Showing Objects Running Sensors

The idea is to show the sensor, its patern, range, etc. to the user.

Say you have a cube, that has a sensor set to surround it, you would then see a sphere around that cube and the size of the sphere would be relevant to the distance of the sensor, the sphere could change colors based on what type of object is being scanned for (agent, active, physical, passive), maybe have a radar like blip showing the repeating if it does so.

Issues that come up are that this would make sensors kinda pointless, while the average user wouldn't know about the feature (being in Debug), but as more and more used it, they would be able to see sensors. To my knowledge the sensor is there to detect avatars near an object, however, is the purpose of the sensor to detect avatars while itself is left undetected? Surely being able to see sensors may break some things or people could avoid other wise usefull things. Say you have a game that uses sensors for bots to detect a player and to shoot at them, a player could turn on sensors and see where to avoid.

So, another option could be to have a sensor type represented in Show Beacons, that merely showed where an object was that had a sensor running (not showing the distance, etc of the sensor, but mearly its source). This would allow users to pinpoint objects of where a sensor is originating without knowing the distance. This would not break as much since you can already turn on object beacons and see where say a bot is in a game.

Why do this? Currently to my knowledge there is no way to find an object that has a sensor running, this is bad for scripts that abuse this, especialy when its blocking your path with your home or otherwise. Currently we have object beacons and ways of telling where a sound originates from, why not a sensor?

if you could turn on sensor viewing and see where they are so you can avoid them in a game then the game would be designed bad in the first place. probably cause the maker couldn't turn on sensor viewing and see that they could be avoided. i like this idea and would get alot of use out of it.

There are cases where showing the sensor area will in fact show the intended target off (for example, something thats deliberately hidden until you get near enough to it, then becomes visible for access).

This suggestion will break such things, with no good way to work around it. As much as this suggestion is nice, I don't think its a good idea without some way to keep the sensor invis when needed.

I believe I covered this in my second statement. Nothing in SL is actualy "invisible", with Object Beacons on anyone can see where every object is already. While my first paragraph idea may cause issues, the second paragraph idea doesn't do anything we can't already do other than show a different color for objects running sensors. I don't see how that would break anything since it wouldn't show the distance or any other information about the sensor.

Today, I could go somewhere, find an object with a sensor in it (i.e. it tells me, or kills me), turn on Object Beacons and Highlight Alpha (Ctrl+Alt+T), and most likely I could find it easily by checking each object in the area for a script, I might not know what the script is called, but based on where the object detected me, I could guesstimate an area that it may be located and further narrow that area down by finding objects with scripts in them.

Another example is this, lets say this feature exists, I can see what objects have sensors in them. By the time I actualy see the object (due to draw distance and objects being rezzed in, in new areas) it may have already detected me, which would make the whole thing moot. Now lets say I saw it ahead of time, I haven't gone in its scan area yet (something I'm actualy not sure of), so I avoid the sensor object by staying a "safe distance" away from it, what harm does this do? If its a security script, the person obviously doesn't want me there anyway. If its part of a game, I could do the same thing already with Object Beacons on, and I don't know if the thing in the game with a sensor on it is even infact something I want to avoid, maybe its something I want go towards.

Why *must* everything with a sensor in it detect me? Why can't I have the option to avoid such objects?

Simply knowing there is an object with a sensor in it, doesn't hurt anyone.

i second this very emphatically... there are alot of people using scanning objects on small parcels of land, or on other people's land entirely... it would be good if people had a way to see what/where/how often things were being scanned for. Especially for people stuck on the slow sims the lindens still refuse to properly retire, that jus don have a whole lotta SL running power to begin with

It would be kind of interesting if they could include a debug mode that would basically put SetText over objects, saying if they're scripted, if they're running listen callbacks, firing sensors... maybe even a number showing sim resource usage...

That would be neat as well. Users need more bug finding tools and such (atleast I think).

Ah, sorry about that, I appear to have misunderstood. I also have trouble sometimes getting my client to do these debug tricks you all keep talking about, even with debug menu turned on.

That is an interesting point though (I don't travel the mainland as much these days, so do not know first-hand about the land-ejector problems), in which case I reverse my earlier statement and /stamp it.

I don't suppose someone would PM or IM me with an example spot to examine (or try to anyway )?

i want a hovering text showing memory use and timeslice of scripts