Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 2.1
PC Keyboard Commands and the Mac Alternatives
PC Commands (Windows)
Macintosh Commands (Mac System)
Control (Ctrl)
Command (for most shortcuts) or Control
Alt
Option key
Windows/Start
Command/apple
Backspace
Delete
Shift
Shift
Delete
Del
Enter
Return
Right click
Hold Control key and click
Zoom with mouse middle wheel
Control and scroll
sary to understand complex visual systems and 3D environments. Whatever you decide to do in a virtual
environment, good design and the understanding of how to create it is fundamental knowledge.
2.6
HOW TO PICK YOUR VIEWER FOR A VIRTUAL WORLD
For the purposes of creating this topic, the Phonix Firestorm Viewer version 4.5.1 (Build (38838) Oct 28 2013
01:35:58 (Firestorm-Beta) with OpenSimulator support) and its previous version were used. If you are going to
do the projects in this topic, it is recommended you download and install this version or higher, since it is refer-
enced heavily. You must use a mesh enabled viewer for the projects in this topic as all the 3D content you will
download from them is made from mesh. The Second Life wiki has lots of information about requirements
for mesh here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh. The Phoenix Firestorm Project offers versions tailored
speciically for Second Life and OpenSim, so choose the one for whatever type virtual world you ind yourself
visiting most regularly. There are more details about that on their website, (http://www.irestormviewer.org/).
This is not your only option, and having an array of viewers is actually a good idea from a design standpoint.
A comprehensive list of all third-party viewers is provided by Second Life (http://wiki.secondlife.com/
wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory). Take a look at that list and then consider the following questions:
1. What is your computer system? Mac, PC, or Linux? If your team has a mixed-platform proile, your best
bet is to choose client viewers that support all three platforms, which limits the selection immediately.
2. Will you be doing lots of building and creating? If so, then pick from among the viewers designed
for that purpose, like Firestorm, Dolphin, Catznip, and Singularity.
3. Do you have special projects in mind? If you want a high-performance viewer for machinima and
photography, then Niran's viewer would be your choice, although it does not support Mac.
4. Do you still love the old Second Life viewer and want that look and feel? That would point your
choice to Singularity, which incorporates the new code into an older interface.
5. Do you have to create large-scale projects under pressure? Then, you need a viewer with the most
stability and lowest crash rate. That would be Firestorm, followed by the Standard SL viewers.
From time to time, you should review the list of third-party viewers to see if there are any new offerings.
Radegast, while not a graphic-based viewer, is great for low-bandwidth connections, and there are several
