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WARNING

This stuff can be dangerous if you do it wrong.
Also, if you upgrade or reinstall Firestorm, it will revert your changes.
And I do enough Python coding and Git and Jira at work… do I really need to make myself a Firestorm contributing developer, too?
Blech.

Let’s hack this thing

Firestorm has a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

Don’t you wish it had keyboard shortcuts for everything in the menu? I know I get sick of having to hunt down stuff.

Here’s a few I’ve hacked in…

Stop Animating and Revoke Permissions

Stop Avatar Animations & Revoke Permissions after I sit and resit.

This is how I hacked a new keyboard shortcut into the viewer for that command.

1. Find an unused shortcut from the list (Control Alt J appears to not be in use)
   • Operating System (Windows) shortcuts such as Control-A (select all) and Control-X (cut) will not appear in this list, but you probably shouldn’t map them.
2. Open Notepad as Administrator
   • Open the Start Menu
   • Open Windows Accessories
   • Right-click Notepad
   • Click More
   • Click Run as administrator
   • Accept the dialog
3. File – Open
4. Change filter from .txt files to all files
5. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Firestorm-Releasex64\skins\default\xui\en\menu_viewer.xml
   • This assumes you’re using the English version. Change en to your locale code (de for Deutsch, fr for Francais, etc.)
6. Control-F and look for Revoke Permissions

You will see a section:

<menu_item_call
label="Stop Avatar Animations &amp; Revoke Permissions"
name="Stop Animating My Avatar With Revoke">

Change it to:

<menu_item_call
label="Stop Avatar Animations &amp; Revoke Permissions"
shortcut="control|alt|J"
name="Stop Animating My Avatar With Revoke">

Save the file and restart Firestorm

Control Alt J will now do the Stop Avatar Animations & Revoke Permissions command.

Toolbar Button

So, would you rather have a Toolbar button that does this?

There’s a Stop Animations button, but it doesn’t include the Revoke Permissions function. Which means that it won’t completely release you from the dance HUD.

We can hack that in too.

1. Open Notepad as Administrator
   • Open the Start Menu
   • Open Windows Accessories
   • Right-click Notepad
   • Click More
   • Click Run as administrator
   • Accept the dialog
2. File – Open
3. Change filter from .txt files to all files
4. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Firestorm-Releasex64\app_settings/commands.xml
5. Control-F and look for StopAllAnimations

You will see a section:

<command name="stop_animations"
available_in_toybox="true"
icon="Stop_Animations_Icon"
label_ref="Command_Stop_Animations_Label"
tooltip_ref="Command_Stop_Animations_Tooltip"
execute_function="Tools.StopAllAnimations"
execute_parameters="stop"
/>

Change it to:

<command name="stop_animations"
available_in_toybox="true"
icon="Stop_Animations_Icon"
label_ref="Command_Stop_Animations_Label"
tooltip_ref="Command_Stop_Animations_Tooltip"
execute_function="Tools.StopAllAnimations"
execute_parameters="stoprevoke"
/>

Save the file and restart Firestorm

The Stop Animations button in the Toolbar will now be supercharged to also revoke permissions.

Function Key

If you have a fancy keyboard with customizable function keys, you can map a function key to that shortcut.

(I used the Logitech SetPoint utility to map my F4 key to Control Alt J)

Now when I hit Function-F4 on my keyboard, it stops my avatar and revokes permissions.

Away and Unavailable

I don’t use these during a show, but I use them a lot when I’m on my bridge and being antisocial.

Why the fuck do these have to be buried in the menu bar and not available as simple buttons?

(The truth is that they are available as gestures. You can set them to key combinations there. But let’s just play along…)

I’m going to fix that right now.

1. Find an unused shortcut from the list (Alt A and Alt U appear to not be in use)
2. Open Notepad as Administrator
   • Open the Start Menu
   • Open Windows Accessories
   • Right-click Notepad
   • Click More
   • Click Run as administrator
   • Accept the dialog
3. File – Open
4. Change filter from .txt files to all files
5. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Firestorm-Releasex64\skins\default\xui\en\menu_viewer.xml
   • This assumes you’re using the English version. Change en to your locale code (de for Deutsch, fr for Francais, etc.)
6. Control-F and look for Away

You will see a section:

<menu_item_check
name="Away"
label="Away">
<menu_item_check.on_check
function="View.Status.CheckAway" />
<menu_item_check.on_click
function="World.SetAway" />
</menu_item_check>
<menu_item_check
name="Do Not Disturb"
label="Unavailable">

Change it to:

<menu_item_check
name="Away"
label="Away"
shortcut="alt|A">
<menu_item_check.on_check
function="View.Status.CheckAway" />
<menu_item_check.on_click
function="World.SetAway" />
</menu_item_check>
<menu_item_check
name="Do Not Disturb"
label="Unavailable"
shortcut="alt|U">

Save the file and restart Firestorm

Alt A now sets you Away and Alt U sets you as Unavailable.

Are you really going to do this?

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