Talking to other
people in Active Worlds is a unique part of the Active Worlds Browser experience. When you
first enter an Active World you might see that other people's avatars won't have names
above their heads. But as soon as they communicate with other people, a connection to you
is established and you can see their names. When other people talk, what they said will
appear right after their names, above their heads. Eventually, the above-head messages
might disappear or be replaced, but the names remain. You can always go back and read what
people said by viewing the Chat History. The Chat History window can also display messages
from people who are behind you or off to the side.
Everyone can hear everyone else - there are no "whispers" in Active Worlds.
However, if you wish to censor someone’s messages, you can "mute" them.
To talk to other people:
To talk to other people, all you have to do is type your message. What you type appears
in the Message box, and pressing ENTER sends your message. Then you'll see your message
appear in the Chat History window.
Other people will still see your last message above your head until you press ENTER to
send the next one, or for another 30 seconds or so if you don't send another message.
To mute other people:
If a person has spoken and you don’t want to hear his/her message, you can mute
them. To mute a person, right click on their avatar, and click on the Mute pop-up so that
it is checked. A "Muted" message appears next to the person’s name above
his/her avatar, and his messages will not reach you during the current session or until
you have un-muted the person. A muted person’s messages will still be heard by all
other people in his/hers proximity. You can un-mute a person by right clicking on his/her
avatar, and un-checking the Mute pop-up.
Chat Window
You can resize the window by changing the border between the main view window and the
Chat History window. Just position the cursor over the border between the windows until
you see an up-down arrow, then drag the border to the desired position.
You can also use the scroll-up and scroll-down buttons to look at messages that have
scrolled off the Chat History window. These buttons move the text in the window up or down
one line at a time. Or click either above or below the 'slider bar' divider between the
scroll buttons to move the text up or down one 'page'.
The Chat History window also displays any error messages you may get while building,
for instance if you try to give an illegal Action or change someone else's property. These
errors are given to you as a message from the all-powerful "Building Inspector".
More tips on communicating
- You can talk either while you're in movement mode or while you are in cursor mode. Just
make sure that you haven't clicked on one of the Description/Action/Object fields of a
selected object, because otherwise you'll be typing in those fields and not sending a
message like you thought!.
- You can only communicate with the twelve avatars that are closest to you. If your area
is really crowded, try moving into an area where your group will have its own
"space".
- If someone doesn't seem to be responding to your messages, try moving closer to them.
Although your intended recipient may be one of the twelve avatars closest to you, your
avatar might not be one of the twelve avatars closest to them. Getting close maximizes the
chance that you're in each others' group of twelve.
- Sometimes other people's messages will overlap on the screen. When talking in groups,
the easiest way to see everyone's text is to go to third-person view. Or check the Chat
History window.
