Tutorial: How to See SL From a Human Perspective

This is a long but helpful tutorial for adjusting for Second Life camera from Nalates Urriah, a response to the influential post by SL designer Penny Patton on scaling SL to a more realistic size. This can be done through the debug menu by adjusting settings in Rear View. (Heh heh he said "rear view".) There's advantages and some disadvantages, explains Ms. Urriah, to doing this:

When you bring your Rear View to a setting that keeps you camera low the world starts to look really big. You can see that much of Second Life is not to a realistic scale. My little cottage has a very high ceiling. That is needed for the default camera settings. I can have a smaller house and not feel crowded if I use alternate camera settings. Walking in tight spaces and shopping in malls is much nicer too. However, in some forests it can be a disadvantage.

Read much more here.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

I've been using my own custom camera angle that is based on these same exact concepts, so I can say I absolutely agree with the points made in the article. It works! It makes SL far more enjoyable.

[Domchi Underwood]

You don't have to do that through debug settings; at one point I made a HUD which automates a process. It emulates mouselook view by placing camera slightly in front of your head, but you can adjust it to the position behind your back if you wish. And you can switch it on and off with a single click.

(Disclaimer: blatant promotion of my own product. But maybe someone finds it useful.)

[Doreen Garrigus]

I have tweaked these settings even further down for Tinies. =) It's much better in little spaces, but I see a lot of knees.

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

@Domichi - Going at it via debug settings allows the pre-existing focus shift when our backs are against objects. While a HUD is nice, I use one once in a while, changing the client default is still a wise move. (^_^)

I've changed these settings back when I heard of it and I almost can't stand the old default camera angle. DX

[Domchi Underwood]

Imnotgoing, you are correct, when you have a wall behind your back, scripted camera doesn't shift. But that's a problem only when your viewpoint is behind you; when it's in front of you, that can't happen. I like my viewpoint to emulate mouselook. Mouselook view is a great idea, but people don't realize how natural it is since it captures mouse movement and eliminates the interface, which basically renders it useless for most of SL activities.

We are all used to SL default camera settings and the out-of-body experience it gives us, but there is really no reason to look at your back all the time. Now that I think about it, maybe if we didn't look at our own avatars all the time fashion wouldn't be such an important aspect of SL... :)

[foneco zuzu]

Well I use mouselock all the time, to make love, to make love, to make love1

[foneco zuzu]

But i guess this topic is not about sex, and not also in how to make a free matter of choice, the choice of changing the camera and the way you see Second Life, mandatory!
I dare to say most of the posts on this blog had a agenda behind, 1st the zealous critics about Sl avatars Height and now the camera angle any should use and the remarks how if we use mouselock more we would not look so much into fashion!
Well set see avatar in mouselock and join a poseball and feel!