Opening two SL programs in 1.7?

before the 1.7 latest release I could open two SL clients simultaneously. Was useful for trading things between my primary avie and an alt I use just for building. Anybody figure out how to do that on a Mac with the new 1.7 version?

Personally, I would like to know how much 'horsepower' your system needs to have to pull that off. How much RAM Memory, and what sort of video card is required to have a powerful enough system that you can run two instances of Second Life at once?

My own little Mac has a hard enough time running one instance and doing anything else at all. I'm barely above the min specs, so I don't expect to be able to run two copies at once. But for future reference, it would be nice to know how big a Mac you need to do it. I might actually be willing to create an alt or two if I could actually have more than one of them in-world at a time.

Yes.

Conventional wisdom is that it is insane to open two instances of SL on one computer. SL runs on bandwidth and memory and is a hog of both. To have two open might be good for a one time trick, but not recommended otherwise.

I open two clients on my PC from time to time with no trouble. Adding "-multiple" to the shortcut that starts SL makes it possible. I don't know if it is the same for Macs.

Agreed. I run two instances of SL all the time on a PC that is just above min spec quite often with no problems. There's no reason Macs can't do the same.

For the OP: I've found that when LL changes the TOS for SL, I have to go inworld via their shortcut and not the ones I have that use the "-multiple" switch that SuezanneC mentioned. After I log in each avatar with this method, my shortcuts work, but until then, the client just hangs up on me and it may be the same with Macs.

Hope this helps.

My 2600+ AMD with 1gig and 6600 GT can run two instances of SL well enough. The frame rates are a little lower but still playable. 3 on the other hand causes significant slowdowns.

My 4400+ AMD X2 duel core with 2 gig memory and a 6800 Ultra will run two instances perfectly fine with no impact on framerate and 3 instances impacts frame rate some but still playable.

Macs should be able to do the multiple instance thing as well, multi-core G5's should do it without even breaking a sweat if they have a good video card.

I am appalled to discover that 1.7 has crippled my longstanding ability to run two avatars at once. Too slow to actually "socialise" etc, but vital when debugging products where one avatar needs to look at another (don't tell me please that two people's cameras always see the same thing. Ain't always so.)

I want this entirely new crippling removed. Now.

There is a partial way round. Run the client in two different user accounts. This is what I had to do last night, but it is hugely tedious. Only one on screen at once. Big time lag to change, entering passwords etc.

I am going to post an objection on the hotline, and report a bug inworld. I beg others to do the same, or we Mac users may be stuck with this forever. If they get no complaints they will assume we don't care.

I like how it tells me to check my "task bar."

Edited to add: The hotline solution works. Just add the following text to the arguments.txt file:

-multiple

Thanks Kelly!

First off, before the 1.7, I could open two SL clients easily as jester mentioned on this thread. Now I get, however, an alart box and cannot open it.
As a tentative measures, I added another user account on my Mac and switched it to use each.


[EDIT]I should have read Pol's remark well...

Hurrah ! The Kelly Linden Pol Tabla solution is working for me. Many thanks.

When I do this on my PC I get screen hash as the two versions try and fight it out over the video memory. Even if I minimize one first.

I guess you're running SL in a window, or something like that? That doesn't seem to work nearly as well on the PC as it does on the Mac.

Well, I've Rt-clicked on SL and drilled down to the Resources file. Done a search for arguments.txt and can't find such a file.
So how do I cerate it? And what do I put into it, please?

(My reason for asking is the same as the reason for this therad: Just cranked up a new Av and want them up and running in two separate windows. One of the Lindes on Live Help said that this was a way of being able to get them to offer friendship to each other so that they could then pass stuff easily to each other etc.)

Any comments welcome.

I am able to run multiple instances of SL on PCs with no trouble, I don't have a mac.

See if there is a file called Settings.ini, it might be in "~/library/Application Support/SecondLife/user_settings", I am outta my field here since I don't have a mac. Please let us know what happens.

Run Terminal.app (double click the Terminal icon in the Applications/Utilities folder) and paste in the following line and then hit return:

echo -multiple >/Applications/Second\ Life.app/Contents/Resources/arguments.txt

That will create the proper file for your purposes.

Many thanks. I've just done that. here's thre Terminal protocol:
Last login: Wed Dec 7 16:16:07 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
cpc4-hitc4-3-1-cust90:~ devijankowicz$
cpc4-hitc4-3-1-cust90:~ devijankowicz$
cpc4-hitc4-3-1-cust90:~ devijankowicz$ echo -multiple >/Applications/Second\ Life.app/Contents/Resources/arguments. txt
-bash: /Applications/Second Life.app/Contents/Resources/arguments.: No such file or directory
cpc4-hitc4-3-1-cust90:~ devijankowicz$

It doesn't seem to have made any difference. I still can't open two windows with two copies of the same software, SL, running at the same time. And the message seems to be that the instruction as typed was wrong... Perhaps I typed in an extra space or something? Duh.
Oh, and just in case it _has_ made any difference at some subterranean, core-of-the-earth level of my OS, could you please let me know what to put in to Terminal to reverse the command that you kindly suggested? Terminal is Big Juju so far as I am concerned whereas my yummy, user-friendly OS10.3.8 interface is my bread and butter so I'd be very grateful for words of reassurance...

Anima Graff

It depends on where you put Second Life application. If you created a folder "Game" under Aplicaton folder and placed it, you will have to type, "echo -multiple >/Applications/Game/Second\ Life.app/Contents/Resources/arguments.txt".

hmm... Anyway, I like to create another account of the OS to open alt. Fast user switch feels good.

Seagille, can you find the file Settings.ini in "~/library/Application Support/SecondLife/user_settings" and if you can can you use it for anything, like adding the -multiple switch?

Suez, It is just a text file and I can customize it. But I have no idea what to do.
But this has been solved by Kelly Linden's article that Pol linked, hasn't it? hmm.. Kelly said, "Create arguments.txt file". Sorry, Anima, It is possible that you can't use Intent's method. Try Kelly Linden's method which Pol linked.

I spent so long trying to find Kelly's post it warped my brain a bit, and I got the uses of the Settings.ini file confused with the uses of the command line parameters on a pc.

It is the command line parameters on a pc whose functions are performed in the arguments.txt file.on a Mac

I'm glad Pol posted the link here.

If the arguments.txt file fully duplicates the functions of the command line parameters on the pc then those wanting to fiddle with arguments.txt file might want to look at the LSL wiki page on secondlife.exe command line switches.

There are some useful options, such as bypassing the login screen and going directly inworld.

Suez, you were talking about arguments.txt instead of setting.ini, weren't you? Wow, it sounds useful. Thank you for informing us. I'll check it when I get home. BTW, which is the bypassing one?