RA suggestions for creative ideas?

I have many ideas but somethings I am not sure how to apply them to Second Life.
Some things require skills and funds I don't have.

I have several ideas one is interactive texture shifting texture viewer that has hand painted texture maps on rooms and objects.

A friend started to help me make it but things came up and I am not sure what will become of it.
My ideas purpose is pure creativity, not to sell or make money, just unique way of displaying things in gallery where the guest can interact with the objects.

And I had another idea about a game but it requires skills, resources I don't have and I am not sure if there would be much of interest in this.

It would involve interactive prims that connect to a story line via the internet or virtual rooms like a role playing adventure game but something more.

Personally I am not really into quest.
Yet it would be nice to see one of my ideas be actually do-able in SL within my present skill level.

I know the truth is there is lot of stuff out in the world of Second Life so whatever I create I am very aware there will be little notice.

Yet I would love to continue creating and figuring out how to apply my ideas to things.

I don't have really have the means mentally to get scripting beyond copy and paste.

Even most of the time my copying and pasting often goes awry.

Yet depending on my friends to script something for me that they may or may not
be able to have time for is getting bit frustrating.

I read the wiki for LSL and I don't get it.

I do know the more scripts I use the more sim resources this takes causing more
lag.
I like to figure out better way to apply my ideas without the lag.

I am curious how other residents who are creative and have several ideas
but didn't know what to do with them but finally figured it out?

I can't spend hundreds on things that serve no real purpose other then it
being cool idea.

The space and means to create this is limited.

I have some land but not a entire Sim for personal use.

My strengths are my ability to create images, textures and sometimes put some
pretty cool prims together.


Any suggestions?

Somewhere in world is an old fashioned "Adventure" type game that someone took the trouble to build. Unfortunately it's just as irritating as the text based versions used to be. You know - to get through this door you have to have a key. The key is at the top of this elevator ride, but to open the elevator door your have to solve this riddle, but there is a clue omitted from the riddle. The missing clue is at the end of this corridor, but to get the end of this corridor you have to . . .

BLAH!

Although I marveled at the ingenuity that went into this peculiar form of self torture, I found having a colonoscopy more entertaining.

So if your "adventure but something more" isn't a whole lot more, I'd encourage you to pursue the other creative ideas instead. The interactive texture installation idea seems very cool indeed.

But I have no suggestions about how to resolve the scripting issues. I have ideas too. Mine would involve realistically animating large creatures made of prims. I know it can be done and I have no doubt that I could learn to do it if I had time. I don't have the time though and it is frustrating to let those ideas just sit.

I have had some help in creating a custom avatar outfit recently and I found it within my grasp to pay for the custom work. I think the nice lady was a bit underpriced. She seemed to enjoy the work. So maybe you just have to find the right person who would be interested in helping simply because they enjoy it.

Well it is hard to say what you as a person can and cannot do, so I will stick to the way I worked.

My first builds were commercial buildings (shops) for which I designed each and every texture, though I had very little Photoshop experience. Worked out reasonable, and I even sold a few.
The next builds were made from textures I bought, since I liked building more then texturing. To each his own

A while ago I started designing furniture, as I wanted to decorate the first house I created. Which resulted in my own furniture shop. Still spend a lot more then I make from selling!

My latest are extremely low prim furniture, for which I wanted 2 extra's: colour change and choose animation. So I needed to look into scripting. Though I have a lot of porogramming experience in real life, LSL works completely different from any language I used, so I had to start from the scratch. And I managed in the end, by using the following strategy:

- Get a understanding of the way LSL works, regarding to events (on rez, on touch, etc).
- draw a rough design of what you want to achieve, simply in text and pictures, so you know what you want to build
- search the wiki and even google the internet, for scripts that remotely do what you want to achieve, so you get an understanding what to do at which event.
- start typing, and find out by trial and error how it all works.
- once you achieve your goal, test very well. Try top optimize.

As long as you do not work against some deadline, I think that it is quite possible to learn scripting, as long as you do not set your goals to high. There are loads of free script out there that you can look into. These scripts can get you a rough understanding of how LSL works.

If you decide LSL is not your thing, and cannot pay for a scripter to make it for you, you simply have to move on and find things you like and can manage. First of all, SL should be fun. That is why I buy a lot of things to make my building easier: animations, textures, and some of outy banjo's scripts to create neat light and water effects for example. So I can concentrate on what I like most: the actual building.

Really hope I made some sense in this writing

Take care, Marcel

Thanks Marcel and Weston.
No I don't want something that is so annoying and complex no one wants to interact with it.
I am more of into making textures and trying to find different things to do with the prims then script. Logic, Computer and programing skills are bit harder for me but I have sometimes been able to figure out things if I persist enough.

It's all in the balance. You say you like making textures and manipulate prims, then that is what you should focus on. Most important thing is that you do what you like to do.

Only try to dive into scripting if you really like the process of learning the trick. When I look at my own effort, each time I succeed in making a script that does what I want, I am very happy. And I am having fun in learning each step. Only then its worth your time

Have fun creating, Marcel

Hi FD ! .. I been havin' it large with RL lately and never seem to find Sltime

As for the scripting I am in the same boat as you .. copy/paste with the occasional contract thrown in if it's important .

IMHO your strengths lie in your texture and building skills .

I personally have seen many of your creations at home and a wider audience witnessed the Halloween house you created last October .

This is where I guess your strengths lie .. Folow this path and add the scropting as you progress.

Kudos dude !! catch ya laters . JJ

okay, i know you found this annoying and all, but i LOVE riddles (i write them) and i would love to know where this is. please. thank you.

You're in luck, 3Ring. It's still there at Whanganui, 206, 243, 39 or thereabouts. There is also a web page www.slfbi.com associated with it. I'll send you a landmark in world too.

There is a one time fee of L$50 to enter and it's like a lifetime membership which the owner will reimburse if you're not amazed. I was amazed at the scripting and the build and the patience involved. I just find those old adventure games very tedious.

Good luck.

Thank you. I figured you were busy. I hope you are well.
What made the Halloween house work was my friends who helped me.
I don't know if many people had visited though.
Thanks everyone for kind words.
Biggest thing I like to do is textures and experimenting with what I can do with images or
draw.
Yet sometimes nothing seems to work but I keep persisting.
Sometimes though the prim thing and I get a long as well as scripts but every
now and then I am able to do something I am quite proud of.

Hi Fd,

I have thought about this kind of thing also. From my perspective its not about how well you can build, texture or script or sculpt.. the resources are always available through friends or others.. The most important aspect to inventing a truly original and entertaining 'game' within the game of sl is: VISION.. and you have that in spades my friend.

It takes all types to put a project together of a scale and quality that will attract people. Your textures and art.. does it tell a story? Can you tell that story in an interesting way somehow in SL?

I look around SL and I see some interesting builds and displays, but a lack of content that fully takes advantage of the 3d realm. There is definately room for any kind of game or interactive exhibit it could prove to be very popular.

I would suggest the hardest part is seeing the plan through to completion.. but if the plan is good it will make it easier.

Dont hesitate to IM if you need scripting or sculpting help dude...

-whyroc

I have gotten a lot of positive comments from my hand painted textures.
I like to do interactive house that is a gallery.
The castle shape I have built.
The kitchen/lab/shop 1 prim counter I got.
I don't have all the textures yet.
The castle I want is like a texture viewer but so is everything in it.
Where everything including objects are touchable and changeable that is easily updated
by me.
Yet I have no clue how to do this.
If I could the houses and changeable rooms I could use as story in it's self
Another game I like is simple pen and paper role playing type number adventure type
games but not sure how that would work here either.

I am notorious for starting and stopping projects example my 3rd Life tiny city because I just can't get the textures of the windows right.
My friends area is great but the rest is just unfinished monorail, boxes with grids,etc..
Whyroc I am really really dumb when it comes to those scripts.
I haven't attempted sculpties in months.
I keep getting distracted. LOL
If you got time and see me online give me a jingle too.

This might be a bit controversial but:

If you want to make an "adventure" type game in Second Life.. make it in a local opensim, then make the sim database file available for regular download.

You can use a whole island without having to pay for it, the players will have no lag, and you won't have to worry about multiuser tracking (which makes the scripts several hundred times easier). Yes, it will be piratable, but if you aren't too worried about making money that shouldn't be a big problem.

Hmm interesting idea Yummi.
I figured with Opensim I would need equipment and know how I don't have.
One idea I have had few weeks back about Opensims but decided it wasn't going to happen because I don't know how to do the stuff that requires it.
I don't have means to do so at this point is creating environments but then I would need to know things like how to apply design ideas to raw files, skins, and
know how or where to host the files.
I still need to know how to animate and script.
Yet it was fun designing spiraling multi-sim formations like a Pirate Maze in my head.
It would have to be at least thousands sims big though not sure how that would happen.
Including the know how to do Pirate Bots and Word Cannons for this scramble combat
game I have been thinking of for months.

FD I've had a dream for 3 years to build a sim..full of neat structures and rich of textures.. Places ive seen and stuff like that.. ive never had the cash to sink into a sim..but when I realised i could afford smaller and use a rezz foo..I've been building my sim in pieces and keeping it in my inventory.

Always focus on what you have...some of your ideas are outstanding..yes there was a sim called Numbkulla that had a great game/story line where you found clues and navigated thru their little secret passage ways and obstacle courses.

I did a party game once that involved an entire story line that attached notecards to key objects that were copiable and each object handed out a new notecard that hinted at where the new clue was hidden.

At the end of the night the person with the most clues won..almost always noone found them all.

Theres a guy..who makes a HUD that plugs into a website full of textures..its laggy as heck but a cool idea to be able to type in what youre looking for and the texture pops up in the hud on your screen.

Keep at it..never let your limitations define who you are..only your aspirations.

~Lana

Thank you for saying that.
I am working on.
Limitations I must admit sometimes are very difficult but I do have my imagination and creativity.
I figure if I did anything I have to create it this Alter Afterlife place where everything is possible and their is no limits, no lag, etc.
Yet sometimes I am able to pull off somethings and will continue to do so.
We all have something regardless of who we are that we can create that is unique and special.
Your creative and the other experiments you mentioned sound really cool too.
Texture Hud via website interest.
If I was going to do something like that I would want the website to be geared towards just set permissions that would make it viewable to only those the owner of the content decided to have access to it

I keep ideas in the back of my head. This is especially true for ideas that I know that I can't immediately realize. As I go about doing goofy stuff, I'll slowly learn the bits-n-pieces needed to accomplish the more complex ideas.

When I first got into SL, I got an idea the first week. In the year that I've been here, I've been slowly learning the things needed. Not just the technical skills, but working around various limitations. "I want to do this, but this is causing a problem and it just plain can't do what I want it to do. How do I hack aorund it? What are the other options?" Last month I finally realized my first big idea.

Since sculpties appeared, I've been thinking about doing a pop-up book. I currently don't have the scripting knowledge for it, but I'll be slowly working towards it.

That's really interesting - once you've found a texture you want, how do you get it to use in SL?

I used it for a short while..it used to be for sale on slex..it's like a regular hud...with a search window...mouse over the textures and they enlarge and scroll left to right..find what you want and click it..then..you given that texture from the website full perm.

~Lana

P.S. The lag on this was tremendous.

Is that the UUID texture related device? I forgot name but I was wonder how he gets texture artist permission.
Basically what I read about his device he said he had whatever texture he had or was given to him in his faq, if you wanted specific texture there to let him know, and he
said something about if you were texture artist and didn't want your texture there to let him know.
Something about that I wonder if it was basically he was using whatever textures he could get away with giving away that way or something iffy.
I understand wanting to share textures but for texture artist unless they don't care it sort of sucks.
Even if they did mean them to be free it might be slightly annoying to know someone is selling your work or just took it without at least asking.
I am curious if he some how does something the SL servers looking for UUID numbers of textures that he access on his video card or something similar?

yes I agree FD..I wasn't very impressed with the range of textures that were being made available to me either(another reason i stopped using it) but all in all the idea was good.

It was still major lag city to be using it while building.

~Lana

Oh okay I was wondering like if it was because he had so many textures or something trying to be sent via the hud.
Clever idea but doesn't sound very fun or worth using if it causes lag and the selection is very low.
Speaking of textures I have working on highly detailed hand painted curtains and pondering
how and wear to use them.
I thought about a fancy 5 prim texture mapped bed but clueless about how to do the poses
but I guess it might be time to figure it out.
Except then I went to Slexchange to get idea what is out there as far as curtains and beds.
Every bed it seemed the good quality ones were either fully animated and menu driven.
I got bit discouraged and started to compare myself again with all those people who know
how to do more
But on funnier note I have been making useless experiments on drawing clothing racks of 2d dimensional clothing like one below I gave one to a friend he sent me photo of his head poking out of the cloak it was so funny. He was wearing my unbuyable clothing rack.
LOL

I don't know where FD..I'm figuring it out..but i'm sure theres a niche for your stuff somewhere..I like the lil avatar by that rack..you might do well to try and create 3d build textures with the clothing as store fronts.

~Lana

The avatar is one of the few I have ever bought.
I just absolutely love his face and hair but the baby prims well they just get bit too freaky.
Wonder if anyone would be in need of hand painted clothing rack displays? I haven't seen many but I figure if someone can design clothes they probably easily can do it themselves.

FD..Go to Kowloon sometime..walk around..take a look at heir store fronts and how they advertise....and their avatars too..might give ya some ideas.

~Lana

Thanks Lana I will go check out Kowloon I haven't been exploring this weekend yet.
Interesting textures there I am there now but they do stuff little different then what I am but its similar effect I guess too. Looks like more photos though.