Firestorm is the preferred viewer for OpenSim users, based on a survey of Hypergrid Business readers. Nearly 53 percent of respondents chose Firestorm as their favorite, followed by 26 percent for Singularity and 7 percent for Alchemy.
(Hypergrid Business data.)
Firestorm was also the viewer that most people had tried. According to the survey, 96 percent of readers have used this viewer, followed by 89 percent for Singularity and 61 percent for Imprudence.
(Hypergrid Business data.)
Fewer than 5 percent of respondents tried the following viewers: Radegast, Hippo, Replex, Lumiya, Catznip Viewer, Darkstorm, Dolphin 1.23 Exolife Version, Military Slots Viewer, Hadron Viewer, Wabbit Viewer, Black Dragon, Teapot, Meerkat, Rainbow, or Angstrom.
The most appreciated feature of their preferred viewer was the ability to export and import content, selected by 54 percent of respondents. Hypergrid was a close second, with 44 percent, followed by user interface and memory management at 29 percent. Another popular feature was the ability to teleport and build above 8,096 meters, appreciated by 21 percent of respondents.
(Hypergrid Business data.)
The fix most respondents wanted to see was to have an OpenSim version of Second Life URLs. Just over 55 percent of respondents said they wanted this. Fixing “unknown user” avatar errors was a close second, at 51 percent.
Another 39 percent wanted to see special features just for OpenSim, 30 percent wanted to see correct hypergrid addresses in the address bar, 24 percent wanted the removal of Second Life-specific options like currency purchases, 23 percent wanted an easy-to-use beginner mode, and 20 percent wanted to see better documentation.
(Hypergrid Business data.)
Other features or fixes wanted by respondents:
- Better support for VR headsets
- Ability to have two regional chats
- Ability to move popup windows outside the main viewer window or to another monitor
- Add a way to translate spoken voice to text
- Android support
- Better documentation about self-compiling
- Better graphics card ultization
- Better interaction for the hearing impaired
- Easy scaling of avatar with +/- key
- Export-Import files in OXP format
- First person mode that’s not mouselook)
- Fix attachments bug
- Fix grayed-out avatars
- General OS bugs
- High memory usage
- In Alchemy, Ctrl+Alt+F1 doesn’t give you a clear shot when filming
- Inventory errors such as cannot rezz body parts in OpenSim
- Invisiprim support again for vessel creators
- Linked objects
- Nighttime stars that are points of light
- Out-of-memory errors
- Teleporting to SecondLife
- Web and OnLook customizable viewers
- When I have adjusted my camera rotation and zoomed in to an object I don’t want my camera rotation to change when I select a piece of the object when I want to edit a piece of it
Have more suggestions — or ideas for future surveys? Please add them in the comments below, or email me at maria@hypergridbusiness.com.
