Proximity warning in chat

You can buy several objects in SL with built in scanners which will list all avs and their distance from you within a specified radius.

Thanks Lucifer - I shall go on the hunt. Just thought it would be good if it was a built-in function to help newbies like me.

Or look for a freebie multitool, most of them seem to have a function like this.

Del, your instincts are correct, and I totally support your request to make this a standard functioning feature in SL. Your suggestions for implementation, particularly that of the "People in Chat Range" indicator is excellent. The popularity of these scanner products themselves serves to indicate a general desire that people have for this kind of info.

There are many great products out there, Del. One specifically, that i use personally is called "Hidden Radar" available for purchase at $100 Lindens, packaged in a little black box named Hidden Radar at the back of the small outlet store of Master & Slave Toy Store, Purden (81,79) or their main store Master & Slave Toy Store, near Grizl, Netherbeck (39,105).

integer lastcount = -1;
float SAY_RANGE = 20.0;
integer sensing = 1;

sense(integer onoff)
{
  if(onoff == -1) sensing = !sensing;
  else sensing = onoff;
  if(sensing)
  {
    llSensorRepeat("", "", AGENT, SAY_RANGE, PI, 1.0);
    lastcount = -1;
    llOwnerSay("Sensor active");
  }
  else
  {
    llSensorRemove();
    llOwnerSay("Sensor off");
  }
}

update(integer count)
{
  if(count != lastcount)
  {
    if(count==0) llOwnerSay("Nobody in earshot");
    else if(count==1) llOwnerSay("1 person in earshot");
    else llOwnerSay(((string)count)+" people in earshot");
    lastcount = count;
  }
}

default
{
  state_entry()
  {
    llOwnerSay("Touch me to turn the sensor on or off");
    sense(1);
  }
  sensor(integer count)
  {
    update(count);
  }
  no_sensor()
  {
    update(0);
  }
  touch_start(integer count)
  {
    if(llDetectedKey(0) == llGetOwner()) sense(-1);
  }
  on_rez(integer param)
  {
    lastcount = -1;
  }
}

[edit: compiled and ran first time, but there's a bug... forgot to no_sensor() for zero. Fixed.]

=( And then people set them up on their land next door and I hear them in my house/shop all day long. "Amber Stonecutter has entered chat range distance 12m." I can't complain though, I have windchimes. =3

Argent, you rock for llOwnerSay usage!

Thanks. Just wait until I get my flight script under control and give that out. It's much less tricky than X-flight and smoother to boot. And no "Carbon Rod: All Go!".

Yay - someone agrees with me!

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your suggestions, and thanks to those of you kind enough to find me in-world and give me such an item (Thank you Cid - I got it working ).

In some ways though this forum highlights my point. Fortunately I have immersed myself in SL, so I found the forums and with your help these answers. For those newbies that are maybe less net-savvy, or have no interest in trawling webpages for answers, how would they know how/where to get one of these scanners, or even that they might need one. In RL, you can see who's within earshot and modify your volume. I just think it's something that is needed on the interface as standard.

There's a piece of historical trivia... there used to be a time when after a line of chat was entered, a cloud of particles would swirl around them. This died in, like, 1.6. It made it easier to see when you missed someone saying something, altho the big counterpoint was, it could be overly distracting and get in the way of snapshots. I haven't come across a Resi-created substitute since then.

Similarly, offline, people can have a hard time who's sneaking up behind them—and thus wouldn't know who is within earshot, sight unseen. But in SL, we have camscanning.

It would be really easy to have the script up there rez a phantom follower for each agent in range and have that emit a burst of particles when that agent speaks and llDie() when it's out of range of the script. Kinda laggy, though.

Speaking of which, I've turned it into a HUD attachment that turns blue when you're alone, green when someone's in earshot, and red if more than one person is in earshot, and puts the count above the object. Anyone interested in a copy IM me in-game.

Now that i've had and used a HUD script for a few days to acheive this, I have found it invaluable.

One thing that was apparent when I first used it, is that I had to ask for help to actually get the script to appear on my screen. This would be overwhelming for a newbie to try and sort out while getting used to everything else.

It believe even more now that there is very much a place for something similar as an integral part of the client interface, possibly with an option to click on the name to view profiles, IM etc....

Sometimes it's necesary to do a little learning in life. Luckily there are plenty of folks in SL ready to help out anyone with questions like these

My eavesdropper monitor has been updated to list who's in earshot (and, if you're insufferably curious, who's out of range as well). It's in the usual L$1 vendor box at my space station in Avalon Lagoon (or, get a copy of 1.2 from someone else who's already bought one if that's more convenient).

This doesn't give you any really strong privacy, of course. Your mortal enemies and other supervillians can still sneak a microphone up on you, but if you're just interested in keeping track (and don't want to waste time talking to people who can't hear you any more) the otter is a friendly little fella...

I have something I scripted back when I was putzing around with sensor scripts. It's called the Lagdar. It detects the nearest sixteen people within sensor range and displays them above a colored ball that reflects the current simulator lag. It continuously samples the current time dilation and changes color (blue to green to red, interpolated) to indicate how much lag is present. Current limitations include a tendency to run into the 255-character llSetText limit, as well as only being able to detect sixteen people. I'm currently working on additions to the script that allow the user to set lag ranges, sensor range, truncate last names when the character limit is reached, and display markers for chat/shout barrier.

NOTE: I script for fun, and will gladly give you a copy of an item if I have it done (or do items on comission), but I like to keep my scripts set to no-modify. If you really need to know how something was done, you can IM me or ask in-game, but I like to know where my scripts are being used.