WindLight settings

Resident-created WindLight settings

Made WindLight settings you wanna share? Add 'em here! (And feel free to use the above as a template for your own installation instructions.)

Mesc's Sunglasses - 11 skies which look awesome with shadows.
Maroon - By Miranda Kingmaker.
Windlight Settings - By Paulina Oceanlane.
Places by Chic - By Chic Aeon. Look for the bullseye at the end of each post to download.

Torley's WindLight Settings

Warning: These settings are bonus goodies and not officially supported by Linden Lab. I can't guarantee support for them, but if you have questions, contact Torley.

I (Torley) have popularly been asked to share the very same settings I've used in so many WindLight-powered snapshots. I decided to share these with you for sheer enjoyment. I don't have any use restrictions on 'em, so go wild and let me know the beauty you build upon — add your pictures & video to the Inspired by Torley Flickr group!

Version 3 released (August 2009) with more skies and sorted categories!

» Click here to download

Want more previews? See Kero Nishi's thumbnails, last updated for Version 2.

Important to know

If you've installed previous versions of Torley's WindLight Settings, you should DELETE THEM ALL before installing Version 3. The filenames are different.
"skies" and "water" settings are saved to distinctly different locations due to a bug. See (VWR-12164). This means that "skies" settings, if installed to the directories below, will persist through Second Life installs, while "water" settings will need to be reinstalled after each Viewer upgrade.
These settings can also be used with most alternate viewers; simply substitute "SecondLife" with an alt-viewer's directory name, e.g., for Snowglobe, "C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\windlight\water" would become "C:\Program Files\Snowglobe\app_settings\windlight\water".

Installation

First, quit the Second Life Viewer. Then:

Unzip "torley-windlight-settings-2.0.zip".
Open the "skies" and "water" folders, and drag their ".xml" file contents into the "skies" and "water" subdirectories within the right "windlight" folder, depending on your operating system.

These are the usual install directories, yours may look different but similar:

Windows XP

Skies - C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\SecondLife\user_settings\windlight\skies
Water - C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\windlight\water

Windows Vista

Skies - C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\user_settings\windlight\skies
Water - C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\windlight\water

(This video is from Version 2 and some of it is outdated)

Everything, a lightweight search utility, makes it easy to find these directories. Search for "windlight".

Mac

Skies - In the Finder, use Go menu > Go to Folder and paste in: ~/Library/Application Support/SecondLife/user_settings/windlight/skies
Water - Again use Go > Go to Folder and paste in: /Applications/Second Life.app/Contents/Resources/app_settings/windlight/water

(This video is from Version 2 and some of it is outdated)

Linux - The folder that contains the "secondlife" boot script (e.g., "~/Desktop/SecondLife-i686-1.21.6.99587/"). Its exact location depends on where you extracted the viewer .bz2 archive after downloading it.

How to use

Login to Second Life.
In Edit menu > Preferences > Graphics tab, set Quality and Performance to High, or check Custom and make sure Atmospheric Shaders is checked.
Go to World menu > Environmental Settings > Environment Editor.
Click the Advanced Sky button.
Click the dropdown menu next to Sky Presets. You should see the many new skies starting with "[TOR]" in the list. It should look like this (click to enlarge):
The same steps apply for the water settings — in the Environment Editor, click Advanced Water, then click the dropdown next to Water Presets.
Select a preset and watch the sky and water change instantly.
To save a sequence of skies for future logins, use the Day Cycle Editor.

ENJOY!

Categories

Here's what all the sorted categories for skies in Torley's WindLight Settings V3 mean:

BIG SUN - The sun has been exaggerated and would love to shine on your boating expedition. In a few cases like "[TOR] BIG SUN - Good for marriage", the .xml file was modified to go beyond what you can do with the Advanced Sky Editor sliders.

[TOR] BIG SUN - Slips through walls 1 (slightly modded)
DUSK - Ah, that magic time when the night is young. I like a few of these for mellowing out on Here island, and you might, too.

[TOR] DUSK - Blue hour
FOGGY - "AHHH! MY EYES!" Vision is obscured and sliders such as Haze Density and Density Multiplier are racheted up. In particular, try "[TOR] FOGGY - Silent heck" in an already-unsettling town. The name's not a coincidence.

[TOR] FOGGY - Das fog
HORROR - More along the creepy lines, these were inspired by various slasher and suspense flicks. "[TOR] HORROR - Profondo rosso" is that terror from your darkroom which you never forget. If you make scary machinima with these, lemme know.

[TOR] HORROR - Profondo rosso
MIDDAY - And sometimes you want to be normal. Or close to that. The sun is up high and you can see most things clearly. I use "[TOR] MIDDAY - Nostalgika" as my default Midday replacement. (This tutorial shows you how to do that.)

[TOR] MIDDAY - Nostalgika
NIGHT - The moon is out. I did some creative stuff here including using the sun to simulate a faux moon in the cases of "[TOR] NIGHT - Under a yellow moon" and the "[TOR] NIGHT - That spells moon" miniseries . If you want a really dark night, try "[TOR] NIGHT - Nocturne".

[TOR] NIGHT - Under a yellow moon
SCIFI - Surreal and wild settings for your next fantasy romp or voyage onto an alien planet. A diverse assortment across the rainbow, and the biggest category. Good gosh, I wish server-side WindLight would come around already so these could be fully used.

[TOR] SCIFI - Blue sun warmed
SPECIAL - Extremely... extreme settings which mess with the sliders in experimental ways, from lowering Scene Gamma to induce posterization to the self-explanatory-ness of "[TOR] SPECIAL - Use with full bright".

[TOR] SPECIAL - Threshold
SUNRISE - Dawn is here again, and some of these could be used as sunsets too — the technical difference is usually in the Sun/Moon Position slider. For an epic wake-me-up, try "[TOR] SUNRISE - Ultimate!" I don't claim it's the best but it sure is sweeeet.

[TOR] SUNRISE - Across process
SUNSET - One of my fave times of day. Again, a variety, but some of my fave sunsets happen to be warm and loaded with emotional resonance. Sit in a beach chair and bliss out to "[TOR] SUNSET - Vacation". :)

[TOR] SUNSET - Vacation