Main Store is moved (again)

Ok, the store place changed a bit, something about 100m from the older place. The new place is:


http://slurl.com/secondlife/2RAW EXTREME/152/82/121

The new location is not completelly set up, but registered in the shop list already.

Greetings
Jenna

Edit (30.10.2010): The sim was moved yesterday and the location is now updated again.

Main store is moved

Bad news or good news? Rather both.

The sim where my main shop was located changed the owner, and the new owners decided they not plan shops in near future. They want a medieval sim, and the new concept sounds even interesting, but this means for me, the main store will move out. Well, who ever has been there once, will chuckle if i call it so, but this was the only place with an inworld product updater, so, let's call it main store. This is how it was looking:

Just a post

Hello again

Someone asked me. So this is the answer:

Make this script:

default {
    state_entry() {
        llDialog(llGetOwner(), ".", ["."], 100);
    }
}

And the result looks like that::

Regards :)

Money hacking in Second Life (case study)

Yesterday i was told about a program that allows the user to kinda upload money while the program is hacking into LL servers. There is even a vidio in YouTube that introduces the program. The user sumply starts the program, enters their SL account data and a desired amount of money. 5 minutes after klicking a button the user is receiving the money. Nice idea.

Can it really work? I really hope it can not. Otherwise we are really in trouble. I do not give the link to the program as there is another one i found in few minutes. I'd like to discuss if such program can work in general. I do see three cases here: The program does not work at all, the program works as expected, and the program works but not as the user expects.

Let's start with the simplest case: The program does not work. It has simply text fields to enter data and a few buttons, and plays perhaps some music or a video. Even if the user paid for the download, this case is the best what the user and the rest of SL can hapen. Why? Just look at other cases.

how fast is llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast

As noticed before, the new server version knows an interesting function, llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast. This fnction should set parameters of other prims in linkset delay-free. This is important for the new design of the SDKs, and makes interesting to measure how fast this function realy works.

The idea of how to test that is simple: Call the function multiple times and measure how long the bunch of calls took. Additionally, observing the linkset while the test is running would give also the feeling of the function speed. The test script should also call the function llSetLinkPrimitiveParams for reference test: this function does the same work but has build-in delays. This will be our test script:

MACS processor templates

If you wonder what i am doing all the time, promissing much and nothing changes to MACS and other products since weeks... Many things changed in background. Everyone has RL that comes first, somehow *smile*, but to stay in SL, the servers came to version 1.38 schakling the concept of the TASC SDK. And i got an idea how to make further SDKs easier and faster, also for the future SDK creators. To make it short, I am building and planing to release so-called SDK templates. They will be four:

Second Life Server 1.38

So new it is not really, almost a month ago Linden Labs updated the sim servers to the 1.38 version: The pilot was at 30 march and there are plans for the 1.40 already. But let's look at the 1.38 first. The release notes you find here. A few changes, but actually this server means a generation change for a number of scripts found around SL. If even not to say a little revolution as those few things change much.

Actual shop places

Well, there is nothing yet that would really fit into main store concept, just a number of places keeping the vendors (there are also two for the regular and backup servers, but it is another story). Since the vendor locations change sometimes, i think it is a good idea to provide a list of their actual locations. So here we go

• http://slurl.com/secondlife/2RAW EXTREME/152/82/121 - The new 'main store', with two vendors, separatelly for products and freebies and also the inworld update server.
• http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lost Dreams/172/117/22 - Endora friend's Shop. Adult flagged but mature setted sim.

Greeting
Jenna

Extended preprocessor script

The simple preprocessor script works fine, but for concrete project it does too much... and too less. What is too much? Rescalling any hair prim sepratelly will easilly destroy the hair style. Also the flower looks mostly odd if rescaled alone. The processor system must just rescale the whole hairinclusive the flower at once.

What is too less? Well, we made use of the letter 'S' in TASC (the preprocessor sends the scale commands) but there are also 'A' and 'C' for alpha and color, we could use, namelly hiding the flower and changing its color would be a nice improvement. In this post we imporve the preprocessor script's abilities but in a way it remains easy adaptable to other concrete projects.

Generic preprocessor in use

Now the second step, equiping of the real attachments with TASC processor and preporocessor generically. We want to use the script system instead of common resizers. There are two sorts of attachments where that resizers are known to produce lag, the boots and hair styles. Reason: Those attachments are prim-intensive and as the resizer script must reside in each prim, the solutions are also script-intensive. To avoid that problem the resizer script must offer their removal possibility, and some versions actually do.

But back to topic. We want test the TASC processor system in practice. To do that we link two attachments to a single atached object and teach the processor system to handle individually the prims that belong prevously to each attachment.

Simple MACS preprocessor script

I stated in the last post, the processor script of the SDK is able to replace the commonly used resizer scripts and even allow much more usefull stuff with attachments for instance. Now its time to proove it was a true statement and no hot air. This mission will go in three steps:

TASC SDK released stand-alone

Ok, i planded equiping street lamps with MACS but life goes strange ways. No street lamps this time but something not less interesting. I released the TASC SDK as stand-alone product. What that means? The SDK was meant to use MACS as lower layer and not to run without it. This has changed now. The SDK needs verry less from MACS and has too much own power, so it seems to be a wise step.

Updaters temporary moved

I am in vendor changing process right now. To be exact it started at christmas last year, as i needed a vendor with a gift purchasing and networking ability. I took than a commonly used system. But it is known to be laggy, so i choosed another one last week, also a vending system in commonly use. For politeness I'll not say which systems that are: It is stil temporary, the final system will come somewhen next month.

Well, what about the updaters now

MACS, Part 5.3 - Extended control HUD

Last time we build a simple hud for our shoes. This time we will extend it by some more usefull features. The extension will take again several steps.

Step 1: Planing the hud extensions

• We add a collapsing feature by using another hud base. It has also an advantage to remember it's position for every onscreen attachment point
• By now we have three color libraries of 5 colors each, each changes color of just one element, the diamond, upper and lower base sides. Instead, we will use a color library of 20 colors, a HLS and a gray scale color pikers
• We will use a command module to decide if the color libraries and pikers change the colors of diamonds or base sides, so we do not need that color modules three time
• We add two buttons that remove or reinstall the processor scripts. The shoes have not many prims, but even removing of 30 scripts saves sim resources and we also will learn on this example how to do in other, more prim-intensive projects

MACS, Part 5.2 - Simple control HUD

Yesterday, in prevous post we equiped a pair of shoes with the connector script (core of the MACS) and processor scripts. By now nothing has changed, we can not even click the shoes to shrink or enlarge them or change the style. This is all correct, we need a remote control device to do that. We will now make a hud to perform all planed tasks.

Our challenge is: We will make that hud from control modules out of the SDK package, we will have to arrange the modules to configure them and perhaps do some reshaping, but we will not write any line of LSL code. We even do not know what LSL is.

MACS, Part 5.1 - Structuring the controlled device

As next we start with the unit under control. We must know what we want to change on it and group it's prims in accordance to this tasks. For the modell i selected a pair of pretty shoes, that i have with modify permissions in my inventory. They are pretty and simple but complex enough to let me to introduce all necessary tricks in configuring the controlled units.

Picture1, the modell: "Black&GoldShoe" 
by LittleMiss Independent

Step 1: Planing the actions

MACS, Part 4 - System core security

Now we talk about the security of the system core. System core is the part, connecting both, the control system and the system under control, the architecture picture again:



The system allows to use multiple control systems or systems under control in same connection. Usually there is a single device controlling multiple devices. We just keep that in mind by talking about one control and controlled system.

MACS, Part 3 - System Development Kit, messages

The MACS SDK is a special solution, based on MACS witch control of attachments in mind, especially resizing, recoloring and retexturing them. The SDK contains off a single processor script running inside the prims of the device under control and a number of modules for building the ontrol device.

The processor determines a syntax of commands the control modules send and it can execute. Understanding of this syntax and how the processor works is essential for building the control device. In this post we handle the processor commands after a brief introducing how to message under MACS in common.

MACS, Part 2 - Design and global architecture

Next picture displays the architecture and communication protocolls of MACS. We can figure three parts: The system core, the control unit and the unit under control.


The global structure

The system core is build off the controler and connector scripts which actually are parts of the control unit and the unit under control. This way the systm core is able to open a communication channel betweem both units.

MACS, Part 1 - Introduction and requirements

Hello again. This tends to be a long post, for that i plan to separate it into smaller parts. What is MACS? MACS its not a coulpe of computers, but something i called "Multi Attachment Control System". This post will work like a table of contents. Posts that are about the system wil be linked here. For now, I'd set three milestones:

First the theory: About the system itself

• Introduction and requirements (this post)
• Design and global architecture
• System Development Kit
• System core security
  

Than we use it to make a real application, bu using the supplied core system and SDK

• Structuring the controlled device
• Simple control HUD
• Extended control HUD

The SDK was released  stand-alone. Next three tutorials show how to use it also without MACS. You need a preprocessor script to do that.

• Simple preprocessor script
• Using the preprocessor script
• Extended preprocessor script

Finally we extend the MACS system

• Writing processors
• Writing controllers
  

Now, let's start...

Avatar Touch Sensors

Abstract

The Task of Avatar Touch Sensors is to report the avatar user if avatar attachments were touched, for a cat avar for example this means if anybody has touched the fur, for a robot, if anyone touched its body part. Admitelly, the name sounds something like fumbling, but more clean than "Attachment touch sensors"

The first release of ATS was for cat avatars. Dog and than Universal editions follow. Last week, after more than a year of the product story, i decided to merge them all to one edition. The reason to do so is very simple: All three editions are not diferent enough to make me pay listing fee for each of them.

Now what is this tutorial about? To show the ATS in action, we will extend with it my cat pet avatar, found at XStreetSL.

Plans for XStreetSL

Hello once again

XStreetSL is a number of web services for SL creatives. Most used and important service of XStreetSL is listing of their products, allowing SL residents to buy stuff for SL via web interface, even not being logged into SL. Perhaps you know already, LL (owner of XStreetSL) plans to change how the products on it will be charged. Here is a good overview.

Updates 23.02.2009

Now my 'roling update' is closed, all products are actualized. This post should give an overwiew about products and their versions. Moost of them are just remaking of the product boxes, but later more about.