pulsing glow...

I'm trying to get one of my prims to glow, well I've managed it but the script seems an awful mess...

I've used a combination of llsleep and llsetprimitiveparams repeated so the glow slowly becomes brighter then back down, seems an awful lot to do for a pulse.

Would a while loop work ? I have a variable that increments until the loop finishes then goes to another till the glow is gone then the variable resets then it all starts over... any suggestions?

I guess I would use an animated texture getting brighter and darker together with the glow.
That way you can start it with a script and then remove the script, the prim will continue to glow up and down

Hmm good idea dora cheers just need something that is going to work just now though but I'll looked into animated textures.

Well texture animations are actually not that hard.

You just make a texture with the shades you want to go through stitched together at a set distance and then loop through or ping-pong in your case maybe:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlSetTextureAnim

My only problem with the animated textures is that it will not give the glow that I am looking for, it will just ping pong between 2 shades of my chosen colour. Or am I being a n00b? :/

No you are right, perhaps you can use something like:

integer level = 1;
while (level) {
// set the glow based on what level is
llWait(1.0);
level++;
if (level > 9) level =1;
if (gLoopOff) {level=0; gLoopOff = FALSE;}
}

Then you can set the gLoopOff globally and use that to turn it on and off (although I never really checked if this would lock the script for other events while running).

Sorry for not taking more time to read the original question.

The reason I came up with my solution is the way glow behaves: it looks stronger with a brighter color than with a darker. Glow from a black surface will not be noticed no matter how strong you make it
And why are you saying two shades? You can make many more shades with an animated texture if you make the texture right and if you choose proper parameters for llSetTextureAnim

I agree with Dora about the problems of using glow with a darker colour, but if you want to make it pulsate on a lighter coloured prim, this is how I did it recently. Hope this helps.

integer on = TRUE;
 float x = 0;
 float y = 0.25; // max value for glow ... anything over 0.3 is a bit bright for most purposes
 float t = 0.2; // to control how fast it fades up and down

default
{
    on_rez (integer p)
    {
        llResetScript();
    }
   state_entry()
   {
       llSetTimerEvent(0.0);
       llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.0]);
    }
    
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        state running;
    }
}


state running

{
    state_entry()
    {
             llSetTimerEvent(1.0); // needed so you can get the touch_start to interupt the timer and turn it off!
    }

     timer()
    {
        if (on == TRUE)
        {
           
            for (x = 0; x < y; x+=0.01)
            {
              
                llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, x]);
                llSleep(t);
            }
            on = FALSE;
        }
        else if (on == FALSE)
        {
        
            for (x = y; x >0.0; x-=0.01)
            {
                
                llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, x]);
                 llSleep(t);
            }
            on = TRUE;
        }
        
    }
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        state default;
    }
    
}

well cheers for your help folks but I took a n00b approach at doing it...

default
{
    state_entry()
    {


            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.3]);
          
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.5]);
           
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.7]);
    
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 1.0]);
            
            
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.9]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.8]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.7]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.6]);
           
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.5]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.4]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.3]);
            
            llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, 0.2]);
            

            
            llResetScript();
            
            
            }
    
}

I'm using it as a heartbeat ya see so being on constantly is totally fine for me. I'll have a wee look at the posted codes above though, I know multiple lists like this will be horrible for processing... but it works :)

If you are happy with this you just do it this way.
It makes my old scripter heart bleed
1. You have no timing control at all! it is all up to system execution times how fast the glow will pulse.
2. The pulsing will be erratic, not smooth in places with lag
3. You put a constant load on sim, internet and all involved viewers i.e. creating lag

Never mind, the script can serve as an experiment

Hey! I just solved that problem a couple days ago. Full code is here:
http://quiteoh.wordpress.com/quite-ohs-lsl-snippets/

[Later: Best just to post it here.]

Pulsing a glow effect

// Glow parameters
float gGlow = 0.10;
float gGlowTop = 0.50;
float gGlowBottom = 0.05;
float gGlowIncrement = 0.05;

// Pulse parameters 0 for decrement, 1 for increment
integer gPulseDirection = 0;
integer gPulseSpeed = .01;

default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llSetTimerEvent(gPulseSpeed);
}
// Pulse the glow
timer()
{
// Glow: increment up, and down (like it's pulsing)
if (gGlow >= gGlowTop) {
gPulseDirection = 0;
}
if (gGlow <= gGlowBottom) {
gPulseDirection = 1;
}
if ( gPulseDirection ) {
gGlow += gGlowIncrement;
} else {
gGlow -= gGlowIncrement;
}
llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_GLOW, ALL_SIDES, gGlow]);
}
}

that won't work.

Doing it with a brighter or dimmer animated texture and a constant glow multiplier will make something that looks like it's a constant color with a pulsing glow, and be all handled at client side.

Try it with a gradient from <255,0,0> to <63,0,0>, a pingpong texture animation with a scale of 0.001, and a glow of 0.4.

i may have to use my tax return to get a new graphics card. glow isn't an option for me
unless someone can tell me how to fix it. maybe there's some settings in my computer i need to change?

current;y i have a RADEON 9250, got it cheap at a discount electronics store when sl changed the graphics and i was one of many that saw flickering squares of textures instead of the avatar imposters

The only problem with constant glow and cycling color is that if anything light colored with even a tiny bit of transparency is placed in front of the surface, it'll remain lit up like a Christmas tree. But if that's not an issue for you, an animated texture is a great idea. Much smoother and much easier on lag as stated above.