Great News! Firestorm Now Gives Option for V2/3 interface

Oh my goodness! So much good news, I may just burst.
I downloaded the latest version of the Firestorm viewer, still in beta, but, now enabled for Mesh.


Besides the Mesh ability (viewers not  so enabled do not see objects in mesh properly) the viewer start-up screen now gives the option to mimic V3 (the Linden viewer) or v1 (the old style interface) when you install Firestorm.
If you have been following my posts, you'll know that I created a video recently that illustrated how to make the standard Firestorm viewer look like the Linden Viewer. Happily, those instructions have been made unnecessary by the developers at Firestorm...Bravo!


Another piece of news hot off the presses for you viewer 1 people is that Phoenix will have mesh support. The developers at Phoenix correctly give credit to Henri Beauchamp (Cool VL viewer developer) for this development, but, caution that it's akin to  ( I love Jessica's metaphor) "putting the diesel engine from a bus into a Ford Pinto". You can read all of her comments on the Phoenix blog. 
Phoenix Viewer Gets Mesh   
It should be required reading for anyone still using the Phoenix viewer.


See you in world! maybe more people will be able to see my pretty mesh miniskirt now.

Color Under Cursor - Finding the RGB Values in Second Life

I'm sure that I mentioned I had a bunch of things I wanted to add here after my couple of weeks in a funk.
Here's another. I have a number of programs, mostly free, for getting the colours from objects, backgrounds, pages on my screen, you name it. Here's an application inside Second Life, it's not hidden, but, I think a lot of people don't know about it.
It can be helpful for matching colours in objects that you can modify.
Here's a short video, I've captioned it and also included the script below it.


 Click on it and watch in full screen



and...here's the script

Here's a neat little trick I use sometimes. It can be great for finding the RGB values of any object and then matching them. It is particularly useful for getting close to your skin shade for shoes.

You'll need the Developer menu to access "Color Under Cursor"

If you don't have it enabled, go to your preferences and under the Advanced tab check the box to show it. Click okay to save your new settings.

Now, left click Develop on the Menu and on the first drop down choose Show info, then on the next drop down select Show color under cursor.

Once you've done that look in the lower right of the screen to see the RGB values under wherever your cursor rests (they'll be the first 3 numbers).

When using the numbers for skin shading, I suggest that you set your sun to midday. Things like full bright settings in the shoes can affect the result so play around a little, it's worth it once you get them right.

Make Firestorm Look & Feel Like Linden Labs' Viewer 2

Just my feeling that some of our residents who learned on Viewer 2 might like the magic decoder ring to help them find regular menus and the Sidebar.
Firestorm is an excellent full featured viewer. The viewer has been set with defaults that in a few cases, not many actually, look like the old viewer 1 UI that some of you won't be familiar with. I hope the video helps.
It is in HD, for best viewing click on it and watch in full screen and set to HD



The link to the Phoenix site is...
Firestorm Beta Download


The video is captioned, but, I've included the script here...
The Firestorm viewer is a feature packed user interface based on the Linden viewer 2.  It was developed by the Phoenix team, one of the most robust third party viewer providers.  Because the viewer is intended to make the transition from the old style phoenix viewer, it contains some elements that you may not be familiar with if you currently use Linden's viewer 2.

The settings that I'll demonstrate here are only recommendations. You will no doubt customize the viewer in the future. 

If you haven't already downloaded the viewer, go to http://www.phoenixviewer.com/ and choose the Firestorm Beta viewer for the platform you use.  Once you install it, we will make some changes.

On the bottom bar there are a number of icons that we can remove.  The viewer comes without a sidebar as the default.  Later, we'll learn how to choose a sidebar version.  What you take out of the bottom bar is up to you, I've removed a few things that are either repeated in the sidebar or on the top bar or seldom used.

The old viewer one interface used a pie menu and that menu comes as the default in Firestorm.  The pie menu does not exist in viewer 2, we'll learn how to change it.

Go to the Avatar (Me) menu item on the top bar, click and from the dropdown menu choose Preferences.  Now let's begin...

Under the general tab will set the away timeout to "never" and turn off UI Hints.

On the next tab "Chat" we'll turn off the typing animation and set chat to begin when we press letter keys. Turn on Group Chat pop ups if you follow any groups.

In Sound & Media, I turn off sounds, strictly a personal preference, not a recommendation.

In Network and Cache you can increase your bandwidth, if you have a strong connection. this is where you can modify the location of your chat logs, if you wish.

I like to use the arrow keys for movement, they're set in the Move & View tab.

In the Privacy tab you can set the viewer to save your chat and IM. Showing favourite LMs at login can be useful if you have favourite locations set up in landmarks.

I sometimes use the Developer and Advanced menus, they are set under the Advanced tab

Next we'll get rid of that pesky pie menu under the UI Extras and at the same time have the script dialogs stay where we're used to them by turning off the option to see them in the upper right

Now to get the Sidebar back...open the Skins tab and choose a skin with Side Tabs

Only if you use RLV, you'll see an option under the Firestorm tab to "Allow remote scripted viewer controls(RLVa)" make sure it is checked. The same option is also available under the Advanced menu, both do the same thing.

Many of the changes we've made require a viewer restart, so click Apply then OK and log out. When you log back in the changes will be in effect.

Of SLCC 2011 - Second Life Community Conference

I'm baaaaack, so many things I want to write about. The next 3 posts should follow quickly... first the conference, more accurately, my own choice for best presentation.

Drum roll...the award goes to Aliza Sherman (cybergrrloh in Second Life) for a very upbeat presentation focusing, among other things, on what we can do to encourage new participation in Second Life.

Compared to numerous other presentations, where we heard the litany of what needs to be done, what has been done and believe it or not more whinging about the sidebar...please people just learn to use the new UI, Aliza's commentary provided practical suggestions for connecting with people, potential new users, out of world. Her overview of new apps and tried and true technologies available to connect with others is a must see for anyone with a business in Second Life or for just anyone who wants our community to grow.

You can access her presentation on ustream 
Aliza Sherman Presentation to SLCC 2011

    

The Chickens Come Home to Roost

I guess it was bound to happen.
First, thank You Jessica Lyon. This is an excellent article describing how to work around the permissions "bug". 


Basically what happened was that a number of the TPV, almost all, responded to the Second Life community's loud groan when Linden deployed their new web profiles by using something more like the old profiles.


There are definitely some issues with web profiles, but, their purpose was to give SL a higher profile and that can't be all bad. They do load more slowly and they take up an inordinate amount of screen space, however, like all of the changes over the last year, you become accustomed to them relatively quickly. It is a pain for club owners and managers who often quickly scan a profile to learn more about their customers' likes, dislikes, wants and needs.


The solution to the permissions"bug" is to go to the online web profile and change the permissions there. It's not hard to do.
Jessica does an excellent job of explaining how to find them and what to do once you're there.

Friend Permissions Bug 

TUE, 19 JUL 2011

By Jessica Lyon


There have been more than enough reports from SL users to justify a blog post informing everyone of this new server bug and how to work around it. It was discovered by one of our support people on an RC region and reported to LL on the 9th of July, it was acknowledged by LL on July 12th but by then it was too late to stop the roll out onto the main grid.

The Bug
You can no longer change permissions for your friends while on a viewer which doesn't utilize Web Profiles and whether you are, or are not on a viewer that uses web profiles the friend you are changing permissions for needs to relog after you have set the permissions through their web profile. I am assured by LL that they intend to resolve this issue as soon as possible but at this time they cannot provide a date when the fix will be rolled out. You can read the Jira report about the bug herehttps://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7104


The Work Around
In the meantime, there is a work around. First, you must open the "Web" profile of the person you wish to change permissions for. This includes Map rights, Modify my objects permissions and Online status permissions.
1. Open the web profile of the person you wish to change permissions for using the following URL in your web browser.http://my.secondlife.com/firstname.lastname. Replace the first name and last name with the persons first and last name. If they do not have a visible last name dohttp://my.secondlife.com/firstnameinstead.
2. Once you have their profile open, click on the "ACTIONS" button near the top and to the right, then choose "Permissions" from the sub menu.
3. Give or remove the permissions you wish to change and click "Save".
4. Now the person you've changed the permission for will need to relog in order for them to actually get the permission change.

OR

If you just want to remove all permissions for a friend to default, you can just remove them from your friend list and re add them.

I hope this helps folks at least understand the bug and how to work around it. Lets hope LL can get the fix out soon!

Jessica Lyon
The Phoenix Viewer Project


Thank you again, Jessica! Wonderful post.

This is Second Life

There is a constant debate in Second Life and sometimes outside of it about what Second Life is. It is a difficult place to describe because it includes so much.
For some it is a social network, for others a place to practice building, others still use it for commerce and creativity.
Personally, after nearly 3 years in Second Life I like to think I use it to one degree or another for all of these things. I have friends in Second Life, many are now Real Life friends. I could couch surf my way around the globe relying on the people I've met on every continent for a place to sleep. It is truly a marvelous place; safe, secure, diverse and just soooo much fun.
It's a challenge to show the quality of the graphics, but, I think this video does as good a job as I've seen.
You can be who you want to be in Second Life
Come in, give it a try...I think you'll like it
Click the video, enlarge it and play in full HD  (finally)

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