Alternate viewers for a less powerful machine

Yes. Definitely.

At any settings I'd care to use, the non-Windlight viewers don't look or perform any better for me.

Dialed down much, they all look like crap.

Cat try some of these http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Old_versions
With that rig ya might want to stay aroun 1.18 and try a few of the different flavors there.

I have a two year old laptop that is pretty bare bones as we bought it simply to allow us to connect back to work if we were traveling and something important came up. I think it only has 512m memory on it. I use the Nicholaz BE version (runs over LL 1.18.5.3) and it does run on that machine, though everything is very slow. I never do more than clear messages and chat with a few friends when on vacation though. I've even been meaning to install Sleek on it and never got around to it.

Bad suggestion and I'm not sure if they would still work at all. All of these "old viewers" are vulnerable to security problems that were only fixed in 1.20.17.0. However these fixes were backported into CV 1.19.0.5 and also in Nicholaz' builds. The "oldest" version you can find is Nicholaz' 1.18.0.6 (Old School OS-y). I suggest you give that a try:
http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/2008/10/updates-with-security-fix.html

Um, my desktop runs the Windlight viewer at 60+ FPS, minimal lag.

Am I doing something right or wrong???

You obviously have a "more powerful machine", not a "less powerful machine".

Sorry to revive an an old thread but I'm a bit confused.

The instructions given are -



As always you need to install first the official LL viewer (that's an older version!):
1.19.0.5 (non Windlight renderer):
http://download-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/Second_Life_1-19-0-5_Setup.exe

Then download the latest Cool Viewer installer of the same version as the LL viewer you've installed just now:
http://coolviewer.googlecode.com/files/CoolViewer_i686_1_19_0_5_Release_58_exe_xml_only.exe

Run the installer and select your install path (here usually "C:\Program Files\SecondLife" and install CV into this folder and replace all existing files.


So do you have to uninstall the latest SL Viewer 1.23 because "C:\Program Files\SecondLife" is where that will be?

If you don't need to uninstall it (I don't really want to) do you have to redirect the installation of 1.19.0.5 to another location? Or will it do that itself?



BTW - I'm running an Acer Aspire laptop Intel Duo core 1.86GHz 2GB Nvidea Geforce Go 7300. The framerate generally wobbles around 10-12 plus or minus a bit, the client light on the lag meter is often amber or red - green only on quiet sims. So I'd like to try Cool or rainbow.

I believe the reasdon for installing the CV on top of the old viewer is because some components of the old viewer are proprietorial. According to the instructions you copied, first one installs the old viewer, then one installs the CV in the same location.

I get the installing one (Cool Viewer) on top of the other (standard SL).

But I'm asking about first installing an old version of SL standard on the same machine as the latest. SL standard

Won't the old viewer want to install where the new one is?

It will ask you, when you start to install it, where it should go. Create a folder called "SL Old Viewer" or whatever and install everything there. You'll need to edit the Cool Viewer short cut to point to the "SL Old Viewer" folder, of course.

Thankyou

Even for netbooks and similar weak machines there is a solution. I have been using the METAbolt viewer (http://www.metabolt.net/) for a few months now on my Acer netbook. It uses no graphics (there is only a little mini map) whatsoever, therefore it works nicely even on machines with mainboard graphics. You can't see yourself or other avatars, but you can interact (not only chat) with the people around you, even with the objects around you (like sitting down on something or similar). And of course you can IM after your heart's delight. You even have access to your inventory and can read notecards someone sends you. In other words: Everything that works with text is possible, and *many* things in SL are text. You can even move around inworld both intra-sim and grid-wide, but not being able to see makes this a limited fun. IMHO a text viewer is the only really acceptable solution for netbooks and old machines with similar specs.

Anyone know a text viewer that works on windows mobile or android?
Maybe written in java, most mobile phones suport java nowedays.
perhaps ajaxlife can be made to run on a phone.
sugestions, input anyone?