Emerald Viewer advantages?

What do you see as the most important advantages to using the Emerald Viewer? What can it do that the SL standard viewer cannot? What does it do better?

Feedback, please.

Thanks!

I stopped using it. Uninstalled it. Changed my password.

Care to say why?

Ann's thinking is sensible.

My answer to your question is that it can be used to upload temporary animations and textures, including sculptmaps, for testing before commiting to a paid upload. For me, that's useful with an alt. I use the standard viewer for everything else.

No. I don't violate the TOS by sharing private communications.

Ummm....ok. I'm confused.

Thanks for saying what you could, Ann. I wouldn't ask you to violate TOS.

Hi Princess. Congratulations, btw! *smiles*

To me, Emerald is feature rich but slow-rezzing. The features I use constantly are actually the simplest ones:

UI ----
Easily accessible draw distance slider. "worn" tab (now also in Snowglobe, woot!)

Building ---
More default shape types. More resolution on the numerical inputs, though that can be tricky to use.

....

I would use the extra attachment points if other viewers could see them. I don't use 'jiggly bewbs', but I understand that it enhances many players' experience *grins* (NOTE: it also makes prim clothing a bit dubious).

I suppose I would use the IM encryption if I cared about security, but I don't say anything worth overhearing.

I used the built-in RLV briefly just to see how it works. I think RLV could be really useful for more 'immediate' interactions of all kinds, not just D/S stuff. It's a pity, actually, that it was first used for that.

As for the builtin AV radar - I don't need any more lag, tyvm. I prefer having a separate AO, but Emerald does have a built-in one.

ETA: I usually use Snowglobe nowadays. To me, rez speed is the most important thing.

I'm tired of typing now.

I don't know what Ann knows, but the rerason I stopped using Emerald is because I saw it written that one of its creators produced the Cryolife viewer, which was specifically designed to steal people's content - like Copybot. I've since read that 3 of the Emerald people were involved in the Cryolife viewer. So, for me, it's a case of not running software that such people have helped to create - security.

It is a collection of interesting patches flying in loose formation. Drive it with care.

I do not believe the Emerald viewer has any advantages over the standard viewer that are not outweighed by bugs, unusual behavior and trust issues.

And you believe everything you read on the web, right?

CryoLife was an illegitimate offspring of Emerald, not the other way around.

I like Ann, and respect her, but sometimes she gives too much free rein to her paranoia.

[For those of you with "trust" issues...the Emerald team has entered into a "closer relationship" with LL's software team. Now, you could either look askance at that and say, "hmph, another sellout", or you could think "well, if LL trusts them they probably aren't doing anything very Eeevil after all." Me, I take both views...and I continue to use Emerald for its many improved features and, for me, better performance and stability]

Is that right?

I don't disbelieve things I read unless I know of a reason to.

Nearly correct!

3 developers on Emerald team created 3 different named SL viewer derivatives, all had copybot functions. Cryo Life was the most well known of the 3 viewers. All 3 original Avies were initially permabanned, but they seem to re-surface in the in-world Searches (I can spot at least 1 of them with an existing a/c), However all 3 now have new Avie accounts and feature in some of the most prominent in-world groups.

Yes, it's also the reason I stopped using it.

You'll often see Prokofy rant about Emerald Viewer on blogs, forums and in-world groups....on this matter I feel she is correct.

Lindal is correct that the Emerald team are in discussions with LL regarding the future development of 3rd party viewers and what's allowable or not.....it seems they have been forgiven for earlier indiscretions.


**Note** Cryolife was developed before the creator was invited to join the Emerald team.

.

Prok being correct about something? That's a novelty

You can see the original 3 i was referring to..in the Emerald team listing (with their original names shown, the new Avie names are not shown there but i know of them from another website & in-world Groups)

http://resplond.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/who-is-who/


Once you know the 3 from that listing, you can google the rest...regarding the Viewers they created and what they were capable of.


*Note**...what i stated above is common knowledge and the 3 named don't really hide or deny their past activities


.

You are mistaken about the provenance. Cryolife is really ancient history. It is amazing people still log in with that old obsolete thing just to find themselves banned since they are almost immediately detected.

Some of the newer counterfeiting viewers are based on emerald. Which is why the emerald team sent them a C&D because of GPL violations.

As for the "closer relationship with LL" yes but it isn't what you think lmao. Sorry but that is privileged information as well.

It surprises me to hear people say Emerald is slow at rezzing. It's by far the fastest viewer I've used, and I used to be a Kirstens Viewer devotee.

Putting aside the Cryolife situation, and the LL/Emerald relationship, and the potentially banned avies, what about the Emerald Viewer itself? Can we get back on track with that discussion? There have been some great comments in here and I really appreciate everyone's feedback.

Princess, I love my Emerald - I like the built in radar, the windlight settings that are easy to access, the incoming IM notifications, the added shapes, the tap twice to tp, the over-write no fly, my list is endless.

oh, right, tp2cam and tapping twice to do that. Very cool, though it can be disconcerting while you're getting used to it.
.

I like alot of the emerald fatures but I have to agree it is very slow in rezzing. I have my draw distance down to nothing and it still takes it awhile. I bought that emerald fast rezzer thingy to enhance rezzing and at times that thing is just as slow.

The "I know something you don't know" argument does not fly, Ann.

Anyway, I want to get back on track, as the OP asks, so I'm not going to argue those issues further.

OP: For me, Emerald is a huge leap forward in viewers. With any viewer, there will be some people who have problems. Fortunately for me, I don't experience stability or speed problems with Emerald, rather the reverse. Whether it will work as well for you, I can't say. The only way to be sure is to try it.

Some of the features I use all the time...

1. double click teleport
2. teleport to avatar from a radar listing
3. offer teleport direct from IM window
4. Worn tab in inventory
5. Radar display (I don't use my MystiTool as much any more. If the Emerald people can implement a viewer based flight assist, I may ditch Mysti entirely)
6. Higher accuracy build tools
7. Trial uploads of textures
8. jiggly boobies.
9. Secondary attachment points (I know, it looks funny to non-Emerald users. Let them get Emerald!)
10. Log in at the location showcased on the Splash screen
11. Derender (make that ugly build next door go away. I know, Prok hates this, it destroys the sense of community. Some things are better off being disappeared)

Some features I don't use yet, but might...
1. Built in ZHAO II compatible AO
2. Message encryption
3. Set the channel you want to Chat on, for another way of speaking in private
4. Copy stuff *you created or have full permissions on* to your hard drive for backup

Bugs I've experienced...
Darn few. The only one is that for some reason lately, my login screen won't display the background image, unless I open a second instance of Emerald. It fixed itself for a while but it's back again the last few days.

This is hilarious when someone attaches their freenis to Pelvis 2.

Now I am wondering where my er, special jewelry (a cute li'l diamond and silver gecko) wound up...

It's the same situation as the people who are "boycotting" NCI because I'm an instructor/land officer/mall manager/event host there in addition to being a member of the Woodbury University group. (=_=)

Apparently, I'm recruiting. For what? I'll never know. Building epic grief armies? I doubt it. People are looking for a leader where there is none because leadership bound hierarchy fits their narrow view of life. A leaderless motley crew is supposed to be impossible, right? (=_=)

It's fun to see that guilt by association is still alive and strong. =^-^=

----------------

As for Emerald:::

Up until the last few updates, Emerald was nothing more than a laggy and bloated showcase of how much junk can be tossed to the user client-side. (>_<

With the latest two releases; it looks like they took care of some stability issues, FPS, and put in some very interesting toys. (^_^)

I believe it does run with better stability than LL's offering. A few things that I've observed to clearly lockup and crash the LL client won't hurt Emerald one bit. (Epic bluebox of doom grief attack... For example) (^_^)

Emerald has tools for replacing most of the features in laggy inworld HUD scripts such as the radar, AO, and chat range notification. (^_^)

Though, there are some paranoia features I don't like, such as the defriending notification and named show-look-at. (._.)

One of my personal favorite features is the chat keyword alert. I have it set to play a soft "ding" sound when my name or any variation of my nicknames are said in chat. This counts for local chat, group chat, and IMs. What it gets me is the opportunity for me to better respond to people who want my attention. Especially in group chats since I don't include IMs in the local chat console. (^_^)

Really, Emerald is great at showing how fickle and hypocritical the SL community is as well:::

People asked LL for more attachment points. The Emerald team delivered and pointed out that the only thing that really had to be chanced was an XML document, made the document available for anyone to use, and distributed information on how to integrate it into any client... Now people refuse to use it. (=_=)

People asked LL for client side radar. The Emerald team delivered. Now people say the radar is too "intrusive". (=_=)

People asked LL for client side AO. The Emerald team delivered. Mind you, it's imperfect... TBD if it's a success yet. (._.)

People asked LL for the ability to back op their own creations. The Emerald team delivered. Now people cry "copybot!" without investigating the actual limitations of the implementation. (=_=)

People asked LL for ways to identify "bad" clients. The Emerald team delivered and even included an effort for direct Cryolife detection. Now that people have found out that ONE of the Emerald developers was also ONE of the contributors of code to the Cryolife project, guilt-by-association set in and the communists are out to get us (insert foil hat here). (=_=)

So.....

Yes, Emerald is a well featured client with patches that Linden Lab should have put into the main client LONG ago. Performance statistics have been different from user to user so your mileage may vary. But, don't be surprised that it has become a political hot-ticket for people who have determined that the vanilla SL drama isn't enough for them. (^_^)y