The avatar list controls what avatars are avilable in your world, how they are listed, and what sequences they use. The avatar list is a text file which should be named avatars.dat and should be in a zip file inside of your avatars directory. Note that if you use a password to protect objects in your world, you should not password-protect the avatars.dat. For security reasons, the browser will not use this file if it is passworded.

The format of the avatars.dat is as follows:

Every avatar in the list must begin with the word "avatar" and must end with the word "endavatar". If you forget either one it will create an error in your avatar file, and some avatars will be missing from the list.

Avatar

name=Bob

geometry=bob.rwx

Endavatar

Name

This specifies what name will be used in the avatar menu. This entry may not have spaces. Every avatar must have a name given, or it will be ignored.

This specifies what file will be used for the avatar. For example:

geometry=bob.rwx

This will cause the browser to download the file bob.zip from your avatar path and use that file for the avatar geometry.

Note that if you leave out the geometry entry, then this avatar becomes a menu. All subsequent avatars will appear in this sub-menu. For example, the following:

Avatar

name=Females

Endavatar

Will create a menu called "Females". All avatars listed after this one will appear in the "Females" menu, until another sub-menu is defined or the list ends.

The autowalk directive tells the browser to attempt to scale the walk sequence so that it repeats once every time the avatar walks its own height. So, for a two-meter tall avatar, the walk sequence will animate so that it loops once every two meters. For most human avatars this will scale the walking so that movement looks realistic. This allows many avatars of varying heights to share the same walk animation.

Autowalk will probably not work right for non-humanoids (such as four-legged animals) or for avatars with very unrealistic proportions. In these cases, autowalk should not be used.

The autolook directive tells the browser to turn the upper body, neck, head, and eyes so that the avatar is facing the way the user is looking, even if they are walking in a different direction.

In most cases, this can produce very lifelike movement and avoid the problem where an avatar will slide sideways when the user is sidestepping.

The hidden directive will tell the browser to not show this avatar in the list unless the user has caretaker rights. For caretakers, avatars which are hidden from other users will have an * character in front of the name. Only caretakers and bots will be able to access hidden avatars.

The Beginimp and Endimp tags are used to mark the beginning and end of the list of implicit sequences. Implicit sequences are built-in animations that play under certain circumstances. The available implicit sequences are as follows:

An example implicit block is as follows:

Avatar
geometry=bob.rwx
name=bob
beginimp
walk=my_walk
run=my_run
wait=bored
endimp
endavatar

Walk

The walk sequence is played whenever an avatar is moving while being held against the ground by gravity. The walk sequence is also the fallback animation for all of the other movement animations such as run, fly, swim, and warp. If any of these are missing, walk will be used instead.

Run

This animation will play whenever the user is "walking" and holding down the run key.

Wait

This animation is used whenever the user is on the ground (as in walking) but not moving. This is usually a mild animation just to give the avatar a bit of movement, so that it doesn't simply stand rigid when not moving.

Warp

This animation plays whenever the user is warping from one location to another.

Idle

This animation plays whenever the user has stood still for more than 30 seconds.

Fly

This animation plays whenever the user is not affected by gravity (flying, or when in build mode, or when there IS no gravity) and moving.

Hover

This animation plays whenever the user is not affected by gravity (flying, or when in build mode, or when there IS no gravity) and not moving.

Swim

This animation plays whenever the user is moving with more than half of its body (by height) in water. This includes water zones and the world global water.

Float

This animation plays whenever the user is not moving, and has more than half of its body (by height) in water.

Jump

This animation plays whenever the user is moving up as a result of a jump. Once the user reaches the apex of the jump and begins to move down again, it uses the fall sequence.

Fall

This animation plays whenever the avatar is moving down as a result of gravity.

Climb

This animation plays whenever the user is walking up a steep hill. "Steep" in this case is defined by the world slopeslide settings.

Slide1

This animation plays whenever the avatar is sliding down a mild slope, according to the the world slopeslide settings. This happens when the surface below the avatar is between the minimum and maximum slide angle.

Slide2

This animation plays whenever the avatar is sliding down a steep slope, according to the the world slopeslide settings. This happens when the surface below the avatar is greater than the maximum slide angle.

The Beginexp and Endexp tags are used to mark the beginning and end of the list of explicit sequences. Explicit sequences are extra sequences that appear in the gesture bar. You may add any number of explicit sequences you like, although keep in mind there is a limit to how many buttons can be shown on the gesture bar, and thus a limit on how many gestures a user will be able to actually use.

Each gesture is defined by listing the name (which will be shown on the button) and the sequence (which file name to download and use). Example:

Wave=hello

This will add a button to the gesture bar labeled "hello". When the user presses the button, their avatar will perform the "hello" animation.

The buttons are always listed in the same order they are given in the avatars.dat.

Special avatars are avatars that are always at the end of the avatar list and are never placed into any sub-menu. Special avatars are only visible to citizens which have public speaker rights.

There may be up to five special avatars in the list. They must be listed after all other avatars in the list. You list a special avatar by replacing the word "avatar" in the definition as follows:

Special
geometry=bob.rwx
name=bob
beginimp
walk=my_walk
run=my_run
wait=bored
endimp
endavatar

If you specify less than five specials, the browser will add the remaining ones to ensure there are always five available. Special #1 would be defined as follows:

name=special1
geometry=special1
beginimp
wait=sp1wait
endwait=sp1end
walk=sp1walk
endimp
beginexp
Act1=sp1act1
endexp

For each subsequent special, the above would be repeated, except that the number 1's would be replaced with the number of the current special, until all five are defined.

You do not need to use any special formatting or spacing in your avatars.dat, but users find the list the is much easier to manage and less vulnerable to errors if certain guidlines are followed.

Usually, at least one blank line is left between each avatar, and text inside of the begin / end blocks is usually indented. Here is an example file that uses these rules:

Avatar

geometry=bob.rwx
name=Bob
beginimp

walk=my_walk
run=my_run
wait=bored

endimp
beginexp

Wave=hello
Sit=sit
Happy=cheer

endexp

endavatar






avatar

geometry=nancy.rwx
name=Nancy
beginimp

walk=my_walk
run=my_run
wait=dance

endimp
beginexp

Wave=hello
Sit=sit
Happy=cheer

endexp

endavatar

These guidelines make the file easier to read and edit, and will make mistakes (such as forgetting an EndAvatar or EndImp) easier to spot.