First person/Mouse View and designing space

Posted on July 16, 2008 
Filed under Reflections, design

In virtual environments you have a first person view. It’s when your viewpoint is as it is in real life, through your (avatar’s) eyes. It provides a more visually immersive experience than when you’re view is third person, or over your avatar’s shoulder.
In Second Life, it’s called mouseview and it’s a rather visually awkward experience. (I should take a mini survey of SLers, but my guess is that the majority use 3rd person view most of the time.) Your field of vision is better. The reason SL mouseview is awkward is because your field of vision is at about 25%; you have no peripheral vision to speak of.

In  Project Wonderland, you can adjust your field of vision and add peripheral vision to your 1st person view.  What a noticeable difference that makes, all of a sudden being in the 1st person, feels like it does in the physical world.

But as I was walking around with my improved 1st person view, I still had trouble navigating the space, although it’s incredible unbuilt. I realized the absence of the typical markers we rely in actual space to navigate our way around, everything from walkways, to doors, to signposts, to familiar structures. I’ve notices this in SL on and off, the degree to which a space has been designed for way finding, for easy navigation and understanding what the space is for. Just some of the issues that come up when we begin designing learning in such a space.

Comments

Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)

Leave a Reply




*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-Spam Image