Custom Scan Ball Help...please

[Demonswrath Foxclaw]

Looking to make or get a suggestion on a Custom Scan ball that is not  a Ball at all,

maybe take form as a figure(human Avatar....etc... ) is this at possiable ?

I'm using the scipt found on the wiki page ( http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/3D_Radar ).

And is it possiable to have the ball move across the top on the prim instead of in it ?

Much help would be appreciated !

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Usually this type of script is used with a prim that has a map on top of it either as a texture or 3D model.  The ball rezzes on top of the map.

The ball goes in a prim with the script so the script has it in inventory to rez.  You can use another shape as the ball if you want, but may need to specify the correct rotation as a vector for it unless the object rezzes correctly with zero rotation.

To  make it look like an avatar, you will need a sculpt map.  A mesh avatar model could also be used if it small enough.  You can make these yourself if you know how, otherwise look on MP for something suitable that is full perm.

[Rolig Loon]

That is a VERY old approach to doing a sim radar.  It was good for its time, but slow and inefficient by today's standards. I don't think you'll find very many people still doing something like that.  Take a look instead at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlGetAgentList

[Qie Niangao]

A complication here is that the old approach was limited to the sensor range of 96m -- a tidy sphere, regardless of region borders.  Using llGetAgentList() instead, the shape is a very tall, skinny box, its height sixteen times its width and depth, to cover the possible 4096m altitude over the 256 x 256m region. Of course, one could scale the height (linearly? logarithmically?) to shrink the display volume down to more manageable height. (I have no idea what people actually do; I haven't seen one of these sim radar things in years.)

[Rolig Loon]

Yeah, I remember using that script back in (2009, maybe?).  It was quite something at the time, but a resource hog.  It's a dinosaur now.  You're right, though, that at least it reduced the scan volume to a neat visual sphere -- fun to watch. If I remember correctly, Void Singer made a radar tank that was a tall skinny affair in about 2010. It plotted avatar positions in the same 3D fashion that this script does.  Instead of launching followers to track avatars, she used her spinning multiplexed scanners to flit in a vertical pattern and cover the entire region up to 4096m.  It was an impressive system.  You could do the same thing with llGetAgentList today and get an instantaneous scan without the script overhead (and prim load) of a fleet of flying sensors, though, and it could be just as impressive.

[Nova Convair]

I use something like that to display a radar-sphere around an object.
No sensor needed in the whole thing, especially not in the scan balls since they only monitor one avatar. This script uses ancient technology and shouldn't be used without an overhaul.

However - it doesnt matter what prim/sculpt/mesh-prim in whatever rotation and whatever size is used as scan ball.

If you want to display that on a surface instead of a 3D space you need to map the coordinates.
3D to 2D flat or 3D to 2D on a sphere surface or whatever. Some math is needed.

1st you need to find out  what exactly you want to display. "somehow on the prim instead of inside" is no base for calculations. You have 3D coordiantes and want to display that - how?

Edit:

 OOPS - wrong button -  was meant as a reply to the OP

[Life Camino]

I took the time to do a complete rework of that original sensor-based 3D radar system using llGetAgentList and put it up on the Marketplace for free with full permissions.   It will allow you to cover any 256m x 256m x 256m area in a region with the center of the cube representing 128,128, <altitude>.  It is resizable to 20M and will calibrate itself, including changing the scan ball sizes.  It is also color coded and puts the name and distance to the tracked avatar in hovertext over the scan ball.

Here's the link:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sim-wide-3D-Radar-v30/6162000

If you find it useful, a review would be appreciated.  I've given hundreds of them away, but no reviews, yet.

Have fun!