Wednesday, June 25, 2014

LETTER FROM JESSICA LYONS, PROJECT MGR OF FIRESTORM

Second Life Needs YOU!
(I will do my best to keep my opinions out of this post while promising I will voice it sometime soon in some other more appropriate venue. For this I will stick to the facts. JL)
New Second Life platform to come from Linden Lab

Many of you have heard by now that Ebbe Linden (CEO @ LL) slipped news at Friday’s Third Party Viewer Meeting that LL is moving resources to developing a new platform, a next-generation platform built “in the spirit of Second Life.” I will provide links to related media and articles at the bottom of this post, and I highly encourage you to read them to form your own opinions. But for now, here are a few facts as we know them.

The current plan is that the new platform will not be open source at least initially. (This means there will be no Third Party Viewer alternatives at least initially, and there will be a new viewer built by LL.) This could change over the course of time.
LL intends to continue maintaining and developing Second Life while they develop the new platform and will operate them in parallel even after the new platform is launched. SL will remain as long as it is profitable for LL to continue operating it.
The new platform will be built “in the spirit of Second Life” and will put focus on content creators as the primary customer. LL wants to make it so good SL users will want to migrate to it.
Assets (inventory) from Second Life will “likely” not be transferable because they do not want to constrain what is possible by maintaing backwards compatibility. This wasn’t said with complete certainty, though, which suggests some content may be permitted.
Second Life will continue to be improved, albeit on a smaller scale. Oz Linden is now Technical Director and in charge of a small team who will keep development in SL going.
This new platform is still in very early stages, and it is unlikely even a beta will be seen before next year.

Reaction

For some, this will be very exciting news and for others it will come as very scary news. For most it will create a level of uncertainty toward the future of our current virtual world. I’ve read and heard some people stating they will now stop buying content, stop building, sell their land, etc., wondering what’s the point. Please don’t do this! Whether you are on the side of keeping SL alive and well or not, this type of action/reaction is the worst you can do for all of us.

Personally, while I would love to see a new platform succeed I would also like to see Second Life thrive well into the future, but it is going to need a boost! Here is where you come in!
Where you come in!

Your opinion matters more than ever! Think of one thing, whether a feature, fix, improvement or whatever, that you feel will achieve the following goals best and drop it in a comment on this post.

What will add the greatest value to existing users?
What will attract new users to Second Life?
What will improve profit margins for LL by encouraging spending among all its users? This can include anything from Premium signups to land sales to user-generated content sales.
What can do these things without breaking existing content and without requiring changes in LL policies?
THINK BIG

We are looking for a magic silver bullet to give Oz that can be introduced to SL to make it bigger and better than ever before!
Lets hope you have it! Good luck, and in the meantime keep doing as you always do! Also, don’t panic!


Related media and informational links:

Video recording of the TPVM where this took place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S-hoXupxXw (Ebbe’s bit starts aroud 58 minutes in)
Blog post by Inara Pey (who was present): http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/ebbe-confirms-were-working-on-a-next-generation-platform-with-audio/
Follow-up to the above-mentioned blog post and a letter from Peter Gray (Director of Communications at LL): http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/lab-were-not-giving-up-on-second-life/
If you dare, the SLU forum thread… Although this thread is rife with every kind of reaction you can imagine, Ebbe does provide some further comment in there. Warning: put aside a half day if you intend to read through it all. http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/97035-linden-lab-working-next-gen.html
If you are interested in further reading, simply use Google. The news is all over the blog-o-sphere.



Sincerely,
Jessica Lyon
Project Manager
The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc

Thursday, June 19, 2014

CHECK OUT REMY FARMAN

Remy has been singing in SL over three years and stretches those welsh vocal chords to give us an awesome show time and time again. He loves to sing a wide variety of genre, but his main passion is singing love songs. The music he likes to listen to covers all tastes, from punk to classical. If he likes what he hears, he sings it. Remy shows always have some new songs in so you never get exactly the same show twice.
To find out where he is singing, check out the links for Musicians and Venues on the left side of this blog

NOTES ABOUT FIRESTORM VIEWER 4.6.5

All the notes below are the new class changes for the newest viewer version of Firestorm 4.6.5. All other notes will remain the same. Please do try to attend classes in world if you can if not and need help consult the wiki on http://firestormviewer.org .

CONTACT SETS FOR 4.6.5

Firestorm Contact Sets
Material based on 4.6.5

Firestorm provides a way to organize your friends - and other people - into sets or categories, using your own criteria. Thus you can create sets of friends, colleagues, business contacts, and so on.

Such sets can be color-coded, and those colors can then be applied to chat, mini map, and so on.

Avatars can belong to one or more sets - or none at all.

Contact Sets allow you to add new contacts to your list, even if they are not on your friends list.

Adding contacts this way does not grant any rights or abilities that you would not already have. Anyone added this way who is not on your friends list will not be treated as a friend.

Adding people this way is merely a convenience for listing and easily accessing names and for having them stand out with the use of color.

The Contact Sets window is accessed from the top menu bar, Comm > Contact Sets, by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-C, or by opening your Conversations window, Contacts tab, Contact Sets sub-tab.
There is a Contact Sets button.available for the Toolbar and it is also available as a tab in the People panel.


The Contact Sets Window Overview

Note that we will have a "hands on" section in the class to help you set up a "set" a little later in the class.

Set dropdown: Shows the name of the currently selected contact set, if any.

Gear/sprocket Icon: This will only be accessible when a set is selected. Clicking it will open a window with the options for that set.


Contact Set Settings

Set Color: Clicking this brings up a color picker, from which you can select a color to assign to the set. This color will be used, optionally in other parts of the viewer like IMs, and so on.

Show notifications: This check-box will show online/offline notifications for members of the set.

Note that this is is in addition to the global settings in Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me: Show when my friends log in or out: As toasts / In nearby chat and console / In nearby chat only.

If any of those are enabled, you will still get notifications for all friends; if disabled, then the settings here take precedence. You will choose whether to view the notifications as toast and/or chat in the settings below.

Global Settings:

Default color for friends not in a set: This setting is not presently functional

Online notifications:

- Show Online Notices for ALL friends as toasts (uncheck to only show for certain Sets): Corresponds to Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me... When my friends log in or out

- Show Online Notices for ALL friends in nearby chat (uncheck to only show for certain Sets): Corresponds to Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me... Log to nearby chat and console/Only in nearby chat

Note that these are the same settings as in preferences. Changing it here also changes it in preferences.

- Show Online Notices for certain Sets as toast
- Show Online Notices for certain Sets in nearby chat

These two will specify how you want to see notifications for this Set.

Custom colors:

Color a friend's mini map icon based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their mini map icon.

Color a friend's name tag based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their on-screen name tag.

Color a friend's radar list entry based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for the radar view.

Color a friend's chat based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their local chat and IMs.

If someone is assigned to more than one set, then the color of the smallest (ie most unique) set is used in the affected functions.

+ Icon: Click this to create a new set of contacts. A window will open, simply type the set name in then click “Create”.

Trash can Icon: Clicking this will delete the currently selected set. You cannot restore a deleted set, you would have to make it all over again.

Add button: Clicking this with a set selected will open a resident chooser that you can use to add people to that set.

This window has three tabs

Search allows you to search by name.
Friends is your friends list.
Near Me will show all avatars within a range of up to 130m.


The List

If you select a name on the list the other buttons to the right will become active.

Remove: Will remove that contact from the Set.

Profile: Opens that contacts profile.

IM: Opens an IM to that contact

Teleport: Offers a teleport to that contact

Set Alias: Allows you to set a "nickname" for that contact, visible only to you. This replaces their display name, only in your view.

Rem Alias: I you removed a contact's display name (see below) or given them an Alias (as described above), this option restores it.

Rem DN: Selecting this will “remove” the contact's display name - for you only. In other words, this affects what you see, not the contact's actual display name. Nor will anyone else notice the change.

If you right-click on any name, you get a menu with several options.

View Profile: Opens the contact's profile.

IM: Opens an IM window for the contact.

Offer Teleport: Offers a teleport to the selected contact.

Request Teleport: Requests a teleport from the selected contact.

View chat transcripts: This is presently not functional.

Add Friend: If you right click on a name that is not on your friends list this option will show, allowing you to offer friendship.

Add to Set: Opens a window where you can select a Set to add the contact to.

Remove Friend: will remove that contact from your friends list.

Invite to group: Opens a window where you can select a group to invite the contact to.

Map: If your friend gave you map rights, this item will be enabled. If clicked, it will open the world map and show the person's current location.

Share: If you click this entry, an IM window opens; you can then drag and drop inventory items into it, to give them to the other person.

Pay: Opens a window, which you can use to pay the other person L$.

Block/Unblock: This mutes the other person, completely blocking them from contacting you. You will not see anything they type in local chat, nor get any IMs they might send, and all inventory offers made will be automatically declined.


How to Define a New Set

Click on the + icon at the top, then type in the name of the set and click Create in the window that opens.

Select the set from the dropdown list.

Now, go through your list of contacts and check each of those whom you wish to add to the new set.

Note that you need to hold down CTRL while selecting multiple people for the same set.

Then right-click any of those selected, and from the menu, select “Add to Set”, this opens a window where you can select a Set to add the contacts to.

Using a Set

Once you have one or more sets created and contacts assigned to them, you can put them to use. Select a set from the drop-down at the top then select the members of the set


At this point if you right-click on one of the selected names, you get the options to
Add Friends
Add to set
Remove Friends
IM
Call
Share
Pay
Offer Teleport

Using the contact sets features just described does not allow you to get around built-in SL limitations.

Therefore, no matter how large a set, you cannot send a mass TP or conference call to more than 20 people at a time, and they must be on your friends list.

Applying Sets

Now that you have at least one Contact Set and a general idea of what they do, let's go back over some of the features.


If you want to view online/offline notifications for only members of certain Sets, then:

1) In the Contact Sets Settings floater, have both of the "Show Online Notices for ALL friends" settings disabled;
2) Just below those, have one or both of the "Show Online Notices for certain Sets" settings enabled; and
3) Make sure that Show Notifications is checked

You can also click the Set Color box to choose or change the color for that set.

This color is used to color-code these contacts in different parts of the UI. If you want, check the boxes in the Settings floater for:

> mini map icon
> name tag
> radar list entry
> chat

Because the colors might go better against some backgrounds than against others, and viewer skins use varying palettes, be prepared to adjust as needed.


You can also use contact sets to send conference calls or mass teleports to a select group of contacts rather than in an all-or-nothing manner. To do this:

1) Choose the Set in the drop-down menu.
2) Select the members of the set.
3) Right-click on one of the selected names and choose "IM" or "Offer Teleport"

Note again that the maximum number of avatars who can receive a conference call or tp from you simultaneously is 20.

It is possible to assign friends to more than one set. Simply right-click on their name and add to as many sets as apply.

Contacts use the color of the smallest set (the one with the fewest members).

One final important note:
Your contact sets are stored locally on your computer as an xml file. Be sure to back them up before doing a clean install of any future release.

MENUS 1 FOR 4.6.5

Menus1
Firestorm Menus 1 Class based on our 4.6.5 release.


We like to point out that all menus and submenus will detach and stay open if you click on the double lines at the top of the menu.
This makes it much simpler to check or uncheck options, as well as remember and uncheck anything you happen to click on either by mistake or to see what it does.


****Avatar Menu

Account > Will prompt you to open your Second Life dashboard in a web browser.
Merchant Outbox... > opens the Merchant Outbox window, for direct delivery sales.
Buy L$ > Opens the floater to let you buy L$
Preferences (Ctrl-P) > Opens your Preferences window
Toolbar Buttons > Opens the Toolbar Buttons floater where you can choose what buttons you see as well as where they appear.
Profile > Opens your profile
Picks > This will open picks in your profile.
Post to Facebook >opens a floater that allows you to post to Facebook
Appearance > Opens the Appearance floater at My Outfits (will be greyed out if you are a cloud)
Snapshot (Ctrl-Shift-S) > Opens the Snapshot floater
Inventory (Ctrl-I) > Opens your Inventory. Hitting Ctrl-I on your keyboard opens a first inventory window; to open a second one, use Ctrl-Shift-I.
Move Controls > Toggles the Movement Controls floater

Movement > Opens the Movement submenu where you can set:
-Sit down (Alt-Shift-S) > Will sit your avatar down
-Fly (Home) > This toggles Fly on
-Stop Flying (Home) > This toggles Fly off
-Always Run (Ctrl-R) > Toggles Run
-Force Ground Sit (Ctrl-Alt-S) > This forces your avatar into a ground sit regardless of where your avatar is.
-Move Lock (Ctrl Alt P) > Toggles the built in move lock on or off
-Quickjump > when enabled it disables the squat before you jump as well as the default stagger when you land if you have no landing anim set.

Camera Controls > Toggles the Camera Controls floater

Avatar Health > Opens the Avatar Health sub menu:
-Stop avatar animations > Use to stop animations acting on your avatar
-Stop avatar animations and revoke permissions > Stops animations and revokes permissions as well
-Undeform Avatar > Attempts to undeform your avatar, to recover its normal shape after deformation by the use of oversized avatars or griefer objects.
-Force appearance update (Rebake) > Rebakes your avatar's textures
-Reset Default Male Avatar (Character Test Male) > Forces your avatar to the default male
-Reset Default Female Avatar (Character Test Female) > Forces your avatar to the default female
-Show Render Weight for Avatars (replacement for Avatar Rendering Cost) > Shows Avatar draw weight. Note the calculation is different from the old ARC scores.
-Lag meter > Opens the lag meter
-Recreate LSL Bridge > Creates a fresh copy of the LSL bridge
Tip Tracker > Shows a list of L$ transactions.. This only keeps track while it is open or minimised, closing the floater resets it. See http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=fs_tip_tracker for more information.
Pose Stand > Opens the built in pose stand window

Upload > Opens the Upload sub menu, which allows you to choose what to upload:
-Image (L$10)
-Sound (L$10)
-Animation (L$10)
-Mesh Model...
-Bulk (L$10 per file)
-Set Default Upload Permissions > Opens a window where you can set default permissions for your uploads
-Import Linkset > Opens the Import window, to upload a previous exported object.

Show HUD attachments (Alt Shift H) will show or hide your HUDs

Exit Firestorm (Ctrl-Q) > Closes Firestorm


**** Comm (Communicate) Menu

Online Status > Opens the Online Status sub menu where you can enable:
-Away
-Unavailable
-Autorespond
-Autorespond to non friends
-Automatically reject teleport offers

Friends (Ctrl-Shift-F) > Opens the Friends tab in the Conversations window
Contacts (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F) > Will open your Contacts list in the Conversations window
Contact Sets (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-C) > Will open the Contact Sets window. See http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=fs_contact_sets for more information, or come to the Contact Sets class.
Groups (Ctrl-Shift-G) > Opens the Groups tab in the conversations window
Chat (Ctrl-H) > Opens the nearby chat tab in the Communicate window
People > will open the People panel
Conversations (Ctrl-T) > Opens the Conversations (Communicate) window
Gestures (Ctrl-G) > Opens the Gestures window
Voice morphing > Opens the Voice morphing sub menu
Conversation Log,,, > Opens a list of people you have had text chat with
Nearby Voice > Opens the Nearby Voice window (aka Active Speakers list)
Block List will open your Blocked (mute) list


****World Menu

Resync Animations: finds all the animations currently playing and resets them
Nearby Avatars (Ctrl-Shift-A) > Opens the Nearby tab in the People window.
Radar > Opens/closes the standalone Radar window.
Teleport History > will open the teleport history
Places > opens the places panel
Mini-Map (Ctrl-Shift-M) > Opens the Mini-Map
World Map (Ctrl-M) > Opens the World Map
Landmark This Place > Creates a landmark at your location
Location Profile > Opens the Places profile window
Parcel Details > Opens the About Land window
Region Details > Opens the Region/Estate window
Buy This Land > Opens the Buy Land window (If land you are on is not buy-able, it will be greyed out)
Show Owned Land > Opens the Owned Land window

Show More > Opens the Show More sub menu, where you can choose to show:
-Ban Lines
-Beacons (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-N)
-Property Lines (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-P)
-Land Owners
-Coordinates
-Parcel Permissions
-Advanced Menu (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D)

Teleport Home (Ctrl-Shift-H) > Teleports you home
Set Home to Here > Sets your Home location to the point you are at if you have the rights to do so.

Sun Position > Opens the Sun Position sub menu, where you can set the sun position to:
-Sunrise (Ctrl-Shift-E)
-Midday (Ctrl-Shift-Y)
-Sunset (Ctrl-Shift-N)
-Midnight (Ctrl-Shift-X)
-Estate Time

Environment Editor > Opens the Environment Editor sub menu:
-Environment Settings
-Water Presets
-Sky Presets
-Day Presets
More info http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Region-environment-settings/ta-p/999713

Photo and Video opens the sub menu where you can show/hide
-Phototools Ctrl Alt P
-Cameratools Ctrl Shift C
There are Toolbar buttons available for these as well

Area Search > Opens Area Search window.
Sound Explorer > Opens the sound explorer
Asset Blacklist > Opens the asset blacklist


****Build Menu

Build > Opens the Build/Edit window
Select Build Tool > Opens the Build Tool sub menu where you can select:
Focus Tool (Ctrl-1)
Move Tool (Ctrl-2)
Edit Tool (Ctrl-3)
Create Tool (Ctrl-4)
Land Tool (Ctrl-5)
Link (Ctrl-L) > Will link multiple prims
Unlink (Ctrl-Shift-L) > Will unlink prims in a linkset
Edit Linked Parts > Allows you to edit individual prims in a linkset
Select Linked Parts > Opens the Select Linked Parts sub menu where you can choose
Select Next Part (Ctrl-.)
Select Previous Part (Ctrl-,)
Include Next Part (Ctrl-Shift-.)
Include Previous Part (Ctrl-Shift-,)
Focus on Selection (H) > Will focus your camera on an object you have selected
Zoom to Selection (Shift-H) > Will zoom your camera on an object you have selected
Object > Opens the Object sub menu that allows you to:
Take
Take Copy
Duplicate
Edit Particles
Save Back to Inventory
Save Back to Object Contents
Return Object
Save as > Opens a sub menu where you can find:
Backup: Opens the Backup window, allowing you to save the object to your hard drive.
Collada: Opens the Collada Export window, which you can use to export the object as mesh.
Scripts > Opens the Scripts sub menu where you can:
Show Script Warnings/Errors
Script Info (counter)
Recompile Scripts (Mono)
Recompile Scripts (LSL)
Reset Scripts
Set Scripts to Running
Set Scripts to Not Running
Remove Scripts from Selection


Pathfinding: Options concerning Pathfinding.
Linksets: Opens the Pathfinding Linksets window.
Characters: Opens the Pathfinding characters window.
View / Test: Opens the Pathfinding console.
Rebake Region : Rebakes the region NavMesh, if there are pending changes - assuming you have rights to do so and Pathfinding is enabled for the region; will by greyed out otherwise. This can also be done by clicking the Pathfinding icon in the top menu bar.
Options > Opens the Options sub menu where you can:
Show Advanced Permissions
Select Only My Obects
Select Only Movable Objects
Select By Surrounding
Include group owned objects
Show Selection Outlines
Show Hidden Selection
Show Light Radius for Selection
Show Selection Beam
Snap to Grid (G)
Snap Object XY to Grid (Shift-X)
Use Selection for Grid (Shift-G)
Grid Options (Ctrl-Shift-B)
Upload > Opens the Upload sub menu, which allows you to choose what to upload:
Image (L$10)
Sound (L$10)
Animation (L$10)
Mesh Model...
Bulk (L$10 per file)
Set Default Upload Permissions > Opens a window where you can set default permissions for your uploads
Import Linkset > Opens the Import window, to upload a previous exported object.
Undo (Ctrl-Z) > Will undo the last changes made in the Edit/Build window
Redo (Ctrl-Y) > Will redo the last changes made with the Undo command


****Content Menu

Search (Ctrl-F) > Opens the Search window
SL Marketplace > Prompts you to open the Marketplace web page
L$ Market Data > Prompts you to open the L$ Market Data web page
Script Library > Prompts you to open the Script Library web page
The remaining links will prompt you to open the appropriate link in your web browser.
Firestorm Blog
Firestorm Flickr
Firestorm YouTube
Firestorm Twitter
Firestorm Plurk


****Help Menu

Enable Viewer UI Hints > Enables the hints that are available in the user interface (UI)
Firestorm Wiki (F1) > Prompts you to open the Firestorm Wiki page where you can find documentation on various parts of Firestorm
Troubleshooting > opens the troubleshooting page on our Wiki where you can find suggestions for issues you may experience.
Join Firestorm Support Group: Opens a window listing in-world support groups you can join, to get help.
Check Grid Status > Prompts you to open the Grid Status web page
Report Abuse > Opens the Abuse Report window
Report Bug > Opens http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=file_a_jira where you can read how to file a bug report
Bumps Pushes & Hits opens a window that shows who or what has hit you. Does not work on damage enabled land.
Enable Sysinfo Button > Enables a button in IM windows that lets you send your Sysinfo

About Firestorm > This opens the About Firestorm window, which shows your sysinfo as well as credits and licensing information. Team members have the ability to "ping" you for the sysinfo in an IM.

Only a team member that your viewer recognizes can trigger this request.
If you get that request please do choose Yes, as the information may help us help you solve your problems.