1/28

She also comes with the first multi-lingual menu system I've implemented. Currently I've translated French & German (and my foreign language skills are not the greatest so I apologize in advance for my poor translations) and I hope to add more languages in the future. I hope the language options will at least help make the menu system easier to use for those not accustomed to English as a first language. I've been trying to find the best layout for the menu system as well, the "Range" menu has been moved to the "Options" selections for instance. I'm still not sure I'm happy with this iteration of the menu system but I'll give it some time before I make any more big changes.

And last, but not least, I've implemented an upgrade system for this release. On the ground near the sales panel is a Large Bird icon. When new versions become available you simply rez your Turkey on the ground near the icon and then click the icon. Your Turkey will be replaced with a new revision automatically! Over time I'll add this functionality to older releases as well, plus of course all new releases will be updateable.

I'm sure I've forgotten some details, but I've been working on this critter from months, modeling and scripting everything from scratch, and then testing it all. I've also improved the Garden Wildlife page here to make looking up info a bit easier. Gone are the long stretches of text (such as seen here lol) replaced by icons that lead to individualized pages. As I have the time I'll do the same for other sections of this site as well. Anyhow, I've gone on long enough here, go adopt some turkeys today! Meanwhile, I've got to think on my next project!

1/14

His component design is also pretty sweet and priced reasonably, the appliances are free for the taking with only the charging components costing $L's. The power system scripting is the same tight, solid code you've come to expect from me. The power generators react to the environment - wind generators spin faster & generate higher power levels when the wind increases, solar generators generate more power during SL mid-day. Generators automatically charge nearby battery packs placed by the same owner, battery packs automatically power the same owner's nearby appliances. The system automatically detects new component additions & removal and can cover sim-sized areas with transmission repeaters (each component has a 20m operational radius). In short the power components are all rez-and-play.

Inventor is building up a library of appliance objects now that the system scripting is complete, so although the available selection is on the light side right now he should have a good selection of components & freebies in the next few weeks, he should be fully up and running in early February. Stop by his shop here to check out this unique idea and see this talented builder's work!

1/12

Aeryglow Wildlife - Welcome to a New Decade!!!: So a New Year has begun! 2009 was a year that kept me on the road a great deal for family needs. So much so that I've come to miss my creative time in SL, although I've made use of travel time by learning a host of new tricks I'm looking forward to putting into practice this year.

In the near future I'll have some new announcements to make. I have a new critter I'm putting some finishing touches on. Also, I've been writing some scripts for some friends projects that I'll write about when the projects go live. There is also a good deal of island improvements I'd like to get to when I can. The Garden area improvements have been good, I hope to add easier shopping to other sections of the Wildlife park as well. I'd also like to make some changes to this web site to improve readability.

And of course I have a ton of new critters I want to get out of my mind and into SL. The butterflies this past fall came out just as I'd pictured them, the sculpted cabbage exceeded my expectations in terms of level of detail and my current project is coming together in a very satisfying way as well. In all there is much to look forward to in the coming year, I hope all of the hard work and care shines through in the critters to come.

Happy New Year, may yours be a wonderful year as well and be sure to visit Aeryglow Wildlife from time to time to see the changes and additions throughout the year!

12/23

Garden Wildlife - Construction: The Garden Wildlife area reorganization is finished for the most part for now. I've moved most of the sales panels out of the inner room. While I was at it I reduced the prices on some of my legacy critters such as the mice/rats to reflect their reduced need for support these days. I also placed out an interactive map in the center of the inner room to help show where each group of critters is located. The multi-lingual map lists what is at each icon on touch. Additionally I've placed icons on the ground near the sales panels so it's easier to see from a distance what group of animals is located where.

I now have room to add new critters in the Garden, I'll keep the map updated as changes occur, though I see no major rearrangements any time soon thankfully.

Garden Wildlife - Chakra Bunnies: I'm still working my tail off on the next new critter, but in the meantime there are some new bunny colors to check out! I had a request from a customer for Chakra-colored (Prism or Rainbow colored) bunnies. After setting her up with the colors she wanted I packed up some newborn-sized bunnies with the new colors and placed out the box of 8 with the other bunny multi-packs.

For those of you not familiar with Chakra here is a short explanation (props to Jordanna Morane for putting this together!)

          I believe that there are 8 major Chakra Centers but there are those who argue its 7.

          Red - The base center located at base of spine.  Governs basic survival instincts helps to live life to the fullest.
          Orange - The Sacral center located between pubis and navel. Governs body fluids.
          Yellow - The Solar plexus Center located under diaphragm relates to nervous system.
          Green  - The Heart Center located to right of physical heart. Governs heart and lungs, blood pressure.
          Turquoise (not universally recognised) Thymus Center, situated in thorax behind sternum and in front of heart. Relates to immune system
          Blue - The Throat Center found in throat governs thyroid and parathyroid glands
          Indigo - The brow/third eye center located in middle of forehead.  Governs  pituitary gland.
          Violet - The Crown center, located top of head linked to brain and pineal gland.

          This is only a brief outline but it may help, folk may want one to assist in healing or just for upliftment.
          They each have an emotional level and spiritual I haven't given you these as I would hate to bore you.
          But as an example Green would help you emotionally to set aside your ego and be honest with yourself and others, which would result in ability to feel unconditional  love.

Many of the Chakra colors have been available already such as yellow & green. Others are uniquely new for this pack such as the red & indigo.

Also of note in the Garden many of you may have noticed some re-arrangement going on. The inside of the shop was getting full so I've had to move sales panels outside (and even the bunny section is now getting full!) I apologize for the confusion while construction continues, I have made up some ground icons to help identify what is where from afar more easily. Eventually the inner room will be for information, specials, food, etc. and most of the animal sales panels will be moved to the outer walls where the butterflies, spiders and bunnies are currently. I'll try to organize critters in a way that makes the most sense - probably by type then size. Things may move around a bit for a few more weeks, but hopefully the disruption will be short and the end result will be a smoother shopping experience.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Butterfly Dreams: So for those of you that haven't been by the Island in recent days it's official - the latest new set of critters are Aeryglow Wildlife (tm) Butterflies! The story behind these goes back over a year ago when a SL friend of mine requested low-lag prim butterflies to replace her particle butterflies. I eventually got around to developing these animals this past spring, however the sculpted prim models just weren't living up to my expectations. I struggled to eliminate shape artifacts and get a correctly shaped animal using one prim but eventually decided to set aside my work on butterflies and return to them at a later time.

Summer came and went, I continued with LSL Mono updates & other improvements on existing animals. During my many travels this year I took some time to read up on modeling & texturing, and thought of what behaviors I'd like to implement when I returned to my delayed project. At last as Fall arrived I finally had time and some idea of how to create in SL (tm) the vision I had in my mind for these. I started from scratch and soon had a pleasing sculpted prim model. The next step was to take a trip to the local zoo where I spent an afternoon observing and photographing butterflies. With a new modeling method and a new texture application method the end results appear very close to my minds vision.

So... that's the back story on this release. The butterflies are indeed *1 Prim* and the Nectar Feeder (above) is also 1 prim. The Nectar Feeder is available in the Garden Wildlife and Jungle Wildlife buildings. Because it's designed to turn invisible on Owner Touch I made a few decisions to facilitate their use. First, the nectar doesn't wear out in the same way other foods do. Second, the nectar feeders are detectable via the Animal Finder. Also, since these were meant to be placed out in several locations for butterflies I've made them copy.

Over in the Garden Wildlife area I've placed out some Butterfly boxes near the boxed Crickets and Spiders. Butterflies include more behaviors than I can list here, but I'll note a few details. As mentioned, with a Nectar Feeder nearby (within 10m or less of the butterfly) they may land to feed, you may also save up to 4 "perch" locations where the butterflies can rest when they become tired. In either case, on landing they extend their legs and will randomly open/close their wings and look around to seek nourishment. As with other recent new creations these butterflies operate in 5 selectable modes. Frozen mode keeps them in their landed animations while Float mode keeps them in their flying animations. With Follow mode enabled, the butterfly will follow its owner around. The last 2 modes - Loop mode and Free Fly mode - put the butterflies in full motion and animation.

Jungle Wildlife butterflies are Tropical butterflies and include some longwing butterfly shapes. For all of the butterflies I've revised the personality sequence on first rez, and I've spent a lot of time optimizing the code. In testing the code seemed to use less sim processor time than the low-lag rotating seagulls. This brings me back to the original request I had received to make something that could replace my friends particle emitter without undue prim counts & sim workload. So far I'm very happy with the end result even though it was a long road to get there. In the future I'll add new butterfly types, but for now I'm anxious to get on to something new. In the meantime, stop by the island and pick up a butterfly or two to try out, they're trans so you may even give them out as gifts! If you enjoy them (and I hope that is the case) please be sure to pass on the good word to your friends as well :) I'll post an announcement in-group sometime this weekend as well to let everyone know this new release is finished.

Garden Wildlife - Insect & Spider Sale: In the Garden Wildlife section I've reduced the prices on the Crickets and various Spiders. Both animal types have required little support in recent months so I can pass on the savings to customers - these are also some of the oldest critters on the island. The Spiders particularly have been reduced a full sales range. That leaves an open slot in the insect range for a new high-end critter. I wonder what I'll put out there next?

Aeryglow Wildlife - The Year of Updates: I've finally caught up on all my IM's and am getting back to content creation. As I look back over the past year I realize I've put out a good deal of updates for existing animals while doing few new releases. Part of this was the desire to bring more variety to the existing animals and part was the desire to improve existing animals with the new tech LL has given us including LSL-Mono scripting.
       
       
I actually have been working on a handful of new animals as well but various issues have kept them from being released. I'm working through many of the issues this month however & do hope to have some all-new creations very soon, along with some good stories.

Aeryglow Wildlife - Road Trip!: I just wanted to let everyone know I'll be on the road for a little over a week or so with limited/no Internet. I'm helping a family member move across country so I'll have to make do with any hot spots I can find if possible. Until I return, make the best use of the FAQ page and I have IM's to e-mail so I'll do my best to reply when I can... please be patient as it may take some time for me to work my way through all the messages when I return.

On the positive side, this should give me some time to work on offline 3d models and textures, so hopefully I'll be able to get something new started on this trip. Also, I've re-started the touch-to-win contest in the garden area, most of the prizes are promotional items & trinkets. I'll try to keep it running and add more promo items over time, so wander around & explore Aeryglow's Garden area and maybe you'll find a treasure giver!

Aeryglow Wildlife - Summer Updates: Between two weddings and, sadly, a funeral the summer has kept me away from my work more than I would like. Thankfully though I'm able to get back to my animals and have a couple of announcements to make.

First, the lion update is *Finally* complete. These were the last animals to get non-LSL Mono scripting so I've gone back and re-written nearly all of the code. The end result is the animations are a bit more responsive, I was able to fine tune the behaviors. I've also added an entirely new mode - Owner Follow Mode. The owner can choose this mode and the Lion/Lioness/Cub will follow you around. If you teleport or log out the animal will wait patiently for your return. Ground detection can be turned on/off in this new mode as well. I've put out new sales panels at Aeryglow's Jungle Shop where the new version Lions can now be purchased.
   
The other announcement is something I've received a number of requests for recently. Newborn Bunnies & Rabbits! They have all of the functionality of the full-sized rabbits and are slightly smaller than the luv bunnies. I've also refined the fur textures on the newborns somewhat. With the additional critters I was running out of room inside the Garden Wildlife building so I expanded sales panels to the outer wall near the tp arrival point. Newborn sizes contain the green/violet logo shown above on the sales panel. For all of you that have already picked up some larger bunnies & wanted some smaller, even more adorable "baby bunnies" come scoop them up in the Garden area of Aeryglow Island today!

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 area of the island 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/