Tutorials >
Your Environment
Your Environment: Moving & Looking
Moving
General movement
- Move forward: up-arrow key
- Move backward: down-arrow key
- Turn left: left-arrow key
- Turn right: right-arrow key
Running vs. walking:
- The default movement is walking
- To switch between walking and running: CTRL-R (or: Advanced > Shortcuts > Always Run -- to see "Advanced" in the top menu, press CRTL-ALT-D)
Flying:
- To start flying: press the "Home" key
- To go higher: page-up key
- To go lower: page-down key
- To stop flying: hold the page-down key until you land
Sitting (and Dancing):
- To sit: Left-click on any object or on the ground and choose "Sit here"
- Some objects have animations embedded in them, and so when you sit on them, your avatar automatically adopts that animation or pose
- Some objects embed animations using a "poseball". This is an object, usually spherical, with the animation or pose embedded in it. If you see small balls in or hovering over a piece of furniture, those small balls are that furniture's "poseballs". Poseballs with poses designed for a female avatar are often pink colored, while those with poses designed for a male avatar are often blue colored.
- Dancing in Second Life involves animating your avatar. This is sometimes done by "sitting" on a poseball you see on the ground.
Teleporting:
To go somewhere instantly, or to go somewhere when flying or walking is not possible or practical, you can teleport.
- Places: Click the Globe icon on the right side of your screen to open the Places sidebar
- Use a landmark that's already in your inventory in "My Landmarks"
- Look at your Teleport History to see places you've been recently
- Find a location in Search or on the Map and click the teleport button for that location (see Finding Places to Go)
- Home: Click the Second Life logo on the right side of your screen to open the Home sidebar
- Use the Destination Guide to browse through selected locations
- Use the World Map for another way to find places
- Search:
- Use the Search box at the top right of your screen
- Once you've entered search terms, you'll be able to filter your search by "Places" and "Events", both of which are useful for finding locations to visit
- You can also search in Classifieds, especially if you are looking for shopping locations
- Other ways:
- Have a friend send a teleport request (aka have a friend TP you). To teleport someone to your location, open their profile and click the "Offer Teleport" button
- Click a SLURL that's in the Local Chat window or an IM window (a SLURL looks like this: UTArlington III (186, 176, 24) (or, it's long form of http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/UTArlington%20III/186/176/24) and opens a web page in your web browser, or a Teleport window in Second Life) that has a teleport button, that will take you in Second Life to that location.
Looking
Your default view of the world is semi-third person. That is, you see the world as though you were looking through a camera that was mounted just behind and above your head.
You can also alter that view:
- Click the "View" button at the bottom of your screen
- Alt-left click - to place the camera's focus on something
- Or: click the View button at the bottom of your screen and choose the "camera" icon. Then click on things to place the focus on them and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, and move the mouse on the table to pan.
- HOLD alt-left click and move the mouse around the table: zoom and pan around the location of the camera focus
- To zoom in or out: scroll the mousewheel
- Too see things that are farther away:
- CTRL-ALT-D to see the Advanced Menu
- Advanced > Disable Camera Contraints
- In combination with:
- Me > Preferences > Graphics
- Click the "Advanced" button
- Draw Distance: increase to above 128 m, up to 256-300 m or as high as your computer can manage. Note: a higher draw distance might slow down your Second Life performance.
Mouselook:
- This is the Second Life version of first-person view
- To enter Mouselook:
- Scroll the mousewheel up to zoom into the back of your head until you see the screen switch to Mouselook view
- To exit Mouselook:
- Press ESC
- Or: scroll your mousewheel down until you exit Mouselook view
- What's Mouselook good for?
- Games that your avatar can play (for example, an inworld pinball machine)
- Weapons (for example, a snowball shooter)
- For an enhanced experience of an environment or simulation
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