Edited my appearance just a little too far?

So I'm new here (Just started playing SL today) and I'm terribly sorry if this is the wrong part of the forum to post this in, but I'm having a problem.

I was trying to edit the appearance of my avy (which is an extremely hard process btw lol) and I some how ended up getting rid of it all together, resulting in my avy just being a ball of glowing light and the loss of the ability to edit my appearance any further.

So,...my question is how do I get my avi back? : (

I think you need to relog because the cloud appearance is not something you can do in edit appearance When you log back in then we'll see what sort of shape you are in.

Welcome to SL and the forums.

I'm not sure you've correctly diagnosed the problem... turning into a glowing ball of light and being unable to edit your appearance usually happens when you've either logged on or tp-d between regions and, for whatever reason, the simulator (the stuff at the SL end that creates the world you see in the viewer) is having problems loading your stored appearance.

The fix is, in the first instance, to go to Edit (menu bar on the top of the screen), choose Preferences, and then choose the Network tab. Click "Clear Cache" and relog. That should force the viewer to download your stored appearance from the server, rather than trying to upload the cached copy on your PC -- it's when it's having problems doing that you get the cloud of mist and light.

If that doesn't work, there are more drastic measures available, but try that first.

As to getting your appearance back when you can edit it again, just look in the library folder and you should find a variety of default avatars and outfits. Just drag one of those onto your avatar, and you can start over.

Thanks so much. I'll go try log in and see what happens.

Alrighty! I'll be sure to try this out! Thanks for the reply and help!

As related advice.

The moment you get an appearance you like, even if not a finished one, do a 'save as' and give it a name. It will show up in a body parts or shapes folder in your inventory, and be what you are wearing. You can then try out other shapes, or make new ones, and always come back to that one by wearing it again.

The same advice applies to skin, clothing you make using edit appearance, and so on.

So I've tried both of the suggestions that were offered and I'm still just a ball. Did I do something seriously wrong here?

Probably not. You may just be caught in an annoying lag spike.

Ask someone around you if they can see you, or just a 'cloud'.

Try going somewhere with no other people (Open your map, look for an area with no green dots, and teleport to it). That's just on the theory that lag is keeping things from working.


You can also rebake your textures, that sometimes helps. Its in the advanced menu I think (control-alt-D) but messing with the options in there -CAN- seriously mess you up if you forget what you changed.

Lastly... this is a reason to go to the downloads page and get Snowglobe. Last time I had this problem, logging in with Snowglobe fixed it, and then I just relogged with my usual veiwer and was ok. Snowglobe handles some texturing differently, so it seems that it and the default viewer can sometimes work to untangle one another. Sometimes...

Ok,...so people are only seeing me as a ball or cloud or whatnot. And I can not teleport anywhere for some reason.

Honestly no game should be this hard. So thanks for all the help everyone but this just doesn't seem to be the game for me so I'm quitting.

If you decide to pursue SL, you might want to post information about your computer system. It sounds like your system might not meet the system requirements, or that you might have a problem with your firewall or something else unrelated to your avatar's appearance.

You can get some of the information about your system in Second Life, in the Help menu's About Second Life option. You can select the info shown there, copy it (Control C in Windows machines), and paste it into the forums with Control C (right click paste, on Windows machines).

You can also get info on your system at

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

Also, what kind of internet service do you have? Are you on a network? Wired or wireless?

Its probably not the system.

Honestly, problems like this are typical for new SL people and they really have failed in not doing something about it.

If you are still around and still checking this, let me know. I can try to help you in world.

Huh.
I'd like to know what happens when you wear (right click > wear) a different shape - either from the Library, or creating a new one via the menu in the inventory. If you haven't uninstalled already, that is

If you are still reading this, Jantzen, and feel like giving it another shot, try this rather more radical measure. Access the Advanced Menu by pressing Ctrl Alt D together (assuming it's a Windows pc). http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Advanced_menu

Find Character on the Advanced Menu, go to Character Tests and then choose Test Male/Test Female. This will reboot your avatar, as it were, and force the system to give you a brand new default avatar, to which you can then apply skins, shapes and so on from your inventory.

Do stay with Second Life if you can - it's worth it. The glowing ball is a glitch that can probably be sorted. Is your computer and internet connection up to coping with SL? On a low-powered computer SL works, but not very well - the better the computer and broadband, the better the experience.