Info/Suggestions Needed from Merfolk! Please Help!

Hello everyone...

--Added for Clarity--- this is not a "technical/scripting" question. This is a question about what merfolk have in their inventory/arsenal of gadgets and stuff...

I'm working on an attachment that will work with our LBOM (LustBaby Outfit Manager) that will do the sort of "Darryl Hannah in Splash!" style transformation when you hit water. In other words, when you are standing on dry ground, you'll have your normal look - legs, and whatever. Then, when you hit water, the LBOM will kick in and change you into your Mermaid avatar automatically. I've got all the specifics worked out on how all that should work - so it will allow jumping and breaking the surface of the water without changing you back to human - all of that is not really an issue.

What I would like to do though is make it so that it will also work on sims where the owner has it set up so the whole area is under water (even though linden water might be much lower. And to also work in fish tanks or things like that. I have some ideas for it - but it's all fairly complicated and convoluted so far. lol

I know that a lot of the merfolk types use special devices that help them fly slower and set levels and all that kind of stuff - but I don't know who the major creators are and what (if any) are considered the "industry standard" and whatnot. In the end - I think it would be easiest to make something that simply triggers the transformation whenever the things you folks typically use fire up and go into "mer-swim mode" and change you back when you turn it off - maybe.

So... the question...

Can anyone please tell me what and/or who makes the various tools and gadgets merfolk use to do their swimming/flying whatever. Landmarks, Slurls, or any clues on how to find the place in world or find the thing on Xstreet would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks in advance!

Getting into scripter territory here, but my guess is to use the llWater function to check current water height, and compare it to avatar position. ZHAO (at least , the version I have) uses this to trigger swim animations.

Code it something like this:

if ( llWater(ZERO_VECTOR) > avatarPos.z ) )
{ is underwater, do RLV magic }

I really like the idea of using RLV for stuff like this, and an automatic mermaid TF is very clever.

What I do for my inner t00b for prim water is use an llSensorRepeat looking for specifically named prims that you can put near the surface of the water. I'm not in-world right now, but if you send me an IM I'll send you a copy of my script when I get in-world.

Obviously mine only checks for LL water, not prim water.

not inworld right now, and i'd have to check with my sister for brands/creators, but the check for water level is an easy script, the transformation however might get a little messy, depending on how automatic you want it to be (fully automatic, is going to require some version of viewer with RestrainedLife code in it, both RLV and Emerald have this for sure, dunno about others).

adding Argent's detection for prim water (oh how I wish we had a prim-type=water) is good, but I haven't seen any standardization there among different creators, or even in many of the swim AO's (although several do test sim water level)

if you are looking to script this yourself, scripting tips would be the place to ask for ideas and help, if you're looking to have someone else do the scripting, products wanted often has quick replies, and often will get you suggestions for items that already exist as well.

Thanks guys.

Yep. I can detect linden water fine... was looking for ideas on what was happening for prim type water in mermaid areas - to see if there was a standard protocol in place. (Such as what is used with the Swimmer - but specifically for mermaids).

Seems also that they might be doing something to slow down "flight" when they are flying so they don't zip around under water at light speed. But I don't know if that's something I need to include in my system (since my AO is compatible with the automatic changer) or if it is something separate and what not.

I'm not looking necessarily for tech info, but rather a list of all the gadgets and stuff that no self-respecting Mercreature will be without in their arsenal.

--added for clarity-- that's why this is in resident answers and not scripting. I appreciate the help, but mainly I'm looking for what people have now so I'm not adding redundancies in my code - if I don't need to write something in there to slow down flight while under water because everyone already has that - then I don't want to bloat it and lag it out by duplicating things already done.

well the flight slow down seems like an easy one, it'd just be a slightly different application of the flight boost code, so I should imagine it'd be pretty common (I dunno, I haven't really done the mer thing except in passing) .

also you might reconsider duplicating those features, since it's often easier to have one thing that "does it all" than 50 things that do part of it. just make sure to make them optional, in case they prefer a different method.

I hesitate to add more than I have to for things like this - I'm in the "Transformation - Mental and Physical" business. Not really in the "Mermaid/Swimming/Flight Assist Business". The more I add above and beyond what is needed to get the job done - the more support I have to provide.

I'm not out to corner the market on mermaids (or any other group - I already have a werewolf version out there - but there are really no special considerations for that). I'm just here to provide something that's lacking - and as of now there are no merthropy tools out there, but a fairly big market for them.

What I'll end up doing is taking the names of the developers I come across and checking with them for special considerations and make something that, along with a config notecard or something, can drop into what they already do and call it a day and move onto the next thing - like the Jeckyl and Hyde Potion.

No, the creator of the original swimmer has comprehensively refused to divulge the signals it uses to indicate its water prims. The best we can do is come to some agreement among ourselves for a common protocol.

Yep. There are very few niche/industry areas in SL that have sets of open protocols. I've always thought it was interesting that the most standardized was the "SL Sex Industry" where if you want, you can easily make your items compatible with all the other "sex stuff" out there so it all plays nice, interacts with each other, and so on. I try to be pretty open with my stuff. I don't release the code, but I have put out a few developer kits and have offered up some of the protocols so that people can make little gizmos and things that interact with our products.

The outfit manager is the biggest thing we have that I'm trying to encourage other developers to embrace. In the past all the RLV developers have sort of had a "You have to use my outfit and I'm going to have it set up this way and that's that." kind of situation. With my stuff it's not relevant "what" is there and set up - it just matters "how" it's set up. Once the mermaid thing is done, you could slap a string bikini in there and it'll change you into that every time you get your tootsies wet rather than it changing you to a mermaid.

The developer's kit I put on Xstreet has been slow to get people picking it up and playing with it - but that's expected since I really only have a Werewolf plugin (that changes you when the sun goes down and up) and a general remote control where someone can get a menu of all the "outfits/avatar setups" you have in there and change you, strip you, and all that fun stuff. Once I start to get some more varied "specific use" items, I think it'll take off better. People who have sims where a "uniform" is worn could have something set up so that when people beam in, they automatically change to their uniform. Or they might make a gamma radiation machine that turns you into the incredible hulk (and also changes you ever time you type :( in chat).

But yeah - I tried to get hold of the swimmer person. I'm not sure what to do about sims that have "above water underwater simulations" - I might release it as just linden water for now and offer a free update if someone comes up with a clever idea.

This sounds wonderful! I roleplay a Mer sometimes. One reason I stopped is because it seemed awkward to have to go and change into the fins and tails. Would you send me a note card about your product? I can send some landmarks to you of Mer places if you wish.

OK, well, my protocol is to scan for a named object (fake water prim, the correct spelling is in the contents of the inner-tube I sent you) and that defines the surface level of the water and rotation of the prim defines the flow rate so you can "t00b" down rapids. I tried doing things like listening but found that a low rate scanner was less laggy than anything else I could manage.

Wow, Ry...I don't go mer very often, but that sounds like a Real Fun Thing you're developing. And my SL sister would LOVE to have it.

You could do the same thing with an Outfit, but the automatic switch is a great idea.

Sirena is a popular mermaid place (the hair maker). And I got my fins and mer AO from another place I can't recall just now. I'll look it up tonight and IM you.

Tayren's has Mer costumes and AO also. My favorite Mer costumes though are from another place. They aren't actually mer but betta fins I guess. Maybe someone else has the Mer Betta.

I'll log in and look it up real quick.

Lots of possible applications for this thing. Changing from human to animal or back again, changing from one species to another, fairy to drow or dragon, on and on.

Also something like going from casual clothes to ballgown the minute you step onto a sim with the matching script. But, those places are laggy already.

ETA: Lindal, I just noticed! ROFL!!!

Okay - still laughing... Lol.

But I went in-world and looked up "mer betta" in inventory.

There was no landmark, but I opened a pic in the folder and it had a url.

http://www.merbetta.blogspot.com

It tells all about them. It has some sort of script available for it also, but I'll let the scripters look into that.

/me waits for ransom note

Hiya Everyone - somehow I let this thread fall through the cracks the other day - and neglected to come back and finish thanking everyone and all of that stuff.

So Argent - thanks a lot for the tOOb. For this initial release, I went for just having it trigger on Linden water. We'll see what the people who actually use it think, and what ways they think would make a cool "fake water trigger" - be it your prim scan deal or just broadcasting a water height for the parcel when someone comes in - or what to do. I noticed a lot of commonalities on how "above water underwater sims" were created = so the people that have those might be able to come up with something they all have in common or will require them to do the least amount of work to get their area ready. (I also thought of maybe adding some of the RLV Windlight calls to this - so when you are under water in this abovewater setting, the plugin could also give a blue tinge to the scene and do a few other cool things to actually make the whole area SEEM a lot more underwater. That's all for future updates though. (Automatic Update Scripts rule!) lol

And thanks to Clarissa and everyone else who commented with locations and fun stuff.

here's the Xstreet Link if anyone wants to check it out:
https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1656143

You can go prim water t00bing in Tigger, BTW.

Nice. When I get back from this RL place, I'll definitely have to check that out!