Delayed features of LSL

I often find myself at a loss with the scripting language. Although it is powerful because we can make interactive objects. It is lacking in many simple methods that are found in most programming languages (string replacement, case statements, error handling). In addition, upcomming functions seem to be on hold forever (text box, url on a prim, dynamic textures). I’ve even create/voted a few feature requests (encryption, html encode/decode, name 2 key). In the end, we settle for crude ways of implimenting these features or leaving them out. The end result is often scripts that use more memory, or server load. Unhappy with the results, many of my product ideas are abandoned.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

TinyPaste API via LSL

Many scripters have had the problem of running out of memory to store information, or losing the information when a script resets. Ways around this include adding threaded scripts, using note cards, using the description field, or adding a back-end service such as a database. I happened to come across TinyPaste.com in which you can paste text from your clipboard, save it, and hand the link out to your friends. Amazingly enough, it has an API. Using a bit of my LSL scripting skills, I was able to create a script that makes use of this API. Have a look at the code: http://tinypaste.com/70c90ce.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Musical Song Builder

My wife had asked for a copy of the musical notes that I made for the 1 prim piano. She has a project of her own that would do great with them. I packaged up the notes in a classy gift box, but I also went on to make a script that explains how to create songs with the notes. A diagram of piano keys, their notes, and numerical indexes are all described in the comments along with a sample song of Yankee Doodle. I’ve incorporated the ability to have rests and a beats per minute setting so that songs sound normal.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

A gift well received

Matthew Kidomen got a copy of my touch-based piano today. He thanked me for a “working” piano after he opened it at a sandbox. He expected to just see a regualr SL piano that would play it’s own music. He seemed pretty surprised and amazed that it was a real keyboard with working keys. His last words were that he could only play Yankee Doodle Dandy. This was pretty funny because that was the only song that I’ve been playing on it myself. I even posted a video of it on YouTube.

posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

NaNoWriMo Cafe Catch Up

Tonight I’ve been typing away like mad to catch up on my NaNoWriMo. I’ve written about 2500 words today. My daily goal is to write 1,667 words per day. I’ve fallen behind a few days so I’m trying to catch up. I’ve got a total of 14,625 words towards the main goal of 50,000 words. It’s about 30% complete. I believe that I’ll have caught up to the daily goal tomorrow or the next day. Dividing 50K words by 30 days comes to about 1,667 words per day. There are 66 of us in SL taking on the challenge. You can follow our check-in’s on twitter. http://twitter.com/vwnanowrimo
posted by Dedric Mauriac on sLiterary using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Piano Key Sculpty

Radar Masukami offers some help making sculpted piano keys with lips. An optimal solution would be to make a full set of 88 keys to reduce prim count. Due to the level of detail, we’ll probably be limited to one octive per sculpty. However, sculpties seem to be the way to go to get realism for little prim investment. I wonder how long it will be before SL fully supports mesh objects.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

The Dreamers Thread

PhoebeAnn Theas was in the write-in tonight for the NaNoWriMo. She asked if I was the same Dedric from two years ago. Apparently it turns out that I was an inspiration for one of her novels that is also a podcast. Check it out, and look for me in episode 4. Apparently she thinks the guy who did my voice is brilliant. The Dreamer’s Thread – A podiobook by Starla Huchton.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on sLiterary using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

How to blow up your shed

I jumped on over here after I saw a plurk by ina about a free AM Radio work. AM Radio demonstrates the folley’s of blowing up sheds, and how they can affect your Public Liability Insurance coverage. Plenty of people here watching things blowing up. This place has the look and feel of the burning life event.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Welsh Bay II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Fun with pianos

Today I packaged up the piano keyboard and put it for sale on XStreet. I’ve rebranded with my old BrighterWorlds trademark (long before the days of SL). Maybe easier for people to remember. I saw most keyboards were priced around 250, so I put mine up for 249 L$. I had help from a couple of friends translating the information to French and German. I also hired some help to translate into Portuguese and Japanese. I’ve started to work on the ability to record and playback my songs. It’s starting to become an interesting concept of making things talk to each other. I have plenty of ideas of the direction that I would like to move these into. I need to keep from making things too complex.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Motru using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Musical Box Piano

Every now and then I have a desire to make a programmable music box in a virtual environment. Today I went a step further. I found a program to create MIDI files and found a music box in the sound bank. I used Audacity to record and alter the sounds a bit to my liking. I then Created a piano keyboard texture and uploaded both the sounds and two octives of sounds. I created a script to sense what area of the prim was touched to play a specific sound. For starters, I now have a 1-prim keyboard that plays single notes of a music box.

posted by Dedric Mauriac on Woodbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]