Tutorials

On Various Subjects

Second Life: New Forum Stuff

by

What new stuff?

New is a relative term and very much an individualized concept in Second Life®. This new stuff is not the ‘Monthly New Stuff’ I usually report on. And it is a couple of months since it first appeared.

For now, this is about the new SL Forum software that dropped in December 2025. In particular, about how to format a post’s text. I am into that. I like to make words pleasantly readable and my tendency to post WALLS of text creates readability problems.

So, what is available?

SL Forum Formatting
Examples Shown in SL Forum

I experimented to find out what is in there. That experiment is online HERE.

Of course, what is available for formatting is on the page’s Edit/Compose window. See below. There are no [BBCode] short codes as in O L D forums. (AFAIK)

Several of the options are in drop downs. You have to click the down chevron. So, they are not so noticeable.

Read more

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Second Life: Avatar Shape Files

by

Keep Your Shape When You Switch Heads and Bodies

How to avoid shape disasters and simplify your Second Life® avatar customization.

This problem shows up in the Second Life (SL) forums all the time: someone buys a new mesh head, wears the shape that comes with it, and instantly destroys the body shape they spent hours dialing in.

Their perfect peach butt goes flat, or their tight athletic shape inflates into something like two blimps colliding..

Second Life Shapes

Whatever your style, having to rebuild your look after buying a new head or body is annoying and tedious, so let us simplify that.

To get you there quickly, this guide contains the simple, one-time “do this and you are done” approach and deeper technical detail if you enjoy tweaking under the hood.

I use the Firestorm Viewer, as most SL residents do (~75%), and this tutorial assumes you are using Firestorm too.

Read more

Pages: 1 2 3

Second Life: Project Arousal v1.0683 – 2026

by

Project Arousal is a wild, fun concept for Second Life® (SL): sex anywhere. Want spontaneous, ravishing lust that sweeps you off your feet (and onto the floor) without hunting for a private spot? In real life, that kind of abandon would probably get you arrested. In SL, it’s at worst a ban. So, Project Arousal takes things to a whole new level of passion… or trouble, depending on your luck.

What are we talking about?

There is a summary of this article at the end. If you are in a hurry or only a little curious, jump to the last page and scroll down.

Back in 2020, I wrote an article called Second Life: What is Project Arousal? (Review-Tutorial) when I was just figuring it out. The TL;DR: it’s basically a sex toy system. It lets you have sex anywhere scripts are allowed—ideally in places that also permit object rezzing.

Those interested in spontaneous sex
Fun Times in Second Life

Project Arousal 2 (PA2) is a full sex system with tons of add-on toys. The base “engine” supports a huge ecosystem of extras. As of February 2026, the core costs L$2,150 (up from L$1,000 in 2020—not cheap, but you get a lot). By itself, it’s enough to get started, but you’ll probably want more. The creator (Caeil) offers around 78 official add-ons, and searching “Project Arousal” on the Marketplace turns up over 500 related items. Plenty to explore.

A key incentive for its use as a partner can initiate sex by simply clicking the avatar. HUDs are not required once the system is learned. Similar to clicking an RLV collar. Simple.

Read more

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Second Life Viewer Troubleshooting

by

Over the years I have seen Second Life™ and the viewers we use change. Computers, screens, speakers, joysticks, and video cards have all advanced as well. But when things go wrong the types of problems and how to troubleshoot them has remained mostly the same. And when it comes to “which viewer” they are all the same for troubleshooting purposes.

We now have Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is advancing. It is possible to use AI to help troubleshoot. But it can add some complication. But give it a try.

Troubleshooting with Firestorm Viewer

Here I’ll cover the basic and advanced steps needed to troubleshoot issues. Basic understanding of where a problem may exist can save you days of work… literally

Do you actually have a problem?

There are ‘problems’ and there are ‘glitches’. Problems are persistent. Glitches are transitory. They do not repeat, consistently.

Glitches are fixed by shutting down the viewer and relaunching. This is normally the first step in troubleshooting. Some glitches confuse Windows/Apple operating systems and the computer needs to be restarted, second step a issue persists. Network glitches are fixed by restarting your modem/router/gateway device, often the third step.

The point here is these steps are easy and quick.

If after the restarts the problem persists then you have a ‘problem’.

Read more

Optimizing Second Life Snapshots: Alchemy Viewer & Reshade Guide

by

I don’t write often these days. A couple of things have inspired me. One is ValKalAstra posting an interesting image. You can see it here on the Second Life Forum or on Flickr. For me this was a ‘how did she do that?’

The Second Life viewers, the Lab’s and third-party viewers, have filters for the Snapshots. Those are easy to use. To change the active render one has to get into tweaking a huge set of settings. Not so easy. And the sort of wireframe look in Val’s image was something I know I could not do in Firestorm or Black Dragon.

For whatever reason I though this was done in the Alchemy Viewer. I didn’t know about Reshade. Reshade is an add-on app for video games. It used to add image filters to a game that does not have them. So, the wireframe looks of the image intrigued me. I though Alchemy had some new twist on wireframe mode. So… I got the viewer.

ReShade Image from Alchemy
Playing with ReShade in Alchemy Viewer

Alchemy Viewer for Second Life

Alchemy is a third-party viewer. You’ll find it listed in the SL Wiki’s list of Third-Party Viewers. See the Details.

I downloaded and am running Alchemy Beta 7.1.9.2492 (64bit).

Alchemy supports RLVa and uses version RLV v3.4.3 / RLVa v2.5.0.2492.

Read more

Pages: 1 2 3

Blender Install 2022

by

Years ago (2012) I wrote a tutorial on installing Blender and setting up for making clothes in Second Life ™. It is titled: Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial. It has all the gory details a person with OCD would need. A couple of years later I wrote: Fitted Mesh Base Avatar Files, about which mesh models to use for making clothes. The articles have good information but we have learned and advanced since then. So, we can simplify things.

This article will hopefully take some of the pain out of your entry into clothes making for Second Life.

Blender.org Download Page

Blender Install

There are two ways to install Blender™. You can install it as one does any Windows program using the provided install program. This is simple and quick. If you are just curious and in the process of exploring, this is your option.

However, if you are serious and committed to making clothes then there is a better option.

Blender is in what I consider rapid development and updates often. Some of the updates make changes in the core parts of Blender. These changes force third-party add-on makers to update their add-ons. If you are dependent on an add-on you’ll run into times when a Blender update will break your model and/or your add-ons and you are left waiting for a third-party update.

Read more