Snowstorm UI Thoughts

Snowstorm

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Snowstorm Project

Floating Panel

In Esbee Linden’s Thursday meeting User Interface (UI) changes were being discussed. The item currently being worked on is detachable sidebar panels and how to open multiple copies of them. The latest Second_Life_2-1-2-209322_Development Viewer has a test version of the change.

Imagine being able to arrange the panels for building or scripting and save the panel layout. Or save several different layouts. The idea is that there could be a newbie setup, photographers, scripter’s, explorers, builders, and more. Some of these would be default layouts that come with the viewer. Users would be able to create their own.

On some panels like Profiles there is the matter of how will the info button in chat open a profile? Will how it opens be optional? If one clicks on an AV and opens a Profile does it open as a floater or docked?

Then there is the possibility of implied preferences. If your last Profile was open docked, then chat or AV clicks will open Profiles as docked. If the last Profile was floated then new opens would float them. This could be handy.

There is the matter of where to save layouts. If saved on the server, programming is more complicated and will take far longer than if saved locally. If you save them on the local machine they would not be available on another machine. If saved locally, one could copy the file (likely an XML file) and send the layout to a friend or sell them on Xstreet.

Expect a blog post in the Snowstorm section by Esbee regarding ideas for how these panels are to work.

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