Typing - An Empty Tip - A Cheap Workaround
Torley blogged a new howto video with a Second Life client menu tip. Want to TURN OFF the typing animation and sound? Torley Lives
Torley also posted it to the official Linden Lab blog as a tip of the week. Official Linden Blog - Blog Archive Tip of the week: How to turn off the typing animation and sound
I just don't see how this is actually a solution though.
Torley says "ever want to turn off the default clickity-clack typing and animation and sound? Maybe it interrupts concerts or other live events you’re at (annoying!). Not satisfied with turning down the Sounds slider or using forward slashes in the chat bar (/) to hush" The description itself is even backwards. The problem isn't MY client - it's everyone else's. Why do people gripe so much at live shows when 90% of the audience knows how to use the "/" character to suppress the noise? Because other people are making the noise. The solution lies in shutting OTHER people up, not in shutting me up.
Test it out for yourself. Login to SL where there are a lot of people typing in text chat. Make sure in preferences (cntrl-p) under the Audio & Video tab you have the Sound Effects slider up (my workaround/fix for this problem is simply to keep this scroller all the way off, has been for a long time). Now type a bit - do you hear your own typing, does your typing override script work? Yes. Do you hear and see other people typing? Yes.
Now do Torley, Jacek and Coal's client menu trick. Add PlayTypingAnim as FALSE to the Debug settings. Now type a bit - do you hear your own typing, does your typing override script work? No to both. Do you hear and see other people typing? Yes. Is the problem of other people (me) annoying you by typing when at live shows solved? No. There is no real news here and all it does is ruin any adorable typing animation overrides.
In my opinion this setting is the reverse of the solution. It is a nice workaround for people who simply hate the typing animation being played on their own avatar and don't want to override it at all. However, it does NOT control what you hear from OTHER people and it breaks all typing override tools.
I've gone over this again and again. So much so that Vint even includes "so that Dolmere can finally find peace of mind" in her link to it: Slash Quit Slash | VintFalken.com
See the "Interlude" section of this post: Seminar on Streaming and Podcasting in Menorca, this entire entry on how stupid the typing code is: Animation Annoyances, and of course the 'Anti "/" in Chat' section here: Los Arboles and Jira.
As soon as you enable this client menu setting any typing animation overrides that you have will stop working. It keeps the typing animation from playing at all and no flag exists anywhere to check if you're actually typing at the moment. So things like this: Dolmere Talamasca - Second Life "resident": Typing Override Script and Laptop Keyboard Too (Part 1) break completely.
Jacek Antonelli and Coal Nelson posted this same info way back when - Coal's entry is from September '06. Coal's Notes: To Type or Not To Type. Jacek Discovers Gold (link to Jacek's typing suppression post).
The client menu setting wasn't a true solution then and it is not now.
Maybe, just maybe, now that Torley has given this insufficient hack exposure on the official Linden blog live music attendees will now be encouraged to use this client menu option. Maybe club owners and others will stop whining about the "/" character and start whining about the client menu instead.
Ideally I'd love to see land settings to disable the typing sound. In the meantime I just wish someone in the open source client management world would add a checkbox (JACEK!) to "mute the typing noise on my computer". Find the function that plays audio and if it's named "CrappyBuiltInTypingNoiseThing", or whatever it really is, refuse to play it - return immediately. That one checkbox in the client itself would a better workaround than this client menu mess.
Anyway, regarding the debug setting - a least the setting survives a restart so for someone who truly hates the typing animation. It might prove useful for those who want to be kind to concert goers that cannot find the sound effects slider to mute everyone's nasty sounds once and for all.
Comments
Instead of the typing animation use "UISndTyping" and clear the field to accomplish the closest thing to what I'm looking for (As noted by Jacek at http://jacek.meratalk.com/?p=37)
Posted by: Dolmere Talamasca![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.lovelymachine.com/Dolmere/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 21, 2007 01:42 PM