User:Torley Linden/Vidtut ideas

THANK YOU GRACIOUSLY for all the ideas thus far... I am hoping to comment on each of them soon. --Torley Linden 17:41, 7 January 2008 (PST)

Headline text

This page is for scribbling ideas for Torley's Video Tutorials, including the omnifriendly "Tip of the Week" series. Feel free to add your own suggestions — if this page gets too long, we may need to organize it better, but for now, go wild using the format below:

== [TITLE OF SUGGESTED TIP] ==

* [FINER DETAILS]

* [MORE FINER DETAILS]

Here we go!

How to use streaming parcel media

This one keeps coming up, it's very popular. I previously wrote a text-and-pix tutorial on how to convert YouTube videos for SL, but it's outdated — Vixy.net is unreliable now, and I've switched to iDesktop.tv. I should, at the very least, update it and provide pointers to such tools. --Torley

• Cover music + movies.
• Show examples of playing .MP3s and .MOVs.
• Video capture of web browser and URLs.
• Make the very strong point that Linden Lab does not store what's streamed, we merely pass it along from an external webserver.
• Specifically useful would be the ability to watch youtube videos in SL --> how to convert .flv to .mov or .mp4 (or how to directly stream youtube - though I guess converting and storing on own webserver is more likely)

How to login with multiple accounts

• Explain command line parameters briefly.
• Show Second Life shortcut on desktop. (This will be Windows-specific, but in the text part of the blog post, there should be a link to Mac + Linux info.)
• Also show how to login automatically but if I do this, BE VERY SURE to explain security risks involved.
• Launch two viewers and show them both running momentarily.

How to terraform

• Useful for landowners and showing the benefit to those interested in land.
• Explain the somewhat-confusing UI and show what each tool does on a blank patch.
• I reckon I'll wait for Gigs' VWR-2331 to be added first, it'd add a lot of nuances to the art.

How to start your own wiki page

• This would primarily be web-based and showcase usefulness that most Resis don't know about. For example, User:Tid_Kidd.
• Show simple wiki editing. (I should look for a richer, easier editor tho.)
• Emphasize that it acts as an extended profile and can be linked to from inworld.
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:User_page has good ideas.

Explain how deeded land works

• Explain how one deed's land
• Advantages and disadvantages of deeding land to a group
• What the "Owner Makes Contribution With Deed" button means checking vs unchecking when deeding.
• How to recover land from a group.
• Warnings on making multiple owners of group owned land

Statistics Bar

• View > Statistics Bar (Ctrl-Shift-1)
• This could easily be a multi-part series
• Most important, Simulator tab, understand why your lagging
• What are all those pesky times (ms) ?

SL Etiquette

• Teleporting. Explain why blindly walking around too soon around after tp is bad idea (pushing others etc).
• (I always fly straight up after TPing to an unknown landmark/place until everything is rezzed.)
• Excessive attachments, prims, and scripts. Explain how each impacts others' experience.
• (Torley, I will add more to this short list as I think of more etiquette topics!! Others, feel free to edit!)
• Flying or standing too close to a stranger--or their homes.
• SHOUTING way too often.

More land options

• Showing land borders and the meaning of the different colors red/orange/yellow/green
• These land borders can be very useful for your SL experience. Can't script/rez on a piece of land? go to the neighbours. Looking for a nice plot to purchase? Look for those yellow borders! How big is your land, and how far can you move that wall? Look at landborders again!
• Setting land options. I often run into people who complain about running into lots of garbage that others leave on their land. A quick run through the various land options usually solves their problems.

How to get help

• Cover mentors and the support portal
• Show examples IMing mentors, lindens or using the support portal..
• Video capture of web browser and URLs.
• Make the very strong point that Linden's are VERY BUSY.
• This would be useful to show at newbie friendly areas.

Useful Debug Settings

• Cover some of how to activate some of the more useful debug settings
• ImagePipelineUseHTTP - which give a noticible speedup of texture rezzing on lower end PC's
• FolderAutoOpenDelay - which will slow down how quickly the inventory folders open when you're dragging and dropping (which is very irritating, btw).
• Any others?

Cover Other Ctrl+Shift number screens

• Cover the other statistical/debug screens.
• CTRL+SHIFT+2 - look at all the pretty colors.....what is this all telling us?
• CTRL+SHIFT+3 - Textures Downloading, what it all means, why there are so many showing downloading even when everything appears to be rezzed already.
• CTRL+SHIFT+4 - The console, why you might want to look at it when there are problems, what kind of information is there for the young and geeky.
• CTRL+SHIFT+9 - More colored bars, what does it all mean?

How do they look so good? Basics of Skins and Clothing

• One of the things I constantly hear "old folk" say is, when I was a newbie I would see all these people who looked so much better than I, and didn't understand how they did it until "someone" took me by the hand and showed me about skins and stuff.
• Cover the basics on what a skin is, why it looks better than the built in stuff, where to find them (freebies and purchasing) and how to put them on.
• Cover the basics of prim hair, what it is and how to find it and put it on.
• Cover the basics of clothing, how it works in layers. How prim attachments are used for belts and shoes and jewelry.
• Cover some of the unique avatar options such as tinies, furries, and some of the other options for those who want to have fun with their avatar.

How to move around

• Walking/Flying with arrow keys and keyboard
• Walking/Flying using Mouselook
• Walking/Flying by grabbing avatar with mouse and using mouse to steer and arros to walk forward/back and to the sides.
• When each is useful (mouselook when manuvering around builds that are more cramped or crowds) and also comment on situations where one might want to stand in place and just cam around, as one might while shopping.

How to fill out a Jira report and why you might want to

• Cover what it is, why you might want to fill out a report and the basic minimum information needed to make it useful.

Voice and How to Use It

• Cover running through the Voice settings in preferences, using the wizard to set it up.
• Cover how to use the Active Speakers list
• Cover how to turn up an individual speakers volume if they are hard to hear.
• Voice gestures, how to use the ones in the Library.
• Cover etiquette like closing ones mike when eating, breathing and otherwise not talking. Also keeping an eye regular chat and not being a zombie to those not using Voice.