TECHNOLOGY: Feature Phoenix Viewer New Update- Jessi2009 Warrol Reporting…

The new release of Firestorm has not been without its fans or its critics. The critics have even gotten to Firestorm project manager, Jessica Lyon, who took to the official Firestorm blog this week to voice her frustration at the criticism of the latest Firestorm release. 

I currently use Firestorm as one of my main Second Life viewers, Singularity being the other one that I use frequently.  In the latest release, Firestorm added many features.  The biggest one was the ability to render avatars using the new Server Side Baking process, which will replace the old HTTP way to render avatars.  Server Side Baking is part of the Linden Lab’s Project Shining, which is aimed at improving avatars and object streaming speeds.

In addition to incorporating this major change, Firestorm also has the ability to back up and restore your viewer settings, which is a very helpful command to have, when your computer dies and you have to reinstall Firestorm and you cannot remember all of those special settings. The Firestorm team has also included a more streamlined and easier way to customize some of your favorite viewer settings, by creating a Quick Preferences panel:

For all of you fashionistas out there, the new Firestorm has a built in pose stand, which saves you the trouble of purchasing or rezzing a pose stand, when you want to try out those new clothes in Second Life!

If you are a Second Life photo enthusiast and regularly find people who are blocking those perfect photos, then Firestorm has a solution! The viewer has a temporary derender option, where you can derender objects or other avatars as invisible for a short time.

Firestorm did not forget about builders and has included new building prim parameters.  Builders can change the default object size, prim settings, the texture parameters, set permissions, and change the pivot point of an object. Many of your favorite and default object settings can also be found in Firestorm.

One of the biggest changes in the new Firestorm is the drag and drop toolbar buttons. You have many toolbars which can be displayed as icons, text labels or both in Firestorm.

If you are missing the viewer 1 search experience, then this version of Firestorm contains viewer one and viewer 3 search capabilities. Both legacy and web search for events, places, groups, and property are included in the new version.

The Firestorm team, mindful of the fact that many Second Life users also use other grids, have built an OpenSim version of the latest version of Firestorm. The OpenSm version includes vast improvements, such as being able to save usernames from any other grid, hypergrid jumping support, and OpenSim Lightsharing.

If you are finding the new features of Firestorm overwhelming, then check out the official Firestorm blog, which includes a vast user and knowledge base, tutorials, and a great support section.  The Firestorm team also offers in world classes and 24/7 viewer support.