13.2 STORAGE

(b) The New Stock button

You can use this button to scan for nearby products and then attempt to add them into the storage unit. This is done by the storage checking other storage locations that have share mode enabled (the default) and also by checking with any exchange units in the region. If the product is found in any of those locations it will be added to this storage unit. This is an easy way to change what a storage unit holds but is limited to only be able to add in products that already exist somewhere else in the region.

Note that the item needs to have P; at the start of the description for it to be recognised as a product. This is the normal state for any product that has been rezzed from a machine, plant etc. But if it is a new item you have made, simply set the description to P;

(b) Adding a product to the SF Store Barrel

Probably the easiest way to make storage for a new product you have created is to modify the existing SF Store Barrel. You can also pick up some empty ‘template’ storage boxes in the Mintor shop. The storage script automatically configures itself for any product in its inventory, so if you have a new product, just place a copy inside the SF Store.

Example
We will start by rezzing one of the simple storage barrels. Right click to edit and take a look at the Contents tab. You will see various scripts and notecards which are covered in more details in chapter 14. 

For now all we need to do is to drag our product item from our inventory into the storage barrels Contents. As an example, we have a dandelion petal product item that we wish to store, so we drag it from our inventory into the Contents area.

Once you have dragged the item over, click on the Reset Scripts button and you should see you now have a storage place for the Dandelion petals!

As well as the single item storage type that we have just made, we can make storage units that hold multiple items. There are two types we can make, the first shows the levels for all items in one block of float text. The second allows us to show multiple float texts for each item in the store.

Let’s start with the single float text type first since all we need to do is to drag another product into the contents of our existing storage. As an example we will add gardenia petals to the store.

Right click and select edit and again go to the Contents tab and drag into it the new item (gardenia petals in our example) then click on the Reset Scripts button and you will see we now have a store for two items.

We can add as many items as we like to this kind of store but of course if we add a great many it may be hard to read from a large block of float text, plus also the number of characters in float text is limited so you may not get all items listed.

We can use another type of storage that allows us to have multiple float texts for each item – you have probably already seen some of the storage units that do this such as the SF Basic Storage and the SF Storage Rack.

Creating this type of storage follows the same process as we have already done, but with some additional steps.

We will start with the SF Storage Template which is a simple cube that you can use as the starting point for your own designs.This is just an empty storage system so we can add products to it as before. For this example we will use the Dandelion and Gardenia petals again so we can see how this storage compares to the previous type.

The design of the storage system is very much up to you, but in this instance we will make a simple storage rack.

First we flatten the box to make a platform shape and we change the texture to a weathered wood.

Now we need to add a prim to act as an indicator for the dandelion petals and another prim for the gardenia petals. For this we will start with one of the SF Store Barrels that has a texture level prim, but you can use any single prim that fits your design.

This Store Barrel already has all of the storage components in the base prim but as we already have a base to use we will unlinkthat prim from the barrel store. Since we want indicators for two products, we then make a copy of the barrel and position both barrels over our storage base.
 

We then link all the components making sure the base is the last prim to be linked (so it is the root prim)

Now we need to set up the two prims that are going to be our level indicators. We set the Name of the prim that we wish to use for a level indicator to match the name of the product (minus the SF part) so in this example we will set one prim to be called Dandelion Petals and the other to Gardenia Petals.

As always, you must make sure the name and letter case exactly matches the product – for instance if we named one of the prims Dandelion petals then it wouldn’t work.

Now all we need to do is to add the SF Dandelion Petals and the SF Gardenia Petals to the Contents of out new storage unit. As soon as you do that you should see the level indicators for both products.

You can then change the textures from the blank white to something that matches your product.

If we want to go one step further, we can set up this storage unit so the indicator prims move up and down to reflect the actual product levels. To do this we need to calculate some numbers to put into the indicator prims Description

First make a note of the objects position – we only need the Z value

In our case it is 20.64764

Next we make a note of the indicator prims Z value for when it is showing us 0% and 100%

100% = 21.900

0% = 20.81450

Now we can work out the required values for the prim description

20.81450 - 20.64764 = 0.16686

21.900 – 20.64764 = 1.25236

So now we just need to set the prim Description to 0.16686,1.25236

Since we are only interested in the Z movement we can use the same values for both prims.

To check it all works, edit the config notecard and first set the initial level to be 100%

INITIAL_LEVEL=100

Save the notecard and reset the scripts and you should see the 100% indication. Now edit the notecard again and this time set the level to be 0%

INITIAL_LEVEL=0

Now when you reset you should get the 0% position.

Edit the config notecard to put the INITIAL_LEVEL value to the value you want to use (the default is 4) and you are all ready to start storing things!

Naming your store

You can rename your new storage item to anything you wish, such as SF Petal Store

If you intend to use the products in this store in conjunction with the AutoFeed option on animal feeders you just need to update the config notecard in those to have the same name configured. Also you may wish to add it to the upgradeables notecard if you are using the SF Updater-Storage

Share mode

This allows other items, such as the exchange, to access the storage unit and take a copy of any item. When they do this it does not affect the storage level. It is useful way for things like the exchange to be able to extend the range of items they have on offer to include new products.

Floating text

By default, a store will show the levels of all products it contains as one floating text list. For stores that have many items this can get a bit hard to read so you may wish to add extra linked prims to have float text over each one showing the status of individual products. E.g. for SF Olives the linked prim named "Olives" is used to show the text about the  current level of SF Olives. Note that the root prim will still show the levels of any stored products that do not have their own named prim in the link-set.

This is purely an aesthetic thing as nothing is stored in these extra prims.

Config Notecard settings

Probably the main config notecard item that you may need to adjust for your new store is the REZ_POSITION

# What level should storage start at when rezzed
INITIAL_LEVEL=4
#
# How much is taken/added on use
ONE_PART=2
#
# How many days before level drops 1 part
DROP_TIME=14
#
# What is the maximum this store can hold (100 gives stock levels in %, greater than 100 gives levels as e.g.  25/110 )
MAX_FILL=100
#
# ASC for ascending (A to Z) or DEC for descending (Z to A) sorting
SORTDIR=ASC
#
# Offset to rez item
REZ_POSITION=<0.0, 0.0, 1.5>
#
# How far to scan for items
SENSOR_DISTANCE=10
#
# Region product share. All shares with everyone,  Group only with same group, None  no sharing
SHARE_MODE=All
#
# Set to 1 to allow any member of the group to use the 'Add Stock' menu button, 0 to only allow owner
GROUP_STOCK_ADD=0
#
#Float text colour - set as color vector or use  OFF  for no float text
TXT_COLOR=<1.0, 1.0, 1.0>
#
# Brightness of text 1 to 10 (10 is maximum brightness)
TXT_BRIGHT=10 
#
# Default language
LANG=en-GB
#
# Change this if your products don't start with 'SF'
SF_PREFIX=SF

To find out more about the storage system, refer to chapter 14

Chapter 9 - Storage Wells & Irrigation

We have used the SatyrFarm Well and also the SF Water tower – these are both examples of the ‘storage well’ system. Items in this system gradually fill up and store one specific product and as long as the level is greater than the ‘one part’ setting you can take some of the product. For the SatyrFarm well it was water but we also can get rennet from the SF Rennet Container, yeast from the SF Yeast Container and sea water from the SF Sea Water pump etc.

There are various configuration options to allow you to put some restrictions on the system by specifying how the item functions. For example you can set that it needs to be close to something in order for the level to increase. You can specify an actual item or set it that it needs to be at sea level – the SF Sea Water pump is an example of the latter. We can also specify what ‘energy’ drives it and we can specify wind (like the first water tower we used that require a wind pump near them), grid (like the example shown in the section on electricity for setting water towers to use the grid), or ‘self’ (such as the SatyrFarm well)

	# Level to start at on rez/hard reset
	INITIAL_LEVEL=10
	#
	# What liquid is this system for
	LIQUID=Water
	#
	# How much to increase/decrease level by for one 'serving'
	ONE_PART=2
	#
	# How many days before level drops 1 part ('evaporation')
	DROP_TIME=2
	#
	# Offset to rez water buckets
	REZ_POSITION=<1.0, 0.5, 0.0>
	#
	# Set to 0 to disable menu and just rez product on touch
	MENU_MODE=0
	#
	# Set to 0 if you don't want to allow adding SF_WATER item via menu to top up level
	ACCEPT_PRODUCT=0
	#
	# Can be WIND, GRID, SELF or RELAY which relates to using Wind powered water pump, Electric pump, built in system or via another nearby storage-well
	MODE=RELAY
	#
	# In RELAY mode, where to get water from
	RELAY_WELL=SF Water Tower
	#
	# Set to 1 for clouds, rain and other effects
	WEATHER=1
	#
	# If WEATHER=1 set the range of the rain in m
	RAIN_RADIUS=35
	#
	# How often in seconds to increase level by ONE_PART if MODE=SELF
	WATERTIME=600
	#
	# SEA_LEVEL forces it to be at sea level to work. Can also specify item to scan for or remove/comment out if not needed
	REQUIRES=SEA_LEVEL
	#
	# radius in m to scan for REQUIRES item
	RANGE=6
	#
	# Default language
	LANG=en-GB

(A) Examples of the various settings

LIQUID=
This is the item that is produced such as water, sea water, yeast etc. If this item is not in the contents as a product (e.g if LIQUID=Water the the product is SF Water) the system will check with storage locations to try and find a copy and if it is unable to find it then it will show on float text that it needs that item.

MENU_MODE=
If set to 1 then menu mode is enabled and touching the item will give you a menu. If set to 0 this disables the menu and touching immediately rezzes the product. If you are using the NPC Farmer then the item that it uses to fetch water must be set this way.

ACCEPT_PRODUCT=
If menu mode is active, you can enable or disable the option to allow you to top up the storage well via the ‘Add’ button

MODE=
The options are WIND which requires an SF Wind Pump nearby, GRID which allows it to take power from the electricity grid, RELAY which allows you to link wells together and SELF which means it does not require energy.

REQUIRES=
If you enter SEA_LEVEL then the Z height position should be near to the regions Water Height setting in order for it to operate.
You can also specify the name of something that needs to be close to the well for it to work. As an example you may decide that for producing yeast, the well needs to be close to the SatyrFarm Distillery so you would edit the notecard to have the line:

	REQUIRES=SatyrFarm Distillery

If you do not require anything for operation, just remove or comment out the REQUIRES= line

WEATHER=
Setting this to 1 will enable anyweather or other special effects system. You can find more information on creating your own weather and effects systems in chapter 13.9

9.1 IRRIGATION

Plants, animals and mining all require water. There are various ways to get the water to where it is needed and you can use one or a combination of the following:

(A) Manual watering

You take water from any of the storage wells that are set to give water. As the SF Water is product, you can touch it and have it follow you as you go to the item that requires water. Don’t forget you can have more than one bucket follow you but don’t get to ambitious – 4 or 5 is probably a good maximum! You can also use one of the watering carts if you don’t fancy to much walking!
Manual water means you don’t need to have any storage wells near things but you do need to keep an eye on water levels, as if they get to low for to long plants and animals may die on you!

(B) NPC Farmer watering

The NPC farmer can be used to water plants and animal feeders. You need to ensure that there is a storage well within the farmers range that has menu mode disabled, since the farmer expects to just touch it to get the water.
NPC farmers visit items on a relatively random basis and only know if to water an item when they visit it, so if you have too many items for the NPC to manage it may miss items that are in desperate need of water!

(C) Auto watering

Anything that needs water has an ‘auto’ option. Turning this on means the item will look to automatically get water from the closest source. Check the config notecard to see if there is an option to set the source, if not then it will be looking for a storage well called SF Water Tower The limit for searching is a 96m radius. Note also that if the closest storage-well found is not in the same group as the thing requesting it, an error message is given. If you have plants, animal feeders etc. That are close to a neighbours water towers, you may see this error message and then need to either move your items or put a water source closer to them.
Generally the water level can get quite low before the plant, feeder etc. Calls for more water. If you have to many items trying to get water from the one storage well then it’s possible the well may not be able to fill up quickly enough to meet the demand, and so you should keep an eye on how much things use.

As we have seen there are various ways to configure these water towers:

Wind mode
The ‘SF Wind Pump’ will start gradually filling with water after it is first rezzed and when it gets to 100% (about 2 hours from a fresh rez) it sends one portion of water to the closest item called “SF Water Tower” (note though that the maximum distance between the two can be no more than 96m) The wind pump will now continue to send one portion at regular intervals (approx 15-20 minutes)
If the demand on the water tower is too high it may run out of water before the next load is sent from the pump. A wind pump can only supply one water tower.

Grid mode
When the water level in a grid mode storage-well drops below about 40% it will send a request to the regional (electric) water pump for more water. The pump first checks there is enough power in the grid and if so will start and send water to the requesting storage-well.

Relay mode
In relay mode you can set one storage well to get water from another storage well. As an example you could put out some SF Water sprinklers near your plants and set the plants to get their water from the sprinklers. Then you set the sprinklers to get their water from the SF Water Tower.

The blue circle shows the range of the main water tower and the green circle is the range of the water sprinkler. You could add more sprinklers anywhere in the blue circle to extend the range even further.

2.4 - Getting assistance

(a) The NPC Farmer

Perhaps you would like a ‘farm hand’ to help with odd jobs around the farm?

The pillar next to the water tower is the control system for an NPC Farmer (NPC means ‘non-player character’ see http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OSSLNPC)

We can have an NPC Farmer help us with some basic chores.

How does the Farmer NPC Work?

The Farmer NPC is constantly looking for farm items within range (set via the config notecard which we will cover soon). It will try to get water and then water plants with less than 30% water. The farmer will harvest plants and put their harvest in the configured storage location.

The farmer can also be set to cook slop and then store that away also. So the NPC Farmer can completely sustain a small farm, assuming that non-grass animal feeders have AutoFood set to on.

Troubleshooting

When rezzing an NPC , it should appear right in front of the rezzer box. If they are rezzed at the edge of the sim instead, this means you have closed access to your parcel. This will cause the NPC to fail. Please allow access to the parcel - the NPC will use the group of the controller and make sure age restriction is off.

If the farmer rezzes okay but just stands still, this is normally because the NPC rezzer box is set to a different group to the parcel. Click the rezzer to remove the NPC then change so that both land and rezzer are in same group. You should now find that the farmer sets off to the well as soon as it appears.

All currently available NPC Farmers

2.1 Setting Up OpenSim

(a) Opensim - Versions and configuration

The VivoSim system has been built and tested to work on the official release versions of opensim 0.9.0.1 onwards. It supports both XEngine and YEngine. Anything that uses physics will have a note to tell you if it is designed for one particular type or can auto-sense the physics engine.

Please note that if you use builds other than that from opensimulator.org things may or may not work as I can't test every version, unfortunately! 

(b) Setting Standard Permissions

Before using (or even rezing) any parts of this system in your region, you should ensure that you have the correct permissions for the required OSSL functions by editing the settings in the osslEnable.ini file (in bin/config-include folder) If you do not have access to this file you will need to get your region host to change them for you. Note that in newer versions of OpenSimulator you may need to copy osslEnable.ini.example to osslEnable.ini

Details on osslEnable.ini

  osslParcelO = ""
  osslParcelOG = ""
  ;osslParcelO = "PARCEL_OWNER,"
  ;osslParcelOG = "PARCEL_GROUP_MEMBER,PARCEL_OWNER,"

  ; osslParcelO = ""
  ; osslParcelOG = ""
  osslParcelO = "PARCEL_OWNER,"
  osslParcelOG = "PARCEL_GROUP_MEMBER,PARCEL_OWNER,"

Then add/edit the various function levels to:

; ThreatLevel  VeryLow
Allow_osSetDynamicTextureDataBlendFace = ${OSSL|osslParcelOG}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

; ThreatLevel  Low
Allow_osMessageObject = ${OSSL|osslParcelOG}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

; ThreatLevel  High
Allow_osMakeNotecard = ${OSSL|osslParcelOG}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

; ThreatLevel  VeryHigh
Allow_osGetNotecard = ${OSSL|osslParcelOG}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

Next, to make sure everything works as it should, change your active group to match that of the parcel that your farm is in. You should make sure all farm items are set to that group.

(c) Setting Permissions for NPC Farmer

If you plan to use any NPC Farmers then the following additional setting is required:

; ThreatLevel  Moderate
Allow_osSetSpeed=ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER,PARCEL_OWNER

Also edit your OpenSim.ini

[NPC]
Enabled = true

(d) Setting Permissions for fishing system

If you plan to use the fishing system then the following additional setting is required:

; ThreatLevel  VeryHigh
Allow_osForceDetachFromAvatar=ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER,PARCEL_OWNER

(e) Setting Permissions for VivoSim Exchange

If you plan to put out any exchange boxes then the following additional settings are required:

; ThreatLevel  Moderate
Allow_osGetGridLoginURI=${OSSL|osslParcelO}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

(f) Setting Permissions for Rental system

The default  ossl settings will allow the estate owner and managers as well as the parcel owner to use the rental system. If you are getting errors, or you wish to also allow group members to use it, you should set/edit the following:

; ThreatLevel  Moderate
Allow_osGetGridHomeURI=${OSSL|osslParcelOG}ESTATE_MANAGER,ESTATE_OWNER

(g) Dealing with errors

If you are getting permission errors make sure the above permissions are correctly set. You can get an OSSL Tester box at the VivoSim store on Mintor - rez this and it will check things are set up okay.

Next, to make sure everything works as it should, change your active group to match that of the parcel that you will rez the platform in. Anyone that is a member of that group will be able to interact with the farm.  That group should have Object Entry and Run Scripts permissions.

If you have any problems setting the above up,
please do use the VivoSim forums to get assistance.

(h) Selecting languages

This guide and the default settings for all items is to use UK English, however, you can change the language items used from the @ button on menus. You can also edit the config notecard to set the default language.

If your preferred language is not shown please do let me know and I will look into adding it.

We are also grateful if anyone wishes to translate this guide into other languages (see https://translate.vivosim.net)  

These are the default settings for all animals. For all animals touching them and selecting Info from the menu will tell you all about them. You can edit the an_config notecard in animals to change what they eat from and more.

* Pet Rock renamed to Living Rock from version 5.9 onwards

These are the default settings for all animals. For all animals touching them and selecting Info from the menu will tell you all about them. You can edit the an_config notecard in animals to change what they eat from and more.

Starter Kit – Basics

This platform contains everything you need to get started using VivoSim. If you are new to the system it is recommended to first get this box and rez the platform, then follow the tutorial at /information/user-guide

Once you have grasped the basics, you can then choose to expand if you wish using the various options in the other expansion packs.

Contents

SF Wind Pump
SF Water Tower
SatyrFarm Well
SF Feeder
SF Pig Feeder
SF Small Field
SF Square Field
SF Basic Storage
SatyrFarm Kitchen
SF NPC Controller

Pack 1 – Plants & Trees

In addition to the two fields found in the starter kit, this box contains additional plants and trees as well as two irrigation systems.

Contents

SF Big Tree
SF Maple Tree
SF Maple
SF Fig Tree
SF Olive Tree
SF Elder Tree
SF Oak tree
SF Horse Chestnut Tree
SF Walnut Tree
SF Coconut Palm
SF Flower Planter
SF Planter
SF Vine
SF Bramble
SF Marsh Field
SF Fungus
SF Wild Flowers
SF Physic Garden
SF English Herb Garden
SF Mediterranean Herb Garden
SF Fibre Crops
SF Water sprinkler
SF Water Tower (clouds and rain effect)

Pack 2 – Storage

Once you start expanding with new crops, animals, crafting etc, you will find the required additional storage systems here.

Contents

SF Storage Rack
SF Kitchen Storage
SF Fridge
SF Freezer
SF Spice Storage
SF Cake Storage
SF Bread Storage
SF Maple Syrup Store
SF Milk Storage
SF Meat Store
SF Dried Goods Store
SF Fresh Herb Storage
SF Herb Bench
SF Barrels Storage
SF Herbalist
SF Coldframe
SF Pet Supplies
SF Wood Storage
SF Wood Basket
SF Utility Storage
SF Craft Store
SF Crafting Storage
SF Clay Storage
SF Bulk Storage (juice)
SF Bulk Storage (slop & fish)
Bulk Milk Storage
SF Fuel Storage
SF Manure Storage
SF HaystackSF Vase
SF Store Barrel (yarn)
SF Store Barrel (wool)
SF Candle Storage
SF Keg Store
SF Barrel Store
SF Vase
SF Sea Water pump
SF Yeast Container
SF Rennet Container

Pack 3 – Animal extras

Once you start adding animals other than those used in the tutorial, you will need to have feeders specific to the animals needs. These are found in this pack. There is also a fishing system, bee hive and chicken coop. You can find out what feeder each animal feeds from using the ‘Information’ item on the animals menu or from the information at https://vivosim.net/help/animals

Contents

SF Feeder
SF Hog Feeder
SF Rabbit Feeder
SF Chicken Feeder
SF Tiger Feeder
SF Fish Feeder
SF Dog Feeder
SF Cat Feeder
SF Rock Feeder
SF Chicken Coop (standard and low prim version)
SF Beehive
SF Fishing
SF Fish Barrel

Pack 4 – Crafting

The items in this pack allow you to use the various products produced by plants, animals etc to make new items.

Contents

SF Crafting Workbench (2 styles)
SF Carpenter Workbench
SF Leatherwork
SatyrFarm Drier
SatyrFarm Loom
SF Spinning Wheel
SF Potters Wheel
SF Sewing Machine
SatyrFarm Extractor
SF Press
SF Shop (2 styles)
SF Smithy
SF Kiln
SatyrFarm Vat

Pack 5 – Eco converting

Converters take one ‘waste’ item and turn it into something useful!

Contents

SatyrFarm Compost
SF Quethane Generator
SF Privy (2 styles)
SF WC
SF Urinal
SF Potty (3 styles)
SF Toilet Roll Holder (2 styles)
SF Bookcase (2 styles)

Pack 6 – Food & Drink

If you have decided to use the HUD then food and drink are needed to keep you well!

Contents

SatyrFarm Wood Oven
SF Kitchen Oven
Extractor hood
SF Frying Pan
SF Hob
SF Sink
SF Salad Bar
SF Toaster
SatyrFarm Grinder
SF Hot Drinks Maker
SF Drinks maker (Soft drinks)
SF Drinks maker (Bar)
SF Blender
SF Ice Creams
SF Drying Rack
SatyrFarm Juicer (2 styles)
SF Cheese Maker (2 styles)
SF Butter Churn
SF Microbrewery
SatyrFarm Distillery
SF Wine Maker
SF Table
SF Seat (x4)

Pack 7 – Household

Although SatyrFarm started out as a farm, VivoSim extends into your house, turning it into a home.

Contents

SF Chair
SF Wardrobe
SF Wood Stove
SF Firepit
SF Shower (PMAC)
SF Dresser
SF Jewellery Box (2 styles)
SF Sink
SF Soap Dish
SF Bathroom Storage
SF Towel Rail
SF Bathtub
SF Bed (2 styles plus ‘bed prim’)
MLP Addon kit
PMAC Addon kit
Sit/Poseball Addon kit

Pack 8 – Region Power

You can use the items in this pack to set up a region wide power system.

Contents

SF Eco Generator – Water
SF Solar Panel
SF Wind Turbine (2 styles)
SF Water Tower (shiny style)
SF Electric Pump
SF Power controller
SF Generator
SF Charger
SF Electric Streetlight
SF Battery Storage
SF Treadmill
SF Electrical Addons

Pack 9 – Mining

You can mine and also grow various rocks and minerals with the items in this pack.

Contents

SF Mine
SF Pump Jack
SF Mineral Store
SF Gems (2 styles)
SF Gem Storage
SF NPC Controller (configured for SF Gems)

Pack 10 – Forestry

This pack adds new trees that are used to create woods/forests for growing and working withwood in its many forms.

Contents

SF Pine Forest
SF Maple Tree (doesn’t produce maple sap)
SF Small Maple Tree (doesn’t produce maple sap)
SF Birch Clump
SF Birch Tree
SF Larch Tree
SF Autumn Tree
SF Elm Tree
SF Shade Tree
SF Forest Store
SF Wood Seasoning

Contents - Extras

SF Saw Mill (updated version of that found in pack 11) 
SF Leaf Composter
SF Campfire
SF Firepit (updated version of that found in pack 7)
SF Wood Stove (updated version of that found in pack 7)
SF Firewood Store

Pack 11 – Large items

As the name suggests, various large items can be found here. Make sure to rez the platform somewhere with lots of room.

Contents

Red Barn
SF Silo Storage (3 styles)
SF Windmill
SF Saw Mill
SF Oast House
SF Shop (2 styles)

Box 12 – VivoSim Exchange

The VivoSim Exchange lets you buy and sell items. 

VivoSim HUD Box

Contains the VivoSim HUD along with other wearable items.

Contents

Main-HUD
Status-HUD
SF Pitchfork

Animal Rezzer Box

NOTE - The contents of this box are also found in the starter kit. You only need a copy of this if you already have the rezzer and a new version is released and you don't want another starter kit!

Contains the animal rezzer/updater and petifier.

Contents

Animal Rezzer
Petifier HUD

2.2 Starting Out

(a) Rez the first platform

Okay, so now we are ready to rez the "START HERE" platform (found in the starter kit) The platforms all show you what size they will be when you rez them, so find a suitable space for this platform (that’s all we will be rezzing to start with).

A good idea can be to press first, which activates the building Edit tool, so when you rez the platform everything will be selected and you can easily reposition it if necessary.

This platform contains everything you will need to get started and start learning how things work.

2.3 - First expansion

(a) Growing crops

As you saw, there are many more animals you can add to your farm and each one has it’s own particular requirements when it comes to food. In order to raise other animals you will also need to grow various crops and make certain products to support them.

The next animals we will have on out farm will be pigs but before we rez them we need to get the farm ready for their arrival since pigs don’t eat grass but do eat slop!

To make slop we need to grow some vegetables and we will start with potatoes. In the platform you will see two patches of soil a square one (SF Square Field) and a rectangular one (SF Small Field) which is the one we will be using.

Touch/right click it for the menu. You will notice that there are both the options Water plant and +AutoWater here (similar to the feeders) and you may choose to turn on the auto watering rather than having to do all the watering yourself. The choice is yours (since you can easily turn auto watering on and off you can try both ways and see what suits you).

Touch to get the menu and select Plant and you will see a list of all the plants this field supports. Select Potatoes and you should see them start growing. Plants go through three stages, the first being New. During this stage there isn’t much to do apart from make sure they stay watered. The percentage after new shows how far through this stage the plant is.

Follow the above to plant some Corn in the SF Square field (again there are lots of things you can plant, but corn is the one we will need soon !)

At this point there isn’t much else left for you to do – your animals hopefully are still happy and your potatoes and corn are growing. Now all we need do is to wait...

If you can’t wait you might want to skip to the next chapter and play around with some of the options available for animals!

(b) Nurture & Harvest

As we mentioned above, the first stage plants go through is New. After that they move into Growing. At this stage you can speed things up by adding manure. Manure comes from certain animals when they are adult, plus also from the compost bin. As our animals are still children, they don’t yet give us any manure, however you may notice that you do have a manure pile showing 4% The default setting for this store is to give you ‘portions’ of 2%, so we can take two lots of manure from here if we wish.

If you wish to speed up the growing process, touch the SF Basic Storage and from the menu select Get Product. From that menu select Manure. Then, like we did for the buckets of water from the well, touch the manure sack and it will move towards you and then follow you. Go and stand near the small field then touch it and from the menu select Add Manure. The manure will be added to the plant and you will see the percentage against the Growing stage increase. Depending on how far it was with the growing, it may hit 100%. If it doesn’t you can always add one more lot of manure, but do remember that’s all we have for now. Sometimes patience is most definitely a virtue when it comes to farming!

A short time after the crop gets to Growing 100% it will change to Ripe. Once ripe we can collect our harvest at any time. If we wait to long though and it gets to Ripe 100%, then a short time after that it will perish and we will get a Dead plant, which we don’t really want, so do keep an eye on your crops and harvest them any time during the 0 to 99% range. There is no advantage to harvesting them early or later other than perhaps helping you regulate how you manage and store items. Just make sure you do touch the plant and from the menu select Harvest before they die!

Once you have harvested from a plant, it’s ready for you to plant again. For the small field you can plant some more potatoes or if you fancy a change, plant some tomatoes.

You may notice there is an option for +AutoHarvest and if you select this then plants will automatically harvest themselves and then start growing the same item again.

(c) What to do with harvested items

When you harvest from a field, the crop appears above and you can move it around by touching it and having it follow you. Touch again to put it down.

IMPORTANT: Do not take crops into your inventory as they will become unusable.

Instead if we aren’t going to use the crop right away we can store it.

If you haven’t already, touch the potatoes so they follow you and go stand next to the SF Basic Storage. Then touch the storage unit and from the menu select the Add Product button. It should automatically detect the potatoes and show that as an option. If you don’t see it then you need to make sure the bucket of potatoes is close to the storage unit.

Click on the Potatoes button to have them added. You should see the value for potatoes go up by 2%. Congratulations, your first harvest!

The basic storage (as it’s name suggests) only holds the few items you will need with your basic farm. You may notice Meat and Skin as yes, animals do eventually die, hopefully from old age and nothing else if you treat them well!

As you grow your farm there are additional storage units you can add (in fact there is one platform just for storage items!) but for now the basic storage is all we need.

If you recall, we mentioned we were getting ready to have some pigs on our farm. Pigs eat slop which you can make from, amongst other things, potatoes. So let us have a go at making some!

(d) Making things

As well as rearing animals and growing crops, making things is an essential skill for being a SatyrFarmer! There are a huge number of things you can make but we will start with something basic but essential which is our slop.

We are going to use the SatyrFarm Kitchen to make our slop.

All ‘machines’ work the same way – we touch them for a menu, select the item we wish to make, then add the required ingredients. For some machines, we then have to sit at the machine to make the item but for others, such as in this case, we can leave it to make it by itself.

Start by touching the SatyrFarm Kitchen to get the menu and then click on the Make… button. This lists all the things that can be made but for now we just click on the Slop button.

You will then get a menu with buttons for all the ingredients that are required. At first glance you may think that it takes a lot of things to make slop! But actually if you look at the floating text above the SatyrFarm Kitchen, you will see that some items are shown together separated by ‘or’.

So for slop, we see we can make it with a bucket of water (which we get from the well) and a bucket of potatoes that we can take back out of the storage unit.

Touch the well to get the water, touch the bucket to bring it to you. Touch the Basic Storage for menu and select Get Product the select Potatoes. Again touch the potatoes to have them move close to you.

Make sure both those items are close to the cooking pot and then add them by clicking on the appropriate button (if the menu isn’t showing, just touch the SatyrFarm Kitchen again to bring up the ingredient buttons).

As we don’t need to do anything else, the slop should start cooking and we can see it’s progress.

When complete we will get our slop rezzed ready for us to either use or to put into storage.

You probably have it figured, but just in case, click the slop to have it follow you and then stand near the Basic Storage, touch the storage and add the product.

Depending on your patience level you can now turn more potatoes (or tomatoes) into slop and then store away, or just take a chance you have enough and move onto getting your pigs!

(e) Pigs

You will find the Pig Feeder near the windmill. Touching it will bring up the menu and you will see that it has options to add water and slop plus options to turn on auto water and auto food. Auto water, as before, takes water from the water tower but what about the auto food option? Well that is configured via a notecard that you can adjust (we will cover that in the next chapter) but for now we will go with it’s default setup which is to take slop from the Basic Storage.

So as long as you have enough slop in store, the pig feeder will automatically top itself up. Note though that unlike the ‘magic’ of water, you need to grow crops, harvest them and then make slop and store it away for the auto food mode to work. Now you see why we started with animals that like grass!

Actually we can reduce our workload even for auto food by using the NPC Farmer – more of that soon!

Okay so lets rez a couple of pigs. Like before, stand close to the pig feeder (or move the animal rezzer box close to it) and select Rez… button then Pigs.

Hurrah – our farm is really taking shape now!

At this point it’s worth mentioning that, just as in real life, expanding your farm is something probably best done gradually.

If you rez to many animals to start with you may not have enough food. If you try and grow to many crops at once, you may run out of water and so on.

That said, if things go horribly wrong, you can always delete and start again – such is the joy of virtual systems!