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But wait! There’s more!

I’ve had a busy week. Add these to the growing list of new features in the TerraSport III:

  • Press C to flare the canopy and reduce vertical speed for landing.
  • Press C to open the canopy while in freefall. (No more typing “pull”!)
  • Wind! The parachute is now affected by SL’s virtual wind.
  • Apply a single texture across the surface of the canopy. 007-style union jack parachute, anyone?
  • Canopy and container (the backpack) can be coloured and textured separately.
  • Altimeter now shows heading, wind speed, and wind direction.
  • Altimeter has a show/hide button.
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Freefall in style… TerraSport Pro III

So you haven’t seen me around much? I’ve been hiding in my secret lab, building the next-generation sport parachute.

The TerraSport Pro III is a complete rework of my sport parachute design that improves performance and adds realism to the skydiving experience.

New stuff…

  • Redesigned pack and canopy.
  • Improved freefall detection.
  • New 2-colour schemes and the ability to add your own schemes.
  • Texture changer.
  • New altimeter HUD attachment — an analog altimeter dial with digital auto-deploy readout and controls.
  • New freefall animations, including stunts.
  • Ability to add your own stunt animations.
  • Audible altitude warnings.
  • Landing marker matches parachute colour.
  • Improved deploy sequence that includes animation and pilot chute.
  • A top-secret feature that I won’t reveal until it’s finished (which means I don’t know if it’s actually possible).

If all goes well, the TerraSport Pro III should be ready sometime in March.

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More bugs than a VW factory

Cubey’s big list of bugs and “features” that affect vehicles in Second Life:

  • No-object-entry parcels block all vehicles at any altitude, occasionally ejecting avatars and forcing them to relog. Fix: Allow vehicles to enter freely for a limited time, just to fly through.
  • Full parcels block all vehicles at any altitude, etc. etc. Fix: exempt piloted vehicles and temp objects from prim counts.
  • Access lines and banlines cause avatars to be ejected, and will return the vehicle to their Lost and Found. Fix: Bounce the vehicle off access and banlines, the way vehicles bounce off the map edge.
  • SL sends an error message to an object’s owner if the object can’t enter a parcel, leading to IM and email spam. Fix: Don’t message the owner, or don’t message the owner if it’s a temp object.
  • Vehicles appear to move haltingly or not at all, even when packet loss is low or nonexistent.
  • Transitions across sim borders can take up to 10 seconds (at least) and will often eject avatars from the vehicle and force a client start.
  • Controls become less responsive in busy regions, making it nearly impossible to steer.

Anyone else have vehicle bugs to add to that list?

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Wind Rider upgrade: group mode

By popular request, the Terra Wind Rider hot air balloon now includes “group mode”. While in group mode, any group member can board the balloon and fly it. This means that you can park your balloon on group property for any member to enjoy at their leisure.

If you already own the Wind Rider and you would like to have this feature, please contact me for a free upgrade.

Update: I’ve never mentioned this before, but the Wind Rider has an “easter egg“, as programmers call it. If you say “drop” while flying the balloon, your av will throw a penguin over the side. The penguin, of course, falls to the ground because it’s flightless… and then goes splat. This is surely the sign of a disturbed mind.

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Ancient avatar visits newbie haven

On a whim, I dropped by the ever-popular The Shelter, a club for new arrivals to Second Life. At the side of the lounge area there’s an age detector. Various people clicked it… “6 days old!”, “13 days old”, “10 days old!”. Then I clicked…

Age Detector: Cubey Terra is 1242 Days Old!

The room fell silent. then…

Renee Roundfield: Cubey will have to the be host of the SL Antiques Roadshow.
onionpencil Musashi: lol
onionpencil Musashi: he may BE the antiques roadshow ;)

My avatar is officially an old fart.