LSL Tutorial

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Beginner Tutorials

Getting Ready to Learn LSL: Before learning LSL, it is helpful to learn the basics of Second Life. Here are some pointers to getting started.

Getting Started with LSL: Tutorial for absolute beginners. Basic SL inventory and navigation required.

Hello Avatar: A place to try next after Getting Started in LSL.

A Basic LSL Tutorial: A tutorial for people who are new to LSL scripting, with basic tasks and LSL scripting terms explained in quick short answers.

LSL 101: The Wikibook: A collaborative project to create a "complete" narrative guide to LSL scripting, starting with no assumptions of previous programming experience, and going to... who knows where?

Chatbot: A short tutorial list of concise LSL statements that make a default wood box translucent and bouncy and then kick and spin it along, also a script to run such commands for you.

Building a dialog menu step by step: A tutorial for beginning scripters on implementing a simple menu dialog system. Designed to illustrate the basic principles in layman's language.

Video Tutorial: Script editor featurettes: Features of the inworld Script editor. Look at LSL Alternate Editors for external 3rd party editors.

In-World Tutorials

Bromley College in-world Virtual Learning trials: Please feel free to come over and look around

Many free scripting tutorials that are easy to read at our College of Scripting, Music and Science: Come by to learn scripting and building.

Swiss Projects Tutorial, the Swiss Tutorial for Second Life®: interactive, inworld and on the Web, in German; das Schweizer Tutorial zu Second Life®; interaktiv, inworld und im Web, in Deutscher Sprache.

External Tutorials

Using LSL introductory tutorial: Dr. Dobb's tutorial

Linden Scripting Language (LSL) Tutorial: Xah Lee's tutorial on LSL

Using the Linden Script Language: A very comprehensive tutorial on basic scripting from Kan-ed.

Scripting Tools

These tools are designed to ease the process of scripting, whether it's autogenerating scripts or helping you to edit them. Some of them were featured in Torley's Autoscript post[1].

YouTube video: Get started scripting with Autoscript


  • Con Wylie's Script Generator: Lets you create a script in a few seconds. An easy to use interface helps you to create your script. This tool is updated weekly, so remember to visit to see what new scripts you can make! The tool can be downloaded for offline use. For when you are on the move a downloadable iOS webapp is just a click away with offline use as well[2].
  • Autoscript: Ann Enigma's versatile tool lets you make a script with a few clicks, then examine and edit it further. Easily add interactivity to your objects and get started scripting! Available in Français and Deutsch too[3].
  • Scratch for Second Life: Eric Rosenbaums’s app for Mac[4] and Windows which lets you arrange scripts visually as if they were Legos. I haven’t had a chance to even scratch (ha!) its surface yet, but watch [Eric’s video to better understand https://youtu.be/nSJSnZF5uxk].
  • Particle script generator: This formatted webpage may be easier to use than SL’s own script editor. Change your parameters and try it out inworld.
  • MiceOnABeam Visual Scripting Tool: MiceOnABeam is a visual programming tool that generates LSL scripts for SL. You choose among graphical modeling components to specify the program flow of your script in terms of states and the events that transition between the states. You can then use the built-in LSL Action Wizard or insert your own LSL code to specify what happens when an event occurs. The program then generates the LSL code for the model to form a complete script for the SL environment. Check out the demo video here or on YouTube. A free version can be downloaded from here.

Books on LSL

These are real-world books with significant content on LSL and the process of scripting.


  • Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting: Scripting Your World[6] is a Linden Lab approved reference on LSL and an example-based textbook on LSL scripting. The first chapter (a language reference) is available for free from the publisher and the support site. The authors have published additional free chapters on a variety of topics. Scripting Your World is available from Amazon and other online and physical bookstores, in paperback and several electronic forms.
  • Jeff Heaton's books on LSL: Introduction to Linden Scripting Language for Second Life and Scripting Recipes for Second Life are independent books on scripting. Much of the content is available at the Heaton Research website as free articles. The books are available from bookstores as well as electronically.

Notes

  1. Archived from the old Linden Lab blog
  2. Torley's post about Con Wylie's Tool
  3. Although the site is still up, I believe that the actual PHP script doesn't do anything — Gwyneth Llewelyn (talk) 01:51, 19 December 2022 (PST)
  4. The Mac version can still be downloaded, but doesn't work any longer, as of December 2022
  5. ISBN 978-0470171141
  6. ISBN 978-0470339831