Monday, December 12, 2011

METAbolt Based Pandorabots Updated With Multiple Tip Jar Support

All METAbolt based Pandorabots have been updated to provide support for deployment of multiple Smart Tip Jars. The products updated are:
The Smart Tip Jar now includes a notecard setting to specify the key of the METAbolt based avatar bot to associate with the tip jar. The Tip_Config notecard in the Smart Tip Jar can be modified to set BOT_KEY. Once a valid key is specified in Tip_Config that tip jar will only trigger outfit changes in the avatar designated by that key. The avatar bot's key can be located in the base prim description field or, with some viewers, in the avatar bot's profile. Connecting the Smart Tip Jar to an individual avatar bot allows multiple tip jars to operate within 20 meters of each other.

If you only deploy a single METAbolt based Pandorbot and a single Smart Tip Jar then there is no need to set the BOT_KEY in Tip_Config.

Pandorabot METAbolt Add-On is not associated with or sponsored by METAbolt (http://www.metabolt.net).

Thursday, December 1, 2011

How to Animate Your Actorbot or METAbolt Pandorabot

The Pandorabot Actorbot Add-On and Pandorabot METAbolt Add-On can utilize dance, sit, and stand animations much like an Animation Overrider (AO). To enable this feature, drag animations from the owner's inventory into the base prim. In order for the preconfigured dance, sit, and stand commands to function properly the dances must contain the string “dance” in their name, the sits must contain the string “sit” in their names, and the stands must contain the string “stand” in their name. The strings “dance”, “sit”, and “stand” are case insensitive. To rename an animation in your inventory, right click on the animation and select “Rename”. Alternately, you can simply load your animations in the dance pole without renaming them and ignore the dialog menu otions to specify animation type. Renaming animations according to type is recommended.

Note that any AO the bot is wearing will most often have no effect since the bot is "sitting" on the base prim. In fact, it is recommended that bots detach any AO prior to being deployed as some AO's can interfere with the animations in the base prim.

Many excellent animations are freely available either inworld or on the Second Life Marketplace. Once you have located an AO for your bot, extract the animations from the contents of the AO, rename them if necessary, and drag them to the contents of the base prim. To extract the animations from an AO, drag the AO from your inventory to the ground. Right click on the rezzed AO and select "Edit". Click on the "Contents" tab and drag the animations you wish to use from the edit window to your inventory.

A few Marketplace links to free or inexpensive AO's and dances:
Inworld you can find many excellent inexpensive animations for L$10 - L$15 at Kuso Kuso. Note also that you do not have to use animations from an AO. Many standalone animations are suitable for use in the base prim.