Tracking/finding objects

Yeah I know this has been posted before, but I cannot find it and it's still quite annoying so I thought I would post again so someone more dilligent (like BBC or Tcoz) would find the original posts for me! =)

Ok, so finding stray objects that belong to you would be really nice. While walking around my neighborhood, I've found the odd cube or tube that I had created somewhere, had the $ debited from my account, got accidentally goofy with the positioning controls, lost, and forgot about.

Someone once said that objects appear in the map window as Blue and if you set your zoom high enough, you can walk/fly around and find them. This is all and well and good, and I have no problem with this, but if this is the case and it is already working, then there is one problem.

If the objects you created are in fact blue, then I cannot see them. That would mean that someone selected a Cyan-ish blue color, which to us poor, unfortunate colorblind louts is the same as white--practically indistinguishable. If objects you created do turn blue, then the "blue" needs to be changed to something a little more medium blue.

If this is blue=object functionality is not already working, then it should be. It's not perfect, but it would help. Maybe a method call for "llNearestObject(key OwnerKey)" could be added so you can at least write a script to help aide in the tracking of errant object. Maybe a second version that allows for llNearestObject(key OwnerKey, float range) so you can limit the search. Maybe they would return a vector delta between your position and the object's position.

On another related note, I have been hitting a bug where I create an object or drag one out of my inventory, get charged for it, hear the creation sound (rattle/hiss?), but no object ever shows up. It's not where I put it, not underneath where I put it, not behind where I put it, and I never get my money back, and I just know that somewhere in the world is a little bit of me (and my money) and I cannot find them.

In addition to/place of the llNearestObject function, at least an "Edit | Uncreate Last Object" would be nice. Something that would only work if it were still on the ground and no one else had touched it or picked it up or some such...that way no matter what happened to it, you could at least back up one step and get your money back and potentially not leave a free-range object roaming the countryside...

But we must liberate our objects! Our objects must be FREE!

haha... I hear ya though... I've lost a couple of things.. they do turn up eventually but always in the strangest places... the bottom of the water is the most regular place for mine, and I generally look there first, hehe.

Anyways... light blue / cyan / colourblindness.. that sucks! Generally speaking though (and it really depends on the object I guess), the dots on the map that are people are a fixed dot size and should be different to your highlighted objects on the map...

If you're zoomed all the way in there, and provided that the object you made isn't *just* the right size so that it looks like another avatar on the map, your objects should show up as a slightly different shape/size little dot, haha... helpful! Not.


But yeah... I like your idea of the llNearestObject function. That would be invaluable. Until then I guess we to just see if some of the scripting pioneers can come up with anything.

I completely agree that we need a way to find lost objects.

I imagine some proposed solutions are harder to implement than others. A function call to find the nearest object might be tough, since that could involve a lengthy search. In a reply to the "scripting rant" thread elsewhere in the Technical Issues forum, Cory Linden said that a sensor sweep will never more than 16 objects due to resource constraints. This would make searching cumbersome.

The solution I propose is to have SL retain some sort of link to the last object created/edited. Just the last one, so it wouldn't involve the resource problems of maintaining a potentially long list. If you lose track of an object, the first thing you do is activate the link to find it again. This won't help you find objects that you've lost in the past, but it could prevent you from losing any more objects in the future.

You're right--searching could be a resource hog on an already busy server. So why not work it slightly differently? Instead of an immediate search, why not have the searches filed and queued, and when processor load drops below some point, do the search then and stick the results in a note card that winds up in the search originator's inventory? That's another way of getting it to work.

That being said, the account history window has to open and search a database in real time when people call it up, and it is already not fast...could/would an object search be significantly slower/more difficult?

What else do we know about lost objects? Well we know that they are just that--lost. Probably alone, or with one or two other objects at best. How about instead of interacting with the users directly, how about yet another possibility: a kind of object "Lost and Found" list for each Sim.

That is to say that each "maintenance cycle" that a Sim goes through, it takes any stray object that is not sitting next to 5 other objects from the same person (eliminates primary residences/works of art(?) as lost object candidates) and adds that to a Sim-based list. Then the master list is posted here in the forums or somewhere on-line. That way, I as a user can go look up the list, see that I have some objects in some Sim that I normally only Fly over, go check it out, find out that it is a lost stray, delete it and get my $10 back.

Just a few more ideas to thrash around.

Potential problem with scripted searches.

I saw a box in the air the other day and tried to fly up to it to see what it was (I had my distance set rather high, checking my performance) but I could not reach it.

I finally was able to get up there and the amount of junk I found in the sky was amazing. One wrong entry in Z and you've created space junk!

I tried to set a landmark but when I go to it it takes me to that point on the ground. If your script is searching it seems like the same problem would exist. It would take you to the spot but if the item is say 500m up you'll never find it unless you think to look there yourself.

As with any problem, there are two things you can do: treat the results, or prevent the problem in the first place. So far, all of my suggestions in my last two posts have been more of the treating-the-problem variety. Let's turn our attention towards preventing the problem in the first place for a moment.

How could we do this?

Could we impose an object movement limit? Objects cannot be created/positioned more than 20m away from the avatar doing the creating/positioning? That means if you are building something high or wide on purpose, you have to move a little more, but this would also constrain lost objects to a VERY searchable radius.

Do objects know when they are newly created versus previously existing? Could we set that limit for New objects only?

That undo-creation/position feature would be REALLY helpful too.

What other "prevent-the-problem" suggestions can other people come up with?

hey mis, if you have an object looking for your objects, you just have it storing the coordinates in a list, and then have it take you there. the landmarks i tied to the ground plane, but a script gets an accurate z coordiante.

Nada,
so the search object is attached to your av then? Cool.. cause as you know, an av cannot reach the heights I was at (over 400m) unassisted.

heh nex and i made a couch that we sat on, it searched the sim, and then when we were ready, we told it to go to the object, and it did. You could do the same if you attached it. The biggest problem is the 16 object limit... if you say sent it up to 400m and told it to do a search, you could probably get all your space junk, but it is going to be a lot harder to get your lost objects that are amid other peoples buildings

Am I reading this correctly? That this search script already exists? I would love to know what that looks like!

There is a status that is a little bit like this, STATUS_SANDBOX, but you have to explicitly turn it on in a script.

there is but the limitations make it basically totally ineffective at the moment. sorry zanlew...

I don't know about that, Nada. A couch with object tracking sounds pretty cool to me!