Copyright © 2007 Ian Monstre  ·  All Rights reserved

When you're first getting started in Second Life it can be difficult to find you're way around. Especially if you're interested in building things. So I've compiled a simple list of resources that you might find useful.

Link	Description
http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/	The official Second Life knowledgebase is a useful place to start if you have any questions about Second Life, not just questions about building
http://lslwiki.net/	Essential if you're doing any scripting work, the Wiki is packed full of information about every script command along with plenty of examples and insights
http://secondlife.com/developers/resources.php	A useful set of resources, hosted by Linden Labs. The Resource Matrix is particularly useful, providing a list of Linden and 3rd party resources for many elements of Second Life
http://secondlife.com/developers/directory.php	List of developers that you can use (ie generally pay) for your development work. If you're serious about development and want people to hire you, it's a good idea to try to get onto this list. A track record of paid-for building work is generally a good idea if you want to apply to be listed
http://www.sluniverse.com/	Nice 3rd party site with plenty of resources, including building resources
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/search/	Fairly new directory of Second Life information
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/index.php	Not specifically related to Second Life, but a great resource for finding sound clips that you might be able to use in your creations. Provided under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license
http://sldevelopers.com/	3rd party online resource for developers - useful blogs and forums mostly
http://forums.secondlife.com/index.php	The official forums hosted by Linden Labs, a great place to get questions answered and help other residents
http://www.texturemaker.com/	This is a great tool for making your own textures and gives you so much more power and flexibility  than you get from standard graphics products like Photoshop
http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/bricksntiles/	"Bricks n Tiles" does what it says - it's specifically designed to help you create convincing and seamless textures for bricks and tiles. The basic version is free
http://www.sltutorials.net	This is an excellent new site that lists a whole host of tutorials for Second Life. Nicely designed and completely free of charge, it's worth a visit.

Another great resource is this new book, "The Official Guide to Second Life".

It has some great content whether you're new to Second Life or an old hand. It has a reasonable introduction to scripting and building, along with plenty of useful information generally.

On sale at Amazon and other bookstores.

Useful Resources

Within Second Life itself, it might be worth visiting the Teazer University or The Ivory Tower Library of Primitives, both of which are dedicated to learning (use "Search" then "Places" in Second Life to find these). Also try taking a class, visit the Second Life site for details. These are great fun - you get to learn with other people and interact with the instructor.