If you find yourself unable to sit on a prim, it may be for one of the following reasons:

• If the item you are trying to sit on is unscripted (or not correctly scripted) and you have placed it within the bounding box of a sculpted prim, then you will not be able to sit on it. You will need to either move the item out of the area of the sculpt, move the sculpt, or ask the item's maker to implement the sit target scripting correctly.

• If using Phoenix, go to Preferences → Phoenix → Misc and ensure that “Block sitting on objects via left-click” is not checked.

In the first case, you can verify by taking the item up to height, where there are no sculpted prims at all, and sitting on it.

There are times when you may wish to do a clean reinstall of Phoenix - or a support team member might request it, as part of a trouble shooting procedure.

The steps given below refer to Phoenix specifically, but please do the same for all viewers you currently have installed, to ensure that you have no corrupted data that a new install of Phoenix might pick up.

You may use the Add/Remove Programs panel to remove Phoenix, or simply delete the entire installation folder. This is typically located at: C:\Program Files\Phoenix Viewer. You will be left with the folder in the Start menu, however. which is why it is preferable to uninstall as previously described. This is the way all other Second Life viewers should be uninstalled.

The Phoenix install directory will be whereever you extracted the download archive to. Typically this will be in your home directory somewhere, such as ~/Apps/Phoenix/ - delete this folder and everything inside it.

Remove Phoenix from Applications. Then go to User/Library/Application Support and delete any file(s) called Phoenix. That done, look in User/Library/Caches, and again remove any file(s) names Phoenix.

Phoenix settings can become corrupt, particularly if you recently crashed; the files may not save completely, so important information can become “scrambled”. For this reason, wiping your settings, while “painful”, may be necessary. Here is how:

• Use a file manager (like Windows Explorer for Windows system, Dolphin, or some such) to locate the settings 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 settings folder:
  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USERNAME]\Application Data\SecondLife
  • Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife
  • Windows 7: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife
  • Mac: /Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/SecondLife
  • linux: ~/.secondlife
• To preserve things like saved chat logs, rename the SecondLife folder - for example, append the current date to the name, such as: SecondLife-12Nov2010 If you do not need to save chat logs, then simply delete the entire folder named SecondLife, and everything inside it.

IMPORTANT: If you have created a cache for Phoenix outside of the SecondLife folder, then delete everything inside it now.

The default paths for Phoenix cache are as follows:

• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\PhoenixViewer
• Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\PhoenixViewer
• Windows 7: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\PhoenixViewer
• Mac: ~/Library/Caches/PhoenixViewer
• linux: ~/.secondlife/phoenixviewer

Delete the entire folder named PhoenixViewer.

Having done all those steps, you may now reinstall Phoenix. Once you have, you will need to repopulate your inventory:

• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try aich or hatton). On your inventory window, click “Recent Items”.
• Wait for your inventory to repopulate fully. The process may be sped up by typing random letters into the search bar.
• While inventory repopulates, do not teleport anywhere, and do not attempt to access anything in your inventory. Talk to people or surf the web.
• Watch as it repopulates. as long as you can see (Fetched…) at the top of the inventory window, it is still loading.
• Once inventory has repopulated, log out of SL once more.
• If you opted to keep chat logs, you may copy them over at this point. Look in the old dated SecondLife folder you renamed in the 'Clearing Settings' section above; you will see one or more folders with your avatar names. Inside each of these you will find your chat logs - unless you changed the default location, in which case they will be whereever you saved them. Copy over only the logs; do not copy any XML files. (If your OS does not show file extensions like XML, copy only files that have avatar names or SecondLife group names; the rest are old settings files and can be discarded.) Once you have done that, you may delete the old folder.
• Log back in into SL.

Why? Because here be dragons. And sometimes clearing your settings may be the best way to fix a weird problem. Keep in mind that settings are not cleared by uninstalling or installing new viewers

If clearing settings solves your problem, then you might want to create a backup of your settings once you have restored them as you like them - and assuming that everything works. Click here for instructions.

Edit - Preferences - General Tab - Reset All Settings (located at the bottom)

This can be done both on the Login Page and within the viewer after logging in.

NOTE: This does not wipe all settings; per-account settings are not reset. So it may not be effective enough to solve issues you might have. The method below is more complete.

This is a bit more complex but it ensures that everything is wiped.

Log out of Phoenix. Then navigate to the folder that stores the application data for second life - if you do not see this folder, you may need to show hidden folders.

• On XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USERNAME]\Application Data\SecondLife
  or use the environment variable %APPDATA%)

• On Windows Vista and 7: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife
  (or use the environment variable %APPDATA%)

• On a Mac: /Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/SecondLife

• On Linux: ~/.secondlife/

1. Find the folder named “user_settings” and navigate inside it
2. delete everything
3. now locate the folders which have the names of your avatar(s)
4. in each of these folders, locate the file settings_per_account.xml and delete it

NOTE: For Firestorm, refer to this page.

The client side Animation Override (AO) was added to the Phoenix Viewer by Skills Hak. It allows you to replace your scripted AO, with one that is client based.

• Does not take up Sim script resources, so lower lag for you and everyone.
• Better performance, smaller delay times, no script event lag.
• Unlimited memory. Have over 9000 different stands without any problem.
• Extra attachment points now free.
• Works and can change in no-script zones.

1. Detach any AO you are currently wearing, or it will interfere.
2. Place all of the animations from the AO into the #Phoenix folder in your inventory.
3. Place the ZHAO II notecard for the AO in the SAME folder.
4. Expand the client AO window, then drag the notecard onto the indicated spot on the AO window
5. Press the “Reload” button.

There are chat commands to turn the AO on or off. These can be found and customized in Preferences → Phoenix → CmdLine.

• Default command for on: cao on
• Default command for off: cao off
• Default command to toggle sitting posted (for compatibility with chairs, etc.): cao sit

• All editing / adding / removing animations must be done through the notecard you have specified.
• If you wish to add a animation, drag it into the same folder as the notecard you have chosen, and then edit that notecard, and add its name as specified below.
• To remove a animation, simply delete its name from the notecard.
• You will need to open the AO window (Phoenix→ AO) and press the “Reload” button to see your changes.

Most AOs in second life all follow the same syntax, so there is a very very high probability that yours will convert perfectly.

For more detail.. this is the format of a ZHAO 2 settings notecard, (not a ZHAO 1); pay close attention to how the brackets work.

For the sake of documentation though, here is an example notecard. Notice how the animation state is in brackets, followed by each name of the animation separated with a pipe character “|”. Lines should not be longer than 255 characters, and in the example below, the animations have been split up into 2 lines in order to not make the lines for Standing animations too long.

[ Standing ]vAStand01DANGER|VAStand05_DANGER_F|VAStand02_DANGER|VAStand06_DANGERe|VAStand04_DANGER|VAStand06_iDANGER|VAStand07_DANGER3|VAStand08_DANGER30|VAStand08_iDANGER30|VAStand09_DANGER
[ Standing ]vAStand11_DANGER|VAStand12_DANGER|VAStand13_DANGER|VAStand14_DANGER|VAStand15_DANGER|VAStand02_iDANGER
[ Walking ]08WALKDANGER|DANGERMIXWALK1|DANGERMIXWALK2.3|DANGERkillerwalk|09WALKMODEL3.2hips|08WALKDANGERmix3
[ Sitting ]sit01DANGER|sit02DANGER|sit03DANGER|sit04DANGER|sit00DANGER
[ Sitting On Ground ]sitgDANGER01|SitGDANGER2|sitgDANGER3
[ Crouching ]crounch02DANGER|VAmocCROUNCH3
[ Crouch Walking ]vAFLIPWALK2
[ Landing ]landing2DANGER|Landing_Jump03_AN
[ Standing Up ]vA_boxerlanding1
[ Falling ]fall_VA_fly3
[ Flying Down ]vA_DangerFlyDown
[ Flying Up ]vA_DANGERflyUp
[ Flying ]vA_DangerFly|VAmocFLIGHT2
[ Flying Slow ]vAmocFSLOW
[ Hovering ]vA_DANGERhover_v02
[ Jumping ]jump02DANGER|jump_Jump03_AN
[ Pre Jumping ] v3_VA_Prejump|preJump_Jump03_SL
[ Running ]vISTARUN
[ Turning Right ]vATURNR
[ Turning Left ]vATURNL
[ Floating ]fLOAT
[ Swimming Forward ]vA.DIVE
[ Swimming Up ]
[ Swimming Down ]
[ Typing ]typex

~Q. Why isn't it loading the information in my notecard!?!?
~A. Make sure the notecard is formatted as shown above, older ones will need modification.

~Q. Will other avatars, Phoenix viewer or not, see these animations?
~A. Yes.

Key = Key Sequence

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 of, “lag” is a catch-all word that actually covers 3 very different things, and it is important to distinguish between them. Most lag reduction methods only deal with one of these 3 aspects.

You can use the lag meter to help determine which of these three is affecting you the most. More detailed information is available in the Statistics Bar, which may be accessed by pressing Shift-Ctrl-1.

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 display in hover tips when you mouse over them
• 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 → Character - or derender them.

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 SIMs 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:

• View → Hide Particles
• Advanced → Rendering → Types → Particles
• Preferences → Graphics → Custom → 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 unfortunately 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.)

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 was to be brief, simple, yet sufficiently correct.

For further information on lag, please consult the following:

• Anatomy of Lag
• Lag Myths Dispelled
• SL Help: Lag
• SL Help: Reducing Lag
• SL Help: Statistics Bar

This is a list of features which existed prior to the current release. Please note that some of the pages may have been updated to reflect the newest version, but should still have relevant information.

• Features in Phoenix Version 1.5.2.373 and Prior
  • Advanced Debug Settings
  • Animation Explorer
  • Area Search
  • Avatar List (Radar)
  • Breast Physics
  • Build Presets
  • Client AO
  • Custom UI Skins
  • IRC Client
  • LSL Client Bridge
  • LSL PreProcessor
  • Phantom
  • Phoenix Preferences Tab
  • Progressive Draw Distance
  • Restrained Love Support (RLVa)
  • Secondary Attachment Points
  • Compatible with Squid Proxy Cache

You may find the parts of jewelry items, or shoes, disappear even when you are viewing from relatively close, and that the only way to get them to show up is to right-click and edit them. In most cases, this can be dealt with as follows:

• in the lower right corner of the Phoenix window, there is an up arrow, above the large Inventory button. Click the up arrow, and a pop-up floater appears
• find LOD Factor, and set it to a value between 3 and 4. Start at 3, for example
• close the pop-up by click the - at the bottom

Now cam away from yourself then back and you should find that the small prims are rendering better. You can experiment with the LOD Factor values. Be aware that going too low will make large prims (especially sculpted prims) start to look very strange even from relatively close up, so don't go too low; 3 is the recommended minimum.

One more thing you can try is to toggle Dynamic LOD to see if it improves (whether this works better enabled or disabled will depend a great deal on your hardware):

• Preferences → Phoenix → Page 2 → Advanced Graphics → Dynamic LOD

“Look At” is the name given to a beacon, cross hairs, which indicate where an avatar's camera is focused. Where an avatars camera is focused is not necessarily where they are looking, it is only where the focus point is.

To see where other avatars have focused their camera:

• (Top menu bar) Phoenix → Show LookAt

Please note that others can disable their LookAt from being seen (see below), so enabling this doesn't guarantee that you will see everyone's camera focus.

In order to prevent others from seeing where your camera is focused:

• Preferences → Phoenix → Shields → Broadcast Camera Focus Point … UNcheck
• Preferences → Phoenix → Shields → Broadcast Viewer Effects … UNcheck

Note that the second option affects other things as well, like your head turning when you move your camera focus. So you may wish to leave this enabled - in which case, your LookAt cross hairs will be visible but remain above your head.

You may enable the display of your own LookAt beacon:

• Preferences → Phoenix → Misc → Don't show me my own LookAt beacon … UNcheck

If you are experiencing very low FPS, around 1FPS, then try this and see if it helps:

• Open Preferences → Graphics → Hardware Options (button) and Texture memory to 352.
• Relog.

See PHOE-2178 for details of SLI-based card FPS problems

The LSL Client Bridge is an object that can communicate with the Phoenix Viewer through chat messages. Through the use of LSL script commands, the bridge is a powerful tool that boosts radar performance, the accuracy of online status in profiles, and allows teleports to avatars and specific locations on a SIM despite landing points. The bridge is also an open source item, and the import information used to build it can be located in the “app_settings” folder.

The Way it Works

If the bridge is enabled, Phoenix will first automatically look for the bridge object in inventory. If it is not found, then Phoenix will rez a box on the ground, add the script, and then take it to your inventory to create it. At this point, Phoenix will attach it to a new attachment point to make sure it doesn't interfere with your avatar. The viewer will show the attachment point as “bridge.” Please note that if the bridge is enabled, Phoenix will automatically try to replace the bridge if it is detached. Please use the settings below to turn off the bridge first.

1. Go to an area with rez rights
2. Go to Edit → Preferences → Phoenix → Page 1 → Misc
3. Check “Enable the client bridge”
4. Check each of the boxes below (radar, online status, & llMoveToTarget TP) to have the features described above

Having bridge problems? Please see the Troubleshooting and Quick Fixes page.

Developing scripts in LSL can be tedious, especially if you are creating scripts that use the same things over and over again, and you keep copying pieces of your older scripts to new creations. And even within one project, you often have to copy parts of your scripts into sub-scripts (example: link message numbers as identifiers for commands). Changing any of these numbers or updating and fixing bugs in older variants of the code might result in different versions of the same functions being used or in bugs found in older versions not being fixed in newer creations. The Phoenix LSL Preprocessor is a tool to help you circumvent a lot of these problems.

Adding and removing debugging statements is another thing with which the Preprocessor can be helpful. Usually you have debugging functions in the script to see if all is working fine, and you take them out before release. But this in itself creates new places for mistakes as well as the opportunity for some debugging output to remain in the script on release day because it was overlooked during final screening. Using the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor gives you a very simple way of making sure that no debug output is left in your final release.

To enable the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor, open your preferences panel (CTRL-P), click on “Phoenix”, “Page 2”, and then on “Inventory”. Mark the checkbox “Enable LSL Preprocessor Filesystem Includes” and click on “Set”. This will open a file requester, prompting you to point at a directory on your local computer. This is the place where you store all your LSL include files. Next, open any LSL script, click on “Advanced”, and select “Enable Preprocessor”. Then close the script.

After setting up, you will see two tabs in your LSL editor: “Script” and “Postprocessed”. The first is your active scripting window; the second shows the output of the Preprocessor, essentially the content that gets stored in the script. The postprocessed script contains the entire source code of what you have written in a comment block at the beginning, and the postprocessed output following this comment block. This ensures backwards compatibility with older versions of Phoenix and regular viewers that do not support preprocessing at all.

NOTE: Since the LSL/Mono compiler gets the script after preprocessing, the line numbers in error messages refer to the postprocessed script. So if you are getting compiler errors, be sure to look for the error in the “Postprocessed” tab rather than in your original script.

Create a file in your include folder with the name debug.lsl. Copy the following snippet into this file:

#ifdef DEBUG
debug(string text){llOwnerSay(text);
}
#else
#define debug(dummy)
#endif
 

Now create a new LSL script and copy the following code into the script editor:

#define DEBUG
#include "debug.lsl" 
default{state_entry(){
        debug("Debugging with the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor.");
    }}

Save the script. You will see the “Debugging with the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor” message in your chat console. Now change the first line of the LSL script to:

#undef DEBUG

Save the script again. You will see that the debugging message is gone. This is a very handy way to enable and disable all debugging code in one single line. To understand what really happens, have a look at the “Postprocessed” tab. You can clearly see how the debug line will simply disappear, a lonely “;” the only trace of it having been there.

Including files has one disadvantage though. You will get the complete contents of the file, if you need it or not. But the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor uses an optimizing technique, which only keeps the things you really used in your code and removes all global functions and variables you didn't reference in your script. This makes sure that your scripts don't get burdened with a lot of unused code. You can enable or disable this functionality in the script editor's “Advanced” menu.

The Preprocessor also adds a set of new commands to the LSL editor which has been sorely missing until now: the switch/case construct known from many other languages. You can enable support for this construct in the script editor's “Advanced” menu. switch/case is a handy replacement for if(...) else if() chains. Additionally, switch/case supports “fallthrough” from one case to another, so you can chain up several cases with different conditions. A break statement is used to prevent fallthrough. The default case is used if none of the cases match the switch() condition.

Example:

default{state_entry(){integer i;
        switch(i){
           case 1:{llOwnerSay("1");
               // fallthrough to case 2}
           case 2:{llOwnerSay("1 or 2");
               // no fallthrough
               break;
           }
           case 3:{llOwnerSay("3");
               // fallthrough to default}default:{llOwnerSay("3 or default");
           }}}}

Assigning values to list indexes is always a cumbersome thing to do in LSL (llListReplaceList() needed). Lazy Lists can help you a little by providing a way to just say:

myList[index]=value;

Sadly it is not really possible to get list elements the same way because the return data can be of different types.

The Preprocessor understands the following commands:

#define
#undef
#ifdef
#ifndef
#if
#elif
#else
#endif
#warning
#error
#include

There are a few more, but these are not really useful within LSL.

Additionally, you can use the following macros in your scripts to help with debugging and giving you other useful information:

• __FILE__ - the full path to the script as it would appear in the include cache. The top script only uses its name.
• __LINE__ - the line of the current script where it is expanded; this starts at line 0
• __SHORTFILE__ - the name of the current script without full file path
• __AGENTID__ - a string-encapsulated version of the agent's key who compiles the script
• __AGENTKEY__ - same as above, legacy version
• __AGENTIDRAW__ - a nonstring-encapsulated version of the agent's key who compiles the script
• __AGENTNAME__ - a string-encapsulated version of the agent's full name who compiles the script
• __ASSETID__ - a string-encapsulated version of the assetid of the current script; may return “NOT IN WORLD” or a nonstring-encapsulated null key in rare circumstances

Thanks to Zwagoth Klaar for this list.

#define creates a case-sensitive macro which will be replaced while saving and compiling a script. This can be applied as simple constant numbers, strings, and even functions. What happens is a literal text replacement in the source code. Because of this, be careful with “;” inside your macros. These usually don't cause any harm; but within a one-line conditional, things can break in unexpected ways if it creates a “;;” in the end of a line, for example.

The following examples will give you an overview of what #define does. Have a look at the “Postprocessed” tab to see what the Preprocessor creates from the source.

Example 1:

#define CHANNEL 12345llOwnerSay((string) CHANNEL); // CHANNEL will be replaced with the literal 12345 stated in the #define above

#define can also take parameters to apply to the replacement code:

Example 2:

#define OS(b,c)llOwnerSay(b+c)
OS("Test","123"); // will expand to: llOwnerSay("Test"+"123")

Example 3: Making strings out of parameters

#define OS(a)llOwnerSay(#a)
OS(1234); // will expand to: llOwnerSay("1234");

Example 4: Using ## to concatenate parameters

#define OS(a,b)llOwnerSay((string) a##b)
OS(1234,5678); // will expand to: llOwnerSay((string) 12345678);

Removes a macro previously set up with #define. If the macro was not made in the first place, nothing happens. This is a useful way to enable or disable parts of the source code for debugging. See Section 4 above for an example on how to use it.

This command is a part of conditional preprocessing in association with #ifelse and #endif. #ifdef checks if a macro has been previously #ifdefined. It doesn't matter if the macro has actually a value assigned to it. It just needs to be #ifdefined. If it has, all of the code after #ifdef up to #endif or #ifelse gets replaced into the postprocessed code. #ifndef does the exact opposite. If a macro does not exist, the code goes into the Preprocessor.

Example:

#define OWNER_ONLY
...
#ifdef OWNER_ONLY
key var=llGetOwner();
#else
key var=llDetectedKey(0);
#endif

These are also conditional preprocessing commands. They take a general condition and pass on the code to the Preprocessor if the condition evaluates to ##TRUE##. They can also be used in conjunction with #ifelse. #elif is the equivalent to else if.

Example:

#define DEBUGLEVEL 2 
#if DEBUGLEVEL==1llOwnerSay("Point reached");
#elif DEBUGLEVEL==2llOwnerSay("Lots of more data here");
#else
    llOwnerSay("Unknown debug level: "+(string) DEBUGLEVEL);
#endif

These two commands show a string in the compiler window to warn you about certain problems or to halt compilation immediately due to a fatal error. Right now, both #warning and #error cause the compiler to stop. It is unclear yet if #warning will allow the compiler to continue to completion in the future.

NOTE: If one of these commands is hit by the Preprocessor, the script is NOT saved!

Example 1:

#warning This include file is obsolete!

Example 2:

#error This include file does not work anymore. Please update.

This is probably the most powerful feature of the Phoenix LSL Preprocessor. It includes whole source code files from your harddisk or from the same folder tree in your inventory into the script you are working on. A small example of this feature can be seen above in Section 4. #include takes a file name relative to the include path set up in your Preferences. You can also include files inside of subfolders. If you are compiling your script from your inventory, the Preprocessor will search the inventory path you are working in, descending into any subfolders, to find the referenced include file. Unused functions and global variable declarations are removed by the Optimizer.

Examples:

#include "command_ids.lsl"
#include "general_functions.lsl"
#include "hud/layout.lsl"

NOTE: Be careful about including files from within #includes. You might #include a file twice, if you are not really keeping track, and this will lead to problems. This issue is usually addressed by using so-called “Include guards”. You basically have a conditional compile that sets a #ifdefine macro and checks if it's already there. If it's not, #include the contents of the file. If it was set, ignore the contents.

Example:

#ifndef SCRIPT_NAME_LSL
#define SCRIPT_NAME_LSL
your_script_starts_here(){}
#endif //SCRIPT_NAME_LSL

These #ifndef, #ifdefine and #endif commands make sure that the #include happens only once regardless of how often the file is actually referenced with #include.

• Including a file from your hard drive containing a #endif as last line (without linebreak) will not produce a warning about not having a line break but rather a statement error
• This can be fixed by adding a line break to the end of the file
• “Enable Text Compress” will break your script! (At least in its current form. It may be fixed, or removed, in the future.)

This section covers issues related to audio, video and some aspects of search … specifically, Search → All, Search → Showcase and Search → Groups, which are web pages. If you have issues with Search → All → People, then skip down to the People Search section below.

SL viewers use QTWebKit for the internal browser. (Note: The QT does NOT stand for QuickTime.)

NOTE: In order to play Flash format videos (eg YouTube videos), you must have the generic Adobe Flash plugin installed. If you use IE as your web browser and already have Flash, you will need to get the generic Flash plugin; see here. linux users need to have gstreamer installed, with the “bad” plugin set.

If you use IE as your default browser, some have found that the simplest is to download and install FireFox. Once that's done, use it to visit youtube and start a video; this will prompt for the Flash plugin to be installed - so install it. Make sure that YouTube videos will now play in FireFox. That should be enough the get Flash working in Phoenix (and other SL viewers).

If videos are not playing or you have a black or blank search page, please do the following:

• Go to Edit → Preferences → Audio/Video
• Make sure “play streaming media when available” is checked
• Check “allow scripts to control play button”
• Make sure you have updated both Flash Player and Quicktime. See above concerning the Flash plugin.
• 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 Phoenix users

NOTE: There are reports that recent Quicktime updates actually cause problems, giving plugin errors. If this is the case for you, then remove Quicktime entirely from your system, then reinstall it.

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

If you have issues watching movies (as opposed to YouTube videos) it might help to clear your QuickTime cache:

• Open the QuickTime player
• Click on Edit → Preferences → QuickTime Preferences → Advanced Tab → Empty cache
• Click on Apply then Ok and reboot your computer

Bigfoot Killer network cards will always have media plugin webkit fail on any webkit based viewer. The workaround is as follows:

Many thanks to Sylhouette Rojyo for this fix.

Paste of Sylhouette's post from VWR-25909

Just to pass along the information,

First, Bigfoot Networks is aware of the problem, but darn near useless.
The bug is very likely on their side, not on Linden's. I will provide what assistance I can inworld, but I'd appreciate as many people
as possible opening support tickets with Bigfoot about the issue, too. I don't work for them, I'm just mirroring what I found in the
forums – without running RegEdit or doing the wacky install/uninstall thing that the forums do.
But I'll help as much as I can, because that's what we do in second life.

Anyway, a less-error prone way to do it on Windows Vista and 7 is:

In the run box, type (include the quotes):

"C:\Program Files\Bigfoot Networks\Killer Network Tools\killertool" -lsp-unmap

To turn acceleartion back on:

"C:\Program Files\Bigfoot Networks\Killer Network Tools\killertool" -lsp-map

You can make shortcuts on your desktop.

In the original instructions, I had copied and pasted from my cmd window, and that was confusing people.
Again, I'll help with it in world, when I'm in world, if you IM me.

I've been told that the workaround doesn't work for wireless cards.
After… 4 weeks, Bigfoot responded to my support request asking me to try stuff on my wireless card…
that I had explained I was helping someone else with, in the original request, and had specifically asked
“hey, is there anything different for a wireless card to work around this known issue…“

Apparently, they're pretty close to useless.

Anyway, like I said – you can talk to me in world. So far as “how do I get in world if I'm having this bug,” the answer is Metabolt.

If I had a bunch of notecards from people also having the problem, that might totally motivate me to go
through the pain of fixing it for Linden, although I have reservations about doing anything that will
contribute to Viewer 2 or 3 usage, since they're such utter garbage. :/

Audio is known to be broken in linux versions 725 through 977. The solution is to upgrade to a newer version.

If for some reason you cannot or do not wish to upgrade, or it still doesn't work with the latest version, then you will need to copy the contents of the llplugin folder from an install of Phoenix 373, over to the corresponding folder in the more recent version, overwriting existing files.

Please ensure that you have gstreamer installed, along with these 3 plugin sets: good, bad, ugly. You will also need to ffmpeg plugin. Many distros come with all of these already installed, but some do not (eg, OpenSuSE).

Also, if you find streaming audio to be “stuttering”, then please make sure that you have glibc 2.11 (or a compatible library like eglibc) or later installed.

Streaming audio/video issues on 64-bit linux distros are primarily due to the fact that Phoenix is a 32-bit build. This introduces compatibility issues. Nonetheless, some workarounds are possible. But be aware that they are not necessarily flawless.

First, see above regarding gstreamer.

Log out of Phoenix.

Using your file manager (dolphin or whatever), locate the Phoenix install directory), and inside that the shell script called snowglobe. Open this with a text editor (Kate, or whichever you prefer).

Find the line, '#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x', in the 'snowglobe' script, and take out the '#', to make the line look like 'export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x', save the script.

Now run Phoenix and try streaming audio. You may experience a delay in in-world sounds; if so, relogging might help.

Jean Horten recommends installing the following packages:

• esound-common
• libao-common
• libao4
• pulseaudio-esound-compat

as well as making the change in the shell script described above.

If you have a standard flash install on your 64-bit system, (Ubuntu installs 32-bit flash with nspluginwrapper by default), then the instructions below will work, problems arise when people use the 64-bit flash plugin, which is still experimental, not recommended, and not default.

First create a 'plugins' folder in your .mozilla folder, copy, paste, and enter the following:

mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins/

Now create the link in that new folder, copy, paste, and enter the following line:

ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

Flash video should now work, to test it out enable the inbuilt browser and head over to YouTube, and try a video.

NOTE: Streaming QuickTime will not work because gstreamer is 64-bit, while Phoenix is 32-bit, and there is no compatibility library.

Go to Edit → Preferences → Audio & Video 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.

Also check that Mute Gestures isn't ticked.

Note that Ambient sound is muted by default. This is just the wind noise. It is disabled by default because the wind noise is known to cause crash issues for some users.

If your volume levels are all correct, the next place to look is at the Sound Cache location in Edit → Preferences → Network & Folders. This location is blank by default. It is not necessary to have one set to hear in-world sounds however doing so helps to prevent the delay you often get on hearing gesture and other in-world sounds starting to play. If you have previously set a Sound Cache location that is now an invalid path, this will result in all in-world sounds breaking for you, apart from streaming music and voice.

So if you see a path set here, Click Reset to set it back to none and then relog.

If this is unsuccessful, then try setting a path for Sound cache Location: click Set. This will open up a window where you can choose a location for the folder. Click Ok to set the path in preferences, then Apply, Ok and then relog again.

On February 10, 2011, Q Linden announced the new web-based profiles.

In current Phoenix releases, when you attempt a search for a person in the ALL category, one of two things may happen …

• You will not find the person
• You will find a person, with a link to their web profile

If your viewer does not launch the web profile, switch to the PEOPLE tab and search, instead.

If you do not find the person, it's quite possible that they have disabled their profile from being viewed on the web. This also prevents the profile from being viewed in world. Many LL JIRAs have been created, related to this issue, many of them linked here.

We have included a media filter in our public beta, this will let you control what media stream you connect to, allowing you to whitelist or blacklist any media stream.

You can enable or disable the filter in Preferences, Audio and Video.

If enabled when a stream starts to try playing you will get a window on your screen that lets you choose what you want to do.

Your choices are:

• Allow, which will simply let the media play once.
• Deny, this will block the media from loading once.
• Blacklist, will add this stream to the blacklist and you will not be asked about that media stream again.
• Whitelist, will add this stream to the whitelist and you will not be asked about that media stream again.

You can access the media list through the Phoenix menu.

The media List allows you to add or remove URLs from either the whitelist or the blacklist. Note that you can use the Add button and manually add a URL.

Schau dass dieses Feature aktiviert ist in Einstellungen → Phoenix → Page 2 → Effects & und stell folgende Werte ein:

100, 16, 100, 55, 1

Dann relog.

Mehr zu diesem Thema auf dieser Seite.

Phoenix implements Viewer 2-style multi attachments and inventory links for outfits. See the previous links for details on what these are and how they work.

If you are wearing an attachment on a secondary attachment point when you first log in with Phoenix 725 (or later versions), you will get a popup alerting you that:

You are attempting to use a secondary attachment point.
The secondary attachment points in previous versions of the Phoenix Viewer are no longer supported. 
Phoenix will attempt to add your item to the regular attachment point instead. Once it has done so, you may need to adjust the item's position manually.

Phoenix will attempt too automatically migrate those worn attachments for you, and as the message says, you may need to make some adjustments to their positions. But once done, it does not need to be done again. Should Phoenix fail to re-wear them automatically, then you will need to right click them and “Add”.

If you had other attachments worn on secondary attachment points, you will need to “migrate” them to the new system yourself. So the first time you come to wearing one, rather than selecting “Wear” or double clicking it, right click the item and select “Add”. Phoenix will automatically attach it to the correct point. This only needs to be done once.

Note that attachments can now “stack” on a single point; you can wear more than one item on a single point - with a total of 38 attachments on your avatar.

Phoenix now uses the same clothing system as SL Viewer 2. This system stores a reference to your current outfit on the SL servers. If you ever logged onto SL using Viewer 2, whatever you were wearing when you logged out, is saved on the servers. So, if you now log into Phoenix 725 (or later), your “current outfit” is retrieved from the servers, so you may find yourself wearing things you hadn't worn in a long time - or more precisely, since your last log on using Viewer 2.

Furthermore, it is possible that some of those items no longer exist because you deleted them. In that case, they can't be worn and will be missing.

The simple solution, which you only need to do once, is to dress yourself again.

If you right click an object in your inventory, you will see (among other options): Wear and Add.

• Wear behaves like Replace: the object attaches to your avatar and any objects that were attached to the same point are removed.
• Add“stacks” the object: the object attaches to your avatar and any items already attached to that point remain attached.

So… with hair, be careful to Wear it rather than Add it - unless of course you intend to wear two sets of hair on your head.

You can select to automatically wear or add attachments via double-click:

• Preferences → Phoenix → Page 2 → Inventory → Wear objects in inventory via double-click: should be enabled
• same page, Add objects instead of wearing them: allows you to “stack” attachments rather than replace them, if checked.

Inventory links are references to actual items in your inventory; they are not items in and of themselves. They are indicated by the name of the item being in italic text, with the word “(link)” at the end.

If you delete and item that had links references it, the links remain but will be broken. If you attempt to rez or wear such items, you will be get an error. Broken links are not flagged immediately. But once the missing original is detected, the link will be indicated by “(broken link)” at the end of the name.

In other words, be sure to never delete the original of an item that you have created links to.

Phoenix hat seit Version 725 Viewer 2 mäßige Outfits eingebaut. Mehr Information dazu in multi anhänge und Inventar Verknüpfungen

Wenn du einen Anhang trägst der einen sekundären Anhangspunkt verwendet, und dich zum ersten Mal mit Phoenix 725 (oder neuer) anmeldest, wirst du ein Pop Up mit folgender Mitteilung sehen:

You are attempting to use a secondary attachment point.
The secondary attachment points in previous versions of the Phoenix Viewer are no longer supported. 
Phoenix will attempt to add your item to the regular attachment point instead.
Once it has done so, you may need to adjust the item's position manually.

oder

Du versuchst einen sekundären Anhangspunkt zu verwenden.
Sekundäre Anhangspunkte wie man sie aus früheren Versionen von Phoenix kennt, werden nicht mehr unterstützt.
Phoenix wird versuchen deinen Anhang an einem regulären Anhangspunkt anzuhängen.
Danach wirst du unter Umständen den Anhang manuell justieren müssen.

Falls du noch andere Anhänge besitzt die auch an sekundären Anhangspunkten getragen wurden, dann wirst du diese selbst korrigieren müssen.

Beachte dass man nun mehrere Anhänge an einem Anhangspunkt tragen kann, insgesamt kann ein Avatar nur 38 Anhänge gleichzeitig tragen.

Da Phoenix nun das neue Kleidungssystem wie Viewer 2 nutzt, speichert der Server eine Referenz auf dein aktuelles Outfit. Falls du also jemals Viewer 2 verwendet hast, dann wird dieses Outfit erscheinen, denn das ist das Outfit dass auf den Servern für dich gespeichert wurde.

Des Weiteren ist es möglich dass einige der Gegenstände in diesem Outfit gar nicht mehr existieren da du sie gelöscht hast. In diesem Fall können sie nicht getragen werden. Hier ist die einfachste Lösung sich eben neu an zu kleiden.

Wenn du ein Objekt in deinem Inventar rechts klickst, dann wirst du unter anderem diese Optionen sehen: Tragen und Hinzufügen.

• Tragen verhält sich wie ersetzen¹⁾: Das gewählte Objekt wird getragen, und was immer vorher an diesem Punkt getragen wurde, wird entfernt.
• Hinzufügen fügt das Objekt hinzu: Das gewählte Objekt wird getragen, jedoch bleiben bereits getragene Objekte an diesem Punkt erhalten.

Dementsprechend sollte man vorsichtig sein, dann dadurch kann man auch 2 oder 10 Frisuren gleichzeitig tragen.

Es ist möglich, Objekte mittels Doppelklick zu tragen oder hinzu zu fügen:

• Einstellungen→ Phoenix → Page 2 → Inventory → Wear objects in inventory via double-click: should be enabled
• Gleiche Seite, Add objects instead of wearing them: allows you to “stack” attachments rather than replace them, if checked.

Inventar Verknüpfungen (Inventory links) sind Referenzen²⁾ auf Gegenstände in deinem Inventar, und nicht die Gegenstände selbst. Sie sind erkennbar durch den angefügten Text in Schrägschrift “(link)”.

Wenn du einen Gegenstand löscht, für das es bereits Links gab, dann werden diese Links nicht gelöscht, sondern gehen einfach kaputt. Der Versuch solche Links dann zu tragen oder zu rezzen, wird eine Fehlermeldung produzieren. Es ist also Sinnvoll dass man vorher prüft ob ein Gegenstand bereits als Referenz verwendet wurde, bevor man ihn löscht.

“Out of the box” you should be able to run more than one copy of Phoenix without doing anything. If you try and it doesn't work, then try this:

• go to Advanced → Debug Settings; a small window will open
• type: AllowMultipleViewers
• set the value to TRUE
• relog

Mac does not really like to open two instances of Phoenix at once - you will notice it wants to bring the already-open one to the front. The standard way of duplicating the Application is fairly resource-heavy, so here are two alternatives. Use Method 1 if you want to create a new instance right away. Method 2 requires some advance preparation, but once you have it set up, you'll be able to access Phoenix with any of your accounts quickly and easily.

Ctrl-click on Phoenix Viewer in your Applications folder and select “Show Package Contents.” In the folder that opens, go into “Contents” and then “MacOS.” In the MacOS folder, you'll find another Phoenix Viewer with a black box icon. Double-click this to open your new instance of the viewer. Terminal will open as well; you can let that run in the background.

With this method, you will spend some time setting yourself up, but once the work is done, logging into the viewer will never have been easier.

• Open Applescript Editor - it's in Utilities, in Applications. It will open a new Script for you.
• Copy and paste the following into it, changing yourName, yourPass and aSettingsFile.xml to the correct names for your avatar.

do shell script "\"/Applications/Phoenix Viewer.app/Contents/MacOS/Phoenix Viewer\" -multiple -login yourName yourPass  -settings aSettingsFile.xml"
quit

• Save. Give it a memorable name - you'll need a different one for each av, so have the avatar's name in there somewhere.
• Set the File Format to Application, leave the other check-boxes clear, (except 'hide extension', which is optional, whether you want it to say .app or not, makes no difference to the functionality).
• Save it somewhere you can find it easily.
• Double-click to launch Phoenix.

For more avatars, change the details and Save As…

Should you need to modify it in future, drop this “applet” onto Script Editor and it will open as editable text again.

For the very adventurous, there are a number of variables that can be used in this way, inside the shellscript. All start with - or -- Some work better than others, but all can be found here.