Beacons
Revision as of 13:26, 10 November 2011 by Boston Linden (talk | contribs)
Beacons are colored locators that help you pinpoint special kinds of objects.
Open the Beacons window by selecting World > Show > Beacons from the menus at the top of the Second Life Viewer.
What the options do
- Beacons - Makes objects and avatars that match the enabled beacon types have 3D crosshairs through them: a long vertical line (Z axis) accompanied by shorter X and Y axis lines. Each beacon type has a different color to differentiate them on a crowded screen:
- Scripted objects - Red
- Physical objects - Green
- Particle beacons - Blue
- Sound beacons - Yellow
- Width - You can adjust beacon thickness with this slider, making them more visible. Units are measured in pixels.
- Highlights - Makes objects that match the enabled beacon types glow in red. If an object already has a strong glow effect (you can access this by right-clicking an object, selecting Edit, and clicking the Texture tab), its highlight will be hard to see, but beacons will show.
- Physical - Shows all physical objects when checked. Physical objects are subject to Second Life's gravity and can fall when dropped from above the ground. To make an object physical:
- Right-click the object.
- Click Edit.
- Click the Object tab.
- Check Physical.
- Scripted - Shows all scripted objects when checked. (The slower, manual way to see scripts is to right-click an object, click Edit, then click the Content tab to view the scripts inside.
- Touch Only - When checked, shows only scripted objects you can click to interact with.
- Sound sources - Shows all objects and avatars playing sounds. You can use this to narrow down the source of disruptive noises in an abuse situation so you can report it (by selecting Help > Report Abuse from the Viewer menus).
- Particle sources - Shows all objects creating particles, including avatars with particle emitter attachments. You can hide particles by selecting Advanced > Rendering Types > Particles from the Viewer menu.
- Media sources - Shows all objects and avatars playing media. You can turn off media by selecting Me > Preferences > Sound & Media and unchecking the boxes next to Allow Media to auto-play and Play media attached to other avatars.
More usage tips
- Scripted overrides Touch Only because it includes all scripted objects. You can only have one checked at a time.
- Either Highlights or Beacons (or both) must be checked. To hide all beacons and highlights, rather than uncheck them individually, simply close the window. The next time you open it, your previous settings will persist.
- To show beacons and save screen space, click the Beacons window's Minimize button to collapse it into the lower-left corner of the screen. You can drag it around by the title bar if you want to reposition it.
- The following Viewer menu options related to beacons are:
- Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility > Highlight Transparent - Shows invisible objects and any other objects with a degree of transparency, such as tree textures.
- Advanced > Rendering Types > Particles - Hides the particles that beacons locate. This is useful for boosting performance in extreme situations, or simply reducing annoyances.
See also
These articles show you how to use beacons for specific purposes: