Role Play Schedule board

Over the Last few weeks Jens Johnson (Jailan Resident) has been working on a flexible schedules board which makes you aware of the time, info and locations of the next few scheduled RP's. Other controlled uses for the device will be announce and implemented soon through the research division as part of its program to have relent and up-to-date information available in a variety of sources.

Research division will manage the devices and back end technology so to keep the systems functioning correctly.

Jens produced a short video to show the board in action during development 

New Gryphon/Firebird Spotted - Out of a window

So there they were, just sitting in Phoenix stations bar blissfully unaware of the new ship being test flown for the first time. I would say it was flown publically but I doubt the alcohol fuelled customers noticed the acrobatic display outside the bar window. If it wasn't for the stations security camera it may not have been spotted at all.

But grainy UFO type pictures aren't enough, we need more, so with some digging, bribing and a camera in hand, some more juicy shots have appeared of the cockpit design, with rumours of an artificial horizon meter being added to it, more news as we get it.

New GFC Gryphon/Firebird Teaser Poster Unveiled

A teaser poster for the latest GFC ship has just been unveiled by Engineering and Research division, fully made in mesh with a cockpit to die for....which you may do if you get shot down. More details of the ship, how its made and what it can do will be available at a later date, but for now lets just drool at the pictures....I'm already putting granny up for sale for one.

Of course like other products in the group this should be available for members depending on whatever task they will be required to get one.

Forum & Google communities members area access request

One thing you find if you look behind the scenes of a group like the GFC is that to make it function properly there are a lot of documents to create, forms to fill out and spreadsheets to look through. It starts to become a pile of paperwork.

Even to ask information from someone has a habit of requiring a google form to be loaded up in a web browser and filled out which means your having to ask people questions and cipher through one type of document or another.

Accessing inworld

Here in GFC Research its clear that there should be simpler ways of doing stuff, starting with requesting access to the GFC forums and Google communities members pages.  We have created a device where the person requesting access to those area's clicks from a list of options.

Once clicked they are given a handful of options.

1. Forum
2. G+ Communities
3 Both
4 Links
5 Notecard

When the 1 to 3 option is selected a textbox appears on your screen and it just requires you to type in your email and press the send button....Thats it...Nothing more to do, no form to open on your browser, just type it inworld and send.

Button options and entering email from textbox

From there the device will automatically fill out the form behind the scenes with your Secondlife name already added without needing to ask you, plus the email you entered gets transferred to the spreadsheet. (Those dealing with the request can have emails of application sent the moment it happens).

When selected, the forum email will go to the sheet which deals with that request, G+ goes to another sheet and the both option will send requests to both sheets at the same time if the same email is being used.

Links

One major advantage of using an inworld textbox is that when the data is sent off because you can detect who sent the message you know exactly who the person is and can use that name as the sender, the spelling will be correct and you'll have their proper legacy names so they will always be easy to find in search, also if someone wants to play about sending out silly emails or data you already have the culprit.

Notecard

Option 4 places a list  inworld in your chat channel with web links to blogs, forums, communities and facebook which you can click and be taken directly there, option 5 just gives you a notecard with the same info on.

This system makes a quick and fast way for users to apply for access to certain members areas without fuss in seconds.

This device have so far been places in recruitment and a room in Phoenix Stations welcome area.

Augmented Object tracking Hud in Secondlife

Many people have seen head up displays (pilots use them in fighter planes) and augmented reality devices like Google Glass which places information in front of your eyes based on your location and the environment around you. Imagine what that would look like on a Secondlife hud, Richardjrn (Geek) Weatherwax was playing around with the idea as an extension to a project we are working on.

In this episode of Research & Friends Shorts, he demo's object tracking with Snapper Desade.

Gravity

Anyone who's ever tried standing in a moving build in secondlife would be used to be thrown around like a rag doll. So GFC's Research Division assistant lead started looking for a solution to maintain gravity for your avatar within moving objects giving you the ability to walk around mostly freely while the object your standing in spins around on any of its axises.

A Research and Friends short video was made to demonstrate this feet of gravity.

Teleport Boards

Getting around any sim if its your first time can be a little daunting, people generally want to go from A-B very quickly without the need to alway pick up some info or device, though those things can be useful. To aid in helping people (that includes members as well) Teleport Boards have gone up in certain main areas of the GFC by Research Division.

Locations are groups in rows "RP location/Sets","Shops & Rentals","Phoenix Space station","Public Sandbox","Tactical/Airport/Flight deck" and "HQ/Academy/Medical/Library". Selecting any of the rows gives you a drop down menu with the locations available and once chosen  a box at the top and bottom of the board indicates for you to click for teleport. The teleport options stays open for a few seconds giving people time to click it and others to follow.

If you need a quick way to get round and your near one of the boards which has the location you're going to on it, give it a try.

Bouncy Station

When GFC builders need a break from creating a new space station they release their tension by testing if the station is bouncy, for research purposes of course :)

New Bj Ship Join The Fleet

Two new ships from the Bj fleet got a public airing this week. Firstly was the black sleek Bj interceptor which appeared in a variety of events in the last 7 days. Its initial showing was on wednesday's AAC event when it stood up well against a handful of GFC planes and again on the friday's AAC event defending the DS19 station from attack giving it its first proper exposure to the group.

The other ship is the bajoran raider a transport ship which holds 4 people and has a canopy which opens and closes. These ships were originally made a year ago, but didn't really find a home, but with the new emphasis on races with ships and accessories associated with them being created plus new updated scripts, the planes are a welcome addition to the fleet and come just in time for when the Cardassian fleet of ships start making an appearance.

If you want to fly one of these ships come to the hanger bay in DS19 and click the ship rezzer button to fly a guest version. These ships and more will be rolling out across various locations in the sims over the next few days and weeks, so keep your eye open and reach for the skies.

Fadms Party And Changer Board

GFC members have always liked a good party and on 1st Sept there'll be another excuse for the fleet jiving in celebration of Fleet Admiral Katrina Bixby's SL birthday. looking as young as the first day she rezzed she's chosen a super hero theme for her party and Jens Johnson has been busy putting the final touches to the set where he's created a city like street area with pictures of heroes and villains adorning the pavement .

Set created by Jens Johnson (Jailan Resident)

As it's a themed event guests are encouraged to detach those combadges and come dressed as the super hero of your own choosing. Who are you going to pick, superman, spiderman, other names with man in it or batgirl, catwoman, wonder woman or any other name which makes it clear your female.

Whoever you choose, slip into your lycra or PVC and come down to the Roddenberry Centre to join the festivities and wish the Fadm a happy birthday.

New poster site has gone up in the sandbox to help promote the event using a bigger size of poster on an automatic shape resizing system meaning the site reshapes itself to the size of the poster, Richardjrn Weatherwax was the creator of the poster technology while snapper Desade created the poster graphics which more reflect members and uses real SL content for the graphics.

Automated Poster Resizing Board Made By Richardjrn Weatherwax

Roddenberry Centre

1st September 2012

1pm SLT

For more details contact:

       Debbydo

Social Events Lead

SL Link to Location

GFC Wormholes Caught On Video

With the discovery of wormholes in the GFC Reasearch and Friends decided to investigate in their latest Vlog (video blog) by showing how the wormholes work and how you can use them. Join Richardjrn Weatherwax, Sophie Johnson, snapper Desade, Dr. Jens Johnson and Lynda Johnson the fearless test pilots as they fly in, fly out and crash their way through the anomalies.

Wormhole's Appear throughout the GFC - Updated

Have you ever wanted to fly through a wormhole to a new location or dimension, well some of you may have notice a few wormholes appearing around the GFC estate, its not sure how they got there or if the Q's are involved but our research department think with a few modifications to GFC ships we could possibly navigate the phenomenon. 

If you see ship appearing through them, you know they've cracked it.

UPDATE: If you rezz your gryphon now you will get given a request to update to version 3.0. Once you have the new gryphon and fly into the wormhole, you'll see a drop down menu. Select the location you want and you'll be teleported to that area. Tip. Fly straight through the wormhold, no need to stop, 30%-50% is a good speed to enter the wormhole. 


Scripting: Richardjrn Weatherwax

Calendar, Lead & Divisional Boards

Over the last few weeks GFC research division has been looking carefully and listening to members requests about updated info and greater direct access to it and officers.

Division Boards have been place around the sims for Personnel, CDO, Medical and the Academy at present, these boards show when members of that division are available and can be called directly by clicking on their picture if they are free and have signed into the board. This makes it easier for people to know who's available at a glance.

Board Scripter Richardjrn Weatherwax stands next the Division Boards

Also as an early test  a live GFC calendar of events and division lead lists has been place. The boards use web on a prim live shared media in V2/V3 compatible viewers like firestorm to show web based documents in world. Users who use V1 style viewers like phoenix wont be able to view web on a prim, instead you simply get a texture on the board which you click to be given a link to view the content in your web browser.

The calendar is the same as you see on this blog as is the division lead list, The lead list tracks which leads are in which positions and the calendar shows the times and dates of events happening. The advantage of using web based data is the speed of updates. The moment your  aware of new information it can be added without the need to even come in world, quick and easily, the latest info you put in will be ready to view almost immediately.

Division Boards can be found in the sandbox, outside the Academy, CDO, Quarks in DS19, Personnel and will be rolling out elsewhere around the sim with other divisions being added.

The calendar can be seen in the sandbox and the Division Lead List is available in the sandbox and outside the CDO office, other locations may be added later.

Boards Texture if viewed in V1 viewers like Phoenix, click to load in your chosen web browser.  

More items are in development which will push more information to the members and guests when they need its so watch this space.

GFC Mobile Phone App Tests

Have you ever wanted to know who was hanging out in the GFC when your not online. One of the things we've been looking at in the research division has been how to connect with people better. For instance, the divisional signing boards are just one aspect of helping members know when divisional members are online and are ready to give assistance.

In addition, sometimes you may like to know who's around the GFC when your not there, since we are testing possible ways of using mobile technology to assist members. To give this a try we thought of making an app that has a simple function, giving a list of who's in any of the GFC sims at a particular time.

on loading the app you'll  see a simple text entry area and an "AVLIST" button. When you click the Avlist button  the app connects to a server and a list of GFC sims appear, when you select one of the sims you get an immediate list of avatars in that sim.

This is just a trial app and a feature like this may not make a full public release but certainly the technology used offers a wide variety of possible and interesting applications which could benefit the GFC in some way.

The Mobile app runs on android phones at the moment more details about it and other developments when they happen.

Mobile App Programmer: Richardjrn Weatherwax

Academy Impromptu Teacher Boards arrives

A few months back research division proposed a concept of boards showing available people from different divisions and when they were available to man their post so those who needed their assistance would know they are there. This isn't anything particularly new, security and duty boards have been available for some time, but those divisions aren't really required that much by new members, what the difference is here is it would focus on divisions where people actual require assistance a lot.

To test this we have had specially made boards up in DS19 for sometime, you'd see them if you go to the Ferengi like quarks bar. members can simply click the board and providing we have a picture of them in the server, not only would their picture appear on the boards in and outside the bar but also on a large board down in the sandbox

What was important was to make the system as simple as possible to use. to do this we incorporated a non notecard policy for the board, access lists wouldn't be created the conventional  way. We made the decision that the persons picture would be the access list itself. when a picture is submitted its required to be named in a certain way like this <Secondlife name>@<uuid> , so a picture could be named something like "job blogs@a822ff2b-ff02-491d-b45d-dcr10a2de0s2". Your uuid code can easily be found by just checking your profile and looking for the key info and copying the string of numbers next to it.

With that information its easy to check the right person signed in, a message is set directly to them when someone clicks their picture and the system knows when they are offline so they can be automatically signed out. This way, your not constantly editing access lists, drop the picture in with he correct naming and UUID code is all you need.

The initial idea for the boards were for the Academy since impromptu classes have been shown to be the most effective overall means of teaching classes. This is due to secondlife's nature people pop in and out at peculiar times and its not always easy for them to attend scheduled classes. What boards like these do, when new members appear in world they can instantly see if those who can assist them are available.

Versions of the board for CDO and Personnel are also being looked at.  The idea is to make it easier for members and potential members to contact those most likely to be able to assist them, something we have found in researching this is that a lot of people we noticed may need help but are too intimidated to ask for it even though there are members online available to help.


The boards also comes in a neat hud version which can be placed on your screen. attach and click the board edge to re sync when your in one of the GFC sims.

Also if your wearing one of the latest versions of the TPHUD which you can pick up from medical. They already have voice commands which can sign you in and out of any of these boards which are available. So for instance if I wanted to sign into the academy board but wasn't in range of one of the boards and I had the tphud on i could just say in chat "sign academy". will toggle signing in and out of that board. If i was associated with more than one board like the academy and research board, then by typing "sign in" would sign me into all boards automatically as saying "sign out" will do the reverse. This script can be easily added to other devices.

This can also be seen as one of the early starts of new systems being put in place which will make access to member and information more freely accessible. So, watch this space.

DS19 Docking

Down at the research division lab the crazy boffins are back at it again, a few weeks ago they installed the automatic docking system. Test where done using the MRU (Mobile Research Unit) to dock with any of the available docking arms in DS19 prosperous space station. The next stage will be the development of new ships which can dock there and releasing a scripting kits for those who want to make ships with docking capability.

Armored Suit in Development

Research are in development of a new armored tactical suit and gun for the AAC. Andy Ketterley is heading the project, the idea would be to have suited options in squadron and team event colours.Work will focus around, quality to prim ratio, original animations, poses and scripted features.

New Research Project?

Perception is an interesting concept, 4 researchers holding cute little Meeroos. Are they pets or do the researchers have other plans for our furry friends. I'll leave you to decide.

More Away Team Pictures Released

With Mondays Gibraltar RP moving closer and the premiere of the new "Away Team Set" just a few days away  more pictures highlighting the sets have be been released, stolen or put on here in the most blatant and cheapest way of courting publicity I've seen since the last episode of Big Brother.

The two sets of pictures show some of the location that have been worked on so far,

The Borg set picture depicts some of the team talking about various aspects of the design, large movable objects and and bright use of flowing textures are one of the sets most appealing features. Also the eerily  sky has to be seen to be believed which gives you a foreboding feeling in the gut of your stomach when you witness it.

Set 2 on the other hand is a far more welcoming set, placed on turrets sticking out of the water holding up what appears to be a starbase containing many floors. There seems to be a medical like centre with moody lighting and in another room an object poking out of a pool like structure, what can that be, what's it for and what can it do?

To find out more you'll need to join the RP's which will be using these sets in the future.

Get your first taste of them on Monday 11am SLT Gibraltar RP.

Away Team Sets Have Arrived

You may have noticed the new Gibraltar Borg header ads and the previous crash site one. It seems other's have too as we've been asked afew times why the borg are coming...I dunno, maybe they were hungry and heard you were serving meat loaf or maybe it could be the an RP set built under the new Research "Away Team Set" project.

The project consists of bringing small teams together to create sets for RP's, original designs and on request. The first set created by Seven of Nine (zannadu Resident)  was used in the Gibraltar RP afew weeks back and was a great hit. Click HERE for pics and RP LOG.

But since then new members  Rokks Resident and katie Zwilling  have been added to the team and their first custom borg set is finished and ready to use. What the project will strive for is high quality, fast turn around and innovative scenarios for GFC RP's. As of writing the team are well into their second custom set with more to come.

Sneak Peek, wait until you see inside

You'll hear more about them and their sets towards the run up to Mondays RP and beyond, so watch this space for more info as research has slapped a no peeking sign on the sets until Monday.

A new dimension in GFC Rping and Building has just arrived.