Introducing the Artiste Set Rezzer

The Artiste Set Rezzer

See the video:

Story-Telling
Two important components of story-telling thru dance is establishing time and place. Performers use sets to establish place or locale and set-changes to sometimes suggest a passage of time.

Sets
Sets are usually created manually, piece by piece, at show time just before a performer (or group) takes the stage. Often this is done using Restore To Last Position (a handy viewer-feature). However many have opted for an alternate method, that of using rezzers. A rezzer has all the set pieces inside of it and rezzes them from a menu choice, remembering where you want them to rez at. It can repeatedly rez objects be they single or linksets, as long as they are copy. No-copy items can only be rezzed once.

Restore To Last Position 
I found out many professional performers have never bothered to make use of rezzers (often called faux-rezzers). Many, if not most, rely on the ability to Restore To Last Position (a feature of some viewers), assuming that they belong to a group that ownership via owner or deeded-group to location (0,0,0) of the sim..or not...this feature has a history of working some days and not working on others and may depend on viewer, server release, or the way the wind blows on that day? 

I just tried it on mainland and I dont own (0,0,0) and it let me Restore To Last Position but I've seen it work in practice and then not work on show-day. So I won't claim how it will work for you in space and time. Suffice it to say that it will re-rez an object from your avatars inventory at the last place it was rezzed at when it does work.

Main Purpose of a Rezzer
To me the major purpose of a rezzer is to be able to remember relative positioning of objects so that you can create and layout your set at one location and be able to quickly and reliably recreate it at another location later. Rezzers are how large complex buildings are constructed and reconstructed and are handy tools for packaging and transferring/selling houses, clubs, malls, and other big complex structures, where relative positioning is key.  There is also the added benefit, a key benefit to those where prim efficiency is a concern, that it is a great way quickly switch between sets without having more than 1 rezzed at once. They can also reduce the time spent between acts to prepare for the next act.

Worth the Effort?
"Yummy, my sets are always simple creations I make myself and I link the pieced together. Done! For me, it's not worth the extra headache and bother. I manually fade my sets. Never had any issues". - Anybody

I agree that not everyone will see a benefit to using rezzers. For someone just starting out, it might be a way to jump-start your show preparation and ease the stress of having to worry about so many things. And for others, its another option, something to try.

So I need to explain what our tool (the Artiste Set-Rezzer) does without assuming what people may know about rezzers.

Our rezzer's (the Artiste Set-Rezzer) purpose is not to package up sets, like houses, for resell, although that might be a future rendition. The main purpose is to pre-package your set so it can be easily recreated just the way you want it on "show-day". So we have custom-tailored it to the specific needs of stage performers. Enhancements, unique to rezzers, we've made custom-tailored for our needs are:

1) built-in set cross-fading, 
2) externally trigger-able via Artiste Performance HUD,
3) adjustable fade times,
4) configurable minimum and maximum transparencies
5) can have multiple sets rezzed at same time
6) can be Palettized

How it Works
So lay out your set at your home or practice platform then package it up into the rezzer. Then take the rezzer to the theater where you will perform live. Re-rez it. Make any final adjustments as the location and orientation of the show-site may differ from where you created it at. Then LOCK it. Locking means that it will remember the absolute region coordinates when rerezzed. That way you can move or re-rez the MasterRezzer out of sight and it will always rez your set where you LOCKED it. Then kill your set. You are now ready for show-day.


Packaging Single Objects vs Linked Objects - Pros and Cons
Sets can be comprised of one big linked set of objects or each object can be treated as an individual object by the rezzer (or a combination of the two methods, of course). The advantage of one big linkset is that it only requires one rezzer script. (We call these scripts  "child-rezzer scripts"). If you are sure you wont need to rearrange the objects later, then this is the way to go. But should you need to change this big link-set, you would have to UNLINK it and that gets real messy cause it unlinks everything as you probably know which is not what you really want. So just BE SURE before you use this method.

Scripting each object separately is the recommended method when you plan to do a lot of arranging and rearranging via an iterative creative process but this method requires a child-rezzer script in each object. 

Permissions
Normally objects to be included in your set-rezzer SHOULD have MODIFY and COPY permissions.  COPY, so that you can re-rez it over and over again without concern. MODIFY, so it can hold the scripts that enable the objects to do all the features listed below.

COPY vs NOCOPY - If the owner of the object does not have copy permission on inventory, the object will no longer be present in inventory after it is rezzed (so another attempt to rez (the same object) will fail); if the owner does have copy permission, then a copy is rezzed, and the original inventory remains in inventory.

NOMOD - With extra preparation you CAN ALSO include objects without modify permissions as part of your set. But we cannot put child-rezzer scripts in them so they will not participate in any automated cross fading or any of the other features that the script can perform. Spending extra prep-time required to include no-mod objects as part of your rez...can greatly reduce the time (and stress) required to position them at 'show-time'. This will be a personal preference. CAUTION: You cannot link objects of which you do not have modify permissions.

BUILD
The owner or group assigned to the MasterRezzer must have offline building rights on the land. To have the right, your objects needs to either:

• Be on land you own yourself.
• Be on land where anyone is allowed to build, e.g. a sandbox.
• Be deeded to the group that owns the land.
• Be set to the same group that owns the land and the land have the parcel flag 'allow group to build' set.

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FEATURES
1) You can trigger set changes via the Artiste Performance HUD and have it synch up with other HUD functions and Palette action-features.

2) Built in set-cross-fades from the HUD as well as show,hide, kill, and double-exposure saving you the worry of configuring sets to cross-fade. 

3) You can cycle thru up to 6 sets using one Master Rezzer

4) You can rez multiple sets at the same time so that you can more easily align sets for smoother cross-fades.

5) You can rez a set as invisible so that it doesn't chafe the heads of the audience, then show it or fade it in when ready, all from the Artiste Performance HUD (or optionally from the Master Rezzer).

6) You do not have to have all sets rezzed at the same time, thus saving on prims. The process is:

a) rez Set1 visible, 
b) rez Set2  invisible. 
c) cross-fade 1 and 2. 
d) Kill Set1. 
e) Rez Set3 Invisible. 
f) cross-fade 2 and 3. 
etc. repeat.

7) Unlike other rezzers, you can include NO-COPY and NO-MOD objects.

8) Includes Child-Object-side controls: Reset, Kill, Show, Hide, Freeze

9) Includes Master-side features: Reset, Freeze, Lock, and manual testing of: Rez, CrossFades, FadeIn, FadeOut, Show, Hide, DoubleExposure, KillAll, ShowAll, HideAll, Swap

10) Temporary dynamic memorization of interim Child-Object position and rotation

Extensibility
One of the things your MasterRezzer can rez is....another MasterRezzer.  The last set (#6) in MasterRezzer #1 can be faded out while set#1 of MasterRezzer #2 is faded in. Then MasterRezzer #1 can, if Palettized, be  killed. Then MasterRezzer #2 can continue a multiple-rezzing scenario, extending the number of sets by 6 for a total of 12 set changes. While I consider this an extreme-case scenario, it is very doable.