VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) technology was made famous by the AV-8B Harrier II and the V-22 Osprey. Inspired by helicopters, the tilt engine/tilt rotor technology allows aircraft to take off straight up and down like a helicopter, yet reach speeds far greater.
This VTOL technology has now been incorporated into an Unmanned Reconnaissance Drone, or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) here in SecondLife.
FEATURES:
- 11 prims.
- Multiple flight modes with features custom to each mode (see menu functions).
- VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) flight with animated engines that tilt while hovering.
- Easy access menu controls.
- Animated parts, sound effects, full physics flight, and self destruct effects.
- Drone Copy/Modify/No Transfer
- HUD Copy/No Modify/No Transfer
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HUD MENU FUNCTIONS
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EXIT: Simply exits the menu more efficiently than using "Ignore".
HELP: Gives a copy of this manual and some basic info in your chat window.
REZ: Spawns a copy of the VTOL Recon Drone above your position, ready for use. Note, because of potential conflicts, rezzing will ALWAYS cause all
other copies of your drones in the sim to self destruct. If you really want to rez more than one (not recommended), you'll have to do it manually.
STOP: Stops the drone where ever it is, shutting down the timers, sensors, and making it non-phys (freezing it in place). Effectively completely shuts down the systems, without removing it from the sim, so you can call on it easily later.
DESTROY: Self destruct. Makes any and all recon drones in the region go away. With special effects.
FOLLOW: This causes the drone to follow closely above and behind you, looking in the direction you are. Turn around, and it will move to stay behind you. Walk around, and it will chase you. Most of the drone's functions are disabled in this mode, to try to make it easier on sim resources. This mode is mostly for show, or to keep your drone close so you don't lose track of it.
PATROL: This mode makes the drone fly randomly around you, in roughly a 20 meter diameter. This means if you're in a 10x10 or 15x15 room, or somewhere with lots of objects, it's going to crash a lot. It won't be harmed, but it may get stuck. Additionally in this mode, the drone will say warnings out loud if someone gets within 10 meters of your position. Keeps people from sneaking up on you or anyone with you.
RECON: Selecting this option makes a popup appear on the upper right of your screen, requesting permission to track your camera. If you select No, you'll have to change modes to get the drone working correctly again. Choosing Yes will allow the drone to go where your camera goes. So you can send the drone over to the next parcel, or the other side of the sim, or simply into the next house over in your roleplay, just by camming over there.
(Camming is as easy as holding down Alt or Ctrl+Alt and click-dragging your mouse pointer.)
This mode also enables two way communication. Once the drone is more than 20 meters from you (the maximum range of Local chat, besides Yell), it begins to listen to conversations around itself. Further, you can (and due to TOS, you really should) participate in these conversations, via the drone, by putting your message on channel /9.
Example:
/9 This recon drone is here to chat! Don't say anything you wouldn't want the drone's operator to hear.
- Tilt engine technology for low speed hovering
- Multiple flight modes, each with unique features
- True physics flight with engines that auto-tilt based on speed
- Easy access menu controls
- Animated parts, sound effects, full physics flight, and self destruct effects
