FAQ: Answers to common questions about Second Wildlife
"Do you plan to do (fill in the blank) Wildlife animals?": I
have a long, long list of animals I plan to get to, but it takes many,
many hours of script writing, 3D modeling and texturing, not to mention
testing & bug-proofing to bring quality animals to Second Life. So,
new animals tend to be slow in arriving but when they do arrive I try
to make sure they live up to the expectations my customers have come to
demand. I do take suggestions into consideration as my list gets done
according to what's in the greatest demand first.
"Do you plan to do (fill in the blank) pets?": There
are a number of cat & dog vendors in Second Life already, so I
don't plan to do anything along those lines. In terms of follow scripts
for Wildlife, newer wildlife animals do incorporate a "loose" follow
where they will wander close to their owner much as real wildlife might
do. The sculpted rabbits do this for example. When you leave the area
they go back to normal behavioral exploring. This may be improved over
time to help create the most natural looking behavior.
"Do you plan to do (fill in the blank) attachable animals?": Attachments are a whole other issue. Moving prims do not react well
when you attach an object to yourself. For this reason, animals that
sit on your shoulder (other than in "frozen" mode which can be done
with any existing animals) need to be scripted specifically for that
environment, and I've too much to do at this point to script twice for
each animal. Current releases fall into three categories:
1.) Single prim animals, like the rabbits can be placed on yourself and set to "sit" mode safely.
2.) I have scripted the spiders to allow wearing them when they are turned off (they'll animate when worn automatically).
3.) Animated scripting for other animals may be too time consuming to do at this point. For now, simply freeze your critter before attaching him.
"My animal's tail/legs are out of position or don't move, how do I fix it?": As
mentioned above attaching a moving animal may cause parts to go to
strange positions. Additionally, Second Life has a bug that sometimes
causes moving prims to stop responding or to operate out of position.
This is not a script error,
I've opened prim scripts, verified they are running and manually
reset&recompiled
them but the prims still don't respond! I've even gone so far as to
delete the script in the moving prim, create a new script & drop it
into the part, but the hard-coded data doesn't seem to re-load
properly. This appears to be an SL prim corruption issue.
The fix for this is to take
your animal into inventory, and then re-rez on the ground. All the
pieces should come back into place. If your animal behaves like this
often, send me an IM and I'll replace your copy with a newer version that should not exhibit the behavior.
"My Sculpted Prim animal turns into a ball regularly, how do I fix it?": This is a known SL bug related to sculpted prims. The short answer is to go to Linden Labs JIRA and vote/comment on issue MISC-333.
The
current feedback from the Lindens is that this is not an important
issue to residents so they are not in any hurry to address it. However,
I have worked out some temporary support items that should help reduce
this problem. I've incorporated assistance into scripted items for
sculpted animals - for specifics view the entry for your animal at this
web site.
For instance, if you have a Garden Wildlife Rabbit pick up a carrot
from the Garden Wildlife vending machine and place it nearby your
rabbits (only one carrot is needed for a given area). The ball shape
should be greatly reduced. Similar items are available for other
sculpted animals.
This workaround is less than ideal, but until Linden Labs fixes this bug it's the only way to solve the flicker/ball problem.
"My Seagull isn't moving, how do I get him to fly?": The
Flying Seagulls are currently the only animals I have running
TargetOmega commands. This command causes the viewer on your computer
to calculate & show movements. The great thing about this mode of
operation is that the SL server does no work and thus no lag is
introduced. The bad thing about this is the movements don't appear the
same to everyone.
Of course, check that the owner has clicked on the object &
selected "Start/Stop" to place the gull into motion. If the menu is
responding, the script is functioning normally.
Beyond that, I've
troubleshot seagulls that were not moving on the customers screen but
were working fine on mine. This is a rare occurrence, but seems to be related to a long-known SL bug listed in LL JIRA as SVC-54
that I highly recommend being voted on. Apparently this will be fixed
with Havok4, in the meantime I'm working on a possible temp fix.
Update: This does appear to be fixed with Havok4... although I'm being
cautiously optomistic. If anyone is still having issues with Seagull
rotations and the scripts seem to be responding let me know.
"I can't find my animal, is there a 'Find' command?": After placing more than I
can count I've found that if you get an animal to rez successfully it's very, very
rare that it will go missing on it's own. I do have some hints that can
help in finding animals based on my own experiences:
- Check your folders, often people forget to set group correctly or property owners return your items.
> Look in the Lost & Found folder.
> Look in the Trash folder.
> Use the search tool.
- Use the Animal Finder if it supports your animal type (see the entry on the Props page for details).
> Rez the Animal Finder and touch it.
> You should see a list of all
your animals and their locations in chat if they're on script-enabled
land.
- These critters are nearly impossible to pull out of their bounding limits scriptwise.
> Chances are he's in the
area, but hiding under something, look around and under objects.
> If the 'Ground On' Option
was accidentally turned on search along the sim terrain within the
limits you had set.
> Movement limits on most
ground animals can't be more than +/- 30 meters so look in that range.
The default setting is only +/- 3 meters.
- Use caution in giving menu access to others. They
can adjust your home point at any time so that your critter may not be
where you expect.
- Check your transaction history, if the "for sale"
button was On it's possible someone bought your critter from you for
the same amount you paid.
- In some cases, lost items will re-appear after a
re-log or sometimes after a few days go by. This is usually an
inventory server or sim glitch.
- Although it's rare, sometimes the Linden Servers
lose items. Your only recourse is to try to work out inventory issues
with the Lindens directly (after you try relogging, and the steps
above). Sometimes though... it's just "gone".
I do try to bulletproof the scripting to minimize loss, but there's
nothing I can do if a property owner deletes your objects or if the
Linden servers lose inventory. I do also try to keep pricing low enough
such that if an animal goes missing replacement will not be a major
expense.
"Can I have a 'Copy' or 'Mod' version of (fill in the blank)?": The
short answer is that I don't do copy or mod animals. I try to keep prices
reasonable, but I also have to support myself through Linden Income so
that I can continue to create more animals for Second Life (this is now
a full-time job for me). So, if I were to do copy versions I'd have to
charge such a phenomenal amount for them that it would be unfair to the
majority of buyers and be only a bargain to the biggest Land/Island
developers. Instead I rely on a pay-as-you-go model where people pay
only for the animals they need. I do however offer bulk packages of 10
at a discount over the single price for many wildlife animals. The
no-mod policy ensures all Second Wildlife (TM) animals retain the
quality/functionality I've placed into them during the creation process.
I'll add more to the FAQ as time goes by, I hope to make this a useful resource for customers that need information right away.
- Cloud Insoo
Second Wildlife, CCO
Second Wildlife (73, 82, 26)