Monday 27 August 2012

Firestorm Update 4.2.2.29837


It's release time again!...Again! 
Part II. 

For those interested in the back story behind why we had to pull the 4.2.1 release, have a read on Tonya's latest blog post.  If you installed the 4.2.1 release we recommend you update to this one and we apologize for the inconvenience!

__________________________________________
With this release we bring you Pathfinding documentation, tools and scripting functions in Firestorm, as well as an RLVa 1.4.7 update, more crash fixes, stability and performance improvements and a bunch of new features too!

New in 4.2.2.29837
- Skin improvements to Starlight, Vintage, Metaharper, FS High Contrast and Ansastorm.
- New windlight sky settings, including Ambient Dark, Grey and White and a new Tron Legacy series.
- Added pathfinding LSL functions from Linden Lab.
- Ability to disable group chat on a per-group basis!
- Snapshot uploads to Flickr (thanks to Katharine Berry and Exodus Viewer for that work).
- Temp uploads from snapshot floater.
- Cool new SLurl command line feature!
- New toolbar buttons for ground sit, sound explorer, asset blacklist.
- Our own less intrusive "Rebake terrain" button next to no build/no script/no push icons in menu/nav bar.
- Improved AO handling with other animating inworld objects.
- Ability to join our support group from Help menu.
lots more!

OpenSim specific
- LSL Bridge disabled on OpenSim.
- Grid manager help link and docu on login page.
- Group creation cost corrected.
- Mapto command now working in OSgrid.
- Upload cost amounts corrected.

For complete release notes, including new features, fixes, improvements, changes and known issues please see our change log here:
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/firestorm_release_4.2.2.29837_change_log

Please note: As usual we highly recommend performing a clean install.


We may be a little while before our next release since it's going to require considerable work, like merging to LL's latest code, Havok, setting up our separate builds for SL/OpenSim, and most importantly... stabilizing all that new stuff.

Enjoy the update!

The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

4.2.1 withdrawn as release

We discovered an ugly bug with our 4.2.1.29803 release and are removing it from downloads.

The bug comes from a fix we inadvertently pulled in from LL, to a fix a bug we don't yet have, which has created a pretty nasty visual bug with doors, wheels and other things that rotate.

Because of this we are temporarily removing our downloads of 4.2.1 and will have an update of 4.2.2 by the end of the day.

If you are already on 4.2.1.29803, don't panic, no need to downgrade, your viewer is still safe. The bug makes doors and things 'look' broken, but it does not actually break anything, it's purely visual. However we ask that you update to 4.2.2 once it's available.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Jessica Lyon
The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

Sunday 26 August 2012

Firestorm Update 4.2.1.29803

It's release time again!

With this release we bring you Pathfinding documentation, tools and scripting functions in Firestorm, as well as an RLVa 1.4.7 update, more crash fixes, stability and performance improvements and a bunch of new features too!

New in 4.2.1.29803
- Skin improvements to Starlight, Vintage, Metaharper, FS High Contrast and Ansastorm.
- New windlight sky settings, including Ambient Dark, Grey and White and a new Tron Legacy series.
- Added pathfinding LSL functions from Linden Lab.
- Ability to disable group chat on a per-group basis!
- Snapshot uploads to Flickr (thanks to Katharine Berry and Exodus Viewer for that work).
- Temp uploads from snapshot floater.
- Cool new SLurl command line feature!
- New toolbar buttons for ground sit, sound explorer, asset blacklist.
- Our own less intrusive "Rebake terrain" button next to no build/no script/no push icons in menu/nav bar.
- Improved AO handling with other animating inworld objects.
- Ability to join our support group from Help menu.
- lots more!

OpenSim specific
- LSL Bridge disabled on OpenSim.
- Grid manager help link and docu on login page.
- Group creation cost corrected.
- Mapto command now working in OSgrid.
- Upload cost amounts corrected.

For complete release notes, including new features, fixes, improvements, changes and known issues please see our change log here:
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/firestorm_release_4.2.1.29803_change_log

Please note: As usual we highly recommend performing a clean install.


We may be a little while before our next release since it's going to require considerable work, like merging to LL's latest code, Havok, setting up our separate builds for SL/OpenSim, and most importantly... stabilizing all that new stuff.

Enjoy the update!

The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

Saturday 25 August 2012

Phoenix Firestorm Support Region

Our primary goal has always been to "Improve the user experience." We do this on several fronts, including providing and developing viewers with features and functionality based on user requests; running a major support effort designed to help users with all kinds of different problems; providing classes that teach viewer functions, features and general trouble shooting; working closely with Linden Lab to try and ensure your issues and concerns are heard, etc.

As of today we are adding one more major initiative towards that effort, which is to provide a support region for both our own users and to all residents of Second Life where they can go to find help with viewer issues and just about everything else. This is not to be used as a hangout -- it's purely for those who need help.

This is a cooperative effort between us and the best of the best among Second Life mentor and helper groups, which will populate it with courteous, generous and highly knowledgeable volunteers in order to provide support and information to new and old users alike. We are extremely excited to say that members of the White Tiger Mentors, Resident Help Network, Mental Mentors and others have joined us in this shared effort and will be available in the region for you should you need help.

We are also thankful to the many bloggers who have written about this effort, which helps us explain what it's all about and expand on information about it. It also helps spread the word about the region because the more people who know about it, the more people it helps. We encourage you to have a read through their blog posts linked below.

To find the region, simply open your Map and search "Phoenix Firestorm Support" or click the SLurl:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Phoenix%20Firestorm%20Support/48/162/25

Bloggers' links, in no particular order:
http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/helping-the-community-the-phoenix-firestorm-support-region/
http://blog.nalates.net/2012/08/23/firestorm-support-island-opening/
http://firstlife.isfullofcrap.com/2012/08/24/wheres-the-love-man-wheres-the-heart/
http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.ca/2012/08/virtual-world-viewers-phoenix-firestorm.html
http://danielvoyager.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/my-visit-to-firestorm-support-region/
http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.ca/2012/08/phoenix-firestorm-island-party-success.html

Jessica Lyon speech at opening party
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pfs_opening_speech

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Pathfinding Server Rollout

Pathfinding  is rolling out on all regions today and may have an impact on the performance of your regions as well as introduce some new bugs.   INFO: What is pathfinding? Click here

Pathfinding  & Region Performance
Once your region has been updated today, it will have Pathfinding running on it. Until your region has been optimized, this may have a performance impact. Linden Lab has assured me the impact will be at worst 4ms on main regions and 1ms on homesteads and at best won't be noticed. In layman's terms, this is around 18% max of region performance. In order to optimize your region, you will need a viewer with pathfinding tools; currently these tools are only available in a LL Beta Viewer.

Your options will be to A) optimize your region; B) turn Pathfinding off on your region; or C) do nothing. Instructions for the first two options below...

Note: Only Region Owners and Estate Managers can work with Pathfinding. 
Only Region Owners and Estate Managers can enable/disable Pathfinding on a region. Parcel owners can optimize their parcels on a Pathfinding enabled region. 
Instructions to optimize your regions:
Download the LL Beta Viewer (Win, Mac, Linux) and go through the process of optimizing your region / parcel.

Turn Pathfinding off
1. Get sim console open.
Phoenix: Go to the top menu bar, Advanced > Consoles > Region Debug Console. (Press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu if you do not already have it enabled.)
Firestorm: Go to the top menu bar, Develop > Consoles > Region Debug Console. (Press Ctrl-Alt-Q if you do not have Develop menu enabled.)

2. In the console window that opens, type (without the quotes), "set dynamic_pathfinding false", and press enter.

3. Restart your region.

Note: More information about Pathfinding can be found here: 
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pathfinding

New bugs you should be aware of!
Along with Pathfinding come changes to the Havok Physics engine, which have introduced some new bugs we think you should be aware of, including issues with some vehicles, physics, phantom and sculpts. You can view the list of issues we are aware of at the following link. None of these issues can be fixed by our support team:
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pathfinding_server_bugs

Note: Unfortunately there are quite a few Linden JIRAs on this list that have been set hidden from public view. There is nothing we can do about that beyond offering a description of the issue. 

Questions & Answers from Linden Lab 
Yesterday I sent a list of questions off to LL and received the answers back this morning. These questions and answers may be of interest to you, as well, so I've put them online here.
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/pf_questions

Sincerely,

Jessica Lyon
Project Manager
The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

P.S. Please pass this blog post along to all the region owners you know!

Permalink http://phoenixviewer.blogspot.ca/2012/08/pathfinding-server-rollout.html