The Infinite Metaverse Alliance released the beta version of its simplified SceneGate viewer for OpenSim this weekend.
The official launch of the viewer, which is available for Windows only, was Monday, November 25. Linux and Mac versions are coming soon, according to the organization.
The SceneGate viewer is a fork of the Alchemy Viewer, with a focus on accessibility, onboarding, and interoperability with OpenSim.
Educators and event organizers, for example, who need a simple way to get first-time users in-world, can use this viewer to make the process easier.
Lisa Laxton, president of Laxton Consulting, which is backing the project, said that SceneGate also has “a number of improvements in accessibility, usability, and performance.”
You can find instructions for how to use SceneGate here — though many pages are still works in progress — and the official download is at the bottom of the page here.
“The Wiki home page will eventually include tutorials for the simplified and extended modes,” Laxton told Hypergrid Business. “Simplified mode is designed to meet the needs of new users reducing onboarding time — typically students who attend classes or meeting attendees.”
Advanced users can turn on the “extended” mode in the preferences, she added.
“The extended mode has build features as well as options to turn on advanced and developer menus,” she said.
“It’s pretty fast and slick,” said Ramesh Ramloll, CEO of DeepSemaphore LLC, which makes the OpenSim-based RezMela training simulation development platform, in his video review of the new viewer.
SceneGate also allows users to easily interact with scripted objects that are in the world.
The default settings include a first-person view that would be familiar to new users from video games, as well as a shorter draw distance which lets nearby objects rez faster, said Ramloll.
“The reason for the faster loading relates to code improvements we made — not just the draw distance,” clarified Laxton.
Watch Ramloll’s review of the viewer in the video below:
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