not allowed at your work place
• you have a low powered computer that has difficulty running the SL viewer
• you have a low speed internet connection e.g. dial up
• you need to run multiple alts at the same time
• you need to run alts to carry out land security, group management functions
• you can't or don't want to run the SL viewer all the time but need the ability to stay online for communications or other reasons

Extra Features

Too many to be listed here. Here are just a few:

• Built in Machine Translation with 16 language pairs
• Emoticons on chat & IM. Feature can be switched on/off
• Land monitor: monitor parcels that are for sale on a SIM
• Object Manager: Detailed object information & stats
• (optional) Group Manager plug-in for sending direct group invites
• Uses extremely low computing power and bandwidth

Version and timestamp

• Version : 0.9.0.34 BETA (at the time this page was prepared)
• Date : 01 May 2008
• Platform: Windows Only

Links

• Website: http://www.metabolt.net/
• Download: http://www.metabolt.net/download.asp