Friday July 3, 2009: 6:07 AM

Fifth Exercise

 

Take notes. You’ll need these notes when you write your written self-report.

 

As you explore the following places practice camera movements. Practice exploring a place with the camera without moving your avatar. When you land, move away from the landing by a few meters using the arrow keys. Then zoom out (click on the minus sign in the camera control window at the bottom). Inspect the entire area, then zoom back in (click on the minus sign in the camera control window). Now use the camera movements to explore in and out, around corners, inside buildings, all without moving your avatar. You do this by holding the Alt key down, and simultaneously hold the left click of your mouse down, as you move the mouse ball around with your other fingers. It takes a little practice to use both hands in this way. This camera action gives you full zoom in and out and movement in all directions. If in addition you hold the Ctrl key down you can rotate an object in any direction for closer inspection.   

I LOVE the Ctrl function.  Never knew this existed.  This makes taking the perfect picture easier to see and I don’t have to play with the alt zoom by zooming in and zooming back out trying to get the right angle.  This is very useful. 

Now check the setting under the Advanced menu (top of screen near middle), and select Disable Camera Constraints until it shows an X that it is activated. Now your camera control will be extended to its full potential. Try the Alt-left click mouse ball technique again and see the amazing difference.

I had a very difficult time locating the Advanced menu and therefore could not manage to Disable Camera Constraints.  I feel as if I am missing an important step. 

You can have your camera move through walls and buildings if you position it sideways rather than front on. You can also use the arrows on the right side of the camera control window (which opens under the View menu, when you select Camera Controls). Using these various camera techniques takes practicing a few hours, which you can do by exploring inside buildings, underwater, the sky, etc. without moving your avatar from whatever place you left it last time you used the arrow keys, or else teleported. To get back to wherever your avatar is press Esc twice. Also press the Esc key twice, when your camera gets stuck inside things and it won’t respond.

Try this as well:

Click on “Fly” (bottom of screen, left) and move your avatar around with the arrow keys. If you want to go higher, press Page Up (press it several times for still higher flight). Use the arrow keys to fly around the entire landscape. To stop, click on the “Stop Flying” command at the bottom of the screen.

Note: when your camera seems stuck, press Esc twice and it should stabilize.

First: Go to:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Over%20The%20Rainbow/254/122/28

Ride the Jet Ski and explore. Have fun. Go there with a friend or two. Both can ride a jet ski and interact. Have a race around the island. It’s fun. Careful: Do not run into other avatars who might be around! Also try windsurfing and other boats that you can find around if you look for them.

When I first arrived I found a windsurfing device and enjoyed this more than the first one I found a few weeks ago.  This place was better because there was more room to do tricks and I didn’t worry about running into something then needing to retrieve another windsurfing device.  Also I did not expect to find anything very interesting after exploring for ten minutes.  But I fell off of a boat and into the water and noticed there are great things under water!  I saw coral and even a maze!  I am so excited and want to explore more underwater areas here but I found nothing inland!