Memorial Day in the United States is coming up soon, on the last Monday in May on the 29th. Our national holiday honors those who fought and died to defend our country.  Traditionally, we fly the American flag that day.  

Here is a simple way to express your appreciation for our veteran's ultimate sacrifice via Second Life, by adding a waving, animated American flag to your parcel:

You can add your own state's flag to the display, too, provided that it is underneath the American flag, or on a separate flagpole lower than the American flag, as required by flag etiquette. You should also fly the flag of the United States at half-staff from dawn until noon local time on Memorial Day.

OpenSim and Second Life have many wonderful artists who can sculpt and build wonderful items. Everywhere I go I see great looking animals and objects. But those objects are just sitting there! Maybe they move a head or blink and eye, but that's about all I see.   It makes it far more dramatic when your critters move and exhibit animal-like behavior.   There seems to be a lack of knowledge or skill on how to do simple movements, perhaps because people do not know how to script, or if they do, what tricks you can use to do these effects with.  So I came up with Make your own Animated frog that chase bugs

Pets can move about using several techniques, such as prim movement, llMoveTo physics, as vehicles using physics, and with the several new path finding commands.   OpenSim has a variety of poorly behaving physics engines, and I want to keep this simple.   In honor of the people who found a new species of leopard frog in New York, I made a mesh frog and a moving bug for it to eat and a set of scripts to animate them :

This article will show you how to do basic animal behavior and movements effects using the simplest possible method of prim movement:

Movement within a bounding area
Pursuit of prey
Eating behavior
Walking effects
Prey movement
Prey being eaten
Prims: 6 for the frog, 2 for the bug

You can make this pet easily and modify it for your own uses.  This is licensed so you cannot sell this frog, but you are free to make and sell any products that are based on this products scripts using these techniques.

I rate this as a simple project that anyone can build.   You do not need any knowledge of making  scripts, sculpts, or meshes, except how to add them to a prim.  I am including some extensive notes on how you can make your own bugs and pets using my techniques, but you can skip these steps.OpenSim users: Because this project is based on mesh, it requires OpenSim version 0.7.2  or higher

Make your own Animated frog that chase bugs

This script makes attached items such as HUD and jewelery able to run scripts even in a no-script zone.

Just one of over a thousand free scripts at http://www.free-lsl-scripts.com/cgi/freescripts.plx

// If you attach the prim while in a no-script zone, it won't work.  Fly up 100 meters or so and it will start.
// Works only when in the root prim.

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        llReleaseControls();
        llRequestPermissions(llGetOwner(),PERMISSION_TAKE_CONTROLS );
    }

    run_time_permissions(integer perm)
    {
        integer hasPerms = llGetPermissions();

        llTakeControls( 0 , FALSE, TRUE);

    }

    attach(key id)
    {
        if(id)//tests if it is a valid key and not NULL_KEY
        {
            llRequestPermissions(llGetOwner(),PERMISSION_TAKE_CONTROLS );
        }
        else
        {
            llReleaseControls();    // detached
        }
    }
}

Want a set of animated Saint Patricks day low-lag animated images for Second Life?
Here is a Second Life compatible set of images ready to upload, and a script to run them.

 

It's time to give away a bunch of my work again.    I've always loved birds and bees and I love to make things that are unusual and unique.    This bee was inspired by this sign I saw at the Texas State fair.

 I'll show you how to make a 5-prim bee that gather honey from 1-prim flowers, and takes it back to a 1-prim beehive.  I'm giving away some difficult  work.  The wing sculpt alone took me weeks to figure out.

This project includes several neat tricks I've learned and will teach you:

1) It uses non-physical movement, so it is very low lag.  Except for a small burst of script activity every 5 seconds, this script uses few resources.

2)  Since I wanted this to work in OpenSim, too, I had to come up with a function to replace the (broken) llLookat()  system call.  If you are a scripter, you will love the function face_target(). 

2) This bee uses a very fast wing-movement effect that has no server-side lag at all, even for very high wing rates.  This is the same trick I have used in my freebie butterflies, fairies and hummingbird projects, and now you will know how the trick works.  There is a template included so you can make your own wings.  I've never seen it published before.  This is a zero-lag effect.

Read the post and make you own bee for collecting pollen!

 

Normally, Second Life avatars cannot walk off the edge of a sim. But a simple trick will let you move your avatar off the edge. Even better, you can dance, walk, or fly!

I made a set of sculpts and a nice demo of this effect for an off-sim dance floor for Phaze Demesnes. I've put a bonus in, too:  the pose balls have a modified camera control script that you can add to existing pose balls for special camera effects.

This is the original photo I modeled it from.  Waving girl sent this to me a while back, and it, like her, it truly lovely.

After you make this, you should end up with this 9-prim stairway to heaven:

More information including free sculpts and all the textures is at http://metaverse.mitsi.com/secondlife/posts/off-sim-pose-ball/

Phaze Demesnes is an Editors Pick in the the Second Life Destination Guide today!

There are 6 Editors picks out of over 30,000 sims.

http://secondlife.com/destination/phaze-demesnes

Many Lindens make a bear to give out to residents.  Hunting Linden bear is a difficult thing to do, since Lindens can hide invisibly and are often very busy with office hours.     Some will give them out when asked, and others give theirs for good deeds.     I had to stay up late but  I get lucky, and I got M. Linden's bear when the Linden houses opened up early one morning.   Collecting them is great fun!

This Valentines day will give you a good shot at collecting more Linden bears.  There is an annual Kiss-a-Linden event on February 14.

Don't want to kiss a Linden?  Too yucky?  You say you just want to click and get one?   Well, you can!   There is a set of SL8B (Second Life 8th Birthday) Linden bears on the Marketplace.   Check back on Valentines day, and there may a special bear available on the marketplace, too.

There are many more bears that you can get by just knowing where to look.  And here is how and where to go to get seven more bears!