ged's anti-blog: LandScanner v1.0

LandScanner v1.0 is an avatar-attached multi-purpose tool performing functions ranging from prim-counting and parcel analysis, to sim-wide land-ownership and terrain evaluation. It is highly configurable and able to provide information across multiple parcels in multiple Sims with minimal user intervention.

LandScanner v1.0 available now at SL Exchange and SL Boutique, and will be available very soon in-world.

Features:

for each parcel, LandScanner reports:

parcel name, description, and size

parcel owner (avatar name and key) and group (key)

parcel prim counts

total prims by category (owner, group, other, selected, temp on rez)

if you own the land parcel, lists number of prims used by avatar name

parcel flags (i.e., fly, scripts, landmarks, terraform, damage, create objects, access group, ban list, land pass list, spatialized sound, push restriction)

for each Sim, LandScanner reports:

all avatars (names and keys) and groups (keys) that own land in that sim
maximal and minimal terrain elevations
approximate percentage of sim terraformable to water
calculate the average "slopiness" of the terrain in the sim, a degree of how un-flat the Sim is
region flags (i.e., damage, fixed sun, block terraform, sandbox, collisions, physics, fly, telehub, push restriction)
entire lists of sims can be cut and pasted from the Linden Lab "Auctions" page, for convenient teleportation to and analysis of upcoming sims

completely flexible configuration, via a notecard, to specify:

as many parcels, in as many different sims, as desired
whether whole-sim terrain analysis should be performed
whether whole-sim land ownership analysis should be performed
whether parcel flags and region flags should be displayed

output to owner chat, allowing copy / paste from the chat history

How to use the LandScanner:

wear the LandScanner as an attachment
right-click the LandScanner and choose Edit

navigate to the Contents Tab
double-click the notecard "scan program" to open it

edit the contents of the notecard "scan program" as desired

see the Notecard Configuration section and sample notecards below
save the notecard

close the notecard window and edit window
touch the attached LandScanner to start!

Notecard configuration:

sample notecards, from very simple to complex, are included below
LandScanner starts at the top of the notecard, and works its way down
blank lines are ignored
all characters after a '/' character in a line are ignored (helpful for comments)
SIM~simname, or simname (#,#)... (the format of the LL Auction page)

if not currently in the sim "simname", will offer teleport to that sim
once arrived, will execute any whole-sim analysis desired

PARCEL~x,y~comment

will analyze the parcel at the coordinates in the current sim
"comment" is an optional comment that will be in the report
the report will note if the prim allotment is exceeded
if comment ends with "|###", "###" will be taken as a maximal prim count (rather than the LL-assigned max prim count, based on parcel area)

TERRAIN~TRUE/FALSE (default FALSE)

all subsequent Sims in the notecard program have terrain analysis done if TRUE, or not, if FALSE

OWNER~TRUE/FALSE (default FALSE)

all subsequent Sims in the notecard program have land owner cataloging done if TRUE, or not, if FALSE

FLAG~TRUE/FALSE (default FALSE)

all subsequent Sims and Parcels in the notecard program will have Sim and Parcel flags reported if TRUE, or not, if FALSE

SCAN~## (default 8 meters)

sets the scan distance in whole-sim analysis to "##" meters
## = 4 meters will be a completely accurate but slow scan (all 4,096 4x4 meter possible parcels will be analyzed)
## = 8 meters will be 4x faster

DELAY~## (default 7.5 seconds)

set the waiting time allowed to return an avatar name from a UUID key to ## seconds
set higher for more accuracy or laggy sims

Sample Notecards:

Goal: check prim counts in 2 parcels located at <40,50> and <70,90> within the sim "ThisLand". If you own the land and are renting parcels out, this will report prim-usage by avatar, for each parcel.
```
SIM~ThisLand
PARCEL~40,50
PARCEL~70,90
```

Same as above, but with optional comment and 234 as specified prim limit. Useful if you've allowed a "double-prim allowance" on your parcel.
```
SIM~ThisLand
PARCEL~40,50~comment about a plot|234
PARCEL~70,90~another comment|234
```

Same as above, but then teleport to the sim AnotherLand, and check another parcel. Great if you are renting out parcels in multiple sims.
```
SIM~ThisLand
PARCEL~40,50~comment about a plot|234
PARCEL~70,90~another comment|234

SIM~AnotherLand
PARCEL~20,60
```

Same as above, but also include parcel flags for the parcels in AnotherLand, and after checking the parcels, check a high-resolution sim-wide owner analysis of the sim GooberVille. Finding all owners of land in GooberVille may facilitate forming a Sim Landowners Group, or identifying people who might wish to buy or sell land within the Sim.
```
SIM~ThisLand
PARCEL~40,50~comment about a plot|234
PARCEL~70,90~another comment|234

SIM~AnotherLand
FLAG~TRUE
PARCEL~20,60

OWNER~TRUE
SCAN~4
SIM~GooberVille
```

Same as above, but finally, do a lower resolution terrain analysis (without flags or owner lists) of a set of Sims cut and pasted from the Linden Labs Auction page. A very quick way to get a sense of which new Sims may have waterfront potential.

SIM~ThisLand
PARCEL~40,50~comment about a plot|234
PARCEL~70,90~another comment|234

SIM~AnotherLand
FLAG~TRUE
PARCEL~20,60

OWNER~TRUE
SCAN~4
SIM~GooberVille

OWNER~FALSE
FLAG~FALSE
TERRAIN~TRUE
SCAN~16
Mills Haven (128,128) Mature 65504m   2h 23m   US$2,751.00
Ottewell (128,128) Mature 65536m  2h 24m  US$2,751.00
Malvern (128,128) Mature 65536m  2h 24m  US$2,732.00
Peacock Park (128,128) PG 60656m  2h 25m  US$2,539.00
Laurier (128,128) Mature 65536m  2h 37m  US$2,731.00
Granville (128,128) PG 60544m  2h 37m  US$2,501.00
Maplegrove (128,128) Mature 60144m  2h 41m  US$2,632.00
Granada (128,128) PG 62944m  2h 41m  US$2,601.00

As you can see, notecard scanning programs can be as simple or as complex as you want

Tips:

recommend being in "fly" mode, at an altitude at least 50 meters above ground

"no-script" zones do not apply, when high enough over the ground

however, Sims with defined "telehubs" may force you to no-script ground levels, so you might have to manually fly back up

if your scanner program seems to stop, make sure you are not in no-script territory

inter-sim teleport is not possible via the LSL scripting language without any user intervention, so you will have to click the "Teleport" button when moving between sims
how "fine" the sim-wide scan depends on how accurate you want the results to be

the minimum size of a parcel is 4 x 4 meters (frequently used for those 16 sq m ad spam lots), so if you want to be sure to detect these, you will want a "SCAN" fineness of 4 meters

will catalog EVERY owner of land in the sim

scanning every 8 meters will be 4x faster, and will catch every parcel greater than or equal to 8 x 8 meters

will catalog almost every owner of land in the sim

scanning every 16 meters will be 16x faster than the 4 meter scan

good for a quick terrain analysis

the "DELAY" time will determine how accurate assignment of owner to an avatar vs. a group will be

there is no LSL function at present to determine for sure whether a UUID key belongs to a group
there is no way to retrieve the group name via a UUID key
instead, LSL forces you to try to find an avatar name linked with a UUID key, and if no response is returned, we assume it was a UUID to a group
the "DELAY" time is how many seconds the script will wait for an avatar name to be returned, before giving up and assuming that the UUID is for a group
set the "DELAY" time higher for more accuracy, or in laggy sims

LSL allows checking of current ground height and terrain slope, but not what the original pre-terraforming levels are

therefore, estimates of percent of sim able to be converted to water may be inaccurate
for example, imagine an entire sim with an original elevation throughout of 4.1 meters which is then maximally terraformed downwards to an elevation of 0.1 meters; when the LandScanner runs, it will erroneously report that the entire land mass is within terraforming distance of water, although in actuality, none of it will be