Allow for realistic avatar walk / run / swim speeds
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Mona Eberhardt
In Second Life, our avatars walk and run very fast. Too fast, actually.
More specifically:
The avatar's walk speed is 3.2 m/sec (11.52 km/h)
The avatar's run speed is 5.12 m/sec (18.432 km/h)
This, in combination with the default camera offsets (Penny Patton has documented very well that they don't help immersion and good usage of available space, and I have followed in her footsteps) and the poor scaling that is so prevalent in SL, makes builds with the footprint of a decent RL apartment (i.e. around 100-120 sq.m.) seem small and cramped. It also makes in-world exploration a chore, as the avatar ends up moving faster across a sim than the internet connection can deliver content and the GPU can render it, contributing all sorts of complaints about lag.
The solution I propose is to enhance the walk / run / fly floater with a menu structure that will allow the user to choose the desired speed for each kind of movement. Namely:
Walk:
SL default - 3.2 m/sec (11.52 km/h)
RL average - 1.33 m/sec (4.8 km/h)
RL brisk - 1.5 m/sec (5.4 km/h)
RL fast - 1.75 m/sec (6.3 km/h)
RL slow - 0.5 m/sec (1.8 km/h)
Run:
SL default - 5.12 m/sec (18.432 km/h)
RL jog - 1.8 m/sec (6.48 km/h)
RL average - 2.5 m/sec (9 km/h)
RL fast - 3.5 m/sec (12.6 km/h)
RL sprint - 7.5 m/sec (27 km/h)
Swim:
SL default - whatever value this is
RL slow - 1 m/sec (3.6 km/h)
RL brisk - 1.5 m/sec (5.4 km/h)
RL fast - 2 m/sec (7.2 km/h)
If the GUI for this can also include a facility to allow the user to arbitrarily set walk, run, swim, and fly speeds, and maybe even create and manage their own presets, it would be an added bonus.
An additional advantage, besides allowing users to make better use of available space and give their internet connections and computers time to rez more of a scene as they travel across SL, is that this can also allow for more accurate positioning of an avatar in-world in relation to its surroundings.
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Spidey Linden
Merged in a post:
Slider Option for Slower Avatar Flight Speed
Ember Ember
While there are a few HUD and attachment options available that can slow flight speed by using llApplyImpulse or llSetForce, it would be really nice if there was a built-in option to slow down avatar flight. All of the HUDs I have tried rely on the camera angle for direction of movement as well, and that is not ideal for some users. Many of us enjoy exploring while flying, but sometimes flight speed is just too fast for even large indoor spaces. Slower flight speed options would even make swimming more enjoyable for seafolk and swimming pool enthusiasts.
Spidey Linden
tracked
Issue tracked. We have no estimate when it may be implemented. Please see future updates here.
Daemonika Nightfire
Would it be a good idea if the avatar speed is calculated dynamically via the animation settings?
There are so many animations that don't match the speed. It looks very silly when a Gaischa with her mini steps walks just as fast as a farmer. Child & Dinky avis often don't match the speed either.
Manual setup sounds quite nice, but I would recommend setting the speed in Blender or similar when creating and reading it out inworld.
LG
Dae
Mona Eberhardt
Daemonika Nightfire this would be welcome. However, I highly doubt (m)any walk / run / crouch / fly / swim animations in SL have been created this way. So, I suppose being able to choose a preset / dial in a desired speed is necessary for these already existing animations; a dynamic calculation would enable a new generation of animations that would offer this by default. Perhaps with a way of manually overriding the animation's default speed.
And yes, a geisha walk or a woman in a pencil / hobble dress or someone with ankles tightly cuffed couldn't possibly walk anywhere near as fast as the default speed. It makes no sense. And, as I mentioned, the default movement speeds are way too fast anyway. They may be convenient for quickly moving through a sim while exploring during a break from work or house chores, but they're unrealistic and extremely wasteful when navigating smaller spaces like a house or apartment.
Extrude Ragu
LSL functions would be better than a GUI. People could then script their AO's to behave however they like, or an Experience operator could set how avatars move in the game etc.
Mona Eberhardt
Extrude Ragu why not have both manners of setting movement speed?
Gwyneth Llewelyn
For the sake of completeness, Penny Patton's famous camera settings (and how to properly implement them on a persistent, permanent basis are addressed here on her blog post on this subject.
### CameraOffsetRearView
x: -3.000
y: 0.000 (For an "Over the shoulder view" use -0.400 for right or 0.400 left shoulder.)
z: -0.200
### FocusOffsetRearView
x: 0.900
y: 0.000 (For over the right or left shoulder us -0.700 or 0.700, respectively.)
z: 0.200
### FOV settings
Quoting from Penny's own blog:
>You can improve your SL view further by altering the FOV.
>First, press ctrl+9 to make sure your FOV is at the default. Then, hold the ctrl key down and press 0 about 5 times. The resulting effect is that SL seems to have a greater sense of depth.
The end result (which you can also appreciate on Penny's step-by-step tutorial) is that, when having the camera behind your avatar, it almost looks like you're walking very closely behind it, from the perspective of someone who is just slightly taller than you are.
---
I've been using the above settings for well over a decade to great results :) Not only the avatar starts "fitting" inside normal-sized buildings ("normal", as in: "human inhabitants of Planet Earth"), but, additionally, since the placement of the camera in the scene is quite different, it actually helps reducing lag, since not so many objects are visible! (or: it might be an artifact due to a change in perspective and not a "real" benefit, I don't know).
The disadvantage is that shops, which were designed for avatars with a camera hovering over them at about 6m above their heads (!) will be harder to navigate, since all relevant information will always be
above
the plane of the field of view (what we call "at the eye level").Still, in
my
perspective, both the front and the rear view ought to have the above values as standard
, possibly having the "old" settings as "legacy" (as we currently have for the "new" noon environment settings).Regarding avatar
height
, in spite of the generations of towering giants who roamed wildly for years, I found that the current trend is to have avatars approaching "normal" heights and thus looking much more proportional (and avoid the "Na'vi look", so to speak...). Obviously, this is just a question of personal taste. The truth is that, when switching to Bento mesh bodies — a decision I did not make lightly, and only several years
after they first became available — I sort of chopped down some 30 cm of my avatar (!), who used to stand 2.18 tall on heels, and wasn't by far the tallest avatar around. These days, I go for a much more modest 1.78 m (barefoot) which happens to be my RL height (actually, this was just a coincidence; I was tweaking the sliders until I looked "just right" and it was just afterwards — weeks later — that I happened to check what my current height was set to, and it was a surprise to me). Aye, I'm aware that this is still considered "well above average" height, at least outside the Netherlands and some Scandinavian countries (or among some of the Zulu!), but I remember distinctly people telling me that now, with Bento mesh bodies, it was expected
that avatars would be 'reduced' towards more reasonable values — still good enough for the runway, but not basketball-class (or Na'vi!) any longer :)This is just a long-winded comment to say that I
expect
avatars to come closer to their human sized, than for the camera to get detached from the strange drone that orbits at 6 m above people's heads.---
Regarding movement speed itself, I have a few issues.
First and foremost... I don't know how you arrived at the speeds for avatar movement. As you can see from the link below, your numbers are not even in the same range for the default values, which are much more reasonably set, as per the reference on the follow link:
Now, I have no idea where these guys arrived at their numbers either (they don't tell on that page). I suspect that they are hard-coded in the viewer itself, or possibly on the server. But it might not be so — it might be a result of some sort of QA test as well (there are many listed in the SL Wiki..), or, possibly, to make matters more confusing, it might just be a big mixture of all the above, or the parameters are streamed over the Internet, or they're archived locally and could, in theory, be stored/archived locally on a configuration file that is loaded on startup of the viewer...
In spite of all the above, I agree that "someone" should take a long look at the
current
Wiki page on the various speeds, and change what needs to be changed...Woolfyy Resident
On my side i added a speed booster on my hud by pressing on back arrow at the same time as another move (also works for flying up / down). It works like a "kick in ass" to move quicker (as well as go thru walls) and also includes a stay within region borders when doing so to avoid crashing or being slow due to region crossing as 256m is quickly reached when moving fast.
odysseusgiacosa Resident
These adjustments could also be controlled via LSL commands. They could even be part of an experience as well.
Mel Vanbeeck
Perhaps take a cue from Star Citizen and just make walk speed adjustable on the fly by simply rolling the mouse wheel (maybe shift+roll). Bonus would be to also modify the animation framerate, and change animations depending on the speed. Let's get rid of these sliding feet.
Mona Eberhardt
Mel Vanbeeck interesting idea; haven't thought of that, to be honest.
Mel Vanbeeck
Mona Eberhardt would probably need to have a way to tune it since just about every current animation is designed for a different actual walk speed compared to the in-world speed. Maybe shift+alt+mouse wheel adjusts the animation framerate for those who want to dial them in and ditch the roller skates.
Woolfyy Resident
Mel Vanbeeck Maybe the solution is to be able to also save parameters linked to an animation with a key combination (in the same style as Escape in camera view) to get back to the initial setting.
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident
Keep in mind that avatars also tend to be larger than in real life, too. Larger avatar, leads to needing more space, but also, to walking and running faster. (I'd say that accounts for at least half the difference there.) I'm also one of those who set my avatar to match my actual RL height, but I've seen shorter people who do that, getting kicked out of clubs for having a "child avatar" based purely on their avatars hight.
And as someone who walks faster than most people in RL, and listens to YouTube at 2x speed, I personally find SL walking speed to be slooooow… And like many other people (I see a good many people asking in groups and whatnot how to change walking speed by script), often kick in a speed booster on my run speed, too — feels like it takes forever to walk across a region as it is.
I don't object to the idea of a walk/run speed setting, but I think the defaults are pretty good as they are, considering the usual avatars actual size.
If it happens, might also be an interesting environment setting… Just a single value speed multiplier.
Mona Eberhardt
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident yes, I'm aware of this disappointing tendency re: avatar size (which has also caused some rather paranoid drama). The current default walking speed is suitable for trekking through half-empty sims, indeed. While my suggestion focuses more on giving realistically-sized avatars a realistic gait and on making realistically-sized buildings seem less small, there's no reason why an extra, faster, preset can't be added to each movement style (walking, running, swimming, etc), along with a slider to adjust speed up or down. This is precisely why I added the "[i]f the GUI for this can also include a facility to allow the user to arbitrarily set walk, run, swim, and fly speeds, and maybe even create and manage their own presets, it would be an added bonus." part. More freedom, flexibility, and versatility - and, therefore, creativity.
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident
Mona Eberhardt: We seem to agree on the speed thing (other than liking the default to stay as it is).
More specifically on the size of buildings… That's a consequence of 3rd person view; you need significant room for the cams perspective, too. If you restricted everyone to mouseview, that might work, but I'm not sure most people would like that (maybe once VR goes viral, or SL: Matrix Edition, or something). So I think you're stuck on the size thing… (Unless regions get changed to be 1024m square, and we all got proportionately more land, so we could make houses that at least look like they're dimensioned properly.)
Many games are even worse, though, with rooms 4-5x bigger — in part for the 3rd person cam, but also for uncoordinated keyboard movement. (I think SL's limted region size probably helped keep that in check a bit.)
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident as for the camera settings, that really depends a lot on the game/environment. While I certainly agree that many are even worse (and perhaps less adjustable!), many others also "gets it right" (or "as right as possible giving the constraints").
Woolfyy Resident
Mona Eberhardt a few years ago i was thinking about doing super small avas to make a parcel relatively look like a region ... The thing is then that you need to adjust all including cam and moves :-)
Anyway on my hud i have a kick ass speed booster (to quickly go through a region without crossing borders) and specific cam settings as i don't like the ones in Second Life.
This is just to say that at the end such features can quite easily already be done inside a hud.
Huckleberry Hax
Would be great also for machinima.
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