Guide to Improving Mac Performance

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If Second Life runs slowly on your Mac, make sure your system meets our minimum system requirements. If your system exceeds some of the requirements, some of these modifications may not be necessary. For the best results, start with the settings listed here, and turn things up until you find the optimal balance between speed and graphics quality.

To get started:

1. Open the Preferences window by choosing Edit > Preferences from the menu bar.
2. Click the Graphics tab.
3. Move the Quality and Performance slider to Low.
4. Click Apply.

If you wish to increase individual graphics settings, you may click the Custom checkbox on the Graphics tab. Try experimenting with various checkboxes and sliders until you find a combination you feel comfortable with. For more information about the settings in the Graphics tab, check out our article on the Graphics Preferences Layout.

Alternately, you may click the Recommended Settings button on the Graphics tab to ask the Second Life viewer to try to determine your optimum graphics settings.

Tip: You may find it helpful to talk to other Mac users. Use the Search window's Groups tab to find and join a Mac user group; they may be happy to help you out!

Troubleshooting Your Mac

• Second Life stores its cache files in ~/Library/Application Support/SecondLife (where ~ is your home folder). Delete the whole cache folder about once a month if you run into slow startups (the Second Life hand icon bounces for a long time before displaying the Second Life window), strange texture issues, or other inworld issues.
• If your Second Life viewer crashes often, try running it in a window instead of in full-screen mode. Check Run Second Life in a window on the Graphics tab.
• Run as few applications as possible while running Second Life, unless you have more than 1GB of RAM.
• The Command key is used to modify the mouse instead of the Ctrl key in Second Life. This simulates the right-click on a PC mouse. This also brings up the rotation rings when in edit mode. You can ignore them if you're clicking; they won't get in the way.