Owen Oyen gave a nice talk on his boat

 

Transcript of talk

 

[9:29] Owen Oyen: I was just going to babble a few moments, and then answer a few questions, but there wont be many here so let’s be informal
[9:30] Owen Oyen: anyway, let me get underway here so I don’t keep y’all
[9:31] Owen Oyen: First, let’s start out talking by saying thanx to Tasha and Rav and Iz and the whole tradewinds crew for what they have done with this event
[9:32] Owen Oyen: what they have done with this boat show is huge work and they did it so people can have fun

[9:32] Patadx Pessoa: Owen, your boat crashed against mine, do you have insurance?
[
[9:32] Owen Oyen: I have excellent insurance and will give you the name of my lawyer, who is in Antarctica
[9:33] Owen Oyen: okay, the ACC is about 3 months old, in terms of how long she has been released to ppl
[9:33] Owen Oyen: I am my oldest alt, and she took 4 mos to build, with most of that my having to learn all the building tools and scripting language in SL
[9:34] Owen Oyen: The equations of motion embedded in her algorithms were imported from off-world and are intended to emulate RL America’s Cup performance. The primary aspect of that are her cambered airfoil sails. The performance is not only from trigonometry of wind angle. It includes aerodynamic lift in the upwind situation and this makes more narrow the no go zone. It also includes a great deal of wind power from the sails and hopefully correct hydrological friction estimate.
[9:34] Owen Oyen: The ACC is of dimensions explicitly compliant with the IACC 2007 Rule formulae.
[9:35] Owen Oyen: The boat has two features that I believe were new to SL when the ACC introduced them. Wind shadowing and wave motion.
[9:35] Janice Liotta: it is very realistic on the water
[9:35] Owen Oyen: ty
[9:35] Owen Oyen: She will take wind from other ACCs within her wind shadow. It is a downwind shadow and is at distances appropriate for her sail surface area. The distance is what is meaningful for racing. A shadow on small boats when the lead in a race is several 10’s of meters becomes meaningless and does not affect the race. The shadow on the ACC is more powerful in this regard, because of the sail size. Meaningful shadows prevents a lead racer from feeling safe. As is true in RL, an upwind boat has an advantage, even if it is the boat farther from an upcoming mark.
[9:36] Owen Oyen: The other feature that was new with the ACC was her 6 degree of freedom wave model, which I also imported from off world. She is a low script execution rate boat, probably lower than most boats in SL and therefore less demanding on sims, and at that low rate the wave motion in pitch and yaw seems to look as it should for a RL boat. You have probably seen ACCs bobbing in waves here at Tradewinds and elsewhere.
[9:36] Owen Oyen: That motion is visible not only to onlookers, but to the skipper and passengers too. It is a slight pitching of the horizon on your monitor screen. When the boat is underway, at certain points of sail, the heading (yaw) will also react to the power application from the waves to the hull. This creates several degrees of heading variance that a skipper must deal with during a race.
[9:37] Owen Oyen: A new development which I hope is only a few weeks in the future is a tide/current/terrain-affected wind model from off world. The terrain from SL sailing sims is being collected and exported to an off world model. Current estimates and wind variance estimates will be created by that model.
[9:37] You: wow
[9:37] Owen Oyen: Boats with perhaps 3-4 extra lines of script code can transmit their current position and velocity to the model at a slow rate (perhaps every 6 seconds). The model will then reply with values of current for where the boat should be when the communication completes its round trip, with also values around that projected position to address the possibility that the boat turned during the intervening time.
[9:38] Owen Oyen: Though 6 seconds is a long time, boats cannot turn instantly to a new perpendicular heading so the projection should usually be accurate. The boat then picks the right value for its present position and applies it to its performance. This looks to me to be easy for a script.
[9:38] Owen Oyen: The webserver with the model is not mine and belongs to an ecologist in Scotland, who believes that it will be possible to offer this to the sailing community for free. The code to support this on the ACC I intend to offer to the sailing community for free. If web traffic becomes overwhelming, then this feature may never be much more than a demonstration project, but our present thinking is that at no one time will there be so many boats requesting data that there will be any significant load on the webserver. We’ll see. It is an interesting project, regardless.

[9:40] Owen Oyen: well a moment more about the wind shadow
[9:40] Owen Oyen: for you avid racers, wind shadowing that I have been watching here at TYC and over at Sanchon
[9:40] Owen Oyen: has changed racing in SL
[9:41] Owen Oyen: if you are ahead, and downwind
[9:41] Owen Oyen: you are in trouble and must worrry
[9:41] Owen Oyen: because a good racer behind you will take your wind and pass you
[9:41] You: just like RL
[9:41] Owen Oyen: and You lose
[9:41] Owen Oyen: haha
[9:41] Owen Oyen: and if you are on a downwind leg to the finish line, he wins
[9:41] Patrick Leavitt:
[9:41] Owen Oyen: yes, the upwind boat has the advantage, even if behind
[9:42] You: it makes sailing the boat so realistic
[9:42] Owen Oyen: there is a small enough group here that I am going to go get on that boat out there behind you guys
[9:42] Owen Oyen: and activate the wave model, so you can see it, if you have not before
[9:42] Owen Oyen: but first, other questions
[9:43] JeanCarlo Kepler: and whats the range of the wind shadowing ?
[9:43] JeanCarlo Kepler: effect*
[9:43] Tasha Kostolany: Owen I noticed you made a smaller (shorter) version are you going to sell that one to?
[9:43] Janice Liotta: is the ACC an appropiate sail boat for a beginner, or a fair-weather sailor. someone who enjoys sailing but not racing
[9:43] Owen Oyen: I have no shorter version T. This is the boat, and size is dictated by the IACC Rule Formula. I know you would LIKE her to be smaller . . . . hahahahah
[9:43] You: it’s very easy to sail Janice
[9:44] You: just don’t get hung up on a rock
[9:44] Janice Liotta: joja, you have an acc?
[9:44] You: yes
[9:44] Owen Oyen: JC, the distance of the shadow is actually wind speed dependent. What the math says and what matters for the boat are different, but you can depend on shadow for several 10’s of meters of distance
[9:44] You: I haven’t had much practice with her tho
[9:44] JeanCarlo Kepler: ok (= thnks
[9:45] Owen Oyen: and boat leads in SL for competitive racers seem to be no more than 50 meters unless someone hits rocks hahhaah

[9:45] Janice Liotta: why be careful of the rocks?
[9:45] You: just like in RL, the keel will get hung up
[9:45] You: and you have to backwind your way off them
[9:45] Janice Liotta: but it doesn’t hurt the boat
[9:45] Janice Liotta: right?
[9:45] You: lol, no

[9:45] Owen Oyen: well, Janice, if you hit rocks like the great new terrain out to the west here at TYC, your boat grinds to a stop and your opponent wins
[9:46] Owen Oyen: the boat will not be hurt, but your feelings will be
[9:46] Janice Liotta: i’ll float a ballon to lift the boat

[9:46] Owen Oyen: because your opponent will laugh at you

[9:46] Patadx Pessoa: Owen, what about customization of ACC?

[9:46] Owen Oyen: Customization . . . There is a lady named Elisha Paklena
[9:46] Owen Oyen: a cat, actually
[9:47] GoSpeed Racer: cat-dragon
[9:47] Tasha Kostolany: is the boat modifiable?
[9:47] Owen Oyen: who has a full mod version of the unscripted hull and she has asked me to let her try first for a time, so I said yes. After she has tried, I would hope to let people to a FAR better job of making her pretty than I can
[9:47] Tasha Kostolany: awww
[9:48] Owen Oyen: so call it a few weeks, if you have an ACC I will let anyone customize who wishes
[9:48] Owen Oyen: except the scripts, those will put you to sleep at the monitor
[9:48] Tasha Kostolany: lol

[9:48] Janice Liotta: if someone buys one today, and the customized version comes out, can the owner upgrade?
[9:49] Owen Oyen: all upgrades to this boat are FREE
[9:49] Owen Oyen: ALL UPGRADES
[9:49] Owen Oyen: that includes the current/tide model

[9:49] Patadx Pessoa: and about sails? do you have some triks to mod it, somethings like to drag a texture on it like tako does.
[9:49] Patrick Leavitt: /sweet!

[9:49] Janice Liotta: even if it cost, are there version numbers for the acc?
[9:49] Janice Liotta: could version 1.3 be upgraded to version 1.4 or 1.5, for instance
[9:50] Owen Oyen: I confess my customization skills . . . . suck. I have done some modified sails for people, but . . . they suck. So I am anxious to let people do their own, so that means the answer to the question is, I have no tricks you would want to use
[9:50] Patrick Leavitt: hahaha
[9:50] Patadx Pessoa: thanks Owen
[9:50] Owen Oyen: np

[9:51] Janice Liotta: can the color of the hull and sail be modified
[9:51] Owen Oyen: the underlying texture affects the color, but there are about 6-8 that I put in the script
[9:51] Janice Liotta: commandable = modifiable?
[9:51] Owen Oyen: commandable means you issue a command and the color changes to one of the options
[9:52] Owen Oyen: okay I see yawns out there, let’s fly out to the boat and look at the waves
[9:52] Owen Oyen: okay? other questions?
[9:52] Janice Liotta: no
[9:52] Owen Oyen: okies

**** Owen moves out to his boat that’s anchored in the water****

[9:53] Owen Oyen shouts: you should be able to see the waves in the harbor moving the boat
[9:53] Owen Oyen shouts: as long as no one edits her
[9:53] Owen Oyen shouts: hahahahah
[9:54] Owen Oyen shouts: the wave model is a composite of multi phased sinusoids
[9:54] Owen Oyen shouts: in rotational and linear axes
[9:54] Owen Oyen shouts: the sails are all done with up/down arrow
[9:54] Owen Oyen shouts: steering with left/right arrow
[9:54] Owen Oyen shouts: she is NOT a tako. There is no raise, no lower, no moor
[9:54] Owen Oyen: you get underway with an owner click to the decking

[9:54] Janice Liotta: can you change the colors to show us how it looks
[9:55] Owen Oyen shouts: you get underway with an owner click to the decking
[9:55] Owen Oyen shouts: you may notice she is drifting
[9:55] Owen Oyen shouts: that is part of the 6 degs of freedom of the waves
[9:55] Janice Liotta: no. cannot see that
[9:56] You: she’s drifting closer to the dock
[9:56] Owen Oyen shouts: ack
[9:56] Owen Oyen shouts: yes, I think she is drifting, and she should, artificial current in the harbor

[9:56] Konradin Kappler shouts: Do you model seasickness as well ?

[9:56] Owen Oyen shouts: now let me say one more thing about shadow and then let you all stroll around and see the other boats
[9:57] You: lol Konrad
[9:57] Owen Oyen shouts: Seasickness is carefully modeled by a wet cloth next to the monitor
[9:57] Patadx Pessoa: lol
[9:57] Owen Oyen shouts: but dedicated racers will not let seasickness stop them from WINNING
[9:57] IAm Zabelin: lol, can i use it pls
[9:57] Owen Oyen shouts: sure
[9:57] Janice Liotta: chum for the fishies
[9:58] Owen Oyen shouts: Okay last thing about . . . gross

[9:57] Janice Liotta: ‘raise’ raises the sails. how do you lower them?
[9:58] Owen Oyen: The sails lower, and in fact the whole boat disappears, by simply standing up. This keeps litter on the SL seas minimum
[9:59] Owen Oyen: BUT
[9:59] Owen Oyen shouts: you must always politely ask your passengers to stand up and fly before you stand up, or they will dunk
[9:59] Owen Oyen shouts: so Saul, could you stand and fly
[9:59] IAm Zabelin: dunk him Owen
[9:59] Saul Milo: sure!
[9:59] Owen Oyen shouts: like so
[9:59] You: lol

[9:58] Owen Oyen shouts: last thing about shadowing, the shadow is ONLY on other ACCs. So if you are racing a cat, do not expect to steal the wind from another boat

[10:00] Janice Liotta: does the acc come with a model that can stay at anchor
[10:00] Saul Milo: awesome boat, Owen!
[10:00] IAm Zabelin: brilliant stuff Owen!
[10:00] Owen Oyen shouts: thank you for coming, folks, one never knows if no one will show up
[10:00] IAm Zabelin: their loss
[10:00] Patadx Pessoa: Thanks Owen
[10:00] Janice Liotta: thank you for the demonstration owen
[10:01] Owen Oyen shouts: No problem, Saul, and any other 2 ppl who want to go for a ride?????
[10:01] Saul Milo: im ready!
[10:01] IAm Zabelin: thx, brilliant stuff as always