Navigator Mapper HUD

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Revision as of 11:21, 26 December 2011 by Rufus Darkfold (talk | contribs)
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The Navigator mapping HUD displays up to 9 sims at once (using flattened prisms like the xyzzytext package). It will display the sim you're in, and any adjacent ones.

Note that clicking or lookaheading into another sim will only return useful data if there is a Navigator beacon there, otherwise you will get "[NOSERVICE]".

There is a basic menu. Clicking on "Transparency" will make the map more or less transparent, depending on where on the bar you click. The further to the right, the more transparent. A blue marker shows the current setting. The current sim will always be slightly more opaque than the surrounding sims. "Reset Maps" will flush all map data from the cache, so that new maps will be fetched. The maps only change once a day at most, so it should not be necessary to do this much more often than that. "Lookahead" doesn't do anthing yet. "OK" will hide the menu. Click in the same area again to get it back. Clicking in the transparent areas above or below the menu doesn't do anything yet.

The maps can be resized or moved using the standard editing controls.

The HUD runs the "navigator" script that the navigator beacons run, and can be used to update the script in any beacons you own. There is an additional "mapper" script to handle the maps. Navigator HUD has all the other features of navigator, including the ability to check any location in the sim for banlines, full parcels, reefs, etc., and to forward requests to other navigators as needed. You can also click on the map to get information on any location displayed if it is in the same sim, or if the sim selected has a Navigator beacon.

Most forwarding is now done via http/http-in. Navigator beacons register with the objDNS service on appspot.com. Maps are obtained via either of two APIs: Tyche Shepherd's gridsurvey API (http://www.gridsurvey.com/api.php) or the map api on subnova.com.

It is now possible to have proxies for sims in which it is not possible to install beacons. These will not have the real-time data that a real beacon would provide, but they can be used to warn vehicles away from private sims and their hidden banlines. If the whole sim is off-limits, there is little need for real-time data from it anyway. Proxies could also be used for sims that are all deep Linden water.

The HUD checks the area 10m ahead of the avatar — "ahead" meaning whichever direction the camera is looking, not necessarily the direction the avatar is moving. The 10m lookahead increases with avatar speed (currently to a max of 50m). If that distance crosses a sim boundary, the hud will attempt to query the navigator in the next sim. If there is none there, a "[ NOSERVICE! ]" warning is displayed.

The HUD will generally display the sim name and coordinates it checked and information about the parcel, e.g:

Sentry:<226,184,144> [ SAMEOWNER ] (488/1289) ^104 "Egyptian Museum (Open During Construction)" Rufus Darkfold

Comet:<30,79,131> [ BANLINE!! ] (105/117) ^107 "Erindale" <--- with !! and in red, because you would be within 50m of ground and hit the banlines.

Comet:<30,79,191> [ BANLINE ] (105/117) ^107 "Erindale" <--- no !! and in white, because you would be above the banlines.

[ NOSERVICE! ] is displayed if the location being queried is in another sim and that sim has no Navigator beacon.

"(105/117)" is (prims-in-use/prims-available). In addition, if the prim allowance is already exceeded on the parcel, a "PARCELFULL!!" warning is displayed.

"^107" is the ground height.

Under water locations replace the ^height with ~depth, e.g.:

The Sea:<23,77,20>[](10/1222) ~14 "somewhere that is 14 meters deep"

A proxy response may omit much of this. The one currently being tested just returns, "[ PRIVATE SIM!! BANLINES!! ]"

A single  ! is a warning (such as NOSERVICE!), 2 ! ("!!") indicates a banline or a full parcel, either of which are hazardous to vehicles.