Category Archives: Second Life

Things about SL

How to Play Second Life… The Tutorials

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Those experienced in using Second Life™ (SL) don’t think of SL as a game to play. You’ll find out it is not a game with points or levels. There are such games within SL. But, SL, the overall ‘thing’, is much more like real life with an amazing variety of things and things to do.

Also, it is like Adobe’s Photoshop® in that no one knows everything there is to know about either. This means there is a learning curve. Probably beyond any game you have played. But you can take your time learning as in general no one is trying to kill your character.

Second Life has changed considerably in 2020. New players and returning players are challenged by the learning curve. Fortunately, lots of people make tutorials. Here I have collected what I think are some of the better ones.

The Sign Up & Moving About Tutorial…

This is a 4-minute basic tutorial walking through how to signup, pick an avatar, walk, and fly. It is the first in a series of tutorial videos made by Strawberry Linden. The playlist for the series is here.

There are more in this series. If you want one thing at a time, this is an ideal set of tutorials. Also, if you are looking for a specific subject then the series is handy as the video are named things like; Getting Started with Bakes on Mesh, Finding Interesting Places, and Customizing Your Avatar Shape.

This is probably the best set of tutorials for the total newbie. Those that follow will be easier for those with some SL experience.

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Second Life EEP Coming… coming… soon…

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The Second Life Environmental Enhancement Project (aka EEP) has taken way longer than anyone at Linden Lab thought. I suspect the reason for that is the old render engine. It is an ancient (in computer time) engine and the original programmers long ago moved on.

Linden Made Panel v6.4.0

Some problems encountered in the project lead the Lindens to bring in some specialists. They have been working on resolving some complex problems. About a month ago, I’m not following viewer development as closely as I used to and my sense of time frames is shaky, the number of problems fixed exceeded the number being reported. So, we are likely to see EEP release soon, probably in April. I’ve missed my guesses a few times now… Lindens are more optimistic.

I am more optimistic because Whirly Fizzle hasn’t found any EEP bugs recently.

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Second Life: What is Project Arousal? (Review-Tutorial)

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I keep finding things I either haven’t known about or haven’t taken the time to… study… play with… whatever. One of these is a set of related toys all named Project something. I think Project Arousal is somewhat known. It is the core engine of a series of sex toys with a strong anime flavor, that supposedly makes SL sex more realistic. Sure. Of course. But, is it fun and what is meant by more realistic? What if you aren’t into anime?

When I started this a couple of weeks ago, SoCal was drowning in major rain like I hadn’t seen for at least a couple of years. It was a good day to stay in and play with sex toys.

Back off, humans. Finders Keepers!

What it is…

First, there is the Project Arousal Engine (L$1,000). This is the core of the Projects’ system and is mostly required for all the various parts to work. But some items in the Project family are standalone. This core mostly provides sounds and facial and body animations denoting arousal. The number of body brands supported for some features is very limited. But as a female with a Slink body, I haven’t found that to be a problem. I first suspected it might be for males. But as I learn more, I think it won’t be.

This core part of the system does not need to be rezzed. You simply wear it and your partner wears it. There is a guest HUD in the PA package you get. It is for your partner without Project Arousal. The PA engine can be used in No_rez areas. This is and isn’t true for some of the add-ons. Read the promo material carefully to know which is which.

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Second Life Images/Pictures

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The Lab has a very interesting image on display in  Home > Blogs > Inworld > Second Life Pic of the Day 02.06.2020. I found it interesting because of the avatar poses.

From Second Life’s Blog

Getting poses is sometimes hard. In some cases, one has to make their own. I suspect Madd Flair did some manual posing to get this shot. Or it could be built into the coaster, I have not checked. However, it looks very posed, unusual for built-in poses.

I doubt the image is taken from the Black Dragon viewer. Would be nice if they said. However, Black Dragon gives a ‘prettier’ render by default, thus my doubt.

From the How’s your avatar look today? thread Scylla Rhiadra spun off the thread Making Avatars Look Good in Black Dragon! Share Your Hints and Advice! (Link) This thread explains how people get those perfectly posed shots you have been wondering about.

NiranV the author of Black Dragon has been posting in the thread, so there is some good information and ‘how-to’.

Maitreya v5 Update

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The Maitreya body just updated from v4 to v5. This version is for the Bakes On Mesh (BoM) era. NovataSecondLife (YouTube URL) has made a video to explain how the new version works.

Another Maitreya v5 Update video. 30 min

Until this release, Maitreya used an applier to upgrade their bodies to use BoM. It worked with my version 3.0 demo copy. Nice. Now the body is redesigned and switches to the BoM style via a click in the HUD.

Here are the things I found interesting in this release.

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Making Slink Sizes

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In December Siddean Munro made a video of how to easily make the various Slink sizes.

I think the video shows how easy and quick it is. So, I continue to be baffled at why so many provide only Hourglass sizes of their products. Especially when discussions in the SL Forum show growing support for the Slink Redux bodies.

If you are a Slink Original wearer, Physique or Redux, and your designer isn’t making the sizes you need, send them a link to this article.

Birth’s Male Genitals – January 2020 – Review

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If you are female and thinking of a sex change to male then you’ll want to read on. Or if you are male thinking of becoming a MAN… this will be interesting.

Need to Escape

I think the most popular ‘penis’ in Second Life™ is the Aeros brand. It is also an older brand and model. Some complain that it is too complicated or that the HUD is too complicated. But I think most SL users of reasonable intelligence can figure it out.

However, gaining in popularity is Birth’s entry into the male genitals market. The cocks are getting talked up… oh… no… that double entendre was not intended. They are being well spoken of in the SL Forum. There. Better.

So, I decided to take a look at them. There are 3 models. Zeus, Smooth, and Leviathon [sic]. The names have nothing to do with size. As best I can tell the names denote the difference in curvature. Zeus curves up, Smooth is straight, and Leviathon curves down. But the curve is subtle. So, that may not be the intended difference.

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Second Life: Breast Deformer… more

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OK… I don’t have a total fixation on breasts… really! However, I suspect my inner child may identify as male. But, there are so many interesting ways to enhance breasts…

Catrie Resident told Scylla Rhiadra who posted and I saw about Birth’s Boob O Matic (L$675-MP $875-In W). Yep. That is what they call it. On name alone, I would have to look to see what it does. I had the same question about my first training bra. What does it train them to do? Whatever, I headed to Birth’s shop to find out.

There is a whole thing of Boobie and butt toys at Birth’s shop. The link above will take you there.

Boob O Matic is described as a Breast Deformer/Positioner. There is a demo in-world at the shop. I found it rather an odd type of demo. Like most poses and animations you have to try it in the store.

You sit on a pose ball, get the demo (which sitting on the pose ball gives you) and wear the HUD. Very atypical.

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