I’ve gotten to use the new Firestorm viewer for a bit. I like the Firestorm default mode and have only been using that mode. It is nice. It is close enough to the Linden V3 interface I can find most things easily.

It has the debug settings for CameraOffsetRearView and FocusOffsetRearView, which I change on all my viewers to give a better camera position. See Camera Position Tips for more on that.

The performance of the viewer is faster than Linden viewers. I turned off Sun/Moon Shadows to get the skin color adjusted in my new N-Core Eloise ‘One Voice’ shoes. My FPS was hitting 40 in my apartment. Nice. My Core2 Quad and nVidia 560Ti are not as fast as I had hoped. But, this version of Firestorm is faster than the last.

Build Tools

The build tools in this version are as complete as I’ve seen. Build Math, Alignment, Value Copy… it all seems to be there. If this viewer is as stable as it has been in my first hours of use, this viewer will likely be the dominant viewer for builders.

Snap Shots

There is nothing special about the camera. It has a bit nicer interface than the Linden viewer. It has ‘Freeze Frame’, which freezes the render but still allows you move the camera through the world.

There is nothing special in the types of image you can capture. Kirsten’s viewer had a number of optional settings for snap shots. One can get the same affects by changing the Windlight settings but that is tedious.

The camera does have the ability to save images to your Profile, which is nice. It is an easy, no-cost way to share pictures while in world.

Skins

There are 6 skins that come with this version. There are various color options for some of the skins. I tend to stick with the default skin for current mode, Firestorm,V3, whatever. Other skins tend to have more problems.

Crash Reports

This version sends crash reports to the FS/Ph Development team. You have quite a bit of control over what is sent and can adjust the privacy. Preferences (Ctrl-P)->Crash Reports.

The GRID

There is a nice grid manager. See Preferences->OpenSim.

This version does not have the Pathfinding Tools that use Havok, so this version is good to go on any grid. Once PF is out the FS/PH Team plans to have two versions of Firestorm; one for SL and one for other grids with the Havok stuff.

Inventory Search

You can now have different terms in each tab of the Inventory Panel. The feature is off by default, or may be because O installed over the top of the previous version. Find it in Preferences->Firestorm->General toward the bottom of the panel.

We saw this feature come out in the Dolphin  viewer a few days ago. Where something appears first does NOT denote who created it. So, if you are looking to thank someone, check the viewer credits.

Windlight

The viewer handles Windlight in some nice ways. More control is exposed in this version than in the Linden viewers. See Preferences->Firestorm->Windlight (tab)

One thing I like is being able to control how Windlight transitions when I cross region boundaries and new set of Windlight settings activates.

The previous Phoenix Windlight Share is included.

I’m not sure how this will work with the Light Share used in OSGrid and some of the other systems used around the virtual worlds. But, it looks like it is pretty complete for Second Life Windlight.

Scripts

I have not gotten to play with scripting yet. So, I don’t know how current the editor is. I use LSLEditor because it has been ahead of the Linden and other viewers’ script editors on new functions being added. But, this version does have the SCRIPT PREPROCESSOR. If you don’t know what that is about, don’t worry you won’t be using it. It is for advanced programmers. If you do lots of LSL scripting then you should learn about it.

EOF for Now

I’m out of time for now. Check back. I plan to play with the viewer some more tomorrow.