Recording steps

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A sequence is (usually) made of several steps, and you should have a clear idea of how you want them organized. For example, will your object move and turn? or first move and then turn? Will it wait at some point? For how much time? etc.

Here we are listing the available step types and their details, and how you can configure them by using the MvtRecorder menu.

Basic step types

Here "basic" means that these steps in a sequence do not involve communicating with an additional "plugin" script, as they are managed directly inside the MvtPlayer.

Smooth movement

In a smooth movement step, the object will move from where it is currently to another place in a given time delay, while optionally smoothly changing its orientation.

To record a smooth movement step:

By using your viewer's classic "edit" tools, move your object to its destination point and change its orientation as desired.
Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Move button.
In the textbox that opens, enter the duration, as a number of seconds, for this step and click Submit.

Note that you can take your time to correctly position and rotate your object. As you explicitly enter the desired duration, there is no need to hurry; this is not a real-time operation.

Immediate movement

During an immediate movement step, the object will move from where it is currently to another place as fast as possible, with no delay at all (to the extent allowed by SL and the sim, that is).

To record an immediate movement step:

By using your viewer's classic "edit" tools, move your object to its destination point and change its orientation as desired.
Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Immediate button.

Pause

In a pause step, the object will stop for a number of seconds, doing nothing.

To record a pause step:

Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Pause button.
In the textbox that opens, enter the duration, as a number of seconds, of the pause and click Submit.

Sound

With a sound step, the object will start playing a sound. It will not wait for the sound to finish (this cannot be technically ensured as it depends on the viewers). If waiting is required, you should use a subsequent Pause step.

To record a sound step:

Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Sound button.
In the textbox that opens, enter (or paste, probably) the name of a sound in your object's inventory, or the UUID of a sound, then click Submit.

Note that if you choose to enter a name instead of an UUID, the sound item must reside in the root prim (where the MvtPlayer will be). Make sure the spelling is correct, including upper and lower case letters, as well as spaces etc.

Step types requiring a plugin

There exist two extra step types that are meant to serve as an interface with other scripts, called plugins. For now we are just recording such steps, but you will need a plugin script to use them correctly. This will be covered in the next section of this chapter.

Of course, you should be aware that the messages sent by the MvtPlayer when activating such a step (and expected in return for a "plugin wait" step type) will be exactly those entered in the textboxes. This means that upper and lower case letters are considered different, and that all characters, including spaces and other characters, are important.

Plugin action

As this step is reached in the sequence, the object will send a message to another script for it to perform whatever action is necessary. The sequence playback will go on without waiting.

To record a plugin action step:

Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Plugin action button.
In the textbox that opens, enter the message to send when this step activates, then click Submit.

Plugin wait

As this step is reached in the sequence, the object will send a message to another script, and wait for the reply before resuming the sequence.

To record a plugin wait step:

Click the object to get the MvtRecorder menu and select the Plugin wait button.
In the textbox that opens, enter the message the plugin will need to send for the sequence playback to continue, then click Submit.

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