Author: Otenth

Posted on

Torley’s tips weeks 4 and 5

Tip of the week #4: How to use beacons and highlighs

General tip

When you are in a menu with a ========= at the top, you can tear it off into its own movable window.

Beacons and highlights

The various beacons (3-D cross-hairs) appear under view menu; these will help you find specific kinds of objects (including griefing objects that are spewing particles).

When you turn on the highlight beacons under the view menu, you won’t see any change on the screen unless you are in the edit mode, or use View > Beacons Always ON

Types of objects:

  • scripted items with touch only: red beacon (shows only scripted objects that activate when touched)
  • items with scripts in them (shows ALL scripted objects)
  • physical objects: green beacon
  • sound sources: yellow beacon (show whenever the sound is playing)
  • particle sources: blue beacon

Highlights are an alternative to beacons, makes objects slightly red (but not sound sources). You can use either or both.

In Edit > Preferences > Graphics you can change the width of the beacon (currently only up to 10).

When you turn on beacons, in the lower right corner of the viewer there will be a list of the beacons that are currently on.

Dealing with griefing objects

You can hide particles several ways: In the View menu, click “Hide Particles”, in the Client menu > Rendering > Types > Particles (CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-=, CMD-OPT-SHIFT-= on Mac). [Torley didn’t mention it, but you can also turn particles to 0 in your preferences.]

If an object is spamming particles, use the View menu to turn on the beacons for particle sources while hiding particles, and you will more easily find the griefing object and can return it to owner (assuming you are on land where you have the power to do that).

Tip of the week #5: Useful “Show” options in the Tool menu

General Tip

World > Force Sun > is a local effect. You can set the sun on your viewer to Sunrise, Noon, Sunset, or Midnight. No one else will see this change in the lighting.

Show Hidden Selection

Create a cube as an example (easier to see if you blank the texture and make it gray).

When editing, a yellow glow shows the edges of objects. “Show Hidden Selection” will show all the edges, even the ones inside the object or on the back.

Show Light Radius for Selection

When editing an object you can make it into a light source in the Features tab (check the box); you can also choose the color of the light and three other variables.

To see the effect of making an object a light source, you must be using Nearby Local Lights in Preferences > Advanced Graphics (whether you can see this depends on your computer’s graphics card). It’s easier to see if you use World > Force Sun > Midnight.

Show light radius for selection shows you the sphere where the light will reach (the actual effect is affected by falloff).

You can also select objects owned by other people to see the light radius.

Show Selection Beam

Default is on; these are the dots that appear between you and objects you are editing. These dots are a particle effect, and you can change the dots’ color in Preferences > General > Color For My Effects. This is a viewer-side control: Disabling it will hide everyone’s beams on your screen but everyone else will still see your beam if they still have it enabled.

Posted on

Photo shoot

In order to complete my host profile for Radio Riel, I did a photo shoot of myself the other day. Here are a few of the results, all taken in Ormsby Hall on Little West Sniggery island in Caledon Murdann.

This is the image I chose for the Radio Riel profile (click for larger version):

I think this one is rather romantic and melancholy at the same time (click for larger version):

Posted on

A hot time in Carntaigh

Tonight’s DJ for Gen-X with Gabi was Miss Mitsu Figaro. No, the music wasn’t Gen-X. No, it wasn’t with Gabi. But it was a hot time, nonetheless.

I think we made Miss Qlippothic Projects, Fire Chief of Caledon, more than a little nervous:

Posted on

Dancing to open a museum

Please help celebrate the opening of the Eulalie Mackechnie Farquhar Memorial Art Museum in Wyre on Tuesday, September 18, from 5 to 7 PM SLT.

Eulalie Mackechnie Farquhar was the paternal grandmother of Hermione Fussbudget, Baroness Wyre. The inaugural exhibit will feature photographs taken in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Liz Augustine. The museum is adjacent to the fine dance floor in the Wyre fairgrounds. Music will be provided by Radio Riel DJ Diamanda Gustafson, playing her signature mix of “bagpipes and rock.”

Posted on

Buggy (?) races in Murdann

The buggy races in Caledon Murdann ended up a success&emdash;although less for the buggy part than for the race (and silliness) part.

Miss Diamanda Gustafson and I took a couple of turns, first she in a Stanhope carriage by Miss Virrginia Tombola and I in a carriage from AKK. The Stanhope left the AKK so far in the dust that Miss Gustafson declared it an unfair win. We tried it again in matched Stanhopes, and this time she was not only the clear, but also the fair winner.

And then the silliness began, as more people were able to make it. First there was Miss Autopilotpatty Poppy’s seahorse carriage, which was, sadly, even slower than the AKK though quite as stylish and not a little spectacular.

At some point a Ford-style vehicle (a freebie by Aimee Weber) was added to the mix, and before long everyone had one.

Miss Gustafson

Lord Primbroke dared to be different. . .
and eventually decided on an attractive red number (click for larger version).

The automobiles were just on the edge of being too fast for the track, and indeed at one point we were all flung to the depths (or heights) before the sim crashed. I had descended to -37,000+ meters before SL booted me, saying the sim was going down.

Hotspur O’Toole and his red mechanical beast:

Also making appearances were a pennyfarthing and a blitter (which did fairly well, actually).

Finally, there was a lap on a variety of animal conveyances (my yak, which seemed to have a mind of its own, is facing backwards in this photo). Click for a larger version.

I had originally thought I would dismantle the track after today, but was encouraged to leave it. I will certainly do so for the time being and will attempt to reduce its prim count by using huge prims instead of standard ones. If you TP to Caledon Murdann, there is a local TP device at the telehub, or you can fly to just over 500m.

Posted on

Premonitions of Second Life

I just found a post by Marion in Wonderland: The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart

Since joining Second Life, I have come across several quotations and passages in books I am reading in my first life (although SL seriously eats into my reading time!), which strike me as relevant to my experience and feelings about life in this strange alternative world.

And the passages she quotes, from Shakespeare, Thomas Pynchon, and Haruki Murakami, are really stunning in their correspondence to Second Life.

Posted on

Harvest festivals and mazes

The Caledon/Steelhead Harvest Festival began today. I opened Murdann to tree-felling. I have no way of tracking who took trees, but several of my friends have told me they took trees, and the island is definitely a bit clearer now.

Steelhead hosted a horse race, and I now have a saddle horse, Fróði (“Peace”). No photos yet. There are prize pumpkins hidden all around Steelhead, and it’s great fun looking for them. There’s also a corn maze:

Miss Lumina Elvehjem then gave me a landmark to Falln’s Corn Maze, which is very extensive and quite wonderful. (This maze is in the sky above a fantasy RP sim that uses a telehub. You’ll need a flight assist to fly up. Try not to peek at the maze as you navigate to the beacon.)

Posted on

Harvest festival events in Caledon Murdann

To all my fellow neo-Victorians of Second Life, I bid you welcome to the Maritime Duchy of Murdann in the Firth of Caledon, for events celebrating the Harvest Festival in Caledon and Steelhead, Sunday 9 September through Saturday 15 September. These are the events to be held in the Maritime Duchy of Murdann:

Sunday, 9 September
9 AM-6PM SLT: Tree-felling.
A variety of species, suitable for transplantation, will be marked for removal in order to create a more livable space. Guests are requested to take no more than two trees each. (Right-click and buy for L$0, then take the plant.) The Murdann Thorn tree is native to no other region of Second Life.

Tuesday, 11 September
8PM-11PM SLT: Caledon Sailing and Steam Society opening events.
After welcoming remarks, there will be Tako racing from Murdann to the Sound and back, followed by steam racing.

Wednesday, 12 September
7PM-8PM SLT: Tako Races, Murdann to the Sound and return
8PM-9PM SLT: Steamboat 3 Lap Races ‘Caledon Cup’

Saturday, 15 September
6AM-8AM SLT: Buggy races
The races will take place on an elevated track. A teleporter to the track will be on the dock. Any model of buggy, carriage, or wagon welcome.

Yrs, etc.

Otenth Paderborn
Duke of Murdann

Caledon Murdann/89/120/22

Posted on

Totally unacceptable financial services

Linden Lab charges are now made from London, and thus nearly everyone’s financial institution is flagging large transactions as fraud (and it must be large transactions, because recent currency purchases went through fine). On Linden Lab’s part, this is very poor practice. With thousands of customers, surely they can spring for region-appropriate billing services.

For convenience, I decided to use a CapitalOne Mastercard as my LL funding source. When I called them to ask about this morning’s rejected transaction, they said they would mark it as ok. When I mentioned that it is a monthly charge, however, they said I would have to call every month. Calling every month for a routine transaction, just because it’s coming from London? What a load. I’ll be moving my business elsewhere.