Second Life: New Animation Overrider

On my long ago first day in Second Life™ I was trying to figure out why I waddled and other females swayed when walking. It didn’t take long for me to learn about Animation Overriders, AO’s. I used ZHOA and then ZHOA II during most of my time in SL. But, there have been advances in AO tech since the ZHAO units were developed. Now we have another advance. I’ll take a look at it and whether it is worth the effort to change to a newer AKEYO NITRO AO. My review follows.

NitroAO_002

The NEW AKEYO NITRO AO

I don’t know when ZHAO first appeared. I found it 2008 when I first went looking for an AO. AO’s improved as the Linden Scripting Language improved. The Mono scripts reduced the memory load, but did little else to change how AO’s worked or their features.

In early 2012 STORM-1803 started a change in the animations we can upload from only BHV to include ANIM formats. But, that didn’t change the overriders.

Firestorm Built-in AO

Firestorm Built-in AO

It was in early 2012 that Emerald/Firestorm developers came out with a built-into-viewer AO. The technology didn’t change drastically, but the shift to built-in was a significant change. The popularity of the built-in AO and technical benefits started Linden Lab looking at how AO’s could be improved.

The result was an addition to the scripting language. The function llSetAnimationOverride was added in March 2013. This changed how AO’s worked in a technical since. Less memory and fewer server CPU cycles were need for AO’s using the new function. But, we still had to setup the ZHAO HUD type AO’s and built-in AO’s that updated to the new function.

In April 2013 scripting changed again in response to BUG- 2164 – Allow poseballs to stop custom sit animations. For several months bugs were being worked out of the new Animation Override process. Then things stabilized and we have seen little change in AO technology since.

Now AKEYO has released a new AO they named NITRO AO. It uses several new developments in computer technology. It sells for L$900. So, I’m thinking is it worth it?

If you are a Firestorm user, you may wonder why I don’t just use the built-in AO. I stayed with my ZHAO-II, TuTy’s, NOYA, and a couple of other AO’s. It isn’t that I don’t like Firestorm’s AO. It is the easiest of all the AO’s I have to setup. BUT… and for me it is a BIG BUT… it is built-in and I change viewers OFTEN and I have some animation that are No-Copy that I love. I can only have them in one AO.

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2 thoughts on “Second Life: New Animation Overrider

  1. I’ve had the AKEYO Power AO for years now. Is this Nitro AO marginally better? Is it a replacement for the Power AO?

    • I haven’t looked at the Power AO, so I can’t really say. NITRO is advertised as newer.

      I am curious. Did you see me mention any feature in the NITRO that isn’t in your Power AO?

      As of yesterday (12/17) I had not heard back on the stack overflow. I have a new viewer version, so I’ll be retesting.

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