newbie help

Well I have to say this game has a ton of stuff in it. So much to learn..lol but I will ask some help here to start.
First, does any of the in game settings, like graphics settings..etc effect in game lag? It seems like some areas take longer to render then other sometimes. Looks like I might need to upgrade my 1.5Mb DSL connection for this game lol.
You never get a "home" unless you upgrade your account and get land?
I notice their is an jobs listing area of the forums. Is this where I would go to make more in game money? How do I apply for one?
How do I change my the way I look? I dont mean clothes, but the physical part of the in game person? Or is it once you do it at the start you cant do it again?
When I change clothes it seems like it takes a while for it to show up, is that just apart of lag?
Thanks.

Hiya Jamie.

Welcome to SL

does any of the in game settings, like graphics settings..etc effect in game lag?

Alot of people say the setting do afftect lag, SO I would suggest reading the Techincal forum, Find the threads where people have recommended what settings work best ect and then its just a matter of playing with these settings to see what works best for you.

You never get a "home" unless you upgrade your account and get land?

You can rent houses, land ect, However if you prefer to own your own land and build your own house you will need to go premium.

I notice their is an jobs listing area of the forums. Is this where I would go to make more in game money? How do I apply for one?

The jobs or employment section on the classifieds is definatley a good way to find jobs, So is the employment option in these forums, To apply read the post and the creator should have stated what you need to do, Sometimes you just IM that person, Or they may want you to create a notecare ect

How do I change my the way I look? I dont mean clothes, but the physical part of the in game person? Or is it once you do it at the start you cant do it again?

To change your look, in game, Right click on yourself choose appreance, in that window you have alot of options ranging from you face features to your shape and size, Be sure to save a copy of your shape the way it is incase you don't like your end result, To save (before you play with any settings) there is a "Save AS' option select that, choose a folder and name where you can find it again.

If you don't wish to create your own shape there are tons of shape creators in game, To find these open up your "find" window, And type in shapes, Then its a matter of flying around till you find what you want.

Also if you want to change you skin colour you can search for skins, You can also mess with this in your appearance aswell.

When I change clothes it seems like it takes a while for it to show up, is that just apart of lag?

Sometime my clothing loads fast, Sometimes its slow, Sometimes its because of lag, Also I've noticed sometimes when I buy clothing and go to wear it for the very first time it may take a few to load, But after that it works fine

Hope this helps, Hope you have a great SL

Also keep in mind that unlike other online games (I'm using that term loosely for SL to avoid getting lynched ) There is hardly anything stored on your hard drive. Just some basic client files. Everything else streams in from the servers. So naturally, the more stuff it has to stream in, the more time it takes to draw onscreen & the more lag you might encounter.

You can do as Jaime suggested, and go into the Preferences & try turning down or off some of the graphics settings. See if that helps.

wow, thanks for the fast reply you guys! I'll go try some of that and get lost in the game again! hehe

Also: use some tool to monitor your network load. (something like Netlimiter).
I have a 6Mb down connection, it's never maxed out when playing SL and it take ages for me to load too. The SL servers just dont stream any faster.

I've found the statistics bar helpful. (view -> statistics bar) I use three machines for SL and the preferences are quite diifferent on each machine to get the best performance.

Realistically - it's a trade off between frame rate and resolution/detail in my case. (I can only get 512Kbps ADSL.)

OK, I read over the job listings and some of them talk about skills. How do I get skills?
And I want different animations,( my dude walks like a weird stick figer) guess it cost money if I was some from somewhere? Where do I find any, or do I have to make them myself?

First place you're gonna want to check out is Yadni's Junkyard, or New Citizens Incorporated (go to Find->Places and type those names in). Both have tons of free or $L1 things for the new player. Which semi-leads into the next statement...

You are, at some point, probably going to want money, especially for something like a male walk/stand/sit override set (usually called an AO). Yadni's has some free animations but more than likely not what you're looking for in that aspect. Personally, my advice as opposed to looking for a job this early on is just drop about $10-$20 on the Lindex and get yourself some mad money to work with for a while. $10US will give you like $L2800 in game money. Also, consider signing up for the Premium account if you can, its $10 a month but your weekly stipend is $L500 without lifting a finger.

Finally, yep, you can make your own animations if you use a program called Poser (there's a new free program out that works too, check the Animations forum).