Reduce In-Game Lag Time

One of the easiest is to decrease the "draw distance." The draw distance is how far into the distance your computer draws in what's happening around you. If you'd like to increase your frame rate, decrease the draw distance by choosing "Preferences," then "Graphics," and set the draw distance to 64 meters.

The only time you'll really notice this change is when flying long distances at high speeds, and you should get much faster loading times as your computer doesn't have to try to draw in happenings in mainland China when you're only really interested in having that vendor rez in fully.

You can also dial back the graphical settings a tick or two by going to "Preferences," choosing "Graphics Detail," and lowering your settings for "Object Mesh Detail," "Flexible Mesh Detail," "Tree Mesh Detail" and "Avatar Mesh Detail."

Just as a personal preference, I try to keep all four at the same levels, but you can set them to what you like. You'll lose a little visual clarity, but the trade-off is a much smoother frame rate. After all, Second Life is no fun as a slide show.

Now, if you have an ATI video card, consider unchecking "Avatar Vertex Program" in the menu, as this has been known to cause problems in some ATI video cards. If you're still having trouble, try Second Life from a fresh reboot. I don't know why this helps, but I've found that sometimes when my computer has been idle for long periods of time its performance gets a little erratic. I blame the terrorists.