Coupla gripes....

I'm not really into making idle threats.... so I'm not gonna say that I'm about to jump ship or anything. But I do have a few complaints.

This is a video game and the graphics are really about the most important thing. Can we get a little love on the alpha issues, please?

And ya know, you gotta love volunteers. But the technical support for this game sucks. Live Help is -not- what professional tech support looks like. And no offense to the liasons (or really, most of the lindens I have seen in-game), but -that- is not what professional tech support looks like either. I am continuously frustrated any time I ask a question. It seems that if your SL question is more difficult than "how do I fix my hair" you are left high and dry. I was asking about making facial expressions and no one even knew where to start. I was told to find a Linden or a scripter! Except that none of the lindens seem to know how to script either! Eventually, I did find what I was looking for, but not because anyone was able to tell me where to find it.

And if you have a REALLY hard question involving rotations or anything that actually utilizes this 3d space they have provided... forget it! No one has -any- clue how to handle rotations, and the people who do know can't be bothered to explain it.

You guys unleashed this beast upon us, now support it! I don't want to have to go to a bunch of amatuers to get my problem solved, I want to talk to people who know what they are talking about, or at least people who have access to people who know what they are talking about. And a telephone number!

I don't think I'm askin' for too much here. Put some of that $8 mil to use showing us how to make proper use of SL.

foo foo

If you had posted your questions here instead of just complaining you'd probably have your answers by now.

Wow, that's the same answer I got from the head live helper with the Linden last name.
Beautiful insight there.

Not to toot my own horn... But I think I could of answered all your questions! I won't call you SIR though... i'll speak to you like a friend! I'm sure Char or other liaisons that know me would of directed you my way if I was online! Sadly I have a school life and I don't get paided by LL so I can't spend ALL my time online!

If you have any questions feel free to ask the help! Of the top of my head there is Kex, Ic, Adam, fen, Me and a few others (sorry if I can't remeber your name right now) that could of helped you!

Again, sadly we don't get paided for this so we can't ALWAYS be online! You just go caught at a bad time! Like I was online fro around 4 hours yesterday handling the Live Help with Fen!

Anways hope this helps!

FYI... any professional tech support... they usually know nothing! (Rogers, Sony... almost any large coorp!)

That is indeed true ! Most if not all of them are reading out of scripted notebooks or databases. Hit them with a new one and see what happens ... hehe.

You should have asked me! I could have stared at you blankly, with lips slack, and drool slowly oozing down my chin, while I made noises like, "uhhh..errr and Nnhhhuu"!

Also there are forums for Scripting, Building, Animations ect. You can post any questions you may have there and the majority of the time someone will be able to answer your question.

THat's odd. I thought the social interactions were the most important thing.




The limited facial expressions are done with scripting.

As for "professional" tech support, you email [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email] or [email]billing@lindenlab.com[/email], and have it read within a business day by the bug hunters that LLab employs.

IF you ask a computer programmer the chemical/molecular composition of super glue, you're bound to get a blank stare. Likewise, if you ask a liason a question that's obviously out of their element, I wouldn't expect much of an answer either.

The scripters to ask are the content creators: ben linden, dan linden, eric linden... even phoenix linden if you're feeling really feisty. And Cory Linden, although he's busy alot, can probably answer your question, seeing as he developed LSL.




Rotations are extremely difficult. The fact that they use quaternions instead of vectors only makes matters worse.

Didja try the WIki?

http://www.badgeometry.com/wiki



If you had asked a Linden employee for the telephone number, you would get (415) 243-9000. If you had asked a Liason a question that they don't know, it's their job to deflect it to someone who does.



Most folks think that "proper use" of SL involves social interactions in a lag-free environment. At least, that's what the insane popularity of clubs would have us believe.

Scripters and builders are, and always will be, a curious minority.

LF

They really should publish a game guide to the end-bosses.

They're really hard to beat. I need a few more powerups to win the game!!

Maxx,
Just use the cheat code: s3XX0r

hmmm...i was also surpised when i found out Live Help were actualy real players instead of hired 'gamemasters' (like in that other online game i play)

But any help is better then no help
Or better then the usual response i get in that other game 'sorry there is currently no staff available due a lack of staff , please page use between 9am and 9pm. thank you...and visit www....com for further answers'

Good thing about SL is that our 'gamemasters'/the lindens are playing SL with us like players...
Wich i think is a good thing...

You know Maxx they havent put out any easter eggs in a while

Rotations... I thikn you learn this in 3rd year... IF you are lucky! Andrew and Ben Linden once tried to explain ROTs to me... I was totally lost! Then ben is like... jsut use lleuler2rot() so I did and i've never had a problem EVER again!.



Actually some of us consider ourselves Pros of SecondLife! (I know i'm not the only one!)

Yea post yer questions.

I applied to Live Help but for some reason I was not worthy of the wearing the tag

It is unfortunate to see scripting questions go unanswered in Live Help. Scripting seems like an advanced issue that could be better dealt with in the forums, or in a handbook, as you have suggested. But, you have to realize that most people that use live help are new and have issues about just being able to participate in SL. Live Help can be tough too, you cant imagine the array of questions that come in and often there are five or six people asking different things at the same time, all demanding an answer right now! Not all are going to be happy, but most find the help they are looking for.

I think I've found part of your problem... false assumptions.

By and large, the best people to go to are the 'amatuers'. The lindens may have created the environment, but honestly developing it has never been their strong point. If you have a question about scripting, ask one of the master scripters out there. If you have a question about building, ask one of the master builders out there. Etc. Chances are they are not only going to be more experienced with using something in a practical application than a linden (With some exceptions), they are also going to be able to explain it to you better. Knowledge only counts for so much. Experience is what is needed, and you find that amongst the player base, not the developers.

Lindens develop the technology. We make it great.

I'm so sick of this.... I'm quoted as saying wank wank and responded too with foo.... and people wonder why I think posting to this board is a waste of time.... The format certainly has it's limitations... but if people who ask questions are made to feel like idiots, then something is wrong.

A quaternion is not such a terrible concept to grasp. It is a vector and an amount of rotation. The vector portion is added to the location of the object to create an axis, and the fourth number in the quaternion is the amount of rotation (in radians, whatever that is) around that axis. I have enough of an understanding of vectors to grasp what is supposed to be going on with rotations. I don't want to hear about how hard they are. I quit highschool in the 9th grade, and I understand.

Questions would be:

Is the vector portion of the quaternion in world coordinates, or is it relative to the object?

Does that fourth number rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise, assuming it is positive?

How many radians around a circle?

Is there any way I can use degrees rather than radians to go around that axis? I suppose lldeg2rad() would do this.

How can I get the difference between rotations?

Are there any other handy operators and/or rules I should know about when trying to use them? I know this one is vague, but someone needs to be able to answer it.

And what bugs are there in SL that are going to frustrate my attempts to use quaternions in the first place?

And the scripting, ya know, I understand that no one wants to debug other people's code... but you cant even get a pointer to a topic in the wiki. And wouldn't it be nice if LL's documentation was a little better too?

I don't need my hand held, I just need to talk to someone who knows. And prefably someone with better people-skills than some of the folks on this board.

oh, and on that [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email] bit..... I tried that regarding the appropriate way to request permissions, and here's what I got....



What a joke. So basically, support is unable to provide support. Fortunately, I was able to eventually work through this one too, but again, no thanks to the support system we have here.

I withdraw my "foo foo..." and humbly apologize.

Mike,
Perhaps YOU should work on your people skills before coming to others for help. Unfortunately I do not know the answers to your questions, and I passed the ninth grade. I agree that LL needs MUCH better documentation. But the tone of your postings and even the thread title comes across negatively IMO. I help when I can, and get ALOT of help from others constantly, but I have learned to ask nicely. Just my 2 cents, good luck w/ your questions.

Schwanson,

I'm sorry if you think my tone is bad.... the post was a complaint, not a question. And it's ok if you don't know the answers, I don't place any expectation on you to provide them. The point is, there's not anyone at LL to provide the answers, and there should be. I write the way I speak, and I'm a pretty nice guy. But I do call it like I see it. And what I see in the support here is not a hell of a lot. I don't think I'm asking for so much.

Fair enough bro. I may just be reading into it too much.
Try IMing the technical Lindens as was suggested. And sorry if I came across bitchy.

Mike,

The answers you seek are on the wiki.

http://www.tyrellcorporation.org/disabled/rotation

Mike, I wasn't trying to get on your case. Just pointing out that complaining doesn't get you any closer to your answers. I can understand that you're frustrated but there are literally tons of people here who are more than happy to help. If you repost your questions to the scripting forum it shouldn't take long for you to get the attention of someone who knows the answers. Because LL is a small company your best source of help is peer to peer, and these forums are the best place for it. Good luck. Hope you get the answers you're looking for soon. It's a cliche but it's nonetheless true... you catch more flies with sugar

Can I whine here too?