Lose the Communicate Window

tearing off isn't a solution, it increases the problem if they turn the chat window on its head like i show here then you can hide the ugly parts theyve added and keep the old.

https://filer.case.edu/sxg7/mysecondlife/files/present%20method.jpg
https://filer.case.edu/sxg7/mysecondlife/files/perfered%20method.jpg
https://filer.case.edu/sxg7/mysecondlife/files/the%20benifit%20of%20this%20perfered%20method.jpg

Ah, as I thought. It is acceptable to you because you have an obscenely huge cinema-style monitor and a graphics card powerful enough to allow you to run SL full-screen. You have 4x the screen real-estate that I have when I run SL. So for you, that UI is not that bad.

I usually run SL in an 800 x 600 window, so I can do other things and possibly run multiple avatars at the same time, and the Chatterbox eats up over half of my SL window. If I run full-screen, at 1280 x 1024, I may as well be watching a slide show run by a sleepy octogenarian. Frame rate drops so bad that it's less than 1 FPS, even in a skybox. My graphics card just can't handle SL at that resolution.

Yes, I am getting a new computer soon.

I've posted a minor edit to the XUI files at

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1549

which fixes one issue with the chatterbox.

Matthew

I dislike the communication window. i don't like everything combined like that. I wish for my chat history, friends list, and IM window to be separated, their shortcut keys to work again, and close the windows properly like they always did. The (New Message) button doesn't go away if i do CTRL T like it normally did. Right now i use the basic SL client instead of first look because of this, which disables me from using voice chat. When this is mandatory, i may end up hacking the client just so i get it how i like it. ;/ This was a very bad move for LL to make. You got everyone used to a 3-4 year old chat interface then change it for a less functional one. So lindens, if you really plan on releasing it like this mandatory, i must wish that you give residents the ability to fully customize our interface, skinning, shortcut keys, layout, full control over what we see, to remove the ugly.

I like it. Reminds me of the chat windows for a lot of other 3D enviroments. It's pretty easy to use. People don't like change around here I suppose.

I dunno what other 3D environments you been to, but i'm a online gamer and I've never seen any chat interfaces that combine the friends list and chat windows into 1 tabbed window. yea i can see tabbing the IM window with the history window, but the friends list is supposed to be separate. I find this as a real annoyance, not just because im used to it the other way, but because this is less functional. You cant see both at the same time unless you detach them, and the shortcut keys don't seam to work the way they used to. Some things just don't need changed...

It took some getting used to for me, and I guess it's nice to have one huge window instead of a bunch of little ones, or something. They needed to do something to fit the voice UI in, I guess. Yet another window in the corner to show who is talking would have been fine, though. Didn't they do that on the beta grid?

The Communicate window in the First Look Viewer will change substantially before release. Thanks for the feedback.

OMG! A Linden response! Thank you, masked Linden!

Seriously, I certainly hope they do change that Communicate window, mostly by ceasing to make it into a Swiss Army Knife / All-in-one wonder-gadget that has so many unrelated features that none of them are useful together.

/me picks self up off floor

noooooooo!!!!!! Lindens don't change it too much!

I can understand display size problems that this causes but for me the design of it works really well. I'd like to tip my hat to the Linden dev who came up with the interface.

I use it exclusively and it actually feels strange now going back to the normal buttons on the bottom interface.


-whyroc

Thank you thank you thank you

I like the Communicate window in the FL 1.17.2, but I think it
needs some slight tweaking. I want to be able to make the
whole upper (Voice) part of it collapse away, leaving just the
Chat history below. This should be independant of whether
I have Voice enabled at the moment.

I also don't know what the big volume control slider
there is for; it's always greyed out.

But I like the integration of the Friends/Groups/Chat/IM
into one window; if I need to have the Chat (aka Near Me)
window seperate from the IM windows, I can tear it off.
I think this is great!

Glad it does - really I am, but for those of us who run SL in a 640x480 window 75% of the time, we're in big trouble!

Does "substantial changes" means better or just bigger?

Thank you for the linden response. I sure hope it changes for the better. I don't mind most the changes but i believe the friends list needs to be kept in it's own window like always. Even AIM, MSN and Yahoo messenger don't combine your IM window with your friend list window... It's horrible for functionality. It could have been worse though... Lindens could have also combined the inventory with it. >.>

Before someone jumps the gun and says "oh it's all detachable so you can still see it all", you have to do that every time you open the window.. Sorry but i prefer it to be how it was.

They should just make some Profile options to control that, such as a checkbox for whether you want certain things pre-peeled.

Agrees with the writer of this thread!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOCUS ON THE OTHER BUGS NOT THIS Aspect of the viewer It will have its time some time soon! BUT PLEASE DEAL WITH MORE important issues then this part of the viewer!

Usagi

Let me ask you then why are you bothering fixing issues with in the Communicate box if your change it all toegther? Why not focus and deal with UI part that has been causing client to crash not only now but what seems to be since the birth of FIRST LOOK.......( ok better yet the normal client as well ).

User interface is important. Having trouble understanding how to use the software will cause us to lose residents, just as unstable software will. Fixing bugs is good, but Second Life also has usability issues that need work.

Getting feedback on the UI of voice and the Communicate box has been one of the purposes of the Voice First Look. The process is working; the Lindens have acknowledged that they will make changes, largely because of all the dissatisfaction with the current interface.

Perhaps the giant chat dialog can be used to block out the grotesque mockery of a sun.

/me bumps the topic still ticked off about the friends list being combined with her chat history... I hope this will be a change made soon because it's the most annoying part of it all for me.

I, too, would prefer the chat history/IM window much smaller. Some of us are on laptops!!! Small screens!

It is also much harder to not be able to see chat and be in IMs at the same time.

You know, the Near Me pane can be torn off, and by default, jumps into the exact same spot as the History panel is on the main viewer. The only 'fixed' pane in the Communicate window is the Contacts panel.

The change in functionality only lies in the fact that both of these windows can now in fact be merged into one window. That alone makes it a more 'tidy' way of working, for when you're browsing on a notebook.