Overview

This page contains the criteria required for a candidate to become certified in building for Second Life. The building certification levels are as follows:

• Basic - building competently and accurately with simpler primitives;
• Intermediate - building competently and accurately with more complex primitives;
• Advanced - building the best possible quality content at one or more chosen scales.

Audience

Pre-requisites

Certification in Basic Building or equivalence.

Testing Criteria

At all levels the builder is expected to create builds which:

• follow established standards for accessibility;
• are free of usability defects;
• are free of defects which adversely impact simulator performance or the experience of avatars in the same region;
• are in accordance with their stated product descriptions or customer requirements;
• are clearly and comprehensibly documented where necessary.

At all levels the builder is expected to respond promptly and courteously to all customer comments and complaints

SL Certification Intermediate Building

Linked prims

• Unlink a single prim from a link set, leaving the others linked;
• Change the root prim of a link set;
• Rotate a link set around the root prim's center;
• Rotate a link set around the geometric center.
• Build a hexagon out of 10x10x0.5 triangular prisms without using a calculator.

Texturing

The candidate is expected to demonstrate the following without using third party scripts or tools

• Demonstrate some cases when planar gives a better result than default texture mapping
• Demonstrate how to match a texture seamlessly on adjacent prims
• Set a square texture so that one repeat has the same defined x and y dimensions on:
  • all faces of a 10mx5mx0.25m box;
  • all faces of a cylinder;
  • the inside of a hollowed box
  • the inside of a hollowed cylinder.
• Demonstrate methods for elimination of texture flicker (z- fighting) on precisely overlapping prims, and discuss limitations of methods.
• Discuss relationship of texture sizes to lag / loading time and general rule of thumb for size of textures used in various applications or on prims of certain sizes.

Prims

• Demonstrate complete understanding of all parameters of a tube, torus and ring.
• Demonstrate flexi prims;
• Demonstrate and discuss full bright and glow;
• Demonstrate light;
• Demonstrate use of Reference ruler mode and discuss when to use it rather than World or Local mode.

Packaging builds

• Discuss conditions which necessitate use of a packaging and rezzing system for a build
• Discuss usability considerations for rezzing systems to minimize inconvenience for the user / purchaser when attempting to rez the build aligned and postioned within their parcel

Temp rezzing

• Define limits on temp rezzed prims
• Define caveats for use of temp rezzed prims
• Describe appropriate uses for temp rezzed prims
• Describe inappropriate uses for temp rezzed prims

Incorporating content from other creators

• Demonstrate incorporation of a third party sculpty texture into a build
• Demonstrate incorporation of a third party script into a build (for example a door or window script)

Alpha sorting

• Describe how alpha sorting problems manifest and how to minimise the effect.

Permissions

• Demonstrate how to debug permissions;
• Set a build so that the next owner can mod and copy but not transfer;
• Set a build so the next owner can transfer but not mod or copy;
• Discuss how your own build can become no transfer;
• Identify the no transfer prim in a build that is otherwise transferable;
• State how to avoid ending up with reduced permission versions of your own builds.