Second Life user guide

Creative DigiSphere

Second Life GuideFor Media PlayLab Members

CREATIVE DIGISPHERE INTERNATIONAL PTE LTD A subsidiary company of Dream Axis Group 291A South Bridge Road Singapore 058836 tel: +65 6222 2382 fax: +65 6222 2362 Registration No.: 200904809K

2

Contents

Getting Started .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Signing up an account ............................................................................................................................... 3

Downloading & Installing Second Life ....................................................................................................... 3

Login to Media PlayLab ............................................................................................................................. 3

Getting Around: Walking & Flying ................................................................................................................ 4

Walk, Turn, Run, Sit, Fly ............................................................................................................................ 4

Getting Around: Taking a Closer Look .......................................................................................................... 8

View navigation ......................................................................................................................................... 8

Getting Around: First‐Person View ............................................................................................................. 10

Mouse‐look ............................................................................................................................................. 10

Communicating: Chat ................................................................................................................................. 12

Main Chat ................................................................................................................................................ 12

Communicating: Friends ............................................................................................................................. 14

Adding Friends ........................................................................................................................................ 14

Audio Enhancement .................................................................................................................................... 16

Listening to music streaming .................................................................................................................. 16

Listening to voice chat ............................................................................................................................ 17


3

Getting Started

Signing up an account

To sign up for a free Second Life account, you can log on to https://join.secondlife.com/?lang=en‐US. Upon successful registration, a verification email will be sent to you. Click on the link to verify and continue to download the client.

Downloading & Installing Second Life

The Second Life Client can be downloaded at http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php.

After downloading the client, double‐click on the installer Second_Life_1‐23‐4‐123908_Setup.exe to start installation.

Login to Media PlayLab

Login to Second Life and do a search for Media PlayLab using the Search button at the bottom‐bar menu.

The search window will appear, key in Media PlayLab in the search textbox. Click on Region: Media Playlab.

Click on Teleport to enter the Media PlayLab island.


4

Getting Around: Walking & Flying

Walk, Turn, Run, Sit, Fly

Second Life offers many ways to get around and see the world. Walking and running are two ways for your avatar to move around in Second Life. You can do so endlessly without ever getting tired. You can jump, crouch and sit as well. By the end of this section, you will be ready to explore the world around you.

TRY IT NOW:

Step 1: Walking and Turning

Use the following keys on your keyboard to move your avatar around in Second Life:

W or Up Arrow Key – To move forward

S or Down Arrow Key ‐‐ To move backward

A or Left Arrow Key – To rotate or turn to the left

D or Right Arrow Key – To rotate or turn to the right

Note: It is recommended to use the Arrow keys rather than WASD as you will need to lower your chat bar for

you to be able to use WASD.

Step 2: Running

Press Ctrl‐R to turn on the run mode. The same movement keys can now be used to run in any direction. Pressing Ctrl‐R again will turn off the run mode.

Alternatively, you can click on World from the top menu bar and select Always Run to activate the run mode.


5

Step 3: Jumping

To jump, press E or PageUp.

Step 4: Crouching

To crouch, press C or PageDown.

Step 5: Sitting

On most surfaces you can right‐click and select Sit Here from the pie menu, to make your avatar sit. This includes chairs, the ground, buildings and vehicles. You may not sit on another avatar.

When you want to get back up, click the Stand Up button that appears at the bottom of your screen.


6

Have you ever dreamt that you could just spread your wings and fly like a bird? You may not be able to do that in real life but in Second Life you can! You don’t need wings but you certainly can fly.

Flying is another way for your avatar to move around in Second Life. This section will show you how to fly. You can then begin to discover places that you would not have been able to get to by walking or running.

Step 1: Flying

To fly, click the blue Fly button at the bottom of your screen or press Ctrl‐F.

You also have the options to select Fly from the World menu.

Toggle the Fly mode on and off by clicking the same button or pressing Ctrl‐F.

In Fly mode, use the following keys on your keyboard to move your avatar around:

W or Up Arrow key – To fly forward

S or Down Arrow key ‐‐ To fly backward

A or Left Arrow key – To flyleft

D or Right Arrow key – To fly right

Step 2: Flying higher

Press and hold E or PageUp to fly higher. You can fly up to 150 meters above the level of the ground.

Step 3: Flying lower

Press and hold C or PageDown, to fly lower.

Note: Some laptops may require you press the function key, Fn with PageUp to fly higher.


7

Note: In most areas of Second Life, you will be able to fly but in some areas the landowner may have

chosen not to allow flight. You will see a symbol at the top of your screen that looks like a white down

arrow on a red circle if you are in a No Fly Zone.


8

Getting Around: Taking a Closer Look

View navigation

Although you can walk up to an object to see it, there are much more efficient ways to see things in Second Life. Being able to stay in one spot and quickly view something from different angles is very important when building and creating. In this section, you will learn various ways to see things from multiple viewpoints.

Focus, Zoom and Pan are three ways to look at things around you in Second Life. By the end of this section, you will have a better understanding of the in‐world camera controls.

TRY IT NOW:

Step 1: Focusing

Hold down the Alt key to activate the Focus Mode.

You should see the mouse cursor change to a magnifying glass while the Alt is being held down.

While continuing to hold down the Alt key, click on anything such as an object, landscape or a person. Notice how the view is being centered after you have clicked on it? Even when the object or person moves, the camera will follow it until it is out of range.

Step 2: Zooming

While holding down the Alt key, press the Up Arrow key on your keyboard to zoom in and Down Arrow key to zoom out.

Step 3: Horizontal panning

As you continue to hold down the Alt key, press the Right Arrow key or Left Arrow key to pan right or left. This is a great way to go around and view your subject.

You can also pan using your mouse. While holding down the Alt key, drag your mouse around. You can zoom by moving the mouse forward or backward and you can pan by moving your mouse left or right.

Note: Alternately, you can use the camera controls interface which can be

activated from View under the top bar menu.


9

Press ESC to return to the default view.


10

Getting Around: First‐Person View

Mouselook In Second Life, you can view the environment in first person perspective. To do this:

TRY IT NOW:

Step 1: Make sure your chat bar is closed

Click on the chat button to close the chat bar

Step 2: Enter Mouse‐look mode

Press M on your

keyboard or use your

mouse scroll to zoom in

until you enter Mouse‐

look mode. This is also

called the first‐person

view.

Tips: You are still able to

move when you are in

this view.


11

Press M or ESC to return

to return to the default

view is looking from the

back of your Avatar.


12

Communicating: Chat

Main Chat Many activities in Second Life require communication and collaboration between the residents. Hence, learning how to communicate in‐world is very important to get things started. Text chat is one of the main ways to communicate with other residents in Second Life. Anyone within 20 meters of your avatar can see what you have typed. Let’s get started and greet some of your new friends!

TRY IT NOW:

Step 1: Chat bar

You can chat with people around you using the Chat bar. Toggle the Chat bar on and off by clicking the

blue Chat button at the bottom left of your screen. You can also press Enter to open the chat bar and

Esc to close it.

Step 2: Chat

When the Chat bar is visible, type your message in the space provided. Then click on Say or press Enter.

The residents nearby will see your chat text appear on their screen, preceded by your name.

Step 3: Shout

If you want your message to spread further, press Shout from the Say drop‐down button. You can also

press Ctrl‐Enter for the same result. Shouting has a range of 100 meters.

Step 4: Animation

When you begin typing your chat message, your avatar will begin a typing animation. This lets others

know that you are about to speak and similarly you will also know when they are about to speak.


13

Step 5: Chat variations

If you start your line of chat text with a forward slash “/”, the typing hands animation and typing sound

will not occur.

This can be very useful if you are listening to music or in a group setting and you do not want to be

distracted by the typing noise.

Try this now! Type a line of chat with “/” at the beginning.

Now try starting your message with “/me”. For

example, “/me waves hello to everybody” and

press Enter. Notice that the colon after your name

does not appear in this case. This is one way for

your avatar to emote through a line of chat text.


14

Communicating: Friends

Adding Friends You might be familiar with instant messaging such as MSN or Yahoo Messenger, where you can add

friends to your contact list. Similarly in Second Life, you can do this as well! In this section, we will look

at how to add friends and eventually learn how to give them different type of privileges.

TRY IT NOW:

Step 1: Open the Pie‐Menu

Right‐click on your friend’s avatar and select Add Friend.

Step 2: Greetings

Type in a greeting message in the Add Friend textbox and click on OK.


15

Step 3: Accepting Friendship

After you have offered your friendship, your friend will receive an invitation menu to accept you as a

friend.

Alternatively, you can search for the avatar name using Search at the bottom menu bar.

Under the People tab of the search window, type in the avatar’s name in the search textbox to display

the avatar’s profile.

Click on Add Friends from the profile window to add your friend.


16

Audio Enhancement

Listening to music streaming To turn on the music streaming in Second Life, you can click on the play button at the bottom right of the screen.

The streaming function is enabled by default. If it is disabled, you can enable it again by opening up the preference window by going to the top‐bar menu and click on Preference.

Go under the Audio and Video tab, and check the two radio buttons for the Streaming Preferences.

Click on Apply to close the preference window and activate the streaming.


17

To control the volume, you can click on the small up arrow button at the far right.

This will bring up the volume control menu. You may adjust the volume using the Music and Media sliders accordingly.

Listening to voice chat

To listen to a speaker using voice chat in Second Life, it can be done by adjusting the camera position.

Now open the preference window again, go under the Voice Chat tab and check both the Enable voice

chat and Hear voice chat from camera position.

To focus the camera on the speaker, you need to understand how to use the Second Life camera

controls.


18

You can bring up the camera control interface by which can be activated from View under the top bar

menu.

Press ESC to return to the default view.

Using this interface you can position your camera close to the speaker. Alternatively, you can use the

keyboard short‐cut CTRL+ALT+ left‐click on the speaker to focus your camera on him. Scroll your mouse‐

wheel button forward to get a close‐up view of the speaker as well as to get a better audio effect.

Education

Second Life user guide