Teleports

The Coordinate System

Each world within Active Worlds is set up based on the real world. Locations in the real world can be found by using GPS coordinates. The same method is used within Active Worlds. These virtual GPS coordinates are based on the center of each world.

Your coordinates can be found by clicking “SHOW” in the menu bar and then enabling “Position”. Your rough coordinates can now be found in the header bar above the menu.

Visiting Other Areas, Also Known as Teleporting

While you may wish to walk around to visit different areas, in many worlds, this can be very time-consuming. For example, the world “AW”, also known as Alpha World, is larger than the U.S. State of California. Imagine trying to walk from one end of the state to the other.

An easier way of moving about is to “teleport”. Teleporting uses the World Coordinate System to move you from one location to another, similar to finding GPS locations on a map.

• To teleport to a specific location, select Teleport in the menu, and then click on To… This will bring up a box that includes two fields named World and Teleport. The world field is the world that you want to teleport to. This matches the world name in the Worlds Tab. The Coordinates field is the “GPS” locations that you want to teleport to. Both fields must be completed in order to teleport. The “teleport” field must have a North/South designation and an East/West designation. Once the fields are entered, press OK to teleport to that location.
• To teleport forward, select Forward in the teleport menu. This only works if you have teleported back from a previous location. You can also use the Teleport Forward icon located on the toolbar.
• To teleport back to a previous location, select Back in the teleport menu. You can also use the Teleport Back icon located on the toolbar.
• To teleport to your home location, select Home in the teleport menu. You can also use the Home icon located on the toolbar.
• To set a new location as your starting location, select Make This My Home in the teleport menu. This will create a new starting location for you when you enter the Active Worlds browser.
• To remember a location, select Remember. This is essentially the same as bookmarking a website to visit later. After selecting Remember, a box will appear where you can give the location a name. Hint: When naming locations, it’s best to be specific. Leave the world name but add in a descriptive phrase so that you can easily remember what the bookmark was at a later date.

Accessing Teleports through the Teleport Tab

The teleports tab is similar to your web browsers bookmark menu. All of the teleports that you have saved using the “Remember” function are stored in the teleport tab in a list. To visit a saved teleport, simply click on the name of the teleport. In addition, several actions can be taken inside of the tab box. These actions include:

• Rename: Change the name of a teleport by right-clicking on them and then selecting “Rename”.
• Delete: Delete a teleport by right-clicking on the teleport and selecting “Delete”.
• Teleport: This functions the same as the Teleport option in the menu bar.
• Teleport Back: This functions the same as the Teleport option in the menu bar.
• Teleport Home: This functions the same as the Teleport option in the menu bar.
• Remember: This functions the same as the Teleport option in the menu bar.

Advanced Information on the Coordinate System

From the center of the world, the coordinates increase according to the direction that the person is moving. For example, the base coordinates can be 0N, or 0 North, and 0E, or 0 East. If you traveled due north 10 meters, the coordinates would then be 10N, or 10 meters north by 0E. The coordinates are exact, up to two decimal places out.

The center of each world is commonly known as the “Landing Zone”, however, the world owner may choose to move the landing zone to another location.

Because of the way virtual reality works, two additional coordinate points must also be included. These include the direction the avatar is facing and the location vertically of the avatar. The location vertically of the avatar is represented with an “a”, immediately following the north/south and east/west coordinates. The direction the avatar is facing is represented by degrees between 0 and 360.

As an example, the initial coordinates of an avatar could be seen as “0N 0E 0a 0”. This would place the avatar facing north at the exact central point of the world. If the avatar moved north by 10 meters, flew up 10 meters, and faced south, this would then read as “10N 0E 10a 90”.