METAbolt for Dummies
With the literature and history out of the way you probably want to know what you can do with METAbolt and are looking for a "quick start". So here is "METAbolt 4 Dummies":
Walkthrough
1. Application Menu: One of the most important menu options you will use. This is where the "Preferences" are. You use the Preferences to set-up the behaviour/features of METAbolt.
2. Radar/Mini Map & Voice Tabs
Radar: Lists all the avatars that are around you with their distances in metres. Avatars are added and removed from this list as they arrive and/or leave. To be able to use the "action icons" seen to the right of the list, you need to select the relevant avatar by clicking on its name in the list. This will enable the icons on the right.
You will notice that sometimes one or more avatar lisings in the list will turn red in colour. This means that the avatar is typing into public chat. The avatars which appear in BLUE are ones that are out of range for some of the functionality available via the Radar Toolbar (explained below).
Avatars that are above 1024 meters will have a ">" sign to the left of the distance displayed on the radar next to their names e.g. >[148m] would mean they are 148 meters above 1024 meters and this does not mean they are at 1172 meters they could be at 2172, 3172 or 4172. It is not possible to report the correct altitude above 1024 meters.
Mini Map: Displays a mini map of the SIM you are on, with avatar locations plotted as icons. Moving your mouse over an icon will display a popup which contains the avatar name, tag and coordinates. Clicking on the icon will open up that avatar's profile.
3. Language Translation: Check the "Translate" option box to activate it. Then select the language pair you want from the dropdown list. Everything you type into chat will then be auto translated into the language you chose from the dropdown list.
4. Movement direction buttons: These are used to make your avatar walk forward, left, right, and back. The avatar will take only 1 step in the direction you click, so to keep moving you need to keep clicking. Don't forget you won't be able to see where you are going.
:: TIP :: but you can use the map control which updates avatar positions in real time, to give you an idea of where you are and how your avatar is moving.
5. Direction Buttons: Left or right. clicking these buttons will turn your avatar on its axis to the right or left...depending on which button you are clicking.
6. This is the chat box. Type in what you want to say in public chat here. To SAY what you have typed either hit the ENTER key on your keyboard or click on the SAY button to the right of the chat box.
7. Emotiocons: Click on the down arrow to see the list of available emotiocons. Clicking on an emotiocon will insert it in your chat box. Remember that the official SL viewer does not support emotiocons e.g. if you select the "smile" emotiocon it will appear in the SL viewer as ":)".
8. World menu:
Covered below.
9. Tools menu:
Covered below.
10. Radar Toolbar:
Covered below.
~ World Menu ~
This is very similar to the "world" menu in the official SL viewer in terms of content and structure. This is an intentional feature so that you find it familiar and easy to use.
~ Tools Menu ~
1. Teleport: Will bring up the teleport screen which you can use to TP anywhere of your choice. This is explained in detail below.
2. Map: This is a map of the current SIM you are in. This is one of the most important windows in METAbolt that will help you get your coordinates right since you are not able to see your surrounding. Use the "?" icon on the map screen to get more information on it.
3. Object Manager: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT WINDOW IN METABOLT. This is the window that will enable you to control and interact with the objects around you. It is the screen that will enable you to sit on things. Walk to objects, find objects etc. This window will be covered in detail further down.
4. Script Manager: Is a powerful IDE for developers/scripters which replaces the Script Editor. The IDE allows you to save scripts to your desktop as well as create and edit scripts from your invetory. The IDE also allows you to develop in other languages such C#, VBscript, Java etc. The default language is LSL and although "tooltips" have not yet been implemented yo uwill find that most features you would expect from an IDE has been implemented. Clicking on an LSL function and then hitting the F1 key will bring up the related help page on the SL LSL wiki.
5. METAplayer: Is a powerful and functional music player. Have a look and you will see ;)
6. Stats: Show you the SIM statistics of the SIM you are in.
7. Detect Spoken Language: When this menu option is selected, METAbolt will auto detect the language/s spoken in public chat and will display the corresponding language flag on the top menu. When you move your mouse over the flag icon a popup will display the name of the country in case you don't recognise the flag.
8. Image upload utility (from your hard drive into SL)
~ Logs Menu ~
1. Teleport History: Displays the list of places you have teleported to. From this list it is possible to revisit them or even save a chosen location as a landmark.
2. Mute List: Displays the list of avatars and/or objects you have muted. Using this list you can unmute chosen avatars/objects
3. Chat Logs: Displays the chat/IM logs that have been saved to your hard disk in Windows Explorer. The settings to save chat and or IM logs can be changed by selecting the "Text" tab from the "Application/Preferences" menu option. By default only IMs are saved on to your hard disk.
4. Chat/IM Log Manager: A very powerful utility for managing, sorting and searching through heaps of chat logs
5. Debug Logs: This is a log of all errors, warnings and information generated by METAbolt. It is very useful when trying to resolve problems or just to see what's happening! It also has a "Network Monitor" tab which enables you to see how much traffic/bandwidth that instance (not the whole PC) of METAbolt is using. It also displays "Latency" so that you are able to tell the quality of the internet connection you have to SL.
~ Radar Toolbar ~
To be able to use the features of the toolbar you need to select an avatar from the radar list. Once an avatar has been selected the necesary icons on the toolbar will be enabled. The icons and their features from top to bottom in sequence are as below:
Radar Toolbar
1. IM: Opens an IM window for the selected avatar
2. Profile: Displays the profile of the selected avatar
3. Worn Attachments: Displays the list of attachments worn by the selected avatar. The atachments can be touched for the displayed list
4. Friendship: Send a friendship request to the selected avatar
5. Turn To: Turns your avatar on its axis to face the selected avatar
6. Follow: Your avatar goes into autopilot and starts following the selected avatar
7. Go To: Your avatar will walk to the selected avatar and stop at a distance of 1 metre
8. Freeze: Freezes the selected avatar so it cannot move (you need to be the land owner for this to work)
9. Eject: Ejects the selected avatar from the current parcel (you need to be the land owner for this to work)
10. Ban: Bans the selected avatar from the current parcel (you need to be the land owner for this to work)
11. Search: Displays the search box under the chat area to enable you to search for anything in chat
12. Help: Opens this page in your browser
Object Manager
This is probably the most important window in METAbolt. The Object Manager enables you to control and interact with the objects around you. It is possible to perform advanced tasks on this window but here we will cover only the basics.
When you fist open this window METAbolt will retrieve all objects within the set range (see point 2 below) and display them in the list box described in point 3. You notice a progress bar will appear below the "object contents" box while objects are being retreived. You must be patient and allow this to complete. Once it is complete the progress bar will disappear.
So let's take a look at each of the numbered sections in the image above:
1. Search: This is a very powerful search feature. It allows you to search objects by name, uuid, owner uuid, object tag and object description. The range of the objects that are retrieved is determined by the "range setting described in point 2 below. When the search box is empty it means all objects within the set range are retreived.
2. Display: Via this section you can select to display different categories of object. Click on the drop down list to see the categories. This is also where you specify the range of the objects to be covered in metres. The default is 20 metres. The higher you increase the range value the more bandwidth you will use and the slower it will take to retreive all the objects especially if you are in a SIM that has lots of objects. The range setting you see here is restricted by the master range setting that's in "Application/Preferences" (will be covered further down). This is to say that if the master range is set to 20 metres setting the range in the Object Manager to a value above 20 will have no effect because METAbolt will limit it at 20.
3. Objects: This is the list where all the retreived objects are displayed. Bare in mind that these are all "root" objects. Clicking on an object listed here will enable the buttons you see in the "In-world" section and it will also display the selected object's details in the "Object information" section. If the selected object has any child/linked objects those will be displayed in the "Child/Linked objects listbox.
4. In-world: These are the functions that are available for you to perform. They are self explanatory so I will not go into explaining what they are one by one
5. Object information: When you select an object from the list of objects this is where the details of the object is displayed. If you own the object you have selected you can change the permissions on the object by checking/unchecking the permissions option at the bottom of the window. You can also change the description of the object by directly editing what you see.
6. Child/Linked Objects: As explained above, if a selected object has child prims, all the child prims will be displayed here. You will also notice that any action that may be performed on a child prims will be stated in paranthesis. This is so that you can tell if the child prim can be touched or not etc. Selecting a child prim and clicking on the "Task show" button underneath the list box will display the contents of that prim in the "Object contents" listbox.
When a child prim is selected two extra buttons are displayed under the "Object contents" list box called "touch/click" and "sit on". As the names of the buttons suggest, when clicked they perform a "touch" or "sit" action on the selected child prim.
7. Object contents: As explained above this is where the contents of the selected object is displayed. Contents such as scripts, objects, notecards etc. Simply select an object and then click on the purple "Task show" button at the bottom of the objects list. If you have the necessary permissions i.e. if the object and it's contents belong to you, you can display notecards and scripts directly by double clicking on them from here. Selecting and right clicking on an item will display a popup menu which will let you delete the item or copy it to the inventory.
8. Drag and drop items from your inventory to embed into the contents of the selected object.
Application Preferences
Preferences is the heart of METAbolt. Via the preferences you are able to adjust the application to how you need it to work. Using the preferences you can make METAbolt a very light application or a fully packed beast...the choice is yours!
Click here for instructions on
how to use Preferences.
Voice
You can use the voice feature from the tab next to the "mini map" tab on the chat screen!
Click here for instructions on
how to use Voice.
Viewing Objects and HUDs in 3D¶
You can view individual objects and HUDs in 3D from the Objects Manager or Worn Attachments windows. Click on the link below to find out more.
Using META3D
Movement
Since METAbolt is a text based viewer ability of movement is restricted in the sense that you can't see where you are going. To get from one place to another you need to TP. There are several ways you can do this:
- You can use the saved landmarks in your inventory. Simply highlight one by clicking on it once then click on the "Teleport" button on right side panel
- You can send a TP request from an alt or someone else you know can send you a TP request
- Click on the "Teleport" menu option under the "Tools menu at the top of the application. Enter and seach for the SIM you want to go to. It will be listed on the left hand panel. Select it by clicking on it once. Then click o nthe Teleport button.
- You can use the movement direction buttons on the bottom right hand corner of the chat screen.
Walking & Sitting
To move locally i.e. to sit or walk you need to use the "Objects" screen which can be accessed by clicking on the "Objects" menu item at the top of the application. When the screen opens it will list all the objects around you. So be patient and wait for it to complete. If you know the name of the object yo uare looking for simply enter it to search. Selecting an object by clicking on it once will display various information and abilities:
- on the right hand panel you will see all the information related to the selected object as well as the vertical & horizontal distance of the object relative to your location. A "minus" elevation would mean the object is below you. Zero means it is on the same level as you etc.
- You will notice that buttons such as "sit on" and "walk to" etc are enabled once you select an object. As the button names suggest clicking on "sit on" will make your avatar sit on the selected object. Clicking on "Walk to" will make your avatar walk to the object. Bare in mind that if there is another large object in betwween, your avatar will stop if it walks into it.
- Clicking on the "Location" button will display the slUrl of the object. You can TP to the location of the object clicking on the "teleport" button that will appear.
This is all you need to know to get started. The rest you can explore and find out for yourself. Most of the remaining features are very similar to the SL viewer so you shouldn't have any difficulty in understanding them.