Content Creation Improvement Informal User Group/Archive/August 21st, 2012 Meeting

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15:03  Geenzian Scientist  for anyone just arriving, you can find the agenda here: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Content_Creation_Improvement_Informal_User_Group
    today we'll be focusing on the UI discussion first
15:05  Oz Linden  Introductions.... Brooke is coordinating all our efforts for Materials, and Leo is our UI designer tasked with making the changes needed for the materials project. He'd like to leverage the input from this group. Be nice. Take it away Leo...
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  thanks

[15:06] Braydon RandtBraydon Randt listens attentivly

15:06  Siddean Munro  hi all :)
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  We've heard some suggestions and input, and there have been some drawings of a UI for materials.
  Geenzian Scientist  on that note, I'll do a quick recap of last week's discussion
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  I'd like to take the opportunity to take a step back and find out
    what tasks this group finds most important for users to have
    in the new materials functionality
15:07    we've put together a doc with some preliminary user stories
    https://docs.google.com/a/lindenlab.com/document/d/1UKJfP7S3Ptwdp-bSFc1MAwfU2E61vk2R-RDpTNRGO1Q/edit
    that everyone should feel free to examine. if anyone here is unfamiliar with the term "user story" I am happy to discuss.
15:08    geenz, i'm sorry, i did not see your message.
  Geenzian Scientist  it's fine
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  would you like to recap?
  Geenzian Scientist  indeed! :P
15:09  Kadah  "As a builder, I don't want the tools floater becoming larger and taking up additional litmited screen space." :p
  Geenzian Scientist  so, last week during our build UI discussions, Trinity had an interesting idea: let's break down building tasks ranging from the simple functions of placing an object (such as a couch, car, bed, etc.) to the more advanced functions such as adjusting a prim's flexible properties, a prim's inventory, and so on
15:10  Trinity Dejavu  As a resident builder I have no idea what a normal specular thingy is and want it to go away
  Motor Loon  and no extra window opening like the stupid "More info" button in the build floater now °͜°
15:11  Kadah  "More info"?

[15:11] Oz LindenOz Linden suggests that we improve the tone of the discussion by leaving out value-loaded terms like "stupid"

  Trinity Dejavu  Im veyr interested in a basic build mode, simple tools with simple controls that do just enough for a consumer. then a great big Advanced button that exposes all the magic for builders
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  I would disagree that the items inventory is useless to the average user. Some things require access to that for the average user. (like sitters, etc)
15:12  Kadah  (What Oz said) Yes, please, these meetings take long enough as is without banter. :p
  Geenzian Scientist  how about we focus on Leo's topic first (I imagine that today's guests may not be able to make it through the entire meeting today)
  Motor Loon  Sorry, wasn't trying to banter - that's just how I talk °͜°
  Xentha Melune  I remember when there used to be a 'more' button that actually extended the build window downwards into what is currently the tabs and all the things therein.
  Trinity Dejavu  I disagree Isla, a consumer has no need to see inside the couch they are rezzing
15:13  Siddean Munro  well what does your average user need access beyond moving stuff around in space? Because you can access that with Ctrl, Alt and the mac equivalent and don't really need the build box there at all /shrug
  Brooke Linden  thanks, geenz, yes we have to jump off at 3:30
  Kadah  Xen, I recrated that functionality in Ph/FS
15:14  Siddean Munro  I don't know, since I use ALL of the build tools
  Xentha Melune  I'm just saying, it used to be a kinda nice thing to have. Why not have something similar for newer build tools instead of a whole new floater?
  Brooke Linden  what we're looking for scope wise is how to more effectively manage texture building, with the new map types being added in
  Trinity Dejavu  keyboard shortcuts all all well and good - once you know them.
    build tools and build tools 2 ?
  Kadah  I don't find the tools floater colapsing all that useful though, usually I just minimize it instead to stay in build-mode.
  Geenzian Scientist  which for those interested, are normal maps, specular maps, and a few different additional parameters here and there
15:15  Siddean Munro  Brooke, are you just going to add new texture pick boxes for the new maps? Can I suggest a little >> on the side of the texture tab that pops out to the new functions?
  OctaviaJane Farquart  wewt
  Braydon Randt  i fell that the user story is more than acceptable , for the average builder, yet may not be simpl enough for the non builder/dabbler
  Xentha Melune  Each to their own preferences. Not all of us are viewer developers and can modify it to our own preferences.
    Not meant directly at you, just, pointing it out. :p
  Brooke Linden  so, we're going to focus on *what* the users need to do today
15:16  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  The user stories are pitched at the group most likely to use the new features, at least at first -- more advanced builders
  Brooke Linden  and then we'll look at *how* we put that in the tools :)
  Siddean Munro  Ok
  Oriana Kuhr  I would suggest, instead of changing the build panel, a drop menu system similar to the avatar/world/build thing, likt, right under the landmark bar. If you keep all of the tools useable, but out of the way with easy access, it should make most happy.. I use all of the tools, but it gets annoying having to maneuver my camera around the build box
  Trinity Dejavu  I think there is certainly room to punt the entire build tools as advanced into a tabbed sidebar assembly - there there are no problems with size, no need to keep jamming more and more in one teeny floater. Pretty much the standard for any other 3D application
  OctaviaJane Farquart  id like an advanced builders button please
  Nal  When I am texturing using in-world textures, there is lots of searching for the right texture. It seems like Normal and Spec maps are going to add lots more searching. If the Build Panel is split up, may be split off a texturing panel, so it can be big enough to work with,
15:17  Kadah  There is no sidebar.
  Oz Linden  you're all talking about How... Leo is asking about What and Why
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  At this point in the project it's premature to consider how these controls would be invoked or presented.
  Braydon Randt  it might be worth doing like you do with colour and texture , yet on the texture add the buttons for normal and spec
  Oriana Kuhr  or better yet, as people have to pass the mesh test to upload mesh, why not have a "designer" viewer with all the tools, and a normal viewer with no build tools? then only allow registered builders to get a hold of the designer viewer
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  the user stories are step 1. if we can nail those down with your help, we can proceed to which controls we'd need, and then later to how they'd be presented
  Trinity Dejavu  I want options for everything I can edit easily accessible
15:18  Motor Loon  Personally I'd think they'd be most logically placed next to the Texture and Color slots of the "Texture" tab... but I'm unsure just how much more you need with materials than the "Normal" and "Specular" texture slots...
  Oz Linden  For example, the current user stories do not address whether repeats and rotations should be applicable independently to the diffuse, normal, and specular textures....
  Helpless  largest current use by everyone for build tools will be "edit my attachment", followed by "place my <thing I rezzed>"
  Kadah  One issue with the tabbed layout is that the tab bar gets scrolled.
  Trinity Dejavu  yes OIZ, absolutly
  Braydon Randt  well ..... how its presented is " end of line" for the project ... what i want functionality wise ... is covered well enough in the user story
  Motor Loon  ..the transparency and glow could be moved underneath the current texture and color slots to make room mabye
  Trinity Dejavu  Oz*
15:19  Siddean Munro  For mesh items, I don't care because they will use their own
  Brooke Linden  are there additional user stories that are missing?
  Vaalith Jinn  I don't see any reason to separately apply repeats/rotations to what essentially are parts of a single material.
  Siddean Munro  well, for me anyway
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  Braydon, thank you -- this is the feedback I need -- or to hear tht there are stories missing
  Motor Loon  well, the question is if they are to have their own values for offset - or simple use the same as the diffuse texture uses right?
  Oz Linden  that is a good question, Motor
15:20  Motor Loon  Might be usecases where it'd be nice to allow to seperate settings
  Trinity Dejavu  assuming there are differences in texture and normal map resolution, the ability to fine tune the position of the normal map is essential
  Geenzian Scientist  I can think of one
    if you want to use a normal map as a detail texture primarily
  Oz Linden  for example, if they are locked to each other, I get alignment automatically; if not, I can create many visual combinations with a small number of textures
  Motor Loon  like if you use a texture with repeats on your face, but dont want the normal map to act that way...
15:21  Vaalith Jinn  hm, i was wrong. fair point Motor.
  Motor Loon  but that's going to be somewhat more info that needs to be sent to the viewer for each face on the object's prims
  Geenzian Scientist  it'd be managable
15:22  Motor Loon  than I'd deffinately do it...
    It'll take up more space for the UI too though
    like... you'd pretty much need 2 more tabs like the current "Texture" tab...
15:23  Braydon Randt  im not happy with the fact that a bump map can only be previewed and not canceld, thats kinda no preview *lol*
  Geenzian Scientist  is there anything else? we only have a few more minutes with today's guests regarding the user stories here
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  The UI is crowded, yes, and we don't want it to sprawl unnecessarily. it's a challenge.
  Motor Loon  nods
  Braydon Randt  how about .......
    and edit object ... in addition to a build tab
  Trinity Dejavu  features first, if the UI doesn't fit, thats a bug
15:24  Braydon Randt  ok scratch that < rethink
  Brooke Linden  we'll be leaving this page accessible after the meeting, so feel free to send us feedback
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  look for stories we missed, first and foremost
  Siddean Munro  Ok
  mighty Leonidas the Mighty  and any detail that needs to be added
  Oz Linden  Send email ( _not_ notecards, please ) to me... I will collect and share
  Brooke Linden  we are also going to provide some information on the forums for the broader group, but don't plan to share this document until then
15:25    we'd like to have a chance to roll in your feedback and then share it more broadly
  Motor Loon  can we edit that user stories page?
15:26  Trinity Dejavu  As a resident builder .. I need to know what can be accomplished before I can come up with meaningful ideas as to what I would like to do with the tools or how they should work.
  Brooke Linden  unfortunately, no, Motor
15:27    please send us feedback through oz
  Motor Loon  As a builder ... I want to be able to specify both normal maps and specular maps per face on my prim. (assume it'd work that way, but since you're asking)
  Braydon Randt  basics are enough at this time ..... upload, edit and download
  Brooke Linden  so perhaps we need to give a bit of a primer on what's possible with normal and specular maps?
  Trinity Dejavu  very much so
  Brooke Linden  that's reasonable
15:28  sachi Vixen  It doesn't mention diffuse maps, they are important too
  Motor Loon  diffuse we already have
  Trinity Dejavu  not just teh basics, but what the limits possible with the SL implementation are
  Siddean Munro  Diffuse is what we currently work with
  Brooke Linden  we'll work on a summary that we can add to this document
  Geenzian Scientist  Oz and I need to put together some docs regarding that is is
  Trinity Dejavu  thank you ㋡
  Geenzian Scientist  as is even*
15:29  Brooke Linden  and the changes for normal and specular may affect the diffuse maps, so it may be important to list what is currently supported for diffuse maps
  Braydon Randt  normals maps are better bump maps they give high rez detail to low rez objects by telling the lighting how to bounce of the object and specular maps are how something reflects light
15:30  Brooke Linden  unfortunately, we need to jump off
  Geenzian Scientist  alright, we'll get on the documentation for the materials project very soon
  Oz Linden  other commitments are calling....
  Brooke Linden  it looks like we have some action items to follow up on :)
  Geenzian Scientist  thanks to Leo and Brooke (Oz too!) for coming by!
  Siddean Munro  thank you Lindens
15:31  Brooke Linden  we'll take care of those and look forward to additional feedback
    thanks so much!
    bye!
  Trinity Dejavu  thankies
  Oz Linden  (incidentally, if you have time, some discussion of a slightly earlier time for this meeting would mean I could attend more reliably)
  sachi Vixen  Bye Lindens, thanks
  Oz Linden  (or maybe later so that I stay away would be better :-) )
    ttfn
15:32  Braydon Randt  so back to us mere mortals then
  Kadah  oh lol
15:33  Geenzian Scientist  right, well let's get back to the UI discussion from last week
    unfortunately I can't enable rezzing on the parcel, so for now I'll be putting Trinity's images on some prims
15:34  Trinity Dejavu  please excuse the roughness .. just to flesh out an idea
15:35  Kadah  Ow, my screen space
  Geenzian Scientist  so I believe the first one is the advanced option, the second is the basic option
  Trinity Dejavu  point 1 you should be able to SEE what uoi are building, not a mess of floaters you have to keep dodging or moving about
15:36    this kind of format is pretty standard game in any 3d content creation application. Can you imagine blender or max if it had a build floater .. no, not really
15:37  Motor Loon  I like the "advanced" mode idea... espicially if it remembers your preference for it so you only have to select what mode to use once
  Trinity Dejavu  remember the sidebar we all hated
  Siddean Munro  I like the basic concept but I would like to see the contents rearranged somewhat to make the advanced mode narrower
15:38    I didn't hate the sidebar, I find the new system of floaters all over my screen very annoying
  Trinity Dejavu  yes, same
    floater are a mess
  Siddean Munro  Constantly moving it around to see what's behind it, access HUDS etc
  Geenzian Scientist  kinda funny, now that the sidebar is gone, people miss it all of a sudden :p
  Kadah  Not really, lol.
15:39  Motor Loon  key element is options to customize to personal taste
  Kaz Nayar  I'm fine with docked windows as long as I have the option to tear them off
  Trinity Dejavu  and I think finding ways to make smaller tighter floaters is a blind alley. were already at a pretty high density on the build tools and now LL want to add a dozen more controls and texture pickers
  Motor Loon  and for the record... I missed the sidebar - atleast for a few weeks after it went away lol..
  Oriana Kuhr  (kinda off topic lol)..I still vote for a builders viewer. personally, i get sick of it when a customer contacts me saying that their item doesnt work anymore, because they decided to delete the scripts or did something else to break it, and they dont know how to build, so they have no idea what they did.
  Trinity Dejavu  well fi you see the basic mode buildiing pic I did
    thats the idea
  Oriana Kuhr  but having things in a "builder bar" seems to make more sense, i think
  Trinity Dejavu  dont expose the tool chest by default
15:40    once you get skilled up, make the basic buttons go away as you dont need they anymore
  Kadah  I am not a fan of tool bars in the viewer.
  Siddean Munro  Is anyone familiar with the new Blender UI?

[15:40] Oriana KuhrOriana Kuhr nods

  Geenzian Scientist  there's a new new blender UI?
  Braydon Randt  yes I am Siddean
15:41  Trinity Dejavu  yes
  Siddean Munro  The way they arrange the tools under the T and N options may work
  Trinity Dejavu  and its good
  Siddean Munro  with little flydown subsections
  Oriana Kuhr  i thin the new UI is far easier to work with. especially how we can resize the panels
  Kaz Nayar  I kind of liked the idea of having separate menus.. a build menu and an edit menu.. even if that means repeating some tools. Maybe even have the option in preferences to activate the build menu. Edit being default.
  Siddean Munro  Like a subsection for Position that you can open when you need it
  Oriana Kuhr  yeah, the tools hitind is neat
    *hiding
  Trinity Dejavu  specifics dont help at this point
15:42  Braydon Randt  it seams as though the texturing subsystem is becoming its own system outside a build menu
  Oriana Kuhr  i think Blender should make a viewer, so we can build inworld..lol
  Motor Loon  main problem with the sidebar was that it was completely unflexible... had it been the opposite it might have been loved
  Siddean Munro  I'm not talking about specifics, I'm talking about arrangement of the items we have there now
  Trinity Dejavu  if you have a great idea for laying out some widgits for something, write it down and keep it for when its helpful - you say goiod stuff now and its gonna be forgotten
  Oriana Kuhr  at one point, wasnt the build box in the LL viewer, resizable? a few years ago maybe? that helps
  Siddean Munro  these meetings are logged Trinity
15:43  Trinity Dejavu  well, I think for building it can work pretty well - NO sidepanels at all, none of that full sidebar group properties rubbish
15:44  Kadah  There is no sidebar anyway.
  Oriana Kuhr  Siddean brought up would work, i think. its like having a sidebar that is temporary. in blender, you hit T or N and your potions pop up. then you tat T or N again to hide them, but they are always fast to access
  Motor Loon  a floating window that's dockable - and if docked it would act like a sidebar perhaps... making your worldspace smaller and thereby changing "center of screen" so you wouldn't have to move anything to work the worldspace
  Oriana Kuhr  it would be idea
  Trinity Dejavu  that can be easily fixed kadah
  Oriana Kuhr  *ideal
  Motor Loon  ..best of both worlds
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  It would be ideal if it could dock.
  Trinity Dejavu  yes - a side bat with advanced tools that folds in and out as you need
  Kadah  Just its lingering trash.
  Siddean Munro  Having tools hidden under flydowns till you need them also makes better use of screen realestate
15:45  Kaz Nayar  changing center of screen is key for that
  Siddean Munro  we don't need all that stuff out on display all the time when we're not using it
  Oriana Kuhr  in blender, the ONLY thing you can see that lets you know those menus are there, is a teeny weeny little plus sign up in the corners
    they dont take up any space at all
  Trinity Dejavu  yes
15:47  Oriana Kuhr  they are also resizable, in case you want them open, but need a little more room to see
  Trinity Dejavu  I do really like that in BL .. the rest of the new UI isnt really that innovative, more like a finally waking up to how other apps have been doing it for the last 15 years
  Geenzian Scientist  so kind of a "now you see just what you need, and now you don't" kind of affair
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  yes
  Siddean Munro  Yep
  Geenzian Scientist  (note: I haven't actually tried the latest version of blender)
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  it works the same in maya
15:48  Geenzian Scientist  ah
    Maya I can relate to!
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  (and has done for quite some time)
    lol
  Trinity Dejavu  very keen not to reinvent the wheel or some kind of new wheel. but I do want to see consumer level controls that would be more at home in the sims
  Kadah  The few people I know that use Blender have said they hated to new UI.
  Braydon Randt  where as I dont .... as im a builder
15:49  Siddean Munro  http://imgur.com/Wgy3T this is how mine is usually setup
  Kaz Nayar  my one UI wish has always been the ability to drag windows off screen like Photoshop allows. (handy with dual monitors)
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  But really the ability to dock the advanced window and re-centre the view would be amazing. It would eliminate all the floaters.
  Trinity Dejavu  the same people who still use V1 I bet ....
  Motor Loon  everybody hate change - until they get used to it °͜°
  Oriana Kuhr  the new UI is more reliable, imho
  Drongle McMahon  I hated it, but now I like it.
  Braydon Randt  you can dual monitor withblender as well
  Trinity Dejavu  the new blender UI makes the application usable without nweding to learn everything
  Oriana Kuhr  mine is set up similar to that, Siddean :)
15:50  Motor Loon  oh god... if I could dual monitor Second Life™ it would be awesome ;-)
  Kaz Nayar  It really would
  Trinity Dejavu  the old blender you never knew how to do something till you found a tutorial. the new one is discoverable
  Oriana Kuhr  there are so many features that we use in other 3d programs, that would be useful in sl, without creating "more junk" to get in the way
  Braydon Randt  old blender was " too much at once"
  Trinity Dejavu  you cant dual monitor SL ?
  Siddean Munro  The object tools on the left is how I would envision the SL build panel
  Kaz Nayar  you can't drag menus off, no
  Motor Loon  no you can't move a window to your other screen.
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  Siddean - http://cl.ly/image/2q1Z393l1F0M
  Kaz Nayar  they're bound within second life
  Drongle McMahon  Where did the tabs go?
15:51  Oriana Kuhr  blender 2.49- was basically, here are the menus, now try to find stuff. I think the new UI is easier to navigate
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  same concept
  Braydon Randt  you can stretch SL over 2 monitors
    hell .. i can drag it over three
  Geenzian Scientist  so, say, texturing tools?
    would this be its own "mode" with its own button in the toolbar?
  Kaz Nayar  yes, you can drag it but thats not what I mean
  Geenzian Scientist  and I'm assuming that the tool properties would change accordingly
15:52    or would it just kind of be "there"
    as it were
  Braydon Randt  i say that with the amount of texturing stuff comming .... a textur men u would most likely be the best bet
  Trinity Dejavu  in the basic mode - yes. only show controls relevant to what you are doing right now
    and everything that isnt absolutly needed most of the time is advanced
15:53    simple example, there woul dbe no way to rename a prim you have rezzed in the basic tools
  Geenzian Scientist  so say, as a consumer, I want to retexture my couch, or change the color of it
  Drongle McMahon  S how do you tell it - now I want to do textures?
  Oriana Kuhr  i just dont see the point in having everything RIGHT THERE when you dont want it to be. Docking can even be annoying. i constantly have to move around the build menu. its so annoying
  Geenzian Scientist  click texture button, get texture and color params?
  Trinity Dejavu  then you are a builder and you can go learn the big boys build tools
  Helpless  if you're not using a scripted menu, then you're already doing something advanced, Geenz
  Motor Loon  for advanced mode however - I'd like to be able to do my "thing" with a little clicks as possible - as little switching between "menus" for get to the information or button I need
15:54  Siddean Munro  I don't know if a basic mode is really going to work to be honest. Everyone has their own basic needs
    Some people ONLY need to remove scripts and never do anything else
    while others are only interested in moving stuff around
  Braydon Randt  so we need a " break it " button then Siddean * lol*
  Siddean Munro  and others might want to texture a little but never delve any deeper
  Trinity Dejavu  somepeople need to stop telling newbies that they need to descript things
  Geenzian Scientist  I'm looking at it from a basic standpoint here; surely there's some very basic functions relating to textures that should be exposed in a simple way (I see many people who like to change the color of something all the time, even if they don't care about the texture)
15:55  Siddean Munro  I agree with that but some things still have a thousand scripts in them!
  Trinity Dejavu  you have a home in SL, you need to rez, move, rotate and remove. that's it.
  Oriana Kuhr  there should be a "shut off all scripts" button somewhere, so that people who dont know how to navigate the menus can turn them off
15:56  Geenzian Scientist  "break my object" button for the scripts issue :P
  Oriana Kuhr  people messing with the script removal, when they dont know what they are doing, can get bad
  Trinity Dejavu  basic tools will not contain anything that would be classed as descructive
    Oriana - there is no reason to ever remove scripts
  Braydon Randt  i think ... click on the texture and get the texture options available ........ such as defuse, colour .. normal and spec
  Oriana Kuhr  i know that, but some people dont
  Siddean Munro  I'm not advocating removing scripts! I am quite glad that they can't be removed from no mod stuff myself
    It was probably a bad example
  Oriana Kuhr  i always turn mine off, but i have been building since 05, so i am familiar with the tools
  Braydon Randt  i think most users "attempt" to build something at some point
15:57  Siddean Munro  Ok how about.. Some people just want to add sit animations and a sit helper to their couch
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  I get that a LOT
  Kaz Nayar  Scripts being in or out of an object should be up to the creator tbh
  Braydon Randt  if they cant build ..... a sit helper is like asking them to fly a plane
  Siddean Munro  Point is. at some stage you are going to need to delve into the build tooks
    tools
  Oriana Kuhr  but someone going to a laggy club wants to complain because they removed the scripts in their favorite boots so they wouldnt cause lag, will come to me and complain later when they cant change their textures
  Trinity Dejavu  thats very advanced siddeean - editing, inventory, operation of a complex scripted tool
  Oriana Kuhr  some tools should not be available to the open non-building public
    imho
  Trinity Dejavu  agreed
  Siddean Munro  So a basic mode isn't really all that useful beyond moving and tinting.
15:58  OctaviaJane Farquart  i think you should keep the basic building options that you have right now .. because lets be honest .. if its too basic ..they cant build and if its too advanced it will frighten a lot off .. i think what we have now is good for basic
  Helpless  this isn't about what random user may want to do a handful of times in their SL life.... it's about what a majority needs most of the time... if something falls outside of that, then there's still the "advanced (=current)" way of doing it anyway
  Geenzian Scientist  I think it may be a good idea to start compiling some user stories ourselves here!
  Trinity Dejavu  the basic mode is about NOT building
    if you build, you're already not basic
  Siddean Munro  So why are we talking about a basic mode?
15:59  Geenzian Scientist  for consumers
  OctaviaJane Farquart  im talking about givng people the opportunity too who havent before .. and if you hide all build tools then they wont attempt it
  Helpless  to edit an attachment, to move furniture, basic things
  Siddean Munro  I think it'll just unnecessarily confuse people
  Trinity Dejavu  because its actually harder to get right than an advanced mode
  Geenzian Scientist  people who know nothing about building and don't want to know
  Trinity Dejavu  teh advanced tools are pretty straightforward to cook up and were all skilled enough to knwo what we want in a tool chest
  Braydon Randt  like the sex starved 14 year olds ... * lol*
  Drongle McMahon  What happened to the official viewer basic mode? Is it still there?
  Helpless  it died a while back
16:00  Geenzian Scientist  it's gone Drongle
  Siddean Munro  no, it was deemed a bad idea and killed off
  OctaviaJane Farquart  really there are people who dont want to rez a prim out of curiosity and see what it does?
  Oriana Kuhr  ok, what about a "build mode" button? click it, and you can turn it on, and all of the build buttons would appear. click it again to hide them, and go back into basic mode
  Drongle McMahon  Is there a message in that?
  Oriana Kuhr  similar to how, you have to turn on the advanced & develop menus
  Inara Pey  Basic mode was never intended to survive.
  Trinity Dejavu  I forget the stat, but something like the majority of SL residents will never rez a plywood cube on purpose
  Kaz Nayar  if there was an option in preferences to enable the build menu.. they can be curious if they want.. quit easily
  Oriana Kuhr  they are not automatically visible when you first install a viewer, so why should the build tools be?
16:01  OctaviaJane Farquart  thats a big 'if'
  Kaz Nayar  ^
  Braydon Randt  sl ...... already HAS a basic mode
  Geenzian Scientist  most consumers I run into want the following basic functionality:
  Braydon Randt  its call " dont press build"
  Geenzian Scientist  1) place a couch
    2) position something on their avatar
16:02    and occasionally:
    3) change the color of something
  Kaz Nayar  well then basic should be redefined
  Oriana Kuhr  i think movement, tint and resize are used by most. but the more detailed bits dont belong on a non-builder's viewer
  Trinity Dejavu  3* is more often - change the colour of something when it doesnt have a built in menu
  Oriana Kuhr  they want something done, and try to do it, and break something
    then it becomes the designer's fault
16:03  OctaviaJane Farquart  then dont make it mod to start with
  Kaz Nayar  and yes, that sounds like a really good basic, Greenzian lol
  Oriana Kuhr  then tinting and resize would be pointless
    just give em a move button
  Braydon Randt  if they want to change the colour
    or size
    then they are on step ONE of building
  OctaviaJane Farquart  exactly
  Trinity Dejavu  move my thing, move my cam to see my thing, all done. omg put it back
  Geenzian Scientist  I would see a basic mode as a padded cell kind of deal; if you need to do any of the following, then basic is for you and you won't obliterate that fancy no-copy thing you just bought in the process! otherwise, use advanced I suppose
16:04  Oriana Kuhr  its impossible to give one and take another in sl
    either give them the tools, or dont
  Braydon Randt  give EVERYONE the tolls to create , as Sl is a place that the users make the content
  Trinity Dejavu  give them basic tools and then expose a way to get the advanced. that extra step
  Braydon Randt  if you dumb it down
    then hell yeah .. its the sims
  OctaviaJane Farquart  here here Braydon
  Siddean Munro  Anyway, I thought the point of these meetings was to improve the content creation tools, not discuss basic mode for people who will never use it?
  Trinity Dejavu  ok look simple buttons .. oh wow,, thats complicated, back away
16:05  Braydon Randt  and i would rather cut my knob off with a spoon than go and play sims with 8 year olds
  Oriana Kuhr  everyone HAS the tools. but a good chunk of them dont know what they do, THAT is the problem
    "oops, i returned everyones things, because i wanted to return this box"
  Siddean Munro  That is their problem, I would argue
  Trinity Dejavu  the problem as faced now is that the existing tool set is cramped, fractured over several viewers and in some cases not fit for purpose
  Siddean Munro  learn how to use the UI
  Oriana Kuhr  things that we know how to use, are a completely different language to others
  Trinity Dejavu  when was the last time anyone here build on the stock LL viewer
  OctaviaJane Farquart  and if you take them away they will never give it a go or try or even realise that there is an option to have a go .. wow rez a prim ... shit .. i can do stuff witht hat too
16:06  Drongle McMahon  yesterday
  Oriana Kuhr  i use it for more accurate mesh uploads. thats it..lol
  Geenzian Scientist  with where Trinity's idea is going, it seems like we're covering a single facet of the general idea here
  Siddean Munro  every day
  Kadah  The basic build tools should be a gateway towards actual building.
  Braydon Randt  " i cant get my cock to fit ................. and by the way can i borrow 100L till tommorow"
  Oriana Kuhr  im not saying take them away, im saying hide them
  Braydon Randt  they ARE hidden .... with a build button
16:07  Oriana Kuhr  not like that
  Trinity Dejavu  no they arent
    right cick, edit
    oh shit, build tools
  Oriana Kuhr  what I am suggesting is, hide the unnecessary buttons, but have the ability to turn ON the options
  Braydon Randt  so ... you are saying ... that because they are able to edit ... then they need to be mummied
  Drongle McMahon  ...I wonder what they do....
  Oriana Kuhr  but the build button
  Braydon Randt  and protected from creativity
    OOOOOHHHH BAAAD CREATIVITY!!!
  OctaviaJane Farquart  talk about closed shop
  Kaz Nayar  not sure how brainstorming became an argument here
  Oriana Kuhr  i mean something that hides build, and script info, and all the stuff builders use
16:08    click once, you see the build stuff. click again, it goes away
  Geenzian Scientist  Hi! I'm a simple user. I totally need to know what the description of an object is when I go to edit my L$200 hair.
  Trinity Dejavu  it will be plenty obvious you can build andc create in SL - the goal is about tools for the task at hane
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  something like this little box... http://cl.ly/image/3R2M241U132M
    which already exists.... until you choose to hit that arrow
  Geenzian Scientist  now, who thinks a regular user needs to know the description of their hair?
  Kadah  The coolest part about SL is that you can edit things, stuff is not just a static model like in other things.
16:09  Trinity Dejavu  dont eve need to rename it
  Oriana Kuhr  SL has thrived on user content. believe me, i have been here since 04, i KNOW how importent user content is. but not everyone builds, so they dont NEED the build stuff to be in all of their menus
  Geenzian Scientist  for that matter, who thinks every user needs to know what the inventory of their recently bought pair of shoes is?
  OctaviaJane Farquart  soo nobody ever learnt from making those mistakes when they were noobs?
  Oriana Kuhr  i dont, geenz
    if they didnt make it, they shouldnt be able to access the innards
16:10    unless its a packed box
  Braydon Randt  police state ...... charming
  Trinity Dejavu  I spent money, I bought some hair, somehow it got broken.. fuck SL
  Geenzian Scientist  which we have the "Open..." option for
  OctaviaJane Farquart  seriously
  Oriana Kuhr  yup, exactly
  Drongle McMahon  I need to know how many triangles it has.
  Oriana Kuhr  when you buy gear in an MMORPG, you can take it to an NPC to tint it.....why do people here need to do more than that?
  Trinity Dejavu  then your desires as a power user are about as far removed from a consumers as its possible to get
16:11  Geenzian Scientist  knowing something's render cost could be a good idea for consumers
  Vaalith Jinn  i'm not sure why we're talking about hiding tools from people. if someone clicks 'edit', it's quite likely they're trying to edit. if someone clicks the 'build' button, i would assume they're trying to build. and speaking of object inventory - i'd really like to know if an object i just bought contains a whole lot of unnecessary scripts. and it would be -good- if regular users were exposed to that, and were aware that some content creators still put too many scripts in their items.
  Motor Loon  kinda agree with vaalith... we DO have then "Open" function in the menu too for those that just wants to see whats inside the box they bought
16:12  OctaviaJane Farquart  soo that is what always made sl special isnt it ..
  Helpless  if you want content creators to use less scripts, then punish content creators for using too many scripts... smacking consumers around with it isn't useful because they don't understand and do not care
  Oriana Kuhr  aka, the "turn off scripts" button. not menu dropdown, but an exposed button
  Trinity Dejavu  Vaalith - Unnecassaey scriupts - come on - you cant even see what is in a script how can you possible determine what is necassary or not beyond guesswork based in filenames - how on earth do you expect that to mean ANYTHING to a non technical user
  Braydon Randt  I want others to learn how to build ... THAT is why i do tutorials ... if i wanted people to pay me to fix the shit they broke .... i would be a plumber
  Vaalith Jinn  Trinity, here's a fact of life for you: nearly everything that ever needs to be done with a script, can be done with one script per whole object.
16:13  Trinity Dejavu  I am well aware
  Kadah  Its the "Build" button on the LL viewer not part of default toolbar setup?
  Geenzian Scientist  pretty soon we'll be wrapping up the meeting, so let's do this
  Vaalith Jinn  so yes, there are still many items being sold with a lot of very unnecessary scripts and users must be aware of it.
  Trinity Dejavu  seriously. no. users should never even care
  Oriana Kuhr  im not talking about a build button to open/close the build menu. im talking about a button to change the viewer between build mode and basic mode
    it would change what is shown in the drop down menus
16:14  Siddean Munro  So should we design a whole UI based on a bunch of legacy content?
  Braydon Randt  no ....
  Geenzian Scientist  right now from the looks of it, there's a lot of ideas flying about regarding why have a basic mode, why should the basic mode conform around these needs, why not have this instead of this, and so on
  Oriana Kuhr  if people just want to walk, buy, chat, or whatever, and not build, why do they need build options in the dropdowns?
  Trinity Dejavu  basically what we need is user stories
  Braydon Randt  let um rott lookin like homer simpson
  Geenzian Scientist  right Trinity, just what I was about to get to
16:15    so let's focus on "as a Builder, I want to..." and "as a Resident, I want to..." kind of user stories relevant to the build UI
  Trinity Dejavu  user stories that cover both technical high skill activites and consumer tasks
16:16  Geenzian Scientist  we have two distinct categories here; and going forward, we can come up with ideas to satisfy these user stories instead of tossing every discussion into one pot here and hoping for the best
    does that sound good to everyone?
  Motor Loon  nods
16:17  Drongle McMahon  I'm not convinced it's two categories. I think thetre is a continuum of technical skill and interest.
  Trinity Dejavu  then feel free to go remake the UI and let us know when you come up with something
16:18  Geenzian Scientist  well, if we can it may be a good idea to design the UI to "lead" users into things, instead of pushing it up in their face
  Drongle McMahon  However, that doesn't argue against the two menu state options.
16:19  Geenzian Scientist  now, we're a couple of minutes over our time limit, so lets go ahead and wrap up here
    let's focus on user stories first here, then design something to satisfy those user stories
16:20  Trinity Dejavu  I dont want to come over as blunt, but at the end of the day there are a very very small number of people who will have to put a lot of work in to make anything actually happen. what we want to do is make sure all the bases are covered before even starting something of this size
  Geenzian Scientist  this gives more context to conversation, this gives more motivation to whatever designs that are produced, and it helps keep things organized, alright everyone?
  Oriana Kuhr  its like, why i do texture change options on my shoes...why overload your inventory with 12 pairs of the same shoes in different colors, when you can just have one pair and a HUD? why have unnecessary menu buttons you may never use? the SL interface is intimidating for a new person, until they get used to it. why force them to navigate through overloaded menus if they never intend to build? making it hidden until they want to try building, seems like a good idea to me
    less clutter
16:21  Trinity Dejavu  there are clearly two different sides to building, so please please please. user stories
  Braydon Randt  edit/build kinda puts that into force anyway
  Kadah  There is a difference between smart UI design and childprooding :P
16:22    proofing*
    floor typing = bad
  Trinity Dejavu  If you're a phoenix user you're not allowed to talk about UI design :P
  Geenzian Scientist  good point Kadah, and on that note we'll end today's meeting
  Oriana Kuhr  hey, im a mom. im all for childproofing sl
  Kadah 
  Siddean Munro  Ok here's the thing. None of us are basic users anymore. We don't really know what "Basic mode" people would want to have. So why don't we ask them to write their own user stories??
  OctaviaJane Farquart  good lawd
16:23  Kadah  I'm out of here. bye
  Isla Gealach-Nayar  i think that's a brilliant idea
  OctaviaJane Farquart  even shildren have to grow up
  Braydon Randt  that a point i do agree on .. NON of us here ... can know what a basic user would want
  OctaviaJane Farquart  and on that note im out
    thanks ..it was informative
    :/
  Oriana Kuhr  all i am saying, is why make it overwhelming?
16:24    too much info at once, is never good
    hiding what isnt used, but leaving it accessable, is good
    its not that hard to understand
    im not talking about taking anything away, except the clutter
  Geenzian Scientist  we could debate the issue all day
    but let's continue this next week shall we?
16:25    thanks to everyone who came out!