Good Building Practices

This guide is a collection of officially verified building practices for moderate to advanced creators that result in efficient, high performance creations in Second Life. If you are new to building in Second Life, please check out the Knowledge Base.

Featured Article Mesh and LOD Learn how to create efficient and attractive mesh content without overtaxing your visitors' hardware or Second Life's physics engine. Learn more...		News & Updates New articles Alpha Modes Do's and Don'ts Second Life's light model for materials Case Study - Katana using normal and specular maps Case_Study_-_Example_wood_crate_using_materials Coming soon SL Animation Tutorial Videos How to retrofit an existing home to work with Pathfinding "Hidden" performance costs Holistic Pathfinding Management - Strategies for managing large numbers of pathfinding objects.
Animation Animation Streamlined - Make your creations move without dragging Second Life to a crawl! Mesh Mesh and LOD- Mesh objects that don't crash your friends' old computer. Making Mesh Physics - Why and How. Making Mesh for Pathfinding - Pathfinding friendly mesh. Pathfinding Pathfinding Overview - Pathfinding explained. Pathfinding Tools in the Second Life Viewer - The Pathfinding tools. Pathfinding Quick Start Guide - The best way to get up and running with Pathfinding. A Visual Guide - Watch how easy it is! Walkability Coefficients - Control the speed of your Walkable areas. Material Volumes - Control the speed of your characters. Universal Attribute Changes for Pathfinding Configure objects for pathfinding in bulk	Physics Physics Optimization - Not everything needs physics, learn how to add the least load necessary to the physics engine. PRIM_PHYSICS_SHAPE_NONE - Additional information on this important attribute. Scripting Debugging Tips - how to work out what your code is doing without a conventional development toolkit Resetting Scripts in a Large Build - strategies for resetting scripts in a large coordinated build Pathfinding Pathfinding LSL Functions - standard reference for all of the pathfinding functions. Modular Pathfinding Kit - code snippets designed to be plugged together to quickly build unique behaviors. Pathfinding Cookbook - ready made solutions for some critters. Vehicles Linden Vehicle Tutorial - Vehicle scripting best practices.	Sound Environment Sounds Event Driven Sounds Sculpted Prims Sculpted Prim Usage - What you need to know about how sculpted prims effect Second Life. Textures Texture Usage - What size to use, and what to avoid. Case Study - Katana using normal and specular maps - See how June Dion created a detailed sword by using LightWave and Second Life's normal and specular mapping features. Alpha Modes Do's and Don'ts - Learn all about alpha modes for textures in Second Life. Second Life's light model for materials - Learn how Second Life displays reflective surfaces, with some tips and tricks for common material types. Case_Study_-_Example_wood_crate_using_materials - Learn how to create and apply simple specular and normal maps using free tools.

Resident contributions awaiting official approval

If you'd like to contribute some of your own best practices for efficient content creation, please link to them in this section so that Linden Lab subject matter experts can verify them before they are added to the official guide.