Scripting Collars/Objects

I'm a little unsure as to my being allowed to post this here, but it is related to scripting, so...

I have quite a few collars, some of which are scripted, and some not. The scripted collars include Dari Haus, OpenCollar, and CTD. They are fully functional as is, but not in the way that I'm going for personally.

I've searched the official forums and whatnot for information on both CTD and OC collars, but have found nothing useful, and have also tried seeking help via Group chat for the before-mentioned content. I've wasted countless, countless hours (Days now, really.) trying to figure this out on my own, but nothing seems to give.

I have a 3 ring collar and have 'built' an object of my own to use as a post that consists of several rings. Basically, I'd like to figure out how I can go about making more than just the front ring on the collar active. I'd like all 3 rings to produce the particle chain effect once they've been posted to the object, and I'd like to better understand how I can make these chains post to specific points on the object I've made.

I hope this all makes sense. Although no-one seems to be able to give me a straight-forward how-to, anyone who has tried makes it seem as if it were an easy task. I'm pretty stubborn in trying to figure things out on my own, but I'm getting a bit frustrated, now. LOL. I'd really appreciate any sort of help, or tips. TY~

making particles target a specific object is conceptually easy, but can be rather involved when you get into it, with the logic for when it will (de)activate, how it's triggered, and what it will look like, and fitting it into the collar system you are using.

I can't speak for the Dari or CTD scripts, I don't have their products, or even know if those scripts are open and editable or how they are put together. openCollar on the other hand I do know that the scripts are available and moddable.... and it should be possible to set up a system in which multiple contact points operate as particle emitters... and/or targets.

assuming you want to learn to make the changes or adjustments yourself (and that's what it sounds like) you'll want to post either the scripts themselves or links to them (preferably readable rather than downloadable) and we can direct you to where any changes or additions need to be made (it may be as simple as adding another subscript, won't know till we can see) I haven't taken more than a peek at them long ago so I couldn't say offhand.

on the off chance that it isn't just a simple addition or change and you find you really don't want to dig as in depth into scripting as it will take (it does take time), a quicker solution is to post in "products/services wanted" forum for a scripter to do the work for you. we'll assume the this is the case if you don't post back.

PS
you may get lucky and someone familiar with one of those script sets will post back here with a simple answer/method, but it's best not to count on that.

I suggest, as a start, you look at the LockMeister and LockGuard protocols both at http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=exchange. I say, look at them both because it's considerably easier to make collars and stuff respond to both LM and LG furniture than it is to make furniture that works with both protocols, so most manufacturers (Amethyst is an exception) equip their wearables with both LG and LM scripts in the expectation that anything it's used with will have one or the other in.

The difference between the two systems is that LM furniture has the particle emitters in the mooring points and directs the particle stream to your attachment, while LG works the other way round and has the particles going from the collar to the furniture.

It's really not too tricky; just a matter of understanding the mooring points and how to identify them for the scripts.

I'll happily help here, and you might find the in-world OpenCollar R&D group worth joining -- it's where the OC developers hang out, and I've always found them very helpful on anything to do with collar or RLV scripting in general.

Void and Innula have given some excellent pointers, but I thought I'd add the simple how-to you asked for...

1. Each prim that is supposed to emit particles needs to have a script it in (particles work per-prim, not per-oberject). You can use link messages to talk to them.

2. Each of these scripts has to have the particle emitter function llParticleSystem() to switch the particles on. In each of the scripts you need to use PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK in the PSYS_PART_FLAGS to switch on targetted particles, and PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY to set the key of the object the particles should target.

3. To target an object (your leash post for example), you need to get the UUID of that object. Several systems have been implemented for that, and I'd say use one of the existing systems, that makes your collar compatible with a lot of things out there. A very well documented (and popular) one is Lockmeister: http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=exchangeLockMeisterSystem . It uses a challenge-response protocol to "ask" objects for their UUID, and is reasonably easy to implement.

4. Once you got the UUID(s) of your target(s) with the lockmister protocol (or whatever protocol you chose), communicate them to your particle emitter scripts (link messages are your friend here) and start the particles

Hope that helps.

Have fun!
T.

To Void, yeah, at first I specifically went for OC because I knew for sure that everything was legit as far as modding and such, but I just have no scripting experience at all. It’s mostly just a bunch of gibberish to me. So I looked toward the other two modes, hoping it might be a little different somehow…nahhhh, LOL. But, you’re right. I would like to figure this out on my own. Of course, it’d be nice to have someone to just do it for me, less stressful in more than 1 way, but if I can help it, I’d like to be able to say, “I made this!” all proud and dorky-like, and really mean it. Who wants to wallow in ignorance anyway, right? I don’t really wanna. =)

Innula! I took a long look at your post and did sort of…understand, faintly, what was going on, but not quite enough, haha. But seriously, that was pretty helpful. I’ve taken a few hours to mess around with what I read, and what I sort of recognized scriptwise in my collars, but I’m going to have to look at it a few more times. I can’t seem to make sense of everything just yet. I had joined the OC R&D and did start a convo in the group chat but it being the holidays and all, not very many were around to help, which is understandable. =)

Tanith, thank you also for the further clarification. You do make it seem as if it’s not all too difficult. I just need to grow accustomed to the terminology and how scripting really works and such. =) I’ve been working on this stuff for a few days now, and am thinking that maybe I should take a little break, LOL. Driving me a little nuts. Thanks so much to you and the rest of you that have tried to shed a little light on this for me. =]

K.. if you look in the front ring prim of a Dari Collar (I'm looking at an Elegant Filigree one, but I assume it's the same for others), you should find two scripts, F_RING_LG and F_RING, a notecard called CFRONT and a texture.

The two scripts are, respectively, a lockguard script and a LM script (so the collar will respond to either sort of furniture).

If you look at the LockMeister script first (F_RING) you should see the very first line is

string lockmeistername = "collar";      // Lockmeister name we use

Now, look at the LockMeister protocol at http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=exchangeLockMeisterSystem and you will find a chart of all the points lockmeister uses. You will see that the lockmeister name, "collar" means the front of the collar and also that you've got lcollar, rcollar and bcollar to play with for left, right and back respectively. So you can just alter that for the appropriate new points in your collar.

When in use, if you sit on an appropriate bit of LockMeister-enabled furniture, the anchor point on the furniture will ask, on the LockMeister channel (-888 if the avatar sitting on the furniture is wearing anything that should chain to it, by whispering, for example, "23b037cf-7c2a-4b8f-8f8d-563e5301d533lcollar" (if it's me sitting on the furniture, that is.. the way i do it is have the poseball send a link message round, with the key of the llAvatarOnSitTarget(), and scripts in the anchor points take it from there). If a script in my collar hears that, it knows it's addressed to something I'm wearing (because of the key) and it knows (or not) whether it's also addressed to that particular script (because of the "lcollar".

If both are true, it replies to the message and the LockMeister particle script in the furniture squirts out a chain at that particular prim.

Do you have any LockMeister furniture ready to play with? If not, the example at http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=LockmeisterBaseFurniture should help a bit. Have a play with that, and I'll explain the LG stuff when we've got the LM half of the equation right.