Introduction To The Restrained Love Viewer (RLV)

Lots of people ask me about RLV, which is used to remotely control avatars in Second Life.  I use it for bot control but of course it is widely used for BDSM. 

I recorded my latest discussion of it because I think people often have misconceptions about it and what can be done with it...

[11:04] Sarah: Can you tell me about RLV? I don't know anything much about it

[11:07] Sarah: i'm told i have it active, but i don't know how it was activated, or what it means to have it

[11:09] Stone Johnson: so here is the deal

[11:10] Stone Johnson: RLV is a system designed for "remote control" of an avatar, to force you to "do" things

[11:10] Stone Johnson: so BDSM people love it

[11:10] Sarah: oh

[11:10] Sarah: i see

[11:10] Stone Johnson: but also it can be useful - let's say if you want to build a robot out of an alt

[11:11] Stone Johnson: or for other purposes

[11:11] Stone Johnson: here's how it works

[11:11] Sarah: k

[11:11] Stone Johnson: so when a person says something, that's one type of speech, usually appears white in firestorm

[11:12] Stone Johnson: when an OBJECT says something, that's different speech, and appears green in firestorm

[11:12] Sarah: k

[11:12] Sarah: oh, okay

[11:13] Stone Johnson: ok so there is a third type of speech that occurs when an object (scripted device) says something ONLY TO ITS OWNER - it's called "OwnerSpeak" - I think usually appears yellow in FS by default

[11:13] Stone Johnson: OwnerSpeak, for your devices (attachments inlcuded) to talk to YOU only

[11:13] Stone Johnson: RLV uses OwnerSpeak

[11:13] Sarah: oh

[11:14] Stone Johnson: anything in ownerspeak that starts with @ will be sent to the RLV system *in your browser*

[11:14] Sarah: ok

[11:14] Stone Johnson: a lot of people think that RLV alone lets people control you and thats nonsense

[11:14] Stone Johnson: when you have RLV on, all it means is that your *own stuff* can make you do things, using ownerspeak

[11:15] Stone Johnson: to let OTHERS control you - you need to wear some kind of device that passes external commands on to ownerspeak

[11:15] Stone Johnson: you've heard of collars?

[11:16] Sarah: well, i've seen them, yes

[11:16] Sarah: a lot of them actually

[11:16] Sarah: i've never actually used one, though some of the clients at the club i strip at have offered them to me before

[11:17] Stone Johnson: ok so a collar you wear, does the following

[11:18] Stone Johnson: if you add someone as "owner", then they can send commands (e.g., from menu) TO THE COLLAR

[11:18] Stone Johnson: then collar then sends @ commands to ownerspeak

[11:18] Stone Johnson: your viewer reponds to them

[11:18] Sarah: oh, i see

[11:18] Stone Johnson: you get the idea

[11:19] Sarah: yeah, now i do

[11:19] Stone Johnson: there are a lot of misconceptions about RLV control but it's all about YOUR devices controlling you via ownersay @ commands

[11:19] Sarah: it sounds like something that only works if you set an owner though, right?

[11:20] Stone Johnson: ok so some people like to be totally controlled

[11:20] Stone Johnson: so they use a collar or other device set "public" so anyone can use them

[11:20] Stone Johnson: and then there are various shades of gray between those two extremes

[11:21] Sarah: k

[11:21] Stone Johnson: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Protocol/RestrainedLoveAPI

[11:21] Stone Johnson: that's the official RLV command documentation, not bad to have a look at

[11:22] Stone Johnson: best thing to do is

[11:22] Stone Johnson: get a collar from OpenCollar (free) and with a friend play around with it

[11:22] Sarah: k

[11:22] Stone Johnson: you'll quickly learn the ropes