Hi peeps :)

This post is aimed specifically at people who use the Phoenix Viewer to access Second Life. If you haven’t heard yet, then I’m afraid that the beloved blazing bird is about to stop working.

I don’t mean that the Phoenix Firestorm developer team have stopped updating the viewer (that news came a while ago, and you probably already know about it); I mean that – very soon – Linden Lab will be deploying new code to the main Second Life Grid, and that code will finally break the Phoenix Viewer (and other viewers that haven’t been updated to work with that code).

The code is called Server-Side Baking, and it’s a fix for a lot of long-term issues in-world. In very basic terms, what it will do is move the responsibility of ‘baking’ textures onto the server and away from the viewer. This should fix a lot of rezzing issues, not least:

– Ruthing (rezzing wierdly, with ‘grown’ hair and boobs – even on the guys!)
– Rezzing as a cloud or egg and not being able to edit appearance
– You seeing yourself just fine while others see you naked

It’ll be fixing a lot of other issues as well, but those are the big avatar-related ones. But what it means is this: all viewers (both the official one and TPVs – Third Party Viewers) – have to update and include a lot of code in order to work with Server-Side Baking (SSB, for future ease-of-typing!).

So, what happens if you’re still using a viewer that hasn’t been updated when SSB goes live?

Hop behind the cut to find out. And, Phoenix users, this post is primarily aimed at you (I was one of you, once, and clung on for aaaages!) so you really should hop behind the cut. I have a pleasant surprise waiting for you behind there! ;)

NOTE: This is an image-heavy post. Open it, then go make a cup of tea while it loads!

What will happen is this: If you’re using a non-updated viewer, you will see everyone else as grey, or covered in weird textures like this. Think what it’s like at a laggy event, how everything is grey for ages. Well, that’ll be SL for you. For good.

Also? People using viewers that have updated won’t see you, either. You’ll just be an unrezzed cloud to them.

I’ll say it again: this is going to break your viewer. If you want to keep seeing SL the way it should be, you’re going to have to switch viewers. And I know that can hurt, because I hung onto Phoenix for months, refusing to switch. I’d tried the official LL viewer and the V3 interface gave me the heebie-jeebies. It still does, as – when I’m screencapping a post for absolute newbies – I still have to use it, as that’s the viewer they’ll be using. I still hate using it, even after months of having to do so for things like newbie help!

My viewer experience went (as far as my memory goes) roughly thus: I started with the official viewer when it was in V1 phase. Mid-grey UI with blue buttons. I got used to where everything was, I could work quickly with it. You know how great familiarity is, right? Then, when I discovered the Nicholaz viewer (still V1-based) with its extra options, I tried that and stuck with it for ages. And then came the nightmare that was the official V2 viewer, by which time I was using the V1-based Phoenix, for all of its awesome options, such as extra building stuff and the indispensable derendering feature. And then came the official V3 viewer, which fixed some of the horrendous issues of V2 (that sidebar, anyone?) but was still ugly and clunky and filled half of the screen with massive floaters. Even the new V3 CHUI viewer has this horrible (to me) habit of filling half the screen with floating bits and bobs. I want to see my world, not have it hidden!

Then, the Phoenix team brought out Firestorm: their version of V3. I tried it out, loved seeing loads of the extra Phoenix options on a V3-based viewer, but I just couldn’t get used to the V3 interface. And, believe me, I tried! So I stayed with Phoenix.

And then… Firestorm brought out a ‘vintage’ Phoenix skin. So I tried it again. And, from that day on, I’ve stuck with Firestorm. You know why?

It’s ALL there. All the Phoenix stuff we V1 diehards love; it’s all there. Visually, there is NO difference from Phoenix. The only thing you’ll need to do is re-learn a few of the menu things, which have moved. And that, my Phoenix-loving friends, ain’t so hard.

The latest Firestorm viewer has only just been released, and it incorporates SSB. Now, to avoid you being discouraged, I’m going to tell you to hang fire on downloading it just yet. While the viewer has been through as much beta testing as they could give it, it still contains a few bugs – mostly for users of ATI graphics cards with new (ie: bang up-to-date) drivers – so I expect there to be another quick-fire update soon, while those bugs are being ironed out.

However, I wanted to give the Phoenix users some hope that there is a viewer out there, run by the same people, with the same features (and more!) and looking pretty much exactly the same as Phoenix, with just one click of a button. And it’s customisable as hell, to boot.

So, if you don’t want to have to install it just so you can see if it’s worth installing (!) here are a load of screenshots, with a little bit of commentary.

We’ll start with the rather awesome Favourites. Drag commonly-used LMs into this Inventory folder, and they’ll appear as clickable buttons at the top of your viewer. I have a lot of my home LMs up here, for quick teleporting:

And now, a looooong list of menu options. I won’t cover every single thing here, but I wanted to give you an idea of where everything is in Firestorm. The Phoenix Firestorm team have built this on top of V3 code, and they’ve done a fantastic job of keeping it as V1/Phoenix-like as possible. But there are a few things that simply had to move, and these menus will tell you where some of the most commonly-used ones went.

The first big menu change is the Avatar menu. In the official viewer, this is the Me menu. (Excuse me while I eyeroll a bit. What are we, LL? Seven?)

As you can see, your main avatar-related and old ‘File’ menu options are here. This is where you upload images/animations/etc, it’s where you go if you want to reset your appearance to default newb male or female (the old Character Test that was hidden away in the Advanced menu on Phoenix) when troubleshooting avatar issues. Here are some sub-menu images from the Avatar menu:

Can’t stop running? That’s where you disable Always Run. (Or you remember the keyboard shortcut!)

Lots of options under Avatar > Avatar Health. This is where you stop all animations, rebake, recreate your bridge (required for things like the built-in AO and radar), reset to default avatar, and there’s even an undeformer.

Note, also on the main Avatar menu is a new addition to the latest Firestorm: Pose Stand. This is an awesome little built-in HUD with several pose options that you can use when adjusting items on your avatar, even in no-rez and no-script areas.

And here are all your Upload options, including the ability to set your Default Upload Permissions.

The next menu is Comm:

From here, you can set your avatar’s status. Both Phoenix and Firestorm have (for people new to those viewers) a great ‘autoresponse’ feature that lets you leave a kind of ‘answering machine message’ for people that IM you when you’re online but set busy or away.

The Comm menu is also where you access your Block List (aka: the avatars you have blocked/muted).

The next menu is World and, as you might expect, this is a big one, with lots of options:

Here is where you create LMs, check your teleport history, look at further info (beacons are useful if you’re trying to track down a sound or particle source, for instance), and it’s also where you’ll find your Windlight settings – although Firestorm has two other ways to access those: one very quickly, one in much more detail. At the very end of the world menu you’ll find the Asset Blacklist which contains all the items (and people!) you’ve derendered. You’ll also find Area Search in here, but there’s a way to bring that – and many other things – up far more quickly. More on that later ;)

Show More is where you check and uncheck viewing of banlines, property lines, land owners, etc. It’s also a quick way to open the Advanced menu, if you can’t remember the keyboard shortcut!

Here are the basic Day/Night settings, under Sun Position. Each one now has a corresponding keyboard shortcut.

The Evironment Editor is how you get to windlight, and – I’m sorry guys – but this is one thing that will hurt. I don’t like the V3 method of creating Windlight settings, but that’s mainly because it’s so flippin’ different to the old V1 way that I’ve avoided using it! You can still use and easily-access the bazillions of WL settings that Firestorm ships with, though, from two other places.

This is the new way of creating Windlight presets. Yeah, I kind of scratch my head, but I’m sure that – if I stuck at it – I’d figure it out in no time. (I’m just lazy, because Firestorm already has tons of great presets!)

Near the bottom of the World menu, though, is something the photographers and machinimatists (is that a word?!) will luuuurve: Phototools! This is exclusive to Firestorm:

And these are the six menus you get in Phototools:

Holy crapola, that looks complicated, right? It’s not. Check out the Phototools website, because the creator has a TON of fabulous videos to watch, in which he explains everything. These things are AWESOME!

The Build menu hasn’t changed much (thankfully!) –

Note: You’ll find Pathfinding info here. I’ve not used it, so I don’t know a thing about it, but hey – this is where those of you that do use it… will find it! :p

Non-builders, you’ll need to know this Build menu is where you need to look if you’re having problems selecting objects:

If you can’t select a friend’s objects, you may have Select Only My Objects checked, for example. Look here, if you’re having problems! (Check out the Advanced menu – covered shortly – too!)

The Upload stuff is also in the Build menu. Nifty!

Info for builders

Builders! I’m going to focus on some Preferences and in-world stuff just for you now. Here’s the typical menu for a normal prim:

You’ll need to check the ‘for sale’ button before you can select ‘buy’ as the click option. Everything else is the same. (Just remember to click ‘Apply’!)

Under the Object tab, you have all the old, awesome Phoenix building options, including multiple decimal places. Firestorm also has a very handy pair of ‘link’ and ‘unlink’ buttons right there near the top. Also, it has copy/paste buttons for all parameters (including textures, in the next tab, although the textures must be in your inventory before that will work!).

This is the Features tab (for lighting and flexibility etc). Note the option to set prim physics: convex hull is something I don’t have time to give a guide to in this post, but google how to use it to save prims and you’ll love it ;)

And this is an extra panel that appears on the same tab, but only when you have Advanced Lighting (shadows and lighting) enabled. These are for projected lighting, which is pretty damn awesome once you get the hang of it!

As with Phoenix, you have much greater control of textures with five decimal places for positioning. Note, again, the Copy/Paste options for textures (only if they’re also in your inventory).

The most useful thing that the Copy/Paste thing is good for (that I’ve found, anyway!) is re-building something I’ve made. Thanks to a permissions glitch when a No Transfer texture set a whole building that I’d made as No Transfer (even to me!) – even when I’d removed the texture and used another one – I had to re-make the entire building. Firestorm’s Copy/Paste let me do that in a matter of minutes, instead of hours of painstakingly trying to reconstruct it again by hand.

There’s now a bundle of new buttons in the Content tab, including ‘refresh’ (useful when loading prims up with stuff) and ‘reset scripts’.

And here, under Preferences, are all the default building settings.

Back to the menus again!

Here’s the Advanced menu:

This is where you set high-res snapshots, disable that camera sound and animation; it’s all pretty much the same as the Phoenix Advanced Menu, so I won’t go into a ton of screenshotted detail about it!

Quick Prefs!

What’s the quickest way to access your most frequently-used preferences? The Quick Prefs menu! Look in the lower-right of the Firestorm viewer and you’ll see a tiny little circular logo. Click it, and…

Voila! Plus, it’s now customisable, so you can add and remove whatever you want. Here’s Jessica Lyon of the Phoenix Firestorm team, with a video tutorial.

Full Preferences

I’m going to move quickly through the main Preferences menu (because your eyes are probably glazing over, and I’m getting tired XD ). I’m just going to note important changes and new stuff, and leave the pics to show you what’s where:

At the bottom of the Chat prefs, you can opt to see IMs in horizontal tabs instead of the V3-default vertical. I recommend that, for as close to a Phoenix experience as possible. Also, show IMs in tabs, and Remove Chat Headers:

Regain the chat window’s chatbar! (Hallelujah!) Also, some good stuff for old-skool roleplayers (anyone ever RP’d on a MUD/MUSH before? You’ll remember your : emotes, then!). Some good options to spot spoofing objects, and also to highlight group moderators’ chat as bold:

A new options for the Advanced Graphics prefs is the ability to have in-between settings. Although it’s not marked on the slider, you can now stop halfway between Mid and High, and halfway between High and Ultra. Fine-tuning is good!

(Loving the look of these panels? They’re all taken in Firestorm, with that Phoenix skin on. Bet you don’t even feel like you’re looking at a V3-based viewer, right? Me neither!)

The Sound & Media prefs have a great security feature: the Media Filter. You can set it to allow only certain streaming sites, either permanently or on a temporary basis. I also love the ‘Show stream title notifications’ enabled in local chat, so if I hear a song I like, the viewer will tell me the artist and title!

If you hate the flailing arm you get when building or selecting stuff, this is where you get rid of it. Also, I didn’t screenshot it, but check out the Firestorm > Avatar preferences and set your head movement to zero, to stop your head from turning every time you move your mouse! (You can also disable selection beams and physics in that section.)

Always Fly after Teleporting is invaluable when you’re heading into busy areas where people are bound to be loitering at the landing point. No more flailing on their heads; you’re already flying, so hit Page Up and rise gracefully away!

Filter duplicate LMs on the world map. Where would those of us with heaving inventories be without THAT?! ;)

Want to hear when friends log in and out? Set it here. Also, if you get an odd alert when someone changes their display name in the region you’re in, here’s where you disable it.

See who’s watching you! (But please don’t get paranoid; they probably love what you’re wearing!)

THIS NEXT ONE IS IMPORTANT!

OK, here is the BIG one for fine-tuning your Phoenix-y Firestorm experience, so pay attention to Mar’s settings on the next screenshot. This is where you enable the PIE MENU (yay!) and set blue object menus to where you’re used to seeing them in Phoenix and other V1-based viewers (top-right). I have group notices and chiclets in top right unchecked, because that’s where I have my mini-map, and the chiclets bugged me when they kept popping up over it. Now, though, Firestorm allows you to hide chiclets, so I’m going to check that out to see if I can get rid of those little… ^”!&*%$ altogether! :p

Hide group and IM chat chiclets, and setting group notices and chiclets in top right (even though chiclets are hidden) should replicate the V1/Phoenix experience completely. I’m kind of used to chiclets now (even though they’re a pain to keep clearing) because I’ve grown accustomed to glancing lower-right at them to see if they’re orange (which denotes a new message). I could easily get un-used to them again, though ;)

IMPORTANT ONE HERE, TOO!

Make sure you check to show a received items folder in inventory on this tab:

The map!

Exactly as it is in Phoenix :)

Inventory!

Exactly as it is in Phoenix. No enormous border, no annoying options ‘cog’. You can have the Received Items folder showing there, for all your Marketplace purchases, and there’s also a Marketplace tab at the bottom. Marketplace purchases will show in both.

Search!

There’s web-based search:

Or good, old-fashioned Legacy Search (yay!) which is more accurate, I think:

BACKUP!!!

OMG, and brand new to this Firestorm release: backup options! No more having to dig around to find your specific per-avatar settings. It’s all in the Preferences menu! Here’s Jessica Lyon of the Phoenix Firestorm team again, with another tutorial video.

Derendering

Derendering is perhaps the most useful thing that the Phoenix and Firestorm viewers have. I wish it would get put into the official viewer, because it would stop a LOT of neighbour disputes! Someone’s rezzed an ugly, full-bright, hot pink club right in front of your gorgeous open ocean view? Derender it and get your view back! You can now derender groups of prims instead of just one prim at a time. Full video tutorial, again from Jessica Lyon, here. (There’s now a temporary derender, too!)

And finally… quick toolbar buttons!

At the bottom of all V3-based viewers (Firestorm with the Phoenix skin is no exception) you now have toolbar buttons. (You also have these at either side). Right-click on the toolbar for a menu. Drag and drop what you want and don’t want onto and off the toolbar. Auto-size buttons will make them small, like Mar has them here:

So, how do I make Firestorm look like Phoenix?

With the click of a single, teeny button on the bottom-right of the login screen, then close the viewer and restart it (without logging in). Select ‘Phoenix’, restart, and you’re done.

And that’s it!

I really do hope this (enormously long!) post helps Phoenix users who are worried that they’ll have to try and learn a whole new interface (the V3-based viewers) when Server-Side Baking goes live in Second Life in just a few weeks. I’ve tried to make it as comprehensive as possible.

A few quick notes

I know that some people simply cannot run V3-based viewers. I’m afraid, peeps, that it’s coming up to make-or-break time on whether you try to upgrade your computer. There are still some amazing people that are doing their best to keep V1-based viewers compatible with everything Linden Lab is doing with new stuff on the grid, but that means you’ll still have to get used to a new viewer. I know that, financially, times are tough right now, so stick with whatever runs SL best for you, but be aware that viewers that haven’t updated for SSB will all turn everything grey.

The only V1-based viewers currently updating for SSB (that I know of) are Cool VL Viewer and Singularity.

There are currently some issues for people using the latest Firestorm viewer. See this post for the main ones.

Sadly, the Avatar Offset option has vanished from the Firestorm viewer. Not because the team decided they didn’t want it (believe me, they KNOW it’s wanted!) but because SSB will break it. Linden Lab have created a workaround (also in Firestorm) but it’s clunky at best: ‘hover’ is now a new parameter in Shape settings. It’s a pain, because it means a TON more shapes (that is, assuming your shape is modifiable) but it’s the best that can be done for now.

Links

Download the new Firestorm Viewer

How to perform a Clean Install for Firestorm (this is essential)

Troubleshooting: Black Screen with ATI graphics cards

Troubleshooting: ATI cards in general (includes links on finding older drivers that work)

Download older Firestorm builds (warning: these are not updated for SSB)

Download older Phoenix builds (warning: these are not updated for SSB)

VIDEO: Firestorm Q&A all about SSB (Server-Side Baking)

VIDEO: Migrating from Phoenix to Firestorm