website tracking

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Castle Bromlestein good to go

With the work on the Castle Bromlestein progressing well, I decided to upload some video tutorials for the student to view. One to show in a very general way, how the game is played. Then a longer video on the way the SL Forum posting works. You can see the videos in the media room of the main hall at Shimmer Island.

Monday 25 May 2009

More treasure washes up


More treasure seems to have found its way to the shores of Shimmer Island, with the recent arrival of a crate containing 18 free vehicles. Please feel free to teleport over and help your self to a copy.
Bye for now Skipper

Sunday 24 May 2009

LSL particle tutorial

As you wander around the landscape of Second Life, you will sooner or later come across effects that replicate the appearance of such things as falling rain, snow and leaves, eruptions of smoke and explosions. These features, when inevitably you come across them, will have almost certainly been produced by the client side effect known as Particles. In this tutorial we shall be looking at particles and the means by which they are produced. After completing the tutorial you will have covered:

Appreciate the use, structure and calling of functions
Make use of various particle patterns
Understand the RGB colour coding system
Set the size, rate, speed and colour of particles
Set the location, transparency and colour change of particles
Produce a particle emitter that simulates rain
Produce a particle emitter that simulates smoke
Make use of textures as particles
Make use of particle name-value pairs
Use particle flags

Thursday 21 May 2009

LSL decisions and loops book

I have rezzed a third LSL tutorial book into the main hall of the library learning space area of Shimmer Island, and as with others in the series, please feel free to take advantage of the popup webpage nature of the medium to to take a full copy for your own use.

In this tutorial covers the basic requirements for the implementation of decision or branching structures in a script and then goes on investigate various means by which we can execute instructions through a sequence of iterations in a loop


  • The tutorial will cover

    Logical Operators and their use
    Relational Operators and their use
    Making simple decisions with the if() structure
    Using the if…else combination
    Using the if…else combination
    Implementing multiple if() statements
    Using nested if() statements
    The for() loop structure and its components
    Implementing nested for() loops
    Making decisions within loops
    The while() loop structure
    The do..while() loop structure

Monday 18 May 2009

LSL Numbers and Operators

The second book in the Linden Script series for my level 3 students is now available in-world. The topics covered here are the various types of mathematical operator and number types used in LSL, which is going to be very reminiscent of those they should already be familiar with in Java, so I anticipate no real problem here. The numbers side looks at the types of numeric variable available in LSL, this is less than those in Java. The means by which we bring variables into existence through either declaration or initialisation is essentailly the same. One area they should feel familiar with is that of casting variable types, though now its almost exclusively in relation to the llSay function, at least as far as my exercises go anyway. I have also taken the opportunity to explore the use of constants such as PI illustrating through example. I have also taken the opportunity to explore the way in which different types of rounding function are applied. Hopefully all this is going to prove of use in the comming project.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Linden Script guides

With my level 3 year 2 students set to commence their new SL project in Games Design this week, I decided to put together some introduction type guides for Linden Script. The first book simply shows them how to use the editor and compile scripts while introducing some of the basic functions and components. I have also managed to locate an online Linden Script interpreter that they can use as a validator for their scripts. This feature will be useful because access to the virtual world is restricted in the college a single computer room, so any script development will have to go on hold until they are either in that room or at home, now they can at least develop and test scripts from any internet connection. There are some more tutorials on the way for Linden Script that build upon my students current understanding of programming in C and Java. The books utilise a web popup, which means the materials can readilly be copied and pasted, so removing the need for a download option.

Friday 15 May 2009

New Notice Board


As I am continuing to add new facilities to the sim at Shimmer Island, I thought it would be an idea to let everyone that visited know in some way. After looking around xstreetsl for a while I came across a cheap multicolour text display board and hung it in the entrance of the main tutorial hall. Oh yes, and just above is the new REZ magazine vendor; magazine reading seems to be very popular here at Shimmer Island.

Monday 11 May 2009

SL Game Project


I am about to start a new project with my level 3 students in the design of computer games. The environment for the development will be Second Life and the game will be a combat learning zone, where I hope to see students exploring various strategies in their attempt to get the highest scores while under attack from aliens. I have also installed my SL forum block. My intention is to encourage the students to post essages including emails from the block. I have not used this before but I anticipate seeing the emergence of a 3D forum posting, which in itself may reveal some interesting and possibly meaningful development patterns. Stay in touch for progress...Skipper