Kelp Rock rises and lowers to simulate Tides

~ Rock rises and sinks to simulate the tides
~ Uses the position of the Sun and Moon
~ Kelp ripples and surges around the rock
~ Sits up to 50 meters off-sim
~ Extends over 64 meters down into the Void Sea
~ Easy automatic setup off-sim
~ Dialog to set size, distance off-sim, max tide
~ Demo mode shows tide cycle speeded up
~ Texture map from RL rock photograph
~ Obstacle for Off-Sim Vehicles
~ Also works at altitude next to your sky box

Thanks for your interest in my Tidal Kelp Rock!

This rock slowly rises out of the water and sinks back down again to simulate tides in Second Life. It rises twice a day based on the position of the Sun and the Moon. It is surrounded by a ring of rippling surging kelp. The rock extends over 64 meters under water so it looks like it goes “all the way down” in the Void Sea. Easiest off-sim extender to install: Drop it on the ground, it finds the edge and moves itself 20 meters off sim. Then touch it to bring up the dialog to change the height, diameter, distance off-sim, max high tide. A demo button demonstrates a half a days worth of tide change in 60 seconds. The texture map for this rock is based on a photograph I took of a rock near Vancouver Island during an RL kayak trip there. This rock is compatible with Ocean Engineering Off-Sim Vehicles (kayak, surfboard, canoe, etc.) and acts as an obstacle with which they will collide. Also works at altitude next to your skybox.

If you have and island or property on the edge of a sim, it looks like there is water off the edge but you normally cannot go there. Some people call this the Void Sea. Off-sim extenders like this allow you to place objects out there to improve the view. This extender does not just sit out there, it changes constantly during the day and night. The kelp ripples and surges, the tide rises and lowers.

To see more smart off-sim extenders, go to my Ocean Engineering Store. Find links to my stores at http://magic.kayaker.net

Configuring the Kelp Rock:

Once the rock is sitting off-shore, you can click on it to bring up a dialog to change parameters. The dialog has the following buttons in it:

HELP Brings up this text to help you configure your rock.

DEMO This causes the rock to demonstrate a cycle of the tides in only 60 seconds.

TALL+/-1 This changes the size of the rock up or down by one meter. You cannot use the build dialog to change the size of the rock because it is off-sim and is made of several pieces. These dialog commands do all the hard work for you. The maximum height of the rock is 32 meters. (The theoretical max of 64 causes problems based on the distance off-sim and the depth). Every time you use one of the size/position buttons the dialog pops back up to let you quickly change things again. When you are done, press the DONE button.

DIAMETER+/-1 This changes the diameter of the rock by one meter. This rock is always approximately round. The maximum diameter is 21 meters (limited by the size of the kelp).

MOVE+10/+1/-1 These buttons move the rock farther off-sim (+) or back in (-). When setting up the rock on-sim or next to a skybox, you may want to change this offset all the way down to zero.

MAX TIDE+/-1 These buttons allow you to set the range of the maximum tide. The tide always goes low enough to just reach the bottom of the sculpted texture-mapped part of the rock. MAX TIDE determines how high the water will get on the rock. If this is the same as the height of the rock as set by TALL, then the water will just get to the top of the rock.

DONE Each time you change the size, distance or tide, the dialog pops back up to let you change things again quickly. When you are done, press the DONE button to make the menu go away quietly. You can use IGNORE, but then you will get a warning about being ignored 20 seconds later.

Setting Kelp Rock up next to a Skybox:

When you rez Kelp Rock 100 meters or more above the ground, it will go into skybox mode. It will first assume that the prim it was rezzed on represents the water level. This level will be used to determine the height above the tide. If you have Ocean Engineering SkyWater, the rock will move to position itself correctly above and below the sky water height. Initially the rock will also set the off-sim offset to zero. If you want it to be at altitude AND off-sim, then set it up next to the edge and push it off-sim with the MOVE command in the dialog.