Firestorm: A First Look at a Third-Party Viewer for Second Life

When getting about Second Life, Wesley Regenbogen usually uses the official viewer from Linden Lab. Hearing about other viewers, he decided to give the most popular of them, the Firestorm Viewer, a try. So what did he think? Here's his review.

Read Wesley's article in Design.

Phoenix Team Leader Jessica Lyon Speaks Out About New Third Party Viewer Policy

Yesterday on Feb 28th, Jessica Lyon made a public appearance to speak about the recent changes Linden Lab announced of their Third Party Viewer Policy. The Phoenix "office hour" took place at the Rockcliffe University area, and was in front of a packed audience with up to 150 residents in and around an auditorium at the intersection of four sims (Rockcliffe I, Rockcliffe Library, Agile 3D, and Rockcliffe Conservatory). Despite delays, sim crashes, a restart, and a troublesome griefer, the meeting went on and most of the people stayed or came back to listen. There was also the option to see the event over Treet.tv live.

Appearing with Phaylen Fairchild, Jessica told the audience she wanted to give her side of the matter, but be objective in doing so. She told the audience that the features showing users of the Phoenix and Firestorm what Viewers others were using and what their online status was would soon be gone. Other than that, the viewers would not be changing, and it was her impression Linden Labs would not be asking for any more.

Jessica told the audience that Linden Lab had first come to her several months earlier asking about the possibility that Phoenix could do away with the feature showing what viewer others were using. They told her there were reports coming in of "bullying" by third-party users on users of official viewers. Jessica stated she then went about with an alt using the official viewer, and had a few encounters that gave her the impression there was some truth to the Lab's claims.

What Jessica felt was the policy change that would have the biggest impact was the one about any further changes to the viewers would have to be approved by Linden Lab for use on official viewers, stating they wanted to preserve the "shared experience" of the residents. "I get it in principle, but," Jessica felt this would have a detrimental effect on further innovation as developers would be less inclined to spend weeks or months on a new feature and have no guarantee it would be approved by the Lab. She stated Linden Lab had the contrary opinion, that they honestly believed that their policy wouldn't affect further third party research.

She brought up the former Qarl Linden's work on a mesh deformer viewer tool to allow users to correctly wear mesh clothing, and how it had been Crowdfunded by donations. She cautioned anyone else interested in crowdfunding a viewer development would be subject to Linden Labs vetoing the project, and "all the money the community paid ... is wasted."

Jessica told the audience they were going to go ahead and do what Linden Lab was asking: submit further developments to them first for use on official viewers and awaiting approval before using the new features on new viewer updates. She felt as in the past year the Lab has been more active in updating new features, there was reason to hope, "We'll see how things go."

Jessica took some questions from the audience. Among them, would they design viewers for other grids. She answered, "Good question," saying it has never really been discussed by the team, but "not out of the question."

She did feel there would continue to be third party viewers and teams behind them, "(Like you) we're residents. We deal with the community more directly. ... I don't think (Linden Lab) will ever truly understand (it's users)."

Jessica gave the audience a number of links they could read about various perspectives on the Third Party Viewer policy changes,"Policy Changes" on the Official Second Life forums, Your Nymph, the Andromeda Media Group, "Stiffle Competition" on the Official SL forums, Inara Pey, Tateru Nino, Nalate's Things, Prim Perfect, Tonya Souther (the Phoenix Mac development leader), Ciaran Laval, and The Torch. Daniel Voyager also posted a number of screenshots of the meeting on his Flickr. Presumably, there will be a recording of the event available soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

*Editor's note* This article was slightly edited later in the day due to the rush job to get the news out due to public demand.

Linden Lab Changes Third Party Viewer Policy

On Friday, Linden Lab announced some changes to their Third-Party Viewer policy. The reason given, the Lab stated there were concerns about privacy issues, and they wanted " to be clearer about the sorts of innovations that developers should work on for their particular Viewers" saying they didn't want users of other viewers to have different experiences than those using the official ones.


Here are the new sections of the policy:

2.a.iii : You must not provide any feature that circumvents any privacy protection option made available through a Linden Lab viewer or any Second Life service.

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

Linden Lab stated they still want the Third-Party teams to innovate improvements with viewers, but in partnership with them.

The Linden Lab forum post can be read in entirety Here.

Following the official post, naturally there were replies on the forum from the residents. While some were accepting, one resident saying this was to "preserve individual privacy, and ... begin to standardize viewers to a common visual experience." "The differences of experiences at the moment are way too big due to too many different features per 3rd party viewers compared to LL's program. It distroys homogenenity and the differences are so big that it can come to very serious misunderstandings between residents." Others were skeptical, "The SL default viewer is a sub-par experience, poorly programmed and tremendously laggy and cumbersome. By hindering third party viewers, LL is ensuring that they will alienate a large number of users." "Just as I was starting to have a little faith in Rodvik and LL, you have to go and pull this."

On the Phoenix website, Jessica Lyon stated those features in the Phoenix and Firestorm viewers that are now policy violations will be removed in the next updates. She stated she would discuss in depth what these policy changes mean for Phoenix and Firestorm Tuesday February 28th at 2PM.

One can also check out the SL Universe forum for the comments there.

Others have also commented. Tateru Nino called Linden Lab's policy change "the power of veto. ... If Linden Lab likes your feature, but hasn’t yet gotten around to releasing it in a non-beta viewer, well, people still aren’t allowed to use your viewer to connect to Second Life until Linden Lab gets through the process." In Prim Perfect, "one of the features that users of the TPVs love is their ability to respond and develop with flexibility. Long term residents have voted with their feet, and headed for new viewers, partly because the universal dislike there was for the original Viewer 2, which gave a massive impetus to the development of TPVs." Inara Pey wrote, "There is a very real risk that this policy change will completely stifle Viewer innovation – or even drive it away from Second Life entirely. " Daniel Voyager had a list of these and other commentators, including Tonya Souther, the lead Mac developer of Team Phoenix, who felt Linden Lab's message to Third-Party developers was "screw you!"

With their announcement, Linden Lab has created quite a stir, and made a number of people worried. Like so many of their previous announcements, time will tell what their intentions are.


Bixyl Shuftan

“And Finally ...” Kristen Viewer’s “Crowdfunder” Effort Falls Short, Development Ends

There was some sad but not unexpected news for fans of the Kristen third-party viewer this week. The effort to raise funds for further development fell short of it’s target. On the Kristen Blog, the developer announced the news, and stated he would be refunding what cash was raised to those who donated.

The Kristen Viewer was one of the more popular third-party viewers, but earlier this year the real-life partner of developer KristenLee Cinquetti (Lee Quick in real life) fell ill, and KristenLee announced in September development would be ending so he could take on additional employment in order to support her. But friends of his suggested a fundraiser, so he decided to do so through a British fundraising website “Crowdfunder,” offering to work on the viewer full time if 25,000 Pounds (about 40,000 US Dollars) were raised within two months.

Initially, the effort was successful, eight percent raised in a day. But then the cash flow began to slow. By the time the two months were over, only 28% of the goal had been met, with just over 130 people contributing cash. As promised, he would be giving them their money back.

Efforts to fund Second Life development have succeeded before. Also in October, New World Notes reported mesh developer Maxwell Graf started a fundraiser for cash to pay the former Qarl Linden (Karl Stiefvater) $5400 US dollars to fix some mesh issues. In less than three weeks, the target was reached. With 25,000 Pounds a much higher amount, Hamlet Au stated he had suggested to KristenLee smaller amounts of 6,250 Pounds for three months work. But KristenLee reportedly answered, "The big issue is then, every 3 months, I have to come cap in hand to justify another round of funding."

Hamlet Au thought the big reason for the failure to meet the fundraising goal was that too many people had become used to getting goods for free, or what they thought was for free. Kristen reportedly stated, "People don't see the connection between free software and paying developers. Even free software is not entirely free." And noted in his blog in the final week, 217 people had downloaded his viewer, “I do wonder if the 217 people who downloaded the old client last week from sourceforge ever decided to fund.. we will never know.”

It should also be noted that the economy, in the United States, Britian, and elsewhere, has been rather poor. Although officially in the US unemployment is about 9%, the official rates do not count those whom have given up looking. “Real” unemployment is believed to be in the teens. And even those employed struggle to pay their bills. While Kristen still might not have met his goals in better times, it’s a good bet more people would have been willing to part with some money, and in larger amounts.

In any event, KristenLee/Lee Quick, has found real life employment as an engineer, starting in the new year.

“Warmest Regards and wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.” - (KirstenLee Cinquetti) aka Lee

Sources: Kristen Blog, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Final Week for the Kristen's Viewer Project Fundraising

In October, the Kristen's Viewer Project's creator made an effort to fund continued research on the third-party viewer for a year through the British fundraising website "Crowdfunder." In about a week, the fundraiser may be canceled and further work on Kristen's Viewer suspended indefinitely.

So far, nearly seven thousand British pounds have been raised. While no small feat, it is only 27% of what's needed to fund KirstenLee's, Lee Quick in real life, expenses for a year as he would be working on the viewer instead of working for an employer.

Inara Pay managed to get in contact with Lee Quick, and asked if Crowdfunder offered to extend the time left would he keep going. Lee answered no, "No we won’t. If the target isn’t met the viewer will not return."

So for fans of the Viewer, next week will determine whether it continues to be developed, or ends up on the path to obsolescence once again.

Source: Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan.

Kristen’s Viewer May Get Second Chance Through "Crowdfunder"

When KirstenLee Cinquetti (Lee Quick in real life) had the misfortune of his real-life partner falling ill, it looked like the end of the line for the viewer he developed last month as he needed to take a second job to get more money. He made the decision to go with a British fundraising website called “Crowdfunder.” The site bills itself as a way for people “to raise money to do cool stuff more easily. ... Lots of people – each giving a small amount ... The ‘crowd’ decides what’s good, what’s not, what they want to fund and what they don’t. It’s survival of the fittest for creative ideas and projects.”

On “The Kirsten’s Viewer Project” page in Crowdfunder, KirstenLee explained in a youtube, “A couple people suggested ‘ why don’t you do a fundraiser? ‘ ... As it happens, we deiced to go for it.” KirstenLee explained the attraction, “it’s an all or nothing situation, people can fund it ... if we don’t hit the target, people get their money back.” He felt a “fair” goal was 25,000 Pounds (about $40,000 US dollars) “for one year’s continuous development. ... If we hit the target that we’re asking, the day it happens Kristen’s Viewer will be re-relased” with an upgraded client.



He explained the people who fund it would get various rewards, depending on the level of their donation, such as special versions of the viewer before general release to the public, suggesting “radical changes to user interface” and special controls. He went on to say, “If we hit the target ... exceed the target ... it affords us the luxury of paying others to contribute to the viewer as well.” He hoped he might be able to hire the former Qual Linden. He also talked about the Kristen’s project being able to license things after the Crowdfunder goal was met.

The Kristen Crowdfunder page gave a list of donor rewards from small to large. Those contributing 1000 Pounds, “You get to choose the features that get into the client for feature voting!” Also, “The TOP 10 funders will have all of the rewards Plus exclusive use of 1 of 10 Login splash screens used by the viewer! Your screen will be seen by thousands of users daily!”

The page was started on Monday October 17th, with 60 days to raise the 25,000 pounds. By Tuesday night, 2,092 Pounds, or eight percent of the total had been raised, contributed by 59 donors. The post on KristenLee’s blog announcing the news was also filled with the comments of well-wishers.

Hamlet Au had a few comments on New World Notes about KristenLee’s move. He called it, “a bid to give Second Life users more say in the future of Second Life. ... If this Crowdfunder is successful, it will help launch a new era of Second Life development that is more directly by the users, for the users.”

“ ... consider contributing a few pounds ... it’s your viewer ... we’d be happy to have you aboard.” - KirstenLee Cinquetti / Lee Quick

Sources: Kristens Viewer, Crowdfunder, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Kristen’s Viewer Ending Further Developments

On the Kirstens Viewer blog, creator KirstenLee Cinquetti announced in a post marked “Sad Farewell” that all plans for upgrading the noted Third party viewer were being shelved, and installers would be removed.


Installers have been removed as they are now very outdated, the sourcecode will of course remain. The website and forums will stay up for as long is required. Also inworld groups will stay active. It is of course entirely your choice as to how long you continue to use the client, however I do stress that it will fall behind with features and it may be wise to seek alternatives in the near future.


The reason for KirstenLee’s decision? His partner was ill, and Kristen now had to work more to support her. So he could no longer work on the viewer.

I would like to wish everyone who has supported the project over the years, a huge hug and many thanks, Jabba, Altair and all the people who have put up with my ranting and raving ... Who knows what the future holds! But for now Kirstens Viewer goes into a deep sleep.


The Kirsten’s viewer became popular among a number of Second Life residents. It is sad to see it go, and it will be missed.

The full post can be read Here.

Special thanks to Jasmine Dawn.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Viewers: What's the Deal, What do I Use, and Why

There's no shortage of opinions on what Second Life Viewer is best. SammanthaS Nightfire has been busy looking at different ones, going past the claims and hype, and looking at what performs. Sometimes the best viewer depends on what you're doing on the grid, exploring or building.

Read her review of SL Viewers in Extra

From the Ashes of Emerald ...

Just a few weeks ago, Emerald’s development team, officially known as Modular Systems, was doing very well. With Linden Lab’s official new viewer disliked by many in Second Life, they were the first, and most popular, of the third-party viewers. Probably about a third, some say almost half, of the residents were using the Emerald viewer. Having the respect and admiration of many, the few stories going around about the past of a few of the team members and possible code vulnerabilities got little attention.

Today, Team Emerald has fallen apart, and word on the Grid is it’s just a matter of time before Linden Lab blocks its ability to access Second Life.

Jessica Lyon whom resigned from team after what was branded a “hostile takeover” by the remnants, quickly organized a new one to produce a new viewer for Emerald fans.


A few days ago, I assembled a team of developers to work on a new viewer. Some who were originally Emerald developers, some who were not. All are respected reputable residents in the Second Life Community. The goal was simple, to provide users with what they want and do it transparently.

I’m am very proud to announce the launch of the Phoenix Viewer. This project, has started off simple, with it’s initial release of a safe clone of the Emerald viewer. Users want Emerald features, you shall have them.


It’s interesting to note Jessica included among the developers LordGregGreg Back, the developer whose resignation from the Emerald team marked the beginning of the end. So far, there is no conformation on his blog about his involvement, though he did hint he would be making another entry soon concerning Jessica’s actions.

Second Life Newser has already ran into a few people who have tried Phoenix and liked it. A peek at the comments suggested some have had a little trouble loading it. And of course there is the matter that Linden Labs has yet to give it its official seal of approval.

Here’s one review of the Phoenix viewer by “Natales” - Click Here

So will Linden Lab ban use of Emerald? Possibly, though pulling the plug on a popular viewer is a risky move. A fraction of the Emerald viewership refuses to let it go. It may be that they plan to let the word spread about alternatives to Emerald for a while, give the remaining Emerald users time to accept what happened and find a replacement. Then make an announcement they will block the viewer after a given amount of time.

Hamlet Au has had a few things to say about the Emerald mess. Among them, that the actions of Fractured Crystal bring up the debate on how to treat youngsters. He was reportedly 18. When 17 and 16 year old residents are allowed onto the grid, will they be allowed on development teams, and when they screw up will they be pilloried in the court of public opinion like adults? Then there’s the issue of Internet anonymity and business. Hamlet Au considered Linden Lab the only ones to trust in the mess as they were “an actual company with actual names.” Others feel this anonymity is still “the great equalizer,” allowing those with talent to succeed online even if in real life they’re a “horse-apple” shoveler. The issue will continued to be debated for some time.

As for Qarl Fizz, the former Linden who joined Emerald before the proverbial slop hit the cooling fan, he has yet to answer our request on his point of view of the team’s downfall. He may have just decided to stay out of sight for a while.

“This ain’t the end of Emerald, but you can see it from here.”

Bixyl Shuftan

The Emerald Team Part Ways

Yesterday, Arabella Steadham announced that the Emerald team would soon be folding it’s doors. Later, the post was amended, her saying there was “a hostile takeover was attempted by a portion of the Dev Team trying to gain unauthorized access to the Emerald servers without knowledge of the others,” Jessica Lyon fingered as leading this “takeover.” This was something of a surprise, as Arabella and Jessica appeared together on SL media to defend Emerald and give it's point of view together.

Jessica Lyon has started up her own blog, explaining her point of view.

* * * * * * * * * *

As of some time this morning, all access to the servers have been severed to all but Arabella Steadham and Lonely Bluebird. Neither me, nor any of the other Emerald Developers have the ability to put out releases at this time. Beyond the recent beta 2587, we also cannot certify the safety or validity of any future releases.

. . . . . . . . . .

Without access to the server and website, I am forced to make a very difficult decision as I will not allow myself to be held accountable to anything that happens from this day on in regards to Emerald.

With that said, I here by officially resign from the Emerald Viewer Project.

I no longer have access to post on the modular systems blog, so I have created a temporary personal blog here http://jessicalyons.wordpress.com . It will be on this blog where I will post future developments with myself and possibly the remaining Emerald Developers. We are considering, (only considering) the possibility of creating a new viewer, to be on the TPVD, picking up where Emerald left off. IF we do, you will have the same features as Emerald Viewer. The motivation for this would be purely to give the existing loyal Emerald users a TPVP compliant alternative with a fresh future.

I would like to thank, all of our dedicated and loyal users for your support through these difficult and confusing times. I would also like to thank our support team, for all of their hard work and relentless dedication to the emerald viewer project and to helping our users. Also to thank our beta testers who helped Emerald viewer be a quality product.

* * * * * * * * * *

The final (modified) Emerald Team post is Here.

Jessica's new blog can be found Here.

Both posts were soon followed by dozens of comments. Some were well wishes and thank you notes. Others expressed sadness that it ended this way, and wondering if there would ever be a viewer as good that they could use. And there were a few curses tossed in the direction of Linden Labs.

Unrelated to the team split, there was also an announcement in the Emerald blog of a griefer trying to "pervert the in world open Emerald viewer group. ... I tried to close the group down. Unfortunately, I could not do this in time, so many will now no doubt read disturbing notices put out ..."

Some residents vow to continue to use Emerald. Others are looking for alternatives, Snowglobe and Imprudence appearing to get the most attention (from my point of view). And there are those sticking with, or heading back, to the old SL viewer.

And so, the team started many months ago to provide an alternative to the official Linden Labs viewers, an alternative that won the hearts of many residents of Second Life, has come to an end. For now, the Emerald Viewer is still allowed to be in use. If or when this will change is unclear.

Bixyl Shuftan

BREAKING NEWS: "The End" for the Emerald Team

On the Emerald Blog today, the team posted that they had made the decision to fold. Two reasons were given, Linden Labs' demands that three "key members" of the team be dismissed, and an attempted (unsucessful) takeover from within. They stated before closing, there will be one final version of Emerald released, "the viewer we’ve been working on for the past six months. It would be a shame to let the efforts of the developers who put so many unpaid hours into this project go to waste."

This is the opportunity for a fork project to develop and create a TPV version of snowstorm, which is what Linden Lab really wants. I am aware of a number of small projects underway now, and I wish them the best, the very best in their endeavors.

For you, the user, what this means is that there will not be any further releases of the Emerald Viewer after today. The existing releases will continue to operate until Linden Lab decides to terminate their access and end Emerald once and for all.

This virtual world is ever changing and must be, otherwise it will stagnate. This incredible environment will continue.

To view more, Click Here.

Reader Submitted: Review of SL 3rd Party Viewers

Many residents have been looking for a new viewer for Second Life following the Emerald mess. One of our readers, SamanthaS Nightfire, recently took a look at various alternatives to it and the official Linden Lab client. She came up with a few conclusions.

Read the story in Extra.

More Developments on “Emeraldgate”

In the days following Linden Labs taking the Emerald Viewer down from its list of approved viewers, and the decision of Fractured Crystal to resign on Sunday August 22nd, the controversy has yet to die down.

Probably the most clear example of this was the “Tonight Live” talk show that evening. The show was plagued not only by technical difficulties, but there were also a number of likely griefers at the sim, judging by both Paisley’s observations of day-old avatars with replicating scripts, and my own when I got there of seeing what at times resembled a peanut gallery. Paisley ended up having to do the show in a secret location, with the studio audience facing a gray wall on the set labeled “REHEARSAL.” This was an action Paisley and her staff hated to, but as the hostess stated, “the show must go on.”



On Tuesday, Linden Lab finally ended its silence about Emerald since removing it from it's third-party viewer list without explanation. In it’s “Malicious Viewers and Our Third-Party Viewer Policy,“ It clearly labeled the action on Emerald’s rival a denial-of-service attack:

We have removed Emerald from the list of third-party viewers, and are now in touch with the Emerald team to discuss what can happen next. We did this to do our best to protect the safety and security of Second Life users. We will not tolerate a viewer that includes malicious code, nor will we tolerate development teams with a history of violating users’ trust or disrupting their lives.

We take privacy, safety, and security very seriously, and we will act to the best of our abilities to protect it. We have not yet disabled logins via the Emerald viewer, but will do so if we feel the software and the team behind it is not able to meet the standards we’ve set. ... The third-party viewer directory is designed to be largely self-policing, but we take our responsibility to act very seriously when problems come to our attention.

Contrary to some of the rumors flying around, Emerald users will still be permitted to use their viewers, at least for now. At worst, Linden Labs will block the use of Emerald viewers. Tales of users under threat of suspension for using Emerald are false.

Despite the problems, some residents continue to use Emerald. Others have switched to the new 2.0 viewer, but some of them doing so reluctantly and open to alternatives. One such alternative that keeps being mentioned is the “Imprudence” viewer, available in Windows, Mac OSX, and Windows. It’s been described as more useful to builders than the new LL Viewer, though not perfect. LordGregGreg, the ex-Emerald developer whose exit marked the beginning of the controversy, recently offered an alternative of his own, “produced in a way where all binaries are either provided from a well known trusted source (such as linden lab or openjpeg), or myself,” the “Emergence Viewer.”

Ex-Linden Qarl Fizz, who joined the Emerald team just before the denial-of-service attack, gave no response to a request to be interviewed by SL Newser. On New World Notes, he described himself as being “pleasantly surprised with how the Emerald people are handling the mess.”

Modular Systems, the creators of the Emerald Viewer, stated, they “received a large list of requirements and conditions from LL. ... At this point, I can safely say that we fully intend to address and fulfill ALL of them as soon as we possibly can. ... Although some of these conditions will be very difficult, we feel they are reasonable considering recent events. Due to that difficulty however, some will take more time than others to fulfill. It is a big list of things that we need to do and we will be providing LL with a time frame on each individual item ... Once we have completed these items to the full satisfaction of Linden Lab, we intend to re-apply.”

Sources: Linden Blog, Tonight Live, New World Notes,

Bixyl Shuftan