As you all know, on February 23rd we announced the release of the Viewer 2 Beta and the response from the community has been incredible. The feedback has been mixed, but most Residents agree that Viewer 2 is easier and more intuitive to use for a broader consumer audience–which was our primary design objective. Over the last few weeks, we have received hundreds of blog comments and Tweets (#SLViewer2), thousands of posts in the Viewer 2 Beta Forum, and many PJIRA submissions from folks who found bugs and officially logged them into our issue tracker. Your feedback, comments, and bug reports have been invaluable in helping us plan our Viewer 2 releases. Huge thanks to everyone who’s downloaded Viewer 2 Beta and took the time to try it out and provide such thoughtful feedback.
Since launch, we’ve been hard at work identifying/fixing bugs, gathering new feature requests, and slotting them into the Viewer 2 road map. Today, I’m pleased to share with you the update of the Viewer 2 Beta. If you’re running the previous Viewer 2 Beta, you’ll be prompted to download this update when you next log into Second Life. If you would like to download the software directly, then here’s the link. This latest beta version includes a number of critical bug fixes and a few minor user experience improvements. (And, if you’re looking the updated open source viewer–Snowglobe 2–that includes the most recent Viewer 2 beta code, it will be available in the next few days.)
For those folks that want to know exactly what’s new, here’s a detailed list with a few highlights. Many of these changes are the direct result from the feedback that we received from you over the last few weeks.
Usability Tweaks
- Reintroduced “Inspect Object” (aka: see a list of creators/timestamps for all prims in a linkset). (VWR-16978)
- Inventory panels will no longer auto-scroll during a search if mouse is over them. (VWR-17878)
- Returned “Event Details” functionality.
- Building grid has been returned to the easier-to-see white color.
- Camera & Movement Control floaters position will persist across sessions.
Shared Media Updates
- Ability to store Shared Media cookies per user instance rather than per Viewer. This is an important step towards addressing some security concerns. To read more about this, visit our Shared Media and Security blog post.
- Media streaming “enabled” checkbox, available in Preferences, now functional. (VWR-16985)
- Viewer 2 will not reveal media URLs when the URL is set to be hidden on land setttings. (VWR-16992)
Bug Fixes
- Notification position now takes UI size into account and notices should stay on-screen (VWR-17074)
- Tabs in the Tabbed Instant Messaging window now auto-focus the text field when clicked.
- Click and hold the left mouse button and it will now let you browse tabbed IM floater.
- Viewer 2 framerate has been improved. (VWR-16976)
- Voice notifications no longer steal keyboard focus by default (VWR-17011)
- HUD attachment points are now set correctly when extending the right UI panel. (VWR-16967)
- Web views/links work correctly and no longer have links with spaces in them. (VWR-2933)
- Instant Message now sends message to the correct place, not to “nearby chat” window. (VWR-16988)
- IM window stays on the screen after right-hand side tray is open and closed.
- My Landmarks search now auto-expands folders of found terms. (VWR-17156)
- Standard wearables now work at first login.
We’re working on more bug fixes and usability improvements that we’ll be rolling out in weeks to come. So, keep the feedback coming in the Viewer 2 Forum! And Tweet to let us know what you think about the Viewer 2 update — just use this hashtag: #SLViewer2.
As always, if you would like to see additional details, then check out the updated Viewer 2 Beta Release Notes.
Resources to Help You Learn Viewer 2:
- Download Viewer 2
- Viewer 2 Beta Forum
- Viewer 2 Help Portal
- Quickstart Guide (SL Wiki)
- Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
- Release Notes (SL Wiki)
- Video Demos (YouTube)
- SL Answers (SL Answers)
Original post by communities@secondlife.com


