Dummy Avatars

This is one that's been brought up in the past, and I didn't want to necro some archaic old thread, but I do like the idea of being able to rez a static avatar dummy. One that could, upon use, with proper permissions, copy all the slider settings, textures, attachments, etc... from my own avatar, thus creating a body double. Useful for the development of clothing and attachments. Perhaps capable of holding an animation script, to see it in motion while editing.

I imagine that standard scripts would not be able to work with it, but that specialized scripts intended for dummy avatars could. With the right scripting, an avatar dummy could walk around one's domicile, like a "robotic" butler. With in-chat commands and whatnot. Give it some kind of inventory limit, allowing it to store a small number of avatar props, for verbally-commanded attire changes, or to give it the ability to whip out decorations for its environment (depending on build permissions) and person. Give it a cache of clothing, and a simple cycle script to showcase a variety of outfits as an in-store mannequin.

Sure, griefers would be overjoyed to exploit them, so put in restrictions. Maybe they're only rezzable on land that you own.

Maybe you have to purchase them from LL, as no-copy objects. Allow modify and transfer, of course. This would certainly remove the mass-spawning of them, except by the wealthiest of griefing-inclined landowners.

They'd be perfect for AI combat. Zombie hordes? You got it.

Some people might develop romantic interest in them, like those RealDolls, but let's be honest, would that possibly be any less healthy than what's going on in SL today? And hey, what a step up from realistic inanimate dolls!

Link the dummies to HUD control panels, to switch it between inanimate mode, to "idle" mode, where the eyes/head follow nearby avatars. Script them to talk and perform emotes/animations on chat cues.

And for those worried about bandwidth, include something in the options menu to turn down dummy graphics/textures/animations.

Sounds like an alt. I do most of what you say all the time with my alt. (well except carry on romantic relationships with it LOL).

LOL - Well I see the benefit of using an alt. But I still like the other applications of it. Having "NPC's" in a SIM can greatly increase the number of things you can do. Like having AI "bots" that aren't just particle bits bouncing around, or a door-man to use at the entrance to a club. There are many applications, which I think could be fun and useful, moreso than having an alt, which many people don't have access to, considering limited bandwidth or computers in the house.

They'd provide great atmosphere at clubs. They could be put in dance cages, and used in advertising. So many different, valid applications. As long as limits are imposed, I don't think it would be a problem to have this feature implemented.

Of course, there are other ideas I'd like to see, too. Like some new base avatars, to make it easier to create animal avies, machine avies, and abstract or cartoon avies. What we have now is nice, but I'd sure like to have a little more freedom with the base skeletal structure. In fact.. Since the current avies are Poser-based, why not allow for the importing of custom Poser avies? That would just rule, in my opinion. Use some kind of templates for the labeling of body parts so that it would be allowed. Oh to have four-armed avies, centaur avies, etc...

although a bit limited you can already do it with the current scripting and build tools.
The varius prim pets come to mind, the animations are usualy limited becouse it would lag to much otherwise but they can interact and walk around in their enviroment.

Sez who??


BTW- I'm a total bitch in bed. I demand too much of myself. And I tend to eat Pie in bed which totally annoys me. And I'm never "in the mood" when I want it cuz I tell myself the excuse of "Not tonight, Me, I have a headache".

Actually caught myself looking at other women/men and felt like I dont find myself Attractive anymore.

LOL!

hehe, The worst part would be when your alt cheats on you... ;p

Heh- My Alt is a Noob-Looking Female, I seldom use except for testing.

I might dress her up some time & see what its like for women of SL.

Oh the fun I shall have!!!

An avatar prim would be nice. All it needs is the ability to position it by specifying a pose and then texture three faces (face, upper-body, lower-body) just as with clothes (so you can easily apply a clothing texture).
I wouldn't go as far as giving them attachment points and multiple layers of clothing though, just texturing them like a regular prim would be fine, meaning if you want to have clothes on a particular skin then you need to combine them outside of SL, but it removes the need to have the simulator baking textures itself (currently the viewer does it and send to others).

Also not sure about animating them, I suppose there's no reason not to beyond the fact that they would become hard to distinguish from real avatars. I see no reason why existing LSL commands to animate wouldn't work fine, just have the prim automatically give animation permission to scripts inside it, and deny any other requests automatically.

Once you've got that you can use the object LOD for them (rather than avatar LOD) and additionally you have the benefit that these could use the new Avatar Impostors feature (see Windlight) to make them perform better if used to create a crowd of people or such.

Related

http://code.google.com/p/sl-polymorphism-proxy/

It's not as featured as one would expect just yet, but it's got potential...