Gravity keeps your feet on the ground until you choose to fly. In worlds where flying is enabled, you can fly at any time by pressing the + (plus) key on the numeric keypad, or what ever key your assigned Move Up key. Press the - (minus) key or your assigned Move Down key to fly back down to the ground, and land to make gravity work again. "Ground" in this case doesn't need to be the actual world ground object or terrain, but rather any solid object below your feet. Note that on laptop computers, which don't have numeric keypads, the + and - keys are usually accessible via a combination of a function key and some other key on the laptop keyboard. Also, as of Active Worlds 3.4, it is possible to customize the controls if you would like to use different keys for flying.

Gravity is turned on or off in a world by the presence or absence of a ground object or terrain. World caretakers can also set the intensity of the gravity in their world and even make the gravity negative. It is also possible to set an additional "underwater" gravity level, which will work in water enabled worlds and can be used to make you sink more slowly than you would fall otherwise, or even float upward while under water. If you are a world owner or caretaker and wish to learn how to make such adjustments to your world, read the World Features Dialog page.

Thanks to the improved inertia, movement should look and feel much more realistic.

When you're flying you will coast more and won't have as much drag as you do on the ground. If you find yourself coasting too far, press the "5" key in the center of the numeric keypad or your assigned Stop key to come to a complete stop.

When swimming or flying, your pitch will effect your movement direction. If you look upward or downward, you will move upward or downward as you move forward. You can augment this effect or compensate for it by using the assigned Move Up and Move Down keys.