This release rebuilds the viewer using 64bit address space. This improves viewer stability, allows you to use more of the memory in your system (if you have more than 4GB), and possibly also improves performance.
If you have created shortcuts to run the viewer, you should update them to run the new SL_Launcher executable (if you don't, the viewer will complain when you run it, and updates won't work). Note that on a 64 bit Windows, this viewer will be installed in a different folder (Program Files, per Windows convention).
Windows
There are now separate 32-bit and 64-bit builds for Windows.
- If you use an HD 2000 or 3000 series video card on Windows 10, choose 32 bit
- Otherwise, choose the one that matches your copy of Windows
- If your computer can run 64bit, and most can, you will get better performance and fewer crashes running a 64 bit Windows and Viewer.
- If you chose the wrong one, the viewer will upgrade you again the first time you run it to the correct one (if you think it made the wrong choice, please file a bug in jira).
Mac
The Mac build does not support 32-bit Macs (this is permanent, and not really a change since it's been some time since we supported OS X versions that would still run on a 32-bit system).
- This build shows two icons on the Dock when running in addition to the one you've probably already got. One is a new launcher/monitor process (SL_Launcher) that checks for updates; the second is the viewer itself. If you are going to pin the icon on the Dock, pin the first one or you'll get a warning each time you launch. We plan to get this sorted out in a later update so that only one shows.
- QuickTime usually does not play (the media handling is now the same as the Windows viewer).
- The volume of web based media (e.g. YouTube) doesn't change based on your distance from the source.
Linux
There is no Linux viewer yet. We will begin working on this with the community shortly.