Unlike real life paint, virtual paint doesn't get all over your clothes and stain your hands for days. And I very much appreciate that because for the past couple of days I have been slathering the paint onto the soon-to-be completed Stingray amphibious jet. It's funny how a new paint job can make a plane feel faster.
Incidentally, a great place to test marine vehicles, like ampibious planes, boat, and submarines, is Gulliver Airport in Zatzai. Not only does it have a runway and boat launch, but it's also part of the of Second Life's sailing sims -- a truly ginormous body of water that's dotted with attractive islands.
With most of the script features in place, though not polished, I now turn my attention to the plane's appearance. I'll need to sculpt this amphibious plane one piece at a time, import the mesh into Second Life, try it out, refine the sculpt, etc., until I'm happy with the shape. I have to admit, my first attempts came out like frankenplane, but I think I'm getting a feel for how this one should look.
In this picture, you can see the pod-shaped boat hull with a pit in the top for the pilot. This is just one of at least seven sculpts going into the model.
Once the model is complete, I'll texture it and polish up the scripts in preparation for beta testing.
Even though the design of the Stingray amphibious plane is still in its early stages, I am already working on things like automating transitions between air, ground, and water. My goal is to make the transition so effortless that it will seem like the plane anticipates which mode you want.
In this short video, I demonstrate several of these transitions: runway takeoff, boat ramp launch, submerging, diving, water takeoff, and runway landing. Because the Stingray model isn't finished, I'm using a plywood stand-in for development and testing.
Today I returned to work after a little fishing trip in the Manitoba wilderness. Well, actually it was drive-in camping in a provincial campground, but we were roughing it more or less. We didn't shower at all.
One helmet-haired pilot trying out an early prototype.
Anyway, now that I'm back, I'm settling into the next cool vehicle from the top secret labs of Terra-Kojima. Our next toy will be the one vehicle that everyone with waterfront property will need and want: a two-seater jet plane that lands on water and converts into a submarine.
Features I'm planning:
Three flight modes: novice, intermediate, and pro.
Water landings.
Push-button conversion to submarine.
Multiple paint schemes.
Sandwich dispenser
That last feature may or may not make it into the final release.
As my assistant, Blanc Noir, and I stepped into the cold dawn air, still bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, we were met with the chilling touch of fog. We buttoned our Aerodrome jackets tight and set about warming up the burner to inflate the hot air balloon's envelope. My arms still ached from the night before when I had spent hours fashioning huge beams and planks into what would become the stage for today's event. By the time the balloon was inflated, I saw that the eastern sky glowed brightly, promising yet another sunny day on the grid. Turning back to my work, I discovered that Blanc had fallen asleep in the basket, leaning awkwardly against the side. It was sleep well-earned, I mused, and let her rest where she was.*
At noon today, the staff at Abbotts Aerodrome and I would like you to join us for an afternoon of ballooning fun. We'll have several flyable balloons lined up along the Abbotts runway for you to try out. Let's fill the sky with balloons!
(* Alright, so none of this actually happened. In fact, "Blanc Noir" isn't a person at all, but a spare SL account with a library avatar. The balloon, however, is presently on a stage next to the runway at Abbotts Aerodrome in Second Life. See you at noon!)
Only a few more work days left now, filled with testing, texturing, and... uh... there really should be another "T" word there to sound good. Tensioning? No. Teflon? Nope. Tepidity? No!
Well anyway, hope to see you at 12:00 noon (SL time) at Abbotts Aerodrome for some balloon fun. We're considering a mass flight from Abbotts to Gray airfield and back, too.
As Reitsuki and I get closer to completing our new hot air balloon, there are random moments when I peer past my script window and catch a beautiful image like this night snapshot, and I'm convinced that this is going to be the absolute best hot air balloon SL has ever seen.
The snapshot shows Rei's attention to detail with the burner's hoses and tubes, the padding on the basket's bars, and the seams in the balloon's fabric. You can't see it in this image, but he even placed fuel tanks inside the basket.
For my part, I'm working out the final details of the balloon's control and painter HUDs. In a departure from my usual glowy, blue-and-black HUDs, the balloon's controller is instead inspired by Star Trek: colourful, lit buttons, and not a label to be seen. Hopefully the interface is so intuitive, no ugly labels are necessary -- it will just make sense in context.
As for a release date, we're aiming for May first, provided the testing stage goes smoothly.
Work progresses on the new balloon. In this snapshot, you can see some of the exquisite prim sculpting by Reitsuki Kojima as Arrekusu and I take the unfinished balloon for an early test flight. Believe it or not, those sixteen cables attaching the basket to the balloon are actually only four prims!
Well it's another productive day at my ultra-secret development lab in Second Life (it's the one in the corner marked "lab"). While Reitsuki has made solid progress sculpting bits of the new balloon gondola and rigging, I improved my balloon HUD controller and added a couple of new features.
If you have my Wind Rider balloon, you'll be pleased to know that I'm addressing some common customer requests, including:
The HUD is now more compact.
The access lock now has three settings: owner-only, group-only, or "anyone". If you run a business or attraction, you can leave a hot-air balloon for visitors to play with.
And (saving the best for last) AUTOPILOT! Yes, now you can get your balloon to fly a preset course. It's great for tours, advertising, or just to add interest to your sim.
Those features will all appear in the next Wind Rider version (sometime soon... don't know exactly when) as well as in the yet-to-be-named sculpted balloon that Reitsuki and I are currently working on.
Cubey Terra
