Suggestion: per-outfit config files

[Quixilver]

Many wearable items have optional features or variables that can be configured through a script, usually using a HUD or dialog. If the same item is used in two different outfits, but should be configured differently for each, we need to go through the config process for each item, which gets to be tedious.

I'm proposing that each outfit include a text file where these scripts can store configuration information; when an avatar puts on an outfit, these scripts can be triggered to scan through the file to read in their own configuration information.

Obviously this would require buy-in from script writers and builders, and wouldn't magically apply to all the stuff already in our wardrobes, but it would be a benefit as we go forward.

I'm probably not the first person to suggest something like this, so add my vote to the pile

[Freya Mokusei]

Sounds like chaos to me. Since there are no standards in scripts, there is no way to exchange 'configuration' information.

The script events given when attachments are worn are as follows:-

• on_rez(integer param) - again, no standard for which param = which behaviour. People code these themselves
• attach(key id) - can only be limited by owner key. Not useful at all.

It would not be possible to change behaviour of these events. Adding new events would only work for brand new products created by those aware of the change (i.e., not many). I don't believe it would be feasible to introduce any kind of "we expect you to write batch files" to anyone using the Outfits system, even if the following problems didn't exist.

How would you create a system that differentiated between say, classic menswear, but also over-the-top fetishwear, furry/anthro/hybrid bodyparts, high heels, lingerie, scuba diving attachments and ball-gags as well as the entirely ridiculous modern marketplace for mesh replacement bodyparts? 'Configuration' in the context you're using it appears to be a mask for 'magic for other people to figure out'. There are no standards in these markets, and there would be no way of bringing SL creators together to create these technologies when it comes to attachments. Not ever.

It's always a better option to provide load/save parameter slots within the HUDs or skinning systems and let creators manage this behaviour individually. User level control of this will only lead to more confusion and failed expectations when using what is already a poorly built system for managing attachments and layers. It was never designed to be multi-dimensional, let alone 'smart'.

Clothes and attachments in SL have no inherent intelligence, and creating an environment where they were perceived to (at the expense of time, effort and having to learn a new language) would damage user expectations when it inevitably didn't work as they'd hoped, or required studying a Wiki to figure out which part a noob had managed to break.

Anyway there's probably a link somewhere you can use to submit this to LL so that they can ignore it professionally.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Just copy the clothing, use the HUD to change it to whatever texture you want then put that copy in your outfits folder.  You can also kill the script in that copy of the clothing for lower lag. That's a lot simpler than what you are suggesting. 

[Freya Mokusei]

Er yeah, that!

Copy/Mod/No Trans is a reasonable set of permissions for clothes in most circumstances. No Mod only really makes sense for scripts inside attachments, not for the attachments themselves.

If you can copy and modify your clothes you can set them exactly however you like, with complete freedom and secure in the knowledge that you can keep a backup copy for when mistakes happen. Limited or poorly-planned permissions settings are what turns this experience into a hassle whether you use Outfits or not.

Damn I'd have saved a lot of thinking if I'd looked at things that way, Amethyst!

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Even a lot of no mod clothes have the option to kill the scripts on the HUD or menu

[Nalates Urriah]

Probably a link somewhere... to being professionally ignored... I like that... actually chuckled.

In the JIRA people can make Feature Requests. The requests are read, all requests. They are added to various lists that the Lindens keep. Whether or not they are acted on depends on a godd sized number of different things. You may well feel ignored.

[Nalates Urriah]

I use Amethyst's solution.

Take shoes for example. With the sculpty feet and now mesh feet adding stockens as part of the outfit has been a problem. With mesh feet it is getting easy. But, we still have Quixilver's problem.

In each items folder (shoe folder in the example) I have subfolders labeled; scripted and wear. Within the wear folder for sculpty feet-shoes I have folders labeled like; Nat Skin - red gold, Stocking White - brown black, Stocking Fish - black... In these folders I save the changed copies of items and I remove the scripts.

Some outfits share these identical feet/shoe combinations. So, I don't have surprise shoe-feet-stockings on outfits. With the scripts removed I don't forget and change them.

With mesh feet and shoes I can get by with way fewer combinations. I don't need red shoes for each type of stocking I want to wear. I still need different sets of feet for each stocking. I still need different shoes for changing a shoes changing shoe color. But, I don't need to build all the foot shoe combinations as separate items. I can mix and match feet. Much nicer.