Gallows with 1-20 scaffolds, sex animations, and hoist & variable drop hangings.
*** UPDATED! This new version of the Bright Gallows is a major update, and brings many new features! ***
The Bright Gallows is a highly configurable gallows system for Second Life roleplay.
Use the automated rezzer to erect a row of between 1 and 20 scaffolds, with one or more stairways placed where you wish. (A single scaffold gallows has a land impact of 34 - a gallows with 20 scaffolds requires 290).
To use a scaffold, simply "sit" on it. You will be asked if you wish to be victim, or executioner: each scaffold can accommodate one of each.
If you are a victim, click the scaffold for a choice of hangings with different "drop" lengths: no drop, short drop, or long drop - the longer the drop, the higher the chance of your neck breaking, causing instant death. If you survive the drop, though, you'll struggle on your rope unable to breathe, dying a random time later.
Or if you choose a "hoist" hanging, a sack counterweight at the rear of the gallows will fall, pulling the rope up, lifting you off your feet to slowly asphyxiate.
And if you are an executioner, control of the scaffold is transferred from the victim to you. You may choose to have sex with your victim, with a choice of different sexual positions, or to pull the lever to begin their hanging.
You may even begin a hanging, and then reprieve your victim, returning them - still noosed - to the trapdoor. So you might begin a "hoist" hanging, lifting them off their feet to kick and struggle for breath, and then lower them to let them recover, have sex with them, then hoist them again...
And if you have set up a gallows with multiple scaffolds, and there are multiple victims, a single executioner may also choose to hang them *all* simultaneously!
The executioner also has their own menu of actions and poses, allowing them to stand, sit, pace, and even dance.
The experience is richly detailed. The victim is animated standing bound and noosed on the trapdoor, struggling as they hang, and after death, turning slowly at the end of their rope. The executioner may choose to sit, stand, pace, masturbate, even dance mockingly as their victim awaits their fate. And you will hear sounds: the crack of the trapdoor falling, the creaking of the rope as the victim struggles, even the breaking of a neck.
A menu driven texturing system allows textures to be chosen individually, or any of eleven "schemes" of textures to be applied all at once. The gallows can therefore have a rough, wooden "wild west" appearance, a cold, dystopian all steel construction, or whatever fits in best with your venue and sense of immersion.
Sounds and animations may all be adjusted without scripting. You can change the range of random periods for which a victim may struggle, the chances of instant death in a particular hanging style, or the volume at which sounds play. You can even replace animations or sounds with your own!
In all, the Bright Gallows is an immensely flexible and scalable toy, suitable for anywhere from a town from the old American west, to a dark BDSM themed dungeon. Whether you are looking for a piece of atmospheric site dressing, or a tool for dark sexual roleplay, the Bright Gallows can be configured to provide it.
OWNER'S GUIDE:
1. UNPACKING AND REZZING YOUR GALLOWS 2. USING THE GALLOWS AS A VICTIM 3. USING THE GALLOWS AS AN EXECUTIONER 4. CHANGING TEXTURES 5. TIPS
TECHNICAL GUIDE:
Please note! The topics below are rather technical, and you don't need to read them to rez, layout, texture, and use your gallows.
They are provided purely for those familiar with Second Life editing, who wish to experiment with hacking the gallows to modify or replace animations or sounds, or create unusual, site-specific gallows layouts.
6. TECHNICAL GUIDE 6.1 MANUALLY LAYING OUT YOUR GALLOWS (& USING WALKWAYS) 6.2 ADDING, REPLACING, AND MODIFYING ANIMATIONS 6.3 REPLACING OR REMOVING SOUNDS
Begin by finding the object "Bright Gallows boxed" in your inventory, and dragging it onto the ground to rez it.
Right-click the box to show its pop-up menu, select "Open" to display its contents window, and click the "Copy To Inventory" button at the bottom. This will create a new folder in your inventory, also called "Bright Gallows boxed".
In this folder, you will find the "Bright Gallows Rezzer".
Drag this onto the ground to rez it.
The rezzer takes the form of a plan or layout, lying flat on the ground to demonstrate the size and shape of the gallows.
When first rezzed, the layout will show a gallows with a single scaffold, with a stairway on its left.
To change this, click the rezzer to display this menu:
[#1] 1 scaffold, stairs on left [1#] 1 scaffold, stairs on right [#2] 2 scaffolds, stairs on left [2#] 2 scaffolds, stairs on right [#3] 3 scaffolds, stairs on left [3#] 3 scaffolds, stairs on right [#4] 4 scaffolds, stairs on left [4#] 4 scaffolds, stairs on right [2#2] 4 scaffolds, stairs in middle [CUSTOM] Create a layout [REZ] Rez your gallows! [MORE >>] See more layouts
Each button on this menu offers a different layout. The numbers 1 to 5 represent groups of scaffolds, and the # symbol represents a stairway.
So if you'd like four scaffolds with the stairway on the right, click the [4#] button. The rezzer on the ground will immediately reshape itself to show the layout you've chosen. You can safely experiment: nothing will be rezzed until you are ready.
To see more layouts, click [MORE >>]. There are four pages of layouts available, showing layouts with increasing numbers of scaffolds. The largest is [#55#55#], representing 20 scaffolds, with stairways left, middle, and right.
Try a few layouts, and see which ones you prefer, and will fit in the space you have available. And move or rotate the layout until it is positioned exactly where you want your gallows to stand. Bear in mind that the gallows will be 6m tall, reaching to the top of the sign displayed above the rezzer.
Make sure...
1. You have chosen the layout you want
2. The rezzer is positioned and rotated exactly where you want your gallows to stand
3. The rezzer is entirely within your parcel, and does not cross parcel borders
Then click the rezzer to display its menu, click the "REZ" button, click "YES, REZ!" to confirm, and finally when asked for permission to change object links, click "Yes".
Your gallows will now be rezzed, and then after a few seconds, the rezzer will disappear.
Though the gallows will work without it, if you can, we *strongly* recommend you enable the "Bright Experience" on your parcel. If you do, the gallows will "remember" both permissions given by its users, and any adjustments they make through the gallows' menus to their avatar's position, or the fitting of their noose.
To do this...
1. Right-click the ground and select “About Land...”
2. In the “About Land” window, click the “Experiences” tab
3. By the “Allowed Experiences” list, click “Add...”
4. Enter “Bright” in the search box, and click “Go”
5. Highlight “Bright Experience” in the list, and click “OK”
To use the gallows, right-click a scaffold to display its pop-up menu, and select "GET ON!"
A menu will pop-up asking if you wish to be victim, or executioner: click [VICTIM].
The gallows will ask for permission to attach a noose: grant it. (If the Bright Experience has been enabled on the parcel, you will not have to grant this permission again.)
The noose will appear around your neck, and you will be positioned on the trapdoor.
If the noose does not fit you well, click it to display an adjustment menu. (If you can't click it because your hair covers it, or it is embedded in your neck, say "/1 NOOSE" in chat instead.)
The menu will offer buttons allowing you to make the noose bigger or smaller, thicker or thinner, or to move it up, forwards, backwards, left, or right. Adjust it as you need. (If the Bright Experience has been enabled on the parcel, your noose's settings will be applied automatically next time you use the gallows.)
Now click the scaffold for your main menu.
[ADJUST] Move your avatar up or down [CUFFS] Get cuffs [DISMOUNT] Get off the gallows [HANG] Execute yourself
If you avatar's feet are a little above the trapdoor, or embedded into it, click [ADJUST]. This will let you adjust your avatar's vertical position. (If the Bright Experience has been enabled on the parcel, this adjustment will be applied automatically whenever you use the gallows in the future).
Click [CUFFS] for free cuffs. You will receive a folder called 'CUFFS - Right-click folder & 'Wear Items''. Open your inventory, find the folder, right-click to display the pop-up menu, and select "Wear Items".
Click [DISMOUNT] to leave the gallows. (You can also simply click the "Stand" button at the bottom of your viewer.)
Click [HANG] to be offered a choice of hanging styles:
[RAISE] Drag up and asphyxiate [NO DROP] Fold trap and asphyxiate [SHORT DROP] 80cm drop/50% breakneck [LONG DROP] 2.5m drop/100% breakneck [RANDOM] Apply random method
Simply choose one to trigger your hanging.
At any time during your hanging, you may click the scaffold to redisplay the menu. A new option called [RESTART] will be on it - selecting this will return you to the trapdoor.
Note that both the [HANG] and [RESTART] buttons will only be available to you if there is no executioner on your scaffold. If an executioner is present, control over these options is passed to them.
Begin by right-clicking a scaffold to display its pop-up menu, and selecting "GET ON!": when the menu appears asking your role, click [EXEC].
You may now click the scaffold for your main menu:
[SEX] Have sex with Jane Doe [HANG] Execute Jane Doe [HANG ALL] Execute all victims [REMOVE] Remove Jane Doe from scaffold [ADJUST] Move your avatar up or down [ACTION] Perform an action [DISMOUNT] Get off the gallows [RESTART ALL] Return all victims to trapdoors
Click [SEX] to display a menu of sexual positions: choose one to have sex with your victim.
Click [HANG] to be offered a menu of hanging styles - see the victim's section above for a list of the options available. Choose a style to trigger a hanging. Note that at any time while the victim is hanging, you may click the scaffold and select [RESTART] from the menu to return them to their trapdoor.
If the gallows has mutliple scaffolds, carrying multiple victims, click [HANG ALL] to hang all of them at once.
You will be offered the usual choice of hanging styles, plus two special options:
[RAND/MIX] Mixed random methods for all [RAND/SAME] Same random method for all
If you click [RAND/MIX], then each victim may hang in a different random way: one may be raised off their feet, while another suffers a long drop.
But if you click [RAND/SAME], a random hanging style will be chosen, but then that style will be applied to all victims. For instance, a short drop hanging may be randomly selected, and then all the victims will suffer a short drop hanging at once.
Click [REMOVE] to "unsit" the victim, forcing them to vacate the scaffold.
Click [ADJUST] to adjust your avatar's vertical position. This option is the same as the option offered to victims (see above).
Click [ACTION] to choose from a menu of activities. You may stand, sit, pace, masturbate, or even dance to mock your victim.
Click [DISMOUNT] to leave the gallows (or simply click the "Stand" button at the bottom of your viewer screen).
If your gallows has multiple scaffolds, with multiple victims currently being hanged, click [RESTART ALL] to return them all to their trapdoors.
Begin by displaying the configuration menu, by clicking a scaffold, and holding down your mouse button until it appears. It offers three options to change your gallows appearance:
[PLATFORMS] Retexture the main platforms [JOINTS] Retexture the platform joints [SHINE] Set shine levels
Click [PLATFORMS] to be offered a menu of textures to be applied to the platform surfaces of your gallows. You will be offered options including planked wood, polished steel, rusted steel, or even sci-fi style textures.
Click [JOINTS] for a menu of textures to be applied to a few special mechanical surfaces, such as the hinges joining the trapdoor to the platform, the pulleys carrying the rope, and the slider mechanism beneath the gallows.
Click [SHINE] to adjust the level of shine on either the platforms, or the joints. Second Life offers four levels of shine: "OFF" (ie. none), LOW, MID, and HIGH, so there are eight options on this menu. For instance, clicking [PSHINE HIGH] will make the gallows platforms very shiny.
When you change the textures of your gallows, it will change the texture of all gallows belonging to you on the same parcel.
* By all means rez only a single scaffold if one noose is all you wish to see. But if you haven't settled firmly on this, and have space, consider including a few scaffolds in your layout. Your gallows will still be usable by individuals and couples, but entire groups may enjoy roleplay, and a single executioner can use the "hang all" facilities to dominate a group - having at least a few nooses allows a much wider range of play.
* Spend some time choosing the right textures for your venue. The emotional impact or "vibe" of the gallows can be shifted greatly by changing their appearance.
* If you are confident using the Second Life editor, and like experimenting, see the technical guide below to learn how to add your own favourite animations for executioner "actions" or sex. Let your executioners express themselves by taunting or using their victims. Remember that the arm binding animation is applied automatically and additionally to all victim sex animations, so these animations need not include this feature.
* If you have (or wish to create) struggle animations, remember that you can add *multiple* struggle animations before any hanging. Use the most energetic first, followed by weaker ones, to represent the victim losing strength and consciousness.
* If you do develop new animations to use with the Bright Gallows, do let us know! We would love to see them. Do you wish to share them?
* Have fun!
Please note! The topics below are rather technical, and you don't need to read them to rez, layout, texture, and use your gallows.
They are provided purely for those familiar with Second Life editing, who wish to experiment with hacking the gallows to modify or replace animations or sounds, or create unusual, site-specific gallows layouts.
Each gallows is a row of three different types of object:
1. A scaffold: on which the victim and executioner stand
2. A frame: a two legged support holding up one or more scaffolds
3. A stairway: providing a way to climb up to the scaffolds
As described above, the Bright Gallows comes with a "Bright Gallows Rezzer", which rezzes the necessary objects according to the layout you choose.
However, if you wish, you can use the Second Life editor to move these objects around manually, creating your own layouts.
There is even a special fourth object called a "walkway". This can be used to connect two frames at a 90 degree angle, allowing you to create layouts with corners, in an L shape, or even a square.
You can line these things up by eye, and lining them up precisely is not hard if you're familiar with the Second Life editor. Scaffolds are 1m wide in the Y direction, so to line up two scaffolds, give them the same X and Z coordinates, and Y coordinates 1m apart.
Frames are 20cm wide, so to put a frame next to a scaffold, give them the same X and Z coordinates, and Y coordinates 0.6m apart., And a walkway should always connect two frames: one separated on the Y axis by 2.35m, and the other turned by 90 degrees, and separated on the X axis by 2.35m.
But if you click and hold down your mouse button to display its configuration menu, you will find an option which can help in creating manual layouts:
[MAGNETISE] Snap to nearest appropriate unit
Click this, and the object will look for the nearest gallows object within 10m it can find, and move to align itself with it automatically. Scaffolds will align to each other or to frames, stairways and walkways will align to frames, and frames will align to anything except other frames.
Using this option can make creating manual layouts easier. Just line up each new object roughly by eye, and then click [MAGNETISE] to move it precisely into place. Just be sure that the object is closer to the object with which you wish to align it than it is to anything else.
The configuration menu will also have extra buttons for frames and stairways.
[LEFT ON/OFF] Show/hide left side [RIGHT ON/OFF] Show/hide right side
A frame has diagonal struts on the left or right which connect it to objects on either side: but if a frame is (say) at the left end of a row of scaffolds, you will not want braces appearing on that side. Click [LEFT OFF] to hide them.
Similarly, a stairway can have rails on its left or right. If it is (say) between two scaffolds, you will not wish to show either, so click [LEFT OFF] and [RIGHT OFF].
The frame also has a rail, which is useful if the frame appears at the left or right ends of a gallows, but not anywhere else. On the frames configuration menu, click [RAIL ON] or [RAIL OFF] to show or hide it.
All the animations used to pose victim and executioner are stored in the scaffold. To see them, select "Edit" from the pop-up menu to display its edit window, and click the "Content" tab.
All the animation names begin with an exclamation mark ("!"), so they are all sorted together at the top of the contents list.
If you wish, you may replace any animation with one of your own. Simply give the new animation the same name as the one you wish to replace, delete the animation to be replaced from the gallows, and drag in the new animation from your inventory. Your new animation will now be played whenever an avatar sits on the scaffold in question.
You will notice that each animation has two vectors at the end of its name, each a series of three numbers between chevrons. For instance:
!, VSTAND, Victim's stand, <-15,0,0>, <0,0,0>
The vector <-15,0,0> determines the position of the avatar in centimetres along X, Y, and Z axes (relative to its usual position) when the animation is played, while <0,0,0> determines its rotation around those axes in degrees. (The X axis runs from the back of the scaffold to the front, the Y runs sideways, and the Z from bottom to top.)
So if you want victims to stand closer to the from of the trapdoor - say, 2cm closer along the X axis - you could change the first vector to <-13, -0, 0>.
When you change an animation name, the base or scaffold will reset, and anyone sitting on it will be unseated: you will have to use it again to see the effect of your edit.
Adjusting animation positions and rotations is a little fiddly in Second Life, and made more complicated by the fact that avatars come in many different sizes and proportions - no settings will work perfectly for everyone. The values as set will work well with most avatars, but if you wish to experiment with adjusting them, you are welcome to do so. And if you add your own animations, you will naturally need to work out the ideal position and rotation for an avatar to use it.
The lists of buttons on the "ACTIONS", "SEX", and "HANG" menus described above are built from the animation names.
Action animations are prefixed "!A". You may change their names, remove animations you don't need, or add your own, which will automatically be added to the "ACTIONS" menu. Be careful to maintain the same name format, which consists of exactly five values separated by commas: "!A", the button label, the action description, the position, and the rotation. For instance:
!A, PACE, Pace back and forth, <5,0,0>, <0,0,40>
Hanging animations are in the scaffold, prefixed "!H1", "!H2" etc. They have six values, separated by commas.
!H3, SHORT DROP, 80cm drop/50% breakneck,1,<-5,7,-95>, <0,0,0>
The extra value is the "1" before the first vector. This number is a "random weighting": a measure of how likely this style of hanging is to be chosen when a RANDOM hanging is chosen. To make it twice as likely as other styles, make this 2. To ensure it is never chosen randomly, make it 0.
Each of these hanging animations shows the victim hanging dead from the rope, and will add a button to the "HANG" menu. Some hanging styles will be accompanied by "struggle" animations, which have a slightly different name format again:
!H3, #1, 50, 20, 60, <-10,0,-119>, <0,0,0>
The "!H3" indicates that this struggle is associated with the "!H3" hanging above. You can add multiple struggle animations if you wish, and the "#1" indicates that this is the first. If there is also a "#2", "#3" and so on, these will be played in order before the final hanging animation.
The number "50" means that there is a 50% chance that the struggle animation will be played - if it does not, the victim will die immediately and the main "!H3" animation will play. If it does play, its duration will be determined by the next two numbers. In this case, it will play for between "20" and "60" seconds.
Note that if there are multiple struggle animations, each has its own probability of being played. For instance, three struggle animations, each with a 30% chance of playing, mean that there is a 34% chance that the hanging style in question will instantly break the victim's neck (as the chance no struggle animation will play is 0.7 x 0.7 x 0.7 = 0.343).
Each button on the "SEX" menu requires two animations: one prefixed "!SE" to animate the executioner and put in the base, the other "!SV" to animate the victim and put in the scaffold.
!SE, ORAL, Have oral sex, <-53,0,0>, <0,0,0> !SV, GIVE ORAL, Give oral sex, <-53,0,0>, <0,0,0>
You may have up to 10 options on each of the "ACTION", "HANG", and "SEX" menus.
One special animation in the scaffold is called "!, WRISTS, Bound wrists". Whenever the victim is posed using a "!S" (sex) animation, this animation will be played in addition. This allows many sexual animations which weren't designed for use with the gallows, and which show the victim's arms being free, may still be used with the gallows, as the extra animation will force their arms behind their back.
(Unfortunately, not all animations in Second Life combine well: but we've found the wrists animation successfully overrides the position of an avatar's arms when combined with most third party sexual animations.)
There are four sound items in the scaffold:
$DROP SOUND, 100 $NECK SOUND, 100 $STRUGGLE SOUND, 50 $SWING SOUND, 50, 0
The $DROP sound is a "clunk" played when the trapdoor falls.
The $NECK sound plays when a neck breaks.
The $STRUGGLE sound is the sound of rope creaking as a victim struggles.
The $SWING sound is a gentler rope creak, as the dead victim swings round.
The first number after each sound represents the volume at which it should be played. 100 means 100%, or full volume, 50 means 50%, or half volume, and 0 silences the sound.
The $SWING sound has a second number after it, setting a time limit in seconds. So for instance, if this is set to 10, the swing sound will only play for 10 seconds after death. If left at 0, it will play indefinitely.
So you can change the volume of any of these sounds, or the duration of the swing sound, by changing these numbers.
Or you can replace any of these items with sound items of the same name, in order to play new sounds entirely.
If you do not want any sound associated with an event, rather than deleting it, set the volume to 0.
Shan Bright
Chief Executive Officer