Hollidays, OpenSim and SL on your cell phone!

Hollidays have arrived and we all want to stay in touch with our virtual friends in OpenSim or Second Life, but how? My cell phone!

Now that I spent (too) much time sitting outside in the sun and not behind my computer in my office it is good to check some apps that can connect me to my favorite grid to keep in touch with my friends overthere. For both Android and iPhone/iPad I found apps that do the trick.

No 3D view, no voicechat!
First I want to mention the things these apps do not have... 3D view and voicechat. Lets have a look what both the Android and iPhone apps do have...

Android

Mobile Grid Client (Android)

For Android phones I found one app called the Mobile Grid Client.  It is an OpenSim and Second Life messaging client for Android powered cell phones. What does it do?

• Local chat and instant messages – converse with your friends, groups or someone else.
• Teleport to other regions and nearby avatars.
• Region map with accurate positions of other avatars.
• Profiles – look at your own and others profiles.
• Full inventory manipulation – rename, move and delete items and folders.
• Designed with usability in mind – simple and intuitive to use, tap chat and instant messages to get more information about the sender.
• The unique always on feature – stay logged in while answering a phone call or carrying the phone in your pocket.
• And many more... for a complete list of features look at www.mobilegridclient.com/licensing

But it is not free, there is a trial periode of 14 days and after that you have to pay 250 Linden$/month (one real Dollar) for the standard version or 450 Linden$/month (or 4500 L$/year) for the Pro version.

After downloading and installing it I just had to pick out my favorite grid in the list, in my case the virtyou maingrid and log in. On the map I could directly see where I am and if there are any other avatars around. Most usefull is the chatpage, where I can see which avatars are around me including the distance in meters and I must say, sending the chat message into the virtual world goes very fast.

Teleporting to other locations is also working fine, just find the right landmark in your inventory and teleport there. So if you have all your favorite locations as a landmark it is easy. On OpenSim there are still some problems like when someone offers me a TP, I cannot make the jump yet. And walking is not an option in this app. More information you can find at: www.mobilegridclient.com Take a look at the video on the 'How to use it' page.

iPhone and iPad

Pocket Metaverse (iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Here we have the Pocket Metaverse which has a free and a paid version (4.99$). The free version has the following features:

• IM
• Chat
• Payments
• Profiles
• Maps
• and Teleporting.

You can upgrade from within the app to unlock the following Pro features:

• Groups, Search
• Giving, Receiving, and Managing Inventory
• Read Notecards and view Snapshots and Textures
• Upload and Download from the Photo Album and Camera (iPhone only)
• Ability to connect to any OpenSim grid
• Turn off advertising
• and much more...

I use this one allready for a year now on my iPod touch and iPad (big screen, looks good), and it does the same tricks as the Mobile Grid Client for Android. One small advantage is that walking is possible with the Pocket Metaverse app.

More information can be found at  www.pocketmetaverse.com

Both worth trying out this summer. Enjoy!

Soundscaping tips for OpenSim and SL

After visiting many regions on SL and different OpenSim grids, one thing really caught my attention: the lack of sounds. I found myself walking in 'The Great Silence'.
So many regions look really fabulous with great buildings and fantastic landscapes but where are the sounds? Where are the birds, wind, mumbling people, a churchbell far away, sounds I normally hear when I am outside? It all looks real but it still does not sound real. Time to get started with some soundscaping.

How can I have environmental sounds playing?

The easiest way to play a sound on a particular spot on your land is creating a single prim object which contains a soundfile and a script.  Current OpenSim sound format that can be used is PCM WAVE (.wav) 16-bit/44.1KHz/mono or stereo with a maximum length of 10.00 seconds. Some sound can be found as freebies on some grids, but if you want a special sound you have to make it yourself and upload it via your viewer.
After uploading you can create a single prim and place the soundfile (search for it in the inventory) in it. You also have to create a script in the prim that will play the soundfile in a loop. A script that works fine looks something like this:

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        string sound = llGetInventoryName( INVENTORY_SOUND, 0);
        llLoopSound( sound , 1);
    }
    changed(integer change) 
    {
        if (change & CHANGED_INVENTORY) 
        {
            llResetScript();
        }
    }
}

If you place the object (filled with the sound and the script) somewhere on you region, you will hear it somewhere in the stereo spectrum of your speakers with a certain volume. When you walk away from it the volume of that sound will be less. When you walk towards it the volume increases. When you turn your avatar around, you will notice that the sound will change speakers.
So every part of your sim or land can have several environmental sounds playing. Which will make it a lot more realistic.You can place as many as you like and test it for yourself. You can even place the sounds and script in object that allready exist on you land. A church can have a churchbell ringing every now and then. A tree can have birds singing in it. And how about waves at the beach?

Can't I play environmental sounds via Parcel Audio?

Play button

Yes, it is also possible to play a sound (or music) via the Parcel Audio settings. This sound will be heard all over the parcel in stereo. So wherever you walk within the parcel, the sound will be heard on the same level and location. But it will only be played when you hit the PLAY button on the bottom of your screen and it only plays once, there is no loop. So if you want to use this option you have to make a very long file. One advantage is that it can be a mp3 file, so it won't be that big. Once you created the file, put it on a webserver and copy the URL of the file into the 'About Land - Audio' Music URL.
You can even play a sound using the Media settings, even with a loop, but it is better to use this option to show video and webcontent. Which can be interactive with the latest Imprudence 1.4.0 viewer. More info about interactivity and Web On A Prim can be found in one of my blogs called: Flash and streaming video on a prim

Where can I get sounds?
There are some wonderfull sites that have free sounds, I have listed them below. The only problem is that you have to edit most of the sounds to create a soundclip that is a .wav file and not longer than 10 seconds, most viewers can not upload longer files.
(UPDATE AUG 2016 - The latest Firestorm viewer 4.7.9 now can handle audio files of maximum 60 seconds.)
It is best to use a mono sound when you place it in a prim.

When you use sounds playing through the media channel of the land settings it is better to have it stereo.
Free sounds can be found at:

• freesound.org
• stonewashed.net/sfx.html
• simplythebest.net/sounds
• pacdv.com/sounds

How can I edit the sound?
You can edit the sounds with any audio editor you have on your computer. Maybe you recieved one with your video editing or you cd burning software. If you haven't got any editor I can suggest a good audio editing program for this purpose, the Audacity editor (freeware) which can be found at: audacity.sourceforge.net/

Any more scripts can I use?

If you want to create a script playing sounds 'the way you want it to happen' you can also use the 'Script Me!' pages. You can find them here: www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript
Any other scripts you can find at:

• wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:LSL_Library
• wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:LSL_Examples 
• forums.osgrid.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2233 

Have fun, and if you have any questions or suggestions? Post a comment!

Scratch4Opensim - Scripting in OpenSim made easy

Scratch4Opensim

Scratch4Opensim is a great tool for creating easy scripts in OpenSim. It has been around for a few years now but everyone I talked to so far (in Holland) had never heard of Scratch. For simple tasks Scratch is perfect, it is fast and easy. And educators (like me) can use Scratch as a perfect tool to learn children and teens how to script.

To get an idea of what Scratch4Opensim can do there is this nice tutorial on Youtube to watch. In 9 minutes Avasari Buninyong shows the possibilities of Scratch4Opensim on a simple way.

New edition?Now you might think this is old news, but this summer (2011) some clever guys will work on a new version called Scratch3D. I think this will be an online version, made in Flash, where the old Scatch4Opensim version will be integrated. More info about this can be found at http://roots.greenbush.us/3/wordpress/?p=1368 

Any more scripting sites?

• At http://labs.greenbush.us/scriptastic/ you can find a page where you can create scripts, simple building with blocks like in Scratch. 
• At http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript/  you can find another text based scripting machine that is really fun to work with.
• And also have a look at http://foravatars.com/sandbox/lsl/

Try it for yourself and have fun this summer. Looking forward to see the new Scratch3D made in Flash!