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Avatar hover
http://sldev.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1442		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  KeiFollland [ 2014-07-07 14:25:22 ]
Post subject:  Avatar hover
My friends and I have been having trouble with CoolVL since SSB started a while back, and since i've jumped between viewers for a while anyways, I've kind of just let it go for a while and assumed someone else would notice, The first time i've looked at it, from my view, my avatar floats, but i'm the only one that sees the float, i was able to edit my shape and adjust hover back down and then i'd look fine untill i Teleported somewhere and the float was back.. I've just installed the latest greatest release and the problem still exists except that i'm unable to temporarily adjust my float anymore... i start with a shape edited in another viewer where my float is set to 48. I log in via CoolVL and i'm floating to me, but others see me on the ground. I attempt to edit my shape and adjust it but my avatar 'bounces' and doesnt lower. if i save my shape from here, it's silently set back to 50 and i'm now floating to my friends. i am however able to raise my numbers and float more.. not really the affect i'm looking for though.

I'm attaching a picture from 2 POV's

Thanks in advance

Attachments:
File comment: Float offset from 2 pov's
OffsetDifference.jpg
OffsetDifference.jpg [ 50.07 KiB | Viewed 3281 times ]
Author:  Henri Beauchamp [ 2014-07-07 14:54:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Avatar hover
  • The "hover" parameter is only actually taken into account after the avatar has been rebaked by the SSB service (i.e. while editing your appearance, others around you will not see your avatar at the same level as yourself since server-side baking is suspended till you stop editing your avatar's appearance). This is not a bug but how things work...
  • The "hover" parameter was introduced to try and correct a regression resulting from the migration of the viewer-side baking to the server-side baking (SSB). You can read the story of the genesis of the hover parameter in this JIRA.
    Alas, it does not cover the actual need for a real-time adjustable avatar height, but I managed to reuse that hover setting to emulate the avatar height adjustment that we had before SSB was introduced, as long as you got the mod-ok permission on the shape you are wearing. It however means that the "hover" visual parameter is not a permanent setting, but instead a temporary one you can change via the "Z offset" spinner, in the "Movement Controls " floater (the toggle for that floater is in the "View" menu): when you change the Z-offset, the Hover visual parameter is adjusted (resulting in an immediate, partial change on your screen, then a second, final one, after the rebake is done, the final result being visible in all viewers of the avatars surrounding yours).
    This is not a bug either, but how the Cool VL Viewer (and Marine's RLV viewer) work.

In summary: do not change the Hover parameter from the Appearance tools: it's useless. Instead, use the Z offset spinner to adjust your avatar's height depending on each situation (standing, sitting, playing a kneeling anim, etc). Please, also note that some RestrainedLove devices (the Cool Collar and the Cool Cuffs, for example) might make use of the @adjustheight command to auto-adjust the Z-offset (and thus the Hover parameter) depending on the played animation so that your avatar gets auto-leveled with the floor, whatever shape or shoes it is using/wearing.
Author:  KeiFollland [ 2014-07-07 18:56:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Avatar hover
Right, I realize that nobody sees my new shape untill i save.. However when enter world with a shape already edited to the correct hover and i'm floating to me, but not others.. any attempt to edit my shape raises my hover back up to 50 so after i save while in CoolVL, of corse they see me floating now..

I tried to use the z offset built into the move controls and the reaction is the same.. i can lift myself up, but if i set it to less than zero, it bounces back up..

The only RLV i wear is what i create.. but for sanity sake, i turned on RLV debug messages and i'm not seeing any chatter forcing me back to zero. I know I dont know the mechanics of how the viewer is written, but it seems that i'm being forced above ground (collision?) and since i'm a meshy, i need to appear a little lower.
Author:  Henri Beauchamp [ 2014-07-07 20:27:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Avatar hover
KeiFollland wrote:
I know I dont know the mechanics of how the viewer is written, but it seems that i'm being forced above ground (collision?) and since i'm a meshy, i need to appear a little lower.
Yes, there is indeed a server-side limit imposed by ground collision... You can't have your avatar's feet (the ones defined by the shape, not by the mesh: the server's physics engine is only concerned with the shape of your avatar, not with what it is wearing) going under the ground/floor, whatever the Hover/Z-offset.

If your avatar's rigged mesh feet are hovering above the ground, it's probably because the legs length/torso length ratio of of your avatar shape is too large: reduce the legs length or increase the torso length. Combined with the total size, you should be able to level your avatar's rigged mesh with the ground without having to resort to the Hover parameter.

Also, there's an offset parameter for rigged meshes, but it must be set at mesh upload time (and it's alas a trial-and-error process, so better doing it on the beta grid to avoid the costs of multiple tries), and it is also dependent on the avatar shape the mesh is designed to be worn with... If you got the mesh from someone else, they shall be providing you with a compatible shape to wear with it.
Author:  KeiFollland [ 2014-07-08 02:48:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Avatar hover
well, it's a popular mesh, and not an issue with the LL viewer or 2 other 3rd party viewers, matter of fact, i can bury my avi in the ground to it's neck by changing float in any other viewer.. it just seems something's different on CoolVL.

I loved using CoolVL in the past and had pointed several people to it & would like to again since it's the fastest one i know. i really miss having shadows enabled. :(
Author:  Henri Beauchamp [ 2014-07-08 08:06:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Avatar hover
KeiFollland wrote:
well, it's a popular mesh, and not an issue with the LL viewer or 2 other 3rd party viewers, matter of fact, i can bury my avi in the ground to it's neck by changing float in any other viewer.. it just seems something's different on CoolVL.
The only difference in the Cool VL Viewer (and Marine's RLV) is that the Hover parameter is used for what it was (alas, badly) designed for: correcting the avatar height above the ground depending on the played animation. The Hover parameter shall not be used for another purpose (it should not be needed either: I gave you the solution to correct the height of a rigged mesh based shape... Just use it).

The result is that the Hover parameter is in no way a permanent one, and is reset each time you change the worn shape, relog or (obviously) modify the Z-offset. The viewers reacting differently simply don't allow any more to correct the Z-offset (i.e. they did not correct the regression introduced by SSB).

There have been several attempts at making LL move and take the proper measures to provide again a way to correct the Z-offset in real time; it's trivial to do (would they give me access to the sources of their server software, I bet I could do it in a single day of work), but they somehow don't want to do it... Perhaps because their own viewer never allowed to change the Z-offset, even before SSB days... In any case, if they finally provide a proper mechanism, then (and only then), the current use of the Hover parameter to correct the height will become redundant and the Cool VL Viewer will use the new mechanism, letting the Hover parameter for other uses (if any)... provided LL doesn't remove the Hover parameter in the process (since it was created to (clumsily) attempt to make for the Z-offset loss in SSB sims, it could as well disappear when the final and proper solution will get implemented). Till then, if you want to use a viewer with the Z-offset feature (Cool VL Viewer or Marine's RLV), you have to reserve the use of the Hover parameter to the emulation of that feature and not use it yourself for other purposes. I will not change this.

Case closed.
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