Absence makes the heart grow... lighter?
yeah, okay, the title doesn't really work. I have trouble with titles (beats tribbles, I guess)
It occurs to me that it's been a while since I wrote anything here. Oops. And I usually babble excessively! I had intended to spend an extraordinary amount of time on SL this weekend, but it was apparently not to be. :P Instead, I spent none. Sucky, but there ya go. We're not always able to do what we want.
Lately, I've been playing with local lighting and scripting (they go together like peanut butter and chocolate). I've made a torch and three versions of a lamp, all of which are available on SLX. The lamp comes in always on/always white, always on/click to change colour, and click on/off/colour change. What fun. And I sold some more innertbues through them (thank you, Sumar!).
Mera's doing a ton of work on the 3rd birthday of SL and has asked me to chip in (actually, I foisted my services off on her), and I hope my absence this weekend wasn't too much of an annoyance for her, after I insisted on being allowed to help. :D It looks like it could be a really fun celebration, and we had some real fun in brainstorming.
I'm working on an object with chase-style lighting (like you'd see around a marquee). It's going to have a script in each bulb that triggers the next bulb turning on, so I've had to teach myself some more about link messages. Fun fun fun. And not particularly hard. I always find things easier to learn if I can apply them. I think most people do. I'd already learned how to use link messages when I was trying to get the lamp bulb to turn off when it was clicked.
Okay, pet peeve about the local lighting... it doesn't go through transparent/translucent objects. Yes, I get that it would be a pain to make that work. But how cool would it be to have objects that the light would shine through?
Anyway, it's just a thought.
Comments
The thing you have to worry about with local lighting is that the client will only take the nearest 6 lights into account, so you kind of have to use it sparingly.
That said, I'm working on a programmable stage lighting system that uses message-passing to control individual lights from a single "light control box" that will use notecards as "scripts" to perform complex sequences of operations. We'll probably only have four of the light units, so the local light limit won't be too big a deal. But it should make a nice effect for live shows and dances...
(Incidentally, it was good to meet you "in person" last night.)
Posted by: Erbo Evans | June 9, 2006 12:21 PM