Misc Questions

1. I saw a definition of SexGen in a really nice glossary but didn't understand what it actually is. Can someone please explain?

2. Can you join or link (or whatever), two of the free houses together to form a larger one? And maybe add some kind of doorway?

3. I asked this elsewhere but I think it's getting buried... Can you add your own music to your property rather than using an online radio station? I mean, music stored on your computer or CD or whatever?

4. Can you fence off your property so that nobody can see in?

5. Are there "for dummies" versions of really good guides for making things? (I don't mean the little tutorials for coloring the white T-shirts and changing the sleeve lengths.)

Thanks,
Lacy

1. Sexgen is the name of a particular brand of bed that has poseballs built-in. When you click on it, a menu appears on your screen and you pick a position, then poseballs appear on the bed and you can sit on them. When you click the bed again, you can pick another menu pose, and your avatars will automatically switch to the new pose. No need to get off an on the poseballs.

2. Yes you can link free houses together. You can also rez two houses on the ground, move them next to each other and use them. No need to link them unless you want to take them back into your inventory. You can find lots of free doorways in the freebie areas, just rez it wherever you need it.

3. Can you add your own music? Yes you can. But it's a bit involved. I haven't tried it.

4. No... Someone can always use their camera controls to move past any wall.

5. There are guides for making things. Check further down the forums for the texturing tips, building tips, etc. Each of those forums have links to different how to guides.

1. I saw a definition of SexGen in a really nice glossary but didn't understand what it actually is. Can someone please explain?

I'll let someone who knows more about this than I answer this, because there is a technical answer that I just can't articulate, but it's really known colloquially as a system of sex animations that are placed in furniture. So a "sexgen bed" is a bed loaded with sex animations. There are other sex beds as well.

2. Can you join or link (or whatever), two of the free houses together to form a larger one? And maybe add some kind of doorway?

Depends on the permissions of the houses. If you have permission to modify them and land enough to handle the prims, I don't see why not.

3. I asked this elsewhere but I think it's getting buried... Can you add your own music to your property rather than using an online radio station? I mean, music stored on your computer or CD or whatever?

You need to host the music somewhere, but if you do that, yes.

4. Can you fence off your property so that nobody can see in?

No. Unfortunately, the concept of privacy is pretty loose in SL. People can almost always find a way to cam in and see whatever you are doing. It goes with the territory and you just have to roll with it.

5. Are there "for dummies" versions of really good guides for making things? (I don't mean the little tutorials for coloring the white T-shirts and changing the sleeve lengths.)

There are several classes you can take in world. Check NCI. Someone else will likely chime in here and give you some other suggestions. A class is a great way, because you get live feedback as you are doing hands-on building. I seem to recall seeing a "SL for Dummies" sort of guide somewhere...I'll look next time I'm on and shoot you the info in-world if I can find it.

Hi Lacy,

Sorry your questions got lost. It doesn't happen often, but can when it gets hectic around here.

#1. Sexgen is a brand of bed in SL that has numerous poses. It's probably the most popular one in SL. There are other items you can buy which are Sexgen compatible.

2. You can move them together but you can only go so far as far as linking. I think it's 30m. Been awhile since I've built a house. For example, I can't link the patio to my house but I am able to move it right next to it and it appears connected. You'd be better off buying a large house or hiring someone to build one rather than connect two I'd think.

3. You can load your own music to SL but requires a subscription to Shoutcast or something. There is a cost. I don't know the details but if you don't get an answer her just ask any DJ in world. They could tell you.

4. Not possible, sorry. No such thing as real privacy in SL. Cameras can go anywhere within their distance allowed.

5. I'm hoping someone can answer better than I can. The official book looks pretty good from what I've seen of it.

WELCOME TO SL & THE FORUMS!

Wow: today must be the day of multiple-question posts. SexGen is a brand name for a product that animates multiple avatars at the same time in such a way that the avatars' positions are determined specific to the animation (like poseballs, not free-to-roam-about) and that the animations can be selected on command from a menu while the avatars are on the device. So, for example, one could start with a cuddle and end with smoking a cigarette, and everything in-between, without the avatars having to hop onto a different set of poseballs. There are lots of other devices that do the same thing; the SexGen brand is probably best known, and the SexGen products usually (always?) include some selection of "adult" animations.Because most free houses allow you to Modify them, yeah, you should be able to make doors where you want them, remove walls, etc., but two things: the resulting structure may be hideous, and will probably use more prims than would be necessary if just building the whole thing from scratch. Oh, and actually *linking* them together might be tricky, depending on size, because the "link" operation only works over a limited distance. But one could still select them as a group and move them around together, and take them as a "composite object" into inventory, even if they won't actually "link."Not that easily. Other than streaming music to your property, it's possible to upload little 11 second .wav file slices of audio and play them back sequentially, but the quality is pretty bad. To stream music, you need enough bandwidth to carry the stream from its source to all its listeners--and with multiple listeners, that's a lot of bandwidth, so you basically end up becoming a kind of small-scale internet radio station by renting access to some kind of streaming host (like a ShoutCast account, I guess--I don't actually do this, so others may have more info).No. You can make it so others can't actually get on your property... and you can have devices that alert you when people are approaching. But you can't keep them from seeing in.Might search for NCI in-world. Also, the Ivory Tower of Primitives, and Robin Sojourner's in-world texture tutorial, for starters.

Welcome, good luck, and have fun!

How can I let others set my land to their home?

Thanks

With regards to the 'for dummies' guide to making things, Madddyyy Schnook makes some great how-to guides, covering loads of things from building to dating! Hope this helps . Slurl is below...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Publishing%20Island/186/148/43

Thank you all so much for your answers and explanations.

I don't know what I had expected when I started SL, but I have to say, I've been very impressed with the generosity everyone has shown with regard to sharing knowledge, both here and in the game.

Again, thanks!
Lacy

(P.S. I'm sure y'all get the same questions over and over and I'm sorry about that...and I'm sorry for all the ones I know I'll still have coming up. )

Lacy, I see you've already gotten answers to most of your questions, but let me throw in a couple of things as well:



As others have said, there is almost always a way for people to see in if they really want to. However, if you wanted to keep people from glancing in casually (or keep yourself from seeing the neighbor's ugly build there are screens you can put up along the borders of your property. Another partial solution to the privacy issue is to put your home in the sky. You can also keep the minimap up to watch out for other avatars approaching. There's no guarantee of absolute privacy, but these things can help.



Do searches in-world for the following places: The Ivory Tower of Prims; the Particle Laboratory; and Sojurner Wood's texturing tutorial. (For the last one, search the person and look at her picks.) While there, look around for landmarks to other tutorials.

Also search the Events tab for Education and take classes in areas that interest you. (Hey, take classes in things that don't particularly interest you - the techniques you learn in building, say, a snow globe will transfer into building your house...)

Welcome to SL, and good luck!

re #3.

it is possible to upload a single mp3 to a website, and listen to that mp3 by adding it's address to the parcel music....

there are also some hard to find plugins that will allow you to do something similiar for multiple songs.

more advanced options are your own streaming webhost, shoutcast radio streams, and streaming clients (there's a section in the knowledge base about dj tools, and links to resources).

I think you could also enter a specialized address that points to a file on your computer, but only you would hear it (something like file://C:/some folder/some-song.mp3 ) and really you'd do better with just a music app running in the background

I believe the URL to play a song directly from your hard drive would be

file:///c:/pathtomusic

I havent tried it in SL however

the C;/ is the hard drive you store is\t on as well... c:/ is just the normal main HD for windows machines

Hi Lacy and welcome to the forum

Just wanted to add........ if your looking for "for dummies" guides to making things, you might want to check out: slnatalia.blogspot.com
Her tutorials are very easy to understand and follow.

Have fun!

might should add the college of scripting and music to that list great tutorials to learn basic and advanced scripting

1. SexGen is just a brand name someone made up for a fancy bed they made in SL. Making decent animations takes a lot of practice, so anything that comes with good animations is highly valued, and if related to sex as well, then it can become almost mythological in SL

2. Houses are built up out of prims, like every other object in SL. If you have permission to modify an object, you can rearrange the prims any way you like. Try one or two of the simple building classes that are available in SL, and you will quickly see how things are made and how they can be edited.

3. If you have a reasonable broadband connection, it is simple enough to set up your own stream to your own parcel using Shoutcast. And it is free. All the information you need is on the Shoutcast site, but it basically involves installing Shoutcast, WinAmp, and a special Shoutcast plugin into WinAmp.

4. What they said


5. In-world classes are an excellent way of learning to make things. Select beginners classes, and you will find the instructors eager to help. Find classes by using Search > 'Events', and selecting the 'Education' option from the drop down list.

What Sally said ^^ lol. i like natalia's blog and enjoy her tutorials. I would also have a look at classes etc in world. I have a box of guides with the label 'for dummies' from yadni's junkyard, but i haven't opened it yet, so i can't vouch for the contents. It might be worth checking though.

Welcome to the forums. Don't worry about asking repeat questions. I'm sure people will answer whether or not it has been asked before. After all, if people stopped asking questions, the forum would fade away. besides, i think people here actually enjoy helping people lol (don't tell them I told you so)
If you want to find previous answers though, you can use the search facility, I find it tough to find exactly what you are looking for but its there anyway.

6. Can you control the lighting/brightness inside your house? I'm not wanting to buy any lamps, etc. because i doubt their light would be noticeable since the inside of my house seems extremely bright even with no lights.

In Edit Preferences/Graphics, do you have "Nearby local lights" enabled, as opposed to "Sun and Moon Only?" This will make areas that don't get touched by the sun or moon to be darker. Also, check your "Advanced Graphics" tab; what's your Nighttime Brightness set to? 1.000 is default.

Does this affect everyone's brightness at my lot? or only my own? It's set to 1000.

Also, I've downloaded winamp and chosen a radio station from shoutcast and added that url into the media place. Do I need to keep winamp open and running on my computer now for this to play for anyone who might land on my property? I don't understand how this works (obviously lol).

"Nighttime Brightness" affects only your viewer, everywhere you go, so if everywhere seems too bright, that's what you'd adjust. On the other hand, if your place seems brighter than everywhere else, it might have lights built-in and always on, or "full bright" might be set on the textures. If that's the problem--your place is just too bright compared to everyplace else--that will take a little more investigation.You don't need to keep winamp open; it's just a handy way of sampling shoutcast streams, but once you've got the URL you want in the parcel settings, you're all set. (There's a whole involved process for streaming your very own sound to the parcel, but that doesn't sound like what you're doing.)

That would be so huge to me....more than huge!

Answering Question #5 Only:
Yes, there actually ARE a series of "For Dummies" Books published Inside SL that Cover many aspects of SL incluting Building, Texturing, particles, Scripting, Clothing making, There is even a "Cybersex for Dummies". You Buy the Book, and the lessons are all on Notecards, illustrated, so you can Use them Easily in SL.

Do a Search under Places using the "For Dummies" or "Dummies Guides" as Search parameters.

Angel.

not for sure but i do believe that "sex gen" is a term thats copyrighted by Stroker Serpentine. He happened to be the first in Second Life to bring that nice little feature into SL.

anything that has MOD perms set to it can be linked to any other object that has mod perms set to it. This is why you will see fireplaces...all looking the same but "made by different people"Theyve attached an object of their making and made it the "base prim" and SL tools only displays the base link prims creator as the creator of the overall multi linked object.

Uhm as for the music thing...well..Im curious about avatars being used as "bots" in Second Life. If you can attach a full house to a bots avatar and sit them on a pose ball to keep them still and also keep them from being logged off..wouldnt it be possible to bypass prim limitations this way?..also use that "bots" voice feature as a direct mic into SL with piped in cd music or whatever.(That would also solve the whole streaming bandwidth problem.)

~Lana Tomba

Hi again Lacy ... sorry I misunderstood, I thought you wanted to stream your own music from your computer to your parcel, and the Winamp/Shoutcast method is one way of doing that.

For any other stream, just paste the stream URL in the Media options of your parcel - nothing else is required.