Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World

Live your Second Life to the fullest! • Get started and get comfortable fast• Understand the culture, and avoid beginner’s mistakes• Create the right look for your avatar• Master Second Life’s building and texturing tools• Learn how to terraform, build, and landscape your first plot• Create your own Second Life “objects” and clothing• Attend the best Second Life virtual eventsCreate Your Virtual Life in an Incredible Online World...Right Now! Imagine a virtual landscape where everything is created and owned entirely by residents like you. Imagine a place where you can enjoy sunsets, ride a jet ski, buy land, plant a garden, get a tattoo, go sky diving, spend an evening dancing the night away, or relax at home by the fire. Picture a world vividly developed, socially dynamic, and strikingly real where you can bring previously unimaginable things to life with friends from around the globe. This is Second Life®, the hottest Internet phenomenon in years…maybe ever!Now, there’s a totally real, totally independent guide to Second Life. This full-color book is as rich as Second Life itself! It’s packed with insider tips, easy step-by-step techniques, and interviews with dozens of SL residents telling you what they wished they knew when they started! Brian White pulls no punches: You’ll learn exactly what’s great and not so great about SL...how to thrive in its unique culture, and how to create your dreams!The more time you spend in Second Life, the more useful this book will become...teaching you more advanced skills; everything from vehicle construction, Linden Scripting Language, particle systems, to creating custom animations and the new sculpted prims!Visit the companion site in Second Life to find all the textures and objects from this book as well as the contributor’s gallery and other goodies: http://slurl.com/secondlife/humuli/222/123/29Contents Preface xviChapter 1 Welcome to Second Life 3Chapter 2 Exploring the New Frontier 27Chapter 3 Communication and Social Networking 47Chapter 4 Your Avatar–Your Virtual Self 67Chapter 5 Second Life Culture and Relationships 93Chapter 6 Building Basics 119Chapter 7 Advanced Textures and Clothing 171Chapter 8 Making the Magic: Scripting Basics 229Chapter 9 Land Ownership, Terraforming, and Landscaping 253Chapter 10 Particles, Vehicles, Animations, and Sculpted Prims 283Chapter 11 Photography, Music, and Movies 333Chapter 12 Practical Matters: Under the Hood of the Metaverse 347 Index 366 Read more