Firestorm V5.0.1 Release

Firestorm V5.0.1 is out now with new features! See th details:
http://www.firestormviewer.org/firestorm-update-5-0-1-52150-with-bento/

Download it today:
http://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/

Upgrade Web Cashier requires Firestorm 4.7.7

Beginning from Jun 15, you will no longer be able to make purchase using Firestorm Viewer lower than 4.7.7 because LL has upgrade the encryption to TLS v1.2 to make transaction more secure as it traffic through the Internet.

The full story is available here :
https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Update-Your-Web-Browser-to-Ensure-Secure-Payments/ba-p/3027363

Please take note to upgrade if you have not done so.

Downloads for Firestorm is available via:
http://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/

Empty Outfit Saving in Firestorm

Does this looks familiar. After making all the nice changes, you find that you just cannot save the outfit and even after 100 times, its still empty and flagged as "Unsaved Change". Well, you are not alone and there is no need to go clear caches or whatsoever. It is a bug that still exists in Firestorm 4.7.7 and is also known to happen in other viewers too.

To solve it, simply disable FSUseAis3Api:

1. Enable Advance Menu.
2. Advanced > Show Debug Settings (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S)
3. Search "FSUseAis3Api"
4. Set to FALSE

Instructions for other viewers varies, but its a similar concept. There is also a bug tracker on the official Firestorm JIRA:
http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-16100

Spooky Nights Hunt Firestorm

This is a hunt organized by Firestorm spread across 5 sims with about 150 shops participating...
However, this is a rather difficult hunt and Kitty could not find the following:

• Bones Path - #18 ,21, 28
• Wicked Path - #25
• Creepy Path - #1, 7, 10, 12

Kitty hope you have better luck then her.
Although this is a Halloween hunt, it will last until 30 Nov!

Hints and LM :
http://www.firestormviewer.org/hunt-hints/

The Cat, the Fox and the Motobike

As much as the title sound like a movie... It is not. It is Firestorm's 5th Anniversary and there are 3 great items available for free! Yes, you guess it! This is the cat, in bright fiery orange. Oh mine... Did Kitty put on weight or are these Kitties huge...

Kitty always wanted a fox and this one is free. It is red and fiery too to celebrate Firestorm's birthday!

Have you seen all the expensive motobikes on sale? well, here is you chance to get 1 free. And I think this won't be here forever!

Join Kitty in the celebration for Firestorm 5th Birthday:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Showcase/245/19/2732

P.S. Have you upgraded to the latest Firestorm 4.7.3?
http://www.firestormviewer.org

Firestorm v4.4.2 Mandatory Update

I think it is nice ot once in a while take a break and talk about something else except than hunts or fashion, but still secondlife related. This is one of those time. 

As some may know Firestorm v4.4.1 had been blocked largely due to a bug that the debugging logs are sent to Linden Labs causing massive flood, somewhat like a DDOS. But in any case, this is where v4.4.2 is here for. 

While v4.4.2 is concerned, it is no significantly different from v.4.41. So let's take a look why this is a MANDATORY update. Let's see what the Firestorm team said about the update:

"Linden Lab has stated they intend to begin rolling out Server Side Appearance (formerly known as Server Side Baking) on July 9th or shortly thereafter. It is of paramount importance to your user experience that ALL our users upgrade to this 4.4.1 version before the 9th of July. Even our 4.4.0 users should upgrade because 4.4.1 contains some additional SSA code from LL."

So, it all about SSA or previously SSB. And today is the last day to upgrade and benefit from this. I did recall that SSB was what "killed" the Phoenix Viewer (Firestorm's former self). Many of my friends who loved Phoenix had no choice but to change. However, it really took LL a long long time before now we are seeing something happening. This is another one of those "if you do not update, your graphics will mess up or you might not even be able to connect" type of upgrade.

So, it has to be Firestorm v4.4.2 or nothing. Not really. From what I gathered, a rather old viewer I used to like lots before moving to Firestorm, Singularity is back. 

http://www.singularityviewer.org/

At version 1.8.0, Singularity supports SSA as well, so it is worth a look.

Looks like everyone will be busy updating today. 

P.S. On the side note, tomorrow is Microsoft Patch Tuesday, bring 5 CRITICAL and 1 Important update to Windows affecting all versions one way or another. It is going to be a real busy day and probably a sad days for the bad guys.

Firestorm 4.4 Problems

Although Firestorm had been updated to give you server baking and other improvement, changes always will break something. Some users had some issues with the following:

• My screen is black
• Where has avatar height offset gone?
• Hidden buttons or media controls

If you are one of them, fear not, there are workaround and fixes for it here:

http://letteponnier.blogspot.sg/2013/04/fasqapril23.html

EOL of Phoenix

The once famous Third Party Viewer - Phoenix is finally coming to the end of life. It's not that I hate it for any reason, but I had been preaching for people to upgrade to Firestorm because Phoenix totally ruined SL because it will display avatars with bald head and single color outfit where people had spend $L buying the beautifully MESH accessories. OK, maybe I hate Phoenix. :) But at least I have a valid reason to.

While Phoenix had served the public for years in the past, technology had finally caught up with it and they support team finally made the decision to drop all support for it from 1st Jan 2013 onwards including the download links from the main page. It will however be still downloadable from their wiki. Of course you can still change to another viewer besides than Firestorm.

See other 3rd Party Viewer:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

Here is their official statement:

To be clear
-We are ending support for the Phoenix Viewer on Dec 31st, 2012.
-If you are a Phoenix user we recommend you migrate to a peer-to-peer help group created for Phoenix users:“Phoenix Viewer Self Help.”

- We are NOT forcing you to use Firestorm! If you don't want to use Firestorm, there are a few V1 alternatives out there. Check out theLL Third Party Viewer Directory.
- We are NOT telling you not to use Phoenix Viewer.
- We are NOT blocking Phoenix Viewer from logging in.
- We are NOT breaking Phoenix!
- You MAY continue to use Phoenix as long as you want, but be aware.. it will become more and more deprecated over time.
- LL is not intentionally killing Phoenix but be aware, there are changes coming in the new year that will break some key aspects of its usability.

I would like to stress that the last point links to a Avatar Baking service will be rolling out in 2 months time. While this feature will improve the baking of avatars for everyone else, it is likely for Phoenix that avatar will no longer bake properly or even bake at all! This is a might good reason to dump Phoenix for good.

While Firestorm has its cons too, it seems like a might great reason to upgrade your PC too. Currently on Windows 8, I can assure you that Firestorm works properly on it. In terms of graphics requirement, I found that a ATI HD 6670 is a really good buy because not only is it great for SL, it is also able to handle all the features (not extreme graphics though) on graphically intensive games such as Guild Wars 2 etc.

Read about the ATI Radeon HD 6670 here:
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DESKTOP/GRAPHICS/AMD-RADEON-HD-6000/HD-6670/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6670-overview.aspx

I do not know about the exact price, but it seems from NewEgg that this card is available from USD$69.90 onwards. Of course if you can afford more, go for the HD 7770 or a even higher card! Yes, crazy Kitty spend a LOT on her HD 6970...

Hiding away the Library from your Inventory

Here is how you hide the Library:

1. Select World > Show > Advanced Menu to enable the Advanced Menu.
2. Choose Advanced > Show Debug Settings.
3. Type noinventoryLibrary.
4. Select TRUE.
5. Close the Debug Settings window and restart the Viewer

Taken from article:
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/tkb/articleprintpage/tkb-id/English_KB@tkb/article-id/302

End of Phoenix, Birth of Firestorm

On the official Firestorm / Phoenix download website, there is an interesting point to be taken note of :

Phoenix does not run on Windows 8, the use of this setup is not supported. Please use Firestorm with Windows 8.

From:

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/downloads

So it seems that this will mark the end of Phoenix as more and more of the PC / Laptop will be rolling out with Windows 8. In addition, Phoenix has major issue with MESH and obviously does not support pathfinding so I suppose there is a good reason to upgrade now. 

There is some getting used to, but some of the things you will never want to give up after upgrading including the build in area radar and AO controls.