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I recommend Sierra Dakota. She has RL training. I see her myself and found her to be very helpful. She's not cheap though, but you won't pay nearly what you do outside SL. One advantage to getting help from Sierra is that she understands these relationships we have within SL are real and valid.

Two things spring to mind. (Not addressing the OP). It's not fair to rebuke someone for mocking another, then do the same thing yourself. (Addressing the OP). Counselling works a little better if you and the counsellor share a world view, so if shamanic crystals are your thing, Sierra might help you. [Edit for clarity] That's what she has in her Profile Picks.

I've seen a few threads talking about Unreal Engine, UE5, and game-engine technology with interest in seeing this kind of innovation in Second Life Viewers. I thought I would spend a moment to take a shallow dive into these technologies and put them into the context of Second Life. 1. Lumen is an incredible feature that could add significant lighting realism to Second Life, if there were a UE5 based SL Viewer, because it could add a real-time global illumination approximation to existing SL geometry. This does require a pretty beefy modern GPU, and it also would need some lighting adjustments to rebalance light around secondary light bounce effects. However, the results can be quite impressive, even with existing legacy geometry. For a taste of how legacy low-poly geometry can look with Lumen, check out some of the many "World of Warcraft remastered in UE5" videos. Lumen is a runtime feature, and can handle runtime generated (and downloaded) geometry, such as would occur with SL. How is this different than current SL lighting? Current Second Life viewers are based around only primary light sources. The reason SL looks "flat" compared to games, is that most games use an expensive "lighting bake" that does a slow edit-time raytrace of all secondary light bounces into a "lightmap" for the entire scene. However, this not only freezes time-of-day, but it also freezes the position of all objects in the scene. This is not done in Second Life for many reasons, but mostly because objects can be moved, and each time they were moved, lightmaps would look "wrong and broken" and some computer would have to run a potentially long lighting bake to make new lightmaps. Lumen is a technology that allows an approximate raytraced lighting to be computed in real-time, even for dynamically generated geometry. Is it possible to implement Lumen-like tech in existing SL Viewers? Of course, but it would take years of funding and expert graphics developers. Lumen merges previous research into voxel global illumination, screen space global illumination, and light-probes into a really craft solution. While each of those technologies is relatively simple (and open source), combining them together into Lumen was years of work by expert graphics engineers at Epic to create creative solutions to the edge cases, that have led to a real-time GI solution that not only has an acceptable level of artifracts, but is also incredibly efficient. To get a respect for it's complexity, you can watch the 2021 SIGGRAPH presentation of Lumen by one of the developers. The next milestone we should be watching for is for *any* other engine to have technology comparable to Lumen. It is possible this might not happen before we have hardware capable of full real time path-tracing (probably in 3-6 years). 2. Nanite geometry is an alternative to polygon meshes, allowing efficient runtime tesselation for perfect automated LOD. This technology is not easy to make use of for a Second Life viewer, because Nanite geometry can not be runtime-generated inside a UE5 game client. It is a slow-step that only happens in the UE5 Editor. What is Nanite? Nanite both ultra-high detail objects to be used with reasonable performance, and it allows incredible scene complexity to be rendered with reasonable performance. This would be an incredible addition to Second Life, but it's not one that can come "for free" in a Second Life Viewer. To use Nanite in UE5, every SL object, after it is uploaded, would need to be processed into the Nanite format **inside the Unreal Engine Editor**. While these objects could also exist in a legacy mesh form for other clients, this kind of reprocessing of meshes into an alternate format (and serving that alternate format to a Nanite capable viewer) is much more extensive than writing a Second Life Viewer client. 3. Don't be fooled by the path-tracing examples. We've all seen shocking UE5 scenes, sometimes with absolutely massive numbers of trees (millions!), like this "UE5 Sierra Nevada" Scene. These images are *not* real-time rendered. They are using the UE5 Editor's progressive path-tracer, which is a similar technology to Blender's Cycles progressive path-tracer. If you watch these users working in UE5 editor, you can see "path tracing" enabled in the editor, and when they move the scene you can see the image pixelate before filling in over time. Equally important to note, is that when scenes have an absolutely huge number of instanced objects, such as millions of trees, they can *not* be rendered at real time in a game. In other words, just because you see people building these absolutely massive scenes in Unreal Editor, does *not* mean they would work in real-time in an Unreal Engine based game. 4. Large View Distances. Modern game technology, including UE4 and UE5 can support fast rendering of vastly larger view distances than you see in Second Life.. However, this is as much a product of the way these terrains are built as it is because of the game engine technology. Many Second Life locations are built by users in performance inefficient ways. For example, by using tons of uniquely different "ground" objects, instead of using the terrain height map, or by placing a massive number of unique objects to give the scene a certain visual look. Scenes built like this could cause any game engine (without Nanite) to struggle and render with low FPS. When working on a game, designers make choices for performance as much as aesthetics, and SL does not require, enforce, or even encourage a workflow with these kinds of limitations. The SL solution is to keep a relatively short view distance always, to allow users to add scene complexity right in front of them. 5. Large Object Count. In game rendering, one thing that slows down rendering is the number of uniquely drawn objects (draw call count). Modern graphics systems, like Vulkan, are lowering this cost, but there is still a cost. In a game engine like Unreal, often the many different pieces of an object are merged into a single mesh in the Unreal Editor, and many objects placed in a scene are merged into the scene object mesh. This is one of the reasons that so many games have "bookshelves" and "props" that are immovable and indestructable. They are already merged into the background mesh. It is possible for any Second Life Viewer to do this kind of "mostly static" mesh merging at runtime, to optimize drawing (and it's possible some do, i have no idea), but this isn't something game engines do out of the box, so it's very possible that a "Second Life Viewer implemented in UE5 without runtime mesh merging" would have performance issues rendering scenes with very large numbers of unique placed objects. This is related to #4 above, as this is another reason I suspect view distances are kept relatively short in SL. I'm sorry for how long that turned out, and how technical some of it is. I hope some of that explanation is helpful to set expectations for this technology showing up in SL Viewers, and also to inspire some possibilities of things we might see in the future.

I don't disagree with you often Solar (if at all, really!), but we all know SL is in the unique position of being 20+ years old. I'm not saying the inventory system or any other specific system is in dire need of a complete redo, BUT, there will come a point where SL will get lost in obscurity if it doesn't adapt at least in some way to current tech and make itself a bit more familiar. I'm a diehard fan of the C64/Atari gaming era (and DOS gaming, and Sierra, and and and), but I came to realize that nobody under the age of 35 knows what the hell I'm even on about if I try to get into all that in this here 2024, LOL. If I mention a game that's been released within the last 5 years, though, I'm no longer looked at like I have 3 heads. For the record, I hate modern consoles, so I'm in no way advocating SL adopt any of that mess. I'm not even a fan of the whole mobile craze. It could use a little polish for PC users in general, though. I say this, of course, well aware that the OG Everquest just hit its 25 year anniversary (omg, I'm old) and that game is STILL raking in a ton of cash and lots of players with those old wonky graphics and dated mechanics, so...maybe I'm just wrong about this. 😂

Rain and wind outside while I'm safe and cozy inside. I'm also glad I'm not in the Sierra mountains this weekend and that this storm is gonna give us a good snow pack.

Daggerfall... yours could be a screencap from a Sierra adventure game as well

I'm very glad to have come across this thread. This afternoon (UK) we had a 2 second power cut and everything went off and on again - except the computers (Macs). On powering up it was impossible to login and the progress bar stopped where everyone says. I thought the power cut had messed up the settings and have spent some hours checking everything and trying stuff. The odd thing is that one AV could login but not another, and teleporting threw you out altogether, and then the AV that got in couldn't but another could, then none could. The help I searched all said UDP was the problem - end of, SL Grid showed all green and I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure it out. Now I know many others have suffered too I can relax, so to speak, and stop trying to find the answer. For those wondering if it is the new FS upgrade, I can tell you it isn't, I'm using 6.6.8.68380 on a MacPro 2010 High Sierra.

Yes, I just finished my hunt for one for the holidays. Here are some options: 1. Bear Lake Mountain: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/BearClawMountain/115/97/46 This is a nice lodge with free motel rooms. BUT the two sims also offer nice rental homes and camping areas in a mountain setting. There are places to eat, horse riding, trails, a clinic. It's nice. Season changes. 2 sims to explore. Here's the link to the website: https://slbennettville.blogspot.com/ 2. The Forest Winter Wonderland http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/TheForest/46/85/22 This is an absolutely lovely Christmas-themed sim. Snow has already fallen. The cabins are small, furnished but so nicely done. There is a waiting list as they booked after day one of opening, however, if you get in early I understand you don't have to wait too long. Lots of activities like sledding, train ride, horses. Also a lodge to hang out in. Website: https://theforestdestinati.wixsite.com/destination 3. Winter Crest Ski Resort and Lodge: Another lovely Christmas-themed sim with a main lodge. Small cabins, lightly furnished. Snow has fallen, lots of activities like skating, sledding, Ski. They also have a sister sim. I don't think there's a website, but here are the SURLS: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Luna Sea/37/128/22 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Luna Sea/37/128/22 4. Lakeview Valley: There are 2 sims of Winter theme. Snow has fallen, large beautiful cabins. I'm not sure if there are activities on site, but it is quiet and peaceful. No website from what I could tell. SURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ARRAGON/88/160/24 5. Deer Ridge Cabin Rental: This is on mainland in a snowy region. The cabins are adorable. Perhaps one room, but set in the snowy woods. The site is also right next to a lovely tree farm. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ARRAGON/88/160/24 6. Yosemite Valley / Yosemite High Sierra These are two gorgeous sims. The theme is woods, outdoor, hiking, camping, park rangers. They have a variety of cabins and camp sites for rent. Lots of activities, season changes. There are park navigation and rental huds. I don't think there's a website. SURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Yosemite/155/60/22 I hope this helps!

You do not give the version of macOS running on it, and this is the determining factor. Newer viewer builds require macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or better. Your iMac13,1 is apparently (from a quick web search) capable of running 10.15 (Catalina), so if you are running an older macOS, you should be able to upgrade and run SL viewers again.

I have been on Second Life for over 10 years now and two days ago when I went to log-in I was told - as has happened many times - that the latest version of SL needed to be downloaded first, which it automatically did. However, after this was completed I clicked the SL app icon and the second it starts to open the application immediately shuts down so I am unable to even access the log in page. I have a Mac Book Pro and have been running a Phoenix SL browser since I first signed up 10 years ago and have a High Sierra OS version 10.13.6 running on my computer. I have no idea what is causing this nor what to do. Can anybody help?

My System is Sierra 10.13.6

I suppose you mean ”10.13.6” (macOS Sierra) ?... This is the minimum requirement as of last Summer. So, it should work... If it does not, open a JIRA issue for it, providing all the info you can (a stack trace is most helpful), and in the mean time, you could use one of the TPVs' macOS builds, instead...

Hi I just downloaded the SL Viewer in my Sierra (OS X 10.12) Parallels VM to get round the host OS 10.9.5 running SL without the media_plugin_cef so some things are blank. However, the Viewer “quits unexpectedly” after a few seconds of a blank window, and I never get to a login screen. Does SL not run in a virtual machine? (Firewall is off. Machine is 2011 iMac, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

Check if you have turned off software updates for some reason. This support article tells you how to download High Sierra and never https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

ah cool man, thanks, I'll try that. Honestly thought Sierra was the end of the road - software update stopped offering anything years ago.

I'm curious as to why the Lab picked macOS High Sierra as the new cut-off point. That version still supported 32-bit Mac apps; Catalina (which came out two years later) ended that, so I'm guessing it's not 64-bit requirement on the Mac side, perhaps more a case of the supported Mac hardware and/or available system extensions? Given that Mac support will change again at some point anyway in the future — OpenGL has been deprecated by Apple on macOS, so moves are afoot to support the Metal architecture on Mac — I'm just happy that I can still use Second Life on my 2017 iMac. (Currently on latest Firestorm, though I can also recommend Catznip (hi @Coffee Pancake!) and the latest project version of Alchemy Viewer if you're a Mac user looking for alternatives.)

The last Mac that couldn't run High Sierra was discontinued in 2012, and that was an iMac only available to education customers. So except for people who bought a Mac from a surplus auction after it got too old for an elementary school to want it, this probably isn't an issue for anyone. The only use for Macs that old is to run ancient hardware or software that newer versions of the macOS won't run, and it shouldn't be connected to the internet.

Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra is still ancient, and 32bit support needs to die.

📢 Important Announcement: End of Support for Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer and Updated Minimum System Requirements for MacOS to 10.13 🖥️🕒 Attention Second Life community members! We have some important news to share regarding software compatibility and system requirements. Please read this post carefully to ensure a smooth transition. As of July 1st, 2023, we will be ending support for the Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer and updating the minimum system requirements for MacOS to 10.13. This decision is made to align with the evolving technology landscape and to ensure the best performance and security for our residents. 👉 Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer: The 32-bit Windows version of the Second Life Viewer will no longer be supported. Moving forward, we will focus our efforts on the 64-bit version, which provides improved stability, enhanced performance, and better utilization of modern hardware. We encourage all residents to transition to the 64-bit version to continue enjoying the latest features and updates. After July 1st, we will continue to allow the last supported version of the Second Life 32-bit Windows viewer to log in indefinitely. 👉 MacOS 10.13 Minimum Requirements: Starting July 1st, MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) will be the minimum requirement for running Second Life. This decision is driven by the need to utilize the latest advancements in operating systems and maintain compatibility with the most up-to-date technologies. Users on MacOS older than 10.13 will need to upgrade their operating system to a newer version to access future Second Life viewer updates. We understand that change can be challenging, but this step is necessary to provide the best and most secure experience for our residents. We highly recommend keeping your software and hardware up to date to benefit from enhanced performance, security patches, and new features. If you are currently using the 32-bit Windows Viewer or running MacOS older than 10.13, please take the following actions: 1️⃣ Second Life 32-bit Windows Viewer Users: If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows, you will first need to update to a 64-bit version of Windows before attempting to update Second Life. Ensure your computer meets the system requirements for the 64-bit Viewer. Back up your preferences and settings before making the transition. Download and install the 64-bit version of the Second Life Viewer. 2️⃣ MacOS Users Older than 10.13: Check the Apple support website for information on upgrading your operating system. Upgrade to a supported version of MacOS that meets Second Life's minimum requirements. Before upgrading, backup your important files and make sure your system is compatible with the newer version of MacOS. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to our support team, who will be happy to help you. Thank you for being a part of our Second Life community, and we look forward to continuing this virtual journey together!

Has anyone had issues with the new Mac OSX High Sierra? Several of my HUDS are so blurry they cannot be read. I am using Firestorm viewer.

Interested to hear if anyone has tried running SecondLife Viewer on Apple MacOS Sierra (MacOS 10.12). Anyone out there given it a go yet?

I have an iMac with a Nvidia card, with High Sierra OS. Is the newest Bento enabled Firestorm compatible (my policy is if it aint broke don't update it). I am thinking of getting a mesh head and wondering if I should try a Bento one. I am using an older version of FS atm.

Friend is about to upgrade to Mac OSX High Sierra. If you have this OS, what are your experiences and recommendations for a viewer for Second Life please? Preferably Bento enabled. Thank you

Ive been running the new Mac OS High Sierra in SL and all seems to work just fine. except for one glitch. In logging in an old alt I was required to click acceptance for the TOS. This does NOT work in either the sl viewer or firestorm viewer. So you can't activate your avatar without pushing the accept TOS button ( which doesnt work). A workaround is to log into secondlife.com and click the TOS button there, which works.

I am having terrible time with any viewer I try. Tried 4 now. I get 0.3 FPS in low graphic setting, when I am used to flying through in High and use Ultra whenever I wanted. Will not be able to play SL now and will need forfeit my land, shame I so enjoy SL. I also crash to a black screen some times too in SL. It affects the performance of all my computer applications until I log out of SL. SO disappointed. Hope this gets dealt with, anyone have any suggestions? Sigg Naidoo Not a newbie been on regularly for 9 years