How to find obstacles and hit them
From SecondSailing
Many (everybody I know) who begun sailing in Second Life (but also in RL) had problems in the beginning with orientation.
Orientation on the water, whether virtual or real, is completely different from every days orientation. Most of the time you have so many items around you that you always know where you are.
On the water this is different. You need to keep track of your position. This is a matter of training. The more you do it, the more you do it without spending any thoughts on it.
But nevertheless, here a few tricks that might help you.
The minimap
There is a button at the bottom of your viewer window saying "minimap". If you open it, it always shows the area around you. Very helpful. What it also can do: You can use it as a compass. When you fix the minimap to always pointing north, the highlighted area gives you a good indication of the direction you are going.
To make the minimap pointed north fixed, you need to open your "Preferences". (Menu "Edit" / "Preferences")
Choosing the tab "General" gives you the following:
Setting your viewing distance
The viewer comes configured with a vary short viewing distance. What is helpful in a mall to reduce the amount of objects being drawn on your screen is a problem on the water. Often you can't see landmarks like buoys much to late to use them as the helpful navigation aids they are.
Increasing your drawing distance helps a bit here.
Again go to the preferences dialog and choose the "Graphics" tab this time:
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