Second Life Terminology
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A collection of the idioms of Second Life for those newcomers to the Dragon Isles who are also newcomers to SL itself and wish to know more without having to dig through the Official Second Life Knowledge Base.
Contents |
The Terminology
The list begins here:
Build Tool
The build tool is the window that pops up when you either click the "Build" button on the SL client toolbar or when you right-click on an object and choose "Edit" from the PIE menu.
Clip
In general 3D graphics terminology, clipping is a process by which objects that we cannot see are excluded from the scene our computer draws. This reduced the amount of work involved in rendering the scene and essentially makes things faster. Please note that this is highly simplified; please see Wikipedia's clipping article for computer graphics or other sources for a more in-depth explanation.
A related use of the word is when two objects occupy the same part of 3D space: one object is said to "clip into" the other. Generally when people use the word "clip" or "clipping" in SL they are referring to this meaning. Objects and avatar attachments will clip into each other if one or both are set to phantom or if you are moving them with the Edit tools.
Contents, Object Contents
Objects in SL have their own simplified version of an inventory, similar to the one your avatar has. You can view this inventory by looking at the "Contents" tab of an object on the on the Build Tool. In order to see this tab you generally right-click on an object, choose Edit from the Pie Menu, then click the More button on the Edit window and then click on the Contents tab.
Delete
Deleting something in SL can mean deleting an item from your inventory or deleting an object from the SL world. Both actions involve selecting the item and pressing the delete key, or right clicking and finding the delete option. When an item is deleted it is usually placed in your "Trash" folder in your inventory and can be restored from there if you deleted it accidentally.
IM
Short for Instant Message, which refers to sending a message to someone in world either via the "IM" button on the client toolbar or from the button on their profile or on the Search window.
In-World
This refers to something that exists or takes place in the 3D virtual world of Second Life, for example an in-world clothing store would be a shop that exists inside SL or an in-world rock concert would be a music event that takes place inside SL.
Object
An object is usually considered to be a collection of primitives linked together to form some kind of structure, such as a house or a walking stick or a hat. Confusingly an object can also consist of a single prim.
Phantom
A phantom prim or object is one that will pass through other prims, objects and avatars in Second Life. In editing terms this option is applied to a prim or object from the "Object" tab on the "Edit" window.
The PIE menu is the circular menu that appears when you right-click on objects or the ground in-world.
Prim or Primitive
A prim is the simplest shape one can build in SL, be it a cube or a sphere or a cylinder. Every time you create one of these shapes with the Build Tool you are creating a prim.
Rez
To rez an object means that you bring it into being in-world. This can mean using the Build Tool to create a default prim shape, or dragging something out of your inventory and dropping it on the ground.
SL
The short form of the name "Second Life"
SL Time, SLT
A measure of time from an in-world point of view; see SL Time for a more in depth discussion.
Take
This means to right-click on an object and choose the "Take" option off the Pie Menu. This action will remove the object from the SL world and put it back into your inventory.
Touch
In a Second Life context, to touch something - especially an object - usually means to click on it with the left mouse button.
Wear
To wear something in SL is to find it in your inventory and then either right-click on it and choose "Wear" or right-click on it and attach it to a specific point on the avatar's virtual body.
Useful Links
A collection of other useful help pages:
More will be added as we find them!
