Landing in Alpha

Vol. 4 no. 4 November-December 2013                                                                                                                AW Mall, where you first land on entry to ActiveWorlds

About controls, and learning how to fly using a laptop

This month we repeat some help that we provided in the July issue on the options available on the HUDs (heads up displays) that you see on your AW screen. We will look at the new addition of the "gold coin" in the main HUD, and introduce you to all the interesting new moves you can do with AW's new upgrade.

Remember, when you first log on, you will see the HUDs located on your screen. You can move these HUDs around to suit yourself. To do this, hold down the right ALT key on your keyboard, and then right click on one of the HUDs. You will be able to move it pretty well anywhere on the screen. When you are happy where it is, just release mouse button.

After we discuss the HUDs, we will show you how to fly in AW worlds when you are using a laptop computer.

The HUDs

Two revised HUDs
Here are the two revised HUDS that appear in Yellow. The HUD on the top includes a gold coin. The bottom HUD offers many more options to make your AV do different moves. Note on the bottom HUD that you have the option of ticking a "continuous" box, which if ticked will keep your AV doing the move you select until you turn it off.

Clicking on the gold coin

The gold coin option
When you click on the gold coin (circled in red here), you will get the pop-up web screen you see here. It offers many options. Just select the "I need more credits" option to buy AW credits. If you select this button, all you need to do is follow their easy instructions. You buy credits by PayPal.

Flying using a laptop

How to fly

Flying using a laptop
The + (plus) key on the numeric keypad moves you up, and the - (minus) key moves you back down again. You can hold these keys down to keep moving up or down, and you can use them in combination with the CTRL key to move faster or the SHIFT key to move through objects.

On LAPTOP computers, which don't have numeric keypads, the + and - keys are usually accessible via a combination of a function key and some other key on the laptop keyboard. The example showed here uses the FN key and the ? key to go up, and the FN and the ; key to go down. (Courtesy of the Gatekeepers, from AW School).

And Finally...

Be sure to explore all the shops in the AWMall! There are some really good objects there for your own CAV (Customisable avatar). Have fun creating a virtual you...

Visit the Virtual Teaching machine in AW School. Go to the school and teleport to 16S 1E 0.0a 90.