Second Life Viewer

 Second Life is a virtual world populated with independent thinkers that share a willingness to experiment and push the art of 3D creation. As the new year arrives, the Second Life editorial team celebrates those who cultivate new ideas and artistry ... [More] in Second Life. For example, SL is filled with so many interesting games -- many of which are unusual, artistic -- and absolutely innovative.One of the key unique aspects of Second Life gaming is that the environments and experiences are created entirely by the Second Life community -- so you'll see a strong independent and richly creative streak in many of the offerings. While some games take inspiration from more traditional gaming experiences, most are absolutely original to Second Life.We've rounded up some of our initial favorites into several Destination Guide categories -- including sections devoted to casual, combat, sports, mazes and role-playing games. In the Role-playing Games category, you'll find a list of active communities and elaborate 3D environments centered around specific themes like vampires, urban/noir, sci-fi,  fantasy, historical, pirates -- and even steampunk. Some of these areas feature advanced combat systems and gaming HUDs that further enhance gameplay with advanced controls and features.  Not familiar with HUDs? Check out the tutorial video above and our wiki for a complete introduction and FAQ on how to use HUDs in Second Life.  Many of MadPea Productions' games, such as The Kaaos Effect and The Devil's Labryinth, offer great examples of how HUDs can be used to expand the functionality and fun of Second Life gaming. In mid-2010, the Second Life editors interviewed Kiana Writer of MadPea Productions about her development work and philosophy in using HUDs. You can see video of the interview below.    Community is a big part of the gaming and role-playing experience in Second Life. One of SL's more prominent role-playing communities City of Lost Angels (CoLA) has a faction (Archaic Redemption) and following that has even caught the attention of an indie movie producer. Find out more about the upcoming film and the role-playing community that inspired it in this exclusive Q&A.   If role-playing is not your scene, then there are numerous casual games to explore in our general Games category. You'll find classic board games -- such as chess -- as well as new Second Life-specific social games here. Many of these games can be played either alone or with friends. There's also many unique collectible card games where you can gain rewards as you trade and gather rare and hard-to-find cards across the Second Life grid. For those who want quicker gaming action, you can get a quick shoot-and-kill fix in one of the many undead-infested areas in our Zombies category in the Destination Guide. But be forewarned -- unlike many Second Life gaming spaces, these spots have no mercy on the unprepared. In many cases, once you arrive, you'll be surrounded immediately by zombies on the attack. One of the more surprising gaming trends in Second Life has been the popularity of 3D mazes. In these elaborate labyrinths, you can explore together with friends -- to cooperate or compete -- while attempting to escape. Many of these mazes have hidden surprises and traps that only add to the fun. Of course, there are also Sports Games and communities in Second Life. Some of the more popular spots feature hockey, skydiving, sailing, golfing and car racing. In some of these communities, there are even leagues and teams you can join for recurring games and matches against other players. In the Destination Guide, you'll find even more fun spots to explore -- but you're only scratching the surface. Hidden deep on the Second Life grid are thousands of places and communities to discover. What are some of your favorites? [Less]

One of the most active role-playing communities in Second Life is the City of Lost Angels (CoLA), which gave birth to the popular Community Combat System (CCS). CoLA's affiliated faction, Archaic Redemption, has caught the eye of indie film producer ... [More] Anthony Brownrigg. After completing his last horror film "Red Victoria," Brownrigg turned his attention to the popular Second Life role-playing community and is now working to produce an indie drama film based on the characters and environment of Archaic Redemption. According to IMDB, the film centers around a young man who "must brave an undead gang to find his sister in the post-apocalyptic world of Los Angeles."  The Destination Guide editorial team recently spoke to Brownrigg -- as well as two Second Life Residents who served as key inspiration for the production: CCS creator Suzanna Soyinka and Archaic Redemption faction leader Tempest Ella -- about the project.  Destination Guide (DG): Tell us a bit about the upcoming movie?Anthony Brownrigg (AB): The film is a drama/horror set in the world of the Second Life game "City of Lost Angels" (CoLA). It surrounds one of the factions of that city, an undead faction known as the Archaic Redemption.  What we did was much like a comic book or video game. We got the rights to many of the characters to include in the real life film, and created an original story that fit within the virtual world.  It's really kind of an adaptation, if you will, of the roleplayers there. The story surrounds a man named Gabriel Fisk, a human who is searching for his sister. His search brings him towards Lost Angels, only to get stopped in a nearby town of Necroville by the Archaics. It's his story and struggle to get away from them and [to] find his sister.  We really wanted to make a character-driven horror film, not a typical "formula plot." The interactive virtual environment of Second Life gave us the opportunity to not only get inspired by the roleplay around us, but actually involve real characters there in the project.  We thought how neat it would be to watch a film, and then visit the virtual version and interact with the very characters they just saw on the big screen.  Second Life is the best platform I believe which can give us the flexibility to do this.  DG: When can we expect the film to come out? AB: We begin principal photography in early 2011, and don't expect a release until 2012.  DG: How did you discover Second Life and the Archaic Redemption community? AB: Back in 2008, a friend of mine who was a writer had suggested Second Life as a nifty opportunity to expand and "dry run" characters.  I had been working on my last film "Red Victoria" at the time, and was delving into a werewolf script I have called "Freeborn."  Knowing there were role-play communities around, I simply did a search on werewolves, and got a result for CoLA. One of the factions there is known as "The Pack," which is a group of Lycans in the main city. So I basically began by constructing a character in the script, and dropping him into the world. Over the months, it became quite addictive I have to admit.  But in that city the Pack also had an ally, the Archaic Redemption. So I managed to roleplay with many of them, as well. In the interim, the "Freeborn" project got put on hold. And I began to really gravitate towards what the Archaics were doing.  Eventually, [I] found myself roleplaying with [Archaic Redemption] more than the Pack. And it's then that the concept of a film surrounding them started tickling my brain.  DG: Are you an active roleplayer in Second Life? AB: Normally, I'm an active roleplayer. I have several "alts" that I have to explore various characters I'm writing about. It's really a great tool to be able to delve into their motivations and see how those around them react.  DG: What aspects of the SL community specifically inspired you for the script to this film?AB: What really inspired me for the script was the background of the Archaics and of CoLA itself. Suzanna Soyinka really penned a great background, and Tempest Ella [did] a great job of integrating the undead faction within that city.  It's a different view on the undead. They're not mindless, they know what they were, who they are. And for my own inspiration it really delved into some interesting concepts. If you don't have death to worry about, what happens to the human mind and its morality breakdown. It's a theme that the main character struggles with all through the story.  We see the human resistance as well and their take on the issue. Within the CoLA universe, werewolves, vampires, demons, angels and all sorts of things in between exist. So the storyline for the film really intermingles varying viewpoints and fleshes out the story to become more of a drama within a horror-filled matrix.  DG: Your previous indie horror film "Red Victoria" had a "virtual premiere" in Second Life. What was that experience like - and can we expect more screenings inworld? AB: I have been absolutely sucked in to the potential for utilizing Second Life for film production and even future distribution options.  The Phantasmagoria theater in SL was fabulous, and worked with me to help me understand the potential of SL as a tool for marketing. The virtual premiere was a stunning experience with a virtual audience that was composed of people from all over the world, I was able to get on voice with my avatar, and welcome [the audience], field questions...and all of us sat back and watched the film together. This is something we plan on utilizing heavily as "Archaic Redemption" ramps up. We can even have virtual "press junkets," actor interviews, sneak peaks...and not be limited by a certain demographic.  Indeed, I already know some press folks that have made SL characters in anticipation of this. "Red Victoria" garnered fans all over the world from those screenings, and we'll definitely be repeating that and more with "Archaic Redemption." Another element is the utilizing of the SL build options to actually construct our sets based on our real life locations.  We can build them to spec, test out scenic design and even costuming.  We can then utilize the camera and make storyboards -- all before we shoot one frame of film.  On top of that, many of the actors and other producers have now gotten SL characters and are delving into even more promising elements of the SL world.  DG: How can SL residents stay updated on the production of "Archaic Redemption"? AB: There is a Facebook page for the film right now, which is http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Archaic-Redemption/133975659959615  (basically just search "Archaic Redemption").  Next, we spoke to the person who inspired the film -- Archaic Redemption faction leader Tempest Ella.  DG:  What is Archaic Redemption?  Tempest Ella (TE): Archaic Redemption (AR) is the official role-play faction for the Risen race in the world of City Of Lost Angels CCS/Role-play sim in Second Life. Unlike the majority of other factions that were pre-made for the sim, Archaic Redemption came along at a later date and has built up over time. Many hours have been put into creating a complex story base and every week there is something new added to ensure it remains interesting for members. The Zombies of the AR have adapted a virus that they build their numbers with. There is a virus lore that runs through generations [that] also helps to maintain the depth [of the] character storylines, [It's more] than playing a mindless ghoul that cannot do anything but eat brains.   DG: How many SL Residents would you estimate are participating in this community ?  TE: Tricky question. I'm going to have to break this down. The CCS community as a whole is massive. It not only supports English players, but many from all around the world. The French community is very healthy, as well. There are thousands of registered CCS players and hundreds of CCS sims within Second Life. If I had to take a guess, I'd put it up around the 400-500 mark. In CoLA alone, there are 21 sims and the main hub sim is almost always busy with a constant flow of people.   DG: The back-story and setting for Archaic Redemption is something that has really resonated with many SL role-players. What do you think accounts for the appeal?  TE: I think there are a few factors that play a part in the attraction to the AR. One being that I have really targeted those true blue horror/gore fans. You have your "vampire lovers" due to "Twilight" and there are many places in SL that offer up an inworld [vampire] experience, But, there really is nothing around like Archaic Redemption. Just about any zombie sim I have visited inworld is a "shoot-em-up" game with no role-play surrounding it at all. People can come into AR and participate in true dark role-play and work alongside other wonderful role-players and feed off each other. Another reason is [that] I keep the group busy and active and try to make sure that every person is enjoying/progressing with their role-play within the group. Lastly, if the person behind the PC can be kept on the edge of their seat as they are submerged into a group that produces descriptive, intense and articulate role-play, then they will be here to stay. For alot of Second Life role-players, they are searching for other like-minded faction members, The quality of role-play material is what snags the majority of people's attention, first and foremost.   DG: A movie is now also in the works! How did you connect with Anthony Brownrigg for this project?   TE: Yes! It is all very exciting, I met Anthony in CoLA of course As a fellow role-player. He contacted me one day and raised the idea of making a film based around Archaic Redemption and CoLA. Naturally, I jumped at the idea! For me as a writer/creator, there was nothing more flattering to hear. My many hours of blood, sweat and tears could be possibly shown to the world in a form of a film. The AR alone has a storyline base that will definitely get alot of interest, Not to mention, throwing it into the post-apocalyptic world of CoLA [that was] designed by Suzanna Soyinka. We must not forget about [CoLA] for if [it] didn't exist, then neither would Archaic Redemption.    DG: Are there many misconceptions that you've found the general public to have about the role-playing community in SL?   TE: I think that there will always be things floating around out there, Some [do] not always shed it in a positive light, but it all comes down to personal experience and what you, as a player, put in.  There have been many rewarding moments within the community [and] there is always room for all types of people from new players to the older Residents. Each of the sims are staffed with voluntary GM teams who not only aid to keep things running smoothly but also to provide help in lots of areas.   DG: What qualities make for a good participant in the Archaic Redemption community?   TE: We are looking for loyal, dedicated players who enjoy good role-play with a darker flair. A place to act out their more monstrous sides and put the 'dark' into 'dark RP.'  That said, while we may be cruel creatures in-character, we are very approachable out-of-character and are always looking for fun and interesting people to join our team.  AR endorses quality role-play, and our members and officers are always willing to assist anyone who may be new to CoLA, CCS, or role-playing in general, We run constant role-play classes, CCS training and [offer] one-on-one individual aid for new players to the role-playing world. Finally, we spoke to CoLA owner and CCS co-creator Suzanna Soyinka. DG: The Community Combat System (CCS) has become hugely popular in Second Life. Can you briefly explain the CCS for those Residents that have yet to experience it?  Suzanna Soyinka (SS): CCS is a Mono-compiled gaming system that is hybridized to work with a php/MYSQL network to effectively emulate a persistent roleplay gaming experience where a player can evolve a character they wish to play over time. It has both roleplay-centric uses and combat-effective uses combining the two together for a mix of fun that most anyone can enjoy. CCS is also a managed gaming system, meaning that it is centrally designed and balanced by an impartial design team, rather than other similar systems which are basically game development kits, which give sim owners the ability to create their own dynamics. The principle of managed gaming versus game development kit scenarios is largely under the understanding that most people don't want to fuss with having to understand how to develop a game, or maintain balance dynamics themselves. Some do, and those that do can usually make their own systems or use GDK-based systems that other developers offer. But most people seem to prefer CCS for its ease of use, and its refined performance in the Second Life environment.   DG: Can anyone get a CCS? Is it free?   SS: CCS is free to all users. Our major third party developer partners also provide weapons with the system for free, as well. Effectively, someone can go to any CCS-enabled community on the grid, of which there are hundreds, and get a CCS unit and weapons to play the game for free and not have to spend a dime to do so.   DG: Where did the idea for the CCS come from?  SS: CCS is an extension of CoLA which is an idea that has been burning in my head since around 1999. It's a game that I personally have wanted to play. Since no one in the mainstream industry had made it, I made several attempts since 1999 to try to get it into motion under different platforms. Unreal 2.5 was the first platform attempt but I couldn't get enough committment from other mod designers to see the project through at the time. After coming to Second Life in 2005, and applying my previous understanding of design in the Unreal environment and UScript to the SL tools available, I began building the project here in Second Life to keep myself busy and challenged. Turns out I wasn't the only one waiting for someone to make this game apparently.  DG: How many communities and venues are using CCS?  SS: At this time, CCS is currently in use in around 310 individual sims in Second Life, that number grows weekly as we tend to add one or two new sims a week on average. So there are hundreds of communities using CCS on the grid as of this time. That's going from two-thirds of a mainland sim in 2006 to over 300 individual sims by 2010.   DG: Did this project originate with the City of Lost Angels (CoLA)? At what point, did you decide to expand the CCS for use beyond CoLA?  SS: CCS was originally developed to support the City of Lost Angels specifically. I had originally seated the project development in the original DCS with Dimentox Travanti, but after a difference of opinions, he went his own direction. DCS as developed originally was a very simple script-based system with a lack of true persistence. I then started working with Jora Welesa, the developer of the Open Source LCK system, to develop CCS, which was a far more advanced visualization of my ideas that did have the true persistence of character data required to run a long-term role-playing game.  We decided to expand the use of the system beyond CoLA while we were still on the mainland, back in 2006 and 2007. CoLA was so popular [that] there were 55+ people in the mainland sim at all times and people literally bouncing off the sim borders trying to get in daily. It became obvious due to the system's popularity that we needed to offer additonal venues for it until we could expand our own land holdings. We also needed to offer venues that were fun for and accepting of non-English speaking players, [so we] established French and Spanish CCS communities, as well as new English-speaking ones.  DG: Are there future enhancements or changes that we can expect?  SS: Oh, yes. CCS has always updated and upgraded itself on around a 180-day timeframe. About every 6 months, I do some major system upgrades or additions to cater to the needs of our player base. We have several new features coming with the release candidate in development. We've got a lot of new user-centric features [that] we've developed that have been requested by our player base. We've got an entirely new design approach to our third-party API, which is going to simplify designing weapons and items for CCS for developers. [It will] give the system far more top-level control of what is in use, allowing us to pinpoint weapons down to the version number that are currently active in CCS sims that may be performing in an unbalanced manner. [It will] allow us to throttle or adjust those weapons on the fly for balance in the system if the third-party developer is unavailable to make the changes themselves.   Also, CCS has largely become a developmental standard in Second Life. What we've done has been so effective that its largely been emulated by a good-sized handful of other developers in Second Life in their own way. So, while everyone is doing their own development, the homogeny of ideas and implementation is rather obvious. The standards Jora, Melanie and I set and the systems we designed to harness what SL had available and make it do what we wanted it to do have largely been put into practice in a handful of other gaming systems. Due to to this, everything sort of looks the same, four years later. I have a project currently under super secret development called CCS2, which is a whole new set of dynamics and parameters which change the entire way CCS will be approaching game play in Second Life. I believe [it] will be far more immersive and fun for the users once I get it released than even CCS itself is, right now.  Effectively, I'm always working on new ideas. CCS never sits back on a working version and forgets about its user base. We're constantly in development mode, and we're constantly expanding what we have and, in the background of that, developing and readying ourselves for what comes next.  To find out more information about Archaic Redemption in Second Life, visit the official site. Archaic Redemption is only one of several factions in the City of Lost Angels. To see a list of all CoLA factions and to learn more about CCS, please visit the official CoLA site. For production updates on the film, visit the official Facebook fan page.   Images courtesy of Anthony Brownrigg, Tempest Ella and Suzanna Soyinka. [Less]

All of the mainline switches and sidings of the SLRR now have working switches, courtesy of our hard-working rail-moles! The "Golden Spike" was driven in the Crumbi Region, as Sylvan Mole put the big junction there into full operation.We still need ... [More] to connect some 'private' lines to the SLRR, and extend to some new areas.The Second Life Wiki will eventually provide a list of all the passing tracks, sidings, and private route connections; plus information on how the switches and signals work. [Less]

I’m happy to announce some very exciting news today: Rod Humble is Linden Lab’s new CEO. Our press release is here. You’ll hear from Rod himself after he starts in mid-January, but in the meantime, we wanted to share a brief introduction.Rod has an ... [More] impressive depth of experience in developing and leading fun, immersive entertainment experiences that have been great successes. As a 20-year veteran of game development, he’s worked on more than 200 games, and last year, the gaming magazine Edge named him #2 on their annual list of Hot 100 Game Developers. Rod is coming to Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where he was Executive Vice President and led EA Play, including the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. Prior to EA, he was a VP of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment, where he led the EverQuest Studio.Rod has a deep appreciation for what makes Second Life special. He’s already been exploring and experimenting inworld to familiarize himself with the pluses and minuses of our product and the successes and challenges faced by our Residents. He’ll officially start at the Lab in mid-January, and I’m excited for us to begin 2011 with fresh perspective, renewed energy, and creativity.To give you a sense for Rod’s creativity, personality, and perspective, here are few links to his personal creations and a couple of press interviews he’s given:Art games Rod has created in his ‘spare’ time:The MarriageStars Over Half Moon BayLast Thoughts of the AurochsPress interviews with Rod:2010 video interview with The Guardian about EA’s Create2009 interview with WIRED about art gamesHappy holidays to you all from Linden Lab! We wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year -- it’s going to be a great one for Second Life!Rod's bio:Rod Humble is Chief Executive Officer at Linden Lab, and he leads the company’s strategy and the development of Second Life. Humble’s 20-year career in the game development industry has included work on more than 200 games. He joined Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where, in his role as Executive Vice President, he led the EA Play label, which includes the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. In 2009, he was ranked #2 on the annual list of the Hot 100 Game Developers from gaming publication Edge. Prior to his work at Electronic Arts, Humble served as Vice President of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment for the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) EverQuest. [Less]

What a great event! The week-long Winterfest event, which wrapped up Saturday, December 18th, was the first of what we hope will be many collaborative events with partner communities—and we’re so pleased with the results. From winter sports to live ... [More] music, Winterfest offered a good time for all.We especially enjoyed the Residents vs. Lindens snowball fights. We saw some very creative snow weaponry this year! There’s nothing better for a Linden than getting pummeled with snow-fire to remind you of how fun it is to spend time with the Second Life community.Big Thanks to Everyone Who Made Winterfest Such a Success!Winterfest would not have been possible without the fabulous people from the Global Online Hockey Association (GOHA), who generously hosted the activities on their six regions. Thank you to the organizers and community of GOHA, who made Winterfest such a wonderful experience and who helped Residents to discover the many delights of the season, including the Maze, Scavenger/Puck Hunt, Snowman Building Contest, and new player training. In particular, we’d like to thank Winterfest organizers Jack Belvedere, Katia Ixtab, Ashlene McMinnar, Marjan Tomba, Dyz Warburton, Kalita Magic, Tangle Giano, Lobo Rodriquez, Janieke Blanchard, and Anhayla Lycia. Special thanks go to Marjan Tomba for the popular new ski jump and Lancelot Skytower for the fantastic balloon tours across the sims.In addition, we are so pleased that many SL artists, musicians, and DJs donated their time and talents to the event. And thank you, TreetTV, for coming out to support and to help spread the word.The full list of our thanks can be found on the Winterfest wiki page.Still Time to Have Wintry Fun!In case you were so busy with the RL holidays that you missed these SL holiday activities, there’s still time to get in some wintry fun! GOHA is keeping many of the Winterfest activities going in the Chamonix City area, and plans to add even more, based on the great ideas suggested by Winterfest visitors.Happy holidays to all! [Less]

As of today, SL Viewer 2.4 is the default Second Life Viewer download for new Residents! As was mentioned in the Viewer 2.4 Beta blog post, this is largely a maintenance release focused on improving user experience, stability, and performance. This ... [More] release does, however, have a few important changes and additions, including the following:A Cleaner User Experience and More Customization Options in PreferencesThroughout 2010, we’ve added many new Preferences to the Viewer and it was time to not only reorganize and clean up the layout, but also add popular customization options, such as:Color and transparency options that allow you to change the look of Viewer windowsOptions to easily enable the Advanced and Developer menusA new preference that you can use to turn group and IM chat pop-ups on or off whenever you likeSupport for External Text Editors when Working with LSLHere’s a good one for content creators and developers. Now, you can use your favorite script editor to edit LSL scripts outside of the Viewer. In  Viewer 2.4, enabling the new ‘ExternalEditor’ debug setting will allow you to specify the path to your own text editor (for example: /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/MacOS/TextMate). When the setting is enabled, just open the Script Editor in the Viewer and click the “Edit” button, and the text editor you specified in debug settings will then open with the script you have open in the Viewer. Any changes you make and save in the text editor will automatically appear in the Script window in the Viewer.Graphics ImprovementsWe continue to make numerous improvements to Viewer graphics as we move closer to integrating Mesh Import into Viewer 2. You can see more detail in the Release Notes, but we’ve improved antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, snapshots, and we’ll see even more in upcoming releases.Performance ImprovementsViewer 2 performance is improving, as shown by steadily decreasing crash rates that are now close to those for Viewer 1.23, but we know there’s still more to do. So if you do crash, please be sure to send us a crash  report, as they are essential to helping us understand where issues occur, which allows us to better prioritize our work.An Auto-Updater ToolWe now have an auto-updater for Viewer 2! This means that whenever a new Viewer is released, the next one being Viewer 2.5, it automatically  downloads the newest software in the background and offers you the  ability to upgrade when it’s ready. You can still decide whether you want to install the new version or not, but the auto-updater will help ensure that you’re always using the most up-to-date version of the SL Viewer. Keep in mind, the auto-updater will only work with optional updates. Mandatory updates will continue to work as they have in the past.Finally, to those of you who gave us feedback on previous versions of Viewer 2, we offer a heartfelt thank you for all your bug reports, forum and blog comments, and Tweets using the #slviewer2 hashtag. Your input is invaluable as we continue to prioritize our 2011 Viewer 2 roadmap.So download Viewer 2.4 -- and keep that feedback coming!Helpful LinksDownload Viewer 2.4:Windows | Mac | LinuxViewer 2.4 Release NotesSL Forum on Viewer 2SL Answers on Viewer 2.4 [Less]

My last blog post as ‘Jack Linden’ is almost certainly the hardest that I’ve had to write. Sad to say that I will be leaving the Lab at the end of December. It’s time for me to set sail for new horizons, hang up the god powers, and journey to another ... [More] grand adventure elsewhere. It has been an incredible six years, and one that has been made extra special thanks to sharing it with you, the Second Life community.Seems like only yesterday that I was helping new residents at the welcome area, shaping new mainland continents and delivering islands to the very first wave of estate owners. Second Life was amazing to me then, and it is no less amazing to me now. It’s an incredible virtual space full of real people and their extraordinary creativity. It’s been a wild ride at times, always mesmerising and never a dull moment. I have loved every moment of it. I have watched pioneering virtual businesses grow and flourish, seen people from around the world making friends and falling in love, been amazed at the range of new communities that have found a home on the grid, and witnessed an explosion of content that has made Second Life the largest home of user generated 3D content in existence. It’s been an honour to be a part of that world and to serve you, the residents who have made it so rich and diverse.I will be leaving behind a Linden Lab that is in great shape. A Lab that is more focused on fixing the core features, more open and productive, and that remains on course for a very bright future indeed.Up until the end of the year you can still reach me as Jack Linden inworld but from January 1st I will be enjoying Second Life as a resident once more, probably on my new alt (username and display name of simply ‘Jack’).Many thanks to all of you for everything you do to keep Second Life so special. [Less]

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 ... [More] 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? [Less]

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 ... [More] 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! [Less]

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 ... [More] 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. [Less]