From box to protected.
Everything in the VelvetGuard box, in the order you set it up. You run it from the Orb’s touch menu and from the Velvet dashboard: log in at velvetsys.com/dashboard with your Second Life avatar.
Before you start
- Unpack the box. Rez the VelvetGuard box and touch it, or wear it where you can’t rez. A VelvetGuard Security System folder (with the version, e.g. v1.0) arrives in your inventory, and the rezzed box removes itself; you keep the box in your inventory.
- Check who owns the land you want to protect. Land you own yourself needs only the Orb. Land owned by a group also needs the Ejector.
- Every item connects to your dashboard by itself when you rez it: there are no codes or keys to type.
- Create your free velvetsys.com account. The Orb protects your land as soon as you rez it, and you can set up everything from its touch menu. To manage your Orbs on the web, and to see who came and went, you need an account: see Dashboard.
| Item | What it is for |
|---|---|
| VelvetGuard Security Orb | The security system. Rez as many as you like (copy). |
| VelvetGuard Ejector | For land owned by a group: deeded to that group (copy and transfer). |
| VelvetRent Link | A script that pairs an Orb with a VelvetRent meter or box. |
| VelvetGuard - READ ME | The quick start, pointing to this guide. |
The Security Orb
Rez the Orb on the land you want to protect. It connects to velvetsys.com and appears on your dashboard under VelvetGuard, named after its region.
The middle strip shows the state from across the region:
| Strip | State |
|---|---|
| Blue | OFF: nobody is warned or removed. Areas and lists are kept. |
| Green | ON: intruders are warned, then removed. |
| Red | LockDown: intruders are removed at once, with no warning. |
| Gold pulse | Linking to a VelvetRent unit. |
Touch menu (each person sees only what they may use):
- ON / OFF: arms or disarms the Orb. ON needs at least one area. OFF also ends LockDown.
- LOCKDOWN (while ON) / END LOCKDOWN.
- AREAS, ACCESS, OPTIONS: see below.
- LINK: pairs the Orb with a VelvetRent unit.
- CONFIG: opens this Orb on your dashboard, already logged in.
The menu text shows the state, the areas, intruders right now and whether an Ejector was found.
Areas
An Orb guards up to 10 areas. Each has a name, used in every warning, popup and message, so pick one people understand (“Skybox”, “Beach House”). Touch > AREAS > Add:
| Kind | Covers |
|---|---|
| Region | The whole region. Any height, or Around Orb (5 m below to 25 m above it: a skybox floor without the ground). |
| Parcel | The parcel the Orb is on, any height or around the Orb. |
| Range | A sphere around the Orb: 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 or 96 m, or type 1 to 256. |
| Custom | A box you drag out, square to the region, up to 256 × 256 × 4096 m. |
Drawing a Custom area:
- Choose Custom. The Orb rezzes two arrows just above itself, joined by green lines on the box’s 12 edges: the blue arrow is the bottom corner, the red one the top corner.
- Edit and drag the arrows; the lines follow. The blue arrow’s hover text shows the size, e.g. “12.0 x 8.0 x 4.0 m”.
- Touch either arrow: Save (then type the area’s name), Type (enter a corner as
<x, y, z>, handy for big or tall boxes) or Cancel. - After Save the arrows remove themselves. Unsaved arrows remove themselves after 10 minutes.
The arrows are 2 land impact while you draw. Where rezzing isn’t allowed, the box tells you the lines can’t be shown.
List shows your areas, Delete removes one, and Show draws every area for 30 seconds. On the dashboard you can rename areas and edit their numbers.
Access lists
| Level | Who | May |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | The Orb’s owner | Everything. |
| Super Admin | Added by you | Everything except Super Admins and LINK. Edit and delete on the dashboard. |
| Admin | Added by you or a Super Admin; tenants of a linked unit | ON / OFF, LockDown, add Guests, Temp Guests and Banned, see areas and options, CONFIG. View only on the dashboard. |
| Guest | People welcome in your areas | Be there. |
| Temp Guest | A Guest for 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours or 7 days | Be there until the time runs out. |
| Banned | People never welcome | Nothing: removed at once, ON or in LockDown, with no warning. |
Touch > ACCESS > a list > Add name (type their name), Add nearby (pick from the avatars in the region), List or Remove. You can also add people from the intruder popup, or on the dashboard.
The Orb never acts on you, the land owner, Super Admins, Admins, Guests or unexpired Temp Guests. Second Life also refuses to eject estate managers. Removing someone from Banned also lifts their parcel ban.
What happens to an intruder
While the Orb is ON it checks the region every 2 seconds (every second in LockDown). An intruder is someone in an area who is Banned, or a visitor while Disallow by default is on, or a visitor or Guest over one of your limits (age, scripts, render weight, flying in a No-Fly zone).
- Warned once. They get a dialog and a private message: please leave the area within the warning time (20 s by default).
- Your admins get a popup with the name, the area and the time left: Guest, Temp Guest, Ban or Close. Guest or Temp Guest stops the countdown at once.
- Left in time: nothing more happens.
- Still inside when time is up: ejected and, per your options, teleported home, banned from the parcel for 4 hours and their objects returned.
- Back within 10 minutes: removed at once, no second warning.
In LockDown, and for anyone on the Banned list, step 4 happens at once.
If an eject doesn’t get them out of the area within a few seconds (a parcel covering the whole region, an area across several parcels), VelvetGuard teleports them home. In skyboxes SL may ignore ejects; VelvetGuard then teleports the intruder home. You can turn on 1.5 Teleport home to skip the eject wait.
Who can remove depends on who owns the land under the intruder: on your own land the Orb does it all; on land owned by a group the Ejector does (without one, the Orb can still teleport them home); on someone else’s land the Orb can only warn, and tells your admins it can’t remove there.
Group land: the Ejector
Second Life only lets an object deeded to the group that owns the land eject or ban there, and the Orb can’t be deeded. The Ejector can.
- Rez the VelvetGuard Ejector on the group’s land, in the same region as your Orbs.
- Edit it > General: set its group to the land group, tick Share with group, then Deed.
- A member of the group’s Owners role touches it, chooses Return perm and accepts (needed only to return intruders’ objects).
Your Orbs in that region find it by themselves, and the Orb’s menu text says “Ejector found”. One Ejector covers every parcel the group owns in its region; parcel bans work on the Ejector’s own parcel. It only takes orders from your own Orbs, signed, so no other script can make it act.
Touch the Ejector for Check in, Return perm and, for you, Hide Text / Show Text for its hover text. A deeded Ejector is replaced by hand: rez and deed a new one, then delete the old one.
On land you own yourself you don’t need an Ejector. If you turn on Return prims when ejected, the Orb asks you once for permission to return objects.
Options
Touch > OPTIONS. The menu text lists every option with its number and value; a number button turns it ON or OFF or opens a choice. Page 1:
| # | Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Floating text | OFF | “VelvetGuard • ON • 3 areas” over the Orb. Never shows names. |
| 1.2 | Disallow by default | ON | Visitors (anyone not on your lists) in an area are intruders. OFF: areas are open to visitors, except for the limits below and the Banned list. |
| 1.3 | Discreet mode | OFF | No floating text, no glow, no chat: intruders get the dialog only. |
| 1.4 | Eject from parcel | ON | Removes an intruder by ejecting them from the parcel. |
| 1.5 | Teleport home | OFF | Also sends them home. Used anyway when an eject didn’t get them out. |
| 1.6 | Add to parcel ban list | OFF | Bans them from the parcel for 4 hours (the Banned list: no end). |
| 1.7 | Warning time | 20 s | Time to leave before removal: 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 or 60 s. |
| 1.8 | Age limit | None | Visitors and Guests with a younger account are intruders: 1, 7, 30, 90 or 180 days. |
| 1.9 | Script limit | None | Visitors and Guests wearing more script memory are intruders: 10, 20, 30 or 50 MB. |
| 1.10 | Visitor tracking | OFF | Logs everyone in an area, allowed or not: first and last seen, minutes, area. |
Page 2:
| # | Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Group members are Guests | OFF | Anyone wearing the Orb’s group tag is a Guest. |
| 2.2 | Group members are Admins | OFF | Anyone wearing the Orb’s group tag is an Admin. |
| 2.3 | Only this parcel | ON | Looks only at the Orb’s parcel. OFF: the whole region. |
| 2.4 | Return prims when ejected | OFF | Returns the intruder’s objects on that parcel. |
| 2.5 | Mute Super Admins | OFF | No popups or messages for you and your Super Admins. |
| 2.6 | Mute Admins | OFF | No popups or messages for Admins. |
| 2.7 | Notify Guests | OFF | Guests in the region get a line of chat when an intruder comes in. |
| 2.8 | No-Fly zone | ON | Visitors and Guests flying in an area are intruders. |
| 2.9 | Render weight limit | None | Visitors and Guests over it are intruders: 50k, 100k, 150k, 200k or 300k. |
| 2.10 | Stay ON when evicted | OFF | A linked Orb stays ON when the rental ends (see VelvetRent link). |
| 2.11 | Popups: admins inside only | OFF | Intruder popups only to admins standing in an area. |
Age, script, render weight and No-Fly limits apply to visitors and Guests, never to admins. Second Life only shows a script someone’s active group tag, so the group options count people wearing the Orb’s group tag.
Messages
You, your Super Admins and Admins get a message for everything:
- an intruder enters (with the reason), leaves, is ejected, teleported home or banned, has their objects returned, or couldn’t be removed;
- everyone else who enters or leaves an area: you, your admins, Guests, Temp Guests and allowed visitors (marked “during LockDown” in LockDown);
- who turned the Orb ON or OFF, started or ended LockDown, or changed access, options, areas or the link, at the Orb or on the dashboard.
In the region a message comes as a private chat line, anywhere else as an IM. Click a name to open that avatar’s profile. Nobody is told about their own arrival or their own change. Options 2.5 and 2.6 turn messages and popups off for Super Admins (and you) and for Admins.
VelvetRent link
For VelvetRent landlords: pair an Orb with a rent meter or box, and the tenant runs it while they rent.
- Touch the Orb > LINK.
- Drop the VelvetRent Link script into the rent meter or box, then press OK on the Orb.
- The Orb beams to the unit (several units of yours announcing? pick one). After 5 seconds press CONFIRM. The script removes itself; the link is kept on our server.
The tenant and co-tenants are now Admins of that Orb while they rent, added and removed as they come and go. People you added by hand are never touched. When the rental ends they are removed and the Orb turns OFF, unless Stay ON when evicted (2.10) is on.
To unlink: Orb > LINK > Unlink, or on the dashboard. The unit’s page in VelvetRent shows its linked Orb.
Dashboard
You need a velvetsys.com account to use the dashboard. It’s free and takes about a minute: sign up with the avatar that owns the Orb. No email is needed; you prove it’s your avatar by sending a short code by IM in Second Life.
With an account you can control your Orbs from any browser, manage areas and access lists, and see the Activity log and Visitors history. Without one, the Orb still protects your land and everything still works from its touch menu, but you can’t look back at past activity, and CONFIG opens the login page.
Nothing is lost if you sign up later: your Orbs and their history are waiting on your dashboard the first time you log in. Super Admins and Admins who want to see an Orb on the web need their own account too.
Touch > CONFIG, or open velvetsys.com/dashboard > VelvetGuard.
- Overview: your Orbs (online, ON, LockDown), intruders today, removals this week and your Ejectors.
- An Orb’s page: turn it ON or OFF or into LockDown (it reaches the Orb at once), areas, access (Temp Guests with their time), options, Activity and Visitors. Filter by name, date in SL time, area and kind; download CSV; delete selected entries.
- Who sees what: you and your Super Admins change and delete; Admins only view. Anyone with a Velvet login who is an admin of an Orb sees it on their own dashboard.
The activity log is kept for 12 months and visitors for 90 days.
Good to know
- The Orb doesn’t need our server to protect. Areas, lists and options live in the Orb. If the server is down it carries on and sends its log later.
- A region restart keeps the Orb ON or OFF and in LockDown as it was.
- No sensors and no listening on open chat: the Orb costs a few microseconds of script time a check.
- Several Orbs in one region are fine, each with its own areas and lists.
- Hover text, beams and dialogs never show your admins’ names to visitors.
- A tenant’s own Orb on rented land can warn but can’t remove anyone: Second Life only lets the land owner’s objects do that. Landlords: link your own Orb to the unit instead.
- Updates are free.
Questions? IM Wiz Windsor in Second Life. About VelvetGuard