Animating a woodpecker pecking

I'm animating a woodpecker pecking at around 5Hz in 1 second bursts. I'm using two heads with half-transparent textures that're animated by llSetTextureAnim when triggered by a link message. Things are slightly complicated by the fact that each head actually consists of two parts - head and beak prims.

In spite of the proliferation of scripts, and the hit-or-miss nature of the synchronisation, it seems to work pretty well most of the time, though it does have its off days.

Is there a better way of doing this?

three scripts, one to send messages to the other two, and the other two to exchange transparency is about the best you can do...

ETA:

integer x;
default{
  state_entry(){
    llSetTimerEvent( 0.2 );
  }

  timer(){
    if (++x < 5){
      llMessageLinked( LINK_THIS, 1, "", "" );
    }else{
      x %= 10;
    }
  }
}

default{
  link_message( integer vIntNull, integer vIntTst, string vStrNull, key vKeyNull ){
    if (vIntTst){ //-- use (!vIntTst) in the opposite script
      llSetLinkAlpha( link_target_number_goes_here, (float)vIntTst, ALL_SIDES );
    }
  }
}

Animating anything in second life is terrible.

Doh! I'd forgotten that one; it can all be done from a single script with precise synchronisation quite easily.

depending on how many links you have to set at once... possible... but you also mentions something about texture animation in between? that's gotta be set from the specific prim (although it it doesn't need to change, you should be good)

Having completely forgotten about llSetAlpha and llSetLinkAlpha I was faffing about with animated half-transparent textures and link messages to avoid having to use llSetLinkPrimitiveParams. I guess my subconscious knew I was missing the obvious and prompted me to post my question here.

heh, happens to me too.

Faffing, eh? Can one say that in a PG forum?

With a sculpty head you will have fewer prims to animate.

Thinking outside the box, you can go even lower and less laggy with animated textures on a cube. Take a couple shots of the "real" woodpecker you made from the side view. A two frame flip book would be trivial to create.

as long as we don't tell the kids it means wasting time (or were you thinking of fapping? )

I need a sarcasm emoticon so people will know I understood the meaning perfectly.

subtlety is lost in text, I just fixed it for ya

Ah, a moment too late bit I'll share it anyway:

http://02d9656.netsoljsp.com/SarcMark/modules/user/commonfiles/loadhome.do