Tuesday 21 June 2011

Firestorm Feature Survey

Firestorm Public Beta has been a huge success overall. There has been less confusion than we expected and the general consensus from our users coming from V1, and folks from V2 have been very positive. This is great news as it means we are off to a great start! Our download count is already around 24,000 as I write this, and our initial crash statistics are showing the Firestorm Public beta to be very stable as well, in fact Firestorm currently sits in 4th place on the Third Party Viewer Directory based on crash rate. This may change in time as more people adopt Firestorm but we are very proud of this achievement. Thank you all for giving it a try!

As development of the Firestorm Viewer progresses we are continually adding more and more features, functionality improvements, bug fixes and interface customizations options. The Firestorm viewer is a result of the overall volume of requests, suggestions and opinions we've received from you since the beginning. What we do is a result of what you want and how many of you want it. But we've reached a stage once again where we want your input.

There are a few features in the Phoenix Viewer which have been considered controversial by some in the past.  So we have created a poll ask that you all fill it out as honestly as you can. Please only vote once so we can have an accurate result. The results of this poll will help us in our decision making process as to if and how we implement these features in the future.

The poll will run for exactly one week, ending at at 12pm SLT next Tuesday. At that time we will make the results of the poll public. The Poll can be found here. We do not collect or have access to any personal information about you, not even your IP address. The Poll is entirely anonymous.

Thank you all very much for your participation in helping make Firestorm the best it can be.

The Phoenix Viewer Project, Inc

51 comments:

  1. Spellcheck, Shields tab, More chat colors, and everything will be flawless! I am quite impressed with firestorm, as a photographer it is my new favorite.

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  2. SL Avi: Serita Ashland
    Filled in survey, doing great job on Firestorm, love it.

    One feature that would be nice to add is warp2cam

    I know there is a TP2Cam, but, in laggy sims, using warp can be much better and not cause crashes from excess lag of sim trying to do the tp.

    But awesome job so far Beta is super stable for me.

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  3. `hide group but still active,
    `show look at
    `allow to chose if the avatar should turn to `where the mouse is pointing
    `spell check absolutely
    `zoom in mouselook
    `smoother movement in mouselook zoom, which should be put on Phoenix too, since it was once in one of the versions of Emerald

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  4. *sigh* forgot the one thing....search keyword copies across from Invenory to Recent....so annoying that I seemed to have blocked it :) Can I have another go ? :)
    PS love it so far (1.23 holdout)

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  5. one feature i miss when using Firestorm is the Phoenix "press TAB" to automatically complete names in chat... im sure this will be added at a later date :)

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  6. i agree with sirhc - and also the drop-down that in Phoenix let me choose: Animations, Notecards, LMs.... and the quick acccess to graphics functions and Windlight settings

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  7. I’m a niggling old bugger, and so I’m weeping that the old Phoenix UI is going, hahaha! But compared to the Linden V2 UI the Firestorm UI is mint, afaics, I’ll give you that. The beta is running stable on my Mac Pro early 2008 (OS X 10.6.7) so far (which might not be very far cause I’ve only used it for a few hours yet to get familiar with it, see where features are hiding and so on).

    As far as I understand, some things can’t be implemented into V2-based viewers, but I very much hope that you migrate as many features from Phoenix to Firestorm as technically possible. Plus the few things I suggested on the JIRA already, of course… ;-)

    Btw, I’d find it very helpful if you would publish a list of features which are already in the pipeline for the next Firestorm release cause this would keep people like me from submitting unnecessary JIRA tickets.

    Keep up the good work!

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  8. Please put the CTRL + W and CTRL + SHIFT + W window close keyboard shortcuts back in <3 Viewer 2.7.x has it.

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  9. Those features asked in that survey all go into one direction that I do not really like. I thing privacy settings aren't there for decoration but to have privacy. So settings to ignore those are a *very* bad idea.

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  10. sound notification anytime something comes in local chat/IM window and NOT just the first time the window opens. I have scripted an item to do this for local but it doesn't work in no script areas.

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  11. I forgot to add on my comment on Firestorm.

    What I would love to have:

    1.- When I'm at work, I would like to hear a DING or something from the campmaster :)

    2.- And having a radar that when I greet someone I can click on that name and it changes color knowing that I have greeted that person.

    I love Firestorm and Phoenix!! :)

    Darcie55 Kraus

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  12. Survey submitted! Thanks for all your hard work and for saving us from the horror that is LL's V2!

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  13. Prim reversal for when your mossing or creating

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  14. I forgot to add

    an animation browser...to detect current animations and delete if necessary

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  15. I would like ability mute/switch off on individual group chats with easy access

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  16. A few features that are either missing or hard to find, or not as compact and pleasant in design as phoenix:
    1. Cant seem to access the 'my notes' section on own avatars profile
    2. 'Show look at' function seems to be alot harder to find than when it was on the phoenix menu, plus does not show where my Avatar is looking.. i.e no crosshairs from own avatar.
    3. Picks tab is cumbersome and way to large, the tabbed functionality of phoenix was much tidier, generally the profile view in phoenix is far superior, so please implement it here.

    Otherwise it seems extremely stable for me, and the overall design is quite good

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  17. i hate it... if i wanted to use v2 i would... but i dont like it so now phoenix is turning into v2. so manythings about it i dont like i cant put them all.. as it is i will just use v2 not the look alike... why change? i liked phoenix.

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  18. A few things i have noticed is that when i right click to detach something off me it brings up my profile and doesn't take it off i have to go into my inventory to do that, also when i have lets say a box rezzed and opening it when i go to take it back into my inventory it just wants to open it so i have to delete it then choose to purge it or restore it if i want to keep it =\

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  19. It worked great for me for a couple weeks.. but now I can't get it to load. It keeps getting hung up at "Initializing VFS" and doesn't get to log on screen.. does any one know how to fix this?

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  20. Move the stand button while sitting so it doesn't get covered by the bubble from local chat. If you are in a spamming room, you can't reach the button from all the chat overlaying it

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  21. partially @ Brandi ...you can move the Movement popup
    but grabbing its edges is difficult...can the edge of it be slightly bigger...actually kokua's camera and movement pop ups are nicer done, as all the camera options for instance are on one level

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  22. ...the main thing missing for me(and keeping me from upgrading or switching viewer to any other), is the code tools - particularly including code from hard drive. Second on the list would be code optimisation.

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  23. I admit I haven't tried firestorm much, by far I prefer the interface of Phoenix, but I too realise eventually I'll have to get over it.
    I saw this too late, but one thing I do know I'm missing is the quick pop up thing in my phoenix lower right corner where I could change drawdistance, bandwidth, max node, LOD etc.

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  24. I'd like a way to block teleports to PG sims. Avoiding either accidental TP's or for RLVa users, forced TP's, for the purpose of griefing, in inappropriate attire (or lack thereof).

    This would help protect the innocent and guilty alike.

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  25. One feature i miss is the cut and paste positiom/size/and rotation from the edit window

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  26. it knocked out my internet when I tried to use it

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  27. Most of my time in SL I'm building and scripting, to give you an idea of where I'm coming from.
    Well I spent a good part of a day with iMac-FireStorm-beta and these are the top major failings I ran into:

    1) There is NO copy-paste Object-Postiton, Scale Rotation (like on Phoenix major slow down to building).

    2) When I try to open the same-NAMED script in two different objects most of the time it just displays the first object's scipt contents even when I know the contents are different.

    3) When you open the properties on an object it replaces the "inventory" window and until I hit the BACK tab that's all I get when I try to view my Inventory.

    4) WHERE did they hide the AUTO-ACCEPT inventory button so that I can turn it off.
    {other users have a bad habit of dropping all kinds of stuff on you.}
    Although I accept most things I like to have a choice in the matter.

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  28. I'm getting used to Firestorm and like many of its features, however, because my primary pastime in second life is photography, I'll probably stay with Phoenix. The windlight setting option on Firestorm is not at all convenient. I love the presets for photography and being able to click through them without having half the window obscured with all the setting sliders is preferable to the way Firestorm is set up. You can't really see your image . . . so it's pretty much a bust for photography. Hope you go back to the Phoenix design for that. Thanks.

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  29. FireStorm is great they still need to work on the voice it needs a better restart to the voice and stablleize it but over all i like the most of it

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  30. Too laggy for me and weird graphics. :( Sorry, but I like the way Phoenix is. Too bad it can't stay >.<

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  31. the post I left saying the issues I was having with the viewer was removed?? I'm so glad my concerns are taken seriously.

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  32. Physics !!!! where is it??
    look at?
    why I cant see who is looking at me?

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  33. Physics!! where is it? how activate it?

    Look at? why I cant see who is looking at me? how can I abilitate?

    thanks :)

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  34. WE NEVER UNDERSTAND THAT..
    -WHY: you left the old theme?
    -WHY: default SL viewer?
    Ppl already hate SL viewer thats why using PHNX.
    but you made it same.!!! i dont want to see Commercials on my inv..sorry guys.we are waiting firestorm too long..but this is fully
    "DISAPPOINTMENT"..
    im still usin PHNX 1102..and happy with it.
    I DONT WANT TO USE SL VIEWER..I WANT MY PHNX BACK.!!!

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  35. 1. The 'Radar' of Phoenix had a function 'TP to' that I am missing from Firestorm.
    2. The 'Allow me to show on map' function for friends was useful and missing from Firestorm.

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  36. HOW ABOUT ALL THE FEATURES OF PHOENIX INSTEAD OF MURDERING A PERFECTLY GREAT VIEWER. cut the damn lag and oh i don't know possibly keeping all the old features............ beacon phantom advnaced menu ALL MISSING! VIEWER TWO IS TRASH WHY THE HELL YOUD RUIN A GOOD VIEWER BY RIPPING FEATURES OUT IS BEYOND ME

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  37. POINT IS YOU RIPPED OUT MOST HE FEATURES PEOPLE USE IN PHOENIX................... I WANT MY ADMIN MENU

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  38. sorry but I agree you made firestorm to look like the Viewer 2 and no one likes that, that's one reason we use phoenix, Phoenix s a much nicer viewer to use don't have all the crap up on the screen and is easier to explain things to the new people.. I will NOT use Viewer2 nor will I use the firestorm as long as it's like it is now..how can anyone say that this is better then the phoenix???

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  39. Will the new beta please not have such a huge sky screen that blocks such a big part of the screen. I am having no fun with photography anymore since it makes windlight pretty useless if you can't see the effects without opening and shutting the sky window over and over again. I've been trying to use Firestorm almost exclusively to get used to it but it really is inconvenient. I also hate that the buy but is one layer down on the pie menu . . . again clumsy for shopping, one more step. Otherwise it's okay and I know you're trying your best to get this ready in advance of LL's stupid change. I adore Phoenix and I will hate to see it go.

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  40. One more thing . . . I can't seem to find cut and paste in Firestorm, which makes it difficult to work on notecards.

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  41. The biggest thing that i dont like is the fact that it looks like viewer 2 lmao so i wish Firestorm would have an option to look like the phoenix viewer cause i highly doubt anyone would take the time to teach me how to figure things out on it lmao.... im too used to Phoenix's look.

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  42. so far i like it, except for a few items I think you got a good thing going.

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  43. Considering the way some people are trashing Firestorm, I would like to say something NICE. No, really. I really would. Sooo ... (1) The interface is just wonderful. I get to spend all kinds of time looking for stuff, instead of it just being in the right place. (2) My machine is waaaaay to fast. Firestorm fixes that. (3) I used to spend too much time building things. Now I can't. It says build tools are there, but ... Ok I have said something nice about Firestorm. It always pays to be nice.

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  44. 2 things I miss 1) no color option for friends chat and 2) no edit function on upper tool bar. I know this is beta and hope you can address these 2 omissions, other wise Firestorm is far better then any form of V2,, not as easy to use as Phoenix but a gem when compared to V2

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  45. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  46. I love the new Firestorm Viewer..
    it does help if your a little fimilar with the LL viewer.

    Only thing I think that needs to be added is (Clear Inventory Cacha) button.

    If it is labeled differently please let me know by IM in SL MY name is Phoenix Caggles.

    thank you and good job people

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  47. I have a pretty passionate hatred of LL's V2. So when I saw that Firestorm had turned my beautiful Phoenix viewer into a V2 clone, I was really upset. But from what I understand, there is little choice in the matter - Phoenix will stop working one of these days. So we haters just need to swallow our medicine and accept the downgrade, right? I've spent the last day adjusting settings, trying to make FS usable...or at least less infuriating. I just don't know. I've been a loyal user since Emerald, because it was so much better than LL's viewers. So much for that.

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  48. I have the "hung up at Initializing VFS screen" problem too... Firestorm worked like a charm, and I love that I can add multible clothing layers - but now after I used it for some time - it won't let me in at all. I have been in on SL W2, works fine. Can anybody help me, and that other guy who asked, please?

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  49. Same problem as above with "Initalizing VFS". I tried deleting Firestorm followed by a re-install but I still have the same problem.

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  50. This is a ongoing problem for some with the VFS is there some solution? Sometimes clearing the cache helps but this is ridiculous. Whats even more mind blowing is that it hasn't been answered.

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  51. Yes I have the issue to with the VFS. Dont know what to do about it. It happens since the lastest release

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