I have vetted the “action” feature in the *palette nc for fadehide/fadeshow. It should also work for all the other Inner Action list. If there is one you need that is not on that list, let me know and i will enable it or if an InnerList entry is not working let me know.

What is an “action”?

Glad you asked.

It provides for the ability to trigger an action/feature  in a Palette for the same palette or a different palette at the end of a move or turn cycle which is after the pause, if any.

1 – Move/Turn (optional)
2 – Animate (optional)
3 – Pause (optional)
4 – Action (optional)

By specifying an action for a given move, it makes for tighter control of when other things happen for a palette and relieves you of the burden of having to ‘time’ actions on the autofx.

This is similar to MJs request to trigger a Palette action, in her case a “move”, between sequenced dances from the HUD. That provides tighter timing control and alleviates having to worry about calculating timing in autofx. That would be messy and not as reliable.

How it works is that the action sends the command to the HUD who redirects it to the proper palette. So, yes you must be wearing the Perf. HUD for it to work.

Real life example I got working: In my routine I am working on I have footsteps one for left foot, one for right foot. They are movers. After they move I want them to fade out. I created a ‘fadehide’ action for the move. Works like a charm.

Here is what the entry looks like in the *palette nc:

Action,1%2.0%FootPrintL%fadehide%ONE

The 1 is the move number it applies to. In this case the 1st move.
The 2.0 is the delay that happens prior to the action.
FootPrintL is the name of the Palette
fadhide is the action to take
ONE is the parameter that says to fade only this prim

 

 

 

 

 

A special impromptu class was held as part of LilAngels first bootcamp. A bootcamp is for new Artistas to fast-track them to usablity. It consists of me spending a full-day with them where I do most of the work of getting them to functionality on what it is they are trying to learn and they learn by watching and reviewing what I do. So far its been working. The idea just seemed to spawn itself from several people asking for a ‘full-day’.

I announced the session in notices in case anyone else was interested in learning the Artiste Set Rezzer. Kat was available and wanted to attend. We had several hr class. Maybe 4 hrs long.

We went over basics…step by step…as we all had the same stage template to work from. We didn’t address nocopy/nomod technique  as I plan to include that in an Advanced Set Rezzer class.

Later I worked the 2nd half of the SetRezzer bootcamp with Lil where I assisted in her tackling a troubled set of 18 items that she was trying to rez where she was having random missing transparency issues. We were finally successful! YAY!…I just wanted to document issues we had and how they were addressed.

1) Some of the items were scripted. We removed the scripts so that they didn’t interfere with the rezzer.

2) We increased the RezDelay time first to 5.0 seconds (default was 1.0) and then later again re raised it to 10.0 seconds. That seemed to solve a lot of failed rezzing.

3) We also increased the MaxRezDistance from 20 to 40 as some items neeed extra rezzing room. That immediately solved the failed Xmas Light rezzing issue.

4) We also put the primmiest items first on the list rez. Not sure if this helped.

5) As a future enhancement I can optionally set scripts to running after they are rezzed…if when scripts ARE needed as part of a rezzed item’s functionality. I am hoping that it was the increased delay allowed for rez to complete as opposed to having to remove scripts since we are not sure at this point which did the trick. Will examine this later. We just wanted to get it to work and it did.

6) The reason that set-rezzing was paramount to Lil’s interest is that  her prior set-rezzer had issues with failed alphas. The Artiste SetRezzer had already run into this same issue and found a work-around to what is a common known SL issue that occured after a particular server-rollout many moons ago. The Artiste seemed to have resolved her missing-alpha issues as we were able to get all 18 items to rez perfectly and repeatedly

7) I had an issue but turned out that I forgot to UNLOCK my set. Spent a couple hrs scratching my head before realizing that. So this zs meant as a heads-up.

8) Double Exposure (Dbl Exposure) needs to be fixed. It was a problem I was aware of. It will screw up cross-fading because when a child-rezzer is Double Exposed, it doesn’t know if its state is hidden or showing. It is confused and understandably so.

9) You need to rez an object called ArtisteOffStage. It must not contain a script. It is just a dummy place holder that the MasterRezzer uses to know where to hide NoCopy/NoMod items.

 

 

 

I’ve been privy to work in front of and behind the scenes with a few venues.  The dynamics of shows is advancing at a rapid pace. What should happen is a pulling back of the reins. But instead, its full speed ahead. Bigger, greater, more intricate.

There are a few schools of thought as far as management production is concerned. One school is that everything is pre-planned. The other is going in assuming that things will go wrong because you have conceded control of major critical paths.

There are some serious synchronization issues happening and it seems like they are going to get worse (in the case, for example, of 2 lead singers from different parts of the world streaming 2 streams (i guess they get premixed?).

Anyway there are 4 major control points. In current day, these are handled each by different people. So the Murphy Law is having a field day gorging himself on misfires that are almost guaranteed.

1) a speaker/MC introduces an act

2) the curtain must open

3) the music must start

4) dancers must start dancing

5) one (god forbid two) live singer(s) start singing

then the reverse

6) music stops

7) dancers stop

8) lead singer stops singing

9)  curtain closes

10) MC cuts in and segues to next topic

Issues abound. I’ve heard them discussed in crew-chat. Seen results from audience POV.

As you can surmise:
a) some things have to happen at the same time

b) some things have to happen before other things.

c) some things require hearing a Q.

d) some things require manual triggering.

Even after rehearsal, Murphy had these items for lunch.

So the idea is try to address these issues. There are 2 schools of thought.

One, prepare as if there is nothing you can do and have responsive tools and actions that let you change course mid-stream to adapt to shifts in timings and misfires, assume the worst and manage it.

Two, take more control of the critical paths. This is the Artiste school of thought.  And there are new issues that this approach faces. I am working feverishly to iron out wrinkles . Preventing the issues before they occur.

Its a very hard-sell because people are ingrained in the old mode and pride themselves on being able to fix issues midstream

But Artiste is a big advocate for:

1) Controlling the start of the music (be it sound or media)

2) Synching the beginning of the dance and/or movers to the start of the music

3) Controlling the opening and closing of the curtain

These controls mitigate most of the issues previously mentioned.

The problem was raised of people coming in late hearing mid-stream so to speak. I am learning how that relates to mp3s vs media. While there is an acknowledged delay (20+ seconds) in streaming  when the stream must travel from streamer up to streaming server and back down to listeners, the playing and hearing of YouTube is instant as is the solution of the music being already uploaded to a server as an mp3 (this one i am still trying to learn how to do).

Sound delays are the bane of coordinating multiple listeners who depend on aural cues.

So groups of more than 2 are new territory for the Artiste GOLD so we may encompass our own issues. We will tackle them as we come upon them.  Imagine trying to create a HUD or tool to address all of the needs of today’s artists NOW. So glad I started 4 years ago and had vision.