ReneMarine Presents
The Tjalk
http://renemarine.blogspot.com/p/tjalk.htmlThe Dutch barge called "tjalk" was a very successful type of vessel for navigation in shallow
tidal waters. Massivly Built of varnished oak, with bows so bluff as to be almost square, a
straight sided box, made, like all Dutch craft, to slide over the water rather than through it.
And trademarked with immense wing-like Leeboards on each side to let down and supply the place
of a keel when going to windward.
The tall mast bears a lofty narrow-headed mainsail with a short curved gaff, and a forestaysail
from the bow. The great rudder bares along its upper edge a grotesquely carved and gayly
painted lion couchant, the most common of all rudder decorations. And as of much importance as
the familiar figurehead in ocian going ships. Hull and spars brightly varnished and casings of
polished brass.
The Tjalk is a Mesh boat and so it is required that you must use a Mesh Compatible viewer. This
sailing vessel has many familiar features and some new functionality.
LOA 6m
Beam 2.4m
Prim Equivalents 130 docked and 178 once seated.
INSTRUCTIONS
------- GETTING STARTED
You must be seated in the skipper seat before you can operate the boat. Right-click on the
steering wheel and choose "Board". If you unsit at any time, the boat will reset and become
non-physical until you start it again. When you are ready to begin sailing, type "raise" into
the local chat to raise the mainsail or Press the topmost button on the RM Hud 2 Control Panel.
To lower the sails and coast type command "lower"
To engage the AutoTrim press the second button (type command "autotrim")
To engage the engine press the fourth button and use the up/down arrows as the throttle (type
command "motor").
RealRudder Technology Steering for the most realistic sailing experience available.
* AutoPilot function
* Actual Functioning Instrument Huds with meaningful readouts
* clean low lag scripting
* Texturable Hull and Sails
* Manual Wind Setter and WWC Wind Setters
* Tiller Movement with 24 Poses that adjust to two sizes of avatars.
* Meaningful Sail Control HUD
And then there's the standard ReneMarine set of features
* AutoTrim
* Tako based controls
* switchable Active Camera
* Race Mode
* Sails can be made semitransparent with the alpha controls
* Passenger Controls
* Command Line assignable skipper
* Seats two. Skipper and a passenger
Much of the standard Second Life sailing practices are applicable to the Tjalk. But there are
some major differences that need to be noted for your sailing enjoyment. First among these
differences is the Rudder Based Steering RealRudder Technology.
------- RealRudder Technology Rudder base steering
We have become accustomed to steering the nose of the boat by pushing the arrow keys left or
right. The nose of the boat then turns Port or Starboard as long as you hold that key down
regardless of your forward speed, even if you are sitting still in the water you can turn the
boat around on a dime. In Real Life of course you cannot do this. If your boat gets turned the
wrong way, it can be a challenge to turn the boat back into the wind to get it moving again.
The RM20 Brings that challenge into Second Life.
------- Rudder Position Indicator
With the RealRudder Technology when you use the arrow keys, you are actually turning the
rudder. The Rudder Position indicator tells you the actual position of the rudder under the
boat.
NOTE: Press Both Arrow keys at the same time to center the rudder.
Note: Shift Right and Shift Left will move the rudder to the farthest position of either side.
If you have no forward motion, then the rudder will not affect your direction. You must raise
the sails and gain forward momentum and then the rudder will turn the boat. Just like a real
sailboat, the sails must catch the wind in order to move. If you lose the wind, then your boat
will slow down and stop. The boat will drift backwards when the wind is at your face and you
will have to use the rudder to turn the ship so that you catch the wind again.
------- Points of Sail
The RM HUD 2 is the tool that you use to determine the velocity of the wind. The wind
indicators point into the wind. When you are relying on the wind for propulsion you have to
keep the wind to one of your sides. It cannot be coming directly into your face because then
you will lose the wind. The wind cannot be coming from directly behind you because then you are
not able to make use of the shape of the sail to optimize your speed. The RM HUD 2 has regions
marked Red to the Port and Green to the Starboard within which the RM20 engine will operate
efficiently. You have to think ahead of your turns now because the arrow keys are not turning
the boat. The arrow keys are turning the rudder and the hydrodynamic action of the rudder is
turning the boat. How to sail your boat is a matter of a long lesson in sailing terminologies
and wind angles. Much has already been written on this subject which we need not repeat here.
You can read about how to Sail your Tjalk here on this web page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing
------- The RM HUD 2
The RM20 engine HUD is an advanced sailing device designed to provide information as you're
sailing your boat.
* Speed
* Depth
* Heading
* True Windspeed
* Apparent Windspeed
* True Windangle
* Apparent Windangle
* wind Angle
* Boom Angle
In addition the displays operate as a control panel so you can control the
following functions
* Control Panel
* Raise
* AutoTrim
* AutoPilot
* Motor
* Moor
The last button on each HUD is the red one and it toggles the function of the hud from the last
display to the control panel.
------- AutoPilot
A word about the autopilot. The Autopilot in the Tjalk keeps the Rudder aligned to push the
boat in the general direction in which it is engaged. So if autopilot is engaged and you press
Left and Right Arrow buttons at the same time. The boat will Tend to maintain that general
heading. However there is no way to control the slip of the boat as the wind pushes it to the
leeward side so you'll end up having to make corrections. We hope that the autopilot makes it a
little easier to control
------- Seats
The Tjalk sits One Passenger and the Skipper as follows.
Skipper sits on the helm
Passenger sits on the small pose ball in the center of the boat.
------- Wind Settings
The wind setter on the Tjalk automatically receives local winds from the WWC setter that it
passes. You can override these settings by issuing the Wind command.
* wind dir nnn
Sets the direction of the wind in degrees from North. So by example wind dir 270 will set the
wind to come from the west towards the east. If you enter wind dir 90 then the wind will come
from the east to the west.
* wind spd 00
Sets the wind speed in knots. So for example wind spd 17 sets the wind speed to 17 knots.
* wind
Resets the wind to automatic mode so that it resumes automatically accepting WWC from the local
wind setters.
------- COMMANDS
The commands can be entered into Local Chat.
(Note: the commands are case sensitive)
* raise - Raise the sails
* lower - Lowers the sails
* moor - Lowers the sails and park the boat
* autotrim / Toggles Automatic Sail Adjustment when in Cruise Mode (Disabled in Race Mode)
* motor - Diesel Motor Power
* c - Sets Camera Angle
* notecard - sends user this notecard
* hud - sends user the sailing HUD
* Up/Down arrows when motoring increase/decrease the throttle.
when sailing it increase/decrease the sheet angle.
(hold down the pageup button or the e button to
increase the rate of change of the sail angle)
* Left/Right arrows control the Rudder to port and starboard.
* Shift Left and Shift Right arrows send the rudder Hard Starboard and Hard to Port.
* Press Both Left and Right arrows at the same time to center the Rudder
* idxxxx / sets Race id.
* id off / turns off Race Mode and activates Cruising Mode.
* set dock - stores the current position of the boat on the boat
* dock - moves the boat to the position set on the boat with set dock.
Must be within 10M of that position.
* skipper Firstname Lastname - sets an alternate skipper who can take helm control of the
boat. Only one alternate skipper is allowed at a time.
* camera - toggles between Active and Inactive Camera
* alpha - sets the transparency of the Mainsail and the Jib.
alpha 100 is Solid
alpha 80 is a good setting
alpha 0 is completely transparent
* wind dir nnn Sets the direction of the wind in degrees from North. So by example wind dir
270 will set the wind to come from the west towards the east. If you enter wind dir 90 then the
wind will come from the east to the west.
* wind spd 00 Sets the wind speed in knots. So for example wind spd 17 sets the wind speed
to 17 knots.
* wind Resets the wind to automatic mode so that it resumes automatically accepting WWC
from the local wind setters.
* individual sail commands
There are two sails on the boat that can be raised and lowered independently.
You can raise or lower any of the sails listed below:
ms - Main Sail
jib - Jib
Some examples:
raise ms - activates the mainsail
lower ms - lowers the mainsail
lower jib - lowers the Jib
------- CAMERA ANGLE
Everyone has their preference for camera angles. This boat features the ability to change that
camera angle. The default camera position is above and behind the boat, and may be the easiest
point-of-view for beginners. Once seated, you may need to hit "Esc" to go the default view. To
change the default camera position in your boat you first must be parked in a Build area where
your boat will not be returned to your inventory. Then you must perform the following steps:
Be seated From the seated position at the captains chair as instructed.
Set your desired camera angle.
type the letter 'c' into the Local Chat and press enter.
The boat will respond as follows:
[15:34] : camera Set
[15:34] : Ready.
Stand up by pressing the Stand Up button.
Sit back down and press escape to see your new camera angle.
------- ACTIVE CAMERA
Active Cam - The Active Cam offers the driver an adjustable and dynamic perspective when
sailing. The camera view switches from side to side against the wind so that you always are
looking around the sails to get a clear view of the water ahead of the boat. The cam position
is dynamic and pivots to the Windward side when the sail moves with the wind. The position is
adjustable on the fly and retains the settings.
commands:
camera - toggles the Active/Fixed cam
Enter "camera" in Local Chat toggles between the Active cam and the fixed cam
pageup/pagedown (pressed at the same time)
when pressed simultaneously toggles the dynamic camera adjustment mode.
page up - moves the camera up
page down - moves the camera down
up arrow - moves the camera forward
down arrow - moves the camera back aft
right arrow - moves the camera to the right side
left arrow - moves the camera to the left side
There is no adjustment for the angle of the dynamic camera
Press pageup/pagedown simultaneously again to toggle the active camera back into normal mode
The active camera pivots automatically from side to side when the boat tacks with the wind.
------- Texturing
Hull Texturing
The boat comes copy/mod so you can color your boat as you please.
Sail Texturing
The sails are copy/mod so you can texture them to your taste. Add numbers and pictures.
------- SIM BORDERS
A note about SIM Borders. Most Sailing simulator regions cover multiple SIMs. The SIM crossings
are difficult at best and occasionally disasterous. SIM Crossings can be more difficult the
more prims and scripts you're pushing to the new area. The number of passengers on your boat
increases the difficulties of SIM Border crossings exponentially. When crossing any sim border
the results are typically unpredictable. That being said, it is best to make use of your
MiniMap to identify the upcoming SIM crossings. If you're going to cross a SIM border it's best
to hit that border head on perpendicular and not at an angle. That way you dont confuse the
next sim during the handoff. It's best not to be turning while crossing a sim border because
the handoff will send you spinning. Other things to account for are attachments that are
heavily scripted. Collars especially are troublesome. It is helpful to remove your scripted
attachments when running your boat across the sim borders. All these are helpful suggestions,
but sometimes the handoffs will still be difficult.
------- Finally
ReneMarine Yacht Building is happy to provide customers with Support. If you have any questions
please send a message to Rene Underby who will be happy to help. Second Life servers are
subject to frequent upgrades and SL Sailing can be a challenge in the best of circumstances.
When a bug is found in a product and fixed, ReneMarine will offer a free upgrade. No warranties
or guarantees accompany your purchases. No Refunds.
