MAJOR RELEASE: OpenCollar 6.4

Today we ship the OpenCollar 6.4 major release that refreshes our whole stock including the collar, remote, AO, apps, leash holders, AO Link utilities, all the premium content, all the READMEs etc..

This was a very large change-set and I want to keep this blog post focused on what's relevant to users. You can find changes in all their glory and details in the milestones that are linked below and of course in even greater detail in the history of our project with git log or via web UI on the GitHub.

Installing custom poses is a lot more simple

During the last months I've responded to a lot of questions about adding custom poses. The OpenCollar Six architecture uses a dedicated element, the so-called "Animator", where all poses, couples animations and related configuration cards are stored. In order to add a pose, it was required to "edit linked" parts on the collar's assembly and select this special module so to add to its contents. For some users this resembled a major challenge. While I believe that editing linked objects is important knowledge that every creator must have, it's a lot to expect the same of users.

From 6.4 and greater onward it is possible once again to simply rez a collar, click-it-open like a box and drag and drop poses from the inventory into the collar. Once that's done, we have a new command [prefix] mv anims that will install the newly added poses correctly on the animator.

Here are some essential guidelines for custom poses in general:

• Don't bloat your animator module by adding tonnes of poses.
• Avoid using the same name for two different poses.
• Only use poses that are properly looped.
• Use single word names for poses.
  

Removing poses is also a lot more simple of course:

So that nobody has to mess with editing linked parts we also have a more convenient way to remove poses. This can be done by bringing up a 'pose remove menu' via a new chat command [prefix] rm pose or directly with [prefix] rm pose <posename>, i.e.  we rm pose naduw

NOTE: Don't worry about losing 'no copy' poses when using this method. If a pose has the 'no copy' permission, the collar will present it to you as inventory offer rather than simply deleting it. Upon accepting the offer the 'no copy' pose moves to the Animations directory of your inventory. \o/

Backing up and recalling custom offsets

If your avi is like mine (and with that I mean not-chewbacca-height) you will probably have to adjust some of the poses that are included with your collar. A while ago we added a RLVa driven height-fix that can, unlike the height-fix in OpenCollar 3.x, adjust offsets for any kind of pose, regardless of type and rotation. I'm referring to the way your avi lines up with the floor if the avi sinks or hovers.

You can adjust these "offsets" for each pose individually in the collar's pose menu, the one that you get with the [prefix] pose command, by playing any pose and using the ↑ and ↓ arrows in the menu. (If there are no ↑ and ↓ arrows, make sure that RLVa is enabled in your viewer's preferences.)

NOTE: If you don't play any pose and use the ↑/↓ arrows, you will adjust the global offset or in other words, the offset that you will return to after easing out of a pose. That's useful for extra high heels!

Thanks to Pudding (a stawberri flavored kittehgirl who likes being cute with other cuties) we discovered a bug that would gobble stored offset values, so we fixed that bug and in motion made it more simple to back these offset values up, say if you wanted to keep them also for a new collar.

You can print your currently active settings with the command [prefix] print settings and find your offsets for each pose in the line that starts with OFFSET= This line can be copied and pasted into a pastebin, pastee or gist and then recalled with the command [prefix] load url <paste url>

I'm not sure if everyone will understand this right away just from reading it here but I'm extra-sure that we can all get the hang of it just fine if we help each other in the OpenCollar community chat💕

The AO Link utility is a bit more user-friendly

Sometimes your AO just keeps messing with your nadu or makes your head bob around all weird-like when currently in a pose that's played by your collar. That happens because your AO continues to run and this nuisance can, in many cases, be mended simply by dropping the .aolink script into your AO HUD. The script can be found embedded in the README/EULA cards that are included with our collars, legacy artwork, transmuters and installers.

We ended up completely revamping the AO Link so that it works without having to rely on AntiSlide.

The important part of this utlity is tho that everyone can improve it. Pudding, who was mentioned earlier, did that for her own Akeyo brand AO. She noticed that the AO Link script wasn't compatible yet and submitted her edit of the script to our project on the GitHub to share it with the community.

Oracul type AOs can be auto-migrated to OpenCollar AOs

The cost-free OpenCollar AO at version 6.4 comes boxed with an empty AO HUD and an .aoloader script that is embedded in the README/EULA card. This script can be simply dropped into Oracul type AOs to load the animations from there into your server friendly OpenCollar AO v6.4 or greater!

NOTE: The OpenCollar AO doesn't use any redundant timers or state polling. Unfortunately that means we can't receive the "typing" and "swimming" states from the SL server, so at this moment these type of overrides are not possible with our AO but might become available in the future.

Wearing a collar while also holding many leashes in your hand

This roots in a special use case where the user wants to wear a collar but also hold a whole lot of leashes specifically in her hand. Things get a bit tricky then because actually, we assume that collar wearers are tied together with other collar wearers at their collars, meaning, that we can daisy-chain collar wearers together on their pretty necks. Yay! However, if someone doesn't want that, they can now use the new leash holder that is embedded in the README/EULA cards and hold an unlimited amount of leashes connected to this holder rather than to the their own collar.

Availability

6.4 has been deployed on all of our cost-free collars, all legacy artwork and on all premium artwork. You can grab an installer from the update terminal by clicking the Collar button or any other button for AO, Remote or Legacy Apps. If you are still running OpenCollar 3.xxx you can also acquire a cost-free 'Transmuter' but please remember that this is not an "update" per se but an automatic build device, so ideally, you would receive an upgrade for OpenCollar Six from your collar's supplier.

If that supplier is us, you can get cost-free redeliveries from the 'Redelivery Terminal' which will, on touch, prompt you to open a website where you can browse and claim redeliveries of all the items that you have purchased from our store and redeliveries of cost-free items back until Dec. 2014.

What else?

The stawberri flavored kittehgirl (who adores cute things) also found and fixed a bug that would make the safeword fail if trying to write it in auto-generated OOC parenthesis (( RED )) that can be set in some viewers and would be used in situations, while being gagged for example. Thanks!

Finally I went over some of the OpenCollar Originals and hid the LEDs where they just didn't fit well. That was the Galley Collar, Dancer's Collar, Ice Collar, Turian Rose and the Moire Collar. The latter I also improved slightly so it has fewer points on the render weight scale.

Here is a shout-out to our team with Garvin Twine who has done all the scripting and engineering and was always there for me, with jane1066, Eva Ryan and Julliet Fairey who have helped on-site and in the groups and to Cosmic Rumble who did some PR. I also want to shout-out to my friends Grey Mars and George Black who supervised some of my work and helped me limp along when I was exhausted and angry and I want to shout-out to a few members of our community who have been really kind and helpful in group chats, like Stawberri, Grimskull44, AmiTrouble, Kinnata et al..

I hope that this release will proof itself as bug-free and silky smooth as it was during its rigorous testing phase and that everyone will enjoy it. : )

Attribution:

▶ Contributors to OpenCollar Six since version 6.0 release.

Changelogs:

▶ The OpenCollar 6.4 milestone.
▶ The completed OpenCollar 6.3 milestone.
▶ The completed OpenCollar 6.2 milestone.
▶ The completed OpenCollar 6.1 milestone.

Locations:

▶ The Temple of the Collar™
▶ OpenCollar Sidekick

Any questions?

In case you feel lost, lonely, confused, randy, hyper or simply just have a question, please join the OpenCollar group (clicking here will open the group in your Second Life® viewer). Admission is free!

✿