Stuck in scenery

[Chantiri]

This has probably been answered before, but I can't find anything on it.

 

Does this happen to anyone else? I'm walking through a forest or though a building when suddenly I'm underground or within the wall structure. It isn't a hidden trapdoor or anything, but I've just gone between the 'panels' (or whatever) that make up the scenery. Is it my avatar? Is it the scenery? Is there a way to stop it? To get out, I usually have to teleport somewhere else. 

 

Thankyou. 

[Rolig Loon]

Yes, it does happen, and it is in some ways more common now that it used to be. The physics shape of an object does not necessarily match its visual form.  That is more likely these days with mesh structures that it was when all we had were native prims.  If you stumble into a gap in the physics shape of a building or a wall, you can find yourself inside, unable to get out unless you either find the same gap or teleport away. 

So why are gaps there?  In many cases, it's quite accidental.  In others, they are these because builders are trying to reduce the land impact of their creations.  I walked into the end of a hedge just yesterday, unaware that the builder had made its physics shape out of parallel planes along the sides but had left the ends of the hedge open. I assume that he decided it was unlikely that anyone would ever try to walk into the end of a hedge.  He was right -- it is unlikely -- but I did it.

Aside from gaps, you can sometimes find yourself inside an object simply because you were moving too fast. That's particularly likely if you were in a fast-moving vehicle.  The SL physics engine tries to keep track of where everything -- and everybody -- in SL is, but it does its calculations in slices of time, 45 times a second. In between calculations, you can have travelled far enough to be on the other side of a barrier that you  would have just bounced off of at lower speed. 

There are other good reasons why you might end up inside a structure that should logically be solid.  It happens to all of us.  Fortunately, not very often.  When it does, teleport somewhere else.

[Lindal Kidd]

Besides Rolig's excellent answer, there is a way to get un-stuck that may be less annoying than teleporting somewhere else.

Preparation:

• Go to the Advanced menu (CTRL+ALT+D, if it is not already in your top menu bar).  Find Advanced/Disable Camera Constraints and check it.
• Go to Me/Preferences/Move&View, and set your preference for "double click on land" to "Teleport to Clicked Point".

When you get stuck:

• Use camming (moving your point of view without moving your avatar) to move your viewpoint outside the trapping object.  Specifically -- Place your mouse cursor on an object, or the ground, or even your avatar.  Hold the ALT key and the left mouse button.  Move your mouse sideways to "swing" your camera to the outside of the object.
• Double click the ground outside the object to do a short range teleport.
• Thumb your nose at the object and go on your merry way!

NOTE:  You can also use this technique to cam INSIDE walls, rocks and other objects to find things that have got embedded in them.