Hear ye, hear ye.
VERY IMPORTANT!
Take heed!
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The Artiste Anchor is a reference point for movers primarily… but also a reference point for a few other Artiste tools.
– Movers mover relative to the Anchor.
– Moves also move relative to the InitialOffset value in the *moves nc….to the Anchor which is a point and rotation relative to the Anchor that is considered the “home” or starting point of a move. Each Palette-Mover will have its own InitialOffset.
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It was asked if an anchor can be linked to the stage.
Yes but with extreme caution
In fact…there is no need to link it to the stage.
Let the stage be the anchor…
IF…
you create your movers last..ie. your stage is all done,
meaning you do NOT add any more items to it…NOR do you reposition any.
Doing so will most likely change the center-point of your combination ‘stage-anchor’
and will cause your movers to re-rez in the wrong place.
If you add mesh, after creating rezzers, it could even cause severe mis-positioning
ALSO….items in sets can sometimes rez differently when not given enough time to rez. They can compete for time and sometimes item A will rez before item B and other times item A will rezz after item B is complete.
Sometimes they will only rez successfully if the first one to rez has enough time to finish. It can depend on sim scripts, no. of items on the sim and probably a host of other factors I am not aware of. This can cause a failed set-rez as order can change things. It could cause the global set-center-point and maybe set-rotation to be different than when you created your movers.
So don’t be afraid to increase the RezDelay time on the *setmaster in the MasterRezzer to help solve the rez-ordering issue.
Bottom line is heavily-linked set pieces or mesh set pieces can cause havoc when rezzing. Linking a non-mesh prim as the root of mesh items can help reduce the havoc. I recommend NOT linking-mesh …but DO LINK non-mesh.
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The Anchor has scripts in it now. It used to have zero scripts. It was and still is just a place-marker for movers.
BUT…
In the process of creating mover paths using a breadcrumb method akin to what many of you are used to (we call ours Controller/Marker method)…the Anchor makes use of a lot of intelligence to control path creation along with a whole host of other cool features and controls communications between controller, markers, and Palettes..
As Kat wisely noted, once you create your mover paths, the scripts can be removed from the Anchor.
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We found a workable method of orienting the Anchor to a set or sets is:
– to align the Anchor with the MasterRezzer (i.e. place the Anchor under the MasterRezzer) because….sets rez relative to the MasterRezzer when the set is “not locked”
– Another method is to use the MasterRezzer as your Anchor and not have an anchor.. But then locking the set at the show-venue loses its advantages. But if you go with an unlocked MasterRezzer then this might be a solution that fits your style.
For increased stability and reliability, we suggest:
1) rezzing the Anchor 1st as the only thing in its set
2) rezzing the PaletteMovers 2nd as the only thing in their set
3) rezzing your set or sets
Also recommended is building your sets on your work platform in the same direction as your show-venue.
Also recommended is taking your set and rezzing it at the actual show venue prior to actuals show time to insure there are no hiccups. You can’t make assumptions.
Example: A show-venue built close to parcel borders can cause failed rezzing if items need extra temporary room to rez that crosses a region or parcel border. This can cause mangled rezzing. Solutions are: moving your MasterRezzer and redoing your rezzes or increasing MaxRelDist,20 on your *setmaster nc or locking the set.
Experiment but just pretest your rez operation prior to show-day.
But feel free to experiment and find something that works for your particular set of circumstances.
Be sure to save a copy of your unlocked MasterRezzer before locking it. so you can easily recreate it on your work-platform later.