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.

To use the Restrained Love features built in to Firestorm you need to follow a few simple steps:

• Press CTRL-P to open the Preferences panel
• Go to Firestorm
• Move on to Extras
• Check on “Allow Remote Scripted Viewer Controls (RLVa)”
• Go to User Interface
• Move on to Interface Windows
• Uncheck“Hide empty system folders from inventory”
• Confirm your changes by clicking Ok in the right corner

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

After this you have to restart Firestorm to get RLVa working. Additionally you usually need to get a so-called Relay. This is an attachment you wear that enables objects in-world to interact with your viewer. These Relays are usually free of charge and come as HUDs or pieces of jewelry you wear. It's recommended to get a “Multi Relay”, so you can be controlled by more than one device at the same time.

If you also want to enable traps and toys to put folders into your inventory, you need go through a few additional steps:

• Click on the RLVa menu
• UncheckForbid Give to #RLV
• Open your Inventory (CTRL-I)
• Right click on My Inventory
• Select New Folder
• Rename the new folder to #RLV (be sure to use uppercase letters, exactly as shown here)

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Now you should be able to accept inventory from traps and toys, which will automatically be moved into the #RLV folder tree.

Users of RLV enabled viewers often run into the problem that devices can take off certain attachments or clothing layers, destroying the look of their avatar. For example, RLV devices that offer shoes to be taken off also detach left and right foot attachments. For certain avatar types that use prim attachments for their feet, this destroys the overall look. You can fix this issue by using locking scripts that prevent the respective attachment from being taken off, but this has a couple of disadvantages:

1. It uses additional scripts
2. You can't detach or take off these prims and clothing layers without unlocking them first

The solution is using the (nostrip) tag. Adding this tag to the name of an item or a folder instructs the RLV system to ignore these items when a detach or remove clothes command is sent. For this to work you must have the items in your #RLV folder tree. Together with the leading period “.” this can be used to make avatar folders that contain the bare minimum necessary to make up your look. The “.” makes sure this folder will not show up in a device's shared outfit list.

NOTE: The (nostrip) method only works with the actual worn items, not with inventory links.

To prevent a single item from being taken off by RLV devices, simply add the tag (nostrip) to the name, separated by a blank space:

Female Hair

will become

Female Hair (nostrip)

If the item is no modify you can put it into a folder by itself and add the (nostrip) tag to the folder.

To have your complete avatar safe from RLV devices, you can make a folder for it and add all parts of your avatar that are essential for its look. Then give it a name that has a “.” as first character (to hide it from RLV shared outfit devices) contains the (nostrip) tag at the end:

.Female Fox Avatar (nostrip)

This will make sure that no important parts of your avatar will be taken off; all other parts still can be removed as usual.

• Marine Kelley's Object Sharing Tutorial

People use the term a great deal, but usually without really understanding what it means, what causes it or how to deal with it. Some of the things commonly suggested to reduce lag actually have little or no effect.

First off, “lag” is a catch-all word that actually covers three very different things, and it is important to distinguish between them. Most lag reduction methods only deal with one of these three aspects.

You can use the Statistics Bar to get detailed information of what might be causing lag.

This is when you have connectivity issues. There are problems somewhere in the network between your computer and the LL servers. This usually can be noticed when you start to experience packet loss. Press Shift-Ctrl-1 (or Advanced¹⁾→ Performance Tools → Statistics Bar) and look at the top, packet loss; ideally this should be 0%; if it isn't, you have a connectivity issue and are losing data. Also, check Ping SIM. Ideally, this should be under 200.

Symptoms of a poor connection include (but are not limited to):

• failure of your avatar or textures to rez;
• object information not displaying in hover tips when you mouse over the object;
• teleport failure;
• random disconnections.

You can try to mitigate network lag by playing with your bandwidth. Too high, or too low, a value will result in network lag. For information on how to determine your optimal bandwidth, refer to this page.

Aside from the network issues mentioned above, some programs may inhibit or interfere with a good connection. Some firewall software and anti-virus programs are known to do this. You may want to temporarily disable them and see if the situation improves.

Everything you see has to be drawn by your graphics card. When there is too much to draw, when your computer cannot keep up, you experience client-side lag. Avatar Render Weight (formerly known as ARC - Avatar Rendering Cost) is part of client-side lag, as the name itself says.

Symptoms of client-side lag include jerky or sluggish movement.

There are many things you can do to reduce this, without having to ask people to adapt to you:

• reduce your draw distance (do you really need to see 512m away?);
• turn on avatar impostors (this makes drawing of distant avatars much faster);
• disable atmospheric shaders (which serves to drastically reduce how much your computer has to render, as the sky alone is very graphics-intensive);
• if need be, inhibit the rendering of other avatars: Advanced → Rendering Types → Avatar - or derender them.
• try reducing your level of detail settings for everyday use or to improve performance: Preferences → Graphics → Objects and Sculpts LOD; you can always adjust this setting again temporarily if something specific fails to render for you.

Client side lag is local to you. It is a direct result of how powerful your computer is. It is no one else's fault if your computer cannot handle a specific situation. So if you're in a high-lag setting, adapt temporarily as described above.

It must also be pointed out that client side lag does NOT affect things like scripts, at all. It has next to zero impact on a SIM's performance.

Contrary to popular belief, particles do not “lag a SIM'. Their effect on a SIM, on the servers, is in fact close to zero. Particles are almost entirely client-side. They are rendered on your computer, by your graphics card, and in fact, do NOT require a script to keep them going. They need a script to initiate the effect, yes, but afterward the script may be removed and the particle effect will keep going forever - until another script is dropped in to turn them off, or the object is taken or deleted.

If you find that particles are “lagging you”, it is wrong to ask that the effect be stopped. Instead, stop it yourself, on your own computer. That way others who are less affected may continue to enjoy them.

You can disable particles in a number of ways:

• Advanced → Rendering Types → Particles
• Preferences → Graphics → Max. particle count - set to 0

Doing any of these things will stop particles “lagging you”. There is no need to ask others to degrade their SL experience on your behalf. Also, again, particles do NOT cause server-side or script lag. Even if the scripts are not removed, a single one uses 0.02ms script time.

Owners of venues that have a “no particles” policy may mean well, but are misinformed. Again, particles do not lag a SIM, and are very easily dealt with client-side as described previously. Those venue owners are aiming at the wrong target in trying to reduce lag: particles aren't it, scripts are - and even more so, moving avatars (see below). You can't remove the avatars, of course, but you can request that they not show up with heavily scripted attachments.

(Having said that, every little bit helps when it comes to reducing script lag, so if you have a particle effect that does not require the script to be in it at all times, remove it.)

Like particles, high avatar complexity does not lag a region; the effect is entirely client-side. The higher the complexity, the greater the client lag it causes. Be aware of your own complexity, so as to try to reduce the lag you cause for others.

Server-side lag is caused by several things, independently. There are two major causes; all others are secondary and negligible. They are, in order of impact on a SIM:

• Physics. People, even wearing nothing at all, with an Avatar Render Weight of 1, and no scripts, will lag a SIM. The SIM needs to keep track of where each avatar is, to prevent them walking through one another, floors, walls, etc. Avatar movement is VERY high when it comes to server side lag. Sitting down reduces this lag significantly. Your avatar, in fact, becomes linked to the prim you're sitting on.

• Scripts. This is common knowledge, compared to the previous point. If you know you're going to a busy event, then remove scripted attachments, as many as possible. An AO in and of itself is negligible when compared to hair that is resize-scripted. Keep the AO, and instead ensure that your hair, shoes and other attachments have no resize scripts in them. (There is no good reason whatsoever for anyone to be carrying around more than 200 scripts on a human avatar, even when in full RP attire, with combat HUDs.)

Contrary to popular belief, prims do not lag a SIM - or more precisely, their effect on lag is miniscule compared to the two things mentioned above. Scripted prims cause lag; unscripted ones do not - relatively speaking, of course.

So, if you're going to an event, before you leave for it, check your attachments (hair, shoes, etc.) to ensure that they are unscripted. To those running events, it is strongly suggested that you ask attendees to do these things; a badly lagged SIM affects everyone at the event.

NOTE: As stated earlier, lag caused by physics (primarily avatar movement) is the number one cause of region lag. If physics lag is bad enough, scripts simply will stop running; avatar movement is considered more important than scipts. If there are 40 people at an event, and many are moving about, it will be laggy even if none of those people are wearing scripts.

NOTE: Moving away from a scripted prim will not do anything to reduce the “lag” it may be causing you. Scripts all run on the region server, and therefore, they are “global” to the server. No matter where you are in the region, the effect of that script running - that is, the time taken to run it, and the memory it consumes - will be felt on the entire region.

It must be stated that the above is a simplification; the true situation is far more complex but the intent is to be brief, simple, yet sufficiently correct.

Windows 10 updates since March 2017 have resulted in users experiencing stalling or crashing at “initializing VFS”.

Firestorm addresses this issue, but you must do this additional step once you have installed the 64bit version:

1. While logged out of Firestorm.
2. Right click the desktop shortcut for the 64bit Firestorm → Properties → Shortcut tab.
3. In the “Target” text box, go to the end of the text, *add a space* and then add this exact text to the end: --noprobe.

"C:\Program Files\FirestormOS-Releasex64\FirestormOS-Releasex64.exe" --set InstallLanguage en --noprobe 

4. Click “OK” to apply to save changes and launch Firestorm using the Desktop shortcut. (Note that if you use the pinned application on your task bar, make sure you pin the shortcut, not the running viewer.)

For reference, see: https://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-21109
[Windows 64bit] Windows 10 - Stuck on “Initializing VFS” after KB4015217 on Intel HD, Intel HD 2500 & Intel HD 4000 cards on 64bit viewers only.

Reminder to check directly with the Intel website for the most up to date drivers. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MOTD: EVENT: Forgotten Gatcha New User Pet Gifts
New to SL and feeling lonely, overwhelmed or confused with it all? Come get your personal pet for the holidays to keep you company while exploring! Get them here till they run out! https://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pets_for_new_residents

MOTD: EVENT: Survivors of Suicide Open House
Join SOS at their Open House this weekend February 9 & 10! There will be events and swag but most of all we will be there to tell anyone who will listen about SOS! https://survivorsofsuicide.wixsite.com/home/blog/survivors-of-suicide-welcome-you-to-our-open-house-this-weekend

MOTD: EVENT: The Oasis Event for Parkinson
The Oasis Event for Parkinson's Awareness Month in April 2019 is now accepting merchants and bloggers between Feb 1 - 24! Visit their website to sign up! https://creationspark.wordpress.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'll break them into the same groups below;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This section is changing as we speak!

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

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

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

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

See the Malwarebytes tab below.

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.

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

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

Locations are indicated in the far right column as follows:

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

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

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

*All times SLT*

• 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. ¹⁾ 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.
• 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. Please see here for details on why high values are 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:
  • 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.
  • 32bit versions only. This setting is hard limited to a maximum of 512MB. Lowering this value may resolve certain texture corruption and performance issues, but under normal circumstances you should not need to alter this setting.
  • 64bit versions only. This setting is hard limited based on the VRAM available with your graphics card. It is recommended you increase the slider to use the maximum available to prevent texture thrashing.
    • GPU 1GB = up to 768MB
    • GPU 2GB+ = up to 1024MB
    • GPU 4GB+ = up to 2048MB
• 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 for receiving textures: Uses the HTTP protocol to fetch textures as opposed to the older UDP. Always on, as it is required for SL.
• Restrict maximum texture resolution to 512px (64bit only; requires restart) (default on 32bit already).

• 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

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 reconnexion, 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.

If you have Intel HD 620 or Intel HD 630, and Windows 10 – This is an Intel driver issue. The fix is to roll back to driver 24.20.100.6025. Download Legacy Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows® 10 Version: 24.20.100.6025 (Ref. BUG-225655.)

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.

If you don't have the above graphics and this occurs, chances are good that some part of 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 7, 8.1, and 10: press [Win] + [R] and type %localappdata%, then look for the Firestorm folder. (This method avoids having to un-hide folders.)
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firestorm
  • linux: ~/.firestorm/cache or ~/.firestorm_x64/cache
• Delete the cache folder you located.
• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try Hippo Hollow, Aich or Hatton). Allow your inventory and cache 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.

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

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.

This is a collection of error messages seen in SL. Some are system messages; some are viewer-generated. The list is by no means complete.

If you get an error message that is not on this page, please:

• Report it in Firestorm Support English (in-world support group)
• Or File a Jira alerting us to it (please provide the complete, exact wording of the message; a screenshot is also helpful).
• If you found a solution or explanation, please let us know that too.

Thanks!

Please note that Marketplace has nothing to do with the viewer. These messages are noted simply for convenience.

“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.

Firestorm 6.0.1 (56538) Animesh Beta Release Notes

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

More information about the 64-bit builds can be found here.

• SLURLs not working in your browser, or choose to open with a different viewer (Windows)
  • SLURL Proxy.zip
  • Instructions are included, but can also be seen on the Wiki at slurl_proxy

Firestorm 6.0.1, 5.1.7, 5.0.11, 5.0.7 Release

• Windows - Download in Firefox or Chrome to play Flash media inside Second Life.
  Choose the correct operating system under Step 1.
  Choose FP 32 for Opera & Chromium - PPAPI under Step 2.
  Install Flash.

• Mac - Ensure that you have the most recent version of Flash for Safari installed. You an get this via the normal update process, or from Adobe.
  Choose the correct operating system under Step 1.
  Choose FP 32 for Safari and Firefox – NPAPI under Step 2.
  Install Flash.

• Linux - You need to have the pepperflash plugin installed, which can be satisfied by installing Google Chrome.

Firestorm 6.0.1, 5.1.7, 5.0.11, 5.0.7

• Windows - Quicktime does not need to be installed to play media on Firestorm 5.0.1 or later.

• Mac - Quicktime to play streaming videos. (iTunes is not needed)

for Linux only

• Info for download to play streaming videos. (Please read page for info on installing GStreamer for your particular distribution.)

• Growl for Windows– As of November 2018 this site is dead. Users who already have Growl installed can continue to use it for the time being. Windows users may be able to download a copy from its github release page.

• Mac– This site will lead you to the Mac App Store for downloading. Please note the reviews and the update status of Growl before purchasing; Firestorm cannot guarantee its functionality.

• Linux: Growl is implicit in libnotify, which should come already installed in most distros. However, if you are on a 64-bit linux, you may need to install the 32-bit version of libnotify. For ubuntu and similar (like mint), run the following command:
  sudo apt-get install libnotify4:i386

Windows only

• DX runtime April 2011 to help increase performance and stability. For all versions of Windows. Please refer to this page.

Mac drivers are included with OS upgrades. However, to determine what card you have, select “About this Mac” from the Apple menu, then click “More Info”. Under Hardware select Graphics/Displays.

If you are not sure what type of video card you have, use GPU-Z found (win only) here. For linux, in a console use:
lspci | grep VGA

• Latest driverLast checked 15/12/2018 - Windows: 417.35 (2018.12.12) - Linux: 410.78 (2018.11.15)

• Latest driverLast checked 15/12/2018 - Windows: Adrenalin 2019 Edition 18.12.2 (12/13/2018) - Linux: 18.50 (12/13/2018)
  

• Intel driver download page Intel does not have a universal driver set. Please go to Intel's site and use the auto detect feature.

https://hg.phoenixviewer.com/

Firestorm Release Notes 6.0.2.(56680) Animesh Release

Firestorm Release Notes 6.0.1 (56538) Animesh Beta Release

Firestorm Release Notes 5.1.7 (55786) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 5.0.11 (53634) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 5.0.7 (52912) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 5.0.1 (52150) Bento Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.7.9 (50527) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.7.7 (48706) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.7.5 (47975) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.7.3 (47323) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.7.1 (45325) Beta Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.6.9 (42974) Hotfix Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.6.9 (42969) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.6.7 (42398) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.6.5 (40833) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.6.1 (40478) Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.5.1 (38838) Beta Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.4.2 (34167) Server Side Appearance Update Release

Firestorm Release Notes 4.4.0 (33720) Server Side Appearance Capable Release

Firestorm Havok - Release Notes 4.3.1 (31155) Havok Release

Firestorm Havok Beta - Release Notes 4.3.0 (30936)

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 4.2.2 (29837) With Pathfinding Tools HOTFIX

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 4.2.1 (29803) With Pathfinding Tools

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 4.1.1 (28744)

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 4.0.1 (27000)

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 3.3.0 (24880)

Firestorm Official - Release Notes 3.2.2 (24336)/3.2.1 (24179)

Public Beta 3 - Mesh - Release Notes

Public Beta 2 Release Notes 7/5/2011

Public Beta Release Notes 6/14/2011

Preview 2 Release Notes 3/23/2011

Preview Release Notes 1/30/2011

This page shows all changes since the 6.0.1.56538 Animesh Beta Release.
If you are updating from an earlier version then 6.0.1, see HERE for previous release notes.

For a summary of all the major new features and improvements in this release, please
see Inara Pey's Firestorm 6.0.2 blog postFIXME.

Too many to list them all here.
See the full change log for details.
Highlighted fixes are listed below.

—

—

• Merge up to Linden Lab viewer 6.0.0 code-baseFIXME
  Firestorm 6.0.2 is fully merged up to the Image may be NSFW.
  Clik here to view. Linden code-base, plus some cherry picked fixes from upstream.
  Ansariel Hiller

Firestorm 6.0.2 is still using the RestrainedLove API: RLV v3.2.1 / RLVa v2.2.0.56680

Here are the full RLVa 2.2 Release Notes

• German - Ansariel Hiller

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

56539 https://hg.phoenixviewer.com/phoenix-firestorm-prerelease/rev/9bbde1800e09

Firestorm supports both the new Region Windlight, introduced by LL, and Parcel Windlight, which was introduced with Phoenix Viewer. Both of these allow you to customize your in-world sky and water, but they operate at different levels: one is region-wide, while the other is restricted to single parcels.

Parcel Windlight allows individual parcel owners to customize their own land as they wish. Region Windlight is most effective on region-wide parcels, or where Region owners wish to provide a consistent experience to visitors.

There are several ways in which you can control you personal Windlight experience. You can opt to use whatever sky and water settings have been selected by region and/or parcel owners, or you can use your own. You can also create your own sky, water and day cycle settings.

General options concerning Windlight are set in Preferences→ Firestorm→ Windlight tab; please refer there for details.

If you wish to use your own day/night cycle, or set to a specific time of day, then use top menu bar→ World → Environment Editor → Environment Settings.

If you own a region or parcel, you can customize the Windlight settings for yourself, and for others visiting your land.

Region Windlight can only be changed by region owners or estate managers. It is set by going to the top menu bar and selecting World menu → Region Details. On the window that opens, select Environment. Regions can be set to use the default SL day cycle, a custom day cycle, or fixed time of day. See here for more on how to configure a region's Windlight settings.

Parcel Windlight sharing is a feature of Firestorm that allows land owners to specify a Windlight preset for the viewer to use while on their land at the parcel level.

The land owner just needs to put a plain text string at the end of the parcel description. Parcel description is set in the About Land floater, General tab.

/*Windlight Sky: "[name of the preset]"*/

NOTE: The Windlight name must be exactly as shown in the Windlight list, including all spaces, capitalization, and punctuation. One way to make sure you get the name exactly right is to go to World → Environment Editor → Sky (or Water) Presets → Edit Preset. Select the Windlight you want from the dropdown list, then copy the name.

Windlight water presets are also supported:

/*Windlight Sky: "[name of the preset]" Water: "[name of the WL water preset]"*/

Water settings can be used by its self just like sky if wanted.

Example: If the sky preset is to be [TOR] BIG SUN - Awwyeah and the water preset [TOR] Watermelon juice and the parcel's description is “My awesome place” then the parcel description would be like this:

My awesome place

/*Windlight Sky: "[TOR] BIG SUN - Awwyeah" Water: "[TOR] Watermelon juice"*/

Zones

Parcel WL settings also support zoned settings based on altitude. This allows skyboxes to have a different sky settings than ground level.

/*Windlight Sky @ [lower]m to [upper]m: "[name of preset]"*/

Example: If the parcel wide settings are to be [TOR] MIDDAY - Cheery cyan for the sky and [TOR] Ice-like for the water with a skybox between 500 meters and 600 meters using [TOR] NIGHT - Moony for its sky, the config line would like like so:

/*Windlight Sky: "[TOR] MIDDAY - Cheery cyan" Water: "[TOR] Ice-like" Sky @ 500m to 600m: "[TOR] NIGHT - Moony"*/

The parcel wide settings for sky and water are optional. Zones can be used by themselves leaving the rest of the land at region defaults.

NOTE: There is a 3 meter minimum distance between zones, zones should be at least 10 meters apart and over lap the desired area by a least 5 meters to allow for the 5 second delay on detecting changes.

If you have set region WL to use a fixed sky or a custom day cycle, region WL will always override parcel WL unless you use the RegionOveride flag

For example:

/*Windlight Sky: "[name of the preset]" Water: "[name of the WL water preset]"RegionOverride*/

Advanced

If there is not enough space in the description for the desired config line, there are several optional formatting and whitespace

/*Sky:"[preset]"Water:"[preset]"*/

Is the same as:

/*Windlight Sky:"[preset]" Water:"[preset]"*/

Zones can be shortened as well:

/*Sky@[lower]-[upper]:"[preset]"*/

Be sure to use “straight quotes,” both double and single, not “curly quotes.”

Please refer to this page for details.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

*macOS 10.14 Mojave*: No voice input using Firestorm-Beta 6.0.1. See [Mac Mojave] SL Voice No Input on 6.0.1. You may download and install a nightly test version of Firestorm 6.0.2. to use until next release which contains a fix for this issue.

The IP address of the server 'www.bhr.vivox.com' recently changed to 74.201.103.238 so anyone having a problem can check to see what address their system sees for that name - if it's not that address, it's probably wrong. A simple reboot may resolve this issue. If not, see DNS Fail - General steps for help fixing this.

nslookup command how-to: WindowsMacLinux

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 Firestorm-Beta 6.0.1.
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.

Some details provided below.

• 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:

• 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 reboot your router/modem, and then your computer. ¹⁾

• 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.)