How do you set "ground level" in a skybox?

[ArreYavienar Resident]

I currently rent a skybox and have 2 cats. One is the Fireball (40 days old) and the other a teacup Russian white (21 days old). The Fireball eventually learned where ground level is (by 7 days), but I'm constantly having to grab, edit, and move the Russian white from the base of the Skybox to the top of the "ground level" in my parcel. It's quite annoying and if I didn't give them such a small area (3 meters), I'm positive I'd lose him entirely frequently.

Is there a way to do this so that the teacup and any other future cats I birth will not end up way below where they should be?

TYIA

[Ivy Norsk]

I adjust these sorts of things by putting in extra invisible prims. Also, I rarely let teacups run around in any case; I'm afraid of them disappearing into the floor or getting caught under rugs and such. There are many more problems with mesh floors. A good solid prim helps a lot. Sometimes a strategic prim rug on top of mesh is just the ticket.

[ArreYavienar Resident]

Thanks

[MsMagick Resident]

I had one friend with water around the land in his skybox. They would go into the water and wind up under the land. Unlike some other breedables, they have physics turned on and will always go down (think about gravity) if they can. The size of bumps they can navigate ... and cracks they can get through... seems to depend on how big they are, but they only really go "up" when they fall asleep and teleport home.

As mentioned above, make sure you have a continuous (no seams) prim that is atleast .5 meters thick under the ground and you should be fine.

[JessicaArianaHamby Resident]

The way it was explained to me, is that there is a bug in second life that turns tiny prims that move among another prim, basically phantom, so that the moving prim falls through. This might be why the smaller kitties tend to sink in skyboxes.

[Tad Carlucci]

1) It is not a bug. It's a combination of a round-off error and the fact that KittyCatS (and virtually noone else) switch the prim from physical to non-physical.

2) The size of the prim does not matter. It could happen to all objects, including Avatars. The reason it does not happen often is so very, very few objects switch from being non-physical to physical.

Basically, it works like this: the cat decides it want to move. So it becomes physical and begins to move. As a physical object, moving along the ground, a skybox floor prim, or a mesh physics face, it cannot go through, so it moves along the upper surface. But, at some point the cat decides to stop moving and becomes non-physical (which, in the days before mesh, was the only way to reduce physics-phase lag). When the cat becomes non-physical, it's 'root' is sitting just above the floor. But 'just above' is an approximation. The value wiggles a bit. Sometimes it's a teeny-tiny bit above, and all is well. But sometimes it's a teeny-tiny bit below the top surface of the floor. As a non-physical object, this does not matter .. gravity does not effect it.

But, at some point, the cat will decide to move again. When it does, if it's a teeny-tiny bit below the top surface of the floor, it is 'inside' the floor prim. Whenever ANY physical object (including your Avatar .. and, yes, you can test it) is 'inside' another, the two become 'temporarily phantom' but only with respect to each other. That means the cat (still physical with respect to gravity) does not even 'see' the floor prim while it's 'inside' the prim. Gravity takes over. The cat (or you, or the prim you're testing with) falls through the floor. Once it falls below the floor, the two are no longer 'temporarily phantom' to each other. But, of course, the floor is now above the cat.

On interesting effect is to take a cat HIGH up (like 4000 meters), home it, and set a 3 meter range. Then remove the floor prim. You'll notice, as the cat walks, it spirals downward. This is because it's physical and gravity is pulling it down. When the cat stops walking, it stops falling and floats in air for a few moments. Then it begins to walk again and continues its downward spiral. Eventually, it reaches the ground and stop falling, circling and pausing, on the ground. Eventually, the cat sleeps. At that point it ZOOMS up to where you homed it, and remains there, sleeping, floating in air, until it wakes and, once again, spirals slowly down to the ground.

[JessicaArianaHamby Resident]

Very interesting. Yes, I have seen that in works too.. makes a lot of sense.. Thank you for the well thought out explanation

(08-03-2015 01:07 PM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  1) It is not a bug. It's a combination of a round-off error and the fact that KittyCatS (and virtually noone else) switch the prim from physical to non-physical.

2) The size of the prim does not matter. It could happen to all objects, including Avatars. The reason it does not happen often is so very, very few objects switch from being non-physical to physical.

Basically, it works like this: the cat decides it want to move. So it becomes physical and begins to move. As a physical object, moving along the ground, a skybox floor prim, or a mesh physics face, it cannot go through, so it moves along the upper surface. But, at some point the cat decides to stop moving and becomes non-physical (which, in the days before mesh, was the only way to reduce physics-phase lag). When the cat becomes non-physical, it's 'root' is sitting just above the floor. But 'just above' is an approximation. The value wiggles a bit. Sometimes it's a teeny-tiny bit above, and all is well. But sometimes it's a teeny-tiny bit below the top surface of the floor. As a non-physical object, this does not matter .. gravity does not effect it.

But, at some point, the cat will decide to move again. When it does, if it's a teeny-tiny bit below the top surface of the floor, it is 'inside' the floor prim. Whenever ANY physical object (including your Avatar .. and, yes, you can test it) is 'inside' another, the two become 'temporarily phantom' but only with respect to each other. That means the cat (still physical with respect to gravity) does not even 'see' the floor prim while it's 'inside' the prim. Gravity takes over. The cat (or you, or the prim you're testing with) falls through the floor. Once it falls below the floor, the two are no longer 'temporarily phantom' to each other. But, of course, the floor is now above the cat.

On interesting effect is to take a cat HIGH up (like 4000 meters), home it, and set a 3 meter range. Then remove the floor prim. You'll notice, as the cat walks, it spirals downward. This is because it's physical and gravity is pulling it down. When the cat stops walking, it stops falling and floats in air for a few moments. Then it begins to walk again and continues its downward spiral. Eventually, it reaches the ground and stop falling, circling and pausing, on the ground. Eventually, the cat sleeps. At that point it ZOOMS up to where you homed it, and remains there, sleeping, floating in air, until it wakes and, once again, spirals slowly down to the ground.

[Shamu077 Resident]

(08-02-2015 06:01 PM)ArreYavienar Resident Wrote:  The Fireball eventually learned where ground level is (by 7 days), but I'm constantly having to grab, edit, and move the Russian white from the base of the Skybox to the top of the "ground level" in my parcel.

When a cat strays out of its range, I find it easier to just use the cat's popup menu: "Animation/Jump Home" to send the kitty back to its Home position. Using edit and move is more work and a good way to lose control of the cat if your mouse slips.

It also verifies that the Home location is set where you expected it to be.