Jacek Lives

Wonder where the “Tools” menu went in Second Life viewer 1.20? Linden Lab decided, in the interest of reducing the number of menus presented to the user, to make it only visible when the “Build” window is open (Ctrl-3).

This change was rather unpopular, and Linden Lab has, thankfully, decided to revert it in a future version. But in the meantime, we’re stuck with it — or we would be, except there’s a quick and easy work-around to disable it! All it takes is a text editor (Notepad, etc.); you don’t even have to compile anything. (If you’re really lazy, you can just download my file and put it in the right spot, as described below.)

This trick is a simple one. Since SL looks for the Tools menu by name to find which menu to hide, all you have to do is change its name, and SL won’t find it, and it’ll stay visible all the time!

The really easy way (download the replacement file):

1. Download my pre-chewed XML file to “Second Life/skins/default/xui/en-us/”, replacing the existing one. On OS X, go to Applications, ctrl-click on “Second Life”, choose “Show Package Contents”, then put the file in “Contents/Resources/skins/default/xui/en-us/”.
2. Restart SL, enjoy.

The slightly less easy way (edit the file yourself):

1. Open up “Second Life/skins/default/xui/en-us/menu_viewer.xml” in your text editor. On OS X, go to Applications, ctrl-click on “Second Life”, choose “Show Package Contents”, then open up “Contents/Resources/skins/default/xui/en-us/viewer-menu.xml” with TextEdit (or your favorite text editor).
2. Search for: name="Tools" (it’s on line 590)
3. Change name="Tools" to name="Toolz" or some other non-Tools word.
4. Save the file, restart SL, enjoy.

Voila, your Tools menu will now be visible all the time. Piece of cake.

This should help anyone who wants to make images to be displayed in the SL (classifieds, picks, etc.) and not have them be horribly stretched or squashed by Linden Lab’s inconsistent use of image aspect ratios. I don’t bother to cover aspect ratios for textures to be used on prims, as the proper aspect ratio in that case depends entirely on the prim’s dimensions.

If you’re making an image for…

• a classifieds listing … use 10:7.
• a parcel snapshot … use 10:7.
  (But know that it will be stretched horizontally in people’s picks.)
• your own pick … use 16:9.
• a 2nd life profile … use 4:3.
• a 1st life profile … use 1:1.
• a group insignia … use 1:1.
• an invitation or ‘view me’ image … use powers of 2.
  E.g. 64, 128, 256, or 512 pixels wide/high.

List of Aspect Ratios & Notable Places They Appear

• 16:9 (1.78:1) — Profile (Picks)
• 3:2 (1.5:1) — About Land (Options / Snapshot)
• 10:7 (1.43:1) — Search (Classifieds, Popular Places, Land Sales, and Places), About Landmark
• 4:3 (1.33:1) — Profile (2nd Life)
• 1:1 (1:1) — Group Insignia, Profile (1st Life)

Corrections? Questions? Tips? Leave a comment!

Update, Dec 6:

• Torley pointed out that Profile Picks are 16:9 (1.78:1), rather than 7:4 (1.75:1) as I had previously thought.
• Lex Neva pointed out that 40:28 is equivalent to 10:7.
• I’ve also corrected About Landmark, which displays at 40:28 (1.43:1), rather than 4:3 (1.33:1). Accordingly, I’ve changed my recommendation for parcel snapshots to 40:28 instead of 4:3, as it does not seem to be displayed anywhere at true 4:3.

Vint Falken has a very good tip for SL photographers who want to hide poseballs and other obstacles from a composition without time-intensive photo-editing.

But, she opines:

Note: I’ve tried this on avatars and prim clothing and it does not work on those. Bummer. :p

Well, glorious day and jubilations, because I’ve found a way that it will work! Just toggle on `Client > Character > Character Tests > Allow Select Avatar’, and you’re ready to go! You can now select avatars and their attachments — and so, in combination with the `Client > Rendering > Hide Selected’ option, you can hide them!

Here’s an example: This annoying avatar was absolutely ruining my composition:

So, I selected her and her prim hair, thus dramatically improving the quality of my snapshot!:

Unfortunately, to hide the avatar and all attachments, you have to manually select each attachment (luckily not each individual prim!), which can get tedious!

Fortunately, with the `Allow Select Avatar’ option turned on, you can just select the offending avatar and move it (along with all its attachments) somewhere else where it won’t be in your way! The movement is client-side only, so if the avatar moves (walks, turns, jumps… animation movement doesn’t count), the server will send an update to your client and the avatar will pop back into its old position. But, it should be enough to get your shot in!