A brief top-up

Sadly this week is shaping up to be a week when Mistress and I won't see much of either either. Today we only had a short amount of in-world time to deal with some Z&A work and then to have her unlock the ballet boots I'd been left in since the dance on Saturday.

While we were in, given that tomorrow isn't looking promising either, Mistress asked if I needed a top-up for anything. I could see that I'd be asking for a top-up for walk allowance by tomorrow so...

...I got offered a cookie early. This earned me "be hobbled by ankle cuffs and hands cuffed with thumbcuffs for 3 days". It's not clear when Mistress will be in a position to collect on this, or other items on my list, in the next day or so. I fear that the progress that was made to get the list as short as possible has been lost to recent events.

I hope we'll be able to knock one or two items off before the end of the week.

List unique textures in a build (revisited)

As much as I love making mesh objects in-world with Mesh Studio there's one issue with this approach (and it's an issue with the approach, not really with Mesh Studio itself) that can be a bit of a pain: keeping mesh faces the same across each LOD level.

When I'm making something with Mesh Studio I have this approach (with appropriate resolution tweaks along the way):

1. Make and texture the source linkset that's exactly how the final mesh will look.
2. Shift copy it, remove any faces that I can afford to lose for the next LOD level down.
3. Shift copy #2 and start to remove more faces and even whole prims.
4. Shift copy #3 and really go crazy on removing prims and faces while keeping the same overall shape and, of course, the same number of texture and tint combinations (for those who don't know, a texture+tint combo defines a face in the resulting mesh).

The problem with this approach is that, as you start to remove faces, and especially as you start to remove prims, it's possible that you'll change the order in which the Mesh Studio script will encounter a texture+tint pair. This means, in turn, that in one of the resulting mesh objects (which are uploaded in the LOD slots in the uploader) can have the mesh faces appear to have the wrong textures.

Mostly this isn't a problem -- the lowest LOD should only really be visible from such a distance as to make textures a bit of a moot point. Thing is I've noticed, with recent Firestorms (for example), that a mesh object can sometimes get "stuck" at the lowest LOD when it first comes into view after being obscured by another large object. That in itself is a bit of a bother but it's made all the more worse if textures appear to get swapped.

So, with all that in mind, I got to thinking that I should be able to script something to help with this. While I wouldn't really be able to script my way out of the problem, I might be able to make a tool that lets me compare each of the linksets and ensure that the texture+tint combinations are all first encountered in the same order.

And then I realised that this script that I wrote later on last year more or less did the trick. The only problem with it was that the output didn't quite lend itself to easily scanning over the results and visually comparing them. So I made a few tweaks and the result is this:


First off I've made use of modern viewers' ability to hyperlink text, like this:

[http://www.google.com/ Visit Google]

Which, in local, results in:

Visit Google

Using this I've made the UUID of the texture just be the UUID while still being a hyperlink so you can view the texture online.

Secondly, I've stored the results and then try and output them in a single llOwnerSay. I say "try"... if the output will end up being too low so as to blow the 1024 limit, I then fall back to doing it line-by-line (I'm almost tempted, at this point, to do the whole thing via llHTTPResponse).

Finally, just for kicks, the colour data is now shown as RGB and it also links to a site that shows the colour.

The result of all of this is that, whereas the output of the old version of the script looked like this:

The new version looks like this:

When comparing two objects to check that the lists are the same I'm finding the latter a lot easier to quickly scan over.

Caught out

I'm sure it's got something to do with wearing a dress. I seems to happen most often when I'm wearing a dress.

Last night, after the Raven Park Wizard of Oz dance, I had to do the usual mad dash to get down to ground level as quickly after Mistress as I could so that the curfew module of my SubHUD didn't catch me out. It was well past my curfew time (6pm SL time) so I had to stay close to Mistress (she always keeps the "safe when I'm near" distance very small) or be dropped in my cell.

I failed.

Mistress joined me in the cell room to say goodnight, after cleaning up the dance items on the ground for me.

The cell's random timer had set itself to around 50 minutes so there was no way I was getting out before we had to log off. Instead we had a little chat about things and then I asked Mistress for a favour. Given that I'd used my MD ballet boots, set to red, as my "ruby slippers" for my outfit...

...and given that there was a very good chance I wouldn't see Mistress today (I didn't), I was hoping she might at least set them back to black so that I could wear something a little more "me" once I got out of the cell in the morning. Mistress was very kind and decided that, yes, she would set them to black.

I woke up the following morning still in the costume and still in the cell, unable to access my inventory to change clothing until the cell unlocked. Once I did I did a bit more experimenting with outfits that, to me anyway, look good with the boots. I came up with this:

I think I might have to save this one as an outfit. If Mistress approves of it anyway.

Updates

Last night, after I finally got out of the mittens, I set about a job I've being meaning to do for some time now. I set about updating my collar:

While, these days, most of Mistress' general RLV needs are served by the Z&A SubHUD, we still use OpenCollar scripts in the collar because it's handy to have another device that can apply some restrictions (my tattoo layers are perma-locked by the collar, for example) and, generally, the OC relay has served me well. On top of this I find the posing system in the collar very handy and it's where the kneel I made for Mistress lives.

I don't think I've updated my collar in the (just over) 2 years I've being wearing it and a lot has changed with OC code in that time. So, rather than try and do an update with the updater, I took a copy of the collar, grabbed a collar from an OC vendor and pulled all the scripts over and redid all the settings (which was kind of vital given that the names of settings in the defaultsettings notecard appear to have changed).

After passing a copy to my "stunt double" avatar to check that the position and size was still fine and that the kneel position was good, while also checking that the relay was behaving, etc, I tucked this new version away in my inventory for today.

Earlier today, when Mistress and I met in world, we went into her office and I knelt before her so she could unlock the collar...

...and put the new version in place. The nice thing about this new version is that, supposedly, it can be updated in place, while wearing it, without the need to even unlock it. If that works that'll make a very nice change from the old days of having to unlock it, remove it, rez it on the ground and then update it.

Once locked we also took the time to update my copy of the Z&A SubHUD too. We released v1.6 a week ago and my v1.5 was still locked on me.

So, as of now, I'm all sorted with an up-to-date collar and an up-to-date SubHUD.

Out of the butterfly, but it gets worse...

Today was the day Mistress was to let me out of the latex butterfly outfit. And, when we went in-world, she did.

Once I was unlocked I got changed into something a little more casual and put my cuffs back on so Mistress could lock them. It was rather nice to have the freedom to change and to walk around at a normal pace again.

It didn't last long though. As I was getting changed Mistress was looking over the payment list and deciding on what she'd collect on next. Soon she announced that she was collecting one I've being dreading ever since it came up: 5 hours of in-world time denied any form of touch!

So, off came my cuffs again and, as I did, I made a special request: if I was going to be denied touch for so long, which also means I'd be denied any ability to edit anything (and so no building), could I please be locked in my MD ballet boots so I could use the time to carry on training them? Mistress was more than happy to oblige. So, with her choice of mittens pulled out of inventory (in this case the MD ones which I bought the other week to complete the MD set) and with a catsuit that made sense too...

...I was all set. Given that I wouldn't be able to open doors, and given that sitting would be very tricky (I can, just, sit on objects if I'm really close to them and I sit from the object's context menu), Mistress then asked where I'd prefer to be left. Given that our garden gate can be nudged open I asked to be left in the front garden. That way I'd have the run of the region so I could totter around in my boots.

So, this is me for the next 5 hours (I'm about 1/2 way through as of the time of writing), locked up so all I can do is wander around the region, levelling up my boots.

Thing is, Mistress as locked me such that I can't touch my own attachments. Because of this I have no way of knowing exactly how much time I have left, or how the training is going in my boots! When I pointed this out to her she just gave that laugh.

The list has grown

Sadly Mistress and I aren't getting much time together in-world so far this week, which means that we're not getting time to work together on the background project. But we have been in. Today we dropped in briefly so I could get a top-of of fly allowance. Normally it's not one I use much or often -- I tend to walk most places or use the TP pads on the region. But given my current outfit flying actually makes sense when I'm in the butterfly mode.

The payment for that top-up ended up being 3 days as Mistress' pony boy (and, of course, banned from the house for the duration). Honestly I think we were both equally as disappointed at how short a time got picked!

Tomorrow is un-butterfly day!

Back as a butterfly

Mistress and I didn't get to spend too much time in-world today, so sadly no time to work on our background project, but she did have time to drop in and collect on another allowance payment. Personally I was expecting and fearing either the 5 hours without touch, or 5 hours in a cell, but it turns out Mistress just can't resist her absolute favourite.

So, for the next 3 days, I'm her latex butterfly again. Well, latex caterpillar and butterfly, depending on how it's switched, because she set it to auto-switch as time goes on.

For now at least I can work just fine, I'm just stuck in a fairly humiliating outfit that, at times, has be crawling around on the floor...

...or having to hop or fly...

I'm obviously denied the ability to remove this, or change any aspect of my clothing, and I'm also denied fly when I'm in the caterpillar phase. The gag is also garbling my local chat and I'm denied any ability to emote. Mistress also set the gag such that I can't start IM sessions, although I can chat via IM if someone IMs me first.

Until Thursday...