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 better 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).
• You can derender everyone except friends via top menu, World → Show Friends only. (Remember to re-enable, then TP out and back.)
• If need be, inhibit the rendering of all 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. Whatever anti-virus you use, 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, or complexity, 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).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note also the (apparent) interaction with Chrome.

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

Please try the following - but NOT while logged in.

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

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

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

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

For additional suggestions, see the page on Severe Lag.

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

In computer engineering, a cache (pronounced /ˈkæʃ/ kash in US/UK and /keɪʃ/ kaysh in Aust/NZ) is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. Otherwise (cache miss), the data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is comparatively slower. Hence, the more requests can be served from the cache the faster the overall system performance is. ¹⁾

It is common knowledge that clearing cache can help with a multitude of issues. Having said that we do not recommend clearing cache unless you are having an issue that cannot be solved by other means.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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, and 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.

• Reset the window's position via Debug Settings. To do this,
  1. Try to ensure that the missing window is closed. (You many be able to tell this if you are using a toolbar button and it is highlighted or not.) If you can't tell, proceed anyway.
  2. Then open the Advanced menu (press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't already), and go to Show Debug Settings.
  3. Consult the table below for the names of the two settings that match your missing window.
  4. Find the first setting in the Debug Settings window; set it to 0 (zero).
  5. Repeat for the second setting.
  6. 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.

There are different kinds of problems with missing inventory that can take place; those that are controllable at the viewer or computer end are generally reversible. Problems caused by the Second Life asset server are not always fixable.

If items that you rezzed out in-world are missing, then refer to this page instead.

• First and very important: TP to a known low lag region to do any of the things listed below. Once there, reduce draw distance significantly, to reduce the load on your network connection. Stay there while working through this page. These locations are recommended:
  • Hippo Hollow
  • Cyclops
    
    Do not stay at your current location; it may be the source of your problem.

• If the number of items appears correct, but not everything is showing, reset your inventory filters. On most viewer skins, this means clicking the Gear menu at the bottom of your inventory and selecting “Reset Filters.” On Vintage skin (this is what you're using if you logged in with Phoenix Mode) or Ansastorm skin, click Inventory → Reset Filters in the inventory menu.

• If you are looking for Marketplace items using Inventory search, and they are not showing, ensure that you have the Received items folder shown in inventory, rather than as a button: Preferences → User Interface → Interface Windows → Show the Received Items folder in normal inventory. Or, click the Received button to see what items are in there.

• If a system folder is missing, you may have opted to hide empty system folders: Preferences → User Interface → Interface Windows → Hide empty system folders from inventory.

• In your inventory, type letters into the search filter. It doesn't matter what letters; the purpose is to prod the search into finding more items. If the fetch stalls again, pick a different letter.

• For any/all folders that appear to be missing inventory, try creating a new item, of the appropriate type, in the folder. So for example, if you appear to be missing things in the Clothing folder, right-click the folder name → New Clothes → New Shirt. Then relog.

• Try clearing your inventory cache manually:
  • Open Preferences -> Network & Files -> Directories
  • Click the Open button to the right of cache location. This should open a file picker window.
  • Locate the .gz file with YOUR avatar key. Your key can be found in your profile, under your name.
  • ESSENTIAL: Log out of Firestorm.
  • Delete the .gz file located above.
  • Log back in to Hippo Hollow.
  • Allow your inventory to fetch.
• Note: If clearing inventory cache manually does not fix the problem the first time you try it, then it probably won't work on additional attempts, so don't keep doing it, unless you didn't delete the correct file the first time (though multiple relogs without cache clears may help).

If your inventory is still not loading fully, then the issue may be a network or connection problem. General suggestions for problems that may be connection-related are:

• If you are on a wireless connection and are able to wire it in, do so.

• Reboot your router/modem, leaving it unplugged and unpowered for a minimum of two minutes before powering it back up again.
  • If you have access to a different connection, try connecting your computer to it temporarily.

• If the inventory is still not fetching all the way, view our page on bandwidth and speedtests to make sure your bandwidth is set optimally in the viewer. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, we have found that lower bandwidth settings usually allow for more reliable inventory loading than higher settings.

• 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.

• Please download the official SL viewer, install it, log in on it and see if the items show up there. If they do, then to make sure that you aren't being misled by cached inventory on SL viewer, wipe inventory cache there as well, and then see if your inventory fully fetches. If it does, then the problem is probably either loading or caching in Firestorm, and you can follow the set of suggestions below under “Method 2: Inventory Copy from SL Viewer.”
  If the missing items do not show up on SL viewer either, then file a support ticket with SL for assistance, making sure to specify that you have the problem with SL viewer.

Back on Firestorm, if your inventory count still looks lower than it should be or stalls in the middle of fetching items, then:

• If the above steps have not worked for you, continue on to the next step:

Start by finding your avatar key while logged into Firestorm or another viewer that displays it - see the figure to the right; the UUID is highlighted in green.

It is a string of letters and numbers that appears in your legacy-style profile, though the exact location will vary because different skin options display it differently. If you use web profiles, you will need to switch into the legacy profile to find it. (In Firestorm, this is in Preferences -> User Interface -> Interface Windows→ Use web profiles by default.) You can return to the web profile style afterward. When you find your key, just copy it down somewhere.

Now you will need the latest release version of the SL viewer, so if you don't have it installed yet, download and install it. Then, log into the SL Viewer and get your inventory loaded in that viewer. This might work with any other viewer, as well, but the SL Viewer is the only one we've tested with. Once your inventory is loaded there, log out.

Locate your Second Life cache folder and your Firestorm cache folder on your hard drive. Our clearing cache page will help you locate where that is (just replace “Firestorm” with “SecondLife” in the path name. Don't clear either cache! Just use the paths shown to find the folders.

Note: You must be LOGGED OUT of both viewers before doing the next step.

In the Second Life cache folder, find the file named with your avatar key and ending in “inv.gz”. Drop or copy this file into your Firestorm cache folder. Allow it to replace the one there.

Log into Firestorm and check to see if your inventory is there.

Avoid clearing cache or you may need to do this process again.

Please note: Under normal circumstances, you should not share cache between viewers because it can cause other weird problems. This suggestion should not be read as an indication that setting your cache in different viewers to the same place would be useful. It won't be.

For additional ideas, also refer to the Second Life wiki page on Inventory Loss.

Download AMD Drivers & Software https://support.amd.com/en-us/download
AMD Graphics Drivers and Software Download and Installation FAQhttps://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGraphicsSoftwareandDriversFAQ.aspx

If you have an AMD/ATI graphics card then you may need to do these steps (ATI drivers don't seem to support OpenGL graphics very well, and SL viewers use OpenGL, as opposed to DirectX).

Graphics Artifacts

If you occasionally see an explosion of colored shards and shapes across your screen, these are graphics visual artifacts, and there are various causes for them. One is the lack of OpenGL support with ATI/AMD graphics cards and drivers. While ATI/AMD graphics can be good graphics cards, the drivers can also be finicky for SL.

The workaround to clear away the artifacts is found in Preferences - Graphics - Hardware Settings - Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects. Toggle that setting off, then back on again when you see the artifacts. You want to keep this setting enabled as it gives a considerable boost to your FPS.

For ease of access, you can add this setting to your Quick Preferences. The debug setting is RenderVBOEnable and use a simple Radio on/off option http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_quick_preferences#adding_removing_settings

VBO is known to cause crashes in multiple different scenarios with older graphics cards. So one thing to try:

• Disable VBO: Run the viewer and before logging in, press Ctrl-P to bring up the Preferences window. Then click on Graphics → Hardware Settings tab. Make sure that “Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects” is not checked. Note this may result in lower FPS.

The AMD Raptr software is known to cause viewers - and games - to crash. This has been discussed on Steam; for example, see this thread. Check to see if you have Raptr installed; if so, try uninstalling it.

If you are seeing everything pink, the issue is the graphics card driver. The best solution is to update the graphics card drivers.

If for any reason, this is not an option:

• Enable the Advanced menu with Ctrl-Alt-D, if it isn't already
• Then Advanced → Debug settings → RenderMaxTextureIndex → Set this to zero
• This should fix the pink textures but may also cause a drop in your FPS (Frames per second)

Alternately, you can go to Preferences→ Graphics -> Hardware Settings→ Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects - and disable that.

This page gives guidance for Windows 7; more information is here.

Catalyst 15.7.1 drivers or newer.

• Catalyst 15.7.1 drivers or newer.
• Rather than relying on the built-in Windows driver update function, visit the AMD site directly and update from there; click here to locate the drivers for your system.

• Cat Herder:Jessica Lyon
• Manager:Miro Collas
• HR Manager (FSG Helpers):Dorrie Bellman
• Land Manager:Flossy Andrew
• Assistant Managers:Coral Sharpshire, Kio Feila, Synthetic Mode
• RolePlay and Scifi Portal manager:Teresa Firelight

• Alexegram
• Amaya Summers
• Bluezy Bleac (French, German, Dutch)
• Cleopatra Antiesse (French)
• Eternal Mode
• Kitty Beery (Dutch)
• Pim Peccable
• Skyspinner Soulstar
• Tracy Argus

• AliciaFlanagan1
• annailisa (German)
• Ardwenia (French, Portuguese)
• Avalon Bouvier
• ChuckPC
• ErikLuc
• Fayleen Bellios
• FrankASinatra
• Gokyu Ugajin
• ImaLuckygirl
• JadeWindsong
• Jolie Serendipity
• Liliana Darwinian (Portuguese)
• LosAngelesGraff
• MacMaccee (German, English)
• MarcSeven Lubitsch
• Mari Teardrop
• SayreAvondale
• Scarlet Vavoom
• Scuzzy Usbourne
• Sedona Bluemood
• Silver Frakture (German)
• Sniper Siemens
• Sparkle Weatherwax
• Talula Shippe
• xAngelBaby

• Roleplay Leaders:MarcSeven Lubitsch, panterapolnocy, Starwolff2000, Teresa Firelight

• Education:Alexegram, Dorrie Bellman, ImaLuckygirl
• Avatar Education:Kio Feila, Tracy Argus
• Small Events Planner:Jolie Serendipity
• FS Tour Guide:Fayleen Bellios

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

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

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

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

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

Steps:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Texture Rejetée pour Insuffisance Mémoire“)

Cette erreur est suivie d'un nombre, qui indique combien de textures ont été rejetées. Une fois que le message est apparu vous verrez que d'autres texture ne pourront pas charger, et bien souvent, le viewer crashera peu de temps après.

Le message signifie que vous avez utilisé toute la mémoire disponible - la mémoire graphique plus spécifiquement. Certaisn diront “mais j'ai 2GB, ça devrait suffire”. En fait non, puisque de toutes manières aucun viewer n'utilise plus que 512MB ¹⁾.

Il se peut également que cette erreur vous arrive si votre mémoire graphique dédiée est basse.Consultez le mode d'emploi de votre ordinateur pour savoir combien de mémoire graphique dédiée vou avez; moins de 512MB sera très probablement source d'ennuis. Moins vous avez de mémoire graphique dédiée, plus vous avez de chances d'avoir cette erreur.

Certains consateront que d'anciennes versions de Firestorm n'avaient jamais ce problème, qu'ils n'avaient jamais vu ce message d'erreur avant et qu'il doit donc s'agir d'un nouveau bug. S'il est vrai que les anciennes versions ne délivraient jamais ce message d'erreur, cela ne eut pas dire que le problème n'existait pas, mais plutôt qu'aucun message n'était délivré et aue vous crashiez toutt simplement sans savoir pourquoi. Au moins, l'ajout de ce massage d'erreur a au moins la vertu d'indiquer où e situe le problème, et par conséquent permet de résoudre le problème plus facilement : au lieu d'essayer tout un tas de solutions qui pourraient être sans rapport, il n'en reste que quelques unes.

Cela dépend …

Si vous avez utilisé Firestorm pendant un moment, et que vous n'avez eu cette erreur qu'une seule fois ou rarement, c'est probablement parce que vous vous trouvez dans un endroit très intensif graphiquement. La solution est donc de réduire la distance d'affichage avant d'aller dans de tels endroits, et de la garder relativement basse jusqu'à ce que vous repartiez.

Soyez conscients que le message, une fois qu'il est apparu, ne partira pas tout seul. Il faudra vous reconnecter. C'est préférable de toutes façons, puisque de nouvelles texture ne pourront pas charger.

Dans ce cas, Firestorm essaie d'utiliser plus de mémoire graphique que ce que vous avez de disponible (rappelez-vous la limite de 512MB mentionnée ci-dessus). Il faut que réduisiez votre utilisation de mémoire graphique. Par exemple :

• Si vous avez un système 64-bit et plus de 4 GB deRAM, essayez une des versions 64-bit de Firestorm. Elle sont moins sujettes à ce type de crash. Vous pouvez rapidement vérifier cette inforamtion dansle menu Help du viewer > About Firestorm

• Préférences→ Graphiques -> Hardware Settings→ Viewer Texture Memory Buffer - réduisez de 128 en 128MB.
  c'est-à-dire, si c'est actuellement réglé sur 512, réduisez à 384; si c'est sur 384, réduisez à 256, etc.
  Ne descendez pas au-dessous de 128.

• Reduisez votre distance d'affichage (draw distance).

• Préférences → Graphics → Hardware Settings → Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects - Désactivez ceci.

• Quick Preferences Réduire “Maximum Complexity” à 35,000.

• Quick Preferences Réduire “Max Avatars” à 3.

• Réduisez la taille de votre inventaire en commençant par vider la corbeille, en supprimant les choses que vous n'utilisez pas, en mettant dans des notecards vos photos, vos landmarks et vos scripts, en mettant dans des boîtes les choses peu utilisées ou anciennes, les sons, les gestures… ATTENTION : ne stockez jamais vos scripts dans une boîte, vous vous trouveriez peut-être dans l'impossibilité de les récupérer. Egalement, évitez d'ouvrir plusieurs fenêtres d'inventaire à la fois.

• IMPORTANT Ne faites pas ceci si vous avez un système d'exploitation 64-bit !
  Si vous n'avez activé pas le menu Avancé, activez-le en pressant Ctrl-Alt-D. Puis allez dans Avancé → Afficher les Paramètres de Débogage. Tapez FSDestroyGLTexturesImmediately et cochez TRUE.
  Vous utiliserez probablement plus de bande passante et cela signifie que les textures qui ont déjà été chargées deviendront grises quand vous vous détournez , mais cela devrait réduire la fréquence des crashes.

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

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

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

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

Submitted: %G-%m-%d

User name: @@User name@@
URI: @@Your account URI@@
Skype: @@Skype handle@@
Email: @@Email (preferably one that does not reveal personal information)@@

Why do you want to be on the support team?
@@Why do you want to be on the support team?@@

Would you be open to providing support in the following contexts:

• In IM?
  @@In IM?@@
• In person, at an in-world location?
  @@In person, at an in-world location?@@
• On a website where users submit help tickets out-of-world? (Training provided if you need it.)
  @@On a website where users submit help tickets out-of-world? (Training provided if you need it.)@@
• Teaching in-world classes?
  @@Teaching in-world classes?@@

Name three places in SL that 'wow' you.
@@Name three places in SL that 'wow' you.@@

What special interests do you have in SL (for example: building, designing clothes, photography)?
@@What special interests do you have in SL (for example: building, designing clothes, photography)?@@

What frustrates you most about Second Life?
@@What frustrates you most about Second Life?@@

What do you like most about Second Life?
@@What do you like most about Second Life?@@

What languages do you speak/write?
@@What languages do you speak/write?@@

What is your timezone?
@@What is your timezone?@@

How long have you been in SL (on any account)? (We don't need to know other account names.)
@@How long have you been in SL (on any account)? (We don't need to know other account names.)@@

How long have you been using Firestorm?
@@How long have you been using Firestorm?@@

What's the first thing to do when someone asks a question?
@@What's the first thing to do when someone asks a question?@@

Depending on the issue the person is reporting, what are three questions you might ask them to find out more information and help you find an appropriate fix?
@@Depending on the issue the person is reporting, what are three questions you might ask them to find out more information and help you find an appropriate fix?@@

What do you feel is the best way to handle each of the following types of challenging group members?

• Someone (not a support team member) who answers a support question with bad advice or wrong information?
  @@Someone (not a support team member) who answers a support question with bad advice or wrong information?@@
• “Someone seeking help who responds to your followup questions and suggestions in an aggressive and defensive manner?
  @@“Someone seeking help who responds to your followup questions and suggestions in an aggressive and defensive manner?@@
• Someone seeking help who is polite but doesn't understand your suggestions?
  @@Someone seeking help who is polite but doesn't understand your suggestions?@@

Describe some things about Firestorm support group chats that work well or don't work well – either things personally involving you or things you have observed.
@@Describe some things about Firestorm support group chats that work well or don't work well – either things personally involving you or things you have observed.@@

Have you helped out in a Firestorm support group? What kinds of questions have you answered, or what kind of help have you given?
@@Have you helped out in a Firestorm support group? What kinds of questions have you answered, or what kind of help have you given?@@

How well do you respond to criticism?
@@How well do you respond to criticism?@@

Describe a time when you had to admit to one or more people that you were wrong about something. How did you feeling while doing it? How did it work out? Would you be comfortable doing that in a public context?
@@Describe a time when you had to admit to one or more people that you were wrong about something. How did you feeling while doing it? How did it work out? Would you be comfortable doing that in a public context?@@

Give an example of a problem where you might suggest that the user clear cache.
@@Give an example of a problem where you might suggest that the user clear cache.@@

Give an example of a problem where clearing cache would not help solve the problem.
@@Give an example of a problem where clearing cache would not help solve the problem.@@

Give an example of a problem where you might suggest that the user reinstall the viewer.
@@Give an example of a problem where you might suggest that the user reinstall the viewer.@@

Give an example of a problem where reinstalling would not help solve the problem.
@@Give an example of a problem where reinstalling would not help solve the problem.@@

If a user finds him/herself unable to walk or move, what would be the first thing you would suggest be checked?
@@If a user finds him/herself unable to walk or move, what would be the first thing you would suggest be checked?@@

How do you change your display name?
@@How do you change your display name?@@

Does high complexity cause region lag?
@@Does high complexity cause region lag?@@

What is the highest value LOD you should use in normal situations?
@@What is the highest value LOD you should use in normal situations?@@

What is the range of normal chat?
@@What is the range of normal chat?@@

If you cannot see an item you have rezzed out, how would you go about finding it?
@@If you cannot see an item you have rezzed out, how would you go about finding it?@@

If you have Intel Graphics HD, Intel Graphics HD2500 and Intel Graphics HD4000, and are using the 64bit version of Firestorm 5.0.7 or later, on Windows 10, refer to this page.

A Windows 10 update in mid May has resulted in many having audio problems with the viewer. This is actually a problem with the update, and needs to be fixed externally to the viewer.

• If your mic seems to have stopped working, try this: In your operating system, go to Settings → Privacy → Microphone and make sure “Allow apps to access my microphone” is ON.
• In addition: A user has kindly provided this link to help you check your settings in the new Windows software and resolve the issue.
• Further to this, you should also check Windows Mixer settings, since audio devices may have been reset.

If you're on an ASUS laptop and Sonic 3 is running, this is preventing FS from finding your driver - disable Sonic 3.

This issue is the result of recent updates of Win10, specifically KB3176938, KB3189866, KB3193494 and KB3194496.

Many users have reported that updating their graphics drivers has fixed the problem:

• If you use nVidia graphics, try updating your drivers to at least Nvidia 373.06 released October 6, 2016.
• AMD/ATI users can try updating to at least driver 16.10.1.

Should you not be able to upgrade the driver, read on.

• To uninstall these Windows updates, go to Programs & features > view updates > click and uninstall. Please be advised that uninstalling any update marked as a security update is done at your own risk.
• To keep windows from downloading the update again download this tool and run it to “hide” the update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930?utm_source=twitter#bookmark-1607.
• Note: “Hiding” one update will not prevent other, later updates. The FPS problem may return as other updates are installed and until Microsoft fixes this issue.

Please refer to this LL JIRA and this FS JIRA page for details and other suggestions.

If you suddenly sound like a man (and you aren't), or your friend suddenly sounds like a demon (and isn't), or you are hearing other forms of distorted voice, try this:

1. Right click the Speakers icon on your system tray and select Recording Devices.
2. Right click the Microphone and select Properties.
3. Switch to the Advanced tab.
4. Under Default Format drop down menu, select: 2 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD quality).
5. Untick “Enable Audio Enhancements”
6. Press OK and OK.
7. Relog if needed.

If you suddenly find that sounds do not play, things like button sounds or in-world object sounds, the possible cause is your default output format. Try this:

1. Right click the Speakers icon on your Windows PC system tray and select Playback Devices.
2. Right click the Speakers (or your chosen audio output) and select Properties.
3. Switch to the Advanced tab.
4. Under Default Format drop down menu, select: 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD quality).
5. Click Apply and OK.
6. Relog if needed.

If some characters now display as boxes, you will need to reinstall Windows font packs. Some of the more common font packs are Chinese, Japanese and Korean, though if you installed those and still see boxes, you will want to ask the person using those characters to tell you what language (or symbol set) they are so that you can install the appropriate font pack.

1. Log out of Firestorm.
2. Go to the Windows Start menu and choose Settings.
3. In the window that opens, click in the search field at the top right and type in “language”
4. Select Add a language from the search results.
5. Click the + Add a language option and select the language from the list. The contents of the window scrolls left and right.
6. Back in the Add a language section, click the newly added language and choose Options.
7. Click the top Download button. The language will download and install, and it may take some time.
8. Repeat this for each language pack you wish to install.
9. Now log into Firestorm; you should see the missing characters correctly rendered.

Error 0xc000007b when launching 64 bit Firestorm:

Try following these steps to get the Firestorm installer to reinstall the Visual C++ redistributables that come packaged with it:

1. First make sure you have the Firestorm installer handy in a place where you can easily access it when you get to the step where it's needed below. (You can download it from here, or from here if you need an older version than the current release.)
2. Go to the Windows Start Menu and choose Settings.
3. In the window that opens, click on “System Display, notifications, apps, power.”
4. In the next window go down to “Apps & features.”
5. Scroll down to the entry for “Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable.” Click on it and choose “Uninstall” (the list won't necessarily update to show that it is uninstalled, but it is).
6. Click on “Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable” and once again choose “Uninstall.”
7. Close that window.
8. Re-run the Firstorm installer. The installer window will now say “Modify Setup” (since FS is already installed) and will give you 3 options: “Repair”, “Uninstall” and “Close.” Click on “Repair.” Firestorm will reinstall the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributables that it ships with.
9. Restart your computer. You should be able to launch Firestorm without getting the error message now.

If you start experiencing graphics issues after a Win10 update, such as driver crashes, or simply very poor performance, the first thing to try is a full computer reboot.

If that doesn't help, reinstall your graphics card driver from the card maker's website, not from Windows. That is, from nVidia, AMD, or Intel.

If you have Intel HD graphics, refer to this page.

The most common cause for this is a non-default DPI value, or screen scaling. Refer to this page for tips on setting DPI/scaling to default.

Some Windows 10 users have experienced difficulty installing current versions of Apple's Quicktime software on their systems. Version 7.7.6 of Quicktime has been confirmed to install correctly on Windows 10 systems. You can download version 7.7.6 from the link below:

Quicktime 7.7.6 (link will take you to the 7.7.6 download page on Apple's website)

**Unfortunately the above link seems to no longer be valid as a source for Quicktime 7.7.6, as such the recommended alternative to allow playback of media streams that were previously handled by Quicktime is to upgrade to a newer version of Firestorm (version 5.0.1.52150 or newer), as these newer versions of Firestorm no longer depend on Quicktime to handle stream playback.

First try increasing Preferences → User Interface → 2D Overlay → UI Scaling. Another possibility is Preferencess → User Interface → Font → Font size adjustment.

This is most often caused by a high DPI scaling setting, usually 125% on most 2k displays. A viewer set to the same width as the display resolution (1920, for example), would extend beyond the display border. To correct this:

• Log out of Firestorm
• Right click the Firestorm shortcut and choose Properties
• In Properties, click the Compatibility tab
• Near the bottom, find and check “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
• Click OK and Apply

When you launch Firestorm, it should display at the default DPI scale, 100%

Some Windows 10 updates change the machine ID used to create login credentials, resulting in Firestorm reporting “Failed to Decode Login Credentials”. The best way to deal with this is to wipe the stored credentials file, as explained here. Naturally, you will then have to retype the user name and password for all your accounts, when first logging in after deleting the credentials file.

Reported on Linden Lab's bug tracker BUG-139291

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 the following:
  • Windows users: see this page.
  • Make sure streaming music and/or media are enabled in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds.
  • In the same place, check that volumes for music and media are not at minimum.
  • Make sure audio is configured correctly in your operating system (i.e., Windows, linux, OSX), that sound is going to the correct device (i.e., speakers or headset), and so on. This may require you to adjust settings in your sound mixer or other similar software.
  • Confirm that you have not blocked the stream/video: open Preferences → Sound & Media → Media → Manage Media Sites and see if the problem URL is listed there; if so, remove it.
  • For streaming music, test the music URL in your external web browser, to make sure that the URL actually works.

• If you have plugged in a USB sound device, you may need to relog so that the viewer can use it.
• 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.

• 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). Do this check also for dullahan_host.exe.
• Relog and attempt video playback again
• If it works, you will need to stop your firewall/virus protection from blocking the slplugin and/or dullahan_host.exe files by granting 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 and dullahan_host.exe for each one.
• If all of the above does not resolve the issue, you can try downloading the latest SL Viewer and replacing your Firestorm slplugin file with the one from SL Viewer.

• 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”
• In Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection, make sure the Maximum Number of Web Browser Windows dropdown is set to Five, Ten or Unlimited
• 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.

• 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.

• All users: Test your Flash
  • To make sure you have successfully installed the correct version of Flash and that it is working, use the in-world Flash game to test it.
    • Open the Developer menu: CTRL-Alt-Q. (Close this after testing; it's best not to leave this menu open.)
    • Then type CTRL-SHIFT-Z to open the internal browser.
    • Once the browser loads, click the Home icon in the upper left of the browser window.
    • Click “Flash game” (3rd column, 4th row).
    • A bubble-shooter game should load.

• 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).

1) Check viewer settings

• 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.

2) Check your audio drivers

• Look in Help menu → About Firestorm for the line that begins with “Audio Driver Version.” If that line says “Undefined,” reboot your computer and see if the Audio Driver Version appears.
• If this doesn't help:
  • Go into Windows device manager (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/005a1acb-776e-4320-b9f2-3a2302a320da/open-device-manager) & see if there is a yellow triangle warning symbol against your Sound devices (or your display adapters).
  • Also make sure your sound card driver is up to date.
  • Reinstall your graphics driver; the drivers also include audio components.

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.)

This error is due to Flash not being installed, or not installed correctly. See above.

If your camera is suddenly pointing straight up - or straight down - or some impossible direction, then try these:

• Disable RLV and/or detach your collar or other RLV scripted items.

• Press the Escape (Esc) key a few times. Pressing Escape will clear focus from any windows that have focus, and finally, will reset camera position to your current settings.

• Press Shift-Escape (Esc), once or twice, to reset camera angle to Firestorm default settings. If Shift-Esc did not work, then go to the top menu, Advanced (Ctrl-Alt-D, if not enabled) → Shortcuts → Reset Camera Angles.

• Press Ctrl-9 - this will reset camera zoom. If the zoom did not reset, then go to the top menu, Advanced (Ctrl-Alt-D, if not enabled) → Shortcuts → Zoom default.

• Go to the top menu, World → Photo & Video → Camera Tools. Click all the buttons with the label 'D', on all tabs.

• Go to Advanced (Ctrl-Alt-D if the Advanced menu is not visible) → Show Debug Settings and enter “FocusOffsetRearView” ¹⁾ in the input field. Click “Reset to default” at the bottom.

• If that doesn't work, hold down Shift or Control, then use the mouse wheel to change the camera angle.

• Detach all worn HUDs and prim attachments. Sometimes worn items can control your camera perspective. If this fixes the problem, then re-add your items back on one at a time until you find the one causing the problem.

• If all of these fail to work, then the only remaining solution is to reset all your settings to defaults.

• Try pressing the left and right arrows on your keyboard at the same time, several times.

• If you are using a mouse/keyboard sharing program, such as Synergy, or running Parallels on your Mac, then go to Advanced menu (ctrl-alt-d, if not showing) → Show Debug Settings → search for MouseWarp and set to True.

• This can happen when you have a non default value set for Font DPI within Windows operating system settings.
  • Windows 10: Right click your desktop → Display settings → Display → Change the size of text, apps, and other items → Make sure this is set to 100%.
  • Windows 8: Right click your desktop → Personalise → Display → Adjust font size (DPI) → Make sure this is set to the default value of 96.
  • If prompted, reboot or sign out and back in.

• One user has reported that the software or driver for a pen tablet caused this problem and uninstalling the software fixed it.

Many thanks to Crypticzynergy for much of this information.

• Windows 10:
  • Right click your desktop → Display settings → Display → Change the size of text, apps, and other items → Set this to the scaling you prefer (default is 125%).
  • Click Apply, then click Sign Out Now
• Windows 8:
  • Right-click on desktop and select “Personalize → Display → Adjust Font Size (DPI)”. Click “Continue” to verify making changes to the settings.
  • Click on the “Custom DPI…” button. (Win8: This will be in a “DPI Scaling” window that pops up,)
  • A “Custom DPI Setting” window is displayed. Set your DPI as you would like it and ensure that the “Use Windows XP Style DPI scaling” is CHECKED.
  • Click on the “OK” button to close the “Custom DPI Setting” window.
  • OK the request to Restart computer.

• Right-click on the viewer's shortcut/icon/executable on your desktop (or in Windows Explorer) and select “Properties.”

• Go to the “Compatibility” tab. Place a check in the box that says, “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.”

• Click “OK” to save the changes and close the popup window.

• Log into SL and verify that Mouselook View now works as intended. You're done!

“Windows XP style DPI scaling” does not actually scale a program's GUI; it only scales/enlarges the system fonts and other system UI elements at higher DPI settings. Basically any text drawn using system fonts is suddenly bigger.

Windows Vista's method is ambiguously called “display scaling”, or better known as “DPI virtualization”. Windows still performs “XP style scaling” when this option is enabled, but programs/software that can handle high DPI settings are now expected to tell Windows they can handle it by setting a “DPI-aware” flag. If that flag is missing, Windows first renders the entire program window to an internal bitmap using 96 DPI (the default setting), and then scales up that bitmap to the current DPI setting before finally displaying it on your screen.

Apparently, having the checkbox marked ENSURES the EXCLUSIVE use of the legacy “Windows XP style DPI scaling” method and DISABLES the additional use of “DPI Virtualization” for programs that lack the DPI-aware flag. Microsoft/Windows dislikes non-conformity by 3rd party programs to the point where it won't play nice with said software/programs, like SL! This is where the tantrum comes – in the form of Mouselook view issues. (Basically when the checkbox is unchecked, you're actually enabling the newer method – DPI virtualization.)

Les téléportations peuvent échouer de plusieurs façons :

• Vous n'allez nulle part, vous restez où vous étiez
• Vous vous faites déconnecter
• Vous crashez

Dans le premier des 3 cas évoqués, il est possible que le problème soit dû à une région pleine ou à laquelle vous n'avez pas accès, ou qui est hors-ligne. réessayez après quelques minutes.

Notez bien que l'introduction par Linden Lab du “teleport threading” - une tentative de réduire les effets de fuite de mémoire mono - a conduit à un accroissement des échecs de téléportation, résultant le plus souvent à une déconnexion de SL.

A essayer :

• Désactivez le RLV : Allez dans Preferences > Firestorm > Extras > décochez “Enable Remote Scripted Viewer Controls (RLVa)”. Si vous pouvez vous téléporter à la reconneion, il est possible que vous ayez une restriction de TP RLC active.

• Si vous ne subissez ni crash, ni déconnexion, mais que vous n'allez nulle part, essayez de vous téléporter ailleurs. Il est possible que ce soit une région en particulier qui crée des difficultés. Aller d'abord sur une autre région peut aider à accéder à la destination initialement souhaitée.

• Essayez d'ouvrir le repère (LM) auquel vous voulez vous téléporter et laissez les informations s'afficher entièrement avant de cliquer “Se Téléporter”

• Une bande passante réglée trop haut est souvent la cause d'échecs de téléportation. Allez dans Préférences > Network & files > Connection et régler votre bande passante sur 300, puis voyez si cela améliore vos TP. Si cela vous a aidé, vous pouvez augmenter progressivement, mais jamais au-dessus de 1500. Pour régler vote bande passante au mieux, voir cette page

• Pour les utilisateurs Mac : Si vous crashez ou que vous êtes déconnnecté à chaque pour presque chaque téléportation, vous devriez peut-être ajouter de nouveaux DNS dans les Préférences système de votre Mac, surtout si vous avez d'autres problèmes du genre liste d'amis vide ou des problèmes pour voir les mesh portés par les avatars. Dans ce cas, voir le paragraphe spécifique aux Macs dans cette page

• Le protocole HTTP est peut-être en train de surcharger votre box/router; essayez les conseils donnés ici; si cela ne vous aide pas, défaites les changements apportés et continuez à lire cette page.

• Si vous utilisez un pare-feu, essayez de le désactiver temporairement et voyez si vous constatez un différence. Les produits Norton sont connus pour détériorer plusieurs fonctions SL de manière importante : téléportations, chargement des textures, mais les mêmes problèmes peuvent aussi apparaître avec d'autres pare-feu. Si désactiver votre pare-feu résoud le problème de TP, réactivez-le et configurez-le pour lui faire autoriser l'accès de Firestorm à Internet. Les anglophones peuvent lire ceci.

• Vérifiez la qualité de votre connexion. Allez dans Aide → A propos de firestorm (Help → About Firestorm) et descendez juq'uà la dernière ligne dans la fenêtre d'aide. Vous verrez quelque chose comme “Packets Lost: 191/34581 (0.6%).”. Ce nombre et ce pourcentage doivent toujours être le plus près possible de 0. Si vous avez plus de 2%, c'est probablement la raison des échecs de vos téléportations. Soit la qualité de votre connexion à votre fournisseur d'accès s'est dégradée, soit le SIM sur lequel vous vous trouvez est surchargé et ne répond que faiblement. Vous pouvez aussi vérifier vos paquets perdus en temps réel dans votre barre de statistiques ( Ctrl-Alt-D pour activer le menu Avancé, puis Ctrl-Maj-1 pour ouvrir la barre de statistiques).

• Faites un clic droit sur votre tag ou sur la peau de votre avatar (pas sur un attachement) et sélctionnez “Script Info”. Si le nombre de scripts rapporté dans le chat local est à trois chiffres, cela pourraît être la raison de vos échecs de TP. Essayez d'enlever les scripts. Pour savoir quels attachements sont les plus lourdement scriptés, allez dans Monde → Détails de la parcelle, cliquez Script info en bas de l'onglet Général et allez dans l'onglet “Avatar” en haut. Rafraîchissez la liste qui affichera tous vos attachements scriptés avec l'utilisation de mémoire par article. Vous saurez ainsi lesquels enlever en premier.¹⁾ Notez bien que les prims NON SCRIPTEES n'ont aucun effet sur l'échec de téléportation.²⁾

• Si vous avez désactivé les écrans de téléportation, essayez de les réactiver : Préférences > Mouvement et Vue → Téléportation → Désactiver les écrans de téléportation … vérifiez que cette case est bien décochée. (Preferences → Move & View → Teleports→ Disable Teleport Screens).

• Si aucune des solutions mentionnées ci-dessus ne vous a aidé, vous avez peut-être un problème de connexion, surtout si vous voyez beaucoup de “paquets perdus” (Packet Loss). Déconnectez-vous et débranchez votre box/router et attendez une bonne minute environ avant de rebrancher. Si c'est un modem avec piles, enlevez aussi les piles. Redémarrer votre ordinateur ne peut pas faire de mal. Après une minute, remettez les piles en place et rebranchez la box/le router. Lorsque votre box/router est réinitialisé(e), reconnectez-vous sur SL.

¹⁾ Bien souvent les scripts contenus dans les attachements sont de vieux “resizers” (scripts de remise à taille) qui utilisent un script par prim. Dans une chevelure de 200 prims vous trouverez 200 scripts ! Cliquez gauche sur les cheveux, les bijoux, les chaussures, ou autres attachements, si un dialogue de script apparaît, regardez si vous voyez une option “Supprimer” ou “Delete” ou “Remove”. Si c'est le cas, faites une copie de l'original scripté dans votre inventaire, et utilisez cette option pour supprimer tous les scripts d'une copie de l'objet. Portez celui qui n'est pas scripté et conservez l'origial dans votre inventaire pour le cas où vous auriez besoin d'ajuster l'objet dans le futur.

Naturellement, ne supprimez pas les scripts des HUDs ou autres objets ayant fes fonctions utiles, comme les AOs, mystitool, HUDs de combat, etc. bien que vous puissiez réduire les scripts portés en utilisant l'AO intégré dans le viewer au lieu d'un HUD d'AO.

²⁾IMPORTANT: Le coût d'affichage de l'avatar n'a strictement rien à voir avec le compte de scripts. Un coût d'affichage bas ne veut pas dire que votre compte de scripts portés est bas lui aussi. Ce n'est qu'une indication du “travail” demandé à votre ordinateur pour dessiner/afficher un avatar. Un coût d'affichage élevé n'intervient en rien avec la téléportation, c'est un mythe.

Welcome to the Firestorm support team application process. We are looking for helpful and mature people who are interested in helping other Firestorm users have a good experience in SL—and with this viewer. If you have followed the support group much, you probably know that all our support team (in fact, the entire Firestorm team) are volunteers who contribute their time without compensation. Special computer knowledge is not required, only a desire to get involved and the ability to learn! You probably know a few things about the viewer already, and want to know more.

Please fill out the application in full. Every question needs an answer. If you leave any answer blank, the form will reset and you will have to start over. If you have no answer for a question, type none or not applicable.

However, we are interested in hearing your thinking process. If you don't know the answer, don't panic! Please describe anything you do know about the situation, or how you might go about finding an answer, or what you think it might be related to. Showing a productive approach to problem-solving is more important than having the “right” answers.

All information given here will be kept confidential.

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, and 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.

• Reset the window's position via Debug Settings. To do this,
  1. Try to ensure that the missing window is closed. (You many be able to tell this if you are using a toolbar button and it is highlighted or not.) If you can't tell, proceed anyway.
  2. Then open the Advanced menu (press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't already), and go to Show Debug Settings.
  3. Consult the table below for the names of the two settings that match your missing window.
  4. Find the first setting in the Debug Settings window; set it to 0 (zero).
  5. Repeat for the second setting.
  6. 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.