Altitude

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A skybox

Altitude is the third value used for Coordinates. Since in many sims world extands up to over 5000 meters, a special article about altitude was required.

Overall

All sims have the same altitude coordinates. There is no sim placed up or down. The main differences are the ground elevation, water level and maximum altitude limit.

Borders

The lowest altitude is zero, by default. There is no altitude below it. Also, there is no way an avatar can exist below ground level. Objects can sometimes be pushed below ground, but never below zero altitude.

Highest border is defined more different. For building, usually the border is set to 4096 meters, both for mainland and private-owned sims. There are a lot of exceptions. For example, at the Premium Continents, building limit is set much lower, so skyboxes are not allowed. For flying, maximum altitude is a bit over 5000 meters. The maximum limit for flying is not the same. In places where ground altitude is higher, fly limit is higher, but with less then the maximum ground altitude. There are a few sim (in Bay City and not only) where fly limit is set to a lower value and sims where flying is not allowed.

Water is set to a specific height for an entire sim. There are sims where water altitude is set to zero or where it is set to a high value. Sea level is set to 12...19 meters.

Skyboxes

A skybox is a building at high altitude, invisible from ground. At even higher altitudes, ground is no longer visible. In many places, this means that we have multiple worlds: one on the ground that is most easy to be seen and many other paralel layers at different altitudes, more difficult to be seen.

Building in skyboxes has some major advantages. First of all, it gives an extra intimacy. In moderate sims, sex is allowed only behind closed doors, never in public, so a skybox is the best place for such activities. A second advantage is that skyboxes are not disturbed by high-lag processes on ground. So, if you move to a skybox 1000 meters above ground, the simulator will no longer need to load to your computer data about ground objects. A third advantage is that that the chance for an unwanted visitor to enter a skybox is a lot lower then on ground.

There is a tendince to build skyboxes on certain altitudes (like 1000, 2000 or 4096 meters). To find more intimacy, build your skybox at an altitude that is not round, for example 3375 meters.

Ground altitude

This feature is very important for every Geography project. Every sim has a ground and that ground has a specific altitude. In the following images, there are altitude maps for all continents. The only exception is Shopping Continent where altitude is the same for all sims (about 30 meters):

Altitude records

These are the maximum heights for each continent, in meters:

  1. Heterocera - 389
  2. Sharp Continent - 350
  3. Sansara - 315
  4. Gaeta 5 - 168
  5. Nautilus - 160...180
  6. Corsica - 163
  7. Jeogeot - 160
  8. Premium East - 156
  9. Premium South 2 - 156
  10. Premium South 3 - 156
  11. Uhre Continent - over 130
  12. Irish - Bonaire - 135 (?)
  13. Satori - 128
  14. Zindra - 100 - 120
  15. Gaeta 1 - 100
  16. Estate Continent - 94
  17. Eden - 81
  18. Wild West - 79
  19. Europe Continent - 66
  20. Mar Lesbiana - 65
  21. Premium South 1 - 60
  22. Caledon - Winterfel - 50...60
  23. Blake Sea - 40...60
  24. IGBC Continent - 40...60
  25. Fairchang - 20...40
  26. Shopping Continent - 34

Highest mountains (above 200 meters)

All these mountains are found in Heterocera (central mountain rahge - Mountains Of Heterocera), Sharp Continent (Svecia sim and Sharp Snowlands - Mountains Of Sharp Continent) and in Sansara (Snowlands and transition land - Snowlands Subcontinent).

Mountain, hosting sim, continent - altitude (meters):

  1. Castle Bella - Champion sim, Heterocera - 364 (389 meters on top of the castle)
  2. Campanula (Campanula sim), Heterocera - 357 (426 on top of the giant tree)
  3. Phasa (Phasa sim), Heterocera - 341
  4. Svacia (Svacia sim), Sharp Continent - 339 (350 with the building on top)
  5. Arches (Arches sim), Heterocera - 330 (measured with low accuracy, Land With Restricted Access)
  6. Tethys (Tethys sim), Sansara - 315 meters (measured with low accuracy, land with restricted access)
  7. Spinach - spinach sim, Heterocera - 314
  8. South Kanin, Kanin, Sansara - 310
  9. Bydalen (Bydalen sim), Sansara - 308
  10. Simple's Mountain retreat, Plebeja, Heterocera - 302 (305 on building top)
  11. West Davos, Davos, Sansara - 301
  12. Kanin (Kanin sim), Sansara - 294
  13. Brocade Brocade sim, Heterocera - 270 meters
  14. East Bydalen, Bydalen, Sansara - 262
  15. North Svacia, Svacia, Sharp continent - 260
  16. North Tethys, Tethys, Sansara - 257
  17. Cascade (Cascade sim), Sharp continent - 255 meters
  18. God Meeting spot, Rogla, Sansara - 251 (261 meters with building)
  19. East Davos, Davos, Sansara - 246
  20. Ski Run, Moen, Sansara, 245
  21. Lota (Lota sim), Heterocera - 222
  22. Jaffee (Jaffee sim), Sansara - 222
  23. Sierra (Sierra sim), Sharp continent - 217
  24. Nolidae (Nolidae sim), Heterocera - 214
  25. Silk Water Mountains, Verbier, Sansara - 211 (232 meters with statue above)
  26. Koss (Koss sim), Sansara - 206
  27. Buddhist Monastery, Livigno, Sansara - 203
  28. Mizithra (Mizithra sim), Sharp continent - 202
  29. Anzare (Anzare sim), Sansara - 200

Highest Plateau

Shoofly, Sansara, 191 meters

Other parts of the map

Second Life Geography team visited 6000 private-owned sims. 90% of all these sims have altitude below 50 meters, while 7% have maximum altitude between 50 and 100 meters. Higher peaks then 100 meters are very rare and higher then 150 meters were never detected. No mountain higher then 200 meters exist. See List Of Microcontinents And Sim Clusters for detail.

See Also

Second Life Geography

List Of Continents

List Of Microcontinents And Sim Clusters

Oceans

Coordinates

Mountains Of Heterocera

Mountains Of Sharp Continent

Snowlands Subcontinent

Mountains Of Jeogeot