Map hijinks continue

Well, the 40% alpha prim didn't do what I hoped.
It does appear on the map, but as translucent. It tints the sim map square.

Hiding from the map + shadows = one dark sim

Sometimes when I'm building a sim, the owner wants things kept hidden from the world map until they're ready to reveal. The map pics the highest objects that are under 400M to display. Taking advantage of the ancient  SL art of skywriting, we can protect an island sim from prying eyes.

The easiest covering is a 256x256x1 phantom prim with this script in it.

default
{
    on_rez( integer p )
    {
        vector targetposition = < 128, 128, 390 >;
        while (llVecDist(llGetPos(), targetposition) > 0.001)
            llSetPos(targetposition);
    }
}


When the prim is rezzed, it walks its way into position. And after the next mapper pass, curious eyes will only see that big boring prim.

Unfortunately, 400M is low enough to shadow the whole sim at ground level. A prim has to be 40% or more transparent to not cast shadows. After another mapper pass, I should know whether or not skywriting will still work at that transparency.

Even more map play.

Well, I'm still fussing trying to get color matches for the map voids. It's not the fastest project. :/ Having to wait about two days for each bit of feedback is sooooo sloooooow....

0,75,100 is close for the teal SLurl map. 5,5,65 isn't too bad for the internal map, but it doesn't hide particularly well. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something in the map snapshot code that prevents a prim's results from exactly matching the internal map's dark blue.

More map play

Hiding a sim from the map with a megaprim works.

The inworld map and the SLurl map aren't being updated together yet. The SLurl map seems to be on a faster update cycle.

The two maps use different colors to signify areas without a sim, so I'm finding the appropriate colors to use on the prim to make the sim "invisible" on one map or the other.

Playing with the map

When your building out a new sim, sometimes you want to keep it a secret until opening day. But you can't hide from the map! Or can you?

I've taken a 256x256M megaprim, textured it with the "nothing here" color from the SLurl maps, and covered a sim with it at 375M. (400M seems to be the cutoff height for the map.) From this, I should know in less than two days if it "works". SLurls would still work, and I expect the pointer on the map would still show the sim's name. But you won't be able to see the build from the map.

I've never done any skywriting before in SL. From what I read, it seems the map averages the texture (and color) on a prim's face into a single blob, so you have to use individual prims to "write" things.