IMPORTANT NOTE: For technical reasons, the parachute no longer logs jump statistics on the website.

In these notes…

• MAKING THE JUMP
• GIVING COMMANDS IN CHAT
• SETTING OPTIONS IN THE MENU
• USING THE STARBURST ALTIMETER HUD
• USING THE PAINT MENU TO CHANGE APPEARANCE
• USING THE PAINT HUD ATTACHMENT TO CHANGE APPEARANCE
• RESIZING YOUR HARNESS
• SETTING OPTIONAL CANOPY FAILURES
• DRIFTING WITH THE WIND
• COMPETITIVE GAMES
• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
• CREDITS

Making the Jump

WARNING: FAILURE TO AVOID SOLID OBJECTS WHILE FREE-FALLING MAY RESULT IN INJURY OR DEATH. ALWAYS WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR AND CLEAN UNDERWEAR.

1. Wear your Starburst parachute.
2. Use a Terra Skydiving Pod or an aircraft to get to altitude. A good height is at least 1000 meters, but you can try jumping from lower heights as a challenge.
3. Let your avatar fall for a while. Use your avatar’s “walking” controls to turn and move a little bit.
4. Deploy the canopy: press the Page Down key or the “C” key.
5. Use normal “walking” controls to move and steer your canopy: hold down the W key (or up arrow) while using A and D (or left/right arrows) to turn. If you need accuracy, switch to mouselook mode, hold down the W key (or up arrow) while steering with the mouse.
6. At about 10 meters above the ground, press Page Down or C to flare the canopy. This briefly slows your vertical speed for an easy landing. If you don’t flare, you will hit the ground very hard.

IMPORTANT: Always flare just before landing. If your vertical speed is too fast, your jump will be recorded as “bad”.

Giving Commands in Chat

Although you can operate your sport chute without the use of chat commands, some people prefer commands to the HUD and menus. Your parachute responds to these commands:

AUTO <altitude>
Turns on the auto-open altimeter. (This command requires the altimeter HUD.) Saying AUTO without an altitude sets the auto-open to the last-used altitude. Example: say AUTO 350 to make your parachute open automatically when you freefall below 350 meters above ground level.

CLOSE
Closes your parachute.

DISARM
Turns off the auto-open altimeter. (This requires the altimeter HUD.)

FAIL <percent>
Sets the likelihood of canopy failure as a number between 0 and 100%, where 0 means there are no failures. If your canopy fails, your avatar will take approximately five seconds to deploy a reserve canopy, which can’t be steered or flared. Example: FAIL 10.

MANUAL
Turns off the auto-open altimeter. It’s the opposite of the AUTO command. This command requires the Starburst Altimeter HUD.

PULL
Opens your parachute while in freefall.

TEXTURE <uuid>
Applies a custom texture to the top of the canopy. Use any rectangular texture from your inventory, but large patterns are best. To get a texture’s UUID, find the texture in your inventory, right-click it, and choose Copy Texture UUID. Then in chat type “texture ” (including the space), press CTRL+V to add the 36-character UUID, then press Enter.

Example: TEXTURE 2dba2207-cca6-5a77-c049-ecf1780e6b92

Settings Options in the Menu

Click your parachute to open the menu.

HELP
Show this notecard.

Updates…
Owners of the Terra Starburst can upgrade to the newest version free.

Get HUD
Get a copy of the Starburst altimeter HUD.

Tracker
Briefly display your current jump statistics as hovertext. (Tracker text also appears when somebody else clicks your parachute.)

Jump Zone
Teleport to the main jump zone in Abbotts.

Failures…
Set the likelihood (in percent) that your main canopy might fail to deploy. In the event that it does fail, Starburst automatically deploys a reserve canopy.

Log…
This feature has been discontinued for technical reasons.

Marker
Turn landing markers on or off. This is a visual effect only, and has no effect on whether your landing is recorded either in the parachute or in the target.

Wind
Turn wind effects on or off. When wind is on, the parachute detects SL’s simulated wind and is pushed around by it.

Colors…
Open the paint menu, where you can choose from preset colors and textures.

Using the Starburst Altimeter HUD

IMPORTANT: Auto-deploy and altitude alarms only work while you wear the Starburst Altimeter HUD.

Using Auto-open

The Starburst Altimeter HUD can automatically open your parachute at a specified altitude. To wear the HUD, drag it onto your avatar, or right-click it in Inventory and choose Wear.

1. Click the AUTO button on the altimeter. The button lights up to show that auto-open is on.
2. Click the digit that you want to change.
3. Use the + and – buttons to adjust the auto-open altitude.

Setting the Altitude Warning Alarm

Click the ALARM button to get altitude warnings with sound and chat. The button lights up to show that warnings are on.

Warning types:

• Two beeps: 100 meters above auto-open altitude.
• Continuous beeping: below auto-open altitude (when auto-open is off).

Reading the Wind and Heading

The altimeter’s bottom gauge shows wind speed and direction, as well as your heading and speed.

• Blue wedge – This indicates the compass direction from which the wind is blowing. The size of the wedge indicates wind speed.
• Blue needle – This indicates the compass direction in which you are moving. The size of the needle indicates your speed.

Performing Stunts

While free-falling, you can use the altimeter controls to trigger any avatar animation that you put in the altimeter.

1. Click the STUNT button. A popup menu appears with a list of animations.
2. Click the buttons to trigger the animations. The menu reappears after each animation so that you can play another.

Add Your Own Stunt Animations

You can have up to 11 stunt animations in the HUD. SL “Gestures” will not work — it must be an “Animation”. Many animations (or poses) will work, although not every animation will look appropriate while free-falling.

1. Right-click the altimeter, choose Edit, then go to the Content tab.
2. Drag an animation from your Inventory onto the Content tab.
3. Detach, then reattach your altimeter to save the change.

Using the Paint Menu to Customize Your Starburst

Using the pop-up Paint menu, you can choose from several preset color schemes and canopy textures. You can select colour schemes for the container (pack) and canopy separately, so for example, you could choose the dark grey scheme for the container but choose the red-white scheme for the canopy.

As well, you can choose from several textures to apply to the top of your canopy, or you can apply any texture from your inventory using a chat command.

Choosing a Color Scheme

1. Click your parachute to open the menu, then click “Colors…”.
2. Choose which part you want to color: the container (the pack) or the canopy. If you choose “Canopy”, the canopy opens so that you can see how it looks.
3. Click “<<Clr” and “Clr>>” to browse the preset color schemes.
   Other options:
   While editing the container, you can make it invisible or visible.
   While editing the canopy, you can browse textures.
4. If your canopy is still open, click it to close or say CLOSE in chat.

Apply Your Own Canopy Texture

You can apply your own canopy texture using the TEXTURE chat command. This lets you have a custom image or logo on the top of your canopy, which is great for events or promotions.

1. Click your parachute to open the menu, then click “Colors…”.
2. Choose “Canopy”. Your canopy opens in edit mode, so that you can see how it looks.
3. In your inventory, find the texture that you want to apply. Right-click it and choose Copy Texture UUID.
4. In the chat bar, type “texture” followed by a space, press CTRL + C to paste the 64-character UUID, then press Enter. Your chat command should look something like this:
   texture 2dba2207-cca6-5a77-c049-ecf1780e6b92
5. If your canopy is still open, click it to close or say CLOSE in chat.

Using the Paint HUD Attachment to Customize Your Starburst

The Starburst Paint HUD is useful for choosing individual colors for your parachute. You can choose up to four colours: two for the container (the pack) and two for the canopy.

Pick a hue and brightness for each part

1. Wear your parachute, if you aren’t already.
2. In your Inventory, right-click the Starburst Paint HUD and choose Wear. The hud appears on your screen.
3. Click the part that you want to paint: the canopy and container each have two clickable areas.
4. In the colour circle, click a hue, then in the brightness ring (outside the circle), click a brightness. The hue and brightness are applied immediately.

Choose from the palette colors

1. Wear your parachute and paint HUD.
2. Click the part that you want to paint: the canopy and container each have two clickable areas.
3. Under the color circle is a selection of colored buttons — the “palette”. Click one to apply that color to the parachute

Save a custom color into the palette

1. Wear your parachute and paint HUD.
2. From the color circle, choose a hue and brightness.
3. Click and *hold* one of the palette buttons for 5 seconds. The HUD saves that color into the button you clicked.

TIP: Due to a quirk of how SL handles attachments, any color or texture changes that you make to your parachute are saved only when you detach the parachute, log off, or teleport. It’s safest to detach then re-attach your parachute if you want to be certain that your changes are kept.

Resizing Your Harness

Your Terra Starburst harness is scripted to let you resize it to fit your avatar. Just click the harness and use the minus and plus buttons ( “-” and “+”). Click the Default button to restore the harness to the original size.

NOTE: The Linden Lab developers put artificial delays into the script language for the function to set a prim’s parameters (like size and position). For this reason, changing size of complex objects (like the harness) can take several seconds.

Setting Optional Canopy Failures

For a more challenging skydiving or BASE jumping experience, you can choose the likelihood of main canopy failure. When th main canopy fails to deploy, your avatar will automatically deploy the reserve canopy, which may take up to five seconds — that’s a lot of time when the ground is rushing up at you! Once the reserve is deployed (if you haven’t splatted on the ground first), you will not be able to steer or flare, but landing will be normal.

By default, that likelihood of canopy failure is zero, but you can use the Starburst menu to make things a touch riskier. Even ridiculously risky.

1. Click your parachute to open the menu and choose “Failures…”. The Failures menu pops up.
2. Choose the percentage likelihood that your main canopy will fail. Choose 0% to turn off canopy failures.

Drifting with the Wind

Second Life simulates wind patterns. The simulated wind blows in eddies and currents across each region, and your Terra Starburst can be influenced by wind speed and direction. You can use the steering controls to fly against the wind or simply turn off wind effects in the options menu.

To turn wind effects on or off, say MENU (or click the MENU button on your altimeter) and click “Wind On/Off”.

Here’s something you can try to see the effect of wind: Deploy your parachute at a high altitude then don’t touch the steering controls. Watch your mini-map as you drift with the wind — possibly for several kilometers before you land.

Competitive Games

Here are some ideas for competitive skydiving.

Accuracy Challenge

Use a Terra Skydiving Target to see who can land the closest to the bulls-eye. The target stores names, scores, and statistics.

Speed Challenge

See who can reach the ground first without splatting. This means free-falling until the last possible moment before opening your parachute.

BASE Jumping

“BASE” is short for “building, antenna, span, earth”, and essentially means that you leap from a tall object as opposed to an aircraft. Challenge yourself to see how long you can wait before deploying your parachute. Challenge your friends by seeing who can leap off a tower or bridge and land first.

BubbleTargets

Terra BubbleTargets is a game of accuracy. The game places several bubble-shaped targets in the sky. The challenge is to accumulate points by flying through the bubbles. The skydiver with the most points wins. Terra BubbleTargets is available at the SL Marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: WHY DOES THE TEXTURE APPEAR ONLY ON THE TOP OF THE PARACHUTE?

A: This is an unfortunate but necessary compromise in the design. The texture being applied to the top doesn’t map correctly on the underside sculpts. Maybe in future versions, I’ll devise a set of textures that work on both sides.

Q: WHY IS MY CANOPY INVISIBLE AFTER I DEPLOY?

A: This is simply an effect of lag. Either the scripts are running slowly due to server load, or your client is being updated too slowly. If it’s server load, try skydiving in a less laggy sim.

Q: WHY IS MY CANOPY STILL VISIBLE AFTER I LAND?

A: You may have landed in a no-script area. The canopy can only open/close in areas that allow scripts. Alternatively, it could be the effect of server load or client latency (i.e., “lag”).

Q: WHY WON’T THE TARGET REGISTER MY JUMP?

A: Starburst is designed to work with Terra Skydiving Target 3.0 or newer. If you have that target, and it still won’t work, make sure that scripts are allowed. Note: Unlike TerraSport III, “Create Object” land permissions are not necessary to use a target.

Q: I MODIFIED MY PARACHUTE. WHY DOESN’T IT WORK ANYMORE?

A: If you alter your parachute, I can’t predict how the parachute will behave. Always make a backup copy before modifying your chute.

Q: WHY WON’T THE HARNESS RESIZE?

A: Make sure that scripts are allowed in your location, then click the harness. A menu should appear that lets you resize it.

Q: WHY DID MY PARACHUTE REVERT TO AN OLDER COLOR SCHEME?

A: See previous. Color schemes are saved in the script, which is only saved when you detach the parachute or log out properly.

Credits

I would like to thank everyone involved in the making of the Terra Starburst parachute, and the continued evolution of freefall aerosports in SL.

Canopy and container sculpting: Dean Quihoxil

Website skydiving log: Matthew Beedle (www.foxchange.com)

Product updater: Comet Aero

Gravity: Linden Lab

Beta testers: Arrekusu Muromachi, Dean Quihoxil, Issac Skomoroklov, Ai Austin, Marianne McCann, BeauZeau Zhao, Jeroentje Jansma, Suki Deschanel, Junk Fhang, Jacques Draconia

Special thanks also go to Reitsuki Kojima, Arrekusu Muromachi, TheManKnownAsDaveP Crosley, TerraVend skydiving merchants, Abbotts Aerodrome Skydivers group, and of course skydiving enthusiasts all over SL.

Cubey Terra
www.cavers.ca