Union Micro

If all went well with the Havok 4 beta this weekend, Havok 4 is supposed to go live to the main grid today (Monday). That means the whole world will be converted to Havok 4 physics. So, in preparation I did some final rounds of Havok 4 testing tonight on the beta grid and everything seems to be working okay.

I tested the builders kit and parts seem to be positioning properly despite reports of warpPos being broken in Havok 4. I’ll continue to monitor this and if needed I’ll patch the “_mover” scripts in all of the parts. The “_mover” scripts are the temporary scripts that position your elevator parts on the builders kit pieces and then remove themselves. I may also have to reduce the speed of the rezzer as it tends to miss parts in slower regions.

One bit of really good news is that the Pacifica car is working flawlessly under Havok 4 now. This was the only car that was having issues and this was due to its size and a flaw in Havok 4 mass calculations. The Lindens have fixed the mass issues and the Pacifica car is now working as should be expected. They’ve also fixed avatar collisions somewhat so the ride in the elevator is a LOT smoother than it was a few versions of Havok 4 ago.

As of right now, all Union Micro elevators are completely Havok 4 compatible!

Update: As of Tuesday night, Havok 4 is still slowly creeping its way across the SL grid.

I mean come on, seriously. This is something I’m finding a bit amusing but annoying at the same time and it’s something all content creators go through – content theft/rip offs. My case isn’t so bad, but it’s so obvious that I can’t help but laugh sometimes.

What I’m talking about is people who rip textures off my elevators and then make their own elevators using freebie scripts. I came across a couple cases of this tonight. One person had “acquired” my button textures as well as my LED display numbers and is selling their own elevators using them. I don’t remember giving them permission to rip my hand-made textures and include them in their elevators. No matter how they acquired them whether it be some external program, print screen, or even via permissions that I overlooked.

I know I couldn’t live with myself knowing I had just plain ripped something off of an item that someone else made, and slapped a price on it and resold it. It’s one thing to use another product as a base and improve on it in your own product, but it’s another thing to use exact parts of it in your own.

I won’t name any names but I’m sure those people know who they are. ONE BIG FROWN GOES OUT TO ALL OF YOU.

Well, a couple days ago amidst the creation of version 2 of the elevators, I had the urge to make a tool kit as a break from elevators – and so I did!

Read complete info after the break!
Continue reading “Tool Kit Released”

We’ve decided to abandon the “money games” part of the arcade for a few reasons:
1) I don’t have the time to dedicate to:
a) finding a good balance for price vs reward/pot
b) marketing the arcade
2) They aren’t really used a whole lot which is to be expected since they kind of seem like an “after-thought”
3) I could use the prims for shop expansion – which is my main concern

As of this writing (March 24th, 2008) the following games are available at the noted selling price:

1 x Hokus Pokus ……………………. (L$2000)
2 x Zyngo ……………………………… (L$2000)
1 x Quince ……………………………. (L$2000)
1 x Shrooms …………………………. (L$2000)
1 x Syzygy ……………………………. (L$2000)
1 x Pipz …………………………………. (L$2000)
1 x Quartz ……………………………. (L$1500)
1 x Streetz …………………………… (L$2400)
1 x Pictz ……………………………….. (L$2000)
1 x Zyngo High Score Board … (L$500)

Continue reading “Games For Sale”

RentTrack has been updated to 1.2.4 and addresses a bug with rental termination notices. Simply select Update… -> Check from any rental box to get the latest package.

I’ve been hard at work on 2.0 and it’s coming along rather smoothly. It has quite a few more features than the version 1 elevators, and there’s no end in sight yet! So far I’ve spent well over 25 hours rebuilding, tweaking, and adding code! One of the major things I’m trying to do for 2.0 is add to the customization abilities, but I haven’t even started on it yet!

One bit of bad news though, I’m not sure how I’m going to do the updates from version 1 elevators to version 2. I originally intended on selling an update disk to update 1.0 to 2.0, but so much is being changed that I don’t think it’s going to work. We’re talking major changes that simply won’t work on older parts and can’t be coded in. Mostly these changes have to do with the layout of the prims for the cars, etc. I may be forced to either forgo the whole update package, or do it manually – which considering the sheer number of elevators sold could be scary!

After thinking long and hard, I’m opting away from a complete recode of 2.0.0. Instead, I am going to use 1.x elevators as a base, and branch 2.0 off from there. It’s been three years since I released a major elevator version (1.x being the only one) so I think 1.x has lived long enough.

I previously said that using the 1.x code base was a bad idea, but in reality it’s not. The only reason it was a bad idea at the time is that I had some extremely advanced things planned for 2.0 that I don’t think can be done with the 1.x code. So, I am going to hold off on those really advanced things and concentrate on extending the code, cleaning it up, making it faster, and adding a plethora of new features and abilities.

The good news for those of you who already own a 1.x elevator system – I will be providing an update path for you to update to 2.0. Mind you, this update will not be free as this is considered a new product (I.E. upgrading MS Office 2003 to 2007 is not free). There will be no price cuts to the 1.x elevators and they will remain available for purchase as a “cheaper” alternative to 2.0, and 2.0 will see an increase in price due to the new features.

As for the upgrade path, I will likely have an update pack product for sale that will cost the difference between a 1.x elevator kit (L$2000) and the price of a 2.0 kit. It will basically be an updater that you will rez and it will copy over the new scripts.

Join the Union Micro Support group, subscribe to our Subscribe-O-Matic, or keep checking back here for more news.

As a side-note, I want to remind everyone that after the next Havok 4 update all Union Micro elevators should be completely Havok 4 compatible!

I picked up two more games for the arcade today, Streetz and Pictz! I only have a single copy of each at the moment to see how popular they are. All the non-ticket games put 80% of each payment directly into the pot versus most other places that put 50% or less!

I started working on 2.0 tonight and was met with minimal success. That’s no big deal though, as you can’t expect to get too far in a single night. But while I was trying to implement some of the changes, I realized that the current 1.0 code-base just isn’t flexible enough to be morphed into what I want for 2.0, which is what I originally intended. Why reinvent the wheel?

I concluded that taking that path would introduce a lot of bugs and I should just start over from scratch. This means a clean slate without the restrictions of the 1.0 code, but it also means that I have no idea when 2.0 will be released.

In other news, the Havok 4 rotation bug reported in a previous post has been addressed by the Lindens and should be showing up in the next Havok 4 refresh! Hopefully this will make the elevators fully functional in Havok 4!

So now that 2.0 is officially on hold, I want to make some different products. I really want to make some sort of game, so that’s where my thoughts are right now but I’m having a bugger of a time coming up with a good idea! I want to be known for something other than elevators! *grin*

I’m pleased to announce that the Union Micro Arcade is back, and better than ever! It’s a continuous work in progress but the arcade now has a touch of a retro theme to it (but not too much) and it has many more games now!

I’ve rezzed multiple copies of all the L$1 ticket games so that everyone can play any game they want at any time, and the prize counter is chock full of prizes from Union Micro, Union Micro Home, and Level 10! So far I think we have about 30+ high quality prizes for you to win!

If tickets and prizes aren’t your thing, we also have some non-ticket games! Games like Zyngo, Syzygy, Pipz, Shrooms, and more – all set at either L$10 per play or L$60 per play for those who like to live dangerously. All non-ticket games contribute 80% of all payments directly to the daily pot. Since this is the first day of the “new” arcade, the pot percentage may be increased and the daily pot may be increased to maybe paying out twice a day or more.

I’d love to hear your suggestions! If there’s something I can add to the arcade that will make you keep coming back, let me know! You can get to the arcade by taking the main elevator to the 6th floor.