Hello everyone - It's been a while, apologies. Real life is much busier for Val and I than it used to be so progress has slowed significantly. With 2 new vehicle releases on the horizon, I thought I would make a post about some of the upgrades we have made to the existing equipment. This will be available to everyone with the Gear HUD 2.8 update (which will come with the next vehicle release).
All of the updated equipment (except for the ladders) will replace the current version in the new update. This means if your vehicle has the old model that you click, it will rez the new version for you to use.
Scene Tape
The old scene tape worked, but it was a bit fiddly having to go into mouselook. It relied on casting rays, which isnt always reliable; especially with phantom objects. It also only had 1 texture (fire and rescue) but the Sombre world has expanded since then.
The new scene tape has 11 textures:
FIRE & RESCUE / DO NOT CROSS
FEUERWEHR - SPERRZONE
Generic Red and White
POLICE
POLIZEI
Garda (Irish Police)
Politi (Norwegian Police)
Generic Blue and White
INNER CORDON / DO NOT CROSS
CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS
Generic Black and Yellow Hazard
With the tape in-hand you press C or Page Down to change the texture, then click the tape to start placing. It will place down the tape immediately with a little pole to hold it up. The tape will follow you as you walk and you can then click the tape again or press C / Page Down to place another pole.
You, or someone in the same group can then click the pole or the tape to remove it.
The new tape is much easier to use, and hopefully the new textures will allow for more variety.
Disc Saw and Chainsaw
The models for these were made in early 2020. They have served the fire & rescue services of Second Life faithfully for the last 6 years, but they were in dire need of an upgrade. Val has made gorgeous new models for both, and their sounds and functionality have also been updated.
The saws can still cut vent and climb-able holes along with the sound-only mode, however it is now controlled using buttons on the Gear HUD. You can turn the saw on and off, switch through various poses, and there are now particles that can appear when you use the saws. You can change through several preset colours / sparks.
Cones
A similar age to the saws, they were also starting to show their age. The new model is similar, but updated. It has a specular map so the reflective bit will be nice any shiny. The new cones have several colours, and you can change the "mode"; this means you can have the cones rez as physical or solid (non-physical) with with or without click-to-delete.
Halligan Bar
A new model, more poses, and it can now be controlled using buttons on the Gear HUD.
Ladders
The ladders have been completely re-made, both models, sounds and scripts.
Previously you would have to carry the ladder to where you wanted it, then click again to rez it. Now then ladder will rez straight from the gantry (truck mount). From there you can click "Move" on the controls and the ladder will move around in-front of you (like moving the training dummy). When you're happy with where it is you can click the ladder to place it down. From there, there are controls to raise, lower, and extend / retract the ladder. These actions also have sounds.
You can click on the ladder to show / hide the menu.
PPV Fan
The model for the fan is the same, though I have added a Normal Map. The main change here is that it can now blow out HD2FS smoke without needing an API channel - Thank you very much to Lares Carter for sharing the necessary information to make this possible.
