Rena's Virtual Life: September 2022

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Starting in Second Life 9: Managing Connections

Previously

At the other extreme from "Nearby chat" is "Instant Message," direct communication between your account to that of another avatar. There are intermediate cases to learn about later, including group chats and conference chats.

For now, notice that there is an option to IM anyone listed in People Nearby (shown).

That extends to anyone whose profile is viewed.

As a newbie, I wanted to let my friend Rena, who told me about Second Life, know that I had created an account. I let her know by direct communication that I have "tyronube" as my account. (Yes, I am both of them. Play along with me here.)

Rena Finds Her Friend

Rena used the Search button to toggle up a Second Life search dialog.

Using the Firestorm Search panel People search, Rena finds that "tyronube" is unique and that the profile is for a 15-day-old newbie.

Clicking "Add Friend" starts the friendship-invitation procedure.

The request is sent without changes to the default message already included.

There is a confirmation notification.

The notification is in the upper-right corner of the Firestorm window.

Important Tip. This "notification area" needs to be kept clear so that notifications are never obscured by any dialog panels there. There is other useful information in this corner of Firestorm. Explore that later.

Tyronube and Rena Connect

As tyronube, I see there is something new in Chat as the chat button blinks in a changed color.

Opening Chat, there is the Friendship offer from Rena.

We chat it up.

There are some important features of the Conversations panel that are now visible.

The text box (next to "Send") in the panel indicates where an entry will be directed. Pay attention. It can be embarrassing to have sent something to the wrong conversation.
The Contacts list indicates which conversation is currently selected by color.
The Contacts list indicates any conversation that has new messages with the lightened background.
A conversation may also receive notifications (as for the friendship invitation). As soon as the offer from Rena was accepted, Rena's online status was also notified.

Switching to Nearby chat provides further evidence of the kinds of notifications reported there.

Some private notifications will be echoed in Nearby Chat. They are not visible to others. There are limited notifications about other avatars that appear in your Nearby Chat also. There will be further examples as these tutorials progress.

Chat messages are time-stamped and the speaker is identified. Names of speakers are another access to account profiles.

Staying in Touch

Now that there are some friends, the People panel Friends tab becomes useful.

Rena is shown as online. Friend Ebony (the inspiration for this tutorial) has already been connected; she is not in-world at the moment. Tyronube's on-line status is visible to both of her friends. That's indicated with the "eye" symbol status toggle.

IM messages that are sent to someone who is away will be delivered.

Email notifications to your Second Life account will report unread messages that have arrived for you. And when you log in, there will be conversations that have the unread messages held for you.

The log of some past chatting (the dim text) is also retained along with the saved messages you hadn't received yet.

Although I had friends to connect with here already, this ability to sustain communication, in context, is also yours for any friends you connect. There's more ahead.

Continuation:

10. At the Crossroads - Expanding Your Reach - Take a Breath

Last updated 2022-12-09

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Starting In Second Life 8: And Now for an Important Message from ...

Preliminaries

Oops! Right on the Firestorm sign-on screen, a more-better-faster release of Firestorm is available. This will tend to synchronize with changes in Second Life itself as well as improvements in Firestorm.

The question is "What to do about it?"

Read the announcement. Also be aware that support will cease for versions more than a few releases older.

Many players wait for a time in case unhappiness with the new release emerges.

Take a Chance, Take a Chance on Me

If you decide to be an early adopter and download the latest and greatest, there may be some speed bumps to deal with.

Microsoft Edge has a number of security precautions that arise in downloading early in the availability of a recent new release.

The first hurdle is a warning after initiation of downloading.

Microsoft Edge tracks the history of downloads from sites. It notices when a file isn't (yet) commonly downloaded. You are advised to be cautious.

To know more, see more.

If you expand the "Show more ∨" there are three other options beside Delete and Cancel (shown). I've been down this road; I select "Keep Anyway."

The download progresses and the setup file is stored on the PC at the default or a selected location. I didn't open the file immediately. Returning later, I started installation from a location where I've been keeping Second Life materials.

Double-clicking the setup, I am reminded that downloads from the Internet can be flagged on Windows.

Once again, "More info" must be selected to know what the alternatives are.

After selecting "Run anyway" the usual installation process proceeded to completion.

But Wait, There's More!

After I fired up the update, I had a brief surprise.

That probably won't happen for a newbie. That's a wild guess. In any case, there is apparently a recommended improvement to my graphics settings within Firestorm. So be it.

Who's a Complete Unknown?

The "Unknown publisher" designation reflects the setup code not being digitally signed. There's a mechanism for that and the folks at the Phoenix Firestorm Project are not employing it.

Signing setup files is an important protection. There is some expense to it. It does provide more assurance of the integrity and safety of the download. It would also be a step toward being able to distribute Firestorm in the Windows Store. And it should cut down on so much difficulty with warnings.

I have no speculation why this is the case. There are open-source projects that manage to sign their distributions for Windows.

Just saying ...

We now return to the regularly scheduled tutorial.

Continuation:

9: And Now for an Important Message from ...

10: At the Crossroads - Expanding Your Reach - Take a Breath

Last updated 2022-12-09

Starting in Second Life 7: Friends? I Hardly Know You!

Preliminaries:

It's a little premature to add friends at this point. But it is useful to find out about potential friends.

Using Firestorm, we can do the same thing suggested by the sign, first getting to know about folks nearby.. The Firestorm button is a little different.

There is a stylized symbol of two folks. The tooltip explains more. This is a toggle button for bringing up and tucking away the People dialog. I use this People constantly and you probably will also.

The Nearby tab is the most useful for newcomers:

There is much to glean from this informative tool.

Checking Out the Neighborhood

The Nearby characters are listed in the order of increasing distance from your avatar. Watch the list for several moments. See how the list rearranges as characters arrive, move about, and leave.
When the range is in green, that is within the normal "Nearby Chat" range.
When the range is in bright white, you have to shout for them to hear you.

Shouting is by starting a text entry with "/shout" or by ending with Ctrl+Enter rather than just Enter
Whispering is by starting a text entry with "/whisper" or by ending with Shift+Enter rather than just Enter. To see how that matters for distance, try it.

When a name is in bold white type, that is an avatar for an account that is known to you; this can happen once you have established a friendship between that account and yours.
The age column signifies the age of the character in days since the account was created.
The ages given in red are those of newcomer accounts. When the accounts been in-use for enough days (8 or more), the age will no longer be shown in red.
On Adventure Island, the only long-timers in the vicinity will be characters of staff that provide assistance to newcomers.

Being Nosy

An easy way to learn about your neighbors is to double-click on the Nearby character's name. For example,

Here's how I got a closer look at Aish Atwood the other day. By double-clicking her name, the avatar was brought into view. By mousing onto her head, her identification appears. Avatar name "Aish Atwood" was chosen by the player with account "pineda2k10." Also, Aish has a rôle identified above her name. She is an "Adventure Lead," someone to speak to if you're having difficulty.

Note: This technique won't reveal someone who is in a place where people are not allowed to see them from outside of their location. Also, when an avatar is viewed this way, the view will follow them around until you stop such gentle stalking by clicking the Esc key.

You don't have to follow someone around to learn about them, even though it shows something about their taste in avatar characteristics and choice of outfit. Simply right click on the entry in the Nearby tab of the People tool.

There are many actions that we will learn to take with other characters. The most useful one is "View Profile."

Of general interest are the profile picture, the list of Groups that have been joined -- a source of ideas for you -- and the chosen "About" description.

The other tabs are also useful in learning more about the character. The Picks tab can be very informative.

For Aish, there is just one entry, about a Central Park location. This may have some connection with the "Central Park" sign that can be seen in the distance over Aish's right shoulder. We'll figure that out eventually.

Don't take advantage of any teleport options just yet. Wait until all of "Adventure Island" has been explored.

What About My Profile?

Well, unfortunately, you (and my tyronube) don't have much yet.

Many newbies look alike, and the profiles are useless. One mark of graduation from newbie-ness is making your profile useful. We can work on not having a newbie avatar around the same time.

Wait, Wait, Isn't This About Adding Friends?

You can invite another account to be a friend of yours. Whether they notice the invitation and choose to accept it is a throw of the dice at this point. Likewise, if someone sends you a friend invitation.

For the record, here's two ways it is done. Really, you should talk it over privately first. We'll cover that at the next waypoint on the Adventure Island tour.

One Approach is to right click on an avatar entry under the Nearby People tab and select "Add Friend.".

Another way is to use a viewed profile's 2nd Life tab Add Friend button.

Keep in mind, it is always best to talk it over first. It's time to dig into that at the next waypoint of the tour.

Continuation:

Last updated 2022-12-09

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Starting in Second Life 6: Howdy Stranger! Getting Chatty

Preliminaries:

The next waypoint after the starting point on movement is about nearby chatting. This is about chatting in public - messages among all the avatars in the nearby vicinity.

This involves more toggled tools in Firestorm.

At the lower left corner of the Firestorm screen, there is a box where you can type text and, when you press Enter, that text is presented to all nearby avatars. You will also see what you said (as shown) in that area of the Firestorm window. Replies and further texts will scroll there. The messages disappear after a short time.

That "Nearby Chat" button is a toggle. You can click it (or use the Ctrl+H in the tooltip shown). The Conversations Tool will appear, identifying that Nearby Chat is selected, showing a log of the chat, and also providing another text-entry field. There is a subtle difference.

The Conversations Tool can carry additional conversations with other "Contacts." We'll look into that in the next post. For now, just keep in mind that the text entry field adjacent to the "Nearby Chat" button will always apply to Nearby Chat. The text entry field in the Conversations tool has more flexibility.

The Conversations Tool will initially appear higher in the Firestorm window. It can be repositioned where it does not disrupt so much of the display. I move mine down to the corner as shown. It will stick there. And I can still toggle it away completely.

There is one more button related to chatting.

The button that looks like a cartoon voice bubble, a kind of universal symbol for computer chatting, will also toggle the Conversations Tool. The tooltip for Ctrl+T is different than the Ctrl+H on the Nearby Chat button. I think of the difference being between "Talk" (or "Text") and "Here." There is a difference in behavior that isn't revealed until there are additional conversations different from Nearby Chat. That's a puzzle for you to work out later.

I did find someone who responded to my nearby broadcasting.

So, for what it's worth, that's how Nearby Chat goes among beginners. Don't be bashful. The Adventure Island tutorial region is a safe place.

Move to the next waypoint and we'll find valuable ways to coordinate with other players.

Continuation:

Last updated: 2022-12-09

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Starting in Second Life 5: THROWN OFF THE ISLAND? Getting Back Anywhere. Mostly.

Previously:

Sometimes, staying on Adventure Island is not under your control. On a bad day, log-in to Second Life has an unhappy surprise.

There might be a brief message about "region unavailable." But mostly there is a jumble of people, orange clouds, and you're in an unexpected location when everything stabilizes.

GET OUT IMMEDIATELY. Walk, do not run, immediately exit Firestorm by closing the Window. Later, when you have gone past the training-wheels stage, you'll have more alternatives. For now, JUST GET OUT.

Getting Back into Adventure Island

You now have a new location remembered by Firestorm and Second Life as "Last location." You don't want to go there again. Instead, here's how to get back to Adventure Island assuming you haven't overstayed your welcome. (Click on the images to see them larger).

On the Firestorm login screen, in the field that shows "Last Location," use the little pull-down arrowhead to see other options. Select "<Type region name>." (You don't have a "Home" yet.)

In the now-available entry field, type "Adventure Island" and click Enter.

If you entered that correctly, Firestorm completes that name with some numbers beginning "/128/..." These are coordinates. It confirms that you've requested a known region. Click "Log in."

Sometimes, there's still a problem. Even that's good news.

This means Adventure Island is still unavailable. Wait until later. Try again. Rinse repeat.

Eventually, you should return to the starting location in Adventure Island.

... and you can resume your explorations. You won't return to your last position, so you'll have to run through the areas and topics already covered. Then continue.

Continuation:

Last updated 2022-12-09

Monday, September 5, 2022

Starting in Second Life 4: Movement -- Jump Down, Turnaround, Fly Away Home

Preliminaries:

Staying at the "How to Walk" sign, let's capture all the ways of walking while we're in this spot. If you've wandered off (but still at "Adventure Island"), humor me and back-track to here.

WASD Not Working?

The default setup with Firestorm might not be with WASD enabled for movement. The arrow keys on the lower right of the typical keyboard will work. If you are using a left-handed mouse, that can be fine. When using a mouse right-handed, switching to and from the arrow keys is awkward.

When WASD is not enabled, pressing those (and any other alphabetic keys) are taken as initiation of a message in Nearby Chat (about which more later).

Here's how to enable WASD keys for movement. On the far left of the top menu strip, click "Avatar" and then select "Preferences."

On the Preferences dashboard that opens up, select "Move & View." Then click the "Movement" tab. The second entry specifies "Pressing letter keys affects movement ...". If there is no checkmark in the adjacent box, click to create one.

Then click "OK."

Hallelujah! I Can Walk

After confirming that you can use both WASD and the arrow keys for movement, now's a good time to learn more about movement.

On the strip of buttons at the bottom of the Firestorm Window, one of the buttons depicts someone walking.

When this button is pressed, a small movement tool appears.

The tool will be farther away than shown.

The movement button is a toggle. Clicking it again removes the tool.

I recommend using click and hold at the top of the tool to drag it near the bottom center of the Firefox window as shown here. Leave it there. Toggle it away when it's in the way of something.

There are three modes of movement: Walking, Running, and Flying. Walking is shown as selected at the moment. You can choose among all of them at any time. Let's explore walking first.

The Walking Moves

Moving around with the WASD keys, now, notice that your choices of movement are brightened on the movement tool. The same is true using the arrow keys.

Clicking on the direction arrows on the movement tool also works. But there are more moves than WASD provides. There are 8 cases there, in addition to choices for Run, Walk, or Fly. Here's what works.

Walk Forward: W and ∧
Turn Leftward: A and <
Walk Back: S and ∨
Turn Rightward: D and >

And, in addition,

Step Left: Shift-A and Shift-<
Step Right: Shift-D and Shift->
Jump Up: E (tap) and PgUp (tap)
Jump Down: C (tap) and PgDn (tap)

Jumping down does not do much if you are on the surface. It is useful underwater and also if you are flying.

With a calculator pad on your keyboard, those directional keys can also be used when Num Lock is not set.

Fledgling Flight

There are four ways to initiate flying. Take a fledgling flight straight up and back down one of these ways.

Toggle Flying: Home starts and stops flying. Try this first.
Jump into Flying: Hold E until the jump turns into vertical flight.
Another Jump into Flying: Hold PgUp until the jump turns into vertical flight.
Clicking the Movement Tool: Click the flying figure at the lower-right corner of the movement tool.

IMPORTANT: Don't fly around much until you can see how to find your way back to the "How to Walk" starting point of Adventure Island. Seeing a way to backtrack the green tour-guide arrows is one way. Keep them in sight.

Walking movements work to move around when flying also. Control of Ascent and Descent are by pressing E (PgUp) and C (PgDn) respectively. Ascend to give yourself a good view of Adventure Island.

Landing on the surface below where you have flown is easy.

Tap Home for landing.
Click the "Stop Flying" button that appears on the movement tool when you are flying.
Descend to the surface until your avatar can't descend farther, forcing return to surface movement mode.

WARNING: Stay out of the water. It works to go underwater, but returning to the surface can be obstructed and it takes effort to find an area where you can break through to fly again above the surface and back onto the tutorial path.

You'll have much practice of movement on Adventure Island and in other locations. The movement tool will be important then and also when new kinds of movement are introduced, such as solo/group and couples dancing.

And Another Thing ...

While (back) here at the "How to Walk" sign, there's another toggle button to try out.

The button with the question mark toggles the Welcome Island Guidebook. The guidebook is available at all times; it's an useful supplement to this and the Adventure World tutorial; it remains available when you finally graduate from Adventure Island. (You'll notice that changing of past names has not been implemented consistently among various materials. Don't worry about it.)

Enough talking about walking. Let's talk about talking now. ...

Continuation:

Last updated 2022-12-09

Friday, September 2, 2022

Starting in Second Life 3: Firestorm First-Run and Player Welcome

Previously:

Now that Firestorm is installed, there should be an icon for it on your desktop.

Firestorm should also be shown as recently added on your Start Menu list of all programs. Add it to your Start Menu. You can add that icon to your Windows Task bar when you use it enough to want it there later.

Now that there's a way to start up Firestorm any time you want, fire it up!

Firestorm presents much information that can be reviewed at any later start-up. Don't do anything with elements of the Firestorm front page just yet.

For the first run, simply provide your account name and your password in the fields at the bottom. Also check to have them each remembered as much as your computer privacy permits. Then click "Login."

This first time, Second Life requires your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions for using the Second Life service. If you don't accept, there is no way forward. If you do accept, click the box and click "Continue."

Next, if you have firewall protection, you may be requested to approve access to the firewall for Second Life voice transmissions. This is related to provisions for voice communication through Second Life. It will never operate without your permission each time and it is safe to authorize that traffic passing through the firewall. If you want to engage in two-way voice, you will need to have a microphone. None of this is required.

Almost there. Firestorm is completing setup of its bridge. This enhances operation with Second Life. You can close the "Nearby Chat" report of the activity by clicking the "Nearby Chat" button on the lower left bottom of the Firestorm window.

WELCOME!!

Your avatar is at the beginning of Second Life's tutorial for newcomers.

IMPORTANT: This tutorial location, "Adventure Island" is only accessible to newcomers starting in Second Life.

Leaving and Returning

You can always exit immediately from the game. That is done by closing the window using the "X" in the upper right corner of the game's Window.

When you start up Firestorm again, leave the "Last location" option set between the password and "Logi n" button, Firestorm will open exactly where you were. This happens no matter what Second Life location your avatar is in.

When you do return to the game, it may take some time for the view of your destination to be fully constructed. Be patient. It can seem weird the first few times.

Staying in the Adventure Island tutorial

Your location in the game is displayed in the top strips of menu items, by name and by coordinates, as in "Adventure Island (42, 27, 23)."

If you take your avatar from this "Adventure Island" location to a different Second Life location, you can neither find nor return to "Adventure Island." This specific location is only available to first-timers and staff. (There is a technique that might work in episode 5.)

Catching Your Breath, Looking things Over

While you are here, look around a little.

Notice your account name is above your avatar. You'll learn to change that when your Profile is explained.

There are other newcomers materializing near you in the arrival area. You can see their account names too. The orange cloud is present when an arrival is not fully materialized. That's called rezzing and one of those arrivals is not fully rezzed yet.

You'll also see in the Nearby Chat entry area that my newcomer was unsuccessful attempting to use WASD for movement.

The first thing to do is learn to move around properly in Second Life. Stay tuned.

Continuation:

Last updated 2022-12-09