Seaside Wildlife - Lost Seal Reborn: I was chatting with Maggie Morgan over at Something Fishy(tm) the other day and the subject of Caribbean seals came up. She wanted a Caribbean seal but didn't think any were native to that region so I did a quick search and the answer was yes... sort of. I found an entry for Caribbean Monk Seals - Native to the Caribbean, but listed as extinct as of the 1950's. I spent a little more time researching this species and created one for Second Life(tm) residents!

I've placed out a new box in the Seaside Wildlife Building with these for sale. I'll get some to Maggie as well (shhh... it's a secret & I haven't been able to surprise her just yet with them!) But she'll have some over on her seal island soon as well. And speaking of seals, I was placing out a new "Seal Crossing" sign on Aeryglow Island when a crowd began to gather around me to see what was going on...

I don't often take the time to snapshot owner affinity behaviors but this was just too cute to pass up. The seals went back to playing in the water when I was finished working.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Lost in Transmission: As usual, I'm going in about 100 directions at once. Before I get to new stuff I wanted to pass on some info about recent IM's. Apparently the weekend of March 13th, 14th & 15th SL IM's were not being forwarded to e-mail. Since my IM's tend to get capped that means that I'm sure I didn't get all of my messages during that time. If you tried to reach me that weekend and I haven't replied to you simply drop me another IM or a notecard. Notecards seem to be more reliable, although for 90% of the time SL IM's do work well enough.

If you've picked up a new bunny or rabbit recently you may have noticed some improvements. I was continuing my work on the lions when an IM from a customer pulled me back to rabbits. Late last year I reduced the chat frequency due to a series of requests, but I really wasn't happy with the solution myself. I've had a few comments since from people that liked the chat and in the process of updating lions I came up with a solution that should make everyone happy... including myself. I've tied the bunny chat to the sound volume. Like to see bunny chat? Pump the volume up to 100%. For less chatty bunnies set the volume down to 20% or even 0%. In addition, I implemented many of the lion improvements while I was updating the bunny code. The latest versions include the following improvements:

    * Bunnies now get unique personality traits! Traits are set on first rez (if purchased from a box or vendor).
    * Chat text is tied to volume control as mentioned above.
    * Chat text is better targeted and more consistent - you shouldn't see multiple "bunny is tired" chat any longer for instance.
    * Owner/Friend vicinity code is improved (bunnies tend to seek out their owner more now.)
    * Bunnies will befriend up to 5 friends - previously was only 3.
    * There are a number of other small adjustments to improve behavioral traits.

I've updated all the bunnies and rabbits in the Garden sales area boxes, the live bunnies on the island will get updated over time as well. Luv Bunnies get a bonus in their affection trait and should tend to hang around their friends & owner more often. I've also revised the Shamrocks that bunnies like to munch on. Every March the Shamrocks glow in celebration of St. Patricks Day and the start of Spring. Previously it could take up to 10 minutes for the effect to first turn on but the new Shamrocks now glow immediately on rez if the month is currently March.

I've been working on more 3D models and of course the Lion updates are coming along. Until the next post be sure to pick up a new bunny or rabbit for your Easter or Spring celebration!

Aeryglow Wildlife - Updates, Updates, Updates: Still working away on updates. I had a couple requests for increasing the sound range on the seagulls so I've updated the sound scripting for them. The sound range is tied to the volume setting and automatically adjusts from 20m at zero Volume to 120m at full Volume. So, at full volume the seagulls can cover almost a whole sim if desired. Additionally, the sound does not carry below water now... so no seagull calls where only fish sounds should be lol. I've made some other small improvement tweaks as well. All the seagulls at Aeryglow have been updated including the ones in the sales boxes.

Lions are coming along as well. In addition to the conversion to LSL Mono I've been able to eliminate one of the scripts. The animations seem to be smoother to me but then I've been watching the last version for hours and hours and hours. In any case, most of the old animations are re-scripted now. I'm going to try to add some new behaviors thanks to the extra memory LSL Mono affords.  I hope to be done soon, it's just taken longer than I expected since I've learned so much since the original scripts were written & wanted to bring the new scripts as up-to-date as possible.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Garden Updates: I have a couple of small updates to announce. First there's a new color rabbit - Deep Brown - which is in-between the brown color and chocolate color rabbits. I've also adjusted the brown tone so that it's a little less gray and a little closer to the chocolate tone as well. Secondly I've fixed a bug with the large squirrels (black, gray & white) where the head wouldn't always snap into place when they sat up. All of the updated critters are in the Garden sales hut, and I've added the new color rabbit to the Earth Tone pack there as well.
   

I'm also working on updating the lions to LSL Mono, they were one of the last animals to be released before Mono came into being. I'm re-writing much of the code and hope to have that released for next week. I'll post all the details when I have the lions ready.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Housekeeping: I've been continuing on updates, the Seaside animals are basically caught up. This past week I finished Whale updates, the new version whales now run on Mono LSL and include some improvements including better whale call coding and a naming option! Some of the initial updated whales had a bug that locked out the owner from the menu system, so if you are having any issues let me know & I'll repair your whale for you. I also spent some time last month cleaning up the Seaside Sales Hut, the elevators are now fully functional and the vending machines are replaced with panel boxes. The resulting Sales Hut is much nicer looking and easier to shop in, I need to do some detail work on the second floor when I have the time but for now it's at least much better.
   

I'm already on to more updates, hopefully I'll be finished with LSL conversions soon and can get back to new creations. I have a long list of new critters I can't wait to get back to.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Happy New Year!:

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. Things are getting back to normal here in RL, and I'm looking forward to catching back up on SL work. I've been keeping up with the IM's I've received for the most part, and when I left off in December I was updating Seaside critters.

The Seaside hut and nearby lagoons have newly updated jellyfish. I converted the scripts to LSL Mono and adjusted the animations a bit. I've also replaced the vending machines there with wall-mounted boxes much like those found in the Garden sales hut to help make shopping easier. Lastly, I spent some time on improving the elevators leading to the second floor of the Seaside Hut. When you click the "Up" button your character gets placed and the ropes & pulleys move as your character is carried to the upstairs. I still need to finish the "Down" elevator in similar fashion, but I'm much happier with the new layout and elevators.

I had also started a public home point area on the island. Most islands won't allow anyone but their owner to set their home point until the land is donated to group. So I've donated a small parcel and will set it up so people can set their home points on Aeryglow Island. I have to finish up some signs but for the time being the parcel is open for business!

Well I think that about covers the latest info. I'll be back to new stuff in the near future, it feels great to be working again. Here's wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009!

Seaside Wildlife:

   Located at the center of the island is the Seaside Wildlife Reserve. This area specializes in aquatic wildlife and includes some sea life developed in cooperation with Something Fishy.

Garden Wildlife:

   In the Southwest is the garden section with its flowerbeds, meandering pathways and many benches for sitting and taking in all the beauty SL(tm) has to offer.  Here we specialize in garden variety critters that may be found in your own back yard.

Gothic Wildlife:

   The Gothic section features a dead forest and is the place to find the creepy critters you may need for your dungeon, attic, or dark forest environments. These include modified (and twisted) versions of garden variety critters as well as some gothic-themed critters.

As one can imagine, scripting & building new critters, landscaping our new home and keeping up a Website is a daunting task. There's always something new being worked on, and I hope you will check back from time to time to see what's new and exciting at Aeryglow Wildlife(tm)!

   http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aeryglow Wildlife/73/82/26/