Walking on Water

[Chic Aeon]

OK. This is really about walking on a RUG but I am a gal who blogs and likes catchy titles.

 

I looked through this post on physics which got so long on complex and beyond me at this point my head ached :D

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Making-physics-HELP/td-p/1750777

BUT, in that post it mentions all sort of physics choices that I DO NOT SEE IN FIRESTORM :D.

I am guessing you need the official viewer in order to see those? Confirmation would be appreciated.

 

I know I can make the rugs phantom and that works just fine, but wondering if changing the physics (assuming I can get to see those choices) would be a better plan. Would changing the physics up the land impact? Right now my 7 x 7 rug is still 1 LI. 

I am going to do a clean install of SL viewer with all of Firestorm gone soon. This so that I can do a clean install of Firestorm but also as a test to see if things might work better for me with the official viewer and mesh. I am not willing to give up Firestorm if it turns out my issue is having both viewers, but will experiment.

 

So I guess my ACTUAL question (she finally gets to it) is "is there a way to make a rug or deck or other flat surface walkable (like not floating a bit in the air)? And do I need those extra options that I can't see?"

 

Thanks a bunch. Having lots of fun. Still plenty more to learn.

[Drongle McMahon]

The problem is not that the physics shapes are wrong, it's that the avatar hovers about 10cm above the physics shape. You can see that on the bottom left here. The green platform is 7m front-to back and the av is standing right on the near edge.

One solution is shown by the blue platform above. This has a physics shape whose top is displaced down towards the bottom, so that the av hovering above that looks like it is standing on the platform. The way it's made is shown on the right. This is a low-angle view of one edge. There is a very thin box that will be at the bottom of the platform, and an extra triangle on one edge. The top of the triangle is the same hieght as the platform. It's very important that the normal of this triangle is pointing inwards. That's opposite to the normal from the edge of the thin platform. Otherwise it doesn't work.

Now, when we use this as the physics shape, the triangle stops the thin platform being stretched to fit the bounding box of the visual mesh. However, as long as we use the "Solid" option and press "Analyze" in step 2, the triangle will not be present in the physics shape. So now we have a physics shape whose top is 10 cm below the surface of the platform.

[Fizz Savira]

I use Firestorm for all my mesh work, and have no issues with it at this time...And, Firestorm and the official viewer, at least on the Mac, do not share any common files, so you shouldn't need to get rid of one to make the other work right.

One thing you should consider making is a simple mesh cube, export that as a DAE and use that for your physics when you need some trivial physics.

I suspect if you do that, and apply that physics to your rug, you'll be happy

I'd also suggest the beta grid is a great place to try stuff like that out (when it's behaving...) because you can get it wrong a few times without feeling upset about wasted lindens

 

[Chic Aeon]

I do test on the beta grid. Otherwise I would be very broke. Will try the cube things. I am new to all this. Only about a month in so while I have learned lots of things, I really don't understand physics. Will try the cube idea. Actually I have absolutely no issue making the rug pantom as it is right on the ground anyway. I can see that a "DECK" would be a whole nother story.

 

 

[Chic Aeon]

OK. I am bookmarking this as I sort of understand it. As I mentioned in my post though, I do not SEE those options that have been mentioned. I get NO choices except for "low, high" etc. So perhaps when I do all my clean install they will show up on ONE of the viewers. Since I can't see them or use them, that isn't an option for me at the moment. Very nice graphics though! Thanks a bunch.  

[Fizz Savira]

The drop down on the physics page should include a "From file" option (or whatever the precise name is)... Use that to load in your cube and hopefully you'll be set

 

[Chic Aeon]

Yes, I have that one; I have seen it . Just very puzzled why all the other choices are missing. In the dropdown boxes threre is only a "default" choice so basically NO choice at all beside the low - high and as you say "from file".  If I figure it out or it suddenly appears with the new Firestorm version, I'll report.

[Chic Aeon]

Just wanted to say that I used this method today and it worked very well. I did some extensive tests which included a prim at the same height as the mesh floor (for comparison), a static pose so I woudn't move and dropping my ankles into the floor to see the exact placement of my feet better (a Firestorm option).

I noted that I could get the height to be exactly like the prim floor using your instructions as long as I didn't turn the floor to "prim" in the features tab. When I did that (a couple of tests) it inched my ankles up a bit (like maybe 2 real life inches).

So just noting that here for other folks in the future. . 

 

Edit: This was over on Aditi, the beta grid so no promises this will or will not work in the future.