Attention

High Fidelity is available as an open-source platform, and all content is forked and hosted according to the distribution requirements set out in the Apache License 2.0.

Frequently Asked Questions

We get a lot of questions from our users! If you have questions about our product, feel free to browse through this page to learn more. And if you don’t see your answer here, e-mail us at support@highfidelity.com!

Content Creation

What video codecs do you support?

We support the following video codecs:

  • WebM VP8

  • H.264, WebM

  • WebM, H.264

High Fidelity Coin (HFC)

How can I get HFC?

Currently, you can buy High Fidelity Coins (HFC) using Ethereum, a blockchain app that trades ETH ( Ether).

To get HFC:

  1. Book an appointment at the Bank of High Fidelity.

  2. At the time of your appointment, pull up your Tablet or HUD and go to GoTo.

  3. Go to the TradingRoom domain by entering ‘TradingRoom’ as the domain address.

  4. We will provide you with a QR code that you can use to send ETH to the Bank of High Fidelity.

  5. Once we receive the ETH amount you sent, we will send you the appropriate amount of HFC to your account based on the current exchange rate. This can take up to three business days.

You can also receive HFC from gifts from your friends or by selling items on the Marketplace.

How do I send HFC to other people?

  1. Open the Inventory app.

  2. Click ‘Send Money’.

    • To send HFC to one of your connections, click ‘Connection’, and choose the recipient from the list.

    • To send HFC to someone nearby in the domain, click ‘Someone Nearby’ then click on the person in the domain. Confirm that you selected the correct person in the dialog.

  3. Add the amount you wish to send, then click ‘Submit’.

Why does my HFC balance not update instantly?

HFC transactions sometimes take a few seconds to update, as they are backed by a blockchain. If your balance has not updated within 5 minutes, contact our team at support@highfidelity.com and they can help you.

Do I get charged money if a transaction fails?

No! Your HFC balance only changes when a purchase or transaction is confirmed on the blockchain.

How do I convert HFC to other currencies?

Our goal is to always have an easy way for creators to retrieve the money they’ve earned. Currently, you can cash out your HFC to US Dollars (USD) using PayPal.

To cash out your HFC:

  1. Book an appointment at the Bank of High Fidelity.

  2. At the time of your appointment, pull up your Tablet or HUD and go to GoTo.

  3. Go to the TradingRoom domain by entering ‘TradingRoom’ as the domain address.

The minimum amount of HFC that you cash out is $25 (or 2,500 HFC), and the maximum cashout value is $2000 (or 200,000 HFC) per calendar month. High Fidelity may, at its discretion, issue the occasional exception to the maximum cashout amount.

Buy from the Marketplace

The Marketplace content I purchased has disappeared. Where did it go?

Marketplace items behave like items in the real world. You can have only one copy of each item you purchase. An item you bought from the Marketplace will disappear if you rez it elsewhere. This is done using a process called Dynamic Domain Verification (DDV).

Can I rez multiple copies of a Marketplace item?

Yes, only if the seller has given permission to do so. A seller can modify settings to allow users to rez multiple copies of their item in a single domain. Otherwise, you will need to buy multiple copies of the item. Marketplace items behave like items in the real world. You can have only one copy of each item you purchase unless specified by the seller.

What is Dynamic Domain Verification (DDV)?

Dynamic Domain Verification (DDV) is a process running on your domain, which ensures that you can rez only one copy of each item purchased on the Marketplace. This is done to protect the intellectual property rights of the creators. DDV will determine if an item has been moved to a new domain and will remove it from the old domain. DDV requires the domain to be running and will delete items from domains with no Place or domain name. Temporary names are accepted. DDV often runs within an hour after you rez a Marketplace item again. Its frequency is controlled by the domain’s control panel.

What happens to my Marketplace content when I change my domain ID?

When you change your domain ID, it’s the same as creating a new domain. Even though the existing content may temporarily appear in the new domain, the system considers the Marketplace items as existing on the old domain. DDV will remove the Marketplace items from the new domain. You will have to rez the items again in the new domain.

What happens to my Marketplace content when I export a backup to another domain?

When you restore a backup or exported domain onto a new server with a different domain ID, DDV will consider the Marketplace item as belonging to the old domain, and will delete them from the new domain. You will have to rez the Marketplace items again in the new domain.

How do I report a DMCA violation?

Email us at support@highfidelity.com to report content violation, and we will take appropriate action.

Sell on the Marketplace

What should I charge for my Marketplace Item?

You are free to price your item however you’d like. We encourage you to consider these questions:

  • How are other items of similar quality in this category priced?

  • Are you choosing a price that you feel reflects the time and effort required to create the item? Don’t sell yourself short!

  • If you have multiple items for sale on the Marketplace, in essence you have a brand. Do you have a specific target audience in mind? New users? Users looking for something truly unique? Take this into account.

  • Is your item a limited edition? If an item is of good quality and in limited supply, it may merit a higher price.

Does my avatar have too many polys?

We do not have a hard poly limit on avatars, however we recommend keeping avatars under 80k. Consider normal mapping your models to preserve high detail rather than excessive poly counts.

How big can my submission be?

Submissions can be as large as necessary for the content you are uploading, but keep in mind that large items can adversely impact loading times for users. If possible, we recommend keeping submissions under 40MB total.

How do I upload to the Marketplace?

Log in to the Marketplace home page and select ‘New Submission’ from the top-right menu.

Can I host content on the Marketplace for personal use?

You can submit content without putting it up for sale. However, you will still need to go through the certification process and be held to Marketplace standards. Content not submitted for review will expire after 30 days and will no longer be accessible.

You should always keep backups of your files, as we cannot ensure the return of your files if they are corrupted or lost.

What happens after I submit my item to the Marketplace?

Your submission will be evaluated by our team. Once our team has completed evaluation, you will receive an email telling you that your item was accepted or declined with reasons and resubmission guidelines.

How long does it take to find out about the status of my submission?

The Marketplace team will respond by email within 7 business days.

What are the rules for submitting content to the Marketplace?

Please refer to our Marketplace Submission Rules.

Domain Hosting

How do I get into my domain settings if I set up authentication but forgot my username and/or password?

  • For cloud domains, you can reset the username and password to a temporary one through your High Fidelity account settings. To do so, go to https://metaverse.highfidelity.com/user/cloud_domains and log in if prompted. Click the “More Options” menu (3 dots on the right-side of the row), then click ‘Reset Domain Server password’. Once the username and password are reset, log in to your domain settings with the temporary credentials. We recommend setting a new username and password at this time.

  • For local servers, the authentication settings for your domain are encrypted into a configuration file on the local server’s file system. To ‘reset’ the authentication settings, you need to manually remove the HTTP security settings (‘http_password’ and ‘http_username’) from config.json. The config file is stored on the server in the following directories:

    • Windows: %AppData%/Roaming/High Fidelity/domain-server

    • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/High Fidelity/domain-server

Why do Marketplace items keep disappearing from my domain?

All Marketplace items are certified to protect the intellectual property rights of the content creators. In many cases, your content is removed by a process called Dynamic Domain Verification (DDV) to prevent illegal use of your purchased items. DDV often runs within an hour after you rez a Marketplace item.

Here are some reasons your Marketplace items may disappear from your domain:

  1. Most Marketplace items can only be rezzed once. When you a second copy of the item, the original copy will immediately be removed.

  2. Some items are “unlimited”, meaning that you can rez as many as you’d like in the same domain. However, as soon as you rez that same purchased item in a different domain, all earlier instances will disappear.

  3. All purchased content is protected to a single domain that is identified by its domain ID, not its place name. This means that if you move your content to a different domain and fire up the new domain (same place name, but now it has a different domain ID), it will not match the “rezzed” domain and will be deleted.

  4. If you are hosting a domain on a local server, you must purchase a place name for your domain before you can rez any Marketplace content.

  5. Ensure that your user permissions are set up correctly. Any items that are rezzed by users with the ‘Rez Temporary’ permission will disappear after a while.

  6. The Create app lets you change the ‘Collision Shape’ and ‘Server Scripts’ properties. When you change these properties, it changes the entity’s certificate signature and invalidates the rezzed item. These items will be removed automatically from your domain.

Troubleshooting

Why can’t I connect to a domain?

If you cannot connect to your virtual workplace, follow these steps to resolve the issue:

  1. Check your internet connection, and ensure that your bandwidth is at least 10Mbps download, 2Mbps upload.

  2. You may not have permissions to enter the domain. If you know the domain owner, contact them to gain access to the domain.

  3. Ensure that your firewall settings allow you to run High Fidelity.

    • For Windows: In your firewall settings, open the port 40102, and add ‘interface.exe’ to the list of allowed apps.

    • For Mac: In your firewall settings, add ‘interface.app’ (Library > Application Support > Launcher > interface.app) and allow incoming connections for that application.

No one can hear me!

If other users in the domain can’t hear you, then you are likely muted or your microphone gain is set too low. Here are some steps to troubleshoot your issue:

  1. Are you muted in High Fidelity? When logged in, check the upper left corner. If you’re muted, click the microphone to un-mute yourself.

  2. Is your physical output device muted or turned off? Some headsets and microphones have a ‘Power’ and/or ‘Mute’ switch directly on the device itself. This setting is completely independent of High Fidelity’s mute option, so even if you’re not muted in High Fidelity, your device itself may not be turned on or the mute button may have been pressed.

    _images/headsets.png

  3. Is your mic muted or disabled on your computer? Lastly, your device might be muted or disabled by your operating system. Check your operating system’s input device settings:

    1. On Windows, go to Control Panel > Sound > Recording tab. Choose the device you are using with High Fidelity and click ‘Properties’. On the ‘Levels’ tab, check the icon next to the volume meter. The microphone icon will tell you whether your headset/microphone is muted. If you’re muted, click the icon to un-mute yourself.

    2. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Sound > Input tab. Choose the device you are using with High Fidelity. If the ‘Input volume’ is turned all of the way down, then your input device is disabled. Turn up the input volume to re-enable your microphone.

  4. Have you allowed High Fidelity access to the microphone? Some operating systems require you to give explicit permission to apps to take advantage of specific hardware or software capabilities on your computer. Check your microphone permissions in your operating system settings:

    1. On Windows, go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone. Make sure that ‘Allow desktop apps to access your microphone’ is turned on.

    2. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, then select ‘Microphone’. Ensure that the checkbox next to High Fidelity is selected.

If your input device is turned on, and you are not muted in the application, device, or operating system, then it is likely that your microphone volume needs to be adjusted or boosted. This is done in your operating system settings:

  • On Windows, go to Control Panel > Sound > Recording tab. Choose the device you are using with High Fidelity and click ‘Properties’. On the ‘Levels’ tab, adjust the ‘Microphone Level’ and/or ‘Microphone Boost’.

  • On Mac, go to System Preferences > Sound > Input tab. Choose the device you are using with High Fidelity and adjust the ‘Input volume’.

I can’t hear anything in High Fidelity.

Here are some reasons you might not have audio:

  • Your headset or speakers are turned off.

  • Your headset or speakers may be muted or disabled by your operating system. Check your operating system’s output device settings:

    • On Windows, click the volume icon in the taskbar and select your audio device. The speaker icon will tell you whether or not your headset or speakers are disabled. Click the icon to un-mute yourself.

    • On Mac, go to System Preferences > Sound > Output tab. Choose the device you are using with High Fidelity. At the bottom of the dialog, uncheck ‘Mute’ to un-mute yourself.

  • Your headset or speakers have a volume control of their own. Check that the volume is turned up on the device.

  • In High Fidelity, you have a different audio device selected than the one you want to use. Open the Audio app and make sure the right headset, speakers, and/or microphone are selected.

  • Volume is turned down or off in High Fidelity. Open the Audio app and check your volume settings.