Archery Bow and Arrows

Last updated March 2018
Archery bows and arrows for Open Simulator from Ocean engineering. These bows use the Magic Bullet system to work without physics and can be set up in regions that do not allow everyone to rez.

New in version 2.08:
Six different arrow modes now: Test mode checks for rezzable land and switches between rezzing arrows or using “effects prims”. The bow will rez physical or non-physical arrows. In land where the bow cannot rez it sends effects prims directly to the target (beginner mode) or launches them to move in the direction of aim. Non physical and effects arrows have the option to travel “flat” trajectories or fall under gravity (skilled archer mode).

See the video demonstration here, or come see it in 'person' at various locations aroun the Metaverse by following the links here. Several of the links you will find there are the Armoury in Waihu, the shooting range in the Discovery Grid or at the archery range on world Panthalassa in Kitely.

Links to all the sections of this document:

List of Features:

Introduction:

This Archery Bow is more than just beautiful on the outside. The bow bends when you pull to aim and the string makes a stretching sound. When you fire there is sound as the bow and string snap back. The bow can be set up to work without physics and in a region where rezzing is forbidden.

Where rezzing is allowed, there are two options: physical arrows or NP arrows. Physical arrows are the old way that arrows used to work in SL, I don't recommend them. They do not cause damage on other Magic Bullet items. NP (Non-Physical) arrows fly like physical arrows, can cross SIM borders (in InWorldz), stick for a few seconds in any prim and puff different colors depending on what they hit.

In regions where rezzing is not allowed, you can still use this bow if the land owner rezzes a few “effects prims” on the land first. The supplied Arrow Effects prim is COPY TRANS so you can give copies to a land owner for this purpose. On you own land, you may still want to rez a few of these effects prims and disable “anyone can rez here”. Then people can fire bows on your land without needing to rez and without opening your land up to griefing. The effects prims have several modes of operation: They can move instantly to the point where you aim the bow (beginner mode), or they can fly from the bow to the target. There is an option for arrows to fall under gravity or to fly in a straight line. In beginner mode there is an option to report in chat the name and distance to your hits.

The bow is easy to use, working just like a standard weapon in SL. Just wear it, go into mouse-look mode, click once to pull the bow, a second time to fire. This bow does damage to all the Magic Bullet items from Ocean Engineering: Targets, avatars wearing a meter, zombies, huntable animals like the Yerik and Hadrosaur. It can fire an arrow up to 100 meters and it inflicts 26 damage points to huntable animals and avatars wearing the Magic Meter, included with the bow. The meter is COPY TRANS, so you can give them to anyone. But to fight back, they will need their own bow! Two hits will kill an avatar or a Yerik, it takes 4 to bring down most dinosaurs, eight hits for a T-Rex.

The arrows are also beautiful inside and out. The tip is napped from “fire obsidian” for a rainbow look. The fletching is cut from a blue bird feather. A non-scripted arrow is included that is MOD COPY so you can add a few of them to your quiver. The arrow turns in the direction it is traveling in most modes. The arrows make a TWACK sound when they hit anything and make a puff of particles. The particles are blood red for avatars and huntables, grey for regular prims, orange for terrain, aqua on water, blue when out of range. The arrows will stick in any non-phantom prim for a while, so you can use almost anything as a target. But I recommend that you try out my Archery Practice Target which has a traditional target face, displays the score in large numerals visible from 50 meters away, and shows “holes” and vectors where it is hit.

A Bow Giver is also available for some models that gives a demo version of the bow to your visitors. The demo version of the bow is full-featured but only works on your land. I use the same giver to demo bows at several places around the Metaverse, so you can go try out the giver and the bows inside.

Installing a Bow in Open Simulator:

When you buy a Bow it lands in a folder in your inventory named after the type, for example “Wooden Bow”. Inside that folder you will find a Bow, an Arrow Efffects prim, a Meter, an Arrow Prop (a non-scripted arrow to put in your quiver), and a copy of this document for reference. Drop a few of the Effects prims on the ground, wear the meter and the bow.

The first time you wear the bow (on your left hand) it will probably require adjustment to fit your avatar. Left click on the bow to bring up the dialog, click POSE AIM, then edit the bow with the build dialog. Adjust it until it is centered on your left hand and the string appears close to your right hand. An exact fit is not possible, just get things close.

How to Fire your Archery Bow.

Sometimes rolling the mouse-wheel will not go into into mouse-look mode. Tap the left or right arrows on the keyboard to focus the viewer on your avatar, and then the mouse-wheel will put you in mouse-look mode.

By default the bow comes in “beginner mode”, it never rezzes arrows, it looks in a straight “ray” through the cursor to see what you are aiming at, and an effects arrow appears instantly where the cursor was when you fire. In advanced modes, more skill is needed to hit targets. For example in FX MOVE mode, the arrow appears in front of the bow when you fire, travels at 30 m/s and falls with gravity. You have to learn how to estimate distance and aim above your target so the arrow will drop down and hit it. See details below about all the modes available in the dialog.

Configuring the Archery Bow:

This bow has many modes of operation to work with or without physics, with or without the ability to rez with or without the arrows falling with gravity. Click on the bow while wearing it to bring up a dialog with the following buttons:
POSE AIM This button puts your avatar into the same pose that is used when you are firing an arrow. This allows you to position the bow to fit your avatar or to photograph yourself with the bow. Clicking the POSE AIM button again and again will alternate between posing with the bow pulled with an arrow and relaxed without one. This allows you to photograph yourself as if firing the bow! To get out of pose aim mode, press DONE on the dialog.
NEVER REZ
ALWAYS REZ
TEST REZ 		One button switches between three modes for rezzing arrows:
NEVER REZ means that the bow never rezzes arrows, but depends on the Effects Prims already rezzed in the current region.
ALWAYS REZ means that the bow always rezzes an arrow. This could generate error messages if you do not have rez permission. You may still want to use this mode if you know you belong to a group that allows rezzing on the land.
TEST REZ means that the bow tests first. If you are on land where anyone can rez, it will use rezzed arrows, else it will use Effect Prims. This test cannot detect if you are a member of a group that can rez where you are. Use ALWAYS REZ mode for that case.
REZ NP
REZ PHYS 		One button switches between two kinds of arrows to rez.
REZ PHYS means the bow rezzes physical bullets. These depend on the physics engine (a mistake IMHO) to make them fly naturally and do damage to whatever they hit. I do not recommend this, but if you have targets that take hits from physical bullets you may have to use this. Physical arrows do not turn in the direction they are moving. Rezzing lots of physical arrows puts a big strain on your server.
REZ NP means the bow rezzes non-physical arrows. These work much like physical bullets, but work on any grid with any physics engine. Even on grids with a “good” physics engine, I find non-physical bullets to be much more reliable and predictable than physical bullets. These NP bullets do damage by sending a message to whatever they fly into. The messages can be Magic Bullet or Unity System compatible (controlled by another mode, see below).
FX RAY
FX MOVE 		One button switches between two modes of operation when the bow is using Effects Prims (FX) to do arrow effects.
FX RAY means the bow casts an imaginary ray in the direction you are aiming. If the ray touches something an Effects Prim moves instantly to that thing, makes a noise, a puff of particles and damage is done. This is beginner mode, the arrow goes almost directly to the point your cursor is on. Depending on the height of your avatar, the arrow may go a little high or low. Practice with a target and find out what your “sight picture” looks like.
FX MOVE means an arrow starts in front of your bow, moves at 30m/s and flies in the direction your cursor was pointing. You can see the arrow traveling. Depending on the GRAV setting (see below) the arrow may fall with gravity. You will see the arrow turn down as it travels. Because the arrow moves slowly, the target may move out of the way before the arrow arrives. This is more realistic and more skill is required to fire arrows this way. FX MOVE arrows can travel outside of the region you are in, (only InWorldz as of this writing) and have to move back. Until they move back, you may run low on ammo. One solution to this problem is to rez more Effects Prims so there are always a few extra to fire while some of them are “gone”.
NO TEXT
HIT TEXT 		If this button displays HIT TEXT and you are firing arrows in FX RAY mode, the bow reports (in chat) objects hit and their distance. In any other arrow mode, no text is displayed.
GRAV
FLAT PATH 		If you are rezzing NP arrows or using FX MOVE arrows, these arrows have a choice to obey gravity or not.
GRAV means NP and FX MOVE arrows obey gravity and fall as they travel. You must learn to estimate distance and aim high so these arrows fall onto your target. Skill is required in this mode! FX RAY arrows travel instantly and do not fall with gravity. Physical bullets always fall with gravity, you do not have a choice with them.
FLAT PATH means NP and FX MOVE arrows do not obey gravity. They travel directly to where the cursor was when you fired. They travel at 30m/s so if the target is moving you can still miss. So a little skill is still needed in this mode.
MAGIC
UNITY 		One button switches between two kinds of damage done by this bow.
MAGIC means the arrows send Magic Bullet messages. All meters, targets, zombies, huntable animals, vehicles and other weapons that are set up for it will take damage. This is my recommended mode.
UNITY means the arrows send Unity System messages. Avatars wearing a Unity meter and other items designed for this system will take damage. You have to choose one or the other, one weapon cannot send both types of messages on the same shot. (Well it could, but some of my items take damage from either system, and would get double hits from a weapon that sends both messages).
DONE closes the menu. Most of the commands below change a mode then the dialog pops back up to change them again or change other modes. When you are done, press DONE. (Pressing IGNORE also works, but spams you with an annoying message later). It is best to always close the dialog before going into mouse-look mode.
HELP gives you a link back to this document

Setting up the Archer Bow Giver:

Drag a copy of the Giver onto your land and place it in a prominent position. Rez a copuple of the Effects prims nearby (they look like arrows). When people click on the Giver, it gives them a demo Bow and a Meter. You wear both of these (they go to the left hand and the upper left HUD by default) and then you are ready to go. The demo bows work exactly the same as the non-demo bows, but they only work on your land.

Lag Issues:

The bow is a non-physical object and is made from only 3 prims. The single script inside is event-driven and creates no lag on the SIM. The FX RAY arrows are non-physical and communicate with the bow using messages. The NP and FX MOVE arrows are non-physical which does use a bit of server resources, but only for a few seconds in flight. The physics arrows use a lot of server resources, you are on your own with those. Every effort has been made to keep the number of messages to a minimum, so there is no chance of creating chat lag.