AltspaceVR 101: The Full Beginner’s Guide
Tags: Newbie, Virtual Reality, Live Events, Manuals, Altspacevr

~~~~~~ 5.) Menus and Settings ~~~~~~

First let’s get familiar with your Radial Menu. This is the small collection of circular buttons floating down on your bottom left and will be very important to your operations.

If you are using 2D Mode on PC or Mac and currently do not see this menu, please right-click — or command-click on Mac — just once to lock your “look around” and be able to access your cursor. The menu should then appear. Do the same thing to hide it again and look around.

Fig. 1 — The Radial Menu

Fig. 2 — Hover over your mic icon to see volume

Fig. 3 — The Emoji sub-menu

Fig. 4 — Cameras have a countdown: 3… 2… 1… CLICK!

Starting at the top is your Microphone Volume button (Fig. 1) which is currently muted as indicated by the red color and small X inside the icon. Click on it to unmute yourself. Hover over it to bring up volume controls (Fig. 2).

button (Fig. 1) which is currently as indicated by the color and small inside the icon. Click on it to unmute yourself. Hover over it to bring up volume controls (Fig. 2). Moving clockwise the next button is your Emojis panel (Fig. 3). This button brings up a smaller radial menu of different emoticons. Click on any one of these to release a few floating icons above your head. You will hear an audible popping sound when you do. This is a great way to show appreciation in VR!

panel (Fig. 3). This button brings up a smaller radial menu of different emoticons. Click on any one of these to release a few floating icons above your head. You will hear an audible popping sound when you do. This is a great way to show appreciation in VR! Moving along the next button — a little person icon — is your personal space Bubble . By default this option is ON (blue) but clicking it will toggle it OFF (clear) or ON again. The bubble makes anything that gets too close to you vanish from your sight. This is useful for keeping others from blocking your vision. Sometimes though you will want this off, for example when giving a high five to a friend. With it on, their hand would vanish when it got too close to yours. That’s no way to do it!

. By default this option is ON (blue) but clicking it will toggle it OFF (clear) or ON again. The bubble makes anything that gets too close to you vanish from your sight. This is useful for keeping others from blocking your vision. Sometimes though you will want this off, for example when giving a high five to a friend. With it on, their hand would vanish when it got too close to yours. That’s no way to do it! Continuing along clockwise, the next two buttons are the Selfie and Camera buttons respectively. These buttons are how you take pictures within the app. The Selfie button takes a picture facing backwards that includes you in the middle. The Camera button takes a picture facing forwards that captures the view that you are seeing. These cameras operate like instant Polaroids (Fig. 4) with no way to really line up a shot so you may end up retaking a few pictures to get things right. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there!

and buttons respectively. These buttons are how you take pictures within the app. The Selfie button takes a picture facing backwards that includes you in the middle. The Camera button takes a picture facing forwards that captures the view that you are seeing. These cameras operate like instant Polaroids (Fig. 4) with no way to really line up a shot so you may end up retaking a few pictures to get things right. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there! Then you have the Go Home button which will return you to your home space — where you currently are — from anywhere else in the app. It’s a good way to leave an event space but remain logged into the platform.

button which will return you to your home space — where you currently are — from anywhere else in the app. It’s a good way to leave an event space but remain logged into the platform. Finally, sitting directly in the middle, is the blue Altspace logo button. Click on it to bring up your Main Menu. Get ready to get familiar. You will be using this menu a lot!

The “Discover” Tab

This tab shows the most popular and featured Events as well as the featured hub spaces where you can meet other people and ask questions to get familiar.

The Discover Tab

The “Events” Tab

This tab shows all current and future events happening in AltspaceVR. Across the top are different sections or ways to filter which events you see.

“This Week” shows all Main Events with a daily selector at the top.

“All” shows every event, featured or not. There are pages at the bottom.

“Categories” allows you to filter by category

“Interested” shows any events you have RSVP’d or been invited to.

“My Events” shows any events you are directly involved with.

The “People” Tab

This is where you search for Friends, view incoming friend Requests, see who is Here in the room with you, and list who you have Blocked. More on finding your friends in the next section.

The People Tab

The “Me” Tab

This is where you can customize your Avatar, just as we did earlier.

Why hello again, you saucy bloke, you.

The “Settings” Tab

Here is the real meat and potatoes of your experience. I’m going to go through each tab and explain things to help you adjust your own controls and comfort levels. Everyone is different, just try all options until you find what you like.

Settings Tab: General

~~~General~~~

First, turn ON the first two options: Early Access Program and Worlds Beta. This enables you to visit user-created worlds. You will temporarily log out and back in when you enable these. You will also notice a brand new Worlds tab that I will cover in a later section.

Personal Space Bubble is the same option as on your Radial Menu.

Enabling User Nametags will pop up a user’s name over their head when you point your active cursor at them.

The Re-Enter Space button will immediately exit and re-enter whichever event or world you are currently within. This is sometimes very useful for resetting any strange bugs you may be experiencing.

Settings Tab: Comfort

~~~Comfort~~~

Auto Open Menu makes your Main Menu open automatically as soon as you log in.

Teleport Transition determines how you move while teleporting. BLINK will instantly cut your view from point A to B while DASH smoothly moves your avatar from point A to B, which also slides the entire world past your view. Some people find this disorienting, some simply love it. Try both and see!

Turning smoothly can also cause nausea or discomfort for some users, so there are options to limit your turning to various degrees of angles. Here is another option you will need to try all of to find the one right for you.

Turn Speed only applies if you have Turning set to Smooth.

You can also Show Speech Bubbles of anyone currently speaking.

Settings Tab: Input (2D Mode)

~~~Input (2D Mode)~~~

Some worlds and events permit you to Fly. This is generally a preferable option!

2D Mode seems a lot easier with Classic PC Controls enabled.

Use Throw Shadow applies a small circular shadow to all interactive items.

Rumble & Pulse Haptics vibrate your controllers when available.

Settings Tab: Input (VR Mode)

~~~Input (VR Mode)~~~

The above options all still apply but there are a few new ones that are unique to a VR headset.

Cursor On Primary Action will switch which hand your cursor is on. Annoying if you ask me.

Left/Right Cursor Always On allows each of your hands to be useful (I prefer having both).

Most importantly you are able to switch your Teleport Aiming style between an Arc (better for heights) and a straight Line (better for distance). I prefer Line myself but it’s all personal preference here.

Settings Tab: Display (2D Mode)

~~~Display (2D Mode)~~~

Moveable Huds allows VR users to grab and move menus around in the air.

Anti-Aliasing smooths out the edges of everything making it appear less pixelated. It’s ok to turn this up on 2D mode though VR headsets may have more trouble with higher values.

Resolution and Render Mode simply determine the size of your app window.

High Quality Video will allow video resolutions higher than 720p to be streamed to your device. This is generally favorable to enable.

Settings Tab: Display (VR Mode)

~~~Display (VR Mode)~~~

The above options all still apply but there are a few new ones that are unique to a VR headset.

UI Scale will double the size of all menus that pop up.

In World Render Scale will determine the quality of pretty much everything you see in-world. Higher values mean sharper details but be careful about turning it up too high as it can be taxing on the lower end headsets causing unpleasant frame rate issues.

Settings Tab: Audio

~~~Audio~~~

For now you can ignore the volume sliders as they do not work in most spaces yet. The last three options are important.

Audio Input Selection is where you set your input source (mic).

Mute Mic By Default causes your microphone to auto mute when you enter a new world or event. This can often be very frustrating as you will begin speaking not realizing you have been muted. Many tend to turn this OFF.

Mute When AltspaceVR Is Idle automatically mutes your mic whenever AltspaceVR is not the app in focus. This is a handy option to enable so you don’t accidentally get caught saying something untoward over a hot mic!

The rest of the tabs are not important to the scope of this guide. Explore them on your own time! Now that you have mastered navigating and configuring your virtual life, let’s go find your friends already!