RE: 'disable camera constraints' feature

As you can see from this thread, there's some concern over the new 'disable camera constraints' option on the client debug menu. Both sides have valid points: it's a useful tool for building, but it could also be abused. In the interest of maintaining some measure of privacy, would it be possible to have the option to 'switch off' this feature on individual parcels, like with push scripts? That would seem to be an easy way to solve the potential spying problem.

Asking about this...

The constraints on the camera is a client-side feature, hence it is _fundamentally_impossible_ for LL to ultimately control it. It would always be possible for someone to hack the client to provide an unrestricted camera.

What LL does have control over is the data that is sent to the clients from the servers. So it would be possible for the servers to NOT send objects, avatars, and other information to residents who don't have access to the parcels that contain the aforementioned objects, avatars, and other information.

We haven't tackled such a feature yet because it raises some problems that would require an indeterminant amount of design and work to not suck. For instance, suppose there were two friends, 'Foo User' with access to 'Restricted Parcel' and 'Bar User' without. Foo stands in Restricted Parcel while Bar stands at the edge just outside. Foo can see and hear Bar but Bar can't see or hear Foo. How do we communicate to Foo that Bar cannot hear him? There is work to be done to make Bar less contrained by the boundary that is the impassible boundary of Restricted Parcel... perhaps Bar should be able to tunnel through the Restricted Parcel, but how do we make that transition unconfusing?

The complications down that path have disuaded us, so far, from working on it -- we've punted it into the future, but we'll probably have to get to it eventually.