Missing the Sky

 Are you the kind of person who can't wait for the next update in the Firestorm viewer, and eagerly test its many windows and menus? Or do you wait until you think it's been tweaked into reliable behavior - maybe even wait till you absolutely are obliged to update?  As grateful as we all should be by the people who do the testing and reporting of problems, it's probably fair to say that the majority of us just want the thing to work, and are not entertained by bug hunting. 

Firestorm 6.6.8 (68380) was released this January. When I finally bit the bullet and changed over to it,  it seemed a pretty painless transition. 

With one exception - all the Windlight settings were gone. Urk. 

For a few weeks I just let it slide, but eventually I had enough time to check around to see what was up with that and found this thread on the SL community page. The new way - well, not all that new, but never mind about  that - to make skies is called EEP (meaning Environment Enhancement Project) and you may have seen some stunning EEPs around opensim like this beauty...

Dew Drop Islands, by Azi Az and Danger Lytton

and this one:

Anatobotanica by Cherry Manga

Artists are having a lot of fun creating a new element to their immersive builds, and sharing EEPs that people can use in any world to give it that extra oomph. But opensimmers are independent minded and like to have more options, not fewer. 

Not having all the old windlights is a huge hassle if you're trying to take photos, or orient yourself in a place that's too dark to navigate easily. 

While it's a really good idea to view any sim with the sky/environment that the artist intended, we like our freedoms! (you know, like when you decline the great long notecard that the sim owner tries to plant on you when you arrive at a place) so - how the heck to get back to the good old days? Grrrr. 

Then, by chance, I found a box of Windlights!  Where exactly this collection came from, it's hard to recall, except that Jimmy Olsen's name was on it... was it on Flora?

Flora

or at the Museum of light and sound?  Don't know.

Museum of Light and Sound

The box contains about 100 or so - all the old favorites. 

Open the box and transfer the contents into you inventory. It doesn't seem to matter where you put them, either in the default Settings folder, or in a new folder, they immediately start working again. 

I had to do this operation for each of my avatars, since they each have their own inventory, but it was worth it to have back  your fond faves 'Coastal Afternoon',  'Optimal Skin' and so on.

It was weeks ago since all this happened, and many gridjumps, and swapping of avatars have taken place since this fabulous find, so the exact location of the original box is lost... but since it was a full perms item, I'll just leave a version of it at the HG Safari Clubhouse, in the Safari Market, in case anyone else might find it useful. 

If this helps you, don't forget to thank Jimmy!

HG Addresses: 

Safari Clubhouse  

hg.osgrid.org:80:HG Safari
Jimmy's excellent freebie places
 alternatemetaverse.com:8002:LIGHT and SOUND MUSEUM
alternatemetaverse.com:8002:FLORA

the Jupiter EEP at Dew Drop islands by Azi Az and Danger Lytton

shipyardsgrid.com:8002:Dew Drop islands

Cherry Manga's original EEP for Anatobotanica

pangeagrid.de:8002:Anatobotanica