Why do I look like a particle cloud

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add versioning

Old default "Ruth" avatar

In versions of Second Life before Viewer 1.20, we used a default avatar loading form known as "Ruth", as shown at right. When your avatar suddenly turned into an ugly woman, Residents called it being "Ruthed", because Ruth is the historical name of an early avatar form -- not unlike having a great, great-grandmother.

Default "plasma cloud" avatar

In the Second Life Viewer version 1.20 and later, your appearance is that of a plasma cloud while your avatar is loading. This effect is not permanent and your avatar will take form as things around you begin to rez (load). During this time, you may not access the Appearance Editor.

Tip: If your Second Life Viewer is minimized, your avatar may show as a particle cloud to other Residents.

You also appear as a cloud when some information about you gets lost on the way from one place to another. However, you are not stuck this way permanently! Follow these steps to restore yourself to normal:

1. From your main menu, click Me > Preferences then choose the Graphics tab.
2. Slide the Quality and speed slider to a lower setting.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Move the Draw distance slider to the left.
5. Slide the Mesh Details sliders to Low.
6. Avatar Impostors is checked by default. If you have unchecked it, activate that feature again.

Additional helpful techniques (try from the top until one works):

• Log out and restart Second Life (relog).
• Right-click yourself, choose Edit My Outfit (do NOT save anything) and click on the Back (<) icon.
• Enable the Advanced Menu, select Rebake Textures. Or use Ctrl-Alt-R (PC) or Cmd-Opt-R (Mac).
• Open your inventory, search for a character (like 'a'), the number of items will be shown (just below My Inventory) and it will increase (searching and fetching your inventory), wait until the number stops increasing (this might take some time depending on how much stuff you have), log out and log in again.
• Enable the Advanced menu, show Debug Settings, find RenderUnloadedAvatar and set this to TRUE. (unfortunately this trick will also back Ruth ).

If those don't work, try the following process:

1. Access and wear a default avatar.
2. Re-wear your normal shape, skin, clothes, and attachments. This step is much easier if you are using a pre-existing saved outfit, but remember not to save anything before your avatar is restored!.

Tip: If you tried all of the above, and your avatar is still a cloud, submit a ticket to our Support team for assistance.

To get other avatars to load faster:

1. Lower your draw distance.
2. Zoom in closely on the avatar that still shows as a cloud.

Tip: The particle or white cloud problem tends to manifest if you port to a new location, but then exit Second Life before the teleport has completed successfully. If you port somewhere, wait until you have successfully finished porting before logging out. Switching to the default test avatar appearance seems to be most successful in resolving the issue, though changing clothes or body parts sometimes works as well. Simply switch back to your default body parts and clothing after switching to the test avatar and it becomes visible.