Frankie Rockett

Good idea, although I hate to sound like a vandal, but since you ask... - I dragged the script out to halt it since it wouldn't shut off any other way, then I explored it by clicking all over & viewing transparent - found three transparent tails (that much was obvious before I wrecked it - they alternate on and off like traffic lights). Eventually these became visible when I saved it to inv and re-rezzed it. Edit: ok not 'vandal' but 'controlled decomposition researcher'!

Hi Qie! Ok I may have misquoted you there slightly but I only make the point that your maths is so far above my paygrade, therefore: 'we are not worthy'! Teasing out of that the parts I did follow, then as I said to another writer here, my observation would be that, looking at the texture used (and I had to break it to get this view) I see no transparent portions. Here's an image grab to illustrate what I am describing: I hope this helps.

Ooh Fluffy! This sounds interesting! "UV Mapping" - never heard of that so I'm going to beat Google until it comes clean on it - thank you. I don't want to be Mr Glass Half Empty when you've just thrown me such a hopeful explanation, but one pessimistic heads up on it - I looked at the objects texture and it is just one texture all over - head, body, all it's tails. That texture however has no transparent portions on it. Could the UV method still be the way this was achieved do you think? Thank you too for the extra knowledge about Animesh being more efficient. I assume by that you mean 'causes less lag' than a scripted alpha changing object? Thank you!

Thank you Chic. Unfortunately that's not the case here. In your examples (which seem to be designed to change texture as opposed to creating the illusion of animation), all faces of the object are showing at once. Not these animated mesh's. I can see (if I break them) that there are multiple limbs (or whatever seems to be in motion). If it were some kind of texture switching then two questions arise - how do you address different areas of the same single object that share the same face (the core of my post question), and even if you could, the loading time would lag behind the repid motion needed - so if you can load a texture it'd be quicker to load them all then just switch visibility on and off which you can do very quickly. So, nice line of attack but the central question remains - how to make (e.g.) some PART of object 1, face 1 go transparent, while switching another part of the same object 1, face 1 go visible?!! Thank you for your thoughts though

Never heard of sarcasm-free responding before? Oh I forgot - I'm in a forum - always at least ten flamers. It's ok I don't give a **** about fire-retarded posters. Edit: Rolig was courteous.

Hi Rolig No that's not it I'm afraid. 1. There's no actual movement - it's flashing on and off one of it's 4 tails as I said. 2. An animesh character is capable of following an animation file. As such it wouldn't need 4 tails: unless you want to animate a 4 tailed shark! Frankie.

Hi I have written asking about this mystery a couple of times before but no one seems to have any idea, which I find difficult to believe, so I'm trying again with a fresh example. There is a particular technique of animating a mesh object that I am seeing that utterly baffles me and I wonder if any smart mesh coder out there can point the way for me? Now one method I'm familair with is by combining many models together, each with a slightly moved posture, linking them all together into one multi-limbed monstrosity, then using LSL to switch them all invisible but one, then cycle through which one is visible to create the desired effect. You have one new model for each 'frame' of the finished animation. Now I understand that and that is NOT the technique I'm asking about. The mystery technique operates on a single mesh object (no linked parts) that reports only 2 faces. An actual example: I recently bought a shark that has 4 tail swim positions. I have seen things with about 10 positions but lets keep this simple as an example. When working, the shark switches tail positions to create the illusion of wagging it's tail left and right. As there are only 4 positions in this example, the illusion is a little jerky, but it's the 'how'? of it I want to ask about. This shark is one object - not four. It's not one torso with four tails either. It's the Shiva of sharks - all one body with several tail fins. So - switching one body visible and the rest 'off' isn't possible here. Clicking on the various tails as I have to get their face number doesn't solve it either, as at least three of the tails have the exact same face number. I have seen other cretaures that have many more than 4 positions, and these too are all one model with a similar paucity of faces, so - it's NOT about addressing different faces and telling different faces to switch on and off either. So summary - we have a multi-phase animated creature with more 3D new positions than there are objects - or faces - in it's composition. How on earth can I start to accomplish something like that myself? Only if you actually know please! Regards Frankie.

Gosh thank you everyone for your thoughts and input here! Very much appreciated. I'll try these modifications in the next day or so and report back!

So, assuming I have 2 linked prims and not one, what's wrong with my code example such that I can't get the 2nd avatar to sit AND have the 2nd pose/animation asigned to him like the 1st one has? Thanks!

Hi! I have been trying to get two avatars to sit on a single prim (if that's possible?) or at least a single object for longer than I care to remember but it's one feat that continues to elude me. Based on Rolig's remarks and my ability to misunderstand them, I ventured to adapt a sit script I have used for years, hoping to crack this puzzle at last. I also added two different sit animations to the object. Whether it was a single prim or two linked prims, I'm getting nowhere. The first avatar sits successfully using the first pose in the inventory, but the second avatar to try to sit actually does the basic sit, ignoring the second animation in the object. Can anyone diagnose where I'm going wrong please? Script I have evolved so far is below: (thank you!) //************************************* key agent; key sitter; string pietext="Enter"; //************************************* default { state_entry() { llLinkSitTarget(1,<-0.5,0.32, 0.65>,llEuler2Rot(<0.0,0.0,PI/2>)); llLinkSitTarget(0,<0.2,0.35,0.4>,llEuler2Rot(<0.0,0.0,PI/2>)); } changed(integer n) { if(n & CHANGED_LINK) { agent=llAvatarOnSitTarget(); if(agent!=NULL_KEY) { llRequestPermissions(agent,PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION); } } if(n & CHANGED_INVENTORY) { agent=llAvatarOnSitTarget(); if(agent!=NULL_KEY) { llUnSit(agent); } } } run_time_permissions(integer n) { llStopAnimation("sit"); llStartAnimation(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_ANIMATION,0)); llStartAnimation(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_ANIMATION,1)); } }

No Wulfie, as far as I know the item isn't available somewhere. My vague, second hand, inarticulate and wholly inadequate description is of course lametable, laughable - and all I have to offer. Yes Qie. I can see the textures both on the object and in edit/texture view. In texture view it's definitely one cat, albeit fragmented as through a prism. I note from it that only one eye is defined, so presumably it's the same eye on both sides of the head - the point being that there is no apparent duplication or redundancy in the single texture I find. I will try to add some screen grabs in the next few days - away from home at the moment! Cheers.

Damn! No, alas that's not it. The original has but one 1024 x 1024 texture (it's a cat) - and it 'wriggles' through these 8 various positions, despite consisting of just one mesh object with just two faces, as I mentioned above. Wandering's idea was great, but when I tried to offset a texture, I messed up about half of those positions simultaneously, telling me that that wasn't how it was done. Examining both of the faces, they both seem to have the same identical cat texture, so not even any real difference there. I would ideally ask the creator, but as it's an object for sale I doubt the sharing of techniques for learning will be foremost in their mind! Any other possible ways this is done? Thank you!

Wandering! That's a brilliant possibility! I'll go check and report back tomorrow! Thank you for that insight / possibility meanwhile. F.

Hi Kardargo Thank you for your reply, but I may have misled you. This item has no real movement animation. What it is is a 4 legged beast which actually has 8 sets of 4 legs - each set depicting the movement in a different phase of it's cycle. With the entire thing set to visible it looks like a grotesque 32 legged genetic experiment gone badly wrong. The idea is to do with switching portions of it off and on in the correct sequence to create the illusion of movement. It's essentially cell animation performed in three dimensions. From what I read of the link you gave me, Animesh is a way of actually animating parts of a mesh object - moving them for real - not just making a 'flick book' from a static mesh. To restate my problem, this mesh has just 2 sides (0 and 1), yet it somehow shows not just a two stage leg movement, but 8 stages, as at any time, 7 are turned to invisible and 1 set to visible, in sequence, creating the illusion. How can address / manipulate the 8 different textures / states when I can only refer to one of two faces in the code? Thank you. Frankie.

Hi AS with everything else I know about LSL, I am self taught by looking at other's work and experimenting from there. In this way I've become 'average to good' with LSL, but every now and then I'm completely stuck, so I hope you guys and girls can help - even if I struggle to find the right way to describe the problem. Here goes. I was examining a mesh animal which when it's script runs, appears to move it's legs through about 8 positions, in a cycle. I have seen it done in the past using multiple meshs, each in turn being switched to visibility on or off, to create the effect, and I understand exactly how to do that. However, what new voodoo is this?! Now these mesh objects consict of only one mesh prim and worse, only 2 faces (0 and 1), and yet they have the shape and textures for 8 changes in leg position! So - how on earth would I address them to switch each on and off in turn, when the limit of apparent addressability is (assuming prim number / face number) is just 0,0 and 0,1? How do I switch any 7 of them off and one on, in turn, to create such animated illusions? Thank you for your insights! Frankie.

Hi I just thought you should know this isn't an isolated incident. I have just experienced the same thing - avatars doing things on Lindens should be able to do and returning my stuff to me from my own land. Full report here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Abuse-and-Griefing/An-avatar-has-done-the-supposed-impossible-returned-my-objects/qaq-p/1583517

Hi All An avatar has done the supposed impossible - returned my objects to me from my own land. In less technical terms, done extensive damage to my sim. Now let me try to cover all bases here: This person is not known to me and has no permissions of any kind over my objects and shares no groups with me.The objects were entirely on my own land and not overhanging any other land.My land is mainland sim and I own it and pay my tier directly to Linden Lab. There is no middleman involved.Nothing is deeded to any groups.Nothing had any permissions on it for anyone else to access it in any way shape or form.It has happened twice now - the same person. All objects returned to my Lost & Found folder.I see it has happened to others too (see http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Abuse-and-Griefing/someone-returned-my-stuff-to-me-from-my-own-land-withouy-any/qaq-p/1561733/comment-id/4159) I have been in SL for 6 or 7 years. I'm a very experienced builder and scripter and I've been around the block. This shouldn't be possible, and yet there you have it. It is happening. It's as if some people have got hold of a login for God mode. Whatever the details might be, a major breach of security seems to be going on here. Note banning them from my land seems unlikely to help since they can just as easily return objects from the other side of the boundary - if indeed they are susceptible to ban settings at all. Can anyone offer a remedy or at the very least any plausible explanation? Thank you.