Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Here's a fun new update to the Really Useful Mega Weather Maker from The Really Useful Scripts Corner launching this weekend from The Really Useful Scripts Corner (a proud NWN sponsor) — a mesh-based rain system that drenches your avatar in real time! Even cooler, it’s compatible with select items from top SL brands Izzie’s, Salt & Pepper, Mina Hair, and Blueberry. 

Available only from the in-world store starting early Saturday SLT: Click here to teleport.

This announcement comes with a statement from Blueberry's legendary owner herself:

"At Blueberry we are always seeking opportunities to make our platform more immersive. We are thrilled to support this initiative to connect our apparel to the weather. Clothing that becomes wet when it rains? That’s brilliant. As simple as it sounds, it’s these details that truly form a wholesome metaverse experience right at home in our Second Life."

Watch the video above and check out the images below to see this effect in action. Unlike other systems, the Really Useful Mega Weather Maker has options for mesh not particle-based emitters, and is optimized to reduce lag

Here’s all the details straight from Really Useful Scripts Corner’s Grace Ling:

Rain effect on Blueberry items — click to enlarge!

I am pleased to announce that the 7th generation of the Really Mega Weather Maker, a flagship product of The Really Useful Scripts Corner, will be launched this weekend in my in-world store. [Click here to teleport]

This is the first weather system in SL that is not only smart enough to avoid rain coming inside your buildings; it now also allows your avatar to get wet by walking in the rain!

This feature was suggested by a customer using another best-selling product of mine, the Really Needy HUD, an up-and-coming roleplay meter used by different types of role-players in Second Life to simulate their avatars’ Hunger, Thirst, Energy, Health and other needs.

As featured on New World Notes in August, the Skin Effects feature enables Really Needy HUD users to have their avatar bodies and faces get dirty or tired or bloody depending on whether their Hygiene or Energy is low or if they got injured by a gun or explosive. Among the skin effects, there is a Wet effect whereby if you enter SL water or compatible swimming pools, the HUD will detect this and automatically apply a ‘waterdrops’ layer on your mesh body. Drops of water will also be rezzed automatically so that your avatar will emerge from the sea or swimming pool dripping wet.  

Now this “Wet” effect has been extended to the new “‘mesh rain’ emitter which is available only in the latest version of the Mega Weather Maker.

Non-particle weather effects

Particles are the default way used by scripters to simulate rainfall or snowfall in SL but the quality of the visual experience is dependent on a variety of factors like the graphics setting of the viewer, and whether there are other heavy particle emitters in the sim.

Besides using particles to simulate rainfall or snowfall, the Mega Weather Maker has a new option for sim-owners, which uses an alternate approach to animate a texture on a mesh surface. 

As it does not use particles, it could be useful in some sims where FPS (frames per second) rates are relatively low. 

By twisting mesh planes, it is possible for the snow to move in different directions (due to ‘wind currents’) for a realistic feel which cannot be achieved through particles.

Let’s Get Wet !

By collaborating with other content creators, I have given this ‘mesh rain’ special characteristics such as interacting with compatible hair and clothes to make them wet, and causing water droplets to appear on your avatar’s skin. This will not be possible without the support from the following brands:

• Izzie’s – for ‘waterdrops’ BOM layer / Skin Effects for Really Needy HUD
• Blueberry – clothes that have different levels of wetness
• Salt & Pepper – clothes that get wet
• Mina Hair – hair that gets wet

I hope more people can ask their favorite brands to make wearables that can get wet!

What’s next?

Beyond making avatar bodies, hair and clothes wet, what else could the next generation Weather Maker interact with?

I would like to invite content creators to use my API to make your products weather-sensitive.

Vehicles that would turn on their wipers when it rains. Houses with windows that become frosted when it snows. Plants and crops that would grow or die if they get too little or too much water from the rain. Trees and shrubs that get covered with snow. Icicle overhangs that form on roof edges if it has been snowing for a long time. We also need more outfits and more hairstyles that would interact with rain and snow. There are so many more possibilities, only limited by your imagination!

To explore, contact me in-world or leave a message through my website.

Other news on something else that can get wet: version 2 of Really Wet P***y was released a few weeks ago, in partnership with The V Bento. (Details are NSFW so just follow the link.)

More on Grace's SL Marketplace page.