Science City - Serious Games Institute Orientation SGI Nexus Station 1 - Intro and Walking Welcome to the Birmingham Science City and Serious Games Institute Second Life orientation. The aim of this orientation experience is to give you enough information about using Second Life that you can usefully attend a meeting, seminar or conference in Second Life, or visit the offices of a client, supplier or partner. ** Please read all of this notecard before continuing with the orientation ** OVERVIEW This orientation consists of 12 stations. These cover the basic skills you need. Each station covers just one small topic and it should take you no more than 10 minutes to complete the whole orientation. After Station 7 you have the option to short-cut to the end, but we encourage you to stay the course! Before you leave the orientation you will be given a Landmark which will get you back to this point here - so you can repeat the orientation at any time. We are also working on a series of "bite-size" learning stations that you can do after you complete this set to teach you about the Second Life skills not covered here, such as appearance, buying and selling and building. We have tried to make this Orientation very simple and straightforward, yet fun and interactive. So please enjoy it, and don't worry, whatever you do you shouldn't be able to break anything! REZZING "Rezzing" is what we call it in Second Life when an object appears on your screen. When you first arrive at aplace, as now, it can take a while for all the objects around you to "rez". Initially they may be invisible, then just grey shapes, then blurred, before finally appearing crystal sharp. Please give the objects at each station time to rez before using the station. NOTECARDS What you are reading now is a notecard. At each station you will either be given a notecard automatically - like this one , or you will see a notice somewhere that says "click here for notecard". In both cases you will need to click on the Keep button from the blue dialog box to save the Notecard and be able to read it. Note that Notecards you read are automatically stored in your inventory - of which more later. This means that you can re-read the notecard at any time. There is no limit to the number of Notecards that you can store. Once you have finished reading a notecard just click on Keep, or the X to close the notecard (it gets saved either way), or click on Discard to get rid of it. MOVEMENT The main aim of this first station is to teach you how to move in Second Life. You move your Avatar (that character on the screen which is representing you) by pressing the cursor keys, or by pressing the WSAD keys (W=forward, A = Turn Left, S = Back, D = Turn Right). Try it not to walk around this area. You will see some displays on the walls that you can read to tell you about Moving in Second Life, and also some other notecard givers which will give you more general information about Virtual Worlds. So go on, move around. If you bump into anyone then don't worry. Once you've finished here walk over to the big target on the ground, and then move on to the next station. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 2 - Chat Chat: How to Talk ------------------- Press Enter, type what you want to say, and press Enter again to say it. Anyone (or anything) near you will hear. You will see a parrot to your right. He's not very smart, and usually just repeats what you say. But if you ask him nicely, he'll give you a kiss! Just walk up to him and say "Please give me a kiss". If you want to see what has been said after it has faded out, hit Ctrl-H. **To leave chat mode, hit the esc button. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 3 - Camera This is quite a tricky station, but it teaches you a very valuable skill that you will use lots when you attend presentations in Second Life. CAMERA ===== As with many computer video games what you see is what a notional "camera" shows you. In Second Life the camera usually sits in the the air just above and behind you (note that there is actually no camera to see, it is just a point in space). In Second Life you can move the camera almost wherever you want. It can even be sent a long way away and look back at you. To move the camera: - Press and hold the ALT key. - The cursor changes to a magnify glass. - Now WHILST HOLDING THE ALT KEY move the mouse. Your camera viewpoint will change. Pushing the mouse forward will zoom in Pulling back will zoom back. Moving the mouse left or right will cause if to move around to the left or right. To revert to the normal camera position just press ESCAPE. Sometimes you may have to press it a couple of times. As a test, use your camera to read what that white sign in the distance says. If you're feeling really confident try and read the sign on the right hand side of the same cube! MOUSELOOK ======== In Mouselook your camera is placed where your avatars eyes are, so you don't see you avatar, just what your avatar sees. Mouselook is not heavily used in Second Life. One of the main reasons is that the movement controls subtly change. The Back and Forward arrows work as before, but left and right now shuffles you to the left or right, rather than turning you to the left or right. This makes movement a lot harder. The best way to move in mouselook is to use your mouse to point/look the way you want to go, and then just use the forward cursor key - leave the left and right keys well alone! Other reasons are that the Camera zoom, and the ability to touch an object fail to work in Mouse look. About the only real use of Mouselook is on the rare occasion in Second Life when you get to fire a gun (or throw a snowball). To enter Mouselook first press ESCAPE (which hides the chat bar), and then press M. Again you come out of Mouselook by pressing ESCAPE. Once you have finished playing with the camera follow the corridor to the next station. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 4/5 - Touch and Pie Menu TOUCHING Many objects in Second Life allow you to interact with them. You can tell which they are because your cursor changes to a hand as you hover over them. If you then LEFT CLICK this is called "touching" an object. Objects can do absolutley anything when touched - it's all down to how they have been programmed. Try touching the target to see what happens. In fact you will have already used Touch in order to receive someof the note cards at earlier stations. PIE MENU If you RIGHT CLICK on an object then you will see the PIE MENU. This is a standard menu that appears for any object in Second Life - however the greyed out options will vary depending on what permisions you have, and how the object has been programmed. You left click on an option to chose it. The standard options are: TOUCH - the same as left clicking CREATE - puts you into Build mode if you have the right permissions OPEN - shows what objects are in the object - usually used when you buy something EDIT - lets you edit the object, if you have the permissions MORE > - goes to the MORE menu PAY - gives money to the object, usually used when buying something TAKE - takes the object into your Inventory, if you have the right permissions SIT HERE/TELEPORT/DRIVE etc - Sits you on the object, or teleports you, or lets you drive etc And on the MORE menu: TAKE COPY - takes a copy of the object into your Inventory, if you have the right permissions WEAR - wears the object as an item of clothing (lots of newbies end up wearing boxes!) DELETE - deletes the object (if you have the right permissions) MORE > - goes to the MORE>MORE> menu RETURN - gives the object back to its owner (only for land owners) ATTACH - attaches the object to you (like a watch, glass etc) ATTACH HUD - put the object onto your screen (rarely used, but can give you extra controls to do interesting things) And on the MORE MORE menu: REPORT ABUSE - if you think an object is breaking the community guidelines (eg pornography in a PG area) you can report it to Linden Lab INSPECT - Gives you information about who made the object and when MUTE - mutes any chat coming from the object (rarely used) Right click on a few objects around here to see what options they give. See if you can find out which avatar built the things as well! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 6 - Flying FLYING ==== Now its time for your flying lesson! In Second Life lots of people fly in order to travel short to medium distances (we teleport for long distances!). To fly you just press and hold the PAGE UP key, or press the FLY button at the bottom of the screen. The more you press PAGE UP the higher you fly. However eventually gravity kicks in and unassisted you can't normally fly more than about 200m up. Once you are airborne use the cursor keys to move around as normal, and PAGE DOWN (or press the STOP FLYING button) to come down, eventually back to the ground. Your challenge now is to take off from the end of the walk way, and fly up and through the target, and then down and land on the far walkway. Try not to touch the water at the bottom of the chamber! Best of luck - and you get no broomstick to help you with this one! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 7 - Media Set Up If the video controller is not visible Go to the main menu bar and click on EDIT then PREFERENCES (or alternatively Ctrl+P) to open the preferences tool box Click the Audio & Video tab Tick the Streaming Media Preferences box Tick the Audio Preferences box If you want click the Automatically Play box Click OK This should ensure that the video controller becomes visible at the bottom of your screen and allows video and music to play. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 8 - Video Video Play Handout At the bottom of your Second Life Screen a small panel will be visible which has either an icon of a movie still or a video camera showing (depending on which version of Second Life you're in). Click this icon Click the play button on the video controller In some instance you may need to use the controls on the screen to start, stop, pause the video etc. Remember if you are in a presentation DO NOT press the controls on the screen, just click the video controller!! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 9 - Music At the bottom of your Second Life Screen a small Music Control panel (just above Map_ will be visible which has an icon of musical notes visible with a play button. Click the Play button. Music should be heard. If this is not visible: Go to the main menu bar and click on Edit, then Preferences (or alternatively Ctrl+P) Choose the Audio& Video Tab Tick the Play Streaming Music when Available options Click Apply Click OK On the Music control panel you may have to refresh the settings to enable music to be heard so click Stop and then Play ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Station 10 - Minimap MINIMAP ===== The Minimap is a useful little tool. It lets you see: Where avatars are around you Indicates North Helps you navigate (particularly while flying). You display the Mini-Map by clicking on the MINI-MAP button at the bottom of your screen. Close the map by pressing the button again, or clicking on the CLOSE (X) icon. The Mini-Map shows you the sim you are on, and any neighbouring sims. You are always in the center of the map, and the map moves and rotates as you move and turn. A Compass Rose moves with the map to show you where North is. Other avatars are displayed as small green dots (if they are at the same altitude as you), or small chevrons if they are above or below you. HAD ENOUGH? ========= If you think you've learnt all that you need to know for now then you can take a quick shortcut down the ramp to the East to get to the exit, and out into the main SGI Plaza. Otherwise just follow the path North to the next station.