Global Object Replace (+ other stuff)

I was just thinking that... wait, I started my other thread exactly like that.

It just occured to me that... hmm. no, too dorky.


Anyways!


Global object replace. I think it would be super duper cool if there was a global object replace function within the client/game. Let me expand on that a little bit... (This has probably been mentioned before in some form, but I just woke and am too lazy to go tracking it down right now, heh).


Say I create some really amazing scripted little thing that does something that everybody wants and desires and must have, and 200 people end up buying it. Yay for me, etc, etc.

But.. later on, a bug in the script is found! Shock! Horror!

So I go back to work on the script and fix the bug. Then I have the choice to either put up the new fixed version for sale and everyone simply has to buy it again, or I take it upon myself to track down everyone and give them the new object for free. Not very elegant solutions in either case. (Of course the most elegant solution is to just not suck at scripting in the first place, but oh well).

This is where the global replace would come in extremely handy.

Upon final linking/creation of the object, when it's ready to go on sale, it'd be nice if there was an extra flag which enabled the replace functionality.

Then when a person buys the object, a permissions style box pops up asking them if they want to, Yes, grant permission to the creator of that object to periodically replace that object with updated versions if need be, or No, do not grant permissions and leave the item unchanged in that person's inventory forever (or until the day they delete it).

Make sense?



Whenever we make something that we want to turn on the global replace for, perhaps the SL system then assigns you a unique ID# of some kind you can then use in the future.

In the future when you make the newer, updated object, you somehow choose that it is intended to replace an older one, and you are then asked to enter the unique ID# of the old one. The system then looks up that ID# and replaces any instances where the user granted replace permission. The replacements wouldn't necessarily have to occur IMMEDIATELY, it could definitely be a gradual thing, perhaps taking place over the course of an hour, a day, or whatever really, so as not to eat up the system resources too much.



Now... take all of what I just said (kinda), and apply it to textures also.

If I've made a fairly complex object or building, and have consistently used the same texture throughout, but REALLY don't feel like unlinking everything and editing textures for all the little bits and pieces (or having the foresight to put a script on the whole thing to allow me to later update textures).... global texture replace to the rescue!



</ramble>


Any of this feasible? Desirable? Totally insane? Lemme know!

Things this could be cool for?

- A newspaper or zine object of some kind who's pages you could flip through in-game and zoom in on to read and view images, that was regularly updated by it's creator and automatically distributed throughout the system to the people who bought it (the subscribers).

- An art frame object whose contents would get regularly updated by it's creator to showcase new pieces.

- A "landmark" of the day signpost which could be placed in numerous places around the world (definitely in newbie hangouts) and updated each day. This would DEFINITELY help out with the votes for everybody.

- Advertising spots / posters that could be placed in appropriate places around the world, showing off stores or special items. The store owner then pays a certain amount to the land owner with the advertising space to have their ad displayed in-world for a certain amount of time.

- Second Life mini-tutorial of the day/week/month signposts, which could give out tutorial objects and lessons to whoever clicked on them, detailing tips & tricks in the SL system.


etc......

I agree with ya Dee. This has been mentioned before, and I'm also too lazy to get the link in here.

This is basically like maintaining a library function. In your script you could use a #include type of statement. Well, thats another way to implement it, as opposed to the checkbox. Either way this would be really helpful. A script might cause problems, as we've seen with that fishtank script. I've pretty much updated every script that i've given out already. And there's no way I'm gonna track everyone down to give them the new version. They'll just have to live with a lesser outdated script, and we just have to hope it won't cause any problems.

Oh, and I like those ideas you came up with.

Hehe, well yeah I guess another way to look at it would be through includes. I just dunno how feasible that is for primitives y'know... how can a primitive #include something when that something is the primitive itself? hehe.

Maybe there could be some kind of "holder" object you apply after the whole linked thing is made and ready to go. Maybe when you link the primitives together, the link itself then becomes sort of like its own object which can have additional properties, and it's -that- link object which #includes the primitives within somehow? I dunno. hehe.

Includes would work on scripts for sure, and I've loved that idea since I first read it. But for things made of primitives, I think it'd have to work a little differently. Whatever primitives and scripts you put together into one linked object would have to be treated differently than a regular #include. But then of course, the scripts within all of that could be #included from somewhere else.

This could get tricky... Includes within includes within includes!

I only read the first half of the first post. So I thought you were only talking about scripts.

Anyhow I'm not so sure about the updating objects idea, but it probly wouldn't hurt. But I do like the texture updating idea. And how about sound updating?

And in addition to your "things this could be cool for list" :

radio and tv programs

Yep. I thought of that too... Making a TV object that played broadcasted news readings with sound, or announcements about what was happening in-world that day. It would be very nice if that object could be updated easily to all the viewers in-world.

Personally, I like the part of the original post that deals with the global object replace. It would be a win-win deal thing that benifets both the creator of the object and the buyers of the object. The creator successfully distributes the object, and gets no complaints about the bug; the buyers are satasfied because their object that they just bought is now bug-free and will operate as intended, thus the buyers dont need to complain to the creator.

What I dont understand about the above post is the texture change on linked objects. I would like the current system to be reworked, honestly, for Ive often built something, linked it without putting the right textures on it, turned physics on, and unlinked it to try and correct the textures, then seeing it fall apart and roll away... very unnerving to go through that just 'cause I accidentally turned physics on lol.

What's not to understand?

You make a beautifully constructed object that's quite complex, and you've positioned everything exactly how you want it, and linking it all together was a total b*tch...

Then you realise that a texture you'd used on one of the pieces could really be a lot better, or different, or whatever.

Currently you'd have to tear it all apart again, change that one texture, relink, etc, etc. Not impossible, but certainly a drag sometimes.

Wouldn't it be much nicer if you could just go to your inventory, select the texture in question and have a "replace this texture" feature which would upload a new texture in it's place, and automatically replace it on the object ? (Or something that worked similarly to this)


I know I'd like that.



I mean, ok, it doesn't really apply to just one linked up object. Because you can use the "select individual" feature in the object editor and change it out... My point was what if you'd already sold a lot of those objects, or people had copied a lot, and you wanted that texture to change in the whole system.

Yeah.

Ah! Ok I get it. Ty for the prompt explanation. I didnt even know how to select an individual in a linked object! lol, just goes to show ya how much I know

Well I originally didn't remember you could do that. It took your post to remind me of it.

Works both ways eh?