So yeah… apparently my weekend is so dull that I resort to work to spice it up. Just kidding, i usually love doing what i do.

It’s still work though.

I’m pretty much done with the base bit code, it now detect if the bridle is attached and automatically display the lever straps. This means the bit is effectively a standalone item, you don’t have the bridle, it’s not going to look funky.

I corrected a nasty bug in the touchbound base system which prevented objects to detect sensing points that cannot receive chains, so i will probably end up updating every products once this is done. It’s not a showstopper but it creates an undesired behavior.

For some reason, the bit shank mesh i uploaded was 2000 triangles and, as I discovered today, had an extra hidden “side”, i also completely forgot to optimize it. So i did just that, 900 triangles now and a single side. It also looks a little sharper.

All that remains to do is the customisation HUD, lots of  (texture) uploading, and some tweaking to the garble code to make it more “bit” like, and less “ball” like.

I had to redo all the texture renders for the bit today, turn out I forgot a few things, there was a pair of rivet missing from the model ( !!! ) and none of the eyelets for the chin strap were done.

As i was reuploading the models i had an idea and toyed quickly with a few prims to add a pair of bit burrs.

Now for those that don’t know a lot about horses, bit guards and bit burrs are basically washer looking pieces of hard rubber or sometimes leather that are slid on each sides of the bit’s mouth piece.

The bit guards are used to prevent the horse to bite on the bit shanks instead of the mouth piece, bit burrs usually have little rubber teeth or stiff bristles on the side that face toward the horse and are used as a discipline device for horses that resist the action of the reins.

Now personally I’m a big fan of overkill looking ponyplay bridles, with lots of straps, metal pieces, blinkers and all kind of things that gives off a feeling of strict control, so I guess I could make a set of bit guard/burrs that could be attached and detached from mouth pieces a bit like the blinkers on the bridle.

The following pictures show bit guards and bit burrs. This is shown on the rubber bit because i do not have any other mouthpieces ready yet, but it would normally be for metal mouthpieces only, the rubber bit is just too thick for these. Also keep in ming the burrs would be real meshes, not prims, this is only a mockup.

I’m adding a poll on the side to see what everyone thinks.

Another update, texture rendering is done, and the mesh parts are imported in SL. I have to admit it might be a little difficult to adjust that thing, mainly because of the lever straps. However it’s nothing like adjusting a full prim object, here you have several meshes:

• The mouth piece.
• The shanks.
• The chin strap.
• The neck strap.
• The lever straps.

And all you have to do is to somewhat make them fit together. All the straps can be stretched in length and width with minimal deformation so that should be easy to work with.

And now, 3 more screenshots so you can see how it looks on me 😀

I worked quite a lot today:

• Mesh finalized.
• Unwrapping.
• Bump maps done.

Here, finally more work done!

I’ve redone the chin strap, made new buckles, removed the holes in the bit and the indents on the shanks.

Also a picture combined with the bridle, just to give an idea of what the final look should be like.

I pushed an update to the Ponyplay Bridle that lightly widen the blinker HUD to get rid of the black borders for 16:9 users.

I’m feeling better than I was monday. I’m not yet completely healed but for now it will do.

There has been a lingering bug in my HUD code that affected the paw mittens and the stuffed ballgag pretty much since day one, but a lack of consistent bug reports made me unable to pinpoint its location.

This is now corrected, after way too long, my apologies.

I will also now include a notecard change log for each future product updates, this way you can have a brief summary of the new features and bug corrections.

Sunday I came back from a little visit to my family and it was really hot. So I took a long cold shower and stood in front of a blowing fan. Today is the result, it’s the middle of the summer and I caught a pretty bad cold.

My time is spent sleeping , sneezing and trying to play a game or two. I hope everyone understand that, in my current state… I cannot work.

After a few morning scares ( my modeling tool would crash upon rendering ) I rebuilt the lever strap (there was a restriction I completely forgot about yesterday) and the chin strap. Added some rivets here and there, buckles and this is where I am.

I’m not entirely sure about this “doubled up” strap style that I used for the chin and lever straps. I think it looks alright but i don’t know…

I think I’m gonna make a more “meaty” buckle for the thin straps, the regular one (scaled down) looks a little flimsy.

I’m going to let this one rest for today and see if I can collect some feedback and comments about it, but otherwise, it’s pretty much ready for texturing.

I might remove the holes in the rubber mouthpiece and the matching indentations in the shanks. As it is now, they are more an annoyance than anything and won’t be visible in the final version anyway.

Today i made the rubber bit (pretty easy excepted I had to curve it just enough so the shanks would stay outside of the blinkers. I also did the neck strap and started on the lever strap, this one will appear and disappear automatically whether you are wearing the bridle or not.

I will also have a chin strap. This is so much work compared to regular prims, but the result makes all the difference!

For those wondering why a lot of my “in progress” mesh shots have a checkerboard texture on them, it is because I adjust the uvw map for a constant pixel density on the object and a checker texture is the most obvious way to test it.