Tutorial Zone complete?
…so I got to thinking about the overall “sense” of the tutorial zone – never a good thing when I have lots of other things to do, but the new procrastination plugin kicked in and I ignored my streaming head cold symptoms and began tweaking…
Object market re-worked
It seemed to me that the tutorial “shells” were facing the wrong way (they faced the road and had their backs on the internal lawn area) – by rotating them 180 (and re-arranging the foliage) it feels a lot more inclusive, like the tutes and the object market relate to each other – they are ALL about the art of building so that was settled (at least in my own fevered brain).
I added a campfire talk circle, with a “cone of silence” around it so private group discussions can go on there, re-jigged the guided tour a little so it made sense and I think I am pretty well done here.
Tut Zone overview
Looking at it from above, it looks like there is very little here, but I know how long it has taken me to make, and feel pretty proud of it.
In the one compact u-shaped area we learn how to make, move, rotate, scale, colour, texture, script and select objects, how to film them afterwards and share our plans for doing so – nice, compact, accessible and … yeah, I know, talking to myself, you get that.
What is missing? Suggestions gratefully received.
…iObject 0.9b
…so we had an immediate need to provide an in-world object catalog for builders, and the conventional “object yard” is not something I want to so, so we are looking into database solutions
Object Mart
For weeks, LP staff popped objects and screen captured images, carefully naming them. I then (laboriously) categorised them and eliminated duplicated (historical collections of objects had spawned many copies), creating a categorised collection of objects.
Info Panel closeup
To provide punters with an idea what the category is all about, I included some screenies of typical assortments. Each panel links to the category in the in-world browser also, which is sort of cool. Not sure if there is a simpler/more intuitive way to do this but I think this approach should work.
Catalog in-world
I used a gallery script that automatically creates thumbnail-index framesets from a folder of images, and this will later morph into the consultant-built database solution (after I can convince someone to do the data entry).
Next up a couple of panels on builder work-flow and they should be away.
…in the ‘burbs
So we are heading to the part in the project where cybernauts apply what they have learned and build a sustainable eco-friendly building, then film a guided tour of it, explaining what they have decided, and why.
Obscura is the building planet, and I spent the weekend carving up the eastern districts into sections:
Plan of attack
I decided on “cul-de-sacs” instead of carving it up into tiny boxes – having cybernauts building beside each other is deliberate – negotiating space and collaborating is a mandatory and significant aspect of this experience so making them build adjacent to each should be fun. Residents will eventually be listed as hot-spots on this map for easier navigation.
Sign-posts show the way
Finding your way around this huge area is a nightmare. I am devising a nomenclature for naming roads and arterials, I think the actual cul-de-sacs will be named after the actual builders – we shall see.
I had to expand the ‘thopter bay so cybernauts could use personal transport devices to get places without the hassle of all that walking or flying
Thopters for getting around
So we have the beginnings of a place to bild, large scale – cybernauts have to submit their designs first. The theory is that if they have to plan and justify their decisions before they construct, the buildings will be better thought out … well that is the theory at least.
Roads, areas and empty space
…oh give me land, lots of land under starry skies above – don’t fence me in. Looking forward to see how it shapes up, we have some talented builders so it should be interesting.
The Show Must Go On …
…Sci Prime Science Mountain needed a presentation/conference centre.
Theater Entrance
Given it was a yukky weekend, I decided time was right to make it: enter The Double-Helix Theater.
Auditorium from stage
…so there is this big underground cavern, right? Well, now it dips below the existing floor level (some 8m or so) with raked seating (had to leave enough room to sit and have legs dangle) and stairways up/down strategically located. The stage is a full size stage, with wings, flies and a cyclorama
Stage, proscenium, wings, flys, cyclorama
Like all large venues I also have large screens to display stuff, will see if I can get a camera to feed to it so the audience can see 3 separate views of the stage action.
Waiting nervously in the wings
After talking with Caff, I got a picture of a proposed (fait accompli?) development at her asylum that would be useful as a theater space (only to learn that them knobbled it through poor decision making long before someone who knew what they wanted got involved) – this is a vision of what that space could have been.
I added a lighting grid (well, actually just one bar), attached some coloured spotlights to it and focussed them on stage:
Lighting Grid and Lectern
A few hidden objects as light sources, and presto – a stage space created, a star is born. The sight lines here are actually not too bad – so long as punters sit in designated seats, then action on stage is visible in a controlled way:
Seats, house lights go down ...
I made a squashed spherical seat cushion, positioned them to face the stage and turned them into immobile movers (remember the trick to making seats) so every seat in the house is a good one. We now have a conference venue, large space for guest speakers, dance hall … whatever.
There is plenty of floor space for static displays and a suitably flexible stage for virtual dramas – fairly happy with it all up – nice when a vision in your head matches the final product almost exactly – I hope that is because I am getting better at making things, and not that I dumb down my ideas to suit the tools I know how to use.
Just follow the script …
A tutorial that seems to be taking time is one involving object scripting … what to showcase?
I thought providing practical applications of scripts were a plan, so set about to put in things that are controlled by scripts that do stuff that might be useful.
remember to close the door
Doors, using a controlled, rotation, triggered by a click (or activate)
activate rotate 0 20 0 nosync time=1 wait=2 global
meaning, when you click on it, rotate about the Y axis at a speed of 20 (-20 to open in the reverse direction) for 1 second, wait open for 2 seconds then close; global means all can see it, not just the clickee.
transport portals
A cute set of “stargates” – one warps to the other, the other teleports – both use the “bump” event (ie. when you run into the non-solid blue twirly thing the action is applied)
create rotate 0 0 -6, solid off; bump warp 3.51N 9.06E 0.03a 14
…meaning when the blue swirly thing first appears, it is rotating around the Z axis, making a nice whirlpool thingy; it can be walked through; when someone bumps into it you warp (walk in fast motion) to the named coordinate – easy. The only real difference between point A and point B is the warp/teleport command word and the coordinates.
a little rock and roll
I recycled the rockshop sample lab (from Q2 – made a looooong time ago) into a percussion lab using activated noises
create light color=blue brightness=1 fx=fire; activate noise http://myworld.eq.edu.au/media/biggestbassdrumopen.wav overlap
…meaning, when the rock is first rezzed, it sheds blue firelight; when you click on it it triggers a sample that allows other samples to play over it. nice.
dancing dave
Next a little free-play pitch, roll and yaw, with some uppey-downey motion thrown in – the aim here – I name the lego dude and then the scripts inside each clickable sign reach out and effect that named object:
activate move 0 1 0 name=bob loop wait=0
which means move in the Y axis a thing called bob, do not wait but keep moving it back and forth – bob bobs up and down, the others apply a rotation in the named axes.
next … a particle lab I think.
