Category: SL Tech

Firestorm 3.2 Release: In-depth

Posted on by Inara Pey

Note: thie version reviewed here is 3.2.2.24336 with the openGL fixes. If you continue to have issues with Firestorm, try 3.2.1.24179. 

firestorm-logoIt’s here, and it has the OpenGL fixes. And it is quite simply superb.

Firestorm 3 is everything a Second Life Viewer should be – and so much more. So much, in fact, that putting together a review has been something of a headache for me – where do I start, how do I order things?

One thing I will say right off the bat – and that is to give a very personal thank you to Jessica Lyon in particular for giving me the means to get started on this review ahead of the official release.

The Log-in Screen

The first of the big changes hit you right from the start: the log-in / splash screen has been significantly revised, incorporating much of the Viewer 3 log-in screen capabilities and, in some areas, extending them.

FS3-1
Making a Splash: the Firestorm log-in screen

At the top of the screen are four headers. The first three of these, Destinations, Events and What’s Hot Now, pull information directly from the Viewer 3 log-in screen I reviewed back in August 2011.  For those who have not encountered this up until now:

  • Clicking on any of the drop-downs will display a sliding panel of Destinations, Upcoming Events, and “hot” places to visit (the latter determined by the number of people currently visiting it)
Finding a place to go has never been so easy
Finding a place to go has never been so easy
  • Opening any one of those drop-down will, very tidily, close the previously-open drop-down
  • Hovering the mouse over the middle of any of the images in a panel will display a SELECT button; clicking on this will open a pop-up of further information, together with a notice that your start location on logging-in has been set to the selected location

FS3-3

  • You can still switch back to your Home or Last Location via the START AT option at the bottom of the log-in screen.

The last option is that of Firestorm Information, which is open by default. This provides links to the Firestorm download page, the wiki pages and the JIRA; the Firestorm Blog; and information on the Viewer version currently under development. most significantly of all, it includes links to the SL Grid Status Page, allowing users to immediately see if there are any known problems of which they need to be aware.

I am an unabashed fan of the Viewer 3 log-in screen; that Firestorm has adopted it is a major plus in my book. That they are further willing to go where Linden Lab apparently refuse, despite repeated cajoling through the likes of Twitter by a lot of people, gains it another huge tick in the Pey Book of Viewer Satisfaction. Would that LL understood the need to put this information front-and-centre, especially given that with the best will in the world, the grid dows tend to go Swedish Chef every so often and bork, bork, bork. But then, the Firestorm developers are all regular users of the platform…

At the bottom of the log-in screen are the familiar log-in credentials boxes. As is common for TPVs (and previous versions of Firestorm), the Viewer can store log-in information for different accounts, making logging-in with an Alt, etc, a matter of simply selecting a name (or indeed, name / grid combination) from a drop-down list. A DELETE THIS ENTRY button allows for the removal of any selected account from the Viewer’s records.

Default Settings (Viewer Modes)

Choose your desired mode
Choose your desired mode

The log-in area also includes a DEFAULT SETTINGS drop-down. This allows you to chose from one of three operating modes for the Viewer. These are: Phoenix, Hybrid, and V3.

I’ve already outlined the three UI looks, and this version doesn’t change them that much, so I won’t spend time on them here per se; however, for the curious of mind, the default settings for each mode can be found in the table below (from the Firestorm wiki).

Defaults for the three Viewer modes
Defaults for the three Viewer modes

Note: Phoenix does not mean the Viewer will present a Phoenix / Viewer 1.x-style interface.

Preferences

Firestorm’s preferences have had a major overhaul, with many options being more pragmatically grouped and thus hopefully easier to find. I’ve tried out outline the key changes below. You can also find a quick reference table to the changes in the Firestorm wiki.

General

Move or type: you choose
Move or type: you choose

The general tab now includes and EXTRAS panel that allows you to:

  • Select whether the Viewer display your own or other people’s in-world profile or your / their web profile
  • Whether the WASD keys will move your avatar or focus the cursor on the chat bar (also found in the Chat tab).

Note: By default, Pressing Letter Keys is set to START LOCAL CHAT for the Phoenix mode, but set to AFFECTS MOVEMENT for the Hybrid / V3 modes.

Chat

The Chat tab rationalises the majority of options associated with setting chat preferences. As well as presenting the expected Chat options, the tabs originally located in Preferences->Firestorm->Chat (General (renamed “Firestorm”), Radar and Keyword Alerts). This tab also includes:

  • Popular chat log options also found in Preferences->Privacy
  • The option to auto-hide the main Chat Bar
  • The new Viewer translation tool options
  • A Notifications tab, allowing you to define how IM and Group Chat notifications are handled using either the Viewer 3 pop-ups an/or in the chat console (i.e. lower left-hand corner of your screen, as per Phoenix / Viewer 1.x)
  • A Text Input tab comprising the Spell Check and AutoCorrect functions
AutoCorrect and Spell Check - together under Preferences->Chat
AutoCorrect and Spell Check – together under Preferences->Chat

Graphics

The graphics tab see the arrival of a FULLSCREEN mode for Firestorm. The option requires a restart to take effect, but renders the Viewer beautifully on screen without the usual application window.

Sound & Media

The Sound & Media tab has been refreshed, splitting media and Voice functions into two sub-tabs: General and Voice Settings. The General tab now includes the Media Audio Rolloff Distance settings originally located in Preferences->Advanced.

Sound & Media: new Voice tab and the Media Audio Rolloff sliders
Sound & Media: new Voice tab and the Media Audio Rolloff sliders

Move & View

The Move & View tab includes the Viewer 3.2 “click-to-move” functionality (which will reverse avatar mouse steering if you use it!), and moves the Firestorm Camera options originally found under PREFERENCES->FIRSTORM->VIEW to a new sub-tab called Firestorm.

Move & View: incorporate click-to-move and Firestorm's camera options
Move & View: incorporate click-to-move and Firestorm’s camera options

Privacy and Advanced

The Privacy tab is rationalised so that LookAt options are now located on their own sub-tab, including the LookAt Target option originally found in Preferences->Firestorm-General.

The Advanced tab has been reduced to the Viewer / grid / Advance / Developer Menu options.

User Interface

Originally called UI Extras, this tab now:

  • Includes the UI Scaling slider (originally in Preferences->Advanced)
  • Includes the lag meter check box (originally in Preferences->Firestorm->General)
  • Includes the Avatar Head movement options ( originally in Preferences->Firestorm–>Avatar)
  • Allows both script dialogue and Group notices to be displayed in the top right of the screen a-la Phoenix / Viewer 1.x.

The Font tab has been expanded to include options to adjust chat line spacing and folder item height.

Firestorm

The Firestorm tab has undergone significant changes

  • The General sub-tab has been rationalised as a result of options being either moved elsewhere or dropped
  • The Protection tab now include the Phoenix Spam Protection options
  • The Avatar tab replaces the View tab and combines the Avatar Head movement options with Selection Beam Particle options
Preferences->Firestorm->Avatar
Preferences->Firestorm->Avatar
  • The Windlight tab includes additional options for accepting region settings and cross-fading changes.

Chat Bar and Chat

The Chat Bar now includes two buttons: the first opens / closes the Nearby Chat floater, while the second opens the Conversations floater. However:

  • If the Nearby Chat floater is docked with Conversations (as it is by default), then both will appear to perform the same function.
  • With Nearby Chat undocked, Conversations opens to display your Contacts.

New Feature: Hiding the Chat Bar

Like Phoenix, the Firestorm Chat Bar can now be hidden:

  • Go to Avatar->Preferences->Chat->Firestorm and check AUTOHIDE MAIN CHAT BAR
  • The Chat Bar is now hidden.
  • To access it, tap ENTER – the Chat Bar will open at full window width
  • Type your text and press ENTER – the text is sent and displayed in the chat console or Nearby Chat (if open)
  • If you open the Chat in error, simply tap ENTER or ESC to close it without typing anything.

If you prefer, you can set the Chat Bar to open as soon as you start typing:

  • Go to Preferences->General->Extras or Preferences->Chat->General and make sure PRESSING LETTER KEYS is set to STARTS LOCAL CHAT
  • Pressing any letter, number or character key will now open the Chat Bar and capture your typing
  • As above, pressing ENTER will both display the test and close the Chat Bar

Note: setting this behaviour will disable the WASD keys as avatar movement keys.

To disable Chat Bar hide, the feature, go to Go to Avatar->Preferences->Chat->Firestorm and uncheck AUTOHIDE MAIN CHAT BAR. Remember to reset your the WASD functions, if required.

Additional New Chat Features

There are two further new chat options in this release:

  • Visible hint for when someone is typing: go to Preferences->Chat-> and check SHOW TYPING INDICATOR IN BUBBLES… tags will update to show if someone is typing, even if they have the typing animation turned off
  • You can display an optional channel selection box in Nearby Chat. Go to: Preferences->Chat-> and check SHOW CHANNEL SELECTION IN CHAT BAR
Channel display in chat

Chat Echo Fix

In previous versions of Firestorm, both the chat bar and Nearby Chat would echo whatever was typed into the other. This has been fixed so that text can be typed separately into each.

Camera Floater

FS3-13The Camera floater used within the Phoenix /Hybrid modes has been refined, with the view buttons (rear, front, 3/4s, zoom & Mouselook) now along the top of the floater. This makes the floater more compact, by some may find it harder to reposition once undocked from the toolbar as a result.

Quick Preferences

The Quick Preferences button now includes options to turn name tags over avatars off / on, and a time-of day slider for altering the region daylight in your own Viewer.

Mesh Uploads

One of the most eagerly-awaited capabilities within both Firestorm and Phoenix is that of mesh object uploads.

This release sees Firestorm gain the capability, thanks to Nicky Dasmijn. The upload process uses the latest Viewer 3 upload window, and while I am no mesh expert, it appears to match the official Viewer in terms of smoothness of operation.

FS3-20

Note that the upload feature includes the fix for CTS-627 (Mesh upload crashes Linux).

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Viewer 3.x to get a speling cheker

Posted on by Inara Pey

Spelling checkers are something TPV users tend to take for granted; or if you’re a Guardian reader, quite possibly for grunted (sorry, a little English humour….). We’ve been able to bask in the glory of having our misspellings highlighted ready for us to correct (or in some instances, had them auto-corrected, depending on the sophistication of the checker code itself). Those using the official Viewer, however, haven’t been so lucky.

But that is about to change. Enter Storm 83. A year plus old, barely watched or voted upon, and now a coming soon feature. So as Oz comments on the JIRA, “Everyone thank Kitty for volunteering to contribute this feature!” Kitty being Kitty Barnett, who is the assignee for the project, and who has been a prolific contributor to TPV code, including RLV/a.

It’s not clear exactly how the feature will be integrated – different TPVs have added it in various tabs within Preferences. However, if we take Kitty’s own Catznip Viewer as a lead (given it is based on Viewer 3), one might hazard a guess and say that rather than being hidden away inside Preferences, as is the case with come TPVs, the Spell Check option will get a tab of its own.

With Catznip the spelling checker is very straightforward: simply tick the check box to enable. American English is the default, but other options are available from a drop-down menu. Spelling errors are then underlined in red in chat, and right-clicking on them will display a nice little menu listing alternatives as well as an option to add the word to a custom dictionary, should you prefer. One suspects the Viewer 3 functionality will be similar.

I’ve no idea whether the dictionary will include the ability to download other language dictionaries, a-la the likes of Phoenix and (shortly) Firestorm. I’ll hopefully take a closer look once the code reaches a Development Viewer or enters the Beta code base.

 

Text Clients 5: Mobile Grid Client

Posted on by Inara Pey

Over the weekend, and being an impulsive fool, I decided to upgrade my mobile phone. Well, actually I blame my service provider for playing games with my tariff & offering me a more competitive deal if I upgraded… but I digress.

So, here I am with a Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100. It’s a very nice phone – although after 5 years with my purse-and-pocket friendly Sony Ericsson W810i Walkman, it’s taking a little getting used to size-wise. It does have lots of whizzy on it I’ll probably never use (just give me my music when I’m on the go, and I’m happy) but it has allowed me to take a look at another SL text client that is out there – the Mobile Grid Client for Android.

The app itself is free via the Android Market, although you can only use it for 14 days prior to being asked to pay a minimum of L$250 a month to continue to access SL. Not a steep price by any means, but a little unusual in the client stakes. Once installed the app appears in your application listing / grid, and tapping it takes you directly to the local chat screen (if using it for the first time) or the last screen you were using when you logged out, with the message Not logged in.

Login screen – 14-day trial expired (click to enlarge)

Tapping your ‘phone’s menu button should display the application’s About and Login buttons, together with the phone’s Settings option. Tapping Login unsurprisingly pops-up the login overlay.

You’ll need to enter your avatar name entirely in lower case, although the password field is case sensitive. Note that if your initial 14-day trial period has expired, you will see the payment option (left). The minimum amount for continued use of the application is L$250 for a month’s usage, although you can optionally pay more.

The charge itself is non-recurring, so there is no danger of your SL account being repeatedly billed whether or not you continue to use the app; the payment prompt will simply appear once more when your month’s use is up, and you can then make a further payment and continue using the application or simply stop using the app – the choice is yours.

Also on the login screen there is a CHANGE option that you can use to access any OpenSim grid. Tapping this will display a series of options (below left) which in turn allow you to set your login location, and choose from a list of pre-defined grids (below centre).

MGC login options

There is also an option to set-up a custom grid URI, but slightly confusingingly, this is initially greyed-out and unavailable – you have to go into the pre-defined list first, scroll to the end, click on an option to enable custom URIs there, which takes you back to the initial screen with the Custom option now enabled. Tapping on it then takes you to a screen where you can enter the required URI (above right).

The logging-in process takes a long as you’d expect a Viewer to take – no surprises, given the same steps are being taken – and chat will display things like the MotD as things progress, followed by a confirmation that you are logged-in.

The layout of the app is crisp and clear and highly intuitive: at the top are four primary buttons: Chat, IMs, People and Map – all of which are self-explanatory, although some detail on each is provided below. There is also a status icon that appears in the ‘phones icon bar, which indicates the following:

Client Status icons
  • White: the client is connected to the server and you’re logged in
  • Yellow: the client is connecting or reconnecting to the server
  • Red: the connection to the server was lost and couldn’t be reestablished or you were disconnected by the server or Linden Lab
  • Green: you received a new IM, group IM (group chat message) friendship offer or teleport offer.

As well as displaying your chat history (below left), Chat has a MORE button which displays a menu to further chat-related options (below centre), while pressing and holding the SAY button brings-up a menu alloing you to switch between Say, Shout and Whisper for your own chat.

Chat (left and centre) and IM list (right)

The IMs button displays a list of you current IM conversations (above right), allowing you to quickly swap back and forth between them. When you are in an IM with somone, a MORE button is displayed, providing you with all the actions you’ve expect to be able to use: view their profile, offer a teleport, invite into a Group, pay them, give inventory, and so on.

People combines the functions of Nearby People, Friends and Groups, again allowing you to carry out a range of actions – IMing an individual, viewing their profile, offering friendship / teleport, teleporting to them, paying them, giving inventory, etc – simply tap on a name to display a menu of options.

The profile view is interesting – selecting it take you to an initial screen that asks you to select Personals – personal information; Groups – group information or Picks. Once in any of the three options, you can swap between them easily by scrolling down / up and tapping the relevant heading.

The personal view combines SL information with any available RL info a person has added to their profile. Making full use of Android, any links are enabled and tapping them will launch your phone’s browser and seemlessly display the relevant webpage. Tapping the phone’s RETURN key drops you neatly back into the profile view. The Picks option doesn’t actually display any images associated with a person’s Picks, but when tapped, will offer to teleport you to that location.

People button options and viewing a profile

Map brings up the map of your current location, with an option to call up additional information (region name, parcel details, your exact position, music stream URL, etc., with items such as the region SLurl being clickable).

Map – easy to see (click to enlarge)

The map itself displays cleanly and is easy to read – the screen capture doesn’t really do it justice compared to seeing it on the screen of an S2.

Tapping your ‘phone’s menu button will bring up additional buttons at the bottom of the display for:

  • People search
  • Your profile
  • Creating a Landmark
  • Inventory
  • Logging out

A MORE button calls up an additional menu which has opens to teleport yourself home and to open SLurl.com.

Inventory functions are very well represented, allowing you to carry out a wide range of tasks associated with your inventory – browse, search, create folders, move and / or rename items, read notecards. trash items, and so on.

Inventory is accessed by tapping you phone’s menu button and then selecting the Inventory option from the pop-up menu. Your inventory is displayed much as it appears in a Viewer (below left), and tapping on a folder will open it (together with a BACK open at the top), tapping on an item in a folder will bring up a context-sensitive menu (below centre). Sadly, when it comes to clothing and attachments there are no WEAR or ADD otpions, but you can view properties, give items, deleted them, move them, etc., and in the case of notecards, biew the contents.

Inventory options

You can also create new folders and sub-folders in your inventory (above right) using your ‘phone’s menu button and tapping Create Folder from the displayed options. You can also access an inventory sort option via your ‘phone’s menu button as well.

Opinion

This is a fast, effective text client that offers an excellent means of rapid-fire access to SL should you need it when out roaming. Data fees being what they are, unless you have an inordinate download allowance on your tariff, however, this is not the application for casual use over 3G or similar; SL eats bandwidth as we all know – even when running a text-based application.

However, where wifi is concerned, the Android’s networking makes accessing SL when you can’t get to your computer a very clean and easy task – I actually grabbed some of the screen captures used in this article while in the kitchen and watching over the cat / preparing dinner via my household wifi…

The UI is highly intuitive, uncluttered and a joy to use; it’s quite possibly the most intuitive text client I’ve used to date, requiring little in the way of documentation assistance to help guide the novice user (would that some other Android applications were this easy to get to grips with!). All-in-all a great little package, well thought-out and nicely delivered.

Related Links

Viewer 3: further releases

Posted on by Inara Pey

Viewer 3.2 continues with almost weekly releases. The 3.2.1 (244864) release went public of the 15th November brings the release viewer almost up-to-par with things recently seen in the Beta and Development Viewers, namely:

  • Chat translation options – in time for the Google free API end-of-line, although the debate over Bing fees is liable to continue
  • Destination Guide open by default
  • New Neck and Centre attachment points.

However, there is still no revised snapshot floater.

The Viewer also includes a number of crash and performance fixes, together with a bag full of minor bug fixes and corrections.

In the Development branch, the Viewer reaches 3.2.4 (245302). There are no obvious release notes with the Development version (empty wiki page), and no obvious UI updates. I assume the release carries more in the way of bug fixes, etc.

Performance-wise,  the new releases (3.2.1 & 3.2.4) offer something of a performance boost on my usual hardware set-up: Viewer frame rates are constant in the mid-30s when on sims with a handful of others but still falls on its bum when shadows, etc., are enabled (to roughly 1/2 the frame rates of Firestorm, and roughly 1/3 those of Exodus). This gives rise to noticeable “stutter” when panning the camera particularly.

Both the new release and the latest Development versions continue to run significantly better in Linden Home regions than Firestorm (again on my set-up). I’ve yet to encounter a single disconnect in these regions when using the official Viewer, whereas, as I’ve mentioned, disconnects and crashes are a fact-of-life when running Firestorm in many of these regions. Frame rates for the 3.2.1 while in Linden Home regions were also significantly better than with the 3.2.0 release of the viewer – 18-20 fps, rather than single digits sitting around the 3-5 fps mark.

I’m not sure where the OpenGL fixes stand – it is hard to get along to Viewer meetings; there is a “dedicated” development stream for fixes to this issue, but I have no idea if these fixes are making their way back to the main Development -> Beta -> Release flow.

The Viewer installer and executable still have yet to be corrected: as far they are concerned, people are still installing and running “Viewer 2”. Tateru Nino raised this point recently (and tbh, I hadn’t actually noticed until she did). I don’t find it an irritant myself, but it is mildly amusing.

The mouse movement / click-to-move reversal is still there however. For those unfamiliar with the problem: up until now (unless using the Basic Viewer mode), you could steer your avatar using the forward / back keys and by pressing and holding the left mouse button with the pointer over your avatar; moving the mouse left / right would move your avatar in the appropriate direction.

With SINGLE CLICK ON LAND set to MOVE TO CLICKED POINT sees this reversed – move the mouse to the right, and your avatar moves left.  There’s a JIRA out to request a fix to issue.

Beta-wise, no changes have been made, and the release number remains as per last week.

Overall, 3.2.4 (Development) looks pretty stable, fast and comfortable to use. As I’m not affected by the OpenGL issue, I’m completely unable to comment on how it fairs on impacted graphics cards, and will have to leave that up to someone else. Otherwise, and pending the official release of the OpenGL fixes, these releases may indicate the “radical” element of the Viewer UI change is coming to an end, and it’ll be more a case of polishing things in terms of small enhancements and bug fixes.

And on that subject, if anyone from LL is still reading this blog – there are a few JIRAs on the new UI besides the one linked to above. You might want to point your colleagues towards :).

Viewer 3.2 UI JIRA

Posted on by Inara Pey

More people are trying-out the new FUI (apparently “Flexible User Interface”, and not “phooey” as someone jokingly insisted!) in Viewer 3.2, and some interesting JIRA are starting to appear.

If you’ve made the hop, you might want to consider taking a look at some of these and adding your support to any you agree with (remember to WATCH rather than VOTE – or do both to be on the safe side!):

  • VWR-20738: add ability to organise buttons in Customise Toolbars floater
  • VWR-27209: a Navigation bar only option to top bar of UI
  • VWR-27222: add Estate & Statistics Bar buttons and include multi-use separator in Customise Toolbars
  • VWR-27318 / VWR-27330: provide the option to use either the toolbars or the Sidebar
  • VWR-27358: allow the Chat Bar and an “IM Bar” to be docked, as if a button-like element, to the bottom bar area
  • VWR-27388: make any menu option draggable to the button bar
  • VWR-27448: recover the ability to dock windows at the edge of the screen and have them behave like tabs
  • VWR-27455: make the button bars on Viewer 3.2 dockable to top/bottom or right/left (depending on the edge) and not only on the middle
  • VWR-27457: create a “Quick Preferences” button for rapid access to frequently used preferences
  • VWR-27463: add Picks, Places, and Destinations to menus
  • VWR-27599: some floater window sizes and positions are sometimes reset to default after a crash, and all are on viewer update

While the following are not strictly Viewer 3.2 related, some may feel they still apply:

  • VWR-26688: allow notifications to be positioned to a different area of the screen

Note that I don’t pretend that this is an exhaustive list, nor have I included any JIRA for 3.2.0 through 3.2.2 marked as “fix pending”. Finally, JIRA listed above should not in any way be taken as a personal endorsement on my part – they’re simply what came up in search & while perusing the results!

Update 17th November

  • Adding EXP-1449 left click drag to control avatar not working, when “single click on land” action set to “move to clicked point”.

RLV goes new UI

Posted on by Inara Pey

For RLV users wishing to try-out the new Viewer 3 UI, there is news: Marine Kelley already has a version of RLV out which incorporates the new UI and other bits.

RLV Viewer with new V3 UI

The Viewer, built on the 3.2.2 (0) release of November 7th, includes the new UI presentation of buttons, notifications appearing up in the top right corner (see image), Destination Guide open by default, and so on.

Additionally, it retains the RLV menu option and  includes a couple of familiar sliders seen in other TPVs up in the Navigation Bar: the avatar offset and the Draw Distance (the latter of which I’ve always appreciated in those TPVs that have it in difference to a Quick Preferences button), as well as including the ABOUT LAND and SKY buttons.

Unlike the latest versions of the official Viewer, the mini-location bar is displayed in addition to the Navigation Bar  / Favourites Bar, rather than the option allowing you to toggle between the Navigation / Favourites and the Mini-location. Being the (0) release means the Viewer doesn’t have the new snapshot floater – but given the speed with which Marine got this version out, one supporting the floater may not be far behind!

Performance-wise, on my usual machine the Viewer is on a par with the latest 3.2.2 release, coming in with an average fps around 20-22. Some have reported teleport issues with 3.2, I’ve not encountered any myself – and certain none in this Viewer while hopping around the place.

There’s not a lot to review here that I’ve not covered elsewhere when it comes to the new UI (see the link at the top of this post). All I can say is, kudos to Marine on the speed of her response with the release, and if you are curious about the new UI and want to give it a go but don’t want to crack out of RLV – now you can!