The Nicholaz Viewer

Rene: http://www.blueflash.cc/users/nicholaz/~experimental/

Being patches, his viewers don't have a standard setup.exe . Read and follow the installation.txt (instructions), they're simple. Good luck!

edit: use the most recent version, looks like it's xf

I switched to the non-voice Nicholaz viewer a few weeks ago and love it -- noticeably reduced my incidents of freezes and crashes.

My one fear is that eventually LL will post a mandatory voice-enabled viewer update and I'll have to return to the LL version.

Raises hand "I am!!" Lindens smell bad to

i am dreading this. i switched to the nicholaz view a couple of months ago becase the ll view just didnt work. sl was completely unplayable for me. i downloaded it just to get in world and put my land up for sale. but it worked so awesome i had to stay! ll really should be looking after nicholaz, i dont think they appreciate how many customers he is shouldering the support for.

http://images.wolfeedarkfang.com/cantenjoysl.jpg hehe i did this pic this morning.

He is pretty quick in issuing his viewers after LL upgrades. usually a day or two.

question:

if i wanted to use nicholaz's viewer as an alternate to the current 'official' viewer, but still have both available? is there a way to have two viewers installed and then pick one to run? just with two different sl directories, or would that just not work and go nuts messing up my local cache and such? (if it matters, i clear my cache every time with the -purge command anyway.)

Yes. You don't have to do anything except create separate shortcuts.

the nicholaz client isnt a fullblown install.exe. there are two versions of it, one being the oldschool and the other being the voice enabled version.
oldschool version is a single exe (nicholaz.exe) that you drop in your sl directory. when you execute it, it uses the official 1.18.0.6 packages to do its thing. with the voice version there are a couple of additional xml files (used to 'fix' chat windows and such) in addition to the nicholaz.exe that run in tandem with whatever it is thats the latest voice version.
so for example myself if i want to run the nicholaz version i double-click nicholaz.exe. if i want to run the official client i double-click secondlife.exe.
and if i really wanted i could have 1.18.0.6 and the voice version installed at the same time in seperate directories and have a choice of four clients to use.

For those of you who run a Mac: I made a patcher for the Mac client available that patches the current 1.18.3.5 to the Nicholaz Bleeding Edge O version at:

http://radio-boomslang.shacknet.nu/~bb/articles/nicholaz-edition-mac/index.html

Description on how to make it work are at that URL, too.

(and for the Linux-folks: there are linux options listed at Nicholaz' website, too)

Not only that, but useful information like your last location and what you were wearing are not viewer-dependent...so you can start your next session with a different viewer from your previous session, and be right where you expected to be.

Can I ask why the OldSchool Edition is opening these when I run it ?

IEXPLORE.EXE:3360 TCP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:2133 gv-in-f104.google.com:http ESTABLISHED
IEXPLORE.EXE:3360 UDP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:2291 *:*

terminated both proceses, refreshed tcp view,
and again....

IEXPLORE.EXE:2536 TCP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:2292 nf-in-f147.google.com:http ESTABLISHED
IEXPLORE.EXE:2536 UDP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:2291 *:*


Just want to know what they are and why they are being opened.

cant say what they are for exactly, but the official 1.18.0.6 client makes the same connections to google.
i know the client splash page is a standard webpage, so maybe ll have google tracking codes embedded?

I'm not sure it's anything about being especially adept technically, it's more the fact that unlike LL Nicholaz's focus is on fixing bugs.

It's been a long time now and we have no word on whether there are even any dedicated Linden bug-fixers. Even if Lindens got rotated from projects and made to fix JIRA issues and look for optimisations regularly (so there would always be a few Lindens working on it, just not the same ones the whole time), then they could get through the bugs pretty quickly.

Or even if there were more Lindens charged with quality testing open-source patches. Assuming Nicholaz submitted all the changes he made to LL, then having them ignored is the biggest issue, as people should be there to test, approve and integrate them as they arrive.

The whole point for LL of open-sourcing is that open-source developers can then fix the bugs for them, but it still requires them to integrate/tweak the fixes. More Lindens should be doing this.

Now why dosen't that surprise me ? With all the BS linden Labs have been pulling in the year I've been playing, I would not be surprised at anything underhand they do at this stage.

I just downloaded and installed version R (to patch SL 1.18.3.5) and it definitely features the old-style separate chat and IM windows (which I like.) Cons: It doesn't show Groups and Friends in separate windows for starting IM purposes, and when displaying Friends Online, it doesn't show their status with regard to their ability to see you online, on the map, etc. Minor quibble, but still. I haven't used it enough to know if it is more stable than the official viewer.

Since having the Voice viewer shoved down my throat, I have been crashing constantly...for just turning around or using camera controls while building. Previously I had crashed maybe once a week, but it became an every 10 minute ordeal after the forced 'upgrade'. Hard to teach a building class when you crash constantly. Upgrading video drivers and sound drivers had no effect. Last night I decided to try the Nicholaz viewer again (previous versions had been more laggy for me). After several hours of building and zooming the camera, I did not crash a single time. I can only conclude that the introduction of the voice features in the official client was the cause of the problems I was having (LL doesn't seem capable of integrating it without breaking everything else). I love that the old style interface has been mostly preserved in this client as well.

Thank you Nicholaz for your hard work in fixing these bugs. You truly are one that helps make SL a better place to play.

quick question about the Nick viewer I dont have it but a friend does now she is wanting to remove a friend from her list and she doesnt know how... I dont know what steps she needs to take because I forgot what the old Friends list and IM box looked like. Some one help me here and give me the steps to remove a umm buddy

Open the Friends list, highlight the name and hit the Remove button. I'd delete their calling card too.

Does the new Windlight work with the Old School viewer? I don't really understand too much about how exactly Windlight gets installed, or what I need to do and/or change in order to download it and use it.

Princess Ivory

windlight will require a viewer download when its ready, and nicholaz will most likely have one available.

Check Nicholaz's blog. New viewer availiable.

I can't get the Nicholaz viewer to run. Getting an error message Can't find xul.dll file. It is there when I look in with Explorer. SL viewer is running fine. Want my Nicholaz! What do I need to do to fix this?
Krystal

Post at Nicholaz's blog. I'm confident he will answer.

Hello everyone, i have read and read and reread, and installed 3 times, and I just can't seem to get Nich's viewer working. Any help out there please?