BOUNTY$ for texture hide/replace hack

Seeing that Linden Labs is still not doing anything about the bushguy, I offer a bounty! It's small, but I hope others will join, and if the amount gets big enough, it will be tempting.

I currently offer L$ 2000 to the person, who can come up with a good solution to hiding (or replacing) the bush (or any other) texture. In case this is not techically doable, well, tough luck for us all.

The solution should be a method, that allows SL (Windows) users to get get rid/replace of any texture in SL they don't like. The solution SHOULD NOT require running the script or program every time before starting SL, but if it's fast enough, or if it's a resident program, and there seems to be no viable option, that might be okay.

The solution must consist of:
* A method for getting the to-be-hidden texture's identifier (UUID), or any other property that's needed by the 'hiding program'. Any method, steps that an end user can follow, with or without external programs.
* A program (resident or not), or a script, that somehows causes SL to hide or replace the texture with another.

Requirements:
* This should not be tied to any SL version (like 1.8.1), it should automatically or with minor modifications work on later versions, too. Of course, if Linden Labs decides to do architectural changes that cause this program not to work, that's an okay and acceptable risk.
* All source code must be open source. This is a must to keep this maintainable and accessible to all. The program must also be free (other than the bounty, of course). The compiler or interpreter can be free or non-free (GNU GCC or VS.NET, etc.)
* The program must work at least on an NVIDIA card, but it would be better if more cards could be supported
* The solution should not slow the system considerably. A few percent (1-5%) is acceptable, but no more.


Ideas:
* Counter-Strike had many 'wallhack' cheats, which could totally hide or make walls
* Trying to replace the cached texture in SL's texture cache might also work
* Post any more ideas in this forum

If you want to raise the bounty, please post a reply and mention the amount you promise to the person who succeeds!

I reserve the rights to make clarifications, amendments to this offer, but of course anyone starting work on it has the right to claim the reward according to the version that was up when he started his work.

Disclaimer: only legal, lawful solutions will be accepted. If any step required is illegal in your country (maybe reverse-engineering?), that is your responsibility!

Wow! That's a tall order for under $8.00 USD.

lol!

Did you know if you click on them they disappear for a while ?

Have they always done that ?

Next thing you know, there'll be a camping chair variant that encourages people to sit by those signs and keep clicking on them. Maybe it'll even be automated, with a macro or something. Sounds really like horse-and-carriage manualism...

I'm hoping others will join the bounty, too. I don't think it'd be fair for me to bear all costs, when many people seem as they would like the solution above!

And of course, it SHOULD be Linden Labs financing it, but that's another matter...

Let me quote myself, in case you missed the first 3 sentences in the starting post:

Sheer genius, Tor

Perfectly absurd !

Wouldn't developping a program that does that require actions which are against TOS ? (reverse engineering communication, or cache...)

The simplest way would be for LL to add a Replace Texture list to the client.

There is already a form of this used for the video streaming where a pre-defined texture gets replaced by the video feed.

The function I envisage would be along the lines of... right click the face of an object that contains the image you do not wish to see, on the pie menu select "Hide Texture". The client stores the UUID (hiden from user to prevent texture theft) and replaces all occurances of that UUID with an alternative texture. Maybe a user chosen texture, or a pre-defined "Censored".

In theory this should be very simple to add. Anyone want to create a vote thingie?

Posting a method to identify arbitrary texture IDs would be a collossal breach of security for every item builder on the grid.

(On a darker note I should perhaps add that I don't doubt that it could be possible.)

It is? Just knowing a texture ID allows anyone to use it?

If so, should the Lindens implement texture hiding, if they store the hidden texture IDs on client-side, it would make it possible for anyone to acquire any ID? (Eg. 'hiding' a texture, thereby forcing saving it to the text .INI file, for example.)

Yumi, I thought of you upon reading this thread! Here is your opportunity to create something which no one else has done and many would be clamoring for.

Yes. llSetTexture() with a key can set a face to any texture on SL, regardless of location or ownership. Which is good for letting things like XyText work without massive amounts of texture duplication.

Of course, any texture that's installed by a script is somewhat at risk to begin with.

Yea, I think I'd rather not be famous for hacking SL and compromising a bunch of people's businesses though..

Here's a BETTER IDEA.

Get the UUID or a copy of the texture. Distribute it.
Have land owners afflicted by this mess set it for thier parcel media stream.

You can fill in the rest.

Or. Stop buying land from land barons. One of them is using Laz as an alt for this extortion scheme. I'm not saying who, that'd be slander and they are already threatening to sue me if I reveal their plot.

Me. I'm not buying land until LL steps up a little. Not only on the Laz case but with asset stability and parcel management.

Actually, you *can* change the texture of an object that you don't own. Just create a prim, select what you want to change, then select your prim last. Click the texture tab, then click the texture square, and select what you want. It'll change it on your screen, but not other's. I think this is as close as you will get to replace the actual texture anytime soon.

I'm not asking who - but what is the quality of your evidence?

100% solid, caught-with-hand-in-the-cookie-jar evidence? Or... something less?

I don't rule out that the lindens might have a solution... sometime in the future. But as their promises and reality have differed in the past, I wouldn't hope for it real soon...

The proposition about texture blacklisting is here:
Proposition #866

I agree with Desmond. I even have Laz added as a friend, and I'm not believing anything until I see evidence. Buke is an alt of the Second Life creator, I won't say the name though.

A motivated creator of unwanted content could frequently change the texture id or deploy a different texture on every parcel. A successful system might require something more like the centralized lists used by routers for blocking web sites (such as porn).

Could they really do this? FYI and IANAL, the law on slander doesn't cover fictional characters, of which avatars are an example. I suppose it could be considered slander if the real-world player behind the avatar was well-known, and if it was known that the real-world player behind the avatar was well-known.

Even that might be questionable. If I say that Dark Helmet was obviously a completely incompetent leader, that's not slander against Rick Moranis.

eh... that wouldn't do anything because the signs aren't on your parcel, they're on his.

Here's the best idea.

Get the UUID (or a copy) of one of those alpha-cloaking-invisible textures. Place it on a 25x25x25 (or however big these signs are) cube. Then, make a 40m-long arm extruding from the invisiprim. Make the root prim the very outer edge of the arm.

Place the root prim (in the arm) over your land, and extend the invisible cube to lay over the impeach bush sign.

The texture bug will remove the impeach bush sign from everyone's view. The root prim on your land prevents him from returning it.

Disclaimer: This is probably against ToS, so use at your own risk.

I'll take my $L2000 please. College is expensive.

The idea isn't bad, yes, it might work well.
'Only' problem is the Linden Land management probably visiting that land and rightfully clearing YOUR invisible prim, after the bush guy reports you



Well, sadly your solution doesn't meet the requirements, so it's not eligible. Though that's the lesser part, I would still pay, if it was a viable solution. The bigger problems is Lindens getting you after you do this invisible trick for the 4th or 5th time, for violating the ToS So this won't work

Dude, if that really works, that's awesome. I would qualify that as a win.