Noobish question regarding ground impact

Hi everyone, sorry for what is probably a stupid question, but I've been pawing through the Wikis and repository for days and haven't found anything that really hit the mark.

Basically, I would like to create puffs of smoke/dirt whenever an avatar hits the ground at a suitable velocity. I'm not overly concerned with the aesthetics or getting the dirt to actually display, I basically just can't figure out how to determine ground collisions. I'm certain that the functionality to determine that stuff is built in, as SL already plays different animations if you fall from different heights, I'm just not sure how to access it.

The closest thing I could imagine would be a call to llGetBoundingBox checking for collision with the ground (which i'm not sure how to get), and then a call to llGetVel to see if I'm going fast enough to do anything about it. Even then, this solution would be largely dependent on time, and would be very inefficient (it should really only be run when you're colliding with the ground, but you weren't a moment ago).

Anyway, I'm sure I've rambled on long enough - if someone could point me in the right direction, I would be much obliged.

Thanks!

--Edit:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like land_collision_start is what I'm looking for. Testing is in order!

You could try llGetAgentInfo along with AGENT_WALKING. This would also still work even if you were walking on a prim floor.

Sounds like it is going to be a fun project for you. Keep us posted.

Once you get it working and if you want to use it all of the time then I would suggest inserting into the walk function of your AO. No use in two different scripts checking for the same thing.

I made something like this a while back, and if I remember right, I checked the avatar's velocity in the land collision event, and if the magnitude of that velocity was high enough (I don't remember the number I used), then it would rez an object at the avatar's feet (determined by using the avatar position minus half the height from llGetAgentSize. The rezzed object would generate the particles, wait for a second to ensure the particles got generated, and then llDie().

Search the wiki for these Events: land_collision, land_collision_start, land_collision_end.

I was doing some more digging today while at work, and noticed that the llGetAnimation function can return "Standing Up", which means you're standing up after a long fall. Which means that once I get an AO object (still working with the noob anims), I can have it check for that, and if it finds it, send out the dust cloud. However, I think the timing would be a bit off for this (puff of smoke would occur shortly AFTER impact, rather than on impact itself). Also, I'd have to figure out some way to have the puff of smoke occur only once per impact, rather than every time the AO gets queried while you're getting up.

There seems to be some confusion over what my intent is. My first day in second life, I discovered that my favorite thing to do was fly 50-70m up and then plummet back down. My intent is to have a "Wile E. Coyote"-style poof when I hit the ground in that case. Using the land_collision_start event, I triggered a (temporary) llOwnerSay with the velocity at time of impact, so I can determine a good velocity at which to trigger the poof. After sending the tell, it sleeps the script for a few seconds to prevent flooding. Of course, right now the script is attached to a lovely 0.5m cube jutting out from my stomach - aesthetics come last

Once I finish, I'll make sure to send a copy to everyone in this thread!

Ya know, if you really like the "Wile E. Coyote" concept, you could add more to the script so that instead of just a dust cloud, it creates a hole where you landed.

Only work on your own land of course.

Not to forget the sign you hold up in the last 20m that says "OUCH!"

Well i noticed when trying this right now it doesnt always go from falling to standing. sometimes it walks a little etc..

so i think maybe have it check, and when it is falling trigger a variable to TRUE so you know the falling is/has been occuring

then for your normal check use somethign like
if currentAnim != falling && fallingTrigger == TRUE

that will trigger as soon as anything other then the fall animation is used, but only after a fall. which can be quicker then waiting for your av to fully stand up.

(of course you ened to pretty it up and add small stuff, this was to give you idea)

That sounds like a very good suggestion Danielz.