Release of the Animation Override Script

Hey guys, I just wanna tell you about the Animation Override script I just released.

Its a script that lets you setup custom animations for up to 23 different actions in game (walking, running, sitting, etc). It also supports having many animation sets installed at once that you can switch between on the fly.

The people that I tested it with all loved it and I can't wait to see some of the sets people make.

Check it out, selling on third floor of Midnight Studios Umber(146.163).

Selling!?

Look for Ulrika's free animation script coming to a virtual world near you.

~Ulrika~

Doh! I just bought it for 350 L$! It is a very good product and I really wanted to be able to start changing my animations, so I bought it. Ulrikia, post an announcement when you finish it. I want to try both and write a review for my weblod (see sig for adress).

I'm done! That was fun.

However, I've decided not to release it. After reading through several threads about the reverse engineering of people's wares I decided it wouldn't be right. I simply asked myself, how would I feel if Archanox reverse engineered and duplicated my product line? Not good.

I feel his effort should be rewarded with a monopoly for a while at least until he makes a good return on his work. Think of it as a "courtesy patent".

It's part of an informal creator's code that I've been thinking about for a while.

1) Give credit if redistributing free items.
2) Don't resell free goods.
3) Don't reverse engineer and undercut.
4) Give "courtesy patents" if competing.


I just keep getting more and more interesting, don't I?

~Ulrika~

A big "thank you" to Mr. Underthorn here, for a great product.

I hate to dig up an old topic, but I'm curious about something... I think I'm flexing my "stupid" muscle.

So I want to make absolutely sure here... for the animations to be correctly detected, they must reside within the AO object's contents? Am I missing something? (and it's possible.. you don't want to know how many times I put boxes on my head, a few weeks ago)

Let's just say I'm having a heck of a time putting -no modify/no copy- animations in there, heh. (some of which are listed as compatible with AO, for instance but are no copy/modify)

*sneaks back into the corner*

My sweet lord! I went by to pick up a copy of your script and it's selling for $350!? I could have been rich by now. I thought you were giving it away for free.

Anyways, I too am getting a lot of questions about animation permission for the AO script. Given it's the defacto standard, could you provide instructions to animators to make compatible animations?

Thanks!

~Ulrika~

You are so FOS its pathetic.

Strangely enough I was just thinking that. I wrote that originally over a month and a half ago at a time when I was still relatively new. I didn't realize what a coding giant Archanox was. It's almost laughable when I read it now.

I use my script in my animated protest sign and furniture. It has similar features with random changes in animations and poses, however I realize now that is comparatively primitive. Although given that sweet selling price, I'm tempted to give it a polish up!

Anyways Archanox, any guidance you could provide would be much appreciated to those who would better serve you and your customers. *Ulrika bows*

~Ulrika~

*rolls eyes*

Sensual, just like we determined advertisements don't belong in this forum, I believe uninvited personal attacks in the middle of a technical thread are just as unwelcome. For the sake of all readers, let's self-censor and try to maintain the highest standard in all animation threads. We can certainly play in the other threads, if you need a release.

~Ulrika~

I totally disagree on 3 & 4. Unless you were given source code, or something, reverse engineering is totally fair game.

If you've been undercut, it just means that you either haven't worked hard enough or you haven't priced it competitively enough.

Patents suck. Ideas are cheap, and they're free. It's the talent you have, and the time you put into something that you should be charging for.

Archanox's AO is the one script I use that I don't have source access for. This irritates me, because there's a few things I'd change about it. I've toyed with the idea of making my own. I still might if my I ever get irritated enough.

But! From a financial perspective, it's not worth it for me to make my own version, because L$350 is already a reasonable price.

Well, let's get together and reverse engineer it then! Archanox has had a long monopoly and is certainly rich beyond our dreams. I have a script that's probably 75% of the way there. We just have to add the missing and new features.

Are you in?

~Ulrika~

Ulrika,

If you're serious, I'll think about it. I'm not so much interested in making money as having source-level access. It pisses me off that I can't make it better because the script is set nomod. (Although, from a business perspective, I totally agree with Arch's decision to make it no mod)

I'll have to talk to Archanox too. I wouldn't want anyone to get upset over this. While I think it's fair game to reverse engineer something, I'd rather avoid any drama if I can.

As far as the script goes, I know what I'm doing. I already have significantly simplified animation overrider in the Seburo gun that I sell. (I override the default handgun animations, because they look goofy) The principle is the same.

The part that I dread doing is building a list of the animation default animation keys. It's a lot of repetitive work. (ie. what are all the keys of the default standing/sitting/whatever animations)

The script itself is pretty simple to write otherwise.

Ha ha. You were all spit and fire a post ago. What happened? Well if Archanox gives you permission to do it, just send me what you have. I'll integrate our scripts and reverse engineer it in a day. I looove to code.

~Ulrika~

Ha ha Spit and fire, I like that.

Well, it's one thing for me to make just for myself & friends. It's another to move in on the market, which is obviously what you want to do.

Fundamentally, I like Archanox. I don't want to piss him off for nothing. If it was someone I didn't like, I wouldn't bother.

Besides, undercutting someone else is just not my style. I try to make the best stuff anyone's ever seen, and my prices reflect that. I don't compete on price, only quality.

And, Arch's script, despite it pissing me off, cannot significantly be improved on. At least, not in a way I can think of immediately. Tech supporting that thing must also be a nightmare. Complex UI.

Anyways, IM me in-world. We've chatted enough here.

Hi!

Total newbie here. First post, I started in SL on Sunday.

I saw questions here about how to put no-copy animations into the device, and didn't see an answer, so I thought I would post the solution I found.

I found that if I am wearing the device (neat lil iPod-esque toy ), I can not put no-copy items into it, but if I drop the device on the floor, I could then add the no-copy animations into the contents.

Anyway, it's what I did, and it worked.

-Ghoti

Ps. OOPS! I see the solution was already give in this thread. Ah well, hakuna matata.

Hello folks.

As a newbie I probably will have some "leeway" if I'm mixing in the "establishment of monopolies" around here, but from what I saw, your problem with Archanox is that he sells his scripts and makes them nomod?

Well actually an "animation override" script is basic stuff, and I've been around for just two weeks. The trick mainly is checking for movements of an attached object (your favorite jewellry item here) and detect what "state" your avatar is at the moment using llGetAnimation() . And then simply call your favorite animation to replace the standard one (making sure you stop the standard one first).

To make it more interesting, I guess Archanox's script adds a handler for vocal commands, so that you may change some of the animations at will while keeping the "standard" ones ready. This isn't a very hard thing to do. For L$350 and with a legal copy of Poser I would even add all the extra animations for free lol (a pity I just have the demo version which doesn't save anything)

As an example, here's a simple script that I just posted on another thread... it will change just two of the animations, a walking and running one (which you should make sure tht are inside the object's inventory if you wish to give it away to friends):

default
    {            
        attach(key avatar)
        {
            if (avatar != NULL_KEY)
            {
                llRequestPermissions(avatar, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION);
            }
        }

        run_time_permissions(integer perm)
        {
            if (perm & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)
            {
                state active_ring;
            }
            else llWhisper(0, "This is now just a normal ring");
        }        
    }

    state active_ring
    {
        on_rez(integer start_param)
        {
            state default;
        }
        
        moving_start()
        {
            string current_anim_state = llGetAnimation(llGetOwner());
            
            if (current_anim_state == "Walking")
            {
                llStopAnimation("female_walk");       
                llStopAnimation("walk");       
                llStartAnimation("mywalk");
            }
            else if ((current_anim_state == "Running" || current_anim_state == "Striding"))
            {
                llStopAnimation("run");                   
                llStopAnimation("stride");                   
                llStartAnimation("myfastwalk");
            }
        }
        
        moving_end()
        {
            llStopAnimation("mywalk");
            llStopAnimation("myfastwalk");
        }

        attach(key where)
        {
            if (where == NULL_KEY)
            {
                state default;
            }
        }

        state_exit()
        {
            llStopAnimation("mywalk");
            llStopAnimation("myfastwalk");        
        }        
    }

Actually I found out that this will slow down your character slightly and you'll have much more difficulty negotiating stairs and difficult passages lol

The script has its bugs but it works... have fun...

Catch me in-game, Ulrika. From what I've been reading, it sounds like you're my kind of person.



*sputter* *cough*

A programmer with ethics ????

To quote my ex: "you're not a lawyer, you don't have ethics!"

LOL. And here I thought we programmers were all hacks and thieves!!

It's good to see someone else out there with some sort of ethical standards, Ul. You ARE my kind of people.

Amazing! I was just thinking about this thread and you, Wraith. You mentioned that you wanted to start an acting community and I was thinking something like the AO script would be perfect for creating character with distinctive physical personalities.

The AO script is a perfect example of a product that could be used in many film and theater projects but due to its closed nature, creativity is stifled.

Also coincidentally, someone just posted the missing code I needed. I'll combine my animation code (with voice activation, random rotation, etc.) with the code above and create a version of the AO script for acting. Because it will be open, it will be easy to modify for a given work. I'll get a hold of you shortly after I play with the script a bit.

I'm actually pretty respectful of peoples rights. Even if we do reverse engineer a script, Archanox and Gwin do have a well marketed product with great custom animations and poses. This will be the open source technical version which will allow people to use it in film and theater production. Theirs will be like an iPod whereas this will be like PDA hacked to run Linux running mplayer.

~Ulrika~

You're right, it is. But to be a fully function AO, you should be using llGetAnimationList.

This returns you a list of keys of the currently playing animations. The problem is figuring out what all the animation keys are is a lot of boring, repetitive work. I'd pay for someone to figure out those keys for me.

The rest is cake.

Man Script Chicks are Hot...

I love SL.

Just saw this thread by accident - I began work on my own animation override after I figured the price of the current one is way too expensive.

When I see an expensive script that I need, I just sit and make it myself - giving free copies to friends usually. I cant see this as "bad", sorry.

So far i've been using a timer to constantly check on llGetAnimation state, but I figured it may end up lagging the Sim if too many instances of a timer-event script are running around. I tried check with control(), but found that its responses tend to be pretty laggy - I can walk for about 3 seconds before the proper event kicks in the script.

Anyone has any better ideas on this area of motion detection?

CrystalShard,

Why bother? I mean really? What's going to be the net result of all your work? Creativity is so old school. My advice to you is to BUY LAND! Then sell it for far more than you paid! Make vast profits from other residents! Don't worry, there are plenty of ignorant people around to take advantage of, and they can always buy Lindens for real cash on GOM if they need it. Now THATS service. Thats benefitting the community.

Get with the program, girl. You're living in an SL of the past! Pfft. Animations indeed. Free scripts. tsk.

Honestly, I don't think it's too expensive. He could have charged way more than that and I think its obvious people would have paid still.

Archanox put alot of work into that and regardless of how many others will do one or want to do one, he did it first and it's got some people's panties in a knot.

I'm not trying to sound mean here but I've heard several people making cheeky remarks. I'm not pointing fingers but the whole "I could do way better and charge way less" comment is getting old.

If you want to do better and put your own out, then do so, stop complaining about it. It's not necessary to bash someone over the head because they got around to it first.

Okay I'm done and don't take this as an attack please, I just feel like *some* things that are being said aren't necessary.

Gwin,

When you consider Archanox has to tech support this thing, L$350 is a bargain.

It's a complex device. People hate reading manuals. There's no "easy" mode to get you started.

Myself, I wouldn't put something like this on the market if I had to explain to people how to use it.