I think there's a more meta question here: How successful have HUDs been with new user experience?
I have blogged before about the idea of a need for a "look-at" pie-menu option: http://secondtense.blogspot.com/2009/03/basic-functions-second-life-needs.html ... and in general, I think there's room to improve camera function. I've also previously in the past experimented with BijoCam, a hud-based interface that interacts with invisible tripwires to trigger 3rd person remote camera setups. It's a bit bewildering at first, because we're used to the over-the-shoulder control, not a third person Alone-In-The-Dark (it's the earliest example I can think of) control, but I also found the longer I was in it, the easier it became. At the same time, that was not useful at all with learning SL's default control. Thus, when discussing HUD-based teaching systems for new-user experience, I'm concerned about users getting used to having their camera controlled, and then suddenly when they're in the rest of SL, it never happening --- essentially it teaches new skills and sets new expectations that are not present in the rest of the Second Life platform. No, and this is why I lean with Frans' sentiment that the bigger issue isn't HUDs, but with the SL client itself. I would love, for example, to shove the camera permissions - which need to be granted via pop-up blue floater for EVERY script wanting to take control - into the browser itself. It would require basically putting camera-control permissions into avatar-level permissions. (i.e. Muting, see online, etc) Some intuitive default settings would be: - Camera control granted for avatar / objects of landowner of parcel your avatar inhabits. - Camera control granted for friends. - Camera control granted for Linden accounts. - Camera control disabled for all others. Additionally, I think in order for this to be easily usable, it would need to be non-scripted. There would need to be a floater that is somewhere in the UI that integrates with the "Look at" ... where maybe you click a button to "set a camera target" and then click on the object, at which point in time it calculates the proper camera-eye location and camera-target location and sets it to the floater's local data. Then a "show avatar" button where you could then basically create a hyperlink in chat where people would click on the link and it would control their camera. ... This is all, of course, a tall order. In the long run, I see many benefits of it. I know people will say that what I'm suggesting is far too much work, but what I'm essentially saying is that the system won't be intuitive enough otherwise - including HUD-based solutions. Regards, Ron -- Ron Blechner Chief Technology Officer Involve, Inc www.involve3d.com SL: Hiro Pendragon On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Frans <[email protected]> wrote: > I personally like the idea of being able to temporally have other people > follow your camera, especially when I'm trying to explain something and > there is confusion about what I'm talking. Similarly the other way around so > I can see what they see. > It would have to be really straight forward and obvious though if it is > build in. I would want a 'instant replay' type icon on the screen so there > is a constant reminder for people that they are not in control of their > camera. The interface of gaining control back should be obvious too. I > believe we have currently a 'release camera' button when your camera is > under script control, but I'm not sure it is noticeable enough amongst the > the other buttons. > Early on when the script functions to follow the camera where first released > I made some toys, prim cameras and arrows that follow you camera, in that > way providing a visual mark to show people where you are looking without > taking control of their cam. I think for most uses that might be sufficient, > though. > @Melinda, you are correct the camera will only be able to be moved in 3D > space and wouldn't be able to show where the inventory button is. Unless you > zoom in on a picture(on a prim) of the inventory button. But in that case > you can just as well use a pointing arrow. > > On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:50 AM, Melinda Green <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Wow, that was a while ago! >> >> I've not seen or heard of this HUD and while it sounds like it has >> merit, it also sounds somewhat invasive. I have a personal, almost >> physical relationship with my camera and I doubt I would like that. I >> expect that I would not like losing the ability to cam around, adjust my >> view, and check out people's profiles, etc. I expect that being driven >> by it would feel as if someone else was grabbing my head and moving it >> around. I think that I would much prefer other sorts of pointing devices. >> >> Even if this mode is useful I doubt that it'd be popular enough to >> permanently add to the viewer. HUDs are perfect for this sort of niche >> functionality so I would much rather see effort made to figure out what >> is causing those lag and choppiness issues you're reporting. >> >> I also don't see how this would help newbies to find their inventory, >> etc. since this certainly would not let one person see the other >> person's UI, right? >> >> -Melinda > > > -- > Jeroen Frans > Virtual World Technology Specialist. > TheVesuviusGroup.com > SL: Frans Charming > > _______________________________________________ > Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: > http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLDev > Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting > privileges > _______________________________________________ Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLDev Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges
