Show face numbers

This is a script that actually started out life as a set of textures, which got made while I was exploring the workings of "Smart Objects" in Photoshop.

The idea behind the script is pretty simple: drop it in a prim or the root of a linkset and it'll texture every face with a number to show the face number. Nothing clever. Nothing you'd want to do to an item where you didn't want to destroy the existing textures. Nothing you can't really do in a reasonable viewer (most of the time -- this does help solve the problem of getting at mesh faces that are almost impossible to touch). On the other hand, sometimes, when you're coding, having a nice big visual reminder on the screen in front of you isn't such a bad thing.

The script itself doesn't self-delete, but it does refresh the textures if the prim changes or more items are linked to it.

Here's the script:

DoF glitch

These days I'm running with a setup that can handle ALM and related things rather well. As such I'm still enjoying the novelty of playing with things like materials (not that I'd not experienced that before -- it's just that ALM would impact my FPS so bad that I could only really play with it in a static environment) and, at the moment, depth-of-field.

Earlier on I was messing about in the workshop, taking some photos with the Z&A logo behind me, while toying with the DoF settings (and trying to get the hang of how to set the point of focus and have it stay there, etc, especially in flycam mode).

While camming around, I noticed this:

Curious "halo" of non-blurred background hovering over my head. Very strange. Well, not so strange when you view transparent...

(yes, my hair does generally need 1/2 region to itself). Turns out that it's some fun clash with the background and an invisible mane on the head harness.

And I thought this sort of glitch had been left behind when we dropped the invisiprim hack. ;)

A bit of shopping, then back as a pony

It started with an off-hand suggestion that, perhaps, we might like to go to the VT dance on Friday. Sometimes, if the theme is one Mistress and I might especially enjoy, Miss Eve (who knows just how difficult it is for Mistress and I to get coinciding times that work for dances) lets us know a bit in advance what it'll be so we can make arrangements. This Friday's is one we think we'd have fun with and I made a suggestion for outfits to Mistress.

Which, of course, has turned into an epic (and still ongoing) shopping trip for the perfect skin.

Shops were visited. Groups were joined. Demos were demonstrated. And... nothing. While there were some lovely skins to be found none quite had the combination Mistress is looking for. I fear this will be our week this week.

Hopefully we'll find some time to make some more progress on the background project.

Before logging off for the day though Mistress collected on another allowance payment. Initially she was going to collect "Be hobbled by ankle cuffs and hands cuffed with thumbcuffs for 3 days" but we ran into a bit of a snag with that.

I'd recently updated the cuffs that she'd have used for that, the cuffs I almost always wear, and it seems there's been some radical changes to how they work and how the animations work. The heavily-hobbled animations were very different, rather unworkable and very unattractive. Doubtless something clever has been done to the cuffs, they've been upgraded in some clever way, and, sadly, left in a state where you appear to have to read the manual again just to learn how to do something very basic that you've being doing for years without a hitch.

Not really much of a step forward. Not even a hobbled hop forward. And very frustrating and disappointing.

So, that one's been put on hold until we can figure out what the hell is going on with those cuffs and, instead, Mistress decided to collect on me being her pony for 3 days.

Which, of course, had me so disappointed. ;)

So, as of now, for the next 3 days, I'm banned from the house and have to sleep in the stable.

Which also means that to get to and from the shop I have to walk across the sim rather than use our private transport pads. So that'll be more walk allowance used up too. Which means the list will get longer quicker...

It's almost as if Mistress never wants me to catch up!

Have I ever?

Time once again to relax my not-really-a-rule of not doing meme-a-like blog posts (I mean, I often don't do them, but mostly because they involve far more time and creativity than I can muster) and do a meme type blog post (I'm blaming Auryn this time).

Strawberry's meme this week is one of those question list type things, which is dead easy to do. If you fancy a go yourself just copy the list, rip out the answers and add your own. Just like I did here.

So here goes...

1. Have you ever owned a sim in Second Life?
   Yes and no. I'm responsible for and rent a whole region, which is where the Z&A main store and Raven Park are located.
2. Have you ever created content in Second Life?
   There's hardly a day goes by that I'm not working on something. And there's hardly a week goes by that I don't make something available.
3. Have you ever driven a vehicle in Second Life?
   Driven. Ridden. Flown. Sailed. Yes. Lots. I even make (RLV) vehicles.
4. Have you ever gone sky diving in Second Life?
   Yes. Still do on occasion. I especially like using a wingsuit.
5. Have you ever played a sport in Second Life?
   Does En Garde count?
6. Have you ever gone clubbing in Second Life?
   I think I've been to an actual club once, a long time ago. I do go to dances now and again (and we host dances once a fortnight).
7. Have you ever fangirled/fanboyed someone in Second Life?
   Heck yeah. Pretty much any time I meet or talk with a content-creator I greatly admire. And don't even get me started on the odd time that they might visit my shop...
8. Have you ever taken a picture of your avatar in water in Second Life?
   Yes.
9. Have you ever taken a picture of a sunset in Second Life?
   It's kind of hard not to isn't it? On a normal region there's 4 a day...
10. Have you ever taken a nude picture of your avatar in Second Life?
    It's kind of hard not to isn't it? On a normal..... well, let's say it's not that unusual, for me. ;)
11. Have you ever dated in Second Life?
    I suppose it depends on what's meant by "dated". I've been with the same person almost the whole of my Second Life.
12. Have you ever had or attended a wedding in Second Life?
    Yes. Just the one.
13. Have you ever drank, smoked or taken drugs in Second Life?
    I've SL drunk and smoked, yes.
14. Have you ever engaged in sexual activity in Second Life?
    Do I look like the sort of..... oh, okay. In that case yes.
15. Have you ever been to Bukkake Bliss in Second Life?
    I can honestly say I don't know what it is. So that'll be a no.

And that's the lot.

A little bit of building

After a weekend of not seeing each other Mistress and I met up in-world for a short while earlier today. One reason was so that I could give her back the keys to my ankle cuffs.

The reason why I had them at all is that, over the weekend, there was a mishap that involved a bug in Firestorm (in which my favourite thing -- Project Interesting -- is implicated) which in turn meant my ankle cuffs got knocked off, which in turn meant they acquired the "he's tried to escape!" alarm hover text that RR cuffs do by default (normally it's turned off but I'd recently upgraded the cuffs and all settings got reverted), which in turn meant I needed to do a RealKey dance with my stunt double to clear the message (something Mistress was happy with me doing).

Having explained all of that to her we did a little bit more work on our background build project. It was just a quick bit of building but it's set me up to be able to get to work on my part of the project.

I'm not sure when I'll get to it during this week, but I hope to make a start. This week will mostly be taken up with planning for Saturday's event.

Because in-world time was in short supply today Mistress also decided to not collect on any of my allowance payments. The list stays rather long, for now.

A visit to C88

After a bit of a fractured week, timewise, Mistress and I get to spend some real quality time together today. After first spending a little bit of time dealing with Z&A business (taking some photos that will go on to be used in the poster for next weekend's dance -- which is Z&A's 5th birthday party!) we decided it was time for some retail therapy.

Although C88 itself was horribly slow for Mistress to load (I don't think she managed to rez it all, even after being there a good hour or so) plenty of demos were collected. Also, I even bought a couple of things too. There was a copy/mod blindfold that Mistress really liked the look of and told me I should buy (and which I'll script up with Z&A restraint scripts in the next day or so and add it to my blindfold collection in my #RLV folders) and also a pair of rolled down stockings/socks that looked like they might actually work with a dress or two I have.

Once done we headed back home and spent a good hour or so doing the demo swap thing in Mistress' studio skybox. As I've written a few times before, this is one of my absolute favourite things. It both reminds me of how similar our tastes are and how well we "work" together, but it's also a good time for me to learn plenty of other things about clothing and women's styling (SL and RL).

But, sadly, all good things must end.

It was time to say goodnight to Mistress and head off into a weekend where we won't get to see each other. Before she went I requested a top-up for my TP allowance, which had got rather low after yesterday's trip as well as today's shopping trip. This got me a payment of a rather long period of being gagged (I'm sure the timers being selected are getting longer...).

Mistress decided that she wouldn't collect on any payments this weekend, not only will my in-world time be less than it otherwise normally is but she also doesn't get to enjoy the benefit of the restrictions.

Hopefully next week's payment collections will be for things that let me build while restricted; there's a couple of things need doing ready for the Z&A party.

That and... hopefully, we'll be getting back to working on our longer-term background project. I'm rather looking forward to that.

Flyabout

After a fairly busy couple of days Mistress "returned" today and we got to spend a little bit of time together in-world.

A priority was to work on knocking something off my allowance payment list. Given that things have being building up, especially given the rather interrupted week we've had this week, Mistress was spoilt for choice. Looking over the list she decided to go with "Wear a vehicle (and outfit) of your Domme’s choice for 7 hours".

Mistress decided on my fully clear latex catsuit and, initially, decided upon a hover bike that I've had in my inventory for a very long time (one with is a very firm favourite of hers). Sadly though we realised that it doesn't have a timer so locking it for just 7 hours of in-world time wouldn't be possible. So, instead, she swapped that for something we know does have a timer...

The Z&A Quadcopter.

At this point I did a rather foolish thing. While we were talking about the idea of wearable and lockable vehicles (I keep thinking I should look at making at least another one) I joked that it would be a good mix, one time, with the Z&A Walkabout, forcing a "flyabout". Not only did Mistress think this was a brilliant idea, she reminded me that I also had "Go walkabout, in an outfit of your Domme’s choice, for 2 hours". No sooner had she mentioned this than...

...I was dropped over on Zindra. Mistress set the Walkabout HUD to 2 hours, a short loitering time (I forget what now -- I think 2 minutes), a max of 30 minutes in one single region and a region memory of, I think she said, 30 regions. Technically I guess she cheated herself out of one of the "outfits of her choice" by combining the two like this (I did change into a thong so I wouldn't have been travelling around with manly parts showing) but she seemed happy enough with the outcome.

At which point she wished me a goodnight and headed home, leaving me to revisit places I have been before, but from a slightly different angle, with an extra degree or 2 of freedom of movement (and without the bane helmet windlight setting, which is normally how I've experienced this part of the grid).

I've saved some photos from the journey that followed in an album on imgur. Here's a few highlights from it:

All in all it was a fun couple of hours. Meanwhile, I'd knocked a couple of hours off the seven hours I'm to be locked on the quadcopter.

The downside about being locked like that for 7 hours is that Mistress has decided that, because it's one of my creations, I should "enjoy" the the restrictions that it comes out of the box with. Never mind that I make it so people can tweak and change the (always approriate) restrictions, no, Mistress has decided that because I made it she'll go with what I set as the default.

In this, for obvious reasons, I made it so that you can't touch objects more than 1.5m away from you. So no building for me tonight!