Tag: Second Life Events

How to Do Cam Shopping in Second Life: Yes, You Can Cam Shop from the Next Sim at Crowded SL Sales Events!

You might not be aware that the Blueberry store is celebrating its 7th anniversary in Second Life. The Blueberry Store VIP group is free to join for a limited time, and you can pick some lovely group gifts for free in the lobby of the store. But wait, there’s more!

In the current group notices of the Blueberry Store VIP group, there is a HUD which you can wear and click to get L$250 free credit for the Blueberry store applied to your avatar’s account. The credit is good for 28 days only, but you might want to use it before the 50% Off Sale ends at midnight SL time on April 24th, as your store credits will go twice as far!

However, there’s a big problem. Unless you are a Premium member, you are simply not going to get into that absolutely jam-packed sim that houses the Blueberry store. It’s on a sim which can only accommodate 30 avatars at a time, and everybody and their dog is trying to get in right now and scoop up the bargains. Even the Teleport Hammer ain’t gonna help you here. But if you want to hit that 50% off sale before it ends, what can you do? (Short of upgrading to a Premium SL membership, which gives you priority access to packed sims. And believe me, if you are an avid shopper, it’s worth the upgrade just for that perk alone.)

And this is where cam shopping comes in. What is cam shopping? It’s long-distance shopping, using your SL camera to find and buy an item you want from across the boundary between two sims (here is a summary of the camera controls in Firestorm and the camera keyboard shortcuts). Here’s a diagram which explains how cam shopping works:

Yes, that’s right, you don’t even need to be in the same sim in order to do your shopping at crowded events! Now, before you can cam shop, there’s a couple of settings you do need to check and adjust on your Firestorm viewer (again, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what the equivalent settings are for the default SL viewer). In Firestorm, press Ctrl-Alt-D to turn on the Advanced menu along the top of your viewer. Then, in the drop-down menu under Advanced, make sure that Limit Select Distance has no check mark next to it, and Disable Camera Constraints does have a check mark next to it:

If you don’t don’t have those two settings correct, you will not be able to cam shop!

So, in the case of the Blueberry sale on the Lenox and Blueberry sim, you can probably get more easily into the Palau sim next door, and do your cam shopping from there!

Don’t thank me, it’s all a public service, etc. etc.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Two YouTube Channels You Should Follow

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I’ve been meaning to write this blogpost for a long while. I have two YouTube channels that I watch regularly for news about Second Life steals, deals, and freebies:

We’ll start with Naria Panthar first. And what better introduction than her hour-and-a-half-long YouTube video where she unpacks all the gifts you can pick up at the Christmas Shop and Hop!

Now, you might think this is too long to watch, but think about it this way: if you had to fight your way through the lag to traverse all five sims, then pick up all the gifts, then take them home and unpack them all, it would probably take you as long or longer! (It took me at least two full hours to cover the entire Shop and Hop due to the horrendous lag and problems with sim crossings, and that doesn’t include unpacking time!) And, after watching this video, you can zero in on the gifts you want and avoid the ones you don’t!

And watching Naria’s unpacking videos is a hoot. She has definite, strong opinions about most of the items she unpacks and tries on, and she doesn’t shy away from strong language either in her often hilarious commentary.

Cat Pink’s videos are also worth subscribing to. Her videos are in Spanish, but she doesn’t talk a lot and she includes English subtitles, so it’s not hard to follow the action. Here’s an example, a recent video showing various free and inexpensive animation overrides (AOs):

One service that Cat Pink provides, which some Second Life content creators might not appreciate very much, is that she compiles videos of various hunts in SL, showing you exactly where the hunt items are hidden in each of the stops along the way! Here’s an example, a recent hunt for dollarbie items hidden at Arata Shouten, a store I had never heard of before:

Some people do consider this cheating; they are welcome to avoid those particular videos on her YouTube channel if they choose. Frankly, I just don’t have enough time to hunt for every single item, and then take it home and unpack it, just to find out it’s something I don’t want. Cat Pink often unpacks and shows us each of the hunt prizes she finds, too! I think it’s a wonderful service. I hope she does a video on the Peace on Earth hunt before it ends on New Year’s Eve! With over 100 stores participating, it is always a rather grueling ordeal to get through it all every year, and yes, I will watch her hunt videos in future!

So there you have it—two YouTubers whose coverage of steals, deals, and freebies is well worth subscribing to! Happy shopping!!!