It's a Firestorm, baby!

Mister Acacia is online

OK, call me a geek, a nerd, a computer junkie. I don't care. I love tinkering, making things work, especially after I break them.

Firestorm, as you know, is in its second preview stage. It's based on V2 code, specifically 2.4. I know, it's soooo yesterday. LL was coming out with new V2 versions almost every day it seemed, and you simply can't move development over to new code. You either finish what you're doing or start over. And if you finish what you're doing, it's easier to make changes than to try in the middle, and it's faster than starting over. This I understand is the Phoenix team's thinking. I agree.

LL is up to 2.6.pick-a-number, and the first Firestorm beta is just about ready for public release using 2,5 code. But if you're like me, you rolled your own, dude. Yes you can build your own version of Firestorm, with lots more bells and whistles (avatar physics, AO, colorable script windows, notice relocation, better radar and so on) and give it a try. I must say, I am impressed with the number of user requests that have been applied. All of mine so far.

I won't tell you how to compile because I only know the Linux way, which for me was fairly straightforward. I've heard that Windows is complicated. I've not heard from any Mac users. But I can tell you that two web pages helped tremendously. First is the Phoenix wiki. It gives you the necessary information in order to download the source, as well as instructions for compiling in Windows. I believe it's in need of revision, from what group chatter I've heard, but it's a start.

The second, and the one that helped me the most, was the Second Life wiki. It pointed me to a Linux-specific page that showed me all the components I needed to build the viewer.

And although your mileage may vary, compiling for me was very easy, it just takes a few hours. But the result is that I am using Firestorm 2.5.1.16403. Today I might grab the latest iteration and compile it, just for giggles to see what's new.

You can also wait for the Beta. It's very close to release, as you can see here, and it will have features not available in the source, such as the kdu graphics engine; it's not open source so they can't distribute it.

Have fun with it. Create a jira if you want a feature. According to the team, they are looking at user requests first.

Mister Acacia is offline