EDUCEDGE,

Getting Started with Scratch For Second Life (S4SL)

• Download S4SL
• Launch S4SL by double clicking “Scratch for Second Life”
  • Due to a bug, you may have better results if you drag Scratch.image and drop it onto “Scratch for Second Life” rather than double-clicking the .app or .exe file
• Log into Second Life
  • Resize your Second Life window so that it can be side by side with S4SL
    • To resize, drag it from the bottom right corner
    • Also, you can quickly switch between the two applications by pressing alt-tab (windows) or apple-tab (mac)

• In Second Life, switch to build mode
  • click on the blue “build” button at the bottom of your screen
• Create an object (a prim)
  • click the create button at the top of the edit window, pick a shape below that, then click the wand on the ground to create it

• Switch back to S4SL
• Start with a “hat” block
  • Click “control” to see the control blocks
  • Pick one of the first five of these orange blocks (like “when I am touched”), and drag it to the scripting area on the right.
  • These are the “hat” blocks. They are different ways to make a program run.
  • For example, “when I am touched” makes the blocks connected below run when you click on the object. Here’s what the others do:
    • “When I receive” runs when you chat a particular message.
    • “When I collide” runs when an avatar bumps into the object.
    • “When I am created” runs when the script is first saved, and when the object is rezzed (like when it is pulled out of your inventory)
    • “Forever” runs over and over, ten times per second.
• Add a command by snapping it onto the bottom of the stack
  • Most of the other blocks are commands.
  • For example, click on “looks” tab, and drag out a “say” block. You can change the text in the say block.
  • If you connect this below the “When I am touched” block, your object will say something when you touch it.
  • Experiment with other blocks!
  • You can also open up the sample projects that come with S4SL to get ideas.

• In S4SL, click the “copy linden script” button. This puts your code on the clipboard.
• Switch back to SL
• Create a new script for your object
  • In the edit window for your object, click more, click on the content tab, and click the”New Script…” button.
  • Double click on the “New Script” that appears.
  • A script window will open, and your object will run the default script (and say “Hello, Avatar”)
• Paste in your script
  • You want to replace the script that is there with the one you have on the clipboard
  • In the script window, select all, then paste, then save
    • If paste does not work, sorry! This is a bug that we are still working on. You can help us fix it by providing as much information as possible about the computer you are using. Here are some workarounds:
      • Paste into a text editor, select all, copy that text, and then paste into second life
      • Try a windows computer (so far we have only seen this problem on macs)
  • A quick way to do this is with the keyboard shortcuts
    • On windows: ctrl-a, ctrl-v, ctrl-s
    • On mac: apple-a, apple-v, apple-s
  • Once your script has saved, close the window and switch out of build mode
  • Now you can test your object. For example, click on it to see if it says something
  • Repeat! Try things out!

• Plants that react to people passing by
• A pet that does tricks when you give it chat commands
• Toys that change color, spin, or turn invisible
• A floor that reacts when you step on it
• A house with doors and windows that automatically open and close
• Interactive clothing or other crazy things you can attach to your body
• Whatever else you can imagine!

• Use your own sounds: the sound block lets you can type in the name of a sound you want your object to play. You will need to put a sound with this exact name in the inventory of the object.
• Make many: Try making a bunch of copies of your object, for example a whole floor made of “intelligent” tiles (like the image above showing the sample project “rainbow floor tile”). Just make a single tile, then shift-drag to copy one object, or even copy a group of selected objects.
• Make things that communicate: Use “broadcast …” and “when I receive …” to make multiple objects communicate with each other (see the “door” and “rainbow floor tile” examples)
• Memory: Use variables to store numbers in your object so it can remember things
• Logic: Use the conditionals if and if-else to compare things to each other
• Sharing code: To share code, you can try the “paste script” button. To use it:
  • In SL, open an existing object with S4SL code inside (say, created by another person who has made the scripts visible to you)
  • Open the LSL script window, select all, and copy it
  • In S4SL, click “paste script” to regenerate the blocks for that script
  • This is an experimental feature! Thanks to Jens Moenig for Squeak code to save and load scratch blocks in XML format. Any bugs introduced here are mine.

• The blocks in the “pen” category for drawing lines will not work unless your object has in its inventory a special object called “lineSegment.” Contact me if you are interested and I can get you a copy of this object (eric_r at mit dot edu)
• If you rotate your object using SL build mode, the move and point-toward commands may not behave as you expect.
  • One workaround is to use these blocks only with objects that you have not manually rotated.
  • For shapes that you need to rotate, or for more complicated shapes, you can link together multiple objects. Just be sure to put your script into a prim that has not been manually rotated.
• Special characters in variable names, broadcasts and when-I-receive may cause problems
• Scripts that have multiple loops running simultaneously, especially with wait blocks, may not behave as you expect
• Please do not resize the S4SL window (nothing will break, it will just look weird)