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New Firestorm stable release is up, at 7.2.3 (80036)
Info: https://www.firestormviewer.org/
Download: https://www.firestormviewer.org/os-operating-system/
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Comments
I was trying to create ringworld or like something you would see in the game Halo does anybody know where this photo was taking i was getting excited somebody did it or is it off sim but looks so cool
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I guess that's from somewhere within Second Life. The scantily clad lady in the photo is the lead developer of Firestorm, Beq Janus. IIRC she hails IRL from the UK.
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I found a setting in FS... there is literally a setting that limits FPS. Settings>Graphics>Rendering. Once I turned that off, I'm happy. But I have a 2025 machine with plenty of memory and an updated graphics card. FYI, Blinn-Phong is the old style graphics, PBR is the new style.
like(2)
I've capped my FPS at 30. I don't need 60 or 120 or more although I could get 60 or more most of the time. It reduces the load on the graphics hardware and the overall energy consumption, and the GPU fan stays nicely quiet.
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Allow me to get rid of one misunderstanding.
Firestorm 7 is not slower than Firestorm 6 because it has BoM.
Firestorm 7 is slower than Firestorm 6 (and only for those with underpowered machines, see way farther below) because it has the Advanced Lighting Model and Blinn-Phong turned permanently on. You know, the super bling-bling frou-frou luxury graphics mode that turned Firestorm before 7 into a slideshow on machines with Intel GMA on-board graphics, dual-core CPUs and puny 4GB of RAM. It's no longer optional. It's always on now, on for good.
No way back to the old Forward Rendering mode. No turning the shaders off so that the world looks like 1997, but OpenSim runs halfway smoothly on a 2011 €400 supermarket laptop that shouldn't even be fit to run anything 3-D.
Why was that done? To improve performance.
You're laughing. But that's a fact. That's why Linden Lab decided to turn the Advanced Lighting Model permanently on in the official viewer and kind of forced the Firestorm devs to do the same.
The key point in this are small surface details. Rivets, zippers, gaps in brick walls, seams between floor or wall tiles.
Every professional 3-D game asset designer would use bump maps for them. Second Life and OpenSim have actually had this for years as part of Blinn-Phong. Just like every professional 3-D game asset designer would use specular maks for shiny.
Not so much SL creators. They kept putting small details onto the meshes. They kept carving gaps and seams into the meshes. They used eleventy thousand gajillion triangles for surfaces which, with a bump map, would only require two.
Why? Because users with 2011 €400 supermarket laptops who couldn't turn ALM on, much less Blinn-Phong, were customers, too. And like everyone in SL, they, too, bought the stuff that looked best. And super-detailed surfaces look better than flat surfaces with details painted on if you had Blinn-Phong off. At the same time, these creators only put on simple surfaces with painted-on highlights and shadows which was okay because that's what all the other creators did, too.
Only that it was especially those with the underpowered toasters whose viewers suffered under those unnecessarily hyper-detailed surfaces.
Not only them, though. From mid-range machines upward, people had fewer FPS with simple textures and hyper-detailed surfaces than with flat surfaces and Blinn-Phong bump maps. And let's be serious now: It isn't the people with over-a-decade-and-a-half-old bottom-of-the-line toasters who are the majority of SL users. The majority are those who have decent hardware which would have profited from Blinn-Phong, had anyone offered it. They outnumbered the toaster users. They were complaining, too. And they had more real-life moolah to throw at the Lindens than the toaster users. So they had a voice that was heard.
When the introduction of PBR was planned, the Lindens feared that the creators would either shun PBR altogether and stick with their simple surfaces or put shiny, metallic PBR materials with no roughness on the same hyper-detailed surfaces as always.
So what did the Lindens do? They turned the ALM and Blinn-Phong permanently on in the official viewer. That was to give creators an incentive to use bump maps for small surface details instead of super-complex meshes and improve the overall performance. There'd be no reason to make stuff for those with bump maps off if everyone has bump maps on.
To equal this, they did something to speed the viewer up that they should have done long ago. Before PBR, the official SL viewer was single-threaded. A relic from times when typical consumer machines had single-core CPUs. The PBR version became multi-threaded, eliminating the CPU as a bottleneck in the process.
The same thing happened to Firestorm. And many profit from this. I'm running 2018 upper-mid-range hardware. AMD Ryzen 3600X, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX590 with 8GB VRAM, bog-standard SATA SSD. This is not high-end gaming hardware, and it has never been. All bought second-hand, actually. In fact, those with gaming machines would call it a toaster.
Still, Firestorm 7 is fast here. Faster than Firestorm 6, in fact. Because it can use up to 12 CPU threads and not only one. It gets me enough FPS even with shadows permanently on that I can cap them at 30. I even had days when I had forgot to turn reflections off again and didn't notice that. I often forget to turn the viewing distance back down from 1024 because I don't immediately notice it being that high.
But comments sections under posts like these really show that OpenSim is Second Life for those who can't afford Second Life. And who had never been able to afford a better machine than their 2011 consumer notebook powered by a bottom-of-the-line dual-core Arrandale Celeron with 4GB of RAM and Intel HD on-board graphics. A machine that's a pile of bottlenecks upon more bottlenecks, barely powerful enough to run Excel nowadays.
like(2)
Firestorm 7 is not slower than Firestorm 6 because it has BoM.
Firestorm 7 is slower than Firestorm 6 (and only for those with underpowered machines, see way farther below) because it has the Advanced Lighting Model and Blinn-Phong turned permanently on. You know, the super bling-bling frou-frou luxury graphics mode that turned Firestorm before 7 into a slideshow on machines with Intel GMA on-board graphics, dual-core CPUs and puny 4GB of RAM. It's no longer optional. It's always on now, on for good.
No way back to the old Forward Rendering mode. No turning the shaders off so that the world looks like 1997, but OpenSim runs halfway smoothly on a 2011 €400 supermarket laptop that shouldn't even be fit to run anything 3-D.
Why was that done? To improve performance.
You're laughing. But that's a fact. That's why Linden Lab decided to turn the Advanced Lighting Model permanently on in the official viewer and kind of forced the Firestorm devs to do the same.
The key point in this are small surface details. Rivets, zippers, gaps in brick walls, seams between floor or wall tiles.
Every professional 3-D game asset designer would use bump maps for them. Second Life and OpenSim have actually had this for years as part of Blinn-Phong. Just like every professional 3-D game asset designer would use specular maks for shiny.
Not so much SL creators. They kept putting small details onto the meshes. They kept carving gaps and seams into the meshes. They used eleventy thousand gajillion triangles for surfaces which, with a bump map, would only require two.
Why? Because users with 2011 €400 supermarket laptops who couldn't turn ALM on, much less Blinn-Phong, were customers, too. And like everyone in SL, they, too, bought the stuff that looked best. And super-detailed surfaces look better than flat surfaces with details painted on if you had Blinn-Phong off. At the same time, these creators only put on simple surfaces with painted-on highlights and shadows which was okay because that's what all the other creators did, too.
Only that it was especially those with the underpowered toasters whose viewers suffered under those unnecessarily hyper-detailed surfaces.
Not only them, though. From mid-range machines upward, people had fewer FPS with simple textures and hyper-detailed surfaces than with flat surfaces and Blinn-Phong bump maps. And let's be serious now: It isn't the people with over-a-decade-and-a-half-old bottom-of-the-line toasters who are the majority of SL users. The majority are those who have decent hardware which would have profited from Blinn-Phong, had anyone offered it. They outnumbered the toaster users. They were complaining, too. And they had more real-life moolah to throw at the Lindens than the toaster users. So they had a voice that was heard.
When the introduction of PBR was planned, the Lindens feared that the creators would either shun PBR altogether and stick with their simple surfaces or put shiny, metallic PBR materials with no roughness on the same hyper-detailed surfaces as always.
So what did the Lindens do? They turned the ALM and Blinn-Phong permanently on in the official viewer. That was to give creators an incentive to use bump maps for small surface details instead of super-complex meshes and improve the overall performance. There'd be no reason to make stuff for those with bump maps off if everyone has bump maps on.
To equal this, they did something to speed the viewer up that they should have done long ago. Before PBR, the official SL viewer was single-threaded. A relic from times when typical consumer machines had single-core CPUs. The PBR version became multi-threaded, eliminating the CPU as a bottleneck in the process.
The same thing happened to Firestorm. And many profit from this. I'm running 2018 upper-mid-range hardware. AMD Ryzen 3600X, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX590 with 8GB VRAM, bog-standard SATA SSD. This is not high-end gaming hardware, and it has never been. All bought second-hand, actually. In fact, those with gaming machines would call it a toaster.
Still, Firestorm 7 is fast here. Faster than Firestorm 6, in fact. Because it can use up to 12 CPU threads and not only one. It gets me enough FPS even with shadows permanently on that I can cap them at 30. I even had days when I had forgot to turn reflections off again and didn't notice that. I often forget to turn the viewing distance back down from 1024 because I don't immediately notice it being that high.
But comments sections under posts like these really show that OpenSim is Second Life for those who can't afford Second Life. And who had never been able to afford a better machine than their 2011 consumer notebook powered by a bottom-of-the-line dual-core Arrandale Celeron with 4GB of RAM and Intel HD on-board graphics. A machine that's a pile of bottlenecks upon more bottlenecks, barely powerful enough to run Excel nowadays.
Hello friend. This is one of the most offensive posts I have ever seen. I have a 10th gen i9 high end gaming system and firestorm is not consistant. Rather than belittle others who have less than you, try putting kindness in your post.
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Thanks for your excellent, detailed response here.
My PC is from the same era, using a Intel 8th Gen CPU, and a Nvidia GTX 1050 with 4 GB VRAM. 32 GB RAM, and a 2 TB m.2 SSD, with three partitions set up for Ubuntu Studio (/ (root), /home and swap... a fourth partition contains Windows 11 Home 25H2 :) ).
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My PC is from the same era, using a Intel 8th Gen CPU, and a Nvidia GTX 1050 with 4 GB VRAM. 32 GB RAM, and a 2 TB m.2 SSD, with three partitions set up for Ubuntu Studio (/ (root), /home and swap... a fourth partition contains Windows 11 Home 25H2 :) ).
Should work, I guess.
The reason why I got me a graphics card with 8GB VRAM was so I can run two Firestorms if necessary without one of them using the system RAM. Because once that happens, Firestorm really slows down. It's worse than shared RAM.
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The reason why I got me a graphics card with 8GB VRAM was so I can run two Firestorms if necessary without one of them using the system RAM. Because once that happens, Firestorm really slows down. It's worse than shared RAM.
the whole V7 line of viewers just has bloatware now that make it run worse than Cyberpunk 2077, I can play that all day, maxed graphics settings, mods etc, and yet the performance hog the new viewer is, the drop in fp/s, unless your on a high end gaming computer there is no way you can really use this, so many new features, it's now got bloatware, theres features in the opensim viewer that are only really for SL, and it shows
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While I appreciate Firestorm being available in opensim, the last 12 months or so have been a textbook case of what happens when an organization forgets who its customers are and becomes obsessed with research and development (PBR).
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I also use Cool VL Viewer. That's the only alternative I can find that bypasses the PBR settings at the user's end. I honestly don't understand why FS lead developer Beq Janus and her crew don't implement some of VL dev Henri Beauchamp's fixes on this angle.
I know Henri has some strong opinions at times about the way LL goes on about their business, but he has some awesome fixes in his viewer. For me, it also crashes a lot less than the other viewers. It's also a great choice if you're a Linux user like myself. There is a release for Windows... too bad no one has taken up the mantle for a proper Mac release lately, but that version of VL can be built from the source code.
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I know Henri has some strong opinions at times about the way LL goes on about their business, but he has some awesome fixes in his viewer. For me, it also crashes a lot less than the other viewers. It's also a great choice if you're a Linux user like myself. There is a release for Windows... too bad no one has taken up the mantle for a proper Mac release lately, but that version of VL can be built from the source code.
Funny, I finally bit the bullet and installed the 7.2 viewer, took forever to find the settings which FStorm devs love hiding deeper under the hood with each release. I am not seeing where the v7 viewer is any better than v6 in my personal use case... I am in the 10% of users who get complications when updating... HARD PASS on that!
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PBR is nice, and some things look great with PBR textures. But I keep asking myself... is it really necessary? I don't really need it, I don't use it, and I won't use it! We managed for many years without PBR and had fantastic textures everywhere. That's my opinion on that.
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We managed for many years without EvoX, and people still choose the newest, hottest LeLutka EvoX heads over keeping their only-few-years-old Genus and Catwa SLUV BoM heads.
We managed for many years without BoM, and people still choose Athena 6 over Athena 5 while having to get used to not using appliers, not even necessarily knowing what exactly BoM really does and especially not making use of the advantages of BoM because they still need all clothes on their avatars to always be mesh.
In fact, we managed for many years without mesh. Ask the veterans who'd probably want to go back to Firestorm 4 and turn mesh off. And yet, you're being ridiculed and shamed if your avatar doesn't have a ripped SL mesh body, ripped SL mesh hair and ripped SL mesh clothes. And I'm pretty sure the wailing about mesh killing viewer performance was as bad back then as the wailing about PBR killing viewer performance is now.
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We managed for many years without BoM, and people still choose Athena 6 over Athena 5 while having to get used to not using appliers, not even necessarily knowing what exactly BoM really does and especially not making use of the advantages of BoM because they still need all clothes on their avatars to always be mesh.
In fact, we managed for many years without mesh. Ask the veterans who'd probably want to go back to Firestorm 4 and turn mesh off. And yet, you're being ridiculed and shamed if your avatar doesn't have a ripped SL mesh body, ripped SL mesh hair and ripped SL mesh clothes. And I'm pretty sure the wailing about mesh killing viewer performance was as bad back then as the wailing about PBR killing viewer performance is now.
this is different. all the options you are talking about is a choice and can be ignored if u refuse to use them. u can't ignore PBR. even if you choose to not use the PBR texteurs. you still am forced to just take the performance drops that comes with the EEP skybox and new PBR light bouncing in the simulator killing the FPS because the viewer can't handle the render or de-render preforminces like they did before the EEP & PBR updates with out leaking resources..
in my case this turns regions that use to run easly on 100+FPS on 2/3gb ram use to snail preforminces of 25/35FPS and 7gb to 10gb ram use.. so yes to me this is unacceptable.
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in my case this turns regions that use to run easly on 100+FPS on 2/3gb ram use to snail preforminces of 25/35FPS and 7gb to 10gb ram use.. so yes to me this is unacceptable.
fixes and performance updates mean nothing to me if the viewer is un able to run as stable as it did before all the EEP and PBR crap. for over a year now the viewer is leaking CPU and memory like a sieve.
at what point is its finally time to turn off the tab and aksually plug the problems?.
giving it more resources to use isnt a fix.
it be nice to see a easy switch in opensimulator to turn this stuff on or off isnt ther a opsion that the server develpers and viewer develpers work on this together for ones.
so hosts can toggle it on or off per simulator to choose between PBR/EEP OR Windlight support in viewer and server.
performances are more important than visual fantasy graphics that run like a slideshow if there's much to render or de-render all at once.
some projects simply need performances over visually appealing not everyone here in the opensimulator community sees theyr grid as a second life clone. i my self use the platform more as a game engine and as a creatife outlet and test base for my own limitations and creativety.
sins the PBR/EEP updates opensimulator is starting to holding me back. mainly the viewers are because they can't handle the render preforminces like they did before the PBR/EEP updates no more. + the resource leaks and the resources needed to keeps the viewer stable is un realistic and is unacceptable.
opensimulator use to be what u want it to be. this is wy i pickt years ago opensimulator over second life. but lately with all the crappy updates is just turning it in to a other secondlife clone with al its limitasions and crappy stabilety that comes with it.
and this problem is viewer developments side not server developers side.
in the end of the day why limit yourself to secondlife standards if opensimulator is much more powerful... its a bottle neck that shouldn't have to exist.. the opensim developers did up ther game for the viewer develpers as they requested.. and ones again te viewer develpers run behind secondlife and hold opensimulator back.. with bottle necks and limitations.
sorry if this might hit the viewer developers the wrong way. don't get me wrong i'm happy there trying. but this is opensimulator not second life. i'm just frustrated that things don't work as they sepose to work.
if something works worse than it did before its not a upgrade but a downgrade in my eyes.
even if i choose to not use the PBR texteurs. i still am forced to just take the performance drops that comes with the skybox and new light bouncing in the simulator killing my FPS in more than half than it use to be to me this is unacceptable
this stuff should be optional per simulator not forced down my throat by default.
like(2)
at what point is its finally time to turn off the tab and aksually plug the problems?.
giving it more resources to use isnt a fix.
it be nice to see a easy switch in opensimulator to turn this stuff on or off isnt ther a opsion that the server develpers and viewer develpers work on this together for ones.
so hosts can toggle it on or off per simulator to choose between PBR/EEP OR Windlight support in viewer and server.
performances are more important than visual fantasy graphics that run like a slideshow if there's much to render or de-render all at once.
some projects simply need performances over visually appealing not everyone here in the opensimulator community sees theyr grid as a second life clone. i my self use the platform more as a game engine and as a creatife outlet and test base for my own limitations and creativety.
sins the PBR/EEP updates opensimulator is starting to holding me back. mainly the viewers are because they can't handle the render preforminces like they did before the PBR/EEP updates no more. + the resource leaks and the resources needed to keeps the viewer stable is un realistic and is unacceptable.
opensimulator use to be what u want it to be. this is wy i pickt years ago opensimulator over second life. but lately with all the crappy updates is just turning it in to a other secondlife clone with al its limitasions and crappy stabilety that comes with it.
and this problem is viewer developments side not server developers side.
in the end of the day why limit yourself to secondlife standards if opensimulator is much more powerful... its a bottle neck that shouldn't have to exist.. the opensim developers did up ther game for the viewer develpers as they requested.. and ones again te viewer develpers run behind secondlife and hold opensimulator back.. with bottle necks and limitations.
sorry if this might hit the viewer developers the wrong way. don't get me wrong i'm happy there trying. but this is opensimulator not second life. i'm just frustrated that things don't work as they sepose to work.
if something works worse than it did before its not a upgrade but a downgrade in my eyes.
even if i choose to not use the PBR texteurs. i still am forced to just take the performance drops that comes with the skybox and new light bouncing in the simulator killing my FPS in more than half than it use to be to me this is unacceptable
this stuff should be optional per simulator not forced down my throat by default.
So this article is about the new FS. OK.
Nevertheless, PBR textures and their use haven't really caught on with most people yet.
Many thanks for your work, whoever it was.
Kind regards, Andy Wilder
like(0)
Nevertheless, PBR textures and their use haven't really caught on with most people yet.
Many thanks for your work, whoever it was.
Kind regards, Andy Wilder
It'll end up like BoM.
At first, people are like, "What's that even supposed to be," and few have a viewer that supports it.
Give it a few more months, and PBR will be another "must-have brand" like BoM or EvoX. A label slapped onto boxes that says, "This is the newest hottest shit! Only pick up this, and stop using the older crap!" And the top freebie stores on OSW will be those with the most and freshest PBR stuff that folks will rush to pick up.
Still, nobody will really know what it is, and folks with older viewers will see half-grey sims and all-grey avatars. Like in 2020 when all those who held on to Firestorm 6.0.2 saw BoM avatars and wondered about those garish colours where a skin ought to be. Only that PBR does have a fallback mode unlike BoM, but as experience has shown already, next to nobody makes use of it. And that a PBR-compatible viewer won't run on an old consumer laptop with Intel GMA on-board graphics anymore, so we'll have people with non-PBR viewers for the next 10-20 years or so.
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At first, people are like, "What's that even supposed to be," and few have a viewer that supports it.
Give it a few more months, and PBR will be another "must-have brand" like BoM or EvoX. A label slapped onto boxes that says, "This is the newest hottest shit! Only pick up this, and stop using the older crap!" And the top freebie stores on OSW will be those with the most and freshest PBR stuff that folks will rush to pick up.
Still, nobody will really know what it is, and folks with older viewers will see half-grey sims and all-grey avatars. Like in 2020 when all those who held on to Firestorm 6.0.2 saw BoM avatars and wondered about those garish colours where a skin ought to be. Only that PBR does have a fallback mode unlike BoM, but as experience has shown already, next to nobody makes use of it. And that a PBR-compatible viewer won't run on an old consumer laptop with Intel GMA on-board graphics anymore, so we'll have people with non-PBR viewers for the next 10-20 years or so.
Here’s a clean, skimmable summary without the flavor text:
Firestorm 7.2.3 release highlights
- Mac users: Firestorm is now a Universal Binary with native Apple Silicon support (Intel + M-series). Expect better performance and
stability on M-series Macs. (Note: Havok physics isn’t currently supported on macOS.)
- Stability focus: Built on Linden Lab 7.2.3 (2025.08) with lots of extra crash fixes, freeze detection, and defensive hardening.
- Voice/WebRTC improvements: More reliable voice, better device handling (including unplug/replug), fewer shutdown issues, and
improved logging.
- Faster web panels: Updated Chromium (CEF) plus login-time preloading for Search and Marketplace (auto-disabled on low-end
systems).
- New Omnifilter (WIP): Content-based filtering for chat and pop-ups, with backup/restore and anti-forgery protections.
- UI & chat QoL tweaks: Better chat notification behavior, improved SLURL handling, time format options, and new debug graphics
quality controls.
Creator & inventory upgrades:
- Custom “New Script” templates from inventory
- Big performance improvements for large Outfit collections
- AO remembers active sets properly
- Poser workflow and export improvements
New visual tools: Chat range spheres showing whisper/say/shout distances.
Groups: Pin favorite groups to keep them at the top of Contacts.
Platform-specific notes
- Linux: Fixed CEF keyboard issues, land double-click bugs, and modernized build tooling.
- macOS: HiDPI pie menu fixes, packaging/media fixes, added stability.
- OpenSim: Fixed login stalls and an Omnifilter-related crash.
Important support notes
- macOS 11 and older are no longer supported.
- Some physics/mesh tools on Apple Silicon may require Rosetta.
- Firestorm 6.6.14 and 7.1.9 are actively unsupported—no help will be provided for those versions.
Bottom line:
This release is about stability, performance (especially on Mac), better voice, faster web panels, and meaningful quality-of-life improvements for everyday users and creators.
like(0)
Firestorm 7.2.3 release highlights
- Mac users: Firestorm is now a Universal Binary with native Apple Silicon support (Intel + M-series). Expect better performance and
stability on M-series Macs. (Note: Havok physics isn’t currently supported on macOS.)
- Stability focus: Built on Linden Lab 7.2.3 (2025.08) with lots of extra crash fixes, freeze detection, and defensive hardening.
- Voice/WebRTC improvements: More reliable voice, better device handling (including unplug/replug), fewer shutdown issues, and
improved logging.
- Faster web panels: Updated Chromium (CEF) plus login-time preloading for Search and Marketplace (auto-disabled on low-end
systems).
- New Omnifilter (WIP): Content-based filtering for chat and pop-ups, with backup/restore and anti-forgery protections.
- UI & chat QoL tweaks: Better chat notification behavior, improved SLURL handling, time format options, and new debug graphics
quality controls.
Creator & inventory upgrades:
- Custom “New Script” templates from inventory
- Big performance improvements for large Outfit collections
- AO remembers active sets properly
- Poser workflow and export improvements
New visual tools: Chat range spheres showing whisper/say/shout distances.
Groups: Pin favorite groups to keep them at the top of Contacts.
Platform-specific notes
- Linux: Fixed CEF keyboard issues, land double-click bugs, and modernized build tooling.
- macOS: HiDPI pie menu fixes, packaging/media fixes, added stability.
- OpenSim: Fixed login stalls and an Omnifilter-related crash.
Important support notes
- macOS 11 and older are no longer supported.
- Some physics/mesh tools on Apple Silicon may require Rosetta.
- Firestorm 6.6.14 and 7.1.9 are actively unsupported—no help will be provided for those versions.
Bottom line:
This release is about stability, performance (especially on Mac), better voice, faster web panels, and meaningful quality-of-life improvements for everyday users and creators.
Here’s a super simple, non-techy version:
Firestorm 7.2.3 in plain English
- It runs much better and more smoothly, especially on Macs (including newer Apple Silicon Macs).
- It crashes less and is more stable overall.
- Voice chat works more reliably, with fewer random problems.
- Search and Marketplace open faster.
- You get a new way to filter chat and pop-ups so unwanted stuff is easier to block.
- Managing outfits, groups, and animations is faster and less frustrating.
- Small but nice improvements across chat, time display, and menus.
Good to know
Very old Macs and very old Firestorm versions are no longer supported.
Older versions still work, but you won’t get help if something breaks.
Bottom line:
This update is about speed, stability, and making everyday things less annoying, not flashy changes.
Things they didn't mention so far that I have found:
- Inventory items can be marked as favorites and there is a new FAVORITES tab.
- New TPP View, follows you with the camera behind you, third person.
like(1)
Firestorm 7.2.3 in plain English
- It runs much better and more smoothly, especially on Macs (including newer Apple Silicon Macs).
- It crashes less and is more stable overall.
- Voice chat works more reliably, with fewer random problems.
- Search and Marketplace open faster.
- You get a new way to filter chat and pop-ups so unwanted stuff is easier to block.
- Managing outfits, groups, and animations is faster and less frustrating.
- Small but nice improvements across chat, time display, and menus.
Good to know
Very old Macs and very old Firestorm versions are no longer supported.
Older versions still work, but you won’t get help if something breaks.
Bottom line:
This update is about speed, stability, and making everyday things less annoying, not flashy changes.
Things they didn't mention so far that I have found:
- Inventory items can be marked as favorites and there is a new FAVORITES tab.
- New TPP View, follows you with the camera behind you, third person.
Also, if you've got several thousand outfits, Firestorm doesn't freeze and crash minutes later after a few outfit-related operations with the Appearances window open anymore. At least not if you've got the debug setting "FSExperimentalOutfitsReturn" on.
Thanks again, Pantera.
like(0)
Thanks again, Pantera.
The big one from the release notes:
Active discouragement of 6.6.14 and 7.1.9
In particular, we will actively refuse support on the oldest versions of the two current viewer “generations” – 6.6.14 and 7.1.9. If you insist on keeping these viewers, this is your choice, but you are on your own. We will not provide support, and we may choose to remove support access from users who continue to make demands and don’t accept our position on this matter.
like(0)
Active discouragement of 6.6.14 and 7.1.9
In particular, we will actively refuse support on the oldest versions of the two current viewer “generations” – 6.6.14 and 7.1.9. If you insist on keeping these viewers, this is your choice, but you are on your own. We will not provide support, and we may choose to remove support access from users who continue to make demands and don’t accept our position on this matter.
From what I understand,if you texture an item with PBR you need to also add a Blin-Phonn backup texture for those not on PBR viewers. if that is not done, then the surface will show plain white if not on a PBR viewer. So you can do both and make everybody happy. But yeah, it is a lot of extra work and for me personally, the loss in performance does not make up for the shiny it adds.
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Basically, as of now, the Hypergrid is almost entirely one out of these three: either PBR with no Blinn-Phong fallback textures (because the "creators" were lazy and/or clueless), or neither PBR nor Blinn-Phong, and shadows, highlights, shininess are baked on, or neither PBR nor Blinn-Phong nor any other resemblance of actual shiny.
Pure Blinn-Phong is rare. PBR with Blinn-Phong fallback is rare, too, outside of Luna Lunaria's works.
I mean, am I the only one who provides PBR materials along with halfway matching, ready-to-use Blinn-Phong maps?
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Pure Blinn-Phong is rare. PBR with Blinn-Phong fallback is rare, too, outside of Luna Lunaria's works.
I mean, am I the only one who provides PBR materials along with halfway matching, ready-to-use Blinn-Phong maps?
Hello Jupiter, no, you're not the opnly one. Jamie (https://opensimworld.com/hop/94619/) has a whole collection of PBR and most come with fallback textures. But yes, it is very rare. And looking at the comments here I'm inclined to join the "why even bother with PBR" camp.
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My opinion on the topic of PBR textures.
a: Creation in external programs, Blender comes to mind.
b: Use of textures via the viewer, additional work for creators.
c: The effect is there, but honestly, it hardly makes a difference to the overall picture.
d: HUDs to change that? I'm not aware of any, scripts with commands for that?
e: Strains the computer.
Conclusion: I don't need it.
Kind regards, Andy Wilder
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a: Creation in external programs, Blender comes to mind.
b: Use of textures via the viewer, additional work for creators.
c: The effect is there, but honestly, it hardly makes a difference to the overall picture.
d: HUDs to change that? I'm not aware of any, scripts with commands for that?
e: Strains the computer.
Conclusion: I don't need it.
Kind regards, Andy Wilder
you don't really see a difference if u are not playing on ultra and use a proper (Environmental Enhancement Project
) set up on the region. PBR it defnly makes the world nicer if done right. but it's not worth the lost in performances if u ask me.
+ it also blows up the cache with more shit.. i use the new viewers but not the PBR fusion it's just not worth the write off on resources it needs
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) set up on the region. PBR it defnly makes the world nicer if done right. but it's not worth the lost in performances if u ask me.
+ it also blows up the cache with more shit.. i use the new viewers but not the PBR fusion it's just not worth the write off on resources it needs
I never could figure out why I would see grey textures with pbr viewer, so i am using an older version.
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U need to convert the texteur sets outside of the viewer with a tool to convert the proper mapping secondlife and opensim viewer use. then build them again in world to a PBR item becose Secondlife PBR is not even real PBR its missing 2 maps that normale PBR needs. its a lot of work for something that only fucks up your stability anyways. so u are not missing out believe me.
in most cases using normal and bump maps is much nicer if done right. PBR textures gives off a ugly glow and the light never hits right
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in most cases using normal and bump maps is much nicer if done right. PBR textures gives off a ugly glow and the light never hits right
sadly that is not my answer, others see my regions just fine. Besides who would even have textures for all of there items, they wouldn't.
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the grey textures may be related to transparency on texteurs. with the PBR update some stuff changed related to texture transparency and fading. also the default transparency texture of old viewers used costing problems.
from my experience this did give me some trouble in the past migrating my regions to work on both old and new viewers
in some cases re-applying the texture might fix the issue
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from my experience this did give me some trouble in the past migrating my regions to work on both old and new viewers
in some cases re-applying the texture might fix the issue