Virtual Universe
First Steps
Start the Program and Log In
When the program and all required components have been installed correct, the main window
appears after double clicking the program symbol or executing the start-script. In front of the window a small dialogbox
opens. Here you have to enter your login data.
If you are not a registered user, enter any desired name, leave the password-field empty and select the "Log in
as unregistered lifeform"-checkbox.
If you are a registered user, enter your username and your password, do NOT select or unset the checkbox for
unregistered lifeforms (= unregistered users).
Additional you can store the login data local using the appropriate checkbox. This is not recommended on machines
with public access and / or access of more than only one user. With stored login data every other person would be able to
log in using a foreign name and abuse it without the knowledge of the owner.
If all data have been entered correct press the OK-button to start the login process.
Chat
After a successful login you will be transported to the center of the Virtual Universe, a kind of entrance-area.
After some download time the 3D representation of this world appears in the lower right area of the main window. In the
top area you can find a tab pane you can use to chat.
The right side of this pane lists all users which are online. The large area left beside it displays all chat texts.
Above of it you can find the chat line where you can enter your texts. If you click into this line, type a text and
press return it will be send into the world and everybody can read it.
If you want to speak with a user 1:1 only you can whisper to him. To do that, select his name in the list of users on
the right side and change the comboboxs selection next to the chat line from "chat" to "whisper". Now all
your texts are printed in blue color and only this user is able to read it.
Functions
When you right-click into the chat tab panes user list (which can be found on the right side of the chat tab pane) a context
or popup menu appears. This menu offers following functions:
- "Close Channel" - closes the channel for public access temporarily; this function is available for users with owner or
operator privileges only
- "Reopen Channel" - reopens a closed channel; this function is available for users with owner or operator privileges
only
- "Remove User" - removes the selected user from the channel by kicking or baning him; this function is available for users
with owner or operator privileges only
- "Send File" - offers the possibility to send a file to the selected user, the file itself can be chosen by a special dialog
window which opens after selecting this menu item;
file transmissions are possible only to users which are connected directly by a peer-to-peer-connection, if the sender
of the file or the recipient is connected directly to the server, this functionality isn't available
- "Whisper to" - switches to whisper mode for the selected user; when you enter texts in the chat line afterwards they won't
be readable for all users in a wold but for the selected one only
- "Watch user" - puts the selected user into your Watchlist
- "Clear Selection" - clears the actual selection; if you had selected a user and have been in whispering mode not only the
selection will be cleared by this operation but also the mode will be switched back to "chat"; afterwards everything
you enter in the chat line will be readable by all users in the world
Left beside the chat line you can see a smiley. This is a button which opens a window with a set of most used other
smileys. If you click one of them, a template will be inserted in the contents of the chat line (these "templates" are
the well-known emoticons, such as ";-)" or ":-)"). After pressing return the templates are replaced by images in the
chat window. The window which can be used to choose a smiley offers only a small subset of the supported emoticons. All
other, not so often used ones can be accessed by entering the emoticon-templates directly. So you can play and experiment
using these emoticons and templates:
:-) ;-) :-| :o) :-(
8-) :-P :-S >-( ,-)
E-( >-) 8-| :-D :D
|-O :-] :-p B-] :-0
X-P |-p :-x :-§ :-o
*-) rotfl 8-O (help) (alien)
(angel) (afire) (bigeye) (thup) (blite)
=) (bkiss) (blush) (boom) (boots)
(fie) (devil) (flower) (worry) (())
(lick) (bzz) (...) (nut) (crazy)
(scared) (zzz) (!!!) (upto) (wave)
(bear) (bee) (bat) (elf) (greedo)
(elk) (frog) (eek) (pig) (worm)
(bird) (smurf) (bandit) (batman) (bele)
(beret) (ggg) (diablo) (drink) (egypt)
(down) (up) (light) (love) (pippi)
(poke) (rainbow) (star) (stop) (punk)
Messages
An second communication channel is offered with the Messages-functionality. It is something similar to the well known
SMS (Short Message Service, used in mobile phones). You are able to send texts to other users. Comparing to the chat
functionality they are delivered in a own area of the program. Additionally they are stored automatically together with
date and time they have been send. So the user is able to (re)call these messages when and as often he want. As an other
aspect messages can be sent to users which are offline. In this case it will be delivered if he comes online next time.
The most simple way to send a message is to select the name of the addressee in the chat panes user list or in the
Watchlist, press the right mousebutton and select the menu item "Send Message" in
the appearing popup menu.
Then a small window appears where you are able to enter the text of your message. After pressing the "OK" button
the message will be send. Only in case the user has blocked the reception you get
an error information and the message will not be delivered.
If you received a message, this fact is symbolized by a envelope which appears in the small row below the 3D area
of the main window. To read it you can bring the "Messages" tab pane to front manually or you can click this
envelope directly.
The messages tab pane is splitted into two parts. On the right side all messages are listed. Unread messages are marked
using the same envelope. When you left click a message its contents will be displayed in the left part of the message
tab pane together with the name of the sender and the date and time it was sent.
Functions
When you right-click into the tab panes list of stored messages (which can be found on the right side of the message tab
pane) a context or popup menu appears. This menu offers following functions:
- "Remove message(s)" - removes the acutally selected message(s); please note: this function deletes the messages
irreversible, they can't be brought back afterwards!
- "Reply message" - opens a new, special message window, here as the addressee the sender of your message is already entered
(but can be changed) and the window itself is horizontally splitted; you can read the old message in the upper part and
are able to write your reply to this message in the lower part of the window
- "New message" - opens a message window for a new message, in the upper text field the name of the addressee has to be entered,
the lower text area is for your message to this user
- "Watch user" - puts the selected user into your Watchlist
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