Phase the Moon, please!!

Would you please phase the moon? A constantly full moon messes up us Pagan types. <G>

My geek friends tell me that since moon phases are so regular, and predictable, it would not be all that difficult to create that effect.

Besides being unnatural where we are striving for an interesting look, a constantly full moon is boring.

Thank you!!

Excellent idea, I fully endorse.

Other ideas: Eclipses and blue moons

There was a blue moon a few months back.

That was just Yadni, doing a strip-dance.

Great idea on phasing the moon! Has my full endorsement!

It'd be really easy to do this, too. Just have a second texture pass infront of the first one. Wouldn't even need to make an animation. You could even get the whole effect of how no phase in RL seems to be the same, because the Earth passes over different parts of the moon each time (and it's why we occasionally get total moon eclipses). Just pass the texture over different parts each time.

Here is a screen grab of a program called Kstars under Linux. Not sure if it would be possible to automate this, but I'd guess yes. I zoomed in on the moon. Further back you'd also get a nice shot of the entire sky.

ooops....my attachment didn't take....

i remember talking about this around the same time (same thread?) we talked about whether the stars were persistant in relative location to SL proper or not. (then when we found out they were random per cycle, we clammored for them to be set in place so we could get to charting them and creating constllations. heck, i'd even be willing to head up an astronomics society/program to keep track of registered constellations to prevent overlapping. ..and arguements)


but yeah, moon phases would be awesome.

yes, actually.. i just remembered, we talked about why there were no phases. that due to SL being situated so the the sun and moon are exactly~ opposite of each other all the time, we never get phases because in the world of SL, physics and logic command that we never see phases due to positioning.

then again, we should never have a full moon and every night would be an eclipse if they really are directly opposite of each other.

..but enough of my philosophical rambling. phases would be cool.. and fixed stars too.

What moon? Hasn't been night for me since the update!

Here

Yes T'was I who suggested this previously .. And I still think it would be a cool addition.

While you're at it, bump up the resolution. It looks blurry.

Replying to Cybin's post...awesome! I have been considering working out the Astrology of SL, but could do that with more accuracy if the Astronomy of it was decided.

Of course, you could argue that it's just like RL, only another dimension, but that doesn't offer enough of a challenge. That, and people tend to have birthdays in clumps (with Linden advertising). Currently, there are a LOT of 'Leos' online..'born' in July..

Would be most interested in discussing this further. Fascinating!

While I could personally care less about the astrological aspects of all of this, I would be very happy to see these things that have been discussed. While I dont buy into the mythology surrounding the constellations I do enjoy looking at them all the same, the stars are beautiful and wonderful and it would be great to freeze a random pattern and let people create the constellations they see in thier heads and the mythos surrounding them if it pleases them. It would add one more facet to our already beautiful world, and seeing the moon's phases would be fantastic as well. But I ask, since this is a virtual world, why must we stick to reality? Why repeat the sky we see every day, a relatively dull sky if you consider what the view from Phobos must look like. We could have a sky with a large planet that is always there in some respect or another, even when it is eclipsed by the sun and is nothing but a huge dark pit in the sky, with two or three other moons that occasionally fly by in thier orbit. We need not limit us to what we are already used to seeing.

Just my 50 bucks. (adjusted for inflation since 2 cents isnt worth squat anymore)

Great idea! I think phases of the moon would be sweet. Also nice would be to have the night sky have acurate constalations that would rotate.

Just recycling a good old thread, supporting phases of the moon and fixed stars with new discoverable constellations. Hear hear!

Not that I know how long the phases should be... 28 1/4 SL "days"? The moon would need to appear with the sun in the sky some of the time, anyway, so it is a bit more complex than just changing the image as they've shown they can do.

And this would be for current sims that are obviously set on Earth or an Earth-like world. (Er... one that spins more slowly while the side we're on faces the sun, anyway...) The hoped-for new sims around gas giants or double star systems would have their own stellar lights, naturally.

(And, in a shameless bid to try to gain support from a larger customer base, here's to fixing the reflections of all stellar lights, while they're at it. )

neko

Awsome idea! Fully endorsed!

...But get rid of the silly reflection, either way!

These are actual screenshots not edited.
And it wasnt a glitch cause the other people standing there saw it as well.

Yeah... that happens... once in a blue moon
WE LIKE THA MOON!

Heh, I could care less about the astrological importance of it... but it sure would be fun to make a werewolf that comes out only during full moons

Of course that means we'll need the corrosponding llGetMoonPhase() or maybe even llGetAstrologicalSign(key kAvatar)

--Jack Lambert

I like this idea, let's see that ehh??

PS - has anyone tried interpreting the starfield in SL yet??? a cool project would be making up new constellations in the SL sky!

I think we also need llGetSunAltitude() for vampires. (Based on the sim sun height, of course, not the local client thing you can do with debug, though it would be handy to be able to test your scripts with the debug function.)

And I would support llGetSunAzimuth(), as well, or better yet, llGetAltitude(key kStellarObj) and llGetAzimuth(key kStellarObj) so we can use these functions on sun, moon, named stars (once we get a fixed set), and other stellar objects some sims may have someday. (I myself want a sim set on Titan, Ganymede, Mars, or at least on Earth's moon, with appropriate terrain, gravity, sky color, weather, and celestial bodies.

If LL doesn't want to do that, at least give island owners llSetAltitude(key kStellarObj) and llSetAzimuth(key kStellarObj) so we can hang our own heavenly lights!

And all of these celestial objects, of course, should have more realistic reflections, not the odd distorted ones we have now.

neko

LOL I don't know if I'm more frightened by the suggestion or the solution Nekokami