[sldev] Request for help with modifying client camera behavior

[SignpostMarv Martin]

Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> I have often wondered why SL does that ... keeping the camera on the 
> same side as "big enough" prims ... instead of doing what many other 
> games do and leaving the camera free to move but hiding the objects 
> that would obscure the avatar.

There are several methods of hiding objects, some of which can affect 
the FPS performance (anyone who has played Neverwinter Nights 2 will 
know what I'm talking about).

You could fade an object to semi-transparent or remove each prim/object 
obscuring the view.

The viewer has "issues" with alpha sorting (though is that only textures 
?), and as for removing/hiding each prim/object, the problem is a little 
more complex.

In "other games", the developers know the precise location of every 
single object in a given scene, allowing them to pick and choose which 
objects can be faded (a fence might be kept solid because you can see 
through most of it, but a building would likely be faded/hidden). The 
overall immersion isn't affected because of the carefully controlled 
environment- SL is of course, rarely every a carefully controlled 
environment.

If you remove each prim obscuring the view;
1) do you take the texture into account ? (no point removing a prim you 
can see through perfectly fine anyway)
2) do you take the cut/dimple/taper into account (no point removing a 
prim you can see around, even if the prim center is in the way)
3) Sculpties...

If you remove each *object* obscuring the view, the entire build could 
disappear. Content creators would demand LSL commands to selectively 
control which prim in a linkset could be obscured. The default prim 
property would likely have to be *not* hiding the prim, otherwise all 
the old content would be affected.


~ Marv.
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