AVSitter is going open source

[Pussycat Catnap]

AVSitter is going open source: http://avsitter.com/support#close

 

 

Quote

 

AVsitter to become open-source!

1 June 2017

Due to changes in RL circumstance I am no longer able to continue 1-on-1 support of AVsitter, effective today. Because of this we have decided that we will release the AVsitter scripts to the community as an open-source project.

On 31 July 2017 AVsitter will be released to the community under the GPL v2 license. The move to open-source will allow users to continue development of AVsitter: to adapt it to their needs, use it in teaching/education, to keep pace with upcoming Second Life features, and to use it in Opensim.

This will not affect any AVsitter scripts you may already have - you can continue using them as usual.

 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Even though I don't sell furniture, I actually bought this thing and most of its plugins so I could adjust all the furniture I bought with ease... as I tend to have to resize everything down to 70-80% of it's original size...

(Everytime I buy furniture, I google something like "standard chair seat height" (18", or 45.72cm btw), or "standard door height" or 'standard counter top height" and then resize my furniture to that - using a resize script I have that takes numeric 'float' values down to several thousandths. But after I do this, I then have to fix all the animations.)

So this script kit is very useful, even if you're not a seller of furniture.

I have also used it to do things like make props that my furniture 'gives me' instead just auto attach to me, and to even change the props. I had one old chair with a funky prim/sculpty guitar - I swapped it for the same mesh one I wear in one of my outfits, using the 'rez it' version that guitar came with.

- And I've used it to expand the drink choices on my coffee machines...

 

Or to take my favorite animations from many different things, and put them into my favorite furniture designs. As sometimes the nicest looking furniture has all the wrong animations for my sense of style.

 

Basically... it's a great script system.

PS: If you own land, add the 'AVsitter' experience to your land, and all your AVsit furniture will work with fewer popup menus.

 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Pussycat Catnap

[Pamela Galli]

This move supports my belief that when successful businesses close for no discernible reason, it is probably down to the ever increasing customer support responsibilities. The more customers acquired over the years, the more handling support requests fill your time.* Add in more RL responsibilities as in this case, it's too much.

*And not always pleasantly. 

[Pamela Galli]

3 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Even though I don't sell furniture, I actually bought this thing and most of its plugins so I could adjust all the furniture I bought with ease... as I tend to have to resize everything down to 70-80% of it's original size...

(Everytime I buy furniture, I google something like "standard chair seat height" (18", or 45.72cm btw), or "standard door height" or 'standard counter top height" and then resize my furniture to that - using a resize script I have that takes numeric 'float' values down to several thousandths. But after I do this, I then have to fix all the animations.)

 

Does it help when sit animations are in a separate animation prim you can adjust?

[Pussycat Catnap]

Just now, Pamela Galli said:

Does it help when sit animations are in a separate animation prim you can adjust?

Yes actually. I especially like when they put the animations in a hidden prim, or the 'shadow prim'. Then I can fix all the animations by simply moving that prim into place...

I only need to go all 'play with the script kit and AVpos notecard' when they haven't done that.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

3 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

This move supports my belief that when successful businesses close for no discernible reason, it is probably down to the ever increasing customer support responsibilities. The more customers acquired over the years, the more handling support requests fill your time.* Add in more RL responsibilities as in this case, it's too much.

*And not always pleasantly. 

Yeah. Real Life businesses operate at scales where they eventually hire a customer support staff. But SL businesses tend to be one to small team affairs operating at closer margins (people aren't usually pulling in such vast amounts of sales that they can hire full time employees to answer phones, even at overseas wages).

A lot of people don't realize that success can actually kill a business...

 

 

[Chic Aeon]

Thanks for posting. Good news for Opensim for sure. There is a program there but you cannot use it in any items you sell. Hence I have single sits in my stuff. Furniture doesn't sell well over there anyway really so not a big deal. But for the future, very good.  I managed to get four people with single sits, two couples or one couple with two singles and a foursome in a couch recently. It was NOT easy. Of course I am relatively new the the program (only a few months). 

I agree it must be tiring to do support. Happily I don't need to often :D. 

[Pamela Galli]

1 hour ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Yeah. Real Life businesses operate at scales where they eventually hire a customer support staff. But SL businesses tend to be one to small team affairs operating at closer margins (people aren't usually pulling in such vast amounts of sales that they can hire full time employees to answer phones, even at overseas wages).

A lot of people don't realize that success can actually kill a business...

 

 

AVsitter handled the abandonment of support about as well as they could. Technically, when you buy something in SL there is no limited warranty. The creator must provide support forever, even if a problem has to do with some other issue rather than the actual functioning of the product, which is usually the case. It's one reason I have no plans to ever quit -- I will be explaining how to open a box on my deathbed, because that is part of the price of the product. 

Making the product open source means that hopefully more users will understand the product well enough to supply support. For creators it is good because customers who want to add animations can do so.

[Madelaine McMasters]

31 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I have no plans to ever quit -- I will be explaining how to open a box on my deathbed, because that is part of the price of the product. 

Well then, I hope SL dies before you do.

;-).

[Rolig Loon]

46 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I will be explaining how to open a box on my deathbed

That's one visual image I do not care to see in my dreams tonight.  If I do, I hope I am armed with a stake and a garlic necklace.

[Love Zhaoying]

On 6/2/2017 at 5:40 PM, Rolig Loon said:

That's one visual image I do not care to see in my dreams tonight.  If I do, I hope I am armed with a stake and a garlic necklace.

AVS*itter is the image I keep getting!

[Nalates Urriah]

Hey, AVsitter comes in two versions: AVsitter and AVsitter2. AVsitter will be free but, AVsitter2 will still be L$2,999.00.

They do not work the same. AVsitter2 is way easier to use.

See the videos I have here: AVsitter Going Open Source – Free

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

On 6/2/2017 at 2:40 PM, Rolig Loon said:

That's one visual image I do not care to see in my dreams tonight.  If I do, I hope I am armed with a stake and a garlic necklace.

Just picture Pamela as a beautiful, silver haired old lady... with kindly eyes, and a laser pointer.

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

Just picture Pamela as a beautiful, silver haired old lady... with kindly eyes, and a laser pointer.

I picture her in jeans and a flannel shirt like Robin Hartl on PBS' Hometime. She's swinging a hammer, and if you misbehave, flinging it.

Her creations may be virtual/digital, but my vision her her building them is not.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Madelaine McMasters

[Pussycat Catnap]

7 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Hey, AVsitter comes in two versions: AVsitter and AVsitter2. AVsitter will be free but, AVsitter2 will still be L$2,999.00.

They do not work the same. AVsitter2 is way easier to use.

See the videos I have here: AVsitter Going Open Source – Free

I see nothing in the announcement that says only one version is going open source. Where do you get that information from?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

11 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Hey, AVsitter comes in two versions: AVsitter and AVsitter2. AVsitter will be free but, AVsitter2 will still be L$2,999.00.

They do not work the same. AVsitter2 is way easier to use.

See the videos I have here: AVsitter Going Open Source – Free

Are you sure about this, Nalates?    The blog post says, in terms,

Quote

On 31 July 2017 AVsitter will be released to the community under the GPL v2 license and at the same time a final official release of AVsitter2 will be made available via our regular update system to all existing AVsitter users, with scripts set full perm.

That is, she's releasing AVsitter2 full perms to however many thousand people who've already bought a copy.   Is that not, in effect, releasing it full perms to everyone?

Edited June 7, 2017 by Innula Zenovka

[Gayngel]

I've created and edited furniture using most major pose systems, so why am I so damn excited for July 31st? 

[Klytyna]

On 07 June 2017 at 11:30 AM, Innula Zenovka said:

she's releasing AVsitter2 full perms to however many thousand people who've already bought a copy.   Is that not, in effect, releasing it full perms to everyone?

Only if one or more of them decide to make the full perm avsitter 2 scripts available free, if they just sell it limited perms, no mod, then, no. It will be upto the customers getting the full perm update to decide if it becomes free or not.

[Innula Zenovka]

1 minute ago, Klytyna said:

Only if one or more of them decide to make the full perm avsitter 2 scripts available free, if they just sell it limited perms, no mod, then, no. It will be upto the customers getting the full perm update to decide if it becomes free or not.

Yes, but since there must be several thousands of customers who will be receiving the full perm update, I think the odds on no one making it available full perms are pretty minute.

Hell, if anyone wants to organise the distribution, I'll give them a copy.    

I doubt that will be necessary, since I would be amazed if someone doesn't try to start a group to keep the Open Source AvSitter updated, but if anyone does want a copy after July 31 and they can't find one anywhere else, they can ping me,.  

[Klytyna]

1 minute ago, Innula Zenovka said:

Yes, but since there must be several thousands of customers who will be receiving the full perm update, I think the odds on no one making it available full perms are pretty minute.

Hell, if anyone wants to organise the distribution, I'll give them a copy.  

I doubt that will be necessary, since I would be amazed if someone doesn't try to start a group to keep the Open Source AvSitter updated, but if anyone does want a copy after July 31 and they can't find one anywhere else, they can ping me,.

Hehe yeah, but hey! I'm a professional cynic, take x thousand people, assume a fraction of a percent release the code, what are the chances of finding it free on the mp and not getting demos for scripted nose hair tinters instead, when you do a search?

You'll get a lot of pings, as the only easily findable source of the opensource...
 

[Qie Niangao]

It'll be released under GPL v2, right? So I'm not sure it will be legal to release closed source copies in creations. Right?

[Innula Zenovka]

I was one of the official contacts for Dari's collar after she open-sourced the code,and I was also the contact for nPose in the early days.    I'll survive.   

[Qie Niangao]

On 6/2/2017 at 3:06 PM, Pussycat Catnap said:

On 6/2/2017 at 3:04 PM, Pamela Galli said:

Does it help when sit animations are in a separate animation prim you can adjust?

Yes actually. I especially like when they put the animations in a hidden prim, or the 'shadow prim'. Then I can fix all the animations by simply moving that prim into place...

I only need to go all 'play with the script kit and AVpos notecard' when they haven't done that.

FWIW, I've found the AVpos-shifter utility script tremendously useful for this kind of tweaking -- and also for importing anims from one AVsitter-scripted object to another. 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

16 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

It'll be released under GPL v2, right? So I'm not sure it will be legal to release closed source copies in creations. Right?

You mean like - selling an item that has a no-mod copy of the script in it?

First while I can't see why you would want to do that going FORWARD unless you altered the script...

It will have to be OK because that is how all of the currently 'out there' product is.

But it poses an interesting legal question of what to do if the GPL doesn't allow for this? There's got to be an exception for 'already released copies' of code.

[Qie Niangao]

Right. Well, in think it should be possible to continue delivering closed-source even in new items as long as each delivery is also accompanied by the open source (or maybe ready access to it, or something -- IANAL, etc.). I just remember GPL being "viral", like I think any additions or changes to the source are also required to be open source.