13 October 2006
Primitive and Quaternions
llSetPrimitiveParams() is the call of choice when you're both moving and rotating someting.
For child prims, know that the rotate is equivalent to llSetRot(), not llSetLocalRot().
One of my friends is getting fascinated with quaternions and with his help I'm starting to grok them around the edges. The ability to generate reflections with them is trippy. I never went past calc in math, and while I breezed thru statistics I never did get much exposure to matrices and similar beasts. If you hear of a "Math for 3D Applications" online class, please let me know!
For child prims, know that the rotate is equivalent to llSetRot(), not llSetLocalRot().
One of my friends is getting fascinated with quaternions and with his help I'm starting to grok them around the edges. The ability to generate reflections with them is trippy. I never went past calc in math, and while I breezed thru statistics I never did get much exposure to matrices and similar beasts. If you hear of a "Math for 3D Applications" online class, please let me know!
11 October 2006
The Sound of SiLence
Torley got me thinking about how sound is used in SL. I often use sound in my builds. Doors creak, electrical effects hum, cannons boom, water splashes, I've got environmental birdsound/crickets tied to night and day... I think part of why it is so rarely used is because of the links to scripting. People in SL for the most part seem so convinced that they could never learn to script that they won't even try. A movie without sound isn't immersive, and for me the same is true of builds in SL.
One of the things in SL I really don't like is the lack of default sound associated with water. A silent ocean doesn't do much for me.
You can set a music stream for a land parcel, but that's not tailorable to any smaller area (like only inside a building.) Potentially one could break up a land plot into tiny parcels and set each one. Might be useful for buildings. Connecting parcels with the same music station sound seemless as you cross them, so walking around outside the building the sound shouldn't stutter or go out of sync. (I hadn't thought about using mini-parcels this way before, but I think I'll have to try it!) Since parcel music streams aren't tied to a height it'd sound odd when you fly over the building. Still would be classy for no-fly zones... Land Parcel music streams can be set via script too, so one could change music streams based on the time of day, etc... I wonder if there's free-to-connect streams dedicated to environmental sounds? The background hustle of a city, wind and animal sounds in a forest, surf and the occasional sea bird, underwater soundscapes...
Sounds tied to a prim are more complicated. They have to be scripted, and they come in a max of ten second soundbites. If you loop sound, you can remove the script and (if I remember correctly) the sound from the prim's inventory while the noise continues - looping sounds have to be turned off like particles. Wonder if there's a small builder market for noisy prims? ;)
The lack of a sound-prim interface in the edit tab is another area that screams "BETA!" to me. If you only have one sound inside a prim, why doesn't it loop it by default? Or let you set a couple properties like loop, play on touch, play at specified interval, etc. ?
One of the things in SL I really don't like is the lack of default sound associated with water. A silent ocean doesn't do much for me.
You can set a music stream for a land parcel, but that's not tailorable to any smaller area (like only inside a building.) Potentially one could break up a land plot into tiny parcels and set each one. Might be useful for buildings. Connecting parcels with the same music station sound seemless as you cross them, so walking around outside the building the sound shouldn't stutter or go out of sync. (I hadn't thought about using mini-parcels this way before, but I think I'll have to try it!) Since parcel music streams aren't tied to a height it'd sound odd when you fly over the building. Still would be classy for no-fly zones... Land Parcel music streams can be set via script too, so one could change music streams based on the time of day, etc... I wonder if there's free-to-connect streams dedicated to environmental sounds? The background hustle of a city, wind and animal sounds in a forest, surf and the occasional sea bird, underwater soundscapes...
Sounds tied to a prim are more complicated. They have to be scripted, and they come in a max of ten second soundbites. If you loop sound, you can remove the script and (if I remember correctly) the sound from the prim's inventory while the noise continues - looping sounds have to be turned off like particles. Wonder if there's a small builder market for noisy prims? ;)
The lack of a sound-prim interface in the edit tab is another area that screams "BETA!" to me. If you only have one sound inside a prim, why doesn't it loop it by default? Or let you set a couple properties like loop, play on touch, play at specified interval, etc. ?
Train Station Design Contest
Now that concrete pads are no longer all the rage, LL is running a contest to make 10 mainland train stations into a class act. I'm wondering why SRLs of the locations weren missing from the post... laziness or an attempt to filter out people who can't use the map? I took a few moments this morning to TP in to half of them and look around. I suspect the trains themselves are fairly rare - I didn't spot one.
Many of the sites are irregularly shaped.
Bhaga (103, 26, 28) - flat mainland
Aglia (147, 146, 83) - forested cliffside
Crenulate (145, 29, 86) - forested ridges, Y track
Clearwing (255, 26, 86) - parallel tracks with the current pad between them.
One of the sites, Tenera (200, 141, 83), rubs up again a huge hunk of land devoted to the SL Helpers. It even has a little staircased path leading to the station. I suspect that one will be the easiest to design for since the SL Helpers area has a distinctive style. I wonder if that site will have the most bids - there's a lot of people invested in the SL Helpers program.
Many of the sites are irregularly shaped.
Bhaga (103, 26, 28) - flat mainland
Aglia (147, 146, 83) - forested cliffside
Crenulate (145, 29, 86) - forested ridges, Y track
Clearwing (255, 26, 86) - parallel tracks with the current pad between them.
One of the sites, Tenera (200, 141, 83), rubs up again a huge hunk of land devoted to the SL Helpers. It even has a little staircased path leading to the station. I suspect that one will be the easiest to design for since the SL Helpers area has a distinctive style. I wonder if that site will have the most bids - there's a lot of people invested in the SL Helpers program.
09 October 2006
Gridlock and markets
Hearing about all the grid attacks makes me glad I was RL busy this weekend. I did get around to uploading a couple of textures. The cannon now has a circus style option. My profile finally has a decent picture - but why are the picture slots for land, my picks, and profile at non- 1:1 ratios? Gotta try stretching out my profile pic so it looks better.
The way my cages are selling, I'm going to have to rethink making cheap scripted objects. The Resident Transactions by Amount (2006 September) section says that the biggest L$/sale categories are under 500L. I'm guessing that a lot of what's out there in the cage market isn't real polished either - I'm getting a lot of repeat buyers.
An article about evaluating markets before creation.
The way my cages are selling, I'm going to have to rethink making cheap scripted objects. The Resident Transactions by Amount (2006 September) section says that the biggest L$/sale categories are under 500L. I'm guessing that a lot of what's out there in the cage market isn't real polished either - I'm getting a lot of repeat buyers.
An article about evaluating markets before creation.
07 October 2006
06 October 2006
TODO list
Apply for free vendor lot. (on the official linden blog)
Set up P.Detector as a freebie.
Cannon:
make and apply circus texture.
attach particle effect to its own prim on the lip of the barrel.
code notecard parameters
write instructions
pack and sell.
Doll:
Make/get animations
sounds
code animations/sounds together
Decide whether to add additional poses
textures
make spin-offs
package and sell
put flyscript in its own wearable. Maybe a HUD object.
Set up P.Detector as a freebie.
Cannon:
make and apply circus texture.
attach particle effect to its own prim on the lip of the barrel.
code notecard parameters
write instructions
pack and sell.
Doll:
Make/get animations
sounds
code animations/sounds together
Decide whether to add additional poses
textures
make spin-offs
package and sell
put flyscript in its own wearable. Maybe a HUD object.
*sigh*
One of the downsides of being an avatar to a player(s)... logging on and finding out that you're currently an anthropomorphic poodle dressed remarkably like someone going to an 80's punk rock club.
I'll try to grab a pic tonight when I log in.
I'll try to grab a pic tonight when I log in.
03 October 2006
Numbers, building, AVs, grid attack.
Linden Labs is opening up more numbers! Here. That's a lot of people with broadband. They talk about them every so often; I'd love to see the account creation metrics here too.
Goofed around a bunch this weekend. No serious scripting, but a bunch of building and messing with AVs.
Tossed the pirate ship and the lab into inventory, started building a 20x20x20 floating building with a mad scientist theme. Lots of particle effects. I might move the shop inside if I get a look I like enough.
Decided to build a better human avatar. Picked up a dusky skin and some prim hair. Shopping for skins was interesting - I was looking for something dusky with sallow undertones (instead of red or brown) and didn't find a lot of options. There's also very few dark brown skins. Here's a current pic.
Getting the default avatar hair to go away so she was bald was tricky. The hair prims don't just shrink and grow, they move around when you manipulate the sliders. Annoying. I decided to set the hair texture to a transparent texture. That worked, which surprised me - using a transparent texture as a skin doesn't turn your AV invisible. Probably a good thing, tattoos would be a lot harder to make. ;)
Also got around to making the builder poodle AV some blue eyes. Making eye textures is strange - they're small but there's a lot of detail to get ones that look good. She's gone full circle now; she first started as a freebie black wolf av with blue eyes. Over time I've remade everything. Pic here, but it isn't enough of a closeup to see detail.
Monday evening was frustrating. Grid attack. "Terror will rain down upon the unfit gods and the flock that they govern, from now until the End of Days." along with a billion offers of inventory. The bananaphone object I saw a couple days ago was sick but funny (it followed whoever was closest playing the bananaphone song over and over) but the things that take down the grid are just lame.
My buddy Brian and his friends got tossed out of wherever they were staying; they're looking for furry-friendly rental property. Told them they're welcome to hang around my mainland property while they hunt. Haven't seen them lately though - I wonder if they found something?
Goofed around a bunch this weekend. No serious scripting, but a bunch of building and messing with AVs.
Tossed the pirate ship and the lab into inventory, started building a 20x20x20 floating building with a mad scientist theme. Lots of particle effects. I might move the shop inside if I get a look I like enough.
Decided to build a better human avatar. Picked up a dusky skin and some prim hair. Shopping for skins was interesting - I was looking for something dusky with sallow undertones (instead of red or brown) and didn't find a lot of options. There's also very few dark brown skins. Here's a current pic.
Getting the default avatar hair to go away so she was bald was tricky. The hair prims don't just shrink and grow, they move around when you manipulate the sliders. Annoying. I decided to set the hair texture to a transparent texture. That worked, which surprised me - using a transparent texture as a skin doesn't turn your AV invisible. Probably a good thing, tattoos would be a lot harder to make. ;)
Also got around to making the builder poodle AV some blue eyes. Making eye textures is strange - they're small but there's a lot of detail to get ones that look good. She's gone full circle now; she first started as a freebie black wolf av with blue eyes. Over time I've remade everything. Pic here, but it isn't enough of a closeup to see detail.
Monday evening was frustrating. Grid attack. "Terror will rain down upon the unfit gods and the flock that they govern, from now until the End of Days." along with a billion offers of inventory. The bananaphone object I saw a couple days ago was sick but funny (it followed whoever was closest playing the bananaphone song over and over) but the things that take down the grid are just lame.
My buddy Brian and his friends got tossed out of wherever they were staying; they're looking for furry-friendly rental property. Told them they're welcome to hang around my mainland property while they hunt. Haven't seen them lately though - I wonder if they found something?
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