best practice for multi-button HUDs and listen handlers?

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

What's the cleanest, most secure, least lag-inducing method to have a HUD panel with multiple buttons all sending messages to be listened for by a single receiving object? I realize I can't have the listen handler filter by sending object name unless each individual button has identical names.

[Rolig Loon]

Control the entire HUD with a single script, addressing the buttons as llDetectedTouchST areas on a texture that covers the entire HUD, instead of creating separate buttons with individual scripts.  You don't have to listen to anything.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Same idea as Rolig, but if you want to have separate objects for each button (my preferred method), you can use a single script and llDetectedLinkNumber to figure out which button was touched.

default
{
    touch_start(integer n)
    {
        integer link = llDetectedLinkNumber(0);
        string button = llGetLinkName(link);

        if (button == "cool button")
        {
            // stuff, llSay or llWhisper
        }
        else if (button == "boring button")
        {
            // stuff, llSay or llWhisper
        }
    }
}

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator

[KT Kingsley]

Maybe sort of a cross between Rolig and Wulfie's methods is to make a mesh object that uses a separate face for each button. You can then have a single script use a combination of llDetectedLinkNumber (if you need to use more than one mesh object to accommodate more than eight button faces) and llDetectedTouchFace to decide what to say to the receiving object.

I think llRegionSayTo is the most efficient and secure method of sending chat to an object, but it does require the sending script to know the receiving object's UUID.