Ninja HUD 2.0 released

Here is a list of changes in the new version:

* Total running scripts down to 5 from 27 or something crazy like that.
* New button texture theme is easier on the eyes than the previous themes.
* Scripts compiled and running in Mono.
* New distraction objects added to the Escape gadget.
* Sky walking cloud total particle count reduced with the same overall visual effect.
* Shuriken and kunai can now be used at the same time or independently.
* Foot trap now rezzes at the user's feet instead of behind them.
* Caltrops rewritten to slow down any who enter with pushes instead of objects (that were not working in 1.6).
* Sounds added to menu.
* Limitation on how many caltrops that could be active has been removed.
* New option to switch between three menu sizes.
* New gadget "Disappear" added.
* New option to enable/disable automatic Skywalking after using the Escape gadget.
* Entire HUD can now collapse to keep HUD space uncluttered if preferred.

Gold and Diamond Jewelry Set

I was looking to buy some new jewelry a few weeks ago since my jewelry options are pretty sparse. There are certainly some nice jewelry sets available, but most of them are far more expensive that I would readily pay for something I may or may not wear often at all.

Tonight I finally made a poster and placed a couple of my jewelry set vendors in-world. The jewelry is also available on XStreetSL. All the jewelry is mod/copy and not transferrable. I also made some little jewelry boxes that open and close so the jewelry can be put on display.

The earrings, nose ring, two chokers, and jewelry display boxes are all in the same package for L$200.

Galaxy Generator Released

The galaxy generator is released. There are quite a number of things I would like to add to it eventually, but I suppose I'm happy with the basic setup for now.



SLExchange
OnRez

On a side note, I've turned off comment moderation but turned on the word completion box to prevent spamming.

Galaxy Generator Example Movie

I recorded and edited a little bit of the galaxies in motion. I'm wondering if "Galaxy Generator" is a poor name since some of the effects look less like galaxies and more like glowing clouds. Then again I suppose that sort could count as an elliptical galaxy. Perhaps sometime I'll be able to update the generator to generate specific types of galaxies.

Anyway, here's an embedded version of the example movie, and links to alternate sites follow:



Video links (in case the embedded doesn't show or play):

YouTube
Blip.tv
Vimeo
Flickr

Galaxy Generator Coming Soon

I've made a galaxy generator that cycles through about 40 presets or generates galaxies at random. I have the poster finished, but I don't have the instructions written, so it won't be available until tomorrow.

I think they look much better in motion than they do as still images, but here's a few snapshots of some presets and randomly generated galaxy effects:

Eyana's Ninja Hud version 1.6 >.>

Ninja Hud 1.6 is now released after having several reports of some weirdness in one of the scripts, basically caused by a typo.

Ninja HUD version 1.5 released! Here's the changes:

Eyana's Ninja HUD version 1.5
===================
Released: 17 June 2008

Particles:
* By request, a blood particle toggle has been added to projectile options.
* Particle textures should remain preloaded and hopefully prevent the annoying gray blocks of particles that the SL Client will show before the texture rezzes. In high lag situations this may still occur.

Grappling hook tweaked to finally make up for changes applied by the Havok4 release:
* Long distance grapples should now work smoothly again.
* The speed to get to the grappling target has been slightly increased.
* Logging out, crashing, or changing regions while grappling will no longer cause spastic grappling hook behavior.

Smoke bomb escape / Teleport to camera position:
* Long distance movement should now work smoothly again.
* The speed to reach the target has been increased.
* The old platforms that were rezzed after movement have been replaced by sky walking. Using this gadget will automatically turn on sky walking after the movement has completed.

Projectiles:
* Kunai, shuriken, and grappling hooks should now be less "bouncy" after colliding with something. However, if the projectile speed is on Fast or Very Fast this might occur.

Busy!

I'm posting here to mention that I will be very busy packing and moving and then unpacking now through this weekend and possibly without internet access.

If you are trying to get in touch with me then please send me a notecard in Second Life, or send an IM. I will respond as soon as I can.

Ideas for a Real Shop Name

It's time I come up with a good name for my shop. When I first opened I called the shop "Eyana's" as a temporary solution to being unable to think of a catchy name. At the very least I'd like to come up with a shop logo, but I can't think of anything there either. Anyone out there with suggestions?

Double tap to initiate running

LL is trying to push for a double tap on the forward key to start running. This conflicts with many, many products across the grid and makes adjusting your avatar's position slightly difficult since a double tap might send you running instead of taking that half-step you wanted to take. Vote on this issue to attempt to keep LL from implementing this change.

Havok 4 Jump Differences

There is a considerable difference in jumping in Havok 4 compared to Havok 1. If you have noticed this and would like it changed please vote for this Jira issue. Apparently there is a loss of 1 to 1.5 meters. I found a link to this issue at Daikon Forge.

A comparison can be made on the beta grid where there are still some Havok 1 regions available.

On a related note, I will probably be making a free version of the jump assist gadget to help compensate for the difference for those who enjoy jumping.

Eyana's Ninja HUD version 1.4

I have an update for the Ninja HUD available (finally!). Included in this update are some bug fixes, a new layout and icon style for the HUD to make it more intuitive and take up less screen space, and also a Sky Walking gadget was added.

Unfortunately I cannot get in-world to finish testing the update server and update all my single prim vendors because LL has disabled logins:

"Resident logins have been disabled until our toplevel routing issues have been resolved.

We deeply regret the inconvenience, and we’ll keep you posted."

I'll update this post with a list of bug fixes as soon as I can get in-world and access my notes.

Chain Lightning Staff Released

The staff is finally released. I had a couple of minor issues to fix with it so instead of releasing at version 1.0 it is released at version 1.01.

Check out the SLExchange page for it or go to my shop in-world.

This staff has a chain lightning attack that can target up to 16 targets at once. The targets can be switched from People to Objects (scripted objects only). There is also a lightning shield that damages those who touch it.

Aside from the attacks, the staff has a left- and right-handed standing pose built-in, custom color options, and some color presets.

Windlight and Particles

Yesterday I posted something on the JIRA about particles not displaying properly in the current relase of the First Look: Windlight viewer. Basically I'm not seeing enough particles no matter what my max particle count is. In the below snapshot there is a comparison of the same effect in Windlight and on the Release Candidate viewer. My issue was a duplicate (oops--there wasn't one that I could see dealing with that problem when I checked, but apparently I'm not good at using Jira) but I attached the snapshot to the original issue.





That brings me to another point I wanted to mention. Second Life currently has a little bit of a problem keeping particle textures in memory or whatever and ready to be displayed on the effect. This makes short particle effects start off as grey rectangles before the particle texture loads and can be quite annoying for trying to make a short particle effect look nice because even after the texture is loaded once it might need to load again the next time it's used. There is a workaround for this for creators: the particle texture should be put onto a prim. For example, for my chain lightning staff I am working on I put a tiny cube inside the staff. The cube has all the particle textures I'm using and even though it's hidden by the rest of the staff the texture still loads and the particle effect never has any problem with showing grey blobs instead of lightning.

Update: Eyana's Commission Vendors

Earlier this evening I updated my affiliate/commission vendor script. There won't be too many noticeable changes for those people using the vendor. Most of the changes are back-end things to better manage vendor tracking for auto-updates. The previous version had no way of knowing which vendors were removed or deleted from the grid. That oversight made it difficult for the updating script to work efficiently because people have had the tendency to rez all the sizes of the vendors and then remove the ones they didn't want.

Anyway, the old vendors should have a message saying that there is a new version available. The new vendors can be purchased for L$1 through the old vendors, or just pop by the main shop to grab them, or just ask me to send them to you. The L$1 fee through the old commission vendor to get the new one is another oversight in the original script where it would not allow any L$0 sales.

Simple Jet Flame Tutorial

This tutorial shows how to make a simple jet flame effect in Photoshop. Just load the images in sequence and follow the text on the images. Hopefully everything makes sense.
























Download: Finished Jet Flame Effect (tga zipped)