FreeView is a free to copy, open-source Streaming Video viewer. Its features include: Full parcel media controls for video streams, web-based movie listing, a picture viewer mode with an image browser and loop function, notecard-based bookmarks, and more!

(NOTE: FreeView is NOT FOR SALE. Feel free to distribute and modify, but do not sell under any circumstance.)

This manual is here to help you with all sorts of questions and issues you may encounter while setting up this device.

Index:

- Setting FreeView on a parcel owned by a single person

1. Drop FreeView in your parcel.

You're done.

Dont worry about the "FreeView Remote" object - feel free to get rid of it. It is only there for group owned parcels. You do not need it for a private parcel.

- Setting FreeView on a parcel owned by a group.

1. Set the object as "Share with group", and make sure that all of its permissions are enabled (copy, modify, transfer).

2. Enter the object's contents, and make sure that all its internal items are also set as "Share with group". Make sure that they are also all checked as "copy, modify, transfer".

3. Set the object's affiliation to the group that owns the parcel.

4. Press the "Deed" button to make the object owned by the group. (only group officers can do this. Ask a group officer if you are not a group officer.).

And thats it. To use the television controls, make sure that you have your group title selected. FreeView will open the menu only to its owner, or people who have the same group affiliation as itself.

NOTE: The WebGuide does not work straight out of the box on group-owned parcels. To configure the webguide on group parcels, please read the following section: "Setting up WebGuide support on Group-owned parcels".

- Setting up WebGuide support on Group-owned parcels

As part of the SecondLife limitations, group-deeded objects cannot open browser URLs.

To overcome this limitation, FreeView has a special "FreeView Remote" object available in the package.

To configure this remote, perform the following steps:

1. Rez the remote object next to the FreeView viewer object.

2. Set the remote's group affiliation to the parcel's group to prevent an auto-return.
** DO NOT DEED THE REMOTE TO GROUP **

This is important. Just leave it owned by a single person, yet group affiliated.

3. Click the FreeView TV and go through the following menu options:
Video -> Configuration -> Set Remote

You're done.

The remote will now open the URLs for you whenever you choose to open on FreeView!

- Changing the screen size (bigger, smaller, etc')

You can easily change the screen size of FreeView by Editing the object using the standard editing tools. This is because FreeView is a Modifyable object.

Just right-click the object, select Edit, hold CTRL-Shift and pull the colored blocks to change the shape of the object.

If you are not certain of what this means or how to change the sizes of objects in SecondLife, please contact Live Help for further assistance by selecting the following menu options in your SecondLife client: Help -> Live Help.

- Letting other people use FreeView on your private parcel

Normally, FreeView will only listen and open the dialog menus for its owner. However, if you wish to allow other people to open the dialog and control the script, you can perform the following steps:

1. Edit the object and set it to a group.

Thats it. From this moment, anyone who has the group you chose active and selected on themselves, will be able to open the menu on the object.

- Access controls on group-owned land

When Deeded, FreeView will open its menu and accept commands from anyone who is a member of the group it has been deeded to. The person does not have to be an officer. (Scripts cannot detect if a person is a group officer or not!)

There is no way to limit FreeView to interacting only with select people. To do so, please look in the next section: "Advance modification of access controls in the source".

- Advance modification of access controls in the source

You can edit the FreeView script to modify the way it works with access controls.

At the time of this writing (version 1.2), the access control bit can be found in line 234 in the touch_start event. The section currently looks like so:

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        //Listen only to owner or group member. Edit this code to change access controls.
        if(llDetectedKey(0) != llGetOwner() && llDetectedGroup(0) == FALSE)
            return;
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can modify this bit to extend your access controls.

For example, to hard-code names of specific people who can always access FreeView into the code regardless of their current group affiliation, you can do this:

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        //Listen only to owner or group member. Edit this code to change access controls.
        if(llDetectedKey(0) != llGetOwner() && llDetectedGroup(0) == FALSE)
            if(llDetectedName(0) != "John Doe")
                return;
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will cause FreeView to always listen to John Doe no matter what, while also listening to the owner, or anyone with the proper group affiliation set (if any is available)

You can add multiple people this way by using the following format:

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        //Listen only to owner or group member. Edit this code to change access controls.
        if(llDetectedKey(0) != llGetOwner())
            if(llDetectedName(0) != "John Doe" && llDetectedName(0) != "Jane Doe" && llDetectedName(0) != "Foo Bar")
                return;
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will cause FreeView to work with the following people: John Doe, Jane Doe, and Foo Bar. Additionaly, the removal of "llDetectedGroup(0) == FALSE" will now cause FreeView to ignore group affiliation.

If you find this all confusing and an issue, just contact a scripter. I am sure that someone will be glad to help you modify this script.

- 'I keep getting "Not owned by parcel owner" errors!'

Please try the following steps:

Is FreeView placed in a parcel that you actually own?
Please make sure that you have, infact, placed FreeView on your own parcel. Video control scripts cannot affect video streams on land parcels that you do not own.

- 'I click play, but nothing happens!'

Please try the following steps:

• Are you standing on the same parcel as FreeView?
  Like music, video streams can only be viewed if you are standing on the actuall parcel that they are being playing on.
• Please make sure that you have Video enabled in SL.
  You can do this by looking at the following menus: Edit -> Preferences -> Audio/Video.
  In there, make sure that the option "Play Streaming Video When Available (more bandwidth)" is checked. If not, check it, and click the "OK" button.

- 'The picture looks all stretched or messed up!'

IF THIS HAPPENS ON VIDEO MODE:
Videos that you play in SL may have a different display size then the texture scales you use on your objects in SL. SecondLife cannot detect this automaticly, but fortunatly, there are two ways to get around this issue relativly easily. One fully automatic but laggy, the second requires very little work each time you load a Video but is much faster:

- Automatic and laggy: Open your parcel settings by clicking on your parcel's name. Then, select Media. On the lowest part of the window, check the box next to: 'Auto scale content (slower and reduced visual quality)'.

- Manual and faster: Right-click and Edit the FreeView object's display area. You can make sure that you are editing the proper prim by checking the 'Edit linked parts' box on the Edit window. Go to the Texture tab, and click the button 'Align' (right under 'Align media texture (must load first)').

The second option will stretch the texture of the current video to match its size. You will have to do this for every different video you run!. If you are going to use the Picture Gallery opion later, you may want to re-size the texture size back to 1, 1 repeats and 0, 0 offset.

IF THIS HAPPENS ON PICTURE MODE:
This problem occour because the texture repeat and offset that you are using may be wrong. To fix this:

Right-click and Edit the FreeView object's display area. You can make sure that you are editing the proper prim by checking the 'Edit linked parts' box on the Edit window.

Next, click on the Texture tab, and input the following values in the following fields:

• Repeats per face:
• Horizontal (U): 1
• Vertical (V): 1
• Offset:
• Horizontal (U): 0
• Vertical (V): 0