Discussion: Smooth fading of a linked set using one script.

Wrote a small code snippet i use to fade in and out the text display on the Rox Media Center.

It basiclly fades out or in a set nr of linked prims using one script.

Learnt alot from this forum so i figured id share it with ya all. And hopefully someone can improve it even more.

float alpha;
float fadespeed = 0.02; //This sets the speed of the fading in and out effect.

integer visible = FALSE;
integer links = 10; //Change this to how many linked objects you have.
integer linknr;


fadeout()
{
    if (visible == TRUE)
    {
        alpha = llGetAlpha(1)*10;
        do
        {   
            ++alpha;
                do
                    llSetLinkAlpha(linknr,alpha/10,ALL_SIDES);
                while((++linknr)<links);
            linknr = 0;
            llSleep(fadespeed);
        }
        while((integer)alpha<10);
        visible = FALSE;
    }
}
fadein()
{
    if (visible == FALSE)
    {
        alpha = llGetAlpha(1)*10;
        do
        {   
            --alpha;
                do
                   llSetLinkAlpha(linknr,alpha/10,ALL_SIDES);
                while((++linknr)<links);
            linknr = 0;        
            llSleep(fadespeed);
        }
        while(alpha>0);
        visible = TRUE;
    }
}

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
    }
     link_message(integer sender, integer num, string str, key id)
    {
        if (str == "show")
        {
            fadeout();

        }
        if (str == "hide")
        {
            fadein();
        }
    }
}

This looks fine and all, but I am curious as to certain things in this code.

You have it written to llSetLinkAlpha on each link separately using the linknmbr, when you could just use LINK_SET to do the whole thing at once.

Your absolutely right, however in my setup i only want to fade the 10 next links for my display and not the rest of the prims. This might also be a childprim and you could add a llGetLinkNumber(); and make sure your only fading text(or whatever you wanna fade) and nothing else.

Like this :

float alpha;
float fadespeed = 0.02; //This sets the speed of the fading in and out effect.

integer visible = FALSE;
integer links = 10; //Change this to how many linked objects you have.
integer linknr;
integer thislink;

fadeout()
{
    if (visible == TRUE)
    {
        alpha = llGetAlpha(1)*10;
        do
        {   
            ++alpha;
                do
                    llSetLinkAlpha(linknr,alpha/10,ALL_SIDES);
                while((++linknr)<links);
            linknr = thislink;
            llSleep(fadespeed);
        }
        while((integer)alpha<10);
        visible = FALSE;
    }
}
fadein()
{
    if (visible == FALSE)
    {
        alpha = llGetAlpha(1)*10;
        do
        {   
            --alpha;
                do
                   llSetLinkAlpha(linknr,alpha/10,ALL_SIDES);
                while((++linknr)<links);
            linknr = thislink;        
            llSleep(fadespeed);
        }
        while(alpha>0);
        visible = TRUE;
    }
}

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        thislink = llGetLinkNumber();
        linknr = thislink;
    }
     link_message(integer sender, integer num, string str, key id)
    {
        if (str == "show")
        {
            fadeout();

        }
        if (str == "hide")
        {
            fadein();
        }
    }
}

I have written similar scripts for fading the alpha in and out. but be warned! If you make repeated calls to llSetAlpha you do get a fairly high lag load. Increasing the sleep time between calls seems to help.

Right, im not sure what you consider fairly high lag load. But after running it in a timer loop with 10linked objects fading in and out... at first it didnt even show up on the Top Scripts debug, however after about 10minutes i got lucky and got a listing at 0.002 Seconds. This is when running and not when idle.

Feel free to test and correct me if im mistaken