Introduction

The Theatron³ Head Up Display (HUD) is a small object that can be worn by avatars to enhance their understanding and exploration of Theatron³.

When the HUD is worn, and a virtual guide activated, the avatar can explore the world with up to 10 pre-programmed points of interest (Data Points), augmented with links to external URL's, audio files and video.

The Theatron³ HUD has also been designed as a flexible tool so that educators to upload their own virtual guides into the HUD allowing them to tailor the use of Theatron³ to their specific needs. Virtual guides are specific to each avatar so many different users can explore the same build while receiving different data views.

More information on HUD's can be found here http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/What_are_HUD_attachments

Terms about Second Life^TM or Virtual Worlds that may be unfamiliar to you are defined in the Glossary, available from the Visitor Information Panel on Theatron Island <10,10,52>.

Using the Theatron3 HUD

In order to use the Theatron³ HUD it must be attached to your screen. The HUD will remain visible to you giving a persistence of data functions until it is removed.

How to wear the HUD.
To wear the HUD, from your inventory select the Theatron³ HUD and choose the "Wear" option. The HUD should attach its self to the top centre location of the screen.

How to remove the HUD.
To remove the HUD from the screen, from your inventory select the Theatron³ HUD (it will be in bold and will show as being worn) and choose the "detach from yourself" option. Alternatively you can right click (PC) or Cmd click (Mac) on the Theatron³ HUD and select "Detach" from the pie-menu.

The Theatron3 HUD main functions

Once the HUD has been attached to your screen the HUD will show two rows bordered on the side by curved edges. The top row of the HUD will show a number of icons, each of these serve a specific function. Left to right these are as follows

Files (The Folder Icon)
Clicking on the Files icon will activate the File Management Menu dialogue. From this menu you can load a new virtual guide or trim (delete) redundant guides stored in your HUD. The dialogue also shows the current loaded virtual guide if any. To take no further actions select the "ignore" option.

Visibility (The Eye Icon)
Clicking on the Visibility icon will toggle the Theatron³ HUD between opaque (default) and 50% transparent. This feature is useful if you wish to see what is happening in world as well as interact with the HUD.

Media (The Projector Icon)
Clicking the Media icon will cause a media player to appear below the Theatron³ HUD. If the parcel of land you are on has been assigned a media stream it will be displayed on the media player. If the Media icon is clicked when the media player is active the media player will be hidden. NOTE In order to view media streams you must have the appropriate software installed and preferences set in your Second Life^TM.

Audio (The Ear Icon)
If a data point has audio associated with it will be available from here. Clicking on the Audio icon will activate the audio menu which can hold up to 4 ten second audio clips. Audio clips are local to your avatar and will not be heard by other avatars near by.

Library (The Books Icon)
Clicking on the Library icon will initiate both an open external URL request and give a URL in chat which can be used to access the specified library page in the guide. Using the open URL request dialogue will cause the URL to open in an external browser, conversely clicking on the URL available form the "Local Chat" tab on the communicate screen within Second Life^TM will cause the internal client browser to open with the specified URL. NOTE: We recommend that user choose the external browser method to ensure compatibility with external web content.

Glossary (The Masks Icon)
Clicking on the Glossary icon will initiate both a open external URL request and give a URL in chat which can be used to access the specified glossary page in the guide. Using the open URL request dialogue will cause the URL to open in an external browser, conversely clicking on the URL available form the "Local Chat" tab on the communicate screen within Second Life^TM will cause the internal client browser to open with the specified URL. Please see note under 3.5

Sonar (The Large Empty Circle Icon)
When no guide is active the Sonar icon will be displayed as a large empty circle. When the sonar icon is clicked it will try to register the current guide data point positions within the HUD. When current data points have been registered the sonar icon will change to a large circle with a point in the centre. NOTE activating the Sonar will give the HUD permissions to track you camera position allowing data points to be activate both by avatar or view proximity.

Teleport (The Circled Star Icon)
Clicking on the Teleport icon will activate the local teleport dialogue menu. Clicking on the corresponding option will cause a teleport request to be registered. The Home option will always teleport you to the Viewing Platform <10,10,52> while the numbered option will teleport you to the corresponding data point. If there is no corresponding data point or the data point has not yet been discovered it will initiate a teleport offer to the Viewing Platform.
Depending on the options set in the HUD though the preferences menu you will be offered either a teleport via the worlds map or cause a personal teleport beam to be rezzed around your avatar.

Preferences (The Crossed Hammer and Spanner Icon)
Clicking on the Preferences will activate the HUD preferences menu dialogue. Here you have a number of options.
Links to URL's from data points can be turned on or off, dialogue URL's will toggle between being offered external URL's via dialogue box or not.
Chat URL's will toggle between offered external URL's via local chat or not. It is recommended that at least one method of accessing external URL's is retained.
Show map will turn off the teleport via map requests at data points and the teleport icon. The teleport menu will replace map teleports with Personal Teleport Beam.
The TPHome option will cause a teleport via map to be called set to Theatron Island <10,10,52> allowing you to return to the viewing platform from any Second Life^TM location.
Reset HUD will cause all functions in the HUD to stop and reset should the need arise.

Help (The Question Mark Icon)
On clicking the Help icon you will be invited to receive a copy of this file.

Virtual Guides

Virtual guides are pre programmed sets of data created by the Theatron³ project and other educators for use within Theatron Island builds. Each guide contains details about how the HUD will look, what options are available to the user and most importantly where data points are located and what data is associated with the data points.

Loading a Virtual Guide.
Loading a virtual guide is a very straight forward process and looks more daunting than it actually is. If you follow the process below you will master leading virtual guides in a matter of seconds.

1 Click on the Files icon.
2 From the Clicking on the Files icon will activate the file management menu dialogue box.
3 Select "load" from the options.
4 Select the page (e.g. 00-09) that your virtual guide is on. The Theatron³ HUD will display the guides in batches of 10 per page and can hold up to 50 guides at any given time. Guides are always sorted alphabetically according to their title.
5 From the guide selection dialogue find the tile of the virtual guide you want (you can scroll down the dialog to see all the guides on the page) and select the option number that corresponds to your guide.
6 The guide will now be loaded (You will see the data points being loaded).
7 Click on the Sonar icon to register the data points (the Sonar icon will change).
8 Your virtual guide should now be loaded and registered. It is time to start exploring!

Adding a New Virtual Guide
To add a mew virtual guide to the Theatron³ simply drag the new virtual guide from your inventory into the HUD. This will cause the HUD to reset and make the guide available from the load menu dialogue. The Theatron³ HUD can hold up to 50 virtual guides.

Trimming (Deleting) a Virtual Guide
To remove an old guide or make space for a new one click on the load folder icon and select the option "Trim". This will cause all of the stored guides to present a dialogue box with the option to delete (Yes) or to retain (No). Trimming a guide from the HUD inventory will permanently remove it.

Data Points

Each virtual guide will contain from one to ten data points. These data points are areas within the Theatron Island associated with a specific build where the guide creator has created a link to additional resources for the user. Typically these will be links to URL's with enhanced information about the area the user is near or in, but can also include audio clips and other data items. Data points are shown and accessed below the HUD function Icons at the bottom of the HUD.

Data points only become available when a virtual guide has been loaded, and become active once the Sonar icon has been used to register them with the HUD.

Two different kinds of data points are available in the HUD, "Open" and "Locked".

Open data points are shown as dark numbers on a lighter filled circle (typically data point 1 will always be open) these can be clicked on at any time to access further data.

Locked data points appear as light numbers on a darker circle. These data points must be discovered though exploring the build on Theatron Island. When either your avatar or camera view point come within a proximity defined by the creator of the virtual guide the data point will be come unlocked changing its icon to open and allowing data to be accessed.

If the Data point area shows no numbers then there are no data points associated with that number.

Using Data Points
When an open data point is clicked a number of things may happen depending on what the HUD preferences have been set to for a particular virtual guide. As a default all of the following occur.

1 An Open URL dialogue will open offering to open a link in an external internet browser. To accept this click on the option "Go to page", otherwise click "Cancel".
2 A URL will be received via Local Chat. If the Second Life^TM Communicate panel is opened the URL can be accessed by clicking the link in the chat window. Depending on your Second Life^TM client set up this may open in the internal browser or your internet external browser.
3 The World Map will be brought up showing your current location and the location of the data point you have selected. This enables you to both see where you are in Theatron Island but also to teleport via the map to the selected data point location. NOTE: Map teleport sometimes return an error message saying "Can not teleport closer to requested location" or will miss the teleport target, this is a Second Life^TM issue.

Once clicked the data point will turn a dark grey indicating that the data point has been visited. You may still click on the data point at anytime however to review information or get back to a location.

Please direct all queries associated with Theatron³ or King's Visualisation Lab to Melancholy Graves using the Second Life^TM Instant Messaging system, or by e-mailing melancholy.graves(at)googlemail.com.