Open Listens (XPOSE and MLP)

Hi there.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whether or not there are open listens in XPOSE and MLP? The creator doesn't seem big on answering IMs and I understand that -- busy busy.

But we have enough lag in our sim without adding more.

Does anyone have any suggestions for multi pose configuration tools that do NOT have open listens as I think XPOSE and MLP do?

I just created an MLP chair, rezzed a copy of it and the menus are talking to each other rather than solo. That's a problem, obviously.

I'm about to give up on MLP and XPOSE for lag and just being unpredictable (created an chair yesterday with XPOSE and the pose shifts slightly depending on which pose is selected before another -- inconsistencies like this are driving me crazy).

Thanks for any input and sanity saving advice.

*moves*

Hi Lucrezia

The MLP, while it is turned on, maintains 3 listens that I know of - 1 each in ~menu, ~pose1 and ~pose2. They are on high pseudorandom channels (derived from the key of the containing prim) so it may not be as big a problem as you think; my understanding is that really the only open listens that are problematic in terms of sim script performance are open listens on channel 0, since they must process any avatar chat in the vicinity. But it's your sim, and your call to make of course

Also each ball carries an open listen while it is rezzed, also on some obscure channel. No amount of scripting magic can do away with these - the balls pretty much have to listen 100% of the time to respond to commands, since they aren't linked to the main object. Likewise at least one listen must exist in the main object, since that's the way blue dialog boxes communicate. Any device that pops up a dialog must listen for a response or it won't work, period.

Some scripts with dialogs start a timer to shut off the listen after a certain amount of time to save resources, a side effect being a time limit to respond to the dialog before the user must simply try again - but if you consider the original implied purpose of the MLP (romantic animation sessions) that wouldn't really work well, to have the dialogs keep timing out and forcing the users to keep clicking all the time or be left with dead dialog boxes.

So really, any device that works like this pretty much needs to have at least 1 listen going in the main box and one in each ball. Xpose, by its very nature, would have to be in the same ballpark.


Now recently the llSetLinkPrimitiveParams command opened up other possibilities for moving seated avatars around. This method comes with the same limitations we're all familiar with regarding link distance - you start moving avatars around on a linked object and try to move one too far and it might not work, or might even unlink the main object. But since you're moving seated avatars and not unlinked ball objects, no listens are required unless a dialog box is used. And if you're using your chair in a conventional "chair-like" way, the link distance probably won't be an issue.

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OK that's enough of an essay on this stuff - now that I read your post again I have a feeling you actually wanted advice on existing products or scripts to use rather than technical scripting advice, but I don't know of any specific products like that. Maybe some of my babbling helped you get a sense of where you stand anyway, and what you may be looking for.


edit: READ THIS PART

Oh, I just remembered - check the round booth around the campfire at the Cartel Hangout, whoever made it is using a script that I'm pretty sure works much like I'm thinking. Maybe the creator of those booths (sorry I can't think of who it was right now) can help with a specific product

Also try restarting one of the chairs you put out that are getting dialog crosstalk, each MLP uses a unique set of comm channels derived from the root prim key so crosstalk should not happen, but the channels probably get set when the scripts start so if you rez multiple copies of an object with a running MLP script they'd share channels until restarted.

Thank you so much. That was all useful. I'm one of those that actually does want to understand. Understanding is half the battle in doing -- in my opinion. So the essay was very helpful. Thank you. Too often people just say "this causes lag" with no explanation.

Thanks again!

Cheers.

I found out the cause for these problems. Whenever you rez an MLP copy, be sure to restart it via the menu. MLP uses a chat channel based on the key of the object, but a copy will use the channel based on the original unit's key until you restart it.

Also, I find I get best results if I restart it whenever I move the furniture.

Any scripts have unpredictable lag if they're nontrivial and being run in a sim where the script lag is high in general.