During yesterday's Phoenix Office Hour we announced that we have formed a partnership with the SpotOn3D grid.
I highly encourage you to watch the recording of that Office Hour here for more information:
http://rezzed.tv/2011/01/the-phoenix-hour-25th-january-2011
What this means is that we will be providing SpotOn3D with customized Phoenix Viewer builds for use specifically on their grid. These Custom viewer builds will contain all the same features the Phoenix viewer for second life has plus many SpotOn3D specific features. Because the additional features aren't 100% compatible with the Second Life grid there will be an additional download for the Phoenix-SpotOn viewer available on the SpotOn3D Website. We expect to have a Windows and Mac version for them by the end of the week, and a Linux will follow during the weekend. We look forward to working with the folks at SpotOn3D in our continuing effort to improve the user experience where ever our viewer is used.
You can visit there website here:
https://spoton3d.com/
Many people are probably wondering what does this mean to them in regards to Second Life... Our primary focus is still on the Second Life Grid and will continue to be, however a few of our developers will work part time on the Phoenix-SpotOn3D Viewer. Nothing will change for our Second Life users. Development will continue on the Phoenix Viewer, Firestorm Viewer and now the Phoenix-SpotOn3D viewer.
Speaking of Firestorm! As most of you already know, we have been very busy working on the Firestorm Viewer. Most of you seem to also know that we plan to put out a "Preview" build of firestorm at the end of this month.. and most of you seem to be very eager to try it out. A lot of work has gone into Firestorm already but is mostly interface improvements and changes. It is critical that you understand the Firestorm Preview is just that... a preview, it is not yet ready for full time use. But this will give you an idea of what's in store in the future. If you would like to try out the preview of firestorm at the end of the month, please join our in world group named Phoenix-Firestorm Preview Group. The build will be announced in that group and you can find help there as well.
Group link here.
secondlife:///app/group/7ba4569c-9dd9-fed2-aaa7-36065d18a13c/about
Do understand! The Firestorm Preview build should be considered Pre Alpha! Not beta,, not Release Candidate.. it is pre alpha and as such it has a lot of bugs that still need to be worked out.
Equally important! we have a new Tutorial video online that shows you how to customize the Firestorm User Interface as well as other functionality. Please watch this video before you log into Firestorm for the first time!
The video will be available from the following link within a few hours of the time of this posting.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PhoenixViewerSL
An old game dev term comes to mind: Alpha Tech Release. So I guess it ought to be known as Firestorm-ATR. But that's just me. :p
ReplyDeleteI am much looking forward to giving it a whirl. LL has already made a couple "corrections" by enabling multiple profile floaters and the like, but still most certainly not good enough to be used full-time if I can help it.
SpotOn3D looks interesting enough too. Good on ya, Phoenix Team. \o/
I have been trying my own build of Firestorm the past week or so. I really like the new layout.
ReplyDeleteI logged into SpotOn3D. I have tried a few other grids and I think this looks promising. Quite a few less bugs that some I have tried.
ReplyDeleteVERY nice looking. V2 capability with still a V1.23 look and feel. Realizing that some changes in the look are inevitable, they're changes I can deal with. And for those who *like* V2 (*gack*), they can have that look, too.
ReplyDeleteI don't really want to play with a pre-Alpha simply because I don't want to mess about with bugs in the system. But I suspect it won't be too long before you're in Beta, and I will gladly play with that when it gets here.
All of you are doing some phenomenal work, and it shows in the finished product. Bravo!
Absolutely GREAT work Jessica + team! Everything I hoped for in Firestorm seems to come true. Unbelievable that LL never came up with all these customizable options and you did. Big cheers to you all! I can't wait till it comes out.
ReplyDeletei jumped on spoton3d just to check it out.. and the owner of the company was there and we got into a debate about the fact that she charges scripters 3.99 a month, but doesn't charge builders. my side of the argument was that she was scaring away potential business, because scripters produce some of the most amazing things in SL that sell well to the users. she told me i was ignorant, not a good scripter if i couldn't pay up (although i stated i could), and was very rude to me, threatened to ban me, and ended up muting me.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, when I told the owner of the grid that I was a scripter. She replied, "Well isn't that special, good for you. I have plenty of scripters who have real actual jobs who are more than happy enough to work for me so you can logff now or I can ban you." in a sarcastic tone. Though, she decided to mute me instead. It was a very unpleasant experience and it has totally turned me off her grid for good and I won't recommend it to anyone else.
ReplyDeleteNow on a positive note, I love Phoenix viewer and I can't wait for Firestorm it looked really great in that video Jessica made. Thanks for the great work guys.
ReplyDeleteWhy cant people leave well enough alone? Phoenix Viewer is by far the best viewer thats been out so far....but no heck no cant leave it alone..pees me off..a few updates here and there would be fine...but to change it over to the same feel as the slv2 is going to far..if it aint broke people dont fix it...if you just have to do something make a "new one" as a second option not a forced one.. leave this one alone...Firestorm is a twin to slv2..screen clutter..items hard to find...holy crap...dealt with this with linden labs for years now going to have to deal with it here too. There has got to be somone who will develop a decent viewer and leave it in tact! And when they do hope I manage to find it!
ReplyDeletei seen the new view and it can be mod to make it more user frendly and it has a chat window as the old view did,you also can move the stuff from the side bar as well to look more like what you have pat. the only thing i miss is the old pie wheels i think there easyer to use then the new controls.
ReplyDelete@ Pat - Pat im not sure you are aware but Within a year or just a bit more Viewer 1 will be stopped an you will have to use a viewer 2 based viewer.
ReplyDeletePhoenix Dev Team are spending a look time on this to make it better then Linden Labs viewer
So you expect the Dev team to work on Viewer 1 base when ultimatly SL will stop it connecting to Second life? Good idea then we would have to all switch to LL viewer 2 lol..
Firestorm viewer looks Great... Good work to the dev team and may it get better and better
I do still wonder however. Will the Built in AO still be there in Firestorm Viewer? As I use that exclusively in Phoenix, to save room on my HUD, and save from script lag.
ReplyDeletePhoenix 818 is reported to be using V2 coding , not V1, so they SHOULD leave it alone. I will NOT use a V2 clone, keep this third party viewer just that, you have almost every single bug out now, why fix something or try to improve something that does NOT need it. Geeze, leave well enough alone already for crying out loud!
ReplyDeletewhen we can add more than one tatto in my avatar!
ReplyDeletelike viewer 2 :(
"Viewer 2 with the Phoenix look and feel" my ASS. It looks EXACTLY like viewer 2 and runs just as slowly. What's there to "preview"? It looks like no work has been done. Still a terrible and frustrating UI and still 1/5th of my normal FPS.
ReplyDeleteJust terrible.
It is going to resemble v2 in a lot of ways, that is a given, but at least you can mod to to how you like it. As for being slow, I have never found v2 to be slow. I get almost the same FPS in any current viewer. The only difference I notice is the UI and such. If you are getting low performance, try upgrading your hardware.
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool.All of you who can't figure out Firestorm is very different to Phoenix and plan to leave SL once V1 viewers are no longer functional, please can you pass on all your stuff that's transfer. Thanks so much. Enjoy SL in the meantime. Soon you won't have search, then a bit later on when builders embrace Mesh (and they already are) you won't be able to see it. But that won't matter as you REFUSE to use a different viewer and will be gone.
ReplyDeleteWhile V1 viewers are useful I'm using Phoenix,once that's no longer an option, Firestorm is turning into a great viewer that will still let me see my friends and experience what SL has to offer.
what no breast physics yet in firestorm?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei was an Emerald user.
ReplyDeletei started using Viewer 2 since the first beta, to never look back to a viewer 1 again.
now i have the viewer i loved and the viewer i love into one.
this is a great moment..
i am converted. and at a prealpha stage. you guys are doing awesome!
i have one request tho. can you use the local lights system that was used on viewer 2.1? or have it as an option?
I'm amazed how many people still ramble about "don't touch v1 based viewers" ... So, I'll be so bold to to point to flintansolo's comment from Jan 30th again and quote:
ReplyDelete"...Within a year or just a bit more Viewer 1 will be stopped an you will have to use a viewer 2 based viewer ..."
So would people please kickstart their brain cells and think about that for a moment? I'd like a little dinosaur as a pet, too. Wouldnt that be cool? But I can't. They are extinct. If there's no way around a v2 based SL viewer (/me holds up a sign saying: NO WAY AROUND v2 BASED VIEWERS CAUSE v1 WILL BE SHUT OFF!), then I'd sure as hell choose THE v2 based viewer, which gives the best of all yet developed user comfort.
And that, as of what I can see now, will deffo be FIRESTORM!
Having that said: AWESOME work Jessica+Devs!!! Gonna keep faith till the day I derezz. :D XOXO
Perhaps the ability to save a Modded UI as a preset to be able to pass around or as something already in there like the various sky's presets would go down well. I am sure people will mod it to be more "ver1 like" in look and feel. I would personally like you to implement shadows better ( showing in snapshot would be nice ) . There are other issues in that mode that had been sorted a while back too that are still prevalent in Phoenix. Having not tried the "pre- Alpha" I may be asking for something already there
ReplyDeleteThat said, keep up your great work.
Wait.. Firestorm is a Phoenix Version of V2? Please tell me it still looks like V1 at least - I can't use V2 because it contains eccessive migraine triggers.
ReplyDeleteFirestorm and it's dev team get "The-Big-Thumbs-Up" from me. If I wore hats I would take mine of to all of you for a sensational job. The very fact it can be modified to look and act very close to the V1 will always get my vote. I do agree with a previous poster that yes, BOTH Firestorm and V2 are MUCH slower on my computer also... indeed, MUCH slower but it's still appreciably faster than V2. One would think V2 has been produced by Macroslop. (Microsoft for the uninitiated) who continue to make things bigger, slower and far less responsive than most other programmes. I am looking forward to the new model of Firestorm...Yayy team.
ReplyDeletewhere is the link to firestorm, i would like to try
ReplyDelete