Mega Region Problems, Fixes, Priorities

[Kayaker Magic]

Here is a list of problems I have discovered with mega regions, and how I would prioritize fixing them. (Most critical first):

llGround() This is the biggest issue for me. This function can only return values from the SW sub-region of a mega. So it reports the wrong thing everywhere else in a mega. It looks like it reports the ground level at the edge of the SW region. I use this everywhere: to plant trees, make critters walk like mountain goats on hillsides, place particle plants, tell when a sailboat runs aground, when a kayak runs into the bank of a river and 100's of other things. There is an OpenSim mantis, #6596, that has a patch for llGround, but the rest of the developers say it was inefficient, not done right, or even “insane”.

That's it. If you could just fix llGround, I can work around everything else. But here is the rest of the list:

llGroundNormal() This is another huge issue, but if llGround starts working, I can use that to calculate a good enough ground normal in LSL. I need a ground normal to tilt boats perpendicular to the ground when they run aground, and to complete the mountain goat calculation. The same mantis, #6596, has a patch for this and also for llWater() and llWind(). I assume that llGroundSlope() and llGroundContour() have the same problem but given the normal I can calculate the slope and contour.

llWind() and osSetWindParam() These functions only work in the SW sub-region. I suspect fixing llWind will make osSetWindParam do the correct thing. This isn't a big issue because llRegionSay works well enough to implement “scripted wind” which is now the SLSA (SL Sailing Association) prefers to do wind anyway. And I have already implemented scripted wind.

llSetRegionPos() This function simply refuses to work outside the SW sub-region of a mega region. http://opensimulator.org/mantis/view.php?id=6913 Perhaps this is semantics, it is not supposed to work outside the region it is in. So there is no way to move around in most of the sub-regions of a mega. We all have to fall back on tricks like warpPos, posJump, and llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast. I submitted this as a mantis (6923) to OpenSim. I have a SetRegionPos() function that works, I'll put that in the library.

llEdgeOfWorld() Always returns 1 in a mega region, no matter where you are or where you tell it to look. This may be semantics again. Mega regions cannot have non-megas up against them, and in some regards a mega is one big happy region. So the answer is supposed to be 1 all the time. However there is no way to detect the llEdgeOfMegaRegion, and if a vehicle moves off some of the edges without checking, it can crash the viewer. My solution has been to trap vehicles and critters inside the 256x256 region it is in, but add a dialog button to change that to a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 mega region. Make the user tell you what size mega they are in, and then have the script stay inside that. So it would be nice if there was a way to ask the system for the mega size from a script.

The following functions work in useful ways, so don't break them. Useful but not exactly the way they are supposed to. Be careful not to fix them and break their usefulness:

llRegionSay() This is not supposed to talk outside of the region that it is in, but it can be heard anywhere in a mega region.

llShout(), llSay(), llWhisper() These functions are supposed to be heard by objects nearby across SIM borders (according to the LL Wiki) but in OpenSim they normally CANNOT be heard across a border. Well, mega regions fixes this and now they work across the borders of sub-regions in a mega.

[Ilan Tochner]

Thank you Kayaker,

We'll see which of these can be fixed sooner rather than later.

[onyxty delta]

Hi Kayaker,

We reviewed the problems and decided to fix most of them (including llGround) for the next site update, which we will probably roll out early next week.

[Tocy Sweet]

I didn't understand any of that but *hands bigger cups of coffee to the Kitely team*.

[Graham Mills]

We've fixed many scripting functions to work in Advanced Megaregions. See http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-new ... g-physics/.