Race winds explained for the ACA 2.52

I was sailing in the Blake Sea the other day when Dutch flagged me down.. heres the convostation I had with him..

[10:58]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: i have a question
[10:58]  Quirky Torok: kk
[10:58]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: where am i supposed to see the hover text?
[10:58]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: i just accepted race wind and dont see it now
[10:58]  Quirky Torok: hehehe im just doing a blog about that
[10:58]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: ah ok
[10:59]  Quirky Torok: with the sails up you have to get close to the root prim (just above the keel)
[10:59]  Quirky Torok: the numbers come up in greeen
[10:59]  Quirky Torok: at the base of the sail
[11:00]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: inside the hull?
[11:00]  Quirky Torok: should be just above the hull
[11:00]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: i camera’d in and see the root prim as green
[11:00]  Quirky Torok: thats perfect you have race wind
[11:00]  Quirky Torok: can you se the numbers???
[11:01]  Quirky Torok: only when your sailing
[11:01]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: not in showsail
[11:01]  Quirky Torok: noooooo
[11:01]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: so a a maybe dumb question…..
[11:01]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: what’s that for exatly?
[11:01]  Quirky Torok: no such thing as a dumb question
[11:02]  Quirky Torok: its for race directors to see who is using race wind
[11:02]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: ah ok
[11:02]  Quirky Torok: it locks the wind so you cant change it mid race as well
[11:02]  Dutch Hoorenbeek: aye

One of the great new innovations on the new ACA 2.52 is the use of a race wind indicator, however  a few of the sailors are a little confused as to what it is and why its there. this blog is to explain it a little more. We have noticed how easy it could be for less honest sailors to enter races and to either increase the wind velocity or to stabalise the wind direction. We don’t think people have used this method, however better safe than sorry.

So heres how it works..

rezzing your ACA looks exactly the same

The root prim

Again this information shouldnt be too intrusive, and is there mainly for Race Directors to check for compliance with race rules. I hope this clears a few points up.

The New ACA 2.52

sailed in the first race by nory Igaly

The event of the year is here!!!! Its good to sail an ACA in Second Life
Rez your 2.5 ACA and Florencia will send you a brand new shiney 2.52 ACA.  There are so many cool updates. listed below. All this and we have a new home  in Santa Rosa

It couldn’t be easier to get hold of your new 2.52 ACA update, just rezz your old 2.51 ACA on the water and you should get a notecard and updated 2.52 ACA. PLease note that this will a seperate issue of the solo and the multi crew boat when you rezz both (one at a time)

Of course if your going to race your new ACA you will need to ID it..”id xxxx” — where xxxx is *up* to 4 characters.  Appends the characters to the boat name for regatta identification.

OK heres what has changed on the new ACA 2.52

ACA33 v.2.52 Release Notes
Race Wind
- Visible indication of race wind use: hover text, green,  close to mast foot, “RACE WIND xx.x kts”. No text for other, cruise winds.
- On rez, root prim color is white. After hearing a wind setter it will turn:

. dark red immediately and while “Ignore this” is answered;
. red after “Ignore all”;
. green after “Accept this”.
- Set wind and  “pp” (set phantom) commands ignored while using race wind.

Skipper other thanowner

- Owner must sit, say “unlock”, stand up. After that, next one user can sail the boat, until next stand up. (command “lock”also present)

User definable command channel

- On rez, boat tells current command channel. User change it by chat command “/xxx channel yyy” (xxx=current channel, yyy=new channel).

Other stuff

- “Rabid jib” fixed.- Sit text “Board”, instead of “Sit Here”.
- Parts of code cleaned, may be faster.
- Info HUD:  now called “ACA33 HUD – info”  and modifiable so “settings.ini” can be edited.
- Physics with lowered sails resetting rotations is fixed.

- Polar modified and made “rounder” (and a lil faster).
- Boom offset on rez fixed.

This is just the start of a new era in ACA sailing. Hopefully early next year a whole new total rebuild of the scripts, a spiniker.. What we would love is if you could tell us what you want in the next LARGE update! remember this boat is your boat. Unlike most other boat builders in Second Life we listern to our customers.

If you have a problem please let me (Quirky Torok) know.

Your ACA Team are

Florencia007 Csak (Owner)

Caf Binder (scrpiter and boatbuilder)

Quirky Torok (PR and big mouth)

Beta Testers Carmen Foden, Julia Ceres and Naeve Rossini

Updated statement regarding the status of the revised ACA 2.5

(updated) The updated ACA will be with you soon. a few setbacks have delayed the predicted launch of this vehicle. We would rather get you a product that was right and works than rush a half finnished boat to you, however the list of improvements will still be generally the same. We predict the update will be 2

Here is a list of things to expect.

1) Rabid jib is fixed.
2) Physics with lowered sails resetting rotations is fixed
3) Polar modified and made “rounder” (to be determined)
4) user definable gesture channel
5) “skipper card” to allow others to sail your boat.
6) Boom offset on rez fixed

Update will be delivered automatically on rez of a 2.5 boat.  availability announced when its ready.

RACER Series Textures

Caf Binder has launched the RACER Series sets of textures for the ACA33 v2.5.

They are highly detailed textures sporting sails stitches and reinforcements, gradient colors, shadows, light reflections, elaborated ribbing, hull and deck details.

Every pack comes with both options, sails with or without windows, transparent panels.

The available sets are ACqua (acqua blue), Bruxo (orange), Black Silver (black), Pink Palace (shock pink), Red Hot (red), Violet Steel (violet).

They are available as individual packs, but buying any two gives you the right to ask a third one for free, while offer is in effect.

Competitions! Gesture hud & “vanilla” sails and hull textures set

Tuesday, 22 Sep 2009 15:43:43 GMT

I would like to announce the launch of 2 competitions, open to all members of the ACA Racer group.  First, is a design for the Gesture hud being produced, and the second is for a “vanilla” sails and hull textures set.  Both of these items will become the ones included with future boat sales.

These are detailed instructions and rules concerning the contest for creation of the gesture hud, and standard boat textures used with the ACA33.

Gesture hud :
-  All entries to be sent, full perm, to disisme Misfit BEFORE midnight SLT on October 1.
- All entries are to be purely a texture image of the Hud as you would like to see it on screen
- There need be NO prims in this entry, but it MUST be able to be made without sculpting (but CAN use alpha textures)

Specific requirements :
1) minimum 16 “clickable” areas on the hud for different functions
2) Minimum use of text – the image and clickable areas must be intuitively obvious
3) functions of the hud are : raise, lower, moor, alpha +, alpha -, sails +1, sails -1, +5, -5, +10, -10, +20, -20, Tack, wing, protest
4) Hud MUST include the ACA Racer logo somewhere prominent. (see image bellow)

Anything else goes….. This is somewhere you can show us your artistry.

Sails and hull :
1) NO templates will be provided for this contest other than the texture mesh base here…. (see image bellow)
2) the ACA33 words and Americas cup logo MUST appear on the sails.  Format and size is open to the artist but must be “relatively” obvious.
3) All textures are to be sent full perm to disisme Misfit BEFORE midnight SLT on October 1
4) coloring, complexity, etc are wide open.  Resolution is also open, but remember, it will be affected by SLs truncation and possible detail loss.
5) we are looking for sails and hull ONLY, but texturing of other parts of the boat will be favorably looked upon if it increases the visual appeal of the finished item (cockpit floor etc)
6) Emphasis in judgng will be upon the boat being realistic….no alpha in silly places that would make the sails integrity bad in RL.
7) use of the original sail “ribbing” on the vanilla templates is optional.  If you feel you can make the sails more realistic by re-doing the ribbing etc, feel free.

We reserve the right to select more than one winner if neccessary, and the right to package future boats in multiple themes.  We also reserve the right to select NO winner if we find none of suitable quality to reflect our corporate presence.

The ACA33 is a massive canvas for an artist.  This is your chance to just cut loose and give us your very best….and the entire world will see it on the water.  make us say “wow”!

ACA Races : NYC Atlantic Start.. 6pm

Saturday, 12 Sep 2009 00:12:36 GMT

Its Friday.. its time to dust off the ACA’s and race!!!!!

Come on down all the charts are included in the attachment..

see you there!!!

Q

ACA/Costa Rica Challenge. 12th September

Group Notice From: Quirky Torok

Time is ticking down to enter the ACA/Costa Rica Challenge.. for those new heres the story.

A new and exciting race series will be held on the Costa Rica sims. This will consist of two sets of racing. One series for single handed racers, and the other for crewed team events. The prize money has been set at an unprecedented $L100, 000 for the weekend!

But you got to enter. So give me a notecard of your name and/or your team !!!! You should all have new 2.5’s and your appitite weteed by J-Class racing.

For further details please see previous Notice http://acaracer.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/press-realease-acacosta-rica-challenge

Happy sailingQ

What’s New in ACA v2.5

Basically…everything

Script mods
=======

• Solo boat only  – All non essential scripts removed.  NO pose scripts and no poses in the boat at all.
• multi crew boat – Embedded poses and removal of pose balls.  Poses are embedded in specific prims, and contain a user modifiable notecard to set the pose position.

All boats

• Modification to performance polar.  Boat now sails at much more realistic speed on beam reach.  This has had a slight flow on to other headings, but these are almost immeasurable (fractions of a knot).  Performance increase from wind dir 30 through to wind dir 110, with peak peformance at 90 HTW being “faster than the wind” but a small amount (2 knots max).
• Modification to wind shadow – reduced from 25% at 75m to 10% at 65m.  Lee bow effect is unchanged.

Prim mods
======

• All prims have been replaced, predominantly with sculpted prims.
• The mast on the new boat has been awarded the “best single prim mega sculpt” by the SL Sculptors association.
• The Hull, mast, and forestay are all zero loss mega prims.
• Grinder, wheel and winch prims are now single prim sculpts (each position)
• Removal of pose balls from ALL boats
• different prim counts on the solo and multicrew boats.  This is to allow more crew to be carried on the multi crew, but had to be done by sacrificing some minor prim detail (sail pit hatch is removed).
• New look texturing using graduated blue and white.  Very sexy
• Sails (main and jib) have had texture offset and repeats modified.  This means ‘old’ V2 sails will NOT be easily applied to V2.5 sails.  Texture templates are the same, but rather than cut up the sails into 2 or 3 parts, the ENTIRE sail texture is applied to each sail prim.  Port – starboard differences still exist (so apply a port texture to stbd side and your text will be backwards)

ACA33 RACER V2.5 Textures

As advised a couple of weeks ago, sail and hull textures for ACA2.5 are different from the old 2.0 boat.  All retail vendors who expressed interest in these templates were provided with them at that time, along with a copy of the display boat (which uses the same textures).  The sail template is actually unchanged, however rather than cutting the template up to upload it, you bring up ONE texture per sail side and apply that to all 3 prims (main) or 2 prims (jib).

ACA33 Display Model

We are pleased to announce that 9th.com and ACA HQ will be selling “display only” non scripted versions of the ACA33 2.5 at our vendors.  These boats are intended for those people that want a hella sexy boat at their dock for minimal prims, but don’t want to shell out the $2500L to buy a sailable version.  A great visual addition to any waterfront home.

Rezzing Your America’s Cup Racer Boat Inworld
——————————————————————-
For display purposes, there are 2 display boats in the box.  One with sails on and one without. These boats are completely without scripts and totally inert, plus it is VERY low prim. You can adjust the rotation and position of the boat while it is inworld.

Florencia007 Csak