See something different...

[face2edge]

That's exactly what I thought.  I know this is way out there.  I can’t think of how I want to do it, but I also realize I don’t know what the system is capable of.  So far, I don’t see how my experiment is possible.  That’s what I do.  I pick a challenge that takes me through learning so many little pieces. 

You seem to be well informed.  Do you have some heavy resources that can clutter my mind to help me figure this mess out?  I understand most of the basic tutorials, but I have to get into how particles are used and maybe another viewer is SL viewer is limited for tweaking.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Jopsy Pendragon]

@face2edge- 

1) The trick artists have used in murals with "eyes that always look at you" is to have the eyes painted onto a 'concave' depression in the wall.   It's certainly possible to hack together this effect with prims, but keep in mind that the eyes won't be tracking the avatar, they'll be tracking the resident's view-camera... which may or may not be the effect you're looking for.

2) Particles are not prims.   They're not 3d, they're 2d.  They have nothing to do with physics at all. =)   There's a set of parameters that control how they move which can 'fake' a physical reaction but it's very limited.    And yes, they're completely client side effects, and always facing the view-camera of the resident observing them. 

3) SL is, (except for particles) a consenual hallucination.  What you see, I see, though from a different angle.  You can try combinations of the concave surface and Moire (look it up) interefernce to create viewpoint based differences...  maybe even trying different color alpha layers.

If you want to fake a hologram in SL though...  your best bet would be to create a sculptie/mesh of the hologram you want to create, and use llSetTextureAnim() with a transparent dot covered texture to make it look sparkly/jittery/non-substatantial =)

 

I hope that helps! =)

  

[face2edge]

Thanks for all the consideration, everyone!

It's time for deeper research...

[leliel Mirihi]

The Particle Laboratory has a great tutorial on using particles in sl. As for other tutorials it depends on what you want to learn and how far down the rabbit hole you're willing to go.

[face2edge]

I would imagine that I have to get all the way to wonderland in order to learn what I must to accomplish my task.  I feel like I have to mind meld a Linden to prove my point.

I have been doing some reading about client-side scripting.  That seems like the path I will have to take.

I found the particle laboratory to be very interesting and it showed me all the flavors of particles and how to manipulate them, but the core function I require seems to be wholly based in client-side scripting so an object rotation appears unique to each client.

For now, I have chosen to move forward with learning the scripting and I will have it key on my movements for now.  At some point, I would like to add other features, but working out the particulars of texture animations keyed on avatar positions will be a challenge for now.

[leliel Mirihi]

SL doesn't have any client side scripting built in. The only thing close is the third party extension RLV but I doubt it has anything remotely like what you need. And keep in mind that even if you do get this working with some client side scripting extension it will only work for people that also have that extension and willingly run your scripts. This will not be a seamless effect that just happens to anyone that come within view of the object.

[face2edge]

I understand the effect will be purely local, but that is what I am going for.  I know how to generate huge polygonal models, but that would be very slow and create lag when moving around my area.  I suppose I could make a very restricted area that would not load any external object.  For instance, the inside of a building with no windows should free up rendering to inside the room only.  I know how slow the rest of the world renders when I am outside a building.

The effect I am going for needs to be unique for each viewer so I know that client side rendering would be useful.  I have been reading that this would allow the OS to communicate with the in world objects through the viewer, but that seems very experimental right now.  It would be nice to see an extension that controls SL objects from outside the viewer. 

I think that is how particles are rendered.  The emitter object is in world and it tells the graphics card what to render so they don’t exist in the virtual world.  So, the particles are client-side, but I would need a new type to manipulate the way I want.

I don’t have a problem learning how to get deep into scripting with SL, but I also see how different viewers are capable of changing how they interact with SL.  I would love to see a viewer that allows for OS or graphics specific languages.  Perhaps I can find a viewer with these functions, and I know it may only work for me if it is dependent on a script or extension. 

As it is now, I am going to start working on this effect to render the way I want for no one other than myself.  I want my object to key in on my avatar only so it only interacts with me.  At a later time, I can think more about track everyone and doing some client-side work or beyond.

[face2edge]

I don’t even see a way to create this effect using textures.  Bump maps may simulate a similar effect, but that is only if I can load a custom bump.  I would have to create a bump that gives a higher dimensional feel to a flat surface so it would appear to move as you walked by.  I did some brief testing and found that SL have predefined bumps and those are static.  For instance, the bricks features don’t seem to move when you walk by.  The texture seems to be baked with your texture and rendered accordingly.  I want it to move like a dynamic reflection.  I like how water is rendered so well, but why hasn’t SL started using bumps that way?  I did read something about changing from textures to materials.  That would be interesting.  Perhaps I could do my effect then?