MASSIVE: a Quick Tutorial on Focus

Below is a tutorial on how to use focus within MASSIVE. Before you begin the tutorial it would be helpful if you selected one view and remained using that view until instructed otherwise. View 2 is the recommended view, and in particular you should not zoom your view in or out until you are instructed to do so. Now onto the tutorial ...

1. Selecting your focus

There are four settings for your focus within MASSIVE.

wide
directed
narrow
narrow

When you start MASSIVE you are given a default focus of "wide". This can be seen at the top of the text client

Screenshot from the MASSIVE text client, showing 'Focus: wide' at the top of the window.

To change between the different focus values you use the "p" key while your mouse pointer is in the graphical window. This cycles through the different values in turn, so one press changes your focus to "directed", a further press to the first "narrow", and so on. It is worth noting that the two "narrow" focuses are different. The first one is for writing on the blackboard (and should really have been renamed) and the second for private conversations and the like when you want to decrease your area of interest.

We are going to use the second narrow focus in our tutorial, so you will need to press the "p" key three times in the graphical window to cycle through to it.

2. Displaying your focus

When you are happy that you have the correct focus value you should press the "f" key in the graphical window. This will display your focus as a wire-frame white cube, as shown in the image below.

Screenshot from the graphical MASSIVE client, showing a white wire-frame cube in the centre of the view.

If you want you can cycle through the different focus settings using "p" in the graphical window to see what they look like. If you do this remember to return to the second narrow focus at the end.

3. Changing your focus

The white cube is your focus, and you can increase or decrease it.

To increase your focus place your mouse pointer in the graphical window, towards the right hand side of the screen and the middle (the red cross in the right diagram below) and Shift-Click on the right hand mouse button (that is hold down the shift key while pressing the right mouse button). Your focus will increase as long as you keep the mouse button depressed. The further to the right hand edge of the screen you place the mouse, the more rapid the increase of focus (as with navigation, the greater the distance from the centre of the screen the more severe the effect of the action).

To decrease your focus place your mouse pointer in the graphical window, towards the left hand side of the screen and the middle (the red minus in the left diagram below) and Shift-Click on the right hand mouse button (that is hold down the shift key while pressing the right mouse button). The same rules apply as for increasing your focus.

In a view of the graphical MASSIVE client, the mouse pointer is shown on the far left of the screen, as a red minus sign. The white wire-frame cube representing the focus is small. A diagram of the mouse, showing that the right mouse button should be pressed.

In the above example we have used view 2 throughout and have not zoomed our view in our out. This is because if we zoom our view using the keyboard ("<" and ">") whilst our focus is visible (we have pressed the "f" key) we also zoom our focus. However, we may want to look at our focus from afar to see what is is encompassing without altering it, and the next section gives details on how this can be done.

4. Different Views, Zooming and Focus

So far whenever we have wanted to zoom our view in MASSIVE the "greater than" and "less than" keys have been used. However, if we are displaying our focus then using these keys will also modify our focus (a feature of the version of MASSIVE we are using).

To avoid this change in our focus when we zoom we use a technique similar to that above, only we shift-click with the right mouse button at the top centre of the screen to zoom out and the bottom centre of the screen to zoom in.

In a view of the graphical MASSIVE client, the mouse pointer is shown at the top of the screen, as a red minus sign. The image has been zoomed out. A diagram of the mouse, showing that the right mouse button should be pressed.

Zooming out and using different views should give you a good overview of the effects of changing your focus.

Remember that the "f" key toggles the visibilty of your focus.

SHIFT-left mouse -- you move but your focus stays put. You can leave your focus behind as you move away - could be good for eavesdropping with the people you're listening to not aware that you are focusing on them.

In a view of the graphical MASSIVE client, the mouse pointer is shown at the bottom of the screen, as a red minus sign. The user has moved back. A diagram of the mouse, showing that the left mouse button should be pressed.

5. Command Summary

All of the following commands apply to the graphical window.

p: toggles between the different focus settings (wide, directed, narrow (board), narrow)
f: toggles the visility of your focus
SHIFT-Right Mouse on left/right of screen: decrease/increase your focus
SHIFT-Right Mouse at top/bottom of screen: zoom your view out/in
SHIFT-Left Mouse at top/bottom of screen: move towards/away from your focus