A-Life help

well i've been working on a script from the wiki for scaling objects and moving them to the right position, and i have this script to make a plant grow during the day and stop at night but im stuck on the reproducing part, i asked around and some say they use llEmail but i dont understand how when the thing that collides to spread the pollen(lets say a bee) they communicate if it can carry pollen, if the plant is old/healthy enough for reproducing,color and other such things like max age and max size.

All help appreciated


heres the code thats in all of the prims

default {
    link_message(integer sender_num, integer num, string str, key id) {
        float scale; // size factor
        list    primparams;
        
        scale = (float)str;
        
        primparams = [];
        
        primparams += [PRIM_SIZE, llGetScale() * scale]; // resize
        
        if (llGetLinkNumber() > 1) { // only move if we're not the root object
            primparams += [PRIM_POSITION, llGetLocalPos() * scale]; // reposition
            llSetPrimitiveParams(primparams);
        }
        else 
        {
            llSetPrimitiveParams(primparams);
            vector blah=llGetPos();
            vector scale=llGetScale();
            float z=llGround(<0,0,0>)+4.5*scale.z;
            llSetPos(<blah.x,blah.y,z>);
        }
        
        
    }
}

and heres the code thats in the main prim

// rescales the linked set by the specified factor. factor > 1 makes it larger, < 1 smaller
// example: "/9 2.5"
integer TimerInterval =15;
float GrowthFactor = 0.1;
Resize(float scale) {
    integer num_prims = llGetNumberOfPrims();
    integer i;

   for (i = 1; i <= num_prims; i++) { // first prim in a linked set is 1
        llMessageLinked(i, 0, (string)scale, NULL_KEY);
 }
    
}

default 
{
    state_entry() 
    {
        llListen(9, "", llGetOwner(), "");
        llSetTimerEvent(TimerInterval);
    }
    timer()
    {
        vector sun=llGetSunDirection();
        vector size=llGetScale();
        if (llVecMag(size)<7.5)
        {    
            if (sun.z>0.7)
            {
                Resize(sun.z*1.5);
            }
            else if (sun.z<0.7 && sun.z>0.4)
            {
                Resize(sun.z*2);
            }
        }
    }
    listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message) 
    {
        float scale;
        
        scale = (float)message;
        if ( scale == 0.0 ) return; // we don't resize by factor 0.0

        llSay(0, "Resizing by factor " + (string)scale);

        Resize(scale);
    }
}

Are you saying the bees (being physic enabled) will collide with the flower at some point?

well since i've never done anything much that moves around and "Flys" at some point they will fly around and collide with the flowers if i could ever figure out the script

Let's just call them bees and flowers for now (though I'm thinking we sould throw a reference to birds in somewhere...). If you are scripting both the bees and the flowers, you can have them communicate directly with chat messages (probably 'llWhisper()' would be sufficient for this application). Upon collision, have ONE of them (I'll assume the flower for now) issue a query to the other. So for example the flower will use a well-known channel to communicate something like the following:

where:

Note that the fllower MIGHT only send this message if it is itself ready to reproduce (it is mature, it is the right time of day/"year", has pollen available if this part is male, or whatever). Then again, it might send a message indicating it is not giving and not receiving so that bees can have some kind of memory about where to return or something (possibly additional info such as WHY the plant isn't currently giving/receiving could be used if you really want to get detailed).

The bee, when it receives one of these messages, can respond with a message of its own (IF it decides it can and is ready to give/receive pollen for this plant):

where:

You could also decide to give additional information, such as they key of the flower from which pollen was originially received or something.

Does that give you a starting point? If you AREN'T creating the scripts in both the, "flowers," and the, "bees," you might have to use an outside database to keep track of what, "bees" (in this case they could even be avatars or something...), are currently carrying pollen and of what type.

Oh. BTW if the timing would be sufficient you COULD use 'llEmail()' instead of chat messages (at which point you could drop the keys from the message contents if you wanted), but I suspect it will not really help in terms of lag and such; from what I recall sending e-mail is also some significant work server-side.

I forgot to mention that all of the above doesn't really help the bees actually FIND the flowers. For that you have a wide variety of choices: have programmed routes; use sensors in the bees and filter based on some kind of naming scheme (LAG warning!); have flowers periodically shout on a well-known channel (unlike the above messages, this doesn't have to be directed toward a particular bee; it might also have info such as the type of plant and/or criteria such as color, scent, etc.); have an outside database keep track of flower locations; etc.

well i want to make the bees, and i am already making the flowers hence the scripts i gave,

and correct me if im wrong, but dont bees eat polen or nector? and if so then i could use a hunger varible for checking if the bee is ready to pollinate, and since i have a headache now i'll work on this some more later

thanks for the help and i'll try to combine this into the scripts i have or make some more

Eat/collect nectar and receive/deliver pollen (incidental for a real insect perhaps, but key to our design). The nector isn't really important for this design; we just assume it is there to attract the insect (the flower could broadcast messages to allow the insect to find it only if it has nectar I suppose...).


No problem. It is a fun problem to think about.

not for me, my brain hurts

well since i've never done roaming things before, how would i go about making a bee that roams around the place? llMoeToTarget? llApplyImpulse? im clueless as to the best way, its going to be physical and i'll probably set bouyancy, but thats about as far as i get before im confused as too the best way to do this, and again all help appreciated

MoveToTarget then when at_target then call another MoveToTarget then when it hears the plant make it MoveToTarget to that You get the idea !

pick a random target?

Yes so i guess if you only wanted it to roam within 20m or so at the start you would do something like:
integer max = 20;
Homepos = llGetPos();

Then when it calls a random target then do llMoveToTarget(llGetPos()+<llFrand(max),llFrand(max),llFrand(max)>,0.5);

actually that woudl make it olny go up in the x, y, and z axis, you would have to do this:

llMoveToTarget(llGetPos()+<llFrand(max)-llFrand(max),(llFrand(max)-llFrand(max),(llFrand(max)-llFrand(max)>,0.5);

but thanks for the springboard