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Telehubs and direct teleport Configuring telehubs Hosting large events Covenants Setting the covenant Covenants and reselling land Covenants and communication Improving region performance Statistics Bar Restarting Private Regions Scheduling Private Region Restarts Transferring Private Regions Transfer fees Monthly billing Moving and renaming Private Regions Pricing for Private Region Management Services Renaming a Private Region Moving a Private Region Land impact change Increasing land impact Pricing for land impact changes Requesting land impact changes Backing up and restoring Private Region terrain To backup your terrain To restore your terrain Allowing neighbors Land sales in Private Regions Reclaiming land parcels from tenants Private Region auto-saves and restores (rollbacks) Requesting a rollback Consequences Canceling a Private Region Grandfathered pricing Region environment settings Setting region maturity In other languages: Deutsch Français Español Português Italiano 日本語 Türkçe Pусский Telehubs and direct teleport There are two basic approaches to controlling where visitors to your estates appear: you can either use a telehub to force all visitors to appear at a set location, or you can allow visitors to teleport directly to wherever they wish. If you choose to use a telehub, you must disable Allow Direct Teleport on the Estate tab of the REGION/ESTATE window (World > Region/Estate). In addition, you should clear any landing points that might be set for the parcels on your estate (using the About Land window's OPTIONS tab), as they can cause the telehub to malfunction. If you choose to allow direct teleportation, you should disable or remove any telehub object that you have in your region. You can, however, use parcel landing points to provide parcel-level control over where people appear when they teleport into the region. Configuring telehubs Telehubs are controlled through the REGION/ESTATE window, on the Region tab. Note: If you are the owner of a Region, you always teleport directly to the center of it instead of to a set telehub or landing point. To connect your telehub: Right-click on the object and select Edit. In the REGION/ESTATE window, click the Region tab. Click Manage Telehub. Click Add Spawn. Click your telehub object again, and click Connect telehub. Here are some things to consider regarding telehubs: Format: The telehub references an object on your Private Region or island. This can be any object, but generally it should be phantom and raised slightly off the ground (avatars arrive in the center of it). You can use any prim. Movement: The telehub is saved as a bookmark to a specific object; it is not saved in the object itself. As a result, you may freely move your telehub object around; the telehub waypoint moves with it. However, if the object ever leaves the region (for example, you accidentally Return it or Take it to Inventory), the telehub waypoint is lost, and you need to create a new telehub. Spawnpoints: You can create multiple spawnpoints for your telehub. Incoming residents arrive at one of the spawnpoints. To make spawnpoints: Create transparent cubes at each location you wish people to spawn. Place the telehub object in the middle. Save the spawnpoints and connect them to the telehub. Spawnpoints are saved as offsets of the telehub (i.e. "two meters west and one meter north of the telehub"). As such, the objects used to create the spawnpoints may be deleted (though the telehub must remain as always). Moving the telehub moves all spawnpoints as a group. Incoming visitors are routed to the nearest spawnpoint or to a random spawnpoint (especially when the nearest gets overcrowded) chosen from the points you designated. Permissions: The estate owner, estate managers, or owners of a group to whom the land is deeded can always freely teleport around the estate. Multi-region estates: Each region in an estate can have its own telehub. If you'd prefer to have one telehub that functions for all regions within an estate, you can try defining a single telehub in just one region on the estate and disabling Allow Direct Teleport at the estate level. Hosting large events Important: If you plan to host a large gathering on a Private Region, please give Linden Lab as much advance notice as possible. Provide the date, expected attendance, location, name of event, event sponsor and event manager. Keep the following technical considerations in mind: The maximum number of avatars on a region can be set to 100, but best practice is to limit each region to 50. Remember to plan for crowd control. Adjust the number of avatars allowed on your region at one time by selecting World > Region/Estate and changing the number in the Agent Limit field on the Region tab. Creating a group can be an effective way to manage Residents and sustain interaction beyond the event itself. Linden Lab recommends considering a multiple-locations strategy for large events. This requires considering how to allocate avatars to the locations manually, via scripting, or by distributing different arrival locations. A four-corners strategy (to get about 200 avatars in one place) has drawbacks, since across-boundary info exchange and drawing will affect performance. If this is your first event, you may want to work with a developer or someone who has already had experience managing large events.You can find developers in the Developer Directory. Event managers can be located through SLClassifieds or one of the many exchanges or periodicals that have grown up around Second Life. Covenants A covenant is a set of terms and conditions determined by an estate owner. It may outline such details as local theme, rental fees, architectural regulations, and rules of behavior in the Private Region. To purchase a parcel on an estate, a Resident must agree to the estate's covenant. You don't need to set a covenant to enable land sale on your estate, but you should do so if you plan to establish zoning or other rules. Covenants are viewable by the parcel owner at all times in the Covenant tabs of the About Land window and the REGION/ESTATE window. Setting the covenant To set or change the covenant for an estate, simply drop a new notecard into the Covenant box in the Covenant tab of the REGION/ESTATE window. Remember: The covenant applies across every region in an estate. Estate managers can set parcels for sale and can reset the covenant. Land parcels can be reclaimed at any time by the estate owner. Deselecting the land sales box does reset parcels already set for sale. Covenants and reselling land To allow Residents to sell or deed land they have purchased from you, select Allow Land Resell in the Region tab. Covenants and communication Covenants are intended to communicate the terms and conditions of owning property on your estate. Do not change the terms of a covenant without informing your Residents — you wouldn't want any service provider you pay to hold you to rules you didn't consent to in advance. Your covenant should be clearly written and include: Features and benefits - Covenants are used for advertising. What makes your land valuable? Do you boast an exceptionally beautiful beach, or do you pride yourself on top-notch service? Payment information - Many estate owners use rental boxes or other automated means to keep track of payments. Your payment system should be as straightforward as possible. Code of conduct - What a renter can and cannot do. Zoning or theming - For example, you can state that no stores are allowed in a residential area; or you can disallow futuristic-looking builds in your ancient Egypt-themed estate. Best ways to communicate with you as the estate owner - If your instant messages easily get capped, make sure to include an email or web form where you can be reached. Some estate owners also delegate support to their estate managers or other staff. Tip: Communication is key! Make sure your renters can easily get in touch with you. Estate owners and managers are the final arbiters of the estate. Individual landowners (renters) on your estate may not directly request rollbacks or other technical support (such as restarts) but should contact you or your estate managers for those needs. Learn from existing covenants Visit Private Regions where estate owners already have covenants before you write your own. Tip: Many estate owners put their covenants on their websites, which are also used to promote their property. Try searching for phrases like "second life land rent covenant". In the Viewer, choose World > Search. The Second Life Search window opens. Choose Land & Rentals from the dropdown menu at the top and click Search (you may specify a keyword if you wish). A list of classified real estate ads appears. In the lefthand column, select For Sale, customize the Area and Price fields as desired, and choose Private Island - Full from the dropdown menu under Type. The filters update the listings automatically. Click on a listing to view more details. When you find a property that interests you, click Teleport. Once you arrive at the region, select World > About Land > COVENANT. Read the covenant to see if it contains anything useful. If yes, take notes. If not, move on. Warning: Do not plagiarize other estate owners' covenants. Be inspired, not lazy. Improving region performance Statistics Bar To gauge the performance of your region, check the region's Frames Per Second (FPS) in the Statistics Bar: Open the Advanced menu by selecting World > Show > Advanced Menu. While standing on your land, select Advanced > Performance Tools > Statistics Bar. Interpreting the Statistics Bar can be a bit overwhelming, so we'll guide you through the relevant parts here. To interpret the Sim FPS performance of your region: 45 FPS: The highest possible value. No action necessary. 35 - 44 FPS: This is good performance; if it never goes below 35 FPS, you don't need to tune if it. 10 - 35 FPS: This is very slow, and should be noticeable. Adjustment is needed to improve your region's performance. 0 - 10 FPS: This is terrible. You may have trouble moving or performing simple tasks. See above. To see more detail on what's slowing down your region, expand the Statistics Bar by clicking on the Time (ms) line; additional region statistics will appear: The Total Frame Time displays the number of milliseconds needed (ms) to display a single frame. Total Frame Time greater than 22.2 ms means your Sim FPS will be below 45 FPS. For a detailed explanation of the values beneath Total Frame Time, see the Statistics Bar KB article's Time's section. Try these tips for improving performance in a region that is running slowly: Having a large number of avatars in a region is the most common cause of low region FPS. Reduce the number of avatars by selecting World > Region/Estate and adjusting the number in the Agent Limit field to specify the number of avatars allowed in your region at any one time. Reduce the number of prims on your region. Reduce the number of objects on your region. In the Statistics Bar, the Script Time line shows how many milliseconds each of the scripts in your region is taking to run. If this value is over 5 milliseconds, check to see which scripts are the busiest in your region by opening the Debug tab in your Region/Estate window and clicking Get Top Scripts. Once you know which scripts are consuming your region's resources, you can remove, replace or optimize them. Also, note that reducing the total number of scripts in your region can improve performance. In the Statistics Bar, the Sim Time (Physics) line shows how many milliseconds your physics calculations are taking. If this value is over 4 milliseconds, check to see which colliders are the most active by opening the Debug tab in your Region/Estate window and clicking Get Top Colliders. Once you know which objects are your top colliders, you can remove, replace or optimize them. Reduce the use of the following items, which slow down region performance: large or numerous textures; sculpted prims, twisted tori, and other geometrically complex objects; particle effects. Restarting Private Regions Region performance can degrade over time due to an accumulation of long-running scripts, physical objects, and object collisions. If your region has not been restarted recently, restarting it may provide a boost in performance. You can restart your regions from inside Second Life using the Region/Estate window, or from the Land Manager on the Second Life website. Restarting a region from inside Second Life To restart a region from inside Second Life: Go to the region you would like to restart. Choose World > Region/Estate from the top menu bar. In the Region/Estate window, click the Debug tab. Click the Restart Region button. A two minute countdown begins and all visitors to the region are notified that the region is about to restart. If you need to cancel the restart within the two minute countdown, click Cancel Restart to cancel the countdown. Restarting a region from the Land Manager To restart a region from the Second Life website: Visit the Land portal on the Second Life website. If you are not logged into the website, you are prompted for your credentials. On the left side of the page, click Land manager to expand the list of Land Manager pages. Click My Regions to see a list of your current Estates. Under My Estates, click the name of the Estate that contains your region. On the My Regions page, find the name of the region you would like to restart and click Restart or Safe Mode: Restart - Begins a two minute countdown and notifies all visitors that the region is about to restart. Restarts initiated from the Land Manager cannot be canceled. Safe mode - Restarting the region in Safe Mode causes it to come back online with scripts, physics, and collisions disabled, which will affect operation of content in the region until those features are manually re-enabled. Safe Mode persists through additional restarts of the region; the only way to return to normal operation is to manually re-enable scripts, physics, and collisions in the region using the Region/Estate window. Re-enabling scripts, physics, and collisions after restarting in Safe Mode To re-enable scripts, physics, and collisions after restarting in Safe Mode: Go to the region that is in Safe Mode. Choose World > Region/Estate from the top menu bar. In the Region/Estate window, click the Debug tab. Un-check the boxes for Disable Scripts, Disable Collisions, and Disable Physics, then click the Apply button. Scheduling Private Region Restarts Private region owners and estate managers may schedule recurring restarts for their regions from the Region Debug Console. Restarts will occur on the scheduled days within a 10 minute window at the specified scheduled time. As with most Region Debug Console commands, help region_schedule entered in the Region Debug console window will show a list of command variables available and a basic explanation of how to use the command. Scheduling Recurring Restarts from the Region Console Restarts may be scheduled to occur either every day at a particular time or only on particular days of the week. All times are specified in 24 hour UTC, sometimes referred to as 'military time' – so, 1:00 p.m. becomes 13:00, 2:00 p.m. becomes 14:00, etc. To schedule regular restarts: Open the Region Debug Console (World > Region/Estate > Debug tab > Region Debug Console button or the keyboard shortcut ctrl-shift-`) At the prompt, enter the region_schedule options of your choice For command assistance, type help region_schedule in the Region Debug console and hit enter Some examples of region_schedule commands include: region_schedule set restart daily <HH:MM> region_schedule set restart weekly <days> <HH:MM> How to schedule daily restarts To schedule a daily restart on the region enter the following command: > region_schedule set restart daily <HH:MM> Where HH:MM is the time at which to restart in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). So to restart the region daily at 6:00 a.m. Pacific (13:00 UTC) enter: > region_schedule set restart daily 13:00 For an 11:00 p.m. Eastern (03:00 UTC) daily restart the command would be: > region_schedule set restart daily 3:00 How to schedule weekly restarts For scheduling restarts on particular days of the week, the command takes the format: > region_schedule set restart weekly <days> <HH:MM> HH:MM is once again the time at which to restart in UTC in hours (HH) and minutes (MM). In the console command, days refers to a short sequence of letters which indicate which day of the week to restart the region, with each day represented by a unique single letter as follows: S = Sunday M = Monday T = Tuesday W = Wednesday R = Thursday F = Friday A = Saturday To schedule a restart on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 4:30 a.m. SLT/Pacific, we first determine the UTC time (11:30am UTC). Thus, the command would look like: > region_schedule set restart weekly STR 11:30 For restarts on Monday and Friday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, we determine the UTC time (1:00am UTC) and the command looks like: > region_schedule set restart weekly TA 1:00 ? Because the UTC timezone is ahead of Eastern time, scheduling a restart for late in the evening Eastern would be after midnight UTC, pushing the day of the week forward. At 9:00 p.m. in New York on Monday, it's 1 a.m. Tuesday in London. Checking the Region Restart Schedule To see currently scheduled region restarts, enter the command region_schedule in the Region Debug Console without any other text and hit enter. By default, the current restart schedule should be displayed. Clearing Scheduled Region Restarts To clear a region's scheduled restarts, use the unset command in the Region Debug Console. > region_schedule unset restart This will clear any scheduled restarts from the region. Transferring Private Regions ✏️ Interested in buying or selling a private region from another Resident? The Land Forum at the Second Life Community Forums is a great place to find interested buyers and sellers of private regions. Linden Lab can perform Resident-to-Resident transfers of Private Regions (islands), but both buyer and seller need to agree on a price. Both buyer and seller must submit support tickets, via the Support Portal, naming the region to be transferred and the transaction amount agreed upon in Linden dollars (L$). Both sides also have to confirm other details about the region being transferred. We can rename the Private Region and move it from its original location at the time of the transfer for no additional cost. Please include these requests in the buyer's transfer ticket. Either party can cancel the transfer by closing out their ticket prior to the transfer being performed. Important: If the buyer's payment fails for any reason, then the transfer is cancelled and no action is taken. Both Second Life accounts must be in good standing for the transfer to take place. Here's how to submit a ticket: Go to the Support Portal and log in with your Second Life account. Open a new support case. Under What type of problem are you having? select Land & Region. Under Land & Region, choose Initiate Region Sale or Initiate Region Purchase as appropriate. Complete the other required fields. The information must be consistent for both the buyer and seller tickets. When all the details have been entered, scroll to the bottom and click Submit. If both tickets match (that is, they state the same details and value), we charge the buyer's Second Life account in Linden dollars (L$). Once the charge goes through, we credit the seller the same amount minus the transfer fee. Private Region transfers usually take 5-10 business days from the time both tickets are received. Transfer fees There is a transfer fee per region, debited from the seller's account, which pays for backend work by Linden Lab, including: Changing estate ownership settings Billing transfer Region name change Moving the region Transfer fees are set in USD, though they may be paid in L$ as shown by the table below. The L$ Transfer Fee cost may be updated from time to time based on the changing LindeX Market Rate. The transfer fee amount depends upon the type of region being transferred, and whether it will maintain its grandfathered pricing status, if applicable: Region Type Keep Grandfathered Pricing? USD Transfer Fee L$ Transfer Fee Full Island Yes $300 L$78,000 Full Island No $100 L$26,000 Homestead Island Yes $150 L$39,000 Homestead Island No $100 L$26,000 Openspace Island Not Applicable $100 L$26,000 Monthly billing The new owner assumes the monthly billing, which is charged on the same day of the month as always. Private Regions, unlike the mainland, bill for the coming month. If the Private Region bills on the 12th of the month, it will continue to bill on the 12th of the month. This means that if the Private Region is transferred on the 14th, the current owner pays for that month. If the Private Region is transferred on the 10th, the new owner pays the fee for the month. Moving and renaming Private Regions Pricing for Private Region Management Services If you own one or more private regions in Second Life, there are several special services you may occasionally need, such as region moves and region name changes. The fees for these services depend on the number of private regions you own; please refer to the following chart to determine the cost of each service: To request one of these services, please submit a case through the support portal on the Second Life website. Additional information on how to move and rename private regions can be found in the next sections. Renaming a Private Region To initiate the renaming process, submit a support case stating that you would like to change your region's name and that you accept the fee. The new name must comply with the Guidelines for Private Region Naming. Private region names are granted at the sole discretion of Linden Lab. Moving a Private Region Private region owners can request to move a region to another location on the World Map, subject to availability. Certain areas of the World Map are reserved for special purposes, including the mainland and themed expansions provided by Linden Lab. If you would like to move your region adjacent to another Resident's region, they must allow you as a neighbor in our system prior to your request for the region move. Note that your private region cannot be rotated, so what is currently North will always be North. The fee for moving a region is charged for each private region, for any movement. Note: Moving your private region causes links made from the Picks tab of the Profile window to become inaccurate. Landmarks continue to function after a move, but home locations may need to be reset. The World Map may take several hours to update with the new Private Region location. Land impact change It is possible for you to increase the amount of land impact that your Private Region can support. Increasing land impact Private Region owners have the option to upgrade full Private Regions from 20,000 to 30,000 prims. This option is only available for full Private Regions. Mainland regions, in addition to private Homestead and Openspace regions, are not eligible to upgrade land impact. Pricing for land impact changes The cost to upgrade a full Region to 30,000 prims is $30 USD per region at the time the upgrade is performed, plus an additional monthly maintenance fee of $30 USD per region. If a region's land impact is upgraded, you must maintain the upgraded status for at least one calendar month. If you choose to downgrade a Private Region back to 20,000 prims, a charge of $30 USD per region applies at the time of the downgrade. No pro-rating or discounts are permitted for any of the costs listed above. Requesting land impact changes To request an upgrade or downgrade of land impact, please submit a case through the portal on the Second Life website under the case type Land & Region > Land Impact Change Request. Backing up and restoring Private Region terrain If you own a Private Region, you can back up your region's terraformed terrain to a texture file on your computer and use that file to restore your region's terrain to its saved shape. This is a great safety net in case you experience a terraforming accident, and it is also useful if you want to apply the same terrain to multiple regions you own. To access the terrain backup and restore controls, choose World > Region/Estate in the Second Life Viewer®, and click the Terrain tab. Then: To backup your terrain Click Download RAW terrain. A file browser dialog appears. Choose a location to save to and give your terrain file a specific name so it's easier to find. Click Save. Next, you see: "Terrain file written, starting download." The download process may take several minutes. Do not leave the region, and don't make any other terraforming changes until the download completes! When the download completes, you see: "Finished download of raw terrain file to:" and the directory it was saved to. Click Close. To restore your terrain Click Upload RAW terrain. Select a .raw terrain file on your hard drive that you or someone else saved earlier. Click Open (or Choose on Mac). You see: "Upload started." It may take up to two minutes, depending on your connection speed. When the upload is complete, you see: "Terrain upload done." The terrain changes to the contents of the .raw file. If you would rather not terraform the region yourself, you can purchase terrains on Marketplace. You can upload these as described above to get great results fast. Allowing neighbors If you own an estate in the Second Life® world, you can allow others to buy land in spaces that are directly next to the land you own. You can specify Residents in the Allowed Neighbors list for each region in your estates. For example: Joe Resident and Helen Resident are friends who own their own estates and want to be able to buy land in the Land Portal next to each other. Joe's estate, Joegalaxy, contains a Private Region called Joetopolis. In the Land Portal's Estate Management tab, Joe can specify that Helen is an allowed neighbor for Joetopolis. Helen can now use the Land Portal to buy Private Regions that are next to Joetopolis, including spaces that only share a corner with Joetopolis. To specify a Resident you want to be able to buy land next to yours: Log into the Land Portal. Click Land Manager > My Regions. Select the estate for which you want to specify allowed neighbors. In the Allowed Neighbors column, click the edit link for a specific region. Type the name of the Resident you want to allow as a neighbor into the text field and click add. Click close. The Resident you specified can now buy land next to that region. To remove a Resident from the Allowed Neighbors list for a Region: Log into the Land Portal. Click Land Manager > My Regions. Select the estate for which you want to specify allowed neighbors. In the Allowed Neighbors column, click the edit link for a specific region. Click the X next to the name of the Resident you want to remove. Click close. The Resident you specified can no longer buy land next to that region Be aware that adding and removing other Residents to your Allowed Neighbors list can result in some interesting circumstances. Consider the following example: Joe Resident adds Helen Resident to the Allowed Neighbors list for his Private Region Joetopolis. Helen Resident buys a Private Region next to Joetopolis and names it Helen City. Now, suppose... Joe wants to buy a Private Region next to Joetopolis that also shares a corner or side with Helen City. Joe can't actually do this unless Helen adds Joe to the Allowed Neighbors list for Helen City. Joe removes Helen from the Allowed Neighbors list for Joetopolis. Now neither Joe nor Helen can buy a Private Region that shares a corner or side with Joetopolis or Helen City. Joe removes Helen from the Allowed Neighbors list for Joetopolis, and Helen adds Joe to the Allowed Neighbors list for Helen City. Now only Joe can buy a Private Region that shares a corner or side with Helen City. Land sales in Private Regions The mechanics of buying and selling land in a Private Region is very similar to the process used on the mainland, however there are a few key differences to keep in mind. Similarities As the seller, the Private Region owner can split parcels of the region and set them for sale. The mechanical act of buying the land remains unchanged. Differences Parcels in Private Regions are governed by covenants. If you buy land in a Private Region, it does not count against your land use tier, but the owner of the Private Region may charge you a similar fee for continuing use of the land. The Private Region owner may evict you from your parcel in a Private Region at any time. Private Region owners have absolute power over their estates and are within their rights to reclaim land as they see fit. Make sure to read your region's covenant closely for terms of use before you buy your parcel. Private Region owners control access to their land (using the Region/Estate window), for example by restricting access to Residents based on payment status or by setting region maturity to General, Moderate, or Adult. Tip: If a region owner changes the maturity setting for their region, it may have an effect on who can access your parcel and view search listings made from it. Read the region covenant and communicate with the region owner (or estate manager where applicable) to avoid any disruptions to your parcel settings or access. Reclaiming land parcels from tenants If one of your tenants has violated the terms of your covenant and you wish to evict him and reclaim his land in your Private Region, you can choose the Reclaim Land... button from the ABOUT LAND window: Reclaiming land switches ownership of the parcel, but not the objects on it, back to the estate owner. Private Region auto-saves and restores (rollbacks) Note: We don't perform rollbacks on mainland regions. All regions, including your estate, are automatically backed up at regular intervals throughout the day; we hold several days' worth of these backup states. This saves everything about your estate: the terrain, the land parcels, the builds, the textures and settings. The only things not saved are avatars themselves. This means that under certain circumstances, your region can be rolled back to a previous state. In the event of an emergency, a region owner can request a rollback via the Concierge service. Performing a rollback can have serious consequences and should therefore not be thought of as an "Undo" feature on your estate; rather, it's a safety mechanism to be used only when something goes very badly wrong. Rollbacks are performed at our discretion. Requesting a rollback Rollbacks must be requested via support ticket and can only be requested by the estate owner or estate manager. ⛔ As of June 23, 2022, region rollback requests will incur a $25 USD fee per rollback. Generally, regions can be rolled back a maximum of 72 hours before the original event; please be aware that we cannot roll back indefinitely. The longer you wait before requesting the rollback, the greater the chance that we will be unable to help you, so please make the request as soon as the problem occurs. Please explain: What has happened. Why you need the rollback. Which region it is. Precisely how far back in time you need to go to repair the situation. Tip: It helps if you provide the time in 24 hour format. Please use Pacific time (also called Second Life Time or SLT), not your local time. If you are a region owner or a region estate manager, you can request a rollback by submitting a ticket through the Support Portal. Log in (if prompted) and choose Land & Region from the What type of problem are you having? dropdown menu. Specify Request a rollback in the second dropdown and fill out the form below. Rollback requests are processed in the order they are received, with emergency requests taking precedent. Please note that rollbacks that are not time sensitive may take up to 2 business days to process. Consequences The backups taken are exact copies of the state of the region at the exact moment it was saved. We cannot roll back inventory or avatars. When we perform a rollback, we set the estate back to the exact state it was in when the backup was made. All changes — everything that has happened between the moment the save happened and now — are lost, undone or reset. It is very important to understand what this means before you request a rollback. Some examples of unexpected consequences of a rollback include: People who are banned become unbanned for all parcels and the estate itself. People granted access suddenly find they are banned. Any land parcel changes are undone. Land sold or abandoned to tier down reverts to the prior owner, potentially pushing that person back over the new tier. Residents lose any land purchased after the backup, along with any content on that land. Recently edited parcel layouts revert to their prior form. Objects placed (rezzed) inworld after the backup are lost. No-copy objects are lost for good. Conversely, no-copy objects rezzed at the time of the backup but subsequently taken back into your Inventory reappear where they were. Warning: Deliberate use of rollbacks to obtain additional copies of no-copy content can be considered abuse and is dealt with accordingly. Any changes to builds themselves are undone: textures are reverted and prims reset to the state they were in at the moment the backup was taken. This may mean that recent tenants lose their prefab or their furniture and that new sale items disappear. Any terraforming that has been done is undone and any recent changes to land textures are lost. Script changes to objects performed after the backup point are lost. Scripted vendors that updated with new content after the backup have those changes removed. As you can see, rollbacks have significant repercussions and should only be requested when absolutely necessary. Canceling a private region If you no longer wish to own your private region, you have a couple of options: You may transfer ownership of the Private Region to another Resident. This requires both you and the buyer to enter support tickets with certain details about the transaction. See Transferring Private Regions for more details on the transfer process, cost, and timeframe. You may abandon your Private Region to Linden Lab. There is no fee to do so. No refunds will be given, and you will have the use of your region until the end of the current billing cycle. You need to notify the Concierge staff of your intention by submitting a ticket. Go to the Support Portal and click New Ticket Submission. In the Ticket Type dropdown, select Land and Region Issues. In the Region Request dropdown, select Region Cancellation Request. Fill out the requested details, and at the bottom, click Finish to submit the ticket. You can see billing dates and fees for all of your Private Regions at the Land Portal. If your Private Region fees are invoiced, you can see the date your billing cycle ends by logging into your Netsuite account. Note: If your next billing date falls within 5 business days of when you submit the ticket, please notify Concierge by phone or chat, so that you will not be billed automatically. Provide your ticket number in that conversation. When your ticket is processed, you'll receive a response indicating that the region will be taken offline on its next billing date and that you will not be charged any further maintenance fees. Please pick up or return any content on the region; any inventory remaining after the billing date will be deleted. Grandfathered pricing Some older regions have "grandfathered" or discounted pricing on their monthly maintenance fees. In February 2010, it was announced that these grandfathered maintenance fees would no longer be offered and that changing ownership or converting a grandfathered region would change its maintenance fee to the current monthly rate for its region type. As of November, 2015, you may now transfer grandfathered-priced Regions in accordance with the transfer pricing schedule. We are unable to swap the price of a current grandfathered region with a non-grandfathered region. Grandfathered pricing stays with the region for the life of the region or until it is transferred or converted. If a grandfathered region is abandoned and subsequently reactivated, its maintenance fee is updated to the current monthly rate for its region type. Region environment settings Region environment settings provide region managers the ability to customize the environment settings for their region. For example, a gothic castle might have a dark and gloomy environment, or a tropical island might be always bright and sunny. Residents who enter the region automatically see those settings unless they have chosen personal overrides. You may also see this feature referred to by its old name, Windlight Environment Settings. Environment settings control how you see the water and the sky (including the air around you) in Second Life. When you enter a region, by default you see the environment settings that have been configured for that region. If no region-specific settings have been configured, you see the default Second Life environment. The environment controls provide some sample pre-defined settings, but you can create your own settings and either use them as personal settings or apply them to any region for which you are an estate manager. For more information on setting a region's environment, visit the Environment editor page of our KnowledgeBase. Region boundaries The environment you see depends on the region you are in at the time. If adjacent regions have different environment settings, any parts of the adjacent region you can see still appear with the environment settings of the region you are looking from. When you cross a boundary into a region with different settings, the environment transitions smoothly over a few seconds to the new local settings. Teleports When you teleport into a region, there may be a brief period during which you see your previous environment or the default environment before the local environment settings are established. Setting region maturity Maturity ratings designate the type of content and behavior allowed in a region and affect search results. There are three maturity ratings in Second Life: General, Moderate, and Adult. To access Adult search results and regions, you must be at least 18 years old. For more information on how to access adult content, see Accessing Adult land and content. Note: Regardless of maturity rating, all content in Second Life must abide by our content guidelines. For the official content guidelines, including examples of prohibited content, please see Content Guidelines. To set your region's maturity rating: Open the World > Region/Estate > Region tab From the Rating dropdown menu, select General, Moderate, or Adult Click Apply For more information about maturity ratings in Second Life, see Maturity ratings.

Overview Obtaining grandfathered pricing Region transfers Overview Some older Regions have "grandfathered" or discounted pricing on their monthly maintenance fees. In 2010, we raised the maintenance fees of private Regions to match the increased costs of newer and more powerful server hardware to run new Regions, but allowed existing Region owners to continue paying the original lower monthly rate. While grandfathered pricing was originally a bonus for existing Region owners in 2010, there are options available for those who wish to obtain a grandfathered Region by other means. Obtaining grandfathered pricing Many grandfathered Regions were obtained before February 2010 and have simply retained their original pricing. However, there are ways to obtain a Region with grandfathered pricing, such as a Region transfer or special promotional offer. Region transfers As of November, 2015, you may transfer grandfathered-priced Regions in accordance with the transfer pricing schedule. We are unable to swap the price of a current grandfathered Region with a non-grandfathered Region. Grandfathered pricing stays with the Region for the life of the Region or until it is transferred or converted. If you're interested in purchasing a grandfathered region from another Resident, you can contact our Support team to confirm the region's billing date and its monthly maintenance fee. If a grandfathered Region is abandoned and subsequently reactivated, its maintenance fee is updated to the current monthly rate for its Region type. Limited-time "buy down" event For a limited time in 2016, we offered a chance to "buy down" the maintenance fees on your existing Regions. By paying a one-time fee, you could take advantage of grandfathered maintenance rates for the lifetime of your Region.

Private Regions overview Region maintenance fees Private Region types Event Regions Skill Gaming Regions Homestead Regions Openspace Regions Buying Private Regions Private Regions for Non-Profit and Educators Transferring Private Region ownership Purchasing from the land store Delivery Maturity ratings Guidelines for naming Private Regions Ordering adjacent regions Private Region customizations Initial customizations Renting a region for a special event Rental rate Requesting a region rental Converting Private Regions Canceling a private region Private Regions overview Private Regions are regions in Second Life that are directly paid for and controlled by a Resident. In general, Private Region ownership is an excellent choice for Residents who: Wish to enjoy land ownership separate from the ever-changing Second Life mainland. Want to build and control a Second Life experience with or without adjacent neighbors. Require more land controls than those provided on the mainland. Want to name the region their land is in (within the naming guidelines). Tip To find out who owns a particular region, select World > Place Profile > Estate and locate the listing for Owner. If the owner is listed as (nobody), the region is owned by Linden Lab and is considered mainland. Estates versus Private Regions An estate is an administrative container for regions, much like a country in real life controls a specific piece of land or territory. Estates can have as few as one region or as many as thousands of regions within them. The main advantage to having many regions in the same estate is to allow the same group of Estate Managers to have administrative power in them, like controlling ban lists, managing parcels, or adjusting settings. Estates having control over regions is similar to the idea of a country controlling different land areas in real life. In some ways, estates act like a country's government and control the land regions inside the country's possession. Some countries have many regions in them (like America with its states, or France's administrative régions), while other countries are small and have only one region in them. For example, Barbados is a single island (region) that is also a country (estate). Compare that to Indonesia, which is made up of 17,504 islands (regions) in a single country (estate). In these examples, the islands in the countries share common laws, currency, and government officials -- much like the different regions in an estate share an owner, estate managers, and selected settings like access. Other important notes about estates: A Resident can own many estates. An estate can never have less than one region. All regions in the same estate share the same owner; ownership (and who pays for the region maintenance) is always determined by the estate a region is in. Regions in the same estate share certain common settings, including but not limited to: Ban lists Estate managers Region Maintenance Fees Private region maintenance is charged on a monthly basis (except in the case of some special regions, like educator or non-profit regions operated by schools, charities or businesses). The region's maintenance fee is automatically charged to your account much like a Premium membership would be. To check when your private region maintenance fee will be charged to your account, visit secondlife.com and log in to your account. On the default Account Dashboard page, click the Land Manager link in the left column. Select My Regions Click on the Estate name for the region you'd like to review Your region's next billing date will be listed next to the region name If you have a positive Tilia Account credit from selling Linden Dollars or other transactions, your region maintenance fee will be deducted from your account credit. Any remaining balance due will be charged to the method of payment on file that you've selected for recurring fees. For more information about associating payment methods with different types of Second Life transactions, please see our Billing article. Region maintenance fees by type Region Type Setup Fee (USD$) Monthly Maintenance Fee (USD$) Full Region $349 $209 Homestead Region $149 $109 Openspace Region $99 $60 Skill Gaming Region $600 $345 Skill Gaming Elite Region $699 $599 Event Region Pro None $449 Event Region Elite None $599 The setup fee for a new region includes its first month of maintenance fees. Event Region Pro and Event Region Elite regions have no setup fee, but for new regions the first monthly maintenance fee will be charged on region creation. Existing regions that are upgraded to an Event Pro or Event Elite region will bill at the new monthly maintenance rate on their next regular billing day. Skill gaming regions are available to approved Skill Gaming Operators only. See Skill Gaming regions for more information. You may also choose to convert one or more of your Private Regions into multiple Openspaces or Homesteads, or you may choose to convert some of your Openspaces or Homesteads to different region types. After any conversion, you must always have at least one standard Private Region remaining. For full details on converting between different region types, see Converting Private Regions. Private Region types Undeveloped regions are delivered completely empty of objects and ready to be built and shaped to your liking. The table below explains some of the different types of Private Regions available for purchase in the Second Life® virtual world. In addition to the standard types below, there are also specialized region types available for events and skill gaming. Full Regions Homestead Regions Openspace Regions Description Our flagship region product which offers the greatest flexibility in performance and capacity. Lower capacity than a Full Region; intended for quiet residential or light commercial use. Available for Full Region owners & Premium Plus only. Intended for scenic use such as ocean, forest, or parks. Available for purchase by support ticket only. Size 65,536 m2 65,536 m2 65,536 m2 Setup fee US$349 US$149 US$99 Monthly maintenance US$209 US$109 US$60 Land capacity 20,000 5,000 1000 Max. avatars 100 20 10 Habitation allowed? Yes Yes No Rental allowed? Yes Yes No Events & classifieds? Yes Yes No Conversion to Full Region allowed? N/A Yes Yes Additional types of Private Regions In addition to standard Full Private Regions, existing region owners (and Premium Plus members, for a single homestead region specifically) may purchase other types of regions designed for specific types of activity and usage: event regions, skill gaming regions, homestead regions, and openspace regions. Event Regions Skill gaming regions Homestead regions Openspace regions Event Regions Event Regions are a special type of region with extra capacity for both visitors and objects, depending on the package chosen, as well as other benefits specifically aimed at making large gatherings of avatars possible. To make this additional capacity possible, Event Regions run on a special hardware configuration. Event Regions are available in two configurations, Event Region Pro and Event Region Elite. Event Region Pro The Pro configuration for Event Regions offers support for larger groups of avatars to be present in the region simultaneously with more capacity for scripts and an optional extended chat range to allow for all visitors to take part in events without the need to crowd into a smaller space. Additional services for special events (including an increase in land impact capacity and cloning of event regions) are available as a separate fee if desired. Existing full regions can be upgraded to an Event Region Pro with no additional setup fee; the monthly maintenance fee for the selected region would increase to USD$449 on its next monthly billing. Event Region Pro Specifications Land impact capacity: 20,000 (upgradeable) Avatar Limit: 175 Extended chat range (on request) Available Cloning of Event Region - USD $50 100% original content only Price: USD $449 per month No additional setup fee required; for new regions, the monthly maintenance of USD$449 is charged when the region is created Event Region Elite The Elite configuration for Event Regions includes the features of Event Region Pro but adds additional services as an all-inclusive option, for those who operate frequently recurring high profile events that require more active maintenance than an Event Pro Region configuration allows. Event Region Elite Specifications Land impact capacity: 30,000 Avatar Limit: 175 Extended chat range (on request) Event Region Cloning (100% original content only) No fees for Region Rollbacks Price: USD $599 per month No additional setup fee required; for new regions, the monthly maintenance of USD$599 is charged when the region is created Ordering an Event Region To order an Event Region, please submit a request via our support ticket system. Select Land & Region > Region Purchase Please include which configuration you would like for your region, Event Region Pro or Event Region Elite, as well as your preferred region name and location if you have the information available Skill gaming regions Skill gaming regions are regions specifically permitted to host approved skill gaming machines. They can only be purchased and owned by approved skill gaming operators. Please see the Skill Gaming FAQ for more information on skill gaming regions. Skill gaming regions pricing The setup fee for a new skill gaming region is USD$600 This includes the first month of region maintenance (USD$345) Skill Gaming Regions (Standard Full): USD$345 per month Skill Gaming Regions (Upgraded 30k Capacity): USD$375 per month Skill Gaming Elite regions: USD$599 per month Skill Gaming Elite regions have an increased avatar limit of 175 and an increased land impact of 30,000 included. Upgrading an existing Skill Gaming region to a Skill Gaming Elite region costs $99 USD (the difference between the setup fees). Homestead Regions A Homestead is a type of Private Region intended for such purposes as: Low-density rentals Light commercial use Quiet residential use Other specifications for Homesteads include: Available to full region owners only Premium Plus members may own one homestead without also owning a full region Lower price than a full region Events and classifieds are permitted Comes with lower usage limits than full regions: Land capacity set at 5000 Concurrent avatar limit set at 20 Pricing for Homesteads is as follows: Setup fee of $149 Monthly fee of $109 Land parcels on Homestead Regions Homesteads are approved for rental use within the Region limitations we have set. Openspace Regions Openspace Regions are a type of Private Region intended for light use such as water, hills, or forest. They are not intended for building, home rentals, or events. To own an Openspace Region, you must also own a Full Private Region. Openspace specifications include: Available to full region owners only Lower price than a full region or Homestead Events and classifieds are not permitted Comes with lower usage limits than full regions or Homesteads: Land capacity set at 1000 Concurrent avatar limit set at 10 Pricing for Openspaces is as follows: New Openspace regions are available by support ticket only. Monthly fee of $60 For more information about Openspace Regions, see the article titled Openspace Regions. Buying Private Regions There are several ways to purchase a private region. The quickest and easiest method is to purchase a new region from our online land store, which will automatically deliver your newly purchased region right away. Existing regions can also be purchased from other Residents, who may choose to transfer their region or estate to a new owner via the support ticket process at the Support Portal. Private Regions for Non-Profit and Educators Educators and non-profit institutions may be eligible to purchase private regions at a discount. For more information, please see Information for educators and the Education and Non-Profit Discount Terms and Conditions. Purchasing from the land store Before purchasing a new region from the land store, there are a few important notes to consider: To purchase land from the Land Store, you must have billing information on file. Add billing information on your billing information page. You can only purchase a Homestead region through the Land Store if you own or are also going to buy one or more full regions. Educators & non-profits have a separate purchasing website -- see Information for educators for more information. Premium Plus members who would like to purchase a single homestead without also owning a full region may do so by contacting our Support Team. Orders totaling more than US$10,000 can't be processed through the Land Store. If you're planning on buying more than US$10,000 worth of land, consider making multiple orders. You may have up to 10 items in your cart at once. Items don't stay in your cart forever; they stay in your cart until you or someone else buys them. A region is held as yours for 30 minutes after your last activity in the Land Store. If someone else buys it (or a neighboring region) after those 30 minutes have elapsed, it will appear in your cart as unavailable. Be sure your preferred region name meets the guidelines for naming private regions When you're ready, here's how to purchase your private region at the Land Store: Log into the Second Life Land Portal. Click Buy an Undeveloped Private Region. If you don't need the amount of control and space that comes with a region, you can choose to Buy Mainland. You are presented with thumbnail images and descriptions of several appealing choices. These are all starting points for your creative vision, and you can always reshape your land later. Click Continue to proceed. Use the comparison details on the "Land Detail" page to decide whether you want a Full Region or Homestead. Click Choose under your selection to continue. On the "Name your land" page, type a name in the Create a Region Name field and click Check Availability. If your selected name is not taken, you can proceed. Region Coordinates are automatically filled in; these coordinates are where your Region will be physically located on the World Map. If you'd prefer to override them, click [change], then click a map square that isn't crossed out in red. You can click the arrow buttons to look at different areas on the map. You can also search for another region to be near (for example, one that a friend or colleague owns -- see Ordering adjacent regions for how that works) Select answers to the survey questions -- if you're not sure or prefer not to answer, the Other option is available. Click the Add to Cart button. Once all details have been successfully verified, you can shop for more regions (same steps as above) or click Proceed to Checkout. A summary of your region order will appear on the next page. Click Place Order to confirm your purchase. Delivery Once your region purchase is complete, you receive an email with the details. A new region is generally delivered within 15 minutes. Occasional service updates may affect that time, so see the Second Life Grid Status Reports page if it's taking longer than expected. You're also welcome to contact the Concierge support team at the Support Portal during business hours to check on your new region's progress. Purchasing a private region from another Resident via region transfer If you're interested in purchasing an existing region from another Resident, you may be able to do so by completing a region transfer through support tickets at the Support Portal. When you've found someone who wishes to sell their private region, both the buyer and seller come to an agreement on the sales price and submit tickets to initiate the transfer. Please see Transferring Private Regions for more information on this process. If you already own a private region, and are interested in selling it to another Resident, this may also be possible. Please see Transferring Private Regions for more information. Maturity ratings New regions are delivered with a default maturity rating of Moderate. You can customize this using the Region/Estate tools: From the Viewer menus, go to World > Place Profile > Region/Estate. Click the Region tab. From the Rating dropdown, select either or Adult. Click Apply. Note: If your region is Moderate or Adult, only Residents, including yourself, who have set their maturity preference correctly will be able to access the region. Otherwise, if they try to enter, they'll be prompted either to set their preferences or be age-verified. See Maturity ratings for more information. Guidelines for naming Private Regions Follow these guidelines when naming your Private Region (island) or estate. Private Region or estate names: Must not already be in use. Must be more than 2, but less than 26 characters (spaces count). Must contain three words or less. Must use only alphanumeric characters (no punctuation). Must not be the name of a real life city (however "New York Island" or "Los Angeles City" are fine). Cannot include SL, Linden, Linden Lab, Second Life etc in the name. Must comply with General maturity rating guidelines. Do not use the following as a Private Region name or estate name: The name of another person to the extent that it may cause deception or confusion. A name which violates any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right. A name which may mislead other users to believe you to be an employee of Linden Lab. A name which Linden Lab deems in its discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive (obscenities in any language and however spelled; language that is racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory in nature). Linden Lab reserves the right to change Private Region and estate names as we see fit. Ordering adjacent regions It is possible for two people to order adjacent Private Regions. The first person must: Order a Private Region, then log into the Second Life website and click the Land Manager tab. Click the My Regions tab. Click the estate name of the estate for which you want to allow neighbors. In the Allowed Neighbors column, click the edit link for a specific region. Type the name of the Resident you want to allow as a neighbor, then click Add. Click Close. The second person must Order a Private Region as described in Purchasing from the land store. During the ordering process, you may place your new region adjacent to the first person's region. Private Region customizations Initial customizations With your region order, you can specify the following customizations: Name: You can select a unique name when creating the region. See the Guidelines for Private Region Naming for details. Terrain shape: You can select from one of the six predesigned templates (including flat green land and open water). Estate: You can assign your region to its own estate or to an estate you already own (with other Private Regions owned by you). Your Estate tools allow you to control settings for more than one region at once. Additional features and controls for Private Regions and Estates Estate owners possess a broad array of powers and options for maintaining their Private Regions and shaping them to fit their desired appearance. Many of these options can be found in the Second Life Viewer's Region/Estate window. For a more exhaustive list of management options such as region rollbacks, covenants, and terraforming tools, see Managing Private Regions. Land parcels on your regions Parcels can be sold to other Residents, but you remain responsible for the monthly payments. You can make arrangements for these new parcel owners to pay you for use of the estate, but that's between you and the other Residents. Many estate owners use the estate's covenant to explain their payment structure. Estate owners can deed out the land parcels on regions in their estate to a group. The actual ownership is not conveyed to the group (you still own the regions), and group members cannot pay for your regions by contributing land allocations. The region owner (you) are always billed the region's monthly payment, no matter how the group land is set up. Read more about estates and groups in Group-owned land. Renting a region for a special event If you don't need to own a private region full time, we may be able to help! Linden Lab offers temporary Full Region rentals for events and limited time usage. Rental amounts are to be paid in full at the beginning of the rental period. Details Reservations must be made 2 weeks in advance and are on a first-come first-served basis. Residents must include a full description of the event when applying. Minimal rental period is 3 days. Residents are allowed to terraform the land and do not incur tier fees for temporary ownership of the land. Residents cannot transfer the land during the rental period. The original state of the regions will be saved immediately before the rental period. At the conclusion of the rental period, the regions will be restored. Rental rate Land rental rates are different depending on whether you want to rent Private Regions or space on the mainland. Private Regions are US$50 per region per day. Mainland regions are L$4,000 per region per day. Mainland rental regions are Iridium, Osmium, Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium, and Ruthenium (named after the platinum group metals.) Linden Lab does not offer discounts on region rentals at this time. Note You must have a premium account to rent mainland regions. You can rent a Private Region with any account type. Requesting a region rental If you're interested in renting, please submit a Land and Region Issues ticket with the Region Request field set to Region Rental from our Support page. Additional information you'll need to submit includes: The number of regions you want Rental start and end dates Whether or not you need to be able to terraform the regions A full description of your event Converting Private Regions You may choose to convert some of your Private Regions from one Private Region type to another. This article covers the different scenarios and costs associated with each possible conversion. For information on converting your Regions from one capacity type to another (such as a full region to a homestead region), please see our article on Converting Private Regions. Canceling your private region If you no longer wish to own a private region, there are two ways to have the region removed from your ownership: You may transfer ownership of the Private Region to another Resident. This requires both you and the buyer to enter support tickets with certain details about the transaction. See Managing Private Regions for more details on the transfer process, cost, and timeframe. You may abandon your Private Region to Linden Lab. There is no fee to do so. No refunds will be given, and you will have the use of your region until the end of the current billing cycle. You need to notify the Concierge staff of your intention by submitting a ticket. Go to the Support Portal and click New Ticket Submission. In the Ticket Type dropdown, select Land and Region Issues. In the Region Request dropdown, select Region Cancellation Request. Fill out the requested details, and at the bottom, click Finish to submit the ticket. When your ticket is processed, you'll receive a response indicating that the region will be taken offline on its next billing date and that you will not be charged any further maintenance fees. Please pick up or return any content on the region; any inventory remaining after the billing date will be deleted. You can see billing dates and fees for all of your Private Regions at the Land Portal. If your Private Region fees are invoiced, you can see the date your billing cycle ends by logging into your Netsuite account. Note If your next billing date falls within 5 business days of when you submit the ticket, please notify the Concierge support team by phone or chat, so that you will not be billed automatically. Please have your ticket number ready, if possible.

Overview Why buy land? Types of land How to buy land Buying mainland Buying Private Regions Additional tips Land allowance (tier) Land use fees Exceptions Finding land to buy Land sales in Private Regions Object land capacity More than one parcel in a region Vehicles and parcel limits Object bonus factor In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português Pусский Türkçe Overview Why buy land? Owning land can be one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences in Second Life. Once you become a landowner, you truly become a part of the Second Life community, and can create and keep things inworld that will be there when you return. Your own land is a space you can customize however you want, and a canvas where your creations can come to life. Land in Second Life is a place to call home, where you can invite friends to hang out, hold events, and more. You can use many of the virtual items you purchase in Second Life—like clothes, accessories and cars—anywhere. But if you purchase a house, a garden, or an entire forest, you're going to need somewhere to put it: your own plot of land! Types of land Mainland Mainland refers to places located on the Linden Lab-owned and operated mainland continents. These continents are made up of regions connected to one another, with roads, waterways and railroads that run between them, which make them particularly well-suited to exploring in vehicles like sailboats and aircraft. Within these Linden-owned regions, the land is divided into parcels (or smaller pieces) which eligible members can own for themselves and use for businesses, homes, and more. You must be a Plus, Premium or Premium Plus member to own a parcel on the mainland, but most areas are open for visitors and exploration. Look for the blue Infohub (ℹ️) logo on the World Map to find a public meeting space to start your explorations. Private estates and regions Private estates and the regions in them are operated by Residents who pay for the entire region directly to Linden Lab. In private regions, the owner has more control over access, appearance, and the content inside the region. Private regions are typically standalone or connected to other private regions, allowing for the highest degree of privacy and customization of experience in Second Life. Private regions come in a few different types, largely differing based on their capacity for content and their intended use. For more information, see Private Regions. Land terminology There are a lot of different terms for land in Second Life, which can be a bit confusing. Here are a few of the more common terms and what they usually mean: A parcel is a piece of land within a region. It can be as small as a 16 square meter of grass or as large as the entire region's border (65,536 square meters, or 256 meters per side of the map square). Different parcels within the same region can have different owners, access settings, music stations, or rules about who can rez content on the land. A region is a uniquely named square on the Second Life map. They might be owned by Linden Lab as part of the mainland continent, or individually by a Resident as a private region. Every region exists in an estate, which is what determines the owner. An estate is an administrative container for regions, much like a country in real life controls a specific piece of land or territory. Estates can have only one region in their jurisdiction, or in the case of the mainland estate owned by Linden Lab it can contain thousands of regions. This is similar to the idea of a country controlling different land areas in real life, with estates acting like a country and regions the land inside the country's possession. For example, the country of Barbados is a single island (region) that is also a country (estate). Compare that to Indonesia, which is made up of 17,504 islands (regions) in a single country (estate). In these examples, the islands in the countries share common laws, currency, and government officials -- much like the different regions in an estate share an owner, estate managers, and selected settings like access. How to buy land There are several ways to buy land: Buy a parcel on the mainland if you have a Plus, Premium, or Premium Plus membership. Premium and Premium Plus members can receive a free Linden Home, which is a great way to get started with land ownership. See Linden Homes for more information. Buy an entire region (a private island). Instead of buying land, you can rent land: On a private estate - see Renting land from other Residents. On the mainland - see Renting a region for a special event. Buying mainland Most land on the mainland is owned by other Residents, who may choose to sell their land if they like. Residents can set the price for their land parcels by setting it for sale in the World > About Land interface, and when they make their land available for sale it will appear in Search. To search for land for sale by another Resident: Open the World > Search menu, or click the 🔎 icon on the toolbar in the Viewer. Select the Land to buy or rent tab on the left menu. Select your preferred options for your search: You can choose to look for land on the Mainland, on a full or homestead Private Region, or for mainland available for Auction. You can choose to look for land to Buy or to Rent. Private region offerings are considered rentals; the owner of the private region always fully owns the land inside it, but may choose to rent parcels in their private region to others. Please be sure to read the Covenant of any region you buy or rent land in, and be aware that rental land on private regions is available by the region owner's choice. You can select which region Maturity levels you prefer for your search results. Linden Lab does not usually set land for direct sale on the mainland. However, there are two special cases in which you can obtain mainland parcels from Linden Lab: Auctions: Linden Lab regularly auctions mainland parcels via Second Life Land Auctions. Land owned on the mainland may be subject to an additional land use fee (also known as a tier fee), which is a monthly charge in addition to a membership subscription based on how much land you own. Abandoned land: In some special cases, Linden Lab sells abandoned mainland parcels to individual Residents. For more information, see Abandoned land. Remember that you can buy land from your fellow Residents, and if you want a whole region to yourself, you can buy a Private Region from the Land Store. Land owned by Governor Linden named "Protected Land" will not generally be terraformed or sold to Residents. Requirements To purchase mainland land in Second Life, you must have a Plus, Premium, or Premium Plus membership with current payment information on file and your account must be in good standing. You may also be required to have a clean disciplinary record. Plus members receive 512 square meters of land allowance included with their membership. Premium members receive 1024 square meters of land allowance (tier) included with their membership, meaning that they incur no extra land use fees for owning mainland as long as they own 1024 square meters or less. For more information, see Land tier. A Premium account also provides many other benefits. For more information, see Premium membership. Premium Plus members receive 2048 square meters of land allowance (tier) included with their membership. How to buy mainland Once you find the land you want and have signed up for an eligible membership (like Premium), buying it is easy: Right-click the parcel you want to purchase. Choose About Land. Click the Buy Land button. Review the purchase information. Click OK. Buying Private Regions A private region is a 256m x 256m piece of virtual land -- an entire square of the map with a unique name that a single region owner controls. Regions run on a single server and have their own set of controls beyond those provided to mainland parcel owners. For more information see: Private Regions: Buying Private Regions Managing private regions Requirements By purchasing a Private Region, you are agreeing to pay the initial setup fee, plus monthly service fees for as long as you own the region. You are also agreeing to a restocking fee if you cancel your order. You will be charged the setup fee once the order is completed. Monthly fees begin 30 days from the date you complete your purchase. Residents don't require a special membership or a subscription like Plus or Premium to purchase a private region; Basic members are welcome to do so. Private Region owners receive Concierge level service from our Support team in order to assist with any questions or issues they might have about their region. Additional tips The following tips will help you purchase land wisely and confidently: Make sure you know exactly what you're purchasing! Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-P on your keyboard to toggle parcel boundary lines. Right-click the parcel to bring up the About Land window, which shows you the land's Area in square meters. Look at the About Land window's General tab to see if objects are included in the sale. Check the Parcel land capacity entry in the About Land window's Objects tab. This indicates how much land impact the land can support before it stops allowing new objects to enter.. Important: If you don't own the land yet, the Region capacity entry is not a measure of the object usage you will receive! If the Advanced menu is active, try hiding objects by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-1 on your keyboard to make sure there isn't a hidden "hole" in the property that you are unwittingly purchasing with the rest of the land. Make sure you're happy with the overall shape of the land. Most land in Second Life can only be raised 4m above or below its original position, and the previous owner may have already reached that limit. Land allowance (tier) The mainland is a continent of conjoined regions that can be split into smaller parcels, and many Residents own parcels of different sizes spread out across several different regions. Because of this, land ownership is charged not based on a flat rate (like a private region) but on how many square meters a Resident owns simultaneously, billed in increasing levels (often called 'tiers'). For example, owning up to 1,024 square meters of land is included in a standard Premium membership. If you buy a little more land and now own 1,100 square meters of land, you've moved up to the next tier level -- between 1,025m and 1,536m of land. Because you've purchased more than the included land allowance, a monthly land fee will be charged to your account. Each tier level has a set price, whether you have just a little land over the limit or if you're using every square meter allowed by that level. 1,025m of land costs the same as 1535m of land, in terms of monthly land allowance fee. Land allowance (often simply referred to as "tier) is a key concept of Second Life land ownership. "Tier" refers to the maximum amount of land you can own on the mainland before your land fee goes up to the next level, measured in square meters (m2). Plus members receive 512m2 included in their membership subscription. While they can't receive a Linden Home, Plus members can purchase parcels on the mainland as well as take part in Second Life Land Auctions. A standard Premium membership includes 1024m2 of tier, which can be used for a free Linden Home or to own other land elsewhere on the mainland. Premium Plus members receive 2048m of land allowance included in their membership fees. Please note, every avatar is limited to one (1) Linden Home per avatar, regardless of their available land allowance. For the most up to date information on current mainland pricing and fees, please see our Mainland Pricing and Fees page. Example 👤 Hiccup.Gardener loves the mainland and owns several parcels. As a Premium member, they receive 1024m included with their membership. They also pay for an extra 4096m of land allowance so they can enjoy a few different locations. They have a coveted corner lot Linden Home in Bellisseria with a great view (1024m) They own a waterfront beach near the Blake Sea so they can go sailing (2048m) They also have a parcel near Bay City for their giant robot fight club business (2048m). The two 2048m parcels together equal 4096m, using up their extra allowance. The Linden Home uses their included 1024m land allowance, leaving them with no available land allowance remaining. If they want to expand their real estate empire, their monthly land fee will increase based on how much they choose to purchase. Land use fees If you want to own more land than you have available at your current land allowance level, you must upgrade to the next level up. You can use the Land Use Fees page to update your tier level, or in some cases you can simply purchase a larger piece of land and (with your approval) the system will move you to the next tier level as part of the purchase. Upgrading to a higher tier will increase your monthly land use fees, but you will be able to acquire more land for your use or to donate to one of your groups. Before you purchase a parcel of land, check the purchase window carefully. The system will warn you if purchasing a parcel will increase your monthly land fee. You can manage your land use fees and see which level you're at on the Account Dashboard at SecondLife.com. Land use tiers and pricing are shown in the Land Use Fees page. If you find that you're using quite a lot of land allowance, you can continue to increase your allowed holdings to meet your needs. If you sell the land and move back to a lower level of land usage, the system automatically reduces you to that lower level's fee -- but please be advised that land allowance that is donated to a group is not automatically lowered if the land owned by the group is sold. Anyone contributing land allowance to a group will continue to contribute until they manually reduce their donation. Please see Group-owned land for more information. Note: Private Region (island) fees are charged independently, and do not affect your land fee tier level. Exceptions Note the following exceptions to the general rules stated above: You can own a private estate yet not have a mainland tier. Group-owned land gets a 10% bonus tier. See Group-owned land for more information. Some Resident-owned private estates have their own distinct tier systems which are not part of Linden Lab's land use fees. If you are renting from such an estate, contact the owner or another appropriate Resident directly for assistance. Finding land to buy The inworld Search tool enables you to browse and filter a comprehensive database of real estate listings. Simply follow these steps: Open the World > Search menu, or click the 🔎 icon on the toolbar in the Viewer. Select the Land to buy or rent tab on the left menu. Select your preferred options for your search: You can choose to look for land on the Mainland, on a full or homestead Private Region, or for mainland available for Auction. You can choose to look for land to Buy or to Rent. Private region offerings are always considered rentals; the owner of the private region always fully owns the land inside it, but may choose to rent parcels in their private region to others. Please be sure to read the Covenant of any region you buy or rent land in, and be aware that rental land on private regions is available by the region owner's choice. You can select which region Maturity levels you prefer for your search results. Add any keywords you're interested in, like "waterfront" or "snow", or leave the Optional Keywords blank. Click Search. Use the filters on the left to adjust your results, including the Area of the parcel (size) or the Price in Linden Dollars (L$). Click on the column names to sort by Name, Type, L$ Price, Area, or L$/m (Linden dollars per square meter) Click on a listing to view more details. When you find a property that interests you, click Teleport to go explore it! Tip Looking for land on the mainland near you? Select World > World Map to open the map, then select the Land for Sale checkbox. Nearby land for sale is highlighted on the map. Second Life's Auctions also list land parcels up for sale to the highest bidder. Auction parcels are priced in Linden Dollars (L$). Land sales in Private Regions The mechanics of buying and selling land in a Private Region are very similar to the process on the mainland. However, there are a few key differences that buyers and sellers should take into account when making a land transaction in a Private Region. Similarities As the seller, the Private Region owner can split parcels of the region and set them for sale. The technical steps for buying the land are identical. Differences 'Buying' a parcel in a private region puts that parcel in your name, but you must pay rent to the region owner to maintain the land. Check the rental rates of a parcel before you purchase it! Private regions typically have a scripted rental system which Residents must pay in order to keep the land they've acquired. Parcel rentals on private regions may be rented by the month, week, day, or in some cases hours -- a private region owner has complete control over how they prefer to charge tenants for land in their region. Parcels in Private Regions are governed by covenants. A covenant is a kind of contract, defined by the owner of the Private Region, to which you must agree before buying the land. It may outline details such as local theme, rental fees, architectural regulations, and rules of behavior. Land purchased in a Private Region does not count against your land use tier or require a Premium membership, however the region owner will typically charge you a fee for continuing use of the land (rent). The Private Region owner may evict you from your parcel in a Private Region at any time. Private Region owners have absolute power over their estates and are within their rights to reclaim land as they see fit. Make sure to read your region's covenant closely for terms of use before you acquire your parcel. Private Region owners have use of the Region/Estate window which includes such region access options as: Access restricted to Residents based on payment status Region maturity can be set to General, Moderate, or Adult Important Note If a region owner changes the maturity setting for their region, it may affect who can access your parcel and view search listings made from it. Read the region covenant and communicate with the region owner (or estate manager where applicable) to avoid any disruptions to your parcel settings or access. Object land capacity Every region has a finite capacity for content -- that is, there's a limit to how many objects a region can hold that's determined by the type of the region (a full region versus a homestead, for example) and the hardware running that region. The limit for how much content a parcel can hold is typically based on its size -- the large a parcel is, the larger percentage of a region's content budget it can hold. This is called object land capacity (sometimes referred to by its old name of 'prim limit' -- before mesh, all objects were created out of 'primitive' objects like cubes and spheres linked together). With prims, a chair made from four linked cubes would have a land impact of four (one for each cube). The corresponding calculation for mesh objects are different, since they're complex and can't be measured as simply as a stack of prims. For more information on how mesh objects contribute to a parcel's available object capacity, see Calculating land impact. More than one parcel in a region All parcels belonging to the same owner (or group) in the same region share their land capacity. You can view this represented as Region capacity in the About Land window. In this way, it is possible for the Parcel land impact number to be higher than the Parcel land capacity number. To view the About Land window, stand on a parcel and select World > About Land. For information about objects on the land, select the Objects tab in the About Land window. Vehicles and parcel limits Objects that are Selected / sat upon do not count against the Parcel land capacity. This allows vehicles to pass freely through parcels that might not otherwise be able to support them. However, objects that are sat upon or selected (for editing) do count against a region's total capacity. If a Region is full, you cannot drive a vehicle into it. Object bonus factor In Private Regions, the owner may set an Object Bonus to increase the land capacity of each parcel. This setting multiplies the capacity each parcel can support by the Bonus Factor. It is important to note that this does not increase the maximum capacity supported by the Region, which means that not all parcels in the Region will be able to reach their listed maximum capacity.

Introduction Features Themes Bellisseria First-generation themes Getting your Linden Home Prerequisites Checking if you have enough land allowance available Signing up Troubleshooting Finding your Linden Home Abandoning or changing your Linden Home Enjoying your Linden Home What you can do Covenant and restrictions Etiquette House controllers House control panels Content creation packs Textures Privacy Getting help Requesting terraforming of adjoining land Bellisseria Fairgrounds In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português Pусский Türkçe Introduction Linden Homes are ready-to-move-in homes in themed communities that are available only to Premium and Premium Plus account members. Premium and Premium Plus members can get a free Linden Home, in addition to the other benefits of premium membership. For more information, see Premium membership. Note Linden Homes are limited in quantity, and only one Linden Home may be held by a Resident at a time. Features Linden Homes contain one or more of the following features, depending on the type of home: Touch entry - Left-click the front door to enter and exit your home. Touch lighting - Click the lights to toggle them on and off. Working fireplace - Click the fireplace to toggle a fire on and off. You'll also get a control panel that enables you to manage your home accessories and to change the textures used in your home. For more information, see Using the control panel. Themes ✏️ Note: For detailed photos of our Linden Home offerings and more information about the new Linden Home continent of Bellisseria, visit our New Linden Homes 2019 page on the Official Second Life wiki. Bellisseria The second generation of Linden Homes -- the New Linden Homes -- started to become available in 2019. They occupy a large continent named Bellisseria with close to 1500 regions of residential land and navigable waterways, a network of roads, and community areas, with more being created all the time. These new homes may be located in the mountains or along the shore or in a rolling landscape of low hills and river valleys. Unlike the first generation of Linden Homes, which offered themed areas on separate Regions, the Bellisserian homes blend themes across the entire continent. Depending on the theme you choose to live in, your home’s parcel may be either 1024m2 or 512m2. Your house might overlook houseboats along the ocean or might be inland in a traditional suburban neighborhood. Wherever you live, you will be within range of recreational and shopping areas and will be able to travel around the continent by car or boat if you wish. If you'd like to learn more about the Bellisserian community and available options, tutorials, and more, visit the BelliHub region to get a close-up look at all of the current Linden Home themes and models. Traditional homes Traditional suburban homes are arranged along tree-lined streets on 1024m2 parcels. The homes are one and two-story buildings with shingle roofs, and in most models, a porch or patio area. A typical home has a two or more large rooms on the main floor and may have one or two upstairs. As described in a later section of this guide, you may use the House Controller on your parcel to choose among the styles pictured here, and you may use the house controller to change colors and details both inside and on the outside of the house. A traditional home is set back from the sidewalk and may have a hedge, a wall, or a low fence to set it apart from its neighbors. You may add to the planting or other landscaping elements on the parcel . Traditional homes are all within a convenient distance from communal park areas where you can join your friends for picnics, sports, or family activities. Some communal areas offer a dining or dance area, or a pool where you can relax. Houseboats With a houseboat home, you can enjoy life in coves and inlets around the perimeter of the continent or the large nearby island, or along rivers or around the large bay in the center of the continent. You cannot travel on a houseboat, but each houseboat parcel has room for you to moor your own sailboat or other watercraft. All water areas around the New Linden Homes continent are navigable and public. The houseboat models have large rooms with a high ceiling and skylights, plus a deck area outside for you to relax or entertain on. Most houseboats are on 16 m x 64 m water parcels. Some are on square 32 m x 32 m parcels. Therefore, all have an area of 1024m2. All are accessible by open water. You may also walk easily from one place to another, along wooden docks that divide the parcels, or along sandbars and spits from the mainland. Houseboats are all within convenient reach of community areas and cultural venues (lighthouses, beaches, and community buildings where you may gather with friends). Campers Experience the country life while you sit back and relax in your own Linden Homes camping trailer. Spacious trailers -- 8 different models in all -- are all set on 512m2 parcels in beautiful wooded regions. Depending on the model you choose, your home can be a sleek, aerodynamically designed trailer, or one that looks more like a Roma caravan, or one of several other designs. Victorian Homes Be prepared for late 19th century living when you choose a spacious Victorian-themed home. All homes in this theme are on 32 x 32m parcels and sited in the sort of small community that would have been new 150 years ago -- complete with cobblestone streets and wrought iron street lamps. By using your House Controller, you may select any of four models, featuring signature Victorian features like turrets, expansive porches, and elegant bay windows. Log Homes The log homes are your opportunity to enjoy comfortable country living. Nestled in forested hills and valleys, these upscale log homes bring you close to nature and still let you enjoy the clean, modern lines of a house that you can live in year-round. Four styles each offer high ceilings and both upstairs and downstairs rooms. Other amenities include balconies, large windows, and a porch. Stilt Homes The stilt homes offer upscale living along the coasts of Bellisseria. Homes are raised on stilts, well above sea level, in the style of many shoreline homes in the Southeastern USA. Some homes are placed along or very near to the beach. Others are over water, attached to wooden piers. Others still are freestanding over water, only accessible by boat. Enjoy the luxury of home on a full-sized 1024m2 parcel and access to nearby shared public recreation areas. You may choose any one of the four one- or two-story styles from your house controller, regardless of where your stilt home parcel lies. Each has a large deck, where you can enjoy an evening meal or watch the waves. Chalets Chalet theme homes are modeled after stylized European alpine wood-timbered houses (fachwerkhaus), of a type that you might expect to find in mountains of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, or northern Italy. These are not rustic buildings, but contemporary homes ready for 21st century living. There are four basic models, named Reizend, Edelweiss, Matterhorn, and Alpenrose. Each is also available in an open-plan version that looks the same as one of the basic models but has fewer interior walls, so that you can add your own walls to create a customized floor plan. The open plan versions are named Ravensburg, Eikelen, Moritzburg, and Albus. Fantasy Homes The Fantasy theme is designed to appeal to residents with a flair for the magical and mystic side of Second Life. Homes are situated on an isolated subcontinent, accessible only by teleportation or through the misty seaway from the coast at Rigamarole. There, you can wander among fanciful giant mushrooms and glowing crystals or take a silent ride on a huge moth. Streets and regional parks are full of bioluminescent trees that come alive after dark with a fairy-like glow, as do the streets, the rocks, and even the roof of your home. You can imagine yourself in a world populated by faeries, wizards, and mythical creatures, a place where anything is possible, including life in a mystical treehouse. There are six basic models, named Amberbrooke, Fairybrooke, Mistbrooke, Pixiebrooke, Rosebrooke, and Stonebrooke. Each will also be available in an open-plan version that looks the same as one of the basic models but has fewer interior walls, so that you can add your own walls to create a customized floor plan. The open plan versions are named Angelspell, Fairyspell, Pixiespell, Moonspell, Ragespell, and Steepspell. Newbrooke Homes The Newbrooke theme neighborhoods recall one of the most popular themes in the original Linden Homes regions, the Meadowbrook homes. There are eight house models, each designed with sleek, modern lines and plenty of windows. These are homes for today's suburban lifestyle. As a homeowner, you can customize the exterior of any home by choosing wood, stucco, or metal siding and you can select among preset colors to tint the siding, trim, and brickwork. Four of the models (Aldridge, Bradbury, Coniston, and Heaton) are designed to fit on 1024m2 parcels. You may choose any of the other four (Denver, Ender, Faraday, and Gatewood) for either a 1024m2 parcel or a smaller 512m2 parcel. Sakura Homes The word “sakura” means “cherry blossom” in Japanese – an appropriate name for this part of Bellisseria, where there are cherry trees everywhere you look. When you live or visit here, you are stepping into neighborhoods inspired by Japanese communities, a mix of modern architecture that respects classical design concepts. Homes are set on land that is gently rolling – although occasionally surprisingly high – and full of small parks and canals. Homes have traditional tile roofs and stucco exterior walls with wood trim. There are eight basic models also named after flowers in Japanese: Shion, Ajisai, Renge, Kaneshon, Kosumosu, Tenjikubotan, Botan, and Himawari. The first four of those models are designed for 1024m2 parcels; the other four may be rezzed on either 1024m2 or 512m2 parcels. In addition, each of the eight basic models is also available in an “open plan” version that has fewer interior walls, so you can customize the interior space easily. The open plan versions are named Sumire, Asagao, Rabenda, Kuchinashi, Kinmokusei, Tsubaki, Benibara, and Haibisukasu. Altogether, then, you may choose among 16 homes. Ranch Homes The ranch theme is your invitation to step into life on the grasslands of central North America. This is farm country, a land of rolling prairie and big sky. It’s a place where you can imagine raising wheat or corn or soybeans and having a few cattle, a horse or two, and a flock of chickens. You might have a barn stocked with hay bales and a tractor and harvest machinery. Or, perhaps, you could have the large garden for vegetables and flowers that you always wanted. Ranch homes are designed for Premium Plus members. They each are on 32m x 64m (2048m2) parcels. These are wood frame homes with wide porches and shingle roofs and wide eaves. All are designed as open plan homes, so there is at least one large room that you can divide with add-on walls to create your own floor plan. Some styles are small – meant for simple country living – and some are larger two-story homes that are suited for people who need room to spread out. First-generation themes First-generation Linden Homes have limited space and land capacity. Homes in these themes are still available for purchase, but provide less land capacity and use older-style control panels: Tahoe - Rustic cabin retreats with winding roads among hills and pine forests. Elderglen - Fantasy dwellings with winding roads around hills and giant trees. Sahreta Osumai - Traditional Japanese homes nestled in picturesque areas with mossy rocks and colorful trees. Meadowbrook - California modern suburban homes with decks perfect for barbecues! First-generation Linden Homes have a land capacity of 175 on a 512 m2 parcel and have slightly different guidelines in their covenant. Please review the About Land > Covenant section of your first-generation Linden Home for the specific guidelines that apply to your home. Getting your Linden Home You can get a Linden Home when you sign up for a premium account, upgrade your basic account to premium, or if you already have a premium account and have not claimed your Linden Home yet. Prerequisites If you have a Premium or Premium Plus account and you have at least 512m2 available tier then you qualify for a Linden Home. For example, if you have a new Premium account — you've just joined Second Life as a premium account or upgraded from a basic account — and haven't changed your land usage, then you have exactly 1024m2 of available tier. Note: You don't have to use your membership's land allowance for a Linden Home. You can use it instead towards other mainland purchases or you can contribute it to group tier allocations. Also, if you abandon your Linden Home, you can use your included land allowance to buy other mainland parcels. Checking if you have enough land allowance available If you don't have any land already in Second Life, then you will always have enough land tier, because each premium account comes with 1024m2 of land tier. There are two ways to check if you have enough available tier: Inworld: From the Viewer menus, choose World > My land holdings.... Your available land tier is listed in Available for land purchases. Website: If you already own land, then you can also check if you have enough land tier on the Second Life website: Go to Your Account. On the left side of the page, click Account Summary. Find the section called Land Holdings Available square meters for purchase at your current tier is listed under Available for purchase. Signing up The Linden Home registration process offers options for theme, home type, and home name. Once you submit your registration, your selected home is immediately generated on the next available parcel within your selected theme. You cannot request a specific region or parcel location unless you are a Premium Plus member -- please see the Premium Plus FAQ for more information on how to do that. If you don't have an account yet: Go to join.secondlife.com. Complete your registration. Upgrade to premium as prompted. Go to Linden Home registration and log in with your Second Life account and password. If you have a Basic or Plus membership and would like to upgrade: Go to Premium Membership registration and log in with your Second Life account. Follow the account upgrade process. Once your account is upgraded to Premium or Premium Plus Membership, the page will redirect to Linden Home registration. Existing premium accounts Go to Linden Home registration and log in with your Second Life account and password. View the available themed communities and home options within each theme. Click on your preferred home image. Name your home. Click Next. Read the Terms and Conditions and check the box agreeing to them. Click Accept. Review your Linden Home information on the confirmation page. Click Go to your Home or use the SLurl provided. Note: Confirmation is sent to the email address you provided to register your Second Life account. Troubleshooting If you didn't receive your email confirmation, be sure to check your email application's spam folder. It's also possible there has been an error in the email process, and your Linden Home is ready and waiting for you. If your Linden Home is ready, a landmark is sent to you inworld. If there appears to be such a problem, head to the Support Portal and submit a ticket. Identify whether the email did not go through and your home is actually available, or whether there was a problem with the registration process overall. Finding your Linden Home Your welcome email will provide the location of your Linden Home. If you lost or did not receive your welcome email, then there are two ways to locate your Linden Home: On the Second Life website: Log in using your Second Life username and password. Go to your Account Dashboard. On the left, click Land Manager. Click My Mainland. Look for the name of the Linden Home that you chose when you registered. Click the link in the Location column to teleport there. Inworld: Login to Second Life with the Second Life Viewer Choose World > My land holdings... Select the parcel that matches your chosen Linden Home name. Click Teleport. You will be teleported to your Linden Home. Abandoning or changing your Linden Home To change your choice of Linden Home type, you must abandon your current Linden Home and then register for a new one. To abandon your Linden Home: Choose World > About Land and click the General tab. Click Abandon Land. After you confirm your choice, the land is removed from your account. Now if you wish, you can register for another Linden Home. Warning: Please use this reasonably: if you abandon and choose a new Linden Home five times in 24 hours, you are temporarily blocked from choosing another. You will need to wait 24 hours before registering again. Enjoying your Linden Home What you can do You can: Decorate your home with furniture or other items from the Second Life Marketplace. Please see the Covenant for your Linden Home region for more details. Your partner or friends can help you decorate as well. Linden Home parcels work just like any other parcel of land in that regard; who can rez objects on your land depends on the About Land settings. See Managing land for more information. Customize textures used in your Linden Home via the control panel. See Using the control panel. Covenant and restrictions Linden Home regions are special communities, and as such, they have special rules that govern them which are available in the region's covenant. The covenant describes how you can use Linden Home land. The covenants for the original Linden Homes and the Bellisseria continent Linden Homes are slightly different, so please be sure to review the covenant that applies to the region your home is located in. To view the covenant which applies to your Linden Home, go to your Linden Home's land and choose World > Region / Estate, then click the Covenant tab or right-click on the ground and choose About Land then click on the COVENANT tab. You are not allowed to: Terraform Linden Home land, sell it, deed it to a group, join it with another parcel, or divide the land. Modify the structure. For example, you cannot move or eliminate individual components of your Linden Home such as the fireplace or a window. Move or rotate the structure. Your Linden Home must remain as it came on its parcel. If you want both a Linden Home and more land for your premium account, you can use your remaining tier and/or upgrade on the Land Use Fees page. Tip: Linden Home land can't be group-owned. But if your personal Resident account is eligible for Linden Home land, you can set the land to a group to collaborate with other group members. Also, you agree that your Linden Home: Is for residential use only. Business use of any kind is prohibited, including parcel rental, rental boxes, classified ads or other forms of advertising, and event listings. Will be kept presentable and in-theme. Does not include traffic tracking. Land cannot contain temporary object rezzers or individual prims beyond the maximum size allowed by the Second Life Viewer build tools. Skyboxes are allowed on the Bellisseria continent above 2000 meters. Skyboxes are not allowed for first-generation Linden Homes. Etiquette Living in a community includes courtesy towards your neighbors. Here are some guidelines for etiquette in Linden Home regions: Use local chat say, rather than shout. Adhere to the maturity rating for the Linden Home region you are in. Respect your neighbors' privacy. Review general Second Life etiquette suggestions and incorporate them into your Linden Home experience. House controllers Each Linden Homes parcel is equipped with a House Controller like the one shown here. It is just outside the parcel boundary, often near a street or sidewalk or on the dock next to a houseboat parcel. Yours may look like a mailbox or some other marker appropriate to the neighborhood. A House Controller is your tool for selecting the specific model of home you want to erect on the parcel. To use it, simply left-click on it. The House Controller will only respond if you are the current owner of the parcel. It will not respond to guests, friends, or strangers. When you rez a new home, we advise you to wait for 30 seconds before using any of the house controls. This will allow time for the home to download important information about its decor and access permissions. Choose a home from one of the available models by clicking one of the numbered buttons. Your new home will appear near the center of the parcel, replacing whichever home was there before. You cannot rotate the home (except for Camping Trailers) or move it to another spot on the parcel. Linden Homes are always rezzed with the front door facing the House Controller. You may replace the model on your parcel at any time. Homes within a theme all fit in the same parcel area, so they will not interfere with vegetation, fencing, or other objects that Linden Lab has placed on land next to your parcel. However, because each model has a different floor plan, you will usually need to move furniture or other items that you have placed in a previous home so that it is arranged well in your new home. If you select the notecard option, you will receive an instructional notecard. It will explain the features of your house in greater detail than they are covered in this guide. If you select the Content Creation Pack option, you will receive a folder of items that you may use to landscape your parcel and decorate your home. House control panels As you enter a Linden Home, you will find a Control Panel just inside the front door. The control panel is your tool for customizing the appearance of your home and for controlling access. The layout of menu buttons for a Control Panel varies slightly from one theme to another, but all Linden Homes have the same basic set of functions described here. Click on the Control Panel to see the main menu of your options: When you make most changes with the Control Panel, you receive confirmation in chat. A notice appears within a few seconds to tell you that the new information has been recorded in the system. The Door button offers you a choice between allowing your doors to Stay Open when you click on them, or to AutoClose within ten seconds after they are opened. The Windows button on the main menu toggles the window covering (blinds) up or down. Using this button in the Control Panel toggles all windows in the house at once, so that they are all either up or down at the same time. If you (or a person you have granted access to) want to raise or lower a single window covering, you can do that by simply left-clicking on the window covering (Note: Some house models also offer the option to open and close individual windows. Where that option is available, it is not managed in the Control Panel. To open a window, you just left-click on it). The Access button, which is only visible to you as the parcel owner, will let you give additional people permission to use the Control Panel menus. Using its Add Name menu option, you create a whitelist and add anyone you choose. The person does not need to belong to a special group. You may remove the person’s access permission at any time by clicking this same Access button and using the Remove Name option. If you have created a whitelist, you may check to see who is on it by using the View List option. The Access menus allow you to control who has permission to use some features in your home. There are three access levels: ONLY ME is the highest level. If you click that menu button, nobody else may use the Control Panel, operate the window blinds, or open doors. LIST is the middle level. If you have created a whitelist, selecting LIST gives people on the list permission to operate window and door functions, and most functions in the Control Panel (but not the Access functions). ANYONE is the lowest level. If you click that button, anybody may open doors or operate the blinds. Only you and people on the whitelist may use the Control Panel. Please note that the Access menu does not control permission to rez objects in your home, or change its music stream. Manage those permissions by creating a group for your home, as discussed later in this guide. The Redecorate button offers options which are different in each home theme, although some features are found in all themes. The Outside button offers different color schemes for painting the siding on the home. The Wall button lets you change the color of the walls inside your home. The Floor button lets you choose among options for flooring inside the home, so you may opt for carpeting or different types of wood flooring. Submenu buttons on some themed homes include options for changing the color of the Roof, Trim, Deck, or other parts of the home that are special for that theme. Most menus in your Control Panel also contain two other buttons. The Done button closes the Control Panel menus and saves your most recent changes in the system’s memory. The Back button opens the previous dialog menu. Custom interior wall colors Starting with the Victorian Homes, introduced in late 2019, the Control Panel includes a new option for decor, the ability to create up to nine custom colors to apply to interior walls in your home. Clicking on the My Colors button in either the Main menu or the Redecorate > Walls menu opens a submenu that lets you decide whether to create a New Color or apply one that you have created before: You may then use either a Color Picker (graphic interface) or may type in RGB values for a color that you may have designed elsewhere. The Color Picker is similar to the interface that you will find in your SL viewer’s Edit > Texture > Color panel: If you choose the Type <RGB> option instead, it opens a text box where you may enter numerical values for the Red, Green, and Blue components of a color Once you have created a color using either method, you may apply it to the walls in any room in the house. You may also apply any of nine preset colors if you wish. Content creation packs As a homeowner, you may want to personalize your parcel by adding vegetation, pathways, rocks, or other decorative items. Please remember to stay within the theme of your neighborhood. For more specific details, refer to the covenant in World > About Land when you are standing in your parcel. As an aid, your Linden Home comes with a free Content Creation Pack. In it, you will find items that you may use to spruce up your home/parcel -- items such as decor items, textures, wall/fence kits and lighting may be included. Unlike the house itself, which does not add to the Land Impact on your parcel, these extra objects and anything else that you rez will add land impact, so be careful to stay within your limit. Refer to World > About Land > Objects to verify your available land impact. You may receive the Content Creation Pack by clicking on the appropriate menu option in your House Controller. Textures Texture packs with the building textures for each first-generation Linden Home theme are available at the Linden Home infohubs. Resale of textures is prohibited. Texture pack locations: Meadowbrook Infohub Tahoe Infohub Elderglen Infohub Shareta Osumai Infohub Privacy Total privacy in an open community like Linden Homes is not possible, but there are ways that you can manage access to your home and its features. As noted above, for example, you can use your home’s Control Panel to control who may enter your home and use its redecorate functions. You may also use the Options tab in World > About Land to determine who is allowed to rez objects on your parcel and whether people outside the parcel can see and hear what you are doing. You may not use selections in the Access tab of About Land to set ban lines around your parcel, but you may use the Linden Homes Security System (found in the Content Creation Pack) to eject unwanted visitors from your parcel. You may not use other security systems that have a shorter warning time or a greater detection range than the Linden Homes Security System. The security system is designed to be wall-mounted. When activated, it scans your parcel as much as 400m above and below the control unit, provides a warning to unauthorized visitors, and then ejects them from the parcel. It does not detect people in neighboring parcels. You may adjust the system’s range and the amount of warning time (minimum 15 seconds), and may tell the system to ignore members of your group or specific people that you have added to its whitelist. The system will not function if it is placed at an altitude between 100m and 2000m above sea level, but can be used in your Linden Home or in a skybox above 2000m. Instructions for setting up the system and operating it are provided on a notecard with the unit, and in shortened form, by clicking on the system’s help (?) button. Getting help Many issues with Linden Homes can easily be solved by using the home controller to rez a new copy of your preferred home. This new copy will appear in exactly the same position as the current home, but should be new and fully operational. To rez a new copy of your preferred Linden Home: First, please note the name of your current Linden Home style. You can hover over the house to see its name, which will usually be some variation of 'LH - Theme - Style' -- for example, 'LH - Fantasy - Amberbrooke'. Once you're sure of the style name, stand outside your home and click once on the house controller. In many Linden Home themes, this looks like a mailbox, but in some themes it may look a bit different. See house controllers for more information on what the controller looks like for your theme. When the controller pop up appears, click the number that corresponds with your preferred home style. Your old home object will disappear and be replaced with a fresh copy of the home style you've selected. If you need further assistance with your Linden Home, please contact our Support team for help. As a premium account holder, you're eligible for live chat and ticket support from the Support Portal. If you need support for your Linden Home: Go to the Support Portal and choose Submit a Support Case. Select Land and Region from the first dropdown menu. Select Linden Home Issues from the second dropdown menu. Fill out the required fields; make sure to include as much relevant information as possible when describing your issue. Click Submit to submit your ticket. Requesting terraforming of adjoining land If there is an issue with the terraforming of your parcel or nearby land that you suspect is an error: Go to the Support Portal. Click Contact Support. Click Submit a Support Case form. From the dropdown menus, choose: Land and Region Linden Home Issues - Terrain or Content Fill in the rest of the required fields. Click Submit to submit your ticket. Bellisseria Fairgrounds The Bellisseria Fairgrounds is open to all Premium Residents of Second Life to use for their events. Private events that require the Fairgrounds to be restricted to a certain list or group of people are not a good use for the space; however, if you are happy to welcome anyone to your events then the Bellisseria Fairgrounds is a great place to choose to plan your next party, get together, shindig or whatever! Any Premium member can reserve the Bellisseria Fairgrounds for their event, though preference will be given to members of Bellisseria Resident groups. While any public event is welcome at the Fairgrounds, we encourage the planning of events that contribute to and support the Bellisseria community spirit. Use this form to reserve the Bellisseria Fairground to host an event: http://bit.ly/BellisseriaFairgroundsCalendar Bellisseria Snapshots

Purchasing a private region as an educator or non-profit Verified, approved educators and non-profit institutions purchase land through the Second Life invoicing site: specialorders.secondlife.com. This site provides invoicing for educators and certain other customers. See Invoicing for special orders for more information. Note: Educators can purchase a Homestead Region without owning a full private region. The invoicing option is available though the special orders selection in the Land Store. Invoicing for special orders If you are an educator, non-profits organization, Resident under 18 years old or a business entities that requires a formal invoice, then place your order for private regions with the Special Island Order Form. Qualifying non-profit organizations and educators may be eligible to purchase private regions at a discounted rate; see the Special Island Order Form for more details. Use the special order form under these conditions: Orders for eligible educational institution or not-for-profit. Your status as an educator or non-profit does require verification, and there is a minimum initial purchase of five regions to qualify for invoicing. The five region minimum purchase requirement does not apply to currently-invoiced customers. For all under 18 Resident, non-Linden Home, land orders (requires parental/guardian approval if under 18). Note: users under the age of 18 cannot purchase Linden Homes. Any order requiring an invoice (payments by wire transfer, check or credit card). Specifically for business entities purchasing more than five regions (minimum requirement does not apply to currently invoiced customers) requiring a formal invoice/receipt or PO# type process. PO# not required at the time of ordering. If your purchase does not fall into these categories, then place your order at the Land Store. Note: All orders placed through the Special Island Order Form require advance payment of six or twelve months maintenance fees. Maintenance fees are added to your island order invoice based on the payment cycle chosen at a discounted rate of $99 for a full private region and $54.50 for homestead regions (subject to eligibility), or at the full maintenance fee rate of $209 for a full region, or $109 for homestead regions. All prices are listed in USD. Payment is made from the invoice which is issued upon the delivery of your island. Your first invoice will include both the setup and the first cycle of maintenance. Where to get an invoice Second Life offers the invoicing option though the special orders selection in the Land Store. You can also access invoicing directly from specialorders.secondlife.com. Verification information You need to provide the following information to use the invoicing option. Please read the guidelines below carefully. If your questions are not answered by this document, please submit a Support ticket to request explanation (include "Education" in the ticket summary). Note: Second Life cannot provide invoicing option to Individuals, including educational professionals who wish to purchase a region for personal use or developers who wish to purchase a region for an institution. Approval and Private Region delivery Submitting an order does not obligate you to pay immediately; payment is made once the Private Region has been delivered and the invoice sent. When you place the order, you receive a sales order confirmation. This is merely an order confirmation, not a notice of delivery. Once you place the order, your order enters the approval queue. Once the order is approved, you receive an approval email and your order is placed in the delivery queue. After approval, delivery time under normal circumstances is 10-15 business days. You cannot make a payment until you receive an invoice, which you then have 30 days to pay. Invoices for maintenance are emailed when the payment schedule is ready for renewal. Warning: Late payment may result in the closure of your Private Region and the loss of any inventory it contains. You have access to your account in Netsuite (Second Life's special orders system) through the special ordering website. Note: Netsuite is a different website than secondlife.com. In your Netsuite account, you will be able to: View your sales order. Add your credit card information. Pay your invoice with a credit card. Payment Information You may pay via check, credit card or wire transfer. We cannot accept PayPal or use funds from your Second Life account to pay for your invoiced Private Region order. Note: Currently, VAT is not added to our invoiced orders, but we will inform you if this changes. Find out more about VAT and Second Life in Account balance. Wire Transfer See Account balance for more information on paying by wire transfer. You must pay your bank's wiring charges, which are added to your invoice total. Be sure to reference your invoice number in the wire details. Credit Card To pay by credit card: Log into your Netsuite account. You are directed to menu options. Select Make a Payment. All outstanding invoices appear. Move to the bottom of the page, where you may add your credit card information for payment of the invoices you select. Note: The list of outstanding invoices is not the sales order document. Check or Bank Draft Please submit a check or bank draft to: Linden Research Inc Dept. 34109 PO Box 39000 San Francisco CA 94111 USA Those who use Purchase Order numbers should send us the required vendor forms for completion. We will add the PO# to the invoice as soon as we receive it. Other useful information: Federal Tax ID#: 94-3364615 VAT #: EU826011179 For more information specific to educators and non-profit institutions, please see: Second Life Education FAQs Education and Non-Profit Discount Terms and Conditions Other resources for educators in Second Life Educator success stories Institution directory How to create a secure space for a classroom setting

What is an experience? Video introduction to experiences The Experiences window Experience profiles How to participate in an experience Allowing a specific experience How to leave an experience Reporting abuse by an experience How to create an experience Editing an experience profile Enabling an experience Experience collaboration LSL features Key Value pairs Adding an experience to a script In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português What is an experience? In Second Life terminology, an experience is a set of avatar interactions created by one or more scripted objects. With an experience key, creators can build their experiences so that a user only needs to grant avatar permissions once for the entire experience rather than separately for each scripted object within it. These permissions allow the experience to animate your avatar, attach items to your avatar, track your camera, control your camera, teleport your avatar, and alter your movement controls. For example, Linden Realms regularly requires permission to teleport your avatar and attach objects to your avatar and HUD. Rather than asking permission each time it needs to perform one of these actions, it uses experience permissions perform the required actions as many times as needed without pausing while you respond to each permission request. Video introduction to experiences Our original launch video introduction is below, with information on the feature set available as testing and implementation of this feature set began. Land-scope Experiences (as well as some larger Linden-created grid-scope experiences) are fully available now for Premium and Premium Plus members. The Experiences window Accessible from Me > Experiences..., the Experiences panel allows you to search for, allow, block, and generally administer experiences. From here, you can also access the Experience profile of available experiences for further information about them. Search The Search tab of the Experiences window allows you to search for experiences by their name. You can limit your search to a maximum content rating if you choose; by default, this is set to General maturity. If you'd like to see experiences of a higher maturity level, simply select your preference from the Max Content Rating dropdown. You can choose to leave the name field blank, if you wish, which will return a list of all experiences visible to you based on your selected content rating. If you have a long list of search results, the < and > buttons at the bottom of the window will advance you through the list of results (or return you to a previous page, if necessary). Clicking on a name in the search results list enables you to click the View Profile button at the bottom of the screen, which will open the Experience Profile for your select experience. Allowed and Blocked The Allowed and Blocked tabs show you a list of experiences which you have allowed or blocked, respectively. From this list, you can click the name of the experience you wish to view and the Experience Profile window for that option will open. Admin The Admin tab of the Experiences window lists the experiences in which you have administrator privileges. To allow someone to be an administrator in your experience, you must set the experience to a group, then assign that person to a group role which has the ability Experience Admin. Individuals with the administrator permissions can edit the meta-data of the experience, like the name, maturity level, and location. Administrators should have the group tag for the group associated with the experience active in order to make changes to the experience. Contributor The Contributor tab of the Experiences window shows you a list of the experience in which you have contributor privileges. To allow someone to be a contributor in your experience, you must set the experience to a group, then assign that person to a group role which has the ability Experience Contributor. The contributor role allows individuals to contribute scripts to an experience. Contributors must have the appropriate group tag active while working on scripts for a group's experience. Owned The Owned tab of the Experiences window lists your current experience. At this time, Residents are limited to one experience key. Events The Events tab of the Experiences lists the actions taken upon your avatar by experiences. For example, if an experience attaches an object or teleports you, the Events tab will list this action. This helps you to know which experience may be currently affecting your avatar. Events List: Lists the time, event name, Experience name, and object that acted upon your avatar. You can select an event from this list by clicking it. Notify: Places more detailed information about the event into your chat window, including the owner of the Experience and the land parcel name. Profile: Opens the Experience Profile for the selected event's Experience. Report: Opens the Abuse Report tool with information pre-filled to identify the selected Experience. Notify All Events: Automatically logs all Experience events in your chat history. Days: Limit the number of days' worth of events listed. Up to the last 14 days of events can be viewed. Clear: Clears all events from the list. < and >: Browse backward and forward in pages of events. Experience profiles The Experience Profile window shows the most important aspects of an experience's information -- its name, maturity rating, owner, and group. It also has control options which allow Residents to interact with and report the experience, if necessary. The Allow button gives an experience permission to act on your avatar via scripts. The Forget button will remove your permission from the experience, but won't stop it from asking for your permission in the future. The Block button removes any permissions you've granted the experience and blocks it from asking you for new ones. The Report Abuse button allows you to report an experience for abusive behavior, such as using scripts to take advantage of or harass your avatar. Land-Scope and Grid-Scope Also visible on the Experience Profile window is whether or not an experience is land-scope or grid-scope. The difference between the two is a matter of where the experience is accessible. A land-scope experience is only available in regions which have specifically enabled it to be active; it isn't active anywhere else. A grid-scope experience is available in all regions by default, and is only unavailable in regions which have specifically blocked it. At this time, Resident-owned experiences may only be set to land-scope. How to participate in an experience Most experiences automatically prompt you to join the experience the first time you interact with them. When this happens you receive a notification informing you of the permissions you will be granting to the experience, and four possible responses: Yes - Grants permissions to the experience and allows it to act upon your avatar without asking for permissions again. After you click Yes, the experience does not need to ask for permissions again until you explicitly leave the experience. No - Temporarily deny permissions to the experience. The next time you interact with the experience, it may ask for permissions again. Block Experience - Permanently deny permissions to the experience. It will not act on your avatar, and will not ask for permissions again. Block Object - Blocks the specific object that asked you for permissions, and temporarily denies permissions to the experience. That object will be muted and will not ask you for permissions again, but other objects in the experience may still request permissions when you interact with them. Allowing a specific experience If you know the name of an experience you would like to join, you can allow permission without first having to interact with any of its scripts: Choose Me > Experiences... from the top menu bar. The Experiences window opens. Click the Search tab of the Experiences window. Enter part or all of the name of the experience into the search field, then click the Go button. Find the name of the experience in the search results, click it, then click the View Profile button at the bottom of the Experiences window. The Experience Profile window opens. In the Experience Profile window, click Allow to allow permissions for that experience. Tip: If your Moderate or Adult-rated experience does not appear in the search results, it may be getting filtered from search results by content rating. Make sure the Max Content Rating dropdown is set to the correct content rating before searching. How to leave an experience To leave an experience by revoking its permissions, you may either Forget or Block it: Choose Me > Experiences... from the top menu bar. The Experiences window opens. Click the Allowed tab on the Experiences window. Find the name of the experience you wish to leave, and click its name. The Experience Profile window opens. In the Experience Profile window, click either Forget or Block. Tip: If you choose to Forget an experience, it may ask for permissions again the next time you interact with it. If you choose to Block it, the experience cannot ask you for permissions again until you unblock it on the Blocked tab of the Experiences window. Reporting abuse by an experience We take abuse very seriously. If you feel an experience has been abusive or has malicious intent, you can click the Report Abuse button in the Experience window (accessed by choosing Me > Experiences from the top menu bar). A screenshot, object owner, and the Experience Key are automatically filled into the report. You may also add a summary or details of the abusive behavior in the highlighted field. For more information on how to file abuse reports, see Filing an abuse report. How to create an experience In order to create an experience, you must first obtain an experience key from Linden Lab. Experience keys uniquely identify your experience and allow you to use the powerful experience functions in LSL. Abusive experiences may also be reported by experience key, allowing Linden Lab's customer support team to investigate and manage the situation accordingly. Experience keys are only available to Premium members. At this time, Premium members may acquire one experience key and Premium Plus members may acquire two. To acquire a key you must have an experience-enabled viewer, such as the official Second Life Viewer. In the Second Life Viewer: Choose Me > Experiences from the top menu bar to open the Experiences window. Click the Owned tab. Click the Acquire an Experience button. Once acquired, you can see your new Experience under the Owned tab of the Experiences window. For more information, check out the Experience Tools forum to see what our early adopters encountered and had to say. Editing an experience profile Once you have an experience, you can view by choosing Me > Experiences > Owned from the top menu bar. As the owner, this experience will also be present in the Admin and Contributor tabs. You can edit the experience profile by clicking on the experience name in the list, then clicking on the Edit button, which is visible on the profile. Only the experience owner can change the group associated with an experience, but all other editable fields may be set by any experience administrator. The Name and Description fields should meet the requirements for a G rating and are filtered for objectionable words. Enabling an experience An experience may be enabled at the estate level or the parcel level by adding it to the Allowed list for the estate or parcel. Estates also have Key Experiences which are similar to Allowed in that the experience may run on the estate but provide some additional tools for non-public estates. When an experience is set to Key for a private estate, Residents who have opted in to the experience may enter the estate, and remain in the estate as long as they continue to participate in the Experience. Additionally, if the Resident attempts to teleport into the estate without participating in the experience they will receive a notice that informs them they are not allowed to enter the estate. Key Experiences and estate access Note that Key Experiences are searchable by the public and override normal estate access settings; anyone participating in the Key Experience can visit the experience's Estate, regardless of estate's access settings. For this reason, we recommend that developers of Key Experiences run their experiences as Allowed while testing in order to maintain privacy. Allowed experiences do not override Estate access lists, an can be set to Key when they are ready for public participation. Experience collaboration To enable others besides the experience owner to create scripts for the experience, the owner can set a group in the experience profile. Anyone in that group with the Experience Contributor power can then create scripts for the experience. Additionally, anyone with the Experience Admin power can update the profile (with the exception of the group). Use caution when assigning a group to an experience as anyone who can assign powers to members effectively has the ability to control who can contribute to the experience. LSL features The experiences introduce several new LSL functions, events and constants that allow creators to manage permissions and interact with a database in order to store information. The list of new LSL calls and code examples can be found on the Second Life wiki at: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:Experience_Tools. LSL scripts must be specifically compiled for an experience in order to make use of experience-related LSL functions. The bottom of the LSL editor in the Second Life Viewer includes a checkbox for Use Experience and a dropdown for selecting which of your experience keys you wish the script to use. If you do not see the 'Use Experience' checkbox, you may need to put the script you're working on into an object rezzed in a region to continue. Key Value pairs In addition to the permissions request feature, Experience Tools allows experience creators to write scripts that can store persistent key-value pairs to support their experience logic. For example, key value pairs allow experience scripts to store experience-related data (e.g. health points, experience points, quest status, etc) in key-value pairs associated with their experience. For specific usage information, see the Experience Tools category on the Second Life wiki: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:Experience_Tools. Adding an experience to a script When you open the script editor there is a checkbox labeled Use Experience. When checked, a dropdown menu appears with a list of experiences which you can contribute to. Adding, removing or changing the experience requires saving the script. You can open the profile of the selected experience by pressing the arrow button next to the name of the experience.

General Tab Covenant Tab Objects Tab Options Tab Allow other Residents to Land Options Media Tab Access Tab Land Basics Video Tutorial Owning land lets you control what happens on that land. You can prevent others from visiting or building there, change the shape of the land, subdivide and sell it, and much more. The About Land window in the Second Life® Viewer lets you access most of your land's functions, and gives you more information about the land you own. There are 3 ways to open the About Land window: World > About Land. Right-click on your land and select About Land. Click the parcel name near the top-center of the screen. There are several different tabs in the About Land window: General Covenant Objects Options Media Sound Access Experiences Environment General Tab This tab displays basic information about your land (name and description), as well as controls to deed and sell your land. Name - The name shown for the parcel. This name will also appear in Search window results if you choose to list your land. (See Show Place in Search below.) Description - Additional words to describe your parcel. The description will also appear in Search results, enabling your land to be found easier. Owner - On your land, this is you. If you've deeded land to a group, the group is the owner. See "How do I deed land to a group?" Group - The group associated with the land. Click Set to change the group. Setting land to a group without fully deeding it can help you control group members' ability to build there without allowing non-members to build. Allow Deed to Group - Select this and the Deed button to deed the land to the currently selected group. Owner Makes Contribution With Deed - Check this box to give the group a "contribution" from your land use fees, so the group can own the land. Confused? See "How does group-owned land work?" and "How do I change or remove group land contributions?" Sell Land - Clicking this sets your land for sale at the price listed, to the person listed (or anyone if no name is chosen). Don't click this until you're ready to close the deal! After you click Sell Land, you'll need to confirm 4 steps: Set a price - Enter what you think is a fair market price. Be sure to do research so you don't regret your choice. Sell the land to - Click select one to choose whether your land can be bought by anyone, or click Specific user to bring up a Choose Resident window which will allow you to specify one person. Doing this restricts the land to only being bought by this individual. Sell the objects with the land? - Click No, keep ownership of objects to do just that. Click Yes, sell objects with land to transfer all objects you own on the land to the buyer after purchase. This option only transfers objects with the same owner as the land, and won't transfer objects owned by someone else. Obviously, it won't transfer objects with no-transfer permissions either. Click Show Objects to see exactly what will be transferred. When the above is has been taken care of and you've verified everything's how you want it, click Set Land For Sale. Claimed - When this parcel was last acquired, which is usually the result of a sale or subdivision. Area - The parcel's size in square meters. Traffic - An abstract representation of the amount of time Residents have spent on your land in the past day. See "What is traffic (formerly known as dwell)?" Buy Land - Click this button to buy the land for yourself. Buy For Group - Click this button to purchase the land for a group after setting your tag to that group. Here's how: Click Communicate button at the bottom of the Viewer window. Click the Groups tab near the top. Click the group for which you want to buy the land. Click Activate and it'll turn bold. If you have group tags visible, you'll see the tag above your avatar's head. The group will be the owner of the land, and must already have enough contributions to own the land. Buy Pass - If your access to this land is restricted, you can click this button to buy an access pass, letting you enter the land for the amount of time for which the pass is good. This is fairly uncommon. Abandon Land - This option revokes all ownership to the land, setting it back to the owner of the Region (on the mainland, that would be Linden Lab under the name "Governor Linden"). Don't abandon land if you want to keep it or give it to someone else! If you own and are on your Private Region, this button becomes Reclaim Land. Covenant Tab This tab contains information about the Region's covenant. Private Estate owners can create a covenant in order to establish a set of rules when selling or renting their estates to tenants. Region - The name of the Region the parcel is located in. Estate - The name of the estate the Region is in. More than one Region may be included in a single Estate. Estate Owner - The owner of the Estate the Region is in. In addition, Estate owners may decide whether or not purchased land in the Region may be resold or subdivided. For more information about how covenants work, see "Estate (Private Island) Covenants". Objects Tab This tab contains information about the objects that are on your land, and on land you own within the Region. Region Capacity: A count of the object capacity in use on the parcel and all other parcels owned by the same person or group in this region, as well as the amount of available capacity for objects on all this parcel (and the other parcels sharing resources). Every object has a land impact, which represents how many resources that object takes up when it's rezzed on a parcel. In the example above, the land owner has 1191 objects on all of their parcels in the region, out of a total budget of 5000; they could add up to 3809 more objects throughout the region. Parcel land capacity: The number of objects (as represented by an object's land impact) that can be placed on the selected parcel of land based solely on the selected parcel's size (that is, without sharing objects from other parcels with the same owner). This number is based on how big the parcel is. In the example above, the selected parcel can hold 97 objects based on its size. Parcel land impact: A total of the objects on the selected parcel, broken down by ownership and current status Owned by parcel owner shows the owner's prims, or prims deeded to the group on group-owned land. Set to group shows prims owned by group members that are Set to the same group the parcel is set to or owned by. (Group members may have prims set to a different group that isn't shown here) Owned by others includes prims owned by other people, and group-member prims that aren't set to the same group. Selected / sat upon shows the number of prims in objects that are currently selected or sat upon by an avatar. Selected and sat-upon objects (like chairs and vehicles) do not count against the parcel's maximum prim limit. This is usually a fluctuating count depending on parcel activity, such as if you're holding a meeting with multiple avatars sitting down, or building a tower and selecting objects. For Owned by parcel owner, Set to group, and Owned by others, you can click Show next to each tally to view exactly which objects are included. You can click Return to irreversibly return all objects in one of these categories. Warning: Don't do this if you're not sure what you're doing -- mass object returns are generally only done in scenarios such as moving to other land or starting over with a clean slate. Autoreturn other Residents' objects - Objects owned by others that are on the parcel after this period of time are returned automatically. "0" means autoreturn is off. This is useful for keeping your parcel litter-free. Warning: On group land, be extremely careful you don't set an autoreturn time on if objects aren't correctly set to group. Otherwise, those objects will be immediately sent back to their owners when the autoreturn time is reached, possibly destroying work-in-progress. There is no undo for returns. Object Owners: Click Refresh List to show a list of object owners. You can click on a specific name and click Return objects and return their objects automatically, which is useful if someone griefed you. Warning: Be extremely careful you don't return the wrong person's stuff. Options Tab This tab lets you determine what can and can't be done on your land. Allow other Residents to: Fly - If checked, other Residents can fly on your land. If unchecked, they can fly into and over your land but they can't start to fly once they've touched the ground. Build - If checked, allows for objects to be created and edited on your land by others. The owner can always create objects on their land. You can specify whether all Residents can do this, or restrict it to the group set in the General tab. Object Entry - If checked, allows objects from other Residents to enter your parcel. For example, a crate that gets pushed over. You can specify whether all Residents can do this, or restrict it to the group set in the General tab. Run Scripts - If checked, allows scripted objects owned by others to run on your land. Leaving this unchecked can help prevent others from doing things like firing scripted weapons on your land. You can specify whether all Residents can do this, or restrict it to the group set in the General tab. Land Options Safe (no damage) - If checked, damage combat is disabled. If cleared, damage combat is enabled and a heart indicating health appears at the top of the Viewer window. Health is reduced by physical collisions such as falling from a great height or being shot by a gun. If you "die", you're teleported home. You can't die permanently in Second Life. No Pushing - If checked, prevents scripts from pushing. Checking this option is useful for preventing disruptive behavior on your land. Show in Search (L$30/week) - If checked, your land will appear in the Search window's All and Places tabs for L$30 a week. If you enable this, be sure to also select the category you want your land to be listed under (Shopping, Hangout, Educational, and so on). Avatars on other parcels can see and chat with avatars on this parcel: Checking this setting prevents people located outside of the selected parcel from seeing (or using local chat to talk with) avatars located inside the selected parcel. This setting extends up 50 meters from ground level as well, preventing people who are flying past from seeing down into the parcel from above. Moderate Content - Select this checkbox if your land contains mature content. Snapshot - Click on the thumbnail box to select an image from the textures in your inventory. This picture will show up in multiple places, such as in the Search window's All, Land Sales, and Places tabs. Landing Point - Set a landing point where people will arrive if visiting your land. Click Set to place the landing point where you're standing. This is where people will be directed to if they teleport to your land, including from Search. For example, if you're building a space station, you can set the landing point high in the sky so people don't get lost on the ground looking for it. Whatever direction your avatar is facing when you click the Set button will establish the default position of arriving visitors. Teleport Routing - Use this dropdown to select one of the following options: Blocked - Prevents Residents from teleporting to your parcel. Landing Point - Forces all Residents to land at your specified landing point. Anywhere - Allows Residents to teleport to anywhere in your parcel. Each has its uses depending on your intent. For example, if you're building a game with secret areas and divided into multiple parcels, you can choose Blocked for some parcels so people don't accidentally spoil surprises, but choose Landing Point for the entrance parcel so everyone can see the instructions sign you've posted. Media Tab Please see "Media on a parcel" for information about this tab. Access Tab This tab allows you to limit access to your land. Anyone can visit: If you uncheck this box, your parcel will be limited to you and whoever you add to the Allowed Residents list below. Must be 18+ will, if checked, limit visitors to Residents over 18 years of age Must have payment info on file will limit access to people who have a method of payment on their account Allow Group (Group Name) with no restrictions: This box is only available if you aren't allowing public access. It allows unrestricted access to the parcel for members of the group the land is set to (or owned by, if the land is deeded to a group). Sell Passes to - Check this to charge an admittance fee to your land and set the time period for which those passes are valid. Always Allowed: This list of avatars always has access to your land. Banned Residents: This list of avatars never has access to your land. Note: If you set Object Entry to All Residents in the Options tab, objects owned by these avatars will be able to cross onto your parcel. Land Basics Video Tutorial - Second Life University

Overview Why rent on a private estate? Billing relationship Types of land for rent How to find private estates on which to rent land Important things to be aware of Renting land on the mainland? Determining a land parcel's owner Risks of private region rentals Overview Any Resident who owns an estate can rent part or all of the estate to other Residents. This effectively means that a Resident, including one who's on a basic account, can "buy" parcels on an estate and move in, subject to the covenant of the estate owner. Specific terminology differs internationally (some call this "leaseholding"), and the semantics of "rent" vs. "buy" aren't so important here as understanding the practical principles. So for convenience, we'll use "rent" from this point onward as it's the most common. Also, we'll refer to a "Resident estate owner" as a "landlord", because you're effectively paying them as a "tenant". As in: if you rent land on a private estate, this makes you the tenant of a landlord. Why rent on a private estate? There are several reasons why you might want to rent land rather than buy. No Premium account required You must have a premium account to buy land on the mainland since mainland tier is part of a Premium account's benefits. You can remain at a basic account to rent land on a private estate. This may be preferable if you've found rental land that has a cheaper monthly rate than the Linden tier system and offers other benefits. If you have a premium account and meet other conditions, you can simultaneously own mainland and rent on private estates. It isn't an "either-or" choice. Close-knit community... Linden Lab offers several Linden Home themes to acquaint you with the variety of what's possible with "themed living" in Second Life. But that's just a sampler of the spectrum of diversity available here. A landlord may have a lifelong interest and a deep passion for a focused theme. In some cases, they've brought it from their real life as an extension of their identity, and you may be able to strongly relate to those beliefs — which encourages you to be part of the community they're building. Themes reflect all angles of creativity. To be less abstract, they may involve a certain real-world environment, a fantasy or historical atmosphere, or be specifically tailored to a subculture (goth, furry, steampunk, etc.). If you're into gaming, some of these themes complement roleplaying on the same premises: you could be a cyberpunk courier living across a dystopian skyline, an elite debutante partying it up at your luxury pad, or a seafarin' swashbuckler in search of booty. Over time as Second Life expands, more interests are met and needs are fulfilled. Some tenants graduate to become landlords themselves. In addition, if you are at least 18 years old, there are adult-themed communities for your discreet pleasures. ... or start from scratch If you'd prefer to start from scratch, there's a lot of rental land that's blank and ready to be molded into your vision. What are some advantages over blank mainland? Depending on what the landlord offers, these are some possibilities: Greater terraform range - As noted in land limits, most mainland can only be terraformed +/- 4m from its base, which isn't enough to create staggering heights and deep valleys. Custom terrain textures - Only the landlord and assistants (estate owner and managers) can change these, but you may be able to request a switch. These affect a lot of what you see, since the ground is often beneath your feet. Time of day - It would look odd if a vampires' den was in bright daylight. A landlord can lock the time of day at midnight, then invite tenants who thrive on darkness. These and more options are shown in the World > Region/Estate > Terrain and related controls, and not changeable at-will unless you own or manage an estate. The personal touch Some landlords go beyond a financial relationship: they or specially-chosen Residents (estate managers) interact with their tenants frequently, host events, and expand the community based on your feedback. This sort of intimate empowerment to affect change can be very appealing. That's not all: themed communities may offer on-location stores and other amenities as a convenience. For example, if you rent land in a medieval village, it makes sense to find a shop selling knight's armor and period dresses — and if there's a supernatural aspect, magic wands. If you continue up the street, there could be a banquet hall for dances, a monastery for meditation, and other dwellings used for social events so you can meet-and-greet your likeminded neighbors. This adds to the overall theme and immersion of the community and can add substantial value to your experience. Customization and negotiation On the mainland, you can't negotiate your Linden tier fees. Also, if you wanted to make your parcel a tiny bit larger, it's really hard do that: neighbors may be nice but not typically welcoming of subdividing and selling only a sliver of their parcel. But a sympathetic landlord may hear your pleas. Just like you might with a real-life landlord, you can try negotiating a better deal: perhaps you'll pay a bigger L$ sum upfront covering several months of rent. Or you can explain what your budget is and the landlord will try to connect you with a parcel that meets what you can afford. Billing relationship The basic process of renting land on an estate is the same as buying on the mainland: unless another arrangement has been made, in the About Land window's General tab, click the Buy Land button to proceed with your purchase. However the billing relationship is very different than on the mainland: If you buy land on the mainland, your billing relationship is with Linden Lab and dependent on the tier system on the Land Use Fees page. If you rent land on a private estate, your billing relationship is with another Resident — your landlord — and is dependent on their covenant. Types of land for rent Undeveloped land on... Developed land on... the mainland a private estate the mainland a private estate Themed? Is there a pre-built house or store ready for you to move into? No; build-it-yourself No; build-it-yourself Yes; ask landlord about special features Yes; ask landlord about special features Terraform range Usually +/- 4 m Depends; up to +/- 100 m Depends; usually +/- 4 m or blocked Depends; up to +/- 100 m Custom terrain textures and environment settings? No Maybe; ask landlord No Unlikely since land is already themed; ask landlord Land usage rules The TOS always applies Mainland policies, also ask landlord Landlord's covenant Mainland policies, also ask landlord Landlord's covenant Do you "buy" a parcel to rent it? Buying a parcel shows you as the owner inABOUT LAND No, you pay a rent box or similar device Yes, but landlord can reclaim it at their discretion No, you pay a rent box or similar device Yes, but landlord can reclaim it at their discretion How to find private estates on which to rent land You can use the Viewer's search tool: Enter a keyword like beach or vampire in the search bar on the upper-right of the Viewer window and press Enter ↵. In the FIND window that opens, click the Land Sales tab. Next to Category, choose For Sale - Estate and edit the other fields as-needed. Click a listing to view more details, then click Teleport to travel there in seconds. Also: The Second Life Wiki has a list of landlords compiled by Residents. If you're a landlord, feel free to add yours! Some land companies have their own websites which can make it easier to browse offerings and get connected. Second Life Marketplace has categories for mainland parcels and private islands for sale. To tell if you are on a private estate: Choose World > Place Profile > About Land. Click the General tab. Look for the Type field. It will say either "Mainland," "Linden Homes," or "Estate/Full Region". Important things to be aware of Caveat emptor — buyer beware! This isn't meant to scare you, but encourage you to be assertive when looking for rental land. Just as there are all kinds of people in the world, there are all kinds of landlords with individual styles, some of which may mesh better with you depending the personalities involved. With that in mind: The landlord always has the final say When renting land on a private estate, the "owner" in ABOUT LAND - GENERAL shows your name, but the landlord reserves the right to change that at any time. This means they can reclaim the land and offer it to someone else on a whim. Linden Lab doesn't mediate if your landlord is hostile. If you have a consistently great relationship with your landlord, you don't have to worry about getting kicked out. But if you find yourself getting into quarrels, you may want to consider relocating. Hopefully you've done your homework to minimize getting into such a situation. Always check the covenant before you buy The covenant is the terms and conditions of rental land, always shown in ABOUT LAND - COVENANT. In other words, what you can and can't do if you rent this land. For example, there may be a dress code of how avatars should appear to match the theme. Covenants often include a code of conduct in addition to Linden Lab's Community Standards. Some rules that apply on the mainland may not apply on an estate. For example, a landlord could decree "Combat is allowed for all!", then make their land a constant warzone where no one could be accused of "griefing with weapons" because it's part of the theme. Warning: The Terms of Service apply to every Resident, everywhere in Second Life, including on private estates. A landlord can change the covenant at any time, but shouldn't do so without notifying tenants first or even more considerate, soliciting their input. (Similar to how you wouldn't like it if your cell phone provider changed your contract in a detrimental way without notice.) The last-modified date of a covenant is always shown. Learn more about covenants. Ask for testimonials and references Like any successful business, a landlord should be able to point to delighted customers. Renting land from someone may feel more confident if you have friends who've rented from that landlord before and have good things to say about the experience, as well as downsides that aren't major causes for concern but nevertheless good to know. It helps to ask because a little research can save you lots of troubles in the future. Be clear on your billing relationship Before buying, be sure to ask: How much is rent? Is it paid in L$ or US$? How often is it paid? Monthly or otherwise? How do I pay it? Methods range from "pay the landlord directly" to "pay a scripted box" to "payment form on a website". Savvy landlords figure out ways to manage this with minimum overhead so miscommunication is minimized. Can payment be automated? Just like in the real world, this can be really convenient and assures as long as you have funds, you won't be delinquent. Please consider that private region owners may choose to cancel, transfer, or discontinue operating their regions whenever they wish, which may mean that the parcel you rent from them becomes unavailable. Some renters find it safer and more prudent to only rent a few weeks or month at a time to avoid losing their rental deposit in case something should happen. While most private region rental operators do their best to ensure their tenants are treated fairly, Linden Lab does not enforce rental agreements should a landlord choose to cancel a rental arrangement. Renting land on the mainland? You may have heard that some Residents offer land for rent on the mainland, which works differently in some regards. One big difference is that you don't do the act of buying a parcel (which shows you as the parcel owner in ABOUT LAND - GENERAL as described above). instead, you might be offered to join a group which gives you the permission to place objects on a designated parcel with your group tag. This arrangement is common in many mainland malls, where stalls are rented out (and there may be advertisements for such an arrangement). A similar pattern can be found in cottages, hotels, and other destinations. Remember that the above, for simplicity's sake, describes some of the many possibilities that exist and continue to grow. Consult specific situations to get accurate details. Determining a land parcel's owner To find out who owns a parcel of land: Stand on or hover above the land parcel, then go to World > About Land. The About Land window opens. Click the General tab. Locate the listing for Owner. If a Resident is listed as the owner, click Profile to view the Resident's profile. If (Group Owned) is listed as the owner, the land belongs to a group. Click Info to view the group's information. Owners of a group will be listed in bold text. Risks of private region rentals Residents buying or renting parcels on Private Regions and Estates are subject to the covenant that governs the land they're renting. If you rent land that's in a Private Region, you're not paying Linden Lab -- you're paying the Estate owner. The way in which the Estate owner sets up payments and what they charge is entirely up to them. ⚠️ Please understand that by renting from another Resident, you run the risk that this Resident may decide to leave Second Life, without refunding anything you may have paid them. Linden Lab is not party to any agreement the two of you may have, however, if you wish to pursue this matter outside of Second Life, please know that Linden Lab cooperates fully with any real-world justice officials or law enforcement agencies credentialed with appropriate civil or criminal jurisdiction.

Auction requirements Finding a parcel for auction The bidding process Bidding on a parcel What happens next Creating your own auctions In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português The Land Auctions page is now part of Place Pages. Here you can find a list of Open Auctions, Scheduled Auctions and Recently Closed Auctions. You may browse as much as you'd like without signing up for Second Life. Auction requirements To participate in an auction, you must have an active membership subscription that permits you to own land on the Second Life mainland, such as a Plus, Premium, or Premium Plus membership. Your account must also have a verified email address and a Linden dollar (L$) balance sufficient to make a bid. If you'd like to participate in land auctions, please log into your account on the Second Life website to confirm your email address is verified and that you have a valid membership subscription. Finding a parcel for auction You can click the top of each column of auction results to sort by Name, Size, Leading Bid, # of Bidders, Start Time, End Time or Auction ID. Sort by our desired parameters to help you find a parcel that meets your needs. Once you find a parcel you are interested in, click the listing to visit the parcel’s Place Page. Here you can see additional information, such as the parcel’s maturity rating and region location. It is important to check the parcel’s maturity rating, since this determines who can access your parcel and the types of content that can be located there. You can also click the Visit This Location button to go inworld and check it out. Do you like the location? Does the terrain match your needs? How’s the neighborhood? Just like buying a property in the real world, details matter and may be the key to your happiness! The bidding process Bidding uses an auto-bidding process similar to that used on other auction sites. When an auction is created, the seller sets a minimum bid, a bid increment (a multiple of L$10 between L$10 and L$100), and an end time for the auction. To bid, you must specify the maximum amount of Linden dollars you are willing to bid. If your bid is higher than the current leading bid (or the minimum, if there have not been any bids yet), then the auto-bidding system adds the bid increment amount to the current leading bid until either you or the current leader exceeds their maximum bid; the bidder that remains becomes the new leading bidder at that amount. This is repeated for each new bidder until the auction reaches its end time - at which point the current leading bidder wins the auction. Before you place a bid on a parcel, you must have sufficient Linden dollars (L$) already in your account. You can see your current available account balance shown as Your Balance under the “Place your bid” section. Once you place a successful bid, your maximum bid is immediately taken from your balance and held in escrow until you either win the auction or you are outbid. If you win an auction, the land counts against your land allocation and tier fees. Before you bid, be sure you are comfortable with paying any additional monthly fee ("tiering up") that might be triggered. You can review your land allotment by going to Your Second Life Account. You may bid on land that would put you in a higher tier. The system informs you if winning the auction would modify your tier requirement (note that each auction evaluates this based on your current land holdings; if you are bidding in multiple auctions, the land amounts from the other auctions will not be used in the tier calculation). Groups may not participate in auctions either as buyers or sellers. You must bid as an individual, and the land ownership is set to the winner as an individual. Once the auction is over and the land ownership has changed, you may deed it to a Group like any other parcel, but note that your tier obligation may be affected by even the brief period of individual ownership. Bidding on a parcel Choose the maximum amount of Linden dollars (L$) you are comfortable bidding, then enter your bid and press Submit Bid. Once you place your bid, you’ll see a bid confirmation page: If this is not what you intended to bid or you’ve changed your mind, do not click the Submit button. Close the browser window, go Back in your browser, or click Cancel. If you agree and want to move forward, click Submit to submit your bid. You can now see the Auction Place Page and your bidding status. To view your auctions activity, return to the main auctions page and click View my auction activity. Here you can see any open auctions in which you’re participating and any past auction bids (If some entries appear to be missing, you may be viewing an old version of the page; try clicking your browser's Refresh or Reload button). Once you have bid, you cannot decrease your bid amount. The only way to exit an auction where you are the leading bidder is for someone to outbid you. What happens next During the bidding process you receive email updates when you place a bid, when you are outbid, when someone unsuccessfully bids against you, and (if you are fortunate) when you have won. There can be unpredictable delays in email transmission, so you may want to occasionally visit View my auction activity to check the status of your auctions. If you are the leading bidder, all you have to do is wait for the auction to close. If you placed a maximum winning bid and win the auction for a lower amount, the difference is refunded. If you are outbid, we send you an email and return the escrowed funds to your balance. If you would like to bid again to increase your bid, you can do that through View my auction activity. If that really was the most you were willing to spend, there’s nothing more you need to do. “I’m a winner!” Congratulations, you’ve successfully won your auction! Ownership of the parcel is set to you, the auction winner, within an hour after the end of the auction. If there is a problem with the ownership, contact Second Life Support. You can use the Visit This Location button on your closed auction page to get back to your new parcel. Creating your own auctions As of October 14, 2019, new Resident-to-Resident auctions have been disabled. All existing auctions will be allowed to complete as originally scheduled. For more information, please see the official Second Life Blog and Creating your own auctions. For more information about land auctions in Second Life, please read our Auctions FAQ.

Converting regions Comparison chart How long does a conversion take? You may choose to convert some of your Private Regions from one Private Region type to another. Converting a private region from a homestead to a full region, or from a full region to a homestead, allows you to keep the same region name, map location, and landmarks for your region, while also choosing the right level of performance and resources for your needs. As your region needs change, your private region can change, too. Full Regions are the default private region type. They have a large capacity for content and avatars and are well-suited to busy event venues, businesses, or high-demand residential uses. Homestead Regions are a lighter class of region than a Full, and are less expensive as a result. They're optimized for light commercial use, low-density land rental, or light residential use. Openspace Regions are the lightest class of region available, designed as open water, parkland, or other types of largely empty space. They're perfect for expanding oceans for sailing or connecting existing regions. Openspace Regions have specific limitations that only apply to them, but they are also the least expensive type of region available. 💡 What does "light" use mean? Generally, regions perform based on how much content they're actively running. Scripted objects, physical objects (like some moving animals or vehicles) and the number of avatars present are some contributors to a region's resource needs. This article covers the different scenarios and costs associated with each possible conversion. Converting regions There is a $100 USD fee to convert regions from one type to another, but this fee is waived if you are upgrading a Homestead or an Openspace to a larger capacity region type. The cost to convert a region is the setup fee of what you want minus the setup fees of what you have to trade in. For example, if you have a homestead region (setup fee $149 USD) and you would like to convert it to a full region (setup fee $349 USD), what you want is $349 and what you have is $149. $349 minus $149 is $200 USD. Because you're converting your homestead into the more powerful full region, we waive the $100 conversion fee, and the total charge for the conversion would be $200. If you have any questions about how much it would cost to convert a private region, please contact our Support team for specific pricing information about your region. Once the conversion has taken place, the appropriate new monthly fees apply. Your bill date remains the same as that of the original Region. When converting up from an Openspace Region to a Homestead Region or Full Region, you are charged the difference in setup fees between the two types of Regions. We waive the $100 conversion fee if you are converting up. Once the conversion has taken place, the appropriate new monthly fees apply and the new billing date is an average of the billing dates from your converted regions. If you have multiple Openspaces or Homesteads to convert, each contributes its setup value against the price of a full Region. For example, if you want to convert two Openspaces to a Full Region, it costs the set up fee of the Full Region ($349) minus the combined setup fee of each Openspace ($99 + $99), and we waive the conversion fee ($100) : $349 - ($99 + $99) = $151 USD. Examples: Converting 2 Openspace Regions to a Full Region would be $349 - ($99 + $99) = $151 Converting 2 Homestead Regions to a Full Region would be $349 - ($149 + $149) = $51 Important: Conversions which incur a negative balance do not result in a refund for the surplus amount. For example, the math for converting 3 Homestead Regions to a Full Region: is: $349 - ($149 + $149 + $149 ) = -$98, but you don't get a $98 credit for the conversion. Comparison chart Converting Up If you want… You can convert any of the following: A Full Region 3 Homesteads 2 Homesteads + $51 USD 1 Homestead + $200 USD 4 Openspaces 3 Openspaces + $52 USD 1 Openspace + $250 USD A Homestead Region 2 Openspaces 1 Openspace + $50 USD An Events Pro Region 2 Full Regions 1 Full Region + $100 USD 3 Homestead Regions 2 Homestead Regions + $151 USD An Events Elite Region 2 Full Regions 1 Full region + $250 USD 3 Homestead Regions + $152 USD 2 Homestead Regions + $301 USD A Skill Gaming Region* 1 Full Region + $251 USD A Skill Gaming Elite Region* 1 Skill Gaming Region + $100 USD 1 Full Region + $350 USD * Subject to Skill Gaming program restrictions and guidelines. See the Official Second Life Skill Gaming FAQ for more information. Converting Down Converting regions down into lighter classes, such as converting a full region into a homestead, has a fee of $100 USD, plus any additional difference in setup fees if there are any. For instance, a full region can be turned into 2 homestead regions for the $100 conversion fee; if you wanted 3 homesteads, you could also pay the difference between the setup fees for 3 homesteads ($149 x 3 = $447) and a full region ($349), which is $98 USD. As before, conversion prices are based on the difference in setup fees between what you have and what you want. If you have… You can convert it into any of the following: A Full Region 3 Homesteads ($98 USD additional fee) 2 Homesteads 1 Homesteads 1 Homestead + 1 Openspace 4 Openspaces ($47 USD additional fee) 3 Openspaces 2 Openspaces 1 Openspaces A Homestead Region 1 Openspace 2 Openspaces ($49 USD additional fee) How long does a conversion take? You can normally expect your Private Region conversion to take 5-10 business days. Depending on the size of our current conversion queue, your conversion may occasionally take longer than 10 business days, but we do our best to get it done in a timely manner.

Openspace Region overview Definition of "light" use Converting Openspace Regions Other rules relating to Openspace Regions Land parcels on Openspace Regions Openspace Region overview Openspace Regions are a type of Private Region intended for light use such as water, hills, or forest. They are not intended for building, home rentals, or events. To own an Openspace Region, you must also own a normal Private Region. Openspace specifications include: Available to Full Region owners only Lower price than a Full Region or Homestead Events and Classifieds are not permitted Comes with lower usage limits than Full Regions or Homesteads: Land capacity set at 1000 Concurrent avatar limit set at 10 Pricing for Openspaces is as follows: New Openspaces are no longer available for sale via our automated land store, but can be purchased by contacting our Support team. Please log in to your Second Life account, and on the Support Portal website, select Submit a Support Ticket. For the Issue Type, choose Land & Region Under Land and Region, select Order Private Region The setup fee for a new Openspace is $99 USD. Monthly fee of $60 USD. You may optionally convert four Openspace Regions into a normal Private Region or you may convert a Private Region into four Openspace Regions, provided that you will have at least one normal Private Region afterward. Definition of "light" use Normal Private Regions each run on their own dedicated CPU on the Second Life servers. The Openspace Regions run four per CPU; this allows us to provide more regions to you at a lower cost, but limits the performance of those regions. Openspaces only ever share CPU usage with other Openspaces on a server, which means that the presence of Openspace Regions does not affect the performance of Homestead Regions or other Private Regions. It is important to understand what Openspace Regions are not for building, living in, renting as homes or use for events. They are fine for a stretch of open water for boating or a scenic wooded area, but we do not advise more serious use than this and will not respond to performance issues reported should you not use them in this way. Converting Openspace Regions Openspace Regions may be converted into standard Private Regions or Homestead Regions. For full information on how to convert between the different Private Region types, see Converting Private Regions. Other rules relating to Openspace Regions To continue to own Openspaces, you must also continue to own at least one normal Private Region (Island). If you transfer your last region, you must also transfer the Openspaces to someone eligible to own them or give them up, since you cannot own Openspaces on their own. You can sell Openspaces to another Resident, but the new owner needs to own a Private Region already to be eligible to own an Openspace Region. The normal transfer fee of $100/region is charged to the seller. Multiple Openspace transfer: If you are transferring multiple Openspaces to the same person, the fees may be different for that transfer. For up to 4 Openspaces in the same transfer, the fee will be $100 total. After the first 4 Openspaces, the transfer fee is $100 per region. Examples: You're transferring 3 Openspaces to the same buyer. You'll be charged $100. You're transferring 6 Openspaces to the same buyer. You'll be charged $300. You're transferring 2 Openspaces to one buyer, 5 to another, and one last one to a third buyer. You'll be charged $100 on the first transfer, $200 on the second, and $100 on the third. You transfer 2 Openspaces to a buyer this week, then decide to sell them 2 more next week. You'll be charged $100 for each transfer. Renaming or moving an Openspace region costs the same as moving or renaming a Full or Homestead region. For more information about moving and renaming private regions, please see Managing Private Regions. The owner of an Openspace must be the same as the payor. Land parcels on Openspace Regions Openspaces are not approved for residential or commercial rental, or for habitation. They are only suitable for open areas of scenery or parkland. Sale or rental of land parcels on Openspace Regions is not allowed, and land in Openspace Regions cannot be deeded to a group.

Estate Tab Access Tab Covenant Tab Region Tab Terrain Tab Environment Tab Debug Tab Experiences Tab There are eight tabs in the Region/Estate window: Estate Access Covenant Region Terrain Environment Debug Experiences All of them except Estate deal with Region-specific options. The Estate tab contains options that affect your whole Estate, which may include many Regions. Throughout this window, there are small ? buttons that provide additional guidance. The question mark buttons on the upper right open tab-specific help windows directly in the Second Life viewer. Estate Tab Estate: The Estate name is listed here. This may be very different to than Estate/Region name itself. This is normal. Estate Owner: The owner of the estate is listed here. Allow only residents and groups on the Access tab: When checked, this setting prevents access to the Estate unless the visitor is on the Allowed Residents list, or is a member of a group on the Allowed Groups list of the Access tab. Anyone can visit: When checked, this setting allows access to the Estate without being specifically on the Allowed Residents list. Restrict Access To: Allows you to restrict access based on two parameters: Must be 18+: If this box is checked, the only Residents who can get into Regions in your Estate are adults who are 18+. Must have payment info on file: If this box is checked, only Residents who have payment information on file with Linden Lab are allowed access to Regions in your Estate. Parcel owners can be more restrictive: If checked, this setting allows parcel owners in the estate to have more selective access permissions than the estate itself has, ie, requiring payment info on file for visitors to their parcel. Allow Voice Chat: Checking this box allows Residents to use spatial voice chat on your Estate. This box does not affect private IM voice chat or group voice chat. Allow Direct Teleport: Allows people to teleport directly to the Estate by clicking on it on the map. If you set a landing point on the parcel, that determines where exactly they end up. You can also disable this (the default behaviour) and use the traditional telehub method. Send Message to Estate: Allows you to send a notification message to everyone in the Estate as a blue pop up dialog in the corner of their Second Life window. Kick User from Estate: Allows you to remove a Resident from your Estate. This button allows you to send them back to their home location. Note: A Region's maturity rating takes precedence over all other forms of access; Residents who do not have their preferences set to the appropriate maturity level are not allowed access to more mature Regions, regardless of access lists, groups, or other land access privileges. To learn how to set your own maturity level in your preferences, see Setting your maturity preferences. Access Tab Estate Managers list: Any Residents you assign as Estate Managers for you in this list are able to access most of the same Region/Estate tools that you can. They are not able to deed land or access the About Land window, as these are parcel-level controls. They are trusted by Linden Lab for rollback requests, so be certain to chose Residents you trust. An estate may have up to 15 estate managers designated at a time. Allowed Residents list: If Public Access is not checked, this list specifies which people are permitted to see and enter the Estate. If Public Access is checked, this list is used to specify Residents who have permission to post events on your Estate. Allowed Groups list: Members of the specific groups listed have access to the Estate. Banned Residents list: Residents added to this list are not able to access your Estate. Covenant Tab See Estate Covenants. Region Tab Region: This field describes the name of the Region. Version: This field describes the version of the server software this Region is currently using. Type: This field describes the Region's type. It may be a Full Region, a Homestead Region, or an Openspace Region. For more information about the types of Regions available, see Private Region Types. Block Terraform: Determines whether the land in the Region can be edited by parcel owners. Block Fly: Turns off flight across this Region, even for parcels that have flight enabled. Block Parcel Fly Over: Extends parcel access controls to 5000m in altitude, preventing anyone from flying above parcels they are not allowed to enter. Allow Damage: Checking this option enables combat damage for the entire Region, regardless of parcel settings. If unchecked, parcel owners can still set their parcel as unsafe. Restrict Pushing: This option limits the degree to which avatars can be pushed with scripted objects, thereby making the avatars in the Region safer from malicious scripts. Allow Land Resell: Specifies whether Residents who purchase land on your Estate can resell it to others or deed the land to a group. Allow Land Join/Divide: Specifies whether Residents who purchase land on your Estate can subdivide their parcels or join separated parcels together. Block Land Show in Search: Prevents parcel owners from using Show Place in Search. Agent Limit: Specifies how many avatars can be in your Region at once. Any avatars beyond this limit that try to enter are informed that the Region is full. You can raise this value above its default of 40 (for Full Regions), but a high number of avatars on a Region can significantly reduce the Region's performance. Alternatively, you can reduce the Agent Limit to prevent incoming avatars from causing undue load on your Region. Object Bonus: This number multiplies the number of prims allowed on parcels in this Region. However, this option is not a way to increase the number of prims the whole Region supports; if the number of objects in the Region hits the Region's maximum capacity, no new objects can be created there, regardless of parcel limits. You may wish to use this option if you have a very dense area of objects in one small part of a Region (such as a cluster of buildings or a skyscraper) and relatively few objects elsewhere in the Region. Rating: This dropdown box allows you to select the maturity level of a Region. You may choose from General, Moderate, or Adult. For more information about maturity ratings, see Maturity Ratings: An Overview. Teleport Home One Resident: This button teleports a specific Resident back to their home location. Teleport Home All Residents: Allows you to send everyone back to their home location. Send Message to Region: Allows you to send a notification message to everyone in that Region as a blue popup dialog in the corner of their Second Life windows. Manage Telehub: See Telehubs and Direct Teleport. Terrain Tab Water Height: Lets you set the height at which water is shown. Keep in mind that the sea you can see outside of your Estate is at 20m, so if you set your water level differently you will see a gap when you swing the camera outside of the Estate and look back towards it. All mainland water is at 20m also. Terrain Raise/Lower Limits: Sets the distance above or below the baked terrain level that you can terraform to in this Region. Terrain Textures and Texture Elevation Ranges: These controls are used to change the ground textures for different elevations on your Estate. For more information and tips on how to create and modify your own ground textures, and how to adjust the Texture Elevation Ranges, please see Creating Terrain Textures. Download RAW terrain and Upload RAW terrain: You can use these buttons to upload and download RAW formatted image files that represent the layout of the terrain in your Region. For more information about using RAW files to set your terrain, see How do I backup & restore Private Region terrain? Bake Terrain: This sets the current terrain as the default, such that the Revert Land tool will revert to this state when used. Environment Tab For more information on setting a region's environment, please visit the Environment editor page of our KnowledgeBase. Debug Tab Disable Scripts: Turns off all scripts in the Region. Disable Collisions: Stops objects from causing collisions on the Region. Where there is a rogue physical object causing problems, this can allow you to reach the object and remove it. Disable Physics: Turns off physics on the Region. This has the side affect of stopping avatars from moving around. Object Return: Allows Region Owners and Estate Managers to return all objects in a Region (or multiple Regions in an Estate) that are owned by a single Resident. For more information about this feature, see How do I return other peoples' objects? Get Top Colliders and Get Top Scripts: Both options produce a list of the physics or scripted objects and a measure of their load on the Region. You can then see which items are causing the most load and, if necessary, return them or set a beacon to go investigate. Restart Region and Cancel Restart: Allow you to force the Region to save and restart. Any Residents still in the Region after the two-minute countdown will be disconnected. While the countdown is ongoing, the Cancel Restart button will cancel the restart. Please note, some region restarts cannot be canceled (such as during a rolling restart to deploy new updates). Region Debug Console: Opens the Region Debug Console. For more information, please see Region Debug Console on the Second Life Wiki. Experiences Tab In Second Life terminology, an experience is a set of avatar interactions created by one or more scripted objects. This tab allows region owners to control which Key Experiences have access to their region (regardless of all other access settings), as well as controlling access to which experiences can run in the estate at all. Estate owners can also block experiences from running on their estate. (Note: At this time, only Grid-scope Experiences can be blocked.) For more information on the Experiences tab, please see the inworld help entry in the Second Life viewer, or visit the Second Life wiki.

The About Land window The Preferences window The Media Browser window Want more? Make your own media screen Click actions Important: Land and maturity access restrictions may prevent you from accessing media on a parcel or other media content. For a full breakdown of media access rules, see Maturity ratings and media access. Landowners can select and display a variety of online media content including web pages, movies, images, text documents and audio. Currently, the displayed media is entirely non-interactive, meaning you cannot click web links, use scroll bars, or press buttons on web pages displayed on parcels. Note: The Second Life Viewer uses a modified version of the Mozilla web browser to connect directly to web content. As a result, the web pages you see can potentially differ from what other Residents see depending on locally stored cookies and authentication information on your computer. The About Land window The MEDIA tab of the About Land window contains many options for displaying media on your land in Second Life. To access the About Land window for a parcel of land, right-click the ground and select About Land. You must own the parcel, or have sufficient group abilities on a group-owned parcel to modify the land's media settings. Type - This dropdown menu allows you to override the media you would like to play on your land. Use this option if the media type is set incorrectly or set to No Content. The text to the right of this dropdown box displays the media's MIME type. Home Page - Address of the media you would like to show on your parcel. For example, http://secondlife.com is the URL for Second Life's Knowledge Base. Set the Media URL by pressing the Set button and entering the new URL into the SET MEDIA URL window. Description: Enter a description of your Media URL. Replace Texture - Objects using this texture show your movie or web page after you click the play arrow. To change the texture, click the box containing it. Size - Allows you to define the size of the displayed media, in pixels. This option is not available for video media. Control other features in the SOUND tab: Restrict gesture and object sounds to this parcel - Enabling this setting means an avatar needs to be on this parcel to hear gesture and object sounds originating from within it. This is useful if you have environmental ambience like birdsong and don't want to disturb the neighbors, or if you have an Adult-rated establishment and prefer that passerby don't hear sexually explicit noises. As cautioned above, maturity ratings take precedence. Avatar Sounds - By default, avatar sounds are not restricted, and the Everyone checkbox is selected. To permit sounds to be played by No one: Clear both the Everyone and Group checkboxes. Group members only: Clear the Everyone checkbox, leaving Group selected. For more information, see Hiding avatars and restricting avatar sounds. Voice Enable Voice - This is turned on by default and means people on this parcel can use voice chat to communicate. However, if voice is disabled at the estate level (in World > Region/Estate then click Estate tab), this and Restrict Voice to this parcel will be grayed out. Restrict Voice to this parcel - Similar to Restrict gesture and object sounds to this parcel, enabling this prevents voice chat from being heard by avatars unless they are on this parcel. Good if you want to have a spatial voice chat in the open yet maintain some privacy. The Preferences window The Setup tab of the PREFERENCES window (Me > Preferences) allows you to choose your default media browser for Second Life: Use my browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari): If you select this option, all web hyperlinks in Second Life open in your computer's default web browser (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer). Use built-in browser: If you select this option, web hyperlinks in Second Life open inside Second Life's media browser. Use this option to view web content without switching away from the Second Life Viewer. Enable plugins: Check to enable the built-in web browser to run plugins such as Flash. Accept coolies: Cookies are bits of info stored by websites, used for a number of purposes, including personalizing content. If you have privacy concerns, reject cookies by unchecking this option. Enable Javascript: Check to enable the built-in web browser to run Javascript on web pages. Enable Web proxy: Check to set a web proxy to access Second Life in the Proxy location field. Enter the port in the port number field. The Sound & Media tab includes a checkbox to Allow media to auto-play. If you check this box, media automatically plays when you enter a parcel with a media URL and media texture set. Otherwise, you have to play media manually. The Media Browser window The media browser is a specialized Mozilla web browser you can use inside Second Life. It does many of the same things a normal web browser can do; type in a URL and press Go to navigate to a new web page. The Back and Forward buttons help you navigate between previously-visited pages, and the Reload button refreshes your currently viewed media. The media browser also has a few buttons that are specific to Second Life: Send Current Page to Parcel: When pressed, this button replaces your current parcel media URL with the URL loaded in the media browser. You must own the land you are standing on, or have sufficient group abilities on group-owned land in order to use this button. Open in My Web Browser: Pressing this button opens the current media browser URL in your computer's default web browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari). You may wish to use this option if web content is not displaying properly inside Second Life. Always open in my web browser: If you check this box, web URLs always open in your computer's default browser. You can reverse this setting on the Setup tab of the PREFERENCES window. Want more? PARCEL MEDIA: Play webpages, movies, & more from Torley on Vimeo. Make your own media screen PARCEL MEDIA: Make your own media screen from Torley on Vimeo. Click actions PARCEL MEDIA: Click actions from Torley on Vimeo.

Before you begin: environment considerations Creating terrain shapes Show land owners Subdivide Join Land owners or members of groups with the Always Allow Edit Terrain ability assigned to their role can use the Edit Terrain tool to change the shape of land. Members in a role with this ability can edit terrain only on a parcel owned by their group. Important: Assigning Always Allow Edit Terrain to a group role gives the members in that role full access to the Edit Terrain tool. This includes the Abandon Land option. Before you begin: environment considerations What type of environment are you making? Simplify the process of creating terrain by planning properly in advance. You can use simple prims to create a layout of your ideas, for example, or set up marker objects to make it easier to know how deep a divot might be, or how tall a hill should be made. In the image above, each colored section of the pole is 1 meter tall, making it easier to determine the right size for the new hill. What are the slope extremes? Steep slopes can have undesirable effects on terrain textures, depending on their complexity, contrast, and saturation. A texture might look great on subtle, rolling hills but terrible on more extreme slopes. Be aware that textures will "stretch" or "smear" on steep slopes, and more experimentation may be necessary to make them look good. Generally, gradual changes in elevation look best. Are there adjacent regions? Crossing region boundaries can be a tricky situation, so it's always best to develop adjacent regions in tandem. If you own adjacent regions, the job of matching texture sets is straight forward. However, if someone else owns a region adjacent to yours, it's a good idea to ask the owner for copies of the textures being used on it so you can match your land textures to theirs for a better blending of the land along the border. Creating terrain shapes The Edit Terrain tool allows you to create many different shapes for your land. These shapes are stored as RAW terrain textures, with different colors corresponding to different heights. Region owners can download and upload these terrain files directly to their region, updating the terrain's shape for the entire region at once. RAW terrain files can also be edited externally in some graphics programs. For more information about working with RAW terrain files, please see the Second Life Wiki. The Edit Terrain tool To access the Edit Terrain tool, right-click on your land and select Edit Terrain. This opens a tool with many different options for terraforming your land. The Edit Terrain tool contains seven land edit options: Select Land - Use this option to select the land area you want to edit. Click and drag your mouse on the land. The selected area shows outlined in yellow. If you do not select part of your land, the tool defaults to the whole parcel area. Flatten - Makes the selected area flat. Raise - Raises the selected area. Lower - Lowers the selected area. Smooth - Smooths gradients to create a natural slope of the selected area. Roughen - This option gives the land bumps and ditches. Revert - Undoes terraforming based on the terrain's baked shape, or baseline terrain elevation. Several clicks may be necessary to return land to its original shape. Note: Mainland regions can be raised/lowered by +/- 4m. Private Regions can be raised/lowered by +/- 20m by default, but this setting can be increased to 100m by the region owner. These Bulldozer sliders allow you to adjust the size and strength of your edit tool. Size - Adjust the slider to determine the size of the area affected by your bulldozer Choose the size of your land edit tool. Strength - Adjust the slider to determine how subtly or radically the landscape is transformed. Apply - Use this button to apply your edit option to the whole selected area. Show land owners Select World > Show > Land Owners to color code the land according to who owns it: Reddish brown is land owned by others. Green is your land. Aqua is land owned by a group of which you are a member. Grey is public land (rare). Purple is land in the auction system. Buy Land The Edit Terrain tool provides the option to purchase land set for sale. Click this button to open the land purchase confirmation Window. The confirmation window provides information about any tier changes that might be incurred by making this land purchase. For more information about finding land to purchase, see Buying land. Abandon Land Land which is abandoned in a mainland region immediately reverts ownership to Governor Linden; land that is abandoned on a private region reverts to the region owner. Please use caution with this option; you will not receive compensation or payment in Linden dollars for abandoning land, and abandoning land is permanent. It may not be possible to recover land once you've abandoned it. If you've abandoned a parcel of mainland by mistake, and it's now showing as owned by Governor Linden, please contact our Support team for further assistance. Subdivide You may want to break a parcel of land into multiple pieces, for example if you want to sell part of it. Select the section of your land by pressing down the left mouse button and dragging to create a yellow selection rectangle around the land you want to subdivide. Then click the Subdivide button. This will create a new parcel. The new parcel will share the name and traits of the parcel it was separated from by default, like the parcel's name, object settings, and media streams. To edit the new parcel's information, you can enter the parcel's boundaries and click World > About Land to open the land information window for the new parcel. Join If you want to connect two or more pieces of land that you own, drag a rectangle that overlaps each of the land parcels you want to join and click the Join button to combine them into one. You can now use the About Land tool to set the features for this new piece of land. Note: Land parcels cannot be joined across region boundaries.

What are environments? The Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) How to customize your environment Personal Lighting Apply Only to Myself Pause Clouds Parcel environment settings Region environment settings Environment settings objects Skies Water Day Cycles Environment settings permissions Copy and No-copy Transfer and No-transfer Modify and No-modify Creating and editing settings Creating a new settings object Editing settings objects Saving and importing settings Importing existing Windlight settings Editing a Sky setting The Atmosphere & Lighting tab Creating rainbows The Clouds tab The Sun & Moon tab Editing a Water setting Editing a Day Cycle setting Sky and water tracks Frames and the timeline Previewing your day cycle Legacy environment controls What are environments? The Environment Editor gives you a fine degree of control over Second Life's sky, water, and atmosphere. Imagine a strange alien planet with a purple sky, or a smoggy, overcast city! This guide will help you to understand the many controls at your disposal, and set you on the path to becoming a weather-controlling mad scientist. You can also use subtler lighting effects to make your screenshots look fantastic, like adding a rosy glow to a sunset sky or golden highlights for your beach photos. Feeling the seasonal spirit? Add fog and clouds to give your environment a wintry chill, or increase the ambient light and ditch the clouds for a hot summer sizzle. Note: In order to see all of the sky effects you will need OpenGL 2.0 or higher. If you have the latest drivers for your graphics card and still cannot see certain atmospheric effects (such as clouds) try enabling Basic Shaders and Atmospheric Shaders in the Graphics tab of your Me > Preferences menu. The Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) The Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) is a set of viewer- and server-based tools which not only allow Residents to customize their environments even further, but to create objects with their favorite settings to share or sell with others. Instead of a complicated process of downloading settings files from websites or adjusting settings one by one, Residents can trade or buy custom environments and use them on their parcels, just for themselves, or on a full region (if they're a private region owner or estate manager). EEP also introduces personal lighting, a quick and easy way to temporarily adjust environments wherever you go. While these adjustments can't be permanently saved, they're wonderful for making tweaks to your lighting or environment to get that perfect screenshot on the go. In addition to the new settings objects and personal lighting, EEP has added new environmental settings which allow you to add spectacular effects like ice halos around the Sun and Moon and most dazzling of all — rainbows! How to customize your environment Because the viewer determines how to display the sky, water, and day cycle to you, environmental settings allow you to change how the world looks in several different ways. The Personal lighting window allows you to set quick, temporary changes to your environment no matter where you are. These changes are only visible to you, and they go away when you log out and back in again. Want something a little more permanent? You can create or customize a sky or water preset with the Sky Preset Editor and save it to use later. Many great presets are already available in our Library, and can be applied to yourself, your parcel, or your region. You can also copy them to your inventory to edit for that special, custom look. You can also right-click and choose Apply Only to Myself on any settings object in your inventory to update your personal environment at any time. If you own or have permissions to change the environment on a parcel of land, you can set custom environmental settings on the World > About Land > Environment tab. Other visitors to that parcel will share the same environmental experience by default. Private region owners or estate managers can also set custom environmental settings for their entire region through the World > Region/Estate > Environment tab. The Sunrise, Midday, Sunset and Midnight options from World > Environment will set your sky to ✏️ Tip: You can apply any settings object in your inventory or the Library by right-clicking on the object and choosing Apply Only To Myself to test out how it looks. To return to the parcel or region's shared environment, select World > Environment > Use Shared Environment. Personal Lighting The Personal Lighting window can be opened from World > Environment > Personal Lighting. In one window, you can customize many of the most important environmental settings in one place, based on whatever environmental settings you're currently experiencing. For example, if you visit a spooky haunted house region, the environment may be customized to be very dark, foggy, and mysterious. When you load the Personal Lighting window, you see the spooky settings loaded into the options, and can adjust them as you like. You cannot save these adjusted settings, though, and they'll go away once you log out and log back in again. For more information about the various settings options, see the Sky settings, Water settings, and Day Cycle settings sections below. Apply Only to Myself To apply any saved environment preset from a settings object, locate the settings object in your Inventory > Settings folder or the Library > Environments folder, then right-click Apply Only to Myself. This will instantly change your environment to reflect the settings you've selected. You can reset your personal environment at any time by clicking World > Environment > Use Shared Environment Pause Clouds The Pause Clouds option from World > Environment > Pause Clouds stops the animation on clouds and waves, freezing them in place until the option is unchecked. This is only visible to you, and can be checked or unchecked at any time. Parcel environment settings You can set custom environments for a parcel by opening the About Land's Environment panel from World > About Land > Environment. From here, parcel owners can choose to use the region's settings, to apply settings objects from inventory, or to customize the current settings on the parcel. For group-owned land, members must have a role with the ability Modify environment settings and day cycle in order to change these settings. If you right-click on a settings object and select Apply to parcel, the setting will be applied to all available settings options. For a sky setting, this would set the same sky at the ground, Sky 2, Sky 3, and Sky 4 altitudes. If you apply a day cycle setting to a parcel from inventory, it will apply to all available options — water, ground, and all sky levels. Sky Altitudes allow you to set different skies at different heights, creating specific areas. This is particularly useful if you have a skybox or use multiple levels of your land or region for different purposes, but it can also create a lovely visual effect. Imagine taking off from a foggy ground-level airport and climbing to a clear sunrise above! For more information about the various settings options, see the Sky settings, Water settings, and Day Cycle settings sections below. ✏️ Note: Region owners may choose not to allow parcel owners to change their environment settings. If your parcel is in a private region, you may wish to speak to the estate manager or region owner if you have questions about setting custom environments on your land. Region environment settings Region owners and estate managers may set custom environment settings on through the Region/Estate window by opening World > Region/Estate > Environment. Much like the About Land window, this allows region owners to set different skies at different altitudes as well as selecting the specific environmental options they'd like for their regions. Region owners can also check or uncheck the Parcel Owners May Override Environment box. If checked, owners of parcels in the region can set their own custom environments through the About Land windows. If unchecked, all parcels in the region will use the region's default environment settings. For more information about the various settings options, see the Sky settings, Water settings, and Day Cycle settings sections below. Environment settings objects EEP provides 3 new inventory assets called settings. Settings may be created and destroyed through your inventory, and they may be given to other people or sold through the Marketplace. You can view your current environmental settings objects by checking your Me > Inventory > Settings folder, or by opening the My Environments window from the World > Environment > My Environments menu. Skies Sky settings define the look of the sky. They control the color and direction of the ambient light, the images used to display the sun and the moon, and their positions in the sky. They also control the atmospheric conditions, like the color and density of clouds or how much moisture is in the air. Water Water settings define the look of Linden water. Some of the settings include the water's color, how reflective the surface is, and the shape and direction of the waves. From a crystal-clear tropical sea to a murky, apocalyptic lagoon, custom water settings allow you to match your water to your mood. Day Cycles Day cycles are collections of skies and waters that blend together to form the environment for an entire day. You can set a foggy sky for the morning, a bright sun for the afternoon, and a cozy rainbow for sunset; the quality of the light, the colors, and the clouds can be adjusted to change throughout the day cycle. Different water settings can be applied throughout the day to change the appearance as time progresses, too. Environment settings permissions Environment settings objects have a few special behaviors when it comes to object permissions. Aside from these special behaviors, they can be shared, sold at : shops, or sold on the Marketplace like other object types. Please note that environment settings objects can't be set to no-copy — sorry, gacha fans! Copy and No-copy Environment settings objects cannot be set to no-copy. The owner of an environment settings object may always make a copy of it in their inventory. Transfer and No-transfer The no-transfer permission is persistent. For example, if you import a no-transfer day or water settings object into a day cycle, that day cycle will also become no-transfer. Once saved, this permission change cannot be altered. The day cycle will always remain no-transfer. Modify and No-modify Modify and no-modify permissions behave as normal. Creating and editing settings Creating a new settings object To create a new settings object (like a new Sky or Water), click the plus button (➕) in your Inventory window, then select New Settings > New Sky, New Water, or New Day Cycle. You can also access the Settings folder from the World > Environment > My Environments... menu. Editing settings objects To edit a Settings object, select the item in your inventory or My Environments list and click Open. Depending on the type of settings object, an editor will open. The Sky Editor allows you to customize skies, the Water Editor allows you to customize the appearance of default water, and the Day Cycle editor lets you assign specific sky and water settings to different times of day. For more on each of the editors, see the detailed sections below. Saving and importing settings After you've made changes to a settings object using the editor window, you can select Save on the lower left to save the updated settings to your inventory. Please note that using the Save button will override your previous settings, if you had any. If you'd like to save a new copy of the item instead, be sure it has a unique name in the Name box at the top of the editor, then click the up arrow to the right of the Save button to choose Save as.... This allows you to create a new copy of the item with your newly selected name. Importing existing Windlight settings If you've already customized your region, or you have saved personal Windlight settings that you like to use, you can import them to the viewer directly via the Import button. Once you've imported a Windlight file, it turns into a settings object that you can edit in the editor window Open World > Environment > My Environments... At the bottom of the window, click ➕ (+) to Make new setting Select New Sky, New Water, or New Day Cycle A new object is created in your inventory's Settings folder, called New Sky, New Water, or New Day Cycle Double-click or right-click and choose Open to open this new item for editing In the editor window that appears, enter a name for your setting in the Name box Click the Import button on the upper right of the editor window Navigate to your chosen existing Windlight .xml file and select it in your computer's file selection window Your custom settings will be imported. Click Save to save your settings as a new object. Clicking the Import button will open your computer's file selection window, just like uploading a texture or snapshot. To locate your existing Windlight files, you may need to do a bit of searching, depending on which operating system and viewer you use. Importing Windlight settings on a Mac Your existing Windlight settings are saved on your Mac in a Library folder which is generally not visible by default. You can open this folder by using Finder. For convenience, it's often easiest to drag your Windlight folder onto your Favorites list temporarily. This will make it easy to find from the file selection menu later. In Finder, from the menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder… Paste the following link into the entry box: ~/Library/Application Support/SecondLife/user_settings/windlight/ Click Go If you like, drag your Skies, Water, or Day Cycle folders onto the Favorites bar to the left to find them again easily when you use the Import button inside Second Life. Your skies, water, and day cycle settings will be located inside the folders of the same name. Importing Windlight settings on a Windows computer Your Windlight folder location may vary depending on which version of Windows you have, and whether or not you’ve installed the Second Life Viewer in a different location than your primary hard drive. In File Explorer, navigate to the following folder: C:\Program Files\SecondLifeViewer\app_settings\windlight Some earlier versions of Windows, like Windows 7, may have the settings located here: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\user_settings\windlight 💡 Tip: Having trouble? It’s sometimes easier to search for a folder than to locate the folder directly. Searching for Windlight in your operating system’s search menu should direct you to the right folder if you can’t locate it. This will also help you find Windlight settings from any third party or alternate viewers you may have installed, too. Editing a Sky setting The Sky Editor contains detailed controls for modifying environmental effects in the sky, as the name suggests. It is where you make visual changes to sky settings objects, altering the color and intensity of the light, the density of the clouds, even what the Sun and Moon look like. It contains three tabs, each with a number of sliders and color selection boxes for manipulating the sky's appearance. You may also save, import, and load sky settings to use in Day Cycles or to apply to yourself whenever you'd like. The Atmosphere & Lighting tab The Atmosphere & Lighting tab of the Sky Editor controls the color of the light, the haze and moisture levels in the air. Ambient Color: This is a universal light that applies color across the region equally. It casts no shadows, unlike the sun and moon. In traditional film or television, this effect is often created by placing colored filters across lights to create a gentle, even wash of colored light. Generally, set your ambient color to the color and brightness you want your darkest shadow to be. ✏️ Tip: Cloud cover also affects your ambient light. If your cloud cover is set to 1, your environment will be brighter, with a more intense ambient light effect. Blue Horizon: Use the color picker box to adjust the color of the sky. In meteorological terms, this setting affects "atmospheric scattering", which is the scientific answer to the age-old question, "Why is the sky blue?" Blue Density: Blue Density affects the overall color saturation of your sky. If you move the Saturation slider (right) down, your colors will become brighter and more vibrant. If you move it all the way up, your colors will become duller, eventually fading to black and white. If you'd like to fine-tune your sky's color balance, you can control individual elements of saturation by using the color picker to adjust the color details, like Red, Blue, Green, Saturation and Luminosity. ✏️ Tip: Blue Horizon and Blue Density are particularly closely related. Imagine Blue Horizon as the base color for the sky, and Blue Density as the sky's color intensity and color balance effects. Try turning Haze Density to zero and playing with these settings for yourself to get a better feel for how they interact with each other. Haze Horizon: This setting affects the height of haze on the horizon. At higher settings, the haze will reach up into the sky and obscure the actual horizon. Haze on the horizon can help to accentuate the sun, and create a dusty, smoggy, or humid effect. This setting will not work if Haze Density is set to zero. Haze Density: Haze density affects the amount of haze you can see in the atmosphere. At lower settings, this can make for some great outdoor views in dusty or tropical environments, and at higher levels it can create a thick, vision-obscuring fog. If you set Haze Density to zero, the Haze Horizon setting will have no effect. Moisture Level: The moisture level in the atmosphere contributes to creating visible rainbows. The maximum value for the moisture level setting is 1.0. To see a rainbow, set your Moisture Level to 1.0, your Droplet Radius to 600, and adjust your Sun position to the horizon. Facing the sun, turn all the way around to face away from it, and your rainbow will be visible on the opposite horizon! Droplet Radius: The droplet radius setting influences the visibility of rainbows; adjust the droplet radius to change the intensity of your rainbow. Scene Gamma: This control adjusts your environment's distribution of light and darkness. Lower settings will cause everything to appear dim or extremely dark, while higher settings may make the scene look white and "washed out", depending on your ambient light color. The default setting for scene gamma is 1.0. Adjusting the scene gamma is one way to make an environment more vivid or more gloomy. Ice Level: Increasing the ice level will create a halo-effect around the Sun and Moon. Like rainbows, you must have shadows enabled in your Graphics preferences to see a Sun or Moon halo. Fun fact! If both the Sun and Moon are visible at the same time, only the Sun will show a halo – the halo is formed from direct light bouncing through tiny crystals of ice in the atmosphere, and the Moon's light just can't compete with the Sun. Density Multiplier: The Density Multiplier can be used to affect the overall atmospheric density. At lower settings, it creates a feeling of "thin air", and at higher settings, it creates a very heavy, smoggy effect. Distance Multiplier: This setting affects your perceived distance within the atmosphere. To make everything look hazy and distant, move the slider to the right. If you want to completely remove the Sky Settings' effects from terrain and objects, set the slider to zero. Max Altitude: Adjusts the altitude calculations Second Life makes when it is computing atmospheric lighting. At later times of day, it can be useful for calculating how "deep" a sunset appears, while at noon it can be used to achieve proper brightness values. Creating rainbows To create a rainbow in your sky, you need a few things: A Sun that's low on the horizon (near sunrise or sunset) A moisture level of 1.0 A droplet radius of 600 A camera angle facing away from the sun You can adjust the moisture level and droplet radius to change the style of your rainbow once you can see it, creating a sharper or fuzzier band of colors. Play with the settings until it looks just right! ✏️ Tip: You must have Atmospheric Shaders, the Advanced Lighting Model, and Shadows enabled under Me > Preferences > Graphics > Advanced Graphics to view rainbows. The Clouds tab This tab gives you control over the clouds in the sky: Cloud Color: This affects the color of your clouds, if you have any. Use the color selector to choose the color (Red, Green, Blue values), the Luminosity, and the Saturation of your clouds. Cloud XY/Density: Use the X and Y sliders to change the horizontal position of all clouds in the sky. The D slider affects the overall density of the individual clouds; at low settings you will see thin, wispy clouds, and at higher settings you will see thicker, more solid clouds. Cloud Coverage: As the name implies, this control sets the amount of cloud coverage. At zero, there isn't a cloud in the sky, but at higher settings, you can get a completely overcast effect. Cloud Scale: This setting affects the perceived altitude of the clouds... if you slide the control to the right, it will make the clouds appear to be higher in the sky. Cloud Detail (X, Y, & D): These settings affect the detailed image of your clouds. The X and Y sliders shift its horizontal position, and the D (density) slider controls how puffy or fractured your clouds appear. Cloud Scroll X & Y: These settings affect the direction and speed at which the clouds float in the sky. Cloud Image: This selector lets you choose a new image map for your clouds. For best results, make sure your texture is seamless; the Library has a Default Cloud Map texture available if you need to reset your clouds for any reason. The Sun & Moon tab This tab controls the sun, ambient lighting, and the stars: Sun Color: This setting affects the color of the light your sun and moon produce. Keep in mind that the color of your sunlight/moonlight will affect the color of your sky! To change Sun/Moon Color, use the color selector box. Sun and Moon Position: The Sun and Moon Position boxes adjust where the Sun and Moon appear in the sky, projected onto a sphere. By rotating the sphere, you can change where the Sun (or Moon) is in the sky. ✏️ Tip: Click the Show Beacon box to set a red beacon arrow pointing at the Sun or Moon. Even if they're below the horizon or hiding behind terrain or buildings, the beacon will show where they currently are. Image: This option allows you to set a custom texture for the Sun or the Moon. Scale: This determines how large the Sun is in the sky. Glow Size: This setting defines the size of the sun's glowing aura. Glow Focus: This setting adjusts how much the sun blurs over the sky. At very high settings, Focus can cause the sun to completely wash out a portion of the sky with brilliant light, and at zero, it will cause the sun (but not the light it casts) to disappear from the sky. Star Brightness: Star Brightness defines how visible the stars are in the sky. If you play with this slider while the sun is up, you can see stars in the middle of the day! Editing a Water setting Some of the water settings you can edit include: Water Fog Color: This changes the color of the particulate matter in your water, essentially defining the color of the water itself. If your water has no fog, it will appear crystal clear and colorless. Density Exponent: Controls the density of your water fog; this setting defines how far you are able to see into the water. Underwater Modifier: Controls how the fog density changes when you are underwater. Useful for creating far-seeing views when underwater while keeping the surface fairly opaque. For example, at a setting of 0.25, the water fog is 1/4 as dense while underwater as it appears from above the surface. Fresnel Scale: Determines how much light is reflected at different angles; increasing this slider reduces visual reflection effects on the water's surface. Fresnel Offset: Determines how much total light is reflected; increasing this slider increases the amount of light reflected by the water's surface. Normal Map: Controls the normal map used for determining reflections and refractions. Any texture may be used for this setting, but true normal maps work best. Second Life's wave effects are generated by superimposing a large normal map image over a smaller version of itself. Try snake skin, tiles, or any other normal map for some wacky effects! Reflection Wavelet Scale: Controls the scale of the three wavelets that make up the surface of the water. Big Wave Speed: Adjusting the crosshairs box controls the X and Y direction and speed of the large wave image. Little Wave Speed: Adjusting the crosshairs box controls the X and Y direction and speed of the small wave image. Refract Scale Above: Controls the amount of visual refraction you can see from above the water's surface; this is the "wobbly" effect you can see when you look at an object that is underwater. Refract Scale Below: Controls the amount of visual refraction you can see from below the water's surface. This is the "wobbly" effect you can see when you look at an object that is above the water. Blur Multiplier: Controls how waves and reflections are mixed. Increasing this setting increases the amount of distortion you see in reflections as a result of wave activity. Editing a Day Cycle setting Bring up the Day Cycle Editor by selecting an existing Day Cycle settings object from your inventory Settings folder, or by creating a new settings object. You can open up the My Environments window to easily view your existing environment settings and the Library's collection of settings by opening World > Environment > My Environments... The Day Cycle Editor gives you control over the sky during Second Life's day/night cycle by setting keyframes along a timeline representing times of the day. These are nodes (represented by dots on the timeline) that have associated sky and water presets. As the time of day progresses, the sky "animates" as it shifts between these keyframes. This is useful for creating everything from photorealistic day/night cycles to strange alien environments. For each keyframe dot on the timeline, you can set a different Sky Setting for each altitude level on the left (Ground Level, Sky 2, Sky 3, and Sky 4) as well as the Water. For example, you can create a day cycle that has a foggy sky setting at 6am, a clear sky at 12pm, and a warm sunset at 6pm. To do that, add a keyframe node at 6am on the timeline and choose a foggy sky setting for it from the Load Sky button. Then repeat the process for noon and sunset. To create a basic Day Cycle: Type a new name in the Preset Name box, or click the Import button on the right to import legacy Windlight settings. Move the yellow arrow slider to a time of day, for example, 6am. Click Add Sky to add a keyframe node dot to the timeline. Click the dot to select it; it will turn green. On the right, click Load Sky, then select the sky preset you'd like to use at this time of day from your Settings folder in your inventory. Continue clicking Add Sky at various times of day, selecting the sky you'd like to use at that time of day. If you're on the Water track, the button will say Add Water. It works the same as Add Sky, allowing you to select an existing Water settings object from inventory and applying it to that specific time of day. When you have a day cycle timeline that you're happy with, you can use the Clone Track button to copy it to the other altitudes. As a tip, set your Ground timeline first. Then click Sky 2 and select Clone Track to copy the skies and nodes you added to the Ground level to Sky 2. Repeat for Sky 3 and 4. If you'd like to change the sky based on different altitudes, you can click the button and make any adjustments you want. You can drag the yellow arrow along the timeline to preview what your day cycle will look like at different times. When you're finished, click Save to save the preset. The yellow arrow above the timeline represents your current view, based on time of day. Click and drag it to see how your day will animate. You may add or delete keyframes by pressing the Add Sky and Delete Sky buttons to the right of the timeline. You can adjust the time position of a keyframe by dragging it along the timeline or by entering the time in the Time box with your chosen keyframe node selected. Sky and water tracks There are four Sky tracks in a Day Cycle: Ground Level, Sky 2, Sky 3, and Sky 4. There is one Water track. Why so many? Having multiple day cycles for different altitudes lets you have flexibility for what your environment looks like in different places. If you have a lovely farm down at ground level, but decide to open a spooky castle on a platform at 2000 meters in the air, you can have a sunny day at the farm while the spooky castle is foggy and dark. Frames and the timeline The dots on the timeline represent a time when the sky (or water) changes; it might be as simple as the light changing to pink and orange at sunrise or sunset, or as complex as a dozen atmospheric changes to represent storms moving across the region. Previewing your Day Cycle Click the ▶️ (play) arrow to play your day cycle. The yellow indicator will move along the timeline, showing what your day cycle will look like as time progresses. Click the tab forward or back button next to the play arrow to move to the next or previous dot on the timeline. Legacy environment controls Some Second Life Viewers may not have implemented the new Enhanced Environment options yet. For those Viewers and for older Viewers still in use, the legacy environment controls can provide customization to the Viewer's skies, water, and day cycle. Note: You will not be able to edit some environment settings with legacy controls, and in some instances, viewers that do not support the Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) changes may display the environment differently. The Environment Editor (Legacy Controls) To edit the sky and water, you must first open the Environment Editor. You can do this by selecting World > Environment Settings > Environment Editor > Environment Settings. In the Environment Settings window, you can choose between Use region settings and Customize my environment. Using region settings will display the region's shared environment, which is what everyone else in the region would see by default. Choosing to customize your environment will allow you to select custom water, sky, and day cycle options that are only visible to you. The Sky Preset Editor The Sky Preset editor contains detailed controls for modifying environmental effects. It is where you make visual changes to sky and atmosphere presets, also known as "keyframes" (see Day Cycle Editor for more about keyframes). It contains three tabs, each with a number of sliders for manipulating the sky's appearance. You may also save and load sky settings when you find a view you like. Opening the Sky Preset Editor The Sky Preset Editor is located in the Environment Editor: Go to World > Environment Editor > Sky Presets Select New Preset to create a new Sky Preset. Alternatively, select Edit Preset to edit an existing Sky Preset. Editing a Sky Preset The Atmosphere Tab This tab controls elements of the atmosphere itself: Blue Horizon: Use the color picker box to adjust the color of the sky. In meteorological terms, this setting affects "atmospheric scattering", which is the scientific answer to the age-old question, "Why is the sky blue?" Blue Density: Blue Density affects the overall color saturation of your sky. If you move the Saturation slider (right) down, your colors will become brighter and more vibrant. If you move it all the way up, your colors will become duller, eventually fading to black and white. If you'd like to fine-tune your sky's color balance, you can control individual elements of saturation by using the color picker to adjust the color details, like Red, Blue, Green, Saturation and Luminosity. Tip: Blue Horizon and Blue Density are particularly closely related. Imagine Blue Horizon as the base color for the sky, and Blue Density as the sky's color intensity and color balance effects. Try turning Haze Density to zero and playing with these settings for yourself to get a better feel for how they interact with each other. Haze Horizon: This setting affects the height of haze on the horizon. At higher settings, the haze will reach up into the sky and obscure the actual horizon. Haze on the horizon can help to accentuate the sun, and create a dusty, smoggy, or humid effect. This setting will not work if Haze Density is set to zero. Haze Density: Haze density affects the amount of haze you can see in the atmosphere. At lower settings, this can make for some great outdoor views in dusty or tropical environments, and at higher levels it can create a thick, vision-obscuring fog. If you set Haze Density to zero, the Haze Horizon setting will have no effect. Density Multiplier: The Density Multiplier can be used to affect the overall atmospheric density. At lower settings, it creates a feeling of "thin air", and at higher settings, it creates a very heavy, smoggy effect. Distance Multiplier: This setting affects your perceived distance within the atmosphere. To make everything look hazy and distant, move the slider to the right. If you want to completely remove the Sky Settings' effects from terrain and objects, set the slider to zero. Max Altitude: Adjusts the altitude calculations Second Life makes when it is computing atmospheric lighting. At later times of day, it can be useful for calculating how "deep" a sunset appears, while at noon it can be used to achieve proper brightness values. The Lighting Tab This tab controls the sun, ambient lighting, and the stars: Sun/Moon Color: This setting affects the color of the light your sun and moon produce. Keep in mind that the color of your sunlight/moonlight will affect the color of your sky! To change Sun/Moon Color, use the Red/Green/Blue (RGB) sliders, or use the Intensity (I) slider to move all three RGB sliders at once. Sun and Moon Position: The Sun and Moon Position setting affects the vertical position of the sun and moon, from sunrise (0.0) through noon (0.25), sunset (0.5), midnight (0.75) and back to sunrise (1.0). Note that this setting is different than Time of Day in the Basic Environment Editor. The Time of Day setting shifts through your WindLight keyframes (see The Day Cycle Editor), while the Sun and Moon Position setting only affects the physical location of the sun and moon. East Angle: The East Angle affects the horizontal position of the sun/moon, and is similar to azimuth. At settings of 0.0 and 1.0, the sun will rise in the East and set in the West. The settings in between define the entire circle of the horizon; at a setting of 0.5, the sun will rise in the West and set in the East, at a setting of 0.25 the sun will rise in the South and set in the North, etc. Sun Glow: There are two settings under Sun Glow: Size defines the size of the sun, and Focus adjusts how much the sun blurs over the sky. At very high settings, Focus can cause the sun to completely wash out a portion of the sky with brilliant light, and at zero, it will cause the sun (but not the light it casts) to disappear from the sky. Ambient: This controls the color and intensity of ambient light in the atmosphere. This is used for simulating how the light from the sun is scattered by the atmosphere and other objects once it hits the Earth. You can create a very bright sun, and a relatively dark world (think of a sunset!) with an Ambient setting of zero, but if you want to simulate mid-day illumination while the sun was low in the sky, you need to increase the Ambient setting. Scene Gamma: This control functions similarly to the Gamma setting in the Graphics Hardware Settings (formerly Adv. Graphics) tab. It adjusts your screen's distribution of light and dark output. Lower settings will cause everything to appear dim, while higher settings may make the scene look gray and "washed out". Scene Gamma is more precise than the older Gamma in that it only affects your rendered view of the SL world- not the menus and rest of your computer's screen. Star Brightness: Star Brightness defines how visible the stars are in the sky. If you play with this slider while the sun is up, you can see stars in the middle of the day! The Clouds Tab This tab gives you control over the clouds in the sky: Cloud Color: This affects the color of your clouds, if you have any. Use the individual Red/Green/Blue sliders to change the color, or the Intensity (I) slider to drag all three at once. Cloud XY/Density: Use the X and Y sliders to change the horizontal position of all clouds in the sky. The D slider affects the overall density of the individual clouds; at low settings you will see thin, wispy clouds, and at higher settings you will see thicker, more solid clouds. Cloud Coverage: As the name implies, this control sets the amount of cloud coverage. At zero, there isn't a cloud in the sky, but at higher settings, you can get a completely overcast effect. Cloud Scale: This setting affects the perceived altitude of the clouds... if you slide the control to the right, it will make the clouds appear to be higher in the sky. Cloud Detail (XY/Density): These settings affect the detail imagery of your clouds. The X and Y sliders shift its horizontal position, and the D slider controls how puffy and/or fractured your clouds look. Cloud Scroll X and Cloud Scroll Y: These sliders affect the direction and speed at which the clouds float in the sky. You may also check the Lock checkbox to prevent clouds from moving on the selected axis. Naming and save your Sky Presets Enter a name for your new sky preset in the Preset Name box and click Save at the bottom of the window to save your preset for future use. Sky Presets are essentially snapshots of WindLight slider settings you can re-load later or use as keyframes in the Day Cycle Editor. Creating presets is useful both for re-loading your favorite settings and for creating day cycle animations using the Day Cycle Editor. Edit Day Cycle Bring up the Day Cycle Editor by selecting World > Environment Editor > Day Presets > New Preset or Edit Preset (to edit an existing preset). The Day Cycle Editor gives you control over the sky during Second Life's day/night cycle by setting keyframes along a timeline representing times of the day. These are nodes (represented by dots on the timeline) that have associated sky presets. As the time of day progresses, the sky "animates" as it interpolates between these keyframes. This is useful for creating everything from photorealistic day/night cycles to strange alien environments. For each keyframe dot on the timeline, you can set a different Sky Setting in the box below the timeline. For example, you can create a day cycle that has a foggy sky setting at 6am, a clear sky at 12pm, and a warm sunset at 6pm. To do that, add a keyframe node at 6am on the timeline and choose a foggy sky preset from the Sky Setting dropdown, then repeat the process for noon and sunset. To create a basic Day Cycle: Type a new name in the Preset Name box, or choose an existing day cycle preset to edit by choosing it from the dropdown menu. Move the yellow arrow slider to a time of day, for example, 6am. Click Add Key to add a keyframe node dot to the timeline. Click the dot to select it; it will turn green. From the Sky Setting dropdown menu, select the sky preset you'd like to use at this time of day. Continue adding keyframe nodes at various times of day, selecting the sky you'd like to use at that time of day. You can drag the yellow arrow along the timeline to preview what your day cycle will look like at different times. When you're finished, click Save to save the preset. The yellow arrow above the timeline represents your current view, based on time of day. Click and drag it to see how your day will animate. You may add or delete keyframes by pressing the Add Key and Delete Key buttons to the right of the timeline. If the Add Key button is grayed out, you may need to move the yellow timeline slider to a different time; when a valid time is available, the Add Key button should light up. You can adjust the time position of a keyframe by dragging it along the timeline or by entering the time in the Time box with your chosen keyframe node selected. Edit a Water Preset The Water Preset window contains detailed controls for modifying water effects. Here you can modify water fog, reflection properties, refraction, and reflection normal maps. Opening the Water Preset Editor Advanced water settings are located in the Water Preset window: To create a new water preset, go to World > Environment Editor > Water Presets > New Preset You can edit an existing water preset by clicking World > Environment Editor > Water Presets > Edit Preset Some of the water settings you can edit include: Water Fog Color: This changes the color of the particulate matter in your water, essentially defining the color of the water itself. If your water has no fog, it will appear crystal clear and colorless. Fog Density Exponent: Controls the density of your water fog; this setting defines how far you are able to see into the water. Underwater Fog Modifier: Controls how the fog density changes when you are underwater. Useful for creating far-seeing views when underwater while keeping the surface fairly opaque. For example, at a setting of 0.25, the water fog is 1/4 as dense while underwater as it appears from above the surface. Reflection Wavelet Scale: Controls the scale of the three wavelets that make up the surface of the water. Fresnel Scale: Determines how much light is reflected at different angles; increasing this slider reduces visual reflection effects on the water's surface. Fresnel Offset: Determines how much total light is reflected; increasing this slider increases the amount of light reflected by the water's surface. Refract Scale Above: Controls the amount of visual refraction you can see from above the water's surface; this is the "wobbly" effect you can see when you look at an object that is underwater. Refract Scale Below: Controls the amount of visual refraction you can see from below the water's surface. This is the "wobbly" effect you can see when you look at an object that is above the water. Blur Multiplier: Controls how waves and reflections are mixed. Increasing this setting increases the amount of distortion you see in reflections as a result of wave activity. Big Wave Direction: Controls the X and Y direction and speed of the large wave image. Little Wave Direction: Controls the X and Y direction and speed of the small wave image. Normal Map: Controls the normal map used for determining reflections and refractions. Any texture may be used for this setting, but true normal maps work best. Second Life's wave effects are generated by superimposing a large normal map image over a smaller version of itself. Try snake skin, tiles, or any other normal map for some wacky effects!

Visiting a Place Page Managing your Place Pages Setting a landing point Hiding a Place Page Using a 360 snapshot as a Hero Image Determining who last edited a Place Page Bulk enabling and disabling Place Pages Want to tell the world about your Second Life land, parcel or region? Now you can with Place Pages, which are Linden-hosted web pages that make it easier than ever to promote and discover your presence in Second Life. Visiting a Place Page To visit a place page, simply click a Place Page URL in the page you’re viewing or paste it into your web browser's address bar. You may also search for a Place Page by entering your search terms into the search bar on the Place Pages front page. While viewing a Place Page, you may learn more about the location, view images and videos, or ultimately visit the location in Second Life by clicking the Visit this location button located on the large image at the top of the page. Note: Upon visiting a place from a Place Page, you appear at either the parcel's landing point or the region's telehub, depending upon whether the Place Page depicts a parcel or a region. If no telehub is set for the region, you appear at the center of the region. Region owners and Estate Managers always appear at the center of their own regions. Place Page features Visit This Location - Click this button to visit the location depicted in the Place Page. Share It - Click to share this place page on Facebook or Twitter. Region Information - Lists information about the Region if this is a Region Place Page, including Name, Owner, Type, Size, and Maturity. Parcel Information - Lists information about the Parcel if this is a Parcel Place Page, including Name, Owner, Type, Size, Maturity, Category, and Region. Report Abuse - Click to file an abuse report against the Place Page. This may be appropriate if the Place Page: is not marked as Mature or Adult content when appropriate, is spam, or infringes your intellectual property rights. View Covenant (optional) - View the Region's covenant in a pop-up frame. This link is available on both Region and Parcel place pages. Upcoming Events (optional) - View and filter a calendar of upcoming events on this land. Click event names to get more details about each event. Items for Sale (optional) - View items currently for sale on the parcel. Click Go next to an item to teleport directly to the item inworld. FOR SALE (optional) - Appears if the land is currently for sale, and lists the sale price. Managing your Place Pages By default, every parcel and region in the Second Life world has a Place Page that is automatically derived from information in the parcel's existing profile. You may edit and embellish a Place Page for any parcel or region you own, or for group-owned parcels for which you have the Toggle 'Show Place in Search' and set category group ability. However, nobody can visit a Place Page unless the parcel's Show Place in Search checkbox is checked in the About Land window. Please note that this is toggled “off” by default, so you’ll need to enable it. To view and edit your place pages: Visit the place pages dashboard at: https://places.secondlife.com and log in using your Second Life credentials. In the upper right of the dashboard, move the mouse over your name and select My Places from the dropdown to view a full list of parcels and regions you own. Choose a region or parcel and click the Edit link next to that land's listing to begin editing the Place Page for that land. Under Details on the Place Page Edit page, fill out the following: Disable this place page - Disables the Place Page so nobody can view it. Show Covenant - Select this box to allow visitors to view the Region's Covenant on your Place Page. Show Items for Sale - Select this box to show items for sale on the parcel, and the inworld location of those items. Sale items may take up to 24 hours to appear on your Place Page. Each sale item must be set to Show in search on the General tab of the object editor window. Items set to Show in search that are not for sale still appear in the list, but are moved to the end of the list and have a cost listed as "Not Available". Show Calendar - Displays an event calendar and a list of upcoming events for the parcel. Visitors can filter events by specific date and click the event's name to learn more about the event. If there are no upcoming events, the calendar and event list are not shown. Title - The title for the Place Page. Typically, this is the name of your land. Tagline - A short, descriptive subtitle, displayed prominently on the "hero" banner at the top of the page. Description - A longer description or profile for the location, displayed below the images on the Place Page. Under the Optional section, you may provide a YouTube link in order to display a video on your Place Page. The Optional section also provides options for you to customize the color of your Place Page's background and font. Under the Hero Image section, choose an image to be the background of the banner at the top of your Place Page. Hero images must be 1980x700 resolution, or else they may be subject to distortion. Under Additional Images, you may choose up to three additional images to display on your Place Page. The images are shown as a slideshow and periodically cycle if not clicked by a user. Additional images must be of 852x486 resolution or they may be subject to distortion. The Region Information section provides statistical information about the land, and cannot be edited in the Place Page Editor. Setting a landing point A landing point is the spot where visitors appear when they teleport to a parcel of land, including teleports that are initiated by clicking the Visit this location button on a place page. Landing points can enhance your visitors' experience by directing them to an appropriate starting location on your land. Because landing points are a property of parcels and are not specific to Place Pages, they can only be set from within the Second Life Viewer and cannot be changed in Place Pages settings. For instructions on how to set the landing point on land that you own, see Managing your parcel - Setting a landing point. Note: When visiting a region's Place Page, visitors appear at the region's telehub. If no telehub is set, they appear at the center of the region. Region owners and Estate Managers always appear at the center of the region, regardless of whether a telehub is set. Hiding a Place Page Place Pages for land parcels are not visible to other Residents unless the land's Show Place in Search checkbox is checked in the About Land window. This box is unchecked by default. You may access the About Land window by visiting the parcel, then choosing World > About land from the top menu bar. If you wish to hide an entire region's Place Page (and Place Pages for all parcels on the region), you may check the Block Land Show in Search checkbox in the Region tab of the Region/Estate window. You may access the Region/Estate window by visiting the region and choosing World > Region/Estate from the top menu bar. Using a 360 snapshot as a Hero Image Note: The 360 snapshot feature is still in a very experimental Project Viewer stage, and is subject to drastic change or removal at any time as development continues. If you have captured a 360 snapshot using the 360 Snapshot Project Viewer, you may upload a captured 360 snapshot in place of your Hero Image: Capture a 360 snapshot to your computer as described in Taking inworld snapshots. Go to https://places.secondlife.com/spherical_zips in your web browser. You must be logged into the Second Life website in order to complete this step. Click the New button, then click Choose File and select the captured 360 snapshot (ending in ".zip") from your computer. Choose one of your places from the Place dropdown. Press the Update button to upload your 360 snapshot to the selected Place Page. An uploaded 360 snapshot replaces the Hero Image for the selected Place Page, allowing visitors to pan around the image for a full 360 degree view of the place where the image was captured. Determining who last edited the Place Page At the very bottom of the Place Page editor is a Last Updated by field that indicates when the page was last edited, and by whom. This can be of use to groups in which multiple officers may have the ability to edit Place Pages for the group's land. Bulk enable and disable Place Pages You can use the Bulk Enable/Disable tool to enable or disable more than one Place Page at a time. To use the Bulk Enable/Disable tool: Visit https://places.secondlife.com/ Click My Places to open a list of your Place Pages. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link for Bulk Enable/Disable. On the Bulk Enable/Disable page, you can use the radio buttons in the Edit Status column to Enable or Disable each eligible Place Page. You may use the Enable All or Disable All button to automatically mark all pages accordingly. These changes are not finalized until you click the Update button at the bottom of the page. Click Update to enable and/or disable the marked Place Pages. You are then returned to My Places. Note: To help sort a large number of place paces, you can click the column headings in the Bulk Enable/Disable tool to sort by: Project Name & Description Current Status Edit Status Show in Search You may also use the Search field to look for a specific parcel or set of parcels.

Requirements Creating an auction Re-scheduling an auction Cancelling an auction Completing an auction In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português Notice: As of October 14, 2019, new Resident-to-Resident auctions have been disabled while we make improvements. All existing auctions will be allowed to complete as originally scheduled. For more information, please see the official Second Life Blog. It is possible to create your own land auctions for individually owned parcels on the Second Life mainland. Requirements The parcel must be owned by an individual resident and the parcel must be on the mainland. Group owned parcels and parcels on private islands cannot be auctioned. Your parcel must also be marked Show in Search (see Place Pages for more information). Auctions can only be created by the parcel owner, and the owner must have a verified email address. Creating an auction Go to https://places.secondlife.com/ and click on My Places in the menu bar. Select a parcel to be auctioned and click Visit. This takes you to the Place Page for that parcel. Click the Auction This Parcel button in the left column. This takes you to the form to schedule the auction for this parcel. There are four fields, all required: Start Time: The time when the auction will begin, in Pacific Time Close Time: The time when the auction will end, in Pacific Time Starting Bid: The minimum bid required for the first bidder, in Linden dollars (L$) Bid Increment: The increment by which bids must be increased (for example, if the current bid is 500 and the bid increment is 10, then the next bid must be at least 510). Note: These fields are populated with default values, but you are free to adjust them. The following limitations apply: Start Time: Must be in the future, but cannot be scheduled more than four weeks in the future. Close Time: Must be at least 48 hours after the start time but auctions can last no more than one week. Starting Bid: The default starting bid is L$0.50 per parcel square meter, but you can change it to whatever you like. Bid Increment: The default bid increment is 10. Bid increment must be set in multiples of 10, and the maximum increment is 100. When you have set the desired values, click the Create Auction button. Your parcel then appears in the Scheduled Auctions list until the start time, and the Place Page indicates that an auction has been scheduled. After the start time, your parcel appears in the Open Auctions list and the bidding box appears on your parcel's Place Page. When you create the auction, the ownership of the parcel is transferred to a temporary holding account named AuctionServices Linden. You will no longer be listed as the owner. You will not be able to edit, cut, sell, or change the parcel in any way once you create the auction. If you cancel the auction, or if the auction completes without any bids, then the ownership of the parcel returns to you. Re-scheduling an auction At any time before the auction begins, you can change the scheduled times and bid amounts. When the auction has been scheduled but not started, a Re-Schedule This Auction button appears on the place page for the parcel owner. Clicking this button takes you back to the schedule form, where you can change any of the previously set values. Cancelling an auction You may cancel an auction at any time before it starts. You can also cancel an auction that has already begun as long as there are no bids. Simply click the Cancel This Auction button on the Place Page and then confirm cancellation on the next page. When you cancel the auction, the ownership of the parcel reverts back to you. Note: You cannot cancel an auction if it has received at least one bid. Completing an auction When the Close Time arrives, the auction is completed automatically. You receive an email notification that the auction has been completed, but no action is required on your part. Ownership of the parcel is transferred to the auction winner, and the winning bid amount (minus a 15% commission) is transferred to your account. If the auction closes without having received any bids, the ownership of the parcel is transferred back to you from Auction Services.

Registration May I browse listings without registering for Second Life? How do I register for Second Life? Second Life Auctions and "My Account" Can anyone in Second Life buy land in the auctions? Does the land I win in auction count against my land allocation? Can I bid on land if it would put me in a higher land tier? Can I bid with L$ that I don't have? Bidding How do I bid? How do I increase my bid? Why doesn't my bid show up online after I bid? How will I know if my bid is no longer winning? How will I know if I win? How can I view all bids I've submitted? Why did a bid from earlier today beat my bid? Can I submit a bid offline? What if an auction ends with no bids? Collecting Your New Land How will I know when I can take possession of the land? How do I take possession? Is it possible to avoid tiering up by releasing other land before confirming a new higher tier? Resolving Auction Problems What if I bid in an auction and realize I have made a mistake? Who do I contact if I have a problem? In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português For a walkthrough of the auctions feature, see Land auctions. Registration May I browse listings without registering for Second Life? You may browse as much as you'd like without signing up for Second Life. In order to bid on an auction, you will need to have an active Premium Second Life account with verified billing information and a verified email address. Please login to Your Account on the Second Life website to verify your email address and upgrade your account to a Premium account today! How do I register for Second Life? Visit Join Second Life to register for a Second Life account; basic account creation is free, so you can explore land before you upgrade. Second Life Auctions and "My Account" Can anyone in Second Life buy land in the auctions? No. Only residents that have Premium memberships are eligible to participate in auctions. Your account must also have a Verified email address and a Linden dollar (L$) balance sufficient to make a bid. Does the land I win in auction count against my land allocation? Yes. Before you bid, be sure you are comfortable with paying any additional monthly fee ("tiering up") that might be triggered. You can review your land allotment by viewing Your Second Life Account. Can I bid on land if it would put me in a higher land tier? Yes. You are automatically assigned to the tier (possibly increasing your monthly billing amount) when you win. The auction will inform you if winning the auction will modify your tier requirement (but note that each auction evaluates this independently; if you are bidding in multiple auctions, they will not take that into account). Can I bid with L$ that I don't have? No. You must have the Linden dollars available in your account at the time of bidding, because if you submit a new high bid, your maximum bid amount is held in escrow until you are either outbid or you win the auction. Bidding How do I bid? After you review the listing information for the item that interests you, click Bid on This Property. Enter your maximum bid, and then click Confirm. How do I increase my bid? To increase your bid, go to My Auction Activity and choose the bid you want to increase. You can only increase your bid if you are not currently the leading bidder. Can I decrease my maximum bid? Once you have bid, you cannot decrease your bid amount. The only way to exit an auction where you are the leading bid is for someone to outbid you. Why doesn't my bid show up online after I bid? My Auction Activity should show your bid as soon as it is entered. If it doesn't appear, you may be viewing an old version of the page. Try clicking your browser's Refresh or Reload buttons. How will I know if my bid is no longer winning? We send you an email and return your escrowed funds when you are outbid. However, there can be unpredictable delays in email transmission. We suggest that you regularly visit our website to check your bidding activity on the My Auction Activity page. How will I know if I win? We will notify you by email if you win. How can I view all bids I've submitted? Go to My Auction Activity page and use the filter to find your previous bids. Why did a bid from earlier today beat my bid? If your maximum bid is for exactly the same amount as some earlier bidder's maximum, the earlier bidder wins (if their maximum is higher, their bid will be increased to your maximum plus the bid increment). Can I submit a bid offline? No. Only online bids can be made. What if an auction ends with no bids? If an auction ends with no bids, the original owner retains ownership of the parcel and is responsible for any tier fees owed on it. Collecting Your New Land How will I know when I can take possession of the land? Ownership of the parcel should be set to the winner within an hour after the end of the auction. If there is a problem with the ownership, contact Customer Support. How do I take possession? The parcel is assigned to you inworld once the auction ends. Is it possible to avoid tiering up by releasing other land before confirming a new higher tier? To avoid the possibility of higher tier charges, reduce your land use prior to participating in an auction. Land won in auction is delivered to the winning account and affects peak land use immediately. Resolving Auction Problems What if I bid in an auction and realize I have made a mistake? Please bid carefully. All bids are final and cannot be cancelled. The only way you can leave an active auction where you have bid is if you are outbid. Who do I contact if I have a problem? You should file a ticket through the Support Portal at Second Life Help.

What is abandoned land? How to abandon land How to tell if land is abandoned What happens to abandoned land I abandoned my land by mistake! How to request purchase of abandoned land Review of land that looks abandoned In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português What is abandoned land? Abandoned land is a mainland parcel that has been returned to Linden Lab by the previous owner. How to abandon land Open the World menu and select About Land. The About Land window opens. In the General tab of the About Land window, click Abandon Land. Review the confirmation and click Ok. How to tell if land is abandoned Abandoned land is owned by Governor Linden and contains the term "Abandoned Land" in the parcel name. The parcel description often includes the name of the previous owner. Land that is owned by another Resident is not abandoned, even if it appears to be unused. What happens to abandoned land When a mainland parcel is abandoned, the ownership of the parcel changes to Governor Linden. Once abandoned, the parcel settings are amended to reflect the abandoned status and auto-return settings are enabled after one week. Note: This program applies only to Linden-owned Mainland areas and does not include Private Regions. What about abandoned Linden Homes? Abandoned Linden Homes are returned immediately to Governor Linden's ownership, with the objects on the parcel returned to inventory immediately, too. This allows the former owner to choose another Linden Home right away, if they wish, and makes the Linden Home available to new owners as quickly as possible. It's not possible to reclaim a Linden Home abandoned by mistake, though you may try by requesting the same style of home on the Linden Home selection page and it may be randomly assigned to you. Please see our Linden Homes page for more information. I abandoned my land by mistake! Unfortunately, you should never expect to be able to reclaim abandoned land, though we will try our best to assist you. Please use care to make sure that any abandonment action is intentional. However, if you do make a mistake, please submit a support case as soon as possible. Please include the parcel location and explain that you would like to reclaim a parcel you abandoned by mistake. We can attempt to make a one-time courtesy effort to recover the land for you. How to request purchase of abandoned land To request the sale of abandoned land, submit a support case of the type Land & Region, and choose Abandoned Land from the second dropdown. Provide the details of your request. In many cases, we can assist by making a larger or smaller sized parcel available rather than the actual parcel that has been requested. If you require a different size parcel than what is currently available, please request the desired size (in square meters) and provide a SLurl to the parcel's location. We will attempt to assist with a direct sale to the Resident who has made the request, so please submit a ticket as soon as you are aware of the abandoned location. We attempt to give priority to those who already have land in the region, so please let us know if the request is for neighboring or additional land within the same region. We will try to assist with a direct sale of the abandoned land at a the price of L$1 per square meter. In some cases, abandoned land may not be eligible for a direct sale. In these cases we will attempt to make the land available for sale via the auction system. Here are some of the reasons that requested land may need to be offered as an auction: The location has a limited amount of abandoned land in the region. The location is neighboring protected land or waterfront. The location is in a themed area such as Bay City, Horizons, or Nautilus. The location offers bonus object use. The location is Adult rated. The location is newly abandoned and not known to be available. The location is of a significant size, is a full region or close to a full region, or has other intrinsic characteristics that make it particularly desirable to multiple Residents. These are only guidelines; each request is considered on a case-by-case basis and we may not be able to assist by making an abandoned parcel available as a direct sale or auction. One of the major reasons that abandoned land in these categories is typically sent to auction is because there are frequently multiple Residents who have adjoining parcels or another valid interest in purchasing the parcels, and auctions are the fairest way to ensure that interested parties have an equal chance to acquire the parcel. While it's possible that an exception might be made in some circumstances, our Land team works hard to ensure that mainland is made available in the most fair, equal, and reasonable way possible, and we appreciate your understanding if our team is not able to issue a direct sale of a particular parcel. Review of land that looks abandoned If you find a parcel that appears to be owned by a defunct account or group, there is a possibility that we can make the parcel available for direct sale or for land auction. However, please note that land owned by a valid account or group is not abandoned, even if it appears to be unused. Please bear in mind that many Residents have annual accounts, and it may take many months for the account status to expire if they have chosen to leave or use a different account. Land cannot be reclaimed simply due to inactivity. If you have a Plus, Premium, or Premium Plus membership, you can request an auction review for abandoned land by opening a support case with the following information: The parcel's SLurl. The concern that prompted you to investigate the parcel's status. Please note that Linden Lab will not disclose another Resident's account status details, and that any Resident or Group-owned land that appears defunct may simply be declared 'unavailable'. The Land team regularly reviews parcels that may be owned by a defunct group or Resident, and will make eligible parcels available after review -- generally, looking for land that has 'Abandoned' in the parcel name and has Governor Linden as the owner will be the surest route to a successful request.

Please see the Covenant and restrictions section of the Linden Homes article for more information. Covenants for any Linden Home region can be reviewed inworld by visiting the Linden Home region of your choice and selecting World > Region/Estate > Covenant, or by right-clicking on the ground and selecting About Land, then choosing the Covenant tab.

How it works When is an object's land impact calculated using the new algorithm? How to find an object's land impact rating In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Português Italiano 日本語 Land impact is Second Life's mechanism for calculating the computational weight of an object against land usage limits. All mesh objects, all objects that contain mesh content, and all objects with a physics shape type other than Prim use an algorithm for determining land impact that is not dependent upon the number of prims in the object. By using an algorithm that considers each object's impact on Second Life's performance, we make sure that mesh objects and traditional prim objects receive fair shares of Viewer and server resources, encouraging content creators to continue designing performance-efficient objects even if they're working with uploaded meshes. Tip: The terms land impact and land capacity replace prim count and prims parcel supports, but the numerical values remain the same for legacy objects made only of standard prims. Therefore, a linked object composed of 42 normal prims with their physics type set to Prim has a land impact of 42. How it works For each object in the Second Life world, Second Life compares three important performance factors: download weight, physics weight, and server weight. It then chooses the highest of these weights and assigns it to the object as that object's land impact rating. Here's a very quick overview of the different weights; for more information on each, follow the links below: Download weight: Calculated by determining how much bandwidth is required to download and view the object. Larger and more visually complex objects have a higher download weight. You can reduce the download weight of complex objects by generating or uploading less complex meshes for differing levels of detail when you upload a model. Physics weight: Calculated by determining the complexity of the object's physics model. You can reduce the complexity of a mesh's physics model by using the analysis and simplification tools in the Upload Model window, by uploading your own less-detailed physics model, or by choosing a different physics shape type, such as Convex Hull, on the Features tab of the Build Tools window. Vehicles must have a physics weight of 32 or lower, but may have higher download or server weights. Server weight: Measures the impact an object has on Second Life's server resources. Objects that are composed of many prims and have physics enabled and/or contain scripts tend to have high server weights. When is an object's land impact calculated using the new algorithm? Legacy prim objects have a land impact rating equal to the number of prims they contain. However, any object's land impact is calculated using download, server, and physics weights if it meets any of the following conditions: The object is an uploaded mesh. The object is linked to an uploaded mesh. The object, or any part of the object, has a physics shape type other than Prim. You can change this on the Features tab of the Build Tools window. The object has a normal or specular map applied to it. How to find an object's land impact rating When an object is rezzed inworld, you can find its land impact rating by editing it and viewing the Build Tools window. Next to the number of objects you have selected, a number labeled "land impact" indicates the land impact rating. You can view detailed information about your selection, including prim count, weights, and land impact, by clicking the More info link in the Build Tools window.

What is protected land? What to do if objects on protected land encroach on your parcel Empty land vs. protected land Is new Protected Land being made? What is protected land? Protected Land is owned by Linden Lab and maintained for use by all Residents. Though it may or may not contain roads, it provides a right of way through any given region. It is usually lightly developed, aiding overall region performance by not using land capacity or script resources. Protected land cannot be altered or sold to Residents. Warning: Build on protected land or in the skies above it at your own risk! If another Resident reports your build, or if it hampers the use of Second Life, it may be returned without notice. What to do if objects on protected land encroach on your parcel Submit a support ticket detailing the issue. Please include the specific location, region name and X,Y location so that we can investigate your claim. Empty land vs. protected land Empty land is usually a full region slated to be established as protected land. If you are concerned about the status of a plot named "Empty," please submit detailed information in a support ticket. Is new protected land being created? "Protected land" is an example of deprecated terminology. The Linden Department of Public Works continues to expand geographical features with the same mission of creating and preserving "natural beauty." For more information, see the Department of Public Works blog.

How to sell land Selling land to a specific Resident Maturity ratings Renting land to others Basic rental Private Region rental Advertising land rentals Note: This article focuses on renting and selling parcels of land. For information about region and estate rentals and sales, see Managing Private Regions. How to sell land This article explains the mechanics of safely selling land inworld. Note: This article does not tell you how to advertise your land or the best way to sell it. There are a variety of good strategies; to find the ones that work for you, experiment and ask experienced landholders for advice. To set a parcel of your land for sale: Right-click on the ground and select About Land. In the GENERAL tab of the About Land window, click the Sell Land button. The SELL LAND window opens. Under Set a price, enter the amount in L$ for which you wish to sell the land. Under Sell the land to, select Anyone or Specific person. See below for more information on selling land to a specific Resident. Under Sell the objects with the land?, choose either to keep or sell the objects on the parcel. Click Set Land for Sale. Your parcel is now for sale. Unless you set the land for sale to a particular Resident (see below), your lisitng appears automatically in the Search window's Land & Rentals tab. Note: If your parcel does not appear in the Land Sales tab in the Search window, see Making your land appear in Search. Warning: When you sell land that is deeded to a group, the proceeds of the sale are divided evenly between all group members with the Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends ability. If you wish to reclaim land for yourself before selling it, see Reclaiming group land. Selling land to a specific Resident If you wish to sell your land to a specific Resident, it is very important that you take advantage of the Sell the land to: setting, or your land may be purchased by someone else. Some Residents use scripted agents, or "landbots," which can detect land at below-market prices the moment it appears in search, teleport to the spot and buy the land faster than any human can. While landbots are legal in Second Life and provide a valuable service for Residents who wish to sell land quickly, you risk losing your land to the wrong buyer if you do not follow the steps below. Remember, all sales are final. In the event that your land is purchased by someone other than the Resident you intend, Linden Lab cannot reverse the sale for you. To sell land to a specific Resident: Right-click on the ground and select About Land. In the GENERAL tab of the About Land window, click the Sell Land button. The SELL LAND window opens. Under Set a price, enter the amount in L$ for which you wish to sell the land. Under Sell the land to, select Specific person. The CHOOSE RESIDENT window opens. Enter the name of the Resident and click Go. Select the Resident's name and click OK. Under Sell the objects with the land?, choose either to keep or sell the objects on the parcel. Click Set Land for Sale. The specified Resident can now purchase your land. Maturity ratings If you have set your land for sale to a specific Resident, that person must have maturity settings adequate to the parcel. For example, a Resident with a General-only maturity preference must adjust maturity preferences to include both General and Moderate content in order to purchse Moderate land. See Age verification for additional information. Renting land to others Land rental is a thriving business in Second Life. If you own a large amount of land or a Private Estate, it can be profitable for you to lease some of your land to other Residents. To learn more about renting land in Second Life, see Renting land from other Residents. Basic rental Rentals in Second Life consist of a tenant/landlord structure. Tenants pay a landlord a regular fee for the use of a defined quantity of the landlord's resources. These resources may vary from situation to situation; some landlords rent predetermined parcels of land, while others may charge for a finite amount of land capacity in a Region. There are many ways to collect rental fees from tenants; some landlords prefer informal direct payments and real paper record-keeping, while others use Resident-created, automated rental machines. Settle on the collection method with which you're most comfortable, and inform your tenants up front about your payment policy. Tip: Ask existing landlords about the different rental collection options available. They have the benefit of experience and may be able to help you choose a solution that works best for you. You also need to determine what level of control you want your tenants to have over your rented land. One common approach involves the creation of a "rental group," which forms a common bond between your land and your tenants. As long as the parcel is set to the rental group and your tenants use their rental group tags, they can place objects on your parcel without fear of auto return. For more information on how group land and objects work, see Group-owned land. To evict a deadbeat tenant from group-owned land, eject the Resident from the land rental group. Upon ejection, any objects on the parcel are returned to the Resident's inventory. Private Region rental Estate owners have a number of tools at their disposal to make land rental easier. In addition to exercising greater control over the general environment in their regions, estate owners may divide their Private Regions into parcels for sale. When a Resident buys a parcel in a Private Region, he gains control over that parcel as though he owns it. This added feature eliminates the need for rental groups or complicated rights-granting rituals sometimes associated with rental properties. To evict a deadbeat tenant from land in your Private Region, use the Reclaim Land button from the About Land window: Note: Parcels bought by Residents in Private Regions are still technically owned and paid for by the estate owner. As the owner of a Private Region, you still need to collect rental fees from your tenants. For more information on Private Region land sales, see Managing Private Regions. Advertising land rentals There are three ways to list your land as a rental property in Second Life search: Create a classified ad Set the parcel's land category Include specific keywords in the parcel name or description Each of these methods causes your land to appear under the "For Rent" section of Land & Rentals searches. Create a classified ad on the land parcel To create a new classified ad: Stand on the parcel you wish to rent out. Click the search icon at the left of the Viewer to open the Second Life Search window. Click Create a Classified on the Search window home page. The Edit Classified section of the My Profile tab opens. Fill in an appropriate title and description for your land rental classified ad. Click Set to Current Location to set the ad's location. From the Category dropdown, choose Land Rental. Click Publish to publish your new rental advertisement. Set the parcel's land category in the About Land window You can set a land parcel's category to Rental using the following procedure: Choose World > Place Profile > About Land. Click the OPTIONS tab. Set the category dropdown to Rental. The category dropdown can be found just above the parcel snapshot. Make sure Show Place in Search is checked so your parcel appears in search results. Include specific keywords in your parcel name or description If you use certain words or phrases in your parcel's name or description, it appears as a land rental in search results. To set your parcel's name and description: Choose World > Place Profile > About Land. Click the GENERAL tab. Use one of the following case-insensitive phrases in the Name or Description field to mark your parcel as a rental property in search results: Parcel for rent Mainland rental Estate rental Homestead rental Land rental Private Estate rental Additional steps for rentals on private estates If you are renting out parcels on your private estate, you must set the rental parcel for sale. To avoid misunderstandings, set the price as the weekly rental price and disclose any other setup fees or deposits in the parcel description.

Parcel management Estate management In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Português Italiano 日本語 You can restrict access to your parcels and estates based on whether users are over 18 years old and whether they have payment information on file with Linden Lab. Important: If your land contains adult content, as defined by the Second Life Maturity Ratings, it is your responsibility to restrict access only to those who are at least 18 years old. Parcel management To restrict parcel access: Choose World > About Land. Alternatively, right-click on the ground and choose About Land. In the About Land window, click the Acces tab. Make sure Allow Public Access is checked. To restrict access to those who are at least 18 years old, under Allow access only to Residents who:, check Are age 18 or older. To restrict access to those who have registered a payment method (such as a credit card or PayPal) with Linden Lab, under Allow access only to Residents who:, check Have payment information on File. Estate management To restrict estate access: Choose World > Region/Estate. In the Region/Estate window, click the Estate tab. Make sure Allow Public Access is checked. To restrict access to those who are at least 18 years old, under Allow access only to Residents who:, check Are age 18 or older. To restrict access to those who have registered a payment method (such as a credit card or PayPal) with Linden Lab, under Allow access only to Residents who:, check Have payment information on File.