Getting Ready to Learn LSL

In order to get started in Second Life (SL) to learn Linden Scripting Language (LSL), you need to create an account and an Avatar. You can use the same entry points that other users rely on. You need to be able to move around and handle the basics before you can write scripts.

Here are 13 "puzzles" to solve while you're getting started. Go through each of these getting started steps (either in this order, or the order you encounter them.) If you're not derailed by any of these issues, then you'll be in good shape to start learning LSL using the LSL Tutorial or some other source. We built a granite slab and a touch globe in our first hours.

1. Download and run the the client app that connects you to SL. It runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, etc.

That is, it pretends to run, well enough. Like other great free but only half-ported Unix apps such as Stellarium, the Second Life client appears in Mac OS X as a virtual Unix word with its own menu bar and much need of Command Click ('right click'). Someone's made some effort to translate key mappings reasonably, e.g., Command C and Command V also mean copy/ paste, not just Control C and Control V, but select all left doesn't mean Home.

As of 11/1/2007, the Linux version (still in Alpha) works but has bugs. Leave it in a window instead of full screen, and don't move the window around on your screen. If it freezes, terminate it (sometimes you need to reboot) and it should work again.

The Windows version is probably the smoothest.

2. Create an account. Second Life feels like a first-person shooter game or The SIMS: you move a doll-like Avatar through the world. You have to choose a 'last name' from a list, but you can pick any first name you like. But SL is not a game, it's like real life in the virtual world. Your avatar can't be hurt or killed, and you won't get high or low score.

There's no need to pay money to join SL. You can join for free, but you won't get any virtual money (L$) so you can't buy anything. Even so, there are free shopping resources where new users can turn, and there are experienced helpers in-world. You don't need to be a premium member to start writing code. If you get serious about SL, premium membership will help at that point.

3. Alter your perspective. Second Life also feels like a third-person game through a kind of X-ray vision: using the mouse wheel (or Alt mouse and Ctrl Alt mouse) let you drag your point of view away from your avatar until you press Esc to reset your point of view. The left and right mouse buttons do different things. If you have a single-button Mac mouse, then there are alternative ways to click that you should already be familiar with.

4. Notice your performance. Do you experience good performance in SL, or do you have lagginess issues? Can you use the green and red bar in the upper right corner to monitor your SL network performance? Do you need to downgrade your graphics settings or upgrade your graphics card? Is someone near you doing a large download that's hogging your bandwith? Do you notice that your performance is adequate in some places, and horrible in others? Or at some hours but not others?

5. Alter your appearance. We first learned how edit and save and swap in our choice of avatar. That was learning enough to feel reasonably anonymous. You only get 1 avatar at a time, there is no way to say there are N of you logged in together through 1 client. Your quasi-public 'birthdate' is the day you first entered.

6. Learn how to really move around. We next learned how to 'walk', to 'sit', to 'stand up', to 'fly'. We learned how to 'search' for 'places' and how to 'teleport'. That was learning enough to begin exploring. We also learned how to use vehicles and drive around.

7. Try chatting and instant messaging other users. If someone is sending you an instant message, are you able to open the IM window and respond? If you encounter an in-world mentor, are you able to interact with them and ask them questions? The Second Life virtual chat world is a free Lego space with a programmer-friendly user interface. You can solve these easy puzzles (in the order in which you encounter them, or in the order presented here) without having to guess too much from step to step.

If you've already made your way into SL and you're utterly confused, try teleporting to the Orientation Station to go back over the basics. You'll also find mentors there (and elswhere in SL) who can help you out with issues or questions you might be having.

8. Find your way socially. The places you see in Second Life may be haunted by gangs of physically and verbally obscene vandals. (That was our first experience at the front door, but ignoring the gang worked.) Or you may encounter individuals who you personally find offensive, or people who want to push you in a direction that you're uncomfortable or uninterested in going. SL relationships are often fleeting, and it's a good idea to be kind and polite but not to take it too seriously. Develop a thick virtual skin.

Most importantly, you'll also encounter some lovely people whom you'll immediately like, and people who are just as confused as you are. You'll encounter people who are eager to make friends, and people who are attracted to your Avatar and want to get closer. Learn to make friends and to avoid making enemies.

9. Manipulate existing objects. We next learned how to 'touch' things, how to 'take' things into our virtual backpack ('inventory'), how to drag out copies, how to 'take more copies' in, how to 'wear' things on my outside rather than my inside. Our 'inventory' is infinitely lightweight and small, so far as we can see, e.g., we put a house in it. That was learning enough to enjoy exploring.

10. Learn to use Second Life URLs (Slurls). We next learned how to e-mail a postcard, mostly as a way of revealing what the Slurl.com name for a place is. (You may become more proficient at using slurls later.)

Here are some examples:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Encogia/170/218/48 is an amusement park that tweens we know enjoy: diving pool, Ferris wheel, a carousel, a flume, bumper cars, tours by balloon or helicopter or rocket. The park lends dive skills and dance skills and gives away parachutes.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ambleside/99/125/37 is a village green that gives away popcorn and lemonade, together with eating and drinking skills.

11. Find a community. You want to develop a "home", and you might consider joining a community as part of that process.

You could consider finding communities of people who are thinking of joining Second Life but haven't yet. (Google if all else fails.) The experience of sending postcards suggests that coordinating your efforts might let you start with 'Linden dollars (L$') in hand. You don't get any L$ for free by default (as of 2007-09-01), although you do get L$300 for free as part of a premium membership. The historical exchange rate is somewhere in the vicinity of US $1 per L$300.

12. Create Objects. LSL scripting is done within the context of an object. So before you start writing scripts, you need to know how to create an object (and complex poly-objects, and edit their appearance.) There are in-world tutorials describing how to do this, and they're part of the normal orientation process. There are also tutorials both within the Wiki and at external web sites. Try the Creation Portal, for example.

You can buy property where you're allowed to create objects, or you can create them in a publicly-available sandbox area. (Put them into your inventory or delete them when done, it's rude to leave them lying around in public spaces.) The orientation spaces dedicated to learning how to create objects are generally sandboxes.

13. Start learning LSL. You're ready now to go try to make sense of the tutorials on writing Linden Scripting Language (LSL) scripts that the LSL Tutorial article indexes.

Note: If you think that this page could use improvement, then we need your help. This page is Wiki, please feel free to revise or reconceive. Or post into the Discussion tab an explanation of how the rest of us should edit for you, if we should. Or add links to tutorials like this that exist but we have failed to find. Thank you for helping.

Note: The F1 help for the building tools in world is not yet smart enough (as of 2007-11-02) to give you help in context. Help, negligibly obsolete, for the Object tab of the Create/Edit tool you begin with is at http://secondlife.com/app/help/building/basicprims.php. In particular, the checkmark Physical teaches your object to move and roll and bounce, the checkmark Phantom lets other things like your avatar move thru object or not and the tab Texture, checkmark Full Bright makes your object glow in the dark.