You an access the outfit window by going to the Avatar menu and clicking on Appearance, or by clicking the icon in the bottom button bar. This opens the appearance window, which allows you to view and edit outfits. Another way of accessing this window is to right click yourself and select Edit Outfit from the menu.

• Outfit name: At the top of the window is the name of the currently worn outfit - if any; otherwise “No Outfit” appears here. Note that No Outfit doesn't mean that nothing is worn - rather it can simply mean that you wore items manually for different folders, or by some means other than this window.
• Screwdriver-Wrench Icon: This allows the currently worn outfit to be edited. This is described below.

This panel shows a gallery view of your outfits. Actions are available by right clicking on any image.

• Wear - Add to Current Outfit: Adds the selected outfit to your avatar.
• Take off - Remove from current outfit: Removes the items in this outfit from what your avatar is wearing.
• Upload Photo: Upload a photo to use as the gallery image. Costs 10L. Photos cannot be larger than 256×256.
• Select Photo: Select an existing texture from your inventory. Again, images cannot exceed 256×256.
• Take a Snapshot: Take a snapshot in-world, with immediate upload to inventory. Cost is, as always, 10L.
• Remove Photo: Removes the current photo associated with the outfit.
• New clothes: Create a new clothing item to add to the outfit.
• New Body Parts: Create new body parts to add to the outfit.
• Edit Outfit: Go into edit outfit mode.
• Rename Outfit: Change the name of the outfit.

All of these options are also available in the gear icon, on the bottom left.

This view displays your outfits, the ones located in your inventory, in the folder called Outfits. Outfit folders are listed alphabetically, and do not show “nesting” (ie, if you have folders within folders, that structure is not shown in this view.) Several things can be done in this view:

• Small Arrow: clicking this will open the outfit to show all items in it. Clicking it again will close the outfit folder again.
• Right Click - Folder: Right clicking an outfit name displays a small menu. With this, you may wear the outfit, replacing the one worn, wear it but adding to whatever you have worn, take it off (if it is currently worn); you can also rename or delete it.
• Right Click - Item: If you right click on an item in an outfit folder, you can wear or detach it, get information about it (item profile), and so on.

Clicking on this tab gives a list of all currently worn items: clothing and attachments (including HUDs). Right clicking any one allows you to detach that item, or edit it (which opens an edit window), or to edit the entire outfit; this last is covered below.

• Gear Icon: Below the outfit list view is a gear icon. This behaves differently, depending on whether you are in My Outfits view or Wearing view:
  • In My Outfits View: Many of the options are also available when right clicking folders or single items. But in addition, it is also possible to create new clothes or new body parts.
  • In Wearing View: Allows you to edit the outfit, or remove a worn item.

• Send to clipboard: This button will copy the list of worn items to your clipboard; from there, it may be pasted into a notecard, or a text editor or blog post, with Ctrl-V (Cmd-V on a Mac).

If you click the screwdriver-wrench at the top of the window, you are taken to the Edit Outfit window. Here, you may add or remove items from the currently worn outfit.

The outfit window is organized into three tabs: Clothing, Attachments and Body Parts. If you mouse over a worn item, you will see two icons appear, on either side of the item:

• X on the left: clicking that will remove the item from the outfit.
• Screwdriver-Wrench on the right: if you click this, you will be able to edit the item directly - except for attachments.

On the clothing tab, below the list of worn clothing items, are types of items not currently worn. For example, if you are wearing a shirt shirt, then Shirt will not appear here; if instead you are not wearing a jacket layer, then it will be listed - and to the right, a Plus sign, which allows you to add a new clothing item of that specific type, from your inventory.

Beneath the list, is an Add More button. Clicking this splits the view in half, horizontally, as shown here. In this lower window, you can scroll to select items to add to the outfit. To the right of the (now pressed) Add More button is a drop down which you may use to filter the list below. Once you have found the desired item, click the Wear Item button below the window.

Below this button are two buttons that allow you to view the list in an inventory tree, or as a flat list.

When done, click the Add More button again.

At the bottom left is a gear icon; click this to create a new type of item (body part, clothing, physics, etc).

On the bottom left is a shopping cart icon; clicking this opens the SL marketplace in your web browser.

To save your modified outfit, click the Save button at the bottom of the window. Or, if you wish to save this with a new name, click the up arrow to the right and select Save As.

NOTE: Editing body parts is covered on a separate page.

This isn't the only way to work with outfits in Firestorm. If you prefer, you can work with your inventory directly, by creating folders yourself in some other folder, and moving or copying items into it. You may also copy an item and then Paste Link, which is very useful if items are no copy.

One advantage of using this method is that you may structure your outfits by category. For example, you can create folders such as:

• Casual
• Formal
• Fantasy

… and so on. And in each of those, create folders for single outfits. This method may be more tedious but it does give greater flexibility.

NOTE: Using this method breaks the built-in outfit system accessed via the Appearance window. So use one or the other, not both.

There has been much speculation and rumor since Ebbe Linden revealed LL's work on a follow-on grid to SL, which is called Sansar at this time.

Rather than panicking, please educate yourself about what has actually been said on the topic by reading and viewing the original sources. Commentary from other sources should of course be taken with a grain of salt; however, we recommend Jessica Lyon's posts (on the Firestorm blog; see specific links below) as a good place to start.

Linden Lab have gone to great lengths to assure Second Life residents of their continued support and investment in the Second Life platform. With the recent launch of Bento and the Visual Outfit Browser amongst other new features, alongside increases in prim allowances for all land owners, there should be little doubt as to the sincerity of this commitment. To underline this further, Firestorm's own Jessica Lyon joined Patch Linden and a number of other prominent Second Life residents to discuss hopes and plans for the future of Second Life. Links to the show and further information can be found in this Designing Worlds Blog Post

If you wish to discuss the topic, please do NOT do so in Firestorm support groups. Please discuss it in The Phoenix Lounge in-world group, or in other groups of your choice; or in this (long) discussion thread, where Ebbe Linden answers some questions.

• Ebbe Altberg's (Ebbe Linden) Twitter feed
  

• The Third-party Viewer Meeting with Ebbe Altberg's original mention of the new project. Ebbe's discussion begins roughly 58 minutes into the video.
  

• Phoenix Firestorm Question and Answer session - 02 July 2014 (guests: Oz & Pete Linden) (Inara Pey's transcript available here):
  

• VWBPE 2015: Ebbe Altberg – LL’s Next Generation platform - 19 March 2015

• Jessica Lyon's first blog post on the topic (June 23, 2014)
• Jessica Lyon's opinion post on the topic (June 26, 2014)
• Jessica Lyon's interview on Prim Perfect (June 26, 2014)

• Blog post by Inara Pey (June 21, 2014)
• Blog post by Jo Yardley (June 21, 2014)
• Blog post by Jo Yardley (June 24, 2014)
• Blog post by Tonya Souther (June 24, 2014)

• A new version of Second Life is being built from the ground up, with a little help from the Oculus Rift - TheNextWeb.com (June 24, 2014)
• Virtual world Second Life to be reincarnated, with Oculus Rift - The Guardian (June 24, 2014)
• Second Life's second act will be a social network for virtual reality - Engadget (June 26 2014)

If you find that you are crashing when uploading images, or doing anything that opens a file picker, then read on.

When you open a Finder window from SL, if you are in either Icon mode or Coverflow, and switch to either List or Columns mode the viewer will still crash. You need to do the following to work around this:

• Log into the viewer
• Go to Build menu in top menu bar → Upload → Image
• When Finder opens, change the view mode to List
• Cancel the Finder
• Exit the SL Viewer
• Relaunch

You should now be able to upload - and perform operations with the file picker in general - without crashing. You can even switch between List and Columns. But, you can never switch to the Icon or Coverflow.

• Login
• Open Inventory
• Go to Build menu in top menu bar → Upload → Image
• Switch view mode to either List or Columns
• Cancel the Finder window
• Exit the viewer
• Relaunch the viewer

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, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Social%20Island/250/6/4001
• JU: Junkyard University, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Junkyard%20Blues%20South/68/124/22

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.

*All times SLT*

And that is indeed a million dollar question! Lag is pervasive in SL, and there is no such thing as a “lag free SIM” - except one that is completely empty.

Before this can be answered, it is first vital to understand what lag is exactly, so please refer to this page for an explanation of the 3 forms of lag.

If you find yourself being badly lagged, there are things you can do to reduce the effects of two of the three types: client and network. You can only reduce server side lag if you own or rent the parcel or region being affected by it.

This is the most common of lag you will experience in SL. And you can do a great deal about it, without requiring that others do anything, and most of it simply entails reducing your graphics settings. Try these one at a time; sometimes just one or two will be enough to make things significantly better. Also, they are not given in order: in different situations, some will be preferable solutions than others.

Graphics settings changes that may help:

• Set your graphics to Low: Preferences→ Graphics -> General→ Quality and speed.
• Ensure that anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing are both disabled: Preferences → Graphics → Hardware Settings tab.
• Reduce your draw distance.
• Reduce the maximum number of non-impostor avatars (this makes drawing of distant avatars much faster): Preferences → Graphics → General.
• Reduce your Maximum Complexity value (this renders more complex avatars as “jellydolls”).
• Disable atmospheric shaders (which serves to drastically reduce how much your computer has to render, as the sky alone is very graphics-intensive).
• If need be, inhibit the rendering of other avatars: Advanced → Rendering Types → Avatar.
• Alternately, you can derender avatars one by one, by right clicking on them and selecting Derender.
• You can also derender objects, the same way.
• If there are many particle effects around you, turn particles off: Advanced → Rendering Types → Hide Particles.

These things will reduce the “quality” of your SL experience, but they may be required if you find that your movement is badly impaired by client side lag.

System issues to check:

• If you have a dual graphic card laptop then see here.
• Make sure your anti-virus software is not scanning the viewer cache folders; this has been known to have a huge impact on viewer performance. BitDefender is apparently one that is particularly bad in this respect. Whitelist the viewer and the cache folder to prevent this from happening. Webroot is known to cause serious problems; see this special Webroot page.
• If you use Windows, try disabling SuperFetch, and see if that helps. More info here and here.

Windows 10: Check to see if your computer is downloading updates in the background or running defragging operations.

• To check for defragging:
  1. Open File Explorer
  2. Right click a drive (for instance, C:) and select Properties
  3. Click the “Tools” tab
  4. Click the “Optimise” button
  5. A window will opening showing if a defrag is in action (click to see image)
• To check for background updating:
  1. (instructions to come)

If you own or rent a home, or a public venue, there are things you can do to reduce client lag for yourself and others without overly sacrificing the “feel” of the location. For example:

• Use small textures on all structures, 512×512 or smaller.
• Avoid using prims that change textures if possible; if you need them, again, try to keep the textures small.
• Avoid using textures with alpha channels if none are needed (a solid brick wall texture doesn't need an alpha channel).
• Make enclosed spaces that do not give too large a view of the exterior, especially the sky.
• Use particles and animated textures sparingly.

Another common cause of lag is your network connection. You may even have a high speed connection, but if you have set your bandwidth too low or too high in Firestorm, you will be causing lag for yourself.

Determining the optimal value for bandwidth in Firestorm is explained on on this page.

Other things that are known to affect connection speeds are firewalls and anti-virus software. So if you still experience network-related lag, you can try disabling these, temporarily, and seeing if things improve. If they do, then you may want to consider replacing firewall and/or anti-virus software.

In SL, you can reduce bandwidth usage (and thus network lag), by looking for and identifying items which cause frequent updates between client (the viewer) and SL servers. Many objects cause such updates; some you will need or want to keep, but you may be able to eliminate others.

To get a visual indication of what objects cause updates, go to top menu, Develop → Show info → Show Updates to Objects. (Press Ctrl-Alt-Q to enable Develop on the top menu, if it isn't.) This will enable colored trails above objects that are updating. Each color has a different meaning¹⁾:

• Red: Indicates a full update, such as the creation of a prim. This is a relatively large data packet sent to your computer. If you see objects that are showing a constant stream of red, they're contending for your bandwidth, which may cause other things in the area (like textures) to load slower. If the object is made up of many pieces, the packet is larger.
• Blue: Indicates a partial update, such as a change of position or color for a prim. These are always smaller than full updates. However, the same rules apply as for the full updates. If you are creating content, it's a good habit to make sure it's not updating many times per second. Changing colors, textures, shape, or particle parameters several times per second causes partial updates that contend for your bandwidth.
• Green: Indicates an ending update, such as the deletion of a prim. If this packet gets lost on the way from the server to your computer, the object becomes a “ghost” – your viewer still renders it, but you can walk through it, and when you edit it, the Creator field is blank because the object no longer exists on the server.

You can disable showing of updates by unchecking the setting mentioned above: Develop → Show info → Show Updates.

Objects that update are generally (but not always) scripted. However, many scripted objects do not constantly generate updates. For example, a scripted chair that is not in use, is “idle”. It does nothing, and therefore isn't generating netwrok traffic.

NOTE: Some effects are in-world only; they cause things to change visually but are handled entirely by the client, thus do not create any network (or region) lag. These include: particles, texture animation, client-side rotation.

If you own or rent a parcel or region, then there are many things you can do to help reduce server lag. Here is a partial, incomplete list:

• Remove all unnecessary scripts.
• Remove all items that rez temporary objects (temp rez creates a lot of lag on a SIM).
• If you host events, consider providing seating for avatars and ask them to make use of it.
• Similarly, for events, request that attendees detach scripted attachments before they arrive (NOTE: asking people to reduce their ARC does not alleviate server lag in a noticeable way).
• For large parcels, provide easy ways for people to teleport about, saving them walking (avatars moving creates physics lag).

This section covers issues related to audio, video and some aspects of search.

• For situations where you cannot hear audio, be it streaming music, or the audio from a movie/video, the first thing to do is check that:
  • streaming music and/or media are enabled in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds;
  • volumes for music and media are not at minimum;
  • audio is configured correctly in your operating system (ie, Windows, linux, OSX), that sounds is going to the correct device (ie, speakers or headset), and so on;
  • You have not blocked the stream/video; check Preferences → Sound & Media → Media → Manage Media Sites.
  • for streaming music, test the music URL in your external web browser, to make sure that the URL actually works.

• 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.

• In Preferences → Sound & Media → Sounds, make sure the “Enabled” checkbox to the right of the “Media” slider is checked
  (For audio, check “Streaming Music”)
• In Preferences → Sound & Media → Media, check “Allow inworld scripts to play media”
• Make sure the issue is not with the specific television you are using, by attempting to view videos on a television that plays video normally for other Firestorm users.
• Make sure that “Enable plugins” is ticked in Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection, else the external media plugin can not be executed, and you may see a message saying: Adobe Flash Player or an HTML5 supported browser is required for video playback.

• Relog Firestorm and open the Search window
• Go to your computer processes and look for “slplugin.exe”
  • For Windows users, go to Task Manager → Processes Tab
  • For Mac users, go to Activity Monitor → My Processes (usually by default, but you can check top right drop down)
  • For Linux users, go to Command Terminal, and type “ps aux”
  • You may see four instances of the slplugin running (that is normal behavior)
  • If you do not see any instances of slplugin running, that is the cause of media failing
• If slplugin is not running, disable all firewall and virus protection (including anti-virus software and windows or other operating system firewalls)
• Relog and attempt video playback again
• If it works, you will need to stop your firewall/virus protection from blocking the slplugin file by granting it appropriate permissions in your firewall/virus protection software
• NOTE: If you have several viewers installed, you will have to allow to each one access through your firewall, as well as to SLPlugin for each one.
• If all of the above does not resolve the issue, you can try downloading the latest SL Viewer 2 viewer and replacing your Firestorm slplugin file with the one from Viewer 2.

• Windows users:
  • In order to play Flash format videos (e.g., YouTube videos), you must have the Opera & Chromium version of the Adobe Flash plugin installed. Unless you already have this specific version of Flash installed already, you will need to get the Opera & Chromium Flash plugin from Adobe.

• Linux users
  • You need to have the pepperflash plugin installed, which can be satisfied by installing pepperflashplugin-nonfree for Chromium

• Mac users
  • Mac users currently need the Safari & Firefox version of Adobe Flash plugin installed. Download it from Adobe.

• NOTE: If you experience graphics driver crashes on nVidia cards when viewing Flash media (for example Youtube) both in-world and on a website and/or severe drops in your GPU clock mhz on any card then you will need to disable hardware acceleration on Flash Player. To do this, go to Youtube and Pick any video. Right click the video play area to bring up the options and follow the instructions here.

QuickTime is no longer needed for Windows users (and never was for linux users). Mac users, however, still need to have it.

• If YouTube videos suddenly will not play, and you just get a white screen, go to Preferences→ Privacy -> General, and click on Clear History, then try again.
• See also the Flash section, above.

Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds and make sure the volume sliders for streaming music and media are not all to the left and that there is no mute symbol (red no entry sign) on the speaker icon next to those. Make sure the Master Volume is not all to the left.

Check that Sound Source rolloff distance (Media tab) is correct; set back to default, if you changed it (5m and 30 respectively for min and max).

Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds and check that you have the Sounds and UI sliders up high enough and that there is no mute symbol (red no entry sign) on the speaker icon next to those.

Go to the top menu bar→ Advanced → Use Plugin Read Thread, and disable it, if it is enabled - or vice versa. (If you cannot see Advanced on the top menu, press Ctrl-Alt-D.)

If that doesn't help, first ensure that you have your bandwidth set correctly. Also, test the audio stream in your regular media player, and/or try a different audio stream in-world.

If the music volume fades as you cam around or edit objects, check the sound equalization settings in your operating system. For example, this may be caused by “Loudness equalization” being enabled in your speaker properties on Windows 7. (Refer to http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-19885.)

If using a VEA4 TV, you get a “File could not be found” error, disable the IPv6 protocol in the Windows network adapter. Note that this is not recommended, but apparently is the only way to get this brand of TV to work.

Refer to this page for all Win10 issues.

Please ensure that you have the most recent version of Flash for Safari installed. You can get this via the normal update process, or from Adobe.

For streaming music on OS X 10.9 Mavericks, please refer to this page.

For users on Sierra, there are reports of media features (such as MOAP, TVs, web search, and web profiles) working more slowly. Ref. BUG-40552.

Both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Firestorm for Linux require 32-bit libraries to function. See this page for a link to your Linux flavor to verify you have all the needed audio-related packages installed and to troubleshoot stream issues.

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 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.

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.

• 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).

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:

• 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.

• 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.)

Some have issues with voice on Firestorm - specifically, “stuttering”, or SLVoice crashing when you unplug a USB device. The only work-around currently is to swap out the voice files.

• Method One:
  To this end, download this file; save it to your hard drive. Make sure you do not have Firestorm running. Then extract the files to your Firestorm install folder. (For Firestorm 32-bit viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm on 32 bit Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Firestorm on Windows 64-bit. For Firestorm 64-bit Viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm.) When prompted, allow the replacement of existing files.

• Method 2 - Firestorm 4.7.3 Only:
  Download Firestorm 4.6.9 from here. If you current have FS 64-bit, get FS 4.6.9 32-bit - and vice versa. Go into your “computer” and find the the 4.6.9 Version Firestorm you downloaded.
  Copy the files below and replace them in your 4.7.3 Firestorm install folder:
  ca-bundle.crt
  ortp.dll
  SLVoice.exe
  vivoxoal.dll
  vivoxplatform.dll
  vivoxsdk.dll

Try disabling compatibility mode, if enabled:

• Locate your desktop shortcut for Firestorm
• Right click on the icon and select Properties
• Select the Compatibility tab
• Find “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” if it is set then disable this
• Make sure “Run as Administrator” is enabled (if this is greyed out, then you're probably already running as administrator, so you can ignore this step).
• Click Apply.
• Now log back into the viewer, and see if voice works (do you have the white dot over your head?). If not, go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice and disable voice; wait a few moments, then re-enable. ¹⁾

On Windows 7, if you find yourself being able to talk but not hear what others say, then a possible solution is to use the sound drivers from Vista. (This needs further confirmation.)

Check that slvoice.exe is not muted in the speaker/headphones icon (located in the notification area) → mixer.

Every linux distro is different; and each distro may have more than one window manager to further complicate things. So tips can't be “absolute”; you will need to experiment and see what works for you. The following have been suggested by some as effective. But first….

In the Firestorm install directory, there's a text file (originally from LL) with tips on getting voice to work in linux. If you haven't read that, then you can try to see if it helps.

• Make sure you have ALSA and/or FMODEX available. FMODEX is supplied with Firestorm, normally. If you look at Help → About Firestorm, you should see a line that resembles this:
  Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.11.753 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: PulseAudio Software
  If that says “none” then you have no audio driver available to Firestorm and need to install one.

• Edit the firestorm shell script and remove the #. That will force LL to use FMOD rather than ALSA. Some say this is how to get voice working.

#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x

• Some swear that the problem is PulseAudio, so you can try to remove that from your system. Be warned, however, that this could cause more problems than it solves. Make sure you remove only Pulse and not half the OS.
• Be sure to have the correct devices select in Firestorm for voice:
  
  Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings (button) … input and output may not work if left at default; they may need to go to a specific device like “ALSA Capture on [device name]”.

Below are results for selected linux distros, based on input from Phoenix and Firestorm users. This will be updated as more information becomes available.

• ubuntu 16.04 64 bit + FS64: The following command installs a few 32-bit libs and voice works after. Maybe you need fewer 32-bit libs but that needs further investigation.
  Apparently, arch requires these as well - or some of them - though the exact lib name may be different.

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 libuuid1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

• A new option in Firestorm 4.7.9 is a debug setting, FSLinuxEnableWin32VoiceProxy, which when enabled will cause Firestorm to launch the Windows version of SLVoice.exe via WINE. To use this, you need to ensure that WINE is installed; install WINE with your package manager. An existing WINE profile/prefix is not needed, but will be used if present. Depending on your system, it may take several seconds before voice comes up.
  NOTES:
  * If you disable voice and then re-enable too quickly, WINE may not successfully restart and voice may fail to re-enable. If you get the warning that there was a problem connecting, you will need to relog before voice will re-enable. Thirty seconds between disable and enable should be enough.
  * There is a known related issue here
  * To speed up the initial loading of voice, use

  wine-preloader $HOME/path/to/firestorm/bin/win32/SLVoice.exe

  before launching Firestorm

If you are unable to connect to voice and you are also having problems with teleporting and/or loading your friends list, perhaps along with other things, then see the “Mac-specific” section of this page for instructions and more explanation.

Some Mountain Lion users experience a problem with voice output, while input works fine (that is, you can hear but you can't speak). To fix this, open the voice preferences for your viewer (Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice in Firestorm). Click the device settings button and select “built-in microph” as the audio input device and click OK. Reopen Preferences and go back to the device settings button to ensure you're getting sound in on the mic.

By default, viewers store chat transcripts in the same directory as it does settings and configuration files (Contact Sets, teleport history, etc.). This wiki will help you change where your transcripts are stored and offer some management tips to help minimize the lag caused by keeping transcripts.

NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you at least move your chat transcripts before you wipe your settings, if you wish to preserve them when upgrading your viewer.

There is no wrong location to store chat transcripts, except possibly your desktop and the user settings directory. A good place might be in a subdirectory in Documents. This wiki assumes that; substitute as needed.

• Open your file explorer, navigate to your Documents directory and create a directory in there. Call it Chat Logs, or whatever you prefer.
  The viewer will create subdirectories in here, each named for your avatar. Inside each avatar subdirectory will be the actual chat files.

• Log into Second Life, then open Preferences → Network & Files → Directories. Look for the Conversation logs and transcripts location field.

• Click Set, then choose the directory you created above. Click OK or Open or Save, as appropriate.

• Click OK, and all your chat files will move to the new location.

• Relog to ensure your changed settings are saved.

Repeat this section for each avatar for which chat transcripts will be saved.

Some chat files may not have been moved because they weren't referenced in your Conversation Log, or you may be unable to log in. To move them:

• Navigate to the folder that stores the application data for the viewer - if you do not see this folder, you may need to show hidden folders.

• In the file explorer, you should see several directories, one named for your avatar. That's your per-account settings. Open that directory

• Your chat files are plain text files (.txt if your explorer displays extensions), they're named either chat for Nearby Chat, or named for each avatar's or group's chat you've seen. Select all those chat files and press Ctrl-X (Mac: Cmd-X) to “cut” them.

• Navigate to your new chat logs location, which you selected above. If there is no directory inside there named for your avatar, create it now, then open it and press Ctrl-V (Mac: Cmd-V) to move all your chat files in.

Repeat this section for each avatar for which chat transcripts will be saved.

When you launch your viewer, it checks for any existing chat files and keeps that information in memory. When you have a lot of chat files, it takes up a lot of memory. Also when you have a large chat file for an active chat, that entire file may be loaded into memory. This can cause viewer lag and may affect how long it takes to open, say, Preferences the first time after login. There are ways you can have chat logs and minimize the lag they create.

• Use datestamps Datestamps are added to chat file names and they help to keep chat files smaller by limiting how much text would be entered. Group and IM files store a month's worth of chat, Nearby stores a single day's worth. The disadvantage of this is that you cannot use the viewer chat features to search for chat that for a previous period.

• Archive files While old chat files may not ever be opened again by the viewer, the viewer still has to iterate through each one to build its file list. Moving old chat files means the file list is smaller, and will reduce lag.
  An archive can be literally anywhere except in the directory that contains your active chats. A good location might be in the Chat Logs directory, in a subdirectory called Archives.
  if you do not use datestamps, you might consider adding a datestamp manually before or after moving the file to your archive. The viewer will happily create any chat file that's missing.

NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you log out of the viewer before moving chat files or performing any other file explorer functions inside your Chat Logs or settings directories.

The current release version of Firestorm is available here.

“n/a” in the table below means “not available”; see the boxed note above.

“n/a” in the table below means “not available”.

In general, Nvidia graphics cards and drivers work very well with Second Life.

There is a known Nvidia driver crash that occurs for some users on El Capitan. See Mac El Capitan Nvidia Driver Crash.

If you have started crashing following an Nvidia driver update, try going back to the driver version that worked for you. Be sure to completely uninstall the recent driver before installing the older one.

See also this page.

If you have Nvidia Shadowplay installed, disable it. Google “how to disable nvidia shadowplay” for instructions.

One user reports that on a recent Nvidia Experience version, turning off Share in the Settings menu disables Shadowplay without having to go through Windows controls.

This crash started on El Capitan and has continued on Sierra.

There is no real fix for this crash (the fix will need to come from Apple); however, switching over to using the Nvidia web drivers may stop the crashes. There is a chance of the viewer running with poorer performance.

This problem affects other games, too; for example, see constant crashes - OS X 10.11 El Capitan and OSX El Capitan 10.11 Beta (15A21). The same workaround appears to fix the problem in other games also; that is, to switch over to using the Nvidia web drivers instead of the Nvidia driver that Apple provides.

Please note that this is not a viewer-specific crash. Refer to this Firestorm Jira: [BUG-10302] [Mac El Capitan] Firestorm crash/incompatibility with Mac OS 10.11 and this SL Jira: BUG-10302 Frequent Crashes in Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

• Find the list of Nvidia web drivers here, with download links directly from Nvidia: Nvidia Web Driver updates for macOS Sierra.
• Follow these instructions on how to install Nvidia web drivers: NVIDIA Releases Alternate Graphics Drivers for OS X 10.11.3. (These instructions are for El Capitan and have not been verified for Sierra.)
• You can switch between using the Apple Nvidia driver and the Nvidia web driver (needs a reboot after each change).

Sierra comes with a new feature that allows compatible applications to create multiple tabs in one window, much like a web browser. Unfortunately, Firestorm is not a compatible application, so if the key combo (Cmd-Shift-T) is hit while you're logged in on Firestorm, whether intentionally or by accident, a second title bar (the bar that shows the viewer name, version number, and name of the account currently logged in) will appear below the regular one, with no apparent way to get rid of it.

To rid yourself of this extra title bar:

• Hit Cmd-Shift-T again. This should turn the second title bar into a blank red bar.
• Relog.

The extra bar must be red and the app title not showing when you relog. If the second title bar is showing, it will still be there when you relaunch the viewer.