[sldev] Inventory user interface needs improvement (Re: Physical Object Prim Limitation)

Thordain Curtis thordain at thordain.com
Fri Aug 1 01:23:10 PDT 2008


While the ability to edit linksets from the inventory pane would certainly
be an interesting way to do things, the assertion that such functionality is
a requirement of what I have suggested is incorrect.  If you dabble in the
world of complex scripted objects, inevitably you will end up with objects
that require a certain link order (of some type) to perform the task they
are scripted to do.  Some times it easy enough to name said child-prims and
have your scripts "scan" for the correct link numbers, some times it's not.

In either case, properly linking the object in question is a task for the
developer of said product.  I think it's fairly safe to assume that anyone
who can't figure out how to link an object in the order they want it to be
in does not posess the skills requisit to creating complex, dynamic physical
objects.

In any event, while what you recommended would without question ease the
development of complicated objects, it would also without question require
_massive_ changes on both the client and server.  This is especially true
considering that neither hierarchical linksets nor hierarchical task
inventory currently exist.  Both of those changes would require massive
refactoring on their own.

My proposal for large physical linksets is certainly not the first solution
I've come up with to enable it (and certainly not my favorite), but I've
taken the time to put this one to the list (and on JIRA now) because I feel
it can be implemented with few changes to server code, because it affords
100% backwards compatibility to existing objects, and because in addition to
allowing for new features it can also fall under the category of "increasing
simulator performance."

That being said, I'll gladly donate my first born to the Linden(s) who
implement hierarchical link sets ;-)

On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 7:42 PM, Dale Mahalko <dmahalko at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:57 PM, Thordain Curtis <thordain at thordain.com>
> wrote:
> > An interesting solution would be to allow all linksets to become
> physical,
> > but only use the first 32 prims as the actual collision model.
>
>
> To do what you want, the inventory window must be redesigned to allow
> editing the link list without first rezzing the object in-world. This
> would be done by putting little [+] and [-] boxes in front of the
> object/linkset name in the inventory window. This would allow you to
> expand a linkset directly in the inventory window, and drag and drop
> objects in the link list to change object ordering, to easily set
> which ones primitives are the first 32 physical objects.
>
> With the current totally inadequate inventory system, to reorder the
> primitives in a linkset you have to: rez the object in-world, unlink
> the entire linkset, deselect everything, hold down shift and carefully
> reselect each part in order, relink, and take it back into your
> inventory. (This is assuming you don't screw up halfway through
> reselecting your 200 prims and have to unlink it all and start over
> again.)
>
>
> On an related topic, it is a major annoyance that we cannot edit the
> inventory inside an object without first rezzing the parent object
> in-world. It is even more aggravating trying to edit a single
> inventory object that is several levels down inside the inventories of
> other objects. Why can't we just expand a second little [+] in the
> inventory window next to an object and directly view or edit the
> inventory items inside that object, all from within the Inventory
> window?
>
>
> Since a fully functional object/linkset hierarchy user interface does
> not currently exist in the viewer, I've created a JIRA for this, with
> an example image of how this user interface might work.. :-)
>
> JIRA: Need a full Inventory Hierarchy, to simplify linkset management
> and inventories inside objects
> http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-8444
>
> My image example of a fully hierarchical inventory/linkset user interface:
>
> http://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/17920/Full+Hierarchical+Inventory+Model+2.PNG
>
> I am not suggesting implementing skeletal linksets, joints, or
> changing the physics engine.. just merely making the viewer inventory
> window support functionality that already exists in a halfway, kludgy
> manner via rezzing objects inworld and editing them that way..
>
>
> - Scalar Tardis / Dale Mahalko
>
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