Running 2 sl's at the same time

does anyone know of a way for me to do this?

i want to run sl twice, on the same computer but when i try to open sl a second life it says 'second life is already running'

With windows XP or Vista set up another user account on your PC. Log in as that user and start up SL. Switch users and then start it up again on your normal account. You can't operate both avatars at once but they would both be logged on at the same time.

"G"

thanks, that was quick!

tried it, still not working - same message

thanks anyway

There is a step by step of how to do it in the knowledge base. Search for "Run Multiple Accounts" if th epictures will help you.

the instructions from there are as follows

On Windows:

1. Find a shortcut of Second Life. You may already have one on your desktop. If you need to find the executable (SecondLife.exe) so you can make a shortcut, Second Life is usually located in this directory:
   
   C:\Program Files\SecondLife
   
2. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.
   
3. Click the Shortcut tab.
   
4. In the Target field, next to the path to the directory containing Second Life, insert a space and "-multiple". Like this:
   
   "C:\Program Files\SecondLife" -multiple
   
   Do not delete the quotation marks.
   

1. Click OK.
   
2. Now, try double-clicking the Second Life shortcut. After it opens, double-click it again. In your Windows Taskbar, you should see two instances of Second Life, showing you did this correctly.
   

From here, you can log in as usual. Please keep in mind that Second Life can be extremely resource-intensive and will attempt to use as much computer processing power as possible. Running multiple copies of Second Life will tend to be very slow, unless you're on a computer with multiple cores, or you minimize running viewers not in use, so the one you're actively working on can have those resources.





no need for a second windows account and swapping this way

ill try that now, thank you

or the shortcut it creates on the desktop just add the -multiple there

Create a batch file with the following three lines:


cd "C:\Program Files\SecondLife"
start SecondLife.exe -multiple -login Avator One password1
start SecondLife.exe -multiple -login Avator Two password2

where, of course you replace 'Avator One' with the name of your first avator, and 'password1' with his/her password, etc. Also, of course, cd to a different directory if your second life program directory is not the usual one. Double click on the batch file and wait for them both to load. Expect a long wait and a lot of lag if your computer, graphic card, and on-line connection aren't high end.

Own TWO computers.

Own TWO? Are you crazy? What do I do with my other three? There is no way I could get by with two

other useful command line arguments for sl http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Client_parameters

I particularly like
-noprobe -user First Last Password

combined with a shortcut key, I can relog faster than SL can finish kicking me out on a borked tp =)

Has anybody tried onrez? I think that is a secondary viewer for SL. I may be wrong.

Two avatars run well on my computer with only a GeForce FX5200 and 1 GB RAM. It's more laggy than with a single avatar but it does function.
First, run Sl and login with your Avatar. Wait for entire login inworld. Second, Re-run SL and login with your alt.
As said before, try not to run too much applications at the same time.
And one very important thing : when your first avatar is logged in, immediately log in your second avatar. Do not do anything with your first avatar, before logging in with the second, or loggin will be very slow and freeze your first avatar, and you'll need to close all SL applications.
In all cases, if typing the name and password of your second avatar is very slow with typing very delayed, it's no use continuing (loggin in will take several minutes or freeze). In that case, quit all SL applications and redo the login.
Happy New Year !

Two computers, lol... then you could run FOUR instances at a time, bandwidth providing.

I think the risk of file corruption might be increased though...not sure.

Onrez is an SL viewer developed by the Electric Sheep Corp. (ESC). You get it automatically if you register in the CSI/NY game sims. However, you can also get it inworld or from ESC directly, link on their home page: http://www.electricsheepcompany.com/core/

It is a simpler viewer, more of a browser feel.

The OnRez client is a custom client for the "CSI: Miami" entertainment sims, that tie into the TV show. Using them for the first time with a specific avatar resets that avatar's home location to the CSI: Miami sims, so make sure you have a landmark for your real Home before you try it! They hid the building tools and made shopping via their own proprietary service easier. They force-attach a special HUD that is related to the CSI: Miami interactive sims, and it takes a special command to detach it. After the first use it doesn't force the home position or force the HUD to re-attach, but you have to go through a forced visit to their CSI sims with every avatar account that you log in with, even if the only thing you to there is TP away as fast as you can.

The OnRez client has some interface improvements, but nothing in particular to assist in using multiple clients at once. The same tricks that allow the standard client to run multiple copies work for theOnRez client. I had two of them running on my Mac a while back as a test.

In short, The OnRez SL Client is a shiny, different interface on the same tools, customized to run best in a set of commercial sims tied to a TV show. They eventually plan to release a verion that isn't customized for their network TV client, but you can bet that it will still give their in-house shopping system preferential treatment, and that it will be geared more to consumers than to content creators.

It also gives you the same issues of trying to start two Second Life viewers without doing little tricks. You cannot run OnRez and Second Life Windlight, Regular viewer, or that Nicholaz viewer, or for that matter "Restrained Life" without creating those shortcuts/tricks/what-have-you.

This is not my experience, my guess would be that one's performance with two or more SL instances active simultaneously is very dependent on the capabilities of your computer.

One thing that I use quite a bit is a minimized second client - minimized, it uses about 1/4 the CPU cycles that it does if I just switch between them. Usually I only have two up if I am testing something, so having one minimized is no biggie. Note that if you are going to leave an SL minimized for over 20-30 minutes, I think SL will still automagically log you out, even if you have unchecked the AFK test flag (Client menu/tests). Unless of course you are using the Nicholaz client - that behavior's been fixed for ages there.

Does anyone know how to do this with a MAC?

This very subject of running multiple avatars at the same time on one computer was covered in the most recent Tip of the Week - and it covers not only Windows but also Macs and even Linux. Check the opening page for SL and scroll down the blog items till you find it.