Did you know there are many, many settings you can change in the default Second Life Viewer? Most of the additional settings found in other viewers like Firestorm can also be set in the default viewer, it is just a bit more difficult. There are so many settings that it is almost overwhelming when you first see the list! A list of all of them can be found at the Debug Settings Wiki Page. Here’s a few I like to use. I’m mainly listing them so I have a reference page to look them up on if I ever do a complete reinstall of the viewer and have to reset them!
First up, how to change these settings. These instructions are based on viewer version 3.7. (Unfortunately the menus tend to change with later versions of the viewer, but hopefully you can figure it out using this as a general guide.)
First you need to turn on the “Advanced Menu”. Select “Me” in the main menu upper left corner, then select “Preferences” from the drop down list. In the left column of the Preferences window select “Advanced” at the bottom. Now check the box next to “Show Advanced Menu”. A new menu heading named “Advanced” will appear in the main menu at the top left of your screen.
Click on the “Advanced” menu heading in the main menu. From the drop down menu click on “show Debug Settings.” A small window named DEBUG SETTINGS will open. A drop down list will display all the possible settings. Yes, there are a LOT of them!! The best way to find and set a single setting is to start typing it’s name in the text box. Once a setting is selected you will be able to modify the value for the setting.
Settings I like to change on my viewer:
NotificationToastLifeTime This changes how long the little “toast” notices show up before they fade out. Things like the “Do you want to animate your avatar” permission requests when you use a pose. The default is 5 seconds. I often find this is not long enough for me to notice and respond to the messages, especially if the toast happens to pop-up behind another window out of my view! I set this value to 20 seconds or more.
NearbyToastLifeTime This changes the length of time before chat toast fade out. The default value is 23 seconds. Some people like this shorter, some longer.
