Word's getting out right now about Second Life's First Look Viewer, which is causing some avatars to do a double-take upon seeing themselves in the mirror. That's right, we now have bona fide dynamic reflections.

It's not a Preferences or building tool option (yet?!), but here's how you get to it:

  • Download, install, and run the First Look Viewer.
     
  • If not already enabled, press Ctrl-Alt-D to open the Client menu at the top of your screen.
     
  • Turn on Client menu > Rendering > Dynamic Reflections.
     
  • Then, stand in front of and look into a shiny surface — where there previously was a nice-but-nebulous streak, you should now see yourself and the environment staring back.

If you don't see the dynamic reflections, your graphics card may not meet the System Requirements; if you can already see ripple water, it's a best bet you can also view the enhancement of these dynamic reflections in the water, tho it appears splotchy and exaggerated to me from some angles. [Edit: Rainbow Drake adds she can see reflections on a GeForce 2 MX. Thanx Rainbow!]

But that's alright, because, when Second Life gives you glitches, make GLITCH ART!

I was hanging out at my inworld Linden office (get to it from my Profile Picks) with Jesse Linden, and camscanned into a bunch of prims just above my office hours sign.

I also took pleasure in zooming trèsclose to a trippily-reflected water by tapping Ctrl-0 multiple times (View menu >  Zoom In). It looks like liquid reality.

Ante Flan made a head squirrel which I resized in front of my house, and made shiny. I am looking into his tummy. While you can't see it here, after zooming back, he looks like a watermelon T-1000, only more squirelly.

Moving the Object Mesh Detail slider (found in Preferences > Graphics Detail tab) all the way to the left deformed the spheres, lending a crunchy, lo-poly vibe to these marbles-on-snow.

I discovered that turning off Dynamic Reflections "froze" the effect at how it was last viewed. So, taking some care not to move the sun (which resets this), I came up with some pretty kewl FX: I stared closely into the above marbles then toggled Dynamic Reflections, and found the water continued to glow extremely watermelony. I happened to see a dock and an aeroplane on nearby property: gosh knows I had to capture it. It was almost as if the surfaces grew an animated skin, like a strong projector was transmitting a movie onto it in broad daylight.

A little while later, I found I could create an almost "toxic plasma" ambience by contrasting a vivid orange-red sun with the snow terrain, and with our new friend of Dynamic Reflections present in the water.

Here, we see an even more prominent application of tinting the water. And to think it came from a happy accident!

On the right, we can see many of my reflective marbles, with shiny set to varying levels. What's more, I've fused this with a fave local lighting effect. If I were a guitarist, think of this like my signal processing chain of stompboxes, plucking one catchy riff after another! Combine your fave touches to taste.

Another spicy combo: watermelon, black sun, and dynamic reflections — will wonders ever cease? Apparently not, and while I stood atop this dwelling in the Dune sim, Lemon Yellow, I began thinking of some pseudo-ersatz art from the Age of Aquarius, depicting prisms, geometric shapes, and an eclipse.

Not to get too Pink Floydian, but there's something so perfectly 70s-80s in the right shot for me. To get a black sun, you:

  • Go to Client menu > World > Mouse Moves Sun
     
  • Use View menu > Mouselook or push "M" key when the chat bar is closed.
     
  • Wiggle your mouse up and down across the horizon. Takes some practice, but you'll get the timing through repeated tries.
     
  • Have your fingers fast on the shortcut keys: since there's several seconds before the sun goes back to normal, be prepared to press Ctrl-Shift-S to take a snapshot whether you're in or out of Mouselook. Then, do as you like with it.

The reward, of course, is being able to amaze yourself and friends, and pass on the delights of advanced Second Life photography, like I have to you. :)

With the above-mentioned trick of toggling Dynamic Reflections, you can become out-of-sync with your own reflection, resulting in more most excellent scenes.

And if you're wondering who to say thankya to… Runitai Linden coded the dynamic reflections.

Got some delicious visual feasting of your own? Feel free to post a link in the comments!