Viewer Skins/Starlight

By:	Hitomi Tiponi
Viewer Version:	2.1.1.208043 (and 2.1.1.207988/2.1.1.207725)
Information:	Starlight 2.1.8
Source:	Various
Image:	"Starlight" skin to improve Viewer 2 usability - Viewer 2.1 Version

	Important!
	Use caution when installing these skins, as modifications to your installed software files are not officially supported by Second Life support

About

This skin is designed to give more choice, and hopefully improve the usability and promote usage of Second Life Viewer 2. It consists of a number of previously published viewer tweaks - produced by various residents (see credits in the downloaded 'Read Me' file) and added to, together with a slight reskinning to give the interface a lighter feel. It should hopefully benefit those people who have no wish to edit the XML code themselves, yet wish to benefit from a number of tweaks made by other residents, without using a third-party viewer. To download the StarLight 2.1.8 skin for Viewer 2.1 (release 2.1.1.208043) click here.

NEW! StarLight 2.2.1 is now available for Viewer 2.2.0 Beta - try out the best version of Viewer 2 so far with all the StarLight tweaks. StarLight 2.2.1 can be downloaded here - new features include smaller undocked panels and a choice of 3 colour themes

Downloads

It is VERY important that you always use the version of StarLight for the appropriate viewer release. Always use the appropriate version from the table below of all supported versions.

ALWAYS DOWNLOAD A NEW VERSION OF STARLIGHT IF YOU SWITCH VERSIONS OF THE VIEWER - STARLIGHT IS UPDATED REGULARLY

StarLight Release (click to download)	Designed for Viewer 2 Release	Date Added	Notes
StarLight 2.2.1	Viewer 2.2.0 Beta (2.2.0.210127)	24th September 2010	new features include smaller undocked panels and a choice of 3 colour themes
StarLight 2.1.9	Viewer 2.1 Development (2.1.2.208771)	August 30th 2010
StarLight 2.1.8	Viewer 2.1.1 (2.1.1.208043)*	August 17th 2010	Transparency changes and minor alterations

* Main Viewer download from the web-site is in bold

Discussions, information and questions

To discuss StarLight and get news of changes/versions/bugs etc. please visit the Viewer xml and Skinning Forum.

Major Changes to the Standard Skin

When defocussed, floater windows, have a near-invisible background
Sidebar reduced in size, becomes possible to drag, and does not slide the chiclets/buttons along the bottom bar (note: this is not changeable to crop the world view)
Better formatting of tabbed IM window (tabs larger and no icons in them)
Reformatted Profile panels for your own and other profiles
Three additional Preferences panels
Several UI components made semi-transparent
"About Land" Button added to Navigation Bar
Draw Distance slider added to Navigation Bar (between 32 and 512 metres)
Options added to the menu ('XStreet', 'Grid Status', 'My Uploads', 'My Useful Features')
"Inventory" Button added to bottom bar
Resize marker for bottom bar to make it more obvious (from Kirstens Viewer)
Camera control made smaller than the standard version (similar to the Kirstens Viewer approach but smaller)
Minor tweaks to the skinning and usability (resizing columns, increasing glow, realigning text etc.)
Special, lighter Black & Orange look (with several changes to colours and widgets)

Known Bugs and Issues

Only working fully with English language version of the interface
Draw distance slider appears on screen during mouselook and may produce a minor shadow effect on some widgets near top of screen
Unable to set Roles on a group you own
Erroneous "Ground Sit Right Now" option on the menu

Changes to 2.1.8 from 2.1.7

Greater transparency on floaters when defocussed
Numerous 'under the skin' changes to enable easier skinning in future
Fixed a few minor errors in LL code
Fixed three bugs
Option to alter degree of avatar head movement added to the 'UI' preferences panel
Minor formatting/textual changes

Changes to 2.1.7 from 2.1.6

Works with releases 207725, 207988, 208043 of Viewer 2.1 and the Betas
Draw Distance slider recoded
Full length sidebar extension no longer covers toast notifications

Changes to 2.1.6 from 2.1.5

Three extra tabbed panels in Preferences controlling more functions of the viewer
Separation and reformatting of Second Life and Real Life details in the "Profile" tab of People
New "My Profile" and "Edit Profile" panels
Optional extension to place the Sidebar on the left-hand side of the screen
Draw Distance slider widget moved from navigation to menu bar so it remains visible when other bars are closed
"Create New Notice" button replaces confusing "+" on button for Group notice creation
UI Size moved to Graphics preferences panel (as in Kirstens Viewer)

Changes to 2.1.5 from 2.1.4

Works with release 206756 of Viewer 2.1 (fourth Beta available July 14th 2010) and release 207030 (full version available July 21st 2010)

Changes to 2.1.4 from 2.1.3

Works with release 206543 of Viewer 2.1 (third Beta available July 7th 2010)

Changes to 2.1.3 from 2.1.2

Works with release 206371 of Viewer 2.1 (second Beta available June 30th 2010)
Sidebar can now be dragged across the screen (by pulling on the left-hand edge)

Changes to 2.1.2 from 2.1.1

Works with release 206197 of Viewer 2.1 (first Beta available June 22nd 2010)
Full length sidebar and vertical IM tab extensions make a return

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WINDOWS AND LINUX USERS

Log out of Second Life Viewer 2, if you are using it.
Go to the \skins directory of the directory you use for Viewer 2 - this is usually under \Program Files\Windows\SecondLifeViewer2.
Rename sub-directory "default" to "default_backup".
Add "starlight" to the \skins directory and rename "starlight" to "default".
To uninstall simply delete the "default" sub-directory and rename "default_backup" back to "default" again.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAC USERS

This will create a folder called "starlight", but this folder contains another folder with the same name. It's this second nested folder you will need to drag to your Second Life Viewer 2/Resources/skins folder (explained below).
Find the Second Life Viewer 2 application in your Applications folder.
Right click on the Second Life Viewer 2 application icon. You will get a menu.
Choose "Show Package Contents" from that menu.
Open the "Resources" folder, scroll down and open the "skins" folder.
Make sure you are not actually running Second Life Viewer 2 as you do this.
Rename the "default" folder to "default_backup".
Drag the nested "starlight" folder (the one inside the other "starlight" folder which was created when you unzipped the file you downloaded) into the "skins" folder.
Rename the "starlight" folder to "default"
To uninstall simply delete the "default" sub-directory and rename "default_backup" back to "default" again.

All these instructions are contained in the 'READ ME' file that comes in the zip package.