Beta testing Firestorm is more properly called QA (Quality Assurance). This means using test builds of the viewers before general release, using them and actively trying to identify bugs, glitches and things that need improvement. In other words, being part of the beta (QA) team means more than just getting your hands on a “new shiny” before everyone else does. You will be asked to do specific tests for each release, the results of which are vital to helping us determine where there may be problems.

So, if you are interested in becoming an active participant in the beta team, and are willing and able to endure crashes, multiple relogs, full settings wipes (several times), and so on, then please read on.

In applying to become part of the beta testing team, you are explicitly agreeing to the non disclosure terms below.

• Create an account on our JIRA, if you have not already got one. This is required in order for you to access the beta test site.
  If you need tips on creating an account, see Creating an Account on our wiki page on filing a JIRA.
  Either way, make sure you are logged in. Please use your Second Life name, NOT your Real Life name when creating an account on our JIRA. Both Username and Full Name should be your Second Life account name (no display names).
• In the top right of the page you'll see a link that says 'Create Issue'. Click that and in the page that opens…
• For 'Project', select 'Tester Applications, BETA'.
• For 'Issue Type' select 'BTA'.
• For the 'Summary' field enter your SL username, not your display name.
  If you have more than one operating system and would like to have an alt added for testing additional operating systems, add their username here with your names separated by commas.
• Set 'Priority' to Major.
• For 'SL Avatar Name' fill in the SL username of your primary SL avatar that you would like used for beta testing correspondence.
• Leave 'Patch attached' unchecked.
• For 'Affects Version/s' select the current Firestorm release version. (For example, 5.0.11.).
• For 'Environment' copy and paste the entire environment from the Help menu, About Firestorm, Info tab in Firestorm for any machines and or operating systems you will be using for testing.
• For 'Description' give us a brief explanation of why you think you would make a good member of our beta test team.
• 'Attachment' and 'Labels' should be left blank, they're not used for applications.
• Click Create.
• Be sure and keep an eye on the JIRA you created as this is where you will be initially contacted to complete your addition to our beta test program. Do not reply via email to any emails you receive from the JIRA, they will not work.

Your application will be assessed as soon as it is seen by the QA team lead to ensure it is complete and correct. If any corrections need to be made you will be notified in the comments section of your application.

There is a seven day “cool-off” period after your application is submitted until you are notified if you have been approved.

You will need to follow the instructions in your BTA once accepted, and at that time will receive an invitation to the inworld group, Firestorm Beta testers.

All information provided when applying to become a Firestorm Beta Tester on issue type BTA is strictly confidential and only accessible by you and Firestorm team members.

As part of the beta test team, you will be given access to test builds from time to time. Such builds are not to be circulated outside of the beta test team. Nor are direct or indirect web links to be shared with people who are not part of the beta test team. Doing so will result in immediate termination of beta tester status.

The reason for this is very simple: test builds are often known to have bugs, sometimes very severe ones. We test them anyway because there may be other aspects of the build on which we need to have feedback. Clearly, we do not want viewer builds which are known to have bugs - or which may potentially have severe bugs - to be circulated to the general public.

Here is an outline of the general procedure for each new test release.

• A notice is posted to the inworld beta test group, announcing the new test build. Any specific directions are given at that time, often in an attached notecard.
• Log in to the Phoenix Beta Site, then download the test release.
• Install the test viewer. Most of the time installs can be dirty and installed directly over your current Firestorm install. On occasion you will be asked to do a clean install which is a total wipe of settings, possibly including cache. A clean install is explained here. If you are not given specific instructions on this in the new test notice or on the test itself, then assume that a clean install is not required.
• In some cases, there will be a smoke test to carry out; that is, specific things that we need to have tested. This smoke test is structured as a questionnaire: a description is given of what needs to be tested, and you are asked to fill in the results. This is a sample segment of such a test:
  
• Once you have completed the test - and it cannot be stressed enough how vital it is that you do so! - continue to use the viewer as you normally would, and report any problems you find to JIRA (making sure you select the correct viewer versions for Reported in and Affects).
• You are encouraged to use the inworld group to ask questions, to see whether specific issues are known or perhaps expected behavior. But bug reporting should be done to JIRA or your bugs may go unnoticed.

These classes are based on our official Firestorm release and are conducted in voice and text except when otherwise noted. There's no need to talk, but you may want to be able to hear. We also usually have help available to answer questions in text. This schedule is subject to change.

Note that it is best if you are on Firestorm for the classes.

Locations are indicated in the far right column as follows:

• FS: Firestorm Support region classroom, * Firestorm Classroom
• JU: Junkyard University, * Junkyard University Classroom

Class times and days change regularly. Classes may be held any day of the week, with start times from 8am to 7pm SLT. Nonetheless, if the class times are still inconvenient you may prefer to watch recorded versions of some of these classes on YouTube.

Unscheduled classes may also be held on an impromptu basis. If this happens, a notice will be sent in Firestorm Support English. secondlife:///app/group/3a1be8d4-01f3-bc1a-2703-442f0cc8f2dd/about

*All times SLT*

In simple terms, the cache is where information is stored on your computer that allows things to load faster than if you have to download it from the server. In more detail:

In SL-relevant lay terms, the cache is a time-saving device. When you need to see a texture in SL or get something from your inventory, it happens more quickly if the item is already cached than if you need to download that asset from the SL servers. If you wander into an area with a lot of textures you don't already have cached, it'll take some time for your computer to capture them all and store them in your cache. Under normal circumstances, you want to leave those textures there (that is, don't clear cache) so that the next time you're in that location, you don't have to wait for everything to download again — it'll already be available to you on your hard drive. Same with inventory. When your inventory cache is full and not experiencing any issues, then when you log in to SL, all your inventory will be right there. If it's been cleared, then you have to wait for everything to get fetched from the SL servers again before you can see it and use it. For a more technical explanation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache.

It is commonly believed that clearing cache can help with a multitude of issues, but really it's only helpful for a handful. We do not recommend clearing cache unless you are having an issue that cannot be solved by other means.

We get asked a lot about what to set cache size to; the simple answer is to set it to the maximum possible in the viewer, as long as you have room on your hard drive. In Firestorm, the cache size can be increased to 9,984 MB. We do have a way to allow you to have a larger cache, but it requires extra hardware and software. If you are interested please see Squid Proxy Cache

Be picky about why and when you clear your cache. Clearing cache doesn't fix everything. In fact, it doesn't fix nearly as many problems as many people seem to think. And doing it when it's unnecessary has its drawbacks, including slower initial rez times and excess bandwidth being pulled, which can create sim lag. “Clear your cache” is something we'll recommend ONLY if the problem appears to be cache-related: that is, pertaining to textures or, once in a while, inventory. A full cache is almost always better than an empty one. Here is a basic “DO” list:

Don't clear cache as a matter of routine maintenance. If there isn't something actually wrong with your cache, then this does nothing beneficial.

Don't clear it for problems unrelated to the cache. For example, it won't help for:

• teleport issues
• asset upload issues
• movement or communication problems
• most kinds of lag
• most kinds of crashes
• a vast majority of bake fails
• any problems concerning music, video or voice.

There are some exceptions (e.g., crashes related to textures), but in many cases, other causes are more likely, and clearing cache doesn't have to be the first measure. The list above is by no means exhaustive; its purpose is to provide an idea of how many common issues are unrelated (or only occasionally related) to cache.

• When many textures appear as distorted rainbows or psychedelic colors, you may choose to clear your texture cache.
• When your inventory is not loading fully, you may choose to clear your inventory cache.
• A cache clear may be part of performing a clean install of the viewer.

Note that often, only part of your cache needs to be cleared. While you can clear your full cache by clicking the button in Preferences, it is not hard to perform the needed part of the cache clear manually. You can find your cache folder by going to Preferences and then Network & Files → Directories. Click the “Open” button alongside the path to your cache files location. In there you'll see some files ending with .inv.gz – these are your inventory cache files – and a folder containing your texture cache. More information is here for Firestorm.

Please note: Viewers play a minor part in voice functionality. The bulk of voice support is given by the external application called SLVoice, which is made by the SL voice provider, Vivox. Voice failures are almost always due to one of the following reasons:

• Your ISP is throttling or blocking the voice service;
• failure of the Vivox service;
• voice issues on the region you are on;
• voice being throttled by bandwidth set incorrectly - please check it by following the instructions here;
• voice hardware (mic, headset) not configured correctly in your operating system settings;
• voice hardware not configured correctly in the viewer;
• another application has your voice hardware in use (example, Skype);

• your anti virus software has “mangled” the voice application; see steps on this page: here.

• your firewall is blocking slvoice. Add slvoice to your firewall's exclusion/allow list.

Since 4.7.9, voice has not always connected to the voice servers. This is due to some coding issues that we inherited from the official SL viewer and that code's interaction with the latest voice files. The issue is documented on LL's Jira. A workaround is to disable and then re-enable voice. But if you're presented with the voice connection failure message that tells you “Voice communications will not be available”, you may need to disable voice and then relog before voice will try to reconnect.

Steps:

• Go to Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice, and untick “Enable Voice.”
• Relog.
• Wait 10-20 seconds, or until the viewer has finished rezzing the scene.
• Re-enable voice.

Version 5.1.7., voice crashes when turning on microphone. See BUG-225293 and FIRE-22940
Fixed on LL Viewer. Fix pending on FS viewer.
Note that the SLVoice executable in this viewer is not compatible with most older viewers; do not copy it into other viewers.http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Release/5.1.8.518593

Most voice connection issues happen when the viewer tries to connect to voice during the login process. The workaround is to disable voice before you log out, and then only enable it after logging in when you need it. You can toggle Voice from the Media Controls at the top of the viewer (not enabled by default for Vintage or Latency skins) by hovering over the speaker icon and then checking or unchecking the last checkbox, or by going to Preferences ⇒ Sound & Media ⇒ Voice and checking or unchecking the top option.

If you have issues hearing but not being heard, or vice versa, then make sure that your headset is properly connected to your computer. Unplug it, then plug it back in, making sure it is fully inserted.

And on a related note, if you plug your headset in while logged into SL, you will very likely have to relog to get it to be recognised.

Due to the many different versions of each operating system (Windows, linux distros, Mac OSx's), it is very difficult to give specifics for each one. Nonetheless, make sure that your operating system is correctly configured for voice: that voice is going to your headset (or speakers, as you prefer), and that your mic is enabled and configured.

If you can hear people but cannot be heard, or vice versa, it is most likely a problem in this area.

A bit more specifically, for Windows and linux, check in Mixer that SLvoice is listed, and not muted. Check that input and output devices are correct. For Mac, look in the Sound Preference pane.

• Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds. Find the Voice Chat slider and make sure it is not all to the left. Try increasing the volume.
• Make sure that Voice chat is enabled on that preferences tab.
• go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Click on Audio Device Settings. For Input and Output, use the dropdowns to select your voice devices (headset, microphone, whatever you use). It is best not to leave these at Default.
• Close Preferences and locate the Mic button on the button bar. Click the Lock checkbox then the actual button, and try speaking (hopefully, you went to Voice Echo Canyon so you can test).

Try reinstalling the drivers for your sound card, if you have one. Sometimes, these drivers conflict with the sound component of graphics card drivers. Similarly, you may have success by reinstalling your graphics card driver.

If voice still does not work, then continue working through this page.

If you find that voice cuts in and out, particularly right after a TP, and at the same time, you notice that things are not rezzing in for you very well (avatars, objects, etc), then the likely cause is that your router is being “overwhelmed” with texture transfers. So reboot your router/modem, and then your computer, and see if the problem is solved.

You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.

If that does not help, then proceed with the section below.

Chances are good that the problem lies with the SL servers or the voice provider, Vivox. Still, there are things you can try:

• May 2018: If you had a recent Windows update, see this page.

• Open Preferences, and go to Sound & Media → Voice, and click Reset (circular arrow).

• Shut down all applications that use, or can use, voice - like Skype, etc. Then relog.

• What sometimes helps to get voice working is disabling voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice, hitting Ok, waiting a minute and then enabling voice and click Ok. When these methods fail (assuming voice usually works for you) it is usually the Vivox voice servers that are the problem.

• If this does not work at your current location, go to a region where other people are able to use voice at this time. One possibility is Firestorm Social, but any region where voice is known to be functioning is fine. Disable voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Relog, using the last location selection on your login screen. Wait a couple of minutes. Reenable voice. Wait another couple of minutes (in other words, give the connection time to be established). If voice comes on, then the problem may have been the region you were in before. Was voice disabled there? If not, a region restart might solve the problem.

• Go to Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection and reduce your bandwidth setting to 500 (if it is not already set there). Repeat the above step to toggle voice off and back on. See here for more information on setting your bandwidth properly, but bear in mind that lower levels than those calculated there may be necessary for troubleshooting purposes.

• Log out of the viewer, then check Task Manager (or equivalent) and see if SLVoice is still running. If so, kill the process, restart the viewer and see if voice connects.

• Try a relog, or even a reboot of the computer.

• Sometimes device settings can reset, so check in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, to be sure that the input and output are set correctly.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Does your headset/microphone work outside of SL? ie when using Skype, Yahoo or MSN

• Does your headset/microphone work in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings?

• Is your voice chat volume turned up and not muted?

• Is the SLVoice.exe (simply SLVoice on Mac) that is in the Firestorm folder in the exceptions/allowed list for your firewall? If your firewall is turned off, turn it on and add the SLVoice.exe (or SLVoice) anyway.
  If your Firewall has SLVoice listed twice, then remove both instances, and allow it again. For Win10, make sure that SLVoice has Private unchecked, and Public checked. If you had these set differently, change them, then close the window, log out of SL, reboot.

• Check the bandwidth you are actually getting and what you have set in Preferences → Network & Files → Connection. Please refer to this page for specifics.

• Go to top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings, and in the window that opens, type: Cmdlinedisablevoice - then ensure this is set to FALSE. (Use Crtl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu, if it isn't.)

Several creators recommend specific settings in order for you to be able to better see their products. Sadly, some of these recommendations will lead to many people crashing more. For example, go to the top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings (press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't):

• RenderVolumeLODFactor should never be set over 4; a good value is between 2 and 3.
• TextureLoadFullRes should never be enabled (in other words, it should be set to FALSE).

If you are advised to raise LOD above 4, please disregard that advice.

Similarly, there is a notecard going round which suggests settings to prevent graphics crashes. Sadly, those settings can often result in perfectly ordinary content refusing to render. So if you have changed debug settings per such a notecard, revert them.

For both the cases above, should you not remember what settings you changed, then proceed as follows:

1. Back up your settings as explained here.
2. Then wipe settings by following the instructions on this page.
3. Log back in and see if this fixes your problem. If it does, you can try a restore and see if the issue returns.
4. If the problem does return, wipe settings again and set them from scratch.

Note: This is not the same as rainbow colors in-world.

If you see rainbow colors after logout and you have MSI True Color or f.lux installed on your system, do the following steps in order:

1. Uninstall MSI True Color if installed.
2. Install f.lux from https://justgetflux.com/ if not installed.
3. Uninstall f.lux using the f.lux uninstaller, not the Windows uninstaller from Windows programs & features / add/remove programs.
4. When running the uninstaller it will give you the option to reset to the windows default color profile; say Yes. (Running this uninstaller is the only way we have found to get rid of the MSI True Color profile.)

Refer to http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-12561. Also see the alternate workaround at the comment dated 13/Apr/17

If you are getting the error in the title, then please refer to this page, this page or this page for those using Intel graphics for possible solutions.

With thanks to Skua Sarrasine for having found the first of these.

Symptom:“This is a bug thats only experienced with Firestorm running. Basically, at seemingly random, but very infrequent times, my dual screens will bug out, producing two displays of solid colour, randomly. Sometimes Windows will return saying it recovered from an error code 7 or 3.”

Some research turned up this for error code 7; it suggests setting physX to CPU. And that seems to have solved the issue.

Note also the (apparent) interaction with Chrome.

This is a known issue with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 with a 64-bit operating system; it affects other programs in addition to Second Life viewers.

Please try the following - but NOT while logged in.

• Go to the Start button
• Type services.msc and then press enter.
• Wait until the services window pops up.
• You may have to expand the window a bit to see the services.
• Look for DesktopWindowManager.
  • If it is running, right click it and select Stop. Wait until it stops.
  • You will probably see your desktop transparency window borders go flat. No worries.
• Right click again and select Properties.
  • In the Startup type, select Manual. Click OK.

• Open the Task Manager, by one of the following methods…
  1. Right click the task bar and choose Task Manager.
  2. Click the Start button and type Task Manager, then click on the result.
  3. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and choose Task Manager from the list.
  4. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
• Click More Details link at the bottom if needed
• Look at the several column headers, they will show a percentage of use. Memory or Disk may show a high percentage when Firestorm is not responding.
• Click on one of the high-percentage column headers to sort the processes. The top one is likely the cause. If it's your antivirus, make sure you have whitelisted Firestorm and its cache (refer to this page for whitelisting guidance).

If you find the Firestorm seems to freeze up every so often, then try these things, one at a time, testing after each one:

• Viewer freezes while “Loading world…” - Intel HD 620 / Intel HD 630, Windows 10. Intel driver issue. Fix is to rollback to driver 24.20.100.6025. (Ref. BUG-225655.)
• If you have chat saving enabled, and have a large number of chat transcript files, these could be causing the freezes. (Ref. FIRE-11322.) Try moving your chat transcripts elsewhere and see if the freezing stops.
  You can find your chat transcripts by going to Preferences→ Network & Files -> Directories→ Conversation logs and transcripts location; click the Open button.
• Set Preferences → Network & Files → Directories → Cache Size to maximum (9984MB or the maximum space available, whichever is less)
• Ensure that your antivirus software is not scanning the viewer cache folder. See Whitelisting the Viewer in Anti Virus Software for more information.
• If you have ever enabled “Full Res Textures”, disable this setting. Top menu bar, Develop→ Rendering → Full Res Textures (dangerous). Ensure that this is NOT checked. (Ctrl-Alt-Q to enable Develop, if it isn't.)
• Advanced → Debug Settings → Set FastCacheFetchEnabled to FALSE - then relog.
  Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't.
• Preferences → Graphics → Hardware Settings → Viewer Texture Memory Buffer - raise this as high as it will go. Then relog. (64-bit version only)
• Tip from a user: Windows users: If you're running CrashPlan, open the “Advanced” section of “Backup” settings and uncheck “Back up open files.”
• Tip from a user: Linux users: Turn off compositing, see if it helps.

For additional suggestions, see the page on Severe Lag.

Some anti-virus programs (and firewalls and anti-malware programs) will incorrectly flag a viewer - or necessary components of a viewer - as a virus or threat. They may remove the suspected part completely, rendering all or part of the viewer non-functional. There is nothing we can do about this. However, it should be possible for you to tell your anti-virus (firewalls/anti-malware) that the viewer is safe; you will need to whitelist the viewer program as well as some components.

The following is a list of some protection software and how to whitelist. Naturally we cannot provide instructions for all existing programs, and the information here may be outdated. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you consult the software manual for the specific program you use, for accurate and up to date information.

In the instructions below, substitute “firewall” or “anti-malware program” for “anti-virus” as needed.

Here are the steps to follow to reinstall and whitelist a viewer in such as way that the anti-virus program doesn't “mangle” the viewer yet again:

1. Uninstall the viewer normally.
2. Disable the anti-virus software completely (in a few cases, this requires rebooting to make sure that the AV is not running anymore).
3. Reinstall the viewer, but make sure you do not install it back to the default folder suggested; install to a new folder. This step is vital.
4. In your anti-virus program, whitelist the following, per the instructions below (or better, consult the manual for your anti-virus software):
   • Windows: the viewer install folder
     • inside this, the viewer itself (firestorm.exe), slplugin.exe, slvoice.exe and dullahan_host.exe
   • Mac: the Firestorm application (normally in your Applications folder)
   • the viewer cache folder
     • In its default location, the folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Now you need to locate the cache folder:
       • Windows Vista/7/8/10: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm
       • Mac: /Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Caches/Firestorm
5. Run the viewer to ensure that it is working correctly; do a test of search and voice to ensure that both work, checking that the respective plugins get loaded. Log out of the viewer.
6. Re-enable your anti-virus software and run the viewer again, repeating the tests above.

With Christmas around the corner, we think of ways to spread the cheer and give gifts to those who are dear to us. This Christmas, how about extending that love to the ones brand new to Second Life, to let them see what a wondrous place they have entered with loving and generous people?

Every year we are presented with amazing new pets from talented creators, and they seem to get better and better with each new creation. And although they are just virtual companions, these pets have the ability to make the times we are here without human contact seem less lonely. They transcend the realm of mere fashion accessories to being a loving addition to this, our Second Life.

When the new loves come along, our past companions are packed away in a folder, maybe to come out another day. So why not make that day today, and why not pass them on to be loved by another?

Many entering Second Life are shy and overwhelmed with learning the basics. Having a virtual friend and companion to share those first tentative steps with could make a world of difference. Just think of your well-loved pet going on to give the warmth of friendship to another, touching their Second Lives and bringing joy to their hearts.

So for December 2018, make it a true month of giving and pass on your Ex-Loved Pets so that they too get a chance at a second life.

Kindly contact Kio Feila and entrust her with your Ex-Loved Pets, and know that they will be warming the hearts of someone new this Christmas.

To stay informed on news, please join FS/SL the Gateway Help Network group in-world.

Wearable Pet Help

In this preferences panel you can choose the viewer skin and viewer color theme for Firestorm. The viewer skin determines the overall shape, layout, and graphics of Firestorm's controls. The theme determines what colors are used to draw these viewer controls. The viewer skin and viewer colors are only for Firestorm itself - these do not affect your avatar or anything else in-world.

The following skins ship with firestorm:

• Firestorm
• Metaharper
• Starlight
• Starlight CUI
• Vintage
• AnsaStorm
• Latency

These come with different color schemes, which may be selected from the drop down menu below. The top of the panel gives a handy preview of the skin.

There are three other options on this page:

• Reset Toolbars to the skin's preferred layout when changing skins: If this is enabled, when you change skins and relog, the predefined toolbar buttons layouts will be applied; disable this to maintain your customised layout, if any.
• Reset toolbars to the login mode's preferred layout when changing login modes: When enabled, this option keeps the login mode's designed toolbar button layout, overriding your chosen toolbar customizations, when you change login mode.
• Use Viewer 1 style cursors: Changes the cursors to the “old style” ones used in Phoenix. You will need to relog if you change this option.

Author     : Ansariel Hiller
Themes     : Bright Blue, Classic Brown

Author     : Jessica Lyon, Wolfspirit Magic, Ansariel Hiller
Themes     : Grey, Dark, High Contrast

The Firestorm skin is the default skin for most installs. It was created to resemble a V1-style viewer with its inventory, profiles, friends, blue dialogs, and other nuances. The grey theme provides medium contrast that is not as harsh as darker backgrounds, while still not taking away from the in-world colors. This skin uses solid backgrounds on the bottom buttons and select other controls for maximum control clarity.

Author     : Arrehn Oberlander
Themes     : Appalachian Sky, CoolOcean, BlackGlass

The Metaharper modern skin is an avant-gard blend of the V1 and V2 styles. It features darker backgrounds to emphasize in-world colors, and makes frequent use of transparency in its controls, most noticeably in the bottom buttons and top toolbars. Icons in Metaharper modern are ghostly white. The Appalachian Sky color scheme uses natural mossy green and forest browns for accents. Metaharper modern is occasionally used for experimental UI changes: At the moment it features an experimental quick preferences button variation that prefers avatar physics control in place of older sliders. It also features an experimental camera floater with all modes exposed, similar to the Kokua viewer.

Author     : Hitomi Tiponi & Starlight Contributors
Themes     : Original Orange, Original Teal, Mono Teal, Nostalgia Blue, Silver Pink, Silver Blue

Starlight is a skin with a large number of usability and presentation improvements, many contributed by residents. In addition Starlight has brought its own subtle redesign to give the interface a lighter feel, several colour variants (called 'Themes'). The color themes of the starlight skin are diverse: “Nostalgia Blue” pays homage to early official viewer colors, while “Original Teal” may be most like stock V2 of all the skins included in Firestorm. The “Silver” pair of color variations bring a rare dark text on light backgrounds look to the viewer.

Author     : Hitomi Tiponi & Starlight Contributors
Themes     : Custom Dark, Custom Light

Starlight CUI - Colourable User Interface. This is a highly customizable skin; information on how to customize is give on this SL wiki page. See also the Custom Colors Tab in Preferences.

Author     : Zi Ree
Themes     : Classic

Vintage is designed to look and feel as close as possible to the original Phoenix skin.

Click on a thumbnail to embiggen.

Ansastorm Classic Brown	Ansastorm Bright Blue	Firestorm Dark	Firestorm Grey
Firestorm High Contrast	Metaharper Black Glass	Metaharpder Appalachian Sky	Metaharper Cool Ocean
Starlight CUI Custom Dark	Starlight CUI Custom Light	Starlight Mono Teal	Starlight Nosalgia Blue
Starlight Original Orange	Starlight Original Teal	Starlight Silver Blue	Starlight Silver Pink
Vintage Classic

A problem that is frequently reported is that worn rigged mesh attachments will sometimes be invisible to others after you have teleported. This can generally be fixed by selecting top menu, Avatar → Avatar Health → Refresh Attachments. Should that fail, then you will need to relog.

In order to reduce the chance of this happening, you should ensure that all worn rigged mesh items are attached to a different body attachment point (make sure NOT to attach to HUD, or only you will see the item on yourself). Many creators leave item attachment points at the default, which is right hand. This can result in many attachments being stacked on this point, making the above described issue far more likely to occur. So when wearing an outfit, check each rigged mesh part, and if attached to right hand, reattach to a different spot, and one not in use by something else. (You only need to do this once with newly acquired clothing, as the newly selected attachment point is remembered.) Having done that, and as explained below in “Changes to Attachments,” detach the item after having done this, so that the change saves.

Refer to FIRE-17998.

This is a side effect of the same bug described above. When you are crossing many regions or after a TP, some of your attachments may become “ghosted” in such a way that the viewer still thinks they are attached (so you see the attachments in your viewer), but as far as the region is concerned, the affected attachments are detached. No observer will see them and also no scripts in those ghosted attachments will run.

At a later time, if you make a change to what you are wearing by adding or removing something, this can sometimes cause your attachments to refresh to the “correct” state that the region sees. When this happens, some or all of those ghosted attachments will also be detached locally (in your viewer).

Refer to FIRE-22970 and FIRE-17998.

A somewhat common occurrence: changes you made to an attachments, either by manual editing, or by the use of an applier, will revert if you subsequently crash.

This is due to how SL works. Changes to attachments only save when you detach the item, or when you relog. So in order to avoid this situation, any time you make any change to an attachment (and this includes hiding/showing parts of a mesh body), detach the item, count to 10, then re-attach.

Attachments which are visibly seen as worn may not show as worn in inventory. As a result, attempting to detach them by right clicking the inventory item name is not possible.

Different solutions are suggested… please try these, one at a time, in the order given, until one fixes you.

1. Right click the attachment on your avatar, and detach it via the pie menu.
2. If the above fails, go to a low lag region, such as this one, log out there, then log in to last location. At that point try to detach, either the usual way, or as described above.
3. Try the Replace Outfit procedure described below.

If you find that when you log in, attachments are being detached and then reattached, sometimes several on the same spot, then try the following procedure:

• Make a temporary folder somewhere you can find it easily
• In that folder, put a copy of your skin, shape, hair/bald base and eyes - and perhaps a pants and top layer - no prims!
• Right click the folder name and select Replace outfit. Not Wear, not Add, Replace. This step is VITAL
• Now relog
• Once you are logged back in, you can put your usual extras back on, hair included. And hope that it holds.

If you find that attachments disappear (or partly disappear) after a teleport, but only in your view, not to others, then enable teleport screens if you have them disabled: Preferences → Move & View → Teleports → Disable teleport screens; uncheck. Ref. this JIRA.

If a scripted attachment (such as a HUD) stops working following a TP, this may be because the attachment has actually fallen off during TP. You may see it on your screen, but the server thinks it is detached, so the scripts won't run. Try the following:

• Detach and reattach the item. It may help to relog before and/or after.
• In addition, if the HUD attaches to the Center 2 HUD point, try changing it to a different HUD attachment point. Attachments may be less likely to “fall off” of other attachment points.

Note: this is related to this bug.

If you're looking for how to get your own event in the Firestorm Message of the Day, click here.
If you're looking for a missed MotD or more information on the current MotD rotation, keep reading!

Oh hi! I didn't see you come in! You're probably here because you missed the message of the day. It went by too fast, it was too long, or you clicked a link in a goofy motd set up to get you here!

Anyway, if you missed the message of the day and would like to see it again;
At the top of your screen find the “Content” menu and click it.
In the menu that drops down, way down at the bottom select, “Message of the Day”.

There it is, in your local chat as a system message.

[11:28:02] [Firestorm Tip! Did you know you ca… Stop… Wait… Go back… I didn't get to read it all! Grrrr! Clickies! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/motd]

You can also scroll down this page and see ALL the current messages of the day in the “events, tips, help and gateway” message of the day rotation. (I keep this page bookmarked as a fast reference to important wiki pages.)

The Firestorm Message of the Day is currently running on a rotation of thirty eight preset tips, help, gateway and fun messages and/or a varying amount of event messages of the day. All of which are displayed at random when you log in depending on which “MotD Cartridge” is loaded. Go ahead, try it, relog, and unless the message of the day is promoting a special event¹⁾ you'll see something different.

The preset messages of the day are split between tips to make your Firestorm Viewer experience more efficient and enjoyable, help topics to help resolve common Firestorm Viewer issues, gateway to spread information about the Firestorm Gateway and fun just because.

I'll list the message of the day presets below so you can see what's in the rotation.

These are the current messages of the day for events which are currently running and have been approved for a Firestorm message of the day;

MOTD: EVENT: forgotten gatcha pets
All those poor and forgotten gatcha pets, sitting all alone in your inventory *sniffles*… Why not give them a new home and pass them to a SL Newblet!!!!1 To find out how, clickies! https://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pets_for_new_residents

MOTD: EVENT: Survivors of Suicide
Survivors of Suicide are celebrating their 10th aniversary on the grid! Help them go for another 10 years and stop by their December event with Raffles, Gatchas, live DJs and more! https://sos-secondlifegroup.home.blog/

MOTD: EVENT: Winter Festival for Parkinson's Research
WINTER FESTIVAL & HUNTS for Parkinson's research now open with 50 shops & booths! Hunt gifts only 10L donation & free gifts in the Christmas Castle! Explore Creations Park in its winter splendor! Nov 24 - December 31! https://creationspark.wordpress.com/

These are displayed randomly and are broken down into five groups;

Security: Keep your Second Life account and your computer safe!

Release: What's the current Firestorm release version and where do I get it?

Tips: Which provide tips on how to get the most out of the Firestorm Viewer and are meant to improve your Second Life experience in some way.

Help: Which provide assistance on self resolving common Firestorm problems which are seen the most in the Firestorm Viewer help groups. These may have also been requested by the Firestorm Support Team at some point.

Gateway: Coming soon! These provide information on what's going on at the Firestorm Gateway, events, event spaces, classes and more.

I'll break them into the same groups below;

MOTD: SECURITY: Firestorm Downloads
Firestorm Security! Never download Firestorm from a website that is not firestormviewer.org! Alternate download locations should not be trusted! Firestorm downloads - https://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/

MOTD: RELEASE: Current Firestorm release version is 5.1.7.55786
Firestorm Release! The current Firestorm release version is 5.1.7.55786! Not on it? Get it here! Get it now! READ THE BLOG POST! https://www.firestormviewer.org/firestorm-release-v5-1-7-55786/

MOTD: TIP: Firestorm Classes 1Temporarily removed from the rotation.
Did you know Firestorm has classes on how to use the Firestorm viewer? We even have an open question and answer session after each class! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/firestorm_classes

MOTD: TIP: Firestorm Classes 2Temporarily removed from the rotation.
Did you know Firestorm offers classes on how to get the most out of the Firestorm viewer? Click to find out more about these classes and when they are! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/firestorm_classes

MOTD: TIP: Avatar Complexity
Firestorm tip! Why is my friend a colored shape? What is this complexity popup thingy? Click here to find out more about this lag reducing feature! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_avatar_complexity_settings

MOTD: TIP: Complexity and the Slideshow
Firestorm tip! Are you at a busy club or event and Firestorm is running like a slide show? Try lowering your avatar complexity setting! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_avatar_complexity_settings

MOTD: TIP: FS Bridge, Trolls Not Included
Firestorm Tip! The Firestorm BRIDGE is enhancing your SL experience and you may not even know it! Click here to find out how! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_bridge

MOTD: TIP: Can Not Log in to SL
Firestorm Tip! Can't log into Second Life? STOP! DO NOT reinstall firestorm! Save yourself a lot of trouble and check here first for possible grid issues https://status.secondlifegrid.net/

MOTD: TIP: Contact Sets
Firestorm Tip! Contact Sets allow you to organize friends and non friends into manageable groups and categories! Learn more about them at http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_contact_sets

MOTD: TIP: IM Tab Sorting
Firestorm tip! Did you know you can click and drag your IM tabs in the conversations window to sort them to your liking. For more chat tricks see http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_chat

MOTD: TIP: Customizable Quickprefs
Firestorm tip! Did you know you can add your most commonly used settings to the Quick Prefs? http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_quick_preferences

MOTD: TIP: Missed the MotD
Firestorm Tip! Did you know you ca… Stop… Wait… Go back… I didn't get to read it all! Grrrr! Clickies! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/motd

MOTD: TIP: Outfits
Firestorm tip! Did you know the Outfits feature can help you quickly change what you're wearing without digging around in your inventory? http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/my_outfits_tab

MOTD: TIP: Camera Controls
Firestorm tip! Something catching your eye? Hold down your ALT key and click it, then roll your mouse wheel! Interested in more? See http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_movement_and_camera#view

MOTD: TIP: Toolbars
Firestorm tip! Did you know you can add many of your commonly used Firestorm windows and floaters to the toolbars? http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/toybox

MOTD: TIP: SL World Search
Firestorm tip! Looking for something in world but, can't find it? Try a search! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/floater_search

MOTD: TIP: Replace Links
Firestorm tip! Gah my inventory links are borkened! Have no fear, Replace Links are here! Fix those broken links, http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_linkreplace

MOTD: TIP: Skins
Firestorm tip! Wanna change the way firestorm looks? Then change it! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/preferences_skins_tab

MOTD: TIP: Settings Backup
Firestorm tip! Better safe than… NOOOOOOO! You should regularly back up your Firestorm settings. You never know when…. http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/backup_settings

MOTD: TIP: Auto Replace
Firestrom tip! Firestone? Firestorm! If only Firestorm had an auto replace… Oh wait! It does! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_auto_correct

MOTD: TIP: Preference Search
Firestorm tip! Is a Firestorm setting playing hide and seek and causing you to pull out your hair? Find it fast with preference search! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_preferences

MOTD: TIP: Chat Shortcuts
Firestorm tip! Did you know when chatting you can hold down your ctrl key when you press enter to shout and the shift key to whisper? http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/keyboard_shortcuts

MOTD: TIP: Keyword Alerts
Firestorm tip! Did you miss a message in chat? Did someone say your name while you were doing something else? Check out Keyword Alerts! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/preferences_chat_tab#keyword_alerts_tab

MOTD: TIP: FS Wiki
Firestorm Tip! Did you know Firestorm has its own wiki? Find out how features work, how to fix common viewer issues and more! Check it out, bookmark it, study it! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/

MOTD: TIP: Inventory Count
Firestorm Tip! Do you have more inventory than you thought you had? Inventory count now includes folders! Click for more http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/my_inventory_tab

MOTD: TIP: Elements
Firestorm Tip! Elements? What is this, chemistry class? No silly, Elements is the count of Items/Folders in that folder! Click for more http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/my_inventory_tab

MOTD: HELP: Bakefail Badness
Firestorm Help! Are you feeling overly misty as an orange cloud? Are you missing your avatar? Are you thinking, clouds belong in the sky, not on me! Click here to fix the cloud http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_bake_fail

MOTD: HELP: Camera Messed Up
Firestorm Help! HALP! I know my head looks awesome but I'm stuck staring down at the top of it! Why am I staring at my butt? What is wrong with my camera?! click click clickie! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_camera

MOTD: HELP: Teleporting Woes
Firestorm Help! What is up with these teleport fails? Disconnected?! OMG again! Click here to help prevent TP issues! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_tp_fail

MOTD: HELP: Slow Rezzing
Firestorm Help! Did you know many common rezzing problems can be solved by you? Clickies! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/slow_rez

MOTD: HELP: Slow Rezzing Mesh
Firestorm Help! Did you know many common mesh rezzing problems can be solved by you? Clickies! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/mesh_issues

MOTD: HELP: Getting Help NAO
Firestorm Help! HALP! My Firestorm is broken and I need help NAO! Have no fear, click here! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/getting_help

MOTD: HELP: Getting Help Dont Panic
Firestorm Help! Sudden viewer problems? Not sure what to do? Don't panic! check out our wiki: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/getting_help

MOTD: HELP: Voice Issues
Firestorm Help! Have you lost your voice? Firestorm voice not working for you? Why not drink a tall glass of http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_voice

MOTD: HELP: Rick and Morty Lost Login Info
Oh geez, Rick, Firestorm lost my login info again! Well, Morty, try starting here to fix it, http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_stored_passwords#failed_to_decode_login_credentials

MOTD: HELP: Help Help Help You
Firestorm Help! Need help? Help us help you! Learn how to use the Firestorm support group to get the best help! http://www.firestormviewer.org/firestorm-help-groups-tips-rules-and-guidelines/

MOTD: HELP: Second Life Account Questions
Firestorm Help! Need help with your Second Life account matters? Go to Avatar Menu - Account, or login to your Dashboard at https://secondlife.com/my/account/

MOTD: HELP: Dont Clear Your Cache
Firestorm Help! Having viewer problems? Please don't clear your cache or reinstall the viewer as the first thing you try. Instead, see this page for how to get help http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/getting_help

MOTD: HELP: Missing Inventory
Firestorm Help! Ummmm, I know I had more things in my inventory than this! Help! I'm missing inventory! what can I do? http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_missing_inventory

MOTD: GATEWAY:
Keep an eye here for upcoming information regarding the Firestorm Gateway!

MOTD: FUN: Rhubarb Pie
Firestorm fun! Feeling hungry? try a Rhubarb Pie, Firestorm style! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/rhubarb_pie

This section is changing as we speak!

* if a main MOTD is set, that one is always shown
* if random MOTDs are set and no main MOTD is set, they will be randomly shown at login and during TP
* if an event MOTD is set, that is always shown at login and then, during TP either the main MOTD or one of the random MOTDs

You will receive one wearable pet. Look for it in the Objects folder of your inventory. To wear it, right click it and select Add. It will attach to you. as you walk, it will move with you. Some may walk at your side, some may fly by your shoulder, or sit on your head. Others will be held in your arms.

If you need to adjust the position, then while wearing the pet, right click it in inventory and select Edit. Now use the colored arrows to gently correct the position to what you want. When you have finished, close the edit window. To make sure your adjustments have saved, right click again, select detach. Wait a moment, then reattach.

There is a helpful tutorial video here.

Radar is presently sortable by name, age, seen and range. Just click on the appropriate button.

• The untitled column to the right of Name shows whether the person is speaking on voice
• The next column will display a green square if the person is in the same region as you, yellow if in the same parcel (ie, yellow and green, usually, for both same parcel and same region).
• The next shows if the person is typing.
• This column indicates is the person is sitting.
• The next column will show a $ sign if the person has payment info on file, and a $$ for payment info used.
• Then comes Avatar has notes, which will contain an N if you put notes on that person's profile.
• Age indicates the avatar's age in days.
• Seen is the length of time the person has been within radar range.
• Range shows their current distance, in meters. Use of bolding and color distinguishes chat range, shout range, and beyond.

When you right click on a person's name you get the following options:

• View Profile: Opens a window showing the person's profile.
• Add Friend: This option is only shown if the person is not already on your friends list. It will send a friendship request.
• Remove Friend: This option is only shown if the person is on your friends list. Clicking it will dissolve the friendship. Currently, the other person is not informed, but one copy of your calling card will be removed from the person's Calling Cards folder (a second copy will remain there until/unless they choose to delete it; if the person is logged in at the time, the removed copy will appear in their Trash).
• IM: Opens an IM to the person.
• VoiceCall: Initiates a private voice conversation with the other person. Naturally, both need to have voice enabled and functioning.
• Map: If your friend gave you map rights, this item will be enabled. If clicked, it will open the world map and show the person's current location.
• Track: shows a beacon allowing to you locate the person and track their movement. (Versions after 3.2.2 only.)
• Share: If you click this entry, an IM window opens; you can then drag and drop inventory items into it, to give them to the other person.
• Pay: Opens a window, which you can use to pay the other person L$. Some default values are shown, or you can type the number in manually.
• Offer Teleport: Click this if you wish to offer to teleport the person to your present location.
• Teleport To: Teleports you to the other person's location.
• Zoom In: If enabled, moves your camera to view the other person.
• Invite to group: allows you to invite the person to a group you belong to; opens the Groups selector window.
• Get Script Info: Displays the script info for the avatar; requires that the Firestorm bridge be enabled and worn.

• Block/Unblock: aka Mute/Unmute. This mutes the other person, completely blocking them from contacting you. You will not see anything they type in local chat or receive any IMs they might send, and all inventory offers made will be automatically declined. Use with caution; muting a person can also mute their objects, which means that if you make a purchase from them, you are likely to not receive what you paid for.
• Report: Allows you to file an abuse report against the selected avatar. This should not be done lightly and never be misused. Click here for more information on what an abuse report is.
• Freeze: Estate managers/owners can use this to freeze an avatar's movements. This is a tool to be used in cases of griefing and not to be used frivolously.
• Parcel Eject/Ban: If selected, this will eject and ban the avatar from the parcel you are in. You must have the appropriate rights in that parcel or this will not work.
• Estate Kick/Ban: Similar to the above, but operates at the estate level. Therefore, this is only available to estate managers or owners.
• Estate Teleport Home: Selecting this will teleport the avatar to his/her home location. This does not ban them, however, and may fail if they have no home location set or if that location is not accessible (eg, the region is down).
• Derender: Temporarily derenders the avatar.
• Derender + Blacklist: Derenders and blacklists the avatar. This derender is permanent - unless you remove the person from the blacklist; see this page.
• Render Settings: Fly-out menu offers options to Render Normally (default), Do Not Render, Render Fully.

The Sprocket/Gear icon at the top of the Nearby tab has the same functions as the right click menu for individual avatar names.

The List icon, to the right of the gear, has the following radar functions:

• Show Minimap above Radar: If enabled, the panel expands upward to show a minimap of the current area.
• Limit Results to Specific Radius: If selected, a slider will appear at the bottom of the window, to the right of the sprocket/gear. Here you may change the range at which the radar is active. This allows you to monitor smaller areas than the radar normally can report. Useful if you only are interested in a parcel rather than an entire region and those adjoining. If you wish to have radar report at max range all the time, it is more efficient to just disable this option.
• Show muted and blacklisted Avatars: If enabled, radar will list people you have muted and/or derendered.
• Radar Name Format: Allows you to select how you want names to be displayed in the radar. Available options depend on how you have preferences set for display names and user names.
• Displayed Columns: You can enable or disable specific columns in the list. Handy if you want to reduce the overall width.
• Color names based on distance: same as the option in Preferences→ Colors -> Name tags.

• Report To: allows you to select whether to show radar notifications to chat or as notification toasts.
• Local chat distance ring in Minimap: Show chat range on the minimap. Same as the option in Preferences → Colors -> Minimap.
• Report Entering Draw Range: If enabled, this will report to chat when someone enters your draw distance range.
• Report Leaving Draw Range: If enabled, this will report to chat when someone leaves your draw distance range.
• Report Entering Chat Range: If enabled, this reports to chat whenever someone enters chat range (20m).
• Report Leaving Chat Range: If enabled, this reports to chat whenever someone leaves chat range (20m).
• Report Entering your Region: Enable this to have the radar report people entering the region you are currently in.
• Report Leaving your Region: Enable this to have the radar report people leaving the region you are currently in.
• Report Enter Alerts to Scripts: If enabled, the radar will send an avatar UUID to scripts. For more information, please refer to this page.
• Report Exit Alerts to Scripts: If this is enabled, the radar will send an avatar UUID to scripts. For more information, please refer to this page.
• Enhance Radar with LSL Bridge: Enhance radar functionality via the Bridge. Used to improve distance calculations.

• Open Blocked Residents & Objects:

  This displays the list of people and objects you have blocked (muted).

The '+' icon, to the right of the list (radar) icon, when clicked, will give the following message: “Friends can give permissions to track each other on the map and receive online status updates.” And it will ask you if you want to offer friendship to an Avatar that you highlighted. If they are already on your friends list, the '+' sign will be greyed out.

Terraforming allows you to edit the terrain of a parcel or region, assuming you have the rights to do so. You will have rights if you own the region; you may have rights if you own or rent a parcel.

When in this mode, your pointer turns into a bulldozer, over a grid. The grid size indicates how much of an area will be affected by your terraforming. You can change the size and the strength of the bulldozer tool by using the sliders under Bulldozer on the window.

There are several terraforming modes available:

• Select Land: If you click this, you can then drag a selection on the land, and then apply terrain changes within the selection.
  to do that, after having selected the land to modify, click on one of the effects below, then on the Apply button. You can click this repeatedly.
  If you do not use a selection, then the effects below will be applied dynamically as you move the tool over the land.
• Flatten: Flattens the area of land. If you are editing manually, the starting point will be used, and all land you pass the tool over will be brought to that height.
• Raise: Raises the land under the bulldozer tool grid.
• Lower: Lowers the land under the tool.
• Smooth: Smooths elevation changes to make the land more even.
• Roughen: Creates uneven bumps in the land.
• Revert: Undoes terraforming based on the last terrain bake.
• Apply: Use this button to apply your edit option to the whole selected area.

This section gives information about the current parcel.

• Area: Displays the area of the current parcel, in sqm.
• Price: Shows the currently selected parcel's price - if it is for sale.
• About Land (button): Opens a window showing information about the current parcel.
• ShowOwners: Highlights land parcels in different colors depending on who owns them:
  • Green - Your land.
  • Aqua - Land owned by a group you're a member of.
  • Purple - Land in the auction system.
  • Red - Owned by others.

The operations here require the use of the Select land function described above. You will need to select an area of land before using either of them.

• Subdivide: Splits off the currently selected area of land into a new parcel.
• Join: Joins two parcels into a single parcel. To select more than one parcel, drag the selection box until it partially overlaps both (it's not necessary to completely select both parcels). The resultant parcel will acquire the properties (name, description, etc) from the larger parcel selected.

Functions concerning the purchase and sale of land:

• Buy Land: Click this to buy the current parcel - if it is for sale.
• Abandon land: Abandon the currently selected parcel if you don't want it anymore and don't wish to sell it. Most people would rather not do this.

This is a powerful set of tools for SL photographers and machinima makers. It combines a large number of settings from many places, into a single, multi-tabbed window.

This is accessed via a button on the button bar. If you do not have the button visible, right click any button on the button bar, and select Toolbar Buttons; the Toolbar Buttons window opens. Locate the Phototools button there, and drag it onto any of the button bars (bottom, left or right). Alternately, you can access via top menu, World → Photo and Video → Phototools.

Phototools est un outil très utile pour ceux qui aiment faire de la photo ou de la vidéo SL. C'est le concentré d'un grand nomdre de paramètres dans une seule fenêtre.

On y accède par un bouton sur la barre d'outils. Si le bouton n'est pas visible, faites un clic droit sur votre barre d'outils, et sélectionnez Toolbar Buttons; dans la fenêtre Toolbar Buttons trouvez le bouton Phototools et faites-le glisser sur votre barre d'outils. Vos pouvez aussi y accéder par le menu World en haut de votre écran → Photo and video > Phototools.

Cet onglet contrôle beaucoup de fonctions windlight.

• Basic Shaders: Ce paramètre devrait toujours être coché, à moins que vous ne soyez sur un ordinateur bas de gamme ou que vous n'ayez besoin de le désactiver pour une raison très précise.
• Enable Atmospheric Shaders: Active toutes les fonctions Windlight. Cette case doit être cochée pour que vous puissiez bénéficier de tous les avantages offerts par les paramètres de cet onglet.
  Si la case est grisée, assurez-vous que “Basic Shaders” est coché.
• Use Region Windlight: Force l'utilisation des réglages windlight de la région.
  Identique à Barre de menus, World→ Environment Editor → Environment Settings → Use region settings.
• WL Sky: C'est un menu déroulant à partir duquel vous pouvez sélectionner l'un de nombreux pré-réglages de ciel windlight. Similaire à celui qui se trouve dans la fenêtre Quick Preferences.
• WL Water: Pour sélectionner un pré-réglage windlight applicable à l'eau Linden.
• Day Cycle: Vous permet de sélectionner différents cycles de jour. Ils utilisent des paramètres windlight différents du cycle de jour par défaut.

Au-dessous de ces menus se trouve un slider pour l'heure du jour.

• Quick Windlights: Un moyen très facile de sélectionner l'heure par défaut. Identique à Barre de menus -> World→ Sun Position.

• Windlight Presets: Accès rapide à la création ou modification de pré-réglages windlight, que ce soit pour le ciel ou pour l'eau.

• Type: Ce menu déroulant permet de sélectionner ce que l'eau Linden reflètera. Attention, plus vous en activez, moins la performance du viewer sera bonne (lag).
  Ce réglage est aussi accessible à partir des Préférences → Graphics > General.

• Resolution: Pour sélectionner la qualité des refets dans l'eau. Veuillez noter qu'au-dessus de “Good”, il vous faudra activer “Advanced Lighting Model” dans l'onglet Light. Si vous changez ce paramètre, désactivez puis réactivez Basic Shaders pour que le changement soit effectif.
  Comme ci-dessus, augmenter la qualité provoquera une perte de performance.

• Transparent Water: Si cette case est décochée, l'eau sera toujours opaque.

• Enable Lighting and Shadows(Activer la lumière et les ombres) : Permet d'utiliser - en plus des ombres - une grande variété de fonctions, comme la profondeur de champ.
  Ce paramètre est également accessible par les Préférences → Graphics → General → Lighting and Shadows.
• Enable All Local Lights(Activer les lumières locales): Active les sources lumineuses autres que celles du soleil et de la lune.
  Egalement accessible par les Préférences → Graphics → General - Local lights.
  • Enable attached Lights (Face Lights) (Activer les lumières attachées) : si vous activez cette option vous verrez aussi les sources lumineuses attachées des avatars (comme les face lights).
    Cette option est aussi accessible par les Préférences → Graphics → Rendering → Enable attached lights (face lights).

• Shadow Types(Types d'ombres): Pour sélectionner le type d'ombres que vous souhaitez : None (aucune); Sun/Moon (soleil et lune); Sun/moon + projectors (soleil/lune + projecteurs). Il est important de noter que quel que soit le type d'ombres choisi ici, les textures projetées par le biais de la fonction projecteur reste encore active.
• Avatar Shadows(Ombre de l'avatar): Sert à régler la définition des ombres de l'avatar. De même que pour les types d'ombres, plus vous la définition est haute, plus vous perdrez en performance.

• Shd. Res (Shadow Resolution)(Résolution des ombres): Détermine la qualité des ombres, mais est ausi très exigeant au niveau des ressources de l'ordinateur. Il est conseillé de garder ce paramètre réglez-le sur 1.0 pendantque vous vous préparez. Lorsque vous êtes prêt à prendre la photo, remontez légèrement le slider vers la droite avec précaution. Vous devrez bien surveiller vos FPS pendant que vous changez ce paramètre. Pour ce faire, la Barre de statistiques sera d'une grande utilité ( sous l'onglet Aids) surtout les premières fois, le temps de vous familiariser avec le niveau d'ombres que votre système peut supporter.
  ATTENTION: Régler ce paramètre trop haut ou le bouger trop vite fera crasher le viewer.
• Shd Clarity(netteté des ombres) : Ceci est un paramètre TRES important. Il détermine essentiellement la netteté des ombres Sun/Moon (soleil/lune). Il doit théoriquement être réglé avant le paramètre suivant. Lorsque la valeur de “Shd. Res” ci-dessus est sur 1.0, faites glisser le slider de “Shd. Clarity” jusqu'à ce que le résultat le plu snet possible soit atteint.
  Notez bien que la netteté des ombres est directement liée à la position de la caméra et du soleil ou de la lune. Chaque fois que vous bougez la caméra ou le soleil/lune, il vaut mieux réajuster cette valeur. De plus, afin de faciliter l'ajustement de cete valeur, il est utile de régler “Shd. Blur” sur 0.0 avant tout.
• Shd. Blur (Shadow Blur) (Floutage des ombres) : Plus la valeur est haute, plus les contours des ombres seront adoucis. Réglez sur 0 pour des ombres les plus nettes possibles. Ce paramètre est directement lié au paramètre suivant également. Il vous permet de régler de manière générale le floutage des ombres. Si la valeur est de 4.00, vou pouvez utiliser “Shadows Soften” pour ajuster le floutage indépendamment de l'Occultation Ambiante. ATTENTION : “Ambient occlusion” doit être coché poru que ce paramètre fonctionne.
• Shd. Soften (Adoucissementdes ombres) : Contrôle l'adoucissement des ombres Soleil/Lune. Pour régler cette valeur pour un besoin spécifique, le plus facile est de d'abord régler la valeur de “Shd. Blur” juste au-dessus aux alentours de 3.0, puis le slider “Shd. Soften” pour adoucir l'Occultation Ambiante à votre goût. Notez bien qu'une valeur de 0.0 supprimera toutes les ombres Soleil/Lune. De plus, ceci n'a aucun effet sur les ombre de projecteurs.
• Blur. Dist. (Blur Distance) (Distance de floutage) : Ceci détermine le point à partir duquel les ombres commenceront à devenir floues par rapport à la caméra. Plus la valeur est faible, plus le point de floutage commencera près de la caméra.
  NOTEZ BIEN : “Ambient Occlusion” (Occultation Ambiante) doit être active pour que ce paramètre fonctionne.
• FOV Cutoff (Limites du cham visuel) : Détermine la limite du champ visuel à laquelle le viewer changera entre la projection orthographique et la projection en perspective. Si vous obtenez des ombres en “dents de scie”, essayez d'ajuster ce paramètre pour le améliorer. Egalement, ajuster les valeurs XYZ de RenderShadowSplitExponent dans le menu Avancé → Show Debug Settings (paramètres de débogage) peut être très utile.

• Show Bounding Boxes for All Lights in Scene (Montrer les boîtes d'encombrement des sources lumineuses) : Affichera toutes les boîtes d'encombrement de toutes les sources lumineuses dans la scène.

• Show Light Radius for Selection (Afficher la zone éclairée par la sélection) : Affiche une sphère représentant la zone éclairée par une source lumineuse sélectionnée.

• Enable Ambient Occlusion (Activer l'Occultation Ambiante) : L'Occultation Ambiante ajoute des ombres sur tous les objets. Elle est plus efficace lorsque les paramètres “Effect” et “AO Soften” plus bas sont utilisés. Elle peut ajouter un excellent niveau de réalisme à l'image. C'est particulièrement vrai quand les images sont prises à une résulution de 2048 pixels ou plus. Pour plus de détails, voir ici.
  Ce paramètre est aussi accessible dans Préférences → Graphics → General → Ambient Occlusion.

• Scale: Plus la zone est grande plus elle est juste. Le mieux est souvent de régler ces valeurs au plus haut puis ajouter un peu de flou des obmres pour adoucir l'effet.
• Max Scale: Contrôle le rayon maximum de l'écran à partir duquel on prélève son échantillon, afin d'éviter les ratés de cache de carte graphique et leursconséquences associées. Le mieux est souvent de régler ces valeurs au plus haut puis ajouter un peu de flou des obmres pour adoucir l'effet.
• Factor: Le mieux est souvent de régler ces valeurs au plus haut puis ajouter un peu de flou des obmres pour adoucir l'effet.
• Effect (Effet) : Contrôle l'effet d'assombrissement général de l'Occultation Ambiante. La valeur par défaut de 0.8 produit un effet à peine perceptible. Les valeurs égales ou inférieures à 0.0 donnent un effet plus réaliste. Notez bien que l'Occultation Ambiante produit une sorte d'effet de bruit qui peut être adouci en utilisant le paramètre “AO Soften” au-dessous. De plus, l'avataren mesh standard peut paraître peu attractif si on utilise des valeurs d'Effet hautes, à cause de la qualité assez pauvre de la géométrie de l'avatar.
• AO Soften (Adoucissement de l'Occultation Ambiante) : Contrôle l'adoucissement de l'effet d'Occultation Ambiante. Le plus facile pour faire ce réglage est de commencer par régler la valeur “Shd. Blur” aoutour de 4.0, puis d'utiliser le présent slider pour adoucir l'Occultation Ambiante à votre goût. Notez bien qu'une valeur de 0.0 coupera l'effet d'Occultation Ambiante.

La profondeur de champ simule le flou qui se produit dans la vie réelle lorsque les choses ne sont pas l'objet de la mise au point. Par exemple lorsque vous prenez une personne en photo, les choses en arrière-plan seront floues; et plus elles se trouvent moin plus elles seront floues. Si vous faites votre mise au point sur un arbre qui se trouve derrière la personne, c'est alors la personne qui deviendra floue.

Pour plus d'info voir ici.

Nombreux sont les paramètres ci-dessous que l'on retrouve dans les Préférences → Graphics → Depth of Field.

• Enable Depth of Field (DOF)(Activer la Profondeur de Champ) : Active la PdC. Pour que cette fonction soit effective il faut activer à la fois les “Shadows” (ombres) et les“Local Lights” ( lumières locales) dans l'onglet Light.
• Show the Current FOV of Viewer Screen (Afficher la PdC courante) :

This will show you the vertical field of view for the camera. In SL is possible to change the lens length just like in RL. The smaller the FOV the longer the camera lens. A 50mm lens has a FOV of 27.0 degrees. To adjust the FOV use the zoom slider bar below.
Please see here for a table showing the relationship between FOV and Lens Focal Length (mm).
Rember to disable this before taking pictures, or it will show in them.

• View angle: In real world terms this is a Zoom feature. This will change the field of view in you viewer window. It is the same as hitting Ctrl + 0 or Ctrl+8.
  NOTE: This will not function if you have flycam enabled (3D SpaceNavigator).
• FOV (Field of View): This tells the viewer what FOV you would like to simulate for the DOF effect. Higher values will produce a more narrow depth of field.
• f-number: Controls maximum screen radius from which to sample from. In real world terms this is the aperture setting for the lens and the lower the value the shorter the depth of field will be. The same applies to SL.
• Foc Length (Focal Length mm): This tells the viewer what Focal Length/Lens Length to simulate for the DOF effect. Higher numbers produce a narrower depth of field.
• Foc Time (Focus Time): This sets the time in seconds it take to the viewer to change focus from one object.
• CoC (Circle of Confusion): This is an important setting. It determines the strength of the blur itself. It does not change the depth of field, it adjusts how much those objects outside of it will be blurry. (This number can be negative, for some “odd” effects.)
• Resolution: This determines the quality of the DOF Effect. For non-photography uses '.25' is good. For setting up shots '.50' or '.70' is very nice. For shooting quality images '1.00' is best. Note that High values will slow down your FPS.
• Aspect Ratio: This is supposed to be aspect ratio of the camera you're modelling. For example, a 35mm camera has an aspect ratio of 3:2 (1.5). Second Life will use this as a frame of reference for how field of view and focal length must be adjusted depending on window size.
  Apparently, this currently has no effect.

• Quality: This will determine the quality of the glow effect, higher is better. There is little visual difference between 8 and 10.

• Iterations: The basic setting for how strong the glow will be. Equivalent to Preferences→ Graphics -> Rendering→ Render Glow - Strength.
• Strength: Additive strength of glow. Very low values are needed to see this effect. Start low.
• Luminance: Minimum luminance intensity necessary to consider an object bright enough to automatically glow.
• Warmth: Amount of warmth extraction to use (versus luminance extraction). 0 = lum, 1.0 = warmth.
  Often has little or no effect.
• Width: Glow sample size. Higher = wider and softer glow, but eventually it will become more pixelated.
• Alpha: Basically how bright the glow is allowed to get.

Many of these settings are also available via Preferences→ Graphics -> General.

• Draw Dist.: This sets the furthest distance the viewer will draw anything. High values will slow your FPS.
• Avi Count: Maximum number of non-impostor avatars to render in a scene. Very helpful for situations where many avatars are slowing your FPS.
• Avi Detail: Sets the render quality of the avatars. Higher is better quality.
• Avi Physics: Controls level of detail of avatar physics (such as chest physics). Higher is better.
• Particle Cnt.: Sets the maximum number of particles to render.
• Terr. Scale: Sets the quality of the default Linden Labs ground (terrain) texture. Requires a restart if changed.
• Terrain Qal: Sets the quality of terrain. High numbers mean more detailed terrain in the distance.
• Obj. Detail: Controls the detail of prims. Higher values produce greater detail for objects.
• Flexiprims: Controls level of detail of flexible objects. Higher means more detail.
• Tree Detail: Controls level of detail of vegetation. Higher numbers produce greater detail.
• Sky Detail: Controls vertex detail on the WindLight sky. Lower numbers will give better performance and less than lovely skies.

• Vig. Amount: Amount of vignette to apply. Please refer to this page for more info on the vignette feature.
• Vig. Power: Power of the vignette.
• Vig. Multiply: Multiply factor.

• Enable Draw Distance: If you disable this feature the Viewer will render past your set draw distance.
• Dynamically adjust level of detail: This enables the feature that allows the viewer to dynamically adjust the level of detail in scene as you move further away from objects. It helps improve performance, it also can reduce the quality of the objects in the scene.
• Render only Objects Visible to the Camera: This allows the viewer only to process/draw those objects that are within the camera field of view and not hidden behind anything else. Usually this is a performance booster. Sometimes it can actually reduce performance especially when the scene/sim has few objects. Toggle to see if it helps or not.
• Anisotropic Filtering: Enables anisotropic filtering to improve texture quality. This setting may reduce your viewer's performance. For more information see this wikipedia page.
• Render Particles Attached to other Avatars: Enables the viewer to render any and all particles attached to/coming from other avatars.

• Anti-aliasing: Determines how sharp and smooth the edges of objects will be. On top level graphics cards, higher values have virtually no performance impact. On lower graphics cards, higher values can slow performance significantly.

• Texture Bumpiness: Controls the strength and resolution of normal and bump maps. You must toggle to check box below for changes to take effect.

The settings here are, as the name suggests, user interface aids. Some of the options are normally only accessible via the Advanced or Develop menus.

• Show Bounding Boxed for All Lights in Scene: Displays colored bounding boxes around all objects in your view which emit light.
• Show Light Radius for Selected Light(s): If you enable this, and then edit one or more objects which emit light, an orange shpere will show, indicating the radius for the light(s).
• Show Bounding Boxes for Objects in the Scene: Displays colored bounding boxes around all objects in your view.
• Show the Statistics Bar: Opens the Stats bar, where you can get detailed info about viewer and region performance.
• Show Detailed Camera Position Data: Display camera info in the lower right of the screen, in white text.
• Show Detail Texture Loading Information: Shows details about texture load and texture memory use, in the upper portion of the screen.
• Show RGB-I Color Values Under Cursor: Displays the Red, Green, Blue and Alpha values for whatever is under your mouse cursor. Note that the color of the light affects the color of objects; if you are trying to match colors, make sure you sure a pure white WL setting.
• Hightlight Transparent Objects in Red: Any objects with transparency will be highlighted. Can also be activated with Ctrl-Alt-T.
• Show the Scene as Wireframe: Switches the view to wireframe display mode; disable to switch back.
• Show the HUD attached to your avatar: If this is disabled, any worn HUDs will not be visible. Useful for doing screen capture.
• Slow-mo Your Avatar: Makes your movements go in slow motion (visible to you only).

• Force Appearance Update: Rebakes your avatar; useful in cases of bake fail.
• Set Window Viewer Size: Change the size of the viewer window.
• Show Debug Settings Menu: Opens the Debug Settings window.

This portion of the window gives a partial view of rendering statstics. It is a subset of the information shown in the Stats bar.

• Frames Per Second:The number of times per second your computer is redrawing (or refreshing) what's on the screen. Higher values mean a smoother experience.
• Bandwidth: How much data is being transferred between your computer and the Second Life world. This number varies wildly depending on what bandwidth settings you've used, where you are inworld, what's going on, and whether you're still loading some things (objects/textures/etc) that are in your field of view. If bandwidth is 0kbps, something may be wrong (you may be partially disconnected).
• KTris Drawn per Frame: Computer-generated 3D objects are built out of triangles (the basic geometric shape). This is a count of the number of triangles, or “tris”, in each frame of the current scene.
• KTris Drawn per Sec: This is a count of the number of triangles ('tris') drawn every second.
• Total Objects: The number of objects currently in view, which includes: prims, avatars, terrain patches, trees, particle groups, and water patches.
• New Objects: The number of objects being downloaded per second.
• Texture Count: The number of unique textures loaded by the viewer.

Many of the settings here duplicate those found in the Phototools Camera window. However, there are also some here which are not present in that window.

Some of the more requently needed settings from the Joytsick settings window, accessed from Preferences→ Move & View -> Movement.

• Left/Right: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Left/Right movement. If you find it difficult to move with precision, use lower scale values.
• Up/Down: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Up/Down movement.
• In/Out: Adjusts the sensitivity of the In/Out movement.
• Pitch: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Tilt movement.
• Yaw: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Spin movement.
• Roll: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Roll movement.
• Zoom Speed: Adjusts the sensitivity of the Zoom speed.
• Feathering: Setting the slider all the way to the right will make the camera very rigid, giving complete control to the joystick. Setting the slider all the way to the left will make the camera very fluid like the camera weighs a lot; good for fly-by shots, not good for framing.

• Zoom Axis Mapping: Controls which mouse axis the zooming function is mapped to (set to work with).
• Enable 3D Mouse: This turns on the 3D Mouse.
• Enable Zoom Control: In order for the zooming control to work, you must set the 'Zoom Mapping' above to '4'.
• Enable Auto Levelling: When enabled, the camera will always remain level.
• Use the 3D Mouse to move the avatar: The mouse will move your avatar.
• Use the 3D Mouse to move objects (building): Uses the 3D mouse to move objects when building and editing.
• Show the Current FOV of Viewer Screen: This will show you the vertical field of view for the camera. In SL is possible to change the lens length just like in RL. The smaller the FOV the longer the camera lens. A 50mm lens has a FOV of 27.0 degrees. To adjust the FOV use the zoom slider bar below.
  Please see here for a table showing the relationship between FOV and Lens Focal Length (mm).
  Rember to disable this before taking pictures, or it will show in them.
• Show Detailed Camera Position Data: Display camera info in the lower right of the screen, in white text.

This tab is, in turn, divided into 3 sub tabs, as follows:

• View Angle: In real world terms this is a Zoom feature. This will change the field of view in you viewer window. It is the same as hitting Ctrl + 0 or Ctrl+8.
  NOTE: This will not function if you have flycam enabled (3D SpacenNavigator).
• Zoom Speed: Controls how fast/slow the camera will zoom in and out. Higher values produce slower and smother zoom.
• Camera Lag: Amount camera lags behind avatar motion (0 = none, 30 = avatar velocity).
• Camera Offset: Controls how far the camera is offset/distance from the default point of view.
• Cam. Smoothing: Controls how smoothly the camera starts and stops. Higher values produce smoother (and somewhat slower) movement.

• Mouse Sensitivity: Controls responsiveness of mouse when in mouselook mode.
• Display avatar & attachments in mouselook: Display avatar and attachments below neck while in mouselook. Default is OFF.
• Smooth Mouselook Movements: Smooths out motion of mouse when in mouselook mode.

• Clicking your avatar keeps camera position: Normally, clicking on your avatar resets the camera position. This option removes this behavior.
• Reset camera position after teleport: Normally, the camera position gets reset when teleporting (within a region). This option prevents this behavior.
• Disable minimum camera zoom distance: Disable the constraint on the closest distance the camera is allowed to get to an object.
• Allow the camera to move w/o constraints: Ignores the 'push' the simulator applies to your camera to keep it out of objects.
  Requires a restart to take effect.
• Reset camera position on avatar movement: If this is disabled and you move your avatar, the camera will not follow it.

Genereller Index

• Downloads (englisch)
• Firestorm Änderungsprotokolle (englisch)
• Firestorm Änderungsprotokolle (unvollständig)

• Basic Info on Getting Help

• Fragen und Anworten
• Anleitungen zur Fehlerbehebung / Troubleshooting Guide

• How to File a JIRA
• How to Contact Support
• Is my Viewer Safe?
• Office Hours
• In World Support Locations

• Firestorm Classes (englisch)

• Login Screen Layout (englisch)
• Viewer Modes (englisch)
• Das Viewer Layout

• Chat (englisch)
• Inventar
• Profile
• Outfits
• Gestures (englisch)
• Mouselook (englisch)
• Formen und andere Körperteile bearbeiten
• Leute Fenster (Radar), auf Freunde und Gruppen kann hier ebenfalls zugegriffen werden
• Contact Sets (englisch)
• Using Search (englisch)
• Streaming Audio and Video
• Voice nutzen
• Uploading Textures, Sounds, etc (englisch)

• Einstellungen sichern
• Firestorm Einstellungen
• Quick Preferences (englisch)
• Cache - Was das ist
• Keyboard Shortcuts

• Reporting Abuse (englisch)

• Saubere Firestorm Installation
• Höhenverstellung
• Feste Windlight Einstellungen
• SLURL Proxy
• AMD/ATI Grafikkarten
• "Texture Discarded Due to Insufficent Memory"
• "Avatar Bake Fail"
• Fehlende Inventargegenstände und deren Wiederherstellung

• Firestorm Client AO
• Managing Groups (englisch)
• Parcel Management (englisch)
• Region Management (englisch)
• Windlight: Parcel Water and Sky (englisch)
• Avatar Physik
• LSL Bridge (LSL Brücke)
• Move Lock (englisch)
• Building, Editing, Terraforming (englisch)
• Running Multiple Firestorm at Once (englisch)
• Exporting and Importing Linksets (englisch)
• Pathfinding

• Firestorm LSL Preprocessor (englisch)
• Debug Settings (englisch)
• Lag verstehen lernen

• (Deutsche Sprache zur Rechtschreibprüfung hinzufügen)

• Backup / Restore
• Render / Derender
• Pose Stand
• Quick Preferences
• Custom Default Prim Parameters
• Customizing In-World Sounds
• Customizing the Button Bar - FS 4.0.1
• Client AO

• Firestorm Class Recordings

• Obsolete Tutorial Videos

• Colour Scheme Tutorial

• Firestorm Source repository
• How to Make a Patch
• How to be a Good Development Neighbor
• Compiling Firestorm ViewerUnder Construction
• Translating the Firestorm UI

• SL 2.0 Erklärungen und Diskussionen Referenz

• Firestorm Q&A Recordings
• Freebie Donations - In-World Vendors
• Applying to Beta Test
• Team April Fools' Pranks

• Firestorm Licenses
• Firestorm Privacy Policy
• Firestorm Viewer Communications to the Firestorm Server
• Firestorm Credits
• Message of the Day Advertising
• Main website

Für die Dokumentation des alten Phoenix, bitte hier klicken.

If you have certain Intel HD graphics, and have upgraded your PC to Windows 10, your graphics card will not be fully supported by Intel. If you have this issue, you will be unable to log in. You will get the following error dialog box:

Firestorm is unable to run because your video card drivers did not install properly or are out of date, or are for unsupported hardware.  Please make sure you have the latest video card drivers, and even if you do have the latest, try reinstalling them.  If you continue to receive this message, contact the Second Life Support Portal

This is not a function of the viewer, but instead is a function of the drivers provided by Intel for your computer. However, we have developed a workaround that should help most users with this issue continue to have the ability to use the Firestorm viewer.

1. Verify that your graphics card is one of the affected versions. You can find a table of affected versions here: Graphics Drivers Supported Operating Systems, but most frequently we have seen Intel HD 2000 and Intel HD 3000. You should be able to verify your graphics in the system info of your computer.
2. Below, select the zip file that is correct for your download, either the 32-bit Havok version or the 32-bit OpenSim version, and download it to your computer. You will need to unzip the file and save it on your computer in a location you will remember.
3. On your computer, open File Explorer. (If it isn't on your taskbar you may need to use the search to find it.) When you open it, select the View tab at the top of the page and check the box on the right hand side that says File Name Extensions.
4. In File Explorer, navigate to This PC then Local Disk (C:) (or the location you normally download Firestorm, if it differs) and then navigate to Program Files (x86). Open Program Files (x86), locate the Firestorm folder, and open it. In the Firestorm folder, locate the Firestorm-Release.exe file and delete it.
5. Replace it with the Firestorm.exe file that was in the zipped folder you downloaded from the web site.

You should now be able to run Firestorm on your PC.

• Havok SL
  SHA-1: 035B4C3B6896CDB5CEEB2B688207EC45E1B46152
• 32-bit non-Havok OS
  SHA-1: CC5EE45EF344E4CED98E683BD5BC86F45767AAE3

• Havok SL
  SHA-1: E72B3C6B99D7DA6C7EA5457D0F48CA79930AB366
• 32-bit non-Havok OS
  SHA-1: 2492C3FA0AC0E3637BDE886DB93637A8F947EF43

• Havok SL
  SHA-1: 78AD19AAFEBA16C9F83229CE6CB9E5A5AF88D7D4
• 32-bit non-Havok OS
  SHA-1: 2990917F75E09A233EAC32F305AB00238B5F6065