Portals and rooms

A portal is a ring standing at a place in XR Earth; walk through it and you are in a room another instance of Rivr hosts.

What this is

A portal is a door. It stands at a real place on the planet, and it leads into a room.

The room is not on the same instance as the portal. Somebody's own instance of Rivr hosts it, the way it hosts their profile. Their room, on their computer.

Stepping through is instant. There is no flight and no loading screen you are asked to wait on. You stand in the room, facing its table.

What you see

On the Map and in XR Earth a portal is a violet ring standing on its edge, tall enough to walk through, with a faint pane across it.

Pressing it opens its card. The card names the room and carries a button reading Enter, followed by the room's name.

Inside a room, the strip at the top names the room and says whether it admitted you by name or as a guest, and how many others are there. A button reading Leave, followed by the room's name, sits at the bottom.

A room has its own ring, usually outside its doorway. That ring leads back out.

What you can do here

• Step through a ring. See Enter a portal.
• Come back to where the portal stands. See Leave a room.
• Choose who is let into a room you host. See Decide who may enter your room.

How to

Enter a portal

1. In XR Earth, walk into the ring, or press it and then press Enter.
2. If you are signed in, your home instance vouches for you to the instance hosting the room.
3. You are standing at the room's arrival spot.

Leave a room

1. Walk into the room's own ring, the one outside its doorway.
2. Or press Leave at the bottom of the screen.
3. You are standing in front of the portal you came through.

Decide who may enter your room

1. Open the room's own page on the instance that hosts it.
2. Set its visibility the way you set any other thing's visibility. Public lets anyone in, including guests who are not signed in.
3. Name the groups or people who may see it. Only they can enter, and each must be signed in so their home instance can vouch for them.

What changes for you

Who can see a portal follows the portal's own visibility, exactly like a post. A portal that belongs to a group appears only when that group is your channel, or in the public world if the group made it public.

Who can enter a room follows the room's visibility on the instance hosting it. If you are not signed in you are a guest, and a guest only enters a public room.

When you enter as yourself, the hosting instance receives a short, signed note from your home instance: your name, your avatar, and your permission for it to show you there for one hour. It answers with a receipt. Nothing else about you travels.

While you are in a room, buildings are hidden so the room is not cut through by them.

Where this connects

• XR Earth is where portals stand.
• Instances of Rivr explains the instances that host rooms.
• Who can see what covers the visibility settings a room and a portal share with everything else.
• Your account across places explains how one instance vouches for you to another.