The Zhao Guide

Yes, we know, a Zhao II is on the way. Until then, we still have to deal with Zhao 1.

Everyday I get IMs from people who need help with their AOs. I love chatting with people, but since I can't be on 24/7, I created a guide to the Zhao to answer basic questions.

Link to it, spread the word, give it to friends. Hopefully this will make everyone's life a little easier.

http://www.secondframe.net/support/AO_Guide.PDF

vicky

Wow. Thank you so much. Can I have your babies?

This is going into my ZHAO vendor the next time I log on.

Sure! What's your address? I'll send the kids over.

LOL!!!!!

Seriously, thanks for taking the time to write this. I've had the ZHAO-II mostly done for some time now, and have been just using it on my own to see if it acts quirky. I've given it to a few people, and am waiting for feedback. I'll probably send out a feeler for beta testers one of these days. I'm debating moving some work off into an additional script, because the main script is kinda low on memory.

Let me know if you want an advance copy to play with. And I think most of your guide will carry over unchanged. A few new screenshots, and some text changes.

Sounds like a deal! The Kids for a beta Zhao II. You're on.

Hey, out of curiosity are there significant differences between various AO's out there? I've seen many, but I've heard of Zhao, and have an open source one from franimation I think.

Just curious, I know the basic tools they use are similar, but having done one and now a second revision, can you tell me how much variation in performance I might see between them? I find mine a bit slow to respond, and sometimes unresponsive to keyboard control so if there are serious optimization changes I'll have to pick one of yours up and try it

Hard to say how much of a performance change you'd notice, the basic mechanics of detecting what an av is doing and playing the correct animation are mostly the same. The big change is a new (and hopefully simpler) notecard format. I've tried to tighten up the script a bit in a few places, but there isn't too much wiggle room there.

The ZHAO is based on the Franimation script. It puts it in a HUD and removes the listeners, so it's a little easier to use and a little less of a load on the sim. With the ZHAO-II I'm trying to go in the same direction - easier to use and less load.

Cool ziggy thanks, I'll pick one up and give it a go

Thanks for an excellent guide, Vicky! I just started to experiment with AOs yesterday and this made it all a lot clearer!

One minor caveat: The guide could give a couple of examples where you can pick up ZHAO and some animations, for the true newbies among us.

I'd throw in the kids, the dog and the tropical fish! - Well, maybe not the dog.

Nice guide - thanks

Nice one Ziggy, if you need some more help testing it let me know and I'll gladly help out.

Marquis, you can get the ZHAO at Yadnis Yard, or animation warehouse, or secondframe. It does list those locations at the back page.

Ziggy, ZHAO II looks good. The new notecard is a much clearer format.

Vicky - Thanks for creating and sharing the basic guide to the ZHAO. What a great resource.

Ziggy - If you need some more feedback before releasing ZHAO II, please let me know. I teach the use of the ZHAO in modeling classes - and would love to see an easier to use / format notecard system - and would be happy to provide feedback.

I'd also love to see the ability to change some of the other settings (such as the timers for changing poses) via notecard. I cringe when I have to walk someone new through editing the script.

Shouldn't people be using something like HUDDLES for managing poses? The ZHAO is an AO. I know, it's free

Thanks for looking through it, Vicky. RedDawn and Phantium, beta copies on the way.

Sorry, I was being unclear. I haven't been to secondframe, byt Yadni's and Animation Warehouse are both rather large. A newbie could spend a lot of time looking for ZHAO and have no idea exactly where to find it.

Check my profile for landmarks to my store, you can pick up a copy there as well. It's a biggish store, but the LM should place you right in front of the wall sign for the ZHAO.

Ziggy,

I'd really like to help beta test the ZHAO 2. I run Animazoo animations, where I give out free ZHAOs and tutorials in addition to selling my animations.

Could you send me a copy?

; - Dave

MarquisDe Paine,

That's a good point.

In addition to Ziggy's place, we put the ZHAO right at the tp to Secondframe.

Incidentally, at Yadnis it is *usually* located at the "Freebies of the month." And at Animation Warehouse, you're right, you would have to actually dig around.

This is all GREAT information! Thank you to everyone for the tips, and the ZHAO guide is absolutely fantastic. I was beginning to wonder if I was an idiot for needing help with this. hehe I don't feel so bad about it now, as it can get a bit confusing...

Hi. I bought a walking animation. After buying it, I discovered that I had to attach it (which seemed impossble) or use AO. I searched this forum and went to secondframe and got the ZHAO and tried to follow these instructions.

It seemed more like I had bought the sign. I went back and that seems to be the only option. Then in the sign I could find another thing called ZHAO, and that worked just like the instructions said. It was harder to see, and control-t didn't make it appear, but there were lines that told me where it was.

Then of course when I was all done and I tried to attach it, I had a sign on me. That was no good. So I deleted that (losing the walking animation I was trying to install) and went to Animation Warehouse. I loaded their ZHAO. It doesn't seem to work exactly like the instructions from SecondFrame said it would, but I could I think make things work. But a sitting animation I bought at Second Frame doesn't appear.

The card I am supposed to read to understand ZHAO says that I first have to understand franimation.

Am I missing something? What is the chance that an average person could use an animation requiring an AO? Why do people sell them if they know we can't use them? What is the average installation time for a noobie?

Yeah, I'm frustrated.

Rasha

Sounds like you bought a box which contains a ZHAO, so you'd need to get the ZHAO out from that box's contents. And then follow the instructions on the actual ZHAO, instead of a box containing a ZHAO.

I can't help you with the animations, unfortunately. Don't know much about them.



Read my profile picks for more info. I believe there are many people who have set up a ZHAO successfully. Your best bet is to find a friend who knows how to do it, and have them show you how. This is especially true if you're new to SL and don't know how all the edit controls work, how inventory and permissions work, and so on. Depending on how new you are, it may be a good idea to spend some time learning about basic SL navigation and controls before trying to set up an AO.

I'm working on an updated ZHAO that is (hopefully) easier for newbies to set up. But an AO is a complex object, so there's only so much I can do to make it easy to setup, before I'll have to start removing features.

For now, I would recommend you buy and use one of the pre-packaged AOs (many animation creators use the ZHAO to sell their animations), and don't try to customize your AO until you're more familiar with SL concepts like inventory, vendors, permissions, attaching, animations, and so on.

I agree with Ziggy. In my first week in SL I tried to get the ZHAO work. Failed like 5 times. Then after a couple of months I really needed a simple and reliable AO, since the others are either to complex, with features you don' use, either... bleh (who used ZHAO once will know why).

Searched trough SL and the best was the ZHAO. Second time I had it in my hands, the install went easy and I use the same object for at least half a year now, without needig something
else.

Hi Ziggy. I have been walking around with my ZHAO and trying the controls. If I understand how it is supposed to work, it looks great! Thanks for making that. I really want to get my ZHAO to work.

Mine doesn't work yet. I have a folder containing my notecard, my animations, and ZHAO. Does that sound right? Then I put on the ZHAO, not the folder. It seems like when I got ZHAO from SecondFrame I could put the animations and notecard right inside ZHAO, but the ZHAO from Animation Warehouse is empty and won't seem to accept anything.

It doesn't look that hard to get ZHAO to work. SecondFrame has instructions, and they don't look too bad. Maybe if they hadn't put the ZHAO in a box the instructions would have worked.

Added: Overrider gives away a ZHAO with some pretty good instructions. (Still doesn't work for me, though.) I think newbies should go there.

Rasha

That's an SL quirk - if your animations are no-copy, you can't move them to the ZHAO while you're wearing the ZHAO. You have to detach it, then rez it on the ground, move the animations into it, take it back into your inventory, then wear it again.

This is all covered in the Second Frame guide. If you follow it slowly and carefully and do every step described in there, you should be able to set it up.

And when you say "doesn't work for me" - what exactly doesn't work? All the pre-loaded ZHAOs should be set up, so you just wear them, and they should start working. Are you saying they're not overriding your animations? Are you saying you can't add/change some animations? What exactly is not working?

Hi Ziggy. Right, there is no override -- I still get the normal walk and sit. I probably am doing something stupid, because everything else looks great. I now have a ZHAO object with animations and a notecard in it. The notecard looks straightforward to do. I can put on (wear) my ZHAO, and then I can see all of the buttons and I can punch them and the all do what they are supposed to do. It looks like I will have great control when it works. I just am not getting the override. I tried like 4 different locations and there is no override anywhere. The sitting animation works fine when I try it alone outside the ZHAO.

Rasha