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Bigboard Clone

James Elytis
Registered User
Join date: 15 Sep 2005
Posts: 2
09-26-2005 04:45
I'm trying to build a SL clone of SnowCrashes bigboard program. So far I have managed to build a sensor that will detect all avatars within 96 metres and return their names via llOwnerSay. I'm pretty sure I can get it to also return their position as well.

I am now trying to find a way to mark the current location of a select avatar on the map. I've looked through the LSL wiki, but cannot find anyway to set the waypoint marker (the red column) at the position of an avatar. I'm also trying to find a way to open the profile of an avatar via my bigboard script. Again I cannot find anything on the wiki that would allow me to do this.

Does anyone know of a way to do either of these two things? Any advice would be appreciated. I was out and about today with another player and we kept getting seperated. A working Bigboard would help alot as I could tell which of the green blips on the minimap was them.
Keknehv Psaltery
Hacker
Join date: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 1,185
09-26-2005 05:20
You should see the Av Detector... I think it's a freebie at Yadni's. It rezzes little spheres that move around relative to their assigned person, it's quite nice and smooth. I think it does exactly what you're wanting, but I haven't actually read Snow Crash.
Ben Bacon
Registered User
Join date: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 809
09-26-2005 06:49
From: James Elytis
I'm trying to build a SL clone of SnowCrashes bigboard program
You want something that glitches your friend's bar's OS whenever you walk through the door? :) Now if you can do those dudes that come out of the floor to take the dead bodies away, I'll take 2 dozen.

Seriously, though, there isn't any way to control the big-red-beam, or open the profile from script, but there are some other options.

Finding friends: Yes, you can get their position, and you know your position. Subtract one vector from the other and you have their position relative to you. Do some division-by-rotation (I'm at work so I can't get an actual code example at the moment) and you have their angle relative to you as well. You can llOwnerSay that to yourself, or rez in an arrow in front of you pointing in their direction, etc. In 1.7 you'll be able to attach a homing tracker to your wrist, for example, and animate a little arrow in it to point at your buddy.

Finding friends further than 96m away: Read up on email in LSL. Leave a central box somewhere on your land. You and your friends wear attachments that send an email to the box whenever you change sims as well as letting you query the box to find out where your other friends are.

Getting profile info: see llRequestAgentData for the details that you can get about the scanned avatars.

You've already done your own sensor work, and you posted this in scripting tips rather than products wanted, so i'm guessing you want to learn to do it yourself rather than just have the completed code dropped on you. If not, let us know, and we'll fill in more detail.
Online Doesburg
absurd hero
Join date: 6 Jul 2005
Posts: 53
09-26-2005 07:44
I had similar ideas to Ben's - getting the global position with llGetRegionCorner and llGetPos and then emailing them to the other person's attachment, which animates a pointer (like a compass needle) to point in the general direction of the other person. This way you don't even need the dreaded, lag-causing, long range sensor. You do have to deal with script delay for emails of course, which may make this too slow.

There are also other things that make it difficult to do this (e.g. attachments changing keys when re-rezzed after teleport), but maybe a small relay network (e.g. a few objects, stationary, unlinked and close to each other, communicating with each other on different non-chat channels) is able to work around those problems - I'm not sure
_____________________
"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding." - Albert Camus
Azrael Baphomet
Registered User
Join date: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 93
09-26-2005 08:27
From: Ben Bacon
You want something that glitches your friend's bar's OS whenever you walk through the door?
I thought it was the infocalypse database that did this? Ah well, no matter. It sounds like an interesting project. I'd buy one if it goes for sale.
James Elytis
Registered User
Join date: 15 Sep 2005
Posts: 2
09-27-2005 02:18
Thanks for the information all. I'll make sure to check out the freebie in yadni's for a working example.

FYI, yeah I want to do this myself. Partly for the experience and partly because I am on a free account and can't afford alot.

At the moment my bigboard does a single call to llSensor when i type "bigboard". I figured this would minimise lag. I figure I'll do that and then if I want to track someone, get bigboard to do further sensors for a single avatar once I have their name. Ideally I want this to work by itself and not require other avatars to use the same item.

As a final question, is it possible to rez items or text which are only visible to the user? I don't want all and sundry to see a giant compass arrow above my head when i'm trying to find someone.
Ben Bacon
Registered User
Join date: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 809
09-27-2005 06:16
From: James Elytis
As a final question, is it possible to rez items or text which are only visible to the user? I don't want all and sundry to see a giant compass arrow above my head when i'm trying to find someone.
Not yet. See all the discussions about the HUD in the 1.7 preview for a sneak at what's coming though.
llOwnerSay, of course, can say something private to you. In my av scanner I take the relative angle from me to the target and convert it to a clock-angle. Until we have private arrows, or small arrows on attachments, "36m at 2 o'clock" will have to do.

Extra note: If you are close enough to the other av, and don't mind people seeing what you're doing, targetting a particle stream at the av can also be a nice effect.