Tips & Tricks

A few things that make life in OpenSim easier, especially if you are coming from Second Life or are brand new to virtual worlds.

Moving around

Move forward/back/strafe: W A S D
Fly: F (toggle), or hold Ctrl while moving.
Jump: Ctrl + ↑ (up arrow) or the spacebar while moving.
Turn / look: click-drag with the left mouse button (look) or right mouse button (move/orbit). Mouse wheel zooms.
Run: double-tap W or hold Shift while moving.

Click-drag with both mouse buttons (or Ctrl + drag) to orbit the camera around your avatar.
Scroll wheel zooms in/out.
Press Esc to reset the camera behind your avatar.

Local chat: just type and press Enter.
IM a specific person: right-click their name in the People window and choose IM.
Nearby chat history: Ctrl + H opens the chat history floater.

Build / create object: Ctrl + 3 opens the Build tools, or right-click the ground and choose Build.
Edit an object: right-click it and choose Edit (Ctrl + 3).
Move/rotate/scale handles: use the colored arrows/handles in the edit window. Hold Ctrl to rotate, Shift to scale uniformly.
Take a copy / take: right-click an object → Take puts it in your inventory. Take Copy leaves the original in place.
Permissions: in the edit window, Permissions tab controls who can copy, modify, or transfer the object.

Teleport to a person/place: open the Map (Ctrl + M), search a region or avatar name, and click Teleport.
Teleport home: type home in chat, or choose Teleport Home from the World menu.
Hypergrid travel: if the grid allows it, you can teleport to another grid using a hypergrid address such as hg.osgrid.org:80/Lbsa Plaza.

If the world looks slow or stutters, lower the Draw Distance (Graphics → Draw distance, e.g. 128–256 m instead of 512 m) and reduce Graphics quality.
Increase the viewer cache size in Preferences → Network & Cache if you visit the same regions often.

Change appearance: right-click your avatar → Appearance (Ctrl + P).
Wear clothing/objects: double-click items in your Inventory, or right-click → Wear / Add.
Your avatar and inventory live on the grid’s servers, so you keep them when you log in from any machine.