Region Environment Settings

The Windlight Region Settings Project Viewer enables you to get an early look at the new region environment controls. These controls provide region managers the ability to specify special environment settings for their region that override the user's default settings. So, for example, a gothic castle might have a dark and gloomy environment or a tropical island might be always bright and sunny.

You must use the Windlight Region Settings Project Viewer to see a region-specific environment. In the future, this feature will be part of the official released Second Life Viewer.

What changed

Previously, you had to use either default environment settings OR customized personal environment settings, which did not affect anyone else. Thus, there was no easy way to share distinctive environment settings.

Now, Windlight region settings enable you to define visual environments to match and enhance regions you manage.

Windlight Region Settings Project Viewer

This Project Viewer is provided to evaluate the new Windlight region settings workflow. This feature is not yet complete: see below, paying special attention to the notes on current limitations and bugs.

Installers: Windows | Macintosh | Linux

What are environment settings?

Environment settings control how you see the water and the sky (including the air around you) in Second Life. If you are using the Windlight Region Settings Project Viewer, when you enter a region you see the environment configured for that region (if no region-specific settings have been configured, you see the default Second Life environment that you know and love).

The environment controls provide some pre-defined settings as examples of what is possible, but each user can create their own settings and either use them as personal settings or apply them to any region for which they have estate manager privileges.

There are three kinds of environment settings:

• Water Settings: the color of the water, how transparent it is, and how turbulent it is.
• Sky Settings: the color of the sky, the color of the light, the color and behavior of clouds, and how hazy the atmosphere is.
• Day Cycles: a sequence of sky settings that control how things look at different times in the Second Life "day".

You can configure each of these settings and define a specific configuration as a named preset that is saved locally on your computer along with other preferences. If you access Second Life from multiple systems or multiple accounts, each combination of system and account will have its own collection of presets.

Choosing the settings you see

To select whether you see personal unshared environment or the shared environment:

1. Select the menu World→Environment Editor→Environment Settings...
2. Choose:

   Use Region Settings

   to see the shared settings from any region you are in (this is the default, and recommended unless you have a particular need to control the environment).

   Use Personal Settings

   to see unshared settings you choose yourself:

   1. Choose a Water setting preset
   2. Choose a Sky/Day Cycle:

      Fixed Sky

      and select a single Sky preset to be displayed regardless of the time in the Second Life day

      Day Cycle

      and select a Day preset to display an environment that changes continuously according to the time of the Second Life day

3. Push the Ok button to confirm your choice, or Cancel to return your environment to what it was before.

In addition to the Environment Settings dialog above, the World→Environment Editor menu also has four shortcut selections that establish the original Second Life default settings: Sunrise, Midday, Sunset, and Midnight. These are each equivalent to a Fixed Sky at different times during the default Second Life day; they are not shared.

Working with presets

Note: in the current release of this Project Viewer, you can display an existing sky or water preset, but cannot edit or create new ones. This limitation will be removed as soon as possible. You can create and edit day cycle presets. QUESTION: Do we have a version number for this limitation?

To create, edit, or delete a preset:

1. Choose World > Environment Editor
2. Choose either
   • Water Presets
   • Sky Presets
   • Day Presets
3. Follow the steps below.

To create a new preset

1. Choose New Preset...

1. Enter a name for the preset in the Preset Name field.
2. Adjust settings until you have the effect you want.
3. Click Save to create the new preset

To edit an existing preset

Important: Editing a preset does not affect regions that are already set to use it; to do that, you must go to the region and re-apply the modified preset.

1. Choose Edit Preset...

   The Create a New Water Preset, Create a New Sky Preset or Create a New Day Cycle window opens.

2. Select the preset to modify from the Preset Name dropdown.
3. Adjust settings until you have the effect you want
4. Click Save to store the new preset.

To delete a preset

Important: Deleting a preset does not modify any regions that already use it.

1. Choose Delete Preset...
2. Select the preset to delete from the dropdown.
3. Click Delete and confirm the action when prompted.

There is no way to undo deleting a preset.

Working with day cycles

A day cycle consists of a sequence of up to twenty sky presets, each assigned to be displayed at a selected key time in the Second Life "day." Between the "key" times, the environment settings are gradually modified in a smooth transition between the settings for the two times (so, for example, if the sun is on the eastern horizon in one frame and overhead in the next, it will gradually rise between them). To create time periods during which the environment does not change, create key times at each end of the desired stable period and select the same sky preset for both key times.

Note: Water settings cannot be varied in a day cycle; they are fixed throughout the day, but at most graphics levels the appearance of the water will, like real water, change depending on how the sky above it is reflected on its surface.

The small downward-pointing triangle above the timeline indicates the time in the Second Life day that is currently displayed; you can drag it left and right to see how things will look at different times during the day. While the timeline is shown with a familiar 24 hour day, the actual Second Life "day" is 4 real hours long (a full day cycle repeats every 4 hours).

Key times are displayed on the yellow timeline as rounded markers, and are created by pressing the Add Key button. The new key is created at the current time in the day. The time and sky setting for the selected marker (either the most recently added key, or the one most recently chosen by clicking on the marker) are displayed below the timeline. Key times can be moved by dragging the marker, or by modifying the time value in the box below the timeline.

Choosing environment settings for a region

If you are an estate manager of a region, you can choose the region's environment settings:

1. Choose World > Place Profile > Region/Estate.
2. Click the Environment tab.
   • To use the default Second Life environment and day cycle, click Use Second Life default.
   • To use custom settings, click Use my settings, then:
     1. In the Water Setting list, choose a water preset . This will update what you see, but the change is not yet permanent or visible to others.
     2. For Sky/Day Cycle, chose either:
        • Fixed Sky and choose a sky preset to be displayed regardless of the Second Life time.
        • Day cycle and choose a day cycle preset.

          This will also update what you see, but the change is not yet permanent or visible to others.

     3. Click Apply.

This makes your selections permanent and begins displaying the new settings to anyone in the region. Click Cancel or close the window to return the region environment to its previous settings.

Note: at present, there are two server side issues that affect these choices: If you choose Use Second Life default, you will get an error message and no change will be made to the region. Instead, you must choose to apply a custom day cycle and select the "Default" day cycle. For Use the following settings, shortly after you Apply the settings, the names of the presets may change to the name of your region; your settings have been properly applied, but the copy saved in the region has been renamed. There are fixes for both issues that will be deployed in due course; how soon may vary from region to region.

Modifying an Existing Region Setting

1. Select the menu World→Environment Editor→Day Presets→Edit preset...
2. On the menu of presets, select the top choice (above the line); these are the settings as read from the region.
3. Make your changes to those settings
4. Press Save. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to modify the existing saved setting.

   Doing the save above modifies your local saved copy, but has not yet actually changed the region settings.

5. Select the menu World→Place Profile→Region/Estate
6. Select the Environment tab
7. Choose:

   Use Custom Region Settings

   Day Cycle

   select the saved day cycle that you saved above from the menu

8. Press Apply

To apply the same settings to more than one region, just go to the Region/Estate Environment tab for each region and apply the same saved setting.