ged's anti-blog

Weird LoopRez problem, that seems to have gone away

2007-11-29T15:40:00.000-05:00

Over the past week and a half, 3 or 4 people who had previously had NO problems using LoopRez Deluxe, started experiencing a weird problem.

The problem:
- autolink stopped working
- the panels needed to be MANUALLY linked, possibly in a specific order
- after the /1 DONE command, the skirt was not releasing from the original LoopRez ball, and had to be unlinked manually

The problem seems to be intermittent. Last week, I was able to perfectly replicate the problem in Linji Sim, and yet LoopRez Deluxe worked fine in Peronaut Sim. Today, it works fine in both sims. I contacted someone else who had been having the problem, and it's resolved for him as well.

Because the script hadn't been changed at all, and the problem seemed to be Sim-specific AND intermittent, my assumption is that it's just another LL / SL bug, and NOT due to a script problem.

Still, if it occurs to you, first, PLEASE contact me and tell me what sim it's happening in. Then, I would suggest trying again either in a different sim / sandbox, or in a few days. Another thing to try, is adding in a delay for rezzing (like /1 DELAY 1), in case it has to do with Sim / Client lag.

But for now, I'm just glad the problem seems to have gone away.

LinkRez-assisted creations

2007-10-20T07:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of items whose creation was assisted by the LinkRez necklace chain-generating tool. Some pieces are composed of prims placed primarily by LinkRez; in others, LinkRez only plays a small role.

As you can see, the artistry and talent is often in the design and creation of the ornamental centerpieces or construction of the links themselves. LinkRez merely assists in placement of links, freeing up the jeweler's time for more creative endeavors.

From Virrginia Tombola:

From CrisAlex Sands:

New communal item: Paradise Blanket (fully loaded)

2007-10-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

There are a number of communal items, purchased for the use of tenants of Linji and Peronaut, mainland rental sim communities.

A new item is available: Paradise Blanket, with all modules installed. It's basically a rezzer, that will rez (at high altitudes), themed settings, complete with furnishings and poses. If you would like to try them out, I've set up a pair of Paradise Blankets, one each in the major public parks of Peronaut sim.

Be aware that some of the theme settings require several hundred prims, so if you would like one installed on your parcel, you'll need to keep a couple hundred prims free or else you'll go over your prim allotment. Also, there's no way to restrict usage to group members, so be aware that they will be usable by all visitors.

LinkRez v1.02 minor update released

2007-09-25T20:11:00.000-05:00

A minor bug fix to LinkRez was released today, to version 1.02. It addresses the problem of incorrect placement of multi-link prims, when the geometric center is different from the root prim center.

If you previously purchased LinkRez, you should have automatically received the update from the update server. However, if you were set to "Busy," the update might not have been delivered. Just let me know, and I can check the sales records and send it again.

Note that this is for LinkRez, the necklace chain link generator, NOT LoopRez, the skirt generator.

I'm not dead yet!

2007-09-10T05:25:00.000-05:00

Way back on June 29th, I reported on a problem with LinkRez using custom links that had multiple prims, where the geometric center was different from the root prim center, and that a bug fix was imminent.

I fixed the bug, but never released the fixed version, and I really, REALLY should.

What happened was that the fix was easy, but then I tried to implement some difficult changes someone suggested, and never completed that. Real life intervened, and then I just never got around to it (and nobody complained about the problem, so it didn't seem many people were using multi-prim links). As time passes, it becomes much, MUCH harder to go back to a script, because you become less familiar with it, and have to "re-figure everything out." So, the activation energy to get the bugfix released just got worse and worse.

So, LinkRez was left in a half completed state in "the workshop".

What I'll need to do now, is just forget about implementing the suggestions, and get the fix out. My time in SL is getting less and less, for various reasons, but I still owe it to everyone who has purchased LinkRez, to make sure their purchase is fully functioning.

In the meantime, if you're affected by this bug, please contact me, and I'll expedite getting the fix to you.

Disillusionment

2007-06-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

"This Is a terrible invention, it ruins all the hardwork people had to go through to make our necklaces" - Sinjo Drakes, regarding LinkRez

"As are all my items - these are 100% Hand placed prims - No Prim bot link rez generators used." - Mhaijik Guillaume, posted the same day LinkRez was released

Sometimes, the closed-mindedness of people just drives me to despair. People who seem to lack vision or appreciation of progress. Or, the hard work it takes to make progress.

I wonder if these people in the 1400's would have railed against Gutenberg as well? Granted, it's an imperfect analogy, but, like LinkRez, a printing press is only a tool. For beautiful lettering, it still requires that the movable type be envisioned, crafted, and carved. It still requires that somebody with literary ability create the content of what is printed. It allows ease of production far beyond what could be done by scribes laboriously copying pages by hand. And, like LinkRez, absolute crap can still be produced when the user lacks talent.

When I first announced I was working on LinkRez, one of my first comments started out "First off -- this really is NOT a Necklace Generator," to recognize that a mere tool did not make a user into a creator. Creativity, skill, and artistic vision will always be the most important aspects in content creation, not the possession or use of the tools.

Still, it's hard not to be disillusioned and discouraged by some people.

LinkRez bug -- multi-prims and geometric centers

2007-06-29T05:03:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a user report, I'm aware of a major bug in LinkRez, but a fix is done, and I'm just trying to do a few other tweaks, and give other users a chance to find more bugs, before releasing it.

Basically, it turns out that:

llSensor() returns the position of the ROOT prim (used in the sizing board)
llGetPosition() returns the position of the ROOT prim
llRezObject() rezzes to place the position of the GEOMETRIC center of all prims in a linkset

This doesn't cause a problem if links are SINGLE prims. And it doesn't cause a problem if a necklace chain link is made up of multiple prims, but the root prim is near the 'center' of the linkset.

But, if you use a multiple prim chain link, and the root prim happens to be 'off center', LinkRez will rez the prim 'shifted over' a little bit. Not acceptable. It wasn't caught earlier, because all my test links are either single prims, or linksets where I happened to choose a 'center' prim as the root prim.

Anyhow, the fix was trivial, which was to replace all instances of llRezObject() with llRezAtRoot(), which is based on the root prim position of the object being rezzed, rather than the geometric center.

I wanted to make a few other minor tweaks, so I'll hold off on sending out an update.

This is also a good chance for users to suggest any other (minor) enhancements they'd like to see.

LinkRez Reviews and Comments

2007-06-28T05:35:00.001-05:00

LinkRez Reviews and Comments

Just working through the LinkRez Tutorial. Boy, am I impressed! Not only is the jewelry great, but the programming level is fantastic. I didn't know your could do such things in LSL. I have some similar operations I'd like to do, and knowing that it's possible will be an inspiration. - WJ
Hey! I just wanted to IM you and THANK you for making such a fun and amazing tool! this LinkRez is a blast to use, super easy and I can't believe the fun I'm havin just playing with it! WHOOT! - BM
omg! is seems like all i dreamed about! :) the creator is a magican... the most usefull tool i ever bought - DY
just wanted to say i think your link rez program for making necklaces is one of the best programs i have tried yet in sl - SV
Great product. ... I am afraid to even think what a math mind like yours looks like inside ..so I will just say ... GREAT JOB !!! - A
I have bought alot of things around SL that either didn't work straight out of the box, broke shortly after starting to use, or was just flat out poor quality, but the LinkRez has NONE of these issues! It not only does what it says it does, it couldn't produce better results in my opinion! It is super easy to use, and I had created 3 necklaces that were better quality than anything else I had ever made within 1 hour!
Instructions are pretty straight forward and easy to follow. So long as you read them, you should have no problem getting beautiful, stunning results!
A+ Product! - SL
I am an owner of your linkrez. AWSOME piece of equipment -RL
the price is great, I started playing with this already...got so excited I tp'd right to your store and forgot I was half dressed and had prims sticking out all over me (work related I assure you)So far I love it thank you thank you! - PP
I've been working with Link Rez and Ged, you knows I love it! - EN
It's something unbelievable! -T
This is so wicked cool! Good stuff! - RC

(If anybody does NOT want me to share their comments with others, let me know, and I'll happily remove it.)

LinkRez v1.01, minor update

2007-06-26T09:43:00.000-05:00

I released a minor update to LinkRez. If you purchased LinkRez v1.0 and did not automatically receive the update, please contact me.

Changes:

added a new sizing board option, for "edge placement" of necklace links
added a dialog menu to more conveniently choose notecards (thanks to Justa Meness for suggesting this!)
pose-stand rezzing bugfix
renamed the components inside LinkRez that users should NOT be changing with a "zzz-" prefix

The LinkRez Tutorial Part II, lesson additions 6b and 8b, describes these changes.

Also, I've made LinkRez available at SL Exchange.

Linji Haven Public Commons

2007-06-19T05:42:00.000-05:00

There's been some more progress with the public spaces of Linji Haven. In addition to some better paths connecting all the stores, Linji now has a Public Commons, Linji (103, 99, 43), complete with a nice koi pond, courtesy of Sierra Mills (which, incidentally, she sells in her store, Simply Sierra's, in Linji).

Linji Haven has become quite the little commercial center, with a good number of really creative people. Here's a picture of the Linji Haven directory in the Commons.

Some residents haven't given me store logos yet, and some stores are still in progress, so not pictured are:

Muse jewelry (Caliah Lyon)
Image Health & Wellness (ImagineIt Lane)
Taffy Apples (Taffy Allandale)
D-Skin (DynamiteTanaka Payne)
LUSH studio (Scarlet Singer)

Since getting LinkRez out, I've had time to catch up on some small projects and other things that have been languishing on my To Do list. One was to take the public signboard that estate manager Sierra Mills created, and script the directory to be more useful. I wrote an "object giver" script and combined it with the public WarpPos() teleportation hack, and loaded up each of the shop logos in the directory.

If you click on a logo, you can:

"Get LM" (replaces "Touch") to have it give you a landmark to the store

actually, it'll give you ALL notes, objects, and landmarks that are loaded in the prim

"Teleport" (replaces "Sit") to have you instantaneously teleport to the landmark

I plan to update the script, so that if there are multiple LM's in the logo prim, it'll pop up a Dialog window and let you choose which location you'd like to teleport to

It'd be silly, but I could also script the signboard to randomize, or keep alphabetized, the various store logos.

LinkRez v1.0... released...

2007-06-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

I've released LinkRez v1.0, available at ScriptThingies Linji (151, 230, 67) -- I hope you all like it! I guess we can call this the grand opening of the store, too.

If you don't know what LinkRez is, it's a necklace chainlink generator -- check out this link for lots of information. Then, stop by the store and try out the LinkRez DEMO, which lets you see some the tool in action.

If you buy LinkRez, be sure to pick up the L$1 purple "LinkRez Tool Box #1", which contains a bunch of practice micro-links, already sized, as well as LinkRez program notecards, to get you started more quickly.

Join the open membership "Script Thingies" group, for announcements and user-to-user product support.

And finally, keep an eye out for a "L$500 rebate program" for LinkRez purchasers, who are willing to share an interesting prim or linkset.

Phew, I'm tired... But it's a good tired. LinkRez is finally out!

A real-time demo kiosk for LinkRez

2007-06-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

Getting very close to a release! One thing I wanted to do before releasing LinkRez was to have a display model that people could click on to actually see the tool in action, in real-time.

It took me a few days, but I wrote a little dialog-driven "control" script, to allow users to choose one of nine or so necklace programs for the LinkRez Demo to run, to generate necklace chains. Please go on over to Script Thingies, Linji (151, 230, 67), and try it out!

One note though -- because it is actually DOING all the calculations to create the necklaces (not just rezzing previously generated necklaces), while running, it's probably inflicting some serious load onto the Sim. Because of that, I prevent it from rezzing a second necklace until the first one (they're temp-on-rez) has disappeared. So, it could take from 30 seconds to a minute, before you can try out a second necklace.

Lastly, I've created a new group -- "Script Thingies." Because we're limited to a maximum of 25 groups, it doesn't make sense to create a new group for each product. Instead, I plan to make all scripting product announcements to this new group. If you're a member of the LoopRez Users group, please feel free to quit that group, and join Script Thingies instead.

a quick necklace

2007-06-04T21:56:00.000-05:00

Some of the testers have been reluctant to try out the LinkRez notecard programs, but I'd really like to encourage users to realize that they're really quite flexible, and not that hard to write.

Here's an example of a necklace that took me maybe 40 minutes to create, almost from scratch. There are some imperfections with the sizing / spacing, but those are all fixable within the notecard program (I was just too lazy to do it right). And afterwards, I was able to custom-fit them to three different avatars, within a few minutes.

The centerpiece was made separately, by using the BRACELET setting to rez the sapphires in a simple circle. I then linked the ring of sapphires with a large diamond, and made that a separate link, called "diamondcenter."

The notecard program looks like this:

ODDLINKS
LINKTYPE FLAT

LINK diamondcenter~13.5~<180,>~<-0.00003, 0.00011, 0.03778>
LINK diamond 1.9mm~1.861572~<180,>~<-0.00002, -0.00005, 0.00946>
LINK diamond 5.7mm~5.699158~<180,>~<0.00001,>
LINK round sapphire~1.861572~<180,>~<-0.00002, -0.00005, 0.00946>
LINK diamond 5.7mm~5.699158~<180,>~<0.00001,>

REPEATUNTIL 80
LINK round sapphire~1.861572~<180,>~<-0.00002, -0.00005, 0.00946>
LINK diamond 1.9mm~1.861572~<180,>~<-0.00002, -0.00005, 0.00946>
ENDREPEAT

LINK silver tube~6.164551

Translated, line-by-line, the notecard program reads:

use an odd number of links, so that the center piece will be centered
rez the center piece, then a 1.9 mm diamond, then a 5.7 mm diamond, then a sapphire, then another 5.7 mm diamond
then, repeat the following, until we're almost at the side of the necklace, 80 degrees from the front

sapphire
1.9 mm diamond

then, rez a silver tube
since we're now at the end of the notecard, just finish up the necklace using the silver tube

The gap between the centerpiece and the next small gem could be fixed by editing the "size" of the "diamondcenter," probably from 13.5 down to 13 mm would work well.

But the point of this exercise wasn't to generate a perfected necklace, but just to illustrate that it took less than an hour of time to generate a fairly decent necklace. And that once generated, it could be resized to custom-fit most any avatar.

time to open a store...

2007-06-02T06:32:00.000-05:00

For months now, I've been relying on the generosity of Natalia Zelmanov, who allowed me to sell LoopRez Deluxe out of her original store in Rieul. Recently, Natalia has just opened a new, VERY nice, and MUCH larger store, Sirena Hair & Fashion in West Sunset (160,50,22). She is again being kind enough to let me provide LoopRez from her store. I owe so much to Natalia.

Still, I suppose there comes a time when I really ought to have a spot of my own. Thanks to Sierra Mills, who designed and gifted this store to me (I do seem to like to surround myself with talented individuals, don't I?), when LinkRez is ready for release, it'll be made available in a brand new store...

Script Thingies...

I'm a bit of a sentimental sap sometimes. The look and feel of the sign is a nod to the days when I first started dabbling with computers. The word "thingies" is popular to a certain individual who I owe a lot to. And the backdrop of the sign might be familiar to some... My very own geeky inside-joke tributes, all rolled together.

I still need to make it possible to exit the store without falling off a cliff, to be able to actually walk to the store instead of flying to it, choose a landing spot, landscape a little around it, etc. But it's getting there. Still, what a silly concept, for me to have a store, what with basically my SINGLE product. Well, at least my product line will double soon.

Incidentally, the store will be available for purchase, from Sierra Mills. It's a bit primmy (as is most anything Sierra does), but I like its clean lines, don't you?

Mainland Sim Rental Charters

2007-06-01T09:59:00.000-05:00

Peronaut and Linji Sim Parcel Availability

parcel availability information, including pictures and landmarks, can be viewed at the Script Thingies store in Linji
if you would like to rent a parcel

pay the rent box on the parcel

we will invite you to join the appropriate group, giving you the group abilities listed below
if there's a delay adding you to the group, we'll increase the rental period paid for

if no parcels are available, post a request to be added to a waiting list here, and you'll be notified in advance

--== Mainland Rental Sims ==--
Linji and Peronaut

Owner: Ged Larsen (ged(dot)larsen(a)gmail(dot)com)
Estate Manager: Sierra Mills

This is the charter of the Linji and Peronaut Sims (last updated 2007-June-1). The complete group abilities list and update history is also provided. Current status and parcel availability will also be posted on this page.

The goal of these mainland rental sims is to provide:

an unthemed mixed-residential and low-impact commercial oasis on the Mainland
a community of like-minded individuals who believe that the Mainland can still be a beautiful, wonderful, minimal lag place to enjoy Second Life
the lowest price possible

To insure that the Sim can maintain it's zoning guidelines, it is a rental only community. Estate Managers to contact for more information or problems: Ged Larsen and Sierra Mills

ZONING GUIDELINES

Residential and low-impact commericial

Guidelines:

be considerate
low-impact commercial welcomed
small events encouraged
no Casinos, no Clubs, no Camping, and no Crap (ad farms, lag hogs, incredibly ugly builds)

Lag control

try to use efficiently-written scripts, without loads of listeners and scans
try to use the minimum-sized texture that gives you good results

Spelling it all out

Really, if you're just being considerate of others, you don't need to read these details. If you are trying to use this list to find loopholes of what you can get away with, this community is probably not for you.

And, if you and ALL your neighbors are OK with it, bending the guidelines is fine too. Just see "Conflict Resolution".

restrict build heights to twice the distance from the nearest neighbor's parcel boundary

a 2:1 build height tool will be provided to you to help you determine whether you are within bounds
IF you and your neighbor agree, you are free to violate this rule
however, agreement should be obtained BEFORE building higher / closer than allowed

try not to obstruct your neighbor's views
no major eyesores
no excessive particle effects
no flashing / rotating / neon signs
no banlines (banning specific avatars is fine)
no walls or fences that completely close off your land
skyboxes shouldn't be visible from ground level builds
no non-consensual combat
events should not be so large and frequent as to cause problems for other residents

COMMUNITY

Goal: it would be wonderful if instead of a bunch of separate carved out parcels, we had a community. Of course, this can never be something dictated, but all suggestions would be welcome.

To promote this:

walking paths to encourage foot exploration, sitting areas, and parks will be constructed, as possible
shared resources (e.g., pre-fab buildings, landscaping objects, resident creations, etc.)

an up-to-date list is maintained here

suggestions welcome for additional community purchases (copyable items)
ALL new tenants will be offered the chance to ask for a COPYABLE item up to L$1,000 that I will purchase and make available to all tenants

any other suggestions would be welcome!

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

I want to remain as absolutely hands-off as possible, hoping that the simple rule of being considerate towards others will minimize conflict. And, I hope that people will be as open-minded and accepting as possible of other people's tastes. But, conflicts happen.
if 3 members of the community have a grievance against another member, and a Peronaut Estate Manager agrees, then the grievance must be addressed.

RENTING

NO up-front "purchase price," "deposit," or joining fee

depending on how often tenants let their leases lapse without giving me sufficient warning, this MAY be amended to a ONE week deposit that will be FULLY refundable, if I receive ONE week prior notice

rental rate: L$390 per 1,024 square meters per week
prim allotment: 234 prims per 1,024 square meters
extra prim allotment, based on availability: L$195 per extra 117 prims per week
rent to be paid weekly, in advance

there will be no grace period for late rent

if there are people on the waitlist when the rent expires, I may immediately reclaim the land and offer it to a new tenant

full refunds of remaining rent, with no penalty, if one week advance notice is given

otherwise, a maximum penalty of 1 week's rent will be assessed

no plans to increase rent

I may raise rent if LL's mainland tier prices increase
I may raise rent if the US$ to L$ exchange rate changes dramatically
If this were to happen, current tenants would have the option to cancel their leases with full refunds without penalty

no requirement to be a Linden Labs "premium member"
no support for sub-leasing

you will be able to add others to the Peronaut Group, but they will be regular group "Members" without the "Resident" abilities that tenants will have (see below)
however, on a case-by-case basis, estate managers can grant "Resident" abilities to multiple people who are sharing a parcel

I've tried my best to make these rules as FAIR to you as possible

NOT asking for deposits
NOT asking for a minimum amount of initial renting time

likewise, I would very much appreciate your consideration as well, especially being given as much advance warning as possible, even if you are just THINKING about leaving the Sim; advance warning is REALLY helpful for me, to give me time to try to identify other tenants, start planning parcel changes, etc.

GROUP ROLE ABILITIES FOR RESIDENTS

The group role abilities listed below are my attempt to give maximal flexibility to Peronaut Sim residents, while trying to keep inadvertent disasters to a minimum. They may be adjusted, as necessary.

Group Roles

Owner (Ged Larsen)
Estate Manager (Sierra Mills)

Estate manager has all abilities EXCEPT:
- assign members to any roll
- assign and remove abilities in roles
- deed land and buy land for group (might be OK?)
- abandon land to Governor Linden
- set land for sale info
- pay group liabilities and receive group dividends

Resident

this is the baseline role that ALL renters will get, listed below

Regular Member

residents can invite people to join the group, who can then set objects to the Peronaut group, avoiding auto-return
they will NOT, however, have access to most other Resident abilities

Group abilities, complete list

Membership

Invite People to this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only invite people to the plain "member" status

Eject Members from this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only eject people who have plain "member" status

Toggle 'Open Enrollment' and change 'Signup Fee' (OWNER)

Roles

Create New Roles (OWNER)
Delete Roles (OWNER)
Change Role names, titles, and descriptions (OWNER)
Assign Members to Assigner's Roles (OWNER)
Assign Members to Any Role (OWNER)
Remove Members from Roles (OWNER)
Assign and Remove Abilities in Roles (OWNER)

Group Identity

Change Charter, Insignia, 'Publish on the Web', and which members are publicly visible in Group Information (OWNER)

Parcel Management

Deed land and buy land for group (OWNER)
Abandon land to Governor Linden (OWNER)
Set land for sale info (OWNER)
Subdivide and join parcels (OWNER)

Parcel Identity

Toggle 'Show in Find Places' and set category (ALL)
Change parcel name, description, and 'Publish on the Web' settings (ALL)
Set landing point and set teleport routing (ALL)

Parcel Settings

Change music & media settings (ALL)
Toggle 'Edit Terrain' (OWNER)
Toggle various About Land > Options settings (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)

Parcel Powers

Always allow 'Edit Terrain' (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)
Always allow 'Fly' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Objects' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Landmark' (ALL)
Allow 'Set Home to Here' on group land (ALL, regular members)

Parcel Access

Manage parcel Access lists (OWNER; no general banlines allowed)
Manage parcel Ban lists (ALL)
Change parcel 'Sell passes...' settings (ALL)
Eject and freeze Residents on parcels (ALL)

Parcel Content

Return objects owned by group (OWNER)
Return objects set to group (OWNER)
Return non-group objects (ALL)
Landscaping using Linden plants (ALL)

Object Management

Deed objects to group (OWNER)
Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects (OWNER)
Set group-owned objects for sale (OWNER)

Accounting

Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends (OWNER)

Notices

Send Notices (ALL)
Receive Notices and view past Notices (ALL, and regular members)

Proposals

Create Proposals (ALL)
Vote on Proposals (ALL, and regular members)

Update history:

2007-June-1: consolidated from Linji Haven and Peronaut Sim Covenants, rental rate decreases, removed up-front fees, asked that I be notified as much in advance as possible if you are planning to let a lease expire, updated communal resources, removed information specific to sim (i.e., number of sq m set aside for parks)

Linji and Peronaut Sim rent rate drops

2007-06-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

I am proposing a rent drop in the Linji and Peronaut Sims, that will affect all tenants having parcels smaller than 4,096 sq m. Since this affects the Covenants, I'd like to consolidate the two covenants (which are already very similar), into one covenant, for easier organization.

The original rental rate structure was based on a simple premise: match the US$ monthly mainland tier rate set by Linden Labs, converted to weekly L$ prices.

Because the mainland tier rates improve as you own larger amount of land, rental rates per square meter of land were dramatically better for tenants renting large parcels. Also, because the tier rates occurred in "steps," I needed to choose rental rate "steps" as well, which limited all rental parcels to increments of 1,024 sqm (i.e., 2048, 3072, and 4096 sq m). This made for reduced flexibility of carving out parcels.

Proposal: simplify the rate structure to a simple L$ per square meter per week, matching the "best rate" currently enjoyed by tenants holding 4,096 sq m parcels. The following table shows that rental rates will decrease by from 2% to 18%. The prim allowance will remain the same: standard 234 prims per 1,024 square meters.

With the rent drop, current tenants in both sims will have their "days remaining of paid rent" adjusted upwards proportionally, rounding UP by 1 day, and subsequent payments will be at the lower rates.

Area (sqm)	Current L$/wk	Current L$/1024sqm/wk	New L$/1024sqm/wk	% rent drop
2,048	L$954	L$477	L$390	18%
3,072	L$1,273	L$424	L$390	8%
4,096	L$1,592	L$398	L$390	2%

The simple ratio of L$390 per 1,024 sqm per week will make it easy to figure out rental rates for parcels that are not even multiples of 1,024 sqm as well. Rental rates of additional prims, as available, will remain the same (actually, a piddly 2% price drop), and be calculated at the same proportional rate: L$195/week for an additional 117 prims. And, as stated before in the covenant, I intend that there will be NO rent increases, unless Linden Labs raises the mainland land tier rates. (Actually, if the L$ to US$ exchange rate changes SIGNIFICANTLY, which is hasn't for months now, I'd also have to adjust rental rates, upwards OR downwards.)

For the smaller parcels, I think these rental rates will be amongst the best in Second Life. And for larger parcels, the rates are still competitive.

I'd like to consolidate the covenants for the two Sims as well. The covenants of the Linji and Peronaut Sims are identical, except that with Peronaut, the wording for build heights is that you have to obtain approval from your neighbors BEFORE you build beyond the 2:1 height limits. Strictly speaking, this is not a difference, because in cases of conflict in the Linji Sim, the build height rule would be used anyhow.

I will give everyone a few days (perhaps till Monday) to speak out with any objections. The new consolidated covenant will be posted here, too. Otherwise, I will go ahead as planned. Comments?

PS - if you are curious about the financial ramifications for me, the sim owner, and the future stability of the Sim: the rent drop WILL, obviously, decrease the "margin" that the sims can operate without generating losses. But, I've long ago decided that "profits," in order to recoup the sim auction costs, will not be achievable regardless, so, if I can operate without losses, I still want to provide these "clean" oases on the mainland.

And, I hope that these lower rates will keep occupancy both higher, and more stable. I don't like being a landlord, and I don't like scrambling to find tenants. I'd much prefer to live, and have my own shop, in Sims that have a stable and familiar set of faces :) This is more important to me than the fairly meager "profits" (pretty pathetic, actually) that the rental business can generate.

Linji Sim news and plans

2007-05-31T07:04:00.000-05:00

There has been a bit of flux in the Linji Sim, with some tenants moving on and others moving in. I want to thank Tamala Tombola, Harriet Hallard, and Charron Marseilles for joining in at the beginning, and wish them the best. And, of course, I want to welcome some new people: Anhayla Lycia and ImagineIt Lane!

Change isn't always a bad thing -- as rental parcels opened up, it offered an opportunity to re-parcel and improve.

One of my biggest regrets about the Linji Sim was that better planning wasn't made for better road and park access -- it was always a goal, but never actually got done. Learning from this, Peronaut Sim was designed from the beginning to have roads, paths, and parks.

Also, parcels in Linji Sim were all made up of 32 m x 32 m (1,024 sq m) square blocks. This caused a lot of problems, because 2,048 sq m plots were long and skinny, and 3,072 parcels were L-shaped, making it VERY difficult to place larger builds, despite the large area. After Linji Sim filled to 100%, there was no easy "wiggle room" to try to address these short-comings.

But now, with some tenant flux, I've been able to shift things around. I particularly wanted to thank Cripin Cleanslate and Patric Rotunno for being so very open-minded about some of these changes, affording me a lot of flexibility, to help us all out.

Changes already completed:

Crispin's (3,072), Tamala's vacated (2,048 sqm), and protected (1,024 sqm) parcels: new road segment and 2 mini-parks

A LOT more changes in the works, affecting:

Stephen's vacated (5,120 sqm), Charron's vacated (4,096 sqm), Taffy's (2,048 sqm), the Gervasi's (3,072 sqm)
possibly Patric's (2,048 sqm) and a protected parcel (1,024 sqm)
NO changes will be made to parcels belonging to current tenants UNLESS they desire the change
I hope that very shortly, an interior circumferential path will soon connect most of us, and that some additional "spokes" will conect the rest

Here's the current set-up, and a proposed one. Current Linji:

Proposed Linji:

Proposed Changes Summary:

Gervasi squared off from previous "L"-shape (approved)
Patric squared off from previous long shape, and has entire edge bordering 1024 public park, as previously (awaiting Patric's comments)
608 sqm previously rented area given up for roads (in brown)

road goes past Patric, new "2048", corner of Gervasi, and halfway down Shizuka

two central "odd-sized" lots of 1760 and 1664 sq m

should still be buildable for small stores, with nice central placement

central 2048 sqm has black bordered area for continuation of brown road
Shizuka says she's willing to donate a segment for road continuation (awaiting confirmation)
road will continue down blue Ged parcel (approved by me ;)
road will HOPEFULLY continue between Sierra and Caliah (Muse) parcel to public area (awaiting comments)

Once we collaboratively come up with a plan acceptable to everyone, I am going to do my best to bully Sierra Mills into creating the central public park space, waterside park space, and space between Patric and Taffy's new space.

Oh, and be sure to read the next blog post. It's about rent drops, primarily affecting 2,048 and 3,072 sq m parcel owners.

LinkRez Tutorial, Part 2

2007-05-30T18:21:00.000-05:00

LinkRez Tutorial, part II

Welcome to the LinkRez tutorial, part II. It is designed to be a step-by-step introduction to all the features of the LinkRez necklace chain generator, from basic to advanced. If any part of it seems unclear or confusing, or you think that an additional screenshot would help, please post a comment so that I can improve the documentation.

Part I of the tutorial covered necklace sizing and shaping, which allowed you to "fit" a necklace precisely to any avatar.

Part II will discuss custom links and notecard programs, which will allow you to create necklaces using your own links, arranged in any number or order, with as many different types of link placement as you wish.

Lesson 6: Custom links, the Sizing Board, and the LINK command

Using the LinkRez Sizing Board properly is absolutely critical to properly place links, especially when using weirdly shaped, twisted, tortured, and rotated prims. When the SizingBoard is used properly, it allows LinkRez to place links with precision better than 0.1 millimeters.

The sizing board determines the:

"flat" orientation of the link, to allow proper rotation
"center" location of the link, around which rotations occur
length of the link, so that links can be placed without overlap or gaps
sizing board calculations are spoken to chat, to be:

used in the "LINK" command, to generate an entire necklace using that link, OR
copied and pasted into a notecard for future use

it is very helpful to store this information in the description field of your link object

that way, when you want to use that link again, you won't have to repeat the "sizing board" steps
in the Script Thingies store (Linji), there will be at least one L$1 "LinkRez Tool Box" which contains links which have been properly "sized," and sizing information saved in the description field. However, you WILL want to learn how to size your own links.

LinkRez Pose Stand and Sizing Board

Here's how to use the sizing board:

1) First, create or acquire a link that you would like to use.

learning how to create tiny prims suitable for jewelry is far beyond the scope of this tutorial, but an excellent place to start is Natalia Zelmanov's jewelry tutorial, particularly lesson 3 which teaches how to make some very useful microprims

2) the LinkRez sizing board should be on top of the LinkRez pose stand

if you don't have a sizing board, "TOUCH" the pose stand
if you don't have a pose stand, "TOUCH" the LinkRez Object
the sizing board will automatically rotate itself to ZERO_ROTATION, so that the world's axes lines up perfectly with the sizing board's axes

3) the LinkRez sizing board has 3 tiny "toothpicks" sticking out of an even tinier blue dot

the blue dot is the PRECISE center point
the 3 toothpicks are colored and oriented to match the world coordinate axes
the goals are to place your link:

perfectly flat on the sizing board, in the "red-green" plane,
perfectly centered with the blue dot, and
perfectly aligned in the link's "forward" direction along the red toothpick (X-axis)

the three "toothpick" axes of the Sizing Board

4) rez your link on the sizing board, and rotate it so that it is lying perfectly flat against the grey sizing board

5) position the link so that it is perfectly centered on the blue dot with the red, green, and blue toothpick axes

this defines where the CENTER of the link is, where rotations will act
position offset is a vector offset (in meters)
the blue dot must be at the center; for TALLER links, half your link's height should be UNDER the surface of the grey slab

(for this link, notice that the blue dot is in the precise center, and that ALL 3 toothpicks pierce the link in the center positions as well)

6) SHIFT-CLICK-DRAG on the RED axis arrow head to create a copy of the link, and move it PRECISELY down the RED toothpick axis until the 2 links are JUST touching (or overlapping, if you want interdigitated links)

this defines the LENGTH of the link, so LinkRez will know how apart the links need to be separated
length is reported in MILLIMETERS (not meters), so that you can more easily edit it by hand in notecard programs
do NOT rotate your copied link

(in this case, because I want the links to "overlap" as a chain link, I've dragged the copy so that it still overlaps. Normally, you'd want to drag it so that the links were just barely touching)

(here's an example of tiny 1.8 millimeter link; it's positioned to be just a little bit "up" on the blue axis, to have the gems protrude outwards a little bit on a necklace, and just touching, so they will be size to not overlap and not have gaps)

7) TOUCH the sizing board button labeled "CENTER", and it will detect the pair of links, and CHAT the length and offsets. For this lesson, DO NOT use the button labeled "EDGE" -- the use of that button will be described in Lesson 6b.

go into your chat history and copy the line NAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset
I'd recommend immediately pasting this into the description field of your link, so that you'll always have easy access to the information
note that to use this information for LinkRez, it will need to be preceeded with the word "LINK", either in chat commands or notecard programs

(in the chat history, you would want to copy and save that second line, with all the scary numbers, starting from the word "tiny link")

OK, enough of the tedious stuff. Now, you are FINALLY ready to USE your fancy link to create a necklace! Up till now, you've been using the "/1 TEST" command, which uses an included Temp-On-Rez prim, with the Sizing board calculations already known to LinkRez.

Using the LINK command to specify the LINK you want to use

First, LinkRez needs to be able to access your newly sized link, so drag a copy of your link from your inventory and into the LinkRez Object contents (the transparent disk, which also contains a number of other items, including the LinkRez script, LinkRezRoot, LinkRezStand, and LinkRezTestLink).

Copy the Sizing Board information out of the Description field (you did save it there, right?), and issue the appropriate "/1 LINK" command.

From the example above, it would look something like:

/1 LINK tiny link~5.737305~<0.00000,>~<-0.00005, 0.00003, -0.00940>
obviously, you would want to be using copy and paste...

LinkRez should start rezzing a new necklace, using your new link! Congratulations! (If the links looks totally weirdly rotated with unsightly gaps, it's because the Sizing Board was not used properly. Time to try again, and make sure it was centered with ALL three toothpicks...)

Now would be a good time to build up a nice collection of saved links, each with Sizing Board information in the Description fields.

Practice sizing links, making necklaces / bracelets / rings made up of single types of links. And, when you have a couple of links ready, you can go on ahead to the next lesson, where you'll use a notecard program to generate necklaces with MULTIPLE types of links!

Lesson 6b: Sizing Board: "CENTER" and "EDGE" options (new to LinkRez v1.01)

In the above lesson, you were asked to align the link so that it was perfectly centered with the blue dot, as above, and then to touch the button labeled CENTER, and NOT the button labeled EDGE.

(proper alignment for using the CENTER sizing board button)

Although this works well for the majority of links, sometimes it can be difficult to precisely "eyeball" the blue dot to be in the precise center. For that reason, another Sizing Board option is available, using the "EDGE" button. Both the "CENTER" and "EDGE" alignment methods, if used properly, will yield the exact same results, but sometimes one method will be easier than the other.

(proper alignment for using the EDGE sizing board button)

With this link, if you wanted to use the "EDGE" method, just like before, you would still:

rez and rotate the link so that it is lying perfectly flat against the grey sizing board
the red toothpick axis would still point "forward" down the necklace link
BUT, this time, instead of "centering" the blue dot / toothpick, you would line up the EDGE of the link with the blue toothpick
same as before, you would then shift-drag down the red axis so that the links were perfectly touching
finally, you would "touch" the EDGE button, instead of the CENTER button

As mentioned, either method, if used properly, will yield identical results. With experience, you'll find which method is more easy to use with specific links.

Lesson 7: necklaces with different links: using notecard programs

The "/1 TEMP" and "/1 LINK" commands create necklaces that use only one type of link, repeated through the necklace. These necklaces also have only one LINKTYPE and LINKANGLE.

But using LinkRez Notecard Programs, you can create necklaces with as many different types of LINKs, LINKTYPEs, and LINKANGLEs as you wish. Furthermore, you can load in previously saved necklace sizes and parameters. It makes for a very powerful tool to make very complex necklaces.

LinkRez Notecard Programs are actually very simple. Let's start with the basics:

notecard programs are put into the LinkRez clear disk contents, the same as the links
"/1 RUN name" will run the notecard program called "name"
the notecard will contain one command per line
all relevant chat commands are supported
the necklace will be rezzed from the front, when a LINK command (just like the chat command) is encountered
each LINK command will rez only one link (instead of an entire necklace)
when the end of the notecard is reached, the last LINK rezzed will be used to complete the necklace

Here's an example of the simplest possible notecard program, containing only a single line:

LINK tiny link~5.737305~<0.0,>~<-0.00005, 0.00003, -0.00940>
this notecard program would be the equivalent of chatting that LINK command

Here's a more interesting multi-line notecard program. Imagine a notecard named "fancy necklace" containing the following lines:

ODDLINKS
PENDANT 0.3

LINKTYPE FLAT
LINK fancy pendant~20~<0,0,0>~<0,0,0>
LINK giant diamond~10~<0,0,0>~<0,0,0>

LINKTYPE ALTERNATE
LINKANGLE 20
LINK tiny link~5.737305~<0.0,>~<-0.00005, 0.00003, -0.00940>
so, after issuing a "/1 RUN fancy necklace" command, what does this program do? LinkRez reads each line in order

ODDLINKS: sets up to rez only ONE front center link
PENDANT 0.3: the necklace will have a little bit of a pendant "point" to it
LINKTYPE FLAT: the subsequent LINKs to be rezzed will lie flat against the body
LINK fancy pendant...: the LINK command tells LinkRez to rez a link, but since we have ODDLINKS active, only ONE "fancy pendant" will be rezzed, front and center, flat against the body
LINK giant diamond...: the LINK command will now rez ONE left and right PAIR of "giant diamond", also flat against the body
LINKTYPE ALTERNATE and LINKANGLE 20: set up so that subsequent rezzed LINKs will alternate back and forth by 20 degrees, to form a nice chainlink effect
LINK tiny link...: rez ONE left and right pair of "tiny link", offset by 20 degrees from "flat"
now, the end of the notecard has been reached; LinkRez will use the last rezzed LINK ("tiny link") at the last known settings "LINKTYPE ALTERNATE" and "LINKANGLE 20" to finish the entire necklace

the final result will be a necklace with a single central "fancy pendant," flanked by a pair of "giant diamond,"and completed with an alternating chain link of "tiny link"
notice that blank lines are ignored, which can help break up a long notecard program into understandable chunks
also be aware that anything after a "/" character (inclusive) on a notecard line will be ignored, which can allow you to put comments into a notecard program
do NOT use the "/" or "~" character in link names, because these characters specify comments and delimiters respectively

Notecard programs can include commands that change the shape, size, and angle of the guide ellipses, using the GUIDE command

each time you ran a "/1 TEST" or "/1 LINK", LinkRez chats the ellipse GUIDE parameters
this line can be copied and pasted into a notecard program, to set the GUIDE ellipse sizes and angles
combined with the BEND and PENDANT parameters, the complete shape of the necklace is determined, and can be loaded from notecard programs
if you have a notecard program with no LINK commands, no LINKs will be rezzed
this can be handy to have notecard programs that simply store necklace shapes, but no necklace link information, so you can easily reconfigure the LinkRez Object to be ready to run an actual LINK containing

for example, you might have saved necklace shapes in the notecards "Ged," "Sierra," and "Eleanora," along with the previous necklace program "fancy necklace"
then, you could issue:
"/1 RUN Ged" + "/1 RUN fancy necklace"; wait for necklace to rez, then
"/1 RUN Sierra" + "/1 RUN fancy necklace"; wait for necklace to rez, then
"/1 RUN Eleanora" + "/1 RUN fancy necklace"
... and you would have 3 "fancy necklace"s, but each fitted to a different individual

Lesson 8: more powerful notecard programs, repeating sets of links

In the previous lesson, you created a moderately complex notecard program using 3 different types of links. In this lesson the REPEAT ## and REPEATUNTIL ## commands will be introduced, which allow you to repeat any set of links either a specific number of times, or until a specific position on the necklace.

For example, what if you wanted 30 "small links," followed by completing the necklace with as many "tiny links" as needed?

You COULD do it by pasting the "LINK small link~##~##~##" line 30 times, and then the "tiny link" line, but that's inelegant. Instead, you can use the REPEAT command:

REPEAT ##
...
...
ENDREPEAT
repeats all the commands between REPEAT ## and ENDREPEAT, a total of ## times

This would yield a notecard program that would look like:

REPEAT 30
LINK small link~##~##~##
ENDREPEAT

LINK tiny link~##~##~##

Much nicer!

But, what if you wanted to use "small link" just to the exact left and right "sides" of a necklace, regardless of how many links that took (which will be different, depending on the circumference of the necklace), and THEN switch to "tiny link"? The REPEATUNTIL command allows you to repeat a set of links until a particular PLACE around the necklace.

REPEATUNTIL ##
...
...
ENDREPEAT
repeats all the commands between REPEATUNTIL and ENDREPEAT, until the links have been rezzed to ## DEGREES
0 degrees is the front of the necklace; 90 degrees is the side; 180 degrees is the back
any intermediate value can be used as well

This would yield a notecard program that would look like:

REPEATUNTIL 90
LINK small link~##~##~##
ENDREPEAT

LINK tiny link~##~##~##

Note that you can combine as many REPEAT loops, REPEATUNTIL loops, different sets of LINKs, LINKTYPEs, and LINKANGLEs, as you wish, to construct necklaces as complex as you want.

And then, using saved necklace "GUIDE" and "BEND"-containing notecards, you can make these complex necklaces precisely fit as many different individual avatars as you like.

Here's an example of a necklace created by a necklace program notecard, using 3 different links:

Here, the necklace program consists of something like:

ODDLINKS
LINKTYPE FLAT
LINK large oval~##~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>

REPEAT 5
LINK small oval~##~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>
LINK large oval~##~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>
END REPEAT

REPEATUNTIL 80
LINK large oval~##~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>
LINK metal ring~5~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>
ENDREPEAT

LINKTYPE ALTERNATE
LINKANGLE 20
LINK metal ring~3~<#,#,#>~<#,#,#>

starting with a CENTER large oval link (so the total # of links will be ODD in this necklace)
then, repeating a small oval + large oval set five times
then, repeating a large oval + metal ring four times (to "80 degrees")

the above links were all placed "flat" to the body
finally, using just metal rings, but alternating the angle + and - 20 degrees from "flat" against the body

the "length" of the metal rings was decreased from what was used in the previous segment, so that they would intersect, while the earlier segment, they touched edge-to-edge

Lesson 8b: More convenient access to LinkRez Notecard Programs (new to LinkRez v1.01)

Because Notecard Programs are so fundamental to getting the most out of LinkRez, in version 1.01, based on a suggestion from a LinkRez user, I added a much more convenient way to access your notecard programs. Simply TOUCH the LinkRez Object, and a dialog menu will come up showing an alphabetical list of ALL notecards present in your LinkRez Object. Selecting any button will run that notecard program.

One very powerful way to use this feature might be to:

have a whole bunch of notecard programs specifying ONLY the GUIDE, PENDANT, and BEND command lines, which would specify the SHAPE and SIZE of a necklace. Don't include ANY specific link information. For example, these might specify a male and female sizes of choker necklaces, long loopy necklaces, bracelets, and even rings.
have another set of notecard programs specify actual LINKS, LINKTYPEs, LINKANGLEs, and REPEAT commands, but WITHOUT sizing information

Then, you can mix and match by first running one program from the first set of notecards, specifying a necklace size and shape, and then running a program from the second set, which would actually create the necklace.

As you collect more and more links and notecard programs, you'll find that you can VERY quickly create entire collections of jewelry, sized for specific avatars.

Conclusion

I hope you have as much fun designing and creating with the assistance of LinkRez, as I had scripting it. Feedback would be welcome! Please post comments on the blog, or IM / notecard me in-world to "Ged Larsen," or email me at ged (dot) larsen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Even better, please drop me pictures of your creations, and let me know if I might be allowed to post them here, and whether you'd like to be attributed. I have very little skill (OK, let's be honest, NO skill) in creating and building myself, so I especially appreciate being able to see what my scripts have helped contribute to. It's very gratifying to me.

Regards!
Ged Larsen

LinkRez Tips, Tricks, and Ideas

2007-05-30T13:45:00.001-05:00

LinkRez Tips, tricks, and ideas

Changing the "LinkRezRoot" helper

when LinkRez completes a necklace, it rezzes an object from the LinkRez Object contents called "LinkRezRoot" in a position and orientation that might be helpful as a root prim for a necklace attached at the "Chest" attachment point
however, the included "LinkRezRoot" is created by me, which would mean that if used as the root prim of your necklace, the entire necklace would list ME as the creator
to fix that, simply delete the "LinkRezRoot" out of the the LinkRez Object contents, and replace it with your own "LinkRezRoot" object

i.e.,
rez the LinkRez Object; right-click on it; select Edit; and open the Contents tab
right click on "LinkRezRoot" and Delete it
create your own prim that you'd like to use as the new LinkRezRoot
rename it LinkRezRoot, right click on it and Take it into your inventory
drag YOUR LinkRezRoot from your inventory into the Contents of your LinkRez Object

Making a (very simple) ring

LinkRez really isn't ideal to make rings, because rings are too small and benefit less from 'automated precise path placement' (which is the main strength of LinkRez), and much more from artistic, hand-placement
but, here's how you might go about doing it
this is a side view of a standard necklace shape; notice the "drop" of both the purple and blue guides, and notice how BIG they are

using Edit Linked Parts, rotate the angles of both the blue and purple guides to have NO drop; rings don't typically have a "bend" to them

here's a top down view of the "flattened" necklace; notice that it's still way too big to use for a ring

so again, use the Edit Linked Parts to resize both the purple and blue guide ellipses to near minimum size (perhaps from 0.010 to 0.020 meters, in the X and Y sizing boxes)

make sure you use the BRACELET setting, wither via a "/1 BRACELET" chat command (after which you can use the /1 TEST command to see a test run), or include a "BRACELET" line in your notecard program

the BRACELET setting does NOT affect the size or shape of the rezzed object
instead, the BRACELET setting instead keeps orientation of the links the same on the FRONT and BACK halves of the rezzed object

below, I show a notecard program using some of the links that were in the L$1 "LinkRez Tool Box #1," to show a sample program that would create a tiny ring of gems

Tips on making tiny prims and creating a personal library of links

Torley Linden posted a video tutorial in the Second Life Knowledge Base on "How to make tiny prims," a nice visual introduction to tiny prims
Natalia Zelmanov's excellent four-part tutorial series on making jewelry; part 1, 2, 3, 4. Part 3 is particularly useful, with detailed instructions on making tiny prims.
Johanna Hyacinth has also posted on tiny prims and jewelry, in various places, including here, here, and here.

Advanced: simplified LINK information

if a link's "center point" in Second Life is the same as the desired "center point," AND if the "forward directionality" of the link is along the X-axis, a LINK command can be simplified to "LINK linkname~length," leaving out the rotation and position offset parameters (which are <0,0,0> and <0,0,0> anyhow)

Ultra-advanced: information encoded in the rez parameter

when LinkRez rezzes an object link, it passes a start parameter that encodes both the link pair number as well as the angle in radians, in the following format:
LinkRez transmitted param: rezzedPairs*1000000 + llRound ( theta * 100000 )
this information can be decoded in a script included in the rezzed object, to do silly things like this

Join the "Script Thingies" group, for new product announcements, updates, and user-to-user product support

LinkRez FAQ / Troubleshooting

2007-05-30T13:44:00.001-05:00

LinkRez Frequently Asked Questions / Troubleshooting

The necklace disappears after a few seconds! I am using the /1 TEST command

the /1 TEST command is ONLY to get a TEMPORARY necklace rezzed, so that you can more conveniently see how well the necklace chain will fit, while adjusting the chain length, width, and shape
to make a lasting necklace, you need to continue to Part II of the instructions (lessons 6 + 7), to create your OWN links, size them on the sizing board, and load the LinkRez object with the links
then, you would use the /1 LINK command to create a necklace using a single type of link, OR design a notecard program and use it with the /1 RUN command, which would allow you to use many different links within the necklace
or, to get started more quickly, you can pick up the L$1 box of sample links (which have sizing information already, in the description field), at the Linji Sim ScriptThingies store. Load these sample links into your LinkRez Object, and then try the /1 LINK or /1 RUN commands on the sample links

When I link the necklace chain, the creator is listed as Ged Larsen!

Change the LinkRezRoot prim in the the LinkRez Object to one that you created, as described here

Why are all the links placed totally weird?

there was probably a problem with the parameters generated by the Sizing Board
please try again, being careful to align the link precisely with all three axes

When I use the /1 BRACELET command, there's a weird bend or kink in the bracelet!

if you are trying to make a bracelet, and there's a weird bend in it, make sure that the purple and blue guide ellipses are PARALLEL to the clear disk

Why are all the links on one side of the necklace upside down?

you need to specify PATHTYPE FOLLOW (instead of the default PATHTYPE SPLIT)
you may also need to place your object on the Sizing Board differently than you are accustomed to. For example, with a lace collar ruffle, you might want to place it as follows:

Where's my pose stand?

"TOUCH" your LinkRez Object, and a pose stand will be rezzed

Where's my sizing board?

"TOUCH" your LinkRez Pose Stand, and a sizing board will be rezzed

Nothing happens when I rez LinkRez! Touching it doesn't do anything!

you are probably in a NO SCRIPT zone

I'm getting the error "Object ### not found," but I know it's in the LoopRez Object contents

make sure that the names are identical -- upper case, lower case, spaces: "Link" is diferent from "link" is probably different from "link "

I'm getting the error "DANGER -- 150 link pairs rezzed, may be stuck in infinite loop. Use REZLIMIT command to increase limit. RESETTING SCRIPT."

LinkRez can work with really, really tiny prims, and you could theoretically make a necklace chain consisting of 1,000+ prims, if you used links that were really, really tiny
however, since the SL limits the number of prims that can be in a single link set (to 254, I think), I've limited LinkRez to rezzing 150 pairs of links (at least 300 prims)
if you really want to make LinkRez rez more prims, type "/1 REZLIMIT ##", where ## is how many maximum pairs you want to have, instead of 150
if you did NOT intend to use a tiny tiny link, then you probably messed up with the Sizing Board, and are telling LinkRez to use too small a link size

I can't link the objects! It says "Objects too far apart"

unfortunately, when Second Life is misbehaving badly or there are internet problems / high packet loss, one of the common manifestations is an inability to link
one user suggests: if the necklaces aren't linking, it may be because they have linked parts already; try delinking the entire thing, use Edit --> drag selection box --> Control-L; it may link then
there's little I can do, from a scripting standpoint, about this. You might try again in a less laggy Sim, or on another day.

LinkRez Command List

2007-05-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

LinkRez Chat Command List

Default chat channel to use commands: /1

BEND ##

## is a number greater than 1.0
1.0 will have the necklace follow the guide ellipse exactly
the bigger ## is, the farther out from the guide ellipse the necklace will go
1.3 to 1.5 seems to work OK, but I want YOU all to tell me what works for you

PENDANT ##

## is a number between 0.0 and 1.0
0.0 is a perfectly rounded front
1.0 is a completely pointy front

LINKTYPE ##

## is one of ["FLAT", "INCREMENT", "ALTERNATE", "RANDOM", "CONSTANT"]
FLAT against body

when FLAT is set, the LINKANGLE setting is ignored
this is equivalent to using /1 LINKTYPE CONSTANT and /1 LINKANGLE 0

INCREMENT the angle of each successive link by LINKANGLE
ALTERNATE the angle of each successive link by plus or minus LINKANGLE
RANDOM -- spins the link randomly along the axis of the necklace
CONSTANT -- applies a constant angle change from the "FLAT" angle

LINKANGLE ##

## is a number in DEGREES that LINKTYPE INCREMENT, ALTERNATE, and CONSTANT uses

PATHTYPE ##

## is one of ["SPLIT", "FOLLOW"]
determines whether the links "SPLIT" from the front, or "FOLLOW" one another
important when the link is NOT symmetric, along various axes

EVENLINKS

rezzes pairs of links only
this is the default

ODDLINKS

rezzes a single front and center link, and then paired links subsequently
looks good with rounded fronts (low PENDANT), and terrible for pointy fronts

TEST

using the necklace parametersabove, rezzes a "test necklace" made up of Temp-On-Rez links, so you can more easily test how well the necklace will fit

LINK LINKNAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset

create a necklace made up of a SINGLE prim type, without needing to use a notecard program
LINKNAME is the case-sensitive name of the link to be rezzed
LENGTH is the length in MILLIMETERS (not meters), of each link
rotOffset and posOffset are OPTIONAL: if they are not included, they will be assumed to be ZERO_ROTATION and ZERO_VECTOR
you can get LINKNAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset from the sizing board
e.g., LINK oval~6 --> rezzes an entire necklace using prim "oval", treating each oval as 6 millimeters long

RUN ##

run an entire necklace notecard program ##

CHANNEL ##

changes the chat channel for commands to ##

HIDE

toggles showing and hiding the guide ellipse / disk plane

REZLIMIT ##

to prevent inadvertent infinite loops of rezzing, if a rez limit is exceeded, the script stops
defaults to 300 links rezzed
you can change the limit to ##

RESET

resets the script and guide ellipses
unfortunately, will only work if the script is not currently doing anything

DELAY ##

delay time in seconds, between rezzing each link
defaults to 0, which should be completely fine

NECKLACE (default)

rotations in front and back of necklace are appropriate for use as a necklace

BRACELET

rotations in front and back of necklace are appropriate for use as a bracelet or ring
it's important to note that BRACELET does NOT change the size or shape of the rezzed object
to make a bracelet, you'll want to

1) decrease the SIZE of both the front and back guide ellipses
2) rotate the guide ellipses so that there is no "bend" between the front and back

what the BRACELET setting does is keep the links in the same orientation between the front and back halves of the rezzed object

LinkRez Tutorial

2007-05-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

LinkRez Tutorial, part I

Welcome to the LinkRez tutorial, part I. It is designed to be a step-by-step introduction to all the features of the LinkRez necklace chain generator, from basic to advanced. If any part of it seems unclear or confusing, or you think that an additional screenshot would help, please post a comment so that I can improve the documentation.

Introduction to LinkRez: what comes in the box?

When you first receive the LinkRez box, rez it on the ground and take its contents to inventory. Definitely KEEP a copy of your original box -- it'll serve as a backup copy, in case anything happens to your work copy.

Drag the LinkRez Object from your inventory onto the ground. It will automatically determine that there is no LinkRez "posing stand" or "sizing board" (more about this later) nearby, and rez copies of them in appropriate position.

LinkRez Object

the LinkRez Object is composed of two sizing "guide ellipses" and a transparent disk

these objects will allow you to position, size, and shape the necklace, by editing them with the Second Life Edit interface

the BLUE half ellipse shows the approximate path of the FRONT half of the necklace
the PURPLE half ellipse shows the approximate path of the BACK half of the necklace
the transparent disk is an easier to select object to help position the necklace; it can also be tilted

Pose Stand

this is rezzed by the LinkRez Object, if it is not nearby, and is helpful as you precisely shape the necklace to custom fit an avatar
if you are missing the Pose Stand, just "Touch" the LinkRez Object, and a pose stand will be rezzed
because it is not possible for scripts to determine where the "floor" is (you might be in a sky platform), the pose stand is rezzed at the position of the LinkRez Object, and the LinkRez Object then moves ~2 meters up

Sizing Board
[##PICTURE##]

this is rezzed by the Pose Stand, if it is not nearby, and is crucial for defining the proper orientation and size of your custom-designed necklace links
if you are missing the Sizing Board, just "Touch" the Pose Stand and a Sizing Board will be rezzed
the Sizing Board will ALWAYS be kept with its rotation axes aligned with the world axes, to help you precisely size your custom links

You've now been introduced to the components of the LinkRez system. In the next lesson, you will create a precisely designed necklace with a single word.

Lesson 1: creating a necklace in less than a minute with one word

By default, LinkRez listens to chat commands on channel /1 (although you can change that with the "/1 CHANNEL ##" command).

You will now create your first necklace. After rezzing a copy of the LinkRez Object, notice the size and orientation of the front (blue) and back (purple) Guide Ellipses, as well as the floating green text with a number of cryptic words and numbers. The guide ellipses and floating text describe what the generated necklace will look like, and you will shortly become much more familiar with them.

For now, though, let's generate a test necklace. Don't worry, it's very easy:

type "/1 TEST"

The guide ellipses will become transparent, and you will see LOTS of tiny little links rezzing into a nice, smooth necklace. Congratulations!

If you want to get a better view of the rezzed links, you can:

type "/1 HIDE"

to toggle the visibility of the guide ellipses on and off.

Using the current necklace size / shape settings, the "/1 TEST" command rezzes a necklace made up of Temporary-On-Rez links. These Temp-On-Rez links will disappear after a minute or so, and are VERY helpful as you tweak the necklace shape, experiment with settings, etc., so that you don't have to keep on selecting and deleting your rezzed necklaces.

Notice how the links roughly follow the path of the sizing guide ellipses -- in future lessons, you'll learn how to adjust how close or far from the path the links are rezzed.

Also notice that a whole bunch of lines got spoken to the CHAT window. These include lines starting with GUIDE FRONT, GUIDE BACK, BEND, etc. Remember these lines! They will be very helpful in the future, as they describe many aspects of the necklace. In future lessons, you'll learn that you can cut and paste these lines from the Chat History into a notecard, and load the settings by using notecard programs.

You've now created your first necklace, using a single command. Notice how the links all lie "flat" against the body. In the next lesson, you will discover how easy it is to customize how the links lie.

Lesson 2: changing the orientation of the necklace links

With the "/1 LINKTYPE" chat command, you can change the orientation of the necklace links. The pictures below of each LINKTYPE are of "bracelets" (NOT necklaces), because it's easier to see how the LINKTYPES differ. Here are the five different options:

/1 LINKTYPE FLAT

this simulates having the links lie "flat" against the body

/1 LINKTYPE ALTERNATE

each successive link will alternate plus or minus LINKANGLE degrees

/1 LINKTYPE INCREMENT

each successive link will increment its rotation by LINKANGLE degrees

/1 LINKTYPE CONSTANT

each link will be adjusted from "flat' against the body by LINKANGLE degrees

/1 LINKTYPE RANDOM

each link will be rotated randomly around the axis of the path of the necklace (think of a bead necklace, with the beads rotating around the string)

The above commands (except "flat" and "random") use the LINKANGLE command to know how many degrees to rotate the links. Set LINKANGLE chatting the comamnd:

/1 LINKANGLE ##, where ## is the number of degrees (negative numbers are OK)

A picture is worth a thousand words, but seeing necklaces rezzed in front of you is even better, so go ahead and try each of these.

Change to "alternating" links

type "/1 LINKTYPE ALTERNATE"
type "/1 TEST"
zoom in, and you'll see that each successive link "alternates" + or - 20 degrees (set by the LINKANGLE) from flat against the body

Change to "incrementing" links

wait for the first necklace to disappear, OR drag the LinkRez Object a little bit to the side, so that you don't rez the 2nd necklace over the first one
type "/1 LINKTYPE INCREMENT"
type "/1 TEST"
zoom in, and you'll see that each successive link "twists" an additional 20 degrees (set by the LINKANGLE) from the previous link

If you'd like, go ahead and try out "/1 LINKTYPE CONSTANT" and "/1 LINKTYPE RANDOM" too. Just imagine how tedious it would be to adjust all these links by hand...

The example pictures at the top of this lesson were bracelets and not necklaces. Look closely at the necklaces that you just created, and you'll see how a "NECKLACE" differs from a "BRACELET." Hint: here's what a flattened "NECKLACE" would look like, with the front of the necklace to the left, and the back to the right:
...and, I bet you can guess by the capitalized words above, what the chat command will be to switch between the two different types... But, that's a later lesson.

In the next two lessons, you'll learn how to precisely fit a necklace to an avatar by adjusting the guide ellipses (and other parameters), to change the shape and size of the necklace.

Lesson 3: custom sizing the necklace: using the Guide Ellipses

In this lesson, you will customize the size of the necklace, by changing the size and orientation of the Guide Ellipses.

open the edit window (under Tools menu, or press CTRL-3)
check the "Edit linked parts" checkbox
check the "Stretch Both Sides" checkbox
click the front BLUE half ellipse to select it (it should glow when it's selected)

press and hold CTRL- and SHIFT- to reveal the resizing arrows (or select the Stretch radio button)

drag the GREEN sizing box to change the width of the necklace guide
drag the RED sizing box to change the front length of the necklace guide

press and hold CTRL- to reveal the rotation circles (or select the Rotate radio button)

drag the GREEN rotation circle to change the angle of the front drop
it's OK for part of the ellipse to "dig into" a "posed" avatar, so long as the tip of the ellipse is outside the avatar. This is because the BEND parameter, described in the next lesson, controls how far "out" the rezzed links go, away from the guide ellipse
if you've rotated the LinkRez Object, you may need to select "Ruler mode" Local from the pull-down menu

type "/1 TEST"
notice that the new necklace size is determined by how you resized and rotated the guide ellipse
you can do this while properly positioned over a pose stand, to precisely fit necklaces to an avatar
this works with the back guide ellipse too; try it!

As mentioned before, the necklace links come "off" of the guide ellipses a certain amount. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to modify how far off the links deviate from the guide ellipses, as well as how to make the front of the necklace more "pointy", for hanging pendants.

Lesson 4: changing the shape of the necklace

While the size and angles of the front and back guide ellipses control the rough shape and size of the necklace, two additional parameters, BEND and PENDANT, can be used to further fine tune necklace fitting.

Change the necklace "drop" with the BEND parameter

The BEND parameter controls how far out the necklace deviates off from the guide ellipse, before "dropping" down to intersect the end of the guide ellipse.

A bend parameter of 1.0 tracks the guide ellipses exactly, while higher values will track closer to the transparent disk plane longer, before "dropping" back down to the guide ellipse. A value of around 1.5 seems to work pretty well for most avatar shapes.

If you do the following steps quickly, before the Temp-On-Rez links disappear and without moving the LinkRez Object, you can overlay multiple necklaces with different BEND parameters to compare how they look.

type "/1 BEND 1.0"
type "/1 TEST"

the necklace perfectly tracks the guide ellipses
notice that the connection between the front and back halves of the necklaces is a bit angular, and not very smoothly curved

type "/1 BEND 2.0" and then "/1 TEST" again

notice that the necklace comes "off" of the guide ellipse, and that the curve over the shoulder is a bit smoother

increasing BEND parameter, from 1.0 on the far left to 2.0 on the right

overlaid necklaces with BEND parameters of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0

Change the "pointiness" of the necklace with the PENDANT fraction

Sometimes you'll want a smoothly rounded front of the necklace; sometimes a "pointy" front, especially if you plan to attach a hanging pendant to the necklace. The "pointiness" of the necklace is adjusted by the PENDANT fraction parameter.

A pendant fraction of 0.0 is completely rounded, while a value of 1.0 results in a very straight "triangular" shape from the shoulder tops to the front tip of the necklace. Try it!

the previous necklaces were probably generated with a PENDANT fraction of 0.0
type "/1 PENDANT 0.5" and then "/1 TEST"
notice that the front of the necklace is now pointy, better for "pendants"

increasing PENDANT fraction, from 0.0 on the left, to 1.0 on the right

overlaid necklaces with PENDANT fractions of 0.0, 0.4, and 0.8

The next lesson completes the last few commands available for setting necklace shape parameters.

Lesson 5: tweaking details of necklaces, bracelets, and rings

OK, we're almost done with the options available for necklace parameters. The last ones are: EVENLINKS / ODDLINKS, PATHTYPE, and NECKLACE / BRACELET

The first pair of commands is EVENLINKS and ODDLINKS

EVENLINKS (default) -- rezzes pairs of links, on the left and right sides
ODDLINKS -- rezzes a single link in front, and then paired links on either side subsequently

ODDLINKS is marginally less accurate for placement of the very first link, but subsequent links will be accurate
for obvious reasons, ODDLINKS does not work well, if there is significant PENDANT fraction pointiness in the front

EVENLINKS (left) and ODDLINKS (right)

PATHTYPE [SPLIT/FOLLOW]: the result of this option is far easier to see in pictures than to describe in text. Basically, when pairs of links are placed on the left and right sides, it's possible for the links to be placed so that the links "SPLIT" from one another or "FOLLOW" each other.

So, the options are:

/1 PATHTYPE SPLIT (the default)
/1 PATHTYPE FOLLOW

"/1 PATHTYPE SPLIT", results in the links appearing to split away from one another from the centerline

"/1 PATHTYPE FOLLOW", results in the links appearing to follow one another at the centerline

Why would this be useful? If looking along the "forward" path of a link, the left and right sides of the link are different, you probably want to use PATHTYPE FOLLOW. An example of this would be trying to generate a neckline trim:

left: PATHTYPE SPLIT
right: PATHTYPE FOLLOW

The last pair of commands are NECKLACE (default) and BRACELET. This controls whether the front and back half of the rezzed object have a change in link rotation, and is also better understood with a picture:

"/1 NECKLACE" results in a 90 degree rotation, from the front to the back of the rezzed necklace, so that the front of the necklace lies flat against the torso, while the back presses against the back of the neck

"/1 BRACELET" results in no rotation from the front to the back, and is more appropriate for rings, bracelets, and skirts. IMPORTANT: if you are trying to make a bracelet, and there's a weird bend in it, make sure that the purple and blue guide ellipses are PARALLEL to the clear disk.

Congratulations! You have now seen all of the options available for necklace and link sizing, shaping, fitting, and rotation. We'll end this first half of the LinkRez Tutorial with a review and some tips for custom-fitting necklaces with LinkRez.

In the second half of the tutorial, you will learn how to (finally!) stop using the Temp-On-Rez sample links, and start using custom links of your own, as well as how to use notecard programs to generate necklaces made from as many different types of links as you like, each of which can have it's own rotational adjustment LINKTYPE, etc.

Review of how to custom-fit necklaces with LinkRez

You've now been introduced to all the options for changing the shape of the necklaces. The following is a collected summary of ideas for custom fitting avatars, repeating the information of the above lessons.

LinkRez Object consists of 3 prim parts:

"root plane": transparent disk, sets the overall position of the necklace chain, and can be tilted
front blue guide ellipse: front half length and angle, and width
back purple guide ellipse: back half length and angle, and width

Two parameters set by chat commands

/1 BEND ##: how much the necklace curves AWAY from the guide ellipse, to allow a rounded, over-the-shoulder drape

1.0 (tracks guide ellipse perfectly); larger values come away from the guide ellipse further
try values from 1.3 to 2.0

/1 PENDANT ##

how pointy the front of the necklace will be
from 0.0 (completely rounded) to 1.0 (completely pointy)

Pose avatar on posestand

Position the "root plane" to "center" the necklace chain properly

right-click the "root plane" and select edit
move to the correct height, at the very top of the shoulders
move to centered, with respect to left and right
move forward and back, so that the "break" between the guide ellipse front and back halves is at the very top of the shoulders; perhaps JUST in front of the tops of the shoulders works better

Now, make sure the Edit window is open, and that:

"Edit Linked Parts" is CHECKED
"Stretch Both Sides" is CHECKED

Stretch and position the "front half ellipse"

STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the width to the desired width
STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the front tab to the desired length
ROTATE (ALT) so that the VERY front of the ellipse just emerges from the avatars body
it's OK if parts of the ellipse are embedded in the avatar body, so long as the tip of the ellipse is outside, because modifying the BEND parameter will change how much the chain comes "forward" from the plane of the half ellipse

Stretch position the "back half ellipse"

ROTATE (ALT) to the desired angle
STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the back tab so that the back of the ellipse is outside the back of the neck

Check how the necklace chain will look by using the "/1 TEST" command

rezzes a necklace chain, using Temp On Rez prims that will disappear after a minute or so
adjust as needed

Adjustments

if the necklace is embedded in the avatars body, you can:

use a higher bend parameter

move the entire "root plane" forwards a little bit (and then readjusting the front and back half ellipses)

if the necklace comes "off" the avatar's torso too far, you can:

use a lower bend parameter

move the entire "root plane" back a little bit (and then readjusting the front and back half ellipses)

if you want the "top" of the necklace to be more rounded (less angular from front half to back half), use a higher bend parameter

because this will make the necklace come "out" away from the guide ellipse more, you may need to move the guide ellipses BACK a little bit

once you have settings that fit an avatar perfectly, SAVE them for re-use in future necklace chains

notice that when you create a necklace, a number of lines of of parameters are sent to chat
copy these lines from the chat history, and paste them into a notecard
in future lessons, you'll learn how to automatically load these settings from the notecard using the "/1 RUN " command

Conclusion

This completes Part I of the LinkRez tutorial. Part II will discuss using your own custom-designed links and notecard programs.

Continue to Part II of the LinkRez Tutorial

LinkRez

2007-05-30T12:35:00.000-05:00

LinkRez, a necklace chain generating tool

LinkRez is a tool to help position single or multi-prim "links" into a customizable necklace chain shaped as closely as possible to an avatar's neck. It can also place those same links into bracelets or rings.

LinkRez is NOW AVAILABLE at:

Script Thingies, Linji (151, 230, 67)
Sirena Hair & Fashion, West Sunset (177, 47, 21)
SL Exchange (slightly more expensive)

LinkRez Reviews and Comments

LinkRez is distrubuted COPY / NO TRANSFER. However, necklaces created with LinkRez can be easily made FULL permissions, with you as the creator.

(precision placement of 5 mm links)

Features:

necklaces can be PRECISELY fit to individual avatars, with customization of:

necklace chain width
front and back length
front and back "drop"
curvature shape
rounded vs. pointed fronts

can use necklace chain links made up of single or multiple prims
can use prims with unusual "center points", positional and rotational offsets (including "tortured prims")
precise placement of links to be perfectly touching, with sub-millimeter accuracy; links will NOT be "bunched up" or "spaced apart"
supports links that lie "flat" on the body, "alternating" chain links, "incrementing" twisting links, "constant" offset from flat-lying links, or "randomly" rotated
supports link rotational placements appropriate for necklaces or bracelets / rings (even skirts)
simple chat commands for single link-type necklaces
full-featured notecard-driven necklace program that support the use of an unlimited number of different link types in a necklace, with different link rotations and sizes, and repeated segments of necklace links
necklaces are created with your own links, so necklaces are FULL PERMISSIONS, with you as the creator

(5 different link types, arranged by a LinkRez notecard program)

Prerequisites

LinkRez can place hundreds of links, each with 1 or more prims. You will need access to an area where you can rez at least 100 and preferably 200 or more prims. Some sandboxes are NO SCRIPT zones. Although this can be circumvented at high enough altitudes, LinkRez may be inappropriate for use in public spaces, as it is both prim and script intensive.

LinkRez is a POWERFUL tool, and with its myriad features comes significant complexity. Although it's very easy to generate a simple necklace, to get the full benefit of using LinkRez, you should feel comfortable with:

basic prim manipulation and familiarity with the Edit options
advanced prim manipulation (i.e., working with tiny, even tortured prims)
have good camera control to view small objects
using Edit Linked Parts to move, resize, and rotate individual prims in a Linked set
add and manipulate items within a prim's Contents
edit notecards

(links created by Random Calliope)

Links to tutorials, documentation, FAQs

I would VERY highly recommend working through the entire tutorial, from the beginning to end. It will start with a very simple introduction, and then introduce you to more and more advanced features, until you will be familiarized with all of power features available.

LinkRez Tutorial

Part I

Introduction to LinkRez: what comes in the box?
Lesson 1: creating a necklace in less than a minute with one word (TEST)
Lesson 2: changing the orientation of the necklace links (LINKTYPE, LINKANGLE)
Lesson 3: custom sizing the necklace: using the Guide Ellipses
Lesson 4: changing the shape of the necklace (BEND, PENDANT)
Lesson 5: tweaking details of necklaces, bracelets, and rings (EVENLINKS, ODDLINKS, BRACELET, NECKLACE)

Part II

Lesson 6: custom links, the Sizing Board, and the LINK command
Lesson 7: necklaces with different links: using notecard programs
Lesson 8: more powerful notecard programs, repeating sets of links (REPEAT, REPEATUNTIL, ENDREPEAT)

Tips, tricks, and ideas

Frequently Asked Questions / Troubleshooting

Command list

Reviews and Comments

(links created by Random Calliope)

LinkRez, bracelets and rings

2007-05-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

I've added support for generating ring and bracelet loops to LinkRez, whose release is still probably a week or two away, pending my ability to write decent documentation, and forcing myself to stop adding features.

It seems like a lot of people like to release jewelry in sets, including sets with necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings. I can't do much about earrings, but bracelets and rings are intrinsically "loop"-like, and I figured it'd be nice to be able to use the same links, commands, and notecard programs to generate bracelets and rings.

If you really look closely at how necklace links "rotate" from the front of the torso to the back of the neck, you'll realize that there's generally a 90 degree rotation around the axis of the necklace path, from the front to the back of a necklace. Bracelets and rings (and skirts...) are all simpler in rotational structure than necklaces, without this "twisting."

example of "twisting" that necklaces use

using the "bracelet" mode removes the necklace twist

with bracelet mode, using a constant angle linktype; equivalent to "skirt flare" using LoopRez

with bracelet mode, using an alternating angle linktype

with bracelet mode, using an incrementing angle linktype

with bracelet mode, using an random angle linktype

the guide ellipses can be tilted and positioned to assist with bracelet sizing

using the previously written necklace notecard (necklace shown below), to make a bracelet

Also, TINY links can be placed to make loops that are ring sized. Starting with a severely dimpled sphere, converted to a tapered cylinder, and with a gemstone texture applied, I generated a tiny "sapphire," and ran it on the sizing board. Notice how far above the gem the perceived "center point" is -- this is NOT a prim that could be placed in a useful shape with LoopRez. Incidentally, the diameter of the gem is 1.8 mm -- really tiny!

Loading the gem into LinkRez, along with some similarly sized gems with random colors just for fun, I was able to generate this rather awful looking ring. This ring is actually about twice the minimum size possible, so you could get even smaller loops.

So, you can now easily make rings with any assortment of severely tortured prims. For example, maybe one made up of a large central stone, flanked by some spacing elements, flanked by some tinier gemstones, followed by an incrementally twisting set of connection links. I think it could be rather poweful, in the hands of a real jeweler.

Lastly, I played with some tiny tubes, per Natalia's excellent tiny prim jewelry tutorial, and make a necklace with it. I'm still rather enamored of how nicely the prims are aligned.

LinkRez precision improvement and limits

2007-05-27T06:06:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures showing the improvements with yesterday's re-writes. "Normal" sized necklace links are rather forgiving; shifting a fraction of a millimeter just doesn't really show that much.

To test the precision of LinkRez, I instead tried using a link that is ~4.5 mm long x ~0.25 mm wide. (Just think about that: 0.25 mm...) I then rezzed two necklaces with identical settings, the one on the left with the previous version of LinkRez, and the one on the right with the re-written version. (Click on the pictures to see larger versions.)

As you can see, from a "normal" perspective and distance, there isn't that much of a difference between the two. Looks pretty good, right? But, if you zoom in a bit more:

… you can definitely see that the necklace on the left has some rotational errors. These errors were due to some bad math on my part, in the transition from the rotation from a "front" to a "back" half of the necklace, which the new version does properly.

These errors don't even show up with a "normal" necklace link, because shifting a large 10 mm wide plywood oval by a fraction of a mm just doesn't show up.

Here's another picture, which includes one selected link (~4.5 mm by ~0.25 mm):

You can see that the rotations now are accurate to sub-millimeter distances (probably ~0.1 mm or better). And, you can see with the selected link, how far off the "center" position is, which would generally make this sort of prim a real pain to position and rotate.

The accuracy and precision levels are now probably at the point that simply working in a skybox at ~600 meters might have some floating point rounding precision errors, compared to working with the necklace at "sub-sea level."

In second life, floating point numbers only have ~7 decimal digits of precision. So, because 0.1 mm is 0.0001 meters:

600 and 600.0001 meters, versus
0 and 0.0001 meters

…notice that 600.0001 already uses up all 7 significant digits, whereas 0.0001 uses only 4 significant digits. So, I think LinkRez has just about reached the limits of allowable precision :)

LinkRez algorithm re-write

2007-05-26T05:30:00.000-05:00

Oh the pain of being a perfectionist.

The current link placement algorithm LinkRez uses places the centers of links precisely on the desired chain link path. However, with large links on highly "curved" parts of necklaces (generally, the very front, or very back), the front and back ends of the link can be slightly misaligned with preceeding and following links.

I realized that if I completely re-worked the fundamental link placing algorithm, to instead place the front and back ends of each link precisely, and permitting the center of the link to lie inside the ideal necklace chain path, these gaps should be eliminated, or at least reduced. I think more people would prefer gap elimination over adherence of theoretical link centers to an arbitrary mathematical path construct of my own design. At least I hope so, considering the rather large effort it's going to take to re-write it.

Worse yet, the main LinkRez script is now getting rather large. In the limited 16 kilobytes of memory available to a script, I have less than 800 bytes of free memory left. Because of the large number of interdependent calculations, there really isn't a good way to "split" the functions across multiple scripts, so I'm going to have to pore through the script, looking for minor memory inefficiencies to improve.

I wonder if it's all worth the effort.

Edited to add: oh my, a MAJOR re-write only introduced a few fixable problems, and was actually much less painful than I thought it'd be (maybe I'm actually getting better at this!). The restructured script:

improved precision of link placement, for fewer gaps, especially with bigger links
fixed a glitch in the transition from "front half" to "back half" of the necklace
simplified the algorithm logic
freed up ~700 bytes of memory, almost doubling the remaining memory

Woot!

Silliness

2007-05-25T10:08:00.000-05:00

What do you get, when you combine:

LinkRez, a necklace chainlink generator?
a script that generates rainbow heat maps?
the previous concept of the LoopRez skirt programmer?
an utter lack of artistic sense, design ability, or common sense?

You get a sort of Frankenstein combination of Kindergarten project, spray-painted plywood, 60's hippie flower-power, smoothly color gradated, link-alternating necklace.

The necklace links that LinkRez creates are generally NOT scripted (unlike LoopRez skirt panels), so there's not really very much you can "do" to the necklace links. But, when a script rezzes an object, it can pass a single integer of information to it.

Integers in LSL range from minus to plus 2 billion or so. So, I figured that it should be easy enough to pass "necklace position information" encoded in that integer, and then have a single temporary script in the necklace link decode that position information, transform it into a color vector, set the link color, and then delete itself.

A lot less gaudy might have been a single hue of color, ranging from lighter to darker, but I wanted maximum ridiculousness.

Practically, however, this doesn't really serve too much purpose, as the script would HAVE to be tweaked for each and every different necklace. But, it was silly, it was geeky, it was gaudy, and it was possible, so I had to do it.

LinkRez documentation, early draft

2007-05-23T16:43:00.000-05:00

The following is a VERY early draft of documentation for LinkRez. It will likely be split to MANY pages, and have COPIOUS screenshots. There will probably be a quick-start guide, and then a series of lessons, generating more and more complex necklaces.

This page will probably disappear, when more finalized and illustrated documentation is completed, but for now, this will give people a sense of LinkRez's complexity and power, as well as help early testers.

Besides more testing, I think I'd like to write a utility that will help people generate some standard tiny prims that are generally useful.

LinkRez

LinkRez is a tool to help position single or multi-prim "links" into a necklace chain that is shaped as closely as possible to an avatar's neck.

Features:

customization of necklace chain width, length in front and back, "drop" in front and back, curvature shape, and rounded vs. pointed fronts, to precisely fit avatars
can use necklace chain links made up of single or multiple prims
can use prims with unusual "center points", positional and rotational offsets
precise placement of links to be perfectly touching; unlike other utilities, links will NOT be "bunched up" or "spaced apart"
supports links that lie "flat" on the body, "alternating" chain links, "incrementing" twisting links, "random" (spinning round beads), or "constant" offset from flat-lying links
simple chat commands for single link-type necklaces
full-featured notecard-driven necklace program that support the use of an unlimited number of different link types in a necklace, with different link rotations and sizes, repeated necklace link segments

======================
Jumping right in
======================

This will let your create a few necklaces, using the included prims.

rez the LinkRez object on the ground
if a pose stand does not automatically appear, "TOUCH" the LinkRez object

[ ] to do: figure out why it's not rezzing automatically, on-rez

Generate a default test necklace

type "/1 TEST", to rez a test necklace
the links will be Temp-On-Rez, and will disappear after a minute or so
it will use default settings, which should include:

BEND 1.5
PENDANT 0.0
EVENLINKS
PATHTYPE SPLIT
LINKTYPE FLAT
LINKANGLE 20.0

congratulations, your first necklace!
notice that the links lie "flat" -- we'll change that in the next test necklace

Change to "alternating" links

wait for the first necklace to disappear, OR drag the clear disk a little bit to the side, so that you don't rez the 2nd necklace over the first one
type "/1 LINKTYPE ALTERNATE"
type "/1 TEST"
zoom in, and you'll see that each successive link "alternates" + or - 20 degrees (set by the LINKANGLE) from flat against the body

Change to "incrementing" links

wait for the first necklace to disappear, OR drag the clear disk a little bit to the side, so that you don't rez the 2nd necklace over the first one
type "/1 LINKTYPE INCREMENT"
type "/1 TEST"
zoom in, and you'll see that each successive link "twists" 20 degrees (set by the LINKANGLE) from the previous link

Custom size the necklace

open the edit window (under Tools menu, or press CTRL-3)
check the "Edit linked parts" checkbox
check the "Stretch Both Sides" checkbox
click to select the front BLUE half ellipse
press and hold CTRL- and SHIFT- to reveal the resizing arrows

drag the GREEN sizing box to change the width of the necklace guide
drag the RED sizing box to change the front length of the necklace guide

press and hold CTRL- to reveal the rotation circles

drag the GREEN rotation circle to change the angle of the front drop

type "/1 TEST"
notice that the new necklace size is determined by how you resized and rotated the guide ellipse
you can do this while properly positioned over a pose stand, to precisely fit necklaces to an avatar
this works with the back guide ellipse too

Change the necklace "drop" with the BEND parameter

type "/1 BEND 1.0"
type "/1 TEST"

notice that the necklace perfectly tracks the guide ellipse
notice that the connection between the front and back halves of the necklaces is a bit angular

type "/1 BEND 2.0" and then "/1 TEST"

notice that the necklace comes "off" of the guide ellipse, and that the curve over the shoulder is a bit smoother

you can vary the bend parameter to better fit specific avatars
[ ] To do: identify a good default BEND parameter

Change the "pointiness" of the necklace with the PENDANT fraction

the previous necklaces should have been generated with a PENDANT fraction of 0
type "/1 PENDANT 0.5" and then "/1 TEST"
notice that the front of the necklace is now pointy, better for "pendants"

In future lessons, you will try using your own links, and then use notecard programs to use multiple different types of links, within the same necklace.

======================
Using the sizing board
======================

This is absolutely critical when using weirdly shaped, twisted, tortured, and rotated prims as links, because otherwise, LinkRez has NO idea what a "flat" orientation looks like, or how "long" the link is, to space the links perfectly.

To get the sizing / offset parameters of the link you'd like to use, you simply place, rotate, and position your link precisely; make a copy of that link that is the proper distance apart; and then touch the sizing board. The sizing parameters will be chatted, and can be copied and pasted for future use.

In detail:

1) the sizing board will automatically rotate itself to ZERO_ROTATION, so that the world's red axis lines up perfectly with the sizing board's red toothpick axis

this will make it MUCH easier to "shift-drag" your copy of the link at step 5

2) rez the link on the sizing board

3) rotate it so that it is lying perfectly flat against the grey sizing board

this defines what rotation offset makes a link lie "flat"
rotation offset is an Euler representation of a rotation correction, using DEGREES (same as in the prim Edit window)

4) position it so that it is perfectly centered on the blue dot with the red, green, and blue toothpick axes

this defines where the CENTER of the link is, where rotations will act
position offset is a vector offset (in meters)
the blue dot must be at the center, meaning half your link's height should be UNDER the surface of the grey slab

5) SHIFT-CLICK-DRAG on the appropriate axis to create a copy of the link, and move it PRECISELY down the RED toothpick axis until the 2 links are JUST touching (or overlapping, if you want interdigitated links)

this defines the LENGTH of the link, so LinkRez will know how apart the links need to be separated
length is reported in MILLIMETERS (not meters), so that you can more easily edit it by hand in notecard programs
do NOT rotate your copied link

6) TOUCH the sizing board, and it will detect the pair of links, and CHATthe length and offsets

go into your chat history and copy the line NAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset
I'd recommend immediately pasting this into the description field of your link, so that you'll always have easy access to the information
note that to use this information for LinkRez, it will need to be preceeded with "LINK ", either in chat commands or notecard programs

==============
Guide ellipses
==============

LinkRez is composed of 3 linked prims:

large transparent disk, that defines the "plane" of the top of the necklace
blue half ellipse, that defines the FRONT width, length, and angle of the front of the necklace
purple half ellipse, that defines the BACK width, length, and angle of the front of the necklace

Make sure "EDIT LINKED PARTS" is checked off in the Edit box to:

move the transparent sizing plane disk forwards / backwards / up / down to "center" the necklace properly on a posing avatar
stretch, rotate, and position the blue and purple guide ellipses, to fit the avatar neck
it's OK if part of the blue front half ellipse embeds in the avatar's chest; using a larger BEND parameter will have the necklace rez further forwards

=================
Chat command list
=================

Default chat channel to use commands: /1

BEND ##

## is a number greater than 1.0
1.0 will have the necklace follow the guide ellipse exactly
the bigger ## is, the farther out from the guide ellipse the necklace will go
1.3 to 1.5 seems to work OK, but I want YOU all to tell me what works for you

PENDANT ##

## is a number between 0.0 and 1.0
0.0 is a perfectly rounded front
1.0 is a completely pointy front

LINKTYPE ##

## is one of ["FLAT", "INCREMENT", "ALTERNATE", "RANDOM", "CONSTANT"]
FLAT against body
INCREMENT the angle of each successive link by LINKANGLE
ALTERNATE the angle of each successive link by plus or minus LINKANGLE
RANDOM -- spins the link randomly along the axis of the necklace
CONSTANT -- applies a constant angle change from the "FLAT" angle

LINKANGLE ##

## is a number in DEGREES that LINKTYPE INCREMENT, ALTERNATE, and CONSTANT uses

PATHTYPE ##

## is one of ["SPLIT", "FOLLOW"]
determines whether the links "SPLIT" from the front, or "FOLLOW" one another
important when the link is NOT symmetric, along various axes

EVENLINKS

rezzes pairs of links only
this is the default

ODDLINKS

rezzes a single front and center link, and then paired links subsequently
looks good with rounded fronts (low PENDANT), and terrible for pointy fronts

TEST

using the necklace parametersabove, rezzes a "test necklace" made up of Temp-On-Rez links, so you can more easily test how well the necklace will fit

LINK LINKNAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset

create a necklace made up of a SINGLE prim type, without needing to use a notecard program
LINKNAME is the case-sensitive name of the link to be rezzed
LENGTH is the length in MILLIMETERS (not meters), of each link
rotOffset and posOffset are OPTIONAL: if they are not included, they will be assumed to be ZERO_ROTATION and ZERO_VECTOR
you can get LINKNAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset from the sizing board
e.g., LINK oval~6 --> rezzes an entire necklace using prim "oval", treating each oval as 6 millimeters long

RUN ##

run an entire necklace notecard program ##

CHANNEL ##

changes the chat channel for commands to ##

REZLIMIT ##

to prevent inadvertent infinite loops of rezzing, if a rez limit is exceeded, the script stops
defaults to 300 links rezzed
you can change the limit to ##

RESET

resets the script and guide ellipses
unfortunately, will only work if the script is not currently doing anything

==========================
Notecard program command structure
==========================

one command per line

GUIDE FRONT~#####
GUIDE BACK~#####

when you run a TEST, LINK, or NOTECARD, LinkRez will chat the ellipse GUIDE parameters, which you can copy and paste into future notecard programs
this includes the width, front length, front angle, back length, back angle information
this lets you set the size / position of the guide ellipses for future necklaces
I'd recommend including a comment, like "// sized for XYZ" or "// default avatar", so you know who the GUIDE fits well for

BEND, PENDANT, EVENLINKS, ODDLINKS

any of these commands can be included in a notecard program, BEFORE the first link is rezzed

LINKTYPE, LINKANGLE, PATHTYPE

any of these commands can be used anywhere in a notecard program

LINK LINKNAME~LENGTH~rotOffset~posOffset

rezzes that link, using the current linktype / linkangle / pathtype parameters
like above, rotOffset and posOffset are optional

REPEAT ##
...
...
...
ENDREPEAT
- repeats all the commands between REPEAT ## and ENDREPEAT, a total of ## times

REPEATUNTIL ##
...
...
...
ENDREPEAT

repeats all the commands between REPEAT ## and ENDREPEAT, UNTIL the links have been rezzed to ## DEGREES
0 degrees is the front of the necklace; 90 degrees is the side; 180 degrees is the back
so REPEATUNTIL 90 ... ENDREPEAT will rezz links all the way up to the "side", before progressing with the rest of the notecard program

When the end of the notecard has been reached, LinkRez will continue rezzing the LAST link rezzed, with the current LINKTYPE settings, until it reaches the back of the necklace.

The simplest notecard program would consist of a single line with a LINK command:
- e.g., LINK oval~6
- would rez an entire necklace using prim "oval", treating each oval as 6 millimeters long

Tips:

all text on a line after a "/" is considered a comment and will be ignored; helpful to leave notes to yourself
"~" is frequently used as a delimiter (like for the LINK sizing board output), and shouldn't be used
blank lines will be ignored
be careful about extra spaces; they'll probably cause problems

================================
Tips on custom-fitting necklaces
================================

3 prim parts:

"root plane": transparent disk, controls the overall position of the necklace chain; can be tilted
"front blue guide ellipse": controls width, front half length and angle
"back purple guide ellipse": controls width, back half length and angle

2 parameters set by chat commands

/1 BEND ##: how much the necklace curves AWAY from the guide ellipse, to allow a rounded, over-the-shoulder drape

1.0 (tracks guide ellipse perfectly); larger values come away from the guide ellipse further; try 1.3 to 2.0

/1 PENDANT ##

from 0.0 to 1.0, how pointy the front of the necklace will be

Pose avatar on posestand

Position the "root plane" to "center" the necklace chain properly

right-click the "root plane" and select edit (shouldn't matter if Edit Linked Parts is on or off)
move to the correct height, at the very top of the shoulders
move to centered, with respect to left and right
move forward and back, so that "break" between the ellipse front and back halves is at the very top of the shoulders
perhaps JUST in front of the tops of the shoulders works better; NEED TO TEST THIS MORE

NOW, make sure the Edit window is open, and that:

"Edit Linked Parts" is CHECKED
"Stretch Both Sides" is CHECKED

Stretch and position the "front half ellipse"

STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the width to the desired width
STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the front tab to the desired length
ROTATE (ALT) so that the VERY front of the ellipse just emerges from the avatars body
it's OK if parts of the ellipse are embedded in the avatar body
modifying the BEND parameter will change how much the chain comes "forward" from the plane of the half ellipse

Stretch position the "back half ellipse"

ROTATE (ALT) to the desired angle
STRETCH (ALT-SHIFT) the back tab so that the VERY back of the ellipse just hugs the back of the neck

Check how the necklace chain will look by using the "/1 TEST" command

rezzes a necklace chain, using Temp On Rez prims that will disappear after a minute or so

Adjust as needed

When it fits to your satisfaction:

issue the "/1 LINK primName~length" command, to create a necklace with just one type of link

OR
issue the "/1 RUN notecardName", to execute a notecard program

==========
Other tips
==========

for a rounded front, choose a PendantFraction of 0.0
for a pointed front, choose a PendantFraction from 0.25 to 0.75 (maximum 1.0)
a bend parameter from around 1.3 to 1.5 seems to work well; NEED TO TEST THIS MORE
if the necklace is embedded in the avatars body, you can:

use a higher bend parameter

move the entire "root plane" forwards a little bit (and then readjusting the front and back half ellipses)

if the necklace comes "off" the avatar's torso too far, you can:

use a lower bend parameter

move the entire "root plane" back a little bit (and then readjusting the front and back half ellipses)

if you want the "top" of the necklace to be more rounded (less angular from front half to back half), use a higher bend parameter

because this will make the necklace come "out" away from the guide ellipse more, you may need to move the guide ellipses BACK a little bit

once you have settings that fit an avatar perfectly, SAVE them for re-use in future necklace chains

copy the settings from the CHAT HISTORY

==============
Other Ideas
==============

in general (especially with a pointed pendant front), you'll want an even number of necklace chain links
you can also specify that there be a single front link, for a total ODD number of necklace chain links
even better fits MIGHT be achievable by tilting the root plane forwards and backwards; NEED TO TEST MORE

Shared item: Siggy's Waterworks Animations

2007-05-21T20:06:00.002-05:00

These are communal items, purchased for the use of Linji Haven and Peronaut Sim tenants.

Apparently, it's much harder to find COPY items than I had thought. Still, Sierra Mills chose a nice set of pool-side poses from Siggy's Waterworks for us all to share (although there are still some that we haven't gotten -- perhaps someone else might choose those).

From Siggy's Waterworks (Siggy Romulus) at WaterWorks (177, 39, 25), purchased 2007-05-21:

Chillin'
Layin'
Sunnin'
Lay back
Lazin'
Relax

LinkRez chain link programming working

2007-05-21T14:04:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I wrote about how symmetry and mirroring issues would affect using necklace links for collar fringes. I re-coded LinkRez so there are two different "path types," which I'm calling "split" and "follow" for now (based on the directions of the axis arrows of the links). In the previous post, I used little oval links with tiny red and green arrows on it, but the above picture shows more clearly how the two different path types will affect placement of chain links.

The picture on the left is using a "split" path type, which obviously doesn't work for this particular necklace chain link. However, the "split" path is exactly what you'd want, if there was "directionality" along the path of the necklace -- e.g., you wanted all the necklace links to point "backwards." The picture on the right is using a "follow" path type, which works better here, so that all the links are "following" one another.

Necklace chain link programming

The major progress is that I've added using notecards to "program" link placement, with lots of flexibility. I dissected a freebie necklace by Random Calliope (a truly gifted jeweler), so that I'd have links to play with, which included large and small oval pieces, and a metal ring.

Although Random's necklace is a full-permissions freebie, I don't have permission to actually distribute the links, so they won't be included with LinkRez. I'm just using them for testing purposes. (I got tired of looking at plywood blocks and links.)

Incidentally, it took me about 30 to 40 minutes to create ~2,000 prims worth of necklaces, including these four and another half dozen or so. They were each differently sized, shaped, and had different link compositions. Much of the time was actually tweaking scripts and notecards, and dissecting Random Calliope's necklace. In any case, much quicker than placing them by hand ;)

In the above picture, the right two necklaces use only a single link type, either a large or small oval. The one with the small oval is more than 255 prims, so wouldn't be linkable.

The left two necklaces use various notecard programs, to define what links to place, how many times to repeat, whether the links are placed flat or whether the links have alternating angle changes. Zooming in on the second necklace from the left:

Here, the necklace program consists of:

starting with a CENTER large oval link (so the total # of links will be ODD in this necklace; there's an option to have an EVEN number, too)
then, repeating a small oval + large oval set five times
then, repeating a large oval + metal ring four times (to "80 degrees")

the above links were all placed "flat" to the body
finally, using just metal rings, but alternating the angle + and - 20 degrees from "flat" against the body

the "length" of the metal rings was decreased from what was used in the previous segment, so that they would intersect, while the earlier segment, they touched edge-to-edge

It's an ugly necklace, but a successful test of the notecard-driven necklace interface. Lots and lots of customizing is possible. "Repeat" segments can be for a set number of times, or until the necklace has rezzed an arbitrary number of degrees around the necklace path (0 degrees is the fron, 90 degrees is to the side, 180 degrees is all the way in the back).

I think it's pretty cool.

Female body shapes in SL

There's really not going to be any great way to fit each and every possible body shape in Second Life. What fits one avatar perfectly, digs into the collarbone or upper torso (which, ahem, tend to be rather generous in a large proportion of the female SL population) of another avatar, or floats far above the chest of a third person. For obvious reasons, shorter necklaces are much easier to fit, and necklaces that are longer in front have significantly more "issues."

I'm going to have to test (or, more likely, have some friends test) LinkRez on avatars of all different shapes and sizes, and collect more information and tips on how to best fit necklaces. The nice thing is that once you've found a set of settings that fits YOU perfectly, all subsequent necklaces made with those settings (regardless of changes in link composition) should fit just as well.

Peronaut mainland rental sim

There was some good activity with additional tenants joining the Peronaut community over the past week or so!

There are now six 2,048 sq m parcels left, several of which will adjacent to a new Public Park that Sierra Mills has been working on. It has a really nice mini-rock waterfall, and a curvy pond, as well as a gazebo. I think it's going to be great.

LinkRez, a little progress

2007-05-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

(two 12 millimeter links, precisely positioned on the sizing board)

Some people have been asking about LinkRez, my forthcoming necklace chain link-rezzing tool. There hasn't been a huge amount of progress (Peronaut Sim has been keeping me busy), but things are moving along.

Here's a quick update, one on a critically important LinkRez support utility (the "Sizing board"), and another is another rezzing option added, so that Virrginia Tombola might have better luck getting lace collars to come out of it.

LinkRez Sizing Board

One challenge with tiny, tortured prims, is that very often the "center" of the prim, as stored in SL, is NOT the "center" of the prim visually. Sometimes, that's a good thing, like when you cut a rectangular prim so that the "center" is on an edge, and then rotations make it look like you are rotating about a hinge there.

But, when you are trying to manipulate a micro prim, and the "center" is far outside the prim, it's much more of a pain to work with. The same problem exists with a rezzing script, because the position where the script rezzes the object is based on where SL thinks the center is. And, worse yet, all the rotations that scripts like LoopRez and LinkRez perform, also act about that "SL center point," so the prim gets moved all over the place, when you're simply trying to rotate the prim.

Since so many necklaces will depend on using micro-prims, it was absolutely critical to have LinkRez support tortured, weirdly centered and rotated prims. The "Sizing Board" utility is used to collect information about the desired "center" and "flat rotation" of a given prim / linked object, as well as determining the "length" of the necklace element. LinkRez then uses this information (in the form of a length, a rotation offset, and a position offset), to know the proper position and rotation to rez the prim.

The following shows how the sizing board is used:

a 12 mm link has been precisely positioned

placed "flat", on the Sizing Board
centered on all 3 axes

notice that the link is selected and that SL thinks that the "center" of the link is quite a bit below the visual center of the link

using shift-drag along the world X-axis, a copy of the link has been made, positioned exactly the distance apart I want two adjacent links to be placed in LinkRez
this allows LinkRez to determine the "length" of each link

activating the Sizing Board:

senses the two perfectly positioned links
determines its name
calculates the desired "length" of the link
the rotational offset between what SL calls the "zero rotation" and what we are defining as "flat"
the positional offset between what SL calls the "center" and what we want the center to be

the output line needs to be copied into the LinkRez notecard program

As I've said before, LinkRez will not be a "plug and play" tool, because of this required level of complexity.

Symmetry, mirrors, and requests

Long ago, my friend Virrginia Tombola asked about using a script to help place lace collars on her very complex Victorian ballgowns. Honestly, I don't know whether LinkRez is going to help at all with that, but when she reminded me in a comment on this blog, I realized that LinkRez, as previously written, would fail utterly at her purpose.

Given a particular necklace element, LinkRez originally placed the "left" side of the necklace, and then did a sort of "mirroring" of each link to the "right" side (it isn't really mirrored, but rotated so that the "path" of the links goes up the right side). This worked fine, if the left and right sides of the link were identical; i.e., symmetric about the L-R axis, along the path of a necklace

if you look closely, notice that the red arrows denoting the "path" axis of the links point in opposite directions
therefore, the green arrow, pointing to the "left" of the red arrow, point in OPPOSITE directions on the left and right of the necklace
this would play havoc with trying to place "collars" around the neck

However, a lace collar would typically have the lace on one "side" and nothing on the other side. And, if you "mirrored" the links, all the collars would be correct on one side of the neck, and flipped upwards on the other side.

So, I had to rewrite LinkRez to include an option -- instead of "mirroring" a link from one side to the other, with the paths of the links going from front to back of the neck, on both the left and right sides, with a new option, to keep the path orientation of ALL the links pointing in one direction ("counterclockwise" around the neck).

this time, notice that the "path axis" red arrows all point the same direction around the necklace, and so all the "left" sides of the beads point in the same direction.
if the "right" side of the bead contained lace trim, this MIGHT be useful for placing collars. Or, it might still look awful.

I could see situations where one "path" would be desired, and other times when the other path would be wanted. And, I could see where what is truly wanted is NOT something SL supports, which is truly mirroring a prim or multi-prim object, so I won't be able to do much about that.

All this required more struggles with rotations, but I think I've bludgeoned it into submission. But, I still don't know whether this will be of any utility for placing lace collars. I suspect not, because the back of the neck will likely be placed very oddly. Maybe I need to write "CollarRez"... Sorry, I think not...

Communal item shopping sprees

2007-05-12T07:54:00.000-05:00

To help foster community in the the sister Linji Haven and Peronaut rental sims, I've always wanted to support shared items. To help this, I will maintain an updated list of shared communal items, which upon request, can be placed on a tenant's rental parcels.

To further promote this, I'd like to make an offer: for sims that are fully rented, each week one tenant will be asked to select ANY purchase up to L$1,000, for a communal item. I will purchase the item, and then make it available to all tenants, in either Sim, upon request.

Communal item requirements:

items MUST have Copy permissions (otherwise, only a single resident could benefit from the purchase)
they MUST NOT require significant configuration (i.e., no items that will require me to read documentation, edit configuration notecards, etc.)
otherwise, anything goes, and I will almost certainly NOT exercise any sort of "veto power" (well, except against giant spinning particle-spewing advertisements). However, I think items that are likely to benefit as many people as possible (i.e., landscaping, furniture, etc.) would be best!

Tenants will be chosen in the order that they joined the community, once a week.

For the Linji Haven Sim, the order would be:

Sierra Mills
Taffy Allandale
Gabriel Watanabe
Eleanora Newell
Stephen Bentham / Caliah Lyon
camilla Yosuke
Charron Marseille / Roslin Petion / Morgaine Maktoum
Euterpe Zagoskin
Shizuka Hayashida
Tigress Jewell
Crispin Cleanslate
Tiy Ferraris
Harriet Hallard
JH + Jessie Gervasi
Patric Rotunno + Theodote Carthage
Anhayla Lycia

Once Peronaut Sim fills, the order will be:

D3: Johanna Hyacinth
D1: Lizbeth Saenz and Adriana Gustafson
C3: Nefertiti Nefarious
A4: Stuart Simonds
B3: Gabriel Watanabe
E2: Bodhisatva Paperclip
E4: Cameron Yip
C1: Kitten Sautereau
B1: Sierra Mills
E3: Axienne DeVaux
C4: Lucien Franciosa
E5: Shizuka Hayashida
A2: Mic Mills
E1b: Tigress Jewell
A1: Beauty Rosca

Items chosen by tenants will be added to the Communal Items page, listing who selected it and the date. I will definitely keep this offer going at least long enough to give everyone a chance to pick something, and depending on how popular / successful the program is, may choose to continue the program as long as possible.

Feel free to post comments to this page to suggest specific items that we all might be interested in checking out. Let the shopping begin!

Communal Items

2007-05-12T07:37:00.000-05:00

As mentioned here, this is a list of Communal Items, available for placement on parcels in the Linji Haven and Peronaut mainland rental communities.

If you are a Linji Haven or Peronaut tenant and would like one of these objects for personal use, please contact Ged Larsen and specificy which object(s) and how many. A copy will be placed on your parcel, set to "Share with group," so that you can position and modify it (if permissions allow).

If you like these items, please support the creators by recommending their items or by purchasing their other products!

Buildings

CHOC Modern Home (by Ace Albion)
ENRA Modern Beach Home (by Ace Albion)
"Larsen" Prefab Stores and Accessories (by Barnesworth Anubis)
Lifestyle Prefab Villa #1 (by Myles Cooper)
Paradise Blanket, fully loaded (by october brotherhood)

Landscaping

Living Creek (by Zora Spoonhammer) (modifications by Ged Larsen, for standing pools)

Furniture

(none purchased yet)

Poses / Animations

Siggy's Waterworks Animations: Chillin', Layin', Sunnin', Lay back, Laazin', Relax (by Siggy Romulus, WaterWorks (177, 39, 25) ): chosen by Sierra Mills 2007-05-21

Suggestions for future purchases welcome!

Peronaut Sim, more tenants, and some ideas

2007-05-09T20:38:00.000-05:00

A new tenant (and 2 "maybes")!

It was a pleasantly active night for the Peronaut mainland rental sim. Three people expressed interest, and one (Bodhisatva Paperclip) has decided to join the community! I got a chance to visit his previous home, and it was a lovely wooded grove, with streams, waterfalls, bridges, etc. I'm feeling really fortunate.

The two others (Axienne and Kitten) have mentioned which plots they're considering. We'll see!

How about another public park?

More and more, I think that what makes a pleasant sim is not only nice builds, but also nice parks. It's clear that the central Peronaut Park has driven up the "desirability" of the neighboring parcels. Sierra Mills did such a great job with the park, that I claimed parcel B2 for my new home, overlooking the pond.

I already think Peronaut is beautiful, but then I got to thinking tonight, even more public spaces would further improve it. I'm very seriously considering making B4 into another public park; sort of a little oasis, surrounded by a number of rental parcels. It's a flat parcel, unlike the central park, which should make for a nice contrast in styles.

And a boat launch?

Lastly, Bodhisatva mentioned in passing his hopes for a boat launch, and I realized that the corner parcel that I've been holding on to has fairly little "buildable land" (and I am completely unwilling to "pave over" the water), but a GOOD amount of water. Hmmm... I'm really liking the idea of a small public boat launch, especially if we get lucky enough to have the two neighboring sims keep some sort of waterway open.

I'm very excited with how Peronaut is shaping up. :)

Preview: LinkRez, a necklace chain generator

2007-05-06T08:40:00.000-05:00

(Custom-fit, plywood necklaces -- it's the new thing! This is done with alternating links, +/- 20 degrees)

(early path + orientation test, with an unsightly "break" between the front and back of the necklace, now corrected)

It's been a very long time since I've worked seriously on script-assisted necklace generating, although I did post a list of musings, way back in January, about the challenges a decent one would face. Necklace generating was actually something I thought about, back in November when I first started in SL, and LoopRez was actually a spin-off, a much "easier" project.

Johanna Hyacinth has done great work as well, with necklace generating, and it was partly from this shared interest that we met, long ago. Her earliest blog posts talk about the challenges, very similar to my list of musings. We chatted recently, and it seemed that unlike "other individuals," she was perfectly fine with my again taking up the challenge.

I think I'm making decent progress, and thought I'd share some of the initial results. There is a LOT of work to be done yet, but I'm pretty excited about how it's turning out.

First off -- this really is NOT a "Necklace Generator." I think the real challenge in creating beautiful jewelry is the skill of manipulating tiny prims into ornate and intricate centerpieces. However, I suspect a lot of the tedium in making a nicely fitted necklace has to do with positioning either simple or intricate "links" into a chain that fits about an Avatars neck, shoulders, and torso.

So, LinkRez will instead be a tool to assist in the tedious process of placing chain "links" with proper path and orientation, about an avatar's neck, and do it with maximal configurability. It's definitely a seriously difficult challenge, which is why, I suspect, there aren't more such aids available now. The amount of flexibility I plan to build into LinkRez makes me suspect that it will be a rather complex "power user" tool -- one that will require quite a bit of SL building experience (edit linked parts, precision placement and rotation of micro-prims, notecard editing).

Here's what I've (mostly) accomplished so far, and what more I hope to do:

highly configurable "shape" of the path

width
front drop
back drop
"sigmoidicity" of the front drop; i.e., how rapidly the "drop" occurs
should allow nearly perfect placement, customized to an individual avatar's shape, with only a minute or so of tweaking

allow for a front "round" vs. pointed "pendant" shape
flexibility in link orientation / rotation

"flat" against skin surface
"incrementing" angle, adding a definable rotation with each successive link; e.g., a progressive "chain link"
"alternating" angle, where each successive link alternatives by plus or minus a definable rotation
"random"; e.g., round beads on a string, which can rotate freely and randomly

allow for "links" that are multi-prim linked objects

Challenges in progress:

allow for "links" that are made up of tortured prims (which sometimes have very funky center points and rotations); PARTIALLY SOLVED, WOOT! (see the linked chains)
use of multiple different link types within a chain, each with a different size
notecard driven chain link program, allowing use of:

a single "link" type
a user-defined sequence of links
repeating "sets" of links; i.e., [A-B-C]-[A-B-C]-[A-B-C], etc.
allowing changing link orientation shapes throughout the necklace; i.e. [flat: A-B-C]-random:D-D-[flat: A-B-C]

(the "sizing aids" are visible here, as a dark blue ellipse edge on the chest, with another one not visible in back, as well as the transparent partial disc)

(this is my first success at using tortured prims, with position and rotation offset corrections required; it's also an example of "alternating" link rotation, alternating "+30" and "-30" degrees from the orientation that would be "flat")

The following are examples of shaping and configuration parameters:

Two views of varying "sigma" bendiness, for necklace chains that are otherwise the SAME size. Farthest left is "planar" (flat), and the subsequent ones come "forward" more, before diving down in front.

Four different link types. From left to right: "flat," "increment," "alternating," and "random"

Pendants: increasing "pointiness" for chains that will have a pendant hanging in front

I'm really rather excited by the progress, but there's a LOT more to do, before LinkRez is ready for release though.

Peronaut: new mainland rental sim

2007-04-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

Peronaut, a mixed residential / commercial mainland rental sim without casinos, clubs, camping, or eyesores. Beautiful park, nice walking paths, and ocean views.

Read the Peronaut Sim Covenant.

17 parcels claimed
0 parcels reserved
6 parcels remaining

Parcels in Peronaut Sim AVAILABLE

After my very positive experiences with the Linji Haven mainland rental sim, I've decided to try another mainland rental sim -- the Peronaut Sim, with improvements (I think) from lessons learned.

Again, it's an unthemed sim, with a generally sensible covenant that tries to keep it as pleasant as possible. The sim itself is beautiful, with both nice flat areas and rolling hills, as well as access to water.

Parcels are now available for rent. The Peronaut Covenant is very similar to that of Linji Sim. Some differences include:

setting aside dedicated land for roads and paths, as well as a single large central park, rather than small protected parcels

this park is shaping up REALLY nicely, with a pond at top, waterfall segments, and a wandering stream to the ocean

pre-defined sizes and shapes of the available parcels, which are now all either 2,048 or 3,072 sq m
"squaring off" the parcels, so that they are more usable, than the 32 x 64 m (2,048 sq m) parcels frequently found in Linji
the covenant is changed to be a bit stricter about build heights, because that was occasionally an issue in Linji

Rental parcels are again going to be made available in a first-come, first-served basis. Like before, if you are interested, contact Sierra Mills (or Ged Larsen), or post a comment here, with your SL name and which parcel you are interested in. We can "reserve" the parcel for you for 3 days or so, after which we'll again make it available to other people.

Peronaut Public Park:

Parcels claimed:

E1 / B2: Ged Larsen
D3: Johanna Hyacinth
D1: Lizbeth Saenz and Adriana Gustafson
C3: Nefertiti Nefarious
A4: Stuart Simonds
B3: Gabriel Watanabe
E2: Bodhisatva Paperclip
E4: Cameron Yip
C1: Kitten Sautereau
B1: Sierra Mills
E3: Axienne DeVaux
C4: Lucien Franciosa / Caliae Jewell
E5: Shizuka Hayashida
A2: Mic Mills
E1b: Tigress Jewell
A1: Beauty Rosca

Parcels reserved (held for 3 days):

(no current reservations)

Peronaut Sim

2007-04-21T20:19:00.000-05:00

Please follow this link to the CURRENT updated and consolidated covenant for the Peronaut mainland rental sim.

The below information is being kept for archival purposes only.

--== Peronaut ==--

This is the charter of the Peronaut Sim (last updated 2007-April-21). Whether you are interested in joining this community or not, questions, comments, and suggestions are very welcome.

The goal of the Peronaut Sim is to provide:

an unthemed mixed-residential and low-impact commercial oasis on the Mainland
a community of like-minded individuals who believe that the Mainland can still be a beautiful, wonderful, minimal lag place to enjoy Second Life
the lowest price possible

be considerate
low-impact commercial welcomed
small events encouraged
no Casinos, no Clubs, no Camping, and no Crap (ad farms, lag hogs, incredibly ugly builds)

Lag control

try to use efficiently-written scripts, without loads of listeners and scans
try to use the minimum-sized texture that gives you good results

restrict build heights to twice the distance from the nearest neighbor's parcel boundary

a 2:1 build height tool will be provided to you to help you determine whether you are within bounds
IF you and your neighbor agree, you are free to violate this rule
however, agreement should be obtained BEFORE building higher / closer than allowed

try not to obstruct your neighbor's views
no major eyesores
no excessive particle effects
no flashing / rotating / neon signs
no banlines (banning specific avatars is fine)
no walls or fences that completely close off your land
skyboxes shouldn't be visible from ground level builds
no non-consensual combat
events should not be so large and frequent as to cause problems for other residents

COMMUNITY

Goal: it would be wonderful if instead of a bunch of separate carved out parcels, we had a community. Of course, this can never be something dictated, but I'd welcome ideas to help promote this.

To promote this:

a central 4,928 sq m public park to provide a focus and meeting place for the community
footpaths, small roads, and stopping areas (5,504 sq m) set aside, to encourage foot-exploration of the sim
shared resources (e.g., pre-fab buildings, landscaping objects, resident creations, etc.)

Barnesworth Anubis pre-fab buildings and landscaping
"Living Creek" streams and waterfalls landscaping
suggestions welcome for additional community purchases (copyable items)

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

I want to remain as absolutely hands-off as possible, hoping that the simple rule of being considerate towards others will minimize conflict. And, I hope that people will be as open-minded and accepting as possible of other people's tastes. But, conflicts happen.
if 3 members of the community have a grievance against another member, and a Peronaut Estate Manager agrees, then the grievance must be addressed.

RENTING

In addition to weekly rent, there may be an initial L$1 per sq m non-refundable joining fee, which will be used for community purchases and other expenses. This fee is waived for the founding members of the Sim.

Weekly rent will be closely tied to the Linden Lab Mainland Tier Schedule, recalculated in L$ per week at the current L$ sell exchange rate, correcting for the 3.5% LL exchange fee.

If the current L$ sell rate is L$267 per US$1 + 3.5% LL exchange fee:

2,048 sq m: US$15/month =~ L$4,145/month =~ L$951/week
3,072 sq m: US$20/month =~ L$5,527/month =~ L$1,268/week
4,096 sq m: US$25/month =~ L$6,908/month =~ L$1,586/week

prim allotment: 234 prims per 1,024 sq m

extra prim allotment may be rentable, based on availability. The rate will be based on the 4,096 sq m parcel rental rate; i.e., US$3.125/month for an extra 117 prims

rent to be paid weekly, in advance

there will be no grace period for late rent

if there are people on the waitlist when the rent expires, it is possible that the parcel will be re-assigned to a new tenant

full refunds of remaining rent, with no penalty, if one week advance notice is given

otherwise, a maximum penalty of 1 week's rent will be assessed, and the remainder refunded

no plans to increase rent

the only reason I will raise rent would be if LL's mainland tier prices increase. If this were to happen, I would increase rental rates proportionally, and offer current tenants the option to cancel their leases with full refunds without penalty

no support for sub-leasing

you will be able to add others to the Peronaut Group, but they will be regular group "Members" without the "Resident" abilities that tenants will have (see below)
however, on a case-by-case basis, estate managers can grant "Resident" abilities to multiple people who are sharing a parcel

Owner (Ged Larsen) / Estate Manager

Estate manager has all abilities EXCEPT:
- assign members to any roll
- assign and remove abilities in roles
- deed land and buy land for group (?)
- abandon land to governor lindon
- set land for sale info
- pay group liabilities and receive group dividends

Resident

this is the baseline role that ALL renters will get

Regular Member

residents can invite people to join the group, who can then set objects to the Peronaut group, avoiding auto-return
they will NOT, however, have access to most other Resident abilities

Group abilities, complete list

Membership

Invite People to this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only invite people to the plain "member" status

Eject Members from this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only eject people who have plain "member" status

Toggle 'Open Enrollment' and change 'Signup Fee' (OWNER)

Roles

Create New Roles (OWNER)
Delete Roles (OWNER)
Change Role names, titles, and descriptions (OWNER)
Assign Members to Assigner's Roles (OWNER)
Assign Members to Any Role (OWNER)
Remove Members from Roles (OWNER)
Assign and Remove Abilities in Roles (OWNER)

Group Identity

Change Charter, Insignia, 'Publish on the Web', and which members are publicly visible in Group Information (OWNER)

Parcel Management

Deed land and buy land for group (OWNER)
Abandon land to Governor Linden (OWNER)
Set land for sale info (OWNER)
Subdivide and join parcels (OWNER)

Parcel Identity

Toggle 'Show in Find Places' and set category (ALL)
Change parcel name, description, and 'Publish on the Web' settings (ALL)
Set landing point and set teleport routing (ALL)

Parcel Settings

Change music & media settings (ALL)
Toggle 'Edit Terrain' (OWNER)
Toggle various About Land > Options settings (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)

Parcel Powers

Always allow 'Edit Terrain' (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)
Always allow 'Fly' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Objects' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Landmark' (ALL)
Allow 'Set Home to Here' on group land (ALL, regular members)

Parcel Access

Manage parcel Access lists (OWNER; no general banlines allowed)
Manage parcel Ban lists (ALL)
Change parcel 'Sell passes...' settings (ALL)
Eject and freeze Residents on parcels (ALL)

Parcel Content

Return objects owned by group (OWNER)
Return objects set to group (OWNER)
Return non-group objects (ALL)
Landscaping using Linden plants (ALL)

Object Management

Deed objects to group (OWNER)
Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects (OWNER)
Set group-owned objects for sale (OWNER)

Accounting

Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends (OWNER)

Notices

Send Notices (ALL)
Receive Notices and view past Notices (ALL, and regular members)

Proposals

Create Proposals (ALL)
Vote on Proposals (ALL, and regular members)

Linji Haven has filled

2007-04-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

Linji Haven has filled -- all parcels have now been claimed.

In the future, further announcements will be moved to Linji Haven's own blog page at http://www.linjihaven.com/, provided and administered, thanks to Gabriel Watanabe.

A public forum is also in the process of being set-up, administered by Gabriel Watanabe and Crispin Cleanslate -- http://www.linjihaven.com/forum/ -- and I would encourage residents to comment, discuss, request, and contribute anything and everything they would like.

I'd like to thank everybody for their support!

Founding Members of Linji Haven

Ged Larsen
Sierra Mills
Taffy Allandale
Gabriel Watanabe
Eleanora Newell
Stephen Bentham / Caliah Lyon
camilla Yosuke
Charron Marseille / Roslin Petion / Morgaine Maktoum
Euterpe Zagoskin
Shizuka Hayashida
Tigress Jewell
Crispin Cleanslate
Tiy Ferraris
Harriet Hallard
Tamala Tombola
JH + Jessie Gervasi
Patric Rotunno + Theodote Carthage

It's silly, but I think I'm going to ask that somebody create a little chunk of prim rock, with our names "engraved" in it, to place in our central public park. Nothing Starax-like, but I think it'd be nice to commemorate our achievement. Any volunteers?

LoopRez texture problems? Need comments!

2007-04-04T03:59:00.000-05:00

Recently, LoopRez users have described a really mysterious sounding bug (or BUGS), with textures reverting to previous ones, textures changes after linking (although I'm not clear why a user would be re-linking a skirt, after starting to work on it), etc.

Because several people have mentioned these problems, and yet I can't reproduce the problem on my own, I'd love it if people could post comments to this blog entry, describing in step-by-step detail what they did, and what happened. That way, I'm much more likely to be able to figure out what happened, and try to fix it.

Please post! And if you have the ability to host pictures, and think pictures would make it more clear, please do that too!

I hope, once I have more of a clue, to be able to get together with LoopRez users in-world, in-person, to come to a solution, too.

Thanks!

Linji Haven, almost completely filled

2007-04-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, the enthusiasm for this project, and the amount of diversity, creativity, and talent that have come to the Linji sim is really amazing. We have creators of clothing, jewelry, skin textures, buildings, landscaping; future museum curators; public space designers; and at least one scripter (who hasn't done squat for scripting lately, unfortunately).

Invitations to participate were taken starting March 27, and now, 7 days later, every parcel has been spoken for, and all but two parcels have residents who have completed the rental arrangements. (Two potential residents have requested a little extra time to decide, but I was too excited and impatient and wanted to post about our community's great start.)

So, what now? Obviously people are going to be busy building, creating the spaces that they envision. But beyond that, there are some chores, some projects, and some ideas I have:

Sierra Mills, as well as Ged Larsen, can now be asked to handle Linji Haven estate management issues; we'll share in the management chores

send requests to whichever of us is around, or by notecard to both (I'll probably set up a Drop A Notecard kiosk, that will get the requests to us)
if she has any difficulties, while she's still in the training and trial by fire phase, she'll forward the requests to me :)
this is being done so I don't burn out and go stark raving mad, which would probably be bad for the sim

the covenant has to be finalized and agreed to by all residents; obviously, nothing construed as potentially "negative" will be added, but clarification and additions are necessary

current build height rules are NOT tenable, and require clarification to prevent conflict and misunderstanding

refund and late payment policies need to be described

state that rent will never be increased, so long as mainland tier doesn't increase
how to handle filling vacancies
starting a L$1 or L$2 per sq m initial buy-in charge for future tenants, after the Sim fills, to be used for Sim-related improvements and support (some ideas below)

In case you're curious, at this point, with this kind of tenancy, the future of the Linji Haven community Sim is absolutely assured, from a financial standpoint -- it can continue indefinitely, so long as tenancy is this good, and mainland tier doesn't go up. If you're curious, I'd be willing to post the nitty gritty details of the financials -- I'm perfectly fine with an "open book accounting" policy.

I'll admit this though: the only major threat to the continued long-term existence of Linji Haven is if maintaining it becomes a terrible burden, chore, or hassle to me. I'm a reluctant organizer of this, and don't really want to be a "landlord" if it means conflict resolution, facing disputes and arguments, dealing with non-payment, etc. Luckily, from what I can see so far, we have a GREAT group of people, so I'm hoping this won't be an issue, and I can just step back from the organizing, and let you guys just create and have fun :)

OK, those were the chores, ranging from unpleasant, to merely boring. Now for the more fun stuff:

http://linjihaven.com/

we happen to have at least two professional web / IT professionals in our midst. Gabriel Watanabe has registered a domain name for us and set up a Wordpress blog, which may take over much of the role of this blog for Linji Haven-related business
Crispin Cleanslate has also volunteered, if Gabriel is willing, to share responsibility for maintaining a phpbb forum
for those who are familiar with Linden Lab's web services, this would be analogous to the official Linden Lab Second Life Blog and the official SL Forums; one might be best for announcements and official business and comments, and the other for community discussions and planning

Community benefits. Why would we need a place to discuss anything? well, other than complaining about management, I'd like to solicit suggestions for perks and benefits to the community. Here are some ideas:

community "wish list" for items to be purchases for communal use, for example the recently acquired Barnesworth Anubis "Larsen" pre-fab shops. Any item that might be useful to the community that is COPY / NO TRANSFER, I'd be wiling to consider purchasing and providing to Linji Haven, set to "Share with group"
Radio Linji. If there were interest, I could lease a Shoutcast external server to distribute our own audio streams. Some uses might be to broadcast live performances (I have some friends in the classical music community; I'm sure some of you might have friends in more normal music), or else to simply share (inflict?) our own music streams as DJ's. (Will have to look into the limits of "fair use", though, of audio streams.)
Shared / discounted creations. Obviously, this is totally up to the content creators, but I personally would like to eventually offer up script gadgets and tools that might be of interest to others. Even collections of useful freebies that are used in the Sim (like, shared cobblestone path textures, lamp posts, and whatnot), could be housed in a communal location.
any other suggestions?

I think we're off to a great start, far better than I ever hoped for! And somehow, I think the best is yet to come. :)

Linji, idea for shared prefabs

2007-04-02T05:34:00.000-05:00

Caliah Lyon (who has excellent taste) suggested that I check out prefab builds by Barnesworth Anubis. And they ARE really really nice builds, for the residential as well as commercial work. Someday, I'd like to have a script thingie store, and one of these might work nicely.

But the above advertisement got me thinking -- if there was interest, I'd be willing to purchase the 11-store pack, and share them out on Linji Group-deeded land. They are "COPY/MOD" and I think it would be fair use, so long as they weren't "over-used".

I'd like to place that nice park bench, maybe a pair or two in each Linji Haven Protected Land area (even though I know they'll be a bit prim-expensive, they just look nice!). The table / umbrella / chairs might also be nice, if anyone felt inclined to build a cafe.

I'm more likely to go ahead with this if anybody else will get use out of a pre-fab store front, too. If it's just me, then I might as well just get things separately.

Any interest?

Edited to add: this collection has been purchased. All components are now available to any Linji Haven residents upon request.

Linji Haven, proposal for more green space

2007-04-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

I am proposing to set aside a few 1,024 sq m parcels as "Linji Haven Protected Land", along a border of the sim. If this seems like it'd be a popular idea, I would place in the covenant the promise that these areas would remain protected and unrented.

These plots would NOT be accessible for public projects, but would instead remain green spaces, with a few trees, bushes, maybe paths and a park bench or two. In fact, I think I'd like to contact the SL Arbor Project folks for suggestions.

The purpose of these parcels would be to help provide more open green space. A side-benefit would be that they could be used to provide Residents with a potential source of extra prims, which could be made available for rental -- rates to be determined, but hopefully none of you have run out yet ;)

Comments or suggestions?

Linji Haven, in-world directory

2007-03-31T13:43:00.000-05:00

I was playing around with the "Vendor" portion of the Hippotech Rental System, and although using a vendor to market rental spaces doesn't appeal to me, it does strike me that it could instead be co-opted into functioning as a directory of shops, public places, and even (if people wanted) private homes.

Essentially, the "vendor" pages through pictures of each rental parcel, and when clicked, can show the map location / set the red "Beacon."

In the future, when the little boutiques, parks, art galleries, and whatnot are ready, perhaps I could load the "vendor" with pictures of each shop, and the display placed in the corner of a central, public place.

Just an idea.

Linji Haven, future ideas

2007-03-30T08:14:00.000-05:00

Hodge-podge of ideas, about furthering formation of "community" in Linji Haven:

sharing textures or objects, to better integrate the visual feel of various parcels

if a particular footpath / road texture can be agreed upon, it'd be nice if we could all have access to it
nobody can "force" anyone else to use the same texture, but some may wish to use the same style, to keep things nice looking
the same might go for, say, lamp-posts, public benches, etc.

sharing / discounting creations

there seem to be a significant number of content creators in our midst
I'd be happy to write a vendor script that would sell or give objects ONLY to people who are in the Linji Haven group

community events?

I'm really, really wanting to try to convince some musicians I know (in the rather tiny Classical Music community) to perform live. This wouldn't be a "regular" thing (remember our guidelines: low-impact events, no huge crowds that will shut down the sim to others), but I'm thinking more along the lines of a half dozen to a dozen people in an audience

public space building

I think it'd be a bad idea for a single individual to, on their own, just start building in the public areas. I can see hard feelings and conflict, if either someone else didn't like what was built, or if they had wanted to contribute
rather, it might be good if people who were interested in beautifying the public areas had a way to cooperate, either by building at the same time, or by having a forum where suggestions and ideas could be shared
I posted in a comment someplace that perhaps a public Wiki (readable by all, but posts only by Linji Haven group members) could be used to coordinate efforts

As for sharing objects and creations, here's my contribution:

a week or so ago, I wrote a parcel audio-stream radio, that can read an unlimited number of audio stream URLs from a notecard
when clicked, you choose your station via pages of buttons, with each button labeled with the station name
I'm planning on putting this in a script store, but would like to distribute it to all the Residents in Linji sim free -- especially since any parcel audio radio requires being deeded to group, which only I can do, so maybe this will preempt some minor hassle for me ;)

Linji Haven Group Settings

2007-03-29T15:57:00.000-05:00

The group role abilities listed below are my attempt to give maximal flexibility to Linji Haven Sim residents, while trying to keep inadvertent disasters to a minimum. (Like, OOPS, I didn't mean to terraform that beautifully crafted garden of yours into a small mountain.)

Group Roles

Owner (Ged Larsen) / Estate Manager
Resident

this is the baseline role that ALL renters will get

Resident Plus

this is an additional setting that will TEMPorarily be assigned, on request

Regular Member

residents can invite people to join the group, who will then be able to rez objects that will be set to the Linji Haven group, so that auto-return will not affect them
they will NOT, however, have access to the ANY other Resident abilities (except the ability to set home on group land, vote and receive notices)
this will be useful for people who want to give a partner or friend the ability to build on their parcel

Membership

Invite People to this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only invite people to the plain "member" status

Eject Members from this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only eject people who have plain "member" status

Toggle 'Open Enrollment' and change 'Signup Fee' (OWNER)

Roles

Create New Roles (OWNER)
Delete Roles (OWNER)
Change Role names, titles, and descriptions (OWNER)
Assign Members to Assigner's Roles (OWNER)
Assign Members to Any Role (OWNER)
Remove Members from Roles (OWNER)
Assign and Remove Abilities in Roles (OWNER)

Group Identity

Change Charter, Insignia, 'Publish on the Web', and which members are publicly visible in Group Information (OWNER)

Parcel Management

Deed land and buy land for group (OWNER)
Abandon land to Governor Linden (OWNER)
Set land for sale info (OWNER)
Subdivide and join parcels (OWNER)

Parcel Identity

Toggle 'Show in Find Places' and set category (ALL)
Change parcel name, description, and 'Publish on the Web' settings (ALL)
Set landing point and set teleport routing (ALL)

Parcel Settings

Change music & media settings (ALL)
Toggle 'Edit Terrain' (OWNER)
Toggle various About Land > Options settings (ALL? or TEMP?)

Parcel Powers

Always allow 'Edit Terrain' (TEMP)
Always allow 'Fly' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Objects' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Landmark' (ALL)
Allow 'Set Home to Here' on group land (ALL, regular members)

Parcel Access

Manage parcel Access lists (OWNER; no banlines allowed, except to specific avatars)
Manage parcel Ban lists (ALL)
Change parcel 'Sell passes...' settings (ALL)
Eject and freeze Residents on parcels (ALL)

Parcel Content

Return objects owned by group (OWNER)
Return objects set to group (OWNER)
Return non-group objects (ALL)
Landscaping using Linden plants (ALL)

Object Management

Deed objects to group (OWNER)
Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects (OWNER; TEMP?)
Set group-owned objects for sale (OWNER)

Accounting

Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends (OWNER)

Notices

Send Notices (ALL)
Receive Notices and view past Notices (ALL, and regular members)

Proposals

Create Proposals (ALL)
Vote on Proposals (ALL, and regular members)

Map of the Linji Sim, and parcel requests

2007-03-29T07:34:00.000-05:00

Linji Haven availability: all parcels claimed

Parcels are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. When a request is posted here specifying a specific parcel, that spot will be "reserved" for a couple of days. If not claimed in a couple of days, it will be released to the next person who requested it.

The above shows the entire Sim, with blue markers placed every 32 m. A square of four blue markers encloses 1,024 sq m. Encouraged plot sizes are 2,048 (two squares) to 4,096 sq m (four squares).

One central and one peripheral 2,048 sq m plots is being reserved for use by the community to turn into public spaces, for example for use as public plazas, parks, meeting spaces or performance venues. Also, I am very likely going to permanently assign three 1,024 sq m plots as "Linji Haven Protected Land," which will not be available for public projects, but will kept as low-prim green and open spaces (with trees, bushes, and perhaps paths and a few parkbenches.)

I also wonder whether those interested in low-impact commercial endeavors might be encouraged to take plots that are more central, perhaps along a path, to maximize their foot-traffic. Residential only plots might be more comfortable on the perimeter, where they could be afforded more privacy?

I've scribbled in possible paths below. They look "grid-like" here, but I hope they'd wander a little bit, back and forth, around vegetation, trees, rocks, etc. But, these are YOUR parcels, the final design will be up to you. I just wanted to start by penciling in some ideas. Suggestions welcome!

Current list of participants:

People who are considering joining the community might want to check out the Linji sim in person, and post a comment requesting what size parcel and the preferred location. I'll update the map whenever I can, to show how the planning is coming along.

After I receive your request, I'll parcel the land and set up a rental box set to your SL avatar name. If you change your mind, or don't "claim" the box after say 3 - 5 days, I'll open up the spots again so other people can request them.

The planned use listed certainly is NOT "binding", but I thought it might help people choose locations near friends or to facilitate cooperative efforts.

Residents:

Ged Larsen: mostly residential; maybe a script gadget store ;)
Sierra Mills: probably residential
Taffy Allandale: mixed residential / commercial (Taffy Apple Designs)
Gabriel Watanabe: residential
Eleanora Newell: light retail
Stephen Bentham / Caliah Lyon
camilla Yosuke (retail)
Charron Marseille / Roslin Petion / Morgaine Maktoum
Euterpe Zagoskin / Caliah Lyon: light retail (Haute Couture clothing, Muse Jewelry)
Shizuka Hayashida
Tigress Jewell (residential and retail)
Crispin Cleanslate (medieval theme, retail)
Tiy Ferraris (ancient Egypt educational museum and shop)
Stephen Bentham (light retail and public space)
Harriet Hallard (non-commercial build)
Tamala Tombola (medieval theme, retail)
JH + Jessie Gervasi (residential + retail)
Patric Rotunno + Theodote Carthage (residential + art gallery)

Requests submitted:

Lizbeth Saens (waitlist)
Stuart Simonds (waitlist; prefer 3,072, but 2,048 OK; residential and future retail)
Nefertiti Nefarious (posted on Linji Haven, proposal for more green space", but parcel too small -- 512 sq m)
no more requests are being taken

Rent

Amount of rent will be closely tied to the Linden Lab Mainland Tier Schedule, recalculated in L$ per week at the current L$ sell exchange rate, correcting for the 3.5% LL exchange fee.

Example: if the current L$ "sell" rate is L$267 per US$1 + 3.5% LL exchange fee:

1,024 sq m: US$8/month = L$2,211/month = L$507/week
2,048 sq m: US$15/month = L$4,145/month = L$951/week
3,072 sq m: US$20/month = L$5,527/month = L$1,268/week
4,096 sq m: US$25/month = L$6,909/month = L$1,586/week

Linji Haven Progress Report

2007-03-29T05:16:00.000-05:00

Public Space Expansion

I think I'll go ahead and reserve TWO 1,024 sqm parcels near the center of the Sim as public areas, that Linji residents can collaborate and cooperatively sculpt into a pleasant center park / plaza / open space. I imagined that one 1,024 sqm parcel just wouldn't be enough to maintain a sense of open space.

Rental system set-up

I have purchased and read the documentation of the HippoTech Rental System (looks great, hopefully easy to get started up).

Group abilities and roles

The concern is that due to the restrictions of Mainland (compared with private islands), ALL members of the group with an ability will be able to apply that ability to ANY parcel in Linji Haven.

I do not worry so much about malicious damage -- hopefully the Sim will select for people who will play nice and be considerate -- but it is altogether too easy to mis-click and cause inadvertent damage. So, the goal is to give EVERY ability that is safe to give to all residents of Linji Haven. Other abilities (like terraforming) might be given for a couple hours at a time upon request, and then removed. And finally, some will never be given -- like, the ability to sell the entire Sim for L$1)

Because all these settings are quite new to me, and because there is little documentation, I would like to list them all here, and perhaps people can tell me why some innocuous ability is actually "dangerous," or why some "dangerous" ones are actually fine.

Meeting creative talent: Caliah Lyon and Argent Stonecutter

2007-03-27T13:07:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Caliah Lyon, via a mutual friend. She's already shown herself a talented jeweler (Muse Jewelry in Imogen), and is now branching into watch-making. The watch-making is how I had the good fortune to meet her -- her watches needed a little more movement to them, so I wrote a script for the clock hands (hour, minute, and second), so that the timepieces would show the correct time.

The script was a fun little exercise, but best of all was getting the chance to see in person the exquisite detail work that goes into tiny prim sculpture. Let's just say that I was unable to even test the scripts, because I didn't even have the skill to select a watch hand, let alone manipulate it. Anyhow, I hope the watches will be released soon. In the meantime, I'll take the liberty of displaying the picture that she shows on her blog page:

Also, last night I got to meet Argent Stonecutter, who happened to be test-flying a very cool flying machine over the wide open spaces over Linji. I knew of Argent from his very informative posts in the Scripting forum, and just had to hail him. We had a pleasant chat, and showed off various scripting thingies we had each written. I got to pull out my ancient Lissajous prim thingie as well as a medium-sized geodesic dome, and he let me swoop and soar on his really incredible flying machine (I've got to get me one of those things...)

I think the best part of SL is meeting people who are talented and creative.

Linji Haven

2007-03-27T05:19:00.000-05:00

Please follow this link to the CURRENT updated and consolidated covenant for the Linji (and Peronaut) mainland rental sims.

The below information is being kept for archival purposes only.

--== LINJI HAVEN ==--

This is the charter of Linji Haven (last updated 2007-April-8). Whether you are interested in joining this community or not, questions, comments, and suggestions are very welcome.

The goal of Linji Haven (in the Linji mainland sim) is to provide:

an unthemed mixed-residential and low-impact commercial oasis on the Mainland
a community of like-minded individuals who believe that the Mainland can still be a beautiful, wonderful, minimal lag place to enjoy Second Life
the lowest price possible

To insure that the Sim can maintain it's zoning guidelines, it is a rental only community.

We hope to have more information and community discussion at the Linji Haven blog and forums at http://www.linjihaven.com/. Estate Managers to contact for more information or problems: Ged Larsen and Sierra Mills

ZONING GUIDELINES

Residential and low-impact commericial

Guidelines:

be considerate
low-impact commercial welcomed
small events encouraged
no Casinos, no Clubs, no Camping, and no Crap (ad farms, lag hogs, incredibly ugly builds)

Lag control

try to use efficiently-written scripts, without loads of listeners and scans
try to use the minimum-sized texture that gives you good results

restrict build heights to twice the distance from the nearest parcel boundary, unless you and your neighbors agree otherwise
try not to obstruct your neighbor's views
no major eyesores
no excessive particle effects
no flashing / rotating / neon signs
no banlines (banning specific avatars is fine)
no walls or fences that completely close off your land
skyboxes shouldn't be visible from ground level builds
no non-consensual combat
events should not be so large and frequent as to cause problems for other residents

footpaths and small roads to encourage foot-exploration of the sim
a central 2,048 sq m Linji Haven public park and a 2,048 sq m waterfront parcel have been reserved for use as public spaces, to benefit the entire community
three 1,024 sq m Linji Haven Protected Land parcels will be maintained as lightly landscaped open areas
shared resources (e.g., pre-fabs, landscaping objects, resident creations, etc.)

a listing of available objects will be maintained at the Linji Haven web site

events: live music, product shows, classes, get-togethers

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

I want to remain as absolutely hands-off as possible, hoping that the simple rule of being considerate towards others will minimize conflict. And, I hope that people will be as open-minded and accepting as possible of other people's tastes. But, conflicts happen.
if 3 members of the community have a grievance against another member, and a Linji Haven Estate Manager agrees, then the grievance must be addressed.

1,024 sq m: US$8/month = L$2,211/month =~ L$507/week
2,048 sq m: US$15/month = L$4,145/month =~ L$951/week
3,072 sq m: US$20/month = L$5,527/month =~ L$1,268/week
4,096 sq m: US$25/month = L$6,909/month =~ L$1,586/week

encouraged plot sizes: 2,048 to 4,096 sq m (1,024 plots may be considered, but the goal is to avoid a cramped feel of packed plots)
prim allotment: 234 prims per 1,024 sq m

extra prim allotment may be rentable, based on availability. The rate will be based on the 4,096 sq m parcel rental rate; i.e., US$3.125/month for an extra 117 prims

rent to be paid weekly, in advance

there will be no grace period for late rent

if there are people on the waitlist when the rent expires, it is possible that the parcel will be re-assigned to a new tenant

full refunds of remaining rent, with no penalty, if one week advance notice is given

otherwise, a maximum penalty of 1 week's rent will be assessed, and the remainder refunded

no plans to increase rent

the only reason I will raise rent would be if LL's mainland tier prices increase. If this were to happen, I would increase rental rates proportionally, and offer current tenants the option to cancel their leases with full refunds without penalty

no support for sub-leasing

you will be able to add others to the Linji Haven Group, but they will be regular group "Members" without the "Resident" abilities that tenants will have (see below)
however, on a case-by-case basis, estate managers can grant "Resident" abilities to multiple people who are sharing a parcel

LIQUIDATING

I am not trying to make money from this venture, and would like to keep it going so long as I am not LOSING money in monthly tier (currently US$195), and hopefully, slowly offsetting the initial purchase price of the sim (US$2,756).

However, should it become necessary for the sim to be sold off, I will do my utmost to keep the following promises:

I will give at least several weeks of warning
I will offer each parcel for sale to the current parcel resident first
if the current tenant does not want it, it will be offered to sale to other Linji Haven residents
if sold to a Linji Haven resident, the land sale price will set at the "Avg L$ Paid Per Square Meter" price for the previous month, available at http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
if no Linji Haven tenants want it, it will be sold on the open market

GROUP ROLE ABILITIES FOR RESIDENTS

The group role abilities listed below are my attempt to give maximal flexibility to Linji Haven Sim residents, while trying to keep inadvertent disasters to a minimum. They may be adjusted, as necessary.

Group Roles

Owner (Ged Larsen) / Estate Manager

Estate manager has all abilities EXCEPT:
- assign members to any roll
- assign and remove abilities in roles
- deed land and buy land for group (?)
- abandon land to governor lindon
- set land for sale info
- pay group liabilities and receive group dividends
the Estate Manager also has to be a member of the Resident group role, to be able to assign new tenants to the Resident role

Resident

this is the baseline role that ALL renters will get

Regular Member

residents can invite people to join the group, who can then set objects to the Linji Haven group, avoiding auto-return
they will NOT, however, have access to most other Resident abilities

Group abilities, complete list

Membership

Invite People to this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only invite people to the plain "member" status

Eject Members from this Group (ALL)

non-owners can only eject people who have plain "member" status

Toggle 'Open Enrollment' and change 'Signup Fee' (OWNER)

Roles

Create New Roles (OWNER)
Delete Roles (OWNER)
Change Role names, titles, and descriptions (OWNER)
Assign Members to Assigner's Roles (OWNER)
Assign Members to Any Role (OWNER)
Remove Members from Roles (OWNER)
Assign and Remove Abilities in Roles (OWNER)

Group Identity

Change Charter, Insignia, 'Publish on the Web', and which members are publicly visible in Group Information (OWNER)

Parcel Management

Deed land and buy land for group (OWNER)
Abandon land to Governor Linden (OWNER)
Set land for sale info (OWNER)
Subdivide and join parcels (OWNER)

Parcel Identity

Toggle 'Show in Find Places' and set category (ALL)
Change parcel name, description, and 'Publish on the Web' settings (ALL)
Set landing point and set teleport routing (ALL)

Parcel Settings

Change music & media settings (ALL)
Toggle 'Edit Terrain' (OWNER)
Toggle various About Land > Options settings (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)

Parcel Powers

Always allow 'Edit Terrain' (ALL? or ON REQUEST?)
Always allow 'Fly' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Objects' (ALL)
Always allow 'Create Landmark' (ALL)
Allow 'Set Home to Here' on group land (ALL, regular members)

Parcel Access

Manage parcel Access lists (OWNER; no general banlines allowed)
Manage parcel Ban lists (ALL)
Change parcel 'Sell passes...' settings (ALL)
Eject and freeze Residents on parcels (ALL)

Parcel Content

Return objects owned by group (OWNER)
Return objects set to group (OWNER)
Return non-group objects (ALL)
Landscaping using Linden plants (ALL)

Object Management

Deed objects to group (OWNER)
Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects (OWNER)
Set group-owned objects for sale (OWNER)

Accounting

Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends (OWNER)

Notices

Send Notices (ALL)
Receive Notices and view past Notices (ALL, and regular members)

Proposals

Create Proposals (ALL)
Vote on Proposals (ALL, and regular members)

Putting my money where my mouth is: I have a Sim

2007-03-26T11:35:00.000-05:00

Main page and more information
about the Linji Haven community sim.

I've spoken, written, rambled, and even ranted in multiple venues about how it should be possible to create a community that would not have the eyesore and lag issues that frequently (but not always) plague the mainland.

And moreover, that this vision should be possible at a price better than individuals acquiring land on their own (because the L$ per sqm tier price improves dramatically, as the amount of owned land increases).

Well, enough ranting. Enough waiting for someone else to do it. I'm a fool, and a dreamer, but it was time to try putting my money where my mouth was. Last night, I bid and won an entire mainland Sim in LL auction. It came down to being outbid in the last 15 seconds, and then throwing in one last bid, and winning.

My goal, my dream, is still as previously described: to gather together like-minded individuals in a residential and low-impact commercial Sim, with the simple covenant of trying to be considerate. Raymond Figtree, on the forums, suggested an interesting covenent, which I've extended just a little bit: the C with no CCCCC Covenant: - be Considerate, with no Casinos, Clubs, Camping, (huge) Commercial, or other Crap. Simple enough.

I've written before, both here and in the forums, about how a Private Island would be far more flexible for this sort of goal. But, my other goal, to keep it CHEAP, with rent equal to mainland tier alone for 2,048 and/or 4,096 sq m plots, meant that with a private island, I'd require at least 75% occupancy, merely to cover the monthly fees. There's no way I could assure myself that that would be possible. But with a mainland Sim, I could survive at break-even with only 50% occupancy (overlooking the large initial expense though...), but with these drawbacks:

loss of terraforming freedom and unlimited water access
loss of ability to "sell" parcels to individuals (although selling on an Island is just glorified renting)
relying on "groups" to deal with land permissions and parcels
loss of the Estate tools (including monitoring highest lag-offensive scripts and physics)
no control on the visual clutter of what might be placed in adjacent mainland sims

There's a lot of thought I still need to put to this. Maybe a few months from now, this experiment will confirm that I'm a dreamer and a fool. Or, maybe this will become a sanctuary, an oasis, and a retreat that will bring enjoyment and creativity to a small corner of SL. And maybe even serve as a model, of what CAN be done, if people work together.

We shall see.

See http://slged.blogspot.com/2007/03/linji-haven.html for more information.

=====

Some pictures, from a giddy and proud land owner:

heat map, code snippet

2007-03-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted a little code snippet that might be of use to people. (OK, not many people.) But, I wrote a function to simulate a "heat map", to map a number to a color, depending on where it falls in a range.

As mentioned previously, one way to generate a rainbow progression of colors is described here:

What I wanted to do was to write a function so that "big" numbers would yield a red color, which would then progress through yellow, then green, to light blue, to dark blue. In other words, 4 of the 6 segments in the above progression.

The following function "heatMap()" takes 3 input variables: map, min, and max. "Map" is the number you want to heat map. If it's greater than or equal to "max", the color is returned as red. From "max" to "min", the colors progress through yellow, green, light blue, and dark blue. It's a linear function, and a "map" value exactly in the middle of "min" and "max" maps to pure green. "Map" values lower than min return pure blue. It returns a vector that can be used in color-setting functions in LSL.

I used the heatMap() function for color-coding in my avatar radar HUD, so that avatar target radar blips above you were red, those at the same altitude were green, and those below you were blue, all along a spectrum of colors. I found that the color was enough information, and less cluttered than numbers.

Hope you find the function helpful :)

  vector heatMap(float map, float min, float max)
{
 // by Ged Larsen
 // map a float to 4 of 6 segments of a color progression
 //
 // -1 to -0.5    <0,0,1> to <0,1,1>    dark blue to light blue
 // -0.5 to 0    <0,1,1> to <0,1,0>    light blue to green
 // 0 to 0.5        <0,1,0> to <1,1,0>    green to yellow
 // 0.5 to 1        <1,1,0> to <1,0,0>    yellow to red

 float fraction;

 if (map < min) { fraction = -1.0; }
 else if (map > max) { fraction = 1.0; }
 else { fraction = 2.0*map/(max-min)+1.0 - (2.0*max / (max-min)); }

 if ( fraction < -0.5 ) { return <0.0, 2*(fraction+1), 1.0>; }
 else if ( fraction < 0 ) { return <0.0, 1.0, 1.0 - 2.0*(fraction+0.5)>; }
 else if ( fraction < 0.5 ) { return <2.0*fraction, 1.0, 0.0>; }
 else { return <1.0, 1.0 - 2.0*(fraction - 0.5), 0.0>; }
}

The Illusion of Privacy

2007-03-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

Because scripting forces you to understand the "details" of how Second Life works, it sometimes reveals that more is possible than one might previously have thought.

"Privacy" in Second Life is somewhat of an illusion, especially when compared to real life. (Although, privacy in RL is also somewhat illusory as well.)

Most of us know that "talking" in SL can be heard by everybody within ~20 meters or so (and whisper within 10 meters, shout within 100 meters). Most of us also know that even if there are no other avatars within 20 meters, chat still might not be private, if there's a scripted object, a "bug" so to speak, within 20 meters that can "hear" your chat and then either record or relay it (although this is against LL's Terms of Service).

As far as I know, IM's are the only way to communicate privately in SL. There were some forum posts that even suggested that IM's are transmitted to and from the client program encrypted, so even packet sniffers should not easily be able to read chat.

But what about visual privacy? Unlike in RL, with a little facility, SL has camera controls that allow you to look around corners, through walls, etc. By default, this range is limited to about 50 meters, but that's still a lot of freedom. Sensors in SL can detect avatars within 96 meters, so some people think that if there are no other avatars within 96 meters, they have a semblance of "visual privacy."

I learned recently that this, too, is an illusion. It is possible to remove camera distance constraints completely. On quick testing, it seems that you can see anything within the same Sim, regardless of distance. You can also view the terrain / parcel boundaries many Sims away (but apparently not avatars or prims). So, even if there are no avatars within 96 meters, any avatar within the same Sim as you can see anything you are doing.

I think the bottom line is it would be good to assume that privacy (except, as far as we know, private IM's) in SL is purely an illusion.

How did I stumble upon these issues? Well, I've continued to play with my avatar sensor + radar HUD. It evolved because although I love my MystiTool, knowing simply distance to avatars seemed limiting, so I wrote the HUD radar.

But then I thought that only having relative position information was also limiting. If you were trying to find a friend you were following, and had gotten separated, wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a quick glimpse at their surroundings, to try to get oriented?

So, I updated the HUD / AV radar so that if you clicked on an avatar radar "blip", the script would take control of your camera and move it to a few meters from the avatar, pointing at them. Even at this point, the thought about privacy issues made me uncomfortable, so I hard-coded into the script a 5 second maximum "look time". But, this is a purely arbitrary limit.

Of course, I'm always tweaking and experimenting, and trying to see how far I can push something... So, I then learned about movement controls, and looked at some freely available scripts, and found that you could also very easily have the camera respond to your movement controls, to look around. But, I initially hit the 50 meter camera distance limit.

But, then I found that the 50 m limit is also arbitrary, and easily removed it.

Well, now I have an HUD / avatar radar that detects any avatar within 96 meters, allow clicking on a radar blip to move the camera to them, and then freely control the camera at its new position. So much for visual privacy in SL.

I'm sure some people will consider all this essentially public knowledge, but it was a minor revelation to me.

I still want to release my avatar radar HUD, but think it might be best to release it in a crippled form, with only quick-glimpse capability and without camera movement controls. But, it still makes me uncomfortable.

LandScanner v1.0

2007-03-13T06:08:00.000-05:00

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

LSL does NOT support checking to see whether a parcel is for sale, for what price, or allowing automated buying

the "Landbots" that you may have heard of use custom-written clients to access SL

if Linden Labs updates LSL to allow for any of the above issues to be dealt with, LandScanner will be updated and distributed to all purchasers

Island plans shelved for now

2007-03-09T09:31:00.000-05:00

Ah well, there doesn't seem to be enough interest in sharing a private island for me to be able to relatively safely proceed with those plans. No worries -- perhaps some day in the future.

While browsing around though, I did find a really cool looking freeware (Mac) tool, Backhoe. It allows for easy editing of the 13-channel .RAW topography description of private islands. It looks very cool, so maybe I'll play around with it, for use in the future ;)

If the private island project ever did have enough interest, it'd be fun to easily custom-create the terrain, so that everybody involved could have exactly the sort of terrain they'd like. Fun! Doesn't it look cool?

(from Zarf Vantongerloo's Backhoe webpage)

Island dreams, continued

2007-03-06T06:58:00.000-05:00

I'm still dreaming of acquiring an Island, as a shared place to live. The idea is to gather together a group of like-minded individuals in a residential / low-impact commercial environment with no theme, but the general consensus that we would try to all get along, not engaging in activities that impinged on the enjoyment of one another (no major lag-inducers, clubs, casinos, malls, camp chair farms, giant rotating for sale signs, etc).

If enough people could be gathered, I would be willing to pay the upfront costs of acquiring an island, and residents would pay only the equivalent mainland tier prices for 2,048 sq m ($15/month) or 4,096 sq m ($25/month) plots of land.

Here's what the "default islands" look like, from Linden Lab's "Land: Island's" information page. However, the cool thing is that you can custom design every aspect of the island, as well, submitting an appropriately designed terrain file. Still, the default islands are a good place to start:

1) a nice coastline and interesting terrain, but I wonder whether the interior parcels might get a little dull (although they'd have the advantage of altitude)

2) maximizes land available, but is rather dull

3) very promising! the edge parcels having ocean, but the interior ones get a nice lake, as well as what looks like a good amount of terrain variety

4) also nice, with the bays and interesting terrain, but people with parcels on the western edge might not want quite so much water

My personal tastes run towards having access to water, gentle rolling green hills, and perhaps, if possible, a steep drop-off someplace for a bit of a dramatic look.

Although terraforming would be available, it'd be nice if the island started with a general terrain format that would be acceptable enough that terraforming changes would be more "tweaks" and less "drastic," because drastic changes might impact on neighbor's build plans.

Sensors + HUD's: an SL radar

2007-03-05T05:59:00.000-05:00

Despite 2+ months of messing with scripting, I've never written a script that used Sensors or tried my hand at HUD's (heads-up display). Yesterday, I decided to finally give it a shot.

I really like my MystiTool HUD, and it has a very helpful feature of showing all avatars within range, and the distance to them. But, it's still a bit of a hassle when you're trying to find someone, because it doesn't give the direction ( although there is a feature to send particles towards a target).

So, here's my first attempt at an avatar radar:

It basically scans within a specified range for all avatars and then displays their position on a radar-like HUD, in a top-down representation. The wearer of the HUD is in the center of the circle. Avatars that are straight ahead are at a 12 o'clock; behind are at 6 o'clock, etc. If the wearer rotates, the positions of all the target "blips" rotate around the HUD.

I thought it worked out pretty well for a first attempt!

There are a bunch of tweaks I'd like to implement:

take the text height information out of the blips, and change the blips to squares vs. upward and downward pointing triangles to represent targets that are at the same height, above, or below the user
re-scale the HUD. Right now, it's a "linear" scale, just like a normal map. Usually you are most interested in positions of avatars within 20 meters. If they are farther than that, relative position is good enough. So, I'd like most of the HUD area to be used for targets within 20 meters, and then the outermost rim of the HUD to be for all targets from 20 to 96 meters. This should decluster clumping of the avatars, and all the text info.
click on a blip to track ONLY that target (reduces sensor lag, and declutters the screen); click again and show all targets again
when tracking only a single target, display more information about them (perhaps the llRequestAgentData, but that could be a bit slow)
click the HUD to minimize it (get it out of the way), and again to maximize it
it'd be easy to add the option to scan for not just avatars, but physical / non-physical objects, scripted objects, etc.
add in a nifty submarine "ping-ping-PING" sound, as well as the option for sending griefer missiles at the targets (just kidding!)

It also amuses me when instead of wearing it as an HUD, it can be placed on the ground, and you can watch the little green blips moving around. Can anyone say "Mischief managed!" for a Harry Potter-esque Marauder's Map?

Kind of fun to work on something besides LoopRez for a bit!

Land -- wouldn't it be nice...

2007-03-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

Land in Second Life -- it's an interesting situation. Perhaps the best option is to purchase a private island, shared amongst friends. Why?

Well, thanks to a very generous person, I've recently tasted land ownership for the first time. Although I am VERY fond of my 512 sq m plot, the 117 prims allotted are just not enough to comfortably furnish a place to live. Still, I'd like to show off what a few friends and I have done with the place. Here's a pic:

But, now, not surprisingly, I want more space. I've notecarded my 3 adjacent neighbors asking if they might be interested in selling, but no responses thus far. And in the long run, the people in the sim trying to get extortion money with their 16 sq m plots with giant, rotating eyesores will still be there.

I've looked into land for sale elsewhere on the mainland, and even educated myself a bit on how LL land auctions work, for entire Sims as well as parcels. All of which makes me wonder whether the best option is to get together with other like-minded individuals, and going all-out and purchasing a private island.

Rentals I would definitely consider for the short-term, but in the long-term, it doesn't really make financial sense. Owning for long enough should provide savings.

Mainland small parcels

at historical high prices now, generally over L$13 per square meter
historically, just half a year ago, land could be obtained for L$6 / sq m
a "quality" parcel (protected water-front), might run to L$20-30 per square meter; this gets REALLY expensive
at risk of plummeting in value, if the rumors of LL's stepping up sim releases are true
no matter what the neighborhood looks like currently, you might always end up with "land griefers" putting up their ugly signs, or starting up a giant camp-chair driven casino

Mainland entire sim auction purchase

because a quality parcel can run up to L$30 per square meter, I wondered whether a better way to obtain a "quality" parcel might be to purchase an ENTIRE sim at auction, keep the nice parcel for my own use, and then sell off the rest, hoping to not take on too much of a loss (i.e., selling off parcels for L$, and then converting to USD)
the goal would NOT be to become a baby land baron, but merely to acquire the small parcel for a net cost that would be less than trying to purchase it separately
here's how the math sort of worked out:

mainland sims are now being auctioned at ~$3,000+ USD
tier for an entire 65,536 sq m sim for a month $195 USD
exchange fees to recoup L$ to USD transfer 3.5%
current exchange rate ~L$270 per USD
$3,195 USD = L$ 862,650; increase that by 3.5% = L$ 892,842
divide by 65,536 sq m in a Sim, means you'd need to sell the whole thing off at an average of L$ 13.6 per sq m, just to break even

this REALLY makes me respect the Land Barons, who must be working at really slim profit margins (granted, their $195 USD of tier is split amongst many Sims, not just one)
with this tight a margin, I could imagine not being able to sell all of the rest of the Sim, and getting stuck with additional months of tier fees
sounded rather risky
and even if it succeeded, I might end up living next to a giant lag-inducing casino, under a neon sky of rotating porn advertising

Private Island

when mainland sims are auctioning for $3,000+ USD, it starts to make the startup cost of a private island at ~$1,700 sound almost reasonable

also, unlike the current mainland sim auction prices, I'd be really surprised if LL dropped prices of Private Islands, given that they've just recently increased them; this makes it perhaps a bit more stable of an "investment", as its value should not drop precipitously

add that the complete control you have over what types of neighbors will be allowed, and the advantage of increased terraforming flexibility, and it sounds like a better guarantee of long-term pleasant surroundings
however, monthly island fees are $295 USD/month, compared to $195 USD/month for a mainland sim's worth of tier
and, as an island owner, you are left with the bill, no matter what. You can't really "sell" off parts of the island; in the end, the island owner is stuck with the monthly bill.
but it's still an enticing thought. How might this work?

I think the way it could work would be if a group of people with similar overall land desires grouped together and shared an island. Because LL will only recognize one island owner, there has to be somebody willing to take the risk of island ownership.

What I would envision, ideally, would not be a themed community, like the wonderful sims of of Caledon, but more like a Mainland sim where gross inconsideration and eyesores were disallowed. A pseudo-mainland sim, free of ugly signs, laggy casinos, griefers...

So, suppose I was willing to foot the $1,700 bill for a private island, retaining sole ownership of it (seeing as LL only recognizes one island owner)?

And suppose I knew enough people in SL, who felt the same way about just wanting a nice place to live, to rent from me? At a rent enough to offset the monthly $295/month island fee, as well as to slowly offset the $1,700 initial investment?

Mainland tiers: are $15/month for 2,048 sq m; or $25/month for 4,096 sq m. I think many people who want a "nice" place to live are looking at this amount of space.

So, suppose the rent was simply EQUAL to what people would pay in mainland tier:

if there were 32 people renting 2,048 sq m plots at $15/month --> $480 USD/month
if there were 16 people renting 4,096 sq m plots at $25/month --> $400 USD/month

I kind of doubt a private island could be kept at FULL occupancy, and it'd probably be nice to have a nice central plot of public area, so rent income would be less than that. Plus, rent would probably be paid in L$, so there would be the 3.5% fee to convert to USD (which is how LL accepts Island monthly fees).

Anyone renting under what I envision would have all the benefits of Mainland ownership, and more. They would be able to terraform beyond the +/- 4 meters height change. They would not have to pay the purchase price of currently overpriced mainland.

They would live, without the fear of their neighborhood becoming a horrific laggy eyesore. BUT, they would lose freedom -- need to agree to some basic level of covenant.

Covenant would likely be something like:

mixed residential / low impact commercial
play nice
no horrible rotating signs
no maxing out sim capacity with avatars or laggy scripts; i.e.,

no camp chair farms
no very busy clubs / casinos

no terraforming / building heights that would ruin a neighbor's experience

probably some sort of "distance to border" / "height" ratio

With such a vague covenant, this really would depend on people "playing nice" and not trying to abuse the system. As such, it would probably work best with a group of friends, and friends-of-friends, as opposed to bringing together complete strangers.

Anyone else interested?

Comments on LoopRez Deluxe

2007-03-03T07:46:00.000-05:00

This is what makes it all worth it :)

OMG this is a very very big help for rush orders. Typically yes I will take the time to meticulously put each prim in the proper place but sometimes, some jobs don't requre so much detail. I think this is great, Thanks for this great tool - NG
Some days ago I got the LoopRezzer - its a wonderfull tool ,never made a skirt easy like this. -UD
Your free version of this little gem was great this was even better. I was hunt for something that free me up from the tedious task of tweaking numbers and let me get to the core of designing, this dose the trick. I foucs on texturing my strength and do on the fly adjustment much as would as if I were really sewing with real fabric. (I am master level costume designer in RL) -Q
I just purchased this item and I have to say I'm very excited about it's ease of use and how quickly you can make a prim skirt! I look forward to a full wardwrobe!!
Thanks for making something so very helpful!!! - anonymous
great working tool,and at half the price of other's that do the same exact thing.....a bargain.Many thanks for making this tool. - KA
This product is an absolute MUST for dress/clothes makers.
I have arthritis & it helps me immensley.
Not so much fiddling about. I can now concentrate on making good clothes in great time.
Thanx so much Ged for coming up with this fantastic gadget :) - BS
I bought this item on about February 15, 2007 for about L$2200. I actually already had another prim skirt maker, which is quite good, that cost more than twice as much as the LoopRez. I like the LoopRez better. The first advantage of the the LoopRez is that it has copy permission so I'm not nervous all the time about the possibility of accidentally deleting it or messing it up. Also I find that the center ball makes it easier to adjust a skirt properly on an avatar. The the Parameter Template DropScript works great too. I'm very pleased with the skirts I've made using this tool. I recommend it for making prim skirts. -KK
This is a must-have product for the beginning dressmaker, and even for experienced dressmakers.

I'd previously tried the ###### and been dissatisfied with it's functionality, so was hesitant to buy another product. But, after trying the personal version, I was completely sold on this script and invested in the commercial version.

Even if you like to modify your skirts afterward (which isn't necessarily a requirement when using this product), the LoopRez Deluxe will save you hours of time creating your baseline skirt.

Thank you for taking the time to create this product, and for making it so flexible and easy to use!! -RD
I just bought your LoopRezDeluxe, and I just want to say that I love it. You're a true genius! ;) -SS
Hello Ged, I just bought your LoopRez Deluxe and I love it -NS
I am very sorry to bother you with a direct IM , but I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the LoopRez Generator , its a fantastic invention :-) Thank you very much. -ID
I just had to tell you thank you for making the Looprez deluxe commercial. it is so cool. I hope you continue to make more cool items. thank you again. -KS
Hey, it's cool, hon! I just got the LoopRez Deluxe yesterday, and for the first time, I've been able to make clothes! -LC
From a happy customer: Thank you ever so much for developing the Free LoopRez script. I've played about with it, and loved it. It made my life so much easier in SL! You made my day when I discovered it. I've treated myself to your commercial edition and I look forward to having lots of fun with it. Thanks again! -UP
thanks for making such a wonderfully useful script! - RH
Ged, your device is simply fantastic. I picked it up today and have been tinkering to get the hang of it. Having made panel skirts 'by hand' before I nearly fell off my chair when I saw there was a way to automate the process! Thank you so much! -MC
I'd like to ... thank you so much for proceeding with your plans and releasing the LoopRez Deluxe. As an owner of both products now, I can say with all honesty that there simply aren't any improvements to your product that could be suggested based on his. The LoopRez is far superior in every way. - BD
I love your LoopRez!!!! I just took the class on it - IE
I just wanted to stop by and say "Thank You!" for your looprez script. Really, you cannot imagine how tedious making a flexidress was before this. - VT

(If anybody does NOT want me to share their comments with others, let me know, and I'll happily remove it.)

New LSL commands for setting linked prim parameters

2007-02-28T04:49:00.000-05:00

Things that make script geeks happy -- I came across this in the forums:

New LSL Commands in 1.13.4 (posted by Milo Linden)

These seem to have slipped from the release notes, but i know quite a few have been looking forward to these.

Currently on the aditi beta grid.

llSetLinkTexture(integer link_pos, string texture, integer face)
Sets the texture of face for link_pos

llSetLinkPrimitiveParams(integer linknumber, list rules)
Set primitive parameters for linknumber based on rules.

Each with a 0.2 second sleep and rules as per their non link counterpart.

What does it mean? It will make life SO much easier to pass prim parameter information between linked sets. Faster too. And, reduce memory requirements. The SkirtProgrammer should become MUCH easier to extend to modify anything.

It's not slated for release for a few months, but it will be very welcome when it arrives!

First Land, and good people

2007-02-21T18:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, without any warning, Linden Labs announced the end of the First Land program. It was a bit disappointing, because I had actually upgraded to a Premium account just 7 or 8 days prior, in the hopes of someday acquiring a little parcel to call my own. I was going to write what I think of Linden Labs, but...

... instead, I'll just publicly thank some people, who will remain nameless. But you know who you are!

Thank you to the decent human being who had a parcel of First Land of her own that she no longer needed, and felt badly about what Linden Labs had done. She wanted to find someone to sell it to, at the far-below-market value of L$1 per square meter. Totally understandably, she didn't want to "give" it away to someone who would immediately resell it for a 10-fold profit. That's not what First Land was meant for.

Thanks to a friend who knew of my disappointment about First Land, for remembering me, and for connecting us.

It's silly, but it was such an exciting moment when I went to that parcel, and clicked Buy for L$512 and... I was a landowner! Sure it's not much, but it's a place to call home (and was immediately set as my new home location, LOL).

Really, it reaffirms my belief that there really are good, decent people out there, who choose to do something nice for essentially a random stranger, rather than to make a profit. Thanks again. I only wish that all the other Premium members who just wanted a little place to call their own, could also have been as fortunate as I.

Time to try my hand at writing a "scene rezzer", to make the most of this little plot :)

Incredible texture work, offline to SL

2007-02-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

Holy bajeezus, but it's really impressive what some people can accomplish with texture work, using 3-D ray tracing.

By creating textures off-line and simulating light and shadows, Johanna Hyacinth has really impressive "before" and "after" views of a lecture hall she designed for Rockcliffe University in Second Life. I just love the way the corners of the rooms get dark, and how the shadows fall under the chairs. Very much worth taking a peek at.

I hope she doesn't mind that I'll post two thumbnails here...

"Smoke" texture and subtle permissions problems, crud crud crud

2007-02-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

The "Edit Linked Part" feature of the newly released LoopRez Deluxe v0.8 had a critical failure with textures, with the "Smoke" texture being substituted. This is due to the inconsistent and flawed permissions system on SL, and was missed because it was not apparent to me, because I had full permissions on all objects during testing.

I released a version 0.81 fix for both the Commercial and Personal editions.

Commercial Edition has full functionality restored.
Personal Edition can still do the "Edit Linked Parts" --> "Touch" to update skirt, but textures will not be propagated. All other prim parameters will be sent to the rest of the skirt. I'm sorry that I was not able to keep ALL features identical between Personal and Commercial Editions
the Template DropScript can still be used with both versions, to send texture information

Technical explanation: inconsistencies / holes in the SL Permissions system:

Users should be aware that a serious hole in the SL permissions system is that any object, even if "NO COPY / NO TRANSFER" can be physically copied, if they are "MOD"-able.

The way it works is that you write a script that reads off ALL the prim parameter settings of an object and reports them, and then you drop it into the "MOD / NO COPY / NO TRANSFER" object. With the prim parameter settings, you can recreate the object, and you could have another prim "listen" to this report of settings, and duplicate the object.

This has been known a long time, and caused quite an outcry when the technically excellent and ethically conscientious scripter Jeffrey Gomez released an incredibly helpful tool, that as a side-effect, revealed more publicly the already-present and known-to-some short-coming in the SL permissions system. He tried to work with LL to close this permissions hole, but LL was not interested. He tried to release an entire LSL-based system to close the hole, and was attacked by the user community.

So, the hole remains. As you might have guessed, the way the DropScript works is by reporting all prim parameters to the LoopRez object. It could copy objects that are NO COPY / NO TRANSFER, except that I coded it so that it checks permissions and refuses to run, unless FULL perms are present. I have no wish to be attacked the way Jeffrey Gomez was.

There was a time when even textures could be copied in this way; however, LL did patch the permissions system so that texture UUID's can not be read unless full permissions are present, while other prim parameters CAN be read. I was aware of this, and figured that would not be a problem, because I warned LoopRez Deluxe users that they would need full permissions on any template prims.

Here's the subtle problem that I missed: if an object that you have FULL permissions to is linked to an object that you do NOT have full permissions to, you will not even be able to read the texture UUID of the object that you DO have full permissions to.

And, when you try to read a texture UUID that you're not allowed to, it returns the NULL_KEY (all 0's). And when you try to set a texture with NULL_KEY, you get... the "Smoke" texture.

The Commercial Edition fix was easy -- the Little Metal Ball is now full permissions. Early testers of the latest version of LoopRez Deluxe sometimes had a metal ball that was full permissions, sometimes not, which is why the problem seemed unpredictable and intermittent.

The Personal Edition can NOT be fixed, because the panels are all NO TRANSFER (by definition of the Personal Edition.) You can still do the "Edit Linked Parts", but I edited the script so it would not try to read the textures (because it can't). Textures can still be read by the DropScript, because it is dropped onto an unlinked prim which you have full permissions on.

I apologize to all LoopRez Deluxe users who received this product with the "Edit Linked Parts" initially not working.

Varying skirt pleat lengths (and colors) -- skirt scripting language?

2007-02-11T18:59:00.000-05:00

Voila, the ugliest skirt in existence!

One of the things about LoopRez is that it generates skirts where all the panels are essentially the same -- same color, same length -- just varying in position and rotation in space. Varying the length can give a much more interesting effect. One of my favorites is Natalia Zelmanov's formal gown.

When LoopRez was modified to have a "BACKANGLE" setting, where the back panels can have a different amount of flare angle compared to the front of the skirt, I started thinking that it ought to be possible to do more with varying each panel.

I experimented with a rather extreme case of varying textures across the panels, by tiling a texture completely around the skirt. This worked, but had to be hand-coded, adjusting the script for the specific skirt size and texture. This wouldn't be terribly accessible to the general public.

So, what about varying lengths (and colors) across skirt pleats, but making it more usable to the general public? I've been thinking about this for a while now, and even mentioned it a little while back. Well, in the past few days, I wrote my first notecard reader (for product updates, actually), but realized that a notecard might be a way for a skirt designer to tell LoopRez what they wanted in varying lengths.

Here's what I've come up with -- the LoopRez Skirt Programmer

there are 360 degrees in a circle: moving counter-clockwise looking down on a skirt,

0 degrees is the front of your skirt;
90 degrees is your left side;
180 degrees is the back;
270 degrees is the right side; and
360 degrees is the front again

prim sizes are described (in the Edit Menu and in scripts) as three numbers <x,y,z>, a vector. Generally, the Z size is the length of a skirt, depending on how you rotated your prim
I create a notecard, and consisting of some lines that describe the lengths at various "degree positions" on a skirt. Here's an example:
TYPE~SIZE 0~<0.2, 0.2, 0.2> 30~<0.2, 0.2, 0.3> 60~<0.2, 0.2, 1.0> 300~<0.2, 0.2, 1.0> 330~<0.2, 0.2, 0.3> 360~<0.2, 0.2, 0.2>
The first line tells my script that you want to vary the size. Notice that X and Y are always 0.2 -- those sizes don't vary. Notice that Z, however, varies from short (0.2 m) at the front of the skirt, a little longer (0.3 m) at 30 degrees, and full length (1.0 m) for all the degree range from 60 degrees to 300 degrees, then symmetrically back to 0.3 and 0.2 meters as you come around the front-right of the skirt again.

This is what it looks like.

IMPORTANT: there's been some confusion about when to use the SkirtProgrammer. Essentially, what you need to do is ALL the things to generate a skirt, and THEN run the /1 PROGRAM command. The Skirt Programmer works on a skirt that has already been rezzed, but NOT yet completed with the /1 DONE command.

Start with a default 30 panel LoopRez skirt:

After dropping the above notecard (named "skirt open front") onto the LoopRez central little Metal Ball, and typing "/1 PROGRAM skirt open front", the panel sizes get adjusted to look like this (no adjustments needed for position or rotation, so it took just a few seconds to go from the first picture to this one):

Well, it turns out that like sizes, colors are also described in SL by 3 value vectors, <RED, GREEN, BLUE>, with values ranging from 0 to 1 for each color. So, it wasn't hard to write the script to vary colors as well. I don't remember exactly what the Notecard contained, but it was probably something like:

TYPE~COLOR 0~<1,0,0> 180~<0,0,0> 360~<1,0,0>

In other words, pure bright red at 0 degrees (the front), varying to no color (black) at 180 degrees (the back), and then back to bright red at 360 degrees (the front) again. Here's how it looks:
Notice that the short panels stick out a bit. Bah... I think that has to do with the flexi settings -- a short panel doesn't have as much "gravity" pulling it down. So, perhaps some small amount of manual tweaking might actually be helpful.

Ever wonder how to generate a rainbow in RGB space? No? Well I did, and I found one way here:
It ends up being a progression of 6 segments, varying the amount of red, green, and blue. So, why not try to write a Skirt Progammer notecard ("skirt rainbow") that varies RGB in this progression? It looked like this (I added in comments for description):

TYPE~COLOR 0~<1,0,0> // pure red 60~<1,1,0> // red + green 120~<0,1,0> // pure green 180~<0,1,1> // green + blue 240~<0,0,1> // pure blue 300~<1,0,1> // red + blue 360~<1,0,0> // back to pure red

There are 6 segments in the progression, so I divided the 360 degrees of a circle, to get 60 degree increments around the skirt. After typing "/1 PROGRAM skirt rainbow", the result makes me think of 60's tie-dye hippiedom:

To adjust 30 panels manually to get a smooth rainbow gradient would have been rather tedious. To run it with the Script Programmer took a few seconds. Fun!

Granted, the skirt is ugly enough to make a real SL fashion designer want to claw their eyes out, but hey, I just make the tools -- it's up to them to make beautiful things with them.

Comments? What do you think?

Catherine Moody, Live at the Acropolis

2007-02-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Catherine Moody, on her two-hour debut concert at the Acropolis Stadium. It was a spectacular program, consisting of:

Schubert: Valses sentimentales nos. 1-5
Mozart: Sonata in F major K332, 1st movement
Brahms: Intermezzo in E flat “Shepherd's Lullaby”
Chopin: Études op. 25 no. 1 "Harp", op. 10 no. 3 “Tristesse”, op. 10 no. 8
Bach: Prelude in B minor from "The Well-Tempered Clavier”, Book II
Beethoven: Sonata no. 27 in E minor

1. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck (“With vivacity, and with sentiment and expressivity throughout”)

2. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen (“Not too fast, and highly lyrical”)

Liszt: Harmonies du soir "Evening harmonies"

- Intermission -

Selected compositions by Catherine Moody's real life alter ego (1981-present)

I. Prelude (2003)

II. Childhood innocence: Budgerigars, Opus Two, Sketch in G (1988-1990)
III. Studies in classical form: Sonatina (1995), Étude (1998)
IV. Sentimental miniatures: Dreams of Bygone Days, Valse Mélancolique, Reality and Fantasy (1995-1996)
V. Trials and tribulations: Sonata in Bb minor—1. Funeral March (1995), 2. Adagio (2006); Despair (1999); Waltz “In Your Absence” (2003)
VI. Contemplation no. 3 “Prayer for the unfortunate” (2003)

I believe the audio stream peaked at around 50 unique listeners! I'm really looking forward to hearing more of Catherine Moody in the future. :)

For me, the concert was enhanced by the presence of the lovely ladies Miss Virrginia Tombola...
... Rhetorica Acronym, and Johanna Hyacinth.

Why am I posting pictures? Because I get out so infrequently, that the sheer novelty of seeing other avatars forced me to take snapshots :)