Monday, June 11, 2007

The Blue Bird of Happiness





Written 6 June, 2007

The Blue Bird of Happiness

Last week my friend Peter Stindberg invited me to a place which, he said, had marvelous poses.

And they did.

It was called Pillow Talk.

I bought some cushions which I’ve not yet managed to get working right and two low-prim but quite detailed trees—one with white blossoms, which features a great sit pose, and an apple tree with climbing and sitting anims. I also got a swing which attaches to one of the branches.

The swing is marvelously interactive. You can make yourself swing higher or lower by fiddling with the arrow keys.

I’ve not yet tried to see if I can make it flip me right over the branch. I’m sure Sweetie will be attempting that feat soon, if she hasn’t already.

I also bought a bluebird, which, weighting in at seven prims, is realistic and exceedingly cleverly scripted.

The bluebird has a rest position, which just be on a phantom prim (that’s because it’s smart enough to recognize and avoid non-phantom objects). It leaves the rest position, flies to a remote spot which has also been set, flies around at random for 15 seconds or so, and then goes back to its resting position.

And this happy little bluebird is copyable!

All one has to do is rez it, drag it to its rest position, touch it so it starts listening to chat commands, and then say “restpos.” Then you drag it to its patrol area and say setpos, then start. Finally, when it alights, you touch it again and it stops listening to voice commands. You can always touch it again to reset its parameters.

I love watching the little bird dodging obstacles and cruising to its rest position.

I hope makers will consider making other types of birds or (even better) include a color change command. Pele needs some bright yellow and green birds. I can’t quite bring myself to set out my 43 prim parrot.

Before, I had two little 14-prim birds making little circles in the air. I took them into inventory and replaced them with bluebirds. Now there are at least five bluebirds in Pele, making forays in search of food, with about the same prim consumption as before.

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