Friday, June 28, 2013

SecondLife : FireStorm 4.4.1.x : A Clean Install "My Way !"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    The following applies to Windows 7 / Win XP, Vista and 8 should be similar.

    Upon lurking in the FireStorm User Help Group Chat session's the past 2 days. I have come to feel that some folks may not have a full working knowledge of the underlying Windows 7 UI environment in order to perform an actual completely clean FS installation, so I figured I would fire up the blog today and do this post. You can use this in conjunction with or instead of the official FireStorm clean installation instructions.

    Ok first thing's first, since I have already been using FS 4.4.0.x for a while now, and have invested quite a bit of time setting up all of the Viewer Preferences Settings, I will make sure I have them backed up.










 
       That's easy enough to do. Log  into FS 4.4.0, open Preferences, the bottom tab is BackUp, click on that and make sure all of the check box's are marked with an " X ".

     Now you will want to select somewhere to store the backup. Myself I created a empty FireStorm BackUp ( folder ) on my D:\ drive. ( I also do the same for my SL Log file folder as well )










 

    As you can see I now have all of my preference's settings stored in a nice safe place, in this case a uniquely named folder located on a separate partition of my hard drive. Ok that parts done, so I can log out and prepare for a Clean Installation of the FireStorm Viewer.

    I use a standalone uninstall program available from IObit Software " IObit Uninstaller 2 v.2.4 is a 1.4mb freeware utility that offers a Powerful Scan after calling and using FS's built-in uninstall routine.





















 

     As you can see this program will scan your Windows Registry and allow you to remove any reg-key's crap left behind after the normal procedure.

    Now I'll proceed with the manual portion of this necessary process.  I will first need to insure that all hidden files and folder's are visible. In order to do that, open Control Panel.










   
   
    Do a search on Show Hidden, that should link you to here where you will select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" Be sure to click on the Apply Button before exiting !!















 

 
     OK now I am ready. Next open Windows Explorer and navigate to
( in most cases ) C:\Users\ [UserName] \AppData\Local\Firestorm






























    I am going to just delete the entire folder, and go 1 step further. Under :
 C:\Users\ [UserName] \AppData\Roaming\Firestorm you'll find some more stuff to Snuff Out !! :_)



























     Now just for the hell of it I always run my Registry Registry Cleaner / LOL ( Talk about Paranoid ) :_)


And I always manage to find something :_)))))



Next up, I'm going to reboot Windows, install FireStorm and log back into SecondLife at a remote Governor Linden location and allow my inventory to fully load.






    OK, installing FS may take a lil bit longer than your accustomed to, because everything has to be rebuilt from scratch this time around.


    Download and install FireStorm :











 

     For the log-in location I will be typing in my own chosen Governor Linden location in
Derran Moor



 






 

     Be sure and allow Firewall access and upon arrival immediately open your inventory and type the letter       " A"    into the search box. Now you can just wait a while for everything to load.











    Just in-case you get dumped into one of the Linden Lab Welcome Area's your first time around at log-in, you can just open the Viewer's Map Function and manually enter :
Derran Moor 128,128,22 ~or~ open your main external Web Browser for this SLurl :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Derran%20Moor/128/128/22










 

    And teleport directly there . All right, now it's time to use that backup I made earlier by, opening my Preference's and going to the BackUp Tab reset my backup files location, perform the restore backup function.














     Now follow the instructions to Quit SecondLife and re-log.






    You may need to recreate your FireStorm LSL Bridge, it should be version 2.4


    That should do it, a completely clean installation ! You may have to go in and tidy up a few things like your log location setting, or a few things that may have been added, changed or moved around location wise in the Viewer Preferences, but all in all your good to go.

Have Fun

JayR Cela :_)

P.S. You should probably reset your Windows Hidden Files and Folders setting back to the default now. :_)



Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

SecondLife : Throw Enough Crap Against The Wall... Eventually Something Will Stick ~ "SecondLife the Platform is a Stepping Stone towards the future."

By Avatar JayR Cela

    I think the tittle of this post pretty much sum's it up, I do it all the time in the audio mixing business. Try as many things as possible, and hopefully something good will happen.

    I don't spend much time is SL any longer, I have more than enough projects in RL to juggle around, so for me SecondLife is a Huge Idea Sandbox. Someplace to use, not live in.

    I consider myself to be an observer of LL's recent escapades, 4 current server versions constantly being upgraded, numerous in house viewer project's, then you include the TPV's and Whooo-Boyyyy! The makings for a perfect MESS ! It's almost comical, but an unfortunate necessary evolution of the platform.

   SL the platform, recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary, and it's still here ! That in it'self is an amazing accomplishment, and a lot of thanks from the people that use SL as a Multi-Tool  Sand Box should be grateful.

    I know I am.

    Phillip Rosedale the creator of Sl is moving onward's and upward's, sometimes I think he may have just forgotten about SL, after all it was, and still is an amazing achievement. He has a new project in the works, something called code name "High Fidelity", that will continue and further his working goals towards creating the ultimate Virtual World Environment.

    If you think back to the SETI project that allowed people to lend unused idle CPU cycles while connected to the Internet in order to search out intelligent life within our galaxy, and how groundbreaking of an idea that was. Phillip is currently working towards a similar solution, incorporating upwards of million's of unused idle CPU cycle's all collected and donated towards the creation of a entirely new and improved Virtual Reality Environment.

    The idea and concept are sound, this is an achievable goal !

    How long is it going to take ?

    Who the hell knows, the thing that amazes me is the fact that LindenLab is still here and kicking, SecondLife the Platform is a Stepping Stone towards the future.

    The Resident's of this Virtual World are all part of a huge experiment.

    I think that's pretty KOOL !

JayR Cela :_)



 

Friday, June 7, 2013

SecondLife : Phoenix FireStorm 4.4.1.x : ?? : How Soon : When ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    I don't know about you, but I been waiting for this one. Big Time ! I have been using 4.4.0.x since it's release, and I absolutely love it !

   Sure its got a few quirky flaws here and there, but by far I feel it is the ideal viewer of choice for me when visiting SecondLife, or Open Sim grids as well. But here is the stickler, There are 2 versions of FS, 1 is for SL, the other is intended for use is OS.

    This is a monumental task, Phoenix~FireStorm is without a doubt in my mind, the most versatile  robust and widely used Virtual Would Client ( related to SL & OS environment's ) in use today. Developing for both platforms is a huge undertaking. The fact the FS team is able to accomplish this monumental feat diverse's  a KickStarter program to finalize some standards, and what-ever.

    ( Side Note ) : I monitor the FS chat and read the forums and what-not / some of the folks asking questions are complete asshole's, and need to show some respect / or STFU !!! 

    In my time spent with the client, I can tell you it is nearly flawless. This is just my opinion.

    However there is allways room for improvements, and FS v4.4.1.x is right around the corner, just figure this much out......

#1 LindenLab SL Main Web Page : Is actually getting updated on a regular basis again, like years ago. This is a great sign that Rod Humble is getting some serious stuff done

    #2 The Official LL Server Side Baking Viewer was recently released.

    #3 The Beta LL Materials Viewer followed closely behind
 
    And now we come to #4 : Lots of PH-FS Dev's have been logging in and out constantly the past day or so !

    Hmmmmm ????

    It's gonna happen real soon, spin the wheel and take a guess.

JayR Cela :_)