Getting the latest and greatest bleeding edge opensim...

Today I've made a half-assed script that will run nightly, and bring a compiled latest and greatest version of opensim for your pleasure. Disclaimer: since this is a nightly build, things may get broken from time to time. However, we try to keep the latest and greatest version on the test opensims.

How to install:

1) go to http://ruth.petitbe.be/build/

2) take a look at http://ruth.petitbe.be/build/buildlog.txt - there should be no mention of "failure" there - if there is, means something broke and the build is unusable.

3) download the binary from http://ruth.petitbe.be/build/opensim-bin.tgz, and uncompress it.
This should uncompress into a single directory called "bin". Note, that the buildlog.txt is also in that directory - it contains an interesting and useful information being the SVN revision number:

Sat Sep 1 04:50:21 CEST 2007
Path: .
URL: svn://svn.opensimulator.org/opensim/trunk
Repository Root: svn://svn.opensimulator.org/opensim
Repository UUID: e9a5c24e-b13f-11db-933b-17aa6df88f97
Revision: 1839
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: sdague
Last Changed Rev: 1839
Last Changed Date: 2007-08-31 15:03:39 +0200 (Fri, 31 Aug 2007)
Properties Last Updated: 2007-09-01 04:50:20 +0200 (Sat, 01 Sep 2007)

4) run the OpenSim.exe from this directory. (on linux, "mono OpenSim.exe". On Mac - not sure - let me know how :)

5) IMPORTANT: read and follow the instructions. There is one detail that is currently hitting quite a few folks: "external host name". If you are not running viewer and opensim on the same machine, this *has* to be set to the same address that you configure in your loginuri on the client. This is very important - if you misconfigure it here, you will end up with a failure to login, and a message "login packet never received by server"

6) Create your master user and any others by using "create user" command on the opensim console and answering the questions.

7) If you prefer flat terrain, then enter "terrain fill 21" in the opensim console.
To auto-run this command later, create the file named "startup_commands.txt" and place the line "terrain fill 21" there.

8) Try to login from SL client, using the -loginuri http://yourt.opensim.ip.address:9000/

9) have fun :)

Brushing up my opensim building skills - wanna try too ?

Compared to the first experiment with primwalking, I made some more enhancements to my testbench. And I think i start to like the little world. One thing definitely missing is poseballs. But all in time...

Here're a couple of pictures:



And in the night time (the one I like):



Now that you are all excited to see... I made a build off the yesterday's version from SVN, which you can download here and run - just start OpenSim.exe

Many things are already preset... you can login with e.g. "test user" password "test", or "Dalien Talbot" password "test", or create your own user by doing "create user" in the sim console.

Once you launch it - use "-loginuri http://localhost:9000/" parameter to login to it.

Be aware this is full of bleeding edge features - ODE physics, for one :-)

One thing: do not attempt to clone objects by shift-drag. this almost surely will bail things.

If you happen to try it out, post your impressions here in the comments, please :)

The mystery of object flags.

XML import/export thing will probably eventually changed from the low-effort hack that I did, into something more proper. Awaiting to chat with Sean tomorrow about ADO.NET.

Meanwhile today I took a small detour into objects. Enabling prim storage in sqlite database worked like a charm, but (since I did a new checkout again), whatever I was building, was not modifiable. So, instead of slamming in my usual hack with setting all the flags, I decided to go and implement the things "properly".
Thanks to libsecondlife folks, we already have symbolic constants for the flags, so setting the (seemingly) correct ones was easy.

However, when restarting the sim, I noticed the objects become unmodifiable. Further digging showed that we do not save the object flags in the database at all! I presume there must be some explanation to this, even though my head is a bit too sleepy at the moment to come up with feasible scenarios. Well, tomorrow we'll find out :-)

The sky is the limit... (within reasonable bounds)

In the previous post I did ramble a bit about privacy and all, but 768 meters is not much, and quick to fly through. On the other hand, you can not move any object higher than 768 meters... So - what ?

Well, there is still something. Even though I am lazy enough not to present you with the full solution, you might experiment.




This is a building in 1.5km above the ground.

How did I do it ? Quite trivial. First you make a platform and lift it up very high (with yourself being there, or you remember the coordinates where you lift it, and fly over there later on). Then you just rez the stuff on it. Important: do not move anything - it will immediately fall to 768 meters!

Another quirk that I have noticed - seems like these "objects in hyperspace" do not survive the sim reboot. So, do not put anything precious - I warned you :-)

Another thing is that while theoretically funny and interesting - if you take the practical application of building high above as a means to provide the animation privacy (*grins*), most of the devices tend to *move* the poseball with the scripts, which as we noticed does prove lethal.

I did have some encouraging experiments with moving the poseballs, but this happens quite slowly, I think it is easier to kill the old ones, and rez the new ones in exactly the right places.

Now - the last question - how to move the thing up more than 768 meters if as we figured it is impossible ?

Well, there is a funny quirk with the physics. You can do it with the script. Go to primskirtbuilder area, and you will see the red freebie box to the right - take the "DT heavy lifter script", and feel free to use it - I've decided to push it around under GPL as well.

Dalien Fashionista and other random bursts of creativity

First, I've got a 1st Life picture in the profile now. I can really say that with my photoshop (well, actually, GIMP) skills, I can be proud of it.

Second - a new song. Took me a while to record anything sounding slightly less than catastrophic since the range of it is a bit too much than I normally have. So feel free to listen, but pay attention to the importance of the things:

1. Mood
   
2. Music
   
3. Words/Grammar
   

So if you have a better lyrics to place there... I will be happy to get rid of the default placeholder.

---

And finally, the third but the most interesting one - is the LoopRez script in action:

First, the default script is very easy - it takes a prim (in the left-top), and makes an ellipse out of its copies.



Then I started to tweak the script - as a first step, I wanted the odd and even pieces to have the different angle. This caused the creation of something which looks like... hmm... I do not know how it looks like, you say it!




I am experimenting to get rid of the "messed up top sides" effect, but do not have a universal solution now - will post it when it is ready.

p.s. the last event for today is that I obtained a pair of cool sunglasses, which I did not forget to show off in the above. Now I can fearlessly work with the light-emitting prims! :)