Can you run two instances of SL?

Hi was wondering if anybody knows if you can run two instances of SL at the same time on the same computer?

Cheers, Sean

Sure.

Mel

Lol Nice name.

Yeah by making a new shortcut to the SL exe file.
Then in that shortcut go to properties.
Then in the properties find the Target box.
It will say something like "C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe"
Just after the last " in that box put this in. -multiple
So it reads like this "C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -multiple

That lets you open as many as your computer can handle.
(You can only have one account on at any given time of course. So you'll need a second account for the second SL client you have open. Etc. Max is 5 per household.)

Hehe, yeah nice name, thanks and thanks for the advice

Here's a full list of useful command line options you can pass to SecondLife.exe:

http://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=newview

Please note that cooperative has been changed to yield. That useful if you're overheating your laptop; it causes SL to yield to the system (stop hogging 100%) after each frame is rendered with X millisecs.

Regards,

-Flip

I have never used "-multiple". Instead I logged into Windows with two different windows accounts and have each one run Second life directly.

Mel

Your avi pic for the forums is cute. Who is that?

.....

On thing to remember is that while it's not against TOS to run Multiple Instances, you will be torturing your computer's video card and might encounter Weird-Ass Packet Issues™ like unnoticed sim updates. I once had a twenty minute one-sided conversation with an alt and a freind of mine and didn't realize the freind had actually LEFT THE SIM.

Oh, well, I only did it once or twice for giving stuff to a second avie. But I really dont have any use of a second avie.

It is not that bad for the computer, as with two windows accounts you are not using the graphic card for both instances at the same time, right? It is more a problem of the available memory to avoid paging.

But hehe ... funny story!

Mel

edited: typo

I haven't used -muiltiple much, but in practice I have found that one instance generally crawls while the other runs at full speed. I have had the best luck if I close SL and then launch two instances almost simultaneously. This way I will get decent performance from both instances for a few minutes before one eventually starts to slow down. I have often wondered if other people experience this slow down of one client, and whether there is anything that can be done to lessen it.

Yep that happens after the 4th here.
I use the "set priority level" in the Taskmanager. That seems to do the trick for the most part.
Although that can crash them all too. heh

You are running four instances of the SL client on a single machine?! Wow ... I will have to try messing with the priority level setting. Thank you.

Well 3 to 4 of them with graphics set to the uh "total crap" setting.
Screen rez to 800x600 helps a lot. And I have them as tiny windows in a row across the desktop so its not like it has to render an entire screen.
A gig or two of ram helps of course but, I have a few computers. And one of the higher end ones can't even run a signle, let alone two, clients of SL
But it will run the new X3 game just fine with all the graphics maxed out in all its glory.
A server. And it can't run SL. Lags like crazy.
Very strange.
Anyway yeah you can probably squeeze 4 on most systems.
I had 2 running once on an old 500mhz computer which is way below specs for a single client of sl.
The whole thing confuses me. I dunno why one is better than another anymore. It's all freakin me out.

Oh, just for the info, The fifth avi I use to run around with. And my sis used one alt but not so much anymore. So it used to be only 3 going and 4 when I'm away. But now I might start camping 5 all together again. Maybe on one computer. I think that will be pushing it thou. Can just split the difference on two computers.

Anyway what I ment before was if I need to do something in one of them I can set the priority level higher on that particular one so it speeds up a bit. sometimes it doesn't work thou heh

Can we please make a sticky of this thread, or a Linden started one saying how it's done? This has been asked so many times! >_<

What would be useful values to try there?

Are you saying that the yield value is the number of milliseconds SL yields to the system following each client frame that SL draws?

Sounds like it might be trial and error, starting out low.

My suspicion is that the SL client is a bit of a resource hog. It doesn't play well with other applications - especially if it has been running for any lenghth of time. And by it's nature, it doesn't play particularly well with secondary instances of itself. If I try to fire up Photo Shop after SL has been running for an hour, it can take upwards of 5 minutes to get PS up and ready - and it only takes 15 seconds if SL is not running or has only recently been started. I have 1 gig of memory and a 256 meg 6600GT.

This, in itself, is one of the most compelling reasons why to have SL on a dual-processor or dual-core (like I have, Opteron 170) system. You can assign SL to one CPU and run other intensive apps (yes, Photoshop, that means you!) on the other, like a twin-headed monster, with little noticeable slowdown--if any at all. Or you can have 2 instances of SL, each one on a core. This isn't theoretical either... it's practical and easy to do.

This, I emphasize, if you're on the market for a new computer, is a winning reason to consider getting a dual-core solution (especially as they become more afforable). I only have experience with the AMD side of things, but I love what I have. It's a big boon for content creators who multitask heavily and want to keep SL and other things open, all at one jolly time.

Yes, SL definitely loves using your resources--watch CPU usage go up to 99% when it's non-minimized. It does want to make the fullest of what it can get. If doing other heavy things on such a system, a recommendation is to minimize, if outright logging off is inconvenient.

This is a popular question--altho I think that ultimately, there could be an easier way to log in two at once, instead of having to play with switches.

To ease the log in process, make the target field in the SL shortcut read:

"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -multiple -login av1firstname av1lastname av1password"

This bypasses the login screen.

Just make a separate shortcut for each account.

For the truly lazy, one could make a batch file to start more than one account.

The batch file could be called "StartAlts.bat" and have the following in it:

HAH! Why didn't I realize that?!
*gives embarrassing hug*
By the way I'll use it because I'm not lazy. I got too much other stuff going on at once sometimes and that is just faster.