HUD tutorial links

A blog all about HUDs!

HUD LOVER


A helpful blog tutorail article in learning how to create a HUD.

Second View: Scripting Snippets 7, Creating a HUD


Also, check out this blog article for an invitation HUD creation:

Mermaid Diaries: HUD attachement tutorial


Here is a HUD script example posted to the SL HomePage Forums:

http://forums.slhomepage.com/showthread.php?p=2789


From the Second Life newsletter is a Feb 2006 article that may be of interest for HUD creation:

http://secondlife.com/newsletter/2006_02_15/hud.php

Prim Texture Tips 1

I highly recomend another blog (Second View) for scripting help and other info... and the tips included below are snipits from some of his blog posts. But I wanted to post some of the data here for easy viewing, although I highly recomend you check out his blog for more information and tutorails for builders and scripters.



How to find the side number of a prim:

Assume that you have just rezzed a cube, and haven’t rotated it in any way. The sides will be numbered as follows:

top: 0
side with lowest y: 1
side with highest x: 2
side with highest y: 3
side with lowest x: 4
bottom: 5

If you hollow the cube, side 5 is the inside (all four interior sides count as a single side), and the bottom becomes side 6.

----alternatively, or for non-cubed prims----

Activate the Advanced Menu by holding down CTRL+ALT+d on your keyboard. The Advanced menu should appear on the main Second Life menu. Once this menu is showing, edit the prim you want to investigate. Click the ‘Select Texture’ option, and select the face you want to check. Then hold down CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+t on your keyboard. Details of the texture will appear in the bottom-left of your screen, including the face number.


How to Specify Textures in Scripting

There are two different ways of specifying the texture. You can either use the name of the texture, or you can use the asset UUID of the texture.

To use the name, the texture must be included in the prim’s contents (just drag the texture from your inventory into the contents list of the prim).

To find the UUID, right-click on the texture in your inventory, and select the Copy Asset UUID option. You can then paste the result into the script. The advantage with using the UUID is that the texture does not need to be in the prim’s inventory. (Note: Once a texture is uploaded in SL, it is permanently added to the asset server, and deleting it from your inventory has no effect on it — you simply won’t be able to refer to it by name any longer. It will still exist on the server, and you can still use the UUID to refer to it in an object's script for use.)

Photography Tips & Tricks

Well I was going to post some "tips n' tricks" type info... But in reality most of them I got from other sites/blogs or via experimentation which are already covered by others, and I feel the need to give credit due where it belogs. So the following are some good links that I've used for photography tricks in SL that may be of use to you. Some of the highlights of the tips I've found or discovered are also posted below.

SL Photography/Snapshot Links:

SL Wiki: Snapshots
SL Wiki: Torley's Guide to HQ Photography
Vint Falken's Blog
SL Photography Tips by Steven Lavington
Rehula Diary: photo tips
New World Notes: Vint's Photoshop Tips
Linden Lifestyles: Photography for Idiots


RL photography links/articles that may be of some use in SL:

Photography Tips .com
PhotoSecrets
Digital Photography Tips .net
Digital Photography at Tip Central
Better Photo: Top 10 Beginner Tips

Photography Composition Articles:

Beginner's Guide to Nature Photography Composition
Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition
Mastering the Art of Composition - Rule of Thirds and Golden Mean
Lessons in Composition - Rule of Thirds

And some of my personal Quick-Tips:

To take a snapshot while in mouseview (to disc only): ctrl + ' or ctrl + ^

You can also take photos by changing your camera focus and either clicking on "Snapshot" button or using Ctrl + Shift + S

For Models: ALT + Click on your avatar will get them to stay still and focus directly to the front.

To manipulate your camera focus:

Alt and clicking something focuses it to the center of the screen.
Alt and dragging the mouse zooms the camera.
Alt-Ctrl and dragging orbits the camera.
Alt-Ctrl-Shift and dragging pans the camera.


Disable Camera Constraints: this is great for landscape shots, allowing you to move your camera anywhere on the Sim. Go to Client > Disable Camera Constraints.

Draw Distance: This allows you to adjust how far out the world renders, make it longer for landscape shots or make it shorter for portraits. Go to Edit > Preferences > Graphics tab > adjust the Draw Distance.

Changing the Time of Day: You can change the daylight/night lighting settings on your local client only. This will not affect how anyone else views the lighting, and will only affect how you see things locally. To change this, go to World > Environment Settings > then select which one you want. You can also select the region default which will allow you to revert it back to how it used to be.

Mouse Moves the Sun: This is a very handy tool for composition and lighting in photography, play god with the sun's location on your client only. Go to World > Mouse Move the Sun to activate it. Then go into mouselook and as you move your mouse around the sun will follow. Pressing escape will leave mouselook mode and the sun will stay put where you left it.

Antialiasing: This smooths out the jagged lines in SL. To turn this on, go to Prefrences > Graphics > Hardware Options: then adjust your antialiasing as you wish. Please note this will affect your performance speed.

Anisotrophic Filtering: This makes things at angles in the distance look sharper. To turn this on, go to Prefrences > Advanced Grahics.

SL Photography

I am what you would consider an amature hobby photographer in real life, though I do take life action photos of birds in flight etc fairly often (I am an avian breeder). So I had a stroke of genius which I'm sure many others before me have also thought of already... yeah I'm a bit slow on the uptake, :P. But my brilliant idea is to translate this hobby into where else? You guessed it, Second Life photography!!

Why not pimp out my services for photography to make a few extra Linden$ to pay for my rent, right? I have mastered camera angles and environmental lighting... and there are some really great photography pioneers in SL already, like Never 30, Ananke Media Systems, and CW Studios. There is some really great studio equipment already made by these folks and for a reasonable price to get a starter studio setup of gear. The only other thing I need is to add some fun background textures or some great "on-location" sites and then just bring my skills to the test for great SL photos! Not to mention the blank backgrounds you can use in the studio and export to the hard drive and then add the background to the photo via PhotoShop.

Speaking of PhotoShop, there are some really great PS tools for lighting and other effects which can be applied to the SL photos which bring a greater variety of looks and effects that can be manipulated out of world. Then just import them back once you are happy with it and send the finished product to the customer.

This SL profession is great for product advertisement photos, landscape shots, memory books, portraits, weddings, etc. I'll be adding some extra photo help on this blog later for those interested in this as a hobby, profession or just for personal fun. Although the real key is learning how to manipulate the camera angles in SL and getting the right lighting effects... and of course the right scenery!

Creating Your World

As you may know, I've recenly re-done this blog site to my Second Life blogging. The main reason is to help share my learning curve in SL exploration as well as content creation with others. So after messing around quite a bit the past few weeks in SL (there was only a small learning curve due to my previous virtual world experiences), I've begun tredding a path that many begin and never finish..... SL Content Creation.

Already I've discovered how difficult it can be to begin creating content without a mentor or better resources to help guide the way. A vast majority of the experienced content creators are very close mouthed about their scripts and/or don't allow modification of scripts so that they can't be ripped. More power to them, as most are those which are out to make money and hell with the rest of the residents who actually want to learn. I say that as a blanket statment but as always there are exceptions to this rule... those who wish to help others learn for the betterment and advancement of the content available in SL.

As in real life, most 'technology' was built on old technology and improved. Ideas that were tweaked or redone... this is how society advances, without having to relearn the wheel each time on your own the fastest way for advancement is to learn from those who've already helped pave the road and work to find an improvement or new application for an old thing. This applies in SL too, with the open source of scripting and applications that many have done, including Linden Labs, we've been able to explore further than we could have if the building blocks were not openly available... or if residents did not collaborate on projects. After all, two heads are better than one, so they say.

It's with this ideal, of open source and sharing of knowledge that I am blogging. To share my journey as I go and hopefully help others along the way. Who knows, maybe the next new idea will spawn from something I might have given an idea to... all the better for the advancement of the metaverse content. As I learn, I'll work to share the knowledge and try to keep most of the scripting open for copy/modify when possible. Any scripting or methods you find here are open for modifying and feel free to comment with any additions or corrections. After all, I'm still learning and always willing to accept help when it's offered.

So anyways... I do ramble on... Last night I picked up my copy of the Second Life: Official Guide and Creating Your World: Official Guide to start the learning process. As you can see in my previous blog post, I've also begun doing online research with what information I've been able to find. Hopefully more will emerge as time goes on. I do recommend these two books as basic primers into SL as well as object creation and even basic LSL scripting. After what I have read so far I've already learned many tips and tricks I didn't even know existed within SL!

There's also many great tutorials on some very basic objects... but sadly most of what I want to make for my personal use is stuff that the creators aren't openly sharing at this time. So we'll have to take our ideas along with the fundamentals we will learn and try to reinvent the wheel. Being that I come from a non-programing background, I am at the most basic of scripting levels... the old copy/paste method. But that said, I want to learn LSL and how to create my own scripts. Hopefully I can find a mentor willing to teach, otherwise we'll be going this alone.

Now lets go Create our World!

Where to find SL creation help & apps

Schell (220,144,252) - to get XD fusion, "Puppeteer" script aplication.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gomes/250/137/42 - a HUD (free?) for animation hotkeys

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tsuchinoko/205/100

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simyit/125/18/70/ - photographers light ring for 1st person photos (in mouselook view, use CTRL + ' to take a snapshot)

Good link sites for SL Scripts --

http://www.mendicott.com/secondlife/slscripts.asp

http://www.wakatech.com/scripts/

IBM CODESTATION (125,159,27)

SL scripting tutorial & sample scripts -- http://www.heatonresearch.com/articles/184

and to download the script examples -- Scripting Recipes for Second Life, ISBN:160439000X

Simple Script Generator for SL: http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript/

Creating a HUD -- http://secondview.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/scripting-snippets-7-creating-a-hud/

MystiTool HUD (free) -- Mystical Cookie Designs, Blumfield (26, 147, 296)

Also a great site full of tutorial links for builders in SL to use -- http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2006/11/build.html

You can pick up a free copy of the working Workspace Buster at (where else? :P) Sirena Hair & Fashion. Its in a box labeled "Privacy/ Skybox". SL Clothes Previewer (SLCP) is available for free. The Windows version is available here. The full version of AVPainter costs L$2495 and is available inword in SL and on SL Exchange. Here is the AVPainter Website.

To create sculpt maps, we need a 3D program. Blender is a freebie that takes a while to learn but has the tools needed for complicated sculpt maps. Theres a Blender template file you can use that makes the process easier.

You can pick up the packaged Temp Rezzer object from Sirena Hair & Fashion. The script makes the Temp Rezzer invisible after rezzing; she disabled this to make it easier to find the Temp Rezzer. If you want it to become invisible, just remove her comments from the "Main" script.

To use the Temp Rezzer:

1. Rez the object (suit of armor in this case) on the ground.

2. Right-click on the object (suit of armor) and select Edit. Go to the Contents tab.

3. Drag and drop the "Object Rezzer Script" (from the Temp Rezzer folder you got from Sirena) into the Contents tab of the object (suit of armor).

4. Right-click on the object (suit of armor) and select Take.

5. Now rez the Temp Rezzer object (from the Temp Rezzer folder you got from Sirena) on the ground.

6. Right-click on the Temp Rezzer object and select Edit. Go to the Contents tab.

7. Drag and drop the object (suit of armor) from your Inventory into the Contents tab of the Temp Rezzer.

8. Touch the Temp Rezzer object. It gives you 3 options: Reset, Sensor On/Off, and Turn On/Off.The Sensor On/Off is an avatar sensor. If you turn it on, the Temp Rezzer will only rez the object if there is an avatar nearby. This saves on server resources when no one is around. So turn it On :)

9. Click Turn On and watch the magic happen!You can position and rotate the object like any other prims. The Temp Rezzer will remember the position and rotation.And check the prim count for your Land. You will notice your 109 prim suit of armor is using 1 prim! :) If you want to stop the Temp Rezzer, just touch it again, and select Turn Off.

Second Life Begins

I'm changing this blog around and removed most of the old blogging to convert this blog into my Second Life blog site.

In SL, my name is Vicki Munz. (Vicki is short for my real middle name, a nickname I used when I was younger in my high school years.) My avatar is one that I can live out how I wish to look and dress without affecting my real life. I have opted for the flirty goth asian style. I also have my neko and furry avatars when I want to goof around and roleplay. I also have my renisance magic look for the midieval combat style zones, crystal staff weapon and all. And of course a more casual "normal" avatar for interacting with those friends who "just don't get it" when I wear my more roleplay style avatars.

I have a growing list of SL friends, and enjoying myself with virtual shopping and hanging out. Plus I'm really trying to learn how to make and build things in SL. I'd like to learn LSL scripting, but without prior scripting knowledge there is a high learning curve to hurdle. I have figured out poseball creations and general animation/sound. And although working with prims isn't too difficult, I like the scripted prims most but have found the amount of sims to make more organic shapes to be highly limiting and feel a strong desire to learn how to produce sculpties. Sculpties are truely the future of SL objects with lower prims and organic shapes.

Anyways... this is where the adventure begins. And hopefully can share the fun with others who may find this blog.