Making Second Life run faster

This article is part of the Extended Second Life Knowledge Base that includes advanced and specialized information. This information was originally provided by Linden Lab, but is not actively maintained nor guaranteed to be accurate. Linden Lab does not certify nor assume any responsibility for this information.

See the official Second Life Knowledge Base for the most current information.

If you're using Second Life from an older computer, you may find yourself dissatisfied with your viewer's framerate. Here are a few quick tips to try to boost Second Life's performance on slower computers:

1. Try turning down your graphics settings from Edit > Preferences > Graphics tab. In particular, try checking Avatar Impostors and sliding the Avatar Mesh slider to its minimum setting. This will make it a lot easier for Second Life to draw avatars around you, at the cost of some visual quality.
2. Try turning off "classic clouds" in your Advanced Sky Editor. Classic clouds can detract from your performance in some cases.
   • You can get to the Advanced Sky Editor by selecting World > Environment Settings > Environment Editor
   • Then press the Advanced Sky button in the Environment Editor window.
   • In Advanced Sky Settings, choose the Clouds tab, then un-check the Classic Clouds checkbox.
3. Try turning off Particles by selecting View > Beacons > Hide Particles. A large number of particles on your screen can significantly slow down your Second Life experience.
4. Try disabling View > Property Lines and View > Land Owners. These features use rendering power that could otherwise be used to help the Second Life viewer run more smoothly.