And our daily load of crap today...

[12:27] XXXX: it seems my friend *** *** is banned from mamma allpa . if you know what he dees you probably dont want to keep him that way.
[12:27] XXXX: and we will blacklist you till you resolve the issue okay?


Sometimes i wonder what they smoke.

Where is this funny?

click to enlarge

This is just one page of some deliveries, which never took place. Marketplace really is not reliable these days. Quite frustrating. Oh, and, the items which are marked as "delivered" but never reached the buyer, are then also of course adding to this, extra.

New area: Height

As the topic drew some attention, i have setup an area about height and sizes. Spread the word, send people to that area and also see, that the height meter gets copied and multiplied often (a free copy is there for everyone)

The area also explains how to adjust the camera angle for a better view in realistic scaled builds.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mama%20Allpa/37/133/26

Diary of a rebuild

Referring to the height issue, i am now starting to rebuild some elements of Dark Den, where i try to stick close to RL sizes. First i adjusted my body height, as 1.82 cm were feeling way tall for me. As next step, i adjsuted my camera angle. There is either a HUD for it, or one can do so via the debug settings of the viewer.
Penny has written an excellent article about that, which i strongly recommend to read. You will experience SL in a very much immersed level:
http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/07/matter-of-perspective.html

Next, i started to scale some walls and doors. The walls here in this picture are 3 meters high, the door has a height of 2 meters.:

Click to enlarge

Next, to keep an overview and feel for dimensions, i picked an interior item which i often use, a chair. Placing the chair out of the box, its backrest reached nearly up to my shoulders. So i modified the chair as well:

left: modified version. Click to enlarge

This blogpost will be updated as i proceed. If someone wants to come and check out, just IM me inworld for a TP.

Updated:

no modify - click to enlarge

Some inventory item gets lost of course on this route. Like a "no mod" popcorn vendor. 3 meters tall, it fills the room. And downsizing is not possible, due to object permissions.

Updated:
the first building is ready. Advantage: i am able to link the whole structure as one object

Update January 9th:

Also, furniture need to be redone.

Click to enlarge

The above picture shows the problem. Green is a realistic sized bed, red is common for SL beds. So i am going to tear one of my favorite beds into pieces (yay for mod of furniture) and strip it to its core, that way i can make a standard mattress, where i then build around the realistic sized bed.

Ready.. almost

Click to enlarge

Ok, a Roleplay area is never really fully ready.. but this here is now the realistically scaled version :) Feel free to have a look...

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mama%20Allpa/146/54/26

Sizes, design and money

So, i played recently with height measurement scripts and also read through blogs. One aspect, i found really interesting, as thought:

the taller you are, the more expensive is your SL. Not much, but a bit. And that adds up, for each resident, so in the sum, the resources that a simulator (island, region) can hold, are wasted by handling them too generous.

To be clear here: i am *not* talking about that everyone now should walk around as a minion. I simply want to point out, that having a realistic size in SL, saves you money. So, here now some data from RL:

going from Wikipedia, the average height of a male in the USA is 1.776 m (5 ft 10 in). And for a female it is 1.632 m (5 ft 4 ¹⁄₂ in). I did not take in now the sizes on other continents, because, yes, i know, in many asian countries, people are even smaller some, as well as in other regions of the world.

But i think, if we pick the average US-american person, and compare this, then this is a starting point. Once we achieved to agree on these as "normal" sizes for SL, the smaller and larger sizes that can occur in other countries, will easier also fit into the big picture.

Now, how does this connect with costs, L$?

A simple example shall show the problem.

In preparation to this, i will show you my body size, including hair and primfeet:

1 meter and 83 centimeters, click to enlarge

This is the height of the prim nearby me, which i rezzed in height, until it covered my hair and toes. now, the SL size we are measuring via viewer and scripts, does not take in attachments, so, let us see, what the viewer tells about my body size:

1 meter and 81 centimeters, click to enlarge

That means, my hair adds about 2 cm. And my primfeet i adjusted close enough that they do not add to height, as they are not shoes, which would.

Still this is tall. Remember? Average size of the female in RL in the USA? 1 meter 63. Why am i that tall in SL? Mainly for one reason: i used a wrong script to measure my size, that made me assume wrong proportions. And downsizing just so, is not simply done with the slider "height", To do that properly, one needs to consider leg length, and much more.

However, this is not the topic of today's post. Let us assume, for now, i am just tall. And now, with being overly tall than usually expected, it should show, when entering for example a house, right?

Ok, lets look. I bought a house, and rezzed it, as is, a prefab. Here is the picture.

3 stories, the rezz box is in front, the height comparison prim stil rezzed. Click to enlarge

One can see the upcoming problem already. For the next picture, keep in mind, i am supposed to be tall, with more than 180 cm:

The doorknob is as big as my head and at the height of my head.

This just looks wrong. So, i am going to resize the house:

Doorknob now at my hands level, more realistic. Click to enlarge

And now let us see how the overall house looks in compare to the "out of the box original size":

left version: original - right version: downsized - Click to enlarge

As one can easily see, the downsized building needs less sqm. And it wil need less decoration inside to make it look beautiful. Less sqm, less prim= less cost.

Now, if you think the right house looks ridiculously small, lets measure its dimensions:

ground floor=3 meters height - Click to enlarge

This is one floor... now, the whole height:

7.9 meters - click to enlarge

This matches almost with RL sizes where the height of a storey is about 2.5 meters to 3 meters.

Yes, one can add some maybe due to the camera settings in SL which makes navigating easier when the rooms are larger.. however, you see: you can keep your buildings smaller and save cash this way. Just, start with your own apeparance and make the height realistically, then the first step is done...

I made a group in SL, where we can eventually discuss further ideas about this issue, because, unrealistic sizes drag along a lot of other issues with it, here just some to be named:

• attachments that are too bigand can not be made fit correctly, or only with a lot of effort
• vehicles that look like they are made for Hulk, not for the average driver
• beds, that are so tall that they deserve the name "playground", as, when one sleeps in them, one forgets the exit till next morning
• health care tools and scripts: a scale showing the ideal weight if you are 2.30 meters tall? And more scripts to there too, like, what if one wants to simulate drug impact? Pregnancy? Treatments? Cures? 

This list can be expanded a lot. And a possible aim for this is, to keep a vivid discussion about this up, to also contact content creators, and trying to make them adjust to more realistically scaled builds, etc.

The group name in SL is: Height

Yes, just so. The name was still available. Look it up and join, if you want to contribute to a realistic environment.

Giants

Penny commented on the height script and pointed out to me that there is a bug, in the height detection of SL itself. I was not aware about that, and have here now the adjusted version of the script....
However...

the result is.. stunning:
"you are 6 ft. 1in.  tall, that equals 1.868088 m "

for comparing: my old script said, 5.7 ft.....

However, the Firestorm height meter shows the same like this script, plus:
if i rezz a prim and make it that high, then it is as tall as my avatar, almost exactly.

Going from here, then, we all have been giants and still are.... a detailed article about the avatar proportions can be found here:
http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/08/matter-of-proportion.html

Here is now the corrected script version:
//************************************************************************

      string name;
string saeheight = "";
vector size;
float heightfeet;
key id;
string round_float(float value) {
string result = (string)value;
return llGetSubString(result, 0, llSubStringIndex(result, ".") + 2);
}

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        //llSetStatus(STATUS_PHANTOM, TRUE);
        llSetText( "", < 1,1,1>, 1 );
    }

    collision_start (integer total_number)
    {
    id=(llDetectedKey(0));
      string name;
string saeheight = "";
vector size;
float heightfeet;

name = (llKey2Name(id));
size = llGetAgentSize(id);
float m = size.z;
m *= 1.1057; // Multiplier
float f = m * 3.28083;
integer ft = (integer)f;
float f2 = f - (float)ft;
integer in = (integer)(12.0 * f2);
heightfeet = size.z * 3.28083;
saeheight = (string)((integer) llFloor(heightfeet)) + " ft. ";
heightfeet -= llFloor(heightfeet);
saeheight += (string)((integer)(llRound(heightfeet * 12))) + " in.";
//llSay(0, llKey2Name(id) + " is " + (string)m + " m (" + (string)ft + " ft. " + (string)in + "in.) tall. (counting shoes) - Accurate SL Height");
vector junk = llGetScale();
        llInstantMessage(id, "you are " + (string)ft + " ft. " + (string)in + "in. "+ " tall, that equals " + (string)m + " m ");
        if (size.z*100<150)
{
        llInstantMessage(id, "Your size is small. This is just a hint. Nothing else.");
}
       else  if (size.z*100>200)
{
        llInstantMessage(id, "Your size is very tall. This is just a hint. Nothing else.");
}
     
     

    }
}
//********************************************************