Community Project: Defining SL Chat/Comm Channels Like Internet Ports

Greetings!

I've had this idea for a while to come up with a standard for scripters to use, and to make devices operate on designated channels. This wouldn't be mandatory, of course, but as someone who's really sick of seeing channel spam filled with commands for scripts... and the lag open listeners cause... I think its long overdue!

Many people are familiar with the concept of "ports" on the Internet... for example:

Port 80 = HTTP / the World Wide Web
Port 443 = HTTPS / the SSL / Encrypted port for the WWW
Port 21 = FTP
Port 22 = SSH
Port 23 = Telnet
...and so on...

Why don't we come up with a standard for scripts that use listeners? For example:
Channel 0 = Open Chat
Channel 1 = Dance
Channel 2 = Show/Hide Commands for Pose Balls
Channel 3 = Scanners
Channel 4 = Animation overriders/triggers
Channel 5 = Bling devices


This would achieve the following goals (using poseballs and anim overriders as examples, since they're very common & popular):
(1) Make it easy and standard. If everyone knew Channel 2 was the "pose ball" channel, showing and hiding them would be very easy. Instead of typing "show" or "hide", you'd simply type "/2 show" or "/2 hide". You could even make it short hand without causing lag, "/2 s" and "/2 h".

(2) Instead of every pose ball in the world creating a boatload of lag by parsing everything everyone says, the script code would only be executed when chat appears on channel 2.

(3) You would no longer see channel spam giving commands. Remember those wonderful Club Elite Dance Bracelets that caused 90% of the chat log to be filled up with "don" and "doff" commands? How annoying is it now to see "/ao on" and "/ao off" constantly? Or the dreaded "anim sit_ground"?

(4) You're contributing a ton of lag grid-wide by using an open channel on your scripted attachments... every time you type something in chat, it has to execute code. For example, open channel animation overriders... every time you type something, the code has to say, "Okay, are the first two letters ao, yes, they are, okay, what's the next few letters?" and so on. For one person, its not a huge amount, but added up together when 10 people are all wearing AOs? It all contributes to the dreaded lag we all despise. And then you have Aimee Weber's wings, with 5 scripts executing code every time she says something! She's not the only guilty party, of course. <grin>

I was called in on a live help call recently to a region where sim fps was 30-40. It typically was in the 250 range, according to the concerned resident. One avatar ported away, and it immediately went to the normal 250 sim fps range. She ported back, and the sim fps immediately slipped back to the 30-40 range. We had her remove her ring with a script in it. Sim fps went right back to the 250 range with her still present. So yes, your scripted attachments have a HUGE affect on the sim. I'm not saying stop having fun scripted attachments - but make sure they're scripted responsibly with a keen eye towards minimizing the lag they create.

So, who wants to join the team coming up with these channel standards? IM me in world. I'm thinking we have a meeting to determine needs, and then start assigning channels based on amount of use in world. We can publish the standards on the SL wiki and the LSL wiki somewhere.

Regards,

-Flip

I DO! i am always very about this kind of stuffs and if the most known scripters use thins kind of standardfs the others are gonna follow for sure, and on top of this it might prevent me to think "ok what channel am i gonna use ..."

i also suggest to allocate a range of chat channels destinated for the temporary listeners used by dialogs, since my dialogs pick a random one at everytime for added security

and how about the non chattable channels ? like the negatives one?

*brain locks up, eyes roll back in head* I like pie....?

If everyone knew what port I use, my scripts might be exploitable

yeah. i like the idea, but it's gonna require a lot of changes to old scripts which might be technically impossible, and as eggy says, it makes it that much easier to try and exploit a scripted object.

Tokin' Joints use channel 420 to find the toker's mouthpiece.

My "Asshole Ejector" scripts use channel 13, since its a bit unlucky for whoever is about to be ejected.

I have nothing to hide!

- Ace

How about widely defined ranges? It would still take a lot of effort to scan a 10,000 channel 'band' or something.

I do like the jist of Flipper's idea, though.

Flip,

Can we get some more details on this? Like who made it, and what specifically the script or scripts in it were doing?

Maybe by dissecting an example like this ring, scripters can get a better idea of what really causes bad lag. I can't imagine a single open channel listener could cause that much FPS hit.

- Jon

Jon, the person who made the call wouldn't give me any specifics on what was inside it. I decided not to push the issue. Something probably not used for any good though.

Its good to see some support! I like the idea of ranges, that will help with exploit concerns. However, putting llGetOwner() in should also help in most cases!

I'm noted who's interested and will arrange an in world meeting some time next week.

-Flip

I think it's a neat idea. I would be a bit worried about exploitation though, bands would help with that, but at the same time they also help exploitation because you know what "range" to look in.

However, if properly scripted these exploits can be avoided easily.

More however, not everyone knows how to counteract to avoid said exploits.

You take the good, you take the bad, and there you have, my forum post.

This is the convention that I use:
- Voice commands: Channel 1

I don't think there is a need for poseballs to have a show/hide verbal command. It's much better UI to have them react to a touch event.

Water Rogers, who did the riverie line of furniture was ranting about the stupidity of poseball show/hide commands now. "This is 2004! We use touch events now!" (this was last year)

He's even got a "tech support" object in Riverie that listens for anyone saying "hide/show" and lets them know to touch the furniture to make it show the poseballs.

As far as exploit concerns - it'd be a hell of a lot less exploitable than having everything on channel zero!

Francis, I raised the same exact question regard poseballs, and one of the AVsex poseball creators raised a valid point... often after sitting, the AVsexx0r will want to say "show", and position the ball while in animated state rather than having to go back and forth with trial and error.

All of my scripts use the touch event with show/hide on an alternate channel for this reason.

Regards,

-Flip

I don't understand how that makes a difference, Flipper?

1) Sit on poseball
2) Touch furniture/poseball to make it visible
3) Move poseball
4) Touch furniture/poseball to make it invisible

ooohhh... standards. Cool. I like it.

As for the exploits, depending on security by obscurity isn't wise. It should be assumed someone else may send messages. I started working off that premise after I came across the device to scan channels for activity/messages.

Excellent idea.

Standards would allow for interopability between products from different merchants.

Let's keep this alive, folks!

Francis, with AVsex poseballs, often they're 1 prim, and go transparent when you sit... no furniture to click.

-Flip

Standards = good. Yup.