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Issue Details (XML | Word | Printable)

Key: VWR-6918
Type: New Feature New Feature
Status: Fix Pending Fix Pending
Priority: Normal Normal
Assignee: Soft Linden
Reporter: Winter Ventura
Votes: 65
Watchers: 11
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1. Second Life Viewer - VWR

Building > "Hide/Show Selection Outlines" with key combo, menu option, or both.

Created: 27/Apr/08 10:40 AM   Updated: 24/Sep/09 09:40 AM
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Component/s: Building (in-world), User Interface
Affects Version/s: Snowglobe test build, 1.20 Release Candidate, Other (please specify in issue description), 1.20, 1.19.0.5, 1.19.1.4, First Look: Dazzle, 1.21, 1.22, 1.23 Release Candidate, 1.23 Public Nightly
Fix Version/s: None

File Attachments: 1. Text File VWR-6918-HideSelectionOutlines.patch (5 kB)

Image Attachments:

1. screenshot-1.jpg
(359 kB)
Environment: All Operating Systems
Issue Links:
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Last Triaged: 23/Jul/09 07:43 AM
Source Version: http-texture
Linden Lab Issue ID: DEV-36397
Patch attached: Patch attached


 Description  « Hide
For those of us who build, and even those of us who make our own textures, the "Selection Highlights" (those little blue and yellow outlines around selected prims) can sometimes really be in the way. Whether it's a matter of simply adjusting a texture to match up with another prim, or perhaps you're trying to do a complicated "skin-to-prim" colour match.. Sometimes you just want a quick and easy way to get those lines out of the way.

With the advent of "GLOW", these selection outlines have become rather oppressive at times.

Torley's recent foray into the realm of "Video Tutorials" reveals that there is indeed a method, whereby these outlines can be hidden, via settings in the Debug menu.

For those of us who build and texture and USE these tools on a daily basis, the following "streamlined" example is just ridiculous as a "workaround" for this problem:

1. open debug settings
2. locate the appropriate debug option (not so easy)
3. change the setting
4. quit SL
5. log back into SL
6. re-select the prims you wanted to edit
7. make sure you've selected all the right prims (not as easy as it sounds)
8. make your edit
9. open the debug settings
10. locate the appropriate debug option (again, not so easy)
11. change the setting
12. quit SL
13. log back into SL

So, it's POSSIBLE... but even still, there are something approaching half-a-dozen debug settings that appear to relate to Selection Highlights, only one of which seems to actually DO anything. And trying to make sure you haven't accidentally selected a floor, or a wrong prim when group selecting, is a pain when the outlines are hidden.. making you wish again that you could "hit a key" or "toggle a menu option" to switch them back on for the selection process, and back off again for the editing process.

What is needed, or at the very least, desired, is a quick-command we can use WHILE selections are active, to "Hide/Show" the selection highlights "on demand", without all that tedious mucking about, relogging.



 All   Comments   Change History      Sort Order: Ascending order - Click to sort in descending order
Rolig Loon added a comment - 27/Apr/08 11:05 AM
Hear! Hear! When I am working on a multi-prim skirt and trying to make delicate adjustments, one prim at a time, it is VERY difficult to see what I'm doing with the #$((*&#@% selection outlines in the way. There are certainly times when selection outlines can be helpful, but when they AREN'T, it would be wonderful to have a way to toggle them off, on the fly. In Photoshop, we have the option of hiding the "marching ants" with a quick keyboard toggle. How hard could it be to do the same thing in SL's edit routine?

virrginia tombola added a comment - 27/Apr/08 11:22 AM
Splendid idea, and as you point out, it's already in the software, it just needs a hotkey.

Lex Neva added a comment - 29/Apr/08 09:39 AM
I'd sure love to see this. It'd be cool if we could turn off the texture selection and object selection hilights separately.

Alissa Sabre added a comment - 03/May/08 09:19 PM
I object to all ideas to add any new shortcut keys, until configurable short cut assignment is implemented in SL. Dong so will most likely introduce another headache for non-US keyboard users and input method users.

Rolig Loon added a comment - 04/May/08 10:02 PM
That's a good observation, but not a reason to object to being able to toggle selection outlines on and off. Personally, I don't care HOW the toggle works. What's important is a toggle that EXISTS. Working on delicate objects with glowing selection outlines in your face is VERY frustrating.

McCabe Maxsted added a comment - 05/May/08 11:44 AM
That's an excellent idea. I've had situations where I'd want to quickly disable outlines while building too. Voting.

Winter Ventura added a comment - 05/May/08 12:15 PM
Cleaned up a couple of typos in the description, numbered the list to help emphasize the issue. Added additional language to the description to explain difficulty using building tools while selection outlines are "totally gone"

Day Oh added a comment - 15/May/08 08:36 PM
For the people who want to look into this problem, what is the debug setting to look for?

Winter Ventura added a comment - 23/May/08 08:32 AM
"SelectionHighlightThickness" is the only one that seems to WORK. Default value is 0.01. Setting it to 0.00 will "hide" selection outines.

Why SelectionHighlightAlpha doesn't seem to do anything, I have no idea.

Shown by Torley here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjHKaMdm_eQ


virrginia tombola added a comment - 23/May/08 09:06 AM
I think the main problem with the debug menu technique currently available is that it requires a relog. When I'm working on a complex multiprim object, I really do need to have the selection outlines so I can ensure I've clicked on the correct prim. But then I want to be able to toggle them off as I move said prim around and adjust textures. Relogging in the middle of a build is not precisely convenient

RobbyRacoon Olmstead added a comment - 23/May/08 09:17 AM
Relogging in the middle of a build is not even consistently possible, let alone convenient

Emilly Orr added a comment - 12/May/09 06:02 PM - edited
More than a year and there's still no effective workaround for this. I realize it may not be a simple coding problem, and by now, the Lindens do have more pressing issues on their plate, but really--why hasn't this been fixed yet?

I do know that if I am building at home, because I share my parcel with four other people, three of them builders--we are constantly running out of prims. If I build at home (if I can build at home!), I can make the proposed changes, log out, and log in again with no loss of work. Nearly every sandbox I've ever built in, though, has anything from an instant auto-return (when the building avatar is no longer detected) to four hours at best. And I have lost work in both environments, both for the client crashing, and for reasons of power outage.

  • The picture is of the current project, which will in all likelihood decrease in complexity greatly just so I have a chance of seeing the changes I make to the base texture! With this many panels (or any complicated build) it is impossible to see the original texture, and, at times, precisely verify rotation of prims, as well.

===
(Edited because, yet again, double dashes strike out text, which is not my intent.)


Dirk Talamasca added a comment - 12/May/09 06:25 PM
Brought this up at Q's Office Hours last week. Hopefully it is addressed soon.

Updated To Reflect Affected Versions


Opensource Obscure added a comment - 13/May/09 08:31 AM
I support this request - voted.

However, according to Q Linden, adding new shortcuts may be not much appropriate right now.
Adding a menu toggle would be much easier to accomplish.

The effect would be immediate - no need to relog or anything.

Do the original reporter and other commenters agree that adding a menu toggle to "Hide/Show" the selection highlights "on demand" would solve this issue in an acceptable way?

If yes, please update accordingly Subject and Description.

Q Linden stated this is a perfect candidate for the open source viewer (that has a faster process to include new patches and fixes).


Winter Ventura added a comment - 13/May/09 11:19 AM - edited

Q Linden stated this is a perfect candidate for the open source viewer (that has a faster process to include new patches and fixes).

Faster than what? This issue has been open for over a year, without the slightest bit of movement or acknowledgement from the Lindens.


Aimee Trescothick added a comment - 13/May/09 05:20 PM
Faster than standing still Unfortunately there simply can never be enough Lindens to tackle every worthwhile feature request, that's where open source contributors come in.

Attached is a patch to added this as a menu item on the Tools menu. A key shortcut I think would be too easy to hit by accident anyway, leaving people wondering why they can't see their selections any more, I think a menu item is sufficiently usable to be a reasonable compromise. I have also erred on the side of caution in making the setting not persist, so if someone does happen to set it by accident a simple relog should fix the problem; I can't see anyone wanting to leave selection outlines turned off all the time?

I will see if I can get this approved for submission to the open source viewer (and hopefully from there through into the main viewer). Would it be OK with you to change the title of the issue to refer to it as a new menu item rather than a key combo?


Winter Ventura added a comment - 13/May/09 06:43 PM - edited
No need to update the description. The original request was for a hotkey or a menu option, or both.

(however there is a need to edit my comment, since I can't type the word "to" properly.)


Aimee Trescothick added a comment - 14/May/09 03:04 AM
Heh it was the actual issue title rather than the description I was meaning, as that just refers to a key combo.

Soft Linden added a comment - 14/May/09 10:18 AM
Oh hell yes - voted

Rob Linden added a comment - 14/May/09 10:18 AM
Hi Aimee, could you drop a note on sldev@ on this? If there's no objections and you get a review, it seems just fine to put this in http-texture.

Aimee Trescothick added a comment - 14/May/09 10:32 AM
Sure was planning to, just not had time yet.

Q Linden added a comment - 14/May/09 01:28 PM
Reviewed by reading the source – I have not built it.

I like the fact that it's nonpersistent and always defaults to ON. It looks good to me – but someone should build it and test it.


Winter Ventura added a comment - 14/May/09 05:04 PM - edited
Summary changed per request.

Jacek Antonelli added a comment - 16/May/09 12:28 PM - edited
Tested the patch out, applied to Imprudence. Works like a charm!

I've been meaning to create a patch like this myself, because in addition to being a visual nuisance at times, the selection beams outlines are also a huge CPU-sink when selecting a lot of prims. It's not unusual for me to have to select thousands of prims, and doing that with the selection outlines enabled will bring my PC (2.5GHz quad-core, dual GeForce 8600s) to a crawl.

Here are my framerate observations with this patch, recorded on a local OpenSim instance with 1250 plywood cubes:

  • Baseline (nothing selected): 49 FPS
  • Selected with Show Selection Outlines + Show Hidden Selection: 5 (five!) FPS
  • Selected with Show Selection Outlines only: 7.5 FPS
  • Selected with neither option: ~10 FPS for a few seconds while first selecting, then stabilizes at 24 FPS

I wonder if the stabilized FPS could be brought up even closer to the baseline FPS with a bit of restructuring of the code, but this is definitely a good start, and it gets the job done cleanly and efficiently. I say go with it!


Soft Linden added a comment - 18/May/09 12:06 PM
Is this ready for sldev sign off and commit?

Aimee Trescothick added a comment - 18/May/09 01:19 PM
Could still do with another committer building and trying it before I commit, as Q says above, fancy trying it Soft?

lindenrobot added a comment - 23/Jul/09 07:43 AM
Automated note to patch contributor: if you haven't done so already, please make sure you have a contribution agreement on file and that your patch includes an edit to doc/contributions.txt properly crediting yourself for this patch. See https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Submitting_code for more details.

Soft Linden added a comment - 24/Sep/09 09:40 AM
Taking into viewer-2 without a hotkey for now. Too much debate over which keys are still available, just want the option visible for now.