Scripting

#SL Pathfinding Update

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I see today that the Lab has published the list of regions in ADITI where the new Pathfinding functions are being tested. Pathfinding/Alpha release notes Regions secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/PathTest1/131/101/23 secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/PathTest2/100/170/26 secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/PathTest3/103/127/23 secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/PathTest4/127/194/29 These SLURL’s may or may not work when you click them. It depends on whether you have set up the secondlife:\\ protocol in your browser. The easy … Read more

#SL Server/Scripting News Week 7

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The Lab has had some challenges with recent update packages for the servers. However, the main grid did get an update this week. We also got two new packages on the  release channels.

Main Channel

The information on the recent roll to the main grid is summarized here: Deploys for the week of 2012-02-13. The is the package with the improved list handling. The upgrade has better code for starting and stopping regions. Better memory usage code has been added. The Course Location for mini-maps has been fixed. There is a fix for  llGetParcelMaxPrims(llGetPos(), TRUE) so it now should be reporting the correct numbers. There is a fix for SVC-7443 Telehubs.

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#SL Pathfinding API Documentation

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Path by richardefreeman Flickr

Rand Linden has been adding information about the Pathfinding API to the SL Wiki. Also, a beta testing page is up in the wiki too. The testing page is incomplete. But, it is looking like we will soon see the new feature arriving in the Preview Grid ADITI.

What It Does

Non-Player Characters (NPC) or Non-Played Character, depending on who one talks to, is what we often call bots. A computer runs them. The SL Wiki has a page on the software that runs bots. See: Second Life Bot Software Comparison.

In addition to the more familiar bots we can have other NPC’s. The Linden Scripting Language (LSL) has a function named llCreateCharacter() that can turn any collection of prims, sculpties, and/or mesh into a NPC. The function is described as: Converts the current linkset to an AI [artificial intelligence] character. By default, the character’s shape will be an upright capsule approximately the size of the linkset, adjustable via the options list. The linkset must use mesh accounting.

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#SL Animation Changes

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Avastar in Blender - Image by Machinimatrix

In January of this year Laurent Bechir filed a user story in the SL JIRA, STORM-1803. The JIRA item points to Machinimatrix’s post on Second Life’s animation format. The animation format controls what we can upload into SL. In a way this user story is a feature request.

Oddly it is the Biovision Hierarchy (BVH) file format used for uploading that restricts much of what we can do with animations in Second Life. Internally SL uses an .anim type file format that allows more animation controls than BVH.

Some of the things an ANIM file allows are:

  • Different animation priorities per-joint
  • Keyframed animation control of eyes!
  • Variable length joint offsets per frame (allowing cartoon-like “stretchy” bones)
  • Keyframed rotation and repositioning of attachments (which meshes can weight to; to use as new child bones  )
  • Client Side scaling of attachments and default mesh
  • ANIM files are text files

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#SL Scripting News Week 7

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The big news this week was Tiggs’ announcement about Linden Realms’ Tools. I cover that in: #SL Linden Realm Tools. Otherwise, there was little news in the scripting area.

New Functions

For some time we have had the improved List Functions bouncing in and out of the release channels. It looks like they will make it to the main grid this week. For the past week the server maintenance package including them has been running on all 3 release channels. So, it should be well tested. Keep your fingers crossed.

These are the improvements to speed up Linden Scripting Language (LSL) functions that handle lists. Look back through the articles in Scripting News for a list of them.

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#SL Linden Realm Tools

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This morning Tiggs Linden visited Kelly Linden’s Scripting User Group to talk about Linden Realm Tools and made some announcements. Charlar Linden pointed out that none of the information is cast in stone, so things may change.

Tiggs Linden and a smokey pipe

Tiggs made it clear we are only getting part of the story for now by saying there are two things Tiggs would be discussing, a third Tiggs would be hinted at, and a fourth component of which no mention would be made.

Two Tools

The first two things are new scripting functions; llTeleportAgent() and llAttachToAvatarTemp().

Tiggs is opening up llTeleportAgent() to allow the same access as llTeleportAgentHome(). This means the object running a script with this command must be owned by the parcel/land owner.

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#SL Server Scripting Update Wk6

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Flight Limit

If you start flying straight up you stall out a bit below 200 meters, about 175. This is a limit imposed by the Lab’s servers. We get around the limit by using flight feathers and other devices that let us fly higher and faster.

There is some discussion about removing that limit. Simon Linden thinks people using Animation Over Riders (AO) will be popping into orbit. I don’t have any AO’s that have flight enhancement. So, I’m clueless as to where that idea comes from.

However, without a limit a flight enhancement will likely speed up your accent. Whether it will slam you into orbit I have no clue. But, if we suddenly hit high altitudes when we start flying we’ll know that the flight limit has been removed.

It is unclear of the limit will be removed or just raised. May be the limit will be 1,000m or 2,000m, or some other value.

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#SL Scripting News Wk6

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We have a varied collection of news out of the Scripting User Group today.

First we have word that the current release channel code will NOT roll to the main grid this week. So, there will be no update to the main grid this week. There are some problems and they will be adding fixes to the code in the release channels. Other problems have been fixed too.

Scripting Feb 6, 2012

We have only one code package running in all three release channels. While the single package has gotten good testing, the problems have held any update to the main grid. Later in the week we’ll know what new packages may roll to the release channels for testing.

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