Lexie Linden

Second Life requires that the Windows drivers for the system's graphics card fully support the OpenGL graphics standard. Any graphics card whose installed driver does not support OpenGL detects as a "GDI Generic" instead. This message means that Second Life has detected no hardware with OpenGL support. It's up to the graphics vendor (Nvidia or ATI) to provide drivers that support both OpenGL and your operating system. As of this writing, we have successfully run Second Life on Vista under several PCs equipped with Nvidia's Geforce graphics cards. If you receive this message under Vista, are running graphics hardware that meets our Minimum System Requirements, and can't find a driver provided by your graphics vendor that provides OpenGL support, you'll be unable to run Second Life under Windows Vista on that computer.

Ive heard this may be true.  Can someone confirm?

Your local network may be blocking secure logins. It's also possible (but comparatively rare) that your secure login is failing due to an incorrect date/time on your computer. To verify, double-clicking the clock in the Windows taskbar (usually in the lower-right corner of the screen). On a Mac, check your Date & Time. Make sure it's not a year off! Most modern computers can set their time automatically, including daylight savings. Be sure a firewall or Internet security isn't blocking Second Life access. If you're on an office or university network, your network administrator may have secure logins disabled. In this case, you may not be able to use Second Life on that network connection. What if I keep getting the "computer's clock is set incorrectly" error? The full error reads: Unable to connect to Second Life. Often this means that your computer's clock is set incorrectly. Please go to Control Panels and make sure the time and date are set correctly.This message has been around a long time and can be misleading. It refers to time-based sensitivities with security certificates, but normally isn't a problem, as you can test for yourself by deliberately setting your computer to the wrong time and trying to login. It should work. If you're absolutely certain your time is set correctly, you haven't changed your system setup, and Second Life was working fine moments before, it's likely a transient problem with the servers.

If you're using firewall or internet security software, it may be blocking Second Life's access and interrupting the login process. If you're using wireless networking, it may not be providing a stable enough connection to log in. It's possible that Second Life might be down; if so, you can find information posted on the status page.

Each region in Second Life has limits on how many prims can be rezzed, and how many avatars may be present. Other uses of the region's server capacity include scripts, textures, and sounds. While there are not explicit rules about how to share these resources (besides prims and avatars), Residents must not do anything that intentionally slows the region, nor anything that "hogs" an unreasonable or disproportionate share of the region's resources. Linden Lab desires that the Residents of Second Life share all simulator resources fairly. Excessively large textures and overly-active scripts are some common examples of "unfair" resource usage in mainland regions. In sandbox areas, repetitively rezzing personal homes, as well as using large numbers of prims for long periods, can be violations. Let Linden Lab know this is happening by filing an abuse report. Incidents of unfair resource usage are punished as "Disturbing the Peace"; the first one or two violations result in a warning. If the disturbance continues, or repeats at later dates, the Resident responsible can be suspended for three or more days; or (rarely) eventually permanently banned from Second Life. On private Estates, the Estate owner and managers are responsible for deciding whether resources are being shared fairly.

The Second Life® Viewer requires a large amount of computing resources; as a result, hardware problems which aren't restricted to the Second Life Viewer may occur with greater frequency. One such hardware problem, overheating, can lead to unexpected glitches, crashes, or other system failures. If you experience overheating while running Second Life, it is important to note that this issue is not Second Life-specific; other programs which incur a comparable load also produce these problems. That said, we do have some basic steps for you to take in order to avoid overheating. If the following steps do not help you to avoid overheating, we recommend you contact your computer's manufacturer for further assistance, as well as search the web for "how to avoid computer overheating". Basic steps you should take: Reduce your Second Life graphics settings. Go to Edit menu > Preferences, then click the Graphics tab. On the Quality and Performance slider, click Low. This may help reduce heat because among other factors, "shaders" (used to render graphics more beautifully) require additional computing power, which heats up your graphics card. Go about your Second Life and see if performance is more stable. In extreme cases, try testing in sparse areas with few prims; rendering more content increases the burden on your computer. Check your computer's ventilation: check to see if there's anything blocking the ports and make sure all the fans are working properly. Laptops in particular can get quite hot when placed on a flat surface, so you may want to try propping one up on a stand to increase airflow, or buy a cooling device like a "chill mat". If you've overclocked or performed otherwise at-your-own-risk modifications to your computer, disable them until you can attain stability. It's great to squeeze more performance out of your machine, but only if it runs reliably. You can use tools like Prime95 to stress-test your computer independently of Second Life. If you're on a Mac: There are known overheating issues with some Mac models and their graphics chips. For example, an earlier generation of MacBook Pros with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors has suffered from distorted video, as described in this article. Search Apple's own Knowledge Base to see if your overheating problem is a known issue. This advice holds true for other computer manufacturers, who may also have forums where you can discuss your problems with other customers who may be having the same issues.

Why is this happening?

Residents with large inventories may find that Preparing Inventory takes a substantial period of time. While Second Life doesn't provide a declared upper limit on the size of your inventory, extremely large inventories may take an exceptionally long time to load, or may not successfully complete during the login process. The best solution is to always clear out unwanted objects from your inventory to keep it at a reasonable size. If you're finding Preparing Inventory takes a long time, allow the login process to continue. Exceptional cases (very large inventories and low bandwidth) may take several minutes to fully download. Important: Windows XP may report that Second Life is Not Responding; this is a normal part of the login process and should be ignored.

Yes. If you filed an abuse report and later realize that it was made in error, you can file a new abuse report stating that you don't want the initial one investigated. Provide any other information you think might be useful.

The software that controls the core components of the computer, particularly the slot the graphics card is plugged into, is out of date and needs updating. You should be able to update your motherboard/chipset/AGP drivers. If you purchased your computer from a retailer, such as HP, Dell, or eMachines, you can obtain drivers at the manufacturer's website. If your computer was home-assembled, check your motherboard manufacturer's website for the most recent drivers. If you don't know what motherboard you have, you have two options: Second Life creates a log file (located in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\Second Life\Logs) that you can use to identify the manufacturer of your AGP chipset. You can find chipset drivers for the most common manufacturers at the following links:nVidia nForce Chipset DriversVIA Chipset DriversSiS Chipset DriversIntel Graphics Chipset Drivers Download WCPUID. (This application is not supported by Linden Lab!) After unzipping WCPUID to a directory, run wcpuid.exe (it may show up for you as simply wcpuid). Select View > System Info. When the Select Access Type window pops up, select TYPE 1 and click OK. The relevant information is under Manufacturer, Product String and Version String. At this point, you should be able to search Google for the information contained within Product String. You may not find a direct link to your motherboard manufacturer's site, but you should find a specific name for the motherboard if Product String was a code. You can then use that name to find your motherboard manufacturer's support site.

If you receive an error message similar to: "the following components missing from display panel-------------- vbo check box" you need to uninstall all versions of Second Life currently on your system, and then reinstall.

The rates quoted on the LindeX are approximate estimates, and not a guarantee of an exact transaction amount. When a Market order is placed, the order is filled with the lowest-priced L$ available at the time the order is placed. The market is very active, so an order seen as available might be gone by the time you place a new order. If you'd like to purchase L$ at a specific price, consider placing a Limit order.

This usually means that Microsoft's DirectX is not installed properly, or is an older version. To fix this, install DirectX 9.0. You can download DirectX at Microsoft's website.

I want to do some keyboard mapping for Second Life.  Can someone tell me how to start?

If your computer has two or more monitors, it's very useful to display Second Life on one, while showing various applications on the other(s). For example, some Resident content creators have dual monitors so they can do image editing in Photoshop while keeping an eye inworld. It's more convenient than flipping back and forth -- extra screen "real estate" really does make a difference! What follows are some general tips relating to Second Life and dual monitors. For specifics, consult the documentation provided by the manufacturer(s) of your monitors and your graphics card, because details may vary. On some systems, Second Life may encounter problems if it's running on the secondary monitor. In Windows XP/2000, monitor numbering is usually done in the Control Panel > Display > Settings tab, like this: If your avatar turns black Try this: Log out of Second Life. Open Second Life on the primary monitor. Open the Advanced menu. Select Advanced > Character > Rebake Textures. This should "refresh" your avatar so you appear as expected again. If this issue persists with your dual monitor setup, please tell more about your graphics card and monitor configuration here. Include: What graphics card are you using? What's your setup look like? A laptop with an extra monitor A desktop with a dual-port graphics card A desktop with a dual-monitor cable splittter Something else Stretching the Second Life window across more than a single monitor This is also known as spanning, and can result in greatly lowered performance. To compare before and after, select View > Statistics Bar and observe "FPS" (Frames Per Second)" at the top. You'll likely notice that it drops, and and you'll feel the experience get jumpier and rougher. For this reason, spanning isn't generally recommended. Quit Second Life before making major monitor changes For example, switching resolutions, or enabling/enabling a monitor. Changing those settings when Second Life is open may result in a hard crash that restarts your computer.

There are a few possible reasons for not being able to get into land that you own: If there's a rolling restart going on, the Region your land is in may be temporarily offline. Check the status blog. Is it a parcel on the mainland? The Region you're trying to enter is full; that is, it's reached its maximum number of avatars. Take a look at the Region you're trying to enter on the World Map and see how many green dots are on it. In the About Land window's Options tab, it's possible to set Teleport Routing to Blocked. You might be able to get around this by teleporting into a neighboring parcel and walking or flying in. Is the parcel on a private Region you own? Has your account gone delinquent? "Delinquent" means you have not paid all your fees and bills. You can check by viewing your Account Summary in your Dashboard (shown by clicking Account on the left). If you can get there fine, but other people cannot, please see the section below. Is the parcel on a private Region owned by someone else? It's possible that the estate owner has changed the access permissions. You should contact the estate owner to find out what's going on. It's possible that it has been taken offline because of issues with the owner's account. You should contact the Estate owner to find out what's going on Did you check your maturity setting? Compare your maturity setting with the Region maturity. For example, if your maturity preference is set to General and the land is set to Moderate, you will need to adjust your maturity setting to General and Moderate or General, Moderate, Adult, to access the Mature land. Change your maturity setting from the Viewer menu. Go to Edit > Preferences > click on the General tab. If you don't have the option to set your preference to the Region maturity, see "How to become verified as an adult" for information. If you do not see options to adjust your maturity preferences, check your Viewer version by going to Help > About Second Life from the Viewer menu. Preferences can be adjusted using Viewer 1.23 and higher. Download the latest Viewer. I can get there, but my friends can't! Make sure either Allow Public Access or Allow Group Access are enabled, or individual names are added to the Allowed Residents list in the Access tab of the About Land window. If you choose to limit access to a certain group, make sure your friends are in the group! In the About Land window's Options tab, it's possible to set Teleport Routing to Blocked. You might be able to get around this by teleporting into a neighboring parcel and walking or flying in. If your land is in a private Region, verify that the Region either has Allow Direct Teleport enabled in the Estate tab of the Region/Estate window, or a Telehub set up. If your land is in a private Region, make sure either Allow Public Access is enabled, or individual people or groups are added to the Allowed Residents or Allowed Groups lists in the Estate tab of the Region/Estate window Residents who cannot enter your land should check their maturity settings in the Preferences window. Let your friends know how your Region is rated so they will know which Preference to set, or they can look up the Region on the map and view the Region maturity.

If you bought Linden Dollars (L$) through the LindeX, they should show up in your balance more or less instantly. So if they don't appear instantly (or after a reasonable wait time), something may be wrong. As a first step, you may want to check the Second Life Blog to see if we're already aware of the problem and working to fix it. Chances are good that if it's something that affects a large number of Residents, it's a known issue being addressed. If it looks like a problem that only affects you, you should probably file a support ticket.

Can someone tell me what the colors mean?

No Build Land: The land you're dropping the object onto doesn't allow building. This should cause a blue error dialog to pop up in the lower right corner of the Second Life window announcing that you can't build there. "No Build" can be set on a per-parcel or per-region basis. A small icon appears in the menu bar when you're on No Build land. Too many rapidly-changing objects in view: The object may not appear, but after you log out and back in ("relog") the object appears. This may mean there are too many rapidly changing objects in view. Every time an object changes (rotates, changes color, etc.) an update message is sent over the network to your client. If too many of these updates get sent, you may not receive the message saying that the new object was created. The object exists -- you just can't see it until you relog. When this happens, the bandwidth meter in the Statistics bar is usually high, over 400 kbps. Clicking Advanced in the Statistics bar and looking at the Network section will show persistently high bandwidth in Objects, usually over 100 kbps. To find the objects responsible, turn on the Advanced menu. Select Advanced > Show Updates. This will display an animating blue or red flash each time an object changes itself. If you have a high concentration of red flashes, these objects are probably to blame. Either delete them or force them to stop animating. Common causes include laser light shows, scripted animals, trees with falling leaves, or anything that creates large numbers of new objects. Download queue for region is stuck: The "download queue" for your region is stuck. When you drop an item from your inventory into the world, the object is downloaded from our central file server. There's a queue of objects being downloaded. You can see the size of this queue by opening the Statistics bar: Pending Downloads is in the Simulator section. If it is falling, or zero, this is not the problem. If your download queue is high and never falls, please file a support ticket (you may need to have your region restarted). Scripted objects are too far away: Some scripted objects do not appear if you are too far away, even if they are within your viewer's draw distance! If the object you are trying to view has a script in it, try moving closer to it until it appears. Other solutions: Reduce draw distance to 64m 1. Choose Edit > Preferences from the top menu bar. 2. Click the Graphics tab. 3. Check the Custom checkbox. 4. Move the Draw Distance slider all the way to the left. Increase the Second Life Viewers cache and bandwidth: If the cache or bandwidth settings are set too low, some objects may appear slowly Note: Setting Maximum Bandwidth too high can also have adverse effects on your Second Life experience. Try increasing maximum bandwidth a little at a time and observe the results.

I keep getting disconnected.  How can I fix that?

What can I do to stop it from jittering?

Firewalls and internet security software have caused problems with Second Life for many Residents. It's important to realize that these programs are designed to block network traffic! As a result, if you have a firewall set up, and you're having network issues with Second Life, you should spend a few minutes configuring your firewall setup, even if nothing has changed. Hardware firewalls, such as routers, are typically configured to block data coming from specific network "ports" (except commonly used ones like web pages and instant messengers); this includes most network ports Second Life uses. Internet Security software also blocks network traffic; however, these programs can cause a great deal of trouble if not configured correctly. The most popular versions of internet security software contain additional features (Internet Worm Protection on Norton Personal Firewall/Norton Internet Security, Intrusion Detection Service for McAfee Personal Firewall, and SmartDefense on ZoneAlarm) that analyze internet programs and their network traffic. Based on an undetermined set of factors, including the patterns of network data, the internet security program may decide to block even a trusted program. These programs may also block a trusted program if its executable changes (which happens every time a new version of the Second Life software is released). Depending on how this internet security software is configured, it may continue to list Second Life as a "trusted program" while blocking it due to these features. If your login to Second Life fails at Verifying Protocol Version, or cannot find the server, or if you disconnect from Second Life automatically every few minutes, a firewall is often the cause. How you configure your home network and secure your computers is, of course, your own decision. However, Linden Lab cannot provide support for configurations where a firewall or internet security software is interfering with Second Life's network access. These setups need to be configured properly for Second Life. In addition, it may be helpful to know we use the Amazon S3 service for downloads of the Second Life viewer.

I have Windows Vista.  Will Second Life run for me?

Do I need to get updated drivers or is there something else to try?

A donation box is a scripted object that Resident can right-click (CMD-click on Macintosh) and pay without receiving a service or object in return. You can make any object a donation box by adding a small script to it. To do so: 1. Right-click the object inworld and choose Edit. 2. Click on the Content tab. (Click More if you don't see it.) 3. Click the New Script button. 4. Delete everything in the script. Copy and paste the text in the box below. 5. Click Save. If the compile is complete, close the script window and editing window. The Pay option should now appear in the pie menu when a Resident right-clicks on the object. Sample Donation Script: default { touch_start(integer total_number) { llSay(0, "Please right-click me and select 'Pay...' to donate."); } money(key giver, integer amount) { string donor = llKey2Name(giver); llInstantMessage(giver,"Thank you for your donation, " + donor + "!"); llInstantMessage(llGetOwner(),donor + " has donated '''L'''$" + (string)amount + " to you."); } } Once the script is installed, you can easily change the donation box's properties to accept left-clicks as well. 1. If you've closed the editing window, right-click the object and choose Edit again. 2. Make sure you're on the General tab in the Editor. (Click More if you don't see it.) 3. At the bottom left, you'll see a dropdown list labeled When Left-Clicked: 4. Set the option to Pay and close the editing window.