Firestorm

Firestorm Viewer Beta 4.0.1.27000 Review

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Yesterday the new Firestorm and Phoenix viewers were released. I think with this release the Phoenix viewer is pretty much dead. On March 21, when Direct Delivery goes live on the Second Life grid, the Phoenix 1600 release will be noticeably broken, at least the inventory panel will be. So, Phoenix users will need to upgrade to the version 1.6.1.1691.

HOWEVER, Firestorm has a Phoenix mode, soon to be named V1 mode, that is almost an exact Viewer 1.23 interface. But, with the new SL and FS features. Before you download Phoenix 1691, watch the video and then decide which viewer you want to download. I am encouraging you to go with Firestorm and click on the Phoenix mode. I’ve reached the point that I’ll soon uninstall my copy of Phoenix and I won’t be upgrading to Phoenix 1691. Firestorm is the future.

[youtube QYaf2NZZmIE]

Download & Install

Simple download, quick. Install is the basic SL Viewer install. It installs over the top of your last install. They usually have one do a clean install. They did not say anything about that in the release announcement as they usually do. I tried installing over the top. It seems to work. I hate the idea of re-downloading a 9gb cache…

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Firestorm-Phoenix Debug Settings

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If one just uses the FS/PH viewer, they may never need the Debug Settings. However, knowing about these settings will allow you to customize your experience. A good example of their use is in Camera Position Tips.

The Wiki for Firestorm-Phoenix has a list of the Debug Settings for those viewers. You will find the lists here: Phoenix Debug Settings – Alphabetical Listing and Firestorm Debug Settings – Alphabetical Listing. They are not clear which list is for which viewer. Hopefully I have it right.

Also, the lists are incomplete. Settings like; FocusOffsetRearView and CameraOffsetRearView are in the viewer but not the lists on the wiki. You can find the rest of the list in the SL Wiki here: Second Life Debug Settings.

Oz Linden Interviewed by Jessica Lyon

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The interview with Oz Linden on Third Party Viewer (TPV) Policy came off today. It went better than the last Phoenix Hour. Still, the Treet.TV Stream was over loaded. There were something like 350 users connected. There were 270+ people in IRC. @Howdy says about 25% more were connected to the stream, so 350.

The Interview

The stream was almost impossible to understand. The stream kept buffering. That causes the video and audio stream to pause. I was getting 2 to 4 pauses per minute. Some pauses were long, 20 to 40 seconds. One could get the gist of what they were saying, Buy, any nuances were lost. Sometimes whole sentences were lost. Not a fun listen.

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Phoenix Firestorm Hour

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Well after all the tech problems at the Phoenix Hour, now the Phoenix Firestorm Hour, I finally got to see the video of the meeting. I’ll paraphrase it here. As usual I’ll provide time marks so you can listen to the parts that interest you. I try to be accurate, but I have biases and preconceptions so I can hear things differently than they are intended. So, you’ll find the video at: New Linden Lab Policy.

Phoenix Firestorm Hour

I’ll point out here that the paraphrasing I have here is 5,000+ words. The meeting was an hour and 45 minutes not counting time out for crashes and region restarts and the 40 minute delay in starting. If I had stuck it out from my early arrival to the end I would have had more than 3 hours in the meeting. I really think some of the changes talked about here are FAR less important than the fact they regions didn’t stay up.

If you’re in a hurry, there are 250 words at the end that pretty much sum things up.

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Oz Answers TPV Policy Questions

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Innula Zenovka post a link on SLUniverse to an Question and Answers page where Oz Linden answered residents questions about the new TPV Policy. Cummere Mayo start the thread here.

See: Questions about new TPV policy. (Questions only please.)

The most controlversal and misunderstood part of the policy is the idea of what is meant by SHARED EXPERIENCE. So, the number one question is: What is meant by shared experience?

The pertinent part of Oz’s answer is:

A shared experience change is one that modifies the definition of the elements that make up the virtual world, or how they behave, in such a way that users on other viewers don’t experience the same virtual reality.

This rule does not affect changes to rendering, user interface, or the controls a viewer offers for interacting with the world.

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