Suggestions 1 - Camera Control and Movement

This post is part of a list of suggestions that I've been compiling. Some of these may have been suggested before (if so, sorry).

This one concerns various refinements to the camera and avatar movement mechanisms.


1. Lock Camera Position

Function: Locks the Camera in position relative to the focal point (e.g., X -2m, y +3m, z +1m) If the camera starts South of the focal point, the camera stays South of the focal point, no matter how the object turns.

Rationale: This is, for me, mainly to aid in repositioning my avatar (it's really annoying to do with the camera AND the avatar slewing all around with every little movement). I find the wildly uncontrollable camera to be one of the more irritating things about the UI. Sometimes I get the camera in a good position for something, and then accidentally click somewhere and it goes sliding all over the place.

Note: General problem with either of these first two "camera locking" options - what to do about walls that interfere with camera motion? I'd say have an option for the camera to not collide with primitives that you have the ability to move or otherwise modify (group control, etc), on the grounds that the prim is no real barrier to you. If the camera gets pushed against a primitive the user doesn't control, or the user doesn't set the option to ignore those, move the camera inward until the desired direction is clear of obstruction or you have reached a nearly first-person POV. The camera returns to its locked orientation ASAP.


2. Lock Camera Rot

Function: As above initially, but also locks the camera's angular direction relative to the focal point. For example, if the camera is in front of you and off to your right (pointed at you), it will remain in front of you and off to the right and pointed at you, regardless how you turn or walk.

Rationale: Currently, as soon as the avatar starts moving, the camera snaps back to the default view. If I'm looking at my face, I sometimes want to continue looking at my face as I move and turn (to find a good lighting angle for a snapshot, for example).

Note: The present behavior is particularly irritating in vehicles (where I can't get any good shots of me in flight due to the camera snapping) and animballs (where my camera often ends up slewing through a wall to present me with a view of the outside of the building and nothing handy to refocus on).



3. Fixed Camera Pos

Function: Locks the camera in the current world position; (e.g., Local X 76.369m, Y 95m, Z 102.701m). It still turns to track the current focal point (usually your avatar), but it doesn't move.

Rationale: This is so you can find a good angle in a room and stay there. If the user's avatar moves out of maximum camera range, teleports out of sim, etc. the camera can automatically reset to its normal behavior or switch to Lock Camera Pos. at it's last relative position. Whichever.


4. Fixed Camera Rot

Function: Locks the camera's position and rotation relative to the world. This effectively turns off camera focal points and simply aims the camera in a particular direction until the user moves out of range.

Rationale: Could be useful for filming SL movies (blocking a shot), just off the top of my head.


5. Careful walking

Function: Your avatar takes smaller steps and therefore moves more slowly and precisely.

Rationale: Right now, even a single step to the side tends to be a bit too large for easy alignment with objects, and especially with other avatars. I'm not talking about changing the animation speed, which can be done with AOs. I'm talking about actually moving the avatar with more precision. Possibly this one can be done in LSL (as I know one can boost flight speed), but I haven't checked, and it'd be nice to have support for it by default.


6. Hover in place

Function: Above a certain altitude, avatars mysteriously begin to sink while flying whenever they become motionless. This preference would force high-altitude flight to remain consistent with that near the ground (you only go up or down when you choose to).

Rationale: It's really a quite annoying behavior, especially for people with sky builds. Teleporters sometimes send you into fly mode involuntarily, as does trying to Wear an object that is lying on the "ground". This can lead to you suddenly "skating" around your build like a droplet of water on a greased skillet, falling off of your platform, and not-nice things like that. I can buy/script objects that prevent this behavior, but then I have to remember to be wearing them, they occupy a slot, etc. ...

You really thought this out well! Wowza. I'm for it!

In general, if I see a genuine need for something, and it could be implemented several ways, or the usefulness of it might not be obvious except in hindsight, I like to explain exactly why I think it is necessary, and exactly how I think it should behave.

Sometimes I don't bother to go into that level of detail, such as when I think the suggestion speaks for itself (like adding PNG support), but that's why I do it

There are a few things that I didn't go into, like possible issues with which keys move you in which direction (i.e., is W "toward the top of my screen" or is it "walk forward"?) I figured that stuff would merely confuse the issue, and can be sorted out later (a good in-client key configuration utility, hint hint hint).

There must be a fancy word for this art.

I go at SL like a rabid kitty...

Works for me.

7. Offer Teleport takes subject to your actual position

Function: Offer Teleport always brings the recipient to where you actually are. Regardless of altitude.

Rationale:

A: "I'm lagging really bad down here"

B: Hmm. I'll save you! *Offers teleport to current position, high in the sky with no lag*

A: *teleports, hangs in midair like Wile E. Coyote ... nowhere near the person offering the teleport, looks down, notices gravity.*

Gravity: *Notices back.*

A: *Waves sadly* *whistling sound* *splat*


Edit: In case it were not clear, the above is a paraphrasing of an actual event. several actual events, to be more accurate.