Dude, where's my car?

I was going to buy a car and a plane and a boat. Now I hear that most of the vehicle scripts were borked a few updates ago. Are any functional. And still fun?

I also heard two of the biggest SL vehicle makers have left SL in protest. Is that true? More Starax disasters? Where is information like that posted? How's come no one tells me the good gossip?

I don't know who's left or why, but I do know I tried to fly my Cubey Terra CLAAW from Rosyth to Waterhead the other day. It took me about 30 minutes to cross about 2000 meters of distance. (Actually, at first it took the traditional five minutes, but then I rubberbanded back to the sim I started on. So I tried again. In 30 minutes, I was never able to cross the ten sims between my origin and destination.) Borked? Try SNAFUed and FUBARed.

The real pisser is, of course, that I have about 65,000L worth of aircraft I can't use. Sheesh.

Kam

As a vehicle maker, it grieves me to say this, but yes, there are definitely problems with operating vehicles in SL. Ban lines prevent overflights, full parcels can cause your vehicle to get suddenly returned to you, and perhaps the biggest difficulty is the sim crossings, which can result in an unpleasant "crash" where one finds oneself deep underground, spinning off the map.

That said, I greatly enjoy riding my cycle and flying my ornithopter. Fortunately for me, I live in Caledon where the sims are co-located (I am no computer savant, but it makes the crossings easier) and there are no ban lines. I keep track of where the full parcels are, and try to avoid them. Even with my horrid Chipset graphics card, I can have great fun doing loops, rolls, or flying under bridges and what not.

So don't give up on the dream of driving a fast horseless carriage or soaring high in an aeronautic device! There is fun to be had in SL with vehicles, and hopefully the current problems will be solved in time.

(P.S. Mr. Cubey Terra, perhaps one of the finest SL vehicle makers, has an excellent post on the subject on his blog http://www.cubeyterra.com/ Don't be silent on the "jerky vehicle" issues)

I had you dead to rights in that last dogfight...

Except in Caledon and somewhat in the wilds of the new continent, flying in SL has become a tedious chore for me, and this is a recent development. I've only been here since January, and in those first three weeks I would overfly sims all the time, traveling hither and yon and learning my way around in a random fashion.

Now, I have to be very careful about where I can go and what I can do, because inevitably I end up being pitched out of the sky and sent into orbit because of someone's permissions or ban line or such. Lindens, you have robbed us of a basic joy here...

Hrmph. Did not pull the trigger, said some foderol about "not shooting ladies", did not count.

Well, off to give a certain Percy whatfor with my the little Vicker Cannon that could. Again....

Vehicles on roads don't work anyway, tried heaps and given up, it's just crash after crash as I overcorrect due to lag and the vehicle going faster than I want

Once upon a time I had a conversation with Andrew Linden about vehicles. So long ago I only remember a few tidbits about it. Scripts slow sim crossings because the event queues have to be backed up for the transfer. A further complication are scripts that listen, either with a listen or a link_message. As to how the new script features effect things I cannot say, but people these days are driving and wearing more complex objects.

Well, I would sympathize with slowing on sim crossings as one waits in the "queue", or bouncing off of full parcels. But slowing and bouncing are all too often not the effect. Instead, one crashes and spins off into Limbo. Last night's trouncing of Mr. O'Toole was brought to an abrupt halt by both of us flying over a full parcel and becoming forced to log off SL (releasing the vehicle controls does not do it--sometimes one can get a TP from a sympathetic friend).

As far as lagging on vehicles and uncontrolability goes, as I alluded to, I have a laptop with a extraordinarily poor graphics card (I do believe it is on the "specifically not recommended list" If I can drive/fly in SL, fair much anyone can. For a car, make sure your view distance (see Edit>Preferences) is scrolled all the way down. Frankly it helps to drive slower vehicles (I admit to mostly riding cycles, and one steam monocycle), in less crowded areas (fewer textures to rez and all that). For aircraft, climb up high (say, a few hundred metres) before trying to go fast and increasing the view distance.

To be honest, I've always had trouble with the freebie vehicles--the flying teacup being a happy exception, as is a lovely Airship Mr. Barney Boomslang has as a demo in Victoria City square. One of the reasons I started making my own vehicles was my own quest for a Managable Conveyance.

Of course, those Difference Engines with more powerful dynamos might not need to do this.

TROUNCING?? You certainly are optomistic, miss sauce! I don't believe I was ever within whistling distance of an actual bullet....



Thanks for the tips. I had pretty much given up on riding the unicycle I had picked up from you for similar reasons as the gentleman in the thread above has about driving a vehicle on roads.



Oh, for the "good old days" of January, when I explored most of the mainland using the Boomslang Airship.... my only complaint being that the view in the pilot's seat leaves something to be desired.

it's not so much the scripts as the infrastructure. some time last year (aug/sep?) LL began using a data centre in texas to host some of its servers besides the original one in san fran. did it occur to them, i wonder, that jumping from one sim in texas to another on the other side of the country, would never be as quick or efficient as jumping from one to another in the very same building?

i guess we'll thank them when the big earthquake hits and half of sl stays online. =P