Limits
Summary
The Second Life Viewer and simulators have a division of labor, keeping track of the data that makes Second Life run. The Viewer's job is to:
- Handle locations of objects.
- Get velocities and other physics information, and does simple physics to keep track of what is moving where.
The simulator's job is to:
- Run the physics engine.
- Detect collisions.
- Keep track of where everything is
- Send locations of content to the Viewer along with updates when certain changes occur.
Limits are necessary for all of these components to work together. The list below outlines many of the Second Life numerical limits that affect your inworld experience. Some of these will likely change over time, so if you spot something incorrect/outdated, please take a moment to update it.
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Important: The scope of this page is focused on Linden Lab's official Viewers, keeping in mind 3rd-party viewers may differ. Cite sources and provide substantiation for limits that aren't provided by Linden Lab. Also, unconfirmed speculation goes on this discussion page. Don't add data without a hard limit, and don't add obscure trivia that doesn't practically affect the general inworld experience. |
Avatar
- Max. # of attachments - 38 combined HUD or body attachments.
- They can be viewed by right-clicking your avatar and choosing Take Off > HUD or Detach.
- With the formal introduction of multiple attachments to a single point in Viewer 2.4, you can attach up to 38 total objects, and they can all be attached to a single point.
- Max. # of clothing layers per slot - 5 (this includes alpha and Tattoo Layers)
- Max. unassisted fly height - Stable hover at 4096m.
- You can easily acquire a flight attachment to fly high. Also see flight limit and the Navigation section below.
- Common shoe sizes - Most women's shoes are designed for a size 0 (zero) foot. Men's generally scale up to 14.
- You can check this by going to Edit menu > Appearance and clicking on the Shape > Legs tab.
- Max. length of avatar name - 31 for first name, 31 for last name, 63 in total (including the space).
- Max. length of Username - All lower case and a maximum of 63 including the '.'(eg; firstname.lastname)
- Older account user names are a combination of the First and last name in lower case separated by a period(.)(eg; lilmix.pixelmaid)
- Modern user names are a single name(no period)(eg; john1234) - Max. length is 31 characters
- The Legacy Names for modern user names always shows Resident as the last name. So the Max is 40 characters in total for a new avatar's legacy name(including the space and last name 'Resident')
- Min. length of Display_Names - At least one script character
- Max. length of Display Names - 31 characters
- Display Names can include most Unicode script characters, spaces, and some punctuation.
- Max. avatar speed - 250m/s (with only attachments to assist)
- Max. teleport speed
- Server 1.27.1 - 10 teleports per 15 seconds
- Server 1.27.0 - 3 teleports per 15 seconds
Animation
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animation | Length of animation | n/a | 30.0 seconds | n/a | n/a |
| Animation | animation priority | 0 | 4, with custom tools 5 | n/a | Animation_Priority |
| Animation | Number of unique joints per animation | n/a | 32 | n/a | n/a |
Building
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUILDING | Prim dimensions | <0.01, 0.01, 0.01> | <64.0, 64.0, 64.0> | Used to be <10.0, 10.0, 10.0> prior to Second Life Server version 11.08.17.238770 | llSetScale and PRIM_SIZE and Megaprim |
| BUILDING | Number of prims in a linkset | n/a | 256 prims | Used to be 255 prior to Second Life Server version 1.26 | n/a |
| BUILDING | Linking distance | n/a | Yes | n/a | Linkability_Rules |
| BUILDING | Physics weight for a physical object | n/a | 32.0 | Additional notes:
|
n/a |
| BUILDING | Build or rez height | n/a | 4096.0 meters | 768.0 meters for Viewers prior to version 1.20 | n/a |
| BUILDING | Prim name length | n/a | 63 bytes UTF-8 string | same limit for avatar names, although the character set for avatar names is significantly limited. | n/a |
| BUILDING | Prim description length | n/a | 127 bytes UTF-8 string | n/a | n/a |
| BUILDING | Temporary prims' lifetime | n/a | up to around 60 seconds | depends on when the next garbage collector cycle is. | n/a |
| BUILDING | Number of temporary prims | n/a | RegionPrimLimit - NumberOfPrimsInRegion + Minimum(0.5*RegionPrimLimit, 1000) | n/a | n/a |
| BUILDING | Length of hovertext | n/a | a UTF-8 string with 254 bytes or single-byte characters | n/a | llSetText and PRIM_TEXT |
Communication
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | Whisper distance | n/a | 10 meters | /whisper as the first few characters in a message can be used in viewer-2-code based viewers in local chat.
|
n/a |
| Communication | Chat distance | n/a | 20 meters | text spoken as a "chat" step within gestures cannot be shouted or whispered. | n/a |
| Communication | Shout distance | n/a | 100 meters | /shout as the first few characters in a message can be used in viewer-2-code based viewers in local chat.
|
n/a |
| Communication | Length of a chat message and whether or not it is truncated | 1 byte or single-byte character | 1024 bytes or single-byte characters | Limit does not apply to instant messages via llInstantMessage and communication between IM and email, the limit there is 1180 bytes or single-byte characters. This is true as of 2012-08-13. | llInstantMessage |
| Communication | Number of offline messages | n/a | Capped at 25 messages. | Number of offline messages (involving IMs, inventory offers, group notices, group invitations) received before messages get capped. | IM |
| Communication | Length of a properly delivered email reply to an IM | n/a | 1023 bytes or single-byte characters | n/a | n/a |
| Communication | Time after which a reply to an IM can be sent via email. | when receiving the IM via email. | 5 days after receiving the offline IM via email. | n/a | Second Life Blogs |
| Communication | Time period for which IMs are stored within Second Life. | n/a | 31 days after receiving the IM | User:Torley_Linden confirmed this with User:Kelly_Linden | n/a |
| Communication | Number of IMs sent by an object within an hour | n/a | 5000 per hour | n/a | n/a |
Gestures
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gesture | Shortcut key mappings | n/a | 33 unique combinations, since F2–F12 can be used with the Ctrl or Shift ⇧ modifiers. | n/a | All_keyboard_shortcut_keys and Viewer_2_Quick_Start_Guide/Appendix_-_Keyboard_Shortcuts |
| Gesture | Chat step length | n/a | 127 bytes or single-byte characters | n/a | n/a |
| Gesture | Wait time | n/a | 3600 seconds (which is one hour) | n/a | n/a |
Groups
- Maximum number of groups you can belong to: 42
- Roles within groups are sort of like sub-groups. In many cases, you can use them instead of creating new groups.
- Minimum number of members in a group: 2
- A group with only 1 person for 48 hours will be disbanded (cancelled). Unless the group owns land.
- Maximum number of roles allowed in a group: 10 (including "Owners" and "Everyone", which cannot be deleted)
- Maximum Group Name: 35 single-byte characters.
- Maximum Group Title: 20 single-byte characters.
- Maximum Length of a Group Notice: 512 single-byte characters.
Inventory
- Maximum number of inventory items that can be sent in a folder: 42
- Folders count as items too. This has more to do with packet size limits than cheeky Douglas Adams references.
- Maximum notecard line: None, but scripts can only read the first 255 bytes.
- Maximum notecard size: 65,536 bytes
- Number of items in the Library: 1,248 as of 2010-06-17
- Number of items in the Library: 2,210 as of 2012-11-04
- Verified by hiding the Library and counting the difference.
Land
- Maximum parcel size: 65,536 meters²
- Covering a whole region, or square on the World Map.
- Minimum parcel size: 16 meters²
- Maximum parcel name length: 63 single-byte characters
- Maximum parcel description length: 255 characters
- Region name length: Under Linden Concierge policy, minimum of 3 characters, and a maximum of 25 characters (including spaces). See Guidelines for Private Region Naming.
- Rare exceptions exist, like Q.
- Maximum "NO ENTRY" ban line height: is for all options 80 meter. Only the option 'Banned Residents' (named) has a 5020 meter ban line high, which is visible up to a high of 800 meter above the terrain mesh.
- Maximum prims in a region:
- Maximum auto return value: Besides "0" (which means never), 999,999 minutes is the highest auto return value.
- Terraforming limits:
- Most mainland can be raised/lowered by 4 meters (+/-).
- Some mainland cannot be terraformed, including: Bay City Regions, Blumfield, Boardman, Brown, De Haro, Nautilus City Regions, Nova Albion Regions, Shermerville Regions, and West Haven.
- A few, very old mainland Regions like Da Boom have a terraform range of 40 meters (+/-).
- Estate (private island) terraformability is settable to a maximum of 100 meters (+/-) by the estate owner or managers.
- Maximum water height: 100 meters using inworld controls (mainland limit), 255 meters by using a *.raw file upload.
- Region water height is usually 20 meters, and adjacent regions should have the same water height, or else they will look discontinuous.
- Maximum terrain height: 255 meters using inworld controls (mainland limit), 510 meters by using a *.raw file upload.
- Miscellaneous estate limits: You can have a maximum of 10 estate managers, 500 allowed Residents, 63 allowed groups, and 500 banned Residents.
- See World menu > Region/Estate > Estate tab.
- Mainland maximum number of agents
- Island maximum number of agents:
- Freeze Time: Land owners can freeze other Residents for up to 30 seconds. Members of land owning groups can also be granted this ability.
- Minimum parcel that can be listed in Places or All search: 144 meters²
- Minimum parcel that can be listed in Events: 512 meters²
- Maximum altitude for event listings: 768 meters (WEB-814)
- Maximum heights that objects can be seen on the World Map: 400.005m
- Classic clouds layer: Approximately 150-225 meters, although the edges of particles can appear to exceed that.
Mesh
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh | Number of vertices | n/a | 65536 vertices per LOD for each mesh | n/a | n/a |
| Mesh | COLLADA file size | n/a | Maximum mesh asset size after compression is 8 MB, roughly equivalent to a 256 MB Raw COLLADA file. | n/a | n/a |
| Mesh | Bone influence weights per vertex | n/a | 4 | n/a | n/a |
| Mesh | Number of materials per mesh | n/a | 8 | n/a | n/a |
| Mesh | Number of materials per face | n/a | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Mesh | Physics weight for a vehicle | n/a | 32.0 | n/a | n/a |
Misc.
- Billing and Trading Limits - Includes LindeX currency exchange limits.
- Contacts in Communication > Friends tab - A maximum of 20 simultaneous contacts can be selected to change permissions, remove, or invite for a conference chat.
- Absolute height limit: 2147483647 = 231 − 1 meters, which causes the altitude counter to roll over. Altitudes well below this cause graphics errors probably due to limited floating point number precision.
- Highest z-value of an SLurl, that will still teleport you to a positive altitude: 2147483583
- This is lower than the Absolute height limit above probably because of precision issues. Any value higher than 2147483583 would be rounded up to something beyond 2147483647 and thus cause an overflow, while 2147483583 will still be rounded down to 2147483520 (see below).
- Highest altitude you can teleport to with an SLurl: 2147483520 meters
Profile
Each 7-bit ASCII character is encoded in one byte. International characters might need more bytes. When pasting text instead of typing, you can get in one byte more into each of the below.
- 2nd Life tab's About field - 510 bytes
- Picks tab - 10 picks with 1022 bytes each
- 1st Life tab's Info field - 253 bytes
- Classified tab - 100 listings with x bytes each
- My Notes - 1022 bytes
Performance
- Healthy Viewer FPS - Generally, FPS above 15 is good. The higher it gets, the smoother. You can check via Help menu > Lag Meter, or for more advanced usage, see View menu > Statistics Bar.
- Avatar Rendering Cost scores - Learn all about it!
Scripting
- Height at which scripts reactivate on a no-script parcel - 50 m above terrain mesh. Scripted objects that take controls continue to remain active when you fly down or enter a no-script parcel.
- Maximum height where scripts can run - none, as long as the object remains rezzed or attached.
- Maximum script source code size - 65536 single byte characters.
- For specific scripting limits, lookup calls in the LSL Portal.
Sound
| Category | Limit affects | Lower limit | Upper limit | Comment | More coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Soung length | n/a | 10.0 seconds | You're advised to cut longer sounds into 9.9-second-pieces. | n/a |
Textures
- Aspect ratios of profile, place, etc. pictures — all of these were measured at UI size (Edit menu > Preferences > General tab > UI Size) = 1.000:
1.x Series Viewers
(official Viewer up to 1.23.5, most Third Party Viewers)
- Search > All for "Classifieds", "People", and "Places" - 4:3 (256×192 pi×els)
- Search > Places and Classified tabs - ~7:5 (398×282 pixels)
- Search > Land tab - ~7:5 (358×252 pixels)
- Profile > 2nd Life tab - ~4:3 (178×133 pixels)
- Profile > Picks tab - 16:9 (288×162 pixels)
- Profile > 1st Life tab - 1:1 (133×133 pixels)
- Profile > Classifieds tab - ~3:2 (206×137 pixels)
- Profile > Web tab - 1:1 (400×400 pixels)
- A scrollbar uses 15 pixels on the right-hand side.
- About Land > Options tab - ~3:2 (178×117 pixels)
- Group Information > General tab's "Group Insignia" - 1:1 (126×126 pixels)
- Some of these textures are shared (for example, Search > All place pages, Search > Places, and About Land > Options use the same image), so you should pick a well-balanced ratio and size.
- Learn how to get correct texture aspect ratios when editing images.
2.x Series Viewers
- Search > Classifieds thumbnail - 4:3 (60×45 pixels)
- Search > Classifieds expanded - ~4:3 (252×188 pixels)
- Search > Classifieds expanded > Details - 17:7 (272×112 pixels)
- Search > People - 4:3 (188×141 pixels)
- Search > Destination Guide thumbnail - ~4:3 (45×34 pixels)
- Search > Destination Guide expanded - 5:3 (250×150 pixels)
- Profile > 2nd Life tab - ~1:1 (100×99 pixels)
- Profile > Picks thumbnail - 8:5 (88×55 pixels)
- Profile > Pick expanded - ~5:3 (285×172 pixels)
- About Land > Options tab - ~20:13 (193×125 pixels)
- Places > More information - ~11:7 (272×173 pixels)
All Viewers
- Maximum texture size - 1024×1024 pixels
- All Second Life textures are constrained to powers of 2 (e.g., 128, 256, 512).
- Some textures inworld have a resolution as high as 2048×2048; this is due to a previous limit that was higher.
- We strongly recommend you use as small textures as possible because larger ones consume more memory and take substantially longer to load.
- Where large textures are being forced by import to only 512×512, lower your ...> Preferences >...> UI Size under 1.0, to increase import size to the max 1024×1024.
Notes
In general 1 byte is enough to contain one character.