Visual effect of banlines on neighbours - a demonstration you can visit inworld (?)

It could be that part of the problem is that people who put them up don't see them.
I just has a neighbour on another plot say basically - "Oh, I forgot they were there. I don't actually need them. I don't even like them".

As self and others have posted - it would be "really helpful" if people had to see their own banlines.

This is what I want: I want a checkbox that allows me to turn on/off banlines on the client side. I want to be able to see them darn things up close AND far away. Those stupid things are actually useful as property lines further UP in the air

Regardless what the main issue was in the op it's curved around to the same old crying and complaining about ban lines. The same tiresome complaints about ban lines over and over and over and ov........ YAWN*

*Looks to hand out crying towels*

If banlines are removed completely, mark my words: In 6 months, complaints will begin that folks are bumping into invisible barriers without any warning.

This needs to be a choice in the client config. That way, everyone can customize their experience to suit themselves.

/me again suggests that their visibilty be tied to how fast the avatar is moving towards the access-only parcel.

, he said, hysterically.

This was a rational debate until your exclamation marks made an appearance.

Is there a technical reason banned parcels can't be indicated (say, by a coloured area) on the mini-map?

I would happily disable ban-line visibility on the client anyway, but being able to see banned parcels on the mini-map would still be extremely useful.

True... though the level and frequency of restrictions now imposed everywhere has caused me more grief than any griefer ever did. It seems that people are using a handgrenade to kill a fly most of the time.

Locking doors, security systems, signage... I can think of a whole bunch of ways to get the point across rather than using banlines.

Exactly the problem I have rather often... that and those damned "No object entry" parcels.

I certainly think that banlines are a necessary evil... but not for use in the capacity many use them for now.

That's a pretty good idea there... would certainly make flying around easier. And color those damned "no object entry" parcels too.

Didn't someone put up a solution for this? Like, something in the viewer settings that you can change to make them invisible to you?

Oh, yeah... they did.


Anyone care to post the UUID of a 100% trans texture?

I think it's just a question of somebody taking the time to do it and do it correctly. I dug around this part of the viewer code a bit yesterday and it looks like the minimap drawing stuff doesn't really know anything about parcels. It knows regions and object lists but nothing about parcel lists within regions.

Same sorta goes for my favorite idea: changing ban/access line visibility based on how quickly you're moving towards them. I didn't see anything that keeps track of the current avatar vector near this code, though I'm sure the viewer knows it..


A quick wiki search finds XyzzyText uses 701917a8-d614-471f-13dd-5f4644e36e3c for a transparent texture, though I haven't tried it in-world..

Hehe - I use this response at work a lot:

"Anything is possible, given enough time, people, and money."

Usually one of those three components is the show-stopper.

Yes, I think its very possible & a reasonable feature to ask for. Will Linden prioritize it above the other things they've got in the pipeline? Bluntly: probably not.

Did you look in the same place I did?

"LLViewerParcelMgr::renderCollisionSegments" (in llglsandbox.cpp) seems to use the avie's position to calculate the normal distance to the parcel which decides the alpha value the texture eventually gets rendered with. In-world if you stand 7m away from the parcel you'll barely make them out but then at 5m they'll be fully visible.

Or that was my guess anyway , not that the gibberish made all that much sense .

(Marking access restricted parcels on the minimap wouldn't do much for vehicle users anyway, they'd still encounter the same problem on parcels with object entry turned off except it would occur at any height)

Sounds like I did.. I was, though I didn't say it, thinking about a velocity type vector, not a position one.

I guess it could just remember the last position and time that it was in there and do a little math to figure out the rate/direction that you're moving.

edit: seems I didn't look very well.. There is a getVelocity member off gAgent.. hm...

Ha! Neither of you looked in the place that I did/made
http://slurl.com/secondlife/glamaig/179/36/21/

The visibility distance appears to be strongly influenced by the background.
In the demo plot, the lines on the N and E boundaries, which have no nearby build behind them, begin to become visible at 15 metres for the boundary and are in their full glory at 10 metres from the boundary.
i.e. If you stand at the W boundary, you can see the ban lines on the E boundary. They are faint at distance. At 10, they're in your face.


The only way not to see the banlines surrounding that plot is to stand in the Southern half of the plot and only look directly North or South.
Alternatively stand in the Eastern half of the plot and only look West, as the dark build on the West seems to counteract the effect until you are within 5 metres of the boundary.

So, if you had the ability to turn off ban lines, what do you think would be best?

Just a big switch to turn them off everywhere? Maybe the ability to turn them off if you're on your home parcel? On a parcel owned by a group you're in?

And no, I didn't go to your land, though I appreciate you setting it up for people to see. I _know_ ban lines are broken. I argue the other way - I want them more visibile when I'm out exploring - but do see your point.

Or to use the
"In ${SLDIR}/app_settings/viewerart.ini is the line:

noentrylines.tga 5d3e196b-fd4d-ada7-e4c1-99f8e9f1cfbf

and changing it to 701917a8-d614-471f-13dd-5f4644e36e3c or the UUID of some other transparent texture" thing...

While that will make them invisible, that does not change their negative effect on vehicles, and without seeing them, it's 100 times worse.

But that's a topic for another thread and has been gone over a grajillion times.

Sling brought up a very good point on the "Ban Banlines" side of the argument, that being the fact that they are visually a pain in the rump for landowners.
As far as I can see, it's the only argument or justification for that side that is valid.

And now a reasonable solution has been put forth.

The "My vehicle blows up when I go onto someone else's property" argument doesn't belong in this discussion, as it is, in fact, off-topic.

People who own land on the same sim (or group-owners for group-deeded land) could just be "immune" to access restrictions as well. People are rarely interested in keeping their neighbours out (you can ban them specifically), just the random people who drop in.

The ability has to be easily selectable - as in a View option, and not hidden deep somewhere in turn-on-Debug and Client menu.

I appreciate that we could substitute a transparent texture in the .ini file on our machines, but that's hardly a thing that your average user would be comfortable with.

The issue for me isn't 'How to turn them off on your own/group parcel' as all of your visitors would continue to see them.

Actually... that is not entirely accurate. Since banlines do, in fact, effect the behavior of your neighbor's vehicles... asking people to change the texture so they will stop whining about the banlines does nothing for the fact that your neighbor's vehicle may blow up if they accidentally hit your now invisible banlines.

The issue of banlines and how they are viewed is directly related to the issue of balines and their unfriendly behavior towards vehicles.

once again, since banlines will stay as part of the game, a good change could be to make them visible from BOTH sides. you put up ban lines, you gotta look at them too.

that would just confuse people.. they'd think they were banned from their own land, and lots of silly support tickets would arise

so?