I'll be releasing a relatively minor update to the Mesmerizer in the near future (ideally this weekend), version 1.7.1, along with an accompanying update to the Owner HUD to version 1.2
Bugfix
This release fixes a bug in trance scripts which prevented symbol translation from working. With the update, you can define a symbol to represent the wearer's name, for instance, with:
setvar subname "Fred"
and then if a trance script contains something like:
Hello $subname
the wearer will see:
"Hello Fred"
This can be useful in creating scripts that can be used with different wearers, just by redefining a few symbols. This sort of thing might be better suited to TranceCaster scripts rather than Mesmerizer scripts, but it was supposed to work within the Mesmerizer, and now it does.
Apart from that bugfix, I have tinkered with the mouselook command so that instead of putting the wearer's camera in the center of their head, it now just constrains it to being close to their head. While still not being a true "mouselook" the new behavior is (I think) more useful and less annoying than the original version.
New features
#RLV images
I've started work on a significant enhancement to #RLV use. One problem with the #RLV folder is that it's often tough for someone accessing it via RLV to figure out what a given folder contains. RLV only grants visibility to folders (as opposed to the items within those folders), so the usability of the #RLV folder is completely dependent on how well the wearer names the folders beneath #RLV. This is particularly an issue with outfits, especially if you have a lot of them, as it's often difficult to come up with descriptive names that aren't too long.
Mesmerizer 1.7.1 allows the wearer to insert pictures of their outfits and other items into their #RLV folder, so that their owner can see what each outfit is.
The way to set this up is as follows. Let's say you have an outfit folder called "Red Ball Gown", and that folder is in #RLV/Outfits/Gowns. You (or someone else) takes a picture of yourself wearing the "Red Ball Gown" outfit, saving it to inventory. Choose one of the standard square aspect ratios when taking the picture - don't use a custom size. Then find the resulting texture in inventory, right-click it, and choose "Copy Asset UUID". This will put the "key" of the texture into your paste buffer. If someone else took the photo, they can paste its key into chat or an IM to you, so that you have it. All you need is the key - you don't need the actual texture.
Once you have the key of the image, go to the folder that contains the outfit folder you want to attach the image to (in this case #RLV/Outfits/Gowns). Right click the outfit folder itself (Red Ball Gown) and choose "Rename". Go to the end of the current name, and append a tilde ("~") and then paste the key of the image - so the outfit folder that used to be called "Red Ball Gown" is now called something like
"Red Ball Gown~a4f8ce15-d1ca-6441-fce2-a547c7a5d97a"
(assuming that the key you got from Copy Asset UUID was "a4f8ce15-d1ca-6441-fce2-a547c7a5d97a")
That's it. Outfit folders named in the form above will be understood by the Mesmerizer as being the 'real' name of the outfit, followed by a key for an image, and someone using the Mesmerizer to list the contents of the "Gowns" outfit folder will see "Red Ball Gown" outfit folder annotated with a camera icon, and the key "a4f8ce15-d1ca-6441-fce2-a547c7a5d97a". If they're using the new Owner HUD 1.2, they can use this key to view the image within the HUD, as I've added an image display feature to the HUD. A small button at the bottom left of the opened HUD allows a new panel to be pulled out either to the left or below the main HUD, and clicking on this panel allows you to provide a key, which the panel will then display.
Someone accessing your #RLV folder with a different RLV controller will see the full name, including the tilde and the trailing key, from which they can still obtain the image key, but it's just a bit clumsier than the Mesmerizer's display. You can put spaces around the tilde if you wish, which may serve to better visually separate the image key from the main part of the name for someone using a non-Mesmerizer RLV controller.
While the feature is intended primarily for outfits, regular #RLV folders may be annotated with images in the same way. In general, you shouldn't go overboard with images, since adding a key like this significantly increases the size of folder names, and there is a limit to the total number of characters that RLV can handle in its messages. There is also a limit to the length of each individual folder name (currently 63 characters), and the tilde and key consume 37 characters, leaving only 26 characters for the "real" name. 26 characters should be enough to describe most #RLV subfolders though, and I do have several possible workarounds if you really need to use longer folder names, one of which is the ability to use compressed keys. This reduces the characters needed to express a key and its leading tilde from 37 to 23, leaving 40 characters for the "real" name. When viewed via Mesmerizer commands, a folder with an image annotation expressed as a compressed key will be displayed with the key expanded to its full form. The downside of compressed keys is that someone using a different RLV controller will not easily be able to obtain the actual keys, so they should only be used if absolutely necessary. The image display feature in CHAOS Owner HUD 1.2 will accept either a compressed key or a "normal" key. Also included with Mesmerizer 1.7.1 is an object that will compress and decompress keys, in versions that which can either be worn as a HUD or rezzed in-world.
I said "started work" above because, while this feature is fully functional in version 1.7.1, I may extend or enhance it based on user experience. So please let me know if the ability to see pictures of your subs' #RLV contents is useful, and if the experience of setting up or viewing those pictures could be improved.
Local animations
A second enhancement to the Owner HUD in version 1.2 is the ability to animate or pose avatars "locally". Local animation does not require that the target of the animation be wearing a Mesmerizer, but unlike Mesmerizer animations, which will work grid-wide (if the wearer's Mesmerizer is networked to a Communications Hub that you control), local animations will only work within the sim. The target of a local animation must grant permission to be animated, but the Owner HUD keeps track of the most recent ten avatars that have been animated and remembers that permission has been granted by those avatars, so they will not have to give it again (unless they fall out of the most recent ten targets).
Local animations require that the animation be loaded into the Owner HUD. Owner HUD 1.2 comes preloaded with all the animations that are shipped as standard within a Mesmerizer (except for mode animations), and you can easily add your own animations by simply dropping the animation into the HUD.
