A few small features I'd like to see in SL.

[animats]

Little stuff to improve immersion:

• Graceful unsit: When an avatar stands, the object they were sitting on should still have permission to animate and move the avatar one last time, maybe until the object being sat on is finished processing the CHANGED_LINK event. This would allow sit scripts to move the avatar off chairs before they go vertical. No more standing on the table after an unsit. There are vehicles where a sit opens the door, the avatar moves nicely into the vehicle, and the door closes. Nice. At unsit, they're standing on the roof. Tacky.
• Modesty: If the user is not enabled for adult areas, avatars stay in pink cloud mode until fully rezzed. While experienced SL users are unbothered, it does upset some new users. Also consider going to pink cloud mode during clothing changes. Go look at clothing changes in some games. SL's competitors have a better visual experience for this. (Technical note: Yes, avatars can spend too long in pink cloud mode. That's a bug. LL needs to fix that. The area of assets not showing up when wanted is getting a look right now, because something in the performance viewer broke some of that. So it's a good time to take a hard look at asset loading stalls.)
• Swimming: Swimming should be a standard feature. There are swim HUDs, but few people have one, and many users don't know swim HUDs exist.

[Gabriele Graves]

9 minutes ago, animats said:

Also consider going to pink cloud mode during clothing changes.

No thanks.  I think the avatar should remain the same until the new outfit is loaded and ready to be rendered, then it would change instantly.  No cloud.  This would be much better in my opinion.

The rest seems OK though.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Gabriele Graves

[Rolig Loon]

3 minutes ago, Gabriele Graves said:

13 minutes ago, animats said:

Also consider going to pink cloud mode during clothing changes.

No thanks.  I think the avatar should remain the same until the new outfit is loaded and ready to be rendered, then it would change instantly.  No cloud.  This would be much better in my opinion.

Oh, I think the suggestion wasn't about what happens when you change outfits.  It's about teleporting to a new area and discovering that you've landed naked until your clothes decide to rez.  That doesn't truly bother me much after all these years, but it can really freak out a newbie.

[Gabriele Graves]

Just now, Rolig Loon said:

Oh, I think the suggestion wasn't about what happens when you change outfits.  It's about teleporting to a new area and discovering that you've landed naked until your clothes decide to rez.  That doesn't truly bother me much after all these years, but it can really freak out a newbie.

It was both.  Emphasis mine.

15 minutes ago, animats said:

• Modesty: If the user is not enabled for adult areas, avatars stay in pink cloud mode until fully rezzed. While experienced SL users are unbothered, it does upset some new users. Also consider going to pink cloud mode during clothing changes. Go look at clothing changes in some games. SL's competitors have a better visual experience for this. (Technical note: Yes, avatars can spend too long in pink cloud mode. That's a bug. LL needs to fix that. The area of assets not showing up when wanted is getting a look right now, because something in the performance viewer broke some of that. So it's a good time to take a hard look at asset loading stalls.)

[Hunter Stern]

I'm always a naked spider inworld, and people freak out on me rezzing into dd, new or old. I have yet to find a fix for that.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Hunter Stern

[Nick0678]

I don't care about any extra fancy SL stuff,  they are pretty much useless once an avatar is loaded

What i would like to see is some extra things when it comes to VISUALLY IMPAIRED people.. i meet more and more lately for some reason and they all struggle.

 

So a guide after the Client software installation on how to make it more USER FRIENDLY for them and how to have a larger UI and fonts would be useful.

(embedded to the client, not just forum/wiki links that noone who is new would ever find, especially if it's a handicapped person)

 

Also a Text-to-Speech option to Read the Instant Messages/Chat to these people would help.

(if i can do it just for fun with a few lines of code on my client, Linden Lab is capable to do it too for their product)

[EliseAnne85]

36 minutes ago, animats said:

No more standing on the table after an unsit.

People need to set chairs far enough away so the avatar can stand.  Also, couldn't putting the tables on phantom help the avatar to stand?  At least, it's better than standing on the table.   It's still a good idea though.

Modesty and avatars being undressed, yeah, it's weird to say the least, no matter where it is.  BOM can help with undies, I think.  I've been a Dinkie awhile now so I'm not sure if the BOM undies are helping the humans any.  Newbies could find rezzing nude people unattractive as I'm sure they don't expect it.

Edited December 2, 2022 by EliseAnne85

[Maitimo]

30 minutes ago, Gabriele Graves said:

No thanks.  I think the avatar should remain the same until the new outfit is loaded and ready to be rendered...

Oh I can just see it now... "How do I change clothes? I clicked this ten minutes ago and nothing is happening."

[Orwar]

41 minutes ago, animats said:

Graceful unsit: When an avatar stands, the object they were sitting on should still have permission to animate and move the avatar one last time, maybe until the object being sat on is finished processing the CHANGED_LINK event. This would allow sit scripts to move the avatar off chairs before they go vertical. No more standing on the table after an unsit. There are vehicles where a sit opens the door, the avatar moves nicely into the vehicle, and the door closes. Nice. At unsit, they're standing on the roof. Tacky.

   There is apparently a work-around, although I couldn't tell you how it works.

   I've got an aeroplane which has the chat command 'egress', which runs an animation for you to get out of the cockpit and hop off the plane before it stands you. 

[Gabriele Graves]

1 minute ago, Maitimo said:

Oh I can just see it now... "How do I change clothes? I clicked this ten minutes ago and nothing is happening."

Is that worse than "Help!!! I become a cloud because I changed my eyebrows 10 mins ago and I haven't reappeared"?

[Maitimo]

1 minute ago, Gabriele Graves said:

Is that worse than "Help!!! I become a cloud because I changed my eyebrows 10 mins ago and I haven't reappeared"?

yes I think so;  if they turn cloud, they at least know that something is happening, even if they can't see it yet. But to see no sign at all that you've even worn something... I think that would cause more confusion and frustration.

[Krystina Ferraris]

51 minutes ago, animats said:

Little stuff to improve immersion:

• Graceful unsit: When an avatar stands, the object they were sitting on should still have permission to animate and move the avatar one last time, maybe until the object being sat on is finished processing the CHANGED_LINK event. This would allow sit scripts to move the avatar off chairs before they go vertical. No more standing on the table after an unsit. There are vehicles where a sit opens the door, the avatar moves nicely into the vehicle, and the door closes. Nice. At unsit, they're standing on the roof. Tacky.

This, yes. Every time I stand up from a chair or anywhere it’s like I have springs on my butt, I jolt 6 feet up in the air. 

[Rolig Loon]

19 minutes ago, EliseAnne85 said:

People need to set chairs far enough away so the avatar can stand.  Also, couldn't putting the tables on phantom help the avatar to stand?  At least, it's better than standing on the table.   It's still a good idea though.

I've used both of those tricks and a few others, like making the chair back up a bit when you stand.  They work reasonably well, but sometimes they just aren't appropriate.  If you are getting out of a vehicle, for example, there's no way to move the vehicle out of the way and making it phantom is inconvenient, to say the least.  As Orwar suggests, you can always write a scripted exit routine (with a fancy exit anim perhaps), but that only works if a seated avatar can find the script's special "Get Me Out Of Here" button and remembers to use it instead of the default "Stand:" button. The best solution might be to make your avatar temporarily phantom, if that were possible, but that would raise its own issues.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Gabriele Graves]

Just now, Maitimo said:

yes I think so;  if they turn cloud, they at least know that something is happening, even if they can't see it yet. But to see no sign at all that you've even worn something... I think that would cause more confusion and frustration.

Well  I'd rather stay as I am if SL is that borked, at least I look like something I chose.  Besides this would only be a problem when SL isn't behaving and I don't see this very often.

When you attach something now there is no visual indication you did anything until some part has loaded and rendered except if you have your inventory open and looking at the worn tab (which I do use for that).  I'm not against a loading indicator as such but it should be something only I can see and not a cloud.  I still want to see my avatar and have others see it.

[Cali Souther]

43 minutes ago, Nick0678 said:

So a guide after the Client software installation on how to make it more USER FRIENDLY for them and how to have a larger UI and fonts would be useful.

Agreed,  and I wish this would include enlarging the overall interface so increased font sizes didn't get cut off or overlaid on the screen.....      at least it's an option in Firestorm...   Black Dragon I can barely see/ read anything in the settings.

 

@animats  I tend to agree with @Gabriele Gravesabout changing clothes - would be super nice if it didn't show anything and your new outfit just popped on all at the same time.  lol       Tho... @Maitimo makes a good point --- if you see nothing .... and there is lag - you might keep trying to change things - thinking nothing was happening - That wouldn't be good.

 

As far as modesty goes,   I wouldn't mind being a pink cloud until I am fully rezzed...   though,  I've gotten over the embarrassment of being naked - since everyone else is too.  

 

Getting off chairs and such could certainly be improved with more grace.   

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by Cali Souther

[Orwar]

3 minutes ago, Cali Souther said:

As far as modesty goes,   I wouldn't mind being a pink cloud until I am fully rezzed...   though,  I've gotten over the embarrassment of being naked - since everyone else is too.

   My avies always wear BOM undies to ensure nothing shows off without me deciding it does, it'll cover you up even before your mesh body renders too (assuming your mesh body's UV is decently similar to the system avi's). 

[Gabriele Graves]

2 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   My avies always wear BOM undies to ensure nothing shows off without me deciding it does, it'll cover you up even before your mesh body renders too (assuming your mesh body's UV is decently similar to the system avi's). 

The proposal would probably fix the Lelutka Evo X weird cyclopean effect that you see before mesh head loads though.  That would be a plus.

[Lindal Kidd]

I'm all for the unsit and swimming animations! Not so much the modesty proposal, I think it would confuse people more than it would help.

[Orwar]

24 minutes ago, Gabriele Graves said:

The proposal would probably fix the Lelutka Evo X weird cyclopean effect that you see before mesh head loads though.  That would be a plus.

   Perhaps, but surely there are better/more important features LL could allocate their time and resources on? Like 'inventing' a handful of new lastnames to flog for Valentine's! Incomplete avatars being rendered and loaded in is a very temporary issue, and the whole embarrassment aspect of showing off your bits can be negated with what we have available to us right now. Personally, I'd rather have baseline swimming than I would have the avatar loading process visually polished. Or in-world weather. Or a biscuit. 

[Nick0678]

48 minutes ago, Cali Souther said:

Agreed,  and I wish this would include enlarging the overall interface so increased font sizes didn't get cut off or overlaid on the screen.....      at least it's an option in Firestorm...   Black Dragon I can barely see/ read anything in the settings.

These are third party viewers so it's fine cause the developers make them based on their own likes/needs

but the Official one should be more friendly towards the Visually Impaired since it's their product and not someones random git project.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Nick0678

[Gabriele Graves]

@OrwarImportant by who's estimation though?

What is unimportant to one person can be a big deal to another.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Gabriele Graves

[Cali Souther]

1 minute ago, Orwar said:

  Or in-world weather. Or a biscuit. 

hahaha @ biscuit!     I'm hungry at the moment, so the biscuit really sounds good but....       I would LOVE in world weather.       

I LOVE to stand in Minecraft and watch / listen to it rain and snow...     that would be absolutely wonderful if it happened in Second Life !!!!     In my humble opinion,  of course.

 

[Orwar]

1 minute ago, Gabriele Graves said:

@OrwarImportant by who's estimation though?

What is unimportant to one person can be a big deal to another.

   Scoffs. You're never going to achieve world domination with that attitude! 

[PheebyKatz]

5 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Oh, I think the suggestion wasn't about what happens when you change outfits.  It's about teleporting to a new area and discovering that you've landed naked until your clothes decide to rez.  That doesn't truly bother me much after all these years, but it can really freak out a newbie.

I know all about this one, trust me. It's why I often visit new areas as a giant potato before visiting them as my usual self. It's one thing to have a kid show up out of the blue and start running around, but having a naked kid show up and start running around... that could disturb many.

Sort of like my early experiences with seeing toddlers who weren't rezzed enough for their modified shapes to deform properly. I assumed they were people who had horribly deformed themselves in order to disturb other residents for their own amusement or something. For a brief moment I even assumed all toddlers were roleplaying aliens who suddenly transformed into toddlers when they realized they were being observed.

I don't really feel pink clouding is necessary, though some people do use particle effects for teleporting that sort of have the same result. They step out of the cloud fully rezzed, anyway.

And yeah, I'd be all about having a swimming feature built in. It could have default animations, like the system anims for walking and flying etc., and then people could maybe add their own sets via TPV features like Firestorm has.

As for unsitting, my rocking goat actually throws people across the sim if they stand up while it's rocking, That's why I made it a goat. I also added a feature that stops that from happening, they can click to sit on it, or click it again to stop it and unsit. They end up standing next to it instead of flying off into the distance. Whether the owner makes guests aware of this safe unseat function is up to them, I mean, it is pretty fun watching the goat butt them across the room, or out of the yard, etc. XD

So, I'm kind of torn on this one. I mean, it'd be great for the userbase, but bad for my goat.

Edited December 3, 2022 by PheebyKatz

[Katherine Heartsong]

You're all being silly.

Hugs.

Without need to rotate to line up. Hugs. Just simple hugs.