Things (prims) that move don't really move do they?

I am right am I not?

You take a prim, give it a rotation script and it spins. But it's not really spinning is it?

It's still in exactly the same spot it always was and does not actually move.
It's just your viewer that handles it, and makes is look like it's actually moving when in fact it's sitting still?

I'm sure of this as when I make a lighthouse beam and set it to spin, I did not initially make it phantom, and whilst it LOOKED like it ws spinning around to me and everyone else, in fact I could still bump into the beam (invisible) at it's original position.

Yes?

Perhaps though I guess this only applies to rotation ?

Sounds as though we need a metaphysics forum!

If the thing is nonphysical, that's right, llTargetOmega is a viewer-side parlor trick. If the object is physical, it really does turn.

It's much the same thing with flexi, but there really isn't a physical form of flexi.

And if you're making a long object spin on its short axis, you probably ought to make it phantom.

Thanks.

Oh Yes, it was GOING to be phantom of course, I just didn't set it as phantom right away and was wondering why I was bumping into this totally invisible lump in the sky.

turned out to be my beam that was still in it's original place, even though it wasn't!!!!

The only pain was I used the same script for a circular sofa to it turned about slowley, but I could not walk into the gap very often as it was really stil static, enen though it looked like it was rotating.

Hmmm, make it physical ? I will try that just as an experiment

Give it a good spin, physical, then delink it.

Physical spinny things have a tendency to walk around the room and even fall through floors without something to constrain them, so hang on tight!

I now empathize with the 'spit all over my monitor' comments

Thanks for the replies.

I must admit to being somewhat dissapointed (in my early days) that when you take a prim platform and give it a slow rotation, then stand on it, you stay still as it slides round under your feet rather than going round with it.

If I grab onto a rotating chair or poseball then I'll move with it.

Kinda pity it's like that methinks.

In 2005 when you stood on a rotating prim platform you would either march in place or get thrown off to the side... and it was possible to make you walk in ever-increasing circles. I made one that rotated but had a counter-rotating texture so it looked like it was standing still, but you couldn't stand still on it. I didn't notice when they "fixed" that.

Wow, now it doesn't even throw you off if it's physical. I guess that's a matter of everything being "slipperier" in Havok4.

Edit: oh yes it does, if it's spinning fast enough.

For Havok 4 some extra downward force got added to the avatars because they were sliding around too much standing on the ground. It's a lot harder to make some of those toys work now :/

Slightly sterering the thread in a different direction. Someonwe (as myself) coming from a non SL backgound some time ago, it does strike the new person (or it did me anyway) just have badly (dare I say it) Avatars actually handle the ground terrain.

There appears to be a stock walk animation and that's it.

Now, forgive me for expecting to much but it's 2009 and it would seem (from the laymans point of view) that it should not be THAT hard to make the avatar actually understand (is that a good word?) the terrain.

I mean, we can walk up sheer almost vertical criffs with the same walk motion as though we are n flat ground. We walk up onto prims (step/stairs) by the avatar just moving up in a poor looking way.

Perhaps bending knees and putting feet on steps might be asking a bit much (personally not really) but come on, how about perhaps some knee bending and more (real world) contact with the sims surface features.

Standing on a hill and seing your avatat keep jiggling about as it can't get a foothold, or (not sure I've seen this recently) where your legs just flipped up bedhind your head for a split second whilst standing on hilly ground.

I assume there's a very good technical reason why the Avatar can not be made to interact better when it comes to walking and standing.

It just seems very 1980's to have a stock walking animation which always stays constant and just more the whole charactes up and down a bit depending on surroundings which in no way animating the avatar.

Ok, moan over

If you leave the defaults on and look really closely, htere is some small attempt made to keep the avatar walking semi-realistically. Agreed, they could do more.

The walk is swapped for a "striding" animation when the terrain seems too rough for the normal walk to cover. There is also a walk_adjust motion that tries to keep the feet planted on the ground and a pelvis_fix that tries to keep us nudged upright. But like a lot of things in SL it sure does look like a rush job, especially the crazy fast steps we take to keep up with our crazy fast rate of locomotion

A few months ago LL did put put a call for replacement animations on the blog, but not a lot has been heard about that effort since.

It does not seem rocket sciene to have the concept of ground is at "x" angle so use "X" animation. or ideally sod animation. who want s rotten fixed animation. the Avatar should know the gound surface and move accordingly. It's not much to expect by 2010 !!

(he hopes knowing it won't happen unless a total new replacement to SL is created by others and he's seen youTube clips that look jaw dropping but no idea if they are real)