Zoom and Pan Your Camera on Second Life – I wish I had listened on Orientation Island!

I remember walking through the Orientation Island on Second Life (back when it was still there) and sort of breezing through this part, thinking it’s not that important. About a year later, I figured it out elsewhere… You should have heard me swear at myself!  This is one of the EASIEST things and one of the most ALL THE TIME helpful things you can teach yourself, and I suggest DAY ONE is the perfect day to learn this.

When you want to see an object, hold down the Alt-key and click on the thing you want to focus on. Then, use the wheel button to see it closer or hold down the mouse button and move the mouse up and down to see the object in clear closeup.

If you need to change angles to the object, also hold down CTRL-key and you’ll get a nicer view.

Now, it doesn’t matter where stuff is, you can always take a closer look, including panning around to see your eyeless avatar’s face and figure out where your other mesh eyeball went. 😀

Boards with text high up near ceiling level

On Second Life, a lot of creators associate the space as… just that, space. Like everyone was wearing space suits and there is no gravity, and you can just fly up and take a look at every board… Which you can, of couse, but… I find that most people prefer looking around with zoom and pan.

Second Life is often laggy, (just the nature of the beast that is loaded with fun) and it takes a lot less resources to zoom and pan than it is to walk around, fly up and down and back again, to see what you came to see.

Next, adjust your camera view out of the “see everything at once without need to touch any controls” newbie mode.Get away from Second Life newbie mode with camera controls.