Teravus Ousley, among many other things, is the Open Dynamics Engine physics engine guru for the OpenSim project. Teravus, who is a proficient and prolific c# programmer, committed work on the evening of Dec 6 (or thereabouts) that fixed physical linkset and linkset collision issues.
This is a matter of some significance, and the importance of this work from a simulation science standpoint cannot be overstated.
Thanks Teravus, and Kudos!
W00Tz!!!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Building Rexx Viewer on Linux
First off, the source is BIG. Weighing in at 20MB, it's a hefty download.
Having just unzipped it, I am surprised to see no README or INSTALL in the archive root. This is not especially encouraging. What is there are four directories: avatargenerator, maxscriptexport, rexmeshtool, and rexviewer.
With the complete dearth of any sort of build instructions, I am left with no choices but educated guesses - I rather suspect that avatargenerator and maxscriptexporter are utilities, and so I will begin with what might be the one included dependency, rexmeshtool. Here goes Norton!
Ok, so the rexmeshtool directory would appear to contain some sort of microsoft project. My guess is, there is no nant build configuration in the .sln file. Let's go see :D
Well, that didnt go far LOL
No nant .build file - this is essentially a microsoft-only project, and without a bit more work from the it's devs, it simply isnt going anywhere on linux.
I'd love to yell long and loud about the many things I had to do to get this to build - but unfortunately, that isnt going to happen.
So what I will yell long and loud about is this: This project is in NO WAY ready for building on linux. It may be a few short steps from it - it may be light years from it.
But without at least a prebuild file to gen a nant config to bootstrap the build process, it just isnt going to happen.
I will be keeping my eye on this, and on the Rexx guys - but they have a bit more work to do if they truly want to see this run on a linux desktop. Keep an eye on this blog for news relating to progress along these lines.
Cheers for now :)
Hiro P
OSGrid
Having just unzipped it, I am surprised to see no README or INSTALL in the archive root. This is not especially encouraging. What is there are four directories: avatargenerator, maxscriptexport, rexmeshtool, and rexviewer.
With the complete dearth of any sort of build instructions, I am left with no choices but educated guesses - I rather suspect that avatargenerator and maxscriptexporter are utilities, and so I will begin with what might be the one included dependency, rexmeshtool. Here goes Norton!
Ok, so the rexmeshtool directory would appear to contain some sort of microsoft project. My guess is, there is no nant build configuration in the .sln file. Let's go see :D
Well, that didnt go far LOL
No nant .build file - this is essentially a microsoft-only project, and without a bit more work from the it's devs, it simply isnt going anywhere on linux.
I'd love to yell long and loud about the many things I had to do to get this to build - but unfortunately, that isnt going to happen.
So what I will yell long and loud about is this: This project is in NO WAY ready for building on linux. It may be a few short steps from it - it may be light years from it.
But without at least a prebuild file to gen a nant config to bootstrap the build process, it just isnt going to happen.
I will be keeping my eye on this, and on the Rexx guys - but they have a bit more work to do if they truly want to see this run on a linux desktop. Keep an eye on this blog for news relating to progress along these lines.
Cheers for now :)
Hiro P
OSGrid
Physical Vehicles Update
**** Physical Vehicles Update ****
The short story is, we have a few now :D
Thanks to one Owen Oyen of SecondLife and OSGrid :)
One day last month, Owen showed up at my deltazone region to discuss physical vehicles. Owen makes some rather specialized content in SL - he is the one who brought us the pitching of boats under sail, tidal currents based on an analysis of sailing grounds, and a host of other good things related to virtual sailing in SL.
Owen's concern that day we met was why exactly there were no physical vehicle functions implemented yet in opensim. After a brief bit of discussion, we came to the conclusion that the llVehicle class of functions in LSL are really a dramatically simplified approximation of a linear motor with some twists thrown in - literally - for rotating a vehicle about it's axis of travel.
As proof of our sound thinking, Owen produced in collaboration with myself, a very satisfying and functional virtual sailboat :) recently, Owen and Bri Hasp have extended this further, producing an iceboat as well :D
Both are available at or near the south edge of Bri's 'Baya' sim on OSGrid. Unfortunately, Owen has chosen not to make the scripts open - leaving it to me to apply what I learned with him in the production of such scripts.
While I have not yet produced these scritps (I got a job shortly after Owen released his freebie-but-no-copy boat), I will do so in the future - and, I will happily share with you the basics of the implementation.
First, llSetForce and llApplyImpulse are used as motors, depending on the need and circumstance. Owen, I think, finally settled on the use of llSetForce exclusively, but for reasons that were a bit obscure to me. Second, to prevent the vehicle from accumulating energy on an exponential curve, llGetMass is used to calculate a bit of friction, which takes the form of a force applied in a direction opposite to the direction of motion, in the same timer-driven calculation that applies the force which keeps the boat moving.
Finally, a wind source and sail position/forces are calculated and applied. Coupled with some stabilization and correction of movement through the periodic re-inititalization of axes outside that along which movement occurs with constants (usually zero), we have a boat that is readily pushed about the sim on Owen's 'wizard wind', which he has scripted into the boat as well.
Maybe that reads like greek to you - if so, go pick up one of Owen's freebies at Baya and just go have fun with it. Be sure to read the included notecards, because this vehicle has peculiarities and quirks uniquely associated with opensim. If not, I heartily ecourage you to take up this ground-breaking work and see what sorts of vehicles you can produce.
Off to attempt to build Rexx viewer source on linux :D
Cheers for now :D
WISH MEH LUCK!
and see the following post, wherein I describe my rexx-viewer-on-linux-viewer-building experiences.
Hiro
OSGrid
The short story is, we have a few now :D
Thanks to one Owen Oyen of SecondLife and OSGrid :)
One day last month, Owen showed up at my deltazone region to discuss physical vehicles. Owen makes some rather specialized content in SL - he is the one who brought us the pitching of boats under sail, tidal currents based on an analysis of sailing grounds, and a host of other good things related to virtual sailing in SL.
Owen's concern that day we met was why exactly there were no physical vehicle functions implemented yet in opensim. After a brief bit of discussion, we came to the conclusion that the llVehicle class of functions in LSL are really a dramatically simplified approximation of a linear motor with some twists thrown in - literally - for rotating a vehicle about it's axis of travel.
As proof of our sound thinking, Owen produced in collaboration with myself, a very satisfying and functional virtual sailboat :) recently, Owen and Bri Hasp have extended this further, producing an iceboat as well :D
Both are available at or near the south edge of Bri's 'Baya' sim on OSGrid. Unfortunately, Owen has chosen not to make the scripts open - leaving it to me to apply what I learned with him in the production of such scripts.
While I have not yet produced these scritps (I got a job shortly after Owen released his freebie-but-no-copy boat), I will do so in the future - and, I will happily share with you the basics of the implementation.
First, llSetForce and llApplyImpulse are used as motors, depending on the need and circumstance. Owen, I think, finally settled on the use of llSetForce exclusively, but for reasons that were a bit obscure to me. Second, to prevent the vehicle from accumulating energy on an exponential curve, llGetMass is used to calculate a bit of friction, which takes the form of a force applied in a direction opposite to the direction of motion, in the same timer-driven calculation that applies the force which keeps the boat moving.
Finally, a wind source and sail position/forces are calculated and applied. Coupled with some stabilization and correction of movement through the periodic re-inititalization of axes outside that along which movement occurs with constants (usually zero), we have a boat that is readily pushed about the sim on Owen's 'wizard wind', which he has scripted into the boat as well.
Maybe that reads like greek to you - if so, go pick up one of Owen's freebies at Baya and just go have fun with it. Be sure to read the included notecards, because this vehicle has peculiarities and quirks uniquely associated with opensim. If not, I heartily ecourage you to take up this ground-breaking work and see what sorts of vehicles you can produce.
Off to attempt to build Rexx viewer source on linux :D
Cheers for now :D
WISH MEH LUCK!
and see the following post, wherein I describe my rexx-viewer-on-linux-viewer-building experiences.
Hiro
OSGrid
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