Second Life: Getting Started
Danielle Davis
Daniel Ramirez
Jeremy Stuart
Tarun Navlani
Tuan Kim
Dr. Sharon White
1
Table of Contents
1.0 GENERAL INFORMATON ........................................................................................ 3
1.1 What is Second Life? ................................................................................................ 3
1.2 What is an avatar? ..................................................................................................... 3
1.3 What are some possible different uses of Second Life? ........................................... 3
1.4 Is Second Life open source code? ............................................................................. 4
1.5 Is there an age restriction for Second Life? .............................................................. 4
1.6 How much does Second Life cost? ........................................................................... 4
1.7 What are Linden dollars? .......................................................................................... 4
1.8 What operating systems does the Second Life viewer support? ............................... 5
1.9 What are the minimum system requirements for running Second Life? .................. 5
2.0 GETTING STARTED .................................................................................................. 6
2.1 What do you need to do in order to start using Second Life? ................................... 6
2.2 How do you download the Second Life client software? ......................................... 6
2.3 What if I just want to register with Second Life? ................................................... 10
3.0 EDUCATION ............................................................................................................. 11
3.1 Can Second Life be used for educational purposes? .............................................. 11
3.2 How is Distance/Flexible Education achieved in Second Life? ............................. 11
3.3 What are some of the types of Educational Environments in Second Life? ........... 15
3.4 Does SL support setting up areas where only paying students have access? ......... 18
3.5 How does one go about setting up a virtual classroom environment? .................... 18
4.0 CONSTRUCTION ...................................................................................................... 19
4.1 What tools are available for construction in Second Life? ..................................... 19
4.2 Does Second Life allow users to program behaviors into their creations? ............. 20
4.3 What is the Linden Scripting Language? ................................................................ 20
4.4 Does Second Life support objects that are constructed using external software? .. 20
4.5 Should Second Life structures be built in SL or by using external tools? .............. 21
5.0 REFERENCES AND TUTORIALS .......................................................................... 23
5.1 What are some resources for general information on Second Life? ....................... 23
5.2 Where can one learn more about education and educational campuses in SL?...... 23
5.3 Where can one learn more about construction in Second Life? ............................. 24
2
1.0 GENERAL INFORMATON
1.1 What is Second Life?
Second Life (SL) is a virtual, on-line, interactive world developed by SanFrancisco-based Linden Labs. Linden Labs creates the software and manages
the servers that host this world. It was launched in 2003 and came to
international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early
2007. Users have crafted all of the objects within Second Life (e.g. clothes,
houses, cars) to be used by their 2 million avatars. Its homepage is at the
following URL: http://secondlife.com/
1.2 What is an avatar?
In Second Life, an avatar is a three-dimensional representation of a user.
When first obtaining a Second Life account, a user will have to select an
initial avatar from a small set of choices. Once in the Second Life
environment, the user is free to alter the appearance of their avatar.
1.3 What are some possible different uses of Second Life?
Second Life is a 3D platform that can be used for:




Presenting, promoting, and selling content to a broad online audience
Collaborating in real time between multiple participants
Researching new concepts/products
Training and educating in virtual classrooms
Using the Second Life platform it is possible to 





Hold a virtual meeting with international students located in Europe and Asia.
Present the new project data or initiatives and discuss them with your team
real-time.
Build a new world that allows fellow researchers, staff, and students to
interact with each other and with Second Life residents
Interact with researchers developing products or services
Test out new designs and concepts before introducing them to the real world.
Sell products, goods and services in Second Life and in the real world
Plan an event, a lecture presentation or exhibition
3

Produce and promote artwork; a movie; a product: a concert, a class, a famous
speaker, a party, or a contest.
1.4 Is Second Life open source code?
Partially. The Second life viewer code is open source and some main web
services that Second life uses are also open source.
1.5 Is there an age restriction for Second Life?
Yes. Only users 18 and above are allowed to have an account in Second Life.
1.6 How much does Second Life cost?
For individuals, there are two types of accounts: basic and premium. The
following cost details are from the Second Life website:
Your first Basic account is FREE, and includes access to events, shopping, building, scripting- everything you
can do in Second Life. After your first free Basic Account, each Additional Basic Account (known in-world as an
"alt" account) costs a one-time fee of $9.95.
A Premium Second Life account, starting at $9.95 a month, allows you to own land on which you can build,
display, entertain and live. You also receive extended support options, including the ability to submit a Support
Ticket and engage in a text chat session with our support teams.
For educational institutions, there are other options that are built around the
concept owning an island in Second Life. According to their website, Second
Life islands are priced at US$1,675 for 65,536 square meters (about 16 acres).
Monthly land fees for maintenance are US$295. There is a 50 % discount for
to educational institutions for private islands. There is also the Campus:
Second Life program which is a temporary land grant of 1 acre of land for the
duration of a semester at no cost. (Note: The Campus: Second Life option had
an application due date of August 1, 2007 for a Fall 2007 Semester set-up)
In addition, it is possible to lease or rent land on an existing island for a
monthly fee. For example, Education Island offers 2000 sq. meters of land for
educational purposes for a fee of $30 a month.
1.7 What are Linden dollars?
Linden dollars ($L) are the in-world currency for Second Life. They can be
purchased from the Linden Dollar exchange accessible from the Second Life
viewer menu once the user has a Second Life account. The exchange rate for
one real dollar fluctuates from L$350 to L$250. At the time of this writing,
L$1000 cost $4.06.
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1.8 What operating systems does the Second Life viewer support?
The Second Life viewer can be used on Windows, Linux and Macintosh
operating systems. (Note: Second Life does not currently support Windows
Vista).
1.9 What are the minimum system requirements for running Second Life?
The minimum system requirements for running Second Life on a Windows
platform are as follows:
Windows Minimum System Requirements







Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL
Operating System: Windows XP OR Windows 2000
NOTE: Second Life does not currently support Windows Vista
Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
Computer Memory: 256MB or better
Video/Graphics Card**:
nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better or ATI Radeon 8500,
9250, or better
PC Minimum System Recommendations:

Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL

Computer Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2000+ or better

Computer Memory: 512MB or better

Video/Graphics Card**:


nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better
OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better
5
2.0 GETTING STARTED
2.1 What do you need to do in order to start using Second Life?
You must perform two tasks: Download the Second Life client software and
Register with Second Life. These tasks can be done in either order since
completion of one will prompt you to complete the other.
2.2 How do you download the Second Life client software?
Off the main homepage at http://secondlife.com/, there is a link titled
“Downloads” that takes you to secondlife.com/community/downloads.php.
From there, one can click on the “Download” button for the Second Life
Installer program. They have different versions for Windows, Macintosh and
Linux. (The windows installer program is 33 Mb). Clicking the “Download”
button will bring up a browser download progress display showing that the
Installer software is being downloaded onto your desktop. Once downloaded,
executing the installer will first cause a small prompt to come up asking in
what language the installer should proceed in (English is the default in the
window). After selecting the language, a small display with release notes for
that version of the installer software appears. Clicking “next” in the release
notes display causes the following installation display to appear prompting the
user to select under which folder to install the Second Life software (it
specifies it needs 68.5 MB to install).
Clicking the Install button causes it to extract multiple files into the destination
directory. Once it is done, a small window comes up asking if you wish to “Launch
Second Life now”. Clicking Yes causes the following screen to appear:
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(Note: The scenery on the screen will be different depending on what time of day you
log on.) On the intro screen, click on “New Account” to set up an account if you
don’t have one already. That will launch your browser and send you to the “Second
Life Registration” page. The first page asks if you would like to join an established
community, but you can click on the “Skip this Step” link to go past this. Next, the
following Registration display appears:
7
The Registration process begins by selecting your Second Life name. You can use
any first name you like, but you must select from a pre-determined set of last names.
Once your name is chosen, it can’t be changed. The site also asks you to enter your
birth date and e-mail address so it can send an account activation e-mail. Once you
have completed filling out the information on this page, clicking the “Continue”
button will cause the following Avatar selection page to appear:
8
Your Avatar is how you will be seen by others in Second Life. This screen offers
some general types to start off with. Once you go into the Second Life environment,
the appearance of your Avatar can be modified. Once you have made your selection
and click on “Choose this avatar”, the following display appears:
9
You must enter your name, gender, country and select a password and security
question. You will need your password and your Second Life name whenever
you log onto Second Life. Once this step is completed, you will be sent an
activation e-mail to the address you provided earlier. The e-mail will contain an
activation link. Clicking the activation link will send you to a page stating that
you have successfully registered with Second Life. Since you have already
downloaded the Second Life client software, all you have to do now is launch
Second Life, enter in your Second Life name and password and click “Connect”
to enter the Second Life environment.
2.3 What if I just want to register with Second Life?
Off the main homepage at secondlife.com, click on the link that says “Join
Now”. You will be taken through the registration steps shown above and then
you will be asked to download the Second Life client software.
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3.0 EDUCATION
3.1 Can Second Life be used for educational purposes?
Yes, they have a page dedicated to education at
http://secondlife.com/businesseducation/education.php. There is a long list of
Universities that have used Second Life for educational purposes including
Harvard University, Vassar College, and the University of Houston.
3.2 How is Distance/Flexible Education achieved in Second Life?
Second Life provides an excellent platform for flexible delivery of online
education. Students and mentors can come together in-world to share
information and resources via slides, audio and video. They can engage in
discussions, presentations, group projects and explorations. Users can also
link to specific locations within Second Life from Web pages outside of the
SL environment by using specially formatted hyperlinks called Second Life
URLs (SLURLs).
Second Life provides the ability to create a sense of presence, shared space
and shared experience which makes it ideal for presentations, panels and
discussions. Presenters can show slides and videos and stream their voices
into the world. In addition, within Second Life there are unique qualities of a
3D virtual world which can provide opportunities for rich sensory immersive
experiences, authentic contexts and activities for experiential learning,
simulation and role-play, modeling of complex scenarios, a platform for data
visualization, and opportunities for collaboration and co-creation that cannot
be easily experienced using other platforms.
The following sections are examples of Distance Learning Education Centers
in Second Life.
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Cyber One: Law in the Court
of Public Opinion
Harvard’s Berkman Center for
Internet and Society presents a
course on the creation and
delivery
of
persuasive
argument in the new integrated
media space constituted by the
Internet
and other new
technologies. The course uses
Web 2.0 tools such as wikis
and blogs and extension
students
meet
in
Second
Life
Berkman
Island.
Second Life Writing:
ENG104 at Ball State
University
Sarah Robbins of Ball State
University used Second Life to
teach an English class focused
on writing for academic
research in 2006. The course
was a hybrid course with at
least half of the class time
spent online, based at Middletown in SL which is sponsored by Ball State's
Center for Media Design Educational Environments. Visitors were welcome
to observe the class.
New Media Consortium
(NMC) Campus
12
The New Media Consortium (NMC) Campus is the largest educational
presence in Second Life and supports events, classes, demonstrations, art
exhibitions and learning experiences.
Thomson Netg Training
Thomson Netg offers training in Cisco and Microsoft Certification, business
development, sales and customer service skills. The company uses Second
Life to run live classes, to provide mentorship and to offer on-demand training
with individualized media and streamed audio and video presentations or
podcasts. They use the unique qualities of the shared 3D space to allow
students to interact with technology demonstrations and to enact elaborate role
plays.
Ohio University Second Life Campus Learning Kiosks
Multiple "Learning Kiosks" at the "Learning Center" provides wide range of
methods for building modularized learning with a variety of support resources
and media. Each kiosk (structure) will hold unique learning content for
blended or stand-alone learning experiences.
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UC Davis Medical Center's
Emergency Workers
Simulation-based Training
Entrepreneur Kimberly RuferBach and her consulting group
'The Magicians' worked with
staff from the University of
California-Davis's Health
Informatics Program to develop
a virtual training environment
in Second Life which was funded by the Center for Disease Control.
The goal of the project was to prepare, train and aid emergency workers in a
simulated setting before they are called on to help in a real-world crisis. To
achieve this, more than 80 detailed objects based on photos of the actual
objects and locations were created for use in simulations that included the
deployment of emergency medical clinics which would distribute antibiotics
in case of biological attack.
Managing Virtual Teams Industrial and
Organizational Psychology in
Second Life
Students studying Industrial
and Organizational Psychology
at Seton Hall University used
Second Life to explore the
process of building and
managing virtual teams by role
playing as employees of a virtual public relations firm. The course included
presentations from experts on virtual team management. A number of
framework activities in Second Life included a structured scavenger hunt.
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Aesthetic Computing Class
At the University of Florida,
students had to create part of a
computer program and
represent it in 3D with user
interaction. The original
programming language could
have been anything from
Linden Scripting Language
(LSL) to Java, Python, or Lisp.
The projects were done within
Second Life and included
Simple Arithmetic Machines, Finite State Machines, a Perceptron, a Turing
Machine and Cellular Automata.
3.3 What are some of the types of Educational Environments in Second Life?
Some of the locations are modeled after existing universities; others are used
for research/simulations or as meet-up sites for students working on group
projects. In the SL virtual environment, there is a single world time and
students can leave posted messages specifying times to meet.
Northern Illinois University is one example of a university that created an
island to simulate a real life environment. The NIU Island, named Gliddden
campus, is a replica of a real life campus in the Midwest. The campus
buildings have been recreated in the virtual world of Second Life.
15
Altgeld Hall, Second Life
Altgeld Hall, Northern Illinois University
The building contains virtual classrooms complete with desks, chairs, books
and other media objects. These objects can be interacted with by one’s avatar.
The avatar can touch an object and then choose from a list of supported
interactions (as shown below).
Classroom Presentation
16
Additionally, in SL, the user can interact with the environment using the
default third-person point of view, or the user can switch to a first person
point-of-view using the “Mouselook” option. In a classroom environment,
this can make the interaction seem more true to life.
Classroom Presentation (first person point-of-view)
First person point of view with Geforce Go 7
17
3.4 Does SL support setting up areas where only paying students have access?
According to Second Life’s Education page “If you would like a place of
permanence in Second Life, Private Island ownership lets you create a secure
‘intranet’ space with restricted membership for your students and faculty, or
you can open it up to be accessible to everyone in Second Life.” In short, you
have to own the land in some way in order to restrict access to it.
3.5 How does one go about setting up a virtual classroom environment?
If using the Campus: Second Life option, the following information is from
the Campus: Second Life FAQ:
“If you are planning to teach a class where you think the students might benefit
from spending time in Second Life and want to participate in the Campus:
Second Life program, please contact Iridium Linden at iridium@lindenlab.com
using the Subject "Campus Second Life" . Please include a syllabus, schedule,
and a proposal on how you plan to use Second Life in the class. Include why
Second Life will make a difference to the learning experience you're offering,
whether you're planning any research leading to publication, and whether your
project is intended as a proof of concept or not. At the end of the semester we'll
ask you to send us a brief summary of your experience and any insights into
what we might do to improve the Campus: Second Life program. We'd also
appreciate copies of any student work that you can share. “
If you are not using the Campus: Second Life option, then one must buy,
lease, rent or borrow SL land upon which to hold the class. In addition,
Linden dollars must be obtained to pay for uploading course content (slides,
images, etc.) to the Second Life environment.
Linden Lab’s Academic Program Manager is named John Lester. An
additional contact for setting up an academic project or using Second Life for
education is joannamkay@gmail.com
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4.0 CONSTRUCTION
4.1 What tools are available for construction in Second Life?
The Second Life viewer provides powerful, highly flexible building tools that
allow users to create objects. These tools use geometric primitives (or
“prims”) and a simple, intuitive interface shown below.
Users can stretch these prims into new shapes, change their texture and
physical qualities, and link them to other prims. Images such as .jpegs and
other standard graphic files can be imported into Second Life to texture the
objects we create. In addition, Second Life allows several residents to
construct the same objects(s) at different times or simultaneously.
Second Life objects can respond to gravity, inertia, propulsion, and wind from
the in-word weather system if we imbue these objects with Havok™-powered
physics.
19
The basic approach for constructing a building or other large structure is to
first terraform the property and then construct the building using prims.
Remember, in order to make a large, permanent structure, one must first own
land in order to have somewhere to put it.
4.2 Does Second Life allow users to program behaviors into their creations?
Second Life supports a script language called the Linden Scripting Language
(LSL) to control object and avatar behavior. For example, one can create a
butterfly which follows you around as you walk or a wall that displays
different images when it is touched to simulate a slideshow.
4.3 What is the Linden Scripting Language?
The Linden Scripting Language (LSL) is an internal, event-driven, C/Javastyle scripting language used to attach behaviors to SL objects. It features a
variety of built-in functions for manipulating physics and avatar interaction.
Step-by-step, 3D tutorials are offered for free by veteran Residents and Linden
Lab staff. Second Life also has a wiki on LSL at
http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage
4.4 Does Second Life support objects that are constructed using external
software?
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The Second Life website says that there is no need to buy and learn any
separate tools or applications to create objects. However, there are some
applications available that support creation of Second Life objects.
Name
1 Animator
2 Backhoe
3 Precision
Wear
Dress
Maker
4 QAvimato
r
5 Wings3D
6 AutoDesk
MAYA
Description
This application allows us to create and edit animation (.BVH) files.
This is open source. It's also available for Windows XP, Mac OS X,
and Linux. Download at http://avimator.com/
This software is very useful if you own a private island in Second Life.
Backhoe is whole region terrain editor for Second Life. We can
download a region's terrain as a file and use Backhoe to read those files.
Then, we can upload the edited file back to Second Life and our whole
region will be changed. Download at: http://www.notabenesl.com/Backhoe/
This software is used to build flex prim skirts and dresses. We only
need to answer some questions and it will program itself allowing even
an inexperienced user with relatively little skill to produce a quality
product. It will ask you about measurements of your body and a few
other options then create a mathematically correct prim skirt around
you with all angles, compound angles, curves and tangent points
accurate to with in .001 of a meter. Download at:
http://www.fashionetics.com
QAVimator is a continuation of Avimator by Vince Invincible. It
provides many enhancements includes a timeline, in scene props. We
can use this software with Windows, Linux and Mac operating system.
Download at: http://www.qavimator.org/
Open-source polygonal modeler. Allows direct and flexible control
over polys and helps focus on how to optimize low polycount objects.
http://www.wings3d.com/
Free learning version
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=763952
5
It should be noted that loading custom images and textures into Second Life
costs L$10 (roughly 5 cents) per image. While this is not expensive, it is
worth mentioning just to make the point that some amount of Linden dollars
must be purchased in order to load objects onto the SL servers.
4.5 Should Second Life structures be built in SL or by using external tools?
This is a question that inspires much debate on the Second Life blogs. There
is some disagreement concerning how easy it is to actually build larger
21
structures using the Second Life tools. The following is a quote from author
Jon Udell about construction in SL
(http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/11/42OPstrategic_1.html):
“Back in ‘94, not many people had mastered HTML well enough to
make interesting Web pages. Likewise, few today can wield the
Second Life construction tools well enough to build compelling stuff.
Just as Web page authors were scarce and expensive then, Second
Life builders are now. The parallels are striking.”
The main argument for using the Second Life tools as opposed to external
modeling tools centers around how the Second Life prims were designed to
help with efficient network transfer of geometry. That is, they eat up less
bandwidth than viewing something built externally. There is also the factor of
prim count to consider. For any given area of land, there is a maximum
number of prims allowed to be built there. While building in SL, you know
how many prims have been used in construction. Structures made with
external tools may have more prims than expected when uploaded to Second
Life. Some also maintain that external tools such as Maya have a steeper
learning curve than the SL primitive builder. Proponents of building in
Second Life also cite the social aspects of building as a positive aspect of
doing construction in SL.
Those who prefer to build Second Life structures external to Second Life
maintain that the third party tools are easier to learn and more powerful than
manipulating the Second Life prims. They also site that the gains in
bandwidth in using SL prims is lost in the often necessary texture uploads. As
far as the social aspect of building, proponents of external tools point out that
building within Second Life is not very collaborative. Others can watch you
build your prims, but mostly can’t touch unless granted access via your
friends list.
In the end, this is not an all-or-nothing argument. Some artifacts may be more
suited to be built in-world and other, more complex structures, may be better
suited for external tool construction. The decision also depends greatly on the
skill and experience level the designer has with each option.
22
5.0 REFERENCES AND TUTORIALS
5.1 What are some resources for general information on Second Life?
The Official Guide to Second Life is a very useful reference for general
information on Second Life. It also includes sections on building and
scripting. At the time of this writing, it was still available at many bookstores.
Rymaszewski, Michael, Second Life: the official guide, Wiley Publishing,
Inc., New Jersey, 2007. ISBN-10: 0-470-09608-X
The following links address learning Second Life Skills:
 Academy of Second Learning - http://slurl.com/secondlife/eson/32/162//
 Ivory Tower of Prims (teaches in-world skills) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/204/70/25/
 Orientation Island (Public version of everyone's first time) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Orientation%20Island%20Public/97/155
In addition, a tutorial on how to send and receive a note card in SL can be
found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSIYGhZbT4
5.2 Where can one learn more about education and educational campuses in SL?
The following links provide examples of SL educational campuses:





Campus: Second Life (Pathfinder Linden's hosted space for educators) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Campus/150/100
Global Kids Island - (The Main Grid location that reports on activities at the
Global Kids location in the Teen Grid.)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cincta/89/95/23/
Harvard Law School's Austin Hall http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/69/54/24/
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Hotel & Tourism Management
- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Polyusotel/114/158/26/
New Media Consortium Campus (private sim, Electric Sheep build, free sign
up for access; overview movie) http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus/142/223
23






Ohio University Second Life Campus http://slurl.com/secondlife/ohio%20university/20/36/24/
Northern Illinois University, Glidden Campus http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glidden/88/166/30/
The Sistine Chapel (Vassar Island) http://slurl.com/secondlife/vassar/165/91/24
Democracy Island (NYLS) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Democracy%20Island/116/220/
Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Library on Info Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/50/199/33/?title=Info%20Island
Info Island (Incorporating SL and ICT Libraries, TechSoup
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/52/193/
This tutorial tells about the possibilities of education in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGR9q43dag
This tutorial tells how the university outlook can be created
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9VZKTT6gZ8
This tutorial addresses the current education trend in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA
This tutorial gives information about the software engineering game at Ohio
State University
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkkl3LucxTY
This tutorial shows how babler is used as medium for exchange of knowledge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5O3CtumU&mode=related&search=SDU%20SecondLife%20Second%20Life%2
0university%20universitet%20syddansk
This tutorial has ideas for classrooms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKjv5bmDCVU
5.3 Where can one learn more about construction in Second Life?
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Classes are available that teach basic knowledge and skills to create and build
objects. Instructors, including Linden Lab and Second Life residents, use the
Second Life environment to organize these classes. Some of the classes are
free and some cost several Linden Dollars (L$). The schedule for these
classes can be found at
http://eventful.com/events/tags/Education?l=Second+Life&t=Next+7+days
The following link offers an overview of how to use the internal building
system in SL
http://xahlee.org/sl/build.html
A couple of simple movies showing some constructions can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSzh_QTE00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPeRukbyDhk
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