User:Benjamin Linden/Office Hours/2007 Sep 20

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Transcript of Benjamin Linden's office hours:

Benjamin Linden: oh hey Saijanai
Wyn Galbraith: What's the agenda?
Benjamin Linden: so I wanted to give you guys a sneak preview of something we've been working on for a while now
kyle Milestone: lol
Wyn Galbraith: Coolness.
McPhenius Swain: oh, VIP passes :)
Benjamin Linden: I think I mentioned a few times we were considering an update of the visual appearance of the viewer
Wyn Galbraith: Skins?
Benjamin Linden: sort of a cosmetic overhaul to make it more professional appearing
Laetizia Coronet: yay I want a gangsta skin :P
McPhenius Swain: word Lae
Benjamin Linden: I posted a description and a screenshot to the public wiki a few days ago
Benjamin Linden: so I wanted to give you guys a sneak preview of something we've been working on
Wyn Galbraith wants elven or Vulcan
Saijanai Kuhn jsut wants a hierarchical/outline view
Benjamin Linden: oops bad cut and paste
kyle Milestone: houlà, il n y as pas de règles bien définis pour du commrçe in world avec tout ce qui immerge maintenant
Benjamin Linden: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewer_Visual_Update
Saijanai Kuhn: which has occupied his every waking moment for far too long
Laetizia Coronet: kyle c'est vrai, on croit que les commerçants mauvaises perdreront leur clientèle
McPhenius Swain: oh nice :)
Jason Swain: Will there be a classic option?
Laetizia Coronet: mais il y a le SLBB, Second Life Better Business Bureau
Wyn Galbraith: That's lighter.
Benjamin Linden: unfortunately there won't be a way to go back to the old look and feel initially
McPhenius Swain: who would want to :)
Benjamin Linden: down the road we hope to make the viewer truly skinnable
McPhenius Swain: the skin on that one is nice
Ciaran Laval: That certainly looks neater
McPhenius Swain: polished
Squirrel Wood: Oh there will be enough people who will complain about changes....
Benjamin Linden: at which point a "classic theme" might be possible
Ciaran Laval: and less like a dreamweaver default page
Benjamin Linden: glad you guys like it
Wyn Galbraith wants a Celtic version
McPhenius Swain: true, if they could be interchanged in the future
Laetizia Coronet: merci
Benjamin Linden: it's still a bit rough on the edges but it gives you a general sense
Saijanai Kuhn wants one that interacts with WIndlight (seriously)
Benjamin Linden: and yes Squirrel, I'm prepared for the onslaught of criticism
Jason Swain: I like the improvements, but the classic is also very nice too
Benjamin Linden: Saijanai, that's a cool idea, like Philip's ambilight thing
Tao Takashi: definitely looks better, yes :)
Laetizia Coronet is still opening it
Squirrel Wood: Okay. I want. Where can I get it?
Wyn Galbraith: There are some people that just can't handle change.
Tao Takashi: they just need to change, Wyn ;-)
Jason Swain looks at Squirrel, "I am not complianing" *smiles*
Saijanai Kuhn: a gothic sim should have the option for a gothic skin, complete with lightning flickers lighting up the UI. Same with the combt sim and exposions
Benjamin Linden: haha, actually I'm hoping in the next day or so to put all the files you need to run this new look up on the wiki
Wyn Galbraith: Which makes you wonder why they come into a platform that is forever changing.
Saijanai Kuhn: expllosions
Squirrel Wood: I'm sooo going to use this
Benjamin Linden: because all we've done with this is basically switch the graphics and the color settings
Tao Takashi: but a client which changes it's skin on every sim cross is maybe also not very usable ;-)
Benjamin Linden: there are a few technical blockers, as you can see on the wiki page
Saijanai Kuhn is STILL working on that damned baby hirarchical list thing
Laetizia Coronet: looks good
Saijanai Kuhn: no more than one that changes its lighting with every sim crossing
Wyn Galbraith: Anyone that uses any kind of software (mumble Microsoft) has to get use to constant changes. As a matter of fact, even RL is constantly changing. So to not change is to die and even that involves changes.
Benjamin Linden: very philosophical Wyn
Squirrel Wood: You can't not change ^^
Ciaran Laval: These technical blockers, how many of them are show stoppers? The text issue for example?
kyle Milestone: i have to go,thank you for your help and have fun!;)
Wyn Galbraith: So be water and go with the flow. Hey it's the Elven/Vulcan side of me.
Ciaran Laval: Bye Kyle good lucj
Ciaran Laval: luck even
McPhenius Swain: lol
kyle Milestone: thx!:)
Wyn Galbraith: LOL McPhenius that laugh goes with the av.
Benjamin Linden: Ciaran, I believe the text rendering and the powers-of-two textures are show stoppers
Laetizia Coronet: aurevoir Kyle
McPhenius Swain: That's me in RL, but slowed down :)
Benjamin Linden: good luck getting your issue resolved, Kyle
Wyn Galbraith: LOL
kyle Milestone: @+Laetitia!;)
Saijanai Kuhn: text is horribly handled in the viewer (says someone who patched text sizes)
Wyn Galbraith: Good luck Kyle
Benjamin Linden: I need to update this page, the first one has actually been fixed already
kyle Milestone: i am the only in pain i think this problem ll be fixed fast!;)
Squirrel Wood: Yay!
Squirrel Wood: Yum! 33 votes ^^
Ciaran Laval: I think people will welcome a changed look and feel to be honest.
Squirrel Wood: You would think more people would vote for something that benefits them...
McPhenius Swain: Benjamin, is the group First Look working on this as well?
McPhenius Swain: The viewer visual update?
Benjamin Linden: well we haven't quite figured out the release strategy for this yet
Benjamin Linden: I suspect it will go out to first look initially
Ciaran Laval: We swapped the parts of a guys computer at work into a newer looking base unit and he told us it was much faster than his old machine
Benjamin Linden: lol Ciaran
Benjamin Linden: actually there have been studies showing that the visual appearance of a UI affect users' perception of its usability
McPhenius Swain: It was the dust bunnies slowing it down :)
Squirrel Wood: Hey everybody! We just changed the looks of the interface. Sorry for not telling you sooner but this is it. No going back this time! ;)
Wyn Galbraith: You might want to give a choice Benjamin.
Laetizia Coronet: How was it? If you put a Chevy engine in a Ford and a Ford engine in a Chevy they both go fdaster lol
Benjamin Linden: if it looks better they believe it's easier to use
McPhenius Swain: Yes indeed, called the "placebo effect"
Wyn Galbraith: Legacy or New style viewer skin.
Laetizia Coronet: something for Mythbusters
JetZep Zabelin: hehe, wash your car and it seems to run better
Wyn Galbraith: LOL Ciaran
Ciaran Laval: Agreed Benjamin and I think if you mention it's potentially part of a skinning project that people will be happy with that.
Benjamin Linden: wow an anteater!
McPhenius Swain: Very common with medications...
Squirrel Wood: windows users... restore their background image after a reinstall and they immediately feel at home.
Saijanai Kuhn: so it requires more than just "skin" files to make this work. If you swapped out the new for the old, you couldn't revert?
McPhenius Swain: people "think it works" and it's just sugar in the capsule on tests
Wyn Galbraith: McPhenius is a cool avatar ;)
McPhenius Swain: ty
Benjamin Linden: Saijanai, I think it might technically be possible for people to revert to the old look if they know how to manipulate files in the skins folder
Wyn Galbraith: I think if you're going to do this change Benjamin, you should allow people to change it back. If you don't there will be more grief and more jira entries about putting it back.
Benjamin Linden: but we won't be providing an easy way to do that in the UI
Benjamin Linden: Wyn, there will always be people who want their old look
Squirrel Wood: Wyn... there will be such entries either way
McPhenius Swain: hmmm a "default" setting
Benjamin Linden: but we can't please everyone
Wyn Galbraith: Not everyone is able to do that.
Benjamin Linden: also, it's not really sustainable for us to maintain two different sets of graphics
Benjamin Linden: in the long run
Wyn Galbraith: Some people don't even want to know what a folder is. :)
Ciaran Laval: Wyn just think how popular the retro skin will be in the future if people can't change back to this look easily at the moment.
Wyn Galbraith is just being the devil's advocate.
Benjamin Linden: that's why saijanai keeps harping on skinning, because then you guys can make your own skin
Squirrel Wood: Sai is doing a good work at it ^^
Laetizia Coronet: I want an early minimac look ;)
Benjamin Linden: there are so many possibilities once we open it up to user customization
McPhenius Swain: yes, there would be
Saijanai Kuhn: I'm versatile, but some people will no doubt have tweaked their monitors to accomidate the old look and get upset, blah blah blah
Wyn Galbraith: Sai is good at a lot of things.
Benjamin Linden: while I like the new color palette, one concern I have is that it may be too bright, that it may distract from the world. what do you guys think?
Saijanai Kuhn: me, I'm dealing with this code. I get upset with the code, NOT wi what someone someone how manages to accomplish with it...
Saijanai Kuhn: :-(
McPhenius Swain: I think it could be "gotten" used to
McPhenius Swain: hard to tell from screenshot
Squirrel Wood: I want to see a render mode in SL that just uses @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ " to render the graphics.... like the pictures you can view here: http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/main_gallery.html
Ciaran Laval: It doesn't look too bright in the screenshot but I agree with McPhenius that's it hard to tell at this stage
JetZep Zabelin: bright definitely ruins the visual effect especially if you are in dark areas
Saijanai Kuhn: Beige is better than pure white
McPhenius Swain: People will always be independant to change.. I hated going from Win 95 to 98 to 2000 then XP
Saijanai Kuhn: I know that Apple spendt a fortune figuring out its color scheme
McPhenius Swain: but I would never go back
Wyn Galbraith: Pure white is bright.
Benjamin Linden: I think we need to tone it down a bit
JetZep Zabelin: it can throw of gamma
Benjamin Linden: make it more grayish
Ciaran Laval: I went to ME and definitely wanted to go back!!!
Wyn Galbraith: I think I heard something about using pure white in graphics.
Saijanai Kuhn: pure white can exacerbate people with dyslexia
Squirrel Wood: http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/images/gallery/animals/animals_118.jpg
Benjamin Linden: that's why Windows Classic theme has stuck around as long as it has
McPhenius Swain: how would grey do when not the active screen (transparancy wise?)
Wyn Galbraith forgets what it was.
Laetizia Coronet: but people can adust their screens, or maybe you can make it slightly less opaque so it adjust to surroundings
Benjamin Linden: but it's gone in vista
Benjamin Linden: at some point people have to move on
JetZep Zabelin: pure white makes your pupils open wider which can stress them out if you're trying to look at a dark place
Jason Swain agrees with Saijanai Kuhn on the pure white and dyslexia
McPhenius Swain: yeah
Wyn Galbraith: It wasn't good.
Laetizia Coronet: well I am still at my Commodore 64, with a spare bedroom full of rom and rampacks ;)
Saijanai Kuhn: too high a contrast between text and the background will make things harder for many people to deal with.
McPhenius Swain: lol Lae
Wyn Galbraith: No yawning!
Wyn Galbraith: Where's Sai's ant.
Wyn Galbraith: Mcphenius needs a snack.
McPhenius Swain: haha
Wyn Galbraith: It's the most soothing for me.
Benjamin Linden: I love the anteater!
Wyn Galbraith: Iknow that I usually turn my textpad background to black and use cyan as text.
McPhenius Swain: lol, can I use that as a quote Benjamin?
Saijanai Kuhn: I've been avoiding the ant. There's a HUGE graphics bugg in home-built clients and the libsl uploaded ant. THought this wone doesn't have that bug, come to think of it
Laetizia Coronet: those things are so personal
Ciaran Laval: I think the dyslexia issue is definitely worthy of consideration.
Wyn Galbraith: I also tend to stay away from white as backgrounds in websites.
Wyn Galbraith: LOL Squirrel
Laetizia Coronet: and a braille viewer?
Jason Swain agrees with Ciaran Laval
McPhenius Swain: omg Lae, I was going to say that for a skin, but didn't want to come across the wrong way
Saijanai Kuhn: that's a genuine documented condtion. I'd make sure that you are NOT using pure white as the background. How much gret *bege might e better) to use, I don't know
Laetizia Coronet: I am rude and boorish, I know ;)
McPhenius Swain: nah, because I wanst thinking of it that way
JetZep Zabelin: its the outline (border)
JetZep Zabelin: frame
Benjamin Linden: agreed on the white
Laetizia Coronet: but really if you make the interface slightly 'sheer' you get a very adaptive background
Laetizia Coronet: never pure white or too bright
Wyn Galbraith: Besides every apartment I've lived in had white walls, sick of it I say, had to figut to make the studio walls green, but it's my studio.
Wyn Galbraith: *fight
Saijanai Kuhn wanted to make a brail hover text, but the Mac fonts don't support braile. /snif
JetZep Zabelin: right now its dark grey which works well with the lighting of the view
Laetizia Coronet: Sai, maybe there are Mac fonts on the web for that
Wyn Galbraith: Hi Tree!
Laetizia Coronet: free ones even
Tree Kyomoon: hey there folks!
Benjamin Linden: hi Tree
Saijanai Kuhn: the fonts used are hardwired into the viewer. I can read brail just fine on the mac, but the font SL uses doesn't have it
McPhenius Swain: Hello Tree
Aoi Roux: hi, there!
Ciaran Laval: Hello Tree
Tree Kyomoon: feels good to be back in my skeleton
Laetizia Coronet: hi Tree
Squirrel Wood: Mmm. quiet ^^
Saijanai Kuhn: there's no easy way to get around it. They have to change both the font list AND how fonts are handled because right now ALL the fonts used are loaded into memory. Unicode is a pretty big system for that
Tree Kyomoon: would be cool if fonts could be prims
Saijanai Kuhn: svg-on-a-prim
Tree Kyomoon: mmm 3d text
Benjamin Linden: haha cool!
Saijanai Kuhn: most people on the technie side want that over http-on-a-prim
Squirrel Wood: there is an attachment available that "prints" 3d prim letters into the air before you
Benjamin Linden: wow that sounds very cool Squirrel
Tao Takashi: I simply would want a HTML floater (window), I don't need it to be on a prim for a start
Squirrel Wood: Yep. Just don't ask me where to find it
Saijanai Kuhn: simple enough. Just rez a bunch of sculpties made with fonts
Tao Takashi: like the webtab
McPhenius Swain: I saw that on SLex last night
Squirrel Wood: Only seen it once and the mall has since gone down
JetZep Zabelin: next someone will make it change your voice into 3d text
Tree Kyomoon: I made a 3d letter thing
Benjamin Linden: I'm going to send an update to sldev about this new wiki page. I'm hoping to get some interest on the list for fixing these bugs
Tree Kyomoon: but it only prints in ariel, I had to make each letter by hand
Tao Takashi: so llLoadURL could open in a window instead of my webbrowser
Squirrel Wood: Good idea :)
Tree Kyomoon: and I only did upper case
JetZep Zabelin: text to voice in sl would be neat
Tree Kyomoon: no build here or id show it off
Tree Kyomoon: hey yeah, text to speech to voice would be awesome
JetZep Zabelin: different speech skins :)
McPhenius Swain: ...Shall we play a game ???
JetZep Zabelin: modifiable with sliders like appearance
McPhenius Swain: Hal :)
Saijanai Kuhn: with a proper pug-in api, it should be possible to use ANY browser as the default browser in a SL window
Benjamin Linden: what are people's thoughts on transparency in the UI?
Wyn Galbraith: When not in focus?
Ciaran Laval: I like it
Laetizia Coronet: thast's the word I was looking for :)
Jason Swain: Will it take addtional graphics processing power?
Saijanai Kuhn: very much needed,m especially with the communications window, especially if you have bad eyes and need to scale p the interface
Saijanai Kuhn raises hand
Tree Kyomoon: its already transparent isnt it?
Wyn Galbraith: I like it.
JetZep Zabelin: transparancy is nice but might make it difficult to see in certain dark/light backgrounds
Squirrel Wood: transparent ui... YES! But adjustable for focus/no focus ^^
Ciaran Laval: I also like the sound of the jaws personal defence pet but anyway!
Jason Swain: it looks great ^^
Tree Kyomoon: what we need is a flash based UI that we can create widgets for
Saijanai Kuhn: IOW, still have some transparency, even if the window has focus?
Wyn Galbraith: But then I fill up my window with stuff, so having unfocused UI be transparent is a plus, or semi-transparent
JetZep Zabelin: hehee
Benjamin Linden: yes, the UI currently supports transparency
Benjamin Linden: I was wondering if folks like the way it currently works
Laetizia Coronet: works fine
Tree Kyomoon: I like it, but its kind of pfugly
Saijanai Kuhn: I could see adding an option for transparency for the focused window.
Benjamin Linden: sometimes it allows you to get your windows into a bug cluttered mess
JetZep Zabelin: its fine
Saijanai Kuhn: a percentage of the non-focused transparency
Jason Swain: I think it helps allow better multi-tasking
JetZep Zabelin: i thought it had kind of a technical look when i first came to sl
Tree Kyomoon: would be nice to at least be able to change the colors
Benjamin Linden: the colors of what Tree?
Tree Kyomoon: the UI
Benjamin Linden: oh you missed the discussion on the new look
Saijanai Kuhn: But all this is just eye candy. What would REALLY change the interface is a hierarchical widgit that isn't tied to the inventory items
Benjamin Linden: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewer_Visual_Update
McPhenius Swain: I have to run irl :) Take care veryone and I'll keep checking on the the visual update :)
Benjamin Linden: thanks for coming McPhenius!
Ciaran Laval: Bye McPhenius
Laetizia Coronet: see ya McP
Jason Swain: See you McPhenius
Saijanai Kuhn has been working for weeks on creating a baby version. There's countless enhancements to the interface that depend on its existence
Saijanai Kuhn: which you don't see because it doesn't exist
Wyn Galbraith: Bye McPhenius don't be a stranger.
Tree Kyomoon: nice!
Tree Kyomoon: can we add ideas/comments to the wiki page?
Benjamin Linden: yes Tree, please do!
Tree Kyomoon: cool!
Saijanai Kuhn: right now, that inventory panel and anything made from it, sends constant updates to the asset server. There's no easy/obvious way to keep local control of something in tha twindow
Benjamin Linden: I hope to upload the files to the wiki today or tomorrow so people can try it out on their own viewer
Saijanai Kuhn: no private notes, no private script libraries, no private files of any kind
JetZep Zabelin: hehe
Tree Kyomoon: sweet
Tree Kyomoon: any hope of a flash layer?
Saijanai Kuhn: so if you have a scrolling list of 200 items that you want to read, you'd have to access the sever 200 times to read that entire list
Benjamin Linden: I haven't heard anything about a Flash layer, Tree
Tree Kyomoon: OK, I'll add that as a request :)
Benjamin Linden: haha ok
Ciaran Laval: Sai that sounds painful
Tree Kyomoon will probably drown in wd 40 for being such a squeaky wheel
Benjamin Linden: does anyone else have anything they'd like to discuss?
Saijanai Kuhn: imagine trying to scroll through a list of script items where every single one of them has that "loading" message, for a 3-line snipped of code
Squirrel Wood: Humm.. Had lunch yet?
Benjamin Linden: I ate lunch during the first part of the meeting :-)
Squirrel Wood: ^^
Squirrel Wood: And what is going to happen about... MISC-632 ?
Saijanai Kuhn: a simple hierarchilal list could let you keep a local copy of your scripts, the wiki's script library, etc., on disk
Squirrel Wood: and.... http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-626 ^^
Tree Kyomoon: Ben the UI looks great! did you design it?
Saijanai Kuhn: I'll have a primitive version workin Real Soon Now, but its been teeth-pulling to get it to work
Benjamin Linden: Squirrel, I do believe we need to do the work in 632 but I don't know that we currently have internal resources available to work on it
Wyn Galbraith: Gets her's in: Promotes two issues of her own for comments etc; VWR-2366 & SVC-631
Benjamin Linden: thanks Tree, I'm glad you like it. Our internal UI design team worked on it along with an outside graphic design company
Saijanai Kuhn: I can design a better interface than that and add a script generator for it, but I don't understand enough about primitives to actually do the real-time stuff
Squirrel Wood: Ben, I'm looking forward to trying out that new UI design :)
Tree Kyomoon is trying to learn C# so I can make my own client
Benjamin Linden: Tree, are you on the sldev list?
Tree Kyomoon: not yet but I was planning on it... still going through all the docs
Tree Kyomoon: too much of a noob at this point
Benjamin Linden: I plan to send an update to the mailing list when I upload the files
Benjamin Linden: but you can also watch this wiki page
Tree Kyomoon: how do I get on it?
Ciaran Laval: Benjamin is there any reason why the communicate window can't have icons on the buttons? Like the chat button in the new UI you're designing?
Benjamin Linden: yes, Ciaran, all the buttons will have icons
Saijanai Kuhn: If you know C#, and are on a PC< I'd joint whatever libsl forums there are and play with the code NOW instead of waiting until you are "not a noob>'
Ciaran Laval: Ah good.
Benjamin Linden: but for that we need this bug fixed
Benjamin Linden: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2446
Saijanai Kuhn: I'm a noob on C++ (been 5 years since I last used it) and I've learned a LOT trying to wrestle with the client GUI.
Ciaran Laval: lol there's always a but!
Saijanai Kuhn: programming is about getting down and dirty, not just memorizing formats
Benjamin Linden: let me pull up the info on sldev
Squirrel Wood voted
Tree Kyomoon: Im a noob on C# but an old hat on actionscript/flash, so if I could find a c# wiz to build me an api for the client, I could do what I do best :)
Squirrel Wood: I'm wondering... is there any tool to convert vista pro .dem files into .raw files for SL usage ?
Saijanai Kuhn: it turns out that the view class DOES have a clip region but it is terribly undprecitably used. It isn't used for windows themselves, for example
Laetizia Coronet: I translate, which comes at a much later stage
Squirrel Wood: (terrain for sims)
Jason Swain: Quick question, has anybody had all the charaters in the chat go completely odd and then back to normal, with no apparent trigger?
Laetizia Coronet: no Jason
Benjamin Linden: here's the info on sldev
Benjamin Linden: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLDev
Wyn Galbraith: no Jason
Tree Kyomoon: no that sounds really cool though
Benjamin Linden: ok folks I have to run
Wyn Galbraith: B-bye!!! :D
Benjamin Linden: thanks for your feedback on the new UI
Tree Kyomoon: thanks for sharing all that Benjamin!
Laetizia Coronet: have a nice day Benjamin
Ciaran Laval: Bye Benjamin
Jason Swain: Thank you Benjamin ^^
Wyn Galbraith: Anytime, have a good day.
Squirrel Wood: See you next time ^^
Benjamin Linden: have a great weekend everyone. see you next week!