House Control Systems

Thanks

I'll also add that your customers will tell you what they want over time. My general rule is that the second time someone asks "I love your _______, it is possible for _____ " that is a feature that needs to be added because the demand for it is there. The corollary to that rule is that when you get a request for a bigger or smaller version of a specific house is the time to add said item to your product line-up.....

For a long time, I had 3 separate control systems for my builds - one for Textures, one for Lighting and one for Window tint. I finally combined all 3 to use HUD controls for almost everything there is about a prim. It is only 3 different scripts.

On the Texture side, there are the features that may be individually selected, such as the ceiling, tile floors, windows, carpet, inside walls, etc (there are 17 of them plus a reset button to restore the original appearance), then for each of these features, about 40 different colors to choose from along with the option to set the different bumpmaps, shininess and full brightness. As each feature is selected, a panel of 30 different preset textures for that feature is displayed. Each prim's face has the option to not apply a color, bumpmap, full bright and so on as well.

The Lighting is the same - inside, outside, both sides and reset and there are about 25 different brightness levels, 20 different colors and 20 levels of glow.

Window tints are the same - inside, outside, both sides and reset and 25 levels of tint.

Configuration notecards in the HUD allow to set what textures can be used for what features. I do not have them set to reconfigure texture repeats because that would blow texture alignment between prims. All colors may be changed by simply changing the color of the button. But I hope I provide enough options where nobody wants to change the system like that.

In the end, It gives some surprising results. A prim can use features of all three of these subsystems. So, you can put a texture on a face of a prim, change the color, make it transparent to x% and make it a glowing light source as well.

Some of my builds also have built-in rezzers (not many). For example, one I am still working on is a home designed to be on an incline. It has decks and a part of the deck has a rezzer that can either rez a rail, or 3 different combination of steps, depending on how far it is to the ground.

Other rezzer features are to have (as mentioned) the option to rez a room's furniture on command. That works great only if the owner has copy permission of the furniture/decor items to rez.

It took more than a year to refine the system to what I wanted it to do. It's not for sale because supporting complicated systems like this can take a lot of time!

And THAT...is probably the single most important piece of advice in this thread!

half my product ideas come from clients asking what they would like to see.


That texture hud sounds like an amazing wonder of Intornetz Technology.. I would like to see the house that contains one of these. If a house is well designed there really should be no need to change the colors or textures. The only exception to that is for something like a spanish style villa that is made of plaster where you can tint all day long and keep it looking good.. I would like to see how some high end ornamental stone texture or gold trim texture looks after you tint it 21 shades of puke color. It is a great idea to offer a second set of texture sets but better you than me setting that up. It most take a whole year or so ... I spet a whole 2 hours trying to texture a stupid arch window lol - at that rate od speed a whole house full of cool architectural elements is out of the question.

I have thought about Huds and and I don't like the one Hud I have on my screen now, so I feel Huds are an obstruction, even when minimized. Honestly I still don't even know what a Hud really is, besides a window prim thing that gets glued to your screen instead of the simulator.

The support thing can become a problem if you give too many choices. A reasonable amount of flexibility is good but just because its possible.. doesn't mean you have to offer it. If I were to make a Huge castle Door that Creaks and Groans when it opens I will not offer the Scrunchy Disappearing or even worse Iris Mode in the menu as an option because it will make that door look stupid.

Support can get you those second questions though.. or give you a way to interrogate you customers haha

I've made a complete house control system. You can see it at my store "Ronnie Designs" at Lanestris 107,229,94.

The features in my system are:

sliding doors
swinging doors
tinting windows
curtains
phantom walls
texture changer
colour changer
transparency changer (alpha)
light on/off and change colour of light

You may use whichever components you wish.

All items (doors, windows, curtains, etc) can be linked to the rest of your house or unlinked.

You can define "groups"...so, for example, you can tint all the windows in your bedroom with one command.

I sell single user versions (copy) as well as commercial versions for builders (copy/trans).

I provide support, and free upgrades.

Ronnie