Dolmere Talamasca - Second Life "resident"

There are many places in Second Life where one could go to grab tons of free or nearly free content.

Some of these places would include the following:
• YadNi Junkyard (My writeup on YadNi's Junkyard here)
• Free Dove
• Linden's Bazaar in Stillman
• Gnubie Store (My writeup on Gnubie here)
• New Citizens Inc. (NCI)

Some of these objects are intended to be used as "attachments" to your avatar - meaning that the object will be attached to your body in some way in order to achieve its affect. I've decided to use the uniquitous coke can for demonstration purposes.

I click the blue inventory button at the bottom of my SL viewer window. I then navigate through my inventory window to find my various free drinks. Along the way I organized my objects in my inventory to make things easier to find (like that works) and I ended up creating a folder named "free drinks" into which I placed various cute freebies. In there I find the coke can.

Let's just take a look at a common mistake one makes when first working with new inventory items intended to be used as attachments. What you might do is drag the item from inventory out into the world, dropping it on the floor. We refer to making something appear in world from stored inventory as "rezzing". Once the object can be seen by others in the game we say it has "rezzed".

For vehicles, homes, furniture and other things intended to be interacted with as a stand alone object this would be the correct step. However, for something that wants to be used as an attachment you will want to wear the object.

First let's delete the copy of the object we created before attaching a fresh copy of it. Since this object allows us to make copies of it we'll just right click* on the copy sitting on the floor, choose more from the pie menu and then click delete. This will move the object from the world where others can see it back into your inventory - this time the copy will be in your trash folder.

If the object has a label "no copy" then it means that you cannot duplicate the object. When you drag it in world you will not delete the object, as it will be lost. Instead you will right click the no copy object and choose "Take" from the pie menu. This will return the object from the virtual world where others can see it back to your inventory - to the folder it came from when it was first rezzed into the world.

Now we'll rez the object the right way, the way it was intended to be used. Back in inventory I'll right click the coke can and in the menu that pops up I'll choose to wear the object. Objects "remember" the last place they were attached on the body and most of the time when you receive an item it has already been configured to attach itself to the correct location. You simply need to choose "wear" and it will attach to the correct portion of the body.

Now that I chose to wear the coke can it appears in my right hand.

Perhaps I want to reposition the can on my hand as I can see that it's a bit clumsy looking right now.

Once again we use our right click mastery. I'll right click the coke can that is now rezzed in my right hand in order to modify its position a bit. When I right click the attachment a pie menu appears and I'll choose the "Edit" option. Our standard edit/build window appears and the coke can is now highlighted with controls on its axis.

I'll use the colorful arrows to reposition the coke can on my hand. Clicking one of the blue arrows and moving the mouse up and down will reposition the can vertically. Clicking and dragging the green or red arrows will move the can around horizontally. Now I notice that the can kinda sits inside my thumb a bit. I'd like to change the rotation of the can a bit so that it sits at a slightly better angle in my hand. To do that I hold down the control key.

Notice that when I hold the control key the arrows change into circles covering the can (OK, I couldn't get a nice screen grab of that so notice instead the way the circles cover a nice basic prim) in this picture.

Clicking on any of the colorful circles and dragging will rotate the object. Once I've moved it into a position that is pleasing to the eye I'll let go of the control key and I'll be returned to the standard edit arrows. At this point the coke can is sitting in my hand in a somewhat more pleasing position.

So far so good. I've worn an object and I've repositioned that object. There's one other thing I'd like to tackle. You may notice that the coke can looks a little small for my hand. Shouldn't virtual avatars, with their enhanced metabolisms, be able to drink the big gulps? Perhaps I want the can to be a larger capacity.

What I'll do is hold the control key again but this time I'll ALSO hold down the shift key. When I press the control key and the shift keys together the controls around the object are now little colorful squares at the sides and edges. I can click on any of the standard three colors to grow the object in that direction. Or, in this case, I'll click any of the white squares in the corners to grow the object in all directions at once. Then I'll drag my mouse and the coke can will either grow or shrink with my movements.

Now I can use the skills I applied earlier to reposition and rotate the larger coke can in my hand.

Finally, since this coke can has an animation included, I can sit back and enjoy watching the big gulping action of a glutonous avatar. Woot!

I can apply these same steps to any attachment from inventory that allows modification. For instance the world famous flaming marshmallow on a stick:

Or even the ever-increasing-in-popularity snotling on a stick:

Note that some objects you buy will have a permission of "no mod" which means that it will not allow you to edit it at all including its position on your avatar.

Earlier in this little write up I said: Objects "remember" the last place they were attached on the body and most of the time when you receive an item it has already been configured to attach itself to the correct location. What if you want to attach it to a different location, what if the correct location has never been set, etc? The answer to that is to choose the "Attach To" menu item in inventory. When you point at Attach To a new sub menu appears listing the locations where you could attach an object on your body. Also note that next to the attachment point you'll see the name of any objects that are already attached in that location.

*Mac users: a multi button mouse or Apple mighty mouse would allow you to "right click". If you have no multi button mouse then you will want to hold the Apple/Command key, it has a clover symbol and is right next to the space bar, while clicking on something to get the equivalent of a "right click".