User:Torley Linden/Vidtut ideas

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 I previously wrote a text-and-pix tutorial on how to convert YouTube videos for SL, but it's outdated — Vixy.net is unreliable now, and I've switched to iDesktop.tv.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

DONE as #17, didn't cover security implications but pointed to more command line switches. I do wish the cross-platform ways to do it were more similar, I'm a Mac fan too (and curious about Linux) and didn't want to leave anyone out. --Torley

• 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.
• Clarify that you need a powerful computer to run multiple accounts if you don't minimize!

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

Land is a weighty topic that spans multiple chapters. I can reference our KB on this one... a great idea! Thanks! --Torley

• 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

I've touched on some of this (I guess the first part of what would be a series) in my ToTW about boosting viewer performance. I could move on to the server-side (simulator) stuff next, that's a good possibility. --Torley

• 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

"SLEtiquette" is a very dear subject to me, because these are "guidelines/rules" that experienced Residents may expect a newcomer to "get" right away without explaining, causing considerable discouragement in some cases. Yes, please add more examples, this could be humorous and informational. --Torley

• 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

Also very good suggestions like the previous land ones! --Torley

• 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

I've actually had some chats with our Volunteer Team about this. Re: "show at newbie friendly areas", that sounds like a big gap that needs to be filled because I feel this isn't being communicated well enough. --Torley

• 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

Can you please give me more details on ImagePipelineUseHTTP? Not sure about that (does it noticeably effect higher-end PCs?), but "FolderAutoOpenDelay" sounds like it could be a quick, eclectic Tip of the Week. I like it. --Torley

• 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

Some of this stuff I would hope is superceded by more user-friendly features. As we've seen from the Texture Console breakdown, it can be really intimidating and not terribly practical. So it seems we need better performance-diagnosis tools first of all. --Torley

• 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

At LL, we term this area "NUE" — New User Experience. I'd like to take on the basics and move into the more fancy bits (like tinies). I'm also keeping in close contact with our Resident Experience Team about a better selection of default avatars at signup. --Torley

• 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

Definite useful basics, some of which (like camera control) I previously touched on in a not-so-single-themed way. I'm not sure this would be a "Tip of the Week" since it's very "bread and butter", but as I expand my involvement with vidtuts, it'd be well-included in the Knowledge Base. --Torley

• 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

COMMITTED, Tip of the Week #18! Watch for it TODAY, 2008-01-17. --Torley

I earlier promised to do this eventually. More appealing to folks who'd rather not read screenfulls of text. --Torley

• 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

I've been in touch with our Voice Team about future changes, which is still influx. When it seems like these will reasonably be stable for awhile, I'd like to get into this — part of the technical prob doing this is the fact I record my vidtut, it captures my voice on the mic so I can't actively speak inworld, so I may have to do editing tricks. (A worthy challenge.) The "etiquette" part is OH SO TRUE! Ha. --Torley

• 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.

Working with Sculpted Prims

Have you seen Vlad Bjornson's Shiny Life tutorials? They're on the main Video Tutorials page and he does cover sculpties. Also, see Sculpted Prims. Thanks for the suggestion! --Torley

• What is a Sculpted Prim...what makes it different from the other shapes
• How do you Change its Shape
• How do you Change its Texture
• I have scoured the WIKI and cannot find any topics on Sculpted prims

Conference Chat

• Explain the cards and how to give them to other residents
• How to start the conference