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%20Ghost%20Town/24/11/4000
• 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*

Please join Jessica Lyon, Ed Merryman and Teresa Firelight at the SciFi Convention for a brief presentation followed by an open Q & A. It will cover what the Firestorm Gateway is, discuss the SciFi Portal, and explain how the Firestorm Gateway can connect the SciFi Community to new-to-SL residents with similar interests.

DATE: Friday March 26

TIME: 6 PM SLT - 7 PM SLT

LOCATION: SciFi Convention Aquarius Stage: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forty%20Two/60/207/26

For more information on the Firestorm Gateway SciFi Portal, please visit Firestorm Gateway SciFi Portal.

General Index

• Downloads
• Firestorm Release Notes

• For New Residents
• Basic Info on Getting Help
• Troubleshooting Guide
• Hot LL JIRA Issues Of The Day
• How to File a JIRA
• How to Contact Support
• Is my Viewer Safe?
• Office Hours
• In World Support Locations
• Firestorm Gateway Team

• Firestorm Classes

• Firestorm Gateway and the SciFi Community
• Latest Gateway Events News
• Firestorm Gateway SciFi Portal

• Login Screen Layout
• Viewer Modes
• The Viewer Layout

• Movement and Camera
• Chat
• Inventory
• Profiles
• Outfits
• Gestures
• Mouselook
• Editing Shapes and Other Body Parts
• People Panel Nearby (Radar), Friends and Groups are accessed here
• Contact Sets
• Using Search
• Streaming Audio and Video
• Voice
• Uploading Textures, Sounds, etc

• Top Menu Bar
• Preferences
• Backing Up Settings
• Quick Preferences
• Cache - What It Is
• Keyboard Shortcuts

• Reporting Abuse
• Avatar Complexity Settings

• Client AO
• Managing Groups
• Parcel Management
• Region Management
• Windlight: Water and Sky
• Avatar Physics
• LSL Bridge
• Move Lock
• Adjusting Font Sizes
• Building, Editing, Terraforming
• Running Multiple Firestorm at Once
• Exporting and Importing Linksets
• Pathfinding
• Displayed Time Format
• Joystick and space Navigator

• Firestorm LSL Preprocessor
• Debug Settings
• Understanding Lag

• Phototools
• 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
• Camera Control
• Autoreplace
• People Panel / Radar
• Contact Sets
• Using the Command Line
• Doing a Clean Reinstall
• Build Tools

• 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 - Explanation and Discussion Reference
• 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

What is chat? Chat is essentially how we communicate with other residents in Second Life. There are two major categories of chat; Text chat and Voice chat. This page will focus on text chat. For info about voice chat, go here Voice.

There are 4 types of chat:

• Local chat is where everyone within chat range can hear you.
• Group chat is where you can talk to a group as a whole.
• Instant messaging (IM) is where you can talk privately one on one to another individual.
• Ad Hoc (Conference) calls where you can talk to a group of people you select in an IM.

• Normal chat has a range of 20 meters. To use normal text chat, input your text in either the main chat bar at the bottom or in the nearby chat window.
• Shout has a range of 100 meters. To use shout, press ctrl + enter keys after inputting your text.
• Whisper has a range of 10 meters. To use whisper, press shift + enter keys after inputting your text.
• Instant messages, group chats and conference calls are grid wide.

Alternatively, you can choose to show the “send” button at the end of the nearby chatbar which you can select the chat type (whisper, say, or shout) but it will remain in whatever chat type until you change it. To enabled this “send” button, go to Preferences→ Chat -> Typing→ Show chat type / send chat button in chat bar.

The viewer has the ability to translate text into a language that you choose but you need to set up an account with Bing or Google to do so. See here for more information. Previously, Google provided free translation services, but this has now ended, and you must establish your own account with Bing or Google which may incur a cost. Please be aware that chat translation only works in nearby chat and not in IMs or group chat.

There are several ways to start an instant message:

• To talk to a nearby avatar, right click on any part the avatar (not their attachments) or their name tag and select IM from the menu.
• From the friends list in the contacts window, select on the person’s name and press the IM/call button.
• From the friends list in the People Panel, select the person’s name and press the IM button at the bottom of that window.
• If person is already chatting, click on the name in the chat window, this will bring up a quick profile window, and press the IM button.
• In a person’s profile, press the Instant Message button.

Provided you are allowed to join a group chat, go to group tab in Contacts window and either double click on the group or select the group and press the IM/call button.

If you are in the group tab in the People Panel, double clicking on the group will start chat or you can right-click on the selected group and select chat.

To close the group chat window for the duration of the login session, press the X button at top right of that group window. If you want to close it temporarily, press the Zz button at top right to put the group in “snooze” mode. Snooze mode will close the chat for a set duration and after that duration is done, any new chat in that group will make that group's chat window open again. Chat group duration default time is set to 900s but can be changed in Preferences> Chat> Chat Window.

A conference is a private conversation with two or more Residents. It is similar to group chat, but more dynamic, since everyone on your friends list can be invited, as well as everyone where you got a calling card from.

To start a conference chat:

• Go to Conversations window → Contacts Tab → Friends and select each friend you want to include in the conference by pressing Ctrl + left click on mouse on each friend’s name and then press the IM/Call button.
• Go to the People Panel→ Friends tab and select each friend you want to include in the conference by pressing Ctrl + left click on mouse on each friend’s name and then right-click and select IM.
• If you already have an IM going with someone and want to add another resident, you have two ways to do this:
  • go to Inventory→ Calling Card folder and drag that resident’s calling card into the IM, or
  • press the “add someone to this conversation” button at top of the IM.
  • Drag and Drop the selected avatar in the current IM. Can drag and drop from the following windows:
    • Radar
    • Nearby Avatar tab in People window
    • Friends tab in People window
    • Friends tab in Contacts tab (Conversations window)
    • People Search tab in Search window
    • Contact sets

Note: Conferences are limited to twenty participants.

The terminology has changed so please read here.

To save or not save your chat logs and transcripts (nearby, IM/Group), go to Preferences→ Privacy -> Logs & Transcripts and select the options under Save:.

The location for the saved chat logs and transcripts depends on your operating system but can be found and changed in Network & Files -> Directories→ Conversation logs and transcripts location. Press the Set button to change it to a different folder.

If you are offline and an IM is sent to you, the IM is backlogged and will appear as a set of notification icons in the upper right or lower left of your Viewer when you log in.

The backlog can contain up to 25 IMs (cap limit), including inventory transfers, group invitations, and group notifications. If someone gives you an inventory item (generating an IM message), the message is placed in your inventory's Trash folder, and you can retrieve it when you return. If a scripted object sends the inventory, it is deleted immediately.

Second Life will keep the IMs in the backlog for 31 days. If you do not log in within the 31 days to view your IMs, they will be deleted.

To ensure you get your offline IMs and not get them capped, they can be sent to the email address that is connected to your contact information. To enable this option, go to Preferences→ Chat -> Notices→ check Email me IMs when I'm offline.

If you send a reply to an offline IM via email, the original sender will receive it as an IM. The email reply is limited to 1023 characters and must be sent within 5 days.

There are several ways to have your chat windows set up to your liking.

Docked in the conversations window:

• Go to Preferences→ Chat -> Chat Windows→ . Next to “Show IMs in”, tick Tabs and then relog.

As separate windows:

• Go to Preferences→ Chat -> Chat Windows. Next to “Show IMs in”, tick Separate Windows and then relog.

How to dock/undock the chat windows:

• There is a “tear off” button next to the 'x' (Close). Press that to dock and undock the chat window.

How to rearrange the IMs:

• Select and drag the IM tab to the order that you choose.

How do I make the group chat look like the old style chat?

• In Preferences, go to Chat -> Chat Windows, and check Use V1 style chat headers.

How do I change the size of the font in chat?

• In Preferences, go to Chat -> Chat Windows, and select the size that you prefer in “Chat window font size”

How do I get my Contacts window back:

• If your Contacts window is not showing, go to the top menu bar→ Comm menu → Contacts (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F).
• If Contacts window is showing but undocked and there is no tear off button showing, go to top menu bar→ Preferences→ Advanced (Ctrl+Alt+D) → Debug Settings → Search for ContactsTornOFF and set to False.

Did you know that many first time visitors to SL are interested in SciFi and/or Roleplay? Because of that, the Firestorm Gateway has developed a SciFi Portal. The portal provides explorers with the following:

• An interesting SciFi environment to explore and interact with
• A place to either observe or join in SciFi RolePlay
• HUD-driven quests to allow a person to complete a series of tasks as a space station security guard or as a starship engineer.
• A place for new-to-SL and new-to-RP individuals to get free SciFi uniforms, skins or whole avatars so that they can create their own SciFi look.

Do you love SciFi and also love to explore? The SciFi portal can keep you busy for hours and hours. There is a large Trek Starship (the USS Gateway), a generic scifi spaceship (the Epsilon) and a huge space station (ISS Tempus). You can visit a working holodeck, fly a shuttle in open space, work out in the station's gym (stocked with interactive exercise equipment), have a drink at Callahan's bar, play poker or greedy, dance on a futuristic dance floor, pilot a Federation Starship, etc. There is also a tutorial section for those new to RP, and two supply decks. You can get uniforms on the Starship Supply Deck, and Scifi Avatars and/or Alien skins on the station supply deck (located on the lower level of Callahans bar.)

Get started at the SciFi Portal: SciFi Portal

Once you arrive, find the sign that says “Click here to select a SciFi Destination.” Choose your destination from a pulldown menu, and *poof* you will be there.

There is so much to be said about the Roleplay that it has its own page. Please see Firestorm Gateway Roleplay for more details.

A quest is an adventure where you have to complete a series of tasks. (They are also a great way to get a self-guided tour of either the Starship or the Space Station.)

The quests are on a terminal on the wall just to the right of the transporter. You can choose between the following

• Starship Quest - This allows you to be an engineer on the Trek Starship, USS Gateway. You will be given a series of engineering challenges to complete that move you around the Starship. This quest usually takes 15-20 minutes to complete.
• Station Quest - This allows you to be a security guard on patrol of the station. You will have to deal with issues such as feeding prisoners detained in the brig, dealing with contraband and stolen supplies. You will also have to patrol much of the station, getting a great tour of this large station. This quest usually takes about 1/2 hour to complete.

The quests use a HUD. You can get the HUD from the dispenser in the SciFi Portal. Here are the instructions for using the HUD:

1. Touch the Quest HUD Giver sign for the HUD.

2. Find the HUD in inventory and wear.

3. When you are prompted for permission for this quest to Attach To Your Avatar, say “YES”

4. The HUD will be a red oval on your viewscreen near the top center. Text instructions from it will display above the HUD and also in local chat.

5. Left touch HUD and select “Start Quest”

6. A submenu will appear. Select the quest listed in the submenu.

7. Watch the hud for instructions. If you miss something, you can find it in local chat as well.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forty%20Two/60/207/26

Join Jessica Lyon, Ed Merryman and Teresa Firelight at the SL Scifi Convention for a brief presentation followed by a Q & A. This will explain what the Firestorm Gateway and the Scifi Portal are, and how members of the SciFi community can connect with new-to-SL residents with similar interests to help their scifi groups grow and thrive.

WHEN: Friday March 24

TIME: 6 - 7 PM SLT

WHERE: SciFi Convention Aquarius Stage

If you would like more information on the SL gateway and SciFi Portal, please see Firestorm Gateway SciFi Portal

If you are being abused in some way by another SL resident, or are subject to a griefer attack, then you should file an abuse report with Second Life. Do NOT use this lightly!

See this excellent post by Inara Pey for how to file effective abuse reports.

To file a report, to to the top menu, Help → Report Abuse. A window opens like the one shown here. Fill in the information to the best of your ability. Be concise but detailed.

Note: Try to be as specific as possible when describing the abusive incident. “Joe Resident is a jerk” isn't as helpful as “Joe Resident is shooting people with a gun that fires cows and has been using racist, offensive language.”

• Screenshot: A screenshot of what's currently happening inworld, taken from your camera position.
• Use this screenshot: Check this box to submit the screenshot above as part of the abuse report.
• Reporter: Your Second Life avatar name. This cannot be edited.
• Region: The inworld region where you are creating the abuse report. This cannot be changed.
• Position: The coordinates on the inworld region where you are creating the abuse report.
• Object picker: If you're being subjected to abuse by a scripted object, click this button, then click the abusive object inworld. Then:
  • Object: displays name of the abusive object.
  • Owner: displays owner of the abusive object.
• Select category: Choose a category of abuse using this dropdown.
• Abuser name: Defaults to owner of the selected abusive object. Click the Choose button to select the name of the Resident who's being abusive from the Choose Resident window.
• Location of abuse: For your convenience the SLurl of the region where you are creating an abuse report appears here. If you have left the region where the abuse took place, open your Teleport History (via the Places button). Select the appropriate landmark. Click the Map button to open the World Map. Click the Copy SLurl button. Paste the SLurl in the Location of Abuse box.
• Summary: Enter a brief description of the abusive incident.
• Details: Enter a more detailed description of the abusive incident. Try to be specific about what type of abuse is occurring, how many Residents are being affected, and any other relevant details. See Filing an Abuse Report for more information and an instructive video.
• Report Abuse: Send the abuse report to Linden Lab.

From http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewerhelp:Report_Abuse

Note: The Developer menu must be enabled for these key combos to work: use CTRL-Alt-Q to enable it.

Key = Key Sequence

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%20Ghost%20Town/24/11/4000
• 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*

Sometimes you need to access hidden folders and/or files on your computer. Here are links to articles on how you can enable this.

• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 10

• Mac OSX Lion & Mtn Lion
• Mac OSX Mavericks
• Mac OSX Yosemite
• Mac OSX Sierra

• Linux

Please see Recent Crashes on Windows, following a Driver Update for this issue.

If this occurs, chance are good that the inventory cache is corrupt. Deleting it should solve the problem.

• Locate your cache folder. You will probably need to do this manually, if you are unable to log in. Use a file manager (like Windows Explorer for Windows system, Dolphin, or some such) to locate the cache folder. In its default location, the cache folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Default cache locations are:
  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Firestorm
  • Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firestorm
  • linux: ~/.firestorm/cache
• In this folder, locate the files named data.db2.x.* and index.db2.x.* (where * is a digit: 0, 1, 2, etc; you may have more than one of each type of file)
• Delete all files that match these two names.
• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try Hippo Hollow, Aich or Hatton). Allow your inventory to repopulate fully.

Windows only: If the above doesn't work, then click the speaker icon in the system tray, then touch the volume slider, just enough to change the volume slightly. It may be that the Windows sound system has stalled; this should “give it a kick”.

If the above fails, then try doing a full wipe of all settings.

This indicates that a debug setting (a control) is missing a comment. It is unclear which comment is missing, but the fix is to reinstall Firestorm using the Clean Install procedures.

Ref. FIRE-12339

This is almost always caused by the MemoryPrivatePoolEnabled being set to TRUE. It should never be set to TRUE. But before you try to fix this, we could really use a copy of your crash logs to help us work on a fix. See here for steps to collect your crash logs, then attach those logs to FIRE-12339.

Then, do the following:

• Make sure hidden files/folders are set to show - see here for steps.
• Browse to your user_settings folder. This is located at -
  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings [USERNAME] \Application Data\Firestorm\user_settings
  • Windows Vista, 7, or 8, 8.1, and 10: C:\Users [USERNAME] \AppData\Roaming\Firestorm\user_settings
  • Mac: User/Library/Application Support/Firestorm/user_settings
  • Linux: ~/.firestorm/user_settings
• In the user_settings folder, find the file named “settings.xml”
• Open settings.xml in a text editor - For Windows, Notepad++ is ideal for this
• Search settings.xml for the term MemoryPrivatePoolEnabled
  You will see a block of text like so:

<key>MemoryPrivatePoolEnabled</key>
<map>
<key>Backup</key>
<boolean>0</boolean>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>Enable the private memory pool management</string>
<key>Type</key>
<string>Boolean</string>
<key>Value</key>
<boolean>1</boolean>
</map>

• Near the bottom there, change the “<boolean>1</boolean>” line just above </map> to “<boolean>0</boolean>”
• Save changes to settings.xml and edit the text editor.
• Login.
• Profit.

Issues outside of Firestorm can, and often do, result in viewer crashes….

• Make sure your file system is not corrupt by running chkdsk or equivalent for your OS.
• On Windows, ensure that your registry isn't messed up by running CCleaner or similar.
• Reboot your PC and moder/router.
• Ensure that video drivers are current, as well as your OS.
• Do a Reinstall of Firestorm. Be sure to use a fresh download of the viewer; either clear your browser cache or use a different browser for the download.

• If the installer does not run at all, try the following steps (this solution was described for Vista SP1; it has not been confirmed for other Windows versions):
  • Right click the installer .exe
  • Click Properties
  • On the bottom of the general tab is a message “This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer”
  • Click Unblock
  • Installer should run.
• You may have corrupt registry information; refer to this page. This is especially common for those rolling back from Win10 to an older version of Windows.
• If you crash at startup with an error like: “failed to initialise properly code (0x0150002)”, or you get an error that the “side-by-side” configuration is incorrect, or“Firestorm failed to start because the application configuration was incorrect. Reinstalling the application may correct the problem”, please download this and install it, as your system is likely incompatible with the Visual Studio C++ 2005 SDK DLLs: AppFix.exe
• Open the Firestorm install folder and search for any files named .config - delete any you find.
• Note that some anti-virus software will result in errors during installation; more information is here.
• If you are using an ATI (AMD) graphics card, then please refer here for known problems with these cards.
  For nVidia issues, plese refer to this page.

If you are using Windows 10, and have an Intel 2000/3000 or older graphics card, please refer to this page if you cannot start Firestorm without crashing.

If you crash during login, then try setting Firestorm to XP compatibility:

• Locate your desktop shortcut for Firestorm
• Right click on the icon and select Properties
• Select the Compatibility tab
• Check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and select Windows XP from the drop down
• Click Apply.

If you get a User Account Control security popup, then please see this page.

If you have just installed Firestorm on a linux system and it will not start, it is highly likely that you are missing some required libraries. You need to verify if this is the case.

You need to open Terminal and cd to the Firestorm install directory. If you are unsure how to locate it, use your linux file manager to find it first; it will help you locate the install directory. Useful shorcuts:

• ~/ - is your home directory
• ~/Desktop - is your desktop directory

so for example, from terminal, you would do something like this:

cd ~/Firestorm

Assuming that Firestorm is installed in the directory called Firestorm, in your home.

Once there, copy the following into Terminal:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH="./lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" ldd bin/do-not-directly-run-firestorm-bin 

This will spit out a long list of libraries. Check to see if any are marked as “not found”. If so, you will need to install these with your package manager.

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

This issued occured with nVidia driver 378.49, when Advanced Lighting Model is disabled, on 64-bit viewers only.

Bug is fixed with nVidia driver 378.66 or newer.

Refer to this JIRA issue for more information.

Recent Nvidia updates, including driver version 381.65, may prevent Firestorm from launching. The crash is reported to occur on the “Detecting Hardware” step.

To solve this,

1) Try disabling Shadowplay in your Nvidia settings.

2) If this does not work, roll back to the last driver 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.

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

• Preset in use: Shows the name of the graphics preset in use.

• Quality and speed: Allows you to adjust the graphics quality (lower is faster). Many options are changed based on this setting.
  • Reload Defaults: The circular arrow to the right of the Quality and speed slider (above) will revert all graphics settings to default values. Use this if you have made changes that have a negative impact on the veiwer and cannot remember what you changed.
• Fullscreen Mode (requires restart): Enable this if you want to run Firestorm in full screen mode, as opposed to windowed.
• Shaders:
  • Transparent water: Allows water to look transparent instead of opaque. Enable this (if it isn't already) if you exeprience glowing water while wearing rigged mesh.
  • Bump mapping and shiny: Enables the rendering of shiny and bump mapped surfaces.
  • Local Lights: Globally enables/disables local lights.
  • Basic shaders: Allows rendering of high-quality water, basic lighting, and other graphical effects.
  • Atmospheric shaders: Enables advanced atmospheric and lighting.
  • Advanced Lighting Model: Check this to allow shadows and other features to be enabled. Note that enabling this can cause instability and performance issues; click here for known specifics. For more how shadows behave, see this SL wiki page.
  • Ambient occlusion: Checking this enables more realistic shadows; the stability and performance note above also applies here.
• Shadows: Lets you choose what light sources cause shadows; this is available only if the Advanced Lighting Model option above is enabled).
  • none
  • sun/moon
  • sun/moon and projectors
• Avatar Shadows: controls whether and how avatars cast shadows. The higher the setting, the more client lag it will cause.
  • None
  • Simplified
  • Optimized
  • Complex
• Water Reflections: Allows water to reflect terrain, objects, and avatars.
• Point Lighting: Affects the number of rendered light sources when Advanced Lighting Model (above) is disabled. A viewer restart is needed if this setting is changed.

• Draw distance: Affects how far out from your viewpoint objects will be rendered in the scene.
• Max particle count: Sets the maximum number of particles you are able to see on your screen at once.
• Maximum complexity: Controls at what point a visually complex avatar is shown as a jellydoll. ⁶⁾ Current defaults are:
  • Low: 35,000
  • Low-Mid: 100,000
  • Mid: 200,000
  • Mid-High: 250,000
  • High: 300,000
  • High-Ultra: 350,000
  • Ultra: 350,000
• Max # of non-imposter avatars: Sets the number of avatars that will be fully rendered. See Avatar impostors below.
• Post process quality: Determines the resolution with which glow is rendered. A lower setting will cause glow to look slightly pixelated.
• Avatar Physics: Affects the detail of avatar physics. Set to 0 to disable avatar physics entirely.
• Level of Detail (LOD) Distance Factors:
  • Objects & Sculpts LOD: Determines the amount of detail the viewer will use in rendering object shapes; a lower setting causes objects to appear more angular and polygonal.
    Setting this higher than 4 via Debug Settings is not recommended.
  • Flexiprims: Determines the amount of detail the viewer will use in rendering flexible object shapes.
  • Trees: Determines the amount of detail the viewer will use in rendering (Linden) tree shapes.
  • Avatars: Determines the amount of detail the viewer will use in rendering avatar shapes.
  • Terrain: Determines the amount of detail the viewer will use in rendering terrain.
  • Sky: Controls the detail with which windlight skies are rendered. Higher values mean better quality but lower performance.
• Avatar Rendering:
  • Avatar imposters: Allows far-away avatars to be subtly rendered as two-dimensional images in order to improve your frame rate in crowded areas.
  • Hardware skinning: This allows some aspects of avatar rendering to be handled by your graphics card to improve performance.
  • Avatar cloth: Allows the rendering of flexible cloth on avatar clothing, such as shirts and flared pants.
• Terrain Detail: Choose the amount of terrain detail you would like to see. Setting this option to Low replaces the ground texture with a low-resolution ground texture.
  This option is not available (ie, it is greyed out) if Basic Shaders is enabled, in which case it is always set to High.

• Presets: Three buttons which allow you to save, load or delete graphics settings presets.
  • To create a preset, set your graphics settings as you like. Click “Save” and give the preset a name.
  • To load a preset that you have created, click “Load” and choose the preset to load.
  • To delete one, click “Delete” and choose the preset to delete.
  • The presets can be accessed either from Preferences → Graphics → General or from the presets button in the upper right of the viewer, near the media and sound controls.

• Anisotropic Filtering: Enables anisotropic filtering to improve texture quality. This setting may reduce your viewer's performance. For more information see this wikipedia page.
• Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects: VBO on modern hardware gives a performance gain. However, older hardware often has poor implementation of VBOs and the viewer may become unstable when this is enabled. VBO is explained in depth here.
• Enable Streamed VBOs: Allows the use of streamed VBO as well as static; only works if you have VBO enabled.
• Enable Lossy Texture Compression: If this is enabled, texture compression will be enabled for rendering. This gives improved performance, and a smaller grapics memory footprint, at the cost of lower quality rendered textures. Textures are compressed by the video card before being stored into video memory. Given that compressed textures can often end up pixellated, it is not recommended that this be enabled unless you have little video memory. Ref: SL JIRA MAINT-708.

• Antialiasing: Smoothes jagged edges. Renders a scene the number of multiple times that is actually shown and scales it down. Choose the level of antialiasing the viewer will use (requires restart).
• Gamma: Use the Windlight Sky Editor's Scene Gamma control on the Atmosphere/Sun tab instead of this; currently functional only if Atmospheric Shaders are disabled.
• Viewer Texture Memory Buffer (MB): This is the amount of graphics memory the viewer will use. By default, it is set to the size of your graphics card's memory, to a maximum of 768 for 32-bit Firestorm, 1024 for 64-bit Firestorm. Lowering this value may resolve certain texture corruption and performance issues, but under normal circumstances you should not need to alter this setting.
• Fog Distance Ratio: Determines how far away Second Life's fog effect begins. Lower values = closer fog. Only used when you have Atmospheric Shaders disabled. If Atmospheric Shaders are enabled, this effect is handled by the Distance Multiplier control in the Advanced Sky Editor.

• Freeze updates to World (pause everything): This suspends rendering. Useful for picture taking, if you wish to capture a specific scene that might otherwise change while you are preparing.

• Use HTTP Textures: Uses the HTTP protocol to fetch textures as opposed to the older UDP. Always on, as it is required for SL.
• Max Texture Quality Level: If you have a poor connection, you may wish to reduce the level of texture detail. This can be set to Normal, Minimal or None.
  Naturally, setting this to anything other than Normal will result in textures displaying poorly, or not at all. Do not change unless absolutely necessary - for example, if you have a very poor connection but need to be online, and don't care if you can see textures or not.

These options control when alpha masking should be used in an attempt to mitigate the well known alpha sorting issue, in which prims behind other prims may appear to flicker in front. The two options are:

• Render alpha masks when “Advanced Lighting Model” is not enabled
• Render alpha masks when “Advanced Lighting Model” is enabled

• Render Glow: If enabled, shows the glow effect on any prims that have it.
  • Strength: Controls the intensity of the glow effect. The default is 2.
• Show avatars that haven't finished loading: Equivalent to the debug setting RenderUnloadedAvatar.
  Note that this is not a solution to a bake fail, as it doesn't actually fix anything; it merely forces the viewer to display whatever it happens to have managed to load. It is recommended that this be always left disabled.
• Limit Framerate: Yield some time to the local host if a threshold framerate is reached. The framerate limit is set with the slider to the right.
• Show the Scene as Wireframe: Enables wireframe display of everything. Note that this setting does not persist after a relog.
• Enable Attached Lights (Face Lights): Enable this if you wish to see the affects of lights worn by avatars.
• Render Attached Particles: Enable to see particles generated by worn attachments.

• Time to delay while pre-caching before showing world: Allows the world to start caching before it is shown, at login.
• Quality of the shadows: Adjusts the quality of shadows. Note that increasing this will significantly impact rendering speed (FPS).
• Scale of Terrain Texture Rendering (requires restart): Indicates the scale of terrain textures, with lower values being more compressed textures.

Depth of field simulates real life blurring that occurs when things are not in focus. For example, if you are taking a photo of a person, then typically, things in the background will be blurred; the futher away, the more blurred. If you shift your focus to a tree behind the person, then the person will, in turn, become blurred.

For more information, refer here.

You can adjust the following settings to mimic RL camera effects.

• Depth of Field: Enabling this causes out-of-focus objects to be blurred, depending on distance.
  • Enable while in edit mode: Normally, DoF disables when you edit something; if you enable this, DoF will remain active.
• Camera F Number: Controls maximum screen radius from which to sample from, to avoid graphics card 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.
  The default value is 9.00
• Camera 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.
  The default is 50.0
• Camera FOV degs.: 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.
  The default is 60.00
• Camera 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.
  The default is 1.50
• DOF Focus Transition Time: This sets the time in seconds it take to the viewer to change focus from one object.
  The default is 0.50
• DOF Rendering Quality: 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.
  The default is 0.70

This page covers login problems which fit the following description:

• You are unable to log in properly without having to clear cache fully before doing so.
  It should never be necessary to clear cache before logging in, so if you have to do this, something is wrong. Some find that if they don't clear cache each time, they get logged out within seconds of logging in, or perhaps they are ruthed or a cloud every time, or even that they crash shortly after log in.

• You are able to log in but find yourself under water (all you can see is a blue screen) at coordinates 10, 10, 10.
  If you log in to an all blue screen, check your location, see if you are near the SIM corner, at 10, 10, 10. If so, your issue can hopefully be solved by one of the suggestions given here.

• If you have more than one account, only one is affected.

In some cases, you will see that there is an error in loading one or more gestures. If you do, make careful note of which ones, then find them and deactivate them - or better, delete them. If there is no such message, then please read on.

One possibility is that your inventory cache has become corrupted. If this is the case, then deleting it should solve the problem once and for all - assuming it doesn't become corrupted again at some future date.

• Locate your cache folder. You will probably need to do this manually, if you are unable to log in. Use a file manager (like Windows Explorer for Windows system, Dolphin, or some such) to locate the cache folder. In its default location, the cache folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Default cache locations are:
  • Firestorm Viewer:
    • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Firestorm\Cache
    • Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm\Cache
    • Windows 7, 8.1 and 10: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm\Cache
    • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firestorm
    • linux: ~/.firestorm/cache
• In this folder, locate the files named data.db2.x.* and index.db2.x.* (where * is a digit: 0, 1, 2, etc; you may have more than one of each type of file)
• Delete all files that match these two names.
• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try the Phoenix Firestorm Support parcel or a Linden water region such as aich or hatton). Allow your inventory to repopulate fully.

If your issue was a case of a corrupt inventory cache, then subsequent log ins should work normally. If however, your next log in fails as before, then your will need to locate the problem item in your inventory and eliminate it. So try the solutions described below, one at a time, until (hopeffuly) one of them fixes the problem.

This can be caused by an issue called having a “flat inventory.” If you have folders with a lot of items in them, the viewer can stall trying to create the “inventory view” (inventory folder structure in memory). The solution is simple, but tedious: you will have to create more folders (or subfolders) and sort your inventory such that no one folder has too many items in it. Ideally, aim for under 1000 items per folder.

Alternatively, because this is not a viewer-specific problem, Linden Lab can also help you deflatten your inventory if you file a support ticket with them. Just make sure to log in on the official Second Life viewertwice (once to fill the inventory cache and a second time to confirm that you're experiencing the issue on their viewer) before contacting Linden Lab.

If you use Vintage Skin (default when logging in using “Phoenix Mode”), the “too many items in single folders” problem may be more likely to occur than when using other viewer skins. This is thought to be because the inventory structure in this skin is slightly different from that of the other skins. Try changing your viewer skin to Latency, which shares Vintage's V1-style appearance but does not increase your likelihood of having this issue, or any of our other skin options. Do this in Preferences → Skins. Change to Latency or another option and relog.

There have been cases where people have ended up with a mass of duplicated calling cards in inventory, so many that they end up preventing successful log in. So try the following:

• Start the viewer and try to log in.
• If you are able to log in, open your inventory window, find the Calling Cards folder, and delete all of them, then empty trash.
• Now log out, then restart the viewer, and log in.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem. If not, then read the next section.

Should the above method not give a permanent fix, then you should try to deactivate all your active gestures. Yes, all of them. At the bottom of the Inventory window, click the gear icon, and select Show Filters. Click the None button, then check Gestures. Then type (Active) in the search field at the top of the Inventory window.

The above will list all your currently active gestures. Select them, then right click and select Deactivate. Double check that all gestures are deactivated by bringing up the gesture picker at the bottom of the screen; it should show none active.

Now relog and see if you still have issues logging in.

If this solves the problem, the next step is trying to find the bad gesture(s). The best way to do this is with a “divide and conquer” approach. It is not difficult, but it can be long and tedious, depending on how many active gestures you had. Using filters to show only gestures will make this somewhat easier.

• The idea is to attack the collection of gestures by halves: activate half, deactivate the rest, then relog.
• If you can log in ok, then the problem gesture(s) are in the deactivated half. If instead you have problems logging in, then the bad gesture(s) are in the ones currently active.
• Having identified which half has the problem gestures, again, split this remaining group of gestures in half: activate half, deactivate half, then repeat as before.
• Continue this way, dividing in half each time, until you have narrowed down to the one (or more) problem gestures - which you should at least leave inactive, but preferably simply delete outright.

One final rare case is similar to the above but involves landmarks rather than gestures.

In this case, it is recommended that you box up all of your landmarks, then delete the originals from inventory, then empty trash (saving the boxed copies). See if this allows for a normal login.

If so, then you can use the “divide and conquer” method above to find the problem landmark(s).

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).

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 on your system, do the following steps in order:

1. Uninstall MSI True Color.
2. Install f.lux from https://justgetflux.com/ .
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

So you find yourself suddenly missing a window, perhaps inventory, or chat, or the edit window… How to find it?

• Close all other windows, to make sure it isn't hiding under one of them.

• Hide the chat bar: Preferences→ Chat -> Typing→ Autohide main chatbar to see if the window is under there.

• Compress all the buttons on the bottom toolbar to the right.
  Alternately, drag the toolbar buttons from their present location onto another toolbar;
  (Reminder: there are three available toolbars: bottom of the screen, right side, and left side. Buttons are dragged by left clicking, holding the left mouse button down, and dragging.)

• Go to Preferences→ User Interface → 2D Overlay, and lower the UI Scaling slider. The default setting is 1.0. You may find that setting it lower, temporarily, will reveal the missing window. If you find the missing window, move it to the center of the screen, then reset UI Scaling to 1.0 or your preferred value.

• Try to ensure that the missing window is closed. Then open Debug Settings via the Advanced menu (press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't already). Then locate the pair values for the default window position, for the window that is “missing”. Consult the table below for the names of these settings. Set both values to 0 (zero), then relog.

• If you already have created a backup of your settings, then try a restore of those settings as explained here.

Should none of these work, then you will have to wipe settings, as explained on this page.

Webroot offers an internet security software package that is meant to protect your Windows PC or Mac computer from threats coming over the internet. However, this software is known to cause severe issues with Second Life viewers (not just Firestorm), as well as other non-SL software. ¹⁾ These include:

• copy/paste failing to work (see here for more info on that)
• flashing screen
• very slow rez
• viewer freezes
• crash on logout
• “rainbow” textures all over the place

The follow is a recommendation that has been received from Webroot via a Firestorm User.

1. Log out of the viewer
2. Go go your Webroot Configuration
3. Turn off “Identity Protection” while using SL
4. Log back into the viewer ²⁾

This is still a relatively newly received suggestion (May 2016) and as yet widespread results are unknown but it does appear to be helping in most cases

If the above method does not help

1. In the viewer, go to the Advanced menu at the top (should this not be visible, press Ctrl-Alt-D)
2. Click on Show Debug Settings
3. Type in: HttpPipelining - set the value to False, then close the Debug Settings window (do NOT click Copy or Reset to default)
4. Wipe cache as explained on this page

If the above method does not help

1. Log out of SL
2. Close all internet applications such as browsers, torrents, etc.
3. Completely uninstall Webroot from your computer
4. Reboot your computer
5. Wipe cache as explained on this page
6. Log into SL and test.
7. If your problem is solved, you may want to get a different antivirus.
8. Note: If you need to temporarily reinstall Webroot until you get a new antivirus, you may need to repeat these steps. Instead, you might want to temporarily use a free antivirus solution that allows whitelisting of the viewer cache.

The underlying problem here is that Webroot is blocking certain types of network connections; therefore, any real fix needs to come from them.

If things around you remain grey for a long time, or objects take a long time to pop into position, this is essentially because the data has not yet been sent to your viewer. There are a number of possible causes, and solutions or at least work-arounds:

• If you have Webroot SecureAnywhere antivirus installed, refer to this page.

• Power down your router and/or modem. This generally means unplugging it from the power source. Leave them disconnected for at least a full minute before reconnecting. Wait for them to complete the power up sequence, then reboot your computer.

• Teleport out, then back in.

• The region is badly lagged (many avatars present, too many scripts running, etc.) and so the region server is using all its time processing and has very little time left over to deliver textures and other data to you. The best way to cope with this is to reduce the demand you make; in other words, reduce your draw distance, even to 12m or less, and wait until textures and objects have loaded before you increase it again.

• You are experiencing packet loss or, more generally, have a poor network connection. Or your bandwidth slider may be set too high. Bring up the stats bar with Shift-Ctrl-1 and check Packet Loss and Ping Sim. Ideally, packet loss should be 0.0%, and Ping Sim under 200ms.

• Determine optimal bandwidth: refer here.

• You can also try to have less textures draw all at once by reducing draw distance when you teleport. You can do this manually, or make use of the built in Progressive Draw Distance function.

• 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.

• Another possibility is that DNS look-up is failing. Try changing DNS to google; see this page for details.

• Some other program on your computer might be interfering with your viewer's connection to SL, like a firewall or anti-virus. Try disabling them temporarily, to see if things improve. If they do, you have isolated the problem. Whitelisting the viewer and cache folder would probably help.

• It has been reported that on Windows, the Aero background theme will also lead to textures refusing the rez, due to how much memory this feature consumes. Uninstalling that should help.

• 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 or having other issues, including very slow rez. Please see this page for more.