Guide on SL for Beginners

Second Life may be very confusing for newcomers. It has no official tutorial, and most of the guides in the Internet are either outdated, poorly written, inconsistent or incomplete. This guide is an attempt to put everything together and explain the basics of SL in a simple and comprehensible way.

You may already know many of the things explained in this guide, however in SL even old-timers occasionally discover new features. Consider skipping the parts which seem to be too trivial for you and reading those you are least familiar with.

It's worth mentioning that I encounter a lot of men in SL who play very old, messy or poorly managed avatars while trying to engage into a playful conversation and not realizing that their look makes those attempts pointless. I feel like sending this guide in such cases is better than just ignoring a person. You may hate me if you are one of those, however the guide is designed not to mock anyone but to be helpful for people with brains and patience to read it.

This guide is absolutely free, and I encourage sharing it with others. If you've found a mistake in this guide or have something to add, don't be shy to contact me. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated.

➤ What is Second Life

Overview

SL has no clear goals or objectives. It's an open world where you are totally free to do whatever you prefer. As in real life, you can pursue any goals that you set for yourself.

To play SL you have to create an avatar which is your representation in the virtual world. You can have only one avatar on your SL account, though you are always free to switch between completely different appearances. You can also have multiple accounts.

SL is not one of those online games where you are supposed to kill monsters, go through quests or compete with other players. However, some places or communities in SL may offer such activities.

Your avatar cannot die and cannot be physically hurt by the environment or other players. Such effects can be simulated as a part of some role-playing activity, but never last permanently and can be canceled whenever you want.

SL is developed and maintained by the company called Linden Lab. You may come across its employees in the game, but that happens rarely. Their names and chat messages always appear in blue, so you can easily distinguish Linden Lab representatives from ordinary players.

Most of the things you encounter in SL are made by other players, not by Linden Lab. In SL you can design and create clothes, furniture, houses, transport, or even whole locations. Linden Lab only maintains the virtual world that holds it together.

Since most areas and items in SL are created by players, everything varies widely in quality. Some things may look like a design masterpiece, and some are extremely tasteless or poorly made.

SL is free to play, so technically you can avoid spending any real money on it at all. In practice, it makes more sense to spend about 40 USD at the start to create a decent looking avatar. Free options are usually much worse in quality and are therefore despised by many players. Sticking to a free avatar would make your game experience rather unpleasant.

SL has its own currency called Linden Dollar (L$) which is exchangeable with real currencies. Linden Dollars are used for all purchases and transactions in SL. However, there are no in-game ways to generate Linden Dollars. You can either purchase L$ on the official website (for real currency) or receive it in SL from other players.

SL provides a wide range of options for adult entertainment and virtual sex. Your avatar can have sex with avatars of other players. You can use multiple poses and animations, find outfits and equipment for some specific kinks, etc. There are also groups and communities based on sexual preferences or fetishes. But keep in mind that SL is not only about sex, and there are many players who rarely or never do it.

Strong Sides of SL

• Freedom. SL gives you almost unlimited opportunities to express yourself. You can look the way you want, do whatever you want and create whatever your imagination can come up with.
• Diversity. Over the two decades of its existence SL has accumulated an insane amount of things made by thousands of different creators.
• Adult activities. SL allows porn content and has very little censorship. You can find or create anything that pleases your sexual kinks. You can also find people with similar interests.
• No obligations. SL does not require you to play regularly or continuously. You can enjoy it at your own pace and take a break at any moment.

Downsides of SL

• Lag. SL is poorly optimized from a technical perspective. It has a lot of annoying bugs and glitches. It may run slowly even on a powerful computer.
• Complexity. SL is unfriendly to new players, has a steep learning curve and very few good tutorials. It requires time and patience to figure out how to do some basic things properly. It is especially overwhelming for people not familiar with any complex software.
• Weird people. SL is a magnet for perverts and creepy individuals who struggle to find themselves in real life because of their poor social skills or mental issues. They are not on every corner, but you will encounter such people in SL more often than normally. Be prepared.

➤ Viewers

The standard software provided by Linden Lab is not the best one for playing SL. There are several alternative viewers which are more convenient and more popular. Viewers are somewhat similar to Internet browsers. They show you basically the same things but provide a slightly different interface.

The most popular viewer used by the majority of SL players is Firestorm. It is the best choice for a beginner, since most people would be able to give you some advices on using its interface. Playing with another viewer may complicate things for you, as the buttons and menus on your screen would be different from what other people have.

After getting familiar with the basics of SL, you may also try some alternative viewers: Alchemy, Black Dragon, Catznip, Singularity, etc. Those viewers may be better than Firestorm for some specific tasks, such as scripting or photography.

It is also possible to log into SL from a smartphone. However, phone applications have severely reduced functionality and only work well as a chat. People in SL usually expect that you can see how their avatars look like and what they do, may invite you for a dance or for some other activities. Phone players always cause a disappointment by their inability to do anything. As a result, people who often play from a phone are rarely contacted or invited anywhere by others.

➤ World and Exploration

The Grid

The virtual world of SL is often called the grid. It is comprised of square-shaped regions called sims. A sim may have subregions called parcels. Each sim runs separately and works independently of its surrounding areas. Several adjacent sims, however, may form a larger structure, such as a city or an island.

SL has several continents built by Linden Lab. Each of those continents is basically just a few dozen of sims arranged next to each other. There are also thousands of sims placed aside of the continents, like islands in the ocean.

A sim has horizontal dimensions of 256×256 meters and stretches for 4096 meters vertically. That vast vertical space may contain several horizontal levels within one sim, often featuring independently designed areas.

In SL you are always free to teleport to any point on the map, within the same sim or to a different sim, regardless of your current location. This also means that in SL you cannot get stuck, locked, or be forcefully held anywhere, as you always have the option to teleport out.

Land Ownership

A sim or a parcel can be rented by a player who becomes its owner. An owner can decorate the place in any desired way (turning it into a dance club, a wild jungle, a fairy tale castle, a beach, a space station, etc.) and keep it either as a private area or as a place open for everyone to visit and explore.

Players who rent a large area (such as a whole sim) from Linden Lab can also offer parcels for rent to other players. This opens an opportunity to run some semblance of a real estate business in SL and also shifts the burden of finding tenants for small parcels from Linden Lab to players willing to do this job for profit.

Renting a small parcel makes sense if you want to have a safe quiet place to edit your avatar, build things, invite friends, have sex, or do anything else without being disturbed by strangers. However, it is completely optional. You may choose to save money and never rent a land in SL.

Sim Ratings and Rules

Each sim in SL is formally rated by its contents as a General, Moderate, or Adult one.

• General sims are intended to be family-friendly and harmless for kids. Such sims do not allow nudity, gore or extreme violence.
• Moderate sims allow non-sexual nudity, mild erotic content and things which may not be fully appropriate for kids but are still considered not too extreme.
• Adult sims have no limitations except things prohibited by the US law, such as recruiting terrorists or spreading child porn.

Players under 18 years of age cannot enter adult sims. But since nobody verifies your age during the account creation process, all those restrictions are merely a formality and can be easily bypassed.

An owner of a sim or a parcel can also set some specific rules. For instance, it may be forbidden to use any modern era objects or outfits on a medieval-themed roleplay sim. An owner or a manager can eject you or ban you from the sim if you refuse to follow the rules.

Remember that land owners are just ordinary players who paid their rent. They may be rude or weird people, demanding things that make no sense. You cannot be banned from entire SL for violating any additional rules made by land owners. You are also not supposed to know any requirements which are not clearly presented to you upon your arrival. If you encounter any kind of hostile attitude or bizarre sim rules, simply leave the place. Optionally, you can tell the place owners everything that you think about them.

Land Permissions

Some regions in SL are not open for everyone. If you teleport into a private or restricted area, you may be automatically ejected or asked to leave. Your avatar cannot enter some private areas if it is not on the access list.

Public places may have differently set permissions for visitors. Some regions allow you to fly, put your objects or vehicles onto the ground, communicate with voice, run your own scripts, etc. In other areas those options may be turned off by the land owner or only available for members of a particular group.

Land permissions are usually shown in your viewer near the land name, so you can figure out what should work and what is prevented. If something is not working for you, try teleporting to a place with less restrictions.

Exploration

Most of the areas intended for new players use primitive old graphics, may contain monstrous ads and look very unappealing. Such places create rather negative impression of SL as an old low-quality game. In fact, SL has much better designed regions with modern graphics and immersive atmosphere. Exploring it may be interesting.

If you are looking for new areas to explore, try Destination Guide. It is a good collection of places sorted into categories. Most of those places are well designed or at least not completely bad (except those few in the blacklist below).

If you like some place and want to return to it in the future, save a landmark. Basically, a landmark is just a link to some point on the grid that can be stored in your inventory. In Firestorm you can also use your teleport history to access recently visited regions.

Places in SL are not permanent. Any area or a venue may eventually disappear if the owners choose to stop maintaining it or renting the sim. If you have plans to do something in a place you like, such as taking photos, don't delay it for too long.

SL has thousands of sims, so you can barely ever run out of new places to explore. There's always multiple alternatives available for everything. If you experience any kind of issues or inconveniences at a particular sim, you can always find a similar but more comfortable one and jump there.

Red Flags

There are a few common red flags which usually indicate that a place will only bring you disappointment and frustration. If you see that a sim follows one of those anti-patterns, it is better to just leave it and not waste your time.

• Money squeezers. You need to walk through a long row of shops just to enter the place, you are asked to pay money to join a group for accessing the area, you need to buy a ticket for participating in an event, etc. The only reason such places operate is to get some L$ from inexperienced players, and the content they provide is never worth it. There are no true VIP or exclusive paid communities in SL that offer anything unique.
• Arrays of rentals. Often advertised as areas for exploring or taking photos, where in fact you constantly encounter private parcels with security orbs or even get instantly ejected after walking into one. Such places only exist for earning money on those rentals. In a properly designed region private parcels must always be clearly separated from a public area.
• Excessive rules. If you are presented with a list of dozens of arbitrary things you cannot do, it is usually easier to not even bother trying to follow those rules. Such place most probably has toxic owners or managers who would find a way to frustrate you no matter what you do.
• Dozens of bots. Bots are avatars which are not played by real people. Such avatars may be placed on a sim to boost some statistics or to make a public venue appear packed. A place filled with a large number of bots is usually very laggy and rarely worth staying.

Blacklisted Places

There are several places which should be avoided but keep appearing in the Destination Guide simply because their owners keep paying for it. Those places are filled mostly with clueless new players while people with some experience in SL consider such venues trashy for multiple reasons.

• 👎 AEG (Ambrosia, REZ nightclub). The owner is a well known abuser who enjoys harassing his staff members or club visitors. Outright racism and nationalism. Vague sim rules that may change at any time and apply very selectively.
• 👎 Santorini dance club. Managers ejecting people for using party effects or wearing club outfits at a club party. Not to be confused with other similarly named places.
• 👎 Hydra. The place is more like a brothel or an escort club, but sometimes holds dance parties. The owner can suddenly ban you for not knowing some shady clause in his rulebook without talking to you first.
• 👎 Wet Willie's, 👎 Big Daddy's. Very similar rock clubs that share the same problem. Hosts would constantly bug you for using wrong gestures, dancing wrong dances, wearing wrong outfits, saying wrong things, etc. Not possible to have fun.
• 👎 Calas Galadhon Park. Delusional managers try to impose a formal dress code in a forest and may eject you in the middle of your romantic date.

There may be other such places that should be avoided, but it is barely possible to maintain a full comprehensive list. Here I included only the ones you are most likely to come across at some point. Don't go there and tell your friends to not go there.

➤ Inventory

Items that you own, purchase or receive in SL can be found in your inventory. This section explains some basics of how it works.

Inventory Structure

In SL you don't have any in-world bags or storages for your possessions. Your inventory looks like files and folders, similar to a file system on your computer. There are, however, some differences.

Just like on your computer, you can create new folders, copy existing folders, rename folders, put one folder into another, move items between folders, and do other basic operations that allow you to organize things.

A newly created avatar already has some standard folders in the inventory. Those default folders are supposed to help you sort your belongings. There's also a library of some free standard objects, clothing, scripts, textures and other things.

Your inventory has no limits for the number of items you can keep there (practically it should have some limits, but normally you never hit it). This is handy, but can also lead to a huge mess if you don't keep your inventory organized from the start.

Keeping It Tidy

Keeping your inventory in order is important. In SL you constantly receive some new objects and folders that drop into your inventory and pile up. Sort it regularly, otherwise you may end up with thousands of disorganized folders.

Delete all items that you are sure you will never use and no longer need. Some useless notecards, expired invitations, ugly unfitting clothes, poorly made accessories, etc. Make it a habit to delete such things each time you receive them.

Delete all demo items after trying it. If you are still not sure whether to buy the product, put all such demos in a special separate folder and review them after a while.

Most clothing and wearable products come in versions for multiple body brands. Consider deleting versions for those bodies that you are sure you will never use. This greatly reduces the number of unneeded objects in your folders.

Quite often, items and containing folders are named by their creators in a generic or meaningless way. Rename such things when possible to make it more clear for yourself what those are.

Useful Features

In Firestorm, search by keywords when you want to find some particular thing in your inventory. It is usually much easier and faster than trying to look through the folders manually.

Recent tab contains all the items acquired since your last login. This is very handy when you want to try out or attach some latest items that you have picked or purchased in the game world. No need to search where it went.

Received Items panel contains all your purchases from the Marketplace, with the latest ones displayed on top. This is handy when you want to find something that you've bought but can't remember the name.

Lost and Found is the folder that contains items which were automatically returned to your inventory. This may happen, for instance, when your vehicle gets returned to you due to some land permissions.

Trash is the folder that contains items which you have chosen to delete. You can still retrieve those items in case you change your mind. If you clear the trash folder, all the items it contains will be deleted forever.

Item Permissions

Each item in your inventory has three permissions which may be either enabled or disabled: Modify, Copy, and Transfer. Those permissions are set by the item creator.

• Modify permission allows you to edit the item. For instance, you can change the size of a wearable object or add some text to a notecard. Things without this permission are normally not alterable.
• Copy permission allows you to make a copy of the item. Items without this permission can only be copied by the creator, thus only a limited number of it may be available.
• Transfer permission allows you to share or sell the item to other avatars in the game world or via the Marketplace.

The combination of permissions is also important and determines how the item behaves in various situations.

• Modify, Copy, Transfer.
  Such items are often called Full Perm and allow you to do everything, as if you were the item creator.
• Modify, Copy, No Transfer.
  Can be copied for your own use, each copy can be edited. Cannot be shared or sold.
• Modify, No Copy, Transfer.
  Can be edited, but editing will alter the original. If shared or sold, the item will disappear from your inventory.
• Modify, No Copy, No Transfer.
  Can be edited, but editing will alter the original. Cannot be shared or sold.
• No Modify, Copy, Transfer.
  Cannot be edited. Can be copied for your own use. Will be automatically copied when shared or sold.
• No Modify, Copy, No Transfer.
  Can be copied for your own use. Cannot be edited, shared or sold.
• No Modify, No Copy, Transfer.
  Cannot be edited or copied. If shared or sold, the item will disappear from your inventory.
• No Modify, No Copy, No Transfer.
  You can only use the original. Cannot be edited, copied, shared or sold.

If you create a new item, you always have all three permissions enabled for yourself. You can choose which permissions will be enabled for other avatars to which you share or sell the item.

• Revoking the Modify permission makes sense if you want the item to be used exactly as it is, preventing the user from altering or breaking it.
• Revoking the Copy permission makes sense if you want to prevent the usage of several copies of the item at once. It also makes sense for some "limited edition" products or collectibles which can be re-sold but not copied.
• Revoking the Transfer permission is necessary if you want to prevent re-selling or re-sharing of some product that you produce.

Rezzing and Attaching Objects

You can take objects from your inventory and drag them onto the ground or any other available surface nearby. If your object has a three-dimensional model that can be displayed, it will appear in the game world. This action is usually referred to as rezzing the object.

Objects that you rez in the game world remain at the same spot where you put them, unless moved by someone or by a script. This way you can pull out vehicles, furniture, decorations, or other things that you want to use on the land.

If your object has the Copy permission enabled, it will be automatically copied when rezzed. That means you will have one copy of it on the land and one copy remaining in your inventory. You can proceed to rez multiple copies on the land. If the Copy permission is disabled, the original will be rezzed on the land and will disappear from your inventory.

You can always take back objects that you have previously rezzed. In that case, the objects will return to your inventory, to the same folder from which those were rezzed (and may pile up as multiple copies of the same thing). Alternatively, you can delete the copies rezzed on the land. Be careful not to delete non-copyable objects.

You can attach an object from your inventory to your avatar by using the right click and selecting Add or Wear. Similarly, your object will be displayed in the game world, but will also be attached to your avatar and will keep moving together with you. This option should be used for clothes, wearable items, or something that is supposed to be held in your hands. Always use Add when available, since selecting Wear may replace currently attached objects, such as your pants.

When attached to your avatar, objects are not getting copied. Such objects simply remain in the same folder in your inventory. You can use the right click to detach such objects at any time.

➤ Avatars

An avatar is your representation in the virtual world of Second Life.

The amount of effort you put into your avatar is a significant factor that affects how you are received and treated by others. People in real life may be unable to change the way they look due to multiple legitimate reasons. In SL your appearance is completely your choice, it represents your true style and personality, and it will be judged accordingly.

Creating a good looking avatar is the biggest challenge faced by new players. If you think this may take you 3-4 hours to figure out, you are being extremely optimistic. When doing it with no previous experience, expect 30-40 hours as a minimum. In this section I will try my best to make it easier for you.

Default Avatars

After your new SL account is created, you are provided with a choice between several free default avatars. Those may be adequate for your first few days in SL, but don't assume that such an avatar represents your final look. Default avatars are somewhat like a demo which allows you to walk around, try things and learn some basics in the process.

Everyone in SL knows how those free default avatars look like. Therefore, anyone with such an avatar is perceived either as an alt, a bot, or a very inexperienced newcomer. Keep it in mind when interacting with other players and don't embarrass yourself by acting like a default-avatar macho. Aim to replace your default avatar as quick as possible.

Classic and Mesh Avatars

There are two major types of avatars in SL: classic and mesh. Classic avatars exist since SL was launched in 2003. Mesh avatars are commonly used since around 2012. An important update for mesh avatars, the feature called BoM (Bake on Mesh), was introduced in 2019.

There's a huge difference in quality between classic and mesh avatars. Classic avatars have rather poor customization options and a low-polygonal geometry with clearly visible edges and corners. Mesh avatars are way more advanced, realistic and customizable.

Mesh avatars are now a de-facto standard for playing SL. You are not obliged to buy one, but it significantly improves your game experience and opportunities. With a classic avatar you are limited to outdated poor-quality options and you are often referred to as a noob.

Most of the outfits and accessories which were designed in earlier days for classic avatars are not compatible with modern mesh avatars. It makes not much sense for you to learn in details how those relics used to work. Instead, you should focus on getting a modern mesh body and figuring out how to customize it.

Choosing Your Look Wisely

Before starting to dive into any specific details, you need to decide for yourself what kind of an avatar in general you wish to play. The vast majority of SL players choose human avatars. It can also be an animal, some kind of a fantastic creature, a furry, a mermaid, an alien, a dragon, or something even more extraordinary.

For beginners it is strongly recommended to start with a human body and learn the basics in the most intuitive way. The more niche appearance you choose, the more difficult it will be for you to find a good tutorial on it, and the more limited your choice of clothing and accessories will be. Human avatars are also accepted everywhere, while other options may face some restrictions set by sim owners.

In SL you can play an avatar of any gender, though most people would assume that your avatar's gender matches your real one, and would approach you accordingly. It is not a good idea to choose an avatar of the opposite sex just because you enjoy the look of it. Playing an avatar of your real gender will save you from multiple confusions.

Keep in mind that the choices you make about your avatar are not irreversible. You can always buy a completely new body and try to achieve a completely different look. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to create a good new appearance from scratch. Try to pick one that really fits your personality and then focus on fixing the imperfections.

Avatar Structure

Unlike most other games, SL gives you full control over the appearance of your avatar. But the inevitable trade-off is complexity. In addition, SL has a history of almost two decades of continuous development, with multiple new features added on top of the existing ones. No wonder it takes some time to figure out how to properly combine all those heterogeneous parts that make up your avatar.

When absolutely nothing is worn on your avatar, you can imagine it as a dot in empty space. Everything else gets pinned (attached) to that dot and remembers the position relative to it. Whenever the dot moves, all the attachments move together with the dot.

For classic avatars SL does not actually allow to detach everything. A few parts (such as eyes or skin) can only be replaced but not removed. In that minimalistic state your classic avatar would look like a naked hairless body. Luckily, there are ways to make it invisible.

A shape is an attachment that determines visible proportions of your avatar, such as the size of various body parts and the features of your face. Shapes are editable and have dozens of sliders you can play with to adjust how your body and face look like.

A skin is an attachment that provides a texture which is displayed as the skin of your body. It determines your skin color and may add some details, such as freckles or body hair. It does not affect the geometric shape of your avatar.

Clothes for classic avatars use icons of various garments to distinguish which parts of the body those are intended for. When attached, those are just painted atop of the skin, not affecting any geometry. Tattoos work the same way. Such items would not work with mesh avatars (with the exception of BoM).

Mesh objects are three-dimensional models which can be attached to your avatar or rezzed on the land. In Firestorm they use icons of yellow boxes. Such objects may represent something you can hold (a smartphone, a bag, a sword) or some pieces of attire that you can wear (a hat, a dress, a necklace, etc.).

At some point it was figured out that the body itself can be represented with a mesh object, and that such an idea opens the way to create much more advanced realistic bodies than those of the classic avatars implemented earlier by Linden Lab. Fully mesh avatars were developed.

The key idea about mesh avatars is that in SL you can wear your body parts same way as you wear your clothes in real life. There is no fundamental difference between your mesh body and your mesh clothes, as both are just three-dimensional models that can be attached or detached.

An alpha is an attachment that acts like an invisibility cloak which hides various parts of your classic avatar, making them fully transparent. It is required since some parts of your classic avatar cannot be completely removed (as mentioned above). Concealing the classic body with an alpha allows you to use a mesh body of any shape and size with no risk of the classic body clipping through it.

A HUD (heads-up display) is an object that can be attached to your avatar but appears only on your screen and not in the game world (it would appear in the game world only if rezzed on a land). It allows you to have some sort of a control panel for other things that you wear or for some objects around you. For instance, it may have buttons to change the color of your dress, to apply makeup, or to drive a vehicle. Complex products, such as mesh bodies or mesh heads, usually come with a HUD which provides you with a multitude of settings.

Mesh Bodies

Multiple creators offer mesh bodies in SL. There are several most popular brands.

• For female avatars: Maitreya, Belleza, Legacy, Kupra, Slink, Altamura.
• For male avatars: Signature, Legacy, Belleza, Slink, Altamura.

Most of the stores allow you to try a free demo which you can attach to your avatar to see how exactly it looks like. This way you can choose the one that suits you best.

Do not purchase a cheap body that costs much less than one of a commonly used brand. Such bodies are cheaper for a reason, may have some significant flaws, and may cause you headaches each time you try to adjust your appearance. It is also much harder to find compatible outfits for bodies of some obscure brands.

Your unpacked mesh body usually comes as a folder that contains:

• the body itself, with hands and feet as separate objects;
• an alpha to make you classic body invisible;
• a HUD for various settings;
• optionally, a default shape optimized for the body;
• optionally, some default free outfit or a lingerie;
• some additional features and materials that the body creator decided to include.

Managing your mesh body might be tricky in the beginning, but generally it is not rocket science. Normally, you should get familiar with its functionality within a week. For each popular body brand you can also find a detailed tutorial in the Internet.

Don't be lazy to try various settings available in your body HUD and figure out what all those things do. This gives you a better understanding of how your mesh body works and how to fix possible issues.

Don't be lazy to customize your body and make it look more unique. Remember that with the default settings your avatar looks exactly the same as hundreds of others, and anyone with some experience can easily see that.

Mesh Heads

Mesh heads are sold separately from mesh bodies. A mesh head is also more expensive than a mesh body, with the most common price of 5000 L$ for a Bento head.

Most popular mesh head stores are: Catwa, Lelutka, Genus, Akeruka.

Same as with mesh bodies, stores that offer mesh heads allow you to try a free demo which you can attach to your avatar to see how it looks like.

A mesh head is basically the new face for your avatar. It makes sense to try at least several different heads to find one that best suits your personality. The face can be modified significantly by editing its shape, and you can do that already while trying the demo, before making your final choice.

Do not try to cheap out on this by purchasing some low-priced head. Those off-brand options usually have very restricted functionality or visual flaws that can't be fixed. Remember that there's no reason for a merchant to sell their product much cheaper if it has no significant disadvantages.

Your unpacked mesh head usually comes as a folder that contains:

• the head itself, with eyes and ears as separate objects;
• an alpha to make you classic head invisible;
• a HUD for various settings;
• optionally, separate HUDs for eyes, facial expressions and animations;
• optionally, a default shape optimized for the face;
• some additional features and materials that the head creator decided to include.

Upgrading from a classic head to a mesh head also means that you may need to buy a new hair, new makeup, and a new skin for your body to achieve a smooth transition at the neck. If you are already using a mesh head and want to buy a different one, most of those things will keep working with the new head.

Same as with your mesh body, don't be lazy to try various settings available in the HUD and figure out what all those things do. This gives you a better understanding of how your mesh head works and how to fix possible issues.

Same as with your mesh body, don't be lazy to customize your head and make it look more unique. With the default settings your face would look exactly the same as hundreds of others. Don't be a clone, put some effort to add at least a bit of personality into it.

Skins, Layers, Appliers, and BoM

A mesh body and a mesh head provide a realistic geometric shape for your avatar. Those usually also come with a decent default skin. However, to add more realism and uniqueness it is best to use a more advanced skin texture. This is also the proper way to combine the head with the body without a visible transition line.

Skins for mesh bodies can be applied using one of the two different techniques: Omega Appliers (also referred to as Omega Layers) or Bake on Mesh (BoM).

Layers are now considered as an outdated technology. However, most of the mesh bodies still come with a package of layers, and those may be handy in some cases.

Layers are somewhat like a thin shell on top of your skin. By default, it is fully transparent and invisible. Features like tattoos, body hair, freckles, or skin imperfections can be applied to layers. The texture appears on the layer and can be removed or replaced later. By toggling the visibility of a particular layer you can quickly make those features appear or disappear on your avatar.

An object that can apply something to your layers is called an applier. It is usually a HUD that gets attached to your screen and lets you select a layer and a body part on which you want to use the feature. Removing such features is usually done by clearing the layers in your body HUD.

Omega Appliers for skins work similarly, but instead of layers they apply a skin texture directly to your mesh body or mesh head, replacing the default skin. This achieves the same effect as attaching a different skin to a classic avatar. You can return to the default skin by selecting a skin texture in your body HUD.

Some clothes for mesh avatars also use appliers instead of being mesh objects with three-dimensional models. Such clothes would look rather like a body art painted on your skin, so think twice before purchasing it. However, this may be adequate for barely visible details of your outfit, such as underwear or socks.

Layers have a common problem of being incompatible with each other. For instance, you may not be able to use several tattoos at once or a tattoo on top of freckles. That is caused by a fundamental issue with SL graphics not allowing to stack transparent textures.

BoM (Bake on Mesh) is a more advanced technology that arrived in 2019. The biggest practical advantage of BoM is that it solves the problem with multiple layers, allowing to use several tattoos and skin modifiers at the same time. It makes your avatar look much more realistic.

BoM items work with mesh bodies and heads the same way as classic skins or clothes work with classic bodies: it simply has to be attached to your avatar, and it appears on your skin. All the clothes and tattoos designed for classic avatars would also work on a mesh avatar with BoM (though rarely usable in practice due to low quality).

To put it simple, BoM takes all the classic clothes, skins, tattoos, makeup, or other items which are currently attached to your avatar, merges it all into one single texture and applies it directly to your mesh body, without adding any layers on top.

All modern mesh bodies and heads have a button in the HUD that activates BoM. It also makes the default skin (or a skin that was set via Omega Appliers) invisible. If you don't have any BoM skin attached, your currently used classic avatar skin appears on your mesh avatar. Layers can be still used on top of a BoM skin, although it's usually redundant.

Since BoM utilizes classic skins and clothes, it requires your alpha (invisibility cloak) to be removed, otherwise BoM cannot see those classic textures. When an alpha is attached, a body or a head with the BoM option enabled is usually displayed in red.

Private Parts

Men may quickly notice one peculiar detail about their mesh body: it has no balls and no penis. Those parts are also sold separately. Luckily, same stores where you can buy the mesh body usually offer a set of matching mesh genitals. You can also try options from different creators which are sometimes more advanced, realistic and yummy.

Female skins usually have a decorative vagina that is better than an empty crotch, but looks not very realistic on a close zoom. If you are planning to engage in sexual activities, you can buy a fully functional mesh vagina with multiple settings.

Advanced mesh penises and vaginas come with a HUD that is comparable in complexity to the HUDs for your mesh body and mesh head. Don't be lazy to try the features available there and learn what it can do. Also, there are HUDs you can share to your partner and let them take control of your private parts.

It is worth mentioning that a penis can be attached to a female avatar. This allows you to achieve a transgender look. It can also be used to scare away too persistent admirers.

Animation Overriders

Default animations are very abrupt and unrealistic, making your avatar look like a wooden doll. An animation overrider (AO) is an object that replaces those standard animations with smoother and more natural movements.

Modern AOs include several animations for each action your avatar can do, such as standing, walking, running, sitting, etc. It also may include some dances. An AO usually comes with a HUD that allows you to switch between animations and turn them off when needed.

Some advanced and popular AOs can be found in stores like Vista, Akeyo, Body Language, and many others. AOs usually have no demo that you could attach, but in those shops you can use special stands that allow you to try how all the animations work with your avatar before purchasing an AO.

Mesh Clothes and Outfits

Once you are done with setting up your mesh body, you can start collecting outfits for it. Most creators make clothes in several versions, each intended for a particular body brand, and state it clearly in the description. Only purchase those pieces or outfits which have your body brand listed, otherwise it most probably won't fit.

You can find and purchase clothes directly in the game world, however it's much easier to use the Marketplace, which basically works as an online store. There you can search by keywords, apply price filters, and browse the products offered by thousands of creators.

There are many mesh items of rather good quality which are available as free gifts, just for 1 L$, or with a big discount as a part of some promotions and events. Consider collecting those before purchasing something more expensive. A good resource for finding such items is Teleporthub.

Quite often, clothes would look on your avatar very differently from what you see on a picture. Many outfits have a free demo which you can try before purchasing the full version. It's highly recommended for beginners to always try a demo to avoid some rookie mistakes. Do not purchase expensive things that have no demo.

Sometimes after purchasing clothes you may receive a package that looks like a single box. This is not a scam, such packages must be rezzed on a land to allow you extracting the contents. If you don't own any land, you can do that in a sandbox or any public land that allows to rez objects.

Some clothes for mesh avatars use appliers instead of being mesh objects with three-dimensional models. Such clothes would look rather like a body art painted on your skin, so think twice before purchasing it. However, this may be adequate for barely visible details of your outfit, such as underwear or socks.

Many outfits in SL have a HUD that allows you to change colors, textures, transparency, and other features. This is very handy, as in fact you purchase several outfits in one. Prioritize such products over single-color outfits with no customizable options.

Some clothes, even though the item has no Modify permission, allow you to replace the texture or edit its colors and transparency. This may be useful to improve the variety of your outfits at no cost.

When wearing mesh outfits, pay attention to the complexity of your avatar. In Firestorm it is displayed in the Wearing tab. Try to keep your complexity below 100,000 or at least below 200,000. With higher complexity your avatar causes lag for other people and may not even be displayed in their viewers.

Step by Step: Upgrading to a Mesh Avatar

In this part I will walk you like a baby through the whole process of setting up your mesh avatar. This is a long journey, expect it to take several hours. Don't try to rush it: there's no easy way to make complex things work.

Here I assume that you are either on a fresh SL account or have never used any mesh bodies or mesh heads before. If you have already completed some of the steps, simply skip that part (but make sure that you've done it properly). I also assume that you are using Firestorm viewer.

I strongly recommend you to read all the explanations above. It will give you some understanding of what you are doing, which is better than just following the instructions mechanically. It will also save your time by reducing your chances of making mistakes in the process.

• ➤ Step 0. Save your current avatar.
  • Just in case, make a backup copy of your avatar. You are about to change a lot of things, and without such a backup you may be unable to revert your avatar back to its current state if something goes wrong.
  • In Firestorm, open the Appearance window and save your current list of attachments as a new outfit.
  • Saving an outfit does not save the parameters of your current shape. Make a copy of the shape that you are wearing and save it in your inventory with a distinctive name.
  • You will be able to return to your current look at any time in the future by wearing your saved outfit and the backup copy of your shape.
• ➤ Step 1. Take a demo for the mesh body.
  • If you are making a male avatar, go to at least one of those stores: Signature, Legacy, Belleza, Slink, Altamura, or others of your choice.
  • If you are making a female avatar, go to at least one of those stores: Maitreya, Belleza, Legacy, Kupra, Slink, Altamura, or others of your choice.
  • Find and take a free demo for the body they offer.
  • Optionally, also grab a demo for a penis or a vagina (if those are offered by the body creator).
• ➤ Step 2. Take a demo for the mesh head.
  • Go to at least one of those stores: Catwa, Lelutka, Genus, Akeruka.
  • Find and take at least one free demo for the head they offer. In each store you may take several demos (for heads with different faces).
• ➤ Step 3. Take demos for the skins.
  • Go to at least one on those stores: Session, Not Found, DeeTaleZ, Stray Dog, L'Etre, or others of your choice.
  • Find and take a free demo for at least one skin for your body. You need to take the BoM version. Pick only such demos that can be used with your body brand (that you picked in Step 1).
  • Find and take a free demo for at least one skin for your head. The skins should match those you wish to try for your body (marked with the same skin tone, same name, or same number). You need to take the BoM version. Pick only such demos that can be used with your head brand (that you picked in Step 2).
• ➤ Step 4. Detach everything you can.
  • Go to any quiet place or a sandbox where you can be naked and will not be disturbed by anyone.
  • In Firestorm, open Appearance window, find the tab Wearing. This is the list of all your current attachments (you saved it in Step 0).
  • Use right click to detach everything you can from your avatar. Some items cannot be detached, that is fine.
  • If this part is done correctly, you avatar should look like a hairless naked classic body. This ensures that nothing previously used on your avatar will interfere with your new look.
• ➤ Step 5. Attach the demo for your mesh body.
  • In your inventory, find the folder that contains a demo for the body (you picked it in Step 1).
  • In the demo folder, find an item called alpha. Attach it to your avatar. This should make your classic body invisible.
  • In the demo folder, find the mesh body. Attach it to your avatar. It should appear with no hands and feet.
  • In the demo folder, find hands and feet. Attach them to your avatar. Now your body should look complete (except the head and private parts, it will be fixed later).
  • In the demo folder, find your body HUD and attach it. It should appear on your screen. Try out some options in the HUD and see what those things do to the body.
  • Optionally, you can wear a shape from your demo folder or edit your current shape in case you are not satisfied with the body proportions.
  • If you have other bodies to try, you can detach the current one and repeat the same procedure with a different body. You can also do it later.
• ➤ Step 6. Attach the demo for your mesh head.
  • In your inventory, find the folder that contains a demo for the head (you picked it in Step 2).
  • If your classic head is visible, in the demo folder find and attach an alpha for the head, just like you did for the body. If your avatar already looks headless, this is not needed. The goal is to make your classic head disappear.
  • In the demo folder, find the mesh head. Attach it to your avatar. It should appear with no eyes and no ears.
  • In the demo folder, find eyes and ears. Attach them to your avatar. Now your head should look complete (except for the hair).
  • In the demo folder, find the HUD for your head and attach it. It should appear on your screen. Try out some options in the HUD and see what those things do to the head.
  • Optionally, you can wear a shape from your demo folder or edit your current one in case you are not satisfied with the proportions of your face.
  • Your demo folder may contain separate HUDs for eyes, facial expressions, makeup, etc. Attach them too and try out the options.
  • If you have any hair, try to attach it and see how those hair styles look like with your head. If nothing fits, just leave it bald for now and shop for new hair later.
  • If you have other heads to try, you can detach the current one and repeat the same procedure with a different head. You can also do it later.
• ➤ Step 7. Attach the skins.
  • In your body HUD (you attached it in Step 5), find and use the button to activate BoM. Don't be scared if the body suddenly disappears or looks ugly. If it is displayed in red, detach the body alpha.
  • In your inventory, find the folder that contains a demo skin for your body (you picked it in Step 3). Attach that skin to your avatar. It should appear on your mesh body.
  • In the HUD for your head (you attached it in Step 6), find and use the button to activate BoM. Don't be scared if the head suddenly disappears or looks ugly. If it is displayed in red, detach the head alpha.
  • In your inventory, find the folder that contains a demo skin for your head (you picked it in Step 3). Attach that skin to your avatar (use the one that matches the skin currently displayed on your body). It should appear on your mesh head.
  • If everything is done correctly, your avatar should not have any major visual flaws at this point. The body, the head, and two matching skins (one for the body and one for the head) should be displayed. Nothing should clip through your body, no visible line should be on the neck.
  • If you have other skins to try, you can put them on instead of those currently attached. You can also do it later.
• ➤ Step 8. Attach your private parts.
  • In your inventory, find the folder that contains a demo for your penis or a vagina (possibly picked in Step 1). If you don't have any yet, search the Marketplace for such products and buy a free demo there.
  • In the demo folder, find your penis or a vagina and attach it to your avatar. Your goal is to achieve a seamless match of it with your body. Follow instructions provided by the creator of the demo in case some additional settings are required.
  • In the demo folder, find the HUD for your penis or your vagina. Attach it to your avatar and try out the options and features available.
• ➤ Step 9. Attach the AO.
  • If you already have an AO, simply attach it to your avatar. It should work for a mesh avatar same way as it did for a classic one.
  • If you don't have any AO, you can find it in stores like Vista, Akeyo, Body Language, or others of your choice. AOs have no demo which you could pick, but in the stores you can use special stands on which you can try all the animations.
• ➤ Step 10. Buy full versions.
  • Before doing this, make sure that everything on your avatar works smoothly, no major flaws are present, all parts are compatible, and all the choices are made.
  • If you don't have enough L$, buy the required amount on the official website. Alternatively, you can work in SL to earn enough L$ from other players.
  • Go to the same stores where you picked the demos and buy full versions for your mesh body, mesh head, skins, private parts, and AO.

Congratulations, you are done with the body. Now you can flaunt it on nude beaches or proceed with collecting clothes and accessories for it. You can meet people and start conversations without getting instantly rejected for your look. Your second life finally begins.

➤ Social Aspects

Unless you decide never to leave your private land, in SL you will meet people from all over the world, from different social tiers and with different cultural backgrounds. This diversity has its positive and negative sides.

Social interactions in a virtual world may be somewhat different from how it happens in real life. However, same common sense still applies in any situation. There is a real person behind each avatar, and normally you should communicate similarly to how you would do it in a real life conversation.

Profiles

Each avatar has a profile where you may find some basic info about the person and their interests. It often makes sense to check the profile before staring a conversation with a stranger.

Profiles have several tabs.

• The main tab (called 2nd Life) is supposed to contain a brief summary of your interests in SL or the first few things you want strangers to know about you.
• A tab called 1st Life may contain some info about who you are in the real world. It makes sense to add a few very basic details (age, gender, nationality, profession, etc.), though it is best not to reveal your full identity.
• Picks is the tab that is supposed to be used for saving links to various interesting places in SL. Many people use it as an extension of the main tab, to bypass the character limit and tell more about their interests.

Adding some basic information to your profile helps others to figure out whether they should start a chat with you or should find someone else. Try to keep it brief and concise, don't write messy walls of text that nobody will read. Don't share too much personal details.

An empty or a very generic profile may indicate that the avatar is a bot, i.e. not played by a real person. Such avatars are sometimes used by land owners to make their venues appear packed and boost the number of visitors.

Chat and Voice

There are several chats available in SL.

• Local chat is visible to all avatars within 20 meters around you. Type in that chat only if there's something you want to tell everyone nearby.
• IM (instant message) is a private chat that can be safely used for talking to one person. Only you and that person can see the messages, and it works no matter where in the game world you are located.
• A conference chat works similarly to IM but includes several avatars. It is also not affected by distances. This is the best option to communicate with a group of friends without disturbing any other people.

Voice channels work similarly to the chat channels.

• By default, you can talk in the local channel. Your voice will be heard by everyone nearby. This option is often disabled by land owners, especially in crowded regions.
• Private calls allow you to talk to one person, just like a phone call. Keep in mind that people may not be ready to start talking, and it's better to ask them in IM before calling.
• Conference calls work similarly to private calls, but include several avatars. This is a good way to communicate with a group of friends. To make a conference call, simply start a private call and use the option to add more people.

Voice calls are handy in many situations. It allows you to save time on typing, you can keep talking while doing something else. Nevertheless, typing may be still preferable in some cases. People may have deep accents, poor sound quality, or just not be in the mood for talking with voice.

Groups

Groups are usually used by stores or public venues to aggregate their audience and inform people about some updates or upcoming events. There may be also groups based on some specific interests, such as SL scripting or sexual fetishes. Everyone in SL can create their own groups. You can join and leave groups at any time.

You can only be in no more than 42 groups at the same time. Join groups wisely and don't accept every group invitation that pops up. Most of the groups you will come across are rather useless.

Stores and creators may offer free gifts for their group members to encourage people joining. Quite often such groups may be joined briefly just to take the gift, and this is a common practice for obtaining free or discounted items.

Some groups require a payment to join. Be careful and don't accept it without looking. Most of such groups are not worth joining, since there are usually free alternatives.

Friendships and Partnerships

If you enjoyed a conversation or had a good time with someone, consider adding that person to your friends. It allows you to see each other online and easily start a new chat next time. Friendship requests in SL must be mutually accepted, so you should only send it to people who wouldn't mind being your friend.

In SL there's no reliable way to appear offline for your friends. Firestorm allows you to pretend being offline for selected people in the list, but you are still displayed as being online in groups, you can be spotted directly in the game world, and people with different viewers may have other ways to see you being online.

While having many friends is generally a positive thing, don't overflow your friend list by adding everyone you briefly spoke with. Once in a few months do a clean-up and delete people who never talk to you or who never appear online.

You can have a relationship with someone in SL and become partners. Partnership status is displayed in the profile. Some people go further and even play a wedding in SL. Be ready though that such relationships are much less stable than in real life, and most often last no longer than a few weeks. You can add only one partner at a time.

Sex

SL provides a wide range of options for sex between avatars, including stuff for various kinks and fetishes, BDSM, group sex, bestiality, and so on.

To have SL sex with someone, you need to find any furniture or an object that has options for sex poses and animations in its menu. Those are usually placed in Adult rated sims, but sometimes may also be found in Moderate and General sims. There are also sex HUDs that allow to do it anywhere, similarly to how dance HUDs work, though in many places sex is prohibited by land owners.

Technically, you can have sex even using your first default avatar, but your visual experience wouldn't be really good, and your choice of a partner would be limited with those similar new players. The proper strategy is to put some effort into upgrading to a decent looking avatar before trying any sexual activities.

Do not expect people in SL to jump on you after a few minutes of chatting. It happens quicker than in real life, but most people still prefer to know something about each other before having sex. SL has many romantic places and activities for couples, such as amusement parks, dance clubs, beaches, camping areas, game rooms, etc.

Keep in mind that nobody in SL actually verifies people's real gender or age. A sexy female avatar can be played by a male pervert. A young handsome man can turn out to be a grandpa or even a lesbian. You shouldn't be paranoid about everyone, but having at least one quick voice call before doing anything sexual would make sense.

If you have some special sexual preferences, try to search for a group or a community of people in SL with similar interests. This should significantly increase your chances to find an understanding partner who would share your kinkiest fantasies.

Working in SL

In SL there's no easy way to earn L$ without interacting with other people. You may find some games that reward you to with L$ for fishing or collecting objects, but those yield very little and would take you an insane amount of time to accumulate any sensible amount.

There are three rational and legitimate ways to obtain L$:

• buying L$ on the official website for real money;
• working in SL for other players and getting paid;
• selling things you produce to other players.

Working in SL normally gives you much less income per hour than you could earn by working in real life. You may choose to never work in SL and simply buy L$ when you need it. However, your SL job may be fun on its own, it may have some roleplay elements, and it may cover all your SL expenses with reasonable time investments (such as a few hours per week) and without spending any real money.

One of the easiest ways to work in SL is to be a dancer or a host in a dance club. All you need is to dance on a stage, greet people and talk to them in the local chat, and sometimes take actions to tackle various trolls or wrongdoers who come to the place. You revenue is usually the tips paid by the visitors. Depending on your luck and social skills, it varies from zero to a few thousand L$ per hour, normally a few hundred.

You can work as a DJ in a dance club. You don't have to be a professional DJ in real life for that, but you need to have at least some taste in music. Many DJs in SL simply play some prepared music tracks one by one and occasionally talk to the crowd. Actual mixing skills are a good bonus, but not strictly required. The revenue is also tips from the club visitors, ranging from zero to a few thousand L$ per hour, normally a few hundred.

You can be a stripper, an escort, or a prostitute. You can work for some venue or search for customers on your own. Yes, there are people who actually pay for pixel sex. Prices vary approximately from 500 to 5000 L$ per customer, depending on your luck, your avatar quality, and the things you are willing to do. Having an orgasm on a voice call or satisfying some rare kinks significantly increases the price tag.

You can be a photographer or a model. Photographers get paid for their work of making SL photos for other people (profile pictures, SL weddings, etc.), models are paid by photographers to pose for them. Obviously, modeling requires a well customized mesh avatar. Prices are normally around 500 to 2000 L$, depending on the amount of time and effort required. This work is very unstable, as sometimes you may simply have no offers for a few weeks.

The hardest but potentially the most profitable way to earn money in SL is to open your store. You may start with creating a free store on the Marketplace and selling things which can be produced relatively easily (such as gestures, notecards, textures, sounds), getting some modest passive income. With stronger skills in graphic design and scripting, you can produce things like clothes, furniture, vehicles, houses, or other complex products. At that point you can also rent a land and open an in-world store.

It is possible to exchange your earned L$ for real money. But keep in mind that gaining any perceptible real income from SL requires huge time investments and determination. Only the biggest and most famous SL stores generate income comparable to real life salaries. It is usually much easier and more efficient to find a job in real life rather than trying to organize a sustainable business in SL.

Typical Inept Behavior

The SL community is quite unfriendly to newcomers. To a large extent, this is because of how those newcomers often behave. There are some very common anti-patterns in social behavior which new players are most often hated for. Knowing those should help you to avoid acting that way.

• Do not bump into other people with your avatar. If you did it accidentally, apologize. This often happens because new players try to run everywhere instead of walking.
• Respect personal space, same way as in real life. Do not stand right next to a stranger when there's enough free space around.
• Do not jump onto a piece of furniture that someone else is already using, unless you are clearly expected or invited there. Never walk on top of sitting or sunbathing people.
• Do not fall onto the head of a stranger by teleporting to their avatar. This option is extremely annoying and should rarely be used even with friends.
• Do not stay in areas clearly marked as private, unless you have the owner's permission. If you are not getting ejected from somewhere, that doesn't mean you are welcomed there.
• Do not try to start a chat or somehow interact with strangers who are clearly busy or having sex. Find someone else to offer your company.
• Do not run around naked or with an erect penis, asking random people for sex. Especially with a poor-quality avatar or in a place not intended for adult activities. You are not socializing that way in real life, right?
• Do not use group chats or the local chat in a packed area for personal messages, especially with voice, especially in any language other than English. This is a quick way to get blocked by dozens of people.
• Do not use things that produce loud annoying sounds or very intense visual effects in crowded places. This is another quick way to get blocked by dozens of people.
• Do not send friend requests to random people without saying a word. If you want to find friends, talk first.
• Avoid sending objects, teleport offers, links to websites, and other such things without any explanation. This may be fine with friends, but adding a few words always makes it better.

To summarize this, use common sense and don't do things which are clearly irritating for others or would get you arrested if you did that in real life. Be polite to people, and most of them will be nice and polite to you in return.

Red Flags

This part may be somewhat subjective. There are people in SL who don't do anything outright idiotic but express such behavior that spending your time with them would almost certainly bring you only disappointment. The anti-patterns listed here may not always be accurate but should at least raise some concerns if you encounter those who fit such descriptions.

• Poorly managed avatar. This is excusable for a beginner, but someone who plays SL for years and still has a very basic or a strange messy avatar is likely also having serious personality issues. It may indicate the lack of basic taste, exceptional laziness, or even some serious mental disorders.
• Extremely slow computer. At least with reduced graphic settings, SL runs comfortably on an average computer that is several years old. Such computers don't cost a fortune, and any working adult can afford it. A person who keeps torturing self by playing on a barely functioning old machine is likely also having a number of other issues and isn't worth exercising your patience.
• No voice. Let's be honest: in our time everyone can get at least a cheap microphone (even in poor countries), everyone can find a minute to make a brief voice call at least once. It's fine when people rarely use voice, but someone who never uses voice at all or claims to have no microphone is very likely faking their identity.
• Poor social skills. People who go AFK on you without a warning or leave you without saying a goodbye, act overly polite or rude for no reason, keep insisting on doing something you clearly dislike, etc. Mild cases are tolerable, but something clearly weird usually only gets worse with time.
• Fixation on sex. People who constantly talk about sex or would spend time with you only to get sex in the end. A healthy person should have at least some other interests. In addition, someone focused on sex in a virtual world is probably deprived of it in real life and, as a result, not even good at it.
• Freaks and fanatics. People who are deeply involved with religions, conspiracy theories, popular misconceptions, supernatural beliefs, or other similar things. They may act normally most of the time, but their perception of reality is fundamentally flawed, and this always comes out at some point in the form of irrational decisions or unexpectedly disappointing behavior.
• Always busy. People who always have little time and constantly need to be AFK. They often play from work or in secret from their family members. Your SL experience with such folks would be mostly unpleasant due to their tight schedule, randomly happening interruptions, and their inability to concentrate.
• Self-proclaimed bosses. People who constantly try to demonstrate their importance or superiority to others. They often attempt to run clubs or similar venues in SL, usually not very successfully. Spending time with such people may be tiresome, working for them may be a nightmare.
• Dinner people. A guy interrupts everything and leaves in the middle of the action. He has to go for a dinner. No, he doesn't have a big family waiting for him at the dinner table. He lives alone, it's just his dinner time. Unfriend those dinner people, they are not from this planet. Don't let such aliens reproduce.

➤ Security

The vast majority of SL players have no hostile intentions towards you. Yet, you should always remember that strangers you meet in SL may be liars, trolls, griefers, scammers, some kind of weirdos or perverts. Be prepared that in any public area you may become the target of some unwanted activities, ranging from a harmless prank to an intentional harassment. Do not blindly believe everything you've been told, even if it comes from someone who looks experienced and benevolent.

Account Security

First of all, keep in mind that there are no such magic tools that allow a hacker to get access to any existing SL account. It only happens when the account owner takes insufficient measures to protect their password. Follow some simple precautions, and your precious avatar will not be in danger.

Use a reliable secure password. Do not use too simple passwords that contain only one word or a few digits. Never use any personal data (such as your date of birth, your name, your city, etc.) as a part of your password. Anything that isn't random can be guessed by people who know you a bit.

This advice is very trivial, but a lot of people keep getting in trouble as a result of neglecting it: don't share your SL password to anyone, even to your close friends or to your partner. You can never be 100% sure what other people would do with your account, and sometimes they may cause you troubles unwillingly.

Don't share your SL password to people who promise to improve your avatar or to do some complex settings for you for money. Such offers may be honest, but since account sharing is illegal, you have zero protection in case of a scam or if something goes wrong.

Whenever you enter your SL password, make sure that you are doing it either in you viewer or at the official SL website. Never enter your password anywhere else. Be aware of phishing attacks which may offer you to enter your account data on a website that looks like a copy of the official one and has a couple of letters swapped in the web address.

Change your SL password every few months. In case someone obtained your password earlier, this action would at least revoke such access. Use a completely new password, not something similar to the old one, as it can possibly be guessed.

If you own a large amount of L$ (hundreds of thousands), create several alts and split your funds between those several accounts. For each account use a different password that cannot be guessed. This greatly reduces your chances of losing everything at once.

Make sure that your computer is not infected with viruses. Those can steal your passwords and other personal data. Run at least Windows Defender or some other anti-virus software.

In-World Self Defense

If someone in SL is acting rude or aggressively, you don't have to fight or argue with that person. You can simply use the Block option and never see their messages anymore. There's also a Derender and Blacklist option to never see their avatar. This is close to making someone disappear at the snap of your fingers.

If you own a land, your neighbours may erect some ugly or extremely tasteless structures that spoil your view. You can Derender and Blacklist such objects without even contacting their owner. Same can be done on a public land in case something visually irritating appears around.

Do not attach any unknown objects shared to you by strangers. Such objects may run scripts that cause unwanted changes to your avatar or track your activity. Detach anything that looks suspicious. This already prevents a large portion of possible in-world issues.

Some people may intentionally try to disrupt your gameplay by using various gadgets and scripts. This may be very annoying and not always solvable by blocking that person. There is a number of things you can do to counter such behavior.

In Firestorm, using Movelock option prevents your avatar from getting pushed by objects or other avatars. This is helpful against some primitive attacks.

If you are attacked in a public region that is not important to you, simply teleport to another sim. This is usually enough if you don't want to deal with the issue. In most cases, the attacker cannot know your new location after a teleport and cannot follow you there.

If something strange keeps happening to your avatar, you can use Avatar Health option to undeform it, stop all animations and revoke permissions. You can stop all scripts running on your avatar. A simple relog may also be a solution. If the problem persists, in Firestorm you can reset to a default avatar and then attach parts of your mesh body and outfit one by one to figure out what exactly causes the issue.

If you are attacked on your own land, you can simply ban the attacker from the area. On a public land, you can check the land information to see who owns it, and then write a complaint to that person (in IM or via sending a notecard) about a particular attacker. Popular areas, such as clubs or beaches, often have several managers who can be contacted on such issues. Multiple people complaining about the same person have good chances to get that avatar banned from the area.

For serious cases (which violate ToS) there's an option to report an abuse or a harassment to Linden Lab. Don't be lazy to send such reports, but use it only when something really requires LL attention and can't be solved simply by blocking the disturber. Don't overflow the support team with complaints on some random people who were just rude to you.

Trolling

Trolls are people who seek attention and entertain themselves by getting someone angry, causing inconveniences, or provoking a rude response. The problem with trolls is that quite often they are not doing anything formally prohibited or do some nasty things that can't be easily proven. They may also blame the victim for being hostile to them. Compared to people who just plainly violate the rules, trolls are much harder to get banned.

Trolls may try to drag you into a debate on some mainstream topic, such as politics or religion. But such people don't actually care about the matter and only keep replying with some nonsense, exhausting your patience and wasting your time. Remember this when arguing with strangers. This kind of behavior is not unique to SL.

One common way of trolling in SL is pretending to be a land owner or a game administrator and threatening people with a ban, asking them to stop doing something totally allowed or somehow preventing them from having fun. When receiving such messages, check who are the real owners or managers of the land and block the troll if he is not one of them. Impersonating a LL employee is against ToS and can be reported to LL.

Another common way of trolling is telling you that your partner was seen having sex with someone else, or inventing a whole made up story. The easiest way to deal with such trolls is hitting the Block button without giving them any responses or explanations. Optionally, you can play along and troll them back to some extent.

An important thing to know is that multiple avatars in SL may be played by the same person at the same time. A single troll may appear as a group of people who dislike you by some reason or come up with a complex scenario involving several avatars. This is a rare creativity, but sometimes it really happens. Checking the profiles of such avatars may hint that those are filled in a suspiciously similar manner.

Real Identity

It is strongly advised that you should not give anyone in SL your real contact info, such as your phone number or links to your accounts in social media. Only make very rare exceptions for people who you know really well and for a long time.

Knowing your real identity opens up a whole new field of possibilities for trolls and scammers. They may try to contact your real friends or relatives and tell them some ridiculous made up things about you, just to cause you some troubles. They may also pretend to be you and attempt to get access to your account.

You can safely share some depersonalized basic details which give people better understanding of your interests while preserving your anonymity. It may be you age, nationality, education, profession, hobbies, sexuality, music preferences, and other such features. But don't share things that can possibly identify you, especially when people insist on it.

Be prepared that people you meet in SL may lie about their identities. As a minimum, some may pretend to be younger or older, lie about their wealth or social status, try to present themselves in a better light. In more extreme cases, people may send you pictures of some model or a celebrity claiming it's their real photos. Obviously, it is impossible to examine everything, but there are a few things you can easily check.

A quick voice call is good way to get rid of some basic concerns. You can verify whether you are talking to a man or a woman, can guess the approximate age, can recognize an accent, can notice if the person talks in a strange or creepy manner. Voice can be altered to some extent, but imitating a completely different person is very unlikely.

When someone's photo looks suspicious, you can save it to your computer and use reverse image search for that picture. If it appears on multiple websites, that usually means that the photo was taken from the Internet, and the person who sent it to you tries to fool you. Sometimes you may even find out the real name of who is on the picture.

➤ Building and Scripting

Besides exploring the virtual world and trying out interesting stuff made by others, SL allows you to design and build your own things. It presents a lot of ways to express your imagination and apply your talents, though producing anything of good quality requires skill and patience. This section is a quick overview of the tools which SL provides for your creativity.

Building with Prims

Prims are now considered an outdated technology, but it is still viable and useful in some cases. It provides a free and straightforward way to build various non-complex things, and it does not require much learning.

Prims (geometric primitives) are three-dimensional objects, similar to mesh objects. Everyone can create prims using the Build option in their viewer. The objects appear on the land and can be further edited in multiple ways, can be picked up and saved in the inventory, and can later be rezzed on a land again or attached to the avatar.

Creating a prim requires the permission to rez objects on the land. If you don't own any land, it is best to use public sandboxes that allow this activity or specifically designed for it. Any land has a limited capacity for the total number of prims it can contain. The number is usually in thousands, and you can check the land information to see how many more objects you can rez before hitting the limit.

Prims that you create always have all permissions enabled for you (Modify, Copy, Transfer) and allow to change all alterable properties of the object. If the prim has multiple geometric faces, each face can also be edited independently.

Let's take a look at some commonly used (but not all) properties of prims that can be modified.

• Size. You can resize your prim as a whole (while preserving its proportions) or stretch it in any direction. The size may vary from 0.01 meters to 64 meters.
• Shape. You can pick a different shape for an already existing prim (i.e. you can change it from a cube to a sphere, no need to create a new one). Each basic shape has a list of additional parameters, such as skew or taper, which allow you to achieve quite complex and twisted geometric shapes. However, with all the apparent diversity it may be very hard or impossible to create a particular non-trivial shape that you have in mind.
• Colors. You can change colors of the whole prim or each geometric face separately, using any possible color from the standard RGB or HSL color spaces.
• Transparency. You can make your prim or any of its geometric faces see-through, varying it from invisible to completely opaque. This property is also referred to as prim alpha.
• Glow. You can make your prim or any of its geometric faces glow. The intensity can vary from barely visible to very bright, set by a number between zero and one.
• Textures. You can place a picture on each geometric face of your prim. This way you may create somewhat realistic objects (i.e. a door or a box) or use a prim as a picture frame and hang it on a wall. You can adjust the proportions of a texture, displaying only a part of your image on the prim or repeating it multiple times in a tile pattern.
• Media. This feature is one of the most impressive. You can use any geometric face of your prim as a screen to display a media loaded from the Internet. This way you can display a website or a video. This, however, depends on the viewer preferences and can't be considered reliable, since people with some settings disabled may not even realize that your object is supposed to display anything.
• Physics. You can choose whether you prims will be affected by physical forces or collisions. Prims can be made phantom (anyone can walk through such objects, can be used for imitating holograms or rays of light), can be set in such a way that anyone can climb on them but not push them (good for walls or furniture which is supposed to be a physical obstacle but remain static), or can be made movable when pushed by avatars (and obey the laws of physics to some extent).

Up to 256 prims can be linked together to form a complex object (linked set) which would behave as a single entity, i.e. it can be rezzed on a land or attached to an avatar same way as an individual prim. This allows to build objects made of multiple prims, such as houses or furniture. It is also possible to add new prims to existing objects or unlink prims from such objects.

Each prim (and each mesh object) has its own inventory that can contain various items, such as scripts, images, sounds, notecards, or other prims. This is utilized for creating sophisticated products and devices which can change their appearance, play sounds, interact with the user, etc.

Mesh Objects

As mentioned above, creating complex realistic shapes with prims is very difficult and inefficient. As a more advanced alternative, SL allows to upload mesh objects created in a different software (such as Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, etc.) and saved as a file with a compatible format.

Mesh objects allow to achieve much better visual quality and way more detailed shapes with greatly reduced prim count. For instance, making a simple staircase would require dozens of prims (one for each step), yet all that geometry may be replaced with a mesh object that counts as only one prim.

Most of the clothes, accessories, furniture, buildings, and other modern products presented on the Marketplace are made of mesh. Same applies to the design of the majority of public regions and venues. It is usually impossible to reach the same level of visual details when building purely with prims.

Mesh objects behave similarly to objects made of prims in most aspects. Many features of such objects can be edited similarly to the features of prims. This opens a lot of opportunities to modify things you purchase. If such permissions are not revoked by the item creator, u can often change colors, textures, shapes and sizes of mesh objects using just the interface of your SL viewer, without the need to install any complex software in which those items were originally made.

LSL Scripts

Sometimes you may want your objects to be interactive. For instance, it would make sense if a door would open or close when you click on it. This can be done with scripts.

Scripts are pieces of programming code which can be placed into the inventory of a prim or an object. The code keeps running automatically and defines the behavior of such objects. There may be multiple scripts running simultaneously inside one object.

Scripts must be written in LSL (Linden Scripting Language), which is a built-in scripting language of Second Life. There's an official wiki and other resources for those who wish to learn LSL.

LSL is a turing-complete language, which means that theoretically it can be used to define a behavior of any complexity. In practice, it has a number of limitations and can be considered less advanced than many modern scripting languages.

LSL is not used anywhere outside SL. Learning it in detail only makes sense for those who aim to become a creator of complex scripted products. However, it is relatively easy to figure out how to do some basic things with LSL. It can be used to build some funny contraptions, to impress your friends, or to create some special gadget for yourself that is otherwise expensive or hard to find.

Let's take a look at some commonly used (but not all) things that LSL scripts can do.

• Scripts can modify various properties of prims and objects. All the things you can do to prims manually (such as changing sizes, shapes, colors, textures, transparency, glow, etc.) can also be done with scripts.
• Scripts can move objects and avatars. A complex motion involving some intricate mathematical trajectories can be programmed.
• Scripts can animate avatars. This is often used for dances or sex. The animations may be created with some specialized software and technologies, including motion capture.
• Scripts can send messages to chat channels. This is used for various automated greeters, informers, chat bots, etc. Apart from the normal chat, there are also channels only visible for scripts, on which various gadgets may communicate by sending text messages to each other.
• Scripts can play and control sounds. Sound files can be uploaded to SL, similarly to images. The maximum length of a sound cannot exceed 10 seconds, however it's possible to play multiple such files in a seamless succession or on a loop.
• Scripts can react on clicks and other events (such as a message in chat, an avatar appearing nearby or stepping onto the object, etc.). This allows to create complex scenarios with interactive behavior.
• Scripts can collect and process information about surrounding objects and avatars. This has many possible applications and allows to create complex scripts that behave differently depending on the current situation around.
• Scripts can organize a dialog menu displayed to the user. This option is widely employed in furniture for changing poses or animations, in decorations for selecting textures, etc.

Not everything is doable with scripts. Giving scripters an unlimited power would mean that such power could also be used as a tool to terrorize other players or to overload the servers. Thus, LSL has a number of limits implemented intentionally for preventing such issues.

For many things, such as attaching objects or running animations, scripts require permissions that must be explicitly granted by the user through a dialog menu. If the permission is not given (or if the user didn't notice the dialog), the script would simply not work.

Many built-in functions in LSL have a forced delay that prevents using the function too often. For instance, you can't rez more than 5 new prims per second with one script. Such a delay may be quite frustrating, since it also prevents some legitimate and harmless use cases, forcing the scripter to invent some much more complex solutions.

Another limit worth mentioning is that a single script can use no more than 64 kilobytes of memory. This is not an issue for small basic scripts, but creating a complex product often requires using multiple scripts communicating with each other just to bypass this annoying limit.