Ananké Media Systems

Tutorial: Updating your PhotoStage or PhotoLite

26 February 2008 at 12:42 pm Anna Tretiak Leave a comment

In this tutorial I explain how to update your PhotoStage or PhotoLite. Owners of these products are entitled to lifetime updates, which basically means that once you buy from us, you will receive any future version of the same product for free, forever.

Having the latest version of your product is important, since we often introduce fixes for all those Second Life glitches and performance improvements, as well as new features. Also, we usually do not support products that are not up to date.

If you want to stay up to date, the first thing you need to think about is how to find out whether a new version has been released. There are basically two channels that we use to publicise updates: this web site and the Ananke Media Systems User Group. We suggest that you join this group to receive notifications about new releases and the occasional exclusive gift.

An alternative way to find out whether an update has been released is to make your product check for updates. I explain how to do this in the next section.

Getting the update

Whenever a new version of your product has been released, you will receive it through automatic updates. This means that your PhotoStage or PhotoLite can communicate with our updates servers and send you a fresh package (similar to the package you got from us when you bought your product) containing the newly released version. The PhotoStage or PhotoLite checks for updates automatically every time that you reset it by using the Reset button in the options menu. To trigger an update check, please click Options >> and then Reset from the main menu. If an update is available, you will see a message in your chat channel and you will receive the update a few seconds later.

Once you have received your update, you need to set it up. This usually involves de-rezing your PhotoStage or PhotoLite from inworld (if you have it rezzed) and rezzing the new version. De-rezing the old version is optional, and you may keep it if you like; however, it will become an outdated product and we will probably not support it.

At this point you need to bear in mind that any customisation that you may have done to your PhotoStage or PhotoLite (including the PhotoStand) would be lost if you just delete your own version and rez the new one. For this reason, it is very important that you transfer all your customisations from the old version to the new one before you dispose of it. The following sections describe the areas on which you should focus.

Transferring Customisations

Settings

The Control Box and the HUD for both PhotoStage and PhotoLite can be customised via settings, as well as the PhotoStage backdrops. If you have changed settings from their default values on the old version of your product, such as adjusting the chat channel or the access permissions, you should make sure that you replicate these changes onto the new version. The easiest way to do this is to write down the values in the old version and manually edit the settings in the new version once it is rezzed. Alternatively, you can copy the settings notecards from the old version into your inventory and then replace the settings notecards in the new version with the saved ones.

Please see the Settings section in your User’s Manual for more information about settings.

Backdrop textures

You can add your own textures to the PhotoStage backdrops. If you have done so, remember copying or moving your textures from the old version of the backdrops into your inventory, and then copying or moving them into the new version of the backdrops once you rez them.

Please see the Backdrop Textures section in your User’s Manual for more information about using custom backdrop textures.

Configurations

You can save complete setups of backdrop, lighting and effects in both PhotoStage and PhotoLite; these saved setups are called configurations. If you have saved configurations, remember moving them to the new version before you delete the old one. Configurations are saved into a notecard named “.Configurations” inside the Control Box. The easiest way to transfer configurations between versions is to copy that notecard into your inventory before you delete the old version of your product and then use copy and paste to replace the whole contents of the “.Configurations” notecard in the new version with those of the old one.

Please see the Configurations section in your User’s Manual for more information about saving and managing configurations.

Poses

You can add your own poses to the PhotoStand, which is included with either PhotoStage or PhotoLite. If you have done so, remember copying or moving your poses from the old version of the PhotoStand into your inventory, and then copying or moving them into the new version of the PhotoStand once you rez it.

Please see the Poses section in the PhotoStand User’s Manual for more information about using custom poses.

Wrapping up

Once you have made sure that you have transferred all your customisations from the old version of your product to the new one, you can safely delete the old version if you wish.

I hope this tutorial is useful to you. As always, your comments and feedback are most welcome.

Entry filed under: PhotoLite, PhotoStage, PhotoStand, Tutorials. Tags: tutorial, update.