Coming soon…
If SL has been flaky the last few days, that might have been me logging in and out on my alt testing something new and shiny.
Finally, after redoing my houses to the 2.5 version which included some stuff to make future updates possible (over a year ago, in fact) I’m almost ready to try releasing the sem-automatic updater system. I found some problems in practice, and some from lack of foresight that mean the upgrade method isn’t as smooth as I’d like, but it seems to work.
What I need now, are people with 2.5 version Ace’s Spaces houses, who are willing and able to experiment with the updater, and maybe who can step in and manually replace scripts if needed.
What’s the benefit to being a lab rat you might ask?
Notecard access list support, and click button support that gives the house menu exactly as if you’d called it by chat. From anywhere around the house, even outside of chat range potentially. Woo!
Send IMs to me in world if you’d like to play with the new features and the updater system!
No commentsMagic Shiny Button!
I made a button.
A Magic Shiny Button.
A what? I little round button, a single prim. It has a simple menu so you can click it and control doors, windows and lights in my Ace’s Spaces houses. It works as either a button rezzed anywhere around the house, or even as a HUD attachment.
Now before you all squee with delight, I need to make a few points:
- It works on houses set to Group Access only
- Anyone in the group can click the button and work the stuff
- It uses a simple menu with on/off menu buttons for the basic features
- It doesn’t include any advanced setup options.
- Only the button owner can configure the menu channel used to talk to the house
So mostly it will be useful for people who use a land group for their friends/family. Not so much for rental landlords unless your community is sensible enough that you don’t worry about group members messing with each others houses, because any group member can use it.
How does it work?
I had a minor brainwave about my group access option in my houses. The “Group On” option uses simple LSL functions to check the group of whoever (or, importantly, whatever) is calling the menu. So I made this button. It basically bypasses the house menu, and calls the house chat commands directly, from its own little menu. So when you click the “Blinds On” menu option, the Button sends a chat saying “/101 blinds on”, and because the house is set to allow any group member (including objects set to group) to work its gubbins, you get your windows tinting.
Neat!
One side effect, as with any object that receives instant messages (the Button is the one calling the house, not the person clicking it, so the house response IMs go to the button) is that if you have IMs set to go to email, you’ll find your inbox filling with house messages. You can set the house in “quiet” mode to stop most of this, though. The owner can use a chat command for the Button to make it talk on the right channel for the house (like if you moved your menu channel off /101).
Ace’s Magic Shiny Button 1.0 does not currently work with Parker’s Park Life or BLIP houses 
Ace’s Magic Shiny Button 1.0 is available free with copy permissions to anyone who wants one and sends me an IM- it’s currently being used by only one person in all of SL so more guinnea pigs volunteer early adopters are welcomed!
Yay! New House!
Big and open, and all cosy textures, it’s been sooo long since I finished a house, so hooray for finally getting one out.
Yay Mac Patch
You might not know about the “Nicholaz” SL client- a modified version of the SL viewer by Nicholaz Beresford.
It contains bug fixes and new (or old!) options compared to the official client- something a lot of people are interested in, is how it puts back the old friend list/IM windows so you can get some of your screen view back.
The downside for Mac peeps was that it would only patch the windows version, but now Barney Boomslang has made it all work on OS X too, so yay!
You can find out more about it here
No commentsUpdates for July!
Well the GLOW lights seem to be working ok- no IMs at all about not being able to get them working or anything, so yay! To celebrate, I made two more styles of lights. KOLA is a simple hanging light, like GLOW, but with a round bulb and a cone light shade, like a more typical indoor light. HALO is a wall light, a suggestion that I thought was a great idea. Both styles of lights are available in the 5 Points interiors store at Deco, and come in the same increasingly discounted packs as the GLOW.
I made some simple low-prim stores a while ago, that I finally got time to package up for sale. They come in boxes of two, in four styles, with a multipack discounted 25% for the whole set of eight-available from the yellow commercial boards at our display n sales platforms 
I was sent a landmark to another copy of one of my houses for sale- ONUS this time, in a change from the counterfeit ARGEs. It was different in some ways, but the guy had even recreated the upstairs wall prim detailing, the vaguely Mondrian stlye accenting I’d used in the original. Well, they say mimicry is flattery, or something. I don’t understand it. It’s not really so hard to make an original design when it’s simple.
Rodents Required! Lab rats, or dramatic prairie dogs- I’ve been kind of sitting on a script update for a while now- it allows an access list based on notecards, just like Parker’s funky new ParkLife builds do. If anyone wants to test it out before I make an official updater gizmo, then let me know with an IM
Works in progress- mahoosive house and script update (very complicated, makes my brain hurt), a funky angular house that’s breaking my will to live, and a kind-of-modular home- I made a small chalet thing that could squeeze onto a 512m2 plot, then realised I could stick some more onto it to make a proper home. The idea is if you get the home, you get a cute chalet pretty much for free.
Lights!
These have been out for a week or so now. Just catching up on spamming them around now
GLOW are three-prim touch controlled lights. They also give you the option, when rezzed, of working in an “advanced” mode. This means that they can be used with the Ace’s Spaces 2.5 house control menu, too! Parker’s BLIP/Parklife houses from 2.0 onwards will also be compatible with these lights.
Available in packs of three, six or ten (with increasing discounts per light), and in five flavours- Red, White, Black, Teak and Steel. GLOW lamps are no-copy, no-mod accessories for your home!
No commentsNew House! and other things
LOPO is a kind of sister house to LEVE- it is roughly the same size, but with a different layout- the key feature being the party pool/tub in the ground floor. It has a thick foundation and steps so the pool will work anywhere, but the best way to enjoy it, I think, is to sit the house into land near sea level, dig out underneath and use the sim water instead of the splashy prim water!
Lights are “done” and now in the early part of testing- yay! To start with, there will be a range of very inexpensive, simple lights- hopefully more styles to follow.
I’ve also started on a new version of the house control system. It will feature notecard access list support in addition to the existing group based stuff, plus some other features I’ve been wanting to put in
Back and Stuff
I don’t like advertising. No, its true. I realised that I didn’t even use the SL group made specifically and particularly for spamming members with new product news, for the last (counts em) three things I made for sale. OK, the group is for announcements on updates too, but you know, I’m a quiet person.
So I check my blog and good grief, nothing for the whole of April. Well, there’s a good reason for that. I did actually finish a couple of things in April, but mostly I haven’t had any building time in SL. If I’m on for a couple of hours in the evening, it’s mostly taken up helping customers with problems. Even the ones who don’t think I’m being very helpful (I don’t sell textures, I don’t come round and change your patio for you) probably don’t know or care that there are at almost all times at least another three people I’m trying to help at the same time.
So adding to that, the fact that for most evenings, trying to do anything constructive in SL is a waste of time due to daily system failures, not much got built.
I did manage to put out two small stores and a low prim house though.
How cute is that? 
I have two more houses in the works- one goofy 512m2 sized one that I’m building just for the hell of it. I doubt it will sell much, but building things I like is why I log into SL. Someone will dig it, and that will make me smile. The other is basically a sister house to LEVE, but I think it’s more suited to friends sharing than maybe for a couple (no obvious main bedroom between the three, and downstairs has, well, you’ll see )
I’m hoping to get those fixed up. And I’m also going to be doing some lights finally. Yes, lights! It’s only been like three months since I started messing with them. These will be accessories, useable as regular touch controlled lights, but also able to “plug in” to Ace’s Spaces house controls. I will tell you now they won’t be sold as copy permitted. That’s the point of accessories They will be cheap as chips though! Willing victims can IM me if they’d like to be testers.
FREE UPDATES
Maybe that got your attention :p
IM me in-world if you want the 2.5 scripts for your existing Ace’s Spaces house, plus a fresh boxed copy of the upgraded house also.
This is for Ace’s Spaces houses only.