Sensations v Xcite

I tried xCite because some friends were raving about it. Spent a lot of L$, and eventually it just got boring. I don't bother any more, as I'd rather write creative RP text that really responds to what my partner is doing and to my own moods and feelings.

I have a bunch of Amethyst's stuff, mostly for the animatiions and for the fact that it works with Lockmeister-compatable furniture. I don't wear collars or cuffs much myself, but have a lot of friends who do, and we've standardized on Amethyst for all who wear cuffs or collars in our RP's. While the Amethyst stuff also works with Sensations, I looked at it and just said "Meh? Why bother? It's just like xCite, and I already ditched xCite...".

If you don't have the imagination or the typing ability to keep up real-time RP, I guess either xCite or Sensations are OK. But not for me.

The Amethyst cuffs and Collars are, in my opinion, the best on the market for that type of gear, and Amethyst herself is one of the best merchants I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Very helpful to those who have problems with her products, or to those who want to adapt or modify her work.

Sounds like Microsoft vs Linux.

Ok, newbie here chiming in. I was looking for a product that personally, turns ME on, I didn't really buy it for the effect it may have on others, though it has been well received. This is part of MY personal experience in SL - I only did a "search" on that item and after visiting many, many stores found what I was looking for at Xcite.

Now, mind you, I have only been in SL for a bit less than 2 months, and at the time of purchase, maybe 2 weeks. So, I had not encountered Xcite scripting much - I just thought some people lacked originality and were saying the same things other people were saying...silly me.

So, I bought this product and when I wore it, all of a sudden it started scripting. Now, I kinda liked what it says, so I don't mind it and I don't wear this jewelry around all the time.

But - again, mind you I'm a newbie - is the scripting changeable? and what is this "arousal meter" folks keep talking about - is that only for genitalia and not for jewelry?

As soon as I go back to SL (ah, RL work prevails) I will go and find out, but any easy answers now?? Also - how did the person who was apparently "clicking" my jewelry know to do that??

Thanks for the education - MEG

The 'arousal meter' is really just an internal variable that indicates how close to orgasm you are. If you use the Xcite HUD (heads-up display), you'll actually see a little progress bar that creeps up until you climax. (The HUD is also handy because you can use it to force orgasm, and men can use theirs to enter certain states of arousal without requiring anyone to click their bits.)

Some people with nothing better to do (innocently peers toward the heavens) sometimes turn on view invisible (CTRL-ALT-T) to see who in the area is wearing clicky bits. (They show up as cloudy red blobs on the avatars' bodies.) It is rude, obnoxious, but admittedly amusing to touch a man's invisidong while he's browsing for clothes in a crowded shop. It's also telling. Some guys immediately numb their genitals (another HUD option) after a drive-by molesting like that, while others will take it as a mating call.

Yeah, this kind of theft is so common in SL. Did you know the guy who did the Dominus Shadow wasn't the first guy to build a scripted car in SL? He totally stole that idea from some other guy. Sure he didn't use copy-bot or anything, indeed he made the best scripted car in the game, but he had no right to produce a car when some other guy was already producing cars, even if he could do it better. What a thief.

Whoever produces an item first should hold a monopoly on the market. It's not fair having to compete with other people. Just not fair.

Absolutely - I mean, someone thought of making clothes in SL, and their idea was utterly stolen by all these other people who are making clothes!

Well let us know when someone actually makes a DRIVABLE vehicle, everyone I've tried has been useless.
Yes some one first built prim cubes in SL too, the should have the rights to sell them.

Off the wall idea v1.0

Someone smart might write up a third party mapping tool that could translate between Xcite and Sensation... (then it wouldn't matter which you had.)

You would need a clear list of what parameters the two systems have, and do some smart coding to map them over - but since I assume that both of them use chat channels to communicate, it wouldn't be impossible, just a little complicated.

But I dont know if Xcite or Sensations would like that much...

As an Escort, I have everything of both, I use Sensations Collars/Cuffs and Excite Genitals, Xcite is more popular, but most of my customer work is Roleplay, but when do use them it's a mixture, RP is still used. And also you can customise the menu choiceses and responses too for bothe systems if you get bored of the standard responses. I've found the voice packs distracting, usually misstimed and instead use a manually operated sound system Sze Moan. SK-Intimates is another System & Kitty KO does a system too.

It's quite fun to wear the remote control attachments around so others may surprise you ..........
And some people just can't RP well or have limited English, So they even alter the responses into their own language.

I have both products and am trying them out. They seem essentially the same, XCite has a wider selection, has more bells and whistles, and is maybe more polished. Sensations has price going for it. So far I have found both to be about the same operationally.

No I have tried to combine some parts of the 2 systems and they don't like it at all, they start shouting "Kathrine has illegal BrandX products" when you wear them. I'm not much of a scripter though..........

I didn't mean combine them, or use their protocols in a third system. I meant that you have one person with Xcite things, and another person with Sensation things. Each person then carries an item which can translate between Xcite and Sensations. It receives Sensations information and translates it into a format that Xcite can understand, and vice versus.

But they will probably not like that either.

To get the systems to work together, it may be necessary to change channels on one or the other. I'm not sure which channels they each use to communicate with other devices in their line (though Amethyst does listen to default chat).

It's conceivable that one or the other is doing an authentication check. If that's the case, then getting the objects to work with each other would be difficult - you'd have to get the password for both. Presumably that's easy with the SDK, but since it's not easy to get the XCite SDK, then that could be a problem.

It's ironic you should say this when the two brands being talked about here do have an effective monopoly (although it's not just because they came first, but because they were successful at taking advantage of network effect)

It's for that same reason that you can guarantee neither of them will ever allow their SDK to be connected to the other. Every person wearing XCite! brand naughty bits increases the sale value of them for the next customer, and the same with Sensations or Amethyst Collars.

I think it depends what you're trying to do. If you have an object that you want to be compatible with both systems, it should be possible to send out a message in one format on channel A and the same message in another format on channel B. Whichever system the user has will pick up the right message.

It's certainly technically possible that this could be done, but I suspect it wouldn't be allowed, for business reasons. Every piece of XCite!-only furniture helps sell XCites, and every piece of Sensations-only furniture helps sell Sensations.

There already is such furniture which is compatible with both, but I don't think they are cross compatible..


In any case, I got the Sensations set. ^^ It appears to have fewer options about what to "do" to each part, but on the other hand, it seems to work with more bondage furniture, and I /think/ it works with my cuffs as well..


I guess it's rather moot, though, because emoting it out is far more fun.. the cuffs in particular are spectacular! I loooooove them. Love. Love love. ^^

I guess since I already have them, I'll leave them on for the.. easily distracted.. RPers.. ^^;

Tried sensations; found I couldn't read the FAQ or set em up while horny!

Keep going back to Xcite as it matches my IQ when libido is engaged.

(now that is damning with faint praise, all round)

LOL

*grins*

For what its worth, though, I see things like Xcite and poseballs and everything else as useful props for an enjoyable experience that is driven by creativity, imagination and good chemistry between the people in question.

In the end, it comes down to a technical question of how "compatible" you want/need to be. A professional will need to be able to match as many clients as possible (and not only in terms of Xcite^^). A smaller group of people who are relating together will likely settle for one or the other.

I just find it irritating having to switch cuffs to use LM or LG furniture. Oh well. ^^

I wonder if any of you who have "given up on your xCite systems" would part with them for around $L500? I'd be happy to buy a second hand (female) setup.

Assuming they're transferrable.

I was once near someone who's bits kept going off (this was before I figured out the mute option), and it wasn't her name on the "Blah's (bits) says:" I just hope whoever gave/loaned her it washed it first

eh, I can handle the learning curve of "buying used".. I'd like to play with the sound packs.. but 1k just to get the ability to try the soundpacks I'd ALSO have to buy... not so eager.

So.. once again, if anyone has a female xCite set that's just sitting in their inventory.. I'd be happy to offer 500 for it.

Woah lots of talk there. To set stuffs straight I and Amethyst have designed the Sensation system together, we thought about doing some sort of Xcite compatibility, but as said before in this thread, Xcite is closed source and probably do not intent to open it's communication protocol, so nothing on our side can be done as long as we can't get a protocol description, unless we hack through it which would prove to be long, painful and not exactly that interesting (drama anyone?).

As for LockMeister it is originally a protocol i wrote to get rid of some adjustment problems with bondage furnitures and also to make an unified comm system between bondage attachments, everybody is free to use and abuse of it.