First Post - LL Viewer 3 BETA | Starter Avatars Review

Alright, this is the first post. Not my first RL nor SL blog, which doesn't mean I'm a pro when it comes to blogging. I hope you like it. And, then, going straight to the point, the focus is on how Linden Labs is preparing new grounds for brand new residents. People whose skill about viewers is close to null.

First of all, when you are curious enough to see what there is inside this mysterious virtual world, they redirect you to a website, in which there are some "random" AVIs for the user/resident to choose.

New Screen for avatar selection

Now a starter user can be a human, an "animal" (they mix between quadrupeds and bipeds), robots and, believe it or not, vehicles. I really love the idea of adding vehicles to the selection, so that the new resident will arrive inworld with some preconceived paradigms already broken, which will make things easier for them, as abdicating previously thoughts about what a viewer interface would be - I suppose that many people, which includes me before signing up think that the interface is game alike -, being more receptive to the new way of thinking in order to "survive" in this brave new world.

Alright, an avatar has been chosen, then it goes to the username choice screen and finally some questions to finish the account creation. The next step is downloading the Viewer 3. I'm not sure if the released version looks like this one, for the Linden Labs versions I only use the beta ones. It follows bellow a screenshot of the beta version updated on the current day.

Linden Labs Viewer 3 Beta

We can notice that the previous sidebar has been moved to the other side and, by default, it does not open the tab like drawers as it did on its previous version. The bottom of the screen has been remodelled into a more intuitive way. Everything seems to fit the pre-conceived idea a user could bring from any software they make use. So far so good. Right? Wrong! I tried to test all the new Linden Labs robot avatars while on Viewer 3 Beta and while browsing the library and hovering the pointer over a folder it did not show me a "wear/replace" option, which meant I head to click on my own body and remove the items one-by-one (in my case I just did all at once), and then when everything was removed/detached I highlighted all the items in the folder and selected "wear". I thought it was due to lag, but I have to redo the last step once more in order to wear the new outfit. Ok, I know I'm using a Beta Version, I just hope those "glitches" won't happen in the final version, otherwise the new residents will feel lost twice, first for not achieving what they expected and second for asking for help and receiving those same steps that don't work properly. It would, actually, make even some veterans feel on a dead-end.

And for veterans, despite the fact that many made loads of complaints about the previous sidebar, I'd say that the Viewer 2 sidebar is a bless if compared to the third edition as it takes some space from the screen, on which, in my case, I load many huds. It would definitely require some readjustment for all people who load huds designed to occupy that area. Plus, once again a personal case, after being used to folders opening as drawers, I'd have to get used again to windows popping over the screen, not making me very willing to use this viewer again.

New Linden robots!

Well, not everything is so bad, those new Linden avatars doesn't look that noobies and are not as crappy as they ever looked before, so that a newcomer would not feel inferior when meeting older residents. Specially if they pick the robots! Yaaay! Oh my! These Linden robots are amazing. Very well made, they have loads of parts and are very detailed as you can see in the following screenshot:

One can say that they look funny, but besides that one cannot say they are garbage. Some of them are better than some androids you can buy inworld (or via MarketPlace). The only gap is a lack of an adequate AO for them. But this is acceptable as the humans don't come with any good AO by default, so why would the robots or the animals?

I found these new avatars a great idea and it can bring new people whose interest is similar to mines. I'd like to see a sim full of those mechanical beings (electronic? whatsoever, all of them are pixels in the end *grins*). To those who are in love of these new avis or are reading this and judge they would like to be a robot from now on, the only AO i know is from gilded: shop by Kras Alter [I'm adding the proper link very soon, when I log in] . I have not tested the AO myself, but inworld at the shop you can try it for free. Compared to human AOs it not pricey, plus the bloke got good stuff in his shop. It's worth the visit.