Open Sim / path that pushes the avatar forward

[Sunbleached]

Hello! In the Open Sim in one of the landing points (Lani Mall)  there is a kind of path that pushes the avatar forward. You don't even have to move or go, it delivers you to the mall. a kind of "horizontal escalator". How is this done? using a script? and how to repeat this effect?

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

I believe @animats has implemented this in SL, and he certainly described something along these lines either in this forum or the creation one. Try searching for "escalator"

[animats]

Yes, it's surprisingly easy to do that with keyframe animation.

My moving sidewalk. The belt is moved forward slowly with keyframe animation, then returned to its original position instantaneously. KFM_LOOP mode does that if the end and start positions are different. Friction moves the avatar. If the movement distance and the texture repeat match, the illusion of continuous motion is created. You can't turn an avatar with friction, though. Put an avatar on a rotating platform, and it will move in a circle, but not change direction. There's a single point of contact friction between a capsule and a flat surface in the Havok physics engine, so no torques are applied.

No pushing, no poseballs, no attachments needed. Works for any number of riders. You can even try to walk in the wrong direction and mostly get nowhere.

This would be useful for large events, to keep people moving through the exhibits and stores. You can get on and off anywhere, so it's fine for a row of shops. There's a pair of these in the Oiling Festival Hall in New Babbage.

Escalators at SYZM Tower, Northbridge. Same basic principle. The escalator is more complicated. There are some fussy issues with getting the avatar smoothly off the steps at the top. Resizing the escalator has to be done in Blender. The moving sidewalk can be resized in-world.

This is also how those discs which move people off teleport landing points work. I've also seen some conveyors in SL which appear to work this way.

I sell all this stuff on Marketplace.