Advanced mode and how to see more in the picture window: If you
just got into OuterWorlds, first thing you should do is go to advanced
mode if it's not in it already. If you don't see the button, don't
worry about it. Then turn off the built-in Web browser by clicking
the Web button or just going to the word Show near the top of the window,
clicking on that, then if it's checked, click on the word Web to turn it
off. That should clear up more space for your picture window.
Black
triangles when you first enter a world:
If you are seeing little black triangles, please be patient while everything
downloads. Those little triangles are usually people, objects, or
buildings. The first time you go to a world, it may take a few seconds
to minutes to load everything depending upon the type of connection you
have with the Internet. To make things that are nearest you download
faster, and to make it easier to move around, look up at the top of your
OuterWorlds window and find the word Visibility. That's one of the
drop-down menus. Click on the word, and when the menu opens up, find
the number that's closest to the top of the list that isn't grayed out
and select it. The default setting is Float, which varies the distance
you see objects at depending upon what you have in your settings.
If you're sure your computer can handle it, and you have a good connection,
you can try increasing the distance until you see as far as you want to.
Until you've become a more experienced user, though, you may wish to leave
it on "Float" or one of the lower visibility settings as setting it too high slows down your computer.
How
to move: Anytime you want to move, you
should click in the picture window where you see people or buildings (or
whatever) to make sure it's selected, then use the direction arrows on
your keypad to move. Best thing to click on is the ground or the
sky. If you try to click anywhere else, you may activate something
like a teleport, a song file, or even make a page open up beside your picture
window. Most of the things you see don't do that sort of thing, but
some objects do. In the newest versions of OuterWorlds, you'll see
a hand when you put your mouse over an object that has a link on it or
does an action in OuterWorlds like a teleport.
To
move faster: Want to run and you feel
a need for speed? Hold down the Ctrl key while moving using the direction
keys on your keyboard. Thankfully, there aren't any speed limits
in OuterWorlds yet, so it's kind of fun to go running down a street in
some worlds.
If
you're stuck and you can't move: In
some worlds, you can't move through things by using the shift key and a
direction arrow key to get un-stuck, but in most other worlds you can.
If you're in one of the worlds where they won't let you, and you're stuck,
you'll have to go somewhere else, then return. Just left click on
one of the grayed-out worlds in the World List (if you don't see the world
list, hit the F9 key on your keyboard and select the Worlds tab).
It probably won't let you in, so you'll be told that, and sent back to
where you were. This is usually called 'bouncing' and is also sometimes
used when a world doesn't want to load. If you don't want to open
up the worlds list, you can just click on "Teleport" at the top of your
screen, then click on "to" and then click "OK". That'll teleport
you to the middle of the world, its GZ. GZ means Ground Zero.
This is also useful if you get lost and want to return to the place you
came into the world at. Remember, if you get too far away from other
people, you won't be able to chat with them because you'll be out of their hearing range.
Finding
people to chat with: If there's nobody
in the world you're in to chat with, you can use the World List to find
out where everybody is. Try the worlds with the most population,
first, click on them to enter, and say something when you go in.
You should then wait at least a minute or two for somebody to see you speak
and to give them time to type something in, as they may be in another program
window, and are taking time to switch back to the OW one. If nobody
says something back, they may be AFK (Away From Keyboard) doing something
in the real world, or even sleeping. ;-)
Need
something to do and there's nobody to chat with?
Try playing games. In some worlds, like ThisIsIt
(my own world) there are bots that play games with you like
trivia.
When you enter a world, you should read the world's information page to
learn about it. It may have information on games, or places to
explore.
Some have hidden places that you can find if you use your
imagination.
Hee hee hee The best time to find somebody to chat with is in the
early evening hours in the United States, or between 10:00 p.m. and
4:00
a.m. VRT (Virtual Reality Time). The VRT clock should be near the
bottom of your OW window if you are using one of the newer versions of
the OuterWorlds program. If you are not, and you want to see it,
hit the word
Show near the top of your OW window, then the word VRT clock, and it
will
appear near the bottom of your OW window.
Flying:
In some worlds, you can fly! To 'fly' (go up and down), make sure
you have the picture window selected by clicking in it, then use the +
key on your number pad. To go down, use the - key on the number pad.
Happy landings!
To
see yourself:
You can see what you look
like by clicking on the Front Camera button near the top of your
screen. It looks like the number 2 with a little eye beside
it. If you're using an older version of OuterWorlds, you can
click the little camera, then continue clicking it until you see
yourself in the view
that you like the best. If you don't like the way you look, you
can change into a different avatar. An avatar is the body
you use while in the OuterWorlds 3D chat program.
Changing
your appearance by changing your avatar: To change your avatar,
you can click on the word Avatar near the top of your screen, then select
from the choices there. Tourists get only two choices, whereas registered
citizens can sometimes have over a hundred avatars to choose from in some
worlds. You can look at the avatar list for the world ThisIsIt to see one example of this.
Actions: Want
to dance, wave, jump, or just do a little jig? Then try one
of the action buttons you see just under the other buttons near the top
of your window. In most worlds, there are less than ten actions,
but in some, there are many more, and the action buttons use
abbreviations instead of whole words. For example, the dances may
be listed as D, D2, D3 and so on, and the happy actions can be listed
as H, H2, H3 and H4. You get the idea. To
see yourself in different views, click the End key on your
keyboard,
after you've clicked inside the picture window. To go back to
first
person view, click on the eye button near the top of your OW program
window, that's right beside the camera, or push the Home
key on your keyboard. In the newer versions of OuterWorlds, you
can also jump up about one meter in the air by hitting the 0 key on
your Number Pad if you have "Num Lock" turned off, and you're standing
on something like the ground, but you should click inside the picture
window first, to select it. In some worlds, however, it only
jumps up a little.
When
chatting, use their names in a busy chat so they know you're talking to
them: If you want to say something to
someone, help them to realize you're talking to them by saying their name
first, or in the sentence you type to them. That helps to eliminate
confusion, especially in a busy area. Obviously, if you're in an
area with only one other person in it or you're the only ones who are talking,
you don't really need to do this.
Blue
words are whispers:
Blue words in the
scrolling chat text box means that someone is whispering to you.
If you're in a world where you're not allowed to whisper to people,
you cannot whisper back to them. However, in most worlds, you
can. If you do not have the Whisper thing turned on, you can do
that by clicking on "Show" near the top of your OuterWorlds window, and
then "Whisper", or pushing the F8 key. Then it will show a
Whisper To drop down box that you can select who to whisper to, and a
place where you can type in what to say to them.
If you don't want to listen to the person whispering to you, you can
mute
them. The whispers from people with [ ] on each end of their
names
are bots. Most of them only say hi to you and nothing more, but
others
respond to words and phrases.
Muting
people you don't want to hear: To 'Mute'
someone that is bothering you, right click on their avatar with your mouse
and click "Mute". Or, you can right-click on their name in the chat
window and select "Mute" there.
Shouting
by using all caps: If you use all capital
letters in your words, some users may consider it shouting and take offense. They might even mute you.
Make sure your Caps Lock is turned off. Most people only use caps
for an entire word for emphasis, but rarely for an entire sentence.
Flooding
the chat may get you ejected: You may get ejected for flooding the chat in certain worlds by typing
in a bunch of stuff too fast into the main chat, or hitting the Enter key
too many times in a certain amount of time in certain worlds but you'll
likely get a warning first. In other worlds where there are bots
who are told to eject for it, you may not get a warning. It's important
not to say "scrolling" when talking about this, because it confuses some of the new users who think
that when they scroll back in the text, it does the same thing to everybody
else's chat text.
Conduct
and ratings:
The world OW is G rated,
and a lot of children go there because it's the default first loading
world
for their OuterWorlds browser. There's one basic rule in
OuterWorlds,
and it's called respect. Put it this way: If you start
cussing and there's a little kid there, don't expect people to be very
happy about it. You can tell what ratings each world has by the
letters or numbers written on the little balls by the names of the
worlds in the World List to your left. The world that has a
little globe on it is the world you are currently in. If you need
to know what rating it has and you can't tell because of the globe
there, you can choose Options from the top of the window, then World,
and then "Features..." and once you do that, you look under the General
section by clicking the + by the word. In that section, you will
find the World Rating.
Impersonations: Don't
want to be impersonated? Then be sure you don't have capital
i's or lower case L's in your name. If you use one, someone can
use
the other and impersonate you. This is why you frequently see
people
with capital L's in their names in OuterWorlds. You should also
bear
in mind that if you're a tourist, the minute you log off, someone else
can use the name that you were using. This is important to
remember
in case someone seems to be confusing you with another person.
They've
likely had a conversation with another user that was using the same
name
that you are now. If you want to reserve your name so nobody else
can use it or impersonate you after you've logged off, consider getting
an OuterWorlds citizenship (click here for more information).
OuterWorlds is much cheaper than other programs. It'll also let
you send telegrams (instant messages), allow you to be eligible to be
on the teams if you want to be a VR DJ or host a game, let you win VR $
which lets you buy things like property, and you get to use the
Contacts List so you can put other people on it to see if they're on or
not.
Impersonations
part 2: One other little piece of information on impersonations.
Because the OuterWorlds program allows periods in names it's almost possible
to make it look like you're another person, but if you look closely at
a similar name, you'll probably see the little period at the end of their
name right before the : This is especially something that world owners
and those with eject rights in a world should pay attention to. If
someone is causing trouble, right click on the name of the person on the
sentence itself that is considered bad and eject them quickly if you're
going to before they have a chance to change their names. Either
that, or if you're a citizen, get a bot to eject for certain things in
your world. Prestons are probably the easiest to use, and they're
free, too. :-) More info on them here.
If you want to run a bot in the OuterWorlds program, remember you have
to put auth.activeworlds.com:5685 in the Universe field. Only paying
users (citizens) can use bots, not tourists (those who use OuterWorlds
for free).
Enlarging
your OW (OuterWorlds) window:
To make
your OW window bigger, take your cursor and grab one of the bottom
corners
and drag it to fit your main screen, or just hit the Maximize button.
Also
click on the word Show near the top of your OW window and uncheck Web
if
it's checked. This will enlarge the picture window where you see
objects and people at. If you're running OuterWorlds on an older
computer, it may be best if you look straight up in the air first by
using the Page Up and Page Down keys on your keyboard.
Make
the chat text bigger or smaller: If
you have a mouse with a wheel on it, simply click into the main chat text,
push and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while at the same time,
you move the mouse wheel forward or back until you get the chat text the
size you want.
Teleporting: To
teleport, just click on the word Teleport near the top of the screen,
then click on the word To... and when the Teleport box opens up, put
the
world name in the top box like "thisisit" (without the quotes), the
co-ords
(or just leave it empty to go to the GZ, or Ground Zero of the world)
in
the bottom box, then click OK. This will take you to the place
you
typed in. In worlds that allow you to do 'local teleports' which
are teleporting manually inside of a world, you can also enter the
co-ords like "5s 8w" (again without the quotes) and hit OK. If
you're not allowed to do it there, you'll simply be taken to the GZ.
Sorting
the Worlds List: You first make sure
you have the Worlds List up by selecting Show near the top of your screen,
then Tabs (either that, or press the F9 key. That
toggles the tabs on and off), and click on the tab that says Worlds.
Then, after you see the Worlds List, you can either click on the little
box that says the number of worlds there are and that'll show the worlds
in alphabetical order, or, if you click on the little box that says how
many users there are, it'll sort it by population showing the most populated
worlds near the top of the world list.
Accepting
files and giving out info that can be used to contact you:
Please do not accept files from anyone you don't know and trust (they could give you a virus) and please do not give out your IP address,
ICQ number, e-mail address, telephone number, home address, or any other
information in open chat (or whispers) that bad people can use to contact
you. Do you truly know what kind of a person you're
chatting to is? Just because someone acts nice, it
doesn't mean they are nice. It could be an act.
Use caution and be safe.
Logging
in problems: If you're having problems
logging in, maybe you can just wait a few minutes or an hour or so, then try again later.
If you still have problems after that, it may be time to write to support
for help. The e-mail address for support is support@outerworlds.com.
Cache
corruption:
If you have problems running
OuterWorlds, or you sometimes see avatars with almost totally white
skins
or clothing, you can close the program and delete the cache folder and
that sometimes helps to straighten it out. But you'll have to
re-load
all the stuff again when you start OuterWorlds back up. Your
cache folder should be in the same folder you installed the OuterWorlds
program. In fact, you should make a habit of deleting the cache
folder once every week to a month so you can see any changes that may
have been made to avatar lists in the various worlds.
Recording
/ logging your chats and saving them: Go
to the top of your OuterWorlds program window and select Options, then
Settings and then click on the Chat tab. In this section, you
need
to make sure that "Log chat to file" is checked. After a while
(from
days to months, depending on how much you use OuterWorlds and how many
chats you get into) you'll need to back up your chats. To do
this,
open up Windows Explorer, My Computer or whatever you use to browse the
contents of your hard drives and go to your main drive (usually called
C:) and create a folder called Backups then one inside of that named
Chats,
then (if you have more than one chat program) another inside of that
named
OW. Then close your OuterWorlds program, go to the folder where
you
have it installed, open up the chat.txt file (if it's fairly large, and
you're using an older operating system, it may ask you if you want to
use WordPad to open it with so you should
do that), see what date it says it starts at, select Save As from the
File
menu, then type in something like Chat from 8-15-2019 to
9-20-2019.doc
(or .rtf, or .txt or whatever) and browse to the folder where you want to keep
the
chats stored in like the one you created earlier. After you've
done
that, you can close the Chat file, then browse back to the folder where
you have your OuterWorlds program installed in and delete the chat.txt
file. Then when you re-start OW, it'll simply create a new
chat.txt
file provided you haven't turned off the chat logging in your
settings.
You'll need to do this 'backing up thing' once in a while, and how
often
depends upon how much you use OW and how many chats you get into.
If you like, you can just check the chat.txt file's size once in a
while
and when it gets over 500 KB, it's usually a good time to do it.
Contacting
OuterWorlds: You can e-mail OuterWorlds
at support@outerworlds.com
for tech support, or just use their support form located here.
Stolen
passwords and/or citizenships: They
can be reported by writing an e-mail to support@outerworlds.com and
they should be able to help you. Remember, don't give passwords
out to anybody, or write them down where other people may find them.
Builders: If
you build, try to remember to cover the land you think you'll need
first.
If you're building in a world that uses plots, that means covering the
entire
plot. That'll keep other people from building on your plot,
provided
you're not a tourist, and the world has a registry. If it does,
people
get messages from the Building Inspector telling them they can't
encroach.
Don't know what you want to build? Look around if you like for
ideas. Some people build houses, parks, or even castles!
Make up a Notepad or WordPad file of your favorite objects to
use.
See an object you like? Right-click on it to see its properties,
then copy the object name from the object field, and paste it into that
file you created. This will help you avoid misspelling the name
of the object. You may also have to copy what's in the Action
field to duplicate whatever it's doing or the texture or color it has
on
it. For more tips on building, please see the Building in OuterWorlds page.
