Public Land Scanner

Recently people have been lamenting over the unfair advantage people who use "land scanners" possess. In an effort to create a fair market, now everyone can scan to their heart's content. This can also be easily adapted for other creative uses, like detecting when your arch-rival buys land in a sim. This will only scan the sim the object is rezzed in, so if you have more than one of these in different sims it would be advisable to put the sim name in the object name.

// Set this to the owner you are looking for, or NULL_KEY for public land
key requestedOwner = NULL_KEY;

// This is the pause between scans
integer interval = 15;

// The color of the scanner when it is running
vector scanColor = <0, 1, 0>;

// The color of the scanner when it is stopped
vector stopColor = <0, 0, 0>;

scan() {        
    integer x;
    integer y;
    
    // Turn the scanner "on"
    llSetColor(scanColor, ALL_SIDES);
    
    for (x = 0; x <= 256; x += 4) {
        for (y = 0; y <= 256; y += 4) {
            vector currentPos = <x, y, 0>;
            
            if (llGetLandOwnerAt(currentPos) == requestedOwner) {
                // We found a target plot of land
                
                // Reset the color
                llSetColor(stopColor, ALL_SIDES);
                
                // Notify the owner
                llInstantMessage(llGetOwner(), "Target land found at " + (string)currentPos);
                
                // Cause the loops to end
                x = 257;
                y = 257;
            }
        }
        
        //llSay(0, "DEBUG: x = " + (string)x);
    }
    
    // Pause for an interval
    llSetTimerEvent(interval);
}

default {
    state_entry() {
       scan();
    }
    
    timer() {
        llSetTimerEvent(0);
        scan();
    }
}

Call me a blonde if you want, but I am unsure how to use this script.

Do I place it on an object and just leave the object sitting in a Sim somewhere?

Also, I tried to replace NULL_KEY with a name and I kept getting script errors.

I'm sorry if I sound like a dumb blonde, but I'm not sure how to use this land scanning script.

The script makes sense, however you would want to be checking to see if the land owner is NULL_KEY and if so, there's your public land.

However, if it's scripted and fair it's not an 'unfair advantage', because we worked for it.

Now, if land scanners are an unfair advantage, then anyone using this script would still have an unfair advantage, as looking vaguely at the script, it appears to increase the x and y at the same time, doing only a diagonal pattern check, instead of checking each and every tile.

You would need to increase x +=4 until x = 256, then when x reaches 256, increase y += 4, then run up x from 0-256 again. So this method scripted here is not accurate at all.

I also see that your 'repeat' is set for 15 seconds. Ouch. To scan the entire sim (every tile) would take about 3 full minutes. So even if you did fix this script to properly scan each tile, I stil have the advantage, as I scan every tile in a sim within 10 seconds.

Mmm. The great taste of sleaze, greed, and condescension all rolled into one package.

~Ulrika~

Actually this script does exactly what you are saying that it doesn't, only it increases y by 4 from 0 to 256 then increments x by 4, then y from 0-256 etc... This is because one for() is nested inside the other.

for (x = 0; x <= 256; x += 4) {
for (y = 0; y <= 256; y += 4) {

Also if you want to make the scanning quicker and hog more resources of the sim you can just split it up so that you have 4 scripts, each scanning only 1/4 of the sim, each running at the same time therefore saving time. You could use more than 4 at a time as I'm sure some people do so that the scan is even quicker.

I honestly think that scripts like these should be banned, for the simple fact that I have to remove five objects from my plot of land by five other people that are taking up my damn prim count, which is totally rude and uncourteous.

well asides the massive moral debate as to whether you should even have scripts like this one.. there is a *BIG* problem with this one in that it will be a continual 24/7/365 drain on resources.

this script will cause inordinate lag when used by a sim, if all the residents in the sim were running one, the sim might be nigh unusable...

also given the recent changes (where even released land may just go straight to lindens, to prevent scanner people from stealing out land from someone who accidentally releases it) the whole point is getting to be very near moot.

It was an interesting expirament.. but one that has been ultimately decided by the player base is simply not in the best interests of SL at large, and LL has agreed

Giving people access to this script could force Linden's hand more quickly. At the town hall today, Philip said he is waiting for land "solutions" to emerge. If several owners per sim install this script on their land, then is it possible enough lag would be introduced to make the sim absoultely unusable? How many would it take to stop the sim, I wonder? Others would complain and Linden would have to play their card... to me it would be worth a week or so of this to get the point across. But, it would also need to be very widespread.

Would it be violation of TOS if everyone wants to take advantage of this script, causing parts of SL to be unusable?

Maybe that explains the 64ms jump in Run Tasks every few minutes in BonnyDoon!

Interresting that this thread is still alive.

If you ever see the land scanners, you'll note several different scripts, and a central script. All the central does is act as a 'sync', and has the (8 scripts I think? been a while) scan a small part of the region, decreasing the time taken to scan. It checks every 4 sqm for oublic land, reports it's findings the the central script, and central gives that data to my web server via xml-rpc. My web server logs it, beeps my cell phone if anything above 256 is found, I pull up my admin area for it, it'll tell me the coords, sizes, and draw a graphic to show me the area of the sim it's at.

So... Yea, that's the complete rundown on it. I'll prolly be releasing it's code (as well as the web-server code) some-time next week for 'educational' purposes.

hmm.... (deleted)

Land Barons can shove their sim lagging scripts up their virtual bums.

and that one object on the single square of land, with its (seventeen) scripts, was when evaluated by a linden with their 1.5.x tools, the second most lag-inducing object in the simulator (just behind a broken looping physics elevator)

Exploiting this loophole for your personal gain is unethical. Wouldn't all the energy spent on building your land scammer have been put to better use by helping the Lindens eliminate this loophole? Does all that money compensate for your black reputation? Death to capitalist parasites!

~Ulrika~

I'm new to SL.. just starting..
If scripts like this do create lag... shouldn't their use be banned?

Also to me it sounds like cheating!
One thing is to buy a tool maybe from Linden that was insterted into the game with certain gameplay considerations... one thing is to copy its funcionality and allow every one to use something that bogs game resources down.

If this scanner is something that really hurts gameplay balance, then it should be taken off totally and Linden may need to rethink about the existence of such a tool