How to avoid polling llGetAgentInfo()?

I find myself wanting to use an attachment to detect when the player starts/stops typing and flying. Only way I see to detect this is via llGetAgentInfo(). That would mean running a timer on repeat. There's no way to get an event when the player changes state like this? I don't want to lag things down with an unnecessary timer that triggers 4 times per second...

Suggestions?

Mik

are you talking about yourself or others?

On myself, for making, animation overriders, rocket belts, angelwings, furry jaws that open while typing...

The best way to do what you want is by using:
http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llTakeControls

This way you can fire a 'control' event on the keyboard keys you desire.
Inside the 'control' event handler you can check what your av is doing at that moment: sitting, flying, walking, etc.
For the 'control' event handler, see:
http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=control

As a bonus: scripts with control will run on parcels with no scripts allowed.
This is how AOs are made

Yeah, that works for most cases, but for typing specifically, it doesn't Any tips on that one?

Mik

For typing, you have to use a timer.

I never thought about that before. So all the avatars that are using a special typing anim are adding to their script load by running a script with a timer that kicks in every second or so to see if they're typing? If so, that's as scary as scripted hair and shoes. Or did I miss something?

Don't most AOs use a timer loop anyway so that they can catch transitions between animation states that don't rely on control input, such as a change from falling to standing up?

Yes, but it's not a big deal. The check takes a handful of code, and only runs in 1/45th of the frames. I don't think it adds even the CPU load of a single extra link message listener script, and it adds no extra memory usage.

Not even close. Adding a low rate timer doesn't even show up on ANY metric compared to a prim attachment with 50 resize scripts.

Mmm, yeah. It's not a disasterous load, but yeah, I think they all run on timers. Every time you see a furry's mouth that opens to speak (type), or every time a virtual keyboard magically appear under people's hands... there's a timer somewhere. Just for the sake of it, I checked my opensourced AO. There's a timer hidden inside that too, along with collision detectors and keyboard control...

Thanks guys, for the assist.

It's not even a noticeable load, compared to all the moving events that fire when you walk.

That's comforting. Thanks.

For a minute there I was afraid that in addition to telling people to get rid of scripted hair, we were going to have to advise them to stand there and shut up.

Really, if you want people to cut down on sim load, the first thing you could do is to get them to sit. That way they become non-physical and don't take up the physics engine's time.

(yes, if an avatar stands in one place eventually they become non-physical.. until someone bumps them, or they move... sitting on a non-physical prim does it right away no matter what)