Building the Boo-Wheel

OKAY! HERE IT IS!!! This is one of my adventures in SecondLife... With pics! I figure the best way to communicate what's so addictive about SL is to SHOW you.

And to do that, I got Brian to give me a hand with a simple build: I call it the "Boo-Wheel".

Some explanation: Ultimately, I'd love to construct a full-blown Haunted House in-world. But I don't know scripting, and I don't have the (very expensive) programs I would need to create animations that worked in-world. So I need to use the simple scripts available to me, and apply them in simple machines that accomplish a desired result.

My first idea it the Boo-Wheel. It's a large, invisible wheel with a life-size cut-out of a ghost or monster. The wheel is also a "phantom" object -- which means that people can walk through it with out being affected. Also, the monster (in this case, a life-size Freddy Krueger stand-up that Brian made) is a phantom object; so when it pops out at the visitor, it doesn't smack 'em in the face and knock them down.

Now, I know we're talking about virtual people in a virtual world here. But this world has rules, and one of the basic rules of SecondLife is "Don't abuse each other!!!" I don't know that it's ever stated that way, specifically, but if you boil all the rules that get you banned and kicked-out of SL, they all stem from abusive behaviour toward fellow Residents.

So I don't want to build something that abuses my visitors. After a while, they may report me and I may get kicked out. So -- like a RL Haunted House creator -- I want to keep my visitors' safety in mind while I'm designing this.

So, here are the players:



That's us, respectively, Brian (the Grayskin ET) and me (with the blue goatee).

And this is the Project Site:



It's a platform Brian built, set way, way, WAY up in the sky. The location is for privacy, and so we don't disturb our neighbors. The size is use in that it allows more than one of us to create multiple objects at once without getting in each other's way. It also serves as a launch/landing pad for the many, MANY flying vehicles Brian owns. (You can see a small blue personal craft in the pic, but he's got some HUGE ones, and he'll sometimes fly us around, all at once.)



I didn't even have to ask Brian to get started. Before I knew what he was doing, he was already creating the Boo-Wheel. At first, he didn't fully get the concept of HOW I wanted to attatch the Freddy stand-up. I wanted it sticking out, rather than pressed against the wheel.

The next step was to create the wall, so I got on that while Brian was doing his thing.

My job was the easiest, and I was done in no time...



So then we moved the Boo-Wheel behind the Horror Wall (Ya like that? My creativity with the names?) and attatched Freddy.

Then it was time to test it out...







A SUCCESS!!!

That was the last pass, of course. We had to adjust Freddy's proximity to the wheela couple of times before we nailed it.

And what the pics can't show you is that the Boo-Wheel makes a long arch, unseen behind the wall. And every time the Freddy stand-up comes around, he pokes through the wall, appearing to the person on the other side of the wall that Freddy is swinging out to take a swipe at them and then disappearing back into the wall.

The final step of the process was to turn the Boo-Wheel completely invisible. What you DON'T see on the other side of the wall is the Boo-Wheel (which was previously wood textured).



And there ya go... My first guided tour through one of the many, many addictive aspects of SL!!! I hope to take you on more of these tours as my adventures continue.

That is, of course, if I can pull myself out of the world long enough to organize the pics and write the article!!!