Setting the mood with Windlights, Environments, EEPS

I love how you can customize everything in Second Life.  EVERYTHING.  From the pores on your face to the colors in the sky.

Yes, that's right. You can control the sun. You have that power.  It's all in your windlight settings, or environments, or EEPs (environmental enhancement program). I'm calling it all these things because people use them interchangeably. EEP is an upgrade to the original Windlights. 

There's so many options, and I don't feel qualified to talk about them at all. I've never made one. I mainly use them for photos. I set up a scene, and then scroll through the options forever until I find one I like, then take the picture. You can read all about the technical aspects and learn how to customize or make your own on the Second Life Wiki, and in the SL Forum Knowledgebase.

If you also just want to play around with presets, read on.

Setting the Environment in your Viewer

You can find some basic environment files in Firestorm by clicking on the World tab and Environments, where you can select Sunrise, Midday, Sunset, or Midnight.  Clicking on My Environments will give you access to your inventory, where you can search through all of the environment settings saved in your inventory and the Second Life Library.  

If these still aren't what you're looking for, head to Marketplace. Make sure any files you buy are unpacked and in your inventory in order to find them.

I find it much easier to click on the Firestorm Phoenix logo button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  You'll get a Quick Preferences Menu. Down at the bottom is a dropdown menu for Sky.  Here you can scroll through all of the environments available to you all at once. There are a lot in the library, so it may take a while to explore them all!

Note: These settings, chosen this way, will only appear in YOUR viewer.

Setting the Environment On Your Property

If you want to adjust the environment settings for your property so everyone can see them, you will have to: 

Click on the World tab, 

Click on Parcel Details.  

Scroll all the way to the right and click on the Environments tab.

Click on Use Inventory, which will give you access to all the available environment settings in your Inventory and the SL library.  

Select the one you want, and then click OK.

You can make minor adjustments by clicking on the Personal Lighting tab.  It won't save over those settings, so feel free to click and drag adjusters to see what they do.