Mouse hold

Is there a command to allow me to hold the cursor over on a prim (like a HUD button), and click and hold the mouse button which will make an event loop over and over (like a held note, a color change, etc), until I release the mouse button? Thanks!

i dont know if this approach is feasible:


catch the touch_start event to start your loop
catch the touch_end event to end it.

yup....
insead of using touch_start, or touch_end, just use touch..... but you should be aware that it's going to almost always double trigger, so actually it's best to use all thre (and you may need to add a sleep in you touch...

eg

integer vBooIsHeld;

default{
  touch_start( integer vInt ){
    vBooIsHeld = TRUE;
  }

  touch( integer vInt ){
    if (vBooIsHeld){
      llOwnerSay( "Triggering in ~1second loops" );
      llSleep( 1.0 );
    }
  }

  touch_end( integer vInt ){
    vBooIsHeld = FALSE;
  }
}

You can start an llSetTimerEvent on touch_start and clear it again on touch_end. Depending on just what you need, that may be the best way to go.

One problem with using the touch even is that it fires very quickly, so the events can quickly stack up in the queue if you're not careful about what you're doing. -You can fiddle with llMinEventDelay, but since that messes with the whole script, you may not want that.

no av will be registered more than once in the same touch event, so the stacking isn't an issue for a hud (since only one av could be touching)

the timer version may take a little more finesse as it's going to trigger the first time AFTER the timer delay (you could use a custom function, call it before you set the timer, and call it again when the timer fires). the other problem there is that the timer may queue up before it gets turned off, causing an extra trigger (unless you also test a variable before running the timer code). code size-wise the triple touch event tends to work out as a smaller equivalent, because of the extra overhead involved in the other method.

ETA:
both methods would suffer possible premature shutoffs with mutiple touching avs (as the first av lets go, the test or timer is shut off) but a combination method, where the timer shuts itself off, but the "touch" event continually sets a variable to true could work in that scenario.

...Unless you're sending commands to other scripts to perform the actual action, in which case you can easily send them faster than the receiver can process them if it is doing anything with a delay. I just wanted to warn that touch can be one of the most aggressive events, but it may not be an issue, depending on use.

I use a timer on touch_start and shut off on touch_end, with the hold action taking place in the timer event.

good point, you definitely want to either throttle events that are being outsourced to another script, or just use the touch_start/touch_end to trigger their start and stop.

The problem with that is that people expect the hold action to fire after they've held it long enough. If people just have to guess that they've held it long enough they'll get frustrated, or hold it way too long.

so you throttle it AFTER you send the message (with llSleep), or if you use triggers from the start and end if doesn't matter.

Or you just abort the whole transaction if someone else tries to jump the gun, which is what I'd do if I wasn't building a HUD where that case can't happen.