If you know the region name and coordinate of any place in Second Life® this article will show you how to find your way there. Or maybe you tried to teleport someplace in Second Life and the teleport failed, or it dumped you someplace in a “nearby location”. This could be due to various reasons, but fortunately, you can easily find your way to the exact position you wanted to go to. Just use the map and beacon feature. It also works in the Linden Realms game and will help you find your next destination in the game too!
The map and beacon are somewhat like a GPS unit for Second Life®. You enter your destination and a combination of a directional arrow and a beacon at the destination guide you to it. You probably will be able to teleport to the general area you want to go to. But often for various reasons you can’t teleport to the exact location, and this is when the visual guide of the beacon comes in very handy. Here’s how to quickly find your way in Second Life®.
Regions & Coordinates
Everyplace in Second Life has a region name and coordinate that describes exactly where it is. You can find the coordinate of the current location of your avatar very easily. Just look at the top of your viewer just below the menu bar and you will see the name of the current region with 3 coordinate numbers, in parenthesis, in the navigation bar. The region tells you which “sim” you are located in (regions and sims are the same thing.) The coordinates are the equivalent of latitude, longitude, and height that identify your avatar’s exact position in the sim.
Landmarks
Landmarks are simply the name of a place, the region it is located in, and a set of coordinates for it. If you have a landmark just right click on it and select “Show on Map”. A map will open showing location of the landmark, including the region and coordinates.
Using the Map and Beacon
Let’s say you want to go to the location “Blake Sea – Half Hitch (155, 110, 27).” In this example “Blake Sea – Half Hitch” is the region (also sometimes called a sim) you want to visit. The coordinates are 155, 110, 27, they may also be written 155/110/27. The coordinates describe an exact location within the region. Thus when using the map dialog window it labels these coordinates as the “Location”.
To open the map and map dialog click on the map icon (if it is visible) or press Ctrl + M.
Enter the Region where you wish to go. (FYI; he's wearing a swimsuit. Guess I shouldn't have cropped the photo so high!)
Enter the Region you want to go to in the field to the left of “Find”.
Enter the coordinates
Now enter the 3 coordinates for the location in the 3 small fields labeled “location.”
Try clicking teleport. It may or may not work.
Click on teleport. (Teleporting won’t if you’re too close to the destination, it also doesn’t work in some regions that only allow teleporting to special landing areas. Some regions require you to have permission to enter. You will typically get a warning message if there is a problem. But teleporting will usually get you somewhere in the region you want to go to. Since regions are only 300m side, you are going to be within walking or flying distance of your destination. If teleporting doesn’t get you exactly where you wanted to go, click on the “Show Selection” button below the Legend to the right of the map. A red “beacon” will appear at the location, and a red arrow will also appear. The red arrow is attempting to show you the best route to take to reach the destination. It is not perfect, as it may at times take you through buildings, lakes, swamps, up cliffs, etc. You will need to use some common sense.
Once you have reached your destination you will probably want to get rid of the red arrow and beacon. Just left click on the red arrow and they will both disappear.