Class 2 - Linden Tools and Shortcuts

Introduction

In this class we will talk about some things you can do with your Second Life viewer to know more about what's going on around you. Some of this information will be extremely helpful to you during patrol. For this class we will be using the Firestorm viewer (with the Linden Lab Viewer2 instructions included where applicable). There are other viewers available which may have different menu commands and shortcuts.

The Edit Window

You can right click on an object and select Edit to see who the owner is, to see how many prims or what kind of scripts are in it, or (in the Firestorm viewer) to determine the previous owner. If someone has given a griefer object to a new resident (a cruel thing to do to a newbie), you can write an Abuse Report on the "Last Owner" for "Harassment > Soliciting/inciting others to violate ToS." When the real griefer is banned, he won't be able to take advantage of any more newbies.

You can also edit an object someone is carrying/wearing to see what it is. In both Firestorm and Viewer2, you can edit a nearby object, and once the Edit window is showing, you can click on the carried/worn object to show it in the Edit window (if the object is 100% transparent, you will need to turn on "Highlight Transparent" (Ctrl-Alt-T) before you can select it). In the Firestorm viewer, you can click Ctrl-B on your keyboard to bring up the Build window, then click the arrow icon at the top to make it the Edit window, then click the carried/worn object to edit it. In Viewer2, you can right click on the carried/worn object and then select "Object Profile" from the next window.

The Edit window in Viewer2

The Edit window in Firestorm - note that the "Last Owner" is also shown

Right clicking on a carried/worn object in Viewer2 shows an "Object Profile" option

Hover Tips

On the menu, click Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility > Hover Tips (Firestorm viewer only, not available in Viewer2). You should check both "Show Tips" and "Show Tips On All Objects." Once you do that, you can toggle hover tips on and off with Ctrl-Shift-T. Now if you hover your mouse over an object or land, it will give you the object name, description, owner, and tell you whether it's scripted or not.

Hover tips turned on (Firestorm viewer), cursor placed over object named "PB Smith"

View Beacons

Next on the menu, click World > Show More > Beacons (Viewer 2: World > Show > Beacons). Look at all the items you can view the beacons for - scripted objects, physical objects, sound sources, particle sources, etc. Select which beacons you want to view. When you are done looking at beacons, close the "Beacons" window and you will not see them any more. Once you have configured the beacon setup, you can toggle beacons on and off with Ctrl-Alt-Shift-N in both Firestorm and Viewer2.

Sound beacons turned on (Firestorm viewer), beacon width set to maximum

Sound beacons turned on (Viewer2), beacon width set to maximum

View Transparent

Next is a very important one. On the menu, select Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility > Highlight Transparent (For both Firestorm and Viewer2). Or make it easier on yourself and remember Ctrl-Alt-T. You will see some red blotches here and there. Those are transparent prims or particles. When you're out looking for an invisible object, you can turn on View Transparent and it will make your life much easier. This does not work on invisiprims. Check the following two pictures for an example.

Innocent looking Green Lantern standing in the sandbox

With Highlight Transparent turned on, you can see that the

innocent looking Green Lantern is actually carrying

an Alpha Marines M249 SAW Light Machine Gun

Advanced menu

Now for the Advanced menu. On your main menu at the top of the screen, the last menu item should be "Advanced." If you don't have that, hit Ctrl-Alt-D to turn it on (in Viewer2, also hit Ctrl-Alt-Q to turn on the "Develop" menu). Once you can see that, click Advanced > Rendering > Types (Viewer2: Advanced > Rendering Types) and look at all the types of things you can choose not to view. This menu got me out of a griefer attack once where a bad guy had hit me with something that obscured my camera. I think I turned off "Alpha" and the problem was solved.

One of the choices on this menu is "Particles." It's good to remember the keyboard shortcut for this since it comes in handy during griefer attacks. It's Ctrl-Alt-Shift-= (or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-+).

If you are in an area where flying is not allowed, you can still fly by selecting "View Admin Options" in the Advanced menu (not available in Viewer2). Be aware that by disrespecting the wishes of the parcel owner, you may be hurting his feelings or making him angry, and you may be banned from the area as a result.

Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts

VIEW

Alt-Shift-H - Show HUD Attachments

Ctrl-M - World Map

Ctrl-Shift-M - Mini-Map

Ctrl-Shift-1 - Statistics Bar

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-P - Property Lines

Ctrl-Alt-T - Highlight Transparent

Ctrl-0 - Zoom In

Ctrl-9 - Zoom Default

Ctrl-8 - Zoom Out

WORLD

Ctrl-R - Always Run

Ctrl-Shift-H - Teleport Home

Ctrl-Shift-Y - Midday

Ctrl-Shift-N - Sunset

TOOLS

Shift-H - Zoom to Selection

Ctrl-L - Link

Ctrl-Shift-L - Unlink

CONSOLES

Ctrl-Shift-2 - Frame Console

Ctrl-Shift-3 - Texture Console

Ctrl-Shift-4 - Debug Console

Ctrl-Shift-9 - Fast Timers

RENDERING - TYPES

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-1 - Simple

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-2 - Alpha

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-3 - Tree

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-4 - Character

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-5 - SurfacePatch

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-6 - Sky

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-7 - Water

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-8 - Ground

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-9 - Volume

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-0 - Grass

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-- - Clouds

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-= - Particles

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-\ - Bump

RENDERING - FEATURES

Ctrl-Alt-F1 - UI

Ctrl-Alt-F2 - Selected

Ctrl-Alt-F3 - Highlighted

Ctrl-Alt-F4 - Dynamic Textures

Ctrl-Alt-F5 - Foot Shadows

Ctrl-Alt-F6 - Fog

Ctrl-Alt-F7 - Palletized Textures

Ctrl-Alt-F8 - Test FRInfo

Ctrl-Alt-F9 - Flexible Objects

Icons for building/scripting/pushing

At the top of the screen to the right of the Advanced menu, you will find some icons giving you the status of certain services that are unavailable locally. In this location you should see an icon that, if you it, will say "No Pushing."

There are other icons telling you that you can't create objects, can't run scripts, or can't use voice. If you see a red heart with a health meter next to it, that means that damage is enabled in the area and you can be killed. When you are killed, you are removed from the area and teleported home.

About Land

Just to the right of those icons, you should see the name of the sim with the current x, y, z location, a notation of whether the area is General, Moderate or Adult, and the name of the region you're in. Click on the sim name (in Firestorm) and it will bring up the About Land window, which you can also access by the menu, World > Parcel Details (Viewer 2: World > Place Profile > About Land). With this you can determine several items of interest:

• • About Land General - On the General tab, you can determine the owner of the parcel you're on, and send him an IM if necessary. If the parcel is group owned, you can tell which group owns it and IM one of the members.

  • About Land Covenant - On the Covenant tab, you can see the "covenant" that shows the rules for what you can and can't do on the land.

  • About Land Objects - On the Objects tab, you can see the number of objects available and how many are being used. If you have "parcel powers" granted to you, you can use this window to return object to their owners.

  • About Land Options - On the Options tab, you can determine several things about the parcel, including whether build, object entry, and scripts are turned on.

  • About Land Media - On the Media tab, you can see what video media is available on the parcel.

  • About Land Sound - On the Sound tab, you see the parcel's music URL, whether gestures and object sounds are restricted to the parcel, whether avatar sounds are available to everyone or just a group, and whether voice is enabled and restricted to the parcel.

  • About Land Access - On the Access tab, you can see who is allowed on the parcel and who is banned. If you have "parcel powers" granted to you, you can add residents to the ban list here.

Mini-Map

Next, let's take a look at the Mini-Map. If you don't have it running, hit Ctrl-Shift-M or click the Mini-Map button at the bottom of the Firestorm screen (Viewer 2: World > Mini-Map). The Mini-Map shows you the locations of nearby avatars as colored symbols. There's a dot for avatars on your same level, and up or down symbols for avatars that are above or below you.

Yellow dots indicate people who are on your friends list. You hover the cursor over one of the dots to see who it is (in Viewer2, hover the cursor over the dot and click the Information icon that pops up). You can zoom in and out on the Mini-Map by hovering your cursor over it and moving your mouse's scroll button/wheel. You can keep it from rotating by right clicking and unchecking the "Rotate Map" selection (in Viewer2, open the Mini-Map, right click on it, and uncheck "Rotate Map").

Viewer configuration

The next item to cover is setting up your viewer. At login, you may want to hit Ctrl-Shift-Y to set the sun to noon ("Midday"). This can also be configured under World > Environment Settings in Firestorm (Viewer2: World > Sun). If the sun is always at noon, you don't have to worry about trying to find things in the dark.

Next, you should go to Advanced > Disable Camera Constraints. Disabling camera constraints allows you to zoom in on distant objects out to the limit of your draw distance. This means you don't have to be right next to someone to see what they're doing. On the Advanced menu, you should also uncheck the "Limit Select Distance" option so you can right click on distant objects and select Edit to see who the owner is. You only have to set these once, and then they will stay the way you left them next time you log in.

Firestorm and most other viewers have a continuous display of the x, y, z coordinates that show your location within the sim. To see the coordinates n in Viewer2, click World > Show > Coordinates.

There are other camera controls, and you should become accustomed to using them. Holding down Alt and clicking on something points your camera at it. Then you can zoom in on what you want to see. Holding down Ctrl and Alt and dragging on the screen rotates your camera view around the point where you clicked. If you click on yourself and then rotate the camera, you can look behind you without your body turning to indicate you're looking. If your camera is zoomed out or panned around somewhere, you can restore your standard view by hitting the Escape key.

Another item that you should set is World > Show More > Property Lines. This puts a colored line on the ground to show you the parcel or sim borders. It is useful, for example, to find the non-scripted areas in the Linden sandboxes so you can lure followers into them.

You can be notified when someone is rezzing objects with hundreds of scripts in them rather than watching the sim's performance slow to a crawl and wonder what's happening. Go to Avatar > Preferences > Notifications and check the box that says "When the region's total script count changes," then put in a number (like 100).

Camera and Movement Control consoles

You can also use Avatar > Camera Controls and Avatar > Movement Controls to bring up two useful control consoles that allow you to move your camera and avatar around.

Statistics Window - Ctrl-Shift-1

The Statistics window can be useful to determine whether a sim is performing at top speed or being lagged, or whether your own computer is the cause of the lag. Toggle the Statistics window on or off with Ctrl-Shift-1.

At the top of the window under the "Basic" heading are the statistics related to your own computer (click the word "Basic" to expand this section). This tells you how fast you are capable of receiving information. Often the FPS (Frames Per Second) number will be greater than the maximum speed of a Second Life sim's FPS. You can click on the graphic display (the green line moving from side to side) to increase its size as a quick visual indication of speed. If your Basic FPS is very low, try changing your SL configuration. Decrease your draw distance or turn your graphics down to minimum resolution. Check to see if your virus scan program is downloading an update. Try making the SL window smaller on your screen.

Below the "Basic" and "Advanced" headings is the "Simulator" heading (click the word "Simulator" to expand it if necessary). The Time Dilation number is basically the percent of full speed that the sim is running. The Sim FPS shows how many frames per second the sim is sending to you. Current top speed of a LL sim is about 45 FPS.

Below the "Simulator" heading is the "Physics Details" heading. This gives you detailed information about what's going on in your current location. You can see the total number of objects in the sim, how may active scripts are running, how many scripts events per second are taking place, and various other pieces of information that will clue you in to whether a griefer has dropped thousands of tiny scripted objects, whether the sim is almost full of prims, or whether other various statistics readings are increasing or decreasing.

Rev. 3 2014-08-10

Rev. 2 2013-06-22

Rev. 1 2011-01-20