Newbie Questions: The Basics

I'm new to SL, and just like most other computer "games" I'm having trouble getting the hang of basic movement and stuff.

Is there a FAQ or in-game help or something that shows me how to walk, run, turn, jump? Why am I having trouble picking up objects? Why doesn't the mouse seem to change the direction I'm flying?

Also, can the movement controls be customized?

There are often classes held for such things. Use the search feature to look under events for classes that might help you.

Most avatar movements are controlled via the arrow keys. Page Up will get you flying (and why walk when you can fly?) Page Down will land you.

Not all objects can be picked up, you can usually only manipulate objects that you own.

The best thing you can do for yourself at this point is head to New Citizens or to the Shelter where there are lots of friendly folks ready to help new residents out with learning the basics....

Some of our help guides over on Stratics: Second Life may be of interest to you. There are, at the time of writing, 21 guides there designed to help people understand the basics of SL, with more in progress and planned.

The help guides and forums may be read without logging in, although if you'd like to sign up and join our forums, that is free - simply click on "Forum Index" then "New User" and follow the instructions.

Lewis

Another good start in-world is New Citizens Inc. Look it up in the Find dialog, go there, and they have plenty of information for newcomers.

There is a thing called orientation Island that teaches the basics such as moving etc. When you first log in, you are right in front of the first lesson. It can happen that that Sim is down, in which case you may be prematurly transferred to the mainland. I have heard that some Lindens can move you back to the new player only places.

Another option is the Mainland Orientation Island. It's a japanese castle. You should be able to find it via search -> places, or you might have a note with bookmarks, which i think contains that place too.

To walk, use the movement keys - by default, these are the arrow keys.

To run, press Ctrl+R and then use the same movement keys. (There's also a "Run" option on one of the pull-down menus.)

Turning is done with the left and right movement keys.

Jumping is a bit trickier (it took me a while to find this) - you have to tap the "Fly up" key (which by default is "Page Up".

(Feels silly since she only learned crouchwalking this week)



You can only pick up objects that belong to you. The only way to pick up an object in world that belongs to someone else is to "Buy" it, however the price for doing so can be set to L$0 if they intend you to have it for free.



If you want it to, you need to go into Mouselook. To do this, click on the graphical window (so the cursor disappears from the Chat bar) and press "M".



Yes - on the Preferences menu.

If you skipped orientation island, go to Waterhead welcome center...
(search, places, "Waterhead", and click teleport to on the result)

Walk out of it to the traffic circle.

Use page up to fly. Stay low to the ground. Or, you can just walk there but flying is faster and you can see the land feature i will describe below more clearly. Page down to land. If you are using a MAC, let us know because several MAC users have told me their keyboard commands are slightly different.

It's been a very long time, but if i recall correctly, it's off to the right slightly, in the one o'clock direction, i think, as you walk out of waterhead onto the traffic circle. There should be a series of land bits that jut out into the sea from the mainland, looking very much like fingers on a Linden hand. On these fingers, you will find all the Orientation island objects and notecards that you might have missed. This area is a very good spot to learn, or re-learn, the basics, if you are already gone from Orientation isle.

Thanks to FlipperPA, there is now a sticky at the top of this forum full of FAQ collected from years of newbie questions that have been asked in Live Help. Try checking that out.