Torley Linden

Ever been in an awkward situation where you wanted to wear several accessories at once, only to find that they all used the same attachment point? And wearing one detached another? ARGHHHH... WAIT! Before doing the old-skool "attach to a different point and manually reposition", you should definitely know that in Second Life Viewer 2.4, we've formally introduced MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS TO THE SAME POINT. (The eagle-eyed among you know it's been in testing for longer.) Heck yes. What this means is you can "stack" objects on any attachment point, as long as the total # of attachments your avatar is wearing is 38 or less. This video shows you a very practical situation many of you lady avatars can relate to: how to deal with when jewelry tries to attach to the same slot as your dress. Gotta be glam for your big night out, yeah? Special thanks to Nyx Linden, a master of multi-wearables, for confirming facts! For more details, check out the "multiple attachments" help page See something missing? I encourage you to fill in more useful info! Like inworld content, Second Life help is Resident-powered, and I'm here to inspire you to discover your power of self-expression.

@Gideon I think that can be maddening, since aside from hyperlinks in local chat, what else really needs to be clicked? On a somewhat related note, I miss how I used to be able to click UI elements when the UI was hidden (for machinima purposes), that behavior changed, too. @Kelilinden Kewl! @Alexandrea Fride I need to thank you! @Gooden Thanks for weighing in and please do send your game to me! Oh geez, you should've seen the internal email I just sent about how difficult it has been for me to search for stuff in Viewer 2.x. Every time I've wrestled repeatedly with something in V2 — wondering if intuition from experience was right — I've reached out to Residents, and found I was far from alone. While I don't directly work on product design, I continually advocate for Resi voices who feel they're being ignored, and while it's been a long road making V2 reach "feature parity", as you allude to, it's healthy to have the choice of using 1.23. I like Viewer 2.4 a lot better than 2.0, that's for sure, but there are numerous things I struggle with daily, and I always channel what Residents feel to other Lindens. (Discussions on such topics are best done with specific details, but that's beyond the scope of this quicktip.) Since there's no substitute for actual hands-on use, I continue to encourage curiosity and exploration by highlighting useful aspects of all things Second Life. This helps Residents make informed decisions about available possibilities.

@ChuckBaggett Ah, I haven't used the "Social Identities" web profiles thing yet — it's been cool seeing various screenshots from Residents. And re: logging in as "username Resident" to the wiki as a workaround, there's a downside worth knowing: when we properly fix the wiki logins as intended, your wiki.secondlife.com "username" login WILL BE A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT than the "username Resident" you earlier used, and having split accounts is confusing. If you can live with that, cool, but that's why we're not broadly recommending it.

Do you find yourself bothered by too many notifications? Do you want to hide instant message popups without having to go into Busy mode? There's a preference that can help with that in Viewer 2.4 and newer. For text instructions and more details, see the "incoming chat popups" help page

@Argus There are some exciting changes underway... stay tuned... @ChuckBaggett I've heard it discussed as a longer-term possibility, but I haven't got confirmation. I like that kind of consistency myself, though. Re: associating accounts, more details on what you mean? I've seen that depend on the specific platform app. @Suella INDEED! Also, in the it's-so-cliché-it's-true dept., we were all noobs once. And some people have made a lot more use of 1 month than others have with 1 year. "Oldbie" may be a marker of what events you were around to witness, but I want to know what you did as a result of it. Hence the term, "quality time".

Awhile ago when we changed from the older-style "First and last name" at registration to "Single-word username" system as part of display names improvements, single-username Residents could view, but couldn't post to the forums and blogs here at blogs.secondlife.com. After much tussling, we've fixed it as shown here, so go ahead and make your voice heard! I know it was terribly frustrating from the many messages I got. Our apologies it took so long, seeing as how important it is that you can ask for help from your fellow Residents in Second Life Answers... and I'm guessing you have a lot to say. Single-username logins also work at the Bug Tracker. Related, single-username logins to the Second Life Wiki still don't work, meaning newer Residents can view, but can't edit the wiki help pages. We're still working on this and if it seems like we've gone strangely silent on giving updates, just ping me and I'll check with our tech experts to see what's going on. I promise.

@Hippie Peace man! @Gareth8 Hey, I'm always learning too — glad you found that useful! @BlueSean Yes, that's definitely useful. While I didn't include it in the video, there are instructions on the guide: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/HUD#I_can.27t_see_my_HUD.21

What's a HUD? In Second Life, objects can be worn on one of the eight HUD (short for heads-up display) attachment points. HUDs are essential to understand, since every SL Resident eventually comes across them sooner or later. A HUD typically consists of a control panel with different buttons you can click on to do context-specific stuff. Some HUDs are "passive" and only meant to be looked at, not touched. While general attachments appear on your avatar's body and other Residents can see them, HUDs are only visible to you and have a fixed viewpoint, similar to how they're used in video games and apps. However, the scripted effects of a HUD, like emitted chat, can be visible to other Residents and objects. HUDs are an evolution of user interaction in SL: before HUDs, Residents were limited to typing commands in chat or touch dialogs (pop-up windows with choices to click on). These methods are still used — sometimes in tandem with HUDs — but HUDs are often more visually attractive and user-friendly, making them approachable. Objects specifically designed to be used like that may have "HUD" in their name to tell you where they'll appear, or they may have "(wear me)" in their name. This video quickly gets you started on the basics: ; Yes, HUDs are mighty fine for games in Second Life too. Wanna learn more? Check out our guide to HUDs ... and share your fave HUDs and tips & tricks for all things HUD-related in the comments!

Hear, hear! My grateful appreciations to each and all who contributed to bring forth the 'fest! I enjoyed seeing the GOHA regions in their early stages, and having so much work culminate in parties like this is tremendous. I'm so delighted I got to meet so many of you inworld having fun, and that includes eating snow. Between consumption of said frozen water, I took some pictures of the chaos at Thursday's Snowball Fight. Inevitably as time passes, it'll induce fond memories to look back (and before you know it, Winterfest 2011). Click through to see more. Check out these related threads for many pics taken by your fellow Residents: Snowball Update Are we ready for SL holiday pics yet?

@Jacob You can ALWAYS let me know about video tutorial requests. In fact, both of those ideas are great ones that came up earlier, but I've been on "standby" with the respective Lindens in those departments to do them, so it's still an open possibility. @Irene More specifics please, is there an existing example on another site that gets close to what you want to see? Also, as you might already know, there's the "IN OTHER LANGUAGES" machine translation on every wiki page.

Yeah, Keli, I might be accused of "collaborating with the enemy"... wouldn't that be something, ha-ha! Well I also did let Lindens know about the thread you instigated so all's fair in love and war. Thx for the weapons pointers! Bang-bang.

Hey, are you having problems with the Second Life camera cutting into low ceilings and walls? Or maybe it's too close to your avatar and you want more breathing room? Perhaps you're filming a movie and want more cinematic vantage points. Maybe you'd like to increase your field of view so your peripheral vision can see when a Linden is going to hit you with a concussive round of snowballs! Yes, that's right, in time for the LINDENS VS. RESIDENTS SNOWBALL FIGHTS taking place today (Dec. 16, 2010) and tomorrow (where? when?), contrary to my self-preservation's best interests, this video shows you how to you can fine-tune your camera offset angles so you can truly get a better, personalized view of your world as you walk and fly around. You can download Viewer 2.4 Beta and there's also general info about Advanced menu. Special thanks to Skate Foss for giving me Guu Nishii's chill bazooka, and Paulette Parx and the Stepford team — they aim for realistic proportions with their suburban living: MOAR PIX HERE. Want to go even further? Scripted camera gadgets allow you to automate camera angle changes. Two of my faves are Penny Patton's Camera Control HUD (free!), which gives you an over-the-shoulder, "video game-like" perspective, and Rian Jayaram's Dvandva Region Snap (L$100), which lets you get birds-eye pictures of a region like this one of Stepford, BEHOLD! You'll never see our virtual world the same way again. What are your fave camera tips?

Happy holidays Residents! The ski jump is so fun, a little practice goes a long way. My best score there is 169.54 but I witnessed Adora Tyran get onto the leaderboard with 181.86! Scores above 180 seem to be the gold standard right now. Ah, reminds me of EPYX's Winter Games, for any of you old-skool gamers.

Ohai, I wanted to let you know we just moved the Second Life Wiki — where a variety of "help me learn SL!" pages are stored — to a new server host (Amazon EC2). What does mean for you? The changes are under-the-hood, so while you won't see drastic visual differences, you should notice better performance and reliability. We also upgraded to a newer version of MediaWiki, bringing the security improvements and bug fixes that come with that. All this also means that every time I share a link to a wiki help page in a tip or on the forums, you should be able to get there faster, and browse to subsequent pages quicker — it all adds up. However, on the geeky side of things, there are a few known issues you may want to be aware of (thanks Rand Linden!). Should you notice any more, please add them to the known issues discussion page so our wiki-inclined Lindens can have a look. Keep spreading the knowledge!

Running multiple Viewers has become more accessible thanks to an easy checkbox in Viewer 2.4 Beta. If you run multiple Viewers (what are the official Viewers?) — for example, you prefer building in 1.23 but want 2.3's communication enhancements, and are also testing the Mesh project viewer — certain aspects can conflict, especially if you're running them at the same time. For example, each Viewer refers to a cache folder which stores info about inventory, textures, sounds, and other previously-accessed data for quicker retrieval. Having a bunch of Viewers using the same cache folder is like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos™* — they clash for resources OM NOM NOM and oddities like perceived inventory loss (never fun) and corrupt textures (that sucks too) may result. However, you can change your cache location for each Viewer. On the Viewer's login screen, choose Me menu > Preferences. (In Viewer 1.23, it's Edit menu > Preferences.) In the PREFERENCES window, click Setup tab. (In Viewer 1.23, it's Network tab.) Click the Browse button. (In Viewer 1.23, it's the Set button.) Use the file browser to choose a different folder, or create a new one. Then choose it. Quit the Viewer (as changes won't happen until you restart it), then repeat the above for each Viewer. Thanks to cheery Sylvan Mole of our Linden Department of Public Works for suggesting this tip! What tips do you have for using multiple Viewers? * The hippo analogy is even more funny when you realize hippos are SL's unofficial mascot.

We'd rather provide facts than rumors, Sharcel. I've asked some of the Lindens who might know more, since it's been almost a month since that announcement, and I've heard some very anxious messages from new Residents.

I'll be at the first snowball fight (I was hoping to be at the second, too, but checked my calendar and I have a family commitment that is strangely not seasonal). As Leonardo Dicaprio might say, "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN." I'll also be taking pictures with a waterproof lens. Some of them may even use the experimental new DEPTH OF FIELD blur so your snowballs are in focu — *SPLAT* AUGH!!! Too early! Who threw that one? Protip: when a Linden is down for the count, ask them for their Linden Bear!

I should also mention that ANOTHER place to find the Advanced menu in Viewer 2.4 Beta is World menu > Show > Advanced Menu, where the shortcut is also shown. @Adam You're most welcome! Some Residents find the very sight of extra options scary, and are afraid they might activate something they shouldn't. Also, visual clutter is a concern for some. So there's that ongoing balance of "When you need it, you can find it easily."

In the epic tradition of me promising to followup when wishes come true... With the Viewer 2.4 Beta comes with the exciting, long-awaited GRADUATION of several "advanced" features to SUPPORTED* status, as denoted by their inclusion in the PREFERENCES window (instead of being buried obscurely under-the-hood). You may know a lot of my video tutorials feature the Advanced menu, which, despite its name, has features that are useful for even beginner Residents once you get your hands on them. However, it can be tricky for some to get the right keystroke combination down, so we've added a checkbox! Be sure to download the beta first. Select Me menu > Preferences. Click Advanced tab. Check Show Advanced menu. And ooh, what else do we have here? A checkbox to Allow Multiple Viewer, another thing that's been on the hotlist for... <BRIAN BLESSED Blessed>ETERNITY!!!!</BRIAN BLESSED> My venerable-yet-creaky instructions may soon vanish, replaced by what is a deservedly simpler method. To make this work, still in the Advanced tab of the PREFERENCES window: Check Allow Multiple Viewer and click OK. (It seems a restart isn't required but let me know if you find different.) On Windows, double-click your existing Second Life Beta Viewer shortcut (it's probably on your desktop). On Mac, right-click the app package and select Duplicate, then double-click the copied app. (I don't know what the Linux process is, please deplete my ignorance.) Another Viewer should spring to life with no "Second Life is already running" error so you can have a party with your alts without worrying whether you put one or two dashes in front of the flag (old joke). Also be sure to see Jack Linden's Viewer 2.4 Beta blog post for what else is .And hey, on a tangent, if your computer supports it, have you played with DEPTH OF FIELD? Mighty fine inspiration coinciding with the snow, lemme tell ya... the first few are post-processed, but I find DOF makes it so much easier to achieve "lofi" and "analogue" camera looks. * This is a Beta so to set your expectations, stuff is subject to change. Also, while making these features visible is supported, stuff contained inside — like the myriad Advanced options — is not necessarily, unless mirrored by something already surfaced. Augh, subtleties.

Friendly greetings awesome Residents! @Daedalus Ah yes, I LOVE how tilt-shift looks, I should try that with some monster trucks in SL. I did this tilt-shift experiment long ago: @Steve The build I was using AND NEWER (as long as DOF is in it) should work. I see that confusion with the version numbers, so try this link instead to get "2.4.0 (215872)". Thanks for pointing that out. @Joshooah I apologize I have no allocated time/plans for updating the massive "Taking snapshots" page, but anyone who wants to replace the old 1.x references should feel free. @Opensource Excellent, I also added info about the DOF debug settings from davep/Runitai Linden himself! @Loraan Let me see if I can get those details from Runitai. Also, antialiasing conflicts with these graphical effects, but changes to antialiasing are being worked on. @Ochi Version numbers are confusing and I hope in good time, DOF will be included in the "regular" Mesh Viewer download so that trickiness becomes a moot point. Projectors are amazing for 70s-style psychedelic dance parties. @Luc I haven't tried DOF with SpaceNavigator that way yet, but I shall. Thanks for bringing that up. @Uni Right on! I've had "hit and miss" experiences too as I learn how to use DOF hands-on — what counts is you had fun, and it sure sounds like it. @Leal Thanks for those examples! I'm glad you had requested DOF preemptively. And I've noticed transparent particles and some objects can make DOF behave weirdly.

My Tips & Tricks are directly influenced by what you — Residents of Second Life — ask for (my inbox, comments, the forums, inworld itself) because useful + fun knowledge has a massive effect on your inworld experience. From "I wish I knew that earlier!" basics to "This should be a supported feature..." esoterica, it's my call of duty to keep you covered. I'm like your Vault Boy in times of the post-apocalypse, know what I'm sayin'? Inevitably, I received requests to teach you (as a fellow artiste, hehe) how to do the experimental depth of field (DOF) effect that was introduced into a cutting-edge build of the Mesh Viewer. (Thanks for the heads-up, Runitai!) Long ago, I had a manual tutorial on such a thing, and while this feature doesn't let you get hearts-and-stars bokeh, it's still snazzy and BUILT RIGHT IN. Whether you take photos or make movies in Second Life or just want a more "gamelike" experience — since a DOF shader effect is in many hot titles, including the impressively bleak Metro 2033 that I recently soldiered through... "ARTYOM! SHSHSHSHHH" — depth of field is pretty. But it's not just eye candy, because creative expression is an ultimate power. So yeah, obligatory video so you can cut through the claptrap and get to the good stuff: Big red disclaimer that THIS IS PROTOTYPE, Resident-contributed videos, text instructions and more tips are on this help page, feel free to edit it. Make it awesomer. Let's show the world what we can do. You know the thrill: Depth of field (DOF) help page post ur pix and vids in comments plz ^^ Trivia: there are 6 references to games that use DOF above. Spot them all.

Even with how much the world has grown, I'm glad to see community traditions like this continue. Oh! If you've never seen a Linden inworld before, we're not just mythical creatures... here's your chance. Don't forget to ask for our bears. Most of us are photo-friendly if you want to take snapshots with us like we're Santa Claus. Maybe right after you wallop *snowball thud* AHHHH MY EYYYYYYYYYES

"When are we going to have estate-side sky and water settings?" is one of those BIG OPEN QUESTIONS I still haven't heard any word on, since it's not a high enough company priority (and has been shuffled amidst other projects several times), but I'd eventually love to say "IT'S HERE"... and hopefully it won't be by the time we all look like that guy who took a sip of the false grail in Indiana Jones. I know some of you have been expecting it since, well, 2007, and I keep checking. @Ferd I love that those 3rd-party viewers included mine and some cool ones by Resis I use regularly. The list gets pretty long with 100s tho, so I wish we had preset sorting "folder" categories like some of my fave audio plugins have. AHHH, WISHES.

Even if your real-world home is in a land of palm trees, you can still enjoy winter responsibly in Second Life! With US Thanksgiving a few days away, winter is upon us and I've been visiting all the Winter Activities in the Destination Guide. Have a cool (hehe) place? Submit it! My wife Ravenelle and I have also been shopping at the Marketplace, because what says "Happy Holidays!" better than being a good consumer, right? If Second Life's sky and water still look too — well, warm — for your snowbound tastes, you can achieve a winter look in seconds. I've touched upon similar things in years past, but for the current Viewer 2.3 UI, you oughta see how easy it is in this video. Basically, Select World menu > Sun > Environment Editor. Click Advanced Sky button. Select Foggy from Sky Presets dropdown menu. Click LIGHTING tab. Increase Ambient sliders to taste... you can have a warmer or colder sky this way, or overall brighter as I do here with all set to 0.22. Many more WindLight/sky/atmospheric settings are here for your downloading pleasure. And oh, the sled in the video can be acquired here — it was such a Matrix-esque moment of "We need guns!" except, we needed sleds, and Naxos Loon and Lita Withnail came to join us. The spontaneous rush can't be beat. Here we are all "AHHHH AIR!!!!" The reindeer are coming out too, red noses and all. I'm intensely exploring Second Life and you can visit Here island (my home) and you can watch my adventures. Who knows when you might bump into me? Don't forget to ask for my bear. Now go take some pictures and video and be hawt... in the cold.

@Ceera I seem to remember there was a change to the walk in Viewer 2.x, I couldn't find a source. As Winter sez. Still, to those of you going "It wasn't as far as an improvement as I hoped!", I, as someone who walks regularly, agrees. @Suella All three are great examples, (3) is closely related to (1). "Torley Jr." (the female me) is feeling fiiiine for the wintertiiiime. @Techwolf Yes, no conversation about AOs is complete without following up on out how some third-party viewers already have a viewer-side/client-side AO, and how this is one of those ideas floated around for YEARS that many wish would simply be in the official Viewer. More on that a bit later. @Keli *yay hands* @Stephan Creating an AO (from scratch?) is more advanced (thanks for the pointer, Urantia), and I openly welcome scripters with expertise in this area to share their knowledge. A number of popular AO scripts are open-source and available to examine, although I don't know which are the best-commented for learning purposes. @Medhue Good points. @Oz Hey you! I also remember our classic discussions wondering when LL would upgrade the Gestures editor. Thanks, as you originally influenced me, to always keep culture close at hand — those who forget the past, well, you know how it goes. I hope introducing animation overrides to newer Residents will continue increasing awareness that some features that seem so long-in-the-tooth are STILL relevant and count for a lot today, and implementing them well would solve direct and peripheral usability issues. Avatar body language isn't just icing on the cake, it's fundamental to how you see yourself in this virtual world. If you walk like a powerless moron, you'll feel like a powerless moron (we don't want that). Whenever the opportunity comes up at internal Linden meetings, I point to Resident feedback like this where you keep the flames alive about what continues to matter. After all, even though the only proverbial constant is change, you can still constantly remind us what of what should change.