SL Webcomic Tips, Part 5
There are plenty of other tips and tricks we discovered as we went. Instead of making a new entry for each one, I'm going to add on to this one as the need arises. Watch this space!

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Teleportation Effects
Sometimes, you'll want to photograph an avatar teleporting away with the familiar circling particles. But it's deucedly difficult to catch the effect, and time consuming to do it multiple times until you get it right. Fortunately, many Second Life actions (such as speaking or deleting objects) use the same particle effect. So it was easy to whip up a simple script to reproduce the teleport "poof" effect on a constant basis. The script simply speaks (via llOwnerSay, so you don't have to worry about spamming the neighbors) several times a second, complete with the accompanying particle effect. Just place the script in a prim, put the prim where you want the teleportation to take place, and touch it to start. Touch it again to turn it off. Note that the prim will turn itself invisible for easy filming, so remember where you put it, or use CTRL-ALT-T to see invisible objects.

You'll probably need to make something like twice as many particles as you think are necessary. Particles often drop out when you take a snapshot. (This can be frustrating when you're trying to show an avatar editing something. I've tried simulating the edit particles with a particle script, but I usually end up painting in the particles later.) This is especially true if you've got your graphics settings maxed out, and your particle counts are lowering due to client lag. To do this, lower the timer interval in the script (that is, increase the number of llOwnerSays per second). Your mileage may vary, but I needed to lower the interval to the point that the particles appeared to form a distinct cylinder in the air.

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More to come!
Posted by Moriash Moreau at 7:44 PM