Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - Bald Eagles!: I have a new Bird of Prey to announce, thanks to some texture work by Hodgey Hogfather. If you haven't been to Hodgie's Nature Stand, stop by the Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) Garden area to see some of their flowers & pick up a landmark from one of their signs. Hodgie & Hodgey do some great texture work and as an Eagle expert Hodgey wanted to try improving the golden eagle skin to more closely match real-life feather patterns and do a bald eagle. The results look great and I've applied the new skins to the latest version eagles. He did admit that texturing animals can be challenging work, especially with the amount of prim torture I seem to create. Despite the challenge the skin came out wonderfully and the new Bald Eagles are flying around the mountain at the main shop location.

I've also been refining the bird scripts further for improved performance. If your bird is having issues drop me a notecard and I'll be happy to upgrade your bird to the latest version. I'm still awaiting LSL Mono so that I can add better ground avoidance. The birds flying around the mountain seem to be doing much better but do occasionally get trapped by the near vertical rise, so make the best use of your home point and limits to minimize the chances of flying into tall mountains! I'll keep trying to improve this behavior over time.

In other news, I've updated the crickets so that they'll respond to the Animal Finder. Although they don't move around they are very small and hard to see, plus the latest SL viewers seem to cut out smaller objects more easily than in the past. That combination makes the Animal Finder compatability nice to have. The new versions will go into the vending machines in early August, and I've updated the crickets I can find on the island (I have a few more to locate still) but will get the rest of those sitting out this weekend.

The Garden area at the Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) island has been converted over to the new group finally, that just leaves the Gothic area to do, plus I need to close out the older 'Second Wildlife' group. I have a new group of completely updated animals almost ready to announce, I hope to have them ready by early next week - the updates do include some new models as well as scripting improvements. I'm trying to implement all of the improvements you've asked for as I go through and update animals to the new business name. I'll keep everyone posted as they all get completed.

Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - Crawlie Updates!: Once again I've gotten myself a bit sidetracked. I need to get back to group stuff, but in the meantime check out the latest dropping spider updates at the main shop. As with all my critters I needed to update the names & scripts with the new business name, but the dropping spider has also remained virtually unchanged since I released it back in 2006. Yes, these were among the first of my SL(tm) creations (originally in physical form - now only available that way from the spider and summoner wands.) One spring, when I was slacking on lawn mowing duties a bit, I came across a Yellow Garden Spider in the tall grass and have wanted to do a SL(tm) version inspired by the brightly colored real-life version. The result is shown above on the right - an all new Yellow Garden Spider! I've completely updated the code for smoother, more precise operation and have reduced the prim count to just 4 prims!

I've gone beyond that and created a series of different colored Garden Spiders to choose from, and the multi-pack vending machine has an assorted color 10-pack if you'd like to pick up the whole series and then some. All of these function the same as the original dropping spider. Place them upside-down, adjust the sensor & drop settings and watch them drop down when someone walks nearby.  You can also attach them to yourself (their legs will animate) and carry them around as a familiar. The new brighter textures really stand out when attached.

As a side note... I now remember why I haven't messed with these in so long, the mathematics for getting the animations just right are pretty annoying to work out. I've tried to modify the framework so that I can update these more easily in the future.

As if to test out the new framework I decided to try updating the Gothic Tarantulas as well, and added an all-new spider - a Dropping Black Widow! Again, I reduced the prim count to 4 for the Tarantulas and all of the Gothic spiders get all-new surface and leg textures. I also added a new Brown Tarantula to the available choices. Finally, these versions are closer to what I had originally intended back when I first built them.

I'm not sure what I'll do next, I do still need to update external vending machines and the related web entries here with all the new spiders.

Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - Continuous Improvements: Hi All! I've been working on some side projects to help pay the bills, but am back on animal programming this week. I've been returning some customer requests in recent days, starting with the hodgepodge drawbridge. I was using freeware music that required ad support, so I had incorporated the ad on the touch sign (the green one in the pic above). This week I paid for a fully licensed 34 second music clip and incorporated the new music into both the normal & XL bridges. I've removed the green signs and updated all the bridges I know of, including those in the Seaside vending machine.
   
I've been fine tuning other objects as well. The carrots are a little smaller - I'm trying to balance ease of location (larger) sizes with more realistic (smaller) sizes & hope I find a good balance somewhere in-between. The Garden Food&Props vendor has the latest version, the veggie garden has the latest versions and there is a carrot just outside of the veggie garden fence

that's a slightly smaller size than all the others in case you want something more realistically sized & are confident you can relocate the carrot at a later time. I've also been refining the birds of prey. I've noticed on the Aeryglow (tm) Wildlife mountain the birds sometimes were getting stuck on the land. I've re-written the LSL code to help reduce this behavior. The flight speed has also been refined somewhat.

I've created a new rabbit multi-pack for the Garden Multi-Pack vending machine that includes a variety of normal color rabbits. The pack has 4 brown, 3 black & 3 white rabbits. If I do any further 'normal' rabbit colors I'll update the multi pack with them.

I hope to get back to new critters in the near future, I'm also hoping LSL mono will be released soon so I can take advantage of the scripting improvements across the Aeryglow (tm) product line. I also need to work on group updates, I am still planning to send out invites soon, any wagers on a date for new group invites, lol? I realize I keep postponing group transfer... so much to do, so little time in life.

Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - Birds of Prey: Finally a couple of all-new animals to announce! I started these birds back in April but the SL(tm) issues that kept me busy in April/May postponed the work I wanted to do on these. You can find these in the Jungle Wildlife vending machines up on the mounting vending hut. They are only 1 Prim and have a number of sitting/flying/hunting behaviors. They currently hunt chipmunks/squirrels when the food option is turned on, I'll add more options as time goes on. You can also save up to four perch locations for them to rest at, similar to the bat sleeping points. These birds have behavioral scripting much like the lions, they'll hunt and perch more when tired and will fly higher and faster when fully rested or fed. I packed the script full of goodies, hopefully they'll be as fun to watch as they have been to make :)
   
Keep in mind that the trade-off of 1-prim critters is the SL(tm) sculptie balloon bug that requires sculpted prim support. I've updated the jungle bones with the Birds of Prey info, just make sure you place out v0.00 or newer for them to work properly (the old version had no revision in its name). I've also created a Raptors Nest to provide the same support, plus it makes a nice prop to use as a perching location. Both of these can be found in the Props vending machine next to the machines where the birds are found. Just place one of these in the vicinity where you'll be standing when you are viewing the birds. For larger areas you may want to place support in other locations, the jungle bones are copyable (and support the lions as well as the birds).

In other news, I'm working on transferring everything over to the new Aeryglow Wildlife (tm) group. In the near future I'll start sending out invites to people and closing out the Second Wildlife group. I'll post more when I start the invitations.

 

Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - A New Beginning: Second Wildlife Island has officially been renamed to Aeryglow Wildlife (tm) today. I'm going through all of my Landmarks, Notecards, Textures, Scripts, etc. to update everything to the new name. It'll probably take months to catch everything, but for the most part the change is official. I'll also send out invitations this week to the new group.

If you haven't been by the Garden Wildlife (tm) section of the island lately come take a look around. I've added some new gardens as well as a slick new elevator up to Hodgie's plant vending machines on the second floor of the vending building (shown above). The first floor houses the Aeryglow Wildlife (tm) garden animal vending machines, and I've rearranged things a bit for easier shopping.

In other news, it's come to my attention today that the wand crystals were not working properly on bare ground. I'm not sure what caused this, I recall them working fine the last time I used them and no one's mentioned the crystals weren't transforming into animals. Anyhow, I've re-written the code and placed the updated wands into the Garden Wildlife (tm) Food&Props vendor. If anyone wants their wand updated, drop me your old wand & send me an IM.

In other news, I'm finishing up some detail work & testing on a new critter I'll announce in the next few days. It's been a couple months since I've had something completely new, this one should be worth the wait.

Aeryglow Wildlife(tm) - First New Website Post: Woo-hoo, the new website is up and live. I need to go through & clean up these old SW web pages, so it'll take some time before this site is fully live.

   
When I started this adventure back in 2006, the "Second Wildlife" name was a cute & catchy in-world name for someone just doing this for fun. I also wasn't (at the time) planning to make a living selling SL(tm) objects. As the business has grown however I have had to look at this venture from a whole new perspective. Recently Linden Labs announced they are going to begin evaluating & enforcing trademark infringements on businesses in Second Life(tm), including business names too closely tied to Second Life(tm). The dilemma was do I wait for the day LL decides for whatever reason that "Second Wildlife" infringes on their trademark or do I do something now while I'm still a tiny player. I decided to go ahead and change the business name now rather than to wait.

The new name "Aeryglow Wildlife (tm)" uses essentially a made-up word, so I'll likely not have to change the business name again (whew). "Aery" means ethereal or visionary, and "glow" of course means giving off light. Together, I hope at least, the meaning of the name represents Wildlife that is by its own nature a visionary illusion come to life. It's still going to take me time to get used to the new name so I'd not be surprised for those of you out there that have come to know & love my creations to have to become used to it as well. The seagulls in the sun icons will not change, nor will the fonts I use on all my items. You should start seeing the new name pop up on textures & wildlife creations, etc. very soon. The old name will be around for awhile as it'll take a lot of work to change everything over, I'll try to keep things as smooth as possible. I'll post more info in the near future.

For now, wander over to the Second Wildlife site for info on all our critters, and thanks in advance for your patience ;)


In other news, the latest release is a new little garden chipmunk. He's based on the little red squirrels and has all the same behaviors, etc. I'll have them rolled out to the other vending machines later in the week. I also spent some time testing the squirrels in the mono beta sandbox, looks like they'll run just fine when mono LSL occurs if nothing is changed between now & then. I'm looking forward to mono myself, not so much for the speed improvements (my critters tend to run slow to keep lag down anyhow) but I'll be able to reduce multiple function calls to further reduce lag.

Seaside Wildlife:

   Located at the center of the island is the Seaside Wildlife Reserve. This area specializes in aquatic wildlife and includes some sea life developed in cooperation with Something Fishy.

Garden Wildlife:

   In the Southwest is the garden section with its flowerbeds, meandering pathways and many benches for sitting and taking in all the beauty SL(tm) has to offer.  Here we specialize in garden variety critters that may be found in your own back yard.

Gothic Wildlife:

   The Gothic section features a dead forest and is the place to find the creepy critters you may need for your dungeon, attic, or dark forest environments. These include modified (and twisted) versions of garden variety critters as well as some gothic-themed critters.

As one can imagine, scripting & building new critters, landscaping our new home and keeping up a Website is a daunting task. There's always something new being worked on, and I hope you will check back from time to time to see what's new and exciting at Aeryglow Wildlife(tm)!

   http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aeryglow Wildlife/73/82/26/